Review: Dashing Through the Snow by Debbie Macomber

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Here is the description from amazon:

Ashley Davison, a graduate student in California, desperately wants to spend the holidays with her family in Seattle. Dashiell Sutherland, a former army intelligence officer, has a job interview in Seattle and must arrive by December 23. Though frantic to book a last-minute flight out of San Francisco, both are out of luck: Every flight is full, and there’s only one rental car available. Ashley and Dash reluctantly decide to share the car, but neither anticipates the wild ride ahead.

At first they drive in silence, but forced into close quarters Ashley and Dash can’t help but open up. Not only do they find they have a lot in common, but there’s even a spark of romance in the air. Their feelings catch them off guard—never before has either been so excited about a first meeting. But the two are in for more twists and turns along the way as they rescue a lost puppy, run into petty thieves, and even get caught up in a case of mistaken identity. Though Ashley and Dash may never reach Seattle in time for Christmas, the season is still full of surprises—and their greatest wishes may yet come true.

 

This book was terrible. So terrible I almost didn’t review it. The whole premise of the plot is that Ashley Davison has the same name as someone on the FBI’s most wanted list and the no-fly list and that’s a huge roadblock to her getting home for Christmas.  This premise seems in poor taste, at the very least, because it does happen and hurts people, most often people who are racial and/or religious minorities in this country. I decided, for the sake of a quick Christmas read that I’d read it anyway.

I should have gone with my first instincts.

Ashley and Dash have sparks? I guess? But, It seems more like he’s the grown up looking after a well-meaning and slightly-irresponsible younger person. (And, for possibly obvious reasons, I really resent any characterization of a graduate student that way.) The FBI agents who follow them are ham-fisted and stubborn-to-a-fault. It is not a very flattering caricature. They also don’t seem good at their jobs? I feel like there were other clues that could have gotten them to Dash and Ashley faster, and while this would have made for a less exciting novel it also would have made for a shorter one and I would have been cool with that?

Oh, and they adopt a puppy at some point on their rental car road trip. This seems slightly irresponsible but big-hearted. Guess who’s idea it is.

The puppy is great. Not great enough that you should read it for the dog, though.

Ugh. this book. It was just terrible. I was hoping for something light and fun with a cute happily ever after and that’s not what this was. The nicest things I can say about this are that there was a dog and that it was a quick read.

 

Dracula Chapter 9

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So, this is totally embarrassing. I recorded this more than a week ago and I’m just now getting to posting it. Sigh. Apologies.

 

In today’s installment, a flurry of activity happens as documented in various diary entries, letters, and telegrams! It is so exciting!

 

Chapter 9 can be found here.

You can get caught up here.

 

The music for the recording is Oppressive Gloom by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). (Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). And, the text is by Bram Stoker.

 

Rick Riordan and Turning a Book into a Movie

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percy jackson If are more then a casual fan of this blog then you know that I am a huge Rick Riordan fan.  I know he writes for kids but I find his writing to be so clever and charming.  He has introduced to stories and myths that I didn’t know before or had forgotten.  He has widen his universe to be the most inclusive in children’s literature.  He uses his voice and privilege to ally and uplift other voices that don’t always get the spotlight.  To put it simply.  Rick is a good egg.  He is also been one of the biggest critics of the movies of his own books.  While the way he trolls them is amusing it does highlight the difference between the two mediums and how as much as we think Authors have a say in the movies based on their work, they don’t.  We all have a favorite book that was completely ruined by it’s movie.  For fans of Percy Jackson the movie is just terrible and almost unrecognizable to the books.  The choices that the filmmakers chose made it almost impossible to make it a franchise.  I think they realized it with the second movie and tried to fix it but it was already too late.  A problem that Rick foresaw when the filmmaker’s asked for his opinion.  Today, Rick posted a blog post where he details the email conversations with the filmmaker’s and how little power he had in the process.  It’s an interesting read and I suggest taking a few minutes to read.

First, it kills any possibility of a movie franchise. I don’t know if you or your staff have had the chance to read farther than The Lightning Thief in the Percy Jackson series, but there are four other volumes. The series is grounded on the premise that Percy must progress from age twelve to age sixteen, when according to a prophecy he must make a decision that saves or destroys the world. I assume that XXXX would at least like to keep open the option of sequels assuming the first movie does well. Starting Percy at seventeen makes this undoable. I’m also sure that XXXXX (for) the first Harry Potter movie, some in the studio argued for making the characters older to appeal to a teen audience. Fortunately, they took the long view and stayed true to the source material, which allowed them to grow a lucrative franchise. This would’ve been impossible if they’d started Harry at seventeen. The same principle applies here.

Memories from my TV/Movie Experience

Quick Review: Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

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muse of nightmares I really don’t know the best way to describe this book or this series as it’s so lush and unique.  It’s also kind of a hard read because pretty much every character is a victim of terrible abuse and trauma and the events of the book are the direct result of all the trauma.  The people of Weep spent years under the threat of kidnapping and rape and even 15 years after they killed the “Gods” responsible the citadel where it all took place still stood as a reminder of what they endured.  The Godspawn lived in fear of being discovered for fear of what happened to their fellow children would happen to them.  This all came to a crashing half when our hero Lazlo discovered who he really was and brought them together.  Even the villains of this piece were acting on their own traumas.  You knew what they were doing was wrong at times you couldn’t really blame them either. In the end it was an act of compassion that saved them all.  Sarai used her power to listen and understand what was the issue and finally talk them down.  I highly recommend that everyone read Strange the Dreamer and the Muse of Nightmares because they are so lush in descriptions of Weep and the other strange lands.  It’s truly beautiful story that is also timely to today’s me too movement.