My Thoughts On - Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Crown | 342 pages | 2016

This is a fast pace Sci-Fi thriller that gripped me from page one.

Jason is a physics professor and his wife Danielle is a stay-at-home mom. They both could have been much more but they decided to have a life and a son together.

What happens when Jason is kidnapped and then given a shot at being the researcher he dreamt to be? Will he take it? Or will he fight to get back to his family? With unusual twists and mind bending science, this novel keeps you at the edge of your seat.

This Sci-Fi is very well written with a smooth plot, believable characters and an accurate use of science and scientific theories.

While I was reading it, it reminded me of The Martian simply because Jason has a scientific approach to his problems and solves each obstacles before going to the next. Unlike The Martian, it isn't a comedy, although there is some comical relief moments in the plot.  

I would love to see this novel as a movie since it has a fast pace and the potential for amazing visuals.

Review - The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnes

Katherine Tegen Books | 352 pages | 2016

I picked this book because I was intrigued by the title and the phosphorus green cover.The story is about Alex who killed her sister's murderer and how she tries to navigate life in high school at a small town.

The Girl On The Train Hits The Big Screen

The major success of the thriller novel The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins gave it an express ticket to the big screen.
The movie starring Emily Blunt opens in theaters tomorrow October 7 is expected to mimic or exceed the book's success.
I for one will definitely go see how well Hollywood interpreted the novel and having Emily on screen is always an indicator of a great movie.

To understand what all the hip is all about, you can read my book review here:

The Girl on the Train Review

Enjoy the trailer and make sure you go to see the movie on October 7th.

Book Promotion - Pigeon - Blood Red by Ed Duncan

Hello everyone! I hope you are enjoying your labor day weekend. Here is a great book that I want you to check out! Synopsis, author bio and an excerpt are down below! Enjoy!

Pigeon-Blood Red is a fast-paced and suspenseful crime thriller by Ed Duncan. It was released in March 2016, published by Zharmae and is available for sale on Amazon.

Duncan says, “It’s always been said that you should write what you know. I am a lawyer - as is a pivotal character in the novel who is being pursued by a hit man - and I'm excited to be able to use my legal training creatively as well as professionally.”

Review - The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach

St. Martin's Press | 336 pages | 2016

This is a unique story about a boy's life in a hospital. His physical handicap does not take away from his sharp mind and unique sense of humor. Ivan Isaenko, while stuck in the hospital, builds himself a routine and mind games to get him going through the days. Day in and day out everything turns like clock work, but when a new beautiful incomer, Polina, disturbs his routine, his fascination with her increases. He then embarks on a journey, always inside the same hospital, to try to defy fate with all that his frail body allows him to.

Book Promotion - The Movie Star and Me by Kelly Durham

Good Monday everyone! 

I want to start this week by introducing you to this historical fiction novel by Kelly Durham. Summary and author info are down below! 

Synopsis:Author Kelly Durham has captured Old Hollywood in his entertaining new novel, The Movie Star and Me (August 9, 2016) and exposes readers to the history of the movie business in this historical fiction tour de force. Movie magic, labor strikes, HUAC committee hearings and the business of show business are revealed as a colorful cast of characters fight for their self-interests--with surprising results. The Movie Star and Me follows Frank Russell, a young veteran just returned from the Pacific war.  On the ship home from Okinawa, Frank discovers several cans of newsreel film in his duffel bag.  Once he lands in the States, Frank returns the film to its owner, Pacific Pictures in Hollywood.  Over the course of a couple of visits to the studio, Frank impresses its owner Abe Baum, who offers Frank a job.  Frank continues to impress and is quickly promoted, earning the attention of Vera Vance, an up and coming starlet. Under Frank’s tutelage, the ambitious Vera becomes the studio’s top box office attraction.  But there are secrets at Pacific Pictures that threaten futures, and Frank gets caught up in a high-stakes battle where people aren’t always what they seem to be.
 Buy the Book  

Biography:Kelly Durham lives in Clemson, SC with his wife Yvonne.  They are the parents of Mary Kate, Addison and Callie and also provide for their dog, George Marshall.  A graduate of Clemson University, Kelly served four years in the US Army with assignments in Arizona and Germany before returning to Clemson and entering private business.  Kelly is the also the author of THE WAR WIDOW, BERLIN CALLING, WADE’S WAR and THE RELUCTANT COPILOT.  Check out all Kelly’s books at kellydurham.com.Follow him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/KellyDurhamAuthorTweet him on Twitter @KellyDurhamAuthor

Movie Thoughts: The Martian

For those who only saw The Martian movie, it must have been great. It is very cool, original and very well done, but you have missed out on a lot of things in the novel that the movie couldn’t include.

First of all the novel is funnier, have more action and obstacles for Mark to overcome.

Mitch’s character should have been more hot headed. Sean Bean was more relaxed and soft spoken than what the novel depicts.

Of course, Hollywood could not just keep things as they are and had to change things. They changed how the ending happened. It is still the same ending, just the process of getting there changed. They changed Venkat name to Vincent and instead of him being Indian he became black. Hollywood just can't follow simple characters features (it's not like the characters were exhaustively described like in other books.)

Still I liked to see Matt Damon as Mark Watney. The movie was visually appealing and was well directed to flow smoothly. It was a good watch. Still, the book is hundred times better.
You can read my book review here.
Have you read it? Which did you like better?

Book Promotion - Prison of Souls by Xander Gray

Hello!
Have a look at this science fiction thriller by Xander Gray and Adam J Nicolai (editor). The purchase link is at the bottom. 

Joshua Briar, a quantum physicist specializing in an exotic matter, finds himself in prison for a murder he did not commit. Only a frame job could account for the surveillance footage and the ballistics. But who would want to frame him? And why? Tantalizing clues arrive in cryptic letters from an anonymous benefactor. The letters describe top-secret research into nanobots, quantum computing, and other futuristic technologies. One of these letters contains a photo of a sinister, faceless man, an entity that has haunted Joshua's epileptic trances since childhood. Seeing it unearths a mountain of repressed memories, and suddenly Joshua realizes the prosecution's key witness conducted frightening medical experiments on him long ago.When his fellow prisoners begin vanishing one by one, Joshua realizes a vast conspiracy has followed him into prison. Can he unravel the mystery before it's too late?

You can find this Sci-Fi Thriller at Amazon

Book Promotion - Madam Tulip by David Ahern

Hello!
I would like to introduce you today to this new book by David Ahern.
Please take a moment to read the summary.
Free book sample link is at the bottom.

Suspense, mystery, action, a little romance and lots of laughs

Out-of-work actress Derry O’Donnell is young, talented, a teeny bit psychic … and broke. Spurred on by an ultimatum from her awesomely high-achieving mother, and with a little help from her theatrical friends, Derry embarks on a part-time career as Madame Tulip, fortune-teller to the rich and famous. But at her first fortune-telling gig - a celebrity charity weekend in a castle - a famous rap artist will die.

As Derry is drawn deeper into a seedy world of celebrities, supermodels and millionaires, she finds herself playing the most dangerous role of her acting life. Trapped in a maze of intrigue, money and drugs, Derry's attempts at amateur detective could soon destroy her friends, her ex-lover, her father and herself.

Madame Tulip is the first in a series of Tulip adventures in which Derry O’Donnell, celebrity fortune-teller and reluctant detective, plays the most exciting and perilous roles of her acting life, drinks borage tea, and fails to understand her parents.

Fans of humorous mystery writers Janet Evanovich and Carl Hiaasen will love Madam Tulip.

About author

David Ahern grew up in a theatrical family in Ireland but ran away to Scotland to become a research psychologist and sensible person. He earned his doctorate and taught in major Universities but could never explain to his granny why he didn’t own a stethoscope.

Finding the challenge of pretending to know things exhausting, David Ahern shaved off his beard and absconded once more, this time to work in television. He became a writer, director and producer, creating international documentary series. He won numerous awards, but found nobody was much impressed.

For want of a better plan, David Ahern took to writing fiction. Madame Tulip isn't his first novel, but writing it was the most fun he's ever had with a computer. He is now writing the third in the series and enjoys pretending that this activity is actual work.

David Ahern lives in the beautiful West of Ireland with his wife, two cats and a vegetable garden of which he is inordinately proud.

To find out more about Madam Tulip and David Ahern, visit:

website:  www.davidahern.info

Twitter:   @DaveAhernWriter

Facebook:   davidahernwriter

Book sample 

Enjoy!

Review - Before The Fall by Noah Hawley

Grand Central Publishing | 400 pages | 2016

A plane crashes in the ocean and only a man and a boy survives. What happened? This is the nagging questions that all the involved parties try to answer.

Book Promotion - Vincent, Survivor by O.L. Eggert

Hello Everyone! 

Here is a quick look at a new book that will be released on June 1st!

Story Synopsis: Vincent Li always assumed he’d die in Oakwood. If the local gangs didn’t get him, then cigarettes and alcohol eventually would. 

Now, he’s pretty sure minotaurs will kill him instead, and if not them, the ghouls dragging people into the dark will. 

In the wake of an unexplained spike in homicides, a masked figure opens portals to another world—a world filled with dangerous magic and mythological monsters. Creatures that shouldn’t exist suddenly do, and they don’t mix well with humans. Vincent is trapped in Oakwood as the city is torn apart, but he’s no stranger to violence and will do whatever it takes to survive.

Author Bio: O.L. (Oliver Leland) Eggert has always been a reader of fantasy and sci-fi. His love of the genre spread to everything else in his life, so he ultimately became a big game/book/movie geek. He also enjoys the occasional anime.

He currently resides in the Silicon Valley with his soon-to-be wife and two dogs: Arya and Dexter. Can you guess which characters the dogs are named after?

To learn more about his current writing projects, follow him at:

www.oleggert.com

www.goodreads.com/oleggert

www.facebook.com/theoleggert

You can grab a copy at Amazon or enter the giveaway at Goodreads

My Thoughts On - Fellside by M.R. Carey

Orbit | 496 pages | 2016

The new novel from the author of The Girl With All The Gifts!
If you read The Girl With All The Gifts, you know not to expect a typical plot even if the story summary seems straight forward. A woman kills a child and goes to prison for it. The kid's ghost hunts her but he tells her she was not the one who hurt him. She then tries to find out who did. Simple, right? But don't be fooled. M. R. Carey has a world of dreams waiting intertwined with brutally realistic depiction of the life of inmates and prison. All important characters have their own back story integrated so well into the story they seems as a continuous stream of narration making this novel a fluid read. 
The great thing is the plot twist is well hidden until it creeps on you at the very end. 
Although this is a good novel, when you compare it to The Girl With All The Gifts it seems lacking in someway. The gripping narrative of The Girl With All The Gifts is unique and tough to top. None the less, Fellside is a great book by itself and definitely worth the read. 

And the Oscar goes to: Leonardo DiCaprio!

Embed from Getty Images

What a night yesterday at the oscars. One of my favorite actors that I grew up watching finally won is first oscar.
DiCaprio is known to be an amazing and dedicated actor with a range of movies in his portfolio but for some odd reason he only got the ultimate recognition at the 88th Academy Awards by winning the best male actor in a leading role. (His fans on Tumblr must be having a field day)
So in to celebrate this joyous moment, I wanted to share my DiCaprio's favorite movies.

Regard sur 2015 pour commencer la nouvelle année!

Bonne année 2016 à tous!
Je profite de ce petit moment de repos et de festivité pour jeter un regard sur l'année 2015 et ce que j'ai pu accomplir côté lecture et blog.
Comme d'habitude, Goodreads est mon source pour mon progrès et cette année il a fait une très belle presentation des statistiques.
tous d'abord, je suis contente de dire que j'ai pu finir mon challenge de lire 30 livres durant l'année (malgré que 10 d'eux sont des BD). En total, ces livres équivaux à 8246 pages que j'ai lu.

Le livre le plus long que j'ai lu est Anna Karénine, mais le livre le populaire est Pride and prejudice. J'ai eu la chance de lire un des meilleurs livres de l'année The Girl on The Train par Paula Hawkins que j'ai adoré, mais mon coup de cœur est sans doute The Girl With All The Gifts par M.R. Carey. Ce livre est phenomenal.

  
J'ai aussi tombé en amour avec le genre mystère, crime, thriller, comme les livres de detectives et des crimes tel The Girl on The Train, Bondrée par Andréa A. Michaud et le parfum de la dame en noir par Gustave Leroux. Alors, je compte d'en lire plus en 2016.
Avec ces belles découvertes, je peux dire que j'ai bien réussi mon année et je souhaite que 2016 va être encore meilleurs avec 35 livres à lire comme défi.

Sur ceux, bonne année 2016!