Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) – Kenneth Branagh

  To round out the remake/reboots I’ve been watching this week I thought I’d take a look at the latest Jack Ryan film. Based on the characters (not any of the books) created by Tom Clancy, Chris Pine steps into the shoes previously filled by Ben Affleck, Harrison Ford and Alec Baldwin. What starts out fairly decently,…

Evil Dead (2013) – Fede Alvarez

  I decided to watch a couple of remakes this week, to see how they look, and how they stand up to the originals. We need to establish I’m a huge fan of the originals, I recognize they are full of faults, but there is also an undeniable charm to them, as Raimi and his…

The Hypnotist (2009) – Lars Kepler

  It’s been a while since I talked about something I’ve read, and i really want to start making that a regular habit, no matter what I read, and I read a lot! This novel, The Hypnotist, did something a book hasn’t done for me in a long time, filled me with dread and I…

An Astronaut’s Guide To Life On Earth – Chris Hadfield

  Usually when I read a book, I am transported to some faraway land and introduced to characters and situations which ignite my imagination and leave me breathless in anticipation of what might come next.  The really good ones have had me scrambling for more from the moment I read the final few lines.  I…

Over My Head (Wildlings Book Two) – Charles de Lint

  Before I talk about this book at all, I want to first say that I have not read the first book in the series, so I had to do a little mental catching up before I was able to get into the story as a whole.  Luckily, however, the world de Lint has created…

Stranded Review (Book #1) – Jeff Probst and Chris Tebbetts

  I was one of the millions of people worldwide who watched Richard Hatch irritate, dominate, and win the first season of television’s epic reality show pioneer, Survivor. After that, I watched a few seasons, then tapered off to other things, and came back to it again after a few years, once I realized that…

Toronto Library’s Writer In Residence Program

  One of the many wonderful things about the Toronto Public Library system is their Writer In Residence program. I’d never heard of it until a friend pointed me in that direction last year, just in time to get an except of Carving The Light submitted to the woman who was the WIR that time,…

Carving The Light – Publisher’s Weekly Review – ABNA 2012

  Carving The Light did not advance to the ABNA semifinal round this morning, but as a quarterfinalist, it did receive a short review from Publisher’s Weekly – which is pretty freaking amazing, and more than I’d hoped for when I entered. After reading other contestants’ reviews, I was worried about what mine would say….