DearEvette

If you are an Amazon prime member, for the first reads this month you get to pick two free books. For the first time in months I picked one early, choosing Killer Collective by Barry Eisler. I haven' read any of the previous John Rain books, but this one sounds like a good, fast paced thriller. I am hoping it'll cleanse my palate. I just finished a romantic-suspense trilogy by Kathleen Brooks that featured a big government conspiracy that I thought was so very unconvincing and rather meh. It has a bafflingly high rating on Amazon and Goodreads .

Among the Southern black families I knew, a lot of them referred to grandmothers and great grandmothers as 'Madear.' I wouldn't be surprised if it was just something Tyler Perry grew up with. He started out putting on religious themed plays on the modern Chitlin' Circuit. I would imagine a lot of those old mothers in the Church were referred to as Madear.

I don't like the trope where you go through the trouble of giving your protagonist a powerful special ability but when it comes time for them to use it something renders it competently ineffective. And I am not talking about the villain being aware of the power and taking counter measures against it. I am talking about convenient plot elements to nullify the power. For instance, your heroine is a psychic and while she can read everybody else's mind, for a reason never explained, she just can't read the bad guy's mind and he kidnaps her. Or you give your hero the ability to teleport, but in a never before explained development when he is imprisoned he can't teleport out of his prison because it has iron walls or some such.

There were a couple of routes that took you to a place where you could loop back and make a different choice, but I wouldn't call those endings, imo. I think of endings were when Stefan had a definitive fate. There were times where there was a very abrupt ending Then up in the upper right hand corner it gives you the option to exit to credits or to cycle back and pick a different choice. I tended to get these 'loop back' options when I tried to make choices that I would make for myself. But when I decided to go for broke and make some decisions that felt counter to what I would do, then that is when I think the story took off for me. Which BTW led to my favorite ending -- the one with flash forward.

Man, I LOVED Devoe and Marlize at first. It was the one time an adversary really could get the drop on Barry because Barry's speed was rendered utterly useless in the face of DeVoe's mental acuity. So much potential. So badly wasted. Bingo. I think they really effed up with the Bus Metas and making DeVoe's plan so Bond Villain complicated. The best villains usually have a very simple goal and are simply relentless about getting there. The goal itself doesn't have to be evil or terrible -- it might even be a good one, but the methods to get there are what makes them a villain. The reason Wellsobard was such a great villain in S1 was because all he wanted to do was to make Barry into The Flash. That in and of itself is a good thing, but Wells killed folks left and right to make that happen. But he was also a very good mentor -- also all in service toward making Barry The Flash. DeVoe could have been the same if they had made his goal a lot more relatable and down to earth. The 'I want to make everyone dumb via satellite ... but first I need to use 12 random people for no reason that makes sense' just got murkier and stupider as time went on.

Also, No matter what, I always chose The Frosties cereal and The Thompson Twins because I love 'Hold Me Now' and I figured (rightly so the first time) that would be the song they'd play.

Man, no matter how hard I tried I always had a bad ending. LOL. I had four really bad endings (except the one where I jump out the window ... that went somewhere I totally didn't expect.) My real goal was to get that video game reviewer asshole to like the game. How sad is that? I finally did in one of them, woo! Interesting message about choices being made for you because there were some places where to proceed you really had no choice in the choice you made.

Having just done a re-read of the Fox and O'Hare series by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg, I have to shout out Jake O'hare as one of my favorite book dads. Kate is an FBI agent who does covert missions (i.e. long cons) with a world renowned thief. When she gets in tight spots, she does not call her FBI handler, she calls her ex-military dad, Jake, who thinks a rocket launcher, grenades and a silver garotte are essentials when sending his daughter a care package. Also this conversation: "How many ways could you kill a man with eyebrow tweezers?' "Sixteen" Jake said. Kate looked at him in surprise. She'd thought her sister was just being a smart-ass, a quality they both shared. "Really?" "Yeah," He said. "Will you teach me?" "Wouldn't be much of a father if I didn't." He said.

Isn’t he though? It is really not fair for someone to be that beautiful.

I think the Rock and Roll hall of fame uses the original meaning of the term “Rock and Roll” which was originally coined to refer to popular music with its roots in Gospel, R&B, Swing, Jazz and country that crossed over from mostly black artists to appeal to white youth and from white artists who used that amalgm as inspiration and began creating their own sound. Nowadays People use Rock and Roll synonymous with Rock, but pure rock came later. If you look at the very first inductees which included Fats Domino, James Brown, Chuck Berry and Ray Charles none of these I don’t think would be characterized as Rock but are still considered huge influencers of Rock and Roll.

my biggest peeve with the epilogue is that Harry named one of his kids after Snape and hailed him as a hero. I feel likeI am the cheese that stands alone, but I lived through seven books of Snape being an utter asshole to Harry. No amount of the trip through his memory and love for Lily could ever make me like him. Harry may have been Lily's son but he was also James' too and I always felt like Snape got a perverse pleasure out of torturing James' son even as he had to protect Harry because he was Lily's too. And IIRC, didn't Snape intimate that he would have happily co-signed on Voldy killing James and Baby Harry is Lily got to live?

Oh man, that was AWESOME! I think I laughed hysterically during the shoot out at the Time Bureau where both Ray and Ava were going all Rambo on each other. Ray had this look of demented glee on his face and Ava just looked plain demented. So frickin' hysterical. Not only was the constant hair-flipping of the sirens great, but the step-step-step turn way they entered every room was fabulous too. Also singing puppets aww, makes me nostalgic for HR Puffenstuff! Also, I liked the team up of Zari, Charlie and John. Most I've liked John since he joined the team.

I had very low expectations and little interest in this crossover. I only watch Legends & Flash. And since the Legends were not part of this and in every crossover so far, the Flash episode never, ever feels like a Flash episode -- hence my reluctance. But I knew I'd watch at least the Flash episode. I know people are saying the Flash writers wrote this but again it feels all wrong. Not like a Flash ep at all. Actually I take that back there are at least three place where this did feel like a Flash ep: 1 - Imprisoning Barry and Oliver. Team Flash will imprison people like a Muthafuh' 2 - Team Hero standing around like "derp." to give the Bad guy time to power up. The Flash episodes do this with stupid regularity. Barry can stop bullets or an already deployed nuclear bomb, and yet with regularity some half-assed meta gets the drop on him. and 3 - Iris and real Barry scenes. Even though so much of the ep everyone felt out of character -- and I am not just talking the body swap with Barry and Oliver -- at least the scenes with Iris and Barry felt normal. Otherwise this was really and odd episode that felt like a bunch of imposters wrote it. For one thing, the initial reaction of Team Flash once Barry and Oliver told them the truth was not how real Team Flash would act. Given how weird Oliver!Barry was was acting that morning Iris would have agreed that something was off right away and not dismissed it out of hand. They all would. A typical Team Flash would be throwing out possibilities/solutions in weird psuedo science babble before Barry and Oliver had even finished talking. Not having them disbelieve them completely. Also, I get that we needed Oliver to be freaked out by Iris's affections but they made Iris say shit she would never say and act in ways with him that she has never acted with real Barry. She loves Barry but not in that weird schmoopy way they made her. Also the intro of Clark and Lois felt like an unnecessary info dump. Just unnatural in both concept and execution. I will say that I noticed people commenting on Lois' reaction to Oliver. Honestly I can't say I disagree with her on that front. If that had been my first intro to Oliver I'd think he was a jerk too. Oliver during the entire Smallville segment was being a pill. Also no Nora at all? A completely missed opportunity and again not something the Flash writers would have ignored given how important she is to this season as a whole. A couple of things I did like: Cisco hugging Oliver!Barry "Oh Barry what have you done this time?" From Oliver as he sees himself in the Flash suit for the first time. The small look of hurt on Iris' face when Oliver!Barry said "I'm gonna go talk to someone who better understands me." The dislocated thumb /phasing instruction swap Like I said, this did not feel like a Flash episode at all. Not part of the continuity of the show and the characters all acting out of character. Total miss for me.

Yeah, this is a valid interpretation. In my own, I am using tv anvil logic in that this voice message was the coda to the episode where it was revealed he knew about the affair because he had he necklace in his desk and it was right after Delilah gave Eddie back the necklace and told him that Jon knew.

Honestly, in my opinion the show really hasn't shown any steep price either Delilah or Eddie has paid for their affair. Sure Katherine kicked Eddie out, but he was making firm plans to leave her anyway. The end result is the same, the only difference is that it didn't happen on his timeline. Gary gave him an episode long excoriation, but Eddie is still firmly lodged in the bosom of his friends. Gary zings him about the affair once in awhile, but still loves and supports him. Eddie hasn't been shunned, hadn't lost the love and affection of his child and even has a reward in knowing that the woman he supposedly loves is carrying his child even if they can't proclaim it to the world. Meanwhile Delilah got two scenes of puppy dog eyes and disappointed frowns from Regina and a group cry from Katherine. She is also still firmly lodged in the love and support of the group. Gary never even once gave her any shit for what she did, and even jokingly asked her "Not for nothing, how upset should I be that you picked Eddie and not me?” Even Jon gave them absolution from beyond the grave with his final voice mail to Eddie revealed in episode two: "Love Each Other" I'll agree the show has allowed them to show some guilt, but it almost feels like wallpaper guilt. Neither one of them feels overly affected by the guilt. In fact I get the impression that if Delilah gave the word, Eddie would continue right on with the relationship.

I think the big problem with the Jon/Delilah dynamic is that we've never gotten to really see it. We've had just the one episode with the Friday pizza dinners where he comes off as a rather involved family man who warmly welcomes people into his home every Friday night. if they were smart, and wanted the audience to at least sympathize even a little with Delilah they would have sprinkled more flashbacks with Jon giving us glimpses of this supposed distance and neglect. As it is, we get the rather self serving little statement from Delilah and are somehow supposed to believe it because no one and nothing is there to refute her. It doesn't help that I just don't find Delilah believable in any setting. I don't know if it is the direction or the acting or what, but even her supposed deep love with Eddie doesn't feel like it is all that deep on her part. I actually believe Eddie when he says it because Giuntoli sells it. Eddie feels more authentic to me. He's an asshole, but I feel like I can buy that he is a conflicted asshole. He loves Delilah but he still has some unresolved emotional stuff still going on with Katherine. Delilah, otoh, just doesn't sell any of that with Eddie. She comes off as rather cold and studied. Again, this may just be a limitation in the actress who can't quite convey all the complexities that character is supposed to embody or it may be a deliberate character choice. Hard to tell at this point because I think they are making up Eddie and Delilah as they go along.

The bolded made me laugh. I think this show really, really wants us to like, understand and commiserate with Delilah and buy into her and Eddie's tortured, taboo love. Except they undermine themselves with the writing. It is pretty damned comical.

Oh, Katherine, honey... no. This is not your tribe. Run away. Hang out with your hot co-worker and your respective adorable kids and make Chewbacca noises. I want that for you. Poor Regina. She got to pep talk Rome and floss her teeth. But at least Maggie and Delilah kept up their streak of crying at least once per episode. I like Gary. And I am not gonna lie, I loved his scenes with John. Just brought some real energy to the episode. Gary is at the anger stage of grief and this is the sort of grieving in the aftermath of Jon's suicide we should have seen like three episodes ago. Even so, can this group have a party where they just have fun?

I have said t before I will say it again, the writers are having fun with putting riqsue sexual allusions into Constantine's mouth. Calling Ray's mustache a "tush tickler" puts a lot of pictures in the head. LOL. Speaking of Ray's mustache... oh my god. I loved it. It was so bad. I had a weird moment of disconnect seeing the Prof. Stein puppet as such a profane creature. I am glad Gamora didn't stay around. She was fun for what she was in the Tokyo episode, but she is no Beebo. And frankly there is something about the relationship dynamic with her and Mick that just squicks. I will say I though Mick made great points in his argument with Ava. Dude, I totally ship Mona and Beast Man. Also I loved the freeze frame special FX and holy cow next week look batshit!

I was chatting about The Kate Daniels series with someone and I realized that that series is chock full of 'Hell Yeah!" moments in almost every book. One of my first favorite moments comes in Magic Strikes (book #3). This book is where I tumbled head long into love with the series. In this one Kate and the shifters participate in the highly illegal, very violent, invitation only, underground tournament called the Midnight Games. The descriptions of each battle as the teams claw their way to finals are both violent and darkly funny. But the moment comes in the final fight when Kate recognizes that their rival team has been getting help from her father's (who is an honest to goodness God) henchman. And this time it is in the form of a magical unstoppable blade. What Kate does to stop the blade is pretty bad ass and the reaction of everyone around her when they realize what she's done is pretty damned boss!

I don;t want to speak for the original poster, but I believe that is in reference to Regina -- who I have to agree is basically being written as the black best friend which is a well known tv and lit trope.

Late to the game, but I decided to read this interview and this line: Had me screaming this : "When? When was this? When did we see this? How did we know any of this? Show me the scenes!!" at my computer. It especially cracks me up because the one scene they actually show of someone in his corner, literally being a fan and cheering for him is.... Katherine!

The only two things I liked about this episode was Rome needling Eddie about Katherine's hot coworker. And the really, nice honest conversation Katherine had with her hot coworker after Gary's meltdown. I mean, I would be way more down for watching a romance unfold between Katherine and her hot coworker than anything Gary/Maggie related. And I cringed the whole time watching that end scene with Gary. James Roday is usually one of my favorite performers on the show. He is especially good with delivering the zingy one-liners. But watching that was just awful. I got second hand embarrassment for everyone involved. Here's the thing... when I decided to watch this show, it was because I thought it was supposed to be about this friendship between these four guys and how the suicide of one of them affects the rest and the ripple effects it has created in their relationships/family in the aftermath. Instead, for two eps in a row this has been about the rando girlfriend whose cancer storyline had cannibalized the show. WTF? What about what was going on with Jon? His business? Go back and watch the trailer is is ALL about Jon. And yet the show, eight episodes in, and you can barely feel that anything happening is because of his death or his impact. Why isn't Delilah learning about the secrets her husband was keeping? Why isn't Katherine angry as hell and going scorched earth on Eddie's ass after finding out about his affair. Honestly at this point I kinda wish they had made Katherine the ball-breaker outcast she appeared to be in the pilot. At least she's be more interesting than the doormat outcast they've made her. Why is the only story they can write for Regina is to be everyone's support system with no inner story of her own? Of the main actresses, Christina Moses and Grace Park strike me as having the most on screen charisma and yet they have been given the least to work with. Why aren't we getting more flashbacks of the friendship that include Jon that tells us how he was such the lynchpin to this group? Is Ron Livingston just not available? I watched last week and this week back to back marveling at how central a character Maggie has become and whose issues seem to have eclipsed everyone else's especially Jon. My mind just boggles at this. I dunno, I'll give it a few more eps but if it keeps on this trajectory I might just peace out.

I read the first one and kept meaning to go back and read the rest. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Here is a my review for it on Goodreads.

No, it's the opposite. Nora isn't acting her age--which is mid-to-late 20s. She IS acting young, too young--like a petulant tween. If they wanted Nora to be a teenager, then they should made her a teenager. But that would have messed with their plot of Barry disappearing in 2024. This to me is the crux of the issue. We could still be exasperated with Nora for her attitude toward Iris and be aware of her general brattiness. But what you can accept in a teenager because that is how teenagers are, they are still immature, you can't accept in someone who is supposed to be in their late 20s. The thing of it is, even though JPK is really in her early 30s IRL, she looks much younger. I think she could have passed as, say, an 18 yo easily. Even her attitude toward Iris would feel more realistic for a teenager who testing independence from an overly strict parent than a grown ass woman with a professional life. I get what they are doing with the character. And even on some level I think the character background for her is a logical one. Who wouldn't hero worship a literal superhero dad who has a museum dedicated to all his derring-do? And of course she should feel some distance toward a parent who has been distant herself. I actually like Nora. I like the character even when she is annoying.. I love the actress. I enjoy the dynamic she has set up and the dilemma she presents. But the character beats were just all wrong for her age. The writing for her lacks nuance. It is a shame because I think if the writers were up to the task they really could have made the dynamic much richer. We have seen some great moments between Nora/Barry and even now between Nora/Iris. But they just can't do subtle. And they don't know how to balance leaning into the comic book aesthetic of their world and the deeper character stories they want to tell.