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spooky_missBook Sixty Four - Dracula The Un-dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt
Number of pages 424
Reason read I really enjoyed the original Dracula book
Rating 8.5 / 10
This is an "authorised" sequel to Bram Stoker's book Dracula, written by a descendant of Bram Stoker and a Dracula historian. I loved Dracula, and although this book wasn't quite as good as that, it didn't disappoint. It followed Quincy Harker, Mina and Jonathon's son, who wants to become an actor, against the wishes of his father who is paying for him to study to become a lawyer. Meanwhile the story introduces Elizabeth Bathory, who is also known for drinking blood, like Dracula. She and her "women in white" do a series of attacks on the members of the group who caught Dracula the first time round. Meanwhile, Quincy Harker finds Bram Stoker directing a play of the story of Dracula. It continues with Quincy asking the famous actor Basarab to take the main part. The attacks continue, whilst Quincy is finding out more about his parent's past in relation to Dracula, and is realising that he is still a threat. The ending does get a little bit "modern" in that its all action-y, but it is still good, I recommend it! :)
Film 41 - Repo! The Genetic Opera
This is one of the cheesiest films I have ever seen! The basic story is that everyone's organs are failing and there is an organisation, GeneCo, which will give you new ones, but if you can't pay the fee, or fall behind on your payments, the "repo man" will come and take them back!! Another part of the story is that the repo-man has a daughter who has a blood disorder, and he resents her as when she was born her mother died due to a "cure" that he made for her. It stars Sarah Brightman as a singer who turns out to be the girl's godmother. Oh and Paris Hilton as one of three siblings who want to take over the GeneCo company from their father. Add to all of this the fact that its a musical, and its extremely cheesy, but actually quite great! At first I wasn't sure about it, but after a couple of watches it grew on me :) 9 / 10
Book Sixty Five - Alastair McLean's UNAC - Hostage Tower by John Denis
Number of pages can't remember
Reason read free book with the Times
Rating 7 / 10
This was actually much better than I expected. I hadn't heard of the book before, but apparently theres a whole series of them, all written by different people after one writer, Alistair McLean, wrote the first few. It is a thriller about an organisation called UNAC, who has a variety of spies / experts who infiltrate criminal gangs. These "experts" have skills in certain things, e.g. breaking into buildings, climbing up things etc. In this story the criminals are planning to blow up the Eiffel Tower, and the American President's mother, if he doesn't get a ransom in time. PLus he has these laser guns which he has stolen from the Americans. Theres not really much to the book, but its a nice little adventure, and gets quite exciting towards the end! Recommended for a nice quick read :)
Gigs - Bad Pollyanna, The Mumbles, Specimen / Gene Loves Jezebel
I've been to some great gigs recently. The first was Bad Pollyanna at The Gaff in London. This is a band from Huddersfield that Katie has made the costumes for. There are three girls in the band, Katie made a dress for the main singer and then wigs for her and the other girls. I think they've now asked her to make some things for the three guys in the band as well, which is great. Music-wise, they're quite good, a sort of industrially-rock with female vocals. I think they've just won a Battle of the Bands thing in Sheffield recently, so I hope they're going to go on to great things! :)
On the 16th July I went to another gig at The Gaff, a goth one this time. The bands were Dead Heaven (I think thats what they were called!), NightPorter, and The Mumbles. Dead Heaven were better than i expected for an opening band, he had an excellent voice. NightPorter are good, the lead singer has also got a great voice. Its more rock-y than my favourite type of goth, but still good! The headlinger was The Mumbles. They are so amazing! I feel a bit silly saying that as I know the lead singer so it just sounds like I'm sucking up, but I'm really not, I genuinely think they're brilliant. They just have a singer and a keyboardist, but it works so well. In my opinion they're the second Sisters of Mercy :D which is just great! The vocals are very Andrew Eldritch-ish, and done very well. The drum beats are a bit faster and a tiny bit more dancy than the Sisters, which is good. Highly recommended!! :D
The day after this I went to see Specimen and Gene Loves Jezebel at Slimelight. Specimen was before the club, with NightPorter supporting. I really enjoyed Specimen, they were better than I thought and I knew more songs than I expected! I was thinking they might have just been a two song band (Hex and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), but all the songs they played were as good as those. Gene Loves Jezebel were on during the club night, and even though I did only know one song by them, that was excellent and all the rest of their stuff was good too, the singer has a great voice. The rest of Slimelight was also really good as they had different djs on the goth floor (which was on the top floor instead of the bottom this time!) so there was a good mix of music with more 80s than normal, which is nice! :)
The new series of Who Do You Think You Are started on UK TV on Monday. It followed Bruce Forsyth as he tried to find out what happened to his great-grandfather, as he had recieved a letter from an american relative saying that he was a bigamist! I thought the story was really interesting, especially towards the end, and I liked the way it showed how you can use so many different types of documents (eg certificates, census, passenger lists, trade directories etc) to find out your information. One thing I wasn't so sure of is that Bruce seemed a bit fake at first, like he wasn't really *that* interested in what was being found out, but he got more interested towards the end. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series! :)
It was also Katie's graduation last week, which was lovely. A lot nicer than mine! I just wanted to go home and get away from uni, but Katie's was nice as she was surrounded by her friends and everyone was happy! The only annoying thing was that Patrick Stewart, the chancellor of the Uni, was not there, he was on the first day of graduations, but only attends one day each year apparently. After the graduation ceremony we went for dinner in a lovely pub in Holmfirth - and the portions were huge! Katie had a "jumbo" fish and chips (the only option for that dish - no small or medium! :) ) and it was the biggest bit of fish I've ever seen, haha. After that we (well, me and Katie, not our parents!) went to Warehouse, where it was a kareoke night. Which was quite amusing!
Last night it was my friend's hen night - I wasn't sure about it at first as it was a barn dance and I've never been to one of those before!! But it was fun, and funny watching everyone do the harder and harder dances. Then we went to the Function Rooms, which although it has a reputation of being a bit rubbish, was quite good! They have good music there on a Saturday, playing 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. Although I think I would have preferred more 80s than 70s and 90s, there were still some great songs played!
Anyway...am currently watching Harry Potter and I think Sirius is about to die!!! So will be back later with more reviews! :)
Number of pages 424
Reason read I really enjoyed the original Dracula book
Rating 8.5 / 10
This is an "authorised" sequel to Bram Stoker's book Dracula, written by a descendant of Bram Stoker and a Dracula historian. I loved Dracula, and although this book wasn't quite as good as that, it didn't disappoint. It followed Quincy Harker, Mina and Jonathon's son, who wants to become an actor, against the wishes of his father who is paying for him to study to become a lawyer. Meanwhile the story introduces Elizabeth Bathory, who is also known for drinking blood, like Dracula. She and her "women in white" do a series of attacks on the members of the group who caught Dracula the first time round. Meanwhile, Quincy Harker finds Bram Stoker directing a play of the story of Dracula. It continues with Quincy asking the famous actor Basarab to take the main part. The attacks continue, whilst Quincy is finding out more about his parent's past in relation to Dracula, and is realising that he is still a threat. The ending does get a little bit "modern" in that its all action-y, but it is still good, I recommend it! :)
Film 41 - Repo! The Genetic Opera
This is one of the cheesiest films I have ever seen! The basic story is that everyone's organs are failing and there is an organisation, GeneCo, which will give you new ones, but if you can't pay the fee, or fall behind on your payments, the "repo man" will come and take them back!! Another part of the story is that the repo-man has a daughter who has a blood disorder, and he resents her as when she was born her mother died due to a "cure" that he made for her. It stars Sarah Brightman as a singer who turns out to be the girl's godmother. Oh and Paris Hilton as one of three siblings who want to take over the GeneCo company from their father. Add to all of this the fact that its a musical, and its extremely cheesy, but actually quite great! At first I wasn't sure about it, but after a couple of watches it grew on me :) 9 / 10
Book Sixty Five - Alastair McLean's UNAC - Hostage Tower by John Denis
Number of pages can't remember
Reason read free book with the Times
Rating 7 / 10
This was actually much better than I expected. I hadn't heard of the book before, but apparently theres a whole series of them, all written by different people after one writer, Alistair McLean, wrote the first few. It is a thriller about an organisation called UNAC, who has a variety of spies / experts who infiltrate criminal gangs. These "experts" have skills in certain things, e.g. breaking into buildings, climbing up things etc. In this story the criminals are planning to blow up the Eiffel Tower, and the American President's mother, if he doesn't get a ransom in time. PLus he has these laser guns which he has stolen from the Americans. Theres not really much to the book, but its a nice little adventure, and gets quite exciting towards the end! Recommended for a nice quick read :)
Gigs - Bad Pollyanna, The Mumbles, Specimen / Gene Loves Jezebel
I've been to some great gigs recently. The first was Bad Pollyanna at The Gaff in London. This is a band from Huddersfield that Katie has made the costumes for. There are three girls in the band, Katie made a dress for the main singer and then wigs for her and the other girls. I think they've now asked her to make some things for the three guys in the band as well, which is great. Music-wise, they're quite good, a sort of industrially-rock with female vocals. I think they've just won a Battle of the Bands thing in Sheffield recently, so I hope they're going to go on to great things! :)
On the 16th July I went to another gig at The Gaff, a goth one this time. The bands were Dead Heaven (I think thats what they were called!), NightPorter, and The Mumbles. Dead Heaven were better than i expected for an opening band, he had an excellent voice. NightPorter are good, the lead singer has also got a great voice. Its more rock-y than my favourite type of goth, but still good! The headlinger was The Mumbles. They are so amazing! I feel a bit silly saying that as I know the lead singer so it just sounds like I'm sucking up, but I'm really not, I genuinely think they're brilliant. They just have a singer and a keyboardist, but it works so well. In my opinion they're the second Sisters of Mercy :D which is just great! The vocals are very Andrew Eldritch-ish, and done very well. The drum beats are a bit faster and a tiny bit more dancy than the Sisters, which is good. Highly recommended!! :D
The day after this I went to see Specimen and Gene Loves Jezebel at Slimelight. Specimen was before the club, with NightPorter supporting. I really enjoyed Specimen, they were better than I thought and I knew more songs than I expected! I was thinking they might have just been a two song band (Hex and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), but all the songs they played were as good as those. Gene Loves Jezebel were on during the club night, and even though I did only know one song by them, that was excellent and all the rest of their stuff was good too, the singer has a great voice. The rest of Slimelight was also really good as they had different djs on the goth floor (which was on the top floor instead of the bottom this time!) so there was a good mix of music with more 80s than normal, which is nice! :)
The new series of Who Do You Think You Are started on UK TV on Monday. It followed Bruce Forsyth as he tried to find out what happened to his great-grandfather, as he had recieved a letter from an american relative saying that he was a bigamist! I thought the story was really interesting, especially towards the end, and I liked the way it showed how you can use so many different types of documents (eg certificates, census, passenger lists, trade directories etc) to find out your information. One thing I wasn't so sure of is that Bruce seemed a bit fake at first, like he wasn't really *that* interested in what was being found out, but he got more interested towards the end. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series! :)
It was also Katie's graduation last week, which was lovely. A lot nicer than mine! I just wanted to go home and get away from uni, but Katie's was nice as she was surrounded by her friends and everyone was happy! The only annoying thing was that Patrick Stewart, the chancellor of the Uni, was not there, he was on the first day of graduations, but only attends one day each year apparently. After the graduation ceremony we went for dinner in a lovely pub in Holmfirth - and the portions were huge! Katie had a "jumbo" fish and chips (the only option for that dish - no small or medium! :) ) and it was the biggest bit of fish I've ever seen, haha. After that we (well, me and Katie, not our parents!) went to Warehouse, where it was a kareoke night. Which was quite amusing!
Last night it was my friend's hen night - I wasn't sure about it at first as it was a barn dance and I've never been to one of those before!! But it was fun, and funny watching everyone do the harder and harder dances. Then we went to the Function Rooms, which although it has a reputation of being a bit rubbish, was quite good! They have good music there on a Saturday, playing 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. Although I think I would have preferred more 80s than 70s and 90s, there were still some great songs played!
Anyway...am currently watching Harry Potter and I think Sirius is about to die!!! So will be back later with more reviews! :)
