Book Review: Anna 2026 by Lucas Morgan

Riley's wife is missing and he's on a mission to find her.  She was arrested and sent to a sealed off part of the city.  The government claims it is because she took drugs, but Riley knows better.  He will do anything he can to regain Anna.

This is the story of a dystopian society where the government tries to protect people from themselves.  Are they really doing that or is there an ulterior motive?  What does the title Anna 2026 mean?  No, it's not the year the book is set as I originally thought!

I thought the story was okay.  It went by quickly.  It was a well written story, but I'm finding more and more these action stories are not my taste.  The end was sad, but sort of expected. If you like these types of stories you will probably enjoy this one.

I read this story as a review request using the Kindle app on my laptop.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Book Review: Dented Cans by Heather Walsh

The story of one family's life with a frugal father.  The Sampson family is known for their cheapness.  The father loves to buy dented and unlabeled cans at discount prices.  Sixteen year old Hannah knows her family is not normal.  She can't wait for the day she can get away.  Her fourteen year old brother, Ryan, is on the fast track to nowhere getting by by doing the bare minimum.  Her eight-year-old brother, Ben, prefers to talk in sound effects and eat only chicken nuggets.

The major part of the story takes place in Disney World.  None of the siblings want to go, but their father makes them enjoy a vacation in October in this Orlando hot spot.  The entire time they are there they argue over what to eat (the peanut butter sandwiches their parents made each morning), what to ride, and what to do.  What the kids do not know is the secret their parents have been holding all their lives.

I found the narrator, Hannah, to be a major brat.  All she does is complain.  She complains about her father being frugal and buying dented cans (which is something to complain about).  When their house is being fumigated for termites she complains about having to share a room with her brother.  She complains about going to Disney World for the second time.  She complains about having to watch a Disney movie on the plane ride to Orlando.  What she should be thankful for is that her cheap father decide to shell out money for the headphones.  She complains that going to Disney World is the worst thing in the world.  Um no.  My gosh, what an ungrateful little brat.

She complains about the dumbest things, in my opinion.  She complains about five people in their party being troublesome for the Disney World employees working the rides.  Give me a break!  I come from a family of five and we've never encountered trouble or anxiousness when dividing up the family for rides.  She calls the Magic Kingdom infantile.

I was ready to give this book a low rating when the ending came along.  It is surprising to say the least.  It did change my feelings on wanting to smack Hannah for being so negative about Disney World, but it did provide me with some feelings of sympathy.

I read this book as a review request via the Kindle app on my laptop.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Top Ten Tuesday

hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

Top Ten Favorite Book Covers of Books I've Read 

In Alphabetical Order by Author's Last Name

Monday Funnies

XM Attack

I'm starting a new XM Attack on my XM Attack blog.  Well, actually I started yesterday, but I didn't post it until today.  I'm not going report here every time I put up a post there, don't worry about that.

What is XM Attack?  It's what I call my intense listening to sattelite radio.  I subscribe to XM and when I started XM and Sirius were rivals.  Each day I listen to one channel for an hour.  I record what I've listened to and my thoughts on the channel.  It's a way for me to discover all the channels XM has to offer.  With a new channel lineup implemented May 9, I decided this was a good time to do another one.

If you want to check out the post it is here: XM Attack: (((75))) SiriusXM Pops

I love XM radio.  It's not for everyone.  It's a pay service, a subscription, so if you don't listen to radio that much then it's not your worth your while.  I love radio, so this is great for me.  Plus, I get baseball.  Baseball is my favorite sport in the entire world.  I'm not always near a TV to watch my Atlanta Braves.  Having XM I can listen to the radio broadcast.  It is the home team's broadcast so it's not always Atlanta, but it's better than nothing.  If I had the online service I could get all Atlanta broadcasts but I don't think it's worth it unless I have a smart phone or a tablet.  It's good because even though I live in SC I don't always have access to the radio broadcast.  I don't know.  Reasons like Clemson is more important, Sunday football is more important, I even think they broadcast Greenville Drive games on the radio.

More importantly, XM is about variety.  You can't always guarantee that in terrestrial radio.

Monday Funnies

Isn't the first day of the work week so much fun?  Hope you had a great weekend.  Sorry Monday has to spoil it for you!

Book Review: Harry Potter: Page to Screen by Bob McCabe

Emotional! If you are a fan of the movies you will truly enjoy this book. Being a part of the fandom while the movies were being made makes it that much more special when I read about it. If I read a book on the making of Star Wars it would be cool, but I wouldn't feel the emotion because I wasn't alive when they made the original three. I was born in 1982. But, with Harry Potter I was there with the anticipation of the next book, the next movie, the next whatever. When I look at behind the scenes pictures it reminds me of those times what I felt then and what's gone. This isn't the making of one movie or even three movies. This is the making of 8 movies. This is ten years of filmmaking. As of right now that's 1/3 of my life. That's a little less than half of the main actors' lives. I think that's what really hits. We watch many of the actors grow up in these movies. Many movie series don't span such a wide era that we truly see something like this. And even series that do span that much time don't do it consecutively or with the same cast and crew. Some crew has changed, like directors and a certain headmaster, but for the most part it is the same people.

This book details so much about the filming, the locations, the creatures, the costumes, the behind the scenes. I'm sure there is plenty more that can be written. It would fill volumes. This book contains a lot and enough to satisfy. The pictures are brilliant. Behind the scene pictures, concept art, close-ups of pieces that we don't see clearly enough in the movies. We see the extreme detail taken on EVERYTHING and by everything I mean everything. This book is a must read for the movie fan.

Opening this book I felt like Hermione picking up her "light reading" in Sorcerer's Stone.

I am a little disappointed music was not mentioned!

I read this book for pure pleasure.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.