Sybil Nelson's Blog, page 10

Movie Monday: Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol

I have to admit, I was a little weary of the whole Mission Impossible franchise. I thought the second one was so horrible that I didn't even see the third one. But the previews for Ghost Protocol intrigued me. Not because of Tom Cruise or Jeremy Renner, but because of Simon Pegg. I think he's absolutely hysterical. If you haven't seen Run, Fat Boy, Run or Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, you don't know what you're missing.
Anyway, I was glad I gave this Mission Impossible a chance. It was great. Awesome fight scenes and action, original plot twists, and amazing stunts. The only thing I didn't like was the motivation of the villain. I thought it was kind of weak. Over all, though, this movie definitely accomplished it's mission.

Two flames up!

African American (authors) Book Challenge

Honestly, this is my last challenge. I promise!
Here are the rules!
Read 26 books with authors' names, either first or last, beginning with the letters of the alphabet.For the letter "X", any author with the letter X in his/her name is acceptable.
That's it! Now for my list!A-B-C-Joy CampbellD-E-F-G-H-I-J- Jacqueline WoodsonK- Jamaica KincaidL- Leslie DuBoisM-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W- Alice WalkerX-Y-Z-

Book Review: Jane Blonde The Perfect Spylet

Jane Blonde is a young spy who is smart, classy, and has a whole bunch of cool gadgets. My kind of girl. In this short book, Jane is given access to a secret shop for spies where she can buy even more cool gadgets and special spy outfits. Next she has to teach the Kindergarten spy class and gets attacked by a mini spy posing as child.
This book is an awesome concept. I love spies, what can I say. But it is a bit short and felt a bit contrived and hokey at times. I was fine with the length because I got it for free on my Nook. But when I went over to Amazon I noticed that it was $9.99! The book is literally like 60 pages long. I would not recommend paying $9.99 for this eBook. Check it out on Nook for free.
Overall, I was pretty neutral about this book. It didn't knock my socks off, but it was mildly entertaining. I wasn't disappointed or anything because, like I said it was free. And because it was short, I didn't feel like it was a waste of time or anything. So, I'll say this book was hot and give it three flames.

Follow Friday

Question of the Week: Go count the number of unread books sitting on your shelf. How many?
I only have probably about 20 unread books lying around my house. This is because I mostly read on my Nook. If I were to count the unread books on my Nook...I don't really know if I can count that high!

Trailer Park Thursday: The Avengers

I am so flippin excited about this movie that I literally had to restrict myself from watching the trailer as it was getting a bit ridiculous. I just might be one of those freaks that lines up a week before the release date in order to get tickets. Hey, don't judge me!


That was so awesome it brings tears to my eyes. This is definitely the movie I am most excited about seeing in 2012. What about you? What do you want to see.

Wednesday Winners

I've had two giveaways and it's only the fourth day of January. I'm so excited. I hope I can keep up with this pace and do at least two giveaways a month. Congrats to some of my winners:

Best of 2011 Giveaway
Ana K.Nikki P.Maggie A.


End of the Year Giveaway


Barbara W.
Munire A.
Oscar C.


Stay tuned for more giveaways!

2012 Self-Published Reading Challenge

And here I go again with yet another reading challenge. But really, how could I pass this one up? I am a huge supporter of independent thinkers. This includes those brave souls who decide to navigate the publishing waters on their own.
This challenge is hosted by Sarah at Workaday Reads. Here is how it works.
Challenge Guidelines:
This challenge will run from Jan 1, 2012 - Dec 31, 2012.Anyone can join, you don't need to be a blogger. If you don't have a blog, feel free to sign-up in the comments. You can post reviews to any book site (i.e. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Goodreads, etc).Any genre, length or format of book counts, as long as it is self-published by the author.You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap-up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you.When you sign up in the linky, put the direct link to your post about joining the Self-Published Reading Challenge.You can move up levels, but no moving down.Sign-ups will be open until Dec 15, 2012, so feel free to join at any time throughout the year.Levels:
Sentence - 5 booksParagraph- 10 booksPage - 25 booksChapter - 50 booksShort Story - 75 booksNovel - 100 booksSeries - 150 booksAt the beginning of each month there will be a roundup post for you to add your reviews for that month. If you forget, feel free to add your reviews in the following month. Any reviews submitted will be entered into the draw for that month.

So, I'm going to sign up for a Page. That's 25 books. Hopefully, a lot of these books will coincide with my other challenges.
My list
1- Rippler by Cidney Swanson
2- Finally Home by Elysabeth Eldering
3- Kings and Queens by Courtney Vail
4- Shadows of St. Louis by Leslie DuBois
5- Eulogy's Secret by Grace Elliot
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Tuesday Tunes: La Cienega Just Smiled

This is one of my favorite songs. It's also the title of a book. Check out both!

Movie Monday: Green Lantern

Yeah, so I know I'm a little late seeing this movie, but I have a good reason. You want to hear it? Well here it is:

I hate The Green Lantern.

I do and I always have. Even as a kid I thought the entire concept of The Green Lantern was completely stupid. "Hey, look at me. I have a ring that can turn into anything I can imagine." That's just lame and lazy writing if you ask me.

So when this movie came out, I didn't immediately rush to go shell out $10 bucks of my allowance to go see it even though Ryan Reynolds is the love of my life.

So what made me finally go see it? Well, I also hate Thor. He's all like, "Look at me. I have a big hammer. Watch out." Once again, lame. But I watched the movie and I thought it was great! So I decided to give the ol' Lantern a try as well.

Big Mistake.

While there were some great scenes. (Ahem...like the one with Ryan Reynolds in nothing but some tiny, tight, white underwear...) Overall, the movie was just so over the top and not believable. And yes, I know that it's going to be hard to believe something about aliens protecting Earth, but hey, I believed it in Thor. Why didn't I believe it in The Green Lantern? And the villain was pretty good and believable. Peter Skarsgaard did an excellent job. In fact, the movie might have been better if there was more of him.

Overall, I'm not really sure why this movie didn't work. I mean it had great special effects, a pretty cool villain, and a rather sexy Ryan Reynolds. I should have loved it. But I didn't. Several parts in the movie just made me roll my eyes or sigh with annoyance. There was nothing original in the entire movie. No surprises. Nothing stimulating...except Ryan in his underwear. And nothing that made me think that maybe I misjudged the Green Lantern. Nope, he's still lame.

Book Review: Rippler by Cidney Swanson

Synopsis: Samantha Ruiz has a freak gene that makes her turn invisible, or ripple. She can't control it, and it's getting worse. Afraid of becoming a lab-rat, Sam keeps her ability secret, until fellow runner Will Baker sees her vanish into thin air. Will promises secrecy and help, and Sam begins to fall in love. Together, the two discover there are worse things than being a scientific curiosity. Someone's been killing people who possess Sam's gene. A mysterious man from France sends letters that offer hope for safety, but also reveal a sinister connection with Nazi experiments. The more time Sam spends with Will, the less she can imagine life without him. When Sam uncovers secrets from her past, she must choose between keeping Will in her life or keeping Will safe.


Review: I read a review of this book on another blog and was hooked. I love the concept of a defective gene that causes someone to turn invisible. How awesome is that? It reminded me of The Time Traveler's Wife. In that book, it was a defective gene that caused him to time travel.


What was hot:
Will - He's the love interest in the book. I love how concerned he is for Sam's well-being. Though at times he comes off as too perfect, it doesn't matter because I can't resist characters named Will. I just think it's such a sexy name. (Just read Avalon High by Meg Cabot and The Queen Bee of Bridgeton by Leslie DuBois)


Wiil and Sam's relationship - It wasn't all hot and heavy like you see in a lot of teen books nowadays. It was a sweet, innocent relationship and they didn't move too fast. I mean, the book was almost over before they even had their first kiss. And then no more kissing after that. And it wasn't love at first sight or anything. They actually knew each other and they had a friendship first.


What was not:
The villain: The bad guy really wasn't well defined and established in this book. While there are some intense moments, I would have liked to see a clearer motivation and direction for the bad guys. But since this is the first book in a series, that probably comes later so I can live with it as is. If this was a standalone book, the ending would have left me feeling unresolved and a little agitated.


Mickie: I thought her character was annoying. Not sure why.


Overall, this book was amazing and I'm so happy it was my first read of the new year. It gets a book completed for my Indie Challange and my A-Z Challenge. I might even add it to my 6 degrees challenge. And this book was so good, now I'm pumped to keep reading and get through all my reading challenges. 


I'm not sure of my rating system yet, but I'm thinking I'm going to go with one to five flames. In that case, I give this book five flames!