Bag of Bones - Stephen King (Book)

Bag of Bones - Stephen King. I actually feel double proud to declare after finishing another Stephen King that I lived to tell the tale :). Again as it always is the case with King books and stories, last fifteen days had been harrowing for me to say the least. Almost a little short of 750 pages it was a total fun read (in my case it is always the longer, the thicker the better). But I wonder why the entire universe goes head over heels to support Mr. King. I not only felt someone patting me on my back very lightly almost like by a feather fan or something and I woke up a few times to find my bedroom empty and door locked from inside. Right on the very second day of me reading this book my bedroom curtain started playing games with me by making shapes as if someone was hiding behind them, so far last two weeks I have kept them totally open even while taking my afternoon siesta :). I strictly warned my kiddo to make noise while walking in to the living room or kitchen especially while I am reading or washing utensils. Even then, she has given me shocks a few times innocently and unknowingly of-course and I was coaxed not to read anymore horror in near future till I grow up a little more :). I have heard someone whispers in my ears while I was sleeping, asking for help in the Lord Voldemort's snake voice (the greatest ever fictional villain from Harry Potter series). Yet I finished the book and here I am sharing it with you guys.

Every-time I read one of his books and come here blabbering about the same stuff that he is my all time favorite Author and all that. Still this must be one of his weakest stories so far, although it had its own impact on me but from his standards it was way below the average mark. Bag of Bones is a very straight forward story of an Author going through a writer's block after his wife's untimely death in strange circumstances. He goes back to his vacation home which they call "Sara Laughs", and that house too has its own painful story of its past to tell us in a most shocking, surprising and horrific way, which is further explored by the author while he tries to write his next book amidst the happenings in his life. A little love story with a twist and lots of spooky moments with a three year old kid in toes kept me jumping on my reading chair :) and made me pray for the happy ending. You've got to read the book to know if it has a happy ending or not but no doubt, it worked like a proper thriller and quite a page turner. His writing and prose is so amazing that I actually end up Googling the town's name (TR90) to find if it exists in the map of United States of America or not :). The book is visually so strong (just like all his other works I have read so far) that I was actually able to visualize the whole scenes in the back of my head. If this is already or will be adapted as a movie or a TV series in future, I will have to gather my guts again to watch it but it will for sure make up for a superb onscreen experience.

Have you read Bag of Bones or any other Stephen King which has scared you big time? Do let me know which one is your favorite King book, I would love to give it a read.

PS: Now that I have run out of King books, I am about to pick up my first Maeve Binchy (Tara Road) right after I finish two Author sent (one unpublished and one published respectively) books back to back from my Friendly writers :).

Climax - Gaspar Noe Movie.

Climax - Gaspar Noe Movie.

Gaspar Noe is not a new name when we talk about some seriously unique and Mindf*** movies. One movie that I will never ever forget in my life (Irreversible) that too with one of my all time favorite Monica Belluci in lead (of-course she goes through something unbelievable that I can't even talk in details here). That movie gave me nightmares for the most brutal way it all is done taking a serious toll on my mind and heart. Then came his "Love" I guess a few years back which was almost considered to be a soft-porn by a lot of critics, I loved it as told the story and clear mindset of one fine man (what's wrong in that I still ask). And now last night, I end up seeing this movie so aptly titled "Climax". As it's very start gives you a superb hint as what to expect (by climax).

Imagine a night with two dozen dancers from various walks of life, shapes, sizes, sexuality, political views inside one campus secluded from the world. One of them plays a sort of prank on them by mixing something in their drinks and what happens next is something which blew my mind off, especially the superb music and dance sequences which soared my hopes skyrocketing high for Gaspar Noe that he may be a little easy on me this time. What follows is the story of Violence, Sex, Drugs and Abuse, totally apt in the way world is moving towards. On top of that Gaspar has his own way of philosophizing the same, you've got to watch it to know and dissect more. I loved the Camera work too as his typical never stopping camera with amazingly long cuts take you on a totally killer journey. So much happening at a break-neck speed and before I could realize whats going to happen, it hits the ending (Unbelievable).

Have you seen Climax? If you are into Mindf*** movies, do watch this one and let me know your thoughts. Also, do tell me which one is your Favorite Gaspar Noe movie if one can have a favorite like that :). My favorite will of-course be "Love". :) if you haven't see that either, go ahead check it out but be warned that Gaspar Noe movies should be seen alone especially one no one else is at home.

Four Past Midnight - Stephen King (Book)

Four Past Midnight - Stephen King.
Another day, another Stephen King :) and with that I add another 930 pages to the data inside my brain or call it inside my heart :) as Stephen King stories straight go to heart to scare the hell out of me. As much I am scared to pick any of his books it actually excites me big time to keep picking his books again and again. Quite a few of them have given me scary sleepless nights and weeks at times but now that I have graduated to his stuff, I am finding them super entertaining to say the least. As the title suggests I expected it to be a horror story but it turns out to be a milder funny one from his standards at least. Won't even go on to call it a proper thriller but nevertheless a superb time pass worth spending ten days of my lock-down life with. Four Past Midnight is basically a collection of four novellas from King with the very first starts one past midnight, second one at two past midnight and so on so forth. On an average each story lasts about 250 pages making it a perfect length, I wished he has written all these stories separately making them longer the better :). I must also add that these four were almost at par with the best mysteries that I have read and loved in the recent past.

The very first story of a pilot taking a red eye flight as a passenger sets the pace of the book in one heck of its own way. He is travelling from west coast to east coast, right after landing his own aircraft from an international destination which almost crashed midways to America. He gets a bad news and had to travel immediately but have no idea what kind of adventure this flight is going to take him on with a dozen odd passengers as survivors of a mid air mysterious accident (kind of an end of the world scenario). I must say the very first story is the best of the lot. Mr. King has a thing about other Authors, I have noticed that in his previous works too as he doesn't shy away from name calling in his stories :) and the very second story is about an Author who is being pursued by a stalker who blames him for plagiarizing his own original story and getting success too on the same. How this guy takes revenge on the Author and the mystery behind whose story was first published and who should get the real credit makes up for a superb cat and mouse chase game, but the big secret in the end totally caught me off guard and made me smile big time on Mr. King's terrific thinking. Third story was superb too especially because it was based on a Librarian who will go to any extent to catch those people who do not return the book on timely manner :) and if someone loses the book :) dude! Those are totally done for life, you've got to read this story if you love reading books and if you rent books from a library, I suggest you stay away from this story if you do not return the books on time :).

Fourth and the shortest of the story is about a teenage kid who gets a Polaroid Camera as his birthday gift from his parents but is not able to take one single photograph from the same. Although an instant picture camera, he has no idea whose pictures he is clicking even after he ends up taking the a dozen of them in the single day. The big mystery enfolds when he starts connecting the pictures :) and what comes out of it was not only nerve wrecking but the way finale is told, it gave me goosebumps, I am certainly not going anywhere near a Camera or a black big dog on the road for the next seven to ten days for sure :). And the best part is that the first and second stories are adapted as TV Movie and a proper movie respectively :) the one with the Author is played by my favorite Johnny Depp :). Right after posting this, I gotta go and find which platform those movies are available and watch them back to back.

Have you read Four Past Midnight? Do let me know how you like it and which one was your favorite story from the four. Also, do let me know if you have any other recommendation of collection of stories or novellas from Mr. King, I would love to get it in my next haul. And since this one has excited me so much and rocked my last 10 days, I am going to pick up one last book from him from my collection and start it today only (Bag of Bones). 

A Falcon Flies - Wilbur Smith (Book)

A Falcon Flies - Wilbur Smith. I find it very hard to believe that I have actually read two Wilbur Smith's back to back (including The Diamond Hunters) and found them way below par from his own standards. Just about very average story telling with not one character which I will cherish any longer than the time it took me to actually put the books back in my book rack. I guess either something is seriously wrong with Mr. Smith or with his fan in me :( who totally loved his previous works especially The River God series which I am yet to read completely). And it is terribly upsetting for me to not to like a book in the first place which I picked up to love big time. 700 pages which were supposed to be super fun with awesome premise of two brother sister of African origin going back to their country in search of not only their lost father but also some treasures. Initial 50 pages made me assume it will be as much fun as McKenna's Gold or something of Indiana Jones type adventure. It could have been an out and out adventure on Atlantic Ocean while the pirates are being chased by British naval fleet to discover what they hide below the decks of their super awesome ships. And on top of that imagine this all happening around the same time while Indian mutiny runs in the background. The whole idea, concept and plot had so much of scope yet Wilbur Smith's prose does no justice to it in totality hence derailing the fun but as I am a huge fan of his works, I somehow plough through to the end as I didn't want to add any of his works to show up in my super short list of abandoned books. The whole story revolves around two important characters Zouga Ballantine and his beautiful sister (a Doctor) Robyn. Both have their own agenda of visiting their country of origin. Zouga is in search of his lost father and his treasures (you can a wild guess as what could be in the treasure around mid 19th century) and his sister Robyn is looking out to uncover the story behind the American pirate who is smuggling slaves from Africa to America (of-course illegally) and tends to write a book on the same too. They get a little help from another important character in the form of Clinton Codrington, a captain in British Naval Force who in the first place has the same agenda of capturing the dreaded pirate. Another thing which was totally against my taste was the killing of animals with super gory details, of-course that was the case some 100 years ago in the name of man's adventure but reading all that now was totally heart-breaking. And last but not the least, the love triangle too wasn't so convincing for me and I found it pretty much forced unnecessarily and even the final out-come wasn't something that I would agree on. All in all, this was almost the first disastrous experience for me from Wilbur Smith as I guess I have huge expectations whenever I see that name with letters on the top of any book. Next time onward, I will keep my expectations in the right place to make it a little easy on me and see if that works. Till then, do let me know if there a Wilbur Smith book which didn't work for you :) I would love to know that now. And having said all that, I am sort of ready for brick-bats too from Wilbur fans :) and I will go back to at least two Stephen King books back to back now to pull me out of depression. King in my thinking can never go wrong. Looking forward to starting Four Past Midnight and Bag of Bones :).

SpiderMan: Far From Home (Movie)

SpiderMan: Far From Home.

A few months back I wasn't a superhero fan and my all time favorite movie was "The Dark Knight" it still is but a lot has changed since a very dear friend of mine gave me the list of Marvel movies and that too in the perfect order as they should have been seen. THAT changed it all for me and my kiddo, we have become huge huge fans of almost all these amazing superheroes. We have laughed with them, we have cried with them and now we cried a lot on a few of them which we have lost in the last few months (refer to Infinity War and EndGame). Just when I thought they will change it a bit and will put the story in new gear with SpiderMan Far From Home, how wrong I was. They suck you back again into what we had come out of (not happily) but Bravo to Team Marvel, the way this one starts and made us all emotional, choked but with a huge smile on our faces was totally amazing. We had almost missed the movie on big screen but last night on a whim I booked the last show and I am super-glad that I did that, this is not one of those movies that any Marvel / Super Hero fan should miss at any cost.

SpiderMan was never my favorite (especially after the firing of Toby McGuire) I had no hopes but with Tom Holland and Spiderman's upgrade as an Avenger has changed it all for me. On top of that in the last few movies they have taken Zendaya has his love interest who happens to be my kiddo's favorite so we have like half a dozen reasons to watch their movies on repeat mode :). Now that the Avengers have gone, at least a majority of them, a lot of pressure has come on the feeble shoulders of Spiderman :) but Tony Stark didn't leave just like that, he did leave something behind for the little guy. One thing is for sure that we just can't get over Tony Stark as he so clearly leaves a message for Spiderman too "Even Dead I'm The Hero" you've got to see the movie to know more of that message as how beautifully and brilliantly it is executed. If Spiderman, his love interest, his friends and Stark's legacy wasn't enough, they still have fuming hot Aunt May even in this part, which was like totally Wow factor. I mean I really wonder how she keeps getting younger by the movie :) she is another reason why I will watch this movie a few more times for sure :) and Happy Hogan - I love that guy. Jake Gyllenhal's Mysterio gives another dimension to the series and was a total revelation of sorts, we've gotta go back to old movies and keep an eye for him now :) another reason why Marvel movies will be watched again and again by their fans.

All in all, it was a terrific experience watching this 2 hours and a little more wonderful movie which is a perfect start over of the things for Marvel Universe, if end credits are to be believed - we are expecting something seriously amazing coming up soon in next few months I should say. Another superb thing about Marvel and its fans is that we were hardly 15 odd people that too in the very last show of the a weekday, yet not one person got up till the screen went blank after ending of all the credits :)

Have you seen Spiderman Far from Home? If you have, do let me know how you like it and if you haven't, Dude! I tell you, do not miss it at any cost, guess its still there for a few more days.