Sunday, October 28, 2012

October 2012 "Wrap-Up"

Happy Halloween to everyone out there in Blogger-Land...!

Rather than give you a "Best-Book of the Month" this month, I am just going to mention two books that I read this month, where the purchase of the book goes to a good cause:

The first book is written by an older gentleman from my church.
Remembering Redbank by Jack Coleman
This is Jack's 1st novel, and the reason that I bought it (other than that it sounded good) was the fact that all purchases go directly to his upcoming mission trip to India.
So, for anyone wanting to take a nostalgic trip back to the 1940's, where times were much simpler, grab this book (available on Amazon) and help support Jack's mission trip.
It is a great, fast read with a 'Stand by Me' kind-of feel to it.

The other book that I want to mention is an anthology of 14 short-stories called 'Scare Package' (edited by Franklin E Wales
All proceeds of this book go directly to the Rockcastle Regional Hospital & Respiratory Care Center's "Miracle-Fund".
This is 100% charity (the authors of these stories don't get a dime)
So, for only $3 (available on Amazon's Kindle) you get some great stories by authors that I've mentioned on this blog before (such as Billie Sue Mosiman, Joseph M. Monks, Eric S. Brown, etc - a win/win situation!)

Other books that I read this month:
*A book that should be read by everyone, before voting, next month:
'The Greatest Threat to American Freedom' - by Dr. James B. Richards
(a short 40+ page book available to read, for free, on-line)

I then read 'Almost Home' and 'Life After Death' both by Damien Echols (of "West Memphis Three" fame)
Life after Death just came out this month, and I have owned Almost Home for a while, but had never gotten around to reading it, so I read that one 1st.
There is no need to bother with Almost Home, as the majority of it is re-hashed in Life After Death (pretty much only recommended if you had any interest or followed the case of the aforementioned "West Memphis Three)

In the Tall Grass - by Stephen King & Joe Hill
(another father & son novella - not as good as their prior collaboration 'Throttle' but still a great/gruesome read!)

Extraction - by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
(a short story about the Tooth Fairy)

Best Movie of the Month:
Silent Hill 2: Revelation 
(I am sure that I will get flak for this one, as every review I read on it, prior to seeing it, was horrendous!)
I don't care and I enjoyed it, even better than the 1st one!
Basically it was an hour-and-a-half long 3-D ride through a fantastic haunted house!
This is a movie that you watch specifically for the audio & visual effects.
(the story, which I will admit is somewhat muddled, is based on a video game after all...)

Runner-Up:
This month's runner-up is a toss-up between Excision (a movie definitely not for everyone!) and Brake (which had the potential to be great, but fell short due to the ending...)

Other movies that I watched this month:
(in the order that I viewed them)

Kill List
Lake Placid: The Final Chapter
Bait (a unique shark flick)
Scalene
Hick
Get the Gringo
American Horror House
Barricade
Resident Evil: Damnation
The Victim (I really liked this one, even though it had a somewhat predictable twist)
Chained
Dragon Eyes
Rise of the Zombies

Best iPhone App of the Month:
You will recall, last month, that I stated I am making the switch to Android...
The 24th was the announcement that Samsung made regarding their Galaxy Note II (which I so cannot wait to buy!) - it is already available on US Cellular, T-Mobile, and Sprint, however it's not hitting AT&T until Nov. 9th, so you will have to wait until next month to read my thoughts on it.

In the meantime, I did come across an addicting little game that I've been playing throughout the month, called Tread of the Dead

Until next month - everyone have a safe/happy Halloween!

Jason

6 comments:

thebonebreaker said...

I just checked my e-mail, while on-line, and received this article from a gentleman named Jonathan:

For all you Zombie fans out there!
A comprehensive plan on how to survive the apocalypse - from your pole barn! ;-)

http://www.cbstructuresinc.com/the-comprehensive-plan-for-surviving-the-zombie-apocalypse-from-your-pole-barn/?site=the-bone-breaker.blogspot.com

Thank you for the link Jonathan!

steve prefontaine said...

Jason, i only watched two films in October and they both happened to be Tobe Hooper movies: "The Funhouse" (1981) was surprisingly good but "Eaten Alive" (1977) was, shall we say, lacking, it was still watchable though.

thebonebreaker said...

Steve,

If you're going to watch only two movies, at least you knew to choose a classic director like Mr Hooper!
I enjoyed both the films that you chose to watch...

steve prefontaine said...

Jason, i agree that Tobe Hooper is a 'classic' film-maker, hes consistantly made some of the best and most cultishly re-watchable horror movies of the last 40 years, i think the only mistake he ever made was deciding to make "Lifeforce" (1985) in England, when i watched that film i got angry because i knew how much better it would have been if it had been made in America with an all-American cast and crew (like all of Hoopers other movies).

thebonebreaker said...

See, I loved LifeForce (when I was a kid anyhow) I haven't seen it in Years though - I'm going to have to dig that one out and watch it again...

steve prefontaine said...

That gorgeous naked bird walking around all through the movie was the best thing about it, that bird was SO stunning, there were also a few cool special effects in it that still look reasonably good today. But i still think that, overall, it should`ve been a much better film than it was.