Lana Turner: Hearts and Diamonds Take All belongs on the shelves of any collection strong in movie star biographies in general and Hollywood evolution in particular, and represents no lightweight production, appearing on the 20th anniversary of Lana Turner's death to provide a weighty survey packed with new information about her life.

 

One would think that just about everything to be known about The Sweater Girl would have already appeared in print, but it should be noted that Lana Turner: Hearts and Diamonds Take All offers many new revelations not just about Turner, but about the movie industry in the aftermath of World War II.

 

From Lana's introduction of a new brand of covert sexuality in women's movies to her scandalous romances among the stars, her extreme promiscuity, her search for love, and her notorious flings - even her involvement in murder - are all probed in a revealing account of glamour and movie industry relationships that bring Turner and her times to life.

 

Some of the greatest scandals in Hollywood history are intricately detailed on these pages, making this much more than another survey of her life and times, and a 'must have' pick for any collection strong in Hollywood history in general, gossip and scandals and the real stories behind them, and Lana Turner's tumultuous career, in particular.

So I know I've yet to write anything more about The Scorpio Races that had been the first mini book club pick for me and my BFF.  It just so happens that I've been extremely lazy and extremely busy and extremely distracted all at the same time.

 

Reading other books, watching some old Asian television reruns, and generally being lazy and sleeping in on cold days has been quite routine for the past couple weeks.  Winter time and end of the year holiday ish does that to me.  That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

 

Nonetheless, here's a quick update about the second book that BFF and I chose for our December book (we've decided to choose one new book each month for our mini book club funsies!).

 

Heart's Blood was BFF's choice.  Although, once again, I have a feeling she's more interested in the aspect of having a book club read-a-long more so than the actual book we're reading.  She had very quickly nodded to two other books with: "Yes.  That one, we're reading that one," up until I finally caved and gave a finality to the choice.

 

I... may or may not be a bit stubborn about the books I personally want to read.  And since Heart's Blood is a fairy tale retelling based on Beauty and the Beast as well as a book I'd been interested in for some time now, I may have been a bit more willing to say yes to this choice.

 

I promise, next time I will more readily agree with what BFF wants to read.

 

Anyway, onto Heart's Blood:

 

I had a little trouble getting into the book from the beginning until Caitrin joined the household up on the Whistling Tor.  And so it took a little longer for me to finish our initially agreed upon five chapters of reading before our first book club session.  And even then, with all my distractions, I ended up a bit behind.

 

And so we didn't quite have a book club session so much as we just sat back and agreed that maybe we should finish the entire book before the end of the year and then find some time to sit down and discuss it in all its glorious entirety.  

 

However, the main point we both hit on for Heart's Blood is that, despite having fairly neutral feelings for the characters so far, we both absolutely LOVE way that the book is written, for one, and the way the setting, atmosphere and descriptions are given.  The way that the fortress of Whistling Tor is described and the feel of the entire village and community: the library, the garden, the hall of mirrors, the village at the bottom of the hill...  The way it's written is just so beautiful!

 

I can honestly feel myself being drawn to the fortress itself and yearning to be in Caitrin's place, as a scribe in that neglected library where I would do nothing but sort, translate, transcribe, and pretty much fix up the entire area.  It sounds really attractive, in my own nerdy way.

 

I'm glad we selected this book.  Despite not quite getting into the story itself, I'm still finding myself enjoying it a lot.  And hoepfully I'll continue to enjoy the rest of it as I have plans to read more books by Juliet Marillier after this one.

This is the third book of Nathan Long about the BlackHearts. A company of men who have been senteced to death and to escape that they've become the last line of defence of the Empire. They go from dangerous operation to even dangerous operation. The two previous book told us how they got in the service of Manfred, the Count. They were tricked and they've got poison in their Blood. If they try to escape they will end up dead, so they venture through adventure to adventure. This one was the most difficult. They had to recover a stone, in which if they loss the world will lose is balance and chaos would reign.

For that there was the blackheart's leader, Reiner, the female archer Franka, the pike Hals and Pavel (this for were all that last from the first blackheart regiment. They were join in the second adventure by Gert with his crowssbow and the Master of Swords Jurgen.
In this game they were join by Augustus the pike, Rumpolt the Handgunner, Darius the phisican and Dieter the master assassin with 117 notches.

Bear in mind that they are all criminals. (This reminds me o f the penal legions in the II World War).

Well, in the last book, one of the blackhearts were a spy to the Count. They didn't knew who were but from all previous characters there was one that I didn't like, one that had no significant part in the story... I knew from the start who was it... It was obvious.

Well this book is about betrayal. It's all about Betrayal, sometimes the characters are double-crossed, triple-crossed and one time i think they go far from it.. lol

I like the book.. The last 100 pages I read it in 2h. It was very quick narration. There are some factors that I didn't enjoy. They beat all the enemies... there are skavens (again), there are the mutants, the count manfrend, the two lord cultists(one from slaanesh and other Tzeentch), the dark elf who reveres to Khaine (well only Nurgle the pestilence god was not there... well now that I think of it, he was.. the pestilence of the mutants lol).. How nice, a family reunion.
Well... so, the blackhearts may die from a dozen different ways, they've got the cross all of them, sometimes even on themselves...

I like the book, it's not the best book from warhammer, I mean the writer and plot, but still very much enjoyment.

Next book from Nathan Long it's Orcslayer, which is the 8th book from the Gotrek and Felix Saga.. (one of the first book that came from warhammer, the saga it's a standard book from warhammer.. let us see if Nathan it's on the same level). (2012 update: It is)