This Week's Reads

The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Kingkiller Chronicle #1 (Goodreads)
**I've been meaning to start this series for long time. Saw it on list recently fantasy series that everyone should try and am finally doing so.

The Starlit Wood edited by Dominik Parisien
(Goodreads)
**I love fairy tale retellings and this anthology showcases some authors I already love and some I've wanted to try out.

Doctor Who: A History of Humankind 
The Doctor's Official Guide (Goodreads)
**Another love. I've only been watching Doctor Who for a couple years but fell fully into everything the Doctor.

The Art of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Leah Gallo
**Me and hubby did not enjoy the movie as much as we were hoping for but our son loved it. He is also the only one of the three who hasn't read the books. Most of the movie reviews I've seen seem to follow that thought. If you've read the books the movie doesn't really work for you.
Still, I love art books and visually the movie was well made.

Some Thursday Randomness

Movies

I liked the look of the Suicide Squad poster/s that Warner Brothers has released.

I'm not sure about the first look at the new Wonder Woman. I'm of an age that I have a very set image of Wonder Woman in my mind that, even though this sounds like it could be good, I don't know if I can get past the actual character image.

Random Things
Saw way too many things around the web this week but really liked these two.

Originally seen on Colossal (website) artist Ola Shekhtman creates rings from famous city skylines. The ones above are San Francisco and London. You can find all her items in her Esty shop (here).

Apparently this plush offered by Game Guardians on esty has been around for awhile. The demand for Falkor from The Neverending Story was so great that they now sell the pattern so you can make your own.

Fan Art
On a Doctor Who kick for some reason. Found it difficult to find any with my favorite, Donna, that didn't also have all the other companions in it.

Doctor Who - Companions
by Strawberrygina (DeviantArt)

Bad Wolf
by Kinky ChiChi (deviantArt)

Some Thursday Randomness

TV
Anyone watching The Shannara Chronicles on MTV (here)? I have to start by saying I have not read the books so I don't know how true to the books the show is. So far, I am entertained enough to give it a couple more episodes before making a final decision. You can also watch the first four episodes online at the link above.


DC's Legends of Tomorrow starts on the CW (facebook) 01/21/2016. This is another that I'm not familiar with the original storyline. This can be a good thing sometimes. I don't find myself overanalyzing the show/movie I just see if it entertains me. There seems to be so many shows coming out this year that this may end up like Arrow and I'll watch when the dvd comes out.

Art
First a coloring book for the Doctor Who fans out there. Comes out February 2016 from Penguin (pre-order)

Allanon (played by Manu Bennett)
by Suzanne Helmigh (DeviantArt)

Doctor Who Space Travel
by David Hoffrichter (DeviantArt)

Some Thursday Randomness

Doctor Who

Amazon is offering the Doctor Who: Free Comic Book Day comic for the kindle here










I want to be looking forward to season 9 of Doctor Who but I'm being cautious. I like Capaldi but did not enjoy season 8. I don't really like Clara and she was way too important last season.


Kitchen Randomness
I like finding unusual things for the kitchen. Funko posted a blog showing some new mugs and salt/pepper shakers that they will be releasing in October.

ART
Some more artwork from Cryptid-Creations who does daily paintings on deviantart.

InsideOut (FA)

Shrak (FA)

Baby Reaper

Some Thursday Randomness

Youtube user jojodrummer96 did a Doctor Who tribute in dominoes. This is one of the better ones I've seen.


Came across this site Artfire (website). It reminds me of Esty and has some interesting things on it.

Thai elephant mug
by madamepomm

Art by Michael Dooney (DeviantArt) Loved his 1887 gallery folder.

by Michael Dooney
(deviantArt)

Lady Mechanika
by Michael Dooney (DeviantArt)

Buzzfeed had an article "15 Useful Diagrams for Book Lovers" (website). There were a few I liked and others not so much.

Book Review ~ Doctor Who: Touched by an Angel

Doctor Who: Touched by an Angel

by Jonathon Morris
published by Random HOuse UK-North America
genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, 

**Review copy received by NetGalley

Summary (netGalley): The past is like a foreign country. Nice to visit, but you really wouldn't want to live there.' In 2003, Rebecca Whitaker died in a road accident. Her husband Mark is still grieving. He receives a battered envelope, posted eight years earlier, containing a set of instructions with a simple message: 'You can save her.' As Mark is given the chance to save Rebecca, it's up to the Doctor, Amy and Rory to save the whole world. Because this time the Weeping Angels are using history itself as a weapon.
It is an adventure featuring the Eleventh Doctor, as played by Matt Smith, and his companions Amy and Rory.

My Thoughts: A year ago I had never watched an episode of Doctor Who. Then all the promos and excitement for the 50th celebration started showing up all over the web and commercials during shows I did watch. I decided to to cram all of New Who into a couple of months to catch up before the special. One of my favorite episodes that I've seen is Blink. There is just something so creepy about these angel statues that come to life and if they can get the hands on you, you don't die you get sent way back in time.
In this book Jonathon Morris upped the creepy. Here we have angels who are actively arranging events to create large time paradoxes for them to feed off of. Using Mark's grief and convincing him that all he has to do is follow this letter from himself correctly and he will be able to save the life of his wife.
Overall, as my first Doctor Who book I was very pleased with the story/book. Mark had moments where you might have wanted to smack him but they fit with where his characters was in his life when the angels set all these events in motion. I was happy with where the author took this character and how he ended the book. I had no problem picturing Matt Smith as the Doctor in this story and thought all three characters fit what we know of them from the show. I can definitely see myself taking time to read some more Doctor Who books.

Rating: 4

Some Thursday Randomness

Thursday Randomness

As I'm sure you've noticed I am a fan of Disney Princess fan art. Found another artist this week that mixes Disney and Star Wars.

artist: White-Magician DeviantArt

New season of Doctor Who starts this week. I've been enjoying the replays this week of past episodes. I was also glad Clara was not going to be the companion after the Christmas special. While I don't hate her as much as others but she is not my favorite.

Lastly, I'm sure you've seen the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, here's a short video of why and who started the challenge. We have a young family member with ALS and this is all very important to us.

Art, Eats, and What Other

I haven't done one of these in awhile but now seemed like a good time. I've been reading but haven't seemed to able to finish anything.
Art
artist Karen Hallion has some great artwork that mixes Doctor Who and Disney Princesses, both of which I love. You can find Karen here: Facebook, Deviant Art

Visions are Seldom all They Seem

Come Away With Me

Eats
I like finding new recipes to try out with my picky eaters. I always seem to find something on Steph's weekly menu post on Plain Chicken.
Winter in Michigan (which still hasn't ended no matter what the calendar says) is always a good time to try new slow cooker recipes. One that we tried and liked was the Mississippi Pot Roast.

Recipe
3 lb pot roast (I used a Blade Roast)
1 packet Ranch dressing mix
1 packet Au Jus mix
6 pepperoncini peppers
1 stick butter

In a 6-quart slow cooker, add all ingredients and cook on low for 8-10 hours.
That's it, no liquid but it still turns out great.

What Other

Just because everyone should enjoy some dancing here's a mash up of Christopher Walken dancing in several of his movies.

Off Topic ~ Doctor Who Fan Art

I have always enjoyed art, especially any type of fantasy art. Today I'm sharing some fan art that I have come across for Doctor Who. All links go to artist/art page.

Doctor Who- Cute Collection
by cute loot 

Same Software, Different Case
by sugarpoultry

Michael has done a Doctor Burton fan art for all the Doctors. Showing 9 since he is my favorite.

Doctor Burton 9
by MichaelthePure

Review ~ Doctor Who: The Forgotten

Doctor Who: The Forgotten

by Tony Lee
illustrated by Pia Guerra, Stefano Martino, Kelly Yates
genre: Graphic Novel, Sci-Fi, Fantasy 

Summary (Goodreads): Stranded in a strange Museum that's dedicated to him, and with no TARDIS in sight, The Doctor and Martha must make sense of their surroundings, hindered by one small fact - The Doctor has lost his memories of every one of his previous incarnations! With items relevant to each Doctor in their possession, The Doctor must try to use them to regain his memories before it's too late, starting with his earliest incarnation's memories, involving Susan, Barbara, and Ian... but quickly moving on to Zoe and Jamie, and more. This all-new series written by Tony Lee (Starship Troopers) features artist Pia Guerra in her first monthly comic since Y The Last Man.

My Thoughts: I picked this one up at the library for the simple fact that it had something about all the doctors in it. I just started watching the show this year and only from #9 forward.
There were quick little story for each doctor based on an item they found with their individual outfits. I liked the glimpses of the older doctors and their companions. It did peak my interest to find time in the future to visit the older seasons.
Martha was not one of my favorites but the reason for her being there was well done and played an important role in the Doctor starting to piece things together. The villain in this story was the least interesting but still needed in order to move the story forward.
Overall, I enjoyed both the story and the graphics from this series. There was a very noticeable change in the drawings at one point but was explained in the note from Tony Lee at the end.

Rating: 4