Miss Sherlock

I heard there is going to be a new Sherlock tv series from Japan on HBO. Judging from the trailers I have seen so far, I can't wait for it! Miss Sherlock and Dr Wato-San. Brilliant! 

Found?

The worst is feared for the 239 passengers and crew of MH370. It seemed that MH370 might have crashed into The Indian Ocean but they are still looking for debris of the jet. Hopefully something conclusive with regards to the fate of MH370 can be found soon. Otherwise there can be no proper closure for the families and friends of the 239 passengers and crew of MH370.

Still MIA

It has been a week and MH370 is still missing in action (MIA). There are a lot of conflicting information as well as different theories going on about what happened to the plane. It is frustrating not knowing what really happened. I can't imagine how much more frustrating and heart-wrenching it is for the families and friends of the missing passengers and crew of MH370. In this case of the missing MH370, "no news is good news" doesn't hold true. I hope there is some news soon.

What Happened to MH370?

It has been more than 40 hours and still no news of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. It apparently lost contact with air traffic control an hour after it departed Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia after midnight. It was supposed to land in Beijing at 6:30am but it never arrived. It just disappeared. I can't help it but its mysterious disappearance reminds me of The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, the Bermuda Triangle.. :(
What happened to MH370? 
Hope there will be some news soon for the families of the passengers and crew on board MH370.

The Blood Gospel by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell

I finally got my hands on The Blood Gospel, the first-ever collaboration between James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell. It is the first novel in The Order of the Sanguines series and only released recently on 8 January 2013! I better make sure my Kindle is fully charged so that I read through the night! Lol :)

Bloodline - Read!

I have finished reading Bloodline by James Rollins! It has only been less than 48 hours since I got the e-book and it was in between work, having meals and sleeping when I could read it. Rollins, as usual, has written another page-turner book that compels you to finish it. 

It is the usual team from the Sigma Force, with the addition of two new characters, a former Army Ranger Captain Tucker Wayne and his military war dog, Kane. What's really interesting and unusual are the depth of these two new characters and the POV sections from Kane. Tucker and Kane definitely brought another new dimension to the novel. I hope to see more of them in future Sigma Force novels. :)

Bloodline is a non-stop thrill ride that just leaves you wanting more. Gosh, it is going to be such a LONG WAIT before the next Sigma Force book. That is the consequence of reading Rollins' books too quickly!

Sepulchre by Kate Mosse

It has been a long time since I last wrote a book review. Well, that doesn't mean I haven't been reading, just that I have been kind of lazy, haha.

Sepulchre is the second book by Kate Mosse that I have read. I enjoyed it as much as the first book. The story in Sepulchre, like in Mosse's first book Labyrinth, is set in two different centuries in France. Although the story telling slips in and out between the 19th century and the 21st century, there is no jarring effect to the story telling. The story is superbly linked the two centuries together by secrets, mystery, murder and the occult.

I enjoyed reading Sepulchre because it has my favourite genres all in one story. I thought it is rather refreshing with the tarot being a major feature in the story. It was almost like having the company of an old friend when I was reading Sepulchre, lol. The tarot feature in the book made the story all the more interesting for me as I read tarot cards. :)

If you like history, mystery, secrets and don't mind a dash of the occult (all in good fun), I think you will find Sepulchre a pretty interesting read. But a fair warning, Sepulchre is quite a thick book so it is not a book that you can finish reading in a matter of a few hours.

The Happening is Happening...

WARNING: May contain SPOILERS!
For environmentalists, environmental conservationists, The Happening is happening and it is a happening movie, I think lol. I watched The Happening in the evening.

The movie wasted no time in throwing us into the mystery. It started with people doing strange things in Central Park, New York; the school where the main character Elliot is teaching is cancelled due to apparent "terrorist attack"; construction workers jumping off building; people shooting themselves in the head,... Soon, you have Elliot, his wife, Alma, Elliot's teacher friend, Julian and his daughter, Jesse leaving on a train for safety. Things started going downhill when the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. News started coming in of similar strange occurrences in other states but contained to the northeast US. Julian entrusted his daughter, Jesse to the care of Elliot and Alma while he went to look for his wife. Elliot and company, and others left for the state line. People in the group started getting affected and killing themselves whenever a strange wind blew, rustling the trees, the bushes and the grass.... Elliot finally believed that the plants were killing people by releasing some kind of toxin and the toxin was triggered by the threat, ie. the big groups of people, the plants perceived. More things happened in between and people continued to die... Then, the mystery/ the crisis ended as suddenly as it appeared. Three months later, life was almost back to normal for Elliot, Alma and Jesse. A scientist on a talk show warned that the strange occurrence was a sign, like a red tide, that the planet is fighting back against Man who have been polluting the environment. The host said if what the scientist said was true, it should be happening in other places. Just then, we are shown France and it has started again.

My initial thought of the movie was I didn't like it because there is no twist. It is just a natural occurrence, a very simple event happening. I much preferred M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense which had drama, mystery, thriller, supernatural. The Happening is just very plain.

However, as I thought more about the movie, I realised that there was more to it. Although a plain movie, it has a powerful message for us, about us destroying our environment, our planet. If we don't change our ways now, maybe our planet might take matters into her own hands, like in the movie, and crush us like cockroaches. Who knows, our planet might already be fighting back. I think students might enjoy watching this movie as it would provoke them to think about environmental conservation. The Happening might engaged them more than the documentaries such as An Inconvenient Truth, and The 11th Hour, lol.

Verdict: I like The Happening for the thoughts it provoked.