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No Fourth River: A Novel Based on a True Story. A profoundly moving read about a woman's fight for survival.
No Fourth River: A Novel Based on a True Story. A profoundly moving read about a woman's fight for survival.
Christine Clayfield | 2017 | Biography, Philosophy, Psychology & Social Sciences
10
6.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Wow, this read was an absolute emotional rollercoaster, sometimes shattering my heart into million pieces and making me angry for all the injustice author had to suffer, and sometimes making me feel so proud for all the achievements Christine was able to conquer.

This book is a memoir of Christine Clayfield, where she is sharing her life story. The story begins when she was five years old, and it continues throughout her life, including rebellious teenage years, until the present, when she is 58 years old. All the past memories were triggered when suddenly she gets a call, that her mother is very ill and she has to return to Belgium, where she faces the ghosts from her past. Her youth years are very brutal and the amount of violence and abuse she had to face from her father is absolutely unbelievable. To top her already sad life, she married a violent man, who made her life even more miserable. I tend to question people’s choices in these type of books. Why they didn’t look for help? Why they didn’t complain to other family members? Why they stayed silent? And in many books I do find the answers which sound illogical, but not in this book. Christine explains everything very clearly, and for me, her thoughts and feelings fully explain every choice she had to make. I’m absolutely touched by how honest this book is. Christine poured her heart out and is sharing the deepest and darkest events with the readers, and I applaud her bravery because, I believe, it should have been a really difficult book to write.

The events in this book were jumping between present and past, giving a little insight of what will come. The author shared a beautiful story of how she met her present husband and the letters they shared while apart. They were absolutely adorable. The amount of topics discussed in this book is huge, such as child abuse, bullying, mentally caused illnesses, family problems, relationships with friends, alcoholism, loose sexual behaviour, domestic violence, business ideas, distance relationship, effects of divorce, and many many more. The author is openly speaking about nuns and their cruelty, and I thought nuns supposed to be kind and helpful, but they looked like tyrants rather than saints. (I kind of knew it, but still, was stupidly surprised about this fact 😀 )

The writing style is very pleasant and the language is easy and understandable. The chapters are a decent length and it doesn’t leave you bored. I would like to throw in a disclaimer, this book is not very easy mentally, there is a lot of cruelty and violence and does have a lot of heartbreaking moments, so tissues and strong nerves are recommended. 🙂 I loved the way Christine rounded up her novel, it left me really satisfied. So, to conclude, this work is incredibly inspiring and I do believe it should be widely spread to share the awareness of how you can do anything you put your mind to. That “can do” attitude, clear goals and a lot of hard work will make you successful, no matter what you endured in life. It is all in you, you just need to find it. Please do support this book, there is a lot of things to learn from Christine because she is freaking amazing and her story is absolutely inspiring. Enjoy 🙂
  
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Sarah (7798 KP) rated Memento (2000) in Movies

Nov 29, 2020  
Memento (2000)
Memento (2000)
2000 | Mystery, Thriller
One of my favourite films
Film #5 on the 100 Movies Bucket List: Memento

I have to admit, I may be a little biased when it comes to Memento. Christopher Nolan is my favourite director and Memento is both one of my favourite films of his and one of my favourite films of all time. For me, this undoubtedly deserves its place on this bucket list.

Memento is a 2000 psychological thriller starring Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a man suffering from anterograde amnesia searching for the person responsible for the death of his wife, using notes and tattoos to organise his thoughts.

One of the most noticeable features of Memento is the fact that half of the narrative is told backwards. The movie begins at the end, focusing on a rather gruesome Polaroid photograph that fades rather than develops and a victim of a shooting coming back to life. The rest of the film jumps backwards a few minutes at a time, each scene ending where the last one started. For a film about memory loss and amnesia, this mechanism of telling the story really helps put us in Leonard’s shoes. It makes you feel as confused as he is. On the original dvd release, there was a hidden feature that allowed you to play the film in chronological order and this just didn’t have the same impact. These reverse scenes are interspersed with black and white flashbacks of Leonard earlier in his wife’s murder investigation and his life as an insurance investigator, which really help with the exposition. These paired together alongside a haunting score make for an intriguing and not your run of the mill murder mystery.

There are some great performances in this that also help increase the intrigue. Carrie-Anne Moss as the apparently helpful Natalie and Joe Pantoliano as the questionable sidekick appear new to Leonard every time they meet yet their loyalties and motives waver for us as the viewers throughout the film. And Guy Pearce manages to portray the frustrated and not as innocent as he first appears Leonard incredibly well, and holds this film on his own for most of the run time. They’re helped by a clever and smart script that flawlessly blends the sinister and rather dark criminal aspects of this with some surprisingly funny lines.

This story starts at the end so you don’t have to worry about how it turns out, but despite this Memento still comes up with a rather cracking twist and denouement. This entire film is about time and memory and how unreliable it is, and the lies we tell ourselves about our own identities. Even during this, what we thought we knew about Leonard as the black and white flashback meets the backwards story, is revealed to be completely unreliable and quite shocking. Without revealing too much, the outcome of this film is both surprising, sinister and rather emotional, and features some of the best dialogue of the entire movie. Leonard’s actions and motives revealed here and the final voiceover as he drives off makes for a hugely satisfying ending.

I first watched Memento in a psychology class at college around 17 years ago. I loved it then and in the years since, it hasn’t lost its appeal. Watching it back now still evokes the same emotion and feelings when the credits roll as it did all those years ago and will always be one of my favourite films, even possibly my all time favourite.
  
Ms. Marvel: Volume 3: Crushed
Ms. Marvel: Volume 3: Crushed
G. Willow Wilson, Takeshi Miyazawa | 2015 | Comics & Graphic Novels
8
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
This review is really for the first three volumes, including this one.

So, first let me start off by sharing a little honesty.. I read the first volume 4 or 5 months ago. I thought it fun, but not enough to pursue reading further volumes. A lot has gone down in my life since that first outing. For those of you who either a) do not know me offline, or b) have not looked at my GR profile, I was diagnosed with RRMS (relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis) in September of last year, then two months later, we said goodbye to Lily, our 14-year-old Mini Schnauzer.

Prior to all that, I used to live a relatively structured life, with plans-of-a-sort as well as a job. I have since had to step down from my job (thanks, MS!). I have also taken to trying to lead a "sloth life". I live each day as if it were the last, preferring to not plan days in advance. I also am trying to let a lot more roll off my back, giving an honest effort to having more fun with life.

One of those things which is appearing to be helpful to my mental well-being and general happiness has been G. Willow Wilson's MS. MARVEL.

GWW took a character who was once Carol Danvers (now Captain Marvel), a superhero whose costume did nothing what so ever to aid feminism or help to have less objectifying looks for our female heroes. She gave Ms. Marvel a proper reboot, presenting us with Kamala Khan, a young Pakistani-American living in NJ. Her character is one of many who were exposed to the Terrigen Mist via a Terrigen Bomb released by Black Bolt, the Inhumans' king; her powers gained gave her the ability to be polymorphic, i.e. shape-changing.

The series presents us with an imperfect hero. Kamala struggles to balance her hero life, while hiding it from her parents. She maintains her Muslim faith, offering us glimpses into her life and much of what it entails. The handling of it is both mature yet fun, giving us a palatable, more open approach to their faith, rather than what the Idiot in the WH has tried to portray it!

Like Marvel's UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL, MM is clearly a book that, at its heart, lies a good sense of fun, as well as some good life lessons along the way. In an era where the focus appears to be "Gloom Is Good" and "The Darker The Story, The Better", it is truly refreshing to read a book like this one.

As amazing as Wilson's writing is, the series' artists - Adrian Alphona, Takeshi Miyazawa and fill-in artist Jacob Wyatt (Issues 6 and 7) - all did one heckuva job providing artwork that was as fun as the writing it was supporting. All three were different, yet they shared similarities in their rendering of Kamala and her supporting cast, helping to maintain continuity rather than breaking it via wholly dissimilar art.

I know that there only few more volumes before Wilson hands the reins to Saladin Ahmed (MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN, BLACK BOLT), with the art being handled by with art by Minkyu Jung. I have seen Wilson's own page, where she seemed very confident in Ahmed's future handling of Kamala's adventures. That, alone, is good enough for me!

Seriously, if you have not checked out, please, please check out the adventures of MS. MARVEL. Your heart and mind, not to mention your soul, will be more the better for it! Promise!
  
100 Speeches that roused the world
100 Speeches that roused the world
4
4.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
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<b><i>Boy, oh boy, do I have mixed feelings about 100 Speeches That Roused the World by Colin Salter.</i></b>

The reason I picked up this book is because I have always been in love with speeches and orators. I believe that the ability to speak in front of an audience is a very powerful skill, and I admire it as such. Many great leaders and many successful people use this skill to make people listen and act in a way they want them to. That is where the true art is, and I really admire this aspect. The fact that you can listen to two or more people tell you the same thing, and only one being able to convince you to do something or believe in something they say is a true gift.

Which takes us to the second reason I picked this book up. To find out more about the people who had this ability in history and made a difference in one way or another. And for the most part, I was pleased. There are speeches of many great (and not so great) leaders out there, speeches of people that made breakthroughs in their fields, people who fought for their rights.

<b><i>But there was a pattern I noticed in these 100 speeches.</i></b>

Most of these speeches were either from the UK or USA. And most of them were presidents, prime ministers,royalty or leaders in any other way. And all their speeches were speeches during the wars. Telling their people to fight for their nations.

And I have nothing against those speeches. They were perfect for their time and they did their purpose at the time. What I had a problem with is that there were so many more important times in history when a speech was made and it represented a change.

What about all the speeches that philosophers have given in ancient Rome and Greece? For Rome, where is Julius Caesar’s speech to the senate? For Greece, how about the movement for freedom of speech? What about the speeches during humanism and renaissance? What about some of the groundbreaking speeches that scientists have given over the years?

I was a bit disappointed with the format of the book as well, as the speeches were mostly short paragraphs, followed by a full page of the author’s notes, mostly quoting the same speech again. It was very helpful to know the background of how the speech made a difference in the world, but when most of those speeches didn’t really make any difference, and I was involved in a history lesson of the most important wars in history, it wasn’t much of a fun read.

<b><i>To conclude, this book wasn’t what I was looking for, both format and content wise. The 100 Speeches mentioned in this book didn’t do enough justice for me. I believe that title is misleading, but I can also understand that some people can still learn a lot by reading it.</i></b>
  
She Is Not Invisible
She Is Not Invisible
8
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
This was not how I expected it to be. I liked the uniqueness of it, though, and how unpredictable it turned out to be.
It starts in an airport, with the protagonist and narrator (who's name we learn to be Laureth) and her little brother Benjamin. We soon discover that Laureth is blind, which provides us with a very interesting account of the events of this story. They are going to America, alone, to find their father. He's a writer, and holds his notebooks very dearly - so when Laureth gets an email about one being found in America when he's supposed to be in Switzerland (and then he fails to answer his phone) she immediately assumes something is very wrong.

This is told mostly chronologically, but with memories scattered throughout. Laureth also gives slight hints as to what will be happening later on, reinstating the fact that she is writing about past events. I quite liked this - we were told about certain memories and events that were relevant to the story at that time, nothing more, nothing less.

It turns into quite a dark, suspenseful hunt. Laureth starts to fear that her father may even have taken his own life. The pair even get cornered by a man with a knife who claims to have seen her father. His partner later breaks into their hotel room, searching for some valuable contents of her father's safe. Coincidentally, they run in to her father just moments later.

The obsession of Laureth and Ben's father is coincidences; a very interesting topic. He goes into great detail in his notebook (which we are shown throughout the book), discussing theories and particular physicists' experiences. Bit by bit, he seems to be delving deeper and deeper into the mysteries of the universe. Laureth is caught up in this - she looks for clues in every page of her dad's notebook. But is she looking too hard? Is she finding signs that aren't really there?

Laureth relies on her brother to navigate the world, and although he is only going, he is superbly helpful to her. She is adamant on being an independent young lady, and even hides her impairment from most people she meets. As she is the narrator of this book, we are given an account that does not include any visual descriptions. Instead, the other senses are used far more - sounds and feelings especially. I really liked this.

The ending was wonderful. It was different - completely unexpected. I especially liked how her "coincidental" meeting with Sam turned out to mean nothing at all. And her father's account of what had happened, and his realisation that his obsession was pointless, was so ironic. Laureth and Ben had been on this massive journey, worried their father was so caught up in his obsession that his life was in danger. They began to find strange patterns and signs everywhere - only to find out how coindences are completely fake. 

And the last page was so clever, too. It was numbered 354 which is clever in itself - this number holds a massive significance throughout this book - but then there's also the hidden message that's revealed. One of the last sentences prompts you to look closely at the book, and then you find a heartwarming little phrase. I really liked this idea - it seems a bit naff, but actually worked really well.

I did feel like this was maybe a little more for younger adults (I'm nearly 18) but it was really easy to follow and quick to read. It wasn't lengthy or tiresome at all. 4 stars.
  
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