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8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Disclaimer: I received an e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Luna and Cayetano are doing well, finally coming to terns with all she uncovered in "Valencian Soil." However, now there's a new issue surrounding them: There are other bodies buried at Escondrijo besides those of their relatives. What should they do? Cayetano wants Luna to let it go and give them so peace, seeing as they are to be married soon, but she can't just leave these people here, knowing how she felt looking for her grandfather. Also, Cayetano's family starts to come down on her based on her previous exploits, and Jose especially seems like he has a few secrets to hide. Will Luna be able to cope with this, as well as a multitude of other things thrown her way over the course of this story?

We've picked up right where we left off in "Valencian Soil," and the story flows just as well from first to second installment. This time, instead of regressing back to the 30s, we go back to 1957, a time when Jose was an officer with big aspirations of one day having a farm for his family. To get there, he has to make some rough decisions, and those choices and actions drastically change his life. It coincides perfectly with Luna's discovery at Escondrijo, and the reader knows how it all ties together and go along with Luna and Jose as they butt heads over her choices. Will he ever accept Luna as part of his family? Will any of them, or will she be doomed to live as the outcast foreigner forever?

4 1/2 stars
  
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest (not necessarily positive) review.

I'll start by saying it seems a little odd to say I "liked" this book, considering the content contained within. However, it's very well written, and I felt not only educated on PTSD and other war-related issues but also on the different warring areas themselves. I can honestly admit that I didn't know a lot of the background for many of the locations described in these pages, and I felt the author did a wonderful job at giving information to those like me who might not be fully aware of what was happening, while also keeping it geared more toward the work he and his partners were doing for the victims/refugees/etc.

I have a Psychology degree, but this is written in such a way that anyone from any walk of life could pick it up and read from cover to cover without being confused or having to do any additional research to figure out certain thing. It's a powerful piece about places and situations that we, as Americans, may not be entirely knowledgeable about, and I commend the author for writing about his experiences over these past 20 years. It could not have been easy to experience these things, as it's difficult to even read some of them, and I can only imagine what it was like to speak with these people firsthand and hear their stories day in and day out.

5 stars, and a very educational read for those both in and out of the Psychology/Social Work professions.
  
The Frightened Little Flower Bud
The Frightened Little Flower Bud
Renée Paule | 2018 | Children
6
6.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I don’t usually read Children’s Books. I used to love them when I was a kid, and of course, those were the books on which I learned how to read. Those are the stories that I will always remember with happiness in my heart and they will always have a special place in my heart.

I was lucky enough to win The Frightened Little Flower Bud on a giveaway from Booklikes, and I couldn’t be happier! This is a short, cute story about one flower, and the process of how it blooms.

Before it blooms, it has many fears as to what is going to happen, it fears that the sun will dry it, and the rain will drown it, and that it won’t be as beautiful as the other flowers out there.

It reminds me of the fears that us people have every day before we go out of the door. We fear this and that, without realising to enjoy our lives, and live them like they are our last. A perfect description of how fear and doubt can let us down, but also a perfect example of what happens when you actually get the courage and go out there, and realise that yes - you can be the prettiest flower out there.

I liked how there are questions at the end of the books, to engage the little readers after reading it. However, in all honesty, I believe that the images inside the books won’t keep a kid there for very long, and they might not be the most exiting this in the world.
  
Collection by Electric Light Orchestra
Collection by Electric Light Orchestra
1995 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I grew up in London, but I spent my teens in the countryside, and I’d come to London on the weekends. It was the early stages of the band where we were meeting new people, getting drunk and stoned - all of those really formative experiences of exploring the decadent debauchery that London has to offer. Then at the end of the weekend I’d have to hop on a train and go back to the sanity of school life. “Whenever I hear this song it evokes that feeling, the sense of the early days of the band and discovering my gang. Your early twenties are about finding your tribe, which is what I did during that time by travelling to London and having those formative experiences with them. “Last Train to London” evokes that sense of finding where you belong, and it happens to contextually fit in with my experience at the time. “It’s a stark contrast to the previously mentioned songs, which are a little darker and heavier. It’s a feel-good tune to me, although it’s a song which has a kind of sad, bittersweet mood in the lyrics, like “I really want tonight to last forever / I really want to be with you.” I felt that bittersweet feeling at the time. “It’s also just a great disco banger! It’s mixed so loud and so relentlessly; and sonically it’s an incredible song. I’m uplifted whenever I hear it, it makes me feel elated. I always drop it when I DJ, it bulldozes the songs on either side of it when I play it."

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Anand Wilder recommended O Lucky Man! by Alan Price in Music (curated)

 
O Lucky Man! by Alan Price
O Lucky Man! by Alan Price
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"Alan Price is definitely someone my parents introduced me to, it's one of those stories like, "Your father took me out on a date to O Lucky Man! and I knew he was cool", but then in high school I had the required Malcolm McDowell obsession - all rebellious and of course once you've watched Clockwork Orange you've got to go back to if...., and I'm pretty sure that O Lucky Man! is the continuation of the same character from if.... and it's just one of those great modern fables. I'm surprised people aren't as into it. If you watch that opening scene in black and white, it's kind of the same over the top kangaroo court scene that we were trying to get in the Break Line song 'I'm To Blame'. The silent scene in the movie is brutal but it's also ridiculous and over the top. Malcolm McDowell has a giant moustache, he's like a South American coffee picker - he's caught stealing coffee beans and they go to his trial and this disgusting judge smoking a cigar, drooling, sentences him to getting his hands chopped off; it's very extreme and it just flashes "GUILTY. GUILTY. GUILTY" and we do that in our song with everyone saying "guilty", it's a little O Lucky Man! homage. The line in that song, "In case of murder in the second degree/ The jury now all agrees guilty/ So you will hang, hang by the noose" and my friend's dad said you don't get hanged for murder in the second degree, but we need that "murder in the second de-gree", that extra syllable!"

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