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colin... (64 KP) rated Little Women (2019) in Movies
Sep 30, 2020
Instead of giving a review for this film, which was great, I figured I'd give you all the message I wrote to my girlfriend after I finished the movie, to convey my emotional state and feelings.
I often wonder if they'll create a word in my lifetime that will be able to describe how wonderful you are. I feel like even an attempt would be fruitless, but that doesn't stop me from contemplating it. There are so many things that I need to tell you, so many sights that I need to see with you, so many mistakes that I need to make with you. Giving someone their all is proven to be one of the most difficult things for the human psyche to endure, yet everyday that is all that I wish to do. Whenever I see you, I feel as if I have burst through the surface of water and emerged to take a long exhale. You are my breath. When I see you, time slows and becomes my puppet. I treat it as I please and spin it in a way that maximizes the amount of living that I can achieve with you in the span we are given. I never labeled myself as a person of curiosity, yet you never fail to leave me on the edge of my seat during conversations. I am silent because I am anticipating every word that comes out of your mouth. I crave the tales you relay to me over dinner. I worry that at any moment someone will snap their fingers and it will break me from the allure of the trance you have entangled me in, or worse yet, I'll wake up in a cold sweat alone on a love seat somewhere i cannot remember. That's how delicate the beauty of your words are. Your eyes could pierce my heart in an instant and your smile could throw me into a catatonic state. It's not your attractiveness that does it, although you always look stunning, it's the stories behind your eyes and smile that do it for me. I know the wear and tear that constructs every one of those smiles and glances, which makes them even more vulnerable and valuable. Comparatively, I am but a meek and mere boy observing the greatness of one of the strongest and most determined women on Earth. And I couldn't be happier doing anything else but that.
I often wonder if they'll create a word in my lifetime that will be able to describe how wonderful you are. I feel like even an attempt would be fruitless, but that doesn't stop me from contemplating it. There are so many things that I need to tell you, so many sights that I need to see with you, so many mistakes that I need to make with you. Giving someone their all is proven to be one of the most difficult things for the human psyche to endure, yet everyday that is all that I wish to do. Whenever I see you, I feel as if I have burst through the surface of water and emerged to take a long exhale. You are my breath. When I see you, time slows and becomes my puppet. I treat it as I please and spin it in a way that maximizes the amount of living that I can achieve with you in the span we are given. I never labeled myself as a person of curiosity, yet you never fail to leave me on the edge of my seat during conversations. I am silent because I am anticipating every word that comes out of your mouth. I crave the tales you relay to me over dinner. I worry that at any moment someone will snap their fingers and it will break me from the allure of the trance you have entangled me in, or worse yet, I'll wake up in a cold sweat alone on a love seat somewhere i cannot remember. That's how delicate the beauty of your words are. Your eyes could pierce my heart in an instant and your smile could throw me into a catatonic state. It's not your attractiveness that does it, although you always look stunning, it's the stories behind your eyes and smile that do it for me. I know the wear and tear that constructs every one of those smiles and glances, which makes them even more vulnerable and valuable. Comparatively, I am but a meek and mere boy observing the greatness of one of the strongest and most determined women on Earth. And I couldn't be happier doing anything else but that.
Ivana A. | Diary of Difference (1171 KP) rated If You Were Here in Books
Oct 2, 2020
“If You Were Here” by Alice Peterson is an emotional story about Huntington’s Disease, a disease that affects your brain & movements and it gets worse as it progresses, without any cure for it yet.
Peggy has lost her husband to this disease, and now her daughter as well. But what she needs to do now is tell her granddaughter Flo that the disease is hereditary and she might be at risk.
Flo is about to get married and move to the US, but the news change everything. How do you even deal with such news, right? How do you process it? Through Flo’s character, you can clearly see her confusion and struggle to accept the fact – something that is so common for a human to do. Her fiance is not ready for the risk and will probably never will. The only support Flo has is her roommate James, his sister and her grandma Peggy. Flo needs to make the hardest decision of her life: does she take the test or not? Is she at risk of getting the disease too? What if she is tested negative? But, what if she is tested positive? Or would she just rather not know and live every day experiencing as much as she can? With her mother’s diaries helping her on this journey, she finds hope and strength she never knew she had before.
I loved Flo’s character. Despite the whole world turning upside down, she picked herself up and was always thinking on the positive side. Sure, there were ups and downs, but damn, that persistence was incredible.
”If You Were Here” is such a sad, but positive and powerful story about what we can do with our lives, and how we should live every day of our lives like it’s our last. Because – that is the truth: you don’t know whether you’ll wake up in the morning. You don’t know whether you’ll be going through troubles until it happens. You don’t have a map of your life, and that’s completely okay. Try to achieve as much as you can today, because you never know what tomorrow may bring.
Please pick this book up. It’s powerful, it’s incredible, it’s sad and it’s motivational. But above everything else, this book is bloody real!
Peggy has lost her husband to this disease, and now her daughter as well. But what she needs to do now is tell her granddaughter Flo that the disease is hereditary and she might be at risk.
Flo is about to get married and move to the US, but the news change everything. How do you even deal with such news, right? How do you process it? Through Flo’s character, you can clearly see her confusion and struggle to accept the fact – something that is so common for a human to do. Her fiance is not ready for the risk and will probably never will. The only support Flo has is her roommate James, his sister and her grandma Peggy. Flo needs to make the hardest decision of her life: does she take the test or not? Is she at risk of getting the disease too? What if she is tested negative? But, what if she is tested positive? Or would she just rather not know and live every day experiencing as much as she can? With her mother’s diaries helping her on this journey, she finds hope and strength she never knew she had before.
I loved Flo’s character. Despite the whole world turning upside down, she picked herself up and was always thinking on the positive side. Sure, there were ups and downs, but damn, that persistence was incredible.
”If You Were Here” is such a sad, but positive and powerful story about what we can do with our lives, and how we should live every day of our lives like it’s our last. Because – that is the truth: you don’t know whether you’ll wake up in the morning. You don’t know whether you’ll be going through troubles until it happens. You don’t have a map of your life, and that’s completely okay. Try to achieve as much as you can today, because you never know what tomorrow may bring.
Please pick this book up. It’s powerful, it’s incredible, it’s sad and it’s motivational. But above everything else, this book is bloody real!
Democracy in Chains
Book
An explosive exposé of the right’s relentless campaign to eliminate unions, suppress voting,...
History Politics
The Mortal Coil by Polaris
Album Watch
Will Australia ever stop churning out world-class heavy acts? The answer is of course, a resounding...
Rock
The Sweeney Sisters
Book
"This is a big-hearted belly-laugh of a book, told with wit and poignancy. Family secrets, laughter...
Weed Cookbook 2 - Medical Marijuana Recipes & Cook
Food & Drink and Lifestyle
App
The Ultimate Weed Cookbook #2 Medical Marijuana Cooking & Recipes ***LIMITED INTODUCTORY OFFER AT...
Ali A (82 KP) rated How To Succeed in Witchcraft in Books
Sep 27, 2022
Trigger Warnings: Grooming, prejudice, racism
Shay Johnson is a junior at T.K. Anderson Magical Magnet School and has done everything she possibly can to win the full-ride Brockton Scholarship - her ticket into the university of her dreams. Her only real competition is Ana Alvarez, but Shay also knows if she can impress Mr.B, the drama teacher and head of the scholarship committee, she’ll have an upper leg.
When Mr.B “persuades” Shay into being in the school’s racially diverse musical, in their no-so-diverse school, she agrees, and lands the leading role. But Ana is right behind her playing the second female lead. With the start of rehearsals, Shay realizes Ana isn’t the intense enemy she’s always thought she was… perhaps, she would be a friend, or more?
But when Shay gets asked by Mr.B to do some one-on-one practicing for the musical, she finds herself on the receiving end of Mr.B’s unpleasant and unwanted attention. When Shay learns she’s not the first witch to experience his inappropriate behavior, she must decide if she’ll come forward. But, will speaking out cancel her opportunity for the scholarship - her future?
This book deals with a lot of hard topics: grooming, prejudice, abuse of power, racism. I feel like Aislinn Brophy did a good job in writing the predatory actions that Mr.B was doing with Shay - every time something between them happened, it made my skin crawl.
I did enjoy the enemy-to-lovers storyline; or should I say misunderstandings-to-lovers storyline? It was cute and adorable and nothing drastically changed afterwards (besides more cuteness).
Though the title I feel like the title is a little deceiving, I still liked that magic was a part of the world here, but that magic doesn’t fix everything. Even in a world where you can fly around on brooms and make potions to help you wake up, the world is still far from perfect.
Overall, this is a magic-filled book that dives into where one draws the line on what they will allow to happen in order to get something they’ve worked so hard for their entire life. A good read for the witchy season coming up, but also a good read for the message behind it.
*Thank you G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Reads and BookishFirst for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
Shay Johnson is a junior at T.K. Anderson Magical Magnet School and has done everything she possibly can to win the full-ride Brockton Scholarship - her ticket into the university of her dreams. Her only real competition is Ana Alvarez, but Shay also knows if she can impress Mr.B, the drama teacher and head of the scholarship committee, she’ll have an upper leg.
When Mr.B “persuades” Shay into being in the school’s racially diverse musical, in their no-so-diverse school, she agrees, and lands the leading role. But Ana is right behind her playing the second female lead. With the start of rehearsals, Shay realizes Ana isn’t the intense enemy she’s always thought she was… perhaps, she would be a friend, or more?
But when Shay gets asked by Mr.B to do some one-on-one practicing for the musical, she finds herself on the receiving end of Mr.B’s unpleasant and unwanted attention. When Shay learns she’s not the first witch to experience his inappropriate behavior, she must decide if she’ll come forward. But, will speaking out cancel her opportunity for the scholarship - her future?
This book deals with a lot of hard topics: grooming, prejudice, abuse of power, racism. I feel like Aislinn Brophy did a good job in writing the predatory actions that Mr.B was doing with Shay - every time something between them happened, it made my skin crawl.
I did enjoy the enemy-to-lovers storyline; or should I say misunderstandings-to-lovers storyline? It was cute and adorable and nothing drastically changed afterwards (besides more cuteness).
Though the title I feel like the title is a little deceiving, I still liked that magic was a part of the world here, but that magic doesn’t fix everything. Even in a world where you can fly around on brooms and make potions to help you wake up, the world is still far from perfect.
Overall, this is a magic-filled book that dives into where one draws the line on what they will allow to happen in order to get something they’ve worked so hard for their entire life. A good read for the witchy season coming up, but also a good read for the message behind it.
*Thank you G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Reads and BookishFirst for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
High Point
Book
Jett Castle and Mia Fringe get down and dirty in this passionate, action-packed romance! It’s...
Contemporary Romance
Haley Mathiot (9 KP) rated Buckley's Story in Books
Apr 27, 2018
Buckley’s Story by Ingrid King
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 4.5/5
Summary: Ingrid adopts a kitten named Buckley while she is still working in an animal hospital. Eventually, she leaves and starts her own business, as a Reiki healer, someone who transfers healing energy to a client. As cats are able to sense energy in a room or in a person, Buckley becomes her assistant healer, as she is able to sense where more energy is always needed, and Buckley becomes a healer-cat. Buckley’s story is the tail (pun intended) of Buckley and Ingrid’s sweet, joyful life together.
Thoughts:
I absolutely loved this book. This cat is such a character! She is lively and energetic, and does the funniest things sometimes.
There were also some very informative sections in the book. I learned the real truth about “healing animals,” cats, and the affect that animals have on people. We’ve all heard the stories about the animals that could sense cancer in people before the doctors find it—Ingrid throws in some interesting data into the book as well. However, it doesn’t feel like an out of place paragraph, and it isn’t dry like a text book.
When Ingrid described Buckley’s “time to wake up my owner” process, I laughed out loud (much to the dismay of the other people sitting in the library). Buckley reminded me a little bit of Simon’s Cat—“Meow, meow (bang on the head with a baseball bat) Meow.”
There was an interesting spiritual aspect of this book, too. The healing process of Reiki is supposed to be a spiritual and physical experience, and I found it an intriguing idea. I’ve experienced my cats and dog knowing when I’m stressed and being able to make me feel better… But I had no idea that it was a transfer of energy. Ingrid also talks about Animal Communicators, people who are able to understand animals by connecting to that energy, and able to almost communicate with them telepathically.
At the end of the story, Ingrid shares the secrets (which are no longer secrets) that Buckley taught her on how to relax and live a less stressful life.
All in all, this book was a lovely and interesting story, and one that wraps you in a blanket and makes you want to cuddle a purring cat on your lap.
Recommendation: Ages 14+ This book is perfect for anybody who loves cats, animals in general, or a good memoir.
Genre: Memoir
Rating: 4.5/5
Summary: Ingrid adopts a kitten named Buckley while she is still working in an animal hospital. Eventually, she leaves and starts her own business, as a Reiki healer, someone who transfers healing energy to a client. As cats are able to sense energy in a room or in a person, Buckley becomes her assistant healer, as she is able to sense where more energy is always needed, and Buckley becomes a healer-cat. Buckley’s story is the tail (pun intended) of Buckley and Ingrid’s sweet, joyful life together.
Thoughts:
I absolutely loved this book. This cat is such a character! She is lively and energetic, and does the funniest things sometimes.
There were also some very informative sections in the book. I learned the real truth about “healing animals,” cats, and the affect that animals have on people. We’ve all heard the stories about the animals that could sense cancer in people before the doctors find it—Ingrid throws in some interesting data into the book as well. However, it doesn’t feel like an out of place paragraph, and it isn’t dry like a text book.
When Ingrid described Buckley’s “time to wake up my owner” process, I laughed out loud (much to the dismay of the other people sitting in the library). Buckley reminded me a little bit of Simon’s Cat—“Meow, meow (bang on the head with a baseball bat) Meow.”
There was an interesting spiritual aspect of this book, too. The healing process of Reiki is supposed to be a spiritual and physical experience, and I found it an intriguing idea. I’ve experienced my cats and dog knowing when I’m stressed and being able to make me feel better… But I had no idea that it was a transfer of energy. Ingrid also talks about Animal Communicators, people who are able to understand animals by connecting to that energy, and able to almost communicate with them telepathically.
At the end of the story, Ingrid shares the secrets (which are no longer secrets) that Buckley taught her on how to relax and live a less stressful life.
All in all, this book was a lovely and interesting story, and one that wraps you in a blanket and makes you want to cuddle a purring cat on your lap.
Recommendation: Ages 14+ This book is perfect for anybody who loves cats, animals in general, or a good memoir.
Rachel King (13 KP) rated Across the Universe (Across the Universe, #1) in Books
Feb 11, 2019
The opening of this novel was a bit too nauseating for my tastes, with the details of how the people aboard the spaceship Godspeed are cryogenically frozen turning my stomach, but it certainly served to make the book more realistic. I had wrongly assumed that Beth Revis would open the novel with Amy already frozen, or just waking up, but this approach has me evaluating my own life and what it would take to volunteer for such a mission. Waking up 300 years in the future, leaving behind everything you have ever known, without even the option to return to it -- such an existence feels very lonely to me. Already I have a certain respect for Amy's choice.
The perspective of the male main character, Elder, alternating with Amy's thoughts and dreams in her frozen state were interesting. I kind of expected Amy to finally wake up mad as a hatter from her conscious entrapment. Eldest likely would have just dumped her into space if that had happened.
The encased world that had been created inside the spaceship Godspeed was both mind-boggling in its vastness and claustrophobic in its simplicity. Many things are seen as commonplace, such as genetic manipulation and mass control through brain-washing and the widespread use of drugs. Many things are backwards from what I know in today's reality, such as Eldest's support of Hitlerian tactics, and the idea that those of creative and genius-level intellect are "crazy", while the mind-numbed masses are "normal." The language has also evolved into a kind of slurred and shortened English that Amy struggles to understand, as well as the addition of new slang terms.
Amy has quite an uphill battle in enacting change on this ship for the better, especially with her red hair, green eyes, and pale skin. I certainly would not want to be in her shoes, but I admire her resolve and determination despite how alone and trapped she feels. Elder is ignorant and immature at the beginning of the novel, but Amy's presence wakes him up to the reality of his world and his responsibility towards it.
The book does not have a real "ending" so much as a place to pause -- until the next book comes out. There were a ton of questions I had at the end that I hope are resolved in the next book, such as Doc's lack of an apprentice. On to A Million Suns!
The perspective of the male main character, Elder, alternating with Amy's thoughts and dreams in her frozen state were interesting. I kind of expected Amy to finally wake up mad as a hatter from her conscious entrapment. Eldest likely would have just dumped her into space if that had happened.
The encased world that had been created inside the spaceship Godspeed was both mind-boggling in its vastness and claustrophobic in its simplicity. Many things are seen as commonplace, such as genetic manipulation and mass control through brain-washing and the widespread use of drugs. Many things are backwards from what I know in today's reality, such as Eldest's support of Hitlerian tactics, and the idea that those of creative and genius-level intellect are "crazy", while the mind-numbed masses are "normal." The language has also evolved into a kind of slurred and shortened English that Amy struggles to understand, as well as the addition of new slang terms.
Amy has quite an uphill battle in enacting change on this ship for the better, especially with her red hair, green eyes, and pale skin. I certainly would not want to be in her shoes, but I admire her resolve and determination despite how alone and trapped she feels. Elder is ignorant and immature at the beginning of the novel, but Amy's presence wakes him up to the reality of his world and his responsibility towards it.
The book does not have a real "ending" so much as a place to pause -- until the next book comes out. There were a ton of questions I had at the end that I hope are resolved in the next book, such as Doc's lack of an apprentice. On to A Million Suns!