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Joe Goodhart (27 KP) rated Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood in Books

Nov 30, 2020  
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
Trevor Noah | 2017 | Biography
10
9.2 (16 Ratings)
Book Rating
As it states in my profile on here, I will read non-fiction, but it really depends on the subject matter. My usual reading go-to is fiction. I like the distraction, the "virtual escape" it provides from Life now and again. Trevor Noah's recollections of growing up in South Africa was definitely the non-fiction I did not know I was seeking.

I am turned 50 last November. I can remember Ronald Reagan's presidency in the 80s. I can also remember hearing about apartheid, and later, Nelson Mandela in the news at the time, thinking it quite bad, but not really knowing/understanding the fullest extent to just how bad it truly was. Through Trevor's stories, I truly what apartheid was and the horrible conditions non-white people were forced to live under.

The stories are presented in such way as to be insightful, but to also, at times, to be fun or amusing or even serious. We learn the meaning behind to the book's title, BORN A CRIME, and what that means for Trevor's life growing up in both apartheid/post-apartheid South Africa.

Profoundly eye-opening! It should definitely be <b>required reading</b> in high school! Jus' sayin'..
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Conan the Barbarian (1982) in Movies

Feb 22, 2018 (Updated Feb 22, 2018)  
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
1982 | Adventure, Fantasy
7
7.0 (61 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Well-remembered fantasy movie isn't very similar to Howard's original stories, but gets the tone more or less right and made Arnie into a proper movie star. Strapping barbarian lad's family is murdered, spends montage sequence growing up while strapped to a capstan, escapes, sets out for revenge, and so on.

Dodges most of the more tedious fantasy-movie cliches by being about a straightforward hunt for revenge rather than a quest for plot coupons. Arnie isn't quite up to portraying Conan's inner life, but hits people with an axe very capably. It's all very staunchly right-wing - opens with a quote from Nietzsche and continues in a similar vein - but the results are campy more than actually problematic. Bombastic score from Basil Poledouris is a major plus.
  
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Gloria Steinem recommended We Are Makers: Real Women and Girls Shaping Our World in Books (curated)

 
We Are Makers: Real Women and Girls Shaping Our World
We Are Makers: Real Women and Girls Shaping Our World
Amy Richards | 2020
(0 Ratings)
Book Favorite

"Amy Richards has created the book I searched for growing up, diverse role models all together. It’s called We Are MAKERS: Real Women and Girls Shaping Our World. Based on the PBS series and the online platform MAKERS, this book would have inspired me with ideas of who I might grow up to share the world with, yet it also would have included me as the girl I was. It includes biographies and quotes from a wide variety of women, from Misty Copeland, who broke the color line as a ballerina, to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who broke the sex barrier on the Supreme Court. There are also athletes and tech experts, writers and builders of skyscrapers, plus some encouraging dads. This is a book to help any girl realize her dreams."

Source
  
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Jessica Erdas (463 KP) rated The Perks of Being a Wallflower in Books

May 16, 2018  
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.2 (101 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book is one you can read time and time, again. Simultaneously beautiful and tragic. It details growing up, suicide, puberty, depression, anxiety, relationships, sex, drugs, and secrets. Told by way of secret letters in a diary style, each one showing more and more clearly the daily life of Charlie, a strange outcast who wants to belong but also just wants to observe. I highly recommend putting yourself through this wonderfully written adventure. Get ready to be heart broken by almost every page and uplifted by the moments of elation as though they were your own.
  
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Lenard (726 KP) rated How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019) in Movies

Apr 1, 2019  
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)
2019 | Animation
8
8.3 (47 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Nearly the perfect ending for this trilogy. What started as a story about an abnormal boy and the lost dragon he adopts is now a story of leadership and growing up. Hiccup is the chief of his clan of Vikings who now live harmously with dragons in Berk. After an unsuccesful kidnapping of valuable dragons, pirates hire a powerful dragon hunter who wants to kill the last Nightfury. Using the distraction of a mysterious Lightfury, he displaces the village of Berk and kidnaps Toothless. Both Hiccup and Toothless learn that leadership requires tough choices that influence human history forever.
  
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Eilidh G Clark (177 KP) rated Night Song of the Last Tram - A Glasgow Childhood in Books

Jul 2, 2019  
Night Song of the Last Tram - A Glasgow Childhood
Night Song of the Last Tram - A Glasgow Childhood
Robert Douglas | 2006 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
5
5.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Some of the childhood descriptions are good (0 more)
Transitions from adult to child, language (0 more)
Not the best memoir I've read
This is a memoir about the author growing up in a working class family in Glasgow. I read this as part of my dissertation on memoir but was deeply disappointed. The childhood language and the adult language are disjointed, the transitions from the adult self and the child self are awkward and the story (for me) was flat. That's not to say its a terrible book. Some of the memories are sweet, vivid and well put together.