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saheffernan (157 KP) rated Dear Martin in Books

Jul 22, 2020  
Dear Martin
Dear Martin
Nic Stone | 2017 | Young Adult (YA)
10
9.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
I didn't know it was possible to pack so many important topics into slightly over 200 pages. This book is unfortunately incredibly timely. Imagine trying to figure out who you are as a late teenager so you pick a role model like Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. and begin to write him letters to learn more of yourself and your world. Imagine that Dr. MLK Jr was fighting for your rights to be the same as other individuals around you over 72 years ago and although you have more rights you still don't have the same rights. You are looked at as less than and in so profiled by police and other people around you all the time. This book gave me more insight and ripped my heart out. I highly recommend this read for anyone wanting to learn more about racism, police brutality, white privilege and media issues when reporting about such cases. It maybe labeled as fictional but it is all too real of a story I've heard over and over again.
  
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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Jul 31, 2021  
How awesome is this scrapbook page from author Teddy Jones about West Texas!?! Check it out on my blog, and learn about her women's fiction novel MAKING IT HOME. Enter the giveaway to win a set of all three novels in her Jackson's Pond, Texas-the Series or a copy of her short stories/literary fiction novel Nowhere Near and a $25 Bookshop.org gift card!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/07/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-making-it.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
In this third novel in the Jackson’s Pond, Texas series, fifty-five-year-old Melanie Jackson Banks encounters racism, intolerance, and violence both in her family’s distant past and in current day Jackson’s Pond. She leads family and community efforts to create reconciliation for past wrongs and also to demonstrate strength and defiance in the face of vandalism, cross-burning, domestic violence, threats to Jackson Ranch’s operation, and kidnapping. In the midst of this stormy period, she finds allies in her mother’s long-time companion, Robert Stanley; her mother, Willa Jackson; her daughter Claire Havlicek; and many others.
     
The Searchers (1956)
The Searchers (1956)
1956 | Drama, Western
Landmark western (very nearly literally) from John Ford. When his brother's family are killed by Comanches and his nieces taken prisoner, soldier Ethan Edwards (Wayne) and his brother's adopted son set off in pursuit. The son wants to rescue the girls, but just what does Edwards have in mind...?

On one level this is another colourful, slightly cheesy and rather sentimental 1950s western - but on another it has a darkness to it which is quite surprising, for all that this moral ambiguity arguably eventually consumed the genre. It's a film about racism and an obsessive desire for vengeance - the Native Americans in this film are given a degree of depth and generally treated respectfully, but the film is honest about the savage conflict between them and the colonial population, and Wayne's mania for revenge, though understated, is clear. The film's subtexts about the importance of family and what it means to be an American are well-presented, though no doubt problematic for many modern viewers. Still, this is a hugely important and influential western and probably a great movie too.
  
Everyday Life by Coldplay
Everyday Life by Coldplay
2019 | Pop
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Rating
Violin (5 more)
Adventurist metaphors
Spiritual
Equality
Reality
Vocals
Lacking depth (0 more)
Adventurous album taking on the uplifting but also brutality of reality and it's every day themes.
A new (different) album from Coldplay, which is definitely revealing their experimentation. The band take on heavy themes of love, war, racism, faith, gun control, friendship, climate change, police brutality and other every day themes in life. It is a double album consisting of 'Sunrise' and 'Sunset', which reveals the difference between the every day highs and lows of the above mentioned themes.

The opening of 'Sunrise' is set beautifully with string arrangements, with the lead violinist doing an excellent job of playing uplifting but also emotional tones to set the mood for the themes. Good versus bad, happy versus sad.

Coldplay never venture far from meeting with Eastern and Western sounds to encourage the acceptance of different religions and ethnicities.

'Sunset' is accompanied with loungey rhythm and blues tones which compliment the themes and meaningful lyrics.

However I can't help but note that I feel some depth is missing to convey their messages.