Rome's Pride

Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book was a fun light read while tastefully bringing up questions the reader can ask themselves about their own personal lives. Heretics Anonymous created a world where different ideas are respected within a group and shows that this diversity can be used to enhance the group's abilities in certain situations. It is about not only being open minded to others' beliefs but also encourages one to challenge and grow in their own. The characters were written well and you follow the character development of the protagonist as he starts asking the harder questions. All of this is done inside a high school drama and a love story with some twists of comedic releases sprinkled throughout. It also has an underlying theme of taking ownership of your choices and being willing to receive the consequences for them. I really enjoyed this book and will keep an eye out for other works written by Katie Henry. View all my review...

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler My rating: 4 of 5 stars This addition to the Earthseed series took a twist with the story coming from the original protagonist's daughter's point of view. Throughout the book you follow Ashe's thoughts, Lauren's journals, as well as some writings from Ashe's father. The story continues with Acorn being established and facing adversity. Another extremist religious establishment threatens their existence and brings harsh circumstances the group must survive, unfortunately, not everyone did. In this process many of their children are taken, including Ashe when she was still only a baby. This book is her journey coming to know her past and confronting the truth of it. Although originally this was meant to be a trilogy, I do not feel a third book is necessary. Octavia leaves the reader feeling content ending the story. I did enjoy this book and, being written in 1998, felt there were very current topics and ideas present. T...

The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve My rating: 3 of 5 stars As a fan of historical fiction, multiperspectivity, and mysteries this book held high interest to me. Based off of the Smuttynose murders that took place on New Englands Isles of Shoals in 1873 this book follows two women on different timelines. One, Maren, was the survivor of the event that took both her sister's and sister in law's lives. The other, Jean, is a journalist in current time assigned to take photographs for a magazine article on the event. Throughout the novel you follow Maren's childhood in Norway and events leading up to the murders and Jean's research with the case as well as her interactions with those she is traveling with on a small boat. This book is full of themes of jealousy, desire, and struggles with relationships both romantic or family. The book did start very slow and the first half you do have to stick with it, however, the ending is well worth it with a twist you do not see com...

A Cave in the Clouds: A Young Woman's Escape from Isis by Badeeah Hassan Ahmed My rating: 4 of 5 stars Badeeah's story is one of survival, resilience, and humanity. Her life journey unfortunately involved paths of violence and a lack of human compassion that no person should have to face. However, this biography showed her courage to not only survive herself but her strength and compassion in helping her family and other victims with her. At 18 Badeeah was driven from her home during an ISIS raid on her Ezidi village in Iraq. She was separated from her family, some did not survive or were considered missing after her escape, except for her young nephew who she posed as his mother. They were sold into a human trafficking ring. This eventually brought them to Syria where she was sold as a wife and was both physically and sexually assaulted during her containment. Together with another woman, who was sold with them, they were able to escape and be reunited with some of their fa...

     This week I am reviewing To Kill a Mockingbird directed by  Robert Mulligan . It was produced by Alan J. Pakula  and was  released December 25, 1962. The cinematography was done by  Russell Harlan  and the musical score was written by Elmer Bernstein . To Kill a Mockingbird won three Academy Awards for Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Art Direction. It also won three Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor (Motion Picture Drama), Best Original Score (Motion Picture), and Best Film Promoting International Understanding (Award category was given from 1946-1964)     To Kill a Mockingbird follows Jean Finch (Mary Badham), nicknamed Scout, and her brother Jeremy, Jem, (Phillip Alford) for a couple years. Their father Atticus (Gregory Peck) is a lawyer in town. We see him with a case defending Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), an African American, against accusations of attacking and raping a white girl in ...

     This week I am reviewing Back to the Future  directed by Robert Zemeckis . It was produced by Bob Gale and Neil Canton and was  released July 3, 1985. The cinematography was done by  Dean Cundey  and the musical score was written by Alan Silvestri . The film won an Academy Award for Best Sound Editing .      Back to the Future is about teenager Marty McFly who is friends with an inventor Dr. Emmett Brown. Doc invents a time machine in a DeLorean using plutonium as an energy source that he tricked terrorists into giving him. As he is showing it off to Marty the terrorists arrive and attack them. Marty escapes in the DeLorean but ends up going back in time to when his parents first met. He unintentionally causes his mother to like him instead of his father so he has to put things right by getting them together. While he does this Doc of the past creates a way using lightning as a source to fuel the time machine to ta...

     This week I am reviewing Casablanca  directed by  Michael Curtiz . It was produced by  Hal B. Wallis and was  released nationally on January 23, 1943. The cinematography was done by  Arthur Edeson  and the musical score was written by Max Steiner . The film won three Academy Awards: Outstanding Motion Picture, Best Director, and Best Writing (Screenplay) . Casablanca follows the main character Rick (Humphrey Bogart) who owns a club in Casablanca. Many people that are fleeing the Nazis go through Casablanca and try to get papers in order to leave. Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) a woman that broke Rick’s heart in Paris comes in to the club with her husband Victor (Paul Henreid). We learn that she fell in love with Rick when she thought her husband died and left Rick at the train station waiting for her because she found out her husband was still alive. Rick then helps the couple flee to America by coming across two letters of transit and ...

       This week I am reviewing  Jaws ,  based on the novel of the same name by Peter Benchley,  directed by  Steven Spielberg . It was produced by  Zanuck/Brown Company and Universal Pictures and was  released June 20, 1975. The cinematography was done by Bill Butler  and the musical score was written by John Williams . The film won three Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, Best Original Dramatic Score, and Best Sound. John Williams's score won a Grammy, a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, an Oscar, and a Golden Globe Award. At the People's Choice Awards Jaws received Favorite Movie.       Martin (Roy Scheider) the local police chief of Amity Island discovers there is a great white shark lurking, terrorizing, and attacking swimmers in the ocean around the start of the town’s busiest beach season. Together with the help of Matt (Richard Dreyfuss), an oceanographer, and Quint (Robert Shaw), a fi...

         This week I am reviewing  Singin' in the Rain  directed by  Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen . It was produced by  Arthur Freed and was  released April 11, 1952. The cinematography was done by  Harold Rosson.  The musical score was written by Lennie Hayton and the songs in the film written by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed . Donald O'Connor received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy).       Singin’ in the Rain follows the character Don Lockwood ( Gene Kelly) who is a popular silent film star as the world transitions from silent films into talking pictures. His co-star Lina ( Jean Hagen) is seen in the public eye as his love interest when in reality he does not care for in any way. She also becomes a complication in the transitional process with her voice not being pleasing in the new films. Don meets Kathy ( Debbie Reynolds) as he is trying to escape fa...

Between Two Worlds: Lessons From the Other Side by Tyler Henry My rating: 4 of 5 stars I am very picky with biographies and memoirs. Some I really enjoy and others I do not care for at all. This one I enjoyed. Although it was a much lighter read than I was expecting it was well written. This book was about Tyler Henry and his experience of being a young adult medium with stories from his first paranormal experience, his start as an active medium, and some memories of people he worked with on his reality TV show. It had a good balance of personal opinion as well personal experiences. Tyler was able to answer and explain some frequently asked questions about spirits and life after death based on his experiences. He did well to explain why he came to these conclusions but also letting his readers know that these are his personal opinions and they are free to come to their own conclusions as well. Like I mentioned earlier it was a light read. I wish there were more stories from his rea...

     In this series of blog posts I will be giving my personal reviews on some classic films that I have chosen off of either the American Film Institute 's or the BBC 's top 100 Greatest American Films lists. Some of these were revolutionary to the film industry or are considered classics that go as far back as 1916 with the film Intolerance , a drama directed by D. W. Griffith, through 2011 with The Tree of Life , a drama fantasy directed by Terrence Malick. I will be giving some basic information on the film itself and a personal review. Some of these films I have seen before when I was younger but it has been a handful of years if not more while others I will be watching for the first time. I am very excited for this series to broaden my watched list of classics. I also put together some of the information on these films to be handed in for my Film and American Culture course I was taking.      The first film I am reviewing is  ...

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was my first book I read for fun after a semester of reading purely school materials and I was not disappointed. This book is about a group fleeing to the MV Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise ship turned hospital and transport ship, taking German citizens and refugees to safety in the tragic historical event of Operation Hannibal. Ruta did an excellent job balancing the multiple characters point of view's in a way we as readers are not lacking vital information but also still having enough hidden from us to encourage further reading to discover answers. Joana Vilkas is a 21 year old girl from Lithuania. She is the cousin of Lina Vilkas, who is the main protagonist in Ruta's novel Between Shades of Gray . Florian Beck is a young Persian man who was an art restorer before fleeing. Emilia Stożek is a 15 year old Polish girl that was sent to farmland for safety but Russians came upon the farm and she fled. ...

Hello Pride! Earlier this month I was able to travel to Chicago for Star Wars Celebration which is a purely Star Wars convention. I had so much fun being involved in the convention and hanging out with all my friends from around the world that I usually only get to see at Celebration. I put together some of the photos I took at the convention. Can not wait until next time! Anaheim 2020 here I come! R2-KT making one of her appearances on the exhibit floor My favorite cosplay I saw during the convention. A member of the Chinese Star Wars fan club Being a librarian I had to get a photo with Jocasta Nu because if the photo does not appear in the records, it does not exist Satine and Riyo Chuchi from the Clone Wars cosplay Family of jedi cosplay Star Wars flapper Leia and Han Solo cosplay An awesome cosplay samurai crossover Obi Wan and Satine Clone Wars cosplay Official Anovos cosplays Rebel Legion Sabe cosplay...