Notes from a bibliophile

I haven't read the book, so this is about the Netflix series. I'm off my book game...again. Something just isn't grabbing me about the book I'm trying to read now. It's not that it's not good, it's just that I don't care, I guess. So I wanted to talk about this instead. This is such a tough show to watch. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything as difficult. In case you live under a rock, here's the TL:DR version. A girl commits suicide and leaves seven tapes behind with an explanation as to why she did this. Each side is dedicated to one person who impacted her decision. Through the tapes and her narration you see what she experienced. We managed to watch it in two days, but I think it's better to not binge this one. You need time to process what you are watching.  But most importantly I think it needs to be watched. Many people are talking about how it glamorizes suicide and will make kids want to try it. I really think that's m...

Today my coworker was watching someone on his phone. I'm not sure who the guy was, but he was waving his Bible around and proselytizing, so I'm assuming he's some sort of preacher. He was talking about anxiety, so I pricked up my ears since I know at least one person that has that issue. He began by commenting that he wasn't a neurologist or anything of that sort. What he was telling his congregation was that in the middle of anxiety was an "I". His...shall we call it a theory?.... let's use opinion...his opinion is that anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues have one root cause, pride. So this pissed me off. First off, I'm pretty sure he used the word neurologist and that is someone who studies the actual, physical brain, not the inner workings of the mind. The term you want is psychologist. You want me to listen to you, at least spend two seconds getting your terms right. Second, if you confess that you don't know what you're t...

It's been so long since I've been on here. Honestly for someone who pegs herself as a bibliophile, books have pretty much been off my radar as of late. I am having trouble getting into the one I'm supposed to be reading and that's holding everything up. I also started writing for a website called Pop Culture Pipe Bomb  mostly about movies and TV, so that's taken up a lot of time too. But right now I have so much in my head that I just need to get out, and since I don't have anyone to talk to about it, this will have to be the forum. It all started with some tweets from two people I follow. I'm not lucky enough to call them friends, I'm just lurking on their timelines. As near as I can tell there was a debate between them a while back, and while I don't know the particulars, what I have gleaned from it has made me think all these thoughts. Before I can get to that though, I guess I need to lay down a little groundwork. I went to Baptist school...

Some of my friends will hate this review (if anyone reads it) because they are strict spoiler-phobes. But I don't really care. My emotions about this are directly related to the ending, so I'm going to lay it all out. When I saw the trailers for this I was so excited for multiple reasons. I liked the weird feel of the trailer. I don't mind weird, although there are limits. And I love Jason Isaacs. He is really making a name for himself as a creepy villain, and I couldn't be happier. This one though.... It starts out so visually stunning. There's a shot of a train going into a tunnel (hmmm) where the surroundings are reflected onto the sides of the train. It's beautiful. The settings are stunning and the lighting brought tears to my eyes at times. This is what I expected, so I was a happy little moviegoer. The plot is that the CEO of a company (Pembroke) has gone off to a Swiss health spa and basically told the board he's not coming back. Rising star Lockh...

My last movie spree was in December. I used to be able to go a lot more than I do now, but that's not because there's a lack of movies that I want to see. My problem is how do I see everything I want to see in the limited amount of free time that I have? Enter the moviecation (trademark pending, although I do need to credit my friend Jessica with the inspiration). This week has been a cornucopia of movies I've caught at the last minute; stuff I've been wanting to see for a while. Here's what I've seen and my thoughts. 1. Hidden Figures Taraji was fucking robbed. Not even nominated?!? How is that possible? This is a movie everybody should see, especially little girls, so they know that anything is possible, and that being a nerdy girl can get you in some really awesome places. But that positive message is counterbalanced by the heartbreaking history that's the main focus of the film. Segregation has been addressed in films before. As a young(ish) white w...

Last year I gave in and began watching Game of Thrones. It was a huge binge but I managed to get it in before the finale, so that was the first show I watched live. I was stunned by the quality of the production. HBO has really stepped up their game, and with Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu also in the mix, the big three networks are falling behind. I'm sure that has a lot to do with the fact that they have a lot more time to fill than the others. HBO, Netflix, and Hulu have other media that can satisfy their subscribers. The networks have 21 hours of primetime to fill and they can't just throw a movie up and hope it works. Since the last seasons are coming up and rabid fans are already experiencing the feels, people have started talking about a prequel series. I asked my friends who have actually read the series what that would look like, and one of them mentioned the Hedge Knight series (and then provided me with the graphic novels! Thanks Brit!). The series begins with o...

This is the seventh & last book in the Lorien Legacies series. I've talked about the plot before, so I won't go into that again. I'm not sure when they revealed that James Frey was the actual author, but I'm a little bummed actually. I swore I'd never read anything by him and here I've gone & read a whole damn series. Freakin' pen names. I was working at Borders when A Million Little Pieces came out. I gotta tell you, Oprah endorsing a book is fantastic for the author and for the stores, but it annoyed the shit out of me and my coworkers. People would come in asking for the Oprah book and we'd be sold out, natch, because everybody & their pet monkey watches Oprah. Then we'd get yelled at. Yay! So James Frey fits right into the annoying Oprah category. (BTW, I love Oprah. She just didn't give us any head start at the beginning.) Then it came out it was all LIES! BLASPHEMER! To lie to Oprah?!? That's like ring 5 3/4 in Dante'...