My Two Blessings

Happy New Year, people. 2024 is just about over, and this year, my parents and I watched some really fun movies, and some of which I didn't think about seeing at one point. Over the many, many movies I watched this year, I will name just ten films that were undoubtedly great IMO. Let's start... 10. Eye In The Sky Released in 2015, this film stars Alan Rickman prior to his death, and revolves around taking out a terrorist. On the day we watched it, we planned on seeing INSIDE OUT 2, but it turned out the film wasn't free to watch on Disney Plus yet. Time to improvise. So, mom picked out this movie, and I initially got cold feet because it was R-rated until I recalled that I'd seen R-rated movies before and it had been a while since we all saw an R-Rated movie. We watched it and, well, it was really good, teaches you a lot about how things work out behind the scenes when it comes to taking out terrorists. 9. Jojo Rabbit We got this for Christmas in 2023, and this was the ...

Courtesy of @becauseallthebooks 2024 Books Completed   Alan Dean Foster- Life Forms (reread) **** Amanda Quick - When She Dreams #6 Burning Cove *** Andy Weir - Project Hail Mary:  ***** Arthur C. Clarke - Rendezvous with Rama (reread) **** Ashley Poston - Seven Year Slip - e, **** Ashley Poston - The Dead Romantics **** Ben Aaronovitch - Broken Homes #4 Rivers of London **** Ben Aaronovitch - Foxglove Summer #5 Rivers of London *** Ben Aaronovitch - Moon over Soho #2 Rivers of London **** Ben Aaronovitch - Whispers Underground #3 Rivers of London **** Blake Crouch - Dark Matter **** Bonnie Garmus - Lessons in Chemistry **** Brendan Slocumb - Violin Conspiracy **** C.J. Archer - The Librarian of Crooked Lane #1 Glass Library - **** Campbell Walker - Your Head is a Houseboat - Nonfiction **** Caroline Peckham - Zodiak Academy #1: The Awakening - *** Cassandra Clare - Lady Midnight: Dark Artifices **** Cassandra Clare - Lord of Shadows: #2 Dark Artifices   *** Cha...

  My 2024 Reading Year In 2024 I surprised myself by reading more physical books than ebooks. The past couple of years, I read 50% or more in ebooks so I'm proud of myself for sticking with the books on my shelves. I thought I was making headway in clearing some books out, except they kept having babies, so guess I'll have to start over again for 2025.  LOL! I read 104 books of which 82 were paperback or hard back and the rest were ebooks. Huzzah.  Out of those, I read 37 new to me authors, and 19 rereads and the rest were books by known authors. Out of all of them , 18 were Five Stars   - They were stellar reads.  The writing was compelling, the world building was outstanding and the story flowed. I couldn't put them down. They evoked an emotional response and made me feel my feelings. Or they were unique.  If it was a series opener, it made want to read the whole series.  If it was a new to me author, it made me want read more of their stories. I hav...

  I cheated a little on my A to Z and Back Again for x as long as long as it was contained within the spelling of the title. A to Z and Back Again A) Armada by Ernest Cline B) Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang C) Candid Life of Meena Dave by Namrata Patel D) Dark Matter by Blake Crouch E) Elsewhere by Dean Koontz F) Fourth Wing #1 Empryean by Rebecca Yarros G) Giotti’s Hand #5 Jonathan Argyll by Iain Pears H) His Majesty’s Dragon #1 Temeraire by Naomi Novik I) Iron Flame #2 Empryean by Rebecca Yarros J ) Man’s War by John Scalzi K) Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami L) Lie to Me by J.T. Ellison M) Moon over Soho #2 Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch N) Now You See Me #1 Lacey Flint by Sharon Bolton O) Once Upon A River by Diana Setterfield P) The Distance Between Me and the Cherry Tree by Paola Peritti Q) The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn R) The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams S) Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston T) Talia Hibbert Get a Life by Chloe Brown U) Whispers U...

  December 1 :  I’m dipping my toes into multiple books right now and all of them are different so don’t get them mixed up. When I get tired of reading one, move on to the other. Steve Berry’s Emperor’s Tomb Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore Isak Dinesen’s Out of Africa Louise DeSalvo’s Art of Slow Writing Emily Henry’s Funny Story. My book buying binge is out of control and have added multiple books to my TBR. Thank you Amazon for extending Black Friday for a whole week. *facepalm*    Now it’s time to start Christmas shopping. Saturday Night Movie: How to Train Your Dragon. December 2:   All the packages from my black friday splurges have started rolling in and hubby asks did you do some christmas shopping? Um, yeah sure. Hee hee December 3:  Finished reread of Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore.  Understand a bit more, however feel the Same as when read it the first time.  Much to ponder, but it still left me in a state of confusion. Feel like that ...

  For decades, superheroes have been beloved by the public in pop culture. And yet, one rarely asks the question; "What if superheroes were real?" There have been a handful of stories that answer the question, and one of them was published by the company that produced the likes of Superman and Batman. In 1986, with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, DC Comics produced WATCHMEN, a story set in an alternate world where costumed superheroes were thriving before being outlawed with only one individual having superpowers. This one is real dark and gritty, and risqué, so, if anyone wants to read it, be warned, you may be diving into mature territory. So, allow me to summarize Watchmen's story. In the late 1930s, costumed heroes rose up to fight crime and protect the innocent, inspired by comic book superheroes, leading to the formation of superhero groups such as the Minutemen and, later, the Watchmen. Years later, the government has outlawed superheroes, with a few individuals like ...

  World War II was the darkest of conflicts in human history, lasting for six years, and it saw the most horrific acts ever committed in human history. We know how it ended, and what the cost was. And we know what the name Adolf Hitler means, just as we know what Nazism truly is. And yet, in the following decades, the global film industry has produced many incredible movies set during the war. Saving Private Ryan, The Longest Day, The Monuments Men, and Der Untergang. However, one special movie deserves to be covered, and that is 2009's Inglorious Basterds by Quinten Tarantino, starring Brad Pitt, Christopher Waltz, Daniel Bruhl (of later MCU fame) and Michael Fassbender and guest-starring Mike Myers. The story follows a pair of Jewish Allied commandos on a mission in Europe as they take on the Nazis, and begin making plans to take out Adolf Hitler and his inner circle when circumstances fall into place. Despite being intense, with many grizzly scenes, Inglorious Basterds is a fun ...