February Stories I Ate This Month

School has been very intense this month and I haven't been able to consume too many stories but the ones that I have had time for have been really good!

Movies

• Black Panther
• Such an amazing superhero movie! Actually, just an amazing movie in general! Prior to seeing it, I didn't know much about it and I am glad that I went into seeing it that way. It made it all the more incredible. Also, as I'm sure you have seen all over social media, it has been great for the African American community, especially the children to see people who look like them on the big screen, celebrating African cultures, etc. 
• A+

TV Shows

• Smallville (season 1)
• I have been obsessed with superhero related things the past few months, as you can see by my last Stories I Ate This Month. Therefore, I decided to watch this old tv show from the early 2000s which is on Hulu. I'm loving this version of Clark Kent/Superman/Man of Steel.
• A+

Audiobooks

• Promise Me, Dad - Joe Biden
• I cried,  a lot. There will be a review going up on April 2nd. It has been scheduled already. Also, #Biden2020. 
• A+
• Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness - Susannah Cahalan
• This chronicles Cahalan's life as she goes mad, gets the proper diagnosis of a rare auto-immune disorder, and recovers. Very interesting. 
• A+

Books

• I Am Not Your Mexican Daughter - Erika L. Sanchez
• It was slow going in the start but the whole story was really interesting to follow and I really felt for Julia. 
• B-

TV Review: Good Girls Revolt (Amazon Original)

For those of you who do not know, I identify as a Feminist. If you want me to explain my views on Feminism just comment below and I will write a post about it if there is any interest in that. However, my feminism is what interested me in this Amazon original show set in the 1970s surrounding a group of girls who work for a newspaper as researchers but aspire to be journalists and all of their other life problems.

I love that the story mainly followed Patti's story but that it included large segments of the other girls' stories as well since they all have a common problem with society. At this point in time, many newspapers were not allowing women to be reporters.Patti was fed up with that. All she wanted to do was write. She was a researcher for her boyfriend. That meant that she did all of the grunt work for him; got phone numbers, set up interviews, obtained the paperwork he needed, and did all of his other errands. That also meant that she would proof his work and help him figure out what angles and stories to write. However, she would never get to write an article or get a byline. Therefore, she and some of the other girls in the pit decide to file a lawsuit with the NAACP against the paper.

The show follows the girls as they work with their lawyer to get enough complaints, the evidence that they are being unjustly treated compared to their male counterparts, etc. The show also follows Patti as she deals with her daily struggles with the men in her life as well as family. The show also follows the relationships among the other girls as well and even some of the more prominent men in the story.

The show was so good and I really wish that there was going to be a second season. Amazon, please bring it back!

Rate: 5/5

One Of Us Is Lying ~ Karen M. McManus

Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. 
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. 
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High's notorious gossip app. 
Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention, Simon's dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn't an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he'd planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who's still on the loose? 
Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them."

Book Review:

This is a twisted version of what I understand The Breakfast Club to be. All these students from very different stages of the high school popularity hierarchy become suspects in the murder of Simon who ran this awful gossip website, where he would posst awful stories about his classmates. It is later determined that he was about to post about all of the people who were in detention with him. They all have various things to hide that could potential ruin their lives and had Simon disclosed them, it would have ruined their lives. In the long run though, those secrets still ruined so much for them. I can not say much without giving so much away so this will be a short review. However, I could have never predicted the result of the case. Read this! 

Pages: 361                                                                                                                                               Rate:5/5

Favorite Quote:

“I don't know why it's so hard for people to admit that sometimes they're just assholes who screw up because they don't expect to get caught.” 

Far From The Tree ~ Robin Benway

Being the middle child has its ups and downs.

But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including—

Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Having grown up the snarky brunette in a house full of chipper redheads, she’s quick to search for traces of herself among these not-quite-strangers. And when her adopted family’s long-buried problems begin to explode to the surface, Maya can’t help but wonder where exactly it is that she belongs.

And Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, who has no interest in bonding over their shared biological mother. After seventeen years in the foster care system, he’s learned that there are no heroes, and secrets and fears are best kept close to the vest, where they can’t hurt anyone but him.

Book Review:

I read this book in two days because I was so invested in the story. I wanted to know when Grace would heal, emotionally and be able to forgive herself for giving Peach up for adoption. I wanted to know if she would meet her biological mother and how that would help her move forward and possibly have a relationship with Peach. I wanted Maya to find her place. She seemed to lost. I wanted Joaquin to finally be adopted, to finally be able to open up and be comfortable and know that having others love him would not hurt him or them every time. The first night that I was reading the book, I was only about 100 pages in and forced myself to put the book down because it was already 11pm and I had over 300 pages to go. The next night, I turned the TV off, said goodnight to my dad, and read for a solid three hours in order to finish. I was so happy. 

The book made me feel for every person who has been adopted and wanted to find their biological family but never could. I became even more interested in helping those who get lost in the foster care system. I loved this story. The character that I resonated with the most was Grace. I never experienced teen pregnancy. I've been raised by my biological parents and have a slew of siblings, unlike Grace. However, Grace and I both deal with things in similar manners. I could tell based on how she gave up Peach, how she immediately slid into the big sister role for Maya, how she reacted to meeting her older brother, and how persistent she was in finding her biological mother. I felt like I would have reacted and made the same decisions that she did. Maya was more rebellious and Joaquin was too scared of caring too much. 

I loved the dynamic that was built between Grace, Joaquin, and Maya. I loved how their families didn't let their children's needs to connect with one another make them feel like they were less than, instead the families just grew. 

I was also very glad that Benway depicted the difficulties of alcoholism and the foster care system. Maya and her sister are hiding their mothers empty wine bottles, dumping out the rest of the alcohol, and going about their lives while she remains passed out in her room. Benway also depicts the troubles that many children have when their alcoholic parent goes to rehab. That person is no longer in their face 24/7, they no longer have to hide their alcohol, etc. That time give the child time to feel anger, resentment, and eventual forgiveness, hopefully. Maya felt all of that and it was an interesting dynamic to read. Also, Benway depicts the struggles that so many people face while they are being bounced around in the foster care system. Joaquin was in 18 homes in 17 years. He was bounced from family to family. He experienced failed adoptions, abuse at the hands of foster parents, etc. What Joaquin went through strongly resembles what others experience and how the foster care system really needs to be changed. 

Pages: 389                                                                                                                                  Rate: 5/5

Favorite Quote:

“The older she got, the more human her parents seemed, and that was one of the scariest things in the world. She missed being little, when they were the all-knowing gods of her world, but at the same time, seeing them as human made it easier to see herself that way, too.” 

The Sign of The Four ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Sign of the Four (1890), also called The Sign of Four, is the second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle wrote four novels and 56 stories starring the fictional detective. The story is set in 1888. The Sign of the Four has a complex plot involving service in East India Company, India, the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards. It presents the detective's drug habit and humanizes him in a way that had not been done in the preceding novel, A Study in Scarlet (1887). It also introduces Doctor Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan.

Book Review:

Like I said in my review of A Study in Scarlet, I really enjoy the premise of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I am fascinated by the characters and have wanted to read the original stories for a while now. I'm glad that I read the first and I feel that this followed A Study in Scarlet nicely. 

There was a lot more character development than in the first story or so I felt. I do believe that it depicted Holmes's drug addiction in a unique way that I felt really symbolized the character well. Sherlock does not see himself as being addicted, like we see others as addicted. He sees it as a mechanism to keep his mind engaged when there is no mystery for him to follow or case for him to solve. He seems to stop using, from what I understand, when he is working a case because every part of his mind is being used for deduction and observation in order to solve the case. However, when he is using, he takes on the typical side effects of an addict. He doesn't have a different type of self control or anything like that. Its interesting to see how his mind works and how he justifies his actions. It's also interesting to see the worry from his companion, Doctor Watson. Watson worries about what the drugs do to Holmes and he worries about what could happen to Holmes while using. I feel that Watson has the same type of feelings that other people who care about addicts experience. 

Beyond Holmes's drug use, we have the case itself. The case is nothing spectacular. It has the same tone and feel to the case in A Study in Scarlet. However, I do believe that that tone is what makes the Sherlock Holmes stories so special. It was interesting and I certianly did not predict the result. I did predict many results while reading but none of them ended up being correct. I think that that is what makes reading the stories so fun. I can not wait to continue with the other stories.