My Thoughts on "There There"

I first came across this book on a list on Goodreads about books women born in the 90's were reading in 2019, and it didn't really appeal to me, so I quickly forgot about it.  A few weeks later, I came across it again, and it was only $7 on Amazon, so I decided to go for it.  By then, the plot sounded slightly more intriguing to me, and I wanted to give it a shot.  It was definitely a different type of book, not a topic people were writing about as much, and it was a Pulitzer finalist, so it had to be good.

In all honesty, the book had a lot of potential, but it was a little too ambitious for a novel of this length.  The plot follows twelve Native Americans, all of whom either live in Oakland, California or have close ties to Oakland as they prepare for a powwow at the local sports arena.  Each individual either has a reason for wanting to go to the powwow that is closely tied to their identity as an urban Native American.  Some are part of the younger generation who are trying to figure out where the fit in the grande scheme of things, while others are part of the older generation dealing with the demons of their past caused by being a Native American.  Either way, Orange does a wonderful job at bringing to light to problems that grip urban Native Americans.  Often, narratives that focus on Native Americans focus on those living on reservations scattered across the western portion of the United States.  This was the first time I saw a story that focuses on Native Americans in an urban environment, which is what ultimately drew me to it.

If I'm going to be honest, I felt that this book was lacking.  Yes, Orange did a wonderful job at weaving all twelve stories together, but a book that's only 294 pages and has twelve different points of view to tell is a huge undertaking.  Orange was only able to scratch the surface for each character, and the end left me wanting so much more from some of the characters.  I wanted to know more about their backstories and what happened to them at the end of the book (more about that in a little while).  He easily could have filled multiple books just on the backstories; he alluded to such rich backstories and did a great job of building a foundation, but then it just seemed to stop. 

At the same time, I found the ending completely disappointing.  Everything in this book has been building up to this powwow and a crucial decision made by several of the characters during the powwow.  When that moment came, however, it was fleeting.  It was as if Orange just wanted to focus on the buildup and had no idea what to do with the actual climax.  It disappointed me greatly, especially since I'm the type of person who likes everything wrapped up nice and neat at the end of a book with no questions left.  In this book, however, Orange just stopped partway through the climax.  Imagine it like if Lion King ended right in the middle of the battle between Scar and Simba, leaving you as the audience wondering who won, if Simba was able to take his place as king of Pride Rock or if Scar remained king and drove the pridelands into ruin.  That's pretty much how this book ended.

I had such high expectations for this book, especially as I started reading it.  There characters and plot had a lot of potential, only to be let down at the last minute.  I hope that Tommy Orange writes more books in the future, because I would like to give him another shot, just not with this book.

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My Favorite Disney Resources

Another Wednesday, another Disney World post.  Today, I want to share with you some of the resources I've been relying on to help me plan our trip.  I use a variety of books, Pinterest, YouTube and a few blogs, not to mention two incredibly helpful Facebook groups.  I'm going to talk about all of these and guide you towards the sources I've found most useful the past few months.

First and foremost, a great resource is your travel agent if you're fortunate enough to get one.  My travel agent is absolutely wonderful, and she never fails to answer my questions, no matter how ridiculous they are.  It's part of your travel agent's job to help you and guide you, so don't be afraid to reach out and ask questions!

As soon as Bryan agreed to go to Disney World, I immediately bought two guidebooks.  I couldn't help it, that's how my parents plan trips, so it's how I plan trips as well.  At first, I was just going to get one book, but I wanted the official guide to Disney and an unofficial guide.

Birnbaum's book is the go-to guide for most people when it comes to planning their Disney trip.  It's even considered the official guide.  For that reason, I knew I wanted to have it to see what Disney has to say about itself.  The amount of information is staggering.  It starts out with basic information, including sample itineraries based on how many days you'll be there, pricing and tips for traveling with children.  It is important to note that Birnbaum has another book entirely for children, so if you are taking your children to Disney World, that might be a book you want to invest in.

Each hotel is given its own information as well.  There's a description, including beautiful photographs and information about the restaurants and activities available at each hotel.  It is important to note that the hotels at Disney are much similar to resorts.  many of them have far more than just hotel rooms, meaning you'll want to scope out what's available at each hotel when making your decision.  Like I said in last week's Walt Disney Wednesday post, you can visit the hotels even if you're not staying there, which is why this information is important as well.  It gives you a chance to plan out which hotels to visit and explore.

What I use this book for the most is the information about each park.  There's a chapter for each of the four parks with descriptions of the rides, shows and restaurants.  "Hot Tips" are scattered throughout the book as well, imparting on the reader little tidbits of information to help make his or her trip just a little better.

Another part of the book I used a lot was the food chapter.  I've struggled a lot with picking out where to eat (more about that when I talk about each individual park).  This is one of the many resources I used when deciding on food.  It gives a brief description of every restaurant, both table and quick service, along with any places you can get snacks throughout the park.  They indicated average price, along if it service breakfast, lunch, dinner or snacks (or any combination of the four).  This chapter also includes a breakdown of type of food, so if you have children who like ice cream, you can find where to get the best ice cream throughout all four parks.

The other book I got was the Walt Disney World Unofficial Guide.  I wanted this book because, like the name implies, it's the unofficial guide, so it's not published by Disney World.  Therefore, I figured it was going to have more honest information.  This book also covers the area around Disney World, including a little bit about Universal Studios and other activities to do in the Orlando area.  So if you're looking to do some non-Disney days, this book would definitely be helpful for you.  There's so much fantastic information in this book, I don't really know where to start.  One thing that's great is a "Small Child Fright Potential Chart", where it outlines rides that children who are easily frightened should probably avoid.  What I love the most about this book is it rates each ride as it would appeal to the following age group: preschool, grade school, teens, young adults, over 30 and seniors.  This was extremely helpful when Bryan and I were trying to pick some of the rides.  There were a few rides we thought would appeal to us, but when we looked at these ratings, I discovered that these rides were more for children.  There's also an overall rating for each ride as well.  Each ride and attraction also has some touring tips, along with when you should visit to encounter the shortest lines, duration, along with the scope and scale (minor attraction, major attraction or headliner).

Once again, the restaurant information in this book is wonderful.  Each restaurant has how many credits will be used on the dining plan, cost range, when to go, ratings based on service and friendliness, if there are alcoholic beverages, etc.  Like I said before, there's an overabundance of information in this book, which is why it's a fantastic resources to have in your library as you plan your trip.

When it comes to digital resources, I have used two websites extensively.  The first is WDW Prep School.  The amount of information on this website is absolutely staggering.  I like to look at the breakdown of information based on park.  It's important to note that the information about the attractions is a little bit lacking, more information can be found in the Unofficial Guide.  It just includes a brief description, duration, height requirements, suitability for various ages and when to visit.  The food information is what I heavily relied upon from this website.  While brief, it breaks restaurants down by breakfast, lunch and dinner, so you may see the same restaurant appear more than once.  What I really enjoyed were the pros and cons for each restaurant.  This is great information that could help be a deciding factor when trying to pick a restaurant to visit.

Another website is one I've just come across recently: Mouse Travel Matters.  My favorite part of this website is the Top Ten Lists.  It's important to note that not all of these lists have to do with Disney World itself, but all of them are Disney themed in some capacity.  Right now, since it's close to Christmas, a lot of the lists have to do with Disney themed gift giving, which is also important information to have if you have loved ones who enjoy Disney.

There are plenty of YouTube channels dedicated to Disney World, and it can be overwhelming trying to find ones that have the best information.  For the most part, there are two channels that I like the most: TimTracker and DIS Unplugged.  Both have fantastic information as they explore the parks and give you their opinion on food, rides and other experiences.

One thing I like about DIS Unplugged is the reviews of each of the hotels.  While photographs are helpful, it's even more helpful for get a virtual tour of sorts of the hotel when trying to make decisions.  DIS Unplugged also gets the inside scoop in upcoming attractions (such as Rise of the Resistance in Galaxy's Edge).  It also has information about parks around the world, the cruises and special events such as Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  For a taste of DIS Unplugged, check out the video below.

          

The other YouTube channel I like is TimTracker.  TimTracker is a husband and wife duo who live in the Orlando area and visit Disney World frequently, almost every day it seems like.  Whenever they go, and by them I mean mostly Tim, he usually has one goal in mind, and takes viewers through that experience.  For example, he went to Hollywood Studios once to see the new Incredibles themed food and entertainment.  While he's in the park, if he hears about something new that's going on in the park, he makes sure to check it out and share his thoughts with his viewers.  I love the humor and amount of information, along with the honesty.  If Tim doesn't like something, then he's going to be sure to let you know.  Check out one of his videos below.

         

Finally, one of my favorite resources is Pinterest.  Like I've said before, I absolutely love Pinterest, and there is an absurd amount of information out there, and I have quite a bit of it on my Pinterest board.  I have information about each of the parks, Memory Maker (which I'll talk about in a later post), food, packing, travel tips and Disney Springs.  It's a lot of information.  Some of it might lead to the previously mentioned blogs, but there are plenty of other blogs and websites I've pinned as well.  What I love the most about Pinterest is that I can make various sections and organize the information in a way that works best for me.  I was going to make a binder with all the information, but I eventually just opted to keep it a Pinterest board to save paper and space.

I hope you find these resources useful as you continue to plan for your trip.  If you feel like I've left something out, please leave a comment and let me know so I can look into it and add it to either this post or a later post.

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An Evening with Eva Schloss

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine from Lee reached out to me asking if I wanted to go hear Eva Schloss talk at Magruder High School.  For those of you unfamiliar with the name, Eva was Anne Frank's step sister, her mom married Otto Frank after they both lost their spouses to the Holocaust.

Now, although Eva advertises herself as Anne Frank's step sister, I personally feel that that diminishes her story.  She is an incredible Holocaust survivor with an amazing story in her own right, and her time with Anne Frank (they knew each other before the war) is only a small fraction of that story.

Just like when I traveled to Auschwitz with Eva Mozes Kor to hear her story a few years ago, I intentionally didn't read anything about Eva Schloss before hearing her speak.  I wanted to go in with a blank slate and hear her story straight from the source.  It is important to note that Eva has in fact written a book titled Eva's Story, which I am looking to add to my library at some point in the future.

Before I jump into Eva's story, I wanted to talk quickly about something my friend said when we arrived at Magruder.  While looking for a place to park, I noticed a large number of police cars in the parking lot.  At first, I naively thought there was driving school going on there too.  Inside, however, I saw police officers standing around everywhere.  Lisa said to me, "I'm so glad the police are here."  At that moment, it dawned on me.  I've lived in my little Catholic bubble my entire life.  With the exception of a rare instance in middle school and another in college, I've never been put down for being Catholic, and I've definitely had to worry about violence being taken out against me for my religion.  Unfortunately, those of the Jewish faith are not so fortunate.  Events like this are perfect for anti-Semetic people with hatred in their hearts to carry out violence against a population they deem less than simply because of their faith.  I just wish they'd sit down and hear the stories of survivors like Eva in order to understand that Jews are people just like them.  Everyone on this planet has different beliefs, and we should celebrate those differences instead of weaponizing them.  Thankfully, nothing happened, but people of any faith should be able to gather without hiring extra security to keep them safe.

Photo of Eva Schloss courtesy of https://nmsuroundup.com/12845/campus-life/anne-franks-step-sister-holocaust-survivor-eva-schloss-visits-nmsu/

Eva grew up in Vienna, Austria.  She was a precocious and adventurous child with an older brother who was more reserved and musically inclined.  In 1938, however, Eva's life changed when Austria welcomed the Nazis with open arms.  The next day, her brother was jumped by his best friends and beaten up.  Additionally, Eva had a Catholic best friend, and she used to go to her house every day after school.  The day after the Nazi's arrived, her best friend's mom stopped her in the door and told her, "I never want to see you here again" before slamming the door in her face.  It surprised me at how quickly sentiments towards Jews changed, although anti-Semitism had been a part of European culture for quite some time unfortunately.

Eva's father owned a factory, and he was able to use his business connections to move himself to Holland to help work at another factory.  Unfortunately, his family could not follow after him and were instead forced to go to Belgium.  They were lucky to have gotten into Belgium in the first place, as by 1938/1939, no country wanted to take in Jewish refugees.  Eva lived with her brother and mother in Belgium for a year where they still struggled with anti-Semitic sentiments.  For her tenth birthday, Eva was able to invited five friends over to celebrate.  When the day of the party came, each girl arrived with a note from her parents saying she was not allowed to attend the party.

In February 1940, Eva and her family finally got visas so they could go visit her father in Holland for three months.  They had a beautiful little apartment and even had a piano.  Eva was able to play in the streets with other children in the neighborhood.  One day, a little girl with dark hair came up and introduced herself.  It was Anne Frank.  Anne immediately took her home to meet her parents.

Photograph of Anne Frank (second from left in green dress) and Eva (fourth from left), along with their friends.  Courtesy of http://www.jewishledger.com/2018/10/evas-story/

It's important to note here that Eva and Anne had very similar experiences leading up to the war, albeit not identical.  Both spoke German, although Anne's family was from Germany, not Austria.  Otto Frank was a very patriotic German and even served in World War I, but when the Nazi Party started gaining traction in 1933, he read the writing on the wall and took his family to Holland, just like Eva's father.

At this point during her presentation, Eva took some time to talk to us about Anne Frank as a person.  She's a name that nearly everyone in Western society knows in some capacity, and yet, we don't know her because she died at such a tragically young age.  Anne was a huge chatterbox, to the point that her nickname was Ms. Quack Quack.  She got in trouble all the time at school for talking during class.  By the time she was 11, Anne was already obsessed with boys, which is something that came out quite clearly in her diary.  As soon as she learned that Eva had an older brother, she announced, "Okay, we'll go to your house then."  Much to her disappointment, however, Eva's brother wanted nothing to do with Anne.

Eventually, the Nazis invaded Holland.  To its credit, Holland did try to hold out for as long as possible and fight back against the Nazis, but Germany threatened to pretty much level every civilian city until they capitulated.  Unfortunately, Holland was forced to surrender after putting up a valiant fight.  At first, Eva saw the Nuremberg Laws as a nuisance as her rights were slowly taken away.  Her mother insisted that she never take off her coat with her Star of David sewn on the front unless her dress underneath also had a Star of David sewn onto it.  People started disappearing in the middle of the night, never to be seen again.  Perhaps the worst thing Nazis did at this time was go to the Jewish schools (all Jewish children were forced to go to a separate school at this point), round up entire classes of children and march them off, never to be seen again.  The parents had no idea until their children didn't come home from school that night.  They would go to the police and even go to the Gestapo, but no one would help them.  It later came out that the children were marched to Mauthausen, a nearby death camp that had a large quarry.  The children were thrown to their deaths in that quarry.

In June 1942, after his family was in Holland for two years, Eva's father decided that they needed to go into hiding.  They went into hiding for the same reason the Frank family did.  Eva's older brother, Heinz, just like Anne's older sister, Margot, got a letter from the Nazis saying they'd be deported to go work in a factory in Germany.  Many Jewish teens between the ages of 16 and 25 got these letters.  It kicked the need to go into hiding into high gear.  Since it would be almost impossible to find a family that would be willing to hide four people, they split into two groups: Eva and her mother went one place, and her father and her brother went elsewhere.  Her father said they had a better chance of survival, which made Eva realize that what was going on around them was a matter of life or death.

Over the course of two years, Eva and her mother moved to seven different hiding places.  Since they were staying in people's houses, and the Nazis could show up at any moment to search for hidden Jews, they needed a hiding place within their hiding place.  This was never a problem for Anne Frank since she hid in a commercial building.  Eva and her mother had false papers, which allowed them every once in a while to go visit her father and brother.  It definitely helped that she had blonde hair and blue eyes and therefore didn't "look Jewish".

After two years of hiding, Eva's father and brother were being blackmailed for more money by the people hiding them, so they had to find someone else to hide them.  They were being hidden by the Dutch Resistance the entire time, and the organization found them a nurse who was willing to take them in.  A few days after Eva and her mother visited them, however, her father and brother were arrested; the nurse had been a double agent.  The Nazis also followed Eva and her mother back to their hiding spot and arrested them a few days later.  It was her fifteenth birthday.  First, the entire family was taken to Gestapo Headquarters before being sent to a holding camp in northern Holland.  Eva swore she was only there for two days, as she has no memory of being there really.  Recently, however, she learned she was actually there for ten days.

After ten days in the holding camp, they were loaded onto boxcars and sent on a 3-4 day journey.  Just like others who went on a similar journey, they had little food or water, endured overcrowded conditions and blistering heat.  This was the last time they were together as a family.  It was during this time that Eva's brother told her that while they were in hiding he started painting and writing poetry since he couldn't play music any longer.  He hid all his paintings and poetry in a safe place with a note saying who he was and that he intended to go back for them at some point in the future.  Eva's father also told his family that he could no longer protect them.  He'd done everything he could to help them, but there was nothing more that he could do for them.

After several days, they arrived at Auschwitz.  It's important to note that Eva and her family knew about the camps, albeit not in extreme detail.  This came from the fact that while in hiding, the Resistance fighters hiding them had illegal radios.  The BBC would send out radio transmissions to all the occupied countries in their native language telling them what was really happening in the war.  This gave them information others, not even some Nazis, were privy to.  For that reason, they knew about Auschwitz and that it was not a place they wanted to be.  At this point, Eva and her mother were separated from her brother and father.  She also came face to face with Dr. Mengele.  At this point, the stars were aligned to keep Eva alive.  A woman gave her mother a large hat, and her mother gave it to her.  Eva didn't want to wear it, but her mother insisted.  She is convinced that for this reason, Dr. Mengele couldn't see how young she really was, or else he would have sent her to the gas chambers immediately.  This began Eva's horrible time at Auschwitz.

Photograph I took while visiting Auschwitz in 2015.

While at Auschwitz, prisoners were given showers and de-loused once a week.  Dr. Mengele was always present during this time to ascertain if prisoners were healthy enough to keep around.  During one of these times, he saw that Eva's mother was far thinner than other prisoners and selected her to be sent off, presumably to the gas chambers.  Eva was now alone in Auschwitz.  Just a few weeks later, Eva was pulled from her work detail by a Kapo who said someone wanted her outside.  Fearing the worst, she went outside, only to be reunited with her father.  It broke her heart, but she told him that her mother was dead.  This obviously destroyed him.  They were fortunate enough to see each other a handful of times after that, but she never saw her brother again.

Slowly, the SS officers and kapos began to abandon the camp.  Gates were left open, prisoners weren't working every day, they had no idea what was going on.  Approximately two or three months after being separated, Eva found out her mother was alive but at another camp (Auschwitz is a series of camps).  She didn't believe it at first, until she was able to venture out and see for herself.  Sure enough, her mother was alive, albeit extremely weak.  Just a few days later, the Russians liberated the camp.  At this point in her presentation, Eva made a few jokes about how we might not get along too much with Russia right now, but, at the time, she thought they were fantastic.  She also insisted that we be grateful to them, as they lost 30 million people (civilians and soldiers) during World War II (the next highest was Great Britain with 450,000).  After liberation, Eva went over the men's camp searching for her father and brother.  At this point, she ran into a man she knew she recognized, but she couldn't quite place the face.  It was Otto Frank.  He told her that her father and brother had been marched away by the Nazis.  He also asked about his own wife and daughters, but she didn't know where they were.

Photo of Otto Frank courtesy of https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/main-characters/otto-frank/

Following the end of the war, Eva and her mother marched for four months with the Russians to Odessa.  They stayed there for a while before finally making their way back to Holland.  They returned there in June of 1945.  The Nazis occupied Holland until the very end of the war, so there wasn't a lot of food left for anyone.  A Christian family had taken over Eva's family's apartment, but they were able to get it back after the war.  Otto Frank had nothing, so he stayed with Miep Gies and her family in their small apartment.  He frequently came over to visit with Eva and her mother, however, along with anyone else who had survived hoping for information about his wife and daughters.  Eventually, Eva and her mother got a letter from the Red Cross saying both her father and brother had perished a few days before the United States liberated Mauthausen.  Eva believes her brother died first, and her father, believing her mother dead and it impossible for Eva to survive herself, simply gave up.  At this point, Eva explained that the only way to survive something as horrific as the Holocaust was to have the sheer willpower; once you give up, you're dead in a matter of days.

One day, Otto showed up with Anne's diary, which he found in the Secret Annex where they hid.  He read them passages from it, but it took him three weeks to read because it was so emotionally trying.  At first, he didn't want to publish the diary, but he was eventually persuaded.  Unfortunately, the diary was initially a flop.  It wasn't until it was published in the United States that it gained fame in 1952. 

In an attempt to help Eva, Otto got her a photography apprenticeship in London for a year in 1951.  She stayed in a boarding house where there was a young man approximately her age.  They would often go on walks together, and one day he proposed.  She politely said, "No thank you."  Otto visited shortly thereafter, and she told him about the man's proposal.  She felt that she still had to go back and take care of her mother after her apprenticeship finished.  At this point, Otto told her that he and her mother had fallen in love and wanted to get married.  Eva went back to the young man and said, "Okay, you can marry me."  They got married and still live in England.

Photograph of Eva and her husband, Zvi, on their wedding day.  Courtesy of http://www.jewishledger.com/2018/10/evas-story/

At this point, Eva took some time to give her thoughts on her step-sister's diary.  Although they never lived together as step-siblings, they did know each other before the Holocaust, so she was able to provide some insight into Anne's writings.  Eva started out by saying that Anne's book isn't a good one if you want to learn about the Holocaust, because her story ends when her experiences with the Holocaust begin.  This is something that I agree with.  Anne's story is wonderful if you want to know what life was like for Jews before the Holocaust and what it was like for someone hiding from the Nazis.

Photo courtesy of https://www.goalcast.com/2018/02/27/25-anne-frank-quotes/

Eva also took time to talk about one of the most famous quotes from Anne Frank's diary: "It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality.  It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical.  Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."  This quote has been a rallying cry for survivors, to show that despite the horrific experiences they had to endure, not everyone is like that.  And yet, Eva throws a wrinkle into that.  It's important to remember that this quote was written when Anne was still in the Secret Annex; she hadn't experienced being ripped away from her parents and the nightmare that was Auschwitz.  Eva believes had Anne survived, she wouldn't have been so optimistic about the rest of the world.

An important anecdote I want to add is about Eva's brother's paintings.  She went back to where he said he hid them and found them.  She ended up donating them to the Dutch Resistance Museum, where you can see them today.  They're absolutely gorgeous, you can also find photos of them online.

One of Heinz Geiringer's paintings.  Photo courtesy of https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jan/21/eva-geiringer-schloss-auschwitz-holocaust-survivor-heinz-paintings

Overall, I had a wonderful time.  I've seen about six different survivors speak over the years, and each one has a different story.  Like I said before, I think it's important to understand that while Eva is Anne Frank's step-sister, she has her own unique story that can stand on its own two feet and should be appreciated.  I can't wait to get my hands on her book and read about her in more detail.  Once I do, you can be sure to hear about it right here.

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Wine and Christmas: These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

In case you haven't figured it out by now, two of my favorite things are Christmas and wine.  So when there's an opportunity to combine both of those together, it's nearly impossible for me to pass up on such an offer.  This weekend, Bryan and I got to do just that.

Wine Under the Lights was something we first discovered two years ago.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to go last year (blame Bryan's appendix on that one), so we were excited to be able to go back this year.  Hosted at Seneca Creek State Park, Wine Under the Lights features four wineries, live music, firepits, a food truck and a trolley ride through the winter lights, all housed in a large tent decorated for Christmas.

Bryan and I amongst the Christmas decorations at Wine Under the Lights

This year, however, it was just two wineries, a cidery and a meadery, so they switched things up a little bit.  In all honesty, the winery choices weren't top notch this year.  I like Janemark wine a lot, and we've been to Orchid Cellars in the past (it sells mead and wine/mead hybrids), but the other two were mediocre.  The hot cider sold was delicious, although I suspect part of the appeal was the fact that it was a bit chilly outside.  Unlike other wine festivals, you only get a limited number of samples a Wine Under the Lights, eight per person.  What Bryan and I did was make sure we both got different samples so we could try more wine (although with significantly smaller tastings).  Even so, we weren't overly impressed with any of the wine.  In fact, we didn't buy a single bottle to bring home, which is definitely a first for us.  We almost never leave a winery or a wine festival without at least one bottle.

Bryan and I with our light up wine glasses.

One of the highlights for me was the adorable light up wine glasses.  They had a series of different colored lights in the base, and you could press a button on the bottom to get the stem to change colors.  It was definitely something novel I'd never seen before.  When we went two years ago, we got plastic stemless glasses with the city of Gaithersburg logo printed on it.  I don't even think the glasses said Wine Under the Lights!  These plastic wine glasses were blank, but Bryan gave me his, and said I could decorate both of them with vinyl, courtesy of my Cricut.  I have a few ideas as to what to put on them, but I'm keeping those close to the vest until I make a final decision.

The ride through the winter lights was a blast, albeit a very cold blast (no pun intended).  We rode on a little trolley through the lights, but Bryan and I were, unfortunately, seated backwards, so it was hard to see.  The people sitting behind us played Christmas music on their phone, which definitely added to the festive atmosphere.  It's always fun to see the winter lights, it reminds me of my childhood, we used to go see them sometimes when I was a little girl.

Overall, Wine Under the Lights was a fun way for Bryan and I to kick off the holiday season.  We had fun splitting a bottle of wine there and listening to live music while watching the drunk people dance (seriously, why were they getting so drunk?  They had work the next day).  It was also a lot of fun cuddling on the trolley and going through the winter lights together.  Our one complaint is the wineries, they weren't our favorites.  Since only four wineries are there each year, it is harder to get all ones you like, as the selection is more limited.  If you're looking for something fun to do with some adults to get into the holiday spirit, however, I would recommend it if you've never done it before.

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My Thoughts on "The King's Curse"

I'm going to be honest, I wasn't going to write a blog post about this book, I don't write a post about every book that I read, but I had a little bit I wanted to share about this book.  With that being said, this post turned out to be significantly longer than I originally anticipated.  I did a little bit of research and included some history, so brace yourself for a history lesson along with a review of The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory.

Cover of The King's Curse by Philippa Gregory

It's been a while since I've read anything by Philippa Gregory, about six years according to my Goodreads account, but that hasn't stopped me from buying her books still so when I do want to read her books, I have them at the ready.  The King's Curse follows the story of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury through her life.  It's important to have a little bit of historical context about who Margaret was and the War of the Roses.

The root cause of the War of the Roses can be traced all the way back to Edward III, who had five sons.  Unfortunately, Edward's oldest son, also called Edward, died the year before his father, passing the throne on to Edward's grandson, Richard II (his oldest son's son).  Are we confused yet?  If Richard II died without an heir, the throne would pass to his female cousin, whose father was the second oldest son of Edward III.  Edward, however, threw a wrench in these plans from the grave by issuing a decree before his passing stating that the heir had to be male.  This didn't happen, however, instead the Duke of Lancaster, whose father was Edward III's third oldest son, returned from exile, gained support of the nobles and deposed Richard, thereby becoming Henry IV of England.  This established the House of Lancaster, which was one side of the War of the Roses.  Is everyone still with me?  Good, because it's about to get a little more complicated.

The House of York, the other side of the War of the Roses, also traces itself back to Edward III.  Its founder was Edward's fourth oldest son.  To make matters even more complicated, it was not this tie that made them think that they had a claim to the throne.  Instead, they claimed that Lionel, Edward III's second oldest son, had a great granddaughter who married the Duke of York's son, thereby superseding the claim of Edward's third son.

Henry V died young, leaving his infant son, Henry VI as king with a divided council of regents to look over the kingdom, all the while the Duke of York, Richard, claimed he should be the rightful king on the throne.

Now, where in the world does Margaret Pole fit into this mess?  Her uncle was Edward IV of England.  Edward IV was the oldest son of the Duke of York, who claimed to be the rightful heir to the throne after his father died.  He even began putting together an army to overthrow the Lancaster king and take the throne for himself.  Edward married Elizabeth Woodville, and they had two sons, Edward and Richard.  When Edward IV died, he named his son as the next king of England, while his (Edward IV's) brother, Richard, would look over the throne until Edward V was old enough to rule himself (he was only 12 years old at the time).  Like many men at the time, Richard wanted the throne for himself.  He told his sister-in-law that he would put the young boys in the Tower of London to keep them safe during the fighting.  They were never seen alive again.  Richard III named himself King of England, only to be defeated by Henry VII as Bosworth Field, thus ending the War of the Roses, and establishing the Tudor line on the throne.

Edward IV and Richard III had another brother, George, who was Margaret Pole's father.  He and his son, Margaret's brother, were executed at the Tower of London once Henry VII came to the throne, as he was afraid that they had a claim to the throne and would be a threat to him.  I know, this is all incredibly confusing.  I watered this down to only the most important information, there's so much more that goes into the War of the Roses.

That's a lot of information, which Bryan learned the hard way.  While I was reading the book, he asked me what I was reading.  I showed him the cover, and he asked me what the book was about.  I told him that it was complicated.  He asked again, so I figured he really wanted to know.  It didn't take long for him to regret his decision.  About ten minutes and one family tree from inside the book, I think I thoroughly confused him.  He did tell me that I'm cute when I get excited, so I liked that a lot.  I think he also learned not to press the issue when I tell him the book I'm reading is complicated.  We'll see if he remembers that in the future.

This book covered about forty years, which is a lot of time to cover in just 500 pages.  For that reason, it jumps ahead a lot, which was something I had to get used to as I read.  An entire year might be summarized in just a paragraph or two.  This allowed Philippa Gregory to really focus on the most important events in Margaret's life.  On the other hand, it did get a bit annoying when the book would jump ahead, and it made it difficult to keep track of exactly how much time had passed.  I frequently had to go back and check the dates at the beginning of each chapter to make sure I was keeping track of everything.

Additionally, some of the dialogue felt incredibly awkward and forced.  When I write (which hasn't been in a while), I struggled with dialogue too, but it's important to make sure it doesn't sound too scripted.  I found that a lot of these scenes were when Margaret was talking to her sons about some plans they had for how to handle the king.  Thankfully, these scenes weren't too common, but there were several.  For such a well-renowned author with over thirty published novels, this shouldn't be a problem for Philippa Gregory.

While poking around on Goodreads, I came across a review for this book, and the reviewer complained that they kept talking about the alleged curse, which they found annoying.  I wanted to shake the reviewer, of course they're going to talk about the curse, the title of the book is The King's Curse.  This brings me to where the title of the book came from.  Philippa Gregory has a habit of taking established facts from history and adding a little bit of a twist.  For example, in The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa takes the fact that Anne Boleyn's brother, George, was arrested for having an incestuous relationship with his sister.  Philippa takes that and twists it in the book where Anne tried to sleep with her brother because she kept having miscarriages, and she was desperate to give Henry VIII a son.  In The King's Curse, Margaret pole frequently talks about a curse allegedly placed on the family of whoever killed her cousins, the Princes in the Tower.  According to the curse, the son and grandson of whoever killed the Princes in the Tower.  The way the book is written, it leaves it ambiguous as to who really killed the princes (because, to this day, we're not entirely sure who did).  It could have been Richard III, as his son and grandson died prematurely, or it could have been Henry VII, whose son and grandson also died prematurely.

For a woman at the time, Margaret Pole had an absolutely fascinating life.  Descended from royalty, she first lived in exile during the reign of Henry VII, who feared her family would attempt to claim her precarious throne from him.  Henry VII also executed her brother simply because he could be a threat to his throne.  Margaret wasn't completely banished from the royal court, as she helped Catherine of Aragon get settled when she first arrived from Spain and even looked after Arthur, Henry VII's first son, who he intended to be his heir until he died in his teens.

Painting of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury

After Arthur's death, Catherine of Aragon longed to marry her husband's younger brother, Henry (who will become Henry VIII).  The question is whether or not Catherine and Arthur consummated their marriage, which is something that continues later when Henry wants to divorce Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn.  This drags on until Henry VII dies.  Henry VIII becomes king and immediately marries Catherine.  It takes a while, but they eventually have a daughter, Mary (later Mary I of England, also known as Bloody Mary).  Margaret steps up and helps raise and look after Mary, which is why she has such strong Catholic sympathies throughout her life.

Since this is a historical fiction novel, I knew what happened in the end, but I still was intrigued to see how it happened.  Margaret Pole is executed at the end in an extremely gruesome fashion, but more about that later.  Her fall from grace came from the fact that her son, Reginald Pole, was an outspoken critic of Henry VIII and the fact that he decided to break with the Catholic Church.  Additionally, Margaret was a closet Catholic herself and supposedly supported the Pilgrimage of Grace, which was an attempt by Catholics in northern England to overthrow Henry VIII and reestablish a Catholic monarchy.  Since Henry VIII couldn't get to Reginald Pole, he decided to execute his mother instead.  Something the book glosses over extensively is the fact that Margaret was in the Tower of London for nearly two years.  Those two years are covered in just a few short pages in the book.  It was almost as if Philippa Gregory gave up and just wanted to wrap up the book and get it over with.  I didn't even realize she was imprisoned for two years until I read about her online to write this blog post.

Despite her achievements in her life, Margaret Pole is really known for her death.  Like I said before, her death was extremely gruesome.  When a person is beheaded, they put their head on the chopping block, and when they're ready, they stretch out their arms, signalling to the executioner they're ready to die.  At first, Margaret followed this procedure, until the last minute, when she jumped up and started to flee from the executioner.  The executioner followed after her, hacking away until she finally died.  It is rumored that Margaret's ghost can still be seen running across the green at the Tower of London, recreating her brutal and violent last moments.

Overall, I thought this was a fairly okay book.  Not one of my favorite Philippa Gregory books but still one that I enjoyed.  I think it would be interesting to read right before or right after The Other Boleyn Girl, as it focuses on the same events, just from a completely different perspective as outsiders who are very much against Anne Boleyn.  So, if you were to read The King's Curse, I would either precede with The Other Boleyn Girl or follow up with it.

I honestly didn't expect this post to be this long, but I had a lot I wanted to say about the history surrounding the book.  If you can't tell, I absolutely love Tudor history.  This is the first time I've read a Tudor-era book in quite some time.  I hope you enjoyed the history and didn't get too confused.

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Thankfulness Challenge

I know people usually start their thankfulness challenges at the beginning of November, so I'm about three weeks late to the game, but better late than never, right?  Studies have shown that if you take the time each day to write down or even just think about something you're thankful for, your entire attitude and outlook on life will change in just three short weeks.  It's amazing how something so simple can be so life changing.

Back when I tried bullet journaling about two years ago, I did this, and it really did make a world of a difference.  I learned to find the joy in the little things in life and that no matter how bad my day had been, there was at least one good thing that had happened to me that I should be thankful for.  It could something as simple as waking up on time, my favorite episode of a show was on television or that I got to play with my dogs for a little while when I got home.  In fact, when doing a thankfulness challenge, I encourage you to focus on the smaller things, the things that don't seem as significant, because these are what you're more likely to encounter on a day to day basis.  If you focus on those, then you will ultimately be able to find more happiness in your life.

I also encourage you to be as specific as possible in your thankfulness journal.  Instead of saying, "I'm thankful for my mom", be a little more specific.  Say something like, "I'm thankful for my mom because she always listens to me when I'm upset."  This forces you to reflect a little bit more and think about how that person, event or object really is significant in your life and impacts it.

If you do feel compelled to write down what you're thankful for each day, which I highly encourage you to do, Sources of Strength has a fantastic (and free) printable thankfulness journal you can check out.  I've worked with Sources of Strength at my old middle school, and it's a wonderful program that teaches students and adults alike the ways they can overcome anxiety and depression by using the resources around them to build a network of support.  While my self-care board on Pinterest is severely lacking, I did create a small section for thankfulness journaling, which has some wonderful resources.  If you're a person who likes to bullet journal, you can find some thankfulness themed pages in my pages section of my bullet journal board.

My mission for you in the week leading up to Thanksgiving is to think of at least one thing you're thankful for every single day.  I also want you to take it one step further.  If it's a person you're thankful for, take the time to reach out to them and tell them that and tell them why.  This week, we showed our students a video about the importance of doing just that in advisory and how that can make a world of a difference when it comes to your own happiness.  I know how awkward it can be, I'm the type of person who likes to do nice things without people knowing so I don't have to be thanked, but it is nice to feel a little bit of love every once in a while.  You can find the video below if you want to check it out.

         

So, let's recap: studies have shown that listing what you're thankful for each day can change your entire outlook on life in just three short weeks.  In order to do that, I encourage you to start a thankfulness journal of some kind, and you can find some ideas on my Pinterest boards.  For the next week leading up to Thanksgiving, I challenge you to think of one thing you're thankful for each day, and if it's a person, make sure to tell them!  Make sure to let me know how it goes in the comments section below.

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Our Disney Adventure: Picking a Hotel

Before I jump into this week's Walt Disney Wednesday blog post, I do want to share a little bit of exciting, Disney-related news.  Bryan and I were at breakfast over the weekend, and we were talking about our trip (meaning I was talking while he just smiled and nodded).  I asked Bryan if he was excited we were going, as he's been somewhat indifferent and downplaying any excitement he might be feeling.  He said he was definitely more excited than when we first booked our trip.  I'll take that as a win!  At this rate, he'll be excited to go by the time we get on the plane, and if he isn't, then it's a little too late.

To the normal person, picking a hotel is easy: you figure out where you want to go, figure out your budget, then find a hotel.  Pretty simple, right?  As always, it's not quite that simple when it comes to planning a Disney vacation.

The first decision you have to make when picking a hotel is if you want to stay on property or off property.  I've been to Disney World three times in the past, and I've never once stayed on property.  In my mind, I always thought that it was far more expensive.  In a way, this is partially true.  Some of the hotels, such as the Grand Floridian, are horrendously expensive and would easily double or triple our entire budget for the trip.  Other hotels, such as Pop Century, Art of Animation and All-Star Movies, Music & Sports, are significantly cheaper.  There's even a campground you can stay at if you want.  Disney, of course, wants you to stay on property (more money for them), so they provide some incentives, such as free pick-up from the airport, extra hours in the park and a service that will take anything you buy in the park and put it in your room for you so you don't have to carry it around, not to mention free transportation to all the parks.  So, we crunched some numbers and figured out that if we stayed off property, we would either have to rent a car (adding a few hundred dollars to our budget at a minimum) or Uber to the parks everywhere from a slightly significant distance.  Keeping that in mind, it was cheaper to stay on property.

If we had the money, I absolutely would have pushed to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  I've been collecting giraffes for 20 years now, and they've my favorite animal.  What could be more magical than waking up every morning to a safari right outside your hotel window?  Unfortunately, our wallets couldn't make that work, so I didn't even bring it up as an option.  Besides, we'd barely be at the hotel, so it didn't make sense to put that much money into somewhere we'll hardly be seeing.  Also, you can visit any of the Disney resorts during your trip, even if you aren't staying there, so we could still visit Animal Kingdom Lodge.

My top hotel choice within our budget was Art of Animation.  The rooms are designed to look like you're immersed in various Disney movies, such as The Little Mermaid and The Lion King.  The hotel itself looks like an absolute blast with larger than life models of various Disney characters and a Finding Nemo swimming pool.

Photo courtesy of https://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/hotels/disneys-art-of-animation-resort

I mean, how adorable is that swimming pool?  Art of Animation even has free drawing classes you can take where you learn how to draw a Disney character.  I know we probably wouldn't have time for it, but it still sounded amazing.

Unfortunately, we couldn't book Art of Animation.  Rooms were available, but we had to bump our vacation back a week, and the price of the hotel jumped a few hundred dollars.  It really upset me, but we couldn't stay at Art of Animation.

We eventually had to settle on Pop Century for our hotel.  I know there aren't any bad hotels, they all have their perks, but it really wasn't the hotel I wanted to stay at during our trip.  Pop Century is a throwback to all things "retro" and for kids.  It has giant barrels of Play Dough, barrels of monkeys, yo-yos, etc.  It looks like a child's toy box tipped over all around the hotel.

Photo courtesy of https://www.parksavers.com/pop-century-hotel/

Deep down inside, I know it doesn't really matter where we stay, because we'll be at the hotel only at night, and we can visit any hotel we want (some people even build a resort hopping day into their Disney vacation).  I also know that I'm going to be so excited when we get there that it won't matter what hotel we stay at.  Also, we'll be seeing plenty of giraffes (hopefully) on Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Overall, I'm super excited to be staying on Disney property, a definite first for me.  It's definitely going to add to the immersive experience and get me even more excited for our trip.

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My Thoughts on "Saving Alex"

I first heard about Alex Cooper's amazing story when her movie, Trapped: The Alex Cooper Story premiered on Lifetime back in late September.  When I heard she wrote a book, I knew I had to get my hands on it.  If that means I jumped on the bandwagon, then that's fine with me.  Alex's story is absolutely amazing and inspiring, and I wanted to get as much out of it as I possibly could.

           

As the subtitle of the book implies, Alex came out as gay to her conservative Mormon parents when she was 15 years old.  This immediately caused Alex's parents to jump into action.  As Mormons, they felt that Alex's lifestyle choice was an abomination and a choice she made.  Shortly after coming out to her parents, Alex's parents signed custody over to a couple in Utah (she lived in California), and sent their daughter to live with Talia and Johnny Siales.  The Sialeses lived down the street from Alex's maternal grandparents and were a part of their church.  Other than that, Alex's parents had no idea who they were, and they had never met her before dropping their daughter off at their house.  This is where Alex's nightmare began.

Photo of Alex Cooper courtesy of her Twitter account

The bulk of Alex's book focuses on her struggles and abuses at the hands of Talia and Johnny, who ran an illegal  "group home" out of their house.  This included physically beating Alex when she tried to escape or ask for help, psychological torture by telling her that she was causing her family extreme distress by choosing to be gay and by telling her that everyone in the town loved and trusted them, so she had no one to to turn to for help.  This last one in particular caused extreme problems for Alex, who learned quickly how to judge someone based on their appearance for just a few seconds and determine if they were Mormon or not (in her mind, anyone who was Mormon would not be of any help to her).  When Alex refused to give up the name of her girlfriend (who was 18, while she was 15), Talia and Johnny made her wear a backpack full of rocks all day long while she did chores around the house.  This did not break her spirit however, so they eventually forced her to stand facing a wall in their foyer from the time she got up until the time she went to bed, she even took her meals standing there.

Saving Alex book cover courtesy of HarperCollins' website.

This was one of the moments that bothered me the most, not because it happened, but because other people allowed it to happen.  Johnny and Talia were pillars of their community, so they have people in and out of their house all the time: church friends, community leaders, missionaries passing through, and not one person said anything about this obvious abuse happening to a child.  They simply accepted that what they were doing was right for Alex without question, despite the fact that they had to know that it was wrong.  It's a cross between blind devotion and the bystander effect.  You have people so devoted to their religion that they're willing to turn a blind eye to something that is obviously wrong, along with the mentality that someone else will speak up about it, and they don't have to be the ones to make waves.

Eventually Alex escapes this horrible abuse through the help of a friend at school and teacher who takes her under her wing, but that's just the beginning of her battle.  Now, she has to take her parents and Johnny and Talia to court to fight for her own future.  She even goes so far as to tell her mom that she'd rather be in foster care than go back to another conversion therapy center.  Now, it's important to note here that Alex wants to go back home with her parents, she doesn't blame them for the abuse she suffered, but she refuses to go back if they are going to send her either back to Johnny and Talia or to another conversion therapy center.  This is unacceptable for her parents.  Her parents' lawyer even argues that to do so would violate his clients' First Amendment rights.  Why, you might ask?  Well, the First Amendment includes freedom of religion, and since their religion says homosexuality is a sin, then they are following their religion by attempting to convert their daughter back to a heterosexual lifestyle.  I found this argument absolutely ludicrous and an insult to people of any religion anywhere who are fighting for their rights.  According to the Human Rights Campaign, conversion therapy has been discredited by every reputable mental health and mainstream medical organization as something that has never worked.  To date, only 16 states, DC and Puerto Rico have laws protecting LGBTQ+ children from conversion therapy, which is pretty pathetic if you ask me.

Something else that stood out to me is the fact that Alex made no distinction in her book between reputable group therapy/live in facilities and the illegal/extremist ones like the one she endured.  She simply stated statistics showing that these group settings can be extremely detrimental to teenagers, who have a significantly higher chance of attempting or successfully committing suicide.  Yes, there are extremely dangerous facilities out there, but there are also extremely helpful and useful ones.  The importance is doing your homework and knowing the difference.  One being run out of a couple's home so they can make enough money to make ends meet is probably the former.

Another thing that stood out to me was Alex's parents' refusal to acknowledge the obvious abuse and torture she endured at the hands of Johnny and Talia, particularly wearing the backpack full of rocks and standing at the wall all day (despite the fact that she had medical evidence proving her back and shoulders endured extreme duress, and one of her shoulders is higher than the other to this day).  At one point, Alex's dad point blanks asks her several years later if that was true.  She affirms that it was, and he says that he can't believe it.  Suddenly, her parents' denial made perfect sense to me.  They were not denying what happened because they did not believe their daughter and thought she was a liar, it was their minds protecting themselves.  If they openly acknowledged the fact that their daughter was horribly abused, they would also have to reconcile with the fact that they were the ones who sent her there in the first place.  Therefore, they were the ones responsible for the abuse and torture she suffered.  The mind has a way of protecting itself from harmful information (whether we want it to or not), and I really do think that this is one of those cases.

Overall, I found this book eye opening and heartbreaking.  Here's a girl who just wanted to just wanted to live her most authentic life, which was something her parents, unfortunately, struggled with at first.  Eventually, they did come around, and now Alex is able to be herself around her parents.  I would recommend the book to anyone struggling with coming to terms with who their loved ones might be and how they may want to live.  The movie is equally wonderful and should definitely be checked out next time you see it on Lifetime.

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My Thoughts on "The Alice Network" and Book Discussion Questions

You know that feeling when you've been a fan of something for years, and everyone else is just now starting to catch on, and it gives you a grand sense of superiority, like you've been in on a secret for ages?  That's how I feel about Kate Quinn.  I discovered her books randomly years ago (around 2010/2011-ish) when she just had a few books out for her Empress of Rome series.  The books were complex, insightful and captured stories of epic proportions in just a few hundred pages (while books like Les Miserables require over 1,400 pages for equally epic stories).  In 2013, I dragged my best friend to a book signing in Baltimore where Kate publicized her new book, the first of two about the infamous Borgia clan.  Let me tell you, Kate was absolutely delightful!  The signing was in an incredibly small bookstore called The Ivy with maybe two dozen chairs set up.  She sat amongst us, answered questions and even did a reading from her book (for those of you who are wondering, it was The Serpent and the Pearl).  When she signed books, she had a conversation with each person and wrote them a personalized little message in their book based on their conversation (mine was how to pronounce the name of a character from Mistress of Rome, while my best friend's was something about bears, I don't remember what).  I kept up with Kate's books, although after her two books about the Borgia clan (which I'll admit that I own but haven't read yet...please don't hate me!), things seemed to slow down for her for a year or two.  That wait was well worth it though, because Kate jumped from from ancient and Renaissance history to tackling more modern history while still creating amazing characters and sweeping sagas that draw in readers.

My signed copy of Mistress of Rome by Kate Quinn.

My mom has known about my love for Kate Quinn's books for years, and used this to her advantage to get me to join her neighborhood book club (remember, I'm already in her other book club, which she got me to join because they read one of her favorite books).  When the neighborhood book club chose The Alice Network for their next book, she knew it would be incredibly difficult for me to refuse to go.  Unfortunately, she was right, isn't that the worst?  I'd been wanting to read The Alice Network for a while, but I hadn't gotten around to it yet, but now I was out of excuses.  With enthusiasm, I jumped right into the compelling and powerful tale of redemption and women fighting for what's right.

The Alice Network is a dual timeline story, but it's different from other dual timeline books.  Instead, some of the same characters appear in both timeline, particularly Eve Gardiner.  In one timeline, Eve is a British woman during World War I.  In her attempt to help fight against the Germans, she agrees to join the Alice Network, a collection of spies scattered across Western Europe gathering information about the Germans to pass along to British intelligence.  It follows her powerful and frightening journey as she tries to hide in plan site as a waitress at a local cafe in German-occupied France where German soldier frequent.  The second timeline takes place shortly after World War II.  Charlie St. Clair is an American girl traveling through Europe to Switzerland to take care of her "Little Problem".  Charlie, however, has ulterior motives, as she is in Europe to find out what happened to her beloved cousin, Rose, during the turmoil that was World War II.  The only clue she has is Eve's name, which is how the two timeline merge into one eventually.  Eve is forced to face the demons of her past as a spy while simultaneously trying to help Charlie find her cousin and reconcile with the damage done to Europe during World War II.

As always, it's difficult to talk about books I've read without spoilers.  If you haven't read the book or want to avoid spoilers in case you do end up reading the book in the future, this is where I leave you.  If you want to know my thoughts about what happened or want to see the discussion questions I created for book club, please feel free to keep reading.

First of all, wow!  I had a feeling that Rose was dead, but part of me was still absolutely shocked to find out how she died.  It was absolutely brutal.  I've studied Nazi Germany extensively for quite some time, but it was still difficult to read about how the entire town was slaughtered to send a message.  Part of me wanted Rose to be alive so she and Charlie could go on to have a happy ending.  In a way, however, Charlie did get her happy ending with Finn, but it wasn't the ending I had planned for her.  On the other hand, I am thrilled that Eve was able to reconcile with her past.  She had incredible guilt gnawing away at her over the false belief that she betrayed her beloved Alice, resulting in their incarceration and Alice's subsequent death.

Now, about Alice's death.  I knew she was going to die, there was no way she could survive the war.  On the other hand, I thought that it was absolutely awful for her to die the way she did.  It was a completely preventable death.  I really did think she was going to die by a firing squad.  I was also caught off guard by how Eve broke her fingers.  I definitely didn't imagine Rene doing the deed, I never pictured him as one to get his hands dirty, I always imagined that the Germans did it to her.  Either way, I found that chapter absolutely brutal and incredibly difficult to read.  Part of me wanted to skip it, but I powered through and finished it.  The entire time, I was uncomfortable and only wanted to get it over with, much like Eve probably did.

While doing a little bit of research for this blog post, I came across something that completely threw my perceptions of the book into a tailspin: Alice Dubois was a real person!  I know, I'm just as surprised as you are.

Photograph of Alice Dubois courtesy of the Western Front Society

I'm still reeling from the fact that Alice was in fact a real person.  Part of me wishes I had known that before I started reading, as I would have approached Alice's character completely differently and appreciated her far more (not to say I didn't appreciate her in the first place).  It also makes sense as to why Alice died the way she did; fact is often stranger than fiction when it comes to history.  I did reach out to Kate Quinn on Twitter and asked her if Alice had been a character she created entirely on her own, would she have changed what happened to her at the end.  As of right now, she hasn't responded, but I will tell you that she is incredibly active on both Twitter and Goodreads, so hopefully I'll hear back from her soon.  As soon as I do, I'll be sure to update this post with her answer.

Update: Kate Quinn did get back to me about what she would change about Alice's character and what happened to her if she hadn't been a real person.  She said she probably would have changed her fate a little.  You can see our brief Twitter exchange below.

My Twitter conversation with Kate Quinn about Alice Dubois' fate in the end of The Alice Network.

Since this is a book I read for book club, I do have a series of questions I created.  This book is a part of Reese Witherspoon's book club, so you might already have questions printed in the back.  These are questions I came up with on my own (as always).  I try to avoid the discussion questions in the back of the book, especially while I'm reading the book, since it might reveal some spoilers.  Please feel free to use these questions for your book club or just to reflect on the book after you've finished reading it.

1. Would Eve and Charlie's strong personalities stand out so much in the 21st century?
2. Do you think Eve succeeded so much as a spy because she had the skills or because, as a woman, she had more to prove and therefore worked harder?
3. Do you think Eve's stutter contributed to her desire for perfection as a spy?
4. Why do you think Charlie didn't tell Eve she was pregnant?
5. When Eve says, "It's the wicked who go on merrily" living, was she talking about herself or Rene?
6. How did Charlie's pregnancy contribute to the story?
7. Why do you think Eve had such a sudden change of heart about helping Charlie after Charlie's mother showed up?
8. Do you think Charlie would have made a good spy?
9. Charlie's mom told her, "Get B's at Bennington until you can hook a nice young lawyer."  What does that tell you about Charlie and her mother's different priorities?
10. In what ways was this a story of redemption?
11. Do you think Alice's death was an accident or intentional?
12. How did Eve contribute to Rene becoming more ruthless from World War I to World War II?
13. Was Rene really a collaborator or was he a capitalist trying to survive the war?
14. How does the fact that Alice Dubois was a real person change your perception of the story?

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How to Prepare Yourself for a Disney World Scrapbook

I'm going to be honest, I wasn't entirely sure where to put this post; I almost did a "Work in Progress Wednesday" instead (it would have been my last one until after my Disney World trip in February).  I decided to do this post now so the rest of my Disney posts can be related to the parks.  That doesn't mean this will be my only Disney World scrapbooking post, but it'll probably be my only one for quite some time.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Christina, your trip isn't for three months, why are you getting scrapbooking materials ready now?"  Well, the answer is quite simple: why not?  In my mind, it's better to start sooner rather than later, especially when you know you're going to have a huge monstrosity of a project to tackle.  It has also given me the opportunity to start collecting supplies at a slightly cheaper rate as I see them appear (but more about that later).

Right now, I'm in the pre-planning stage of my scrapbook, because I have no photos to actual scrapbook from my trip.  I'm simply collecting ideas and some supplies (okay, a lot of supplies) based on the rides and activities I know Bryan and I are going to do at Disney World (which is definitely something I'll be talking a lot about later).

One thing that's important to know about me is my unhealthy addiction to Pinterest.  I seriously love it and can't get enough of it.  It's actually a bit of a problem because I don't see it as social media (even though it technically is), so I'm on it all the time without realizing just how much time I've wasted.  With that being said, of course I created a Pinterest board.  At first, everything was dumped together as I jumped from board to board that other people created, pinning every single idea or cute clipart that I came across.  Within two days, I had over a thousand pins to my board, and there was no rhyme or reason to how they were pinned.  I needed a better system.  Thankfully, Pinterest realized this a while back and created sections, which is a part of the platform I've come to love and use extensively.  I set aside a huge chunk of time and created sections for every little thing I pinned.  I created sections for characters, parks, rides, movies, locations and even one for our hotel.  It didn't take long for me to have over 90 sections on my Scrapbooking Disney board.

A quick glimpse at just a small portion of my Scrapbooking Disney Pinterest board.

What's in each section varies based on the section.  As you can see from the picture of my board above, there's only one lonely pin in my 101 Dalmatians section, which is because those characters (ie: Cruella de Vil) really only comes out for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, but I saw that journaling card, thought it was cute and pinned it, just in case.  There's nothing wrong with pinning something; it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

The Lilo and Stitch section of my Scrapbooking Disney Pinterest board.

A lot of my sections have a wide range of different types of pins.  I found some websites that sell adorable Disney scrapbooking materials (mostly paper), so I pinned different paper pads or open stock paper to see if I want them later on down the line when we get back from our trip.  You can see that in the above screenshot from my Lilo and Stitch section of my Pinterest board (the first two pins).  I also pinned any layouts that I like relating to that section.  Now, this doesn't mean I'm going to use every single layout that I've pinned; I just like having options.  I might take bits and pieces from different pinned layouts, or I might create something entirely different.  I have no idea, it will depend on what I want represented on that particular page.

The Minnie Mouse section of my Scrapbooking Disney Pinterest board.

You'll notice on my pages that there are a lot of blank notecards.  I very rarely used to journal on my scrapbooking pages; I often just put the pictures and some embellishments down and called it a day.  Now, however, I've gotten more into journaling to capture the emotions, information and memories associated with the particular photos.  Obviously I won't use all of the journaling cards I've pinned (the Minnie Mouse one alone has four different journaling cards).  Like I said before, I just want options.  Once I have my Minnie Mouse pictures and know the colors I'm going to use for that layout, I'll be able to better select a journaling card that will work with the page.

Feel free to check out my Scrapbooking Disney Pinterest board in all its glory by clicking here.

Pinterest isn't the only way I've started preparing for my Disney scrapbook.  I've started buying some supplies.  Almost all of my supplies have come from a secondhand scrapbooking group I'm a part of on Facebook.  It's a great group and a wonderful place to get embellishments and supplies for amazing discounts.  Of course, it doesn't work if you just want to buy one or two things, since you also have to pay for shipping, but if you want to buy a lot and build up your stash, it's a great place to start.

Some of my generic Disney World scrapbook embellishments.

Some of the embellishments I've bought so far are fairly generic, like the ones above (how cute are those little Mickey Mouse buttons!?).  I know quite a few people stay away from licensed and event-specific things such as these, but my mentality is: I'm only going to make one Disney World scrapbook, I might as well make it the most Disney-est thing I've ever created.

Some of my Disney Princess scrapbook embellishments.

Now, there are some risks with buying things for a vacation that's three months away.  The most obvious is the fact that I don't know exactly what I'll need.  For example, I won't know if we're going to see Aurora, Cinderella or Snow White, but I still have stickers for all three of these princesses.  It's a dangerous game to play, but they were also incredibly cheap (much cheaper than if I had bought them in the store), so to me it was well worth the risk.

Paper I've started putting aside for my Disney scrapbook.

Now, the paper is a significantly smaller risk.  Some of the paper I already owned.  Take the purple with the blurred lights on it.  I bought that ages ago because I thought it was gorgeous, but I didn't know what I would use it for.  While flipping through my stash looking for something else, I saw that paper and realized it would be perfect for the Tangled lanterns at Magic Kingdom (more about that in a later post), so I pulled that paper out and put it to the side.  The paper with the hotel keys came from a paper pad and seemed great for our hotel, so I put that to the side too.  I'm not going to pretend that I didn't buy some paper too.  How could I pass up the paper with the little frogs on it?  It's so perfect for Tiana, I simply had to have it!  This is all the paper I have right now, which is fine with me.  I don't need to have everything set aside, this is simply paper that I have an idea for for when I get back from my trip.  I know that I'm going to need so much more, but I'll worry about that later.

In addition to collecting supplies, I've also been watching the "A Most Magical Scrapbook" class by Shimelle Laine.  It is something you have to pay for it ($25), but it's over 40 videos, and you have complete access to them, which means you can watch them as many times as you want.  If paying for scrapbooking videos isn't something you want to do, which I totally get, Shimelle also has a YouTube channel that includes a Disney scrapbooking playlist.  It's only a few videos, and it doesn't include any of the videos in her "A Most Magical Scrapbook" class, but they're just as wonderful and informative.  She breaks down how to select pictures, paper and embellishments and make a large scrapbook flow together.

Even though my trip is three months away, I've already started the tentative planning for my scrapbook.  I know this scrapbook is going to be a huge undertaking, so there will be plenty of posts about it in the weeks after my trip.

Tune in next week to learn about the decision making process Bryan and I went through while picking our hotel and the bumps we had along the way.

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