My Thoughts on "The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" and Discussion Questions

First of all, wow.  I really need to start going outside my comfort zone with books and read ones I thought I wouldn't like and kept passing over on Amazon and Goodreads.  I bought Taylor Jenkins Reid's other book, Daisy Jones and the Six and kept seeing this one, but I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about it.  On a whim, however, I decided to buy it.  It was in my pile of books to read in 2020, but I picked it up looking for a book, and I read it in two days.  I absolutely couldn't put it down!  I'm so glad I bought it and have it in my life.  It's definitely a book worth reading.

This book focuses on the life of classic film actress, Evelyn Hugo.  As the title implies, Evelyn was married an astounding seven times.  All of her marriages were different and helped her further her career in some capacity.  Getting up there in age and having outlived all her husbands and lovers, the mysterious Evelyn Hugo has decided to divulge the secrets of her past.  Rather than pick a famous and well-renowned writer, however, she picks Monique, who is a virtually unknown journalist for a magazine.  Monique has absolutely no idea why Evelyn has selected her, but she sees this as the perfect opportunity to help her fledgling career.  Over a series of several weeks, Monique meets with Evelyn in her grand apartment and listens as the actress holds nothing back and discusses her colorful past, including a string of seven husbands, scandalous film choices, becoming a mother and a forbidden love that she clung to for her entire life.  The whole time, Evelyn is keeping a secret, a connection between her life and Monique's that the young journalist never saw coming and will change her life forever.

As I previously stated, this book was absolutely amazing.  Even though Evelyn Hugo is a fictional character, I thought she lived an amazing life.  What I found most fascinating was the amount of thought that went into every decision she made.  Each and every marriage, yes, all seven of them, had some sort of pay off for Evelyn, even her briefest marriage (which was only a few days).  It absolutely blew my mind.  This brief marriage made me think of Britney Spears when she married a childhood friend in Vegas in 2004.  At the time, it was seen as poor decision making on the part of a former child star, but now I'm having some second thoughts.  Spears' marriage could have been a way to manipulate the public in some capacity.  This book has completely changed my perception on celebrities.

What else I loved about this book was Evelyn's character.  From early on, she took complete control of her life and career.  She knew exactly what she wanted and didn't care what other people thought about her choices.  This was a huge part of her personality, as she emphasized that while she didn't always make the best decisions, she had absolutely no regrets in her life, which says a lot about her since her decisions weren't always the best.  If she had been a real person, I would have seen Evelyn as incredibly inspirational.

I do have to say, as I read the book, I kept thinking that this would make an absolutely amazing movie.  It has everything movies are looking for: colorful characters, twists and turns, conflict and fantastical locations.  I do think Hollywood would struggle with making this into a movie, however, because it does pull back the curtain on some of its secrets.  Even so, it would make an amazing movie.  One can hope that, eventually, Hollywood will agree with me and make it into a movie.  If you've read this book and can give me some ideas as to who you'd like cast, leave a comment and let me know!  Also, if there's a book you've read that you'd love to see made into a movie, leave a comment with that as well.

Okay, now I want to talk about some events towards the end of the book.  There were some twists and turns the last few pages that I think I'm done processing through, and I'd love to share my thoughts on them.  So, if you haven't read the book, this is probably where you should stop reading.  I also have some book club discussions questions as well.

First of all, wow.  I knew there was some sort of connection between Evelyn and Monique before Monique began alluding to it, but I definitely didn't see that coming!  I definitely felt blindsided when Evelyn revealed that Monique's father had been gay and killed in the car accident that also killed Harry.  As soon as I read that, I put the book down and took a few minutes to process through the information and shock.  For the life of me, I couldn't figure out the connection between Monique and Evelyn, but I knew it had to do with her father since he was involved in Hollywood.  The fact that he was gay and Harry's lover absolutely took me by surprise.  I completely get why Monique got upset about the news, for a variety of reasons.  First of all, she learned that her father was cheating on her mother, and with a man, causing her to doubt his sexuality in the first place.  Additionally, she always thought her dad died after getting behind the wheel of a car drunk, which was something she though he'd never do.  To make matters worse, he was blamed to protect the reputation of a far more famous man from Hollywood.  It's a lot for anyone to take in, and I don't blame Monique at all for getting upset.  What surprised me the most, however, was the fact that, somehow, Monique was able to move past all that fairly quickly and return to Evelyn's apartment fairly quickly for the magazine photo shoot.

The other huge surprise was Evelyn's decision to end her own life.  After reading the book, however, and getting a sense of Evelyn's personality, it doesn't surprise me at all.  She's the type of person who likes to be in control of everything.  Additionally, she's known for her looks and appearances, so for her to waste away from cancer would be incredibly difficult for her.  This was Evelyn's way of taking control of her life one last time and saving herself from the suffering she had to watch her daughter endure as she died from cancer earlier.  It was definitely a sucker punch though, and it was even more emotional turmoil for Monique who was still getting over the news about her father.

Even though I didn't read this book for book club, I decided to come up with some book club questions.  Usually when I write book club questions, I write them as I read.  Since I decided to write these questions after the fact, however, they might not be as specific.  I hope you still find them useful.

1. How was Evelyn's decision to end her life her taking control of her life?
2. In what ways did this book change your perceptions of Hollywood?
3. If this was made into a movie, who would you cast?
4. Why was Celia a more award winning actress than Evelyn?
5. Do you think Evelyn selecting Monique really had nothing to do with her father's death?
6. In what way did Evelyn deny herself to become successful?
7. Of all of Evelyn's marriages, which one was the most "real"?
8. How did Monique's life mirror Evelyn's?
9. In what ways was Evelyn a woman ahead of her time?
10. Do you agree with Celia's decisions to leave Evelyn both times?
11. In what ways was Harry Evelyn's most stable marriage?
12. Although Evelyn appeared to be in control, to what extent was she actually in control of her life?
13. Where would Evelyn had ended up if she hadn't gone to Hollywood?
14. Would Evelyn's life and career choices been as scandalous if she'd been a young actress today?
15. How did Evelyn's roles reflect her desires for her life?
16. Do you think Monique will ever tell her mom the truth behind her dad's death?

If you've read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, let me know what you thought of it in the comments below.  If you haven't read it, I hope you pick it up and check it out soon!

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"Knives Out": A Not So Quintessential "Whodunit"

I had heard good things about this movie, but I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted to see it or not.  It sounded interesting enough, however, that I figured Bryan and I could check it out over winter vacation.  We were told ahead of time that one thing we have to do it get the fact that Chris Evans plays Captain America out of our heads, as he plays a completely different character in this movie.

This movie focuses on a very colorful family as they deal with the unexpected death of their father.  While the cause of death was initially ruled a suicide, the police still have some questions and doubts.  This is furthered by the mysterious private detective, played by Daniel Craig with an absurd and over the top Southern accent.  Use less than conventional techniques, he attempts to get to the bottom of the mysterious death while simultaneously trying to figure out who in the world hired him in the first place.

While Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) attempts to figure out if Harlan Thrombey committed suicide or was murdered with the help of two local detectives who are convinced it was an act of suicide, the family tries to deal with each other.  You have Ransom (Chris Evans), the black sheep of the family; Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis), who is strung way too tight; Walt (Michael Shannon), who takes care of his father's publishing company; and Marta (Ana de Armas), Harlan's nurse who loved him more than anyone in his family.  This doesn't include rebellious Meg and far right extremist Jacob, who were Harlan's grandchildren.  It certainly made for a colorful family gathering to say the least.

The cast is a whose who, including the aforementioned Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Plummer and Michael Shannon, just to name a few.  While I thought all the actors did brilliant jobs, I definitely enjoyed Chris Evans' performance was probably my favorite.  I think a lot of this came from the fact that it was such a huge diversion from Captain America, who he had been playing for seven years.  Ransom was vulgar, self-righteous and self-centered, everything Steve Rogers/Captain America is not.  I also greatly enjoyed Christopher Plummer's performance, although it's hard to find a movie he's not good in.  He really tied everything together and brought Harlan Thrombey to life in the most spectacular way.

Okay, now I want to talk about the plot in a little more detail, but it's hard to do that without spoilers.  So, if you haven't seen the movie yet or want to avoid spoilers, this is probably where you should stop for now.  Please make sure to come back once you've seen the movie.

First and foremost, I definitely didn't expect to find out who "killed" Harlan so early on.  I expected the movie to focus more on who killed Harlan, not part of the cast trying to figure out who did it while the other part tries to hide the crime.  I also hated the fact that Marta thought she was the one who killed Harlan, I felt awful for her, especially given the fact that she was the only one who really seemed to care about him as a person, not for his money.  This is only compounded by the fact that Harlan actually wasn't going to die because Ransom switched the medicine, so had they called 9-1-1 like Marta wanted, he would have lived, and his family would have stayed away, at least for a little bit longer.  Personally, I think that made matters worse for Marta, who should have just followed her instincts and called for help in the first place.

From the beginning, Bryan and I thought Harlan switched the medication and wanted to commit suicide.  After thinking about it, though, I can't imagine he would have done that to Marta, who he obviously cared about deeply since he left all his money, his estate and publishing rights to her.  The fact that he was able to come up with a plan to cover up his suicide at the drop of a hat.  Of course, he is a murder mystery writer, but still, it was like he had given this some thought before.  I found that incredibly strange, which was why I thought Harlan planned this from the very beginning.

Overall, I found this movie pretty good.  Bryan liked it more than Star Wars, but I liked Star Wars more.  I think a lot of this came from the fact that I expected more of a traditional "whodunit", while Bryan didn't have a lot of preconceived notions.  The movie was definitely entertaining, and I liked it, I just wasn't in love with it.  I'd probably give it about a seven out of ten.  It's worth seeing though, and is definitely entertaining.

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An Exciting Christmas Adventure

I know, I know I'm late, but even though it's winter break, it's been anything but a break.  I feel like I've been going and going without too much of a break.  Better late than never though, I can finally talk about our wonderful Christmas together.

In my family, Christmas starts on Christmas Eve.  According to Byzantine Catholic customs, we don't eat meat or dairy on Christmas Eve, which pretty much means I starve.  Growing up, we all piled into my grandparents' house where we ate fish, tater tots, pirogis, and steamed vegetables.  Since I don't like fish or pirogis, I usually ate tater tots.  Afterwards, we'd all part ways and go to our respective churches for liturgy, after all getting changed at my grandparents' house, which was always chaos.  For the past ten or so years, my grandparents have been too old to cook dinner for 14 people, so my aunt took over for them, and we all went to her house instead.  Around that time, we also decided we should also go to church together at St. Rose of Lima, the local Roman Catholic Church about five minutes from my house.

While Bryan joined us for dinner since our first Christmas together, last year and this year, he also joined us at St. Rose for Mass.  This had me absolutely over the moon, as he's part of the family and should be with us.  Unfortunately, the new medication my dad is on had him not feeling too well, so my mom took him home after dinner so he could rest, and she stayed with him.  They were greatly missed, although it was wonderful to have most of the family together.  I even got a picture of Bryan and I to prove he dressed up.

Typically, Bryan and I spend Christmas dinner with my family before heading over to his oldest brother's house for dessert and presents.  This time, however, we flip flopped the plans and went to his oldest brother's first for brunch, presents and dinner.  Brunch was a delicious affair with Bryan's entire family there.  His five year old niece, of course, was beside herself and absolutely couldn't wait to open presents.  Usually by the time we get there, most of the presents are open, and she only has our presents to open.  This time, however, we got to watch her open all her presents.  His one year old nephew was getting more into Christmas also.  Last year he was only a month old, so he mostly slept through Christmas.  This year, he was able to open his presents and play with his toys.  After his niece opened what she thought were all her presents, Bryan surprised her with another one: a five foot tall teddy bear.  There's a bit of a story behind this.  For a few years after she was born, Bryan would get her a teddy bear, each one progressively bigger than the last.  Eventually, however, his sister-in-law said no more teddy bears until they got a bigger house.  Well, they got a bigger house this past summer, so we were able to get her a giant teddy bear.  This is the last one we're getting her, as it's absolutely huge.  Right now, it's in her bedroom with the rest of the giant teddy bears Bryan got her, although I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually moved to the basement.

After a delicious dinner with Bryan's family and his sister-in-law's family, we headed over to my house for dessert with my family.  Bryan's parents joined us too.  While they've met my parents before, this was the first time they'd met my extended family.  Everyone got along great, not that I was worried.  Typically after dinner, my brother, cousins and I settle down for a random movie.  I have no idea how this weird tradition started, but we've been doing it for quite some time now.  There's no rhyme or reason to the movie we pick, and the parents usually filter in at random moments to add their own commentary.  This year, however, we broke tradition and instead decided to play a board game.  They'd already played "Super Fight" before I got there, and we decided to play "Pandemic" when Bryan and I got there.

Unlike most board games, "Pandemic" is a cooperative game, meaning everyone works together and either you all win together or all lose together.  The premise is fairly straightforward: four different diseases are spreading all over the world, and you are part of a team determined to find the cure and stop the spread of the diseases.  While there are many ways to lose, there's only one way to win: discover the cure for all four diseases.  You do this by collecting cards of different colors and get to a research station to create the cure.  While you do this, the diseases spread at an increasingly rapid pace.  If there are too many outbreaks, you run out of cards or run out of the little cubes that represent how much of the disease is in a particular city, then you all lose the game.  Like I said, there are many ways to lose but only one way to win.  It's a great game to play; it seems overly complicated but really isn't.  Plus, you can explain as you play since you're all working together.  We ended up winning, although we were cutting it pretty close.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the game; even one of my aunts played while the other watched.  Hopefully this is the start of a new tradition after dinner on Christmas.

Even before my Pop-Pop passed away two and a half years ago, we started taking family pictures after dinner and dessert on Christmas.  This was pretty much the only holiday the entire family was together, so it was the perfect opportunity for all sorts of pictures.  Since Bryan's parents were there, we were even able to get a picture of the entire family.  Well, almost everyone.  Once again, Dad wasn't feeling well, so he rested upstairs.  Mom's talking about having another family gathering soon so we can do pictures all over again.  After family pictures were done, I dragged Bryan into the living room to get a nice picture of the two of us in front of the tree.  You can't really see the tree, but that's okay, I still think it's a wonderful picture.

After our first Christmas together, Bryan and I started opening our presents together just the two of us.  It's much more relaxed and peaceful.  We usually open a bottle of wine and take turns opening presents and simply enjoying each other's company.  It's the perfect way to end one of my favorite holidays.  We were able to spend time with both our families, plus plenty of time together too.  I couldn't have asked for more.

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My Thoughts on "The Woman in the White Kimono" and Discussion Questions

It's nearing the beginning of the next month, which means my next book club is getting ready to get started.  I have to say, I was really excited to read this book, the premise sounded absolutely fascinating.  Unfortunately, it was disappointing.  I really have to stop getting hyped up about books, because they tend to be fairly disappointing.  This wasn't a complete disappointment like Princess Diarist or The Dead Zone, but I definitely had a lot more expectations for it.

Like most of the historical fiction books that have come out recently, this is a dual timeline book where both stories eventually weave together to one conclusion.

The first timeline takes place in 1957.  Naoko's family owns a successful business.  She falls in love with an American soldier, although they want her to marry a Japanese businessman whose family is in business with her family.  Naoko falls for Hajime and does her best to introduce him to her family, but her family immediately shuns her.  To make matters worse, Naoko soon finds herself pregnant with Hajime's child.  Now, she's forced to make difficult decisions that puts her at odds with her traditional family.

In the other timeline, Tori attempts to take care of her father as he dies from cancer.  During this time, he finally confesses to a somewhat sordid past before he met her mother.  This sets Tori on a whirlwind adventure as she attempts to figure out who her father really was and what secrets his past held while simultaneously dealing with the stresses of her father's failing health.

Okay, what did I dislike about the book?  Honestly, I have no idea.  I've tried to figure it out, and I really can't put my finger on it.  I read the book in a day, so it wasn't a difficult book to read.  I feel like the first half of the book dragged.  While the second half of the book picked up, it did seem very rushed at times, like Ana Johns was ready to get the book over with for some reason.  It didn't seem very balanced at all.  I also felt that the characters were somewhat unbelievable and somewhat annoying.  I had trouble connecting or empathizing with any of them.  Don't even get me started on Tori's timeline.  It seemed strange, especially given the fact that she had almost zero interactions with other people; no friends, no family members, etc.  For a woman in mourning, it seemed completely unrealistic.  The book had so much potential, but it didn't live up to it.  It is worth noting that this is Ana Johns' first book, so there is hope that as she grows as a writer, her books will improve in quality.

Honestly, I feel like I don't have a lot to say a lot about this book because I didn't really enjoy it that much.  I do have to say, I was heartbroken that Naoko killed her baby and chose her family over her child.  It seemed like a huge slap to the face.  Now, I'm not a mother, but from what I understand about children, maternal instinct is one of the strongest feelings ever.  On the other hand, she knew that her child was sickly and would have had a prolonged, terrible death.  Still, Hatsu did the same thing to her baby, who could have been far healthier.  Of course, I can't really empathize with their less than ideal situations and the pressures they were under, both from society and their extremely traditional cultures.  Still, I feel like once the baby's born, they had more options.  Besides, they left the Bamboo House so their babies could live, or so I thought.

Since I read this book for book club, I created a list of questions to discuss.  I've found the easiest way to do this is to keep a piece of paper in the book and write questions as I read instead of trying to think back and write all the questions after the fact.  Since these questions cover the entire book, they will contain spoilers.

1. What role does tradition play in the book?
2. How was how Naoko's family treated Hajime a result of World War II?
3. Was Taro or Naoko under more pressure to uphold the family?
4. Kiko calls Naoko a fool for loving Hajime and wanting to keep the baby.  Do you agree?
5. How was Naoko's relationship with Hajime an example of her taking control of her life?
6. Why is Naoko staying on good terms with her family so important to Hajime?
7. Why wouldn't Hajime's commander sign the marriage paperwork?
8. Was Naoko really to blame for her mother's death?
9. What was the purpose of Satoshi being Naoko's chaperone to the Bamboo House?
10. Why is Satoshi so understanding of Naoko?
11. Had you been in Tori's shoes, would you have immediately up and left for Japan?
12. Were you surprised Naoko's grandmother sent her to the Bamboo House?
13. Was Naoko's observation that she, Hatsu and Jin were like the three monkeys an accurate observation?
14. What's the symbolism behind naming Jin's baby "Minori" (Truth)?
15. Why couldn't Tori admit her scarf once belonged to Naoko?
16. While giving birth, Naoko says to herself, "I'm done being quiet."  How does she exemplify this?
17. How did prejudice and racism contribute to the story?
18. Had Naoko replied to James' letters, do you think it would have worked out for them?
19. Was Tori's journey to Japan a result of guilt for having a father her sister never had herself?
20. Were you surprised to find out Naoko married Satoshi?
21. What was your reaction to Naoko's decision about her baby?
22. Was it a coincidence that Tori and her sister shared a name or did her dad know something more to the story?

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Wine, Board Games and Star Wars: the Perfect Start to Winter Break

What a fantastic way to start winter break!  Bryan and I bought tickets to see Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker for the evening, but we decided to start out our day by heading up to New Market Plains.  It had been a while since we'd been there (and by a while, I mean a few weeks), and we're part of the wine club there, so it seemed like a good idea.  On our way up to New Market Plains, we stopped by my house to pick up some board games to play while we're there.

You know you visit a winery a bit too much when the employee there opens the door and greets you with a giant smile.  Yeah, we've gotten to that point in our lives.  Since we're part of the wine club there, we get four free tastings a quarter, so we obvious did a tasting.  We even got to try the new 2016 Chardonnay, which is absolutely delicious and probably my favorite chardonnay that they have right now.  After our tasting, we bought a bottle of the 2016 Chardonnay and set up on the screened in porch with our board games.

We picked up Ticket to Ride on our way up to the winery because I thought Bryan had never played it before.  Turns out, he played it two weeks ago with some of his friends, but that's fine, it's a great game to play.  Apparently one of the cats that lives on the winery property agreed, as he decided to join us.  He only stuck around for a little while, though, because we kept trying to stop him from climbing up on the table and knocking over all the little trains we'd already set up.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Ticket to Ride is fairly easy to learn.  You draw three tickets with different routes, and you have to keep at least two of them.  These are the routes you'll have to build.  Some are quite long and worth a lot of points, while others are significantly shorter and worth less points.  You don't want to overextend yourself, though, because if you don't complete a route, you lose those points at the end of the game.  In order to build routes, you draw colored cards.  If you want to connect two cities that have say four orange blocks between them, you have to use four orange cards from your hand (or some rainbow cards, which are wild cards).  If a track is grey, you can use any color you want, all the cards just have to be the same color.  It's a super straightforward game, and if you're interested in getting more into board games that aren't Monopoly, this is a great one to play.  There are many different variations as well, including Scandinavia, the United States, Africa, Europe and one that's all over the world.

Unfortunately for me, Bryan won the first game.  I would have won, but he took the one track I needed to complete my route, and I didn't have enough train cars to go around.  Had he not done that, I would have won.  I did manage to beat him the second game.  We didn't have time to play a rubber match to break the tie, but we'll have to do that another time.

After finishing up at New Market Plains, we drove back down to eat dinner at Gordon Biersch, which is our usual dinner spot before we head to a movie at Regal Rockville.  I just can't get enough of their garlic fries, I could eat them all the time.  We also got the pork potstickers as an appetizer, which is part of their Christmas menu.  They were amazing, and I highly recommend them.  I wish they were on the menu all the time.  They're served with a wedge of lime, and I highly recommend squeezing it over the potstickers.  It's a subtle addition, but it makes a world of a difference.

Done with wine and dinner, we headed over to the movie theater.  I prefer seeing bigger movies like this at a movie theater with assigned seats so we don't have to camp out ahead of time and get good seats together.  We sat in the third row, which Bryan and I decided was the perfect row; you're not too close but not too far away.  It was pretty much the sweet spot.

Let me start out by saying that, personally, I think there's nothing more exciting than seeing the famous words, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." on a movie screen.  There's that anticipation as you wait for that amazing opening to begin with the powerful music and the opening crawl.  To me, it's the most exciting movie opening ever.  There was, however, a little bit of sadness this time around when I realized that this was the last one I'd probably see in theaters.  Of course, if they re-release the movies, I might be able to drag Bryan to see them again, but this was the last time I'd see this opening crawl for the first time.  It was definitely a bittersweet moment.

Personally, I thought the movie was fantastic.  I'll be sure to warn you guys before I dive into anything that has spoilers.  Out of the last three Star Wars movies, I definitely thought that this one was the best.  When it comes to where it falls in the grander scheme of things and compared to the rest of the movies in the series, I still haven't decided where it fits.  Like I said, though, it was the best out of the last three.  That doesn't mean a lot, however, since I thought that The Last Jedi wasn't very good at all.  In fact, it was so forgettable that I had to look up the synopsis at dinner and read it again so I could remember what had happened in it; I remembered the main plot points, but not some of the finer details I was afraid would come up in the movie.

One thing I will talk about before jumping into the spoilers is how General Organa was portrayed.  All of Carrie Fisher's were incredibly awkward, but that's because of her untimely death.  They had to work with what little footage they had of her, which made her scenes seem incredibly choppy.  It's hard to hold it against the movie, however, as they were doing the best they could with a tragic situation.

I feel like that is all I can talk about while avoiding spoilers, so if you haven't seen the movie yet or want to avoid spoilers, this is probably where you should stop reading.

Wow, just wow.  There were so many twists and turns, it was a lot to take in.  I'm struggling with where to start, so let's start with Rey and her family.  I knew she had to be someone important, but I had no idea who.  Part of me thought at the beginning of the movie with her eerily close connection to Kylo Ren that they were twins, but I just couldn't understand why Leia and Han would have abandoned her then.  It didn't seem like something they would do.  Other than that, I honestly had no idea who she was.  It never once dawned on me that she was the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine.  I never even thought of him having children, which is why her being his granddaughter never even crossed my mind.  It definitely made sense though, because Palpatine was so powerful, and Rey was obviously incredibly powerful as well.

Personally, I thought Kylo Ren showed incredible growth as a character.  I definitely got the feeling that towards the end, he was in way over his head and had no idea how to stop the monster he created.  He knew he did something wrong, but he was too far gone and had no idea how to go back and put a stop to everything.  Therefore, his only solution was to keep going forward and hope for the best.  In his mind, he'd come this far, he had no thing left to lose.  In the end, however, Rey brought out the best of him, and he figured out a way to put a stop to everything by sacrificing himself for Rey.  One of his greatest moments, I thought, was when he was talking to his father.  He was no longer a megalomaniac but rather a small child of sorts who just wanted everything to go back to the way it had been before.

Okay, time for complaints.  I actually only have two big ones.  First of all, that kiss.  I mean, seriously?  I didn't seen any point in that kiss at all, and it just made what was an amazing moment incredibly awkward.  I thought that a hug was perfect, maybe a few tears, but there had been absolutely no sexual or romantic tension between Kylo Ren and Rey in the first place, which made the kiss seem even stranger and out of place.  Yes, they had just risked their lives, but there wasn't any sort of history that would cause them to act upon.

Alright, time for my other complaint.  When Bryan and I left The Last Jedi, I was thoroughly convinced that Supreme Leader Snoke was Darth Vader reincarnated.  Bryan insisted that I was wrong, and this was a huge bone of contention between us for the past two years.  We would argue about it back and forth at random intervals, and both of us would get incredibly worked up and passionate.  To me, it made perfect sense; he wanted control of the galaxy, he was incredibly disfigured, and the scar on his forehead lined up with the one on Darth Vader's forehead.  There was no way I could be wrong!  Well, I was, or so I thought at first.  In the movie, you find out that Palpatine created the image of Supreme Leader Snoke in order to pull the strings and control Kylo Ren.  In fact, you even see a tank or sorts with several renditions of Snoke's body.  Here's my theory: Palpatine based Snoke's appearance off Darth Vader.  He did this to create an image that Kylo Ren would subconsciously trust, and who better than his hero, Darth Vader?  So, while Snoke might not have technically been Darth Vader, I think, in a way, he was.  Bryan doesn't exactly agree, but I think he just doesn't want to admit that I'm right.

I would be remiss if I didn't take some time right now to talk about Disney World's Galaxy's Edge (of course).  On December 6th, they opened a new, amazing ride, Rise of the Resistance.  I always assumed they waited so long after the opening of Galaxy's Edge to open Rise of the Resistance because the ride wasn't quite ready yet.  While this might partially be true, the ride also aligns itself pretty well with the movie.  In both, members of the Resistance are captured by the New Order and must escape.  That's pretty much where the similarities end, but it's enough that both tie in together and can work as easy advertising for each other.  When I told Bryan this, he rolled his eyes and said, "No, Disney would never make a ride with a movie tie-in."  In instances like this, I just ignore him.  I thought it made perfect sense, and now it makes me even more excited to ride Rise of the Resistance in a few weeks.

Overall, I thought Rise of Skywalker was a fantastic movie.  Like I said before, I found it to be the best of the last three Star Wars movies.  It did have some moments that were mediocre, but part of it (such as Carrie Fisher's death) wasn't their fault.  It was a fantastic way to wrap up the saga, and it was bittersweet to see everything come to an end

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The Masked Singer Season 2 Finale Recap

The Masked Singer is one of my favorite shows, which is ironic because when I first heard about the premise, I thought it sounded dumb and like a show that wouldn't last for very long.  After mulling it over and seeing a few more previews, I thought it sounded interesting.  Now, it's one of my favorite shows, and my mom and I watch it together.  This is the type of show that really is better to watch with someone so you can talk about it and bounce ideas off each other.  I wish more people around me watched it so I could talk to them about it as well.

For those of you unfamiliar with the premise, celebrities from all walks of life done over the top, ridiculous costumes and perform before a panel of judges.  Nobody has any idea who they are.  Before performing, they have a little video/clue package that gives hints as to their identity.  The judges guess as to who each costumed performer is, and then the audience votes for their favorite performer.  The performer with the lowest amount of votes is un-masked, revealing his or her identity.  Those who are not voted off stay for another day until everyone is un-masked at the end of the season.  It's pretty much a giant guessing game that is sure to leave you talking and debating with friends and family, which is why you should watch with someone else.

If you do watch The Masked Singer and haven´t had a chance to watch last night´s finale, you might want to stop reading now, as I´m going to reveal who the last three singers were.

First of all, I´m super proud of myself, as I correctly guessed all three performers before the finale started.  I don´t want to brag, but I kind of do, and I´m really proud of myself.

The first contestant un-masked last night was the Flamingo.  Of course, the Flamingo has a special place in my family´s heart because my dad has this weird obsession with flamingos.  For a long time, I wasn't entirely sure who the Flamingo was, but once Jenny McCarthy guessed Adrienne Bailon, I realized that that guess made a lot of sense.  There were some references to cheetah print in the clue package, and Adrienne Bailon was in the Cheetah Girls movies on Disney Channel (ironically with Raven Symone, who was voted off a few weeks ago).  I thought Adrienne was a fantastic singer.  She talked a lot about how she doubted herself as a performer, but her performances of ¨Lady Marmalade¨ and ¨Hallelujah¨ were absolutely breathtaking.  She should never doubt herself as a singer again.

After the Flamingo was un-masked, my mom and I had no idea who would win.  Both the remaining performers the Rottweiler and the Fox, blew it out of the water with their performances, and either one could be seen as a viable winner.

Just like the Flamingo, for the longest time I had no idea who the Rottweiler was.  I couldn't place the voice, and that really frustrated me.  Online, however, I saw someone guess Chris Daughtry, and suddenly it made sense.  I´ll be honest, I´m not super familiar with Christ Daughtry's voice, as I´m not a huge American Idol fan, but I knew his name and was somewhat familiar with his voice.  Once I heard that guess, however, I knew it had to be him.  I think Chris´ name came up once or twice when the judges guessed, but it was only in passing, and his name didn´t come up too often.  Robin Thicke and Nicole Scherzinger guessed Darren Criss, but I knew it absolutely couldn´t be him; his voice is much smoother, and there weren't any Harry Potter/A Very Potter Musical or Glee hints in the clue package, which is where he really got his start in the professional performing world.

Unlike the Flamingo and Rottweiler, I knew pretty much from day one who the Fox was, and I hardly ever waivered (and it wasn't until the finale last night, but once I explain, you'll see that it was an understandable mistake).  It was a voice I knew so well: Wayne Brady.  I'm a huge Whose Line Is It Anyway? fan, so I recognized his voice pretty much right away.  Some of the judges said Jamie Fox, but it seemed a little bit on the nose to have Jamie Fox dress up like the fox.  I just couldn't understand how other people couldn't hear that it was Wayne Brady, and when he danced, it was abundantly obvious, he's an amazing dancer!

The only time I doubted that the Fox was Wayne Brady was a clue last night.  They showed "tweets" from each of the remaining contestants, and the Fox's talked about having already survived one duel on stage, followed by the hashtag "#scrappyandhungry", which is a line from Hamilton.  I lost it!  Leslie Odom Jr., who was the original Aaron Burr on Broadway, was a name that has come up once or twice, and his voice can be similar to Wayne Brady's.  After I calmed down and screwed my head on straight, however, I remembered that Wayne Brady played Aaron Burr in the Chicago production of Hamilton, meaning the tweet still makes sense.  At that point, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that the Fox was Wayne Brady.

Overall, I'm super proud of myself for correctly guessing the three finalists, even though my mom said it doesn't count because I got some of the ideas from other people.  I'm really excited that season three starts in just a few weeks, although I'll miss a week because of Disney.  Oh well, sacrifices must be made for the sake of Disney.  I'll just have to watch a week late and still love the show.

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FastPass Day

Monday was our FastPass day, so I'm writing this a few days after the fact, but I didn't want to jump the gun with my Walt Disney Wednesday post.  I'm glad I checked the countdown on my phone, because I originally thought our FastPass day was Tuesday, so I would have done it a day late.  This wouldn't have been the end of the world, but we might not have gotten everything we wanted when we wanted.

Before the actual FastPass day, Bryan and I spent some time figuring out what we wanted and when.  Silly me, I thought this would be a simple enough activity that would take half hour, forty-five minutes tops.  Yeah, that's definitely not what happened.  When it comes to planning things, I need to be able to move things around, so I got colored sticky notes from the dollar store and arranged them on Bryan's wall in his apartment by date and time.  This gave us the ability to move things around to when we wanted them without erasing or crossing things out.

As I wrote things out and tried to figure out when we wanted to do them, Bryan had a map out on his phone (and another one on my phone), figuring out what attractions were close to each other.  The original plan for our first day in Animal Kingdom involved us zigzagging across the park, which didn't seem like the best use of our time.  This especially bothered Bryan who was determined to find a way to maximize our time.  He was a man on a mission, it was great (but also a little frustrating).  Due to this, we kept moving things around to find a way that got us all the rides we wanted, at times we wanted.  It was a mess.  Thankfully, since we had everything on sticky notes, we were able to move things with ease.  In the end, I was exhausted, cranky, and my legs were killing me.  We had a general idea as to when we wanted to ride each ride.  Of course, the times weren't guaranteed because it would be whenever the FastPasses were available, but we wanted to have a general idea.  We also started talking about some of the quick service food places we wanted to eat.  After about two hours worth of work, we had a plan, and we only changed it up a little bit after that.

Monday rolled around, and my original plan was to get up super early and get to work around 6:45ish so I could do our FastPasses, and then I would just do stuff at school for the next hour until students arrived.  Thankfully, Mother Nature was on my side, and originally we had a two hour delay, but it was changed to a snow day.  This meant I could do our FastPasses from home, which was even better.  Let me start out by saying that FastPass day is incredibly stressful!  It was a whirlwind.  Instead of going day by day, I decided to hit all the big ticket, hard to get FastPasses first, which meant I was jumping from day to day, from park to park like a crazy person.  Then, I went back and got the smaller FastPasses that are much easier to get.  It was insane.  I also kept skipping over one day for some random reason, so I had to go back and fix all of that. 

The one thing that I absolutely hated was the tier system in Hollywood Studios.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with how FastPasses work, at Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot there is a tier system where the most popular rides are considered tier one, while the rest of the FastPass attractions are considered tier two.  When you first reserve FastPasses, you can only reserve one from tier one and two from tier two.  Once you've used all three, you can book more from whatever is left.  With the exception of Star Tours, pretty much all of the rides at Hollywood Studios is tier one, which means you have to choose between Slinky Dog Dash, Toy Story Mania, Alien Swirling Saucers, Tower of Terror or Rock'n'Roller Coaster for tier one, which is an absurd amount for one tier.  Then, there weren't very many attractions we wanted for tier two because I keep reading that FastPasses for shows really isn't necessary.  This leaves a lot that we want to do for Extra Magic Hours, but I'll talk about that in a few weeks when I write about Hollywood Studios.

Overall, Bryan and I are pleased with our FastPass selections.  I'm getting more and more excited about our trip.  We're less than two months from our trip, and everything is starting to fall into place.

Because Christmas is on a Wednesday next week, I won't be doing a Walt Disney Wednesday post.  My goal is to have a post a few days later about planning a vacation in general, but I need Bryan's help for that (he just doesn't know that yet).  So keep an eye out for that post.

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My Thoughts on "The Immortalists" and Book Discussion Questions

I'm going to be honest, I finished this book last week, but it's been so crazy that I haven't been able to blog about it.  I've also been kicking myself for not blogging about this book sooner because it's definitely one of my top five that I've read this year.

My mom read this book over the summer for her book club before I joined, and, at first, the premise creeped me out, and I wanted nothing to do with it.  I just couldn't understand why anyone would want to know the day they're going to die.  On an impulse, however, I decided to buy the book and give it a shot, and I'm so glad I did!  The book focuses on four siblings.  As children, they went to see a fortune teller who claimed she could accurately predict the exact date a person dies.  Each sibling visits the fortune teller and gets the date he or she will die before they head back home with this information hanging over their head.  The book then jumps ahead to when the siblings are in their late teens and early twenties when their own father dies.  They now start to question their own mortality and worry if the fortune teller was correct in her predictions.  The youngest two, Simon and Klara, set off for San Francisco to find their own way.  Simon struggled with is own sexuality, while Klara wanted to become a famous magician.  At this point, the siblings start to realize the fortune teller might have been correct in her predictions.

Overall, I thought this was an absolutely amazing book.  It forces the reader to ask questions they don't typically like to think about.  When I told Bryan about the book, I thought I'd ask him if he would want to know the day he was going to die.  Without missing a beat, he immediately said that he wouldn't want to know, and I agree with him.  At the same time, I could see why some people would want to know, especially if it turns out they're going to die fairly young.

I know I normally talk more about a book before jumping into the spoilers part, but this book is pretty much impossible to talk about without divulging spoilers, so I'm going to stop right now and add my requisite spoiler alert.  If you haven't read this book or want to avoid spoilers, you should probably stop reading now.  Also, if you haven't read this book, go get it from your nearest library, bookstore or Amazon and read it immediately!

First of all, even though the three deaths we saw in the book all corresponded to the date given to them by the fortune teller, I have some doubts as to the accuracy of the fortune teller in general.  In my opinion, Simon's death was the only one that had absolutely nothing to do with the fortune teller.  I also felt that his death was completely predictable.  All I had to do was read the little summary on the back of the book to know that Simon died from AIDS (a man in San Francisco in the 1980s is fairly obvious unfortunately).  I mean, the fact that the fortune teller was able to get Simon's death correct was impressive, but I can still find some flaws in it.

I firmly believe the three deaths in the book are all related to self-fulfilling prophecy.  Simon was already sick, but since he had it in his head that he was supposed to die on a specific day, he just gave up and accepted that as his fate.  A large part of fighting off any type of devastating illness is believing you can get better.  I'm not saying that that's all you need to beat any sort of disease, but it definitely helps.  Since Simon had it in his mind that he was destined to die on a certain day, he started giving up as that day neared.  Simon was going to die regardless, but I think the fact he died on that day has to do with the fact that he was told he would die on that day.

While Simon's death being a part of self fulfilling prophecy might be a bit of a stretch, Klara's death was undoubtedly connected to her visit with the fortune teller.  I really saw Klara's suicide as her taking a hold of her own death and fate, not allowing her death to be some sort of terrible, catastrophic accident while performing on stage.  She believed she was destined to die, so she did it herself and went out on her own terms.

Just like Klara, Daniel's death was directly connected to his visit with the fortune teller.  For the life of her, my mom couldn't understand why Daniel chose that day of all days to go hunt down the fortune teller and confront her.  While I can see where my mom is coming from, just like Klara, Daniel figured that that was his day to die, so he had nothing to lose; if he was going to die, he was going to go down in a blaze of glory and bring down the woman who destroyed his family as well.  I firmly believe if Daniel didn't have it in his head that that was the day he was supposed to die, then he wouldn't have died that day.  Once again, it was an example of self fulfilling prophecy.

Even though I didn't read this book for book club, I decided to write up some discussion questions.  This book is perfect for a book club.  There's a lot of unpack, along with an overarching existential question that will undoubtedly leave your book club divided.  Please feel free to use my questions to guide your discussion of this wonderful book.

1. Why did the kids tell their parents?
2. How did Saul's death contribute to Simon's rebelliousness?
3. Why do you think Simon was with Robert for so long if they were so un-compatible?
4. Do you think Raj was living vicariously through Klara?
5. Why did Klara name her daughter after her friend who told her about the fortune teller?
6. Why did Klara commit suicide?
7. How did the fact that the fortune teller came from a family of con artists change your perception of Simon and Klara's deaths?
8. Were the deaths of each sibling a result of the placebo effect like Daniel thought?
9. Although Varya lived the longest out of the four siblings, did she truly live?
10. Why didn't Varya go through with the abortion?
11. Why did Varya finally tell Gertie about the fortune teller?
12. Did the information from the fortune teller drive the siblings more apart?
13. Did the fortune teller's predictions make each person act out of character leading up to his or her death?
14. In what way did the trip to the fortune teller change the lives of each of the Gold children?
15. In what way did Frida undo the damage done by the fortune teller?
16. If they hadn't died, where do you think Simon, Klara and Daniel would have been at the end of the book?
17. Why was the last paragraph told from Ruby's point of view?

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A Closer Look at Epcot

Today for Walt Disney Wednesday we're going to continue on our closer look at the parks and what Bryan and I are most looking forward to doing at the individual parks.  This will be the last one until next month, as I have something else planned for next week.  There also won't be a Walt Disney Wednesday in two weeks because it's Christmas.  I'll be doing it on Friday instead with Bryan's help (he doesn't know that part yet).  As the title implies, we're going to be talking about Epcot today.

Photo courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epcot

Epcot opened in 1982 and is twice the size of Magic Kingdom.  It focuses on human achievement, both now and in the future.  The park itself has two very distinct areas: Future World and the World Showcase.  As the name implies, Future World focuses on the future of humans and their technological achievements.  This is also home to the "golf ball" for which Epcot is famous.  This is actually called Spaceship Earth and contains a ride inside outlining the achievements of humans since their beginning.  I'll talk more about this ride specifically in a little bit.  The rear portion of the park is centered around a large lagoon.  There, there are 11 pavilions, each one dedicated to a different country: Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, United States, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, Canada.  Each pavilion is a completely immersive experience with replicas of famous landmarks, employees who are from that country, authentic food, shops and art galleries.  You are supposed to feel like you are visiting that country.  When I went with my family in 2000, they also had Millenium Village, which housed smaller pavilions for many more countries.  Although the World Showcase looks incredibly crowded, there's actually room for six more pavilions in case Epcot wanted to expand.

Just like Magic Kingdom, Bryan and I will spend two days at Epcot, although they won't be back to back days.  We also haven't divided up the park like we did with Magic Kingdom, we're just going to play it by ear and eat a lot of food.  There aren't an over abundance of rides at Epcot like there is at Magic Kingdom, but there's still a lot that I want to do.  First and foremost, I want to ride Mission: Space.

The premise of Mission: Space is that you are part of a flight team flying to Mars.  Each person has a different role to fulfill, including buttons to push.  Don't worry, the buttons will light up and tell you what to do.  Even if you don't press the buttons, everything works out, the computer doesn't react or change the story of the ride (I believe there is a similar ride at Hollywood Studios that does react if you don't push a button that you're supposed to).  In order to simulate the G-forces, the ride spins you around at a ridiculously high speed.  This has actually created extreme problems for Mission: Space, including the deaths of two riders.  One was a little boy who was a little too short to ride and also had an undiagnosed heart condition.  The other was a woman who had high blood pressure and died from a stroke.  After both of these deaths, Disney created a less intense version of the ride.  Now, visitors choose between the orange version (the original one) or the green version (the lighter version).  Even though I suffer from extreme motion sickness, I didn't have trouble on this ride in the past.  I'll probably still take some motion sickness medicine before this ride, just in case.

Another ride I've gone on before that I can't wait to do again is Test Track.  On Test Track, you design your own race car and then put it through the tests that cars undergo before determining if they can drive on the road.  It sounds like a nice, calm ride, but it's actually quite fast as you zip around on a track.  When we went in 2005, we were in line forever to get on the ride, then they had to close it for the weather.  We went back later, and the guys in front of us in line were teasing us, saying it looked like it was going to rain again, and the ride would be shutdown.

One thing that is of the utmost importance for me to do is visit the Christmas shop in the Germany Pavilion.  It holds such a special place in my heart, and it will definitely be an emotional trip for me.  When my family visited Disney World in 2000, my grandparents went with me.  At the time, I had extreme issues with fireworks (I'm still not a huge fan of them, but I've gotten a lot better), and there was no way I could sit through the IllumiNations show (I saw it in 2005 and loved it).  My Pop-Pop decided to take me to the Christmas store in the Germany Pavilion instead.  Even though the store was technically closed, one of the cast members, a young woman from Germany, kept it open just for us.  To help keep me distracted, she took me all through the store, showing me different things and explaining the Christmas traditions attached to them.  My Pop-Pop was German (along with a whole host of other things), so he loved it just as much as I did.  For that reason, I absolutely adore that store, and whenever I think of it, I always think of my Pop-Pop.

There are a few new things at Epcot I want to do.  First of all, Frozen Ever After (of course).  I love Frozen so much, and I've heard the technology on this ride is absolutely amazing.  I've purposefully avoided any videos on YouTube that show the ride, as I want to be surprised when I get on the ride.

Image courtesy of: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2016/04/frozen-ever-after-attraction-set-to-open-at-epcot-in-june/

Just like many of the rides in Magic Kingdom, this ride takes visitors through the story of Frozen as they ride on a little boat.  This ride replaced Maelstrom, which was a ride that took visitors through Norway as they learned about legends and the culture (similar to Gran Fiesta in the Mexico Pavilion).  I remember enjoying Maelstrom, especially the three headed troll, but I'm also glad to see this ride.  Frozen Ever After is Epcot's first attempt to create rides throughout the park that appeal to smaller children.  Some people, however, aren't happy about this, as they enjoy Epcot because there aren't as many small children as the other parks.

Additionally, I can't wait to check out The Seas with Nemo and Friends.  The Living Seas was at Epcot when we went in 2005, but we didn't really check it out.  The Seas with Nemo and Friends is a ride that takes you through Epcot's impressive aquarium.  As you ride, technology superimposes images of the characters from Finding Nemo onto the glass of the aquarium, making it look like they're a part of the aquarium as well.  It looks like a blast, and Finding Nemo is a bit of an inside joke between Bryan and I, which makes this ride even more special to both of us.

One thing I love about the World Showcase is how immersive the experience is.  Disney really goes the extra mile to make sure visitors feel like they are truly in that country.  For that reason, they always have a wide array of performers at each pavilion, and I want to see so many of them.  British Revolution is a rock group that does a wide range of cover songs from British rock history.  Since that's the type of music Bryan usually likes to listen to (me too), it seems like a fun place to just relax and sit after walking around the park all day.  As you can probably figure out, it's in the United Kingdom Pavilion.  Also in the United Kingdom Pavilion, I'd like to see Quickstep.  They are a quartet that plays authentic Scottish, Irish and English songs.  I absolutely love Celtic music, it's actually a bit problematic.  I've been asking Bryan to go to an Irish pub with live music for a while, but we haven't had a chance to make it to one yet.  If we don't in the near future, at least we'll be able to see this.  I also want to check out the Jeweled Dragon Acrobats.

Photo Courtesy of https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/entertainment/epcot/jeweled-dragon-acrobats/

In college I was fortunate enough to see another Chinese acrobat group in college, and I thought it was absolutely magical, not to mention terrifying to watch.  It reminds me of the abilities people have when they really push themselves.  The amount of perfection is astounding as well.  It makes all other gymnastic acts look like child's play, which is saying a lot.

Matsuriza is another musical group I want to see.  They are a Japanese drumming group.  I've never seen one before, but apparently you can hear them playing from quite some distance.  Additionally, in the Morocco Pavilion, I want to hear Sahara Beat perform.  Sahara beat is a Moroccan band that plays traditional and more modern Moroccan music.  I've never heard Moroccan music, so I'm interested to hear them perform and what the music sounds like, although I imagine it sounds very similar to Middle Eastern music.

Of course I want to see characters in Epcot as well.  Most importantly, I want to meet Anna and Elsa.  I'm a little bit torn, however, because now Anna and Elsa are in their costumes for Frozen II.  I think the costumes are absolutely gorgeous, but I had an image in my mind of meeting them in their outfits from the first movie.  I do have to admit, however that the new wig for Elsa looks beautiful, much better than the original wig.  I also love Elsa wearing her hair down in general, but I talked about that in my Frozen II blog post last week.

I do want to brag a little bit right now.  The one thing Bryan has not been able to get on board with is meeting characters.  I'm so excited to meet them, get autographs, take photos and talk to them.  He, on the other hand, keeps arguing that they're just people in costumes, not the actual characters.  When talking to Bryan today, however, I was teasing him about meeting Anna and Elsa.  After we saw Frozen II last week, he started referring to Elsa as the Avatar, just like Avatar: the Last Airbender, and he said he's always excited to meet the Avatar.  I wondered how Elsa would react if he referred to her as the Avatar, and he said there was only one way to find out.  This is the closest he's come so far to being interested in meeting the characters in any capacity.  Hey, if that's what it takes for him to get excited about meeting the characters, I'll take what I can get.

I'm also excited to see Mulan.  The only place you can meet Mulan is in the China Pavilion.  Like Anna and Elsa, Mulan costume has been updated in the past few years, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.  Her costume doesn't look anything like her outfits from the movie.  I remember there was quite a bit of an uproar after the costume change.  In Disney's defense, the costume is more accurate and closer to traditional Chinese dresses.

Of course, no trip to Disney's Epcot would be complete without seeing Belle.  When it comes to the Disney Princesses, Belle is definitely my favorite.  She doesn't need anyone to save her, she's willing to stand up for herself, and she's a bookworm just like me.  She's definitely one of my favorite Disney characters and is my favorite Disney princess (maybe with the exception of Kida from Atlantis).

Rumor has it Stitch can also be found near the entrance of Epcot.  Of course I plan on meeting Stitch at Magic Kingdom, but there's no such thing as too much Stitch.  I absolutely adore him, but I already talked about that in my Magic Kingdom post last week.

When it comes to the last three characters I want to meet, I'm not entirely sure if they'll still be there when we go in February.  The Future World part of Epcot is undergoing a lot of renovations right now, so some things won't be open or available.  This includes the meet and greet for Joy and Sadness from Inside Out.  I wasn't a huge fan of the movie, but I love Sadness so much.  I think I relate to her because I've struggled a lot with depression, especially in the past year, and Sadness reminds me the importance of expressing my emotions and the fact that it's perfectly fine to be sad every once in a while.  I'll also admit that the movie Inside Out has grown on me since the first time I watched it.

Photo courtesy of https://hiveminer.com/Tags/baymax%2Cface

Finally, I want to meet Baymax from Big Hero 6.  This movie was definitely not what I expected, but I loved it because I love superhero movies so much.  Also, it's technically a Marvel movie, which makes it even better.  Baymax is so adorable and pure.  My favorite Baymax moment, however, is when he's running low on battery.  It reminds me so much of a drunk person, and I find it absolutely hilarious that Disney included it in the movie.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I'll be able to meet Joy, Sadness and Baymax, as their meet and greets are closed, and I haven't heard anything about them moving to another part of the park during the renovations.

Just like last week for Magic Kingdom, I asked Bryan what he's most looking forward to doing at Epcot and made him do a little bit of research.  He said he's most looking forward to riding Mission: Space.  I don't know if he wants to ride the green or orange one though, I'll have to talk to him about it before our FastPass day next week.  He also wants to check out the Mission: Space Advanced Lab Training, which I didn't even know about until he mentioned it.  When I looked it up, it looks like a hand's on activity center for all ages where you can participate in more interactive simulations like when you ride Mission: Space (minus the spinning) and send digital postcards to families and friends.  Bryan also said he's interested in (and this an exact quote), "All the coral reef stuff".  I'm assuming he means The Living Seas with Nemo and Friends and Turtle Talk with Crush, which is similar to The Living Seas with Nemo and Friends and Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor where they use similar technology to project Crush on the tank where he interacts with the audience just like Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor.

Tuesday is our FastPass day, so I figured Wednesday would be a good day to talk about the process and what FastPasses we got.  Everyone cross their fingers for us for Tuesday so we get all the FastPasses we want for our trip.

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Some Pictures from Hannah Lynn's New Book: Whimsy Girls at Work

Hannah Lynn, one of my favorite coloring book artists, has done it again.  This time, she created a fun and whimsical book portraying women in a variety of jobs.  This may be the first of two books, as she said she had so many ideas for this book, it was hard to chose which ones to include.  All I can say is, I hope she has a second book, especially if it's as wonderful and fun as the first one.  So far, I've only colored two pictures from this book, but I've printed out plenty more that I can't wait to color (I opted for the digital edition of this book instead of the physical book).

Before jumping into my picture, a few important details.  First, Hannah Lynn drew two versions of each picture: one that is more detailed and one that is more simplified.  She does the same thing with the monthly exclusive pictures you can get by supporting her on Patreon.  This is the first time she's done this for a book though (at least that I've seen).  Also, I couldn't find my bag of colored pencils.  Luckily, a few months ago Amazon had a 120 count of Crayola colored pencils on sale, so I bought those for when my pencils were on their last leg.  I wanted to wait to open them, but I was also so excited to finally get to use them.  It might only be an extra 20 colors, but it really does make a huge difference.  With all that out of the way, on to my pictures.

The first picture I colored is titled "Veronica's Patients".  As soon as I saw this picture, I knew I wanted to go with my usual softer, pastel-type colors.  I have no idea why, but I just love using pastel color palettes when I color, even though I don't really wear pastel colors or use them in my day to day life on a regular basis.  I did step outside my comfort zone with this picture, however, when I colored her skin and hair.  I tend to color people with lighter skin and dark hair (so they look very similar to me).  This hair, however, reminded me of a former student of mine, who always wore her hair natural in a giant bun on top of her head, very similar to the girl in this picture.  That student had significantly darker skin, but this is my homage to her.

I did struggle a little bit with the animals, as I wanted them to all have different coloring, and I didn't want them to blend in with any of the neutral tones I used, especially with the cabinets behind them.  I'm not entirely thrilled how the darker of the two dogs came out.  I tried to blend two brown tones together, which I know never works out, but I was optimistic that it would work out this time.  It didn't turn out terribly, but it definitely could have come out a little better.

Something I like to do when I color is put all the pencils I use to one side so they're all in one place.  Then, when I'm done coloring, I like to count how many I used.  It's weird, I know, but that doesn't mean I'll stop doing it.  It might not look like it, but I used a whopping 54 colors in this picture, which is more than I usually use.  For some, it's typical to use well over 54 colors because they do so much shading.  I am not nearly that skilled at coloring, so I don't use three or four colors for a simple pair of pants (not including things such as buttons or other details).

The other picture I colored is titled "Seaside Signing".  Once again, I stepped outside my comfort zone in a few ways for this picture.  You'll notice right away that the colors are extremely different.  I went for much bolder colors, with the exception of the seaside scene in the window.  It's not that I don't use these darker, bolder colors, it's just not as often.  To me, however, this book store reminded me of something warmer, with wood paneling on the walls and something more aligned with jewel tones.  I did manage to sneak some softer colors in, such as the seaside scene and in her scarf, but that's about it.

Another way I stepped outside my comfort zone was by making the author have red hair.  Like I said before, I usually color brunettes.  I have no idea why, I just do.  While I love the red hair next to the burgundy for her pantsuit, I'm not entirely thrilled with how the hair came out.  I used three different shades of orange for the hair, I think it's just a little too much.  I should have stuck with the two darker shades and not the lightest of the three.  Oh well, it doesn't look awful, but I just feel like it could look a little bit better.

I'm also not entirely thrilled with the colors I made the awning in the window.  It was pretty much the last thing I colored, I had no idea what colors to use, so I just went with two colors I knew looked fairly good together.  While these colors do look pretty good together, they don't look good here.  I feel like a lot of my attention is drawn to that window, not to the author signing books, which should be your main focus.

Overall, Hannah Lynn knocked it out of the park with this book.  The pictures are incredibly detailed and show a wide range of jobs.  I hope she does a second volume for this book, as it's so much fun to see different careers represented.  You can find the book on Etsy and Amazon.

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My Thoughts on "Lilac Girls"

Let me start out by saying that usually when I write about a book that I've read, I try to keep all the spoilers to the end and mark them with a big sign saying that there are spoilers coming up.  With this post, however, there are going to be spoilers throughout the entire post.  So, if you haven't read Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly or would like to avoid spoilers, this might not be the best post for you to read.  I know, I can't believe I'm telling people not to read my post, but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone!  Also, this is going to be a fairly long post.  Just like when I wrote about The King's Curse, I also want to get into some of the history of the book as well.

This book focuses on three separate stories surrounding World War II: Kasia Kuzmerick, Caroline Ferriday and Herta and Herta Oberheuser.  Two of the characters, Herta and Caroline, were real people, while Kasia was based on a real person, Janina Iwanska.  I'm going to be honest, at first I wasn't going to read this book.  The sequel (which is actually a prequel), Lost Roses, sounded far more interesting to me.  However, I decided to give it a shot.  My mom kept speaking highly of it, and if I didn't like it, I could just stop reading it.  We already owned a copy, so I had nothing to lose.

First of all, this book wasn't what I was expecting at all.  I thought the book would focus entirely around World War II and the Holocaust.  In reality, this was only about half of the book.  The second half dealt with the aftermath of the events in the first half of the book.  I found this particularly intriguing, as many books about the Holocaust don't spend that much time on the aftermath.

In this book, one of the main settings is Ravensbruck, an actual concentration camp.  Located in northern Germany, this was a camp for female prisoners from 1939 to 1945, so the entire duration of the war.  The overwhelming majority of women, approximately 40,000, were Polish, but women from all over Europe were represented there.  Additionally, roughly 80% of the inhabitants were political prisoners, like one of the characters in the book.  In all, it is estimated that about 130,000 women passed through this camp and around 50,000 of them perished.

A view of Ravensbruck courtesy of https://www.ravensbrueck-sbg.de/en/history/1939-1945/

Like I said before, Lilac Girls focuses on three different women.  They all have separate stories until they slowly begin to come together in ways that were both predictable and unpredictable over about a twenty year period.  Martha Hall Kelly does a wonderful job of discussing all three women and giving them all a chance to tell their story as fully as possible.

Caroline Ferriday

The first character I want to talk about is Caroline Ferriday.  As previously stated, she was a real person.  She lived amongst higher society in New York with her mother, and both women were philanthropists.  Previously a moderately successful actress, Caroline now volunteered her time at the French Consulate in New York City were she dedicated most of her time raising money and supplies for orphans in France.  This becomes impossible when the puppet Vichy government takes over.  In the book, Kelly also alludes to a romance between Caroline and a married French actor, although I haven't been able to find much about that online, so I don't know if was added in to just give her character a little more conflict.

In the 1950s, Caroline worked with the Ravensbruck "Rabbits", women who were used for medical experiments at the camp.  She worked tirelessly to raise awareness about them and raise funds to bring them to America.  Although the war had been over for nearly ten years at this point, many of these women now lived behind the Iron Curtain and had limited access to medical assistance that would help them overcome the ghastly injuries purposefully inflicted upon them during the war.  In the book, this includes the fictional character Kasia and her sister, Zuzanna.  In reality, Caroline and her mother really hosted four of these such women for nearly a year as they toured the country and got the medical assistance they so desperately needed.

If I'm going to be honest, I felt that Caroline's was the weakest of the two stories.  I hate saying that, because I feel like it trivializes Caroline's amazing life, but it's true.  Her story didn't interweave with the other two stories until the second half of the book, so for about 200 pages, her story just seemed out of place and completely different from Kasia and Herta's stories.  I just couldn't see how her story was going to come together with the other two.  All three stories did come together in the end, but it was definitely a struggle to see how it was going to all be done.

Kasia Kuzmerick
I'm going to talk about Kasia in two different ways.  First, I'm going to talk about her as a fictional character.  Then, I'm going to talk about the real life woman who inspired her character and the similarities between the two.

In the book, Kasia was a Catholic who worked for the Polish Resistance after a local boy she was friends with got involved in it.  Unfortunately, she was caught fairly early on and sent to Ravensbruck, along with her sister, mother, her friend and her friend's younger sister.  After being briefly detained in a ghetto, they were sent to Ravensbruck.  At Ravensbruck, Kasia and her sister were used for medical experiments, which was really just a cruel, sick form of torture.  It is later revealed that Kasia had part of her tibia removed (approximately six centimeters), and she had foreign items inserted into her leg.  Because of this, Kasia was left with extreme pain and difficulties walking.  Meanwhile, Kasia's mother, who was a trained nurse, was moved to Block One where she worked in the camp hospital doing administrative tasks.  One day, however, while her daughters were being operated on, she simply disappeared.  It takes Kasia until the very end of the book to find out what really happened to her mother.

During her time at Ravensbruck, Kasia was able to write letters to her father, who was free the entire time.  She included coded messages written in her own urine exposing the truth behind what was going on in the camp.  Her father passed this information off to the International Red Cross, along with several other foreign agencies and governments.

Eventually, Kasia and Zuzanna managed to leave the camp towards the end of the war when the International Red Cross showed up.  They first went to Sweden before heading back to Poland, only for it to fall behind the Iron Curtain.  During this time, Kasia dealt with extreme anger and resentment for what happened to her and the fact that her father moved on with a new woman in his life.  She carried this anger with her until the end of the book.

While the character of Kasia was fictional, she was based on a real person, Janina "Nina" Iwanska (sometimes spelled "Iwanski").  Unfortunately, I couldn't find a whole lot of information about Janina out there, but I will definitely keep my eye out for more and update this page with anything I do happen to come across.  Just like Kasia, Nina was part of the Polish resistance until she was caught and sent to Ravensbruck.  While in Ravensbruck, Nina became one of the "Rabbits", a term given to the women used for medical experiments for two reasons: first, they often had trouble walking and therefore had to hop from place to place and second, because they were being used for medical experiments, just like rabbits.  With the help of three other women, including her younger sister, Nina wrote coded letters to her outside family telling of everything going on in the camp.  The four women spelled out everything in extreme detail so their families knew exactly what was going on.  They even planned to escape from Ravensbruck and asked their family members for supplies.  It is unclear if they actually did escape, but all four women did end up surviving the war.

Herta Oberheuser
Like Caroline Ferriday, Herta Oberheuser was a real person.  Personally, I found her story the most fascinating in a weird, twisted way.  It was a completely different perspective from what I was used to in World War II and Holocaust books.  In a way, it reminded me of Werner from All the Light We Cannot See, who also worked for the Nazis, although he was far less passionate about the Nazi Party ideologies.  Herta, on the other hand, fully bought into the Nazi Party.  Everything she did, she did for the greater good of Germany.  It was strange and uncomfortable getting inside the head of someone who bought the party line so willingly, it was definitely a new experience for me as a reader and a historian.  The discomfort I felt definitely speaks to the quality of writing on the part of Kelly.

Herta went to Ravensbruck in 1942; she was 31 years old.  Before then, she got a medical degree and focused on dermatology.  The book discusses how Herta wanted to do more but was limited due to the fact that she was a woman, and Nazi ideology emphasized the importance of women staying home and running the household.  She served in the League of German Girls, a Nazi program for young women and eventually became assistant to Karl Gebhardt, who was Heinrich Himmler's personal physician.  Upon her arrival at Ravensbruck, Herta worked on finding a better way to treat infections.  In the book, Kelly talked about the fact that this was because one of Hitler's aides died from a wound inflicted on the battlefield and blamed the death on the fact that a specific medication was not administered to him.  Therefore, Herta recreated battle wounds on prisoners, including slicing open their legs in gruesome ways and rubbing all sorts of foreign items such as soil, glass and wood into the wound, along with bacteria.  Some women were treated with the drug in question, while others were not; all to prove to Hitler that the lack of medication administered did not lead to his aid's death.  I couldn't find anything online to lead to the veracity of this.  I hope it's not true, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Lilac Girls also speculates about a possible romantic relationship between Kasia's mom and Herta.  It's only alluded to, and Herta does seem especially distraught when Kasia's mother disappears.  They also seemed to be more than just friends, although Kelly leaves that up to the interpretation of the reader.

After the war, Allied forces arrested Herta, and she was part of the Nuremberg trials as one of the only female doctors on trial.  She was found guilty and sentenced to twenty years in prison (it should be noted that others were executed for her crimes).  Much like the criminal justice system today, Herta did not serve her entire sentence and was released after five years for good behavior.  She opened a family practice in Germany until a Ravensbruck survivor recognized her and turned her in.  In Lilac Girls, this is slightly different.  Caroline hears rumors that Herta is practicing family medicine in Germany and pressures Kasia to go and see if it really is her.  If it is, a positive identification can help to bring Herta down and prevent her from practicing medicine in the future.  Since Kasia is a fictional character, reality is a little different.  The book ends with Kasia confronting Herta.  Free from the burden of hatred and finally embracing forgiveness, she is able to finally move on with her life and be happy.  The reader doesn't find out what happened to Herta.  In reality, news of Herta's real identity came to light.  Not only did she lose her license to practice medicine, but the German government fined her as well.  Her career as a doctor was finally over.

Believe it or not, I still have a lot to say about this book.  First of all, a lot of this book reminded me of my own experiences when I visited Auschwitz four and a half years ago.  I had the wonderful and unique experience of traveling to Krakow to visit Auschwitz with a Holocaust survivor, Eva Mozes Kor.  Like Kasia, Eva was subjected to extreme torture under the guise of medical experiments during the Holocaust, but that is where their stories diverge.  Eva was only ten years old when her family was deported to Auschwitz.  Since she and her sister, Miriam, were twins, they were selected to stay alive and be a part of Dr. Mengele's experiments.  The rest of their immediate family did not survive.

Me with Eva at our hotel in Krakow.  July 2015

During their brief time at Auschwitz (approximately nine months).  Eva, her sister and other twins were subjected to all sorts of medical experiments at the hands of Dr. Josef Mengele.  Until the day she died, Eva had no idea what exactly was done to her.  One of her life's missions was to find out, as she was convinced those experiments caused all of Miriam's health problems later in life (Eva donated her one of her kidneys at one point), and ultimately her death in 1993.  Eva lived until 2019 and died on a trip to Auschwitz on July 4th.

One thing that really stood out to me was the lack of forgiveness Kasia carried in her heart.  Understandably, she grew to resent most people around her because of what was done to her.  This was compounded by the guilt that her actions in the Polish Resistance got her mother arrested as well, eventually leading to her death.  It wasn't until Kasia confronted Herta and had her say that she was able to feel lighter and freer.  One of Eva's big messages was a message of forgiveness.  She advocated for forgiveness for everyone, not because the other person deserved it, but because you deserve to live a free life without carrying that hatred around in your heart.  I feel that Kasia really exemplified that.  While she didn't technically "forgive" Herta, but confronting her and saying what she wanted to her, she was able to finally hold her head up and live a better life.  I'm purposefully not talking a lot about Eva or going into much detail because I have an entire post planned out for the anniversary of Auschwitz's liberation next month, and I'll talk about my trip and Eva in immense detail then.

There was another small detail that most people probably missed that actually had immense meaning to me.  In the book Caroline talks to Wallis Simpson (wife of the former King Edward VIII of England) about raising funds to help the Ravensbruck women.  Wallis immediately replies that the war has been over for quite some time, and she can't imagine there are still victims who still need help getting on their feet.  This reminds me of a conversation I had with my Pop-Pop a few weeks before he died.  I spent a good two hours talking to him about everything under the sun, including his time with Germany.  During the Korean War, the United States and the rest of the world worried that some still sympathetic towards Nazism would try to do something while the rest of the world was distracted with the problems in Korea.  For that reason, my Pop-Pop and others were deployed to Germany during the war. 

Pop-Pop relaxing while stationed in Germany sometime in the early 1950's.

Although my mom isn't sure of exactly when he went over to Korea (she thinks sometime in 1951), but she knows he returned to the United States in 1953.  That means he was there 6-8 years after the end of World War II.  Despite this, there was still a displaced persons camp right next to the army base.  While visiting with Pop-Pop, he told me about his experiences with the victims still living in the camp nearly a decade later.  He told me he and the other soldiers would even pay them to do their laundry with cigarettes.  All of this completely surprised me, just like it surprised Wallis Simpson that there were people who needed help.

Overall, I thought Lilac Girls was an amazing book, far better than I expected.  I thought the history was absolutely fascinating, and there were several personal connections I had to the book that drew me to it even more.  I can't wait to get my hands on the prequel and any other books Kelly writes in the future.

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