40 Banned Books to Read at your own risk...

Continuing thoughts on why people feel the need to tell others what to read, or that matter judge what others read? What fatal flaw is in our evolutionary makeup that results in this? And why? Why did we evolve into creatures who feel the need to impose our tastes on others? Is it the need to control? And why is it so hard to understand that people like things we don't because, hello, they happen to think differently than we do - and that's actually a really wonderful thing?

Anyhow...here's the list. How many have you read? And weirdly, quite a few of them are classified by Libraries and Publishers as either Young Adult or Children's Books.

I'm bolding the ones I read. And underlining the ones I own but haven't gotten around to reading yet.

1) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee,
2) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury,
3) Slaughterhouse-Five by KurtVonnegut,
4) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling,
5) Lord of the Flies by William Golding,
6) Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
7) 1984 by George Orwell
8) A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle,
9) The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank,
10) My Friend Flicka by Mary O’Hara,
11) Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White,
12) The Lorax by Dr. Seuss,
13) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott,
14) The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, (Why? Someone have something against trees?)
15) The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison,
16) Animal Farm by George Orwell,
17) The Color Purple by Alice Walker,
18) Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein,
19) Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume,
20) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky,
21) The Rabbits’ Wedding by Garth Williams,
22) The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway,
23) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley,
24) Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman, (This has a different name - I read it as The Golden Compass - the first volume in His Dark Materials Trilogy.)
25) Inventing Witchcraft: A Case Study in the Creation of a New Religion by Aidan A. Kelly,
26) Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, [Okaay...do people have issues with frontier life?]
27) The Trial by Franz Kafka,
28) The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury,
29) Where’s Waldo? by Martin Handford, [Seriously? Why? Is it the funky scarf?]
30) The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton,
31) The Devil in the Drain by Daniel Pinkwater,
32) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins,
33) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith,
34) The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood,
35) Hey Dollface by Deborah Hautzig,
36) Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden,
37) The Giver by Lois Lowry,
38) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes,
39) James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl,
40) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

http://blog.hpb.com/hpb-blog/2012/9/27/40-banned-books-to-read-at-your-own-risk.html

If I live to be a 100 - I'll never understand why people feel the need to tell other people what to read. The right to read whatever I please is one I treasure and will fight for. And I read everything. I think limiting yourself to one type of book is well limiting...but I'll defend to the death your right to choose to do that. Or to read everything under the sun.

How to Get Away with Murder Review - well sort of.

FB: There are over 7 million people in the world, and you are going to let one person ruin your day?
Me: Well it would help if I stayed off the internet on weekends and weeknights, less likely to happen.

Although, seriously, this does pose another question? Why is it that out of all the comments we get, many extremely positive, we focus on that one negative one? Okay, maybe not we...I just like to think I'm not the only nitwit that does this.

Finished watching yet another new series pilot How to Get Away With Murder - which is really hard to follow and focus on. It has a lot of characters, three or four plot threads, flash-forwards in time, and two-three mysteries. That's one busy tv show. Particularly, if you count all the commercial interruptions. By the way - are other countries television series as broken up by advertisers and commercials as US tv shows are? Because I think it makes a big difference. a) the ad dollars do mean a lot more money can be spent on the tv show (up to 10 million, possibly more), and b) lots of interruptions and the tv show is often geared to well bring in lots of viewers. Seems to be a bit of a double-edged sword. This may be why we don't have quite as much of the informational/educational programming that other countries appear to have? Because informational/educational programming doesn't make money well not like a football game or an episode of Big Bang Theory would.

That said, I do find HTGAWM or "Murder" to be rather compelling. And I love Viola Davis in it. Wasn't all that surprised by the plot twist at the end - mainly because once I figured out that it was a flash-forward, not a flash-back, and the connections between various characters - it was merely a process of elimination.

So I'll continue with it for now. But we'll see how it goes, since it is rather hard to follow in places. And lately my brain hasn't really been able to focus on tv shows, movies, or books - busy, busy, busy.

What's "Murder" about? Has an interesting premise. Criminal Defense Attorney, Annalease Keating, teaches a Criminal Law Course entitled How to Get Away With Murder - each year she selects four to five top law students to join her small firm, where they help her defend various clients. ( spoilery )

Most of the action is shown through the points of view of the law students, who in a series of "flash-forwards" are shown carting a body into the woods and burning it. Who the body is - is revealed at the very end of the first episode. Since it is a flash-forward - we don't know when the murder happens - just that it will in the future. We're in the past watching the tale unfold - a story telling technique that Nowack stole from Damages. It can work - except I think Damages was executed better. This show jumps around too much and doesn't quite have the talent that Damages had behind it. It does however remind me a great deal of Damages in some respects. Except I think I like Viola Davis better than Glenn Close, but that's just me.

This is however just the pilot and if it's anything like Scandal - it may take it a while to find its footing.

Lately, I've been struggling with television series and "execution" - they have a great idea, a good cast, but poor execution. Or it's the opposite - great execution, great cast - but I hate the characters. There are a few hidden gems out there though...which succeed on all counts:

* The Good Wife
* Sleepy Hollow
* Parenthood
* Breaking Bad
* Game of Thrones
* Broadchurch
* Justified

To name a few.

Once Upon A Time is frustrating me - because it has a great idea, great characters, a decent cast - but really bad execution and writing. I keep wanting to strangle the writers. How to Get Away With Murder may elicit a similar reaction.

In other news? I've managed to drop five dress sizes in one year. I went from an 18W in September 2013, to a size 12 in September 2014. My co-workers are telling me not to lose any more weight. Or asking if I have a weight goal in mind? They don't appear to understand that I'm not on a diet per se, but a new life style/method of eating to ensure no back, leg, head, etc pain. And its working. I haven't had a cold or the flu all year. The pain in my back and legs has diminished and rarely bothers me. No more hot flashes. No more migraines. No more night sweats. No more pain pills. No more crazy mood swings. I'm a new woman. It's amazing what going off sugar, dairy, all grains, alcohol, chocolate, caffeine, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and beans can do for your sanity. I do cheat occasionally - but often feel the negative effects after-wards, so rarely.