Review: The Five Thieves of Happieness

Title The Five Thieves of Happiness
By John Izzo
Genre Self Help/Nonfiction
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
What's keeping you from being happy? Does happiness come from outside sources or is it something found within. This book talks about five things that are stealing your happiness and what you can do to stop them and live a happy life.

First Sentence
A Thief is someone who steals what's rightfully ours.






(No Friday Flicks today. I saw Death Wish and, well, I figured you didn't care to hear about that one. It's a Bruce Willis movie. 'nuff said.)

In spite of my reading slump, I am making it through a few books. It didn't hurt that this one was so short. My friend recommended it and I'm glad she did.

Who doesn't want more happiness in their life? This book is great! It's short, not overly preachy, and actually has actions you can take. I've talked about how I hate when self help books just talk about your problem rather than offering solutions.

I loved how this book promoted open mindedness. It was my favorite thing about it. But I also thought it had a lot of truth in it. The thieves he talks about really do rob us of happiness. How do I know that? Because they've been robbing me of happiness my whole life!

Excellent little book. I'd highly recommend it to get you thinking.

Review: Eliza and her Monsters

Title Eliza and her Monsters
By Francesca Zappia
Genre YA Contemporary
Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis
Eliza is an introvert. She keeps to herself and is just trying to survive her senior year of high school and escape to college. But Eliza has a whole other side to her. On line she is the creator of Monstrous Sea, a popular web comic. But keeping the two lives separate becomes increasingly hard when a new boy comes to school. Wallace is a fan of Monstrous Sea but he's also a fan of Eliza's. It's only a matter of time before Eliza's worlds collide.

First Sentence 
The origin post is open on my computer when I shuffle over to it in the morning.

Guys, I'm in the worst reading slump of all time! I did manage to make it through a book though. I'd heard good things about Eliza so I thought it might be what I need to get out of my slump. But while I did manage to read it the whole way through, I'm still in my slump!

This book is 380ish pages and for the first 300 pages not much happens. It's mostly introducing us to Eliza, her family and Monstrous Sea and then watching her and Wallace fall for each other while Eliza keeps her secret from him. Of course the shiz hits the fan and when it does the book became much more engrossing. I flew through the last 80-100 pages. I wish the whole book had been that good.

But I have to say, I'm not sure what everyone sees in this one. It was OK but not amazing. But I'm a horrible judge right now. I'm in such a reading slumpish mood that who am I to judge?

At my last book club this book got brought up and those who had read it were arguing about Eliza's parents. I hadn't read it at the time but I had to laugh at how strongly each person felt. Now that I've read it...sorry Suey, I have to take a stand against the parents. They weren't horrible but they were so clueless. And I didn't buy that they wouldn't have looked up their daughters web comic and seen how popular it was. The fact that they didn't....not good.

So while this one didn't get me out of my reading slump, it did manage to get me to finish which is very impressive these days.

Should you read it
Yes.

TV Talk Sundays #4

Alright, this is a little late but I've been off my game lately. I'm happy the Olympics are finally over and we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming. I was starting to have withdrawals!

Back To Our Regularly Scheduled Programming
(on TV now)

Jane The Virgin
I felt sort of "meh" about this weeks episode. I feel like they've lost momentum. Hopefully things pick up soon.

9-1-1
This week's episode tackled the full moon and all the crazies that come out. I laughed at the prenatal yoga class when three women went into labor. As usual this show makes me roll my eyes but it's still fun to watch.

The Good Doctor
And they introduced a new doctor. I actually liked this guy. He's older and I can see him butting heads with the other doctors but that's got to be a good thing, right?

The Resident
This show is starting to piss me off. It shows the greed of hospital CEOs so well that it's making me sick. Our health care system is so messed up and whoever you want to blame, that's fine but the real villain is greed. It's all about the money. Ugh! I don't know if I can even keep watching.

Netflix

The Crown
Still slowly making my way through season two. I love looking up each episode after I watch and seeing what was accurate and what's not. It's usually pretty close to truth. Anyone else watch the episode with Charles going to that school and wanting to choke him out? Sorry, I know he's the future king of England but he's such a little pansy.

Amazon Prime

Victoria
I've started watching Victoria on Prime and while it's not as accurate as The Crown I still enjoy it. It's entertaining and fun to watch. Anyone else seen it? You should check it out. The guy who plays Albert is very, very dreamy!

Friday Flicks: Oscars Edition

I'm doing something a little different today! The Oscars are on Sunday and I've seen all but one of the best picture nominees. I'm excited to watch them because of this. Usually I've only seen a few of the movies or none at all. 

So I thought I'd talk about the best picture nominees and my thoughts on each of them. Are you ready? Just pretend you're excited.

Lady Bird
My Rating  ★★★★
I started with this one because I think it's going to be the one to win. I'm not basing this on anything but intuition so I guess we'll see. I liked this one but didn't think it was the best picture of the year. It's funny, relatable and entertaining and the actors and actresses did an amazing job and worked well together. Even my husband enjoyed it and it's about a teenager girl and all her angst so that says something. 

The Shape of Water
My Rating ★★★
This is the movie I was most looking forward to seeing and had a scare for awhile thinking it wasn't coming to my state. Luckily it finally came and I was able to see it. And...I loved the music and the sets but found the story a little lackluster and shallow and the villain too cliche. All in all I was a bit disappointed and only found it to be OK.

The Darkest Hour
My Rating ★★★★
I really loved this one! I wasn't expecting to but I did. Gary Oldman did a awesome job and the make up was so well done you can hardly recognize him. The music in this one is on all the time at my house now because I loved it so much. The story was done so well I cried like a baby at the end. And then I read how accurate it was. Apparently not very, which is why it dropped a star for me. I still loved and enjoyed it but it would have been better if I could have kept thinking all the wonderful bits in the movie were real.

Dunkirk 
My Rating ★★★
I actually talked about this one in one of my mini movie reviews awhile back. It was one I really didn't want to see but my husband did so we went and I actually ended up liking it. The events of this movie were also talked about in The Darkest Hour which I found fun. Since I'd seen Dunkirk I knew what they were talking about in The Darkest Hour. I felt so smart! ;)

Phantom Thread
My Rating ★★★
Had I not just read The Way of the Superior Man I'm sure I would have despised this one. Daniel Day Lewis' character was a complete jerk. However, reading that book gave me a different insight into this one. I actually just ended up laughing through the end and liking it a lot more than I ever would have before.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri 
My Rating ★★★★★
This was my favorite of the bunch and pick for best picture. I LOVED it. I found its portrayal of events just that. More of a portrayal then an agenda. The acting was superb with incredibly memorable characters. Moments in the film will stick out in my mind for a long time. I want to own this one! I also think Sam Rockwell who's nominated for best supporting actor should TOTALLY win. He is such a great actor and he deserves to win for his role in this one. 

Get Out
My Rating ★★
I'm afraid this one might win too and I can NOT get behind that. This was a stupid horror movie that's only nominated because of its political nature. I'm so disappointed in the academy. They totally were trying to be politically correct when they nominated it and it doesn't deserve it. My actual opinion of the movie is that it was OK. Just that. OK. It was funny and, yes, a bit horrifically disturbing but an Oscar nomination? No.

The Post
My Rating ★★★
I didn't particularly want to see this one. It seemed like it would be nothing but dialogue and I was right. Still, I ended up liking it more than I thought I would. I'm a bit too young to remember the events that this movie was based on and I always love learning more about history so I liked that aspect. I wasn't blown away by the acting but I liked Meryl Streep's character. She was fighting an uphill battle in a male dominated world and I admired her choices.

Call Me By Your Name
I haven't seen this one. It kept fluttering in and out of theaters around me after its nomination but I kept missing it. Now it's too late. Oh well.










So, what do you think of the nominees? Have you seen any? Which one do you think/hope will win? Are you even watching the Oscars? Inquiring minds want to know!

February Wrap-Up 2018

As February came to a close last night, I sat in bed wondering why I was glad it was over. I feel like I'm just tolerating life lately and can't wait for the day, week, month or the year to end. It's as if I think things will get better in the future. The truth is things are pretty good right now; in the moment but I'm in the habit of being grouchy. It doesn't help that February did have a lot of crappy things happen and that near the end of the month I hit a reading slump and my anxiety attacks went into high gear but all in all my life is good. I need to get out of this nasty habit of being irritated all of the time. Another thing I need to work on, right? Anyway, sorry to ramble. I managed 6 books in February. Most were read at the beginning of the month before my book hangover/reading slump hit.

Places No One Knows by Brenna Yovanoff, The Women in the Window by A.J. Finn, White Tears by Hari Kunzru, The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty, The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett and How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell.

Favorite of the month and inducer of my book hangover and coinciding reading slump was The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett. Least Favorite was White Tears.

I also DNF two books this month.

Lincoln in the Bardo was one of the Tournament of Book books and it was just written in too weird of a style for me. Every Last Word just felt unedited and childish.

On to March where I hope to get out of my slump and read more and start having a better attitude. Now watch the universe really test my limits.