Time and Again: I got this book as it was referred to by Stephen King in 11/22/63 as being the impetus for his recent time travel novel. When I started reading it I thought there were some similarities in this story and the movie Somewhere in Time. I looked at that movie to see if it had been taken from this book. No, it was from another but the time travel portion seemed very similar, especially at the beginning. The story here was ok,  being both a HIT and MISS for me.  I enjoyed the historical aspects of it, especially the parts that coincided with the Story of Us documentaries that I have been watching.

America: The Story of Us-Boom: Another interesting segment of the US history series. This one starts out in Texas at Spindletop, not so very far from here, with the boom of oil. Then moves on to automobiles and the assembly line, movies and the hunt for water in California. Then on to the race riots, prohibition and gang problems. A very interesting segment, another HIT for me.

We Bought a Zoo: My husband had heard this one was good. And I’d had the opportunity to enter to win and review this video through a homeschool site. My daughter agreed to watch, so I agreed to watch. The story of the family and the family dynamics was good enough (though sad; I did cry a couple of times.) The main kids were cute and good. I could relate to the feelings of sadness of a lost spouse and the feelings of hurt and tension with teenaged children. So that part of the story was a HIT with me. But the surrounding characters were all very hokey as was some of the story. And that part of the movie was a MISS with me. Also another MISS for me is the foul language. I just don’t like the way the use it and especially when they have the kids use it. At least I could buy the teen boy using it in his hurt and anger. But there was no call for the 7 year old girl to just come out and use vulgar language just for the shock value. That was the biggest MISS of all for me.

Congo (novel): I really enjoyed this Crichton novel! I was surprised at the technology used in the book, set in 1979! I enjoyed the story,  found it suspenseful, interesting and not as offensive as some of his other work. This one was a HIT for me.

Anthem: This required reading for my daughter was a MISS for me. I felt like it went from one extreme to the other, neither of which is healthy.

Nunsense Country Jamboree: This play at a local community college was a  HIT for us (even though we don’t like country music all that much!) in that it was silly and high energy. Yes there is some risque content, but we knew that going in to it (and there was not as much as I had expected!) The cast did a good job of keeping their energy up through the entire performance.

The Story of Us:Heartland: This episode is another HIT. Here I learned that about 1/4 of homesteaders were single women or freed slaves. The Transcontinental Railroad employed civil war vets as well as immigrants. It was found to be cheaper to ship over Chinese workers than to transport Americans from the East. Also, the Chinese man who ended up mixing nitroglycerine at the TCRR site (because the original chemist became an alcoholic) had a son who was the first Chinese to graduate from UC Berkley with an engineering degree. The TCRR also affected times so much that to be able to keep track of train schedules, time zones were introduced. The railroad also opened up the entrepreneurial  business of Mr. Sears. And I learned that the era of the cowboy only lasted about 20 years. What brought it to its end? Barbed Wire fencing.

The Story of Us: Cities: In this episode I learned about the plights affecting the cities of the late 19th century-disease, overcrowding, poverty (slums), and crime. I also learned what an impact skyscrapers, steel and the electric light had on society. I also heard about the shirtwaist factory fire which resulted in laws that are still in effect today. Many parts of this segment related to a book I am reading, including the buildings, the fire, the Statue of Liberty in pieces, and even Sgt. Byrnes of the NYPD. This one is also a HIT (though I don’t like the computer generated Statue of Liberty.)

*whether or not to vaccinate children

*GPS tracking of children and teens

*using Hitler to sell “real man’s shampoo”

*playing video games in meetings

*women ingesting their placenta after giving birth

*shooting home intruders

*using a boy’s murder to incite calls of racism

Since the time that my knee started hurting again I have been hearing a lot about inflammation in the body-on the news, on a public tv program, and most recently I have just heard about another product called Nopalea. I have not ever heard of this product before. It is a wellness drink that is made from the Nopal cactus.  I don’t know how it tastes or how well it performs but it is said to reduce inflammation in the joints as well as cleansing the body of toxins. Hearing that it helps the body in overall wellness, most specifically with joint inflammation, I am going to see what I can find out more about this wellness drink.

The Story of Us-Rebels: I found this series on Netflix and I think it will be perfect to watch while doing my bike trainer. Each segment of the series is about 45 minutes long and tells the story of America. Today I watched this first segment and overall enjoyed the story. I am not crazy about modern day cinematography (I guess that what it is…) but the information was good. I learned that one of the early Pilgrims to come over on the Mayflower was Edward Winslow. Interestingly enough, I have read many books in a fictional series about his descendants. If I understand, about 10% of Americans can trace their ancestry back to him. I also learned that John Hancock was one of the, if not the, richest man in Boston at the time. And I also learned that due to Ben Franklin’s night riders, all the colonies knew of the Bloody (Boston) Massacre before anyone back in England did. I was also surprised at the high level, well known people included in the interviews of this documentary: Colin Powell, Donald Trump, Brian Williams, Michael Douglas, Rudy Gulianni, Michael Bloomberg. Very interesting and I think made interesting and timely, using these current well known interviewees,  for a younger generation as well. I will rate this one a HIT.

The Story of Us: Revolution: This second segment was also enjoyable and informative to me. I learned just how many English ships came to fight-nearly 400! I also learned there were 14,000 soldiers at Valley Forge though many died from small pox. In fact, Washington proposed a small pox inoculation that pretty well kept him from losing all of his soldiers. I learned that Baron Von Steuben came to help Washington and started by incurring hygiene and discipline at Valley Forge, noting that in his previous experience in foreign armies he told soldiers what to do and they did it. Here, he was obliged to tell them WHY and then they would do it. I also learned that Washington had a network of spies including a loyalist writer, a tavern owner and a housewife and her laundry. I rate this installation a HIT.

11/22/63: Whew!! 849 pages including author’s notes. This is a “heavy” novel in some ways. I woke up after having dreamed about it more than once. The story is fascinating; maybe only for those who are interested in history and time travel, I don’t know. But I was drawn in to the story and remained inside it (like I said, even dreaming about it.) My husband asked if it was scary (I was leery to read Stephen King since he’s noted for horror which I do not enjoy.) I said not really scary in the sense of horror, but scary because it’s based on reality, which might be even more horrific….at any rate, I think I would call this story a HIT but I do have to put a HUGE disclaimer on the vulgarity used throughout to move the story along.  I like Mr. King’s story-telling but I just can’t seem to move past the vulgarity (language and sex-both crude and vulgar) used so constantly to tell the story. That for me is a MISS.

The Story of Us: Westward: This segment was another HIT for me. I do keep learning things I don’t remember hearing before. This segment does bring up some uncomfortable ideas from our history, particularly the way the native americans were treated and marched to reservations. There was brief mention of Lewis and Clark’s expedition and the Alamo. I was really struck by the westward movement to Oregon, Utah and California. I also learned that many pioneers died of “milk sickness” which I’d not heard before. Apparently cows ate a poisonous root and the poison was passed on through the milk. I was also amazed that in four generations the size of the nation grew from coast to coast (it was stated that Thomas Jefferson thought it would take 1000.) I do wonder sometimes how accurate these types of shows are, but I am still enjoying this one.

Reader’s Digest: Pretty much still always a HIT with me.