Movies to Watch Before You Die

My previous post got me thinking about movies. I rarely, if ever, see lists of the greatest movies or movies to see before you die. So here's mine, again in no particular order.

A work in progress:

• Grease 
• Sixteen Candles
• The Breakfast Club
• Forrest Gump
• Pearl Harbor
• Saving Private Ryan

• Bridesmaids 
• 50/50
• Men in Black
• Big Daddy
• Finding Nemo
• Monsters, Inc.
• Lion King
• Toy Story
• That Thing You Do!
• A League of Their Own

• Iron-Jawed Angels
• Big
• Independence Day
• It Takes Two
• Parent Trap (the pre-cocaine Lindsay Lohan version)
• Ghosts of Mississippi
• The Longest Yard
• Never Been Kissed
• Ten Things I Hate About You
• Bad Boys (I & II)
• Iron Man (I & II)
• Juno
• The Ugly Truth

• The Blind Side
• A Walk to Remember
• Remember the Titans
• A Christmas Story
• Freedom Writers
• The Help
• Miss Congeniality
• The Proposal
• Million Dollar Baby
• Shrek
• Hitch
• 50 First Dates
• American Pie
• Sweet Home Alabama
• Friends With Benefits
• The Sweetest Thing

Books to Read Before You Die

There are so many of the greatest books lists out there, but I always find them so stuffy. So many books are "classics" or what I call "literature reading," mostly things you expect to read in a class. I feel like these lists leave out so many precious reads and genres that I decided to create a list of my own. While I was introduced to some of the novels in the classroom, many were not.

A work in progress (in no particular order):

• The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
• All But My Life - Gerda Weissman Klein
• A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
• Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson
• Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide - Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

• the entire Scarpetta Series (20 books) - Patricia Cornwell (sidebar, Bone Bed was just released but I have no doubt that it will be amazing) 
• Gone Baby, Gone - Dennis Lehane
• Deeper Than the Dead mini series - Tami Hoag
• The Alibi Man - Tami Hoag
• Night Sins - Tami Hoag
• Prior Bad Acts - Tami Hoag
• The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
• Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
• The Color Purple - Alice Walker

• Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea - Chelsea Handler 
• Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang - Chelsea Handler
• Quiet Hero - Rita Cosby
• the Hunger Games trilogy - Suzanne Collins
• the Nina Reilly series (12 books) - Perri O'Shaughnessy
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn - Betty Smith
• Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi
• Kindred - Octavia Butler
• The Diary of Anne Frank - Anne Frank
• The Things They Carried - Tim O'Brien
• To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
• A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
• The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
• Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
• Little House on the Prairie series - Laura Ingalls Wilder
• The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein
• A Light in the Attic - Shel Silverstein
• Falling Up - Shel Silverstein                            
• Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein

• The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis 
• The Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Patterson

• The BFG - Roald Dahl
• Out of the Dust - Karen Hesse
• Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume
• Walk Two Moons - Sharon Creech
•  Babysitter Club series - Ann M. Martin
• Babysitter's Little Sister series - Ann M. Martin
• The Giver - Lois Lowry
• Jamaica and Me: The Story of an Unusual Friendship - Linda Atkinson
• Those Who Save Us - Jenna Blum
• Dear America: A Picture of Freedom - Patricia C. Mckissack
• Dear America: The Winter of the Red Snow - Kristiana Gregory
• Dear America: Dreams in the Golden Country - Kathryn Lasky
• Dear America: A Line in the Sand - Sherry Garland

My One and Only Political Post

In light of the big election tomorrow, I decided to create my only political post. I typically like to steer away from political conversations, especially on social media. But this is my personal space, so I'll do what I want.

Let me start this off by saying this is not a debate arena. This is my blog, my expressions and my hard work. This is not about how much I hate one candidate, nor how much I love another. Don't even bother arguing with me, trying to get me to see your point of view, bashing me, or bashing my opinions. If you do, I will delete your comments. Without hesitation.

That being said, voting is a lot of hard work. Who you decide to align yourself with, or who you decide to put that little mark next to their name is a pretty loaded decision. I know, I know, your one tiny vote won't make a difference. But what if every person, or even half the population voted uninformed or apathetically? Just think about that, 'Murica.

While listening to hundreds and hundreds of nonsense political ads, both at the state and national level, I've really gotten to thinking what I want in a president. While I do lean towards Democrat, there are so many times that I wish it were easier to vote for specific ideologies rather than party lines. In the last few weeks, I've come up with a list of everything I want in a president. If, for some inexplicable miracle, these things could all be in one person, I would not only stand behind this nominee 1000%, I would even donate part of my piddly salary to their campaign. I want someone in office who will:

• keep abortion legalized
• let women make decisions about their bodies themselves
• abolish abstinence-only sex education in public schools
• completely stand true to a separation of Church and State
• legalize same-sex marriage
• get this country out of this damn recession
• create more jobs
• bring our troops home
• take care of problems at home before taking care of other countries
• make education more affordable and accessible
• make healthcare more affordable and accessible
• not bash their opponent
• mean what they say and say what they mean
• actually do what they say, mean and keep promises