I was introduced to Star Wars a little under forty years ago. In the summer or 1977 my dad, mom, brother and I saw "Star Wars" at a movie theater in Wichita Kansas. I was seven years young.:-) At the time there were only a handful of action figures at the close by general store, which with the current plethora of all things Star Wars, is hard to believe. Star Wars was fun and exciting, but "The Empire Strikes Back" really floored me. My family saw it at a very new movie theater in the Temple Texas Mall, the screen was low and wrapped around, which added to the more high tech feel of the movie to me. Episode 5 was/is almost perfect in every way. I recall some family debates of what Darth Vader's intentions were for telling Luke Skywalker that he was his father. My dad was convinced that Darth was lying, but I thought given the emotional or Forceful connection shown between father and son at the end of the movie, there must have been some truth to the matter. Thr
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes My rating: 5 of 5 stars A very immersive and thought-provoking story Why did I give this book 5 stars? What can I write about it? Well, I floated between 4 and 5 stars. What made me tip the scale was my immediate feeling that I was an observer in the story, not solely a reader. I found the transformation of the protagonist, Charlie Gordon - as illustrated by his writing in his progress reports - to be an especially effective narrative device. The story was so organic and straight-forward, that I felt transported to another time and place. Perhaps that result was also due to my empathy with the protagonist Charlie Gordon and my identification with the academic environment, where most of the narrative took place. Some members of my extended family are mentally challenged. I couldn't help but think of them when I read about Charlie. Also, my dad worked with mentally challenged young adults at a clinic when he was