Stephanie's books and other things

Lilliput-The Land of the little people

 

         Today, the Lilliputian Congress debates the national budget.  The "Big Enders," who wanted the seat next to the Toasters because it goes with their teapot very nicely,  Successfully read Dr. Seuss for 48 hours marking the 6th time in 6 years that they failed to pass a budget before the government shut down.  This puts hundreds of thousands of workers without paychecks indefinitely and the entire country out of important services until hell freezes over. 

 

            Not enough to take 20% of all government employees pay checks for 7 weeks over the summer.  Now as debate doesn't continue, with no agreement in sight, all government workers will be locked out of work and therefore will not get paid.  

 

          "It's not acceptable that the Little Enders get to pass laws and try to govern when we want to steal money and give it to the people who really take care of us...I mean Oil Companies and the NRA, real Christians like that, not hospital workers, Department of Defense civilians and other free loaders like that... It's not acceptable that they pass laws.  We won't stop until all laws passed by Little Enders are deemed retroactive upon our say so, or applicable to those we say they should go to.   No, we have no plan on how to do it that will work, but that's not important.  The important thing is to make the Little Enders look bad."

 

           In his defiant response to the Big Enders, the head Congressional Little Ender said.  "Well, maybe we should let the government shut down and stop paying the hundreds of thousands of families that need the money, then, we'll let the Big Enders have their way and blame it on the voters for not voting them out of office."  

 

           In Response to the response the Big Ender Tea Potter Toasterhead said that if the Little Enders try anything like giving us what we want, we'll blame the President!"  

 

          To which the Little Ender's Caucus Leader said, "What?"

 

          Then Missy Meanbottom the Big Ender Whips said, "That does it, those unGodly Heathens have gone too far!"   

 

         And the debate continues.  Meanwhile, those already reeling, already hurt from loosing 20% of their pay, not counting going through the same shut down drill annually for the past 6 years go again without any idea when or if they'll get paid next.   

 

        Maybe we should sick STGRB on Congress? 

 

I'm sure all these goodreads posts are of no use to existing booklikes members.  And I've seen a few postings from them wondering about all these new followers (please don't blames us -- signing up for a booklikes account makes us initially follow 25 members that booklikes assigns us.  We'll eventualy sort it out to only follow others with similar reading tastes or whose posts we enjoy).

 

Please don't think we all came over here to post offensive, threatening material.  Allegations of bullying, rape threats, etc. sure do make good headlines.  And good headlines go viral.

 

Some of us never wrote reviews on goodreads.  Or had any shelf names worse than "Western" "Memoir" etc.

 

We already love booklikes for daily update posts and quick response to comments and email.  It's incredibly soothing compared to our experiences with goodreads.

 

We are booklovers.  Avid booklovers.  We're the ones who worked tirelessly making goodreads  immense database and membership a takeover target for amazon.  Now that amazon has our data, they don't want us.  Just to market our data to customers buying new kindles and amazon fire.  They killed Shelfari who used to be the kindle integrated book site and now are replacing Shelfari with goodreads.

 

Some of us are here just to protect our book catalogs, as in we seriously have no idea what will or won't be deleted at goodreads.   Likely very quiet members at that.  

 

The Book Riot did a podcast last week that brings up the Goodreads controversy regarding author behavior. It's at the beginning, so don't be intimidated by the length of the cast. I was impressed by the thoughtfulness the host brought to the discussion--it sounds like one of them is active on Goodreads, so had a more accurate perspective of what has been happening.

The BookLikes folks are doing their level best to make Goodreads refugees like me feel heard, and feel welcome. I am very, very grateful to them for this.--RMD

 

How's your BookLikes experience so far? We hope you're enjoying your time here. We're doing our best to create perfect space for readers and authors with your help, of course. Here are several information that we felt you would like to know :)

 

BookLikes lets you create your own personal webpage ready to customize and fill with your reviews and books. You can also use your own domain with absolutely no fees, to make it happen go to Settings.

 

We would also like to inform all BookLikes member who already use their domains that we've changed our DNS, please update them to new ones: 137.135.170.115 to make your site work properly.

 

Recently we've also received many messages, tweets and comments with your suggestions and requests considering further development. Thank you all! We release one new feature every Thursday and they are mainly based on requests made by our community so if you have more, bring them on :-)

 

 

The following list presents several your ideas that we'll definitely put online and start working on right now :-)

 

Exclusive Shelf - then you'll be able to shelve books on a thematic shelf without necessity of selecting reading status (read, planning to read, currently reading), e.g. Books I haven't finished.

 

Discussion rooms - they will let you create groups and book clubs to discuss your  reads.

 

Export to csv - we want you to feel safe and sound on BookLikes and it refers to your content as well. 

 

PM - you will be able to communicate directly thanks to private messages.

 

Apps - the fist one is set free and ready to be uploaded (BookLikes Scanner) and more are in progress, including Android and Widows 8.

 

Synchronization - you'll be able to sync your other platforms with your BookLikes profile.

 

There's a lot of going on right now but we promise to import all your books, shelves and reviews and to answer all your messages :-)

Commentary on the interaction of behavior and reviews.

 

For those who can't link (ie Dan):

 

More on Goodreads and behavior

Book community Goodreads was bought by Amazon earlier this year, part of the impetus for my blog development. Nothing against Amazon as a retailer–I use their services and have a Kindle–but they have strict language restrictions for reviews, even if you are quoting from the text. I think I  contributed about four reviews there before I decided their process was too cumbersome and unsatisfying, partly because of the lack of community connection. What makes GR unique is the connection to groups of other readers–it is easy to get to know a particular reviewer, their reading habits and tastes. In addition, Amazon’s indie book reviews are sock-puppet heavy, so I rarely rely on Amazon as a site of information. Incidentally, I also find their graphics visually displeasing. At any rate, the purchase was inevitable, if only to establish Amazon as primary retailer for books and the general collection of market data.

 

I understand the reasoning, but part of the charm of GR is a very engaged, literate community that largely says whatever it wants, within reason, in their reviews about books and authors. GR has long had a “secret sauce” recipe for promoting certain reviews, but there is an independent ‘like’ system that operates as well. Goodreads recently set its community on edge with a new policy against discussing author behavior in reviews and the unwarned deletion of user reviews and shelving, in an effort that is widely viewed an attempt to promote product and censor reviewers in favor of authors.  The fact that reviews referring specifically to an author’s behavior in a negative manner were removed, and reviews discussing positive behavior remain only fuels the suspicion that the connection is about negative reviews and sales, not about a true review ideology.  Regardless of their stated or unstated meaning, the idea that behavior does not impact product is the ultimate in capitalist reasoning, and I can’t ethically keep my concerns quiet.

 

In the sci-fi and fantasy convention community, for instance, there has been a lot of recent publicity about big-name authors sexually harassing women at cons, and having it condoned because, you know, they were big name authors. A number of authors and convention attendees protested. Author John Scalzi even came up with a statement regarding invitations to cons that do not have anti-harassment policies in place and enforced, and a number of authors co-signed. Perhaps not coincidentally, there’s also been recent debate in the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Writers of America about general sexist behavior/statements of some prominent members, ultimately leading to the ouster of people that could not agree to modulate their statements and/or behavior.

 

Yes, I see the irony.

 

The flip side is that some authors’ positive behavior also inspires attention and reviews. There’s a couple of authors that I’ve read and, quite honestly, have been only moderately impressed by their books, but I continue to follow them on blogs and promote them because they are good people. You know, struggling to be an ethical human. To make a difference. Using their platform to lead. Although only in moderate like with their books, I keep trying their books because I like them, as people, not just as creators. Clearly, behavior can have a positive influence on reviewing and book sales as well.

 

The fact remains, behavior is a part of who we are and how others around us judge us. Remember the saying “actions speak louder than words?” One may argue that creations should stand on their own. Perhaps. But I follow the modernist school of thought that believes contextualizing the work adds layers of meaning. You can’t separate behavior from ‘product,’ and I would think of all people, artists would be the foremost in arguing against this artificial division. As Goodreads works to moderate the reviewers and authors who are behaving badly, they need to be cognizant that behavior does not remain separate from the product. To ask that reviewers focus on the books and ignore actions, for better or for worse, is unacceptable. If this was a mere thought schism, say the idea that behavior, good or bad, should not impact product, that would be one thing. But that they specifically allow the positive and not the negative smacks of the corporate influence eyeballing sales. Right, it is their site.  We understand that. But they’ve also essentially started to shift their mission to something more profit-focused at the expense of the community that got them there.

Started to import my stuff from (not so) Goodreads......you know why.  Not sure what I'm going to do with my new place here, but I thought it best to start moving in.

I've never read this book, but I LOVE the author Kurt Vonnegut so I'm writing this review solely based on other works I've read.

He is the bestest, awsomest author ever!!

Love him like I love unicorns and rainbows.

I’m a fan of Jeanette Walls. Her memoir, The Glass Castle, is a book that keeps popping up into my consciousness every now and then at very odd times. I think that is a mark of a really great book. Though I really enjoyed The Silver Star, I don’t foresee the same thing happening.

Sisters, Bean and Liz Holladay have the misfortune of being the daughters of a supremely flakey mother, Charlotte, who doesn’t see a problem leaving a 12 and 15 year old home alone for weeks at a time. She has to find herself apparently. But in the women’s defense, she does leave enough money to keep the girls in chicken pot pies.

When people in the small, Southern California town of Lost Lake become suspicious, the sisters decide to leave and travel across country by bus to ‘visit’ their mother’s family in Virginia unannounced. Their Uncle Tinsley (hoarder) takes them in, reluctantly at first.

Not wanting to be a burden, the girls go in search of jobs. The only person willing and able to employ them is a man by the name of Jerry Maddox. Forman of the mill, formerly owned by the Holladay’s, he is the most powerful man in town, and the least popular. Most likely the result of being a Jackass.

I liked the book a lot…..but….

It started off really strong, but then it felt like it lost momentum. It’s not a bad book by far, but I felt like she kind of gave up little at some point while writing it. The ending was a little predictable, which was disappointing.

3.75 (Silver) stars.

“Some things you just can't explain. You don't even try. You don't know where to start. All your sentences would jumble up like a giant knot if you opened your mouth. Any words you used would come out wrong.”

This is exactly how I feel as I sit here trying to come up with the words to explain this book and how it made me feel. I’m going to give it my best.

Kids can be cruel. Kids can be surprisingly empathetic. That’s a part of what this book is about.

Auggie Pullman was born with a one in a million(s) facial defect. The kind of defect that startles the unsuspecting, the kind of defect that will stop a person dead in their tracks, and at 10 years of age Auggie decides to go to a real school.

It was called Junior High in my day and that started in the 7th grade. Today it’s called Middle school and it starts in the 5th grade. According to my dusty memory, this time in a kid’s life can suck even if you have a normal face, so for Auggie this year has the potential to be much worse.

When he was born he was not expected to live, but he did. Through the years of his young life he had many surgeries to make his face functional. He was home schooled until fifth grade when he and his family decided it was time to go to a real school. As you would expect, he had a hard time winning friends…..kids are shallow. But the friends he won early on were keepers, because they went against the stream when they became his friend.

The year had many tough moments for Auggie and many great ones. Told by six different voices, telling the story of the year and of Auggie’s life, from each of their perspectives, and it was done brilliantly. It could have become confused and messy very easily, but it was spot on. This book is a little, sparkly, gem.

“The best way to measure how much you've grown isn't by inches or the number of laps you can now run around the track, or even your grade point average-- though those things are important, to be sure. It's what you've done with your time, how you've chosen to spend your days, and whom you've touched this year. That, to me, is the greatest measure of success.”

"Hello there! Jesus of Nazareth.....Right?"

"Um, yes that's me, and you are?"

"Stephanie, nice to meet you."

"How did you know my name?" Said Jesus "And what the devil is that contraption you're sitting on?"

"This is a time machine, a lawn mower/laptop, freak lightning strike.....and ta da! Time machine. A friend of mine let me borrow it so that I could come to your time and talk with you. See, I read this book about you and I decided to stop by here because there's some stuff we need to get straight."

"That was nice of your friend to lend his machine to you."

"Oh, nice isn't the word I would use. It came at a hefty price."

"Wait a minute, a book about me? Why? I'm just a working class Joe. What could possibly be so interesting about me that could result in an entire book?"

"Well, there have been many books written about you. One is a really big book, called the bible, that was turned into a religion with you as the head of it. It's called Christianity."

"Really? I don't understand. 'When' are you from Stephanie?"

"I'm from the year 2013, which is roughly 2013 years after your birth. See, we started keeping track of the years by using your miraculous birth as a starting point."

"Miraculous? What was so miraculous about my birth?"

"Well, in the bible there is a story that you were born to a virgin, Mary, and your papa is God Himself.....making you the son of God....and a virgin. Don't ask me how THAT happened exactly, but that's the story many believe as literal, even though it was entirely made up to make you fit the description of the Messiah according to Jewish prophecy."

"My mother is a great person, but she wasn't a virgin, I've got siblings! Look, see the tall guy with the long hair and wearing sandals over by the camel?"

"Yeah."

"That's my brother James." We all wave.

"Oh, I read about him in the book I mentioned, Zealot, he played a big part in early Christianity but then was downplayed because of the whole virgin Mary story." I said.

"That's odd. I know about the Messiah that your talking about, many other guys have been 'The Messiah' with many disciples of their own. Can't swing a sheep around here without hitting a Messiah. Whether or not we are 'The Messiah', we all want the same thing....to kick some Roman ass! Those bastards have occupied us for long enough!!" Said Jesus.

"I read about how you go into the Temple and wreck the money changers tables, good for you! You are quite the political revolutionary. In the bible, you are portrayed as a peace loving, hippie type."

"Really? Man, I can't stand those rich Roman bastards....taking everything for themselves and leaving so little for my people. I like peace and all, but that's not going get these Romans the hell out of here. Uh, what's a hippie?"

"Never mind that. The important thing that you should know is that the Romans are going to arrest you for that stunt. Your Governor, Pontius Pilate, is out to get you." I said.

"I know. I'm sure that the murderous jerk will crucify me along side the rest of the Messiahs." *sigh*

"Sorry, but that is what is going to happen. When the Romans adopt Christianity as their Religion they make Pilot a sympathetic character who calls for you to be saved from the cross. They make it appear as if your fellow Jews are the ones who call for your death instead, cause the Romans can't appear as the bad guy in this after turning Christian."

"What?? That's just nuts!! Why would my people want me to die? No one will ever believe that.....will they?" Asked Jesus.

"Saddly, they do Jesus. Some Christians believe the Bible is THE word of God and not a book of parables, This resulted in a lot of ugly anti-semitetism over the years. Many were persecuted and killed because it was believed that it was they who killed you."

"That makes me so sad." Said Jesus

"Me too."


I liked this book. Aslan obviously knows what he's talking about, as he pointed out in that unfortunate interview on Fox, he has a few degrees on the subject of religion. I think anyone would find this book fascinating. I did.

I particularly like how he ended this book....as I quote here.

"2000 years later, the Christ of Paul's creation has utterly subsumed the Jesus of history. The memory of the revolutionary zealot who walked across Galilee, gathering an army of disciples with the goal of establishing the kingdom of God on earth. The Magnetic preacher who defied the authority of the Temple priesthood in Jerusalem, the radical Jewish nationalist who challenged the Roman occupation and lost, has been almost completely lost to history. That is a shame. Because the one thing any comprehensive study of the historical Jesus should hopefully reveal is that Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the man, is every bit as compelling, charismatic and praiseworthy as Jesus the Christ. He is, in short, someone worth believing in."

I agree.

There isn't any reason I would have picked up this book if I hadn't been friends of this author's brother, if his wife (and one of my best friends), hadn't worked with his daughter to do the cover art for it. 

It's about Christian peace keepers (peace I dig, organized religion? Not so much.) and the main character, Spike, is heavily into anime.  I will make no apologies here, I despise anime to the very depth of my soul.  Cartoons, comic books.....can't do any of them, no one knows why.

Spike is an emotionally withdrawn women whose self esteam issues arise from her, less than complementary father, Otto, who has been estranged from Spike and her sister Margie for most of their adult lives.  The estrangement is a result of lies told to the girls by their mother....not by anything he did in particular, though of course he wasn't perfect.

Margie, the younger sister, get's involved with a group call Reformed Anabaptist Peace Team, or RAPT, a group dedicated to bringing peace to many of the non peaceful areas of this planet (which is sadly pretty much everywhere), and is promptly sent to Iraq and then, with equal promptness, is kidnapped. 

The story revolves around the people who love Margie and how thy go about their lives without her, and how they live without knowing her fate from day to day....

Spike, along with Margie and her ex, Marcus are anime fans (help me.) together they decide to write their own story, Champlooland (I kept thinking of it as Shampoo-land) which Marcus and Spike continue to write in Margie's absence.  So that means, dear reader, we get a hefty dose of it in this book.  It didn't bother me too much (though I admit to skimming those parts from time to time), so for those who like (or just don't hate) anime, it won't be an issue.  The author did make a few references to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, witch was redeeming, and offset the anime sections I had to endure.

I know the author does this kind of work and I would take my hat off to her for it, if I had a hat.  It takes some brass balls to put yourself in that kind of danger for what you believe in.....I am not that brave.  

This was a self published book, which I tend not to pick up due to the fact there is no professional editing involved (this is not a criticism because any book I would write would need extra strength editing), but I think she did a pretty good job of it on her own.

Over all, I enjoyed it. It was a different read for me. 3.5 stars.

Turns out everyone thinks they are somehow smarter than the people around them, everyone. We all are guilty of it. We walk into a Wal-mart, take a look around us and think “what a bunch of freaks, and always in Wal-mart” …..But we are also in Wal-mart as we make this judgment. I don’t go into that store unless they are the only option, but every time I look around and I think to myself “do I also look like a freak by just entering this store, then magically go back to normal when I leave?”

I once thought that I had free will and nothing that Sam Harris wrote proved otherwise, but David McRaney may have done just that. Nothing we do as humans have anything to do with individual choice. We are all manipulated by the media and a bunch of biases and fallacies.

Here are a couple of examples of this…….

“Confirmation Bias

The Misconception: Your opinions are the result of years of rational, objective analysis.

The Truth: Your opinions are the result of years of paying attention to information which confirmed what you believed while ignoring information which challenged your preconceived notions.”

So, this wasn’t news to me. I am not ever going to watch Faux News for any reason, unless I had a job that forced me to do it. Skeeter, down the street would rather eat an arugula salad before watching Rachel Maddow for ten seconds. We are only going to pay attention to the things that confirm our beliefs……this explains the existents of Rush Limbaugh. That being said, I’m right and Skeeter is not.

“Extinction Burst

The Misconception: If you stop engaging in a bad habit, the habit will gradually diminish until it disappears from your life.

The Truth: Any time you quit something cold turkey, your brain will make a last-ditch effort to return you to your habit.”

Yeah, anyone who has dieted (most probably everyone, unless you are one of those skinny people who “just can’t seem to gain weight”…..everyone hates you) has experienced this. You are going along well, you are hitting your goals….you hit a plateau or life gets in the way and you break from the diet a little. Before you know it you are back to eating the stuff you really shouldn’t. This is due to the ‘extinction burst’. Food tastes good, some food tastes better than others and since we evolved to survive we are hard wired to crave high calorie food because that is what determined life or death. Ironically, that’s what’s killing us today. When a reward is taken away from us, we throw a fit…….but if we still don’t get the reward we give up. That’s why you never give in to a two year old during an extinction burst.

“The Just-World Fallacy

The Misconception: People who are losing at the game of life must have done something to deserve it.


The Truth: The beneficiaries of good fortune often do nothing to earn it, and bad people often get away with their actions without consequences”

This is a big one. All those people who believe that poor people are poor because they want to be and/or are not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps because they just want to live easy off the system and have no idea how to work hard, these people are fooled by this fallacy. Never, do they take into account their own fortunate beginnings as the reason they themselves are not amongst the poor. The reason they are not poor is not only because they worked really hard (I’m not saying they didn’t work hard, and that is a big part of sucess), but they are not poor because they didn’t come from poor most likely. Many people have risen above their poor beginnings (Ben Franklin) but it’s a very hard cycle to overcome.

Those who have a hard time overcoming this may have this fallacy to blame……

“Learned Helplessness

The Misconception: If you are in a bad situation, you will do whatever you can do to escape it.

The Truth: If you feel like you aren’t in control of your destiny, you will give up and accept whatever situation you are in.”

This is all about having some control in your life. If all choice is taken away from a person they tend to give up. Residents in nursing homes do better if they get to choose how to arrange their furniture than those who have everything done for them. If you are living in a bad situation and you don’t have any control over what happens to you, you don’t have access to higher education because it is financially out of reach. No one will give you a job no matter how hard you try because you aren’t dressed nice enough, and you don’t have enough education…….these people will accept their situation most likely than not.

This book was very interesting. But I’m feeling a little down because I learned that I am not so smart and I am not that special.

Thanks David for the depression…..*sigh*

All kidding aside, I really enjoyed this book. Here’s a website if you would like to read more.

You are not so smart.

As seen on Shelfinflicted

Victoria McQueen is a badass artist with a badass talent that goes beyond her artistic abilities. She has the ability to cross any distance with her 'shorter way' bridge to locate missing things.  The bridge comes into existence with the combination of her strong, creative mind and transportation, not just any transportation, but a vehicle that chooses her,

a Raleigh Tuff Burner in her youth and a Triumph motorcycle in adult years. It's magic, and all magic has it's price.  

Victoria finds she's not the only person in the world with special talents similar to hers, she finds two others, Maggie Leigh who can find answers to questions by the use of scrabble tiles and Charlie Manx who travels in a Rolls Royce Wraith
"
that can transport him to other dimensions in a world of his own creation.....his creation is called Christmas-land, where it's the happiest time of the year all year round (for Manx anyway.)

What good is an amusement park called Christmas Land if there are no children to fill it? None.  So Manx goes about the country in his magic car kidnapping children, for their own good he believes,(what child wouldn't want to live in a place where it's Christmas day everyday?) with his sidekick, Bing.  Bing doesn't have any special abilities other then being uber creepy.....seriously, he's the true stuff of nightmares.

One day Charlie Manx crosses Victoria McQueen and that is where the fun begins.....fasten your seat belts, keep hands inside the ride at all times, and for goodness sake don't get out of the car until the ride has come to a complete stop.

I grew up in the town that has the BEST amusement park in the U.S. and most likely the world.  I got a job there as an artist as a youngster, and then continued to work in many parks all over the country for twenty plus years.  So this book has much that appeals to me. 

I always found amusement parks to have an underlying creepy factor, especially after close and all the rides have shut down, the shops have closed and it's quiet.  Being a manager I would have to stay later than most on occasion, and trust me, it was a speedy walk to the car on those nights.  I like that Joe Hill has touched on this, but I feel he's just taped a well that could go much deeper.  

NOS4A2 is filled with memorable characters (my favorite being Lou, Victoria's baby daddy) and I hope to spend some more time with them in the future.

I listened to the audio book and I have to say Kate Mulgrew did a fantastic job! A book can be ruined by a bad performer and made even better by a really good one. It also made me smile when he gave a shout out to Firefly and threw out a few references to some worlds his dad has created.

As seen on Shelfinflicted

So here we are at the end of Sookie Stackhouse and I for one am sad.

This review WILL have some spoilers….be warned, but if you are looking any other review, everybody and their mother wrote ‘photo’ and/or ‘gif’ reviews of this book and all give it away, so…..don’t blame me.

Sookie is a slow learner.

Sookie Stackhouse has been through the wringer with all her supernatural lovers. For thirteen books she has been close to death numerous times. This girl has compiled so many enemies I don’t know how she sleeps at night; it would take me two Xanex with and a 'half a bottle of wine' chaser to ever sleep again. But not Sookie, she cooks, cleans, dresses (badly), puts her hair in a pony tail, takes it out of a pony tail, worries about the ‘dent’ and puts it back in a pony tail, goes to work at her bar.....narrowly escape death, does her makeup, waters the plants, sun baths, makes lunch, narrowly escape death……business as usual.

And that’s the ultimate charm of this series. One day vampires come out of the closet, then the two natured….. Add in a fairy or two, a few witches. But why let any of that upset your daily routine? Just go about living your daily lives and almost die in the process.

Now I know ya’all are upset that Sookie did not end up with Eric ‘the hot’ (if that’s possible being dead and cold and all) vampire. Come on, he nearly got her killed about ten times!! And he was a complete ass to her the whole time. The only reason women like this guy is because he’s easy on the eyes….the whole reason women got all gooey over Christian Grey in those 50 shades books…..(sure he is a psychopath, but he’s a HOT psychopath, which makes it all okay.) Bill, her first vampire boyfriend, almost got her killed as well. Step away from the vampire Sookie.

Then there were her baby pangs. I for one have never had them, ever, but many women do. You can’t get pregnant by a vampire…..just not possible. So, she turns to her best friend (who’s not dead…yay!!). I don’t see the problem here; your best friend is the person you should end up with. Am I Right?

I’ve said this before, but it needs repeating……Charlaine Harris, STOP writing sex scenes!!! For all that is holy and all that is not, don’t do this to us ever again!!!

“He rolled on the condom and plunged in.”

That’s not sexy……That’s NOT sexy!!!! Plunged in? Charlaine!! I ought to put you in a time out.

So, I was on the Facebook and I look over to the right side of the page and see an add for this thing. Normally I never click on any adds but I thought 'what the fuck is this?'

Next thing you know you are routed to an info-mercial with some women telling you she has this secret about men that only she knows and it's super simple and all. .....but she's going to tell it to you for free, just keep watching....she's gonna tell you any minute!! If I had watched the whole thing I'm sure there would have been some expensive download of this book....just so I'd get to know this secret......AAACCCCCKKKK!

The whole time she is asking if 'you have a man that is aloof and hard to get through too?" and shit like that. She also tells a story how she lost a guy to her best friend (he slept with said best friend, of course) and it was all her own fault!! If she had only known this secret she would have kept her man!!

This begs the question...

Why? Why would you want to keep some aloof, cheatin' ass man? Why? The only answer I can come up with is that you don't have enough self respect to find a decent person you can be partners with.....if you can't find that person, if all the men you run into are aloof, cheatin' ass men.......stay single from cripes shake!!

I weep for women like Racine.

This was a free download from Audible.....go get it.

The short story was good, it was about Hell in a technological universe. It was creepy and completely Neil Gaiman.

But the best part of this free download was a healthy sample of [b:The Ocean at the End of the Lane|15783514|The Ocean at the End of the Lane|Neil Gaiman|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351914778s/15783514.jpg|21500681], if you are looking forward to this book this sample is a nice tease.