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I read this tenth installment of the Three Pines Mysteries  through immersion reading with both kindle and audible books. The narration by Ralph Costran is absolutely flawless. The book I would probably rate 4, maybe 4.5, stars and the audiobook 5 stars.

You either love the characters and their world or you don't and I am enamored of Three Pines.

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[reblogged from 38 Caliber reviews]

Granted it is a small study but interesting. Brunel University conducted a study of 555 Facebook users and found that users with low self-esteem were more likely to use the “relationship status” to create interest in themselves and narcissists were more likely to boast about their achievements and/or their fitness regimens to generate the attention they crave.

Pattern Crimes by William Bayer

Pattern Crimes is an interesting mix of an Israeli detectives hunt for a serial killer while delving into mysteries surrounding his own family. The Jerusalem of the  book, even with its unique religious background, comes across to this reader as a big city with big city problems for cops. It is a very well-written police procedural offerring glimpses into Israeli life

I read on kindle voyage while listening to the audible book for several hours and I am glad I did as some of the Israeli names would have tripped me up had I not seen them in print. The kindle book is poorer for not having a table of contents and not having x-ray enabled. X-ray, in particular, would have been very helpful to check on past actions of a character.

The narrator, Dick Hall, did an outstanding job with the characters and the accents involved. 

I bought the kindle book and received the audible book in exchange for an honest review through Audio Book Blast.

Madcap comedies virtually by definition are based on implausible and improbable scenarios. This novel goes well beyond implausible.

*Spoiler Alert*

Every multi-millionaire who ever had a drink with Doria's husband turn over 90% of their money to this Madoff type character. Doria, a successful business woman of 60, has been married to her 6th husband for just 3 years but has apparently turned over all financial decisions to him. Naturally everyone is broke and angry.

It is too far fetched to believe these people never used a professional. There is no dirth of lawyers and accountants in CA. Doria is TSTL and Camilla relies on money falling from the sky to solve her problems. On the plus side, there were only 5 grammar and typo errors in the book and the writing isn't atrocious.

(This is the ranty post I've been planning for a while.)

Yesterday: A Novel of Reincarnation focuses on Amanda and Mark and their search to learn about their past lives in order to understand how it is affecting their present.

The novel is well-written but the main character, Amanda, comes off as flighty in parts of the novel. Mark is a bit too well versed in Gaelic and Irish lore for a current day Chicago native.  It comes off as contrived after a while. If the goal was imbuing the story with authentic  Irish characters and atmosphere, promoting the myth about corned beef and cabbage being an Irish dish rather than an Irish American dish could have been left out.

Despite these relatively minor irritations, the story was enjoyable overall. I bought the kindle book and was given the audible version by the author in exchange for a review. I alternated reading and listening through whispersync and the story line kept me  intrigued enough to finish it in a day.

Really,  you can't make this shit up.  "Thankfully,  I have a brain and knew how to make up a second account."

The second week of free audio books at Sync has started.

This week's free titles are Dodger by Terry Pratchett and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Click on Source below to get your free copies.

Very entertaining sci-fi comedy as buddies discover Tesla's journel and travel through Interdimensions

The audience for this work would be males in their 20s. While I laughed quite a bit, the lack of distinctive voices for the two main characters sometimes made it hard to follow. There is a lot of profanity in this book's dialogue which some readers may find off putting.

I received this Audible book in consideration of an honest review. All opinions are my own.

JK Rowling has been harassed on Twitter for her vocal political position. 

Her response to one tweet was perfect.

Maybe at the moment everyone is a bit too busy trying to stay alive to get through any reading challenges but I like to think Alison would force everyone to make time for book club. Or maybe Helena has dreamt the whole thing. Either way here’s an imagined Orphan Black Book Club with each character’s book selection for their designated month.

Sarah Manning decides to start the graphic novel iZombie, loving the idea of a zombie with enough heart to pick already deceased victims for brain consumption—but she doesn’t tell anyone that. She just shrugs and says, “I like zombies.”

Alison Hendrix, being the overachiever, is adamant about choosing two books: Gone Girl so she can force Donnie to read it; Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts (the group responds with severe eye rolls) because she wants to spend more time in her craft room.

Felix Dawkins thinks they can be doing better things with their time, including partying or painting, but comes for Sarah. He decides on The Picture of Dorian Gray (suggested by Mrs. S who knows he never read it in school when he was supposed to) figuring anything set in London and listed under Horror can’t be too terrible.

Helena pulls from her jacket a “borrowed” copy (Don’t steal books!) of The Cookie Dough Lover’s Cookbook because she wants her seestras to make the recipes so she can eat them. Mmmmm sugar.

Cosima Niehaus selects Signal to Noise. While her analytical brain doesn’t believe in magic she likes the idea of escaping into a coming of age story filled with love, music and yes, some magic.

Rachel Duncan has secretly read and reread Katherine Stone’s romance novels for years and selects her favorite The Cinderella Hour. But  she pretends to do so as a joke because no one can know her secret. No one!

Donnie Hendrix—dragged by Alison and not allowed to count the evening as a date night—picksReady Player One, wanting an adventure that at least has the possibility of a huge payday at the end.

Delphine Cormier selects The Rosie Project, wanting to read about a geneticist in search of love. She’s hoping Cosima will want to share a copy.

At the end of every book club meeting, after Helena has eaten all the snacks and everyone is done arguing and discussing books, there is always a dance party.

Hi everyone!

So, you might remember me posting a couple of months back that I'm doing my postgrad research on online communities. I have a big project coming up, and I'm looking for participants. 

I'm studying how trust is built and lost in online communities. I'm looking for people who used to be involved in the Goodreads blogging community and have either left the website completely or partially. It's a small project, I need 10-15 participants, and you'd need to fill out a survey about your perceptions and feelings about the community. 

If you're interested, or know someone who is interested, can you send me a DM, and I can give you the deets. I'm just waiting for my ethics form to clear for this. 

Thanks everyone!

Anne Rice is now promoting doxxing as a way to deal with online "bullies".  To see that she agrees with this check her comments on her Facebook posting of an article about doxxing.

I'll probably have more to say about this issue, but right now I thought it was important to bring it to the attention of consumers, readers and reviewers.

Check it out here:

Anne Rice on the "ethics" of doxxing

Article she's referring to here:

"Why I'm Okay With Doxxing" by Rebecca Watson

[reblogged from 38 Caliber Reviews]

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of Anne Rice. I think she could use several editors for any piece over three sentences she writes. Yesterday a friend sent me this link to an excerpt from Rice's, writing as A.N. Roquelaure,  soon to be released book, Beauty's Kingdom.

Wow, just wow. That is all sorts of- not good. An excerpt should be something exciting, some part of the story to grip the reader by the throat and not let go until they have bought the book.  If this is the best Rice can do, I'll go buy a Harlequin. After 38 previous books you would think the writing would be a little more polished, a little more sophisticated. It's like expecting an engraved invitation and receiving something written in crayon on construction paper.

Then I noticed this:

Notice anything not quite right? Rice is too busy calling people names on Amazon and extolling the non-existent virtues of her pet hate site to notice that her name is spelled wrong on the left copy. Sort of makes you wonder what other little details she isn't attending to, doesn't it? Doesn't she have an assistant who can check for this kind of stuff?

I have a rule that I never read the book(s) of someone who doesn't notice or care that their name is spelled incorrectly. Doesn't look like I'll be missing much.

Banned Book bracelet!

I love it!