The story revolves around these two characters: Addie Downs and Valerie Adler who were best friends when they were nine. But they have not spoken to each other for the past 15 years after an incident in high school created a rift between them. During that time, someone had committed an atrocious act that left Valerie emotionally shaken. In a bid to defend Valerie, Addie made an accusation against a popular guy, but this resulted in her becoming a scapegoat and the subject of condemnation in school. Addie was also ostracized by her schoolmates because of her obese figure, while Valerie was an outgoing cheerleader who’s popular in school.

Addie leads the most mundane life with no other human social activities (besides caring for a brother who suffers brain damage) to call her own. The only other activities that keep her busy are her hobby of painting greeting cards and searching for Mr. Right online.

But things change drastically when her former best friend comes knocking in the middle of the night 15 year later since they last seen and spoke. Valerie (a weather-girl at a television station), shows up on her doorstep with bloodstains on her trench coat and pleading for help.

Valerie’s sudden appearance forces both of them to question the choices they have made in their lives. All this while, Addie has been thinking that she was the only one who was struggling through high school while Valeria had everything going for her, but in reality, Valerie was having as much as of a hard time at home. It also give them the opportunities to learn about love and loss, loyalty and betrayal, and overcoming the odds in life.

The plot itself is a bit too contrived for my liking. Weiner did inject witty humor into this slightly disenchanting book but it somehow fails to capture my attention for a lengthy period. The only time I couldn’t flip the pages fast enough was the action part which sadly is only one-seventh of the whole book.

This book, Best Friends Forever, is a downer in comparison to Weiner’s earlier books—one chick literature that I don’t quite enjoy. Wish I had this book with me when I was in-flight alone (a surefire way to avoid mindless chats with the stranger next to me and if that stranger happens to be an interesting stud then putting down a disenchanted book isn’t so hard to do) instead of my recent trip to Hong Kong with FwB. Guess what, I left this book in our hotel room! Okay, I wasn’t being very green per se, but I couldn’t make myself put it into my luggage considering I had far more important things to bring home to.

• How to Drive Husbands Off the Wall…Effectively
• Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
• Duma Key

I can’t remember when I became the person people sought after for their problems, but I can certainly tell you my first experience was when I was 12—one of my best friends came to me seeking for some consolations about a boy who she had a crush on but didn’t reciprocate in the manner she wanted to. Gosh, that was one entire earful year! To elaborate more dramatically, I had to be the messenger between them. It would have been easier if we weren’t in missionary schools. Because everyday after school for half freaking year, I had to walk half a mile to pass those handwritten messages and then back again to my BF before heading home to relate the whole experience when he received her message and then analyzed every word and punctuation contained in his message to her. No surprise here, this reading-too-much-into behavior is still practiced religiously among young and mature ladies, of course they do it on emails and text messages.

I’ll digress. Let’s do some math here and see if I can truly become a millionaire base on this one-dollar-per-minute listening/problem-solving situation?

There are 12,410 days in my thirty-four years since my first recalled experience as an active listener and passive “advisor.” Supposedly I spent 90 minutes per day doing this untitled work and that would amount to $1,116,900 as of today.

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll round up to one million dollars because not everyday I’ve friends and family flock to me with their problems (thank God!) but I can certainly assure you that when they did, it was no 90-minute per day/session. Some of them, especially relationship matters, could really go on forever from lunch to dinner, which easily amount to six hours to say the very least.

Also, this is not counting my four years volunteering work as a part-time hotline BGR “advisor” to older teens and a year as a president in a parish youth group.

Fair enough, I can’t include those youths knew nothing about seeking outside help to their problems, but don’t my friends and family know any better that there are proper and professional channels for their endless problems? The last thing I want now is to have an earful life otherwise I wouldn’t have left my voluntary work to continue my life-long pursue in helping animal shelters. The thing about dogs is that they don’t talk or talk back or blame you for dozing off after three hours of intense listening.

Sometimes I do wonder if I had majored in the wrong college—psychology or sociology instead of finance. If I’d taken that route, would I still be working in either of the field? Maybe not, just look at me now, I rarely have friends and family members come to me for financial advice. Maybe money is a sensitive subject to discuss without looking into their financial statements. Numbers don’t lie and you’ll get to see both sides of the situation. In my next life, I’ll be a psychiatrist or psychologist or whatever occupation I get paid to listen and not blamed or patronized for unpredictable outcome.

In all honesty, this situation of mine is a bitter and sweet experience. In one aspect, I do feel flattered that they came to me for advices but on the other hand, I’ve my own fair shares of challenges and a life I want to pursue and enjoy.

When I do face with life challenges, who or where do I turn to for advice and listening ears? No one, to be precise, since the last nine years! I sought for professional help piror but in the end I was left more confused than I began. Since then, I seek within because many answers are already there for us. The question is whether one bothers to find them and is able to be truly honest with oneself. Or if one wants to invest in some self-help books and seminars.

It is so sad that many have become so narcissistic and want instant gratification that they no longer take the time to seek within. Who or what is to blame for this behavior?

To go back to my question, would they have paid me for my so-called service? The answer is no! If it’s a yes, they always received more than what they’d paid for.

In the next rant, maybe I’ll tell you why and what went so wrong for lending my ears to friends and family members’s predicaments.

• No related posts for now.

2012

I will forewarn you that this is a very depressing movie if I haven’t done so in the first paragraph. Movies (e.g. The Day After Tomorrow) of this nature are usually morbid and I won’t recommend watching it with very young kids. Teens may like it for the special visual effects.

The synopsis of the movie is that the government has prior knowledge of the situation and has already started building arks. The vexation s that there just isn’t enough space on the arks to accommodate everyone. How predictable it that! As a result, they have to decide who should be saved or if they should simply try their best to save everyone.

The disaster scenes are intertwined with narratives about the people caught in the crossfire of nature’s fury, and how each and every one fights for survival.

The movie leading character, John Cusack, is a science fiction author who relearns the meaning of family in the midst of the tragedies. Most part of the story revolves around Cusack’s character as we follow him and his family meeting people who are just as desperate to survive and join in their seemingly never-ending search to reach safety.

Not all of them survive, of course, but every death serves as a cardinal reminder of the goodness of humanity, and that hope does exist, even in the case of such massive disasters.

2012 is a fast-past movie with stunning visual effects. If you’re seeking thrills or curious to watch how the world comes to an end (not scientific accuracy per se in my honest opinion) should watch this movie.

If you’re looking for profound insights as to why Mayan was able track the alignment of our solar system with the center of the Milky Way, then you would be greatly disappointed. There are some good literatures on Mayan I would recommend such as The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies, and Possibilities.

That said, I’m not an avid reader on this genre, I try to avoid reading too much about our suppose dark future. Our current global economic crisis and wars are enough to depress me to certain days, and to delve more is self-seeking into deeper despair.

Anyhow, I’m not sure if watching the DVD movie on a 42” TV would warren the same big screen and soundtrack effect of it in a cinema. For what it’s worth, it’s still a good entertainment when you have no date on a boring weekend.

• No related posts for now.

WhiteSmoke Writer: Software Vs. Online Editor

Dictionary: This feature has four options: the standard word definitions, synonyms, idioms, and 18 translation languages.

I’m using the American English version hence it’s based on Princeton University database instead of the Oxford or Longman—the British English version, which you have the option to choose from before purchase. And in any point of time after your purchase you decided to do a switch, submit a support ticket.

For instance if you would type in a British English word (e.g. favour) it will still give you the result but it will be answered in American English but the thesaurus result is: favor, and as for the idiom: put the acid on…seriously? Of course, this won’t happen if I type the word: favor and the same goes with the idioms. For elaborate illustration, click here to see the pdf format.

There isn’t anything to shout about in this feature as online dictionaries are easily accessible but to have idioms and translation together in one application which can be a time saver for many users.

Translator: As said above, it has 18 translation languages. Unfortunately, the translation doesn’t work on Online Editor. Although it works wonders on the software, there are only 10 languages (English, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish) available instead of 18 languages stated—it’s only available to users who purchased the translation module.

As to the translation, I can’t comment much on its accuracy as English is one language I know best—be it British or American (yes, I know I don’t have the slightest hinge of American accent or British for that matter).

Grammar Checker: This is not my strongest suit but I’m going give my best shot; and if I’m grammatically incorrect on the examples I gave, do highlight it to me. In most cases, WhiteSmoke writer does what it needs to get the job done but I won’t depend my life on it. To quote them:

Consequently, we can safely say that WhiteSmoke detects the great majority of the frequent and most vexing errors, including hundreds of different error types, such as subject-verb agreement, missing words of all types, verb forms, capitalization, real-word spelling, dozens of punctuation features, and many more. With that, it is important to understand that there are an infinite number of possible errors, so it is unfeasible to detect all of them.

For example, the phrase “Don’t forget to take note which species are likely to make…” The word: forget should be replaced either using “forgets” or “forgot” as it suggested. Explanation given: The subject and the verb have to agree in number and person. Really?!? The subject here is “species” (which is also used in plural form) and “forget” is the verb, so how can species (are) forgets or how can “don’t forgot” be grammatically correct?

Second example, “The number of friend you keep is directly related to…” The word “is” should be replaced by the word “being.” Explanation given: The elements of the verb phrase are inconsistent. Definition given: This is a compound verb acting as a single verb: the elements in the verb phrase have to comply to certain rules in order to create a coherent verb phrase. Again, how can “The number of friend you keep being directly related to…” be grammatically correct or make any sense at all?

As you can see from both Online Editor and Software Application above, there’ a lack in consistency in correcting grammar. Both don’t necessary agree with one another neither are they grammatically correct. Hence, as said earlier, I won’t depend my life on it.

That said, you can always choose to ignore the suggestion given and not change your original sentence. The question is, what if English is not your native language and also a language you rarely use (just like my French), would you heed its advise? I can’t imagine what the consequences would be if I took its suggestions and send the text to my boss/clients/lectures!

WhiteSmoke Support System

Pre-sale Support: Their online chat support system for the most part is great. The sale representative are always eager to help in answering all your queries of the product. Not only that, they are much more eager to close the sale to the extent of giving you up to 20% off the retail price—$125. You’ve to be very insistent of wanting the price you offering otherwise you’ll not get the offer you want.

Pro-sale Support: About the after sale support, online chat, they are also helpful and will try to resolve whatever issue you have with the product. Do take note that the online chat isn’t available 24/7/365—availability is from Monday to Friday 8:00am to 10pm (EST). And this also applicable to their email support ticket system, however…

Email Support Ticket: When it come to support ticktet system, you can pretty much forget about their existence. I wrote to them a few times using numerous email addresses I have, and none was answered up until today; the worst situation was when some of emails to them bounced back! That said, I already brought this to their attention and they’re working to improve this area drastically. Meanwhile, contact them via online chat first as you’ll stand a better chance.

In Conclusion: WhiteSmoke Writer 2010 Software vs Online Editor

With all the illustrations given, it’s without a doubt that the software is much preferred choice be it on PC or on Mac than the Online Editor. So with this note, I can only recommend WhiteSmoke Writer 2010 T-Gen software.

One thing I would like to add that the Online Editor work on any PC browsers, as you can see from the screen shot I used PC Firefox on logon to the Online Editor. I would only use the Online Editor as my last resort such as working on someone’s computer.

Truth be told, I didn’t cover all the features WhiteSmoke has to offer but you aren’t shortchanged when it comes to comprehensive review. What I left out is the PopUp Notifier—this feature is only available on the software and not on the Online Editor—which I still have no clue what its function is. The other feature is the help menu which is very much self-explanatory.

So you have it, my unbiased review. Now it’s your turn to take a test drive and find if WhiteSmoke Writer 2010 is Yay or Nay for you! After all, it has a 30-day money guarantee, no question asked! Should you decide to keep using WhiteSmoke writer, you will enjoy a lifetime subscription with all updates and additions.

• WhiteSmoke Writer 2010 Review – 1

WhiteSmoke Writer: Software Vs. Online Editor

WhiteSmoke Writer Online Editor: Be prepared to have a few browsers (Safari, Chrome, Firefox) handy when you’re on Mac (I’m using Mac OS X 10.6.3 and it’s compatible from 10.4 onwards).

• On Safari: I often have trouble login on the online editor especially on the first attempt. Usually it would take about three to four attempts, if I’m lucky. If I managed to do so on the first attempt, it’s to be my first couple of windows opened at the start of loading the Safari. In other words, if I’ve been browsing a few webpages for a while, it usually fails. In that case, either I restart my Mac and log again, clear my cache/cookies or move on to other browsers.
• On Chrome: Chrome is my backup browser and in most cases, the Online Editor does work slightly better than on Safari. That said, on Chrome browser, it suffers similar issues when it fails to load and occasionally can be more problematic as compare to Safari.
• On Firefox: For the most part, it works on this browser most of the time. That said, I don’t quite fancy using Firefox especially on Mac due to plugins compatibility issue.

WhiteSmoke Writer Software on PC or Mac: On this note, WhiteSmoke writer works wonders on Window 7, Vista, XP. No hiccups whatsoever at all. Since the software comes in .exe file, you’ve to find alternative means to have it install on Mac. Usually, I don’t like running .exe file on Mac but for the sake of this review I did. And the result was just as good as on PC and runs very smoothly.

WhiteSmoke Writer Features: When it comes to features, the T-Gen software has slightly more perks than the Online Editor, which I will cover very shortly but comprehensively. One of them is the writing review summery (see image). Although the feature isn’t anything to shout about but least what it does it gives you a summery of your constructed prose—average sentence length, passive verbs, negative sentences, informal expressions, complex words, and ways to improve your text.

WhiteSmoke Writer Features: Software Vs. Online Editor

Save and Apply: The Online Editor has no Save & Apply feature. Once I’m doing editing, I’ve to copy & paste the edited prose onto whatever document (TextEdit/MS Word/Mail) I was working on. Whereas the software has, which you can save it onto a new document or you could use the apply feature and have it made the necessary changes needed onto your original document.

I won’t consider the lack of this feature on Mac as a deal breaker if you are working on a short prose. However, this can be a pain in the butt when you’ve long prose (not more then 3000 characters) that requires to work on a few days. So the trick here is to work on prose on any other text editor and then copy it to the Online Editor for it to do its magic.

Prose Limitation: If you have a long text that has more than 500 words or up to 3000 characters, do not even try to check with the Online Editor as it will get hang and the result is nasty—you won’t be able to logon again using another window. And then we are back to where we begin about the login issue. Clear your cache and cookie, restart your machine, and reload the browser! The way to work around it is to copy and paste portion of your long text and check a portion of it at a time!

In similar situation, the software won’t go bust on you but it will prompt you a warning message window stating: Text size exceeds the limit o 3000 characters. Please reduce your selection and try again.

Writing Style: To be perfectly honest, I don’t know why the need of this feature (General, Business, Legal, Medical, Creative Writing) when it makes no suggestive differences base on the same prose. You can click on the options given and recheck them for all you want, it still gives the same vocabulary suggestion and no change or suggestion of writing style either. This, I’m referring to the Online Editor (top image) features. As to the software version, all the available styles are there but no options to choose from. So am I suppose to expect that it understands what style I wanted base on my prose?

Ready-made Letter Templates: This is one feature I like most not because I use them often especially not in my kind of work, but I can see why it would spare many people, particularly those who rarely write, of countless of hours when composing something from scratch. There are at least a hundred templates covering from Letter of Compliant from Disgruntled Customer to Career Essay Plan for Master’s Degree. I must say, some of them are very well written long prose.

Before you buy WhiteSmoke Writer, do yourself a favor, read the second series of my review on WhiteSmoke Writer 2010 features like dictionary, translator, grammar checker (its core feature), support system, and my unbiased recommendation.

• WhiteSmoke Writer 2010 Review – 2

It isn’t all rehash or trash for that matter, but I sincerely think one has to be in a trance or semi-hypnotized or theta stage to be able to read through the whole book without questioning what they had just read. I believe it should be done in this way—read in beta and do the six-step process in theta not read and do in theta brainwave stage.

I’m not talking about being open-mindedness. For all I know, you can be as open as any open book but that doesn’t mean you allow junks to be thrown at you with open arms and mind.

As you begin to read on, assuming you’re in the beta stage—small brain as the author addresses many times throughout the whole book—you will slowly start to question the credibility of the author and her ability to believe what she “preaches” will work.

I was searching high and low for some concrete theories on how she came about this six-step process to prove myself wrong. Unfortunately there is none. The plan came as an epiphany when she was having a nervous breakdown. Yes, just like that! No mention of her taking any courses related to her teaching. She experimented on herself and it worked so the author decided to spread her knowledge and conducted courses base on that epiphany.

Three Things that The One Command Irks Me:

Repetition: I mentioned this many times before; I hate repetitive text/message. The one thing that she drilled so repeatedly is this one phrase:

I don’t know how I (any positive attribute or possession you’d like to acquire). I only know that I do now, and I am fulfilled.

And then I began to question if her six-step process is redundant since only 5 pages are dedicated to that script. By the way, the six-step process are: Ground, Align, Go to Theta, Command, Expand, and Receive with Gratitude.

Success Stories: I don’t understand why the need of many testimonials (success stories) spread between chapters. I don’t know about you, but when I find one tries too hard to convince or prove her six-step process work the less convinced I am.

Getting to the Theta Brainwave Stage: Anyone with a sound mind cannot possibly believe that walking on six pieces of paper with a partner reading her script can get you in a theta stage. Seriously?

Firstly, not many have the gift of reading texts in a meditating voice. If you have been listening to different guided meditations, you know that some just don’t have that soothing and relaxing voice. And these experts have been doing for a while, let alone laypeople like us can achieve that in two takes.

Secondly, to be in a theta stage without any help of listening any brainwave music or have some sort of meditation prior to it’s just impossible to attain. And the irony is that the author doesn’t provide any free MP3 download on her website to prep you into theta brainwave stage. She expects everyone can achieve that stage effortlessly base on her script.

I just ordered Theta Healing Brainwave to use with EFT Emotional Freedom Techniques Energy Tapping, and I’m going to give her six-step process another go. Until then I can’t fully convinced that her technique works.

For the price of $21, this just doesn’t worth it. Overall, I’ll give it 2 stars.

• A Happy Pocket Full of Money

Somehow, the more I tried to look pass this book on the
customers-who-bought-this-item-also-bought menu, the more it kept showing up even on books I was browsing that weren’t of any hinge of relatedness.

Out of irritation and curiosity, I clicked to check the book out. Upon closer look at the cover, I came to know that the author was the creative consultant on The Secret—mere mentioning of this book almost caused me to gag. I hate The Secret—the book and the DVD; just hate them. They are simply overhyped and overrated. There, I finally say it.

On with this book, A Happy Pocket Full of Money, a hefty price tag that is selling two and half times more than many other paperbacks in Amazon. And with almost all 5-stars ratings, I just couldn’t help but to get this book and investigate.

So, was this book worth my time and money? Here’s my take on what I like and dislike about this book.

What I like; on:

Content Delivery: With a doubt, the author’s insights on creating wealth, abundance, and joy are incredible. He uses many metaphors to illustrate how LOA works. They are current and realistic which make them easy to understand and relate to.

He begins the first few chapters on basic understanding of quantum physics, and then gradually moves onto the spiritual aspects of LOA.

One of my favorite takeaways of this book is this:

Desire and intend, and you shall always have it. Quest for the truth and knowledge, and you shall always know what you seek to know. There are no real boundaries to your growth, for you are more than welcome to experience any choices you make. But you must be certain that these statements are true, for if you believe they are not true or they are partially true or selectively true, that is exactly what you will get.

Especially the last sentence—partially or selectively true—it rings so true for me. Quite often when I moved pass my complete doubt on a particular quest/belief to partially doubt, the result I got from it was always partial or selective.

What irk me about this book are the:

Borders and Line Spacing: Talk about abundance, the author or the publisher certainly didn’t apply one of his “laws” when it comes to line and paragraph spacing and borders especially the right border which width measures only 0.312 inches.

It put tremendous strain on my eyes when reading a whole chunk of texts in one cramped page. Some paragraphs go as long as four-fifth of a page.

For the price of $29.99 for a 228-pages book, least they could do is to be generous with the line spacing. The content itself isn’t at all different to comprehend but I had to pause many times between pages; making it thrice as long for me to complete a book with the same amount of content.

Subliminal Message: It took me almost a quarter of the book before I could muffled the—I AM WEALTH. I AM ABUNDANCE. I AM JOY—subliminal message between paragraphs and quotes. To be honest, I don’t quite appreciate these subliminal messages. It looks like the author was trying to accomplish too many tasks at one go.

I’m no expert on subliminal messages, but to my understanding, they are meant to be, a lack of better word, “hidden” and not thrown at you so vividly and often in infrequent intervals.

With clamped text and subliminal messages scattered all over is enough to clutter your brain and most probably dampen your reading pleasure.

Repetitive Phrases: I read one of the reviews at Amazon, and this reviewer loved the repetitive phrases use so often in the book. I don’t about you but I certainly don’t.

Not all repetitive phrases in the book are in exact wording, some are rephrasing one idea into two or six ways. I understand why some like repetitive stuff because it takes a while for the message to drill it in. Here’s what I think about repetitive messages, nag. Remember how your mom’s constant nags that you completely not hearing her?

I agree with the author that repetition is powerful, but what good does it make if one doesn’t pause to reflect or implement them once received. For what it’s worth, repetitive messages are nothing but noise.

If the literature is of worthy read, I can always reread it many times and highlight those that deem to be useful for me. But for the first take, I’d like to get through the book without jumping through hoops.

So-called Teasers: I don’t mind one or two teasers spread across the book but having one or two in almost every chapter just drive me nuts. Most are towards the end of the chapter but some are midway into a chapter. What teasers am I talking about? Here are some excerpts randomly picked from the first 108 pages:

• All this will make more sense when you understand…
• The pieces of the puzzle will fall into place as you read on…
• As you will see throughout this book…
• It will make sense when…especially after reading…
• Some…will only become clear after you have read the whole of this book.
• This will get easier and clearer…
• You will know more about them in later chapters.

A couple of chapters, the author talks great length about being in the Now; as you see from the above excerpts, these are certainly not the Now talking. How can I be in the Now—enjoying what I’m reading now, when the author so often reminding me about what I will understand or learn in the next few chapters? Subconsciously, I’m anticipating and not able to fully appreciate what I’m doing Now. I’d rather be shown (when I get there), not told (before arriving).

Spelling Errors: I, too, am guilty of making some spelling errors on my blog posts and also notice them on some of my friends’. I tend to be more forgiving on blogs. But for books, it can be annoying when you know there is an in-house editor to do the nitty-giddy checking and editing; unless it is a self-published book. Fortunately those errors are very minimal.

Conclusion:

So, does this book, A Happy Pocket Full of Money, warren your time and money? Yes, it still does if you can overlook the first four points the irked me. But seriously, I would recommend this book to those who are new to LOA or those who haven’t fully comprehend how LOA works or those seasoned LOA practitioners who want different perspectives. Having said, I honestly can’t give a 5-stars rating like many Amazon’s reviewers did. The content only rates 4 and the overall presentation is a 2-stars for me.

Strangely, this book doesn’t dedicate a page on author’s biography or a short bio at the back of the book.

It may interest you to know that the author’s website literally screams Internet Marketing sales copy to me—the layout, bonuses, endless testimonies, and the standard IM web copywriting. I have nothing against IM but many of these products just look plain scrammy and unprofessional. Maybe it’s about time the author hire a good web copywriter and a web designer to redo and update (…offer ends Oct 25. Hmmm, what year?) his site if he wants to increase sales and be taken more seriously.

• The One Command

The story begins with a flat note, it starts to kick in (just a tiny weeny little bit) where Edgar strangled a dying dog with his invisible hand. I only began to see where the story was heading when Edgar painted Illy’s boyfriend before he knew his existence. Call me slow, call me illiterate or whatever but I just didn’t get the plot until page 88 or so. In all honesty, if this book was written by an “unknown” author I’d have stuffed this book in the cylinder and dumped it in Lake Phalen. But because it was King, I persevered and eagerly anticipated for more goose skin effects. Sadly, I was let down a few times along the way. It’s definitely not a page turner even though the plot thickens (again, a tiny bit) moments before Elizabeth Eastlake kicked the bucket (p. 499) where Illy and her could see faces in the water in Edgar’s Girl and Ship No. 8 picture. Thereafter, Edgar, Wireman, and Jack began to hunt for that ghost.

It’s a 769-page book and to have readers (maybe it’s only me) read through 60% of the book before getting some goosebumps, it’s just not fair! We are talking about mystery/thriller book, right? If I’d to use metaphor to describe the book, I’d have to say it’s like rollerblading on children playground. Should one fall, he is cushioned not by his gears but the cushy ground. Now you may wonder why I bothered to finish the book despite the unadventurous terrain I described.

Thank goodness for the audio book I borrowed from the library. If it wasn’t for John Slattery excellent voice over, I’d probably have taken a month to finish the book and might have forgotten half of the characters in the book along the way. FYI: For those who think this book is good, you don’t know King’s crafty talent until you read The Shinning, Misery, and Carrie. I beg you every strand of your hair stands throughout.

Duma Key

How Does this Book Fare as a:

• Renter: Yes.
• Borrower: Yes.
• Buyer: No. Well, not for this book in my opinion. You’re better off buying King’s earlier works as mentioned above. And who knows, they might become classic.
• Gift: Yes. Especially to SK fans.
• Audio Book: Definitely worth it. As I said earlier, John Slattery did a great job. I didn’t expect him to manage the various accents effortlessly.

Overall Rating On Duma Key: 3½ stars.

• Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
• How to Drive Husbands Off the Wall…Effectively
• Best Friends Forever

What’s even more puzzling to me is that this book is listed as one of the bestsellers in Amazon with many reviewers giving 4 to 5 stars. Hmm…were they rating based on the book cover or the content? I wonder if we read the same book.

If you intend to buy this book hoping to read how a rescued, ordinary library cat in a rural area like Spencer who never left his “home” more than once managed to charm the world then you will be greatly disappointed.

With a subtitle like The Small-town Library Cat Who Touched The World and a picture of a cat on its book cover, I was expecting a TOUCHING story of the life of a cat named Dewey. Instead a third of the book is autobiography and a quarter of it talks about Spencer’s farm crisis during the 80s. A quick math here, 40 per cent of the book goes to Dewey which the author failed to show us (a good story shows, not tell the readers) how charming the cat was.

There are a few things in the book don’t quite resonate well with me (i.e. Dewey’s constipation and finicky eating—but I’m going to let these pass as I’m commenting here and not over at my pet blogs) in particularly the word/phrase world and Dewey Goes to Japan (Chapter 22).

Dewey never went to Japan rather it was the Japanese TV crew (consisted of six people including an interpreter) came to do a documentary film. Being featured in a Japanese magazine and film is not the same as being physically there. Figuratively speaking, yes! I just have to congratulate the author’s clever use of words.

As to the word world, the author again used it very loosely. The world consists more than these five countries—USA, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, and one more country (I can’t remember). There are 190 more countries which the author missed.

I’ve read quite a few memoirs on animals (because I’m a sucker for animals), but none is as dull as this book. There are a few Dewey scenes which I think the author could develop further showing us more eccentric behaviors of this cat. If only the author had spent equal amount of time observing Dewey with the patrons as she did with her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren then she would have more writing materials on Dewey to cover in the book instead of filling numerous pages of unconnected personal tales.

If the author was trying to meet the quota to get this book published by filling in a hundred or so pages of fluff then it’s pathetic. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I understand that no publishing house would consider publishing a non-fiction adult book under 200 pages. Unless you have compelling persuading skills like Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull), very rarely we see such “lengthy” book published.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

How Does this Book Fare as a:

• Renter: No. Don’t bother to waste a dime on this book. There is plenty of good books to rent but not this one.
• Borrower: Yes or maybe no. I’m sure most libraries would have it since it revolves the life of a library cat. Do so only if you really love cats and have no other good books to sink your claws in.
• Buyer: No. Since I declare it isn’t a renter, then it’s pretty obvious it’s not worth buying.
• Gift: Yes, if you want to put the receiver to sleep! Jokes aside, I suppose most cat lovers won’t mind receiving this book especially with such a handsome cat on the cover. Whether or not they will read pass chapter 2 is very questionable.
• Audio Book: If you must read this book, then I suggest you borrow the audio version from your local library. It’s abridged; and why didn’t they do that for the book! For those who read the book and feel it’s a self-important prose, honestly it isn’t half that bad compared to the audio book. Kudos for Suzanne Toren who did a wonderful voice over capturing the author’s accent.

Overall Rating On Dewey: 2 stars. I’d very much like to give one star but because Dewey I gave it a two.

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And guess what? I don’t know who the sender is. Sure, there is a card attached, “signed.”

RENEE

APOLOGIES FOR THE CONFUSION

HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON

INAHAMANI

But who the hell is Inahamani? Female? Male? Or Animal?

One thing I’m certain is that there were quite a few people pissed me off (really bad) the last couple weeks, but having to receive this bouquet is a bit dramatic and puzzle to me. And I DON’T say it affectionately.

1. The card is not handwritten, therefore insincere.
2. They are all in capital letters, therefore rude.
3. Where the hell is the word ‘Dear’, therefore impersonal.
4. The sender has big ego, vague apology with zero stench of remorse.

This is what I read between the lines. The sender knows that he/she had done something despicable as he/she could not make himself/herself elaborate the cause of confusion, for fear I might relive the incident. Therefore, the sender stays as vague as possible (including the name) so I will forget the whole situation.

If the apologizer is really sincere, he or she would follow up with an appearance or at least a phone call. So I would know who the hell Inahamani is?

• If the sender is a male, he is an idiotic self-centered prick.
• If the sender is a female, she seriously needs a sex change and become a duck.

By the way, terrible choices of flowers. I hate Gerbera daisy and white roses. Whoever you are, you just got yourself into a deeper shit.

As a matter of fact, I favor a verbal apology over anything else. Cut the crap and be sincere. I will always accept it in a heartbeat, 99%!

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