Monthly Archives: February 2010

Feb 25 2010

Amazon Wishes Do Come True…even if you have to grant them yourself!

Do you have an Amazon Wish List? I do. I use it mainly to keep up with books, movies, and CDs that I find that are interesting that I might want to consider buying  or reading more abut later.  No one, besides myself, has ever bought anything off the list for me.  You can put anything on your list which is sold on Amazon; like I said, I have all books and CDs, maybe a movie or two, but also have a pair of shoes on mine.

My problem is that I read some of the most obscure and esoteric books out there, that upon a recent browsing session of my list, I found that a lot of my books have pretty much gone out of print.  Like Geoff Ryman’s Was from 1993. It’s a book I came across and added to my list in September 2009 when I think I was actually looking at Gregory Macguire’s Wicked which probably led to a random search on other books about Oz.  It’s out of print now and used copies were like .35 cents on Amazon from Marketplace sellers, so I bought it.

Elf Child by David Pierce is a book I found and added to my list in 2007. I don’t remember why, other than I thought it had a very interesting cover.  It’s a book about a shape shifter.  It also seems to be out of print, and the only book by Mr. Pierce that is available on Amazon.  I did happen to notice it was published by Harrington Park Press.  This was an imprint of Haworth which was sold to Taylor & Francis a while back, but the HPP titles got lost in the shuffle and ended up with no publisher to call home which is why this book may be unavailable other than through used booksellers on Amazon.  So, I bought it.

Patti Frazee is another one-book author who I found through Alyson Publications.  Her book Cirkus was published in 2006 and added to my wish list shortly there after.  I followed Patti’s author blog for some time and was motivated by her experiences at the Saints and Sinners Festival that she attended about the time her book came out.  A few blog posts in 2007 suggest Patti’s life was unfortunately going in some sad directions that were distracting her from writing, which may be why we haven’t seen another book from her.  I haven’t forgotten about her first book though and intend to read it still.  So, I bought it.

Her Fearful Symmetry was written by Audrey Niffenegger.  Yes, you have heard her name before.  She wrote The Time Traveler’s Wife, which was just made into a movie. I mooched a copy of TTTW on BookMooch and after reading the reviews, was led to Ms. Niffenegger’s second book which hasn’t gotten such stellar ratings.  I liked the sound of it because it had a ghost in it.  Yes, I’m a ghost fanatic and believe in them.  Put Casper on toilet paper and I’d probably buy that too.  By the way, this one is not out of print. But guess what?  I bought it anyway.

Although I never read Mysterious Skin, which was a more popular book by Scott Heim which was also made into a movie (I didn’t see the movie either.), at some time or another I clicked on his name and found his 2008 book called We Disappear. It’s not out of print either. It’s actually Heim’s third book and is about a woman in Kansas who becomes obsessed with missing children. Her and her gay son end up trying to solve the mystery of a missing teenager who is found dead.   Yep, I bought it.

Here’s another odd one that I have no idea how I came across.  It’s called First Person Plural and it was written by Andrew W. M. Beirle and published by Kensington, a publisher well known for the gay and lesbian fiction. It’s about an odd couple: a pair of conjoined twins, one who is straight and one who is gay. As Porter and Owen’s carefully balanced arrangement of give-and-take, sacrifice and selfishness, is irrevocably shattered, each twin is left fighting for his relationship–and his future–in a battle of wills where winning seems impossible, and losing unthinkable… Bought it!

Last on my list are two books by Josheph Olshan. The first is called The Conversion. I first came across a hardcover edition in Borders a while back and was immediately drawn to the book’s cover.  It’s about an author visiting France with his lover, who suddenly dies of a heart attack.  The author becomes wrapped up in a mystery surrounding the secret life of his now dead lover.  I didn’t purchase it in Borders that day although I wish now that I had.  The book has always been in the back of my mind and eventually made its way onto my Wish List so I wouldn’t forget about it.  But I bought it now so…

The second is called Sound of Heaven, also by Olshan.  I know I probably found it after reading about The Conversion on Amazon and clicking on the author’s name. It’s long out of print from like 1993 and used copies were selling for as much as $50 (not what I paid for it though). The description on Amazon was brief, but enough to capture my attention, and so….yep, I bought it.   By the way, Olshan wrote Clara’s Heart which was made into a movie with Whoopi Goldberg.

I love my Amazon Wish List for reasons like these.  Without it, I probably would have forgotten about most of these books by now.  But I can forget about them now on my wish list because my reading list just got a little longer.

Feb 24 2010

It’s all lies, I tell ya!

Oh Great!  Not only does my email box fill up with chain emails  about Bill Gates promising me thousands for forwarding emails and sick helpless homeless girls in third world countries with no legs who want me to forward her emails and millionaires in Zimbaye needing my bank account number to transfer millions into the country which they will split with me, but now my lil ole blog has been tagged with a Creative Writer award for which I must follow a laundry list of tasks or bad luck shall surely fall upon me this very day!  Thanks to fellow author LK Gardner-Griffie, who nominated me. I shall follow suit and break the rules like she did:

Here are the rules:

  1. Thank the person who gave this to you.
  2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
  3. Link to the person who nominated you.
  4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself, and at least one outrageous truth.
  5. Nominate seven one “Creative Writer” who might have fun coming up with outrageous lies.
  6. Post links to the seven one blog you nominate.
  7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

And without further delay, here lie my lies.  Can you pick out the truth?

  1. I have been to the mountain top.
  2. I have met the enemy and she is Lady GaGa.
  3. I subscribe to Playboy for the articles.
  4. I was once a stand up comic.
  5. A census taker once tried to test me. I hate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
  6. I own all of Liberace’s albums.
  7. I dance naked in my living room.

I’m tagging my arch nemesis and partner in crime, Jost Heun.  And I’m only tagging one person, so na na na nanny boo boo, stick your head in poo poo.  pfffffgggghhhhh!

Feb 19 2010

Reading Goal Update: An Affair (not) To Remember

I’ve updated my Amazon Reading List for 2010.

I finished reading Tom Perrotta’s Little Children last night  and awoke today feeling no different.  I like to read a book that makes me want to be a better person, or makes me want to go out and change the world, or at least change my world and avoid the mistakes the characters in the book were destined to make.  In Little Children, everyone got what they ultimately wanted, just not when they wanted it, and their wants weren’t always what was really good for them or their spouses in the end (things could have worked out differently) but it was what they deserved.

The book mainly focuses around two couples.  There’s Todd and Kathy.  Todd is labeled “The Prom King” by moms at the playground.  He’s a stay at home dad for his young son, can’t pass the bar exam, and is pretty much feeling stagnant in his role.  His wife is a documentary film maker.  Then there’s Sarah and Richard.  Sarah is an aging feminist with a young daughter, and Richard is obsessed with internet porn.  The two couples’ stories converge on the playground where Todd and Sarah meet and begin an affair, that at first is based on the wonderful sex they have with each other and aren’t getting from their spouses.  It eventually turns into something much deeper for them.

I shouldn’t even waste time explaining the other characters in the story, because besides one, they are just pawns and the readers loses track of them quite easily while caught up in the affair happening between Todd and Kathy.  There’s Larry, an ex-cop who shot and killed a young kid in a mall who was carrying a toy gun.  He gets Todd to relive his glory days by making him join a community midnight football league. When they aren’t on the field, they are visiting the home of a child molester who’s just moved in to their community, where Larry thinks he is protecting his children by spray painting obscenities on their driveway or leaving flaming bags of poo on the doorstep.

Ronnie, the child molester, has just moved back in with his mom and wants to be left alone, but Larry won’t budge and continues to point him out and make things difficult.  Ronnie is also a wuss, although the reader is treated to a few frightening scenes where we almost lapse into Ronnie’s head and get to see that he truly is a monster.  The tensions between him and Larry rise to great consequences but fall short in the end.

Throw in a group of book clubbing, wine drinking, playground gossiping, yuppy moms who oogle over Sarah landing a kiss from Todd on the playground, and that’s pretty much it for this book in a nutshell. While the storyline of Todd and Sarah dominates most of the book, Perrotta tries to recover some of his other characters and their problems near the end, but it was almost too close to the end.  I’m still not even sure where Kathy is toward the climax of the book, even after going back and looking for her.

Perrotta also hands practically hands Ronnie the typewriter and lets him write some very haunting scenes that have the potential to totally change my opinion about this book as I finished the last page, but like I said, they fall short.  It’s like Perrotta wanted to go there, but decided against it because it’s not what he wanted for his book.  Sometimes we have to let the characters take over!  And in this case, I wish he had done just that.  If you read between the lines, you’ll know what I’m talking about and probably be just as disappointed that what you were thinking is not what ultimately happens.

Having dealt with infidelity in my own life, the reason for my parent’s divorce after 30 years of marriage, I think this book stands as a perfect example of how the spouses left at home in the dark are the ones you really feel sorry for.  In a sense, they are helpless little children who have been betrayed. But as a reader, I feel betrayed by Perrotta who led his readers, and his characters, to the end of a plot that could have been much better. I should have stepped out on this book and started an affair with another.

Feb 18 2010

Save Me Save You

UPDATE!  TOO MUCH BLOGGING GOING ON…IN AN EFFORT TO DEVOTE MORE TIME TO MY PERSONAL BLOG HERE, I’VE DELETED THE SAVE ME SAVE YOU BLOG!  WHEN I FEEL LIKE BLOGGING ABOUT SAVINGS AND COUPONS, YOU’LL FIND IT HERE AT SHANNONYARBROUGH.COM.  THANKS FOR READING!

Since coupon clipping and regular trips to Walgreens have absorbed most of my attention lately, I’ve decided to start a new blog about my coupon clipping/money saving  journey.  It’s called Save Me Save You.

Inspired so much by Jeri at Coupon STL, this new blog is meant to hopefully help others by sharing my personal experience.  However, to make my blog a bit different, I’ll also offer up some product reviews and other banter about my shopping experiences.  I buy the majority of my groceries every two weeks since that’s when I get paid, so there won’t be a large amount of posts about trips to the grocery store, but I’ll try to keeps things fresh and exciting for those who might be interested. So, check it out.  I’ve already got a few posts up along with some product reviews.

Save Me Save You!

Feb 15 2010

Jay-Z, Get Over It!

While I didn’t like the “We Are The World” remake either which debuted during the Opening Ceremonies of the current Olympics, Jay-Z said “I know everybody is gonna take this wrong: ‘We Are the World,’ I love it, and I understand the point and think it’s great. But I think ‘We Are the World’ is like [Michael Jackson's] ‘Thriller’ to me. I don’t ever wanna see it touched,” during a recent MTV interview according to OMG.

Really?  Really?

Jay-Z, what about James Brown, A Tribe Called Quest, the Four Tops, Blondie, The Waitresses, Survivor, Cheryl Lynn, Talking Heads, Rick James, Billy Joel, Annie, KC & the Sunshine Band, Isaac Hayes, Biz Markie, Puff Daddy, B.I.G., The Moments, Al Green, Stanley Clarke, Crash Crew, The Persuaders, Bobby Glen, Snoop Dog, The Doors, David Bowie, Bobby Byrd, the Bee Gees, Luther Vandross, Cake, TLC, Prince, 2Pac, Kim Weston, Madonna, Linkin Park, Pavarotti, Marvin Gaye, Public Enemy, En Vogue, Beastie Boys, Barry White, T.I., Lil Wayne, Jermaine Jackson, Janet Jackson, AND the Jackson 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????

Guess what they all have in common?

YOU sampled all of them in your own songs!

Talk about originality and leaving well enough alone!  Why not start with your own music?!

You’re just mad because you didn’t get to sample We Are The World before the remake came out!!

Feb 14 2010

Mourning Winter

With over two inches of snow already on the ground and more quickly falling, it’s odd to think that today is Valentine’s Day.  It feels more like a white Christmas.  I wish it was.  The chilled air is filled with a flutter of white.  I didn’t see the sun today and now night is falling.

Tomorrow is President’s Day so school is already out.  I wish adults could have a snow day.  What I wouldn’t give to be ten again and bundled up in clothes, out riding a trash can lid down the powdery hill.

I never was good making men out of snow.

Before the sun sat, I snapped these photos out the back door of some winter birds that had stopped by for a bite to eat.  Jim Grimsley would be proud.

Feb 9 2010

Walgreens Savings for 02/09/10

I made 2 trips to Walgreens this week and I still don’t think I’m done.  Thanks to Coupon STL, I’m totally obsessed with earning and rolling Register Rewards and seeing how much I can get for the least amount of money.

I started with $18 in RR (register rewards) going in from last week’s earnings.

Before heading to work, I stopped in at the local Walgreens closest to my house and was a bit upset when I couldn’t find the first item I wanted.  It was the Dove’s Men’s Body Wash which was on special for $5.99 and you earned $6 RR back, so basically it was free!  A nice cashier pointed me to a “new product” section where I found it so all was not lost.  I then picked up a 4 pack of Starbucks Frappuccino’s on sale for $4.99 which would also earn me a $1 RR back. With a coupon and 2 RR’s to use, I still needed to pick up one more item.  You can’t use more coupons and RR’s than the number of items you have.  Since I was rushing to get to work, I picked up the Three Musketeer’s Truffle Crisp which is a suggested sale this week at the register.  Here’s how I did…

$5.99 Dove’s Men’s Body Wash

$4.99 Starbucks Frappuccino

.69 cent Truffle Crisp Candy Bar

Coupons Used:

I used a $1.25 coupon for the body wash from the Sunday paper.

I then used a $2 RR and a $6 RR which I had earned last week.

I paid $2.42 cash out of pocket.

However, I earned a $6 RR from the body wash and a $1 RR back from the Frappuccinos.

That’s a $4.58 profit.

I saved $2.70 from Advertised Savings and $9.25 in Coupons Savings for a total of $11.95 saved!

I still had $10 left in RR.

Trip 2 was after work so I went in with $17 RR. With a long list of items I still wanted to take advantage of, I decided to maximize my savings with some coupons I had been collecting for Nivea Products which were on sale.

I picked up 4 different kinds of Nivea Body Wash and 2 kinds of Nivea Lotion. The Body Wash was $4.79 each for 2 on sale and $3.99 each for the other 2, also on sale.  The lotions were $5.99 each on sale.   I then picked up 1 box of Kraft Mac and Cheese, 2 Encore Seasonings, and 2 Campbell’s Soups. Here’s the breakdown…

2 Nivea Body Washes $4.79 each

2 Nivea Body Washes $3.99 each

2 Nivea Lotions $5.99 each

2 Encore Seasonings  $1.79 each

1 Box of Kraft Mac & Cheese $1.49 each

2 Campbell’s Soups  $1.79 each

Coupons Used:

4  $1 Nivea Coupons (Sunday Paper)

1  $5 Nivea Coupon (Sunday Paper)

1  2/$1 Encore Seasoning Coupon (Walgreens ad)

1  .69 cent Kraft coupon (Walgreens ad)

1  $10 RR,  1 $6 RR, and 1 $1 RR  ($17 total)

I paid $9.10 out of pocket.

I earned a $5 RR back from buying at least $15 in Nivea, so basically I really only paid $4.10 out of pocket.

I saved $1.78 from Walgreens Coupons, $7.80 from Advertised Savings, and $26.00 from RR and Coupons for a total of $35.58 saved.

I had no coupon for the soups, and mainly picked them up to equal out my coupons.  I bought 11 items and used 10 coupons/RRs total.

That’s a total of $47.53 saved today in just two trips!

Now if you take into account how much I would have paid had I bought everything at regular price and out of pocket, I would have spent $14.37 on the first trip and $44.39 on the second trip.  That’s a total of $58.76 out of pocket if I’d used no coupons and no RR’s and paid full price for everything.

I paid just $ 11.52 and have $5 RR for next time!!