The Best and Worst of July 2014

Yep, this is another Best and Worst of… installment that’s a little late but it’s better late than never.  Especially considering all of the tech problems I’ve had recently (and am still having).  My keyboard recently died on my desktop so now I have to use a laptop that is way too small for my long fingers.  Oh well, things could be worse.

Sadly on the statistics front, July just couldn’t compete with the previous four record-breaking months.  Now that Game of Thrones is done for another several months and school is out (so I don’t get hits on my Hunger Games articles as much) I expected my views to go down and I wasn’t surprised when I only received 6,344 page views with 4,568 unique views.  Still, that’s much better than last July, which clocked in at 3,958 total page views.  My site is continuing to grow in popularity so I can hardly complain about how tough I have it.

Well, what were the best articles this month?

1.  Why Girls Hate Game of Thrones—A Rebuttal

2.  How to Read 100 Pages in an Hour

3.  The Hunger Games and Ancient Rome

4.  Discussion: Who are Book Reviews For?

5.  Discussion: Your School Reading Experiences

As with the previous four months, my Game of Thrones article gave me over half of the views I received and the other articles preceding it were far behind by comparison (3000+ hits compared to 100).  My discussions did better than they usually do, mainly because I haven’t really posted discussions for a while since my tech problems started.  Speaking of which, I still have to reply to all of those awesome comments!

So what were the worst articles in July?

1.  The Squire, His Knight, and His Lady by Gerald Morris

2.  Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

3.  Hand of Isis by Jo Graham

4.  The Fire Within by Chris d’Lacey

5.  The Secret War by Matt Myklusch

All of these are reviews this month, which is unusual, but at the same time it’s not all that concerning.  They’re all books that have been out for a while so of course they’re not going to get the same amount of hits as newer books that are being talked about all over the internet.  I don’t see any repeat offenders so I usually don’t get too worried about which reviews appear on the worst list.

Well, that’s how my July went: lower stats and tons of tech problems but still not too bad.  Work is busy, which is good, but at the same time I look back on the slow days of winter with longing because while I’m ringing up customers constantly I’m not getting any cleaning or estimating done.  Still, I can’t complain.  How was your July?

 

 

Discussion: Your School Reading Experiences

Since I’m a huge book nerd, I’m assuming that most people reading my blog are book nerds of varying degrees.  So I thought we could all share how our love of reading developed and was either discouraged or encouraged during school.  Here’s my story:

In grade one and two there was quite an excellent reading program at my school consisting of 26 levels you had to finish at the end of the second grade.  Well, the problem was that I mastered the books in each level too quickly but the teachers would not move me up the levels until I read every single book in them (although I was reading aloud fluently and had excellent reading comprehension).  Despite their efforts to hold me back, I was finished a month before school ended and my mother’s bitter fight with the school to get them to give me level-appropriate reading material began.

Middle school was an extremely boring joke.  By the time we were doing novel studies in grades 7, 8 and 9 I had already read all of the ones in the curriculum back in grade five and six.  My English teacher at this time was awesome and by grade nine she got tired of me spoiling the entire plots (I’ll admit I was a bit of a smartass and being bored/frustrated didn’t help).  So when I said yet again that I had already read the book we were about to study, she handed me an independent novel study booklet and let me use a book of my choosing.  I think I chose I, Claudius by Robert Graves and loved it.  Much better than the other option, which was reading a book I had read way back in the third grade (and could still summarize six years later).

So you could say school didn’t exactly encourage my love of reading, but thank goodness my parents did.  We didn’t always have money for things like new movies or toys but there was always money for books and for that I’ll always be grateful.  Without their support, I wouldn’t be writing this blog and my life would be a whole lot more boring and empty without it.

Well, now that you’ve heard my life story, I want to hear yours!  How did your school experiences affect your reading now?  Were they good or bad experiences?

Book Blast: Strangers on a Bus by Robert Manary

 

 

How far can they get on a bus ride anyway?
 
Publication Date: March 29, 2011
Genre: Romantic Comedy/Memoir

If you liked When Harry Met Sally, you’ll fall in love with Robb and Gertrude from Strangers on a Bus…

Robb is crushed by a failed relationship with the love of his life and finds himself unexpectedly on a long bus trip from his adopted home in the U.S. back to his native Canada.

At the first stop in NYC, a girl gets on and so begins a contemplation of life, love, and strange events that will bring tears of laughter and heartache streaming down your face.

Is this girl Robb’s real true love or just a rebound? How far can they get on a bus ride anyway?

This is a true story.

View the Trailer
Purchase the Book at Amazon (US) (UK) (CAN)

 

Robert Manary is an international playboy and man of mystery, with the charm and sophistication of James Bond shaken not stirred with a couple ounces of Cyrano de Bergerac, a dash of Rasputin, and garnished with the rapier wit of Thurston Howell the Third.

That’s how he sees himself, anyway.

The truth is Robert Manary is a construct created to protect the dubious reputation of his Clark Kent like mild mannered writer/puppeteer/the man pulling the levers and breathing life into the Great and Powerful Oz (don’t look too closely behind the curtain).

Manary is an award winning blogger, an erotic romance novel writer, the author of a pretty decent romantic comedy, and for a brief period in the early nineties served as dictator of a small South American country.

Most of that is true.

Manary is also an experimental artist who has no clue how to write an Author’s Bio, and definitely no idea how to end one.

P.S. He is also a shameless plunderer of pop culture.

The Point by G. Nykanen

The Point by G. Nykanen(Cover picture courtesy of e-bookbuilders.)

Befuddled by her current relationship woes, Nora Reynolds leaves college at semester’s end to drive north of nowhere to her hometown of Iron Bay. Vulnerable and on the rebound, she is the perfect prey for fledgling felon Dane Buchman. Dane takes advantage of the unaware young woman, feeding his appetite for mischief until a rather violent shift in their relationship reveals to him what he’s really been craving. Driven by his new found hunger, Dane feels unstoppable, until former high school rival and town deputy, Doug Sanders, navigates the trail of Dane’s destruction.

The Point is a dark thriller that will allow you to witness a truly dangerous sociopath wander through madness guided by a treasured family heirloom, and a pensive young woman find her way after discovering, that which doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. With echoes of the Coen brothers’ Fargo, the folksy town of Iron Bay and the nearby north-woods community of Deer Lake are the destinations for Mr. Buchman’s many misdeeds.

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]

When the blurb says that The Point is a dark thriller, it’s not kidding.  It is quite dark and it is quite a thriller, particularly from a psychological standpoint so I’ll talk about that first.

The plot is really the main focus of the novel whereas the characters are sort of secondary.  They’re well developed, but secondary to the plot.  The plot itself is far from unique, however; it follows pretty much your typical psychopath on the loose scenario and brings it to its logical conclusion as Dane’s mind deteriorates further.  You’ll be able to guess how it ends like I did but at the same time, Nykanen’s writing will absolutely grip you and you won’t be able to put The Point down.  So what this book lacks in originality it sure makes up for in thrills.

The characters were nothing special, but they were all quite well-developed.  Dane is your typical psychopath: has mother issues, no empathy for anyone, a sexual deviant.  Pretty much your textbook case, especially as the thrills of raping women wear thing and he desires other, darker things.  Nora is an interesting but sad character, I must admit.  She’s left in doubt at her relationship status when summer begins and it’s her lack of self-confidence that leads her into the charming Dane’s grasp.

Nora changes more than any other character over the course of the story but I can’t really tell you what changed her because that would be giving away some major spoilers.  In essence, things happen to her both good and bad (mostly bad) and she reacts in a realistic, believable and sympathetic way.  Nykanen is good at this sort of character development so being in Nora’s head for most of the story is pretty good.  The funny thing is that of all the characters, I hated Jake the most because his uncertainty and unwillingness to tell Nora what he was about to do is partly responsible for everything that happened to her.  Of course Dane bears full responsibility for his actions, but Jake drove Nora away into the arms of that psychopath.

As you can guess, there are some pretty heavy themes of guilt and betrayal.  They give The Point that truly emotional quality that makes you really connect with both the characters and the circumstances they fall into.  Other than the pretty cliche plot I rather enjoyed The Point and if you’re into thrillers I’d definitely recommend it.

I give this book 4/5 stars.

Amazon     Barnes and Noble     Goodreads

“Game of Thrones man hatred” and More Weird Search Terms

It’s been a while since I rounded up any of the weird search terms I’ve received, so I figured I’d do it today to brighten up everyone’s Wednesday (including mine).  So here are the lovely search terms that people found my blog through:

rose leslie sex scene

writer self-deluded novel

is it really necessary for someone with chronic psin to moan out loud constantly

i hate slang

easiest chronic pain to write about

reasons why i hate teenage books

every girl on game of thrones naked

game of thrones man hatred

why do guys like game of thrones

Ah, Game of Thrones.  You either hate it or love it according to the internet.  And since I wrote about why it’s okay for women to like it in my chart-topping article I constantly get weird Game of Thrones search terms like the ones above.  Since I wrote about chronic pain a while back I get weird search terms from that.  (Also, no it’s not necessary but the person asking that question should be a little more empathetic.)  Basically, there are no seriously creepy search terms like I sometimes get, but there’s still a lot of naked women terms.

Seriously people: I don’t have naked women on my blog, especially not the Game of Thrones women.  If you want to see some of them naked go to Google Image Search or YouTube.