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Book 41: Shattered Silence

Shattered Silence by Melissa G. Moore was a book about growing up and learning to accept the fact that your dad is the Happy Face Serial Killer. It’s a good enough memoir. I say good enough since the tale itself was good but it wasn’t the best written book.

I was drawn to this book since it was about an unusual serial killer. It was about the Happy Face Serial Killer (who is rather odd since he had a family and wasn’t a sexual deviant). Since 10th grade, I’ve been fascinated by serial killers and curious about how they work. So I wanted to know more about Keith Jasperson from a person who knew him closer then most people, his daughter.

I didn’t get that in-depth conversation about her father during the time of the killings like I was hoping. Melissa wasn’t living with her father. Her mom and dad divorced when she was young. So she got to have the “Disneyland Dad”. He was the guy who would come in and spoil the kids once in a while and then withdraw again. There were signs that things were off with her dad and clues to his actions. But it was like the Monday quarterback, hindsight is 20/20. She piece together the clues about her dad’s odd behavior (other then how he was a bit too open in his discussions about sex with her) after he was arrested.

It was interesting to me that the Melissa’s stepfather seemed more horrible and more dominating then her father (the serial killer). Her stepfather Robert was a deaf, mute man was very abusive and combative towards Melissa’s mom and the whole family. Since she lived with Robert and her mother, that was the terror she saw day in and day out. IT’s an odd relationship that the mom was able to walk away from the serial killer husband who treated her decently but she wasn’t able to walk away from a guy who was just abusive.

There were times I got so frustrated with this book. The tale is strong. The clarity of thought is strong. But the editing was really weak. The book could have been pulled in tighter. There were some chapters that I didn’t always get why they existed or parts of chapters. It was just a little too long. Plus I found typos and grammar errors. It was just a poorly edited book. It could have arranged to be even more powerful and masked the decent writing.

The other thing that I’m wasn’t comfortable with was her ties to Dr. Phil by pitching the show and his foundation. I understand she spoke on his show and it helped to provide a lot of closure for her but I don’t like advertising for someone else especially with someone who has so much emphasis on fame and making money. I would prefer to have Dr. Phil left off the cover and the page asking for donations for the Dr. Phil Foundation. Let there just be a subtle mention that a portion of the book sales will go to the foundation or do it in private. As it was done, it just felt like she was just trying to make money for famed obsessed person.

Book 40: Gossip Girl I will Always Love You

Some days you just have to read a cheesy, bad, embarrassing book. Gossip Girl’s I Will Always Love You by Cecily Von Ziegesar book definitely is one of those books. It was actually better then I thought it would be although I wasn’t expecting much.

So I have really low standards when it comes to Gossip Girl. I enjoy the spin off books (The It Girl Series) but never really enjoyed the actual Gossip Girl books. I thought it was neat how Cecily Von Ziegesar used today’s technology intertwined in her books (like the Gossip Girl website, text messages and emails). But for the most part I found the characters to be vapid and undeveloped and I found the plotlines just unbelievable.

I will have to say I like how the book actually looked at the different character’s Christmas and New Year’s Holiday celebrations for all four years of college. It was a neat concept. It shows how they characters were finding themselves and just growing up. I will have to say there are times, things were well done. Quite frankly, she was too ready to rush the events and call it a new school year in January and didn’t always age up the kids a full year. Let’s be honest, you can plan to go abroad for Junior year but that starts in the summer and to use that as a brush off for a girl you don’t want to see when she stars class in January simply doesn’t work. So it took away from the reality that she was trying to create and took away from a really cool concept.

There were times I loved the character growth and times I hated it. For the first time, I really started to connect with Blair and Serena. They weren’t just names on a page who I just couldn’t relate to. The anguish over love and not being able to connect with those that you love just worked. So did how they would get jealous and seem to try to deal with things. I got it. But at other times, the characters were just shallow and one dimensional. Especially Dan and Vanessa. They just fell flat and to be a fraction of the characters they once were.

One of the things I both love and hate about Cecily Von Ziegesar’s writing is the use of brand names and labels. At times it helps to serve the fact that they live an elite lifestyle and brands are a big deal. You want to make sure it’s good enough. It was fun to see stuff that I sell at Schiller’s were showing up in the book by brand (Marvis toothpaste, some of the shampoos, and etc). Kinda shows how Schiller’s does a great job at getting quality products. But at other times it drives me nuts to see sentences that will list a half dozen Brand names. I just start skimming the page and lose my connection to reality. It’s a bout balance when using brand names and while this Gossip Girl book was better then the other books I’ve tried to read but it was still too heavy in many scenes.

So in all, I would rank this book around a 3. It’s a great Gossip Girl but that’s like saying the Pirates are the best when compared to the Orioles, and the Expos (yes I know the Expos don’t exist anymore and are now the Nationals but they still stand out as a stinky baseball team). But there were some good concepts and it was a nice reprieve for a couple nights.

Book 39: The Gathering

The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong is the fourth novel in the Darkest Power Series (the books I read earlier this years by her). She takes the series in a whole new direction. But this whole new direction actually is really strong and the book can really stand on it’s own while still fitting in with the series as a whole.

As I mentioned, The Gathering isn’t like the other Darkest Power books. It only features one of the characters from the first three books: The St. Clouds. Since they were a minor character (if you can call a corporation/cabal a character) n the first books, you can almost forget the books are related. That is until Maya finds out about Project Genesis. That’s the main thread tying the two together since the book to the Buffalo side of the experiment. This book is even set on a real small corporate town on Vancouver Island not in New York state.

I will have to say, I really liked the set up in this book. Maya is a the typical teen dealing with growing up and starts to uncover what an old lady meant by calling her naaldlooshi.. It’ was really neat to see her start to uncover and try to figure out more about herself and be pre-werecougar (at least in essence. But they use the Navajo/Hopi term skin-walker if it’s not the Navajo word naadlooshi).

I really like Maya’s character. I found her completely relatable. Someone who knew what she was doing in most situations but also had doubts that crept in too. I loved her thought progression throughout the book. It was just so believable and relatable too. It was as if Kelley Armstrong took my thoughts and planted into her character.

I think I like this book best in the series thus far. I am definitely interested in seeing if my guesses are right about Daniel and Maya's relationship. Plus I will be interested in seeing how the evacuation will affect everyone and the onset of the change for the kids. So much more to come too bad it's like the Carrie Vaughn books (I have to wait until they are published before getting more).

Product 26: Pre De Provence Argumes Shower Gel

Pre de Provence is one of the lines that I adore but I dont really treat myself to but I will treat my friends and family too. It was a long time coming, but I finally could get another shower gel and fell in love with a new shower gel.

So for a long time, I give friends and family Pre de Provence products, especially their bar soap. I love the aromas from the products and the ingredients. They use shea butter and blend it with essential oils to make a devine product that is super moisturizing for the skin and it's well tolerated. Plus some of the soaps come in with natural exfoilators. When it comes to beauty products or even anything in life, it's about the ingredients. If you have good stuff going in, you will more then likely have good stuff coming out.

The Argumes scent has been a long time favorite (although I do love the new Vanilla Woods and Provence scents). I love the blend of citrus fruits. It's just good to my nose. And owning the products now, I still really like the smell in my shower when I'm trying to wake up in the morning.

It's a basic clean. I'm not sure I feel completely stripped clean but I love using it. Plus my skin seems to like it and the shower gel doesn't seem to actually get the acne any more exterbated (something I have to worry about on my chest and when I use the moisturizing products).

Product 24: Marks and Spencer Ingredients Lemon Bath Creme

Marks and Spencer Ingredients Lemon products are quite possibly my favorite seasonal products that we get at Schillers. For the past two years, I’ve treated myself to one of the products and just fell in love with it. We only get a small supply and selection of line but it’s such a great product.

The first thing I love about the Ingredients products is the pure smell. It’s a real lemon smell. It’s not the synthetic scent. It just smells like a fresh squeezed lemon.

Plus I love the way they actually work. Since I tried the shower cream before, I picked up the bath crème. I’ve been in love with the bubble bath lately so it’s nice to have a real bubble bath solution for the tub. It creates great frothy bubbles that just last. Plus you can use the bubbles to suds up yourself and get clean.

I don’t have any draw backs to this product for the most part. I would love to have more ready access to these products and I would love to carry other scents. But since they come from England and the exchange rates, you can only get them seasonally. It’s crazy to think that Schillers sold out of these products already and we just got them in two weeks ago.

Product 23: Claus Portos Japanese Mimosa Soap

Claus Portos Japanese Mimosa Soap is a heavy soap made in Portugal that is divinely scented. Around Christmas time, Schillers got in two new scents in a smaller size than the usual Claus Portos Soap. These scents include Almond Milk and Japanese Milk. I love both a lot but I will have to say the Mimosa the best.

The Clause Portos Soap has one major flaw: the price. The price was $11.95 for about a 5.5 oz bar. It’s not a huge bar of soap. So things didn’t sell as quickly as it was hoped despite the product being a great product, and we opened up two bars so people could try them out and sniff them easier. As they continued not to sell quickly, we moved the things to the sale rack (which means it’s 50% off). Now there are a couple bars that will be going into the Sidewalk Sale in the summer. I was lucky enough to take home the testers since we can’t sell open soap and I was a happy camper.

I fell in love with this soap immediately. It feels so great on the skin and it the smell. This soap just lathers up well and the bar fits well into my hand. I just loved the way I felt afterwards too. No dry feeling and I felt clean too. Plus I could smell that hint of Japanese Mimosa on my skin for quite a while.

I’m not kidding about how the scent is strong. After using the soap for the first time, my bathroom had that nice smell of Japanese Mimosa when I came home from work 8 hours later. So that was completely unexpected but welcomed. It made the bathroom just feel nice.

I would recommend this soap to people. It’s absolutely lovely especially if you can get them at the Sidewalk Sale.