I've been FIRED!!

I've never been fired before in my life. Until today.... when I received an official "Notice of Termination" from the Amazon Associates Program.

I'm crushed because in the last 3 years, I have earned a whole $1.47. I earned that big money by advertising books from Amazon on my blog. Now what am I supposed to do....we've got all these kids to support???

So, do you want to know what horrible thing I did to get fired from my $1.47/3 year salary???

I got fired because I live in the state of Illinois. Really! Our Governor has been so busy....between raising our income tax 66% and eliminating the Death Penalty since the 1st of the year and he still had time to pass a law requiring internet companies to start collecting sales tax from customers in Illinois if the internet company has an "affiliate" in the state of Illinois. My $1.47 in earnings qualifies me as an "affiliate" of Amazon so, they had to fire me unless they wanted to collect sales tax on ALL of their sales in Illinios.

Here are the details of my firing, if you a tax geek, like me...

http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2011/03/10/Illinois-Governor-Signs-Internet-Sales-Tax-Law.aspx

So, as of April 15, 2011 you can no longer fund our retirement by buying my "recommended" books. I thought I would help Amazon out (and screw Illinois in the process) by selling as many books as I can in the next month. Let's see if we can get me all the way up to $2.00.

Here goes:

This is the best book that I've read in a long time. First of all, I've enjoyed most all of Jodi Picoult's books. This one is about a kid that has Aspergers Syndrome. Each chapter is written in the voice of a character in the book. I found the chapters written by the kid with Aspergers really, really interesting. It was an excellent book and I highly recommend it if you like that type of book. I do want to add that I was disappointed in the end. It wasn't so much that it was a bad ending, it was just a little too abrupt for me. I would have been happy with another chapter to get the reactions from all of the characters.

I read this one a while ago, but it left a big impression with me and gave me a lot to think about. It is written by a guy that is out to solve the problems of Afghanistan and Pakistan by building schools. Hmmm....too bad some other people didn't think of that, like 25 years ago...before the Radical Muslims got a jump-start on it. Anyway, very interesting book!!

This is a "big" kids book. I read the first one to the boys and I LOVED it!! I think that the boys were a bit too young for it so, I haven't read the next one yet. But, I hope they are ready soon. The book incorporates a lot of history, and mystery, and travel/culture. Each book in the series is written by a different famous author, which I think will be fun to follow.

Finally, The Shack is a book that I would like to re-read every couple of years. The author did a great job explaining his perception of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. But, don't let that "scare" you. It is a relatively easy to read book that gave me a lot to think about/sort out in my head. Trust me, read it. :)

And, finally for complete mindless entertainment, I've been reading the Twilight series. It is good, but I don't love it as much as most people. I just finished the 2nd book and bought the 3rd. I was disappointed to discover that Bella doesn't get her love life sorted out in this one. I just want to get it finished and find out how it ends. But, it is entertaining.

So, that concludes the final edition of my book reviews. I was really just kidding about buying them from my links. I don't even know if Amazon will send me a check for $2. They will probably charge me a $5 processing fee for my check. I just took the opportunity to make my recommendations.

Happy Reading...and let me know what I should read next. :)

Whatcha Readin'???

I've read some pretty good books lately. I finished The Pact, by Jodi Picoult a couple of nights ago. I liked it and it kept me up late several evenings. It was the kind of book that starts with "main event" and then you go back in time to see how everyone got to that point, and then it concludes with what happens after the event. I've read 2 other of her books (My Sister's Keeper and Nineteen Minutes) so, I was aware that she generally throws a pretty big twist in at the end of the book. Also, when I was about 1/2 way through the book, I admitted on fb that I was considering skipping to the end because I was dying to find out what really happened....holy cow, the "comments" from my "friends" started flying in about not doing that and how reading the end would "ruin it". So, I listened and didn't skip to the end, but my anticipation was way up....probably too high....because, I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed with the end. Overall, it was a great book and I highly recommend it, but just enjoy it, don't expect an amazing ending....it was just an ending, IMO.



Before that, I read DaVinci Code. I thought that was excellent. I know as a Catholic, I'm supposed to think that it was an awful book, but I really didn't think so. I thought the story was so clever and the symbolism stuff was so interesting. It did not make me doubt my faith, but it was really interesting. I think that I have a pretty good grasp of which parts were real and which parts were fiction, but I would really like to get a hold of a book with the Catholic church's rebuttal to what was presented in the book.




Before that, I read Escape by Carolyn Jessop. It was about an polygamist wife that escaped from the FLDS cult with her 8 children. Her husband is a big-wig in that group from Texas that had all of those kids removed last year by DCFS. He's got like 6 or 7 wives and about 60 kids. Carolyn Jessop was married to him when she was 18 and he was 50...yuck! It is crazy to think people are living like that today, in this country. But, the book was very interesting!




I'm always looking for books that have the right balance of juiciness and actually learning something. Up until last year, my reading mostly consisted of magazines. I feel like I've been missing out on some really good and interesting books. I'm now trying to catch up...much to the chagrin of Spencer who does not enjoy sleeping with my reading light on, late into the night. :)

My dilemma is now what I should read next. I got Three Cups of Tea, from Amazon, which is supposed to be very good. I also will be receiving Pandora Prescription today or tomorrow. I don't know anything about it, but my cousin raved about it so, I thought I'd give it a try. I am also considering reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Spencer and I actually started to watch the movie a few years ago and couldn't get into it. We shut it off pretty quickly. The only reason that I want to read it is because I am going to Savannah next weekend for a girls' weekend. I have never been to Savannah before and the extent of my knowledge of Savannah is that it is in Georgia.....it is warmer there than it is here.....and,, the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was set there. I'm thinking that reading the book might be a good idea. Did you read it? Is it good? I know it won awards and stuff, but I don't always see eye-to-eye with those people that hand out art awards. What do you think??