YELP SUCKS!?

DOES YELP SUCK ????

I really do not know how to play their game. As a consumer and small business worker, Does Yelp suck?

The Napa Register, our local small newspaper suggested on their front page to support our local businesses by shopping locally. I made a commitment to write a Yelp review at least once a week, or at least once a month on one of my favorite local businesses that I patronize to support them further especially during these difficult times.

I wrote about my mechanic of 20 years, my tire store of the same amount of years, my favorite, small time and old fashion office supply store; known as Neff's Office Supply, my acupuncturist and a couple of others so far. But in a months time, all my reviews were deleted. I came to find out that since I was not frequent YELP-er, I was not taken seriously, and my reviews were erased.

Do you know how much time I spent on these reviews to sound at least adult and thorough! Not to mention all the time I spent in researching these people and businesses in the first place. I researched them the old fashion way by asking for referrals from people in my community and checking their credentials before I first went to or shopped at their establishments. Then Yelp comes along with this game plan and makes these rules that I did not fit in.

Can you believe that a serious Yelper I read about claims that a host at a restaurant was RUDE merely because the host answered too quickly. This Yelper reviews the restaurant as being bad. That is a judgement, that is in his view only. That is cruel. But he is a regular Yelper and his review is posted forever?

I was pleased to find out that many of my clients took the time and energy to Yelp about me and my company. I was thrilled and touched by their kindness. Yet low and behold a couple of client's actually slandered me, out right lied about what had happened. So who do you think gets deleted from my Yelp column, yes the positive Yelps because my clients are not to be taken seriously. The Yelp review that was totally fictitious of course gets to stay because this Yelper Yelps a lot. This Yelper client that lied is unemployed, and why he called me in the first place is beyond me. He did not even pay his balance. Is this fair??? And - we have no recourse.

I took a look at My Competitors that PAY YELP for Advertisement. Yes, they have lots of Yelps and they have only been in business for 3 or 4 years. The credentials they state are not theirs, it belongs to another company in LA. So they are not legally licensed. How do they only get clients that YelP? Is it because only Yelpers read Yelp and only use Yelp advertised businesses??? Is this Competitor paying for them???

It does not make sense...
I am still very upset that all my Yelps got deleted. I am sad that I cannot support my local, small businesses and stores more. I will have to find another way...

PATRICIA CORNWELL

Unnatural Exposure
by Patricia Cornwell

Seems like an older book of hers based on the story line. This one was about her investigating a couple of deaths that looks like smallpox. Turns out it was an adaption of a manipulated strain of an animal smallpox. She almost dies herself when she is exposed, Dr. Scarpeda that is. The autopsy is graphic with the disease.

Read by: Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

PAT CONROY

Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

He is so amazing, he is the greatest novelist of our times. That is our Pat Conroy. Eloquent and poetic, he weaves the words of his novel into a web of soul touching, visual works of art. My mind flowed with their scenes and I was lost in a paradise and the world of others. I wish I could write just one sentence as this man can. He can certainly create an entire book after book of pure magical harmony to be played in a mind.

Read by: Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

MOONWALKING

Moonwalking With Einstein
by Joshua Foer

Joshua won the championship for the so called smartest person in the US, in reality it was for the person with the best memory. Joshua takes us through a study of what memory is, what it is like when someone looses it either by injury or birth. He studies those who are considered Savants with low I.Q.'s but can remember everything. He studies himself with a couple of coaches with not tricks, but practices, methods, eating well and good rest. Most of all, there are lots of practices he endures. He wins, and then forgets his car at a restaurant, he even forgot he drove it there till he got all of the way home. - So much for a having very good memory.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS . COM

MICHAEL CHABON

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
by Michael Chabon

Amazing story of two loving cousins who start a comic book upon the arrival of one cousin from Prague. They have a wonderful relationship for decades even after one goes off to war and becomes a hero in real life. Their comic books are about super heroes.

READ BY MALKA OF RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

ROOM

Room
by Emma Donoghue

Amazing story of a woman kidnapped by a pervert who keeps her in a 11' x 11' sound proofed room in a shed in his backyard. He keeps her for about 7 years. The main plot of the story of it is of her and her son she gives birth by herself in this room. Their whole life, then she gets out and has to relearn the world. Very intriguing to hear what they had gone through and what they are learning.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

WALLACE STEGNER

Angle of Repose
by Wallace Stegner

A middle aged man becomes crippled and divorced. He goes up to his grandparents old home in the county and starts writing about his grandparents life coming out west and their marriage. Much is discussed about their struggles and the analysis of it. The author reflects on today's times with his relationship to his friends and his own marriage. This book was a Pulitzer winner. Amazingly written, descriptive and wonderful words.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

HEART ATTACK!

A Healthy Heart
by Alexander Tsiaras

I took another look at this book about how Americans create and treat heart disease with amazing photos of the body and thorough explanations. Sad to know how many people just ignore their health.

Read by MALKA OF RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

MAOSHING NI, ONE OF MY FAVORITE DOCTORS

Second Spring
by Maoshing Ni

Wonderful and helpful recommendations for healthy living and eating with basic and regular foods along with herbs.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

JOHN IRVING

A Prayer For Owen Meany
by John Irving

Poor Owen Meany, this little boy who grew into a man was a very little person in a small town. He was the toy of his class mates. He was best friends to another young man that totally loved him back. They both grew up and had many experiences together and separately, but Owen always knew when he was going to die. Owen was also quite psychic and sensitive. This was a wonderful story about an enduring male loving relationship. I loved it.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

TINKERS

Tinkers
by Paul Harding

Well written of course, but this story of a man dying and his memory that goes forward and backwards, each chapter further backwards is loosing me. He is a tinker, his father was a minister that went crazy and his mother was cold. He become an epileptic and his children were embarrassed by him, or was that his father that was an epileptic. I was lost.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS.COM

NAPA'S SILVERADO SQUATTERS

The Silverado Squatters
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Wonderful view and perception of the Napa Valley, most especially of Calistoga. It made me want to go back in time and live the way he did with his small family and animals.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

A VICTIM

The Third Victim
by Lisa Gardner

A boy has confessed to the horrific murder but the evidence shows he may not be guilty.

Officer Rainie Conner, leading her first homicide investigation, stands at the center of the controversy. It's hitting too close to home, bringing back her worst nightmares, threatening to expose her secret sins. But with the boy's life at stake, she won't let anything stop her from finding the real killer.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

KINGSOLVER'S HOME

The Lacuna
by Barbara Kingsolver

Story of a man who writes and lives with his mother then ends up living with Kahlo, the artist as their servant. He befriends them and becomes a close correspondent with them. Moves to America. But while in Mexico, he observes all the political goings on of the husband on Kahlo, seems unbelievable. I am totally bored with it all.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

NEXT ACCIDENT IN THE CLOSET...

The Next Accident
by Lisa Gardner

An evil man is after an FBI agent's daughters and ex-wife for vengeance with murder. The agent hires a private investigator, who used to be a lover of his. Then a cat and mouse game pursues with some twists and turns.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

ESCAPE THE CLOSET AND READ...

Escape
by
Barbara Delinsky

A female attorney working very hard in New York City, and trying to get pregnant suddenly escapes to a long time best friend that she has lost touch with in a small vacation town. She reconnects also with her best friend's brother for whom she had a relationship with. She is confused for awhile about her lost love and her husband, but she then embraces her husband. Her husband is dismayed and angry but comes to realize her quest to find peace and a different attitude with life and balance. Nice book but the story line is very ordinary and simply in the idea that this woman although working hard it seems the American selfish, self-indulgent way of this woman is just that.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

TOOK BY DOG OUT OF THE CLOSET

Started Early, Took My Dog
by Kate Atkinson

This old retired detective takes a case as a private investigator to find the real parents to an adoptive woman. The woman was raised in New Zealand after her adoptive parents took her from London. Then there is another female retired police detective that pays a prostitute for a kid and then takes off with it. While she is running around other detectives are looking for her to find out about the original adoptive child. Then there is another private detective along with police detectives.
Very well written and mixed together. I had trouble keeping the names straight with all the introductions of other people. It was all rounded up in the end.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS.COM

MY FAIR MAIDEN

A Fair Maiden
by Joyce Carol Oates

A young nanny not especially confident in her life with an alcoholic father and distant mother works for a rather arrogant employer. She has a slow coming affair with a man her grandfather's age.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

YANN MARTEL

Beatrice and Virgil
by Yann Martel

Well that was depressing and confusing. This was a story within a story of a so called alter ego. A man who seemed quite old from the energy of the book, but he wrote a book and had a wife who became pregnant and met an old man who was a taxidermist. This old man did not get along with anyone and ends up attacking the protagonist. A book with dead animals not alive like Martel's book on Pi.
Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

LOVE THY NEIGHBOR

The Neighbor
by Lisa Gardner

Amazingly interesting story again by this author. This one is of a woman who enter a marriage of convenience only to have a traumatic and illicit affair with another and then disappears. Then the detective starts the investigation. It also turns out that these two people have had the most traumatic childhood that hampers and scars them but they find their way through it all to each other. The illicit affair caused the wife to hide and the police think the husband killed her.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

THE PERFECT HUSBAND

The Perfect Husband
by Lisa Gardner

Another amazing story of a strong forceful woman. This one had been terrorized by her husband who she has turned in for being a serial killer. He escapes prison, killing two guards with his bare hands. She gets away and attempts to be trained to protect herself by being coached by an an ex-marine who is retired from some sort of special forces. I do not like this as well as Love You More by the same author. The characters in the story are too hyped up for reality and there is too much unnecessary sex. Tends to make no sense. The story seems more ordinary and expected.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

LOVE YOU MORE BY LISA GARDNER

Love You More
by Lisa Gardner

A female cop gets arrested for killing her husband. The mystery is whether he had beaten her while high on steroids and she defended herself or he was a gambler and a victim of a hit by a hit man Lots of cops and thugs, this story twists and turns around each corner and this female cop is up for the hard ball game. Very impressive, very entertaining, very intense. Really enjoyed this book.

Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

LIFE SENTENCES

Life Sentences
by Laura Lippman

Very interesting and captivating story of a woman writing a book investigating a missing old classmate. A classmate that was put in prison for not telling what had happened to the disappearance of her baby. She had gotten pregnant by someone she had known. Also the story involves the authors own life regarding her father's affair with a black woman and subsequent marriage to her.

By Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

CESAR MILLAN - THE DOG WHISPERER

How To Raise The Perfect Dog
by Cesar Millan

Great details for anyone to read before bringing a dog home. Like a baby that has been gestating for nine months, would anyone bring a baby home without at least having a crib and a couple of bottles. People bring home dogs on a whim and leave them in their home, and then wonder why the dog tears up their home. Cesar adopts four different type of dogs from different sources to write this book and key points how to raise and train them.

MALKA OF RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

MITCH ALBOM

Have A Little Faith, A True Story
by Mitch Albom

This is about a rabbi and a minister. One man goes through very hard times more than the other and the rabbi through complete dedication for a life time. The rabbi wanted Mitch his former student to write his elegy. Then Mitch got to spend time with the rabbi to learn about him as an individual rather than just his rabbi. The minister had huge struggles with addiction as well as his wife whom had similar problems. They stayed together, survived and prospered with a church for the homeless.

Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

JAN KARON

Home To Holly Springs
by Jan Karon

Great old priest of Episcopalian church goes back home to visit his home town in the south to uncover his memories, get apologies and meet his long time buddies all over again. Also he finds out that his father bedded his loving maid and nanny and took off to have his half brother. A very religious christian and message story book.

Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

CESAR MILLAN - THE DOG WHISPERER

Be The Pack Leader
by Cesar Millan

Great to hear about his wisdom again. Never scold a dog in anger was one that I needed to be reminded of. Be calm and firm.

By Malka of CABINETS & CLOSETS

WHEN YOU REACH ME

When You Reach Me
by Rebecca Steed
Miranda, a sixth grader has a few friends that she meets that some how relate to her in traveling in time. She looses her best friend, a boy her age who decides not to speak to her after she witnessed him get beat up by a bully. Her mother is an unwed mother who dropped out of law school. Miranda is now helping her study to go on a game show to win. Her daughter and boyfriend, colleague, a lawyer helps her game plan. Blah story, need more depth.

by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

A DOG'S PURPOSE

A Dog's Purpose
by W. Bruce Cameron

This is not a novel, it is an autobiography of Baily, Doodle Dog The Boy's dog. A dog with purpose through several life times just to come back to The Boy. Heart breaking and tear jerking, I loved this book. I really started and kept believing that this is the true secret psychological life story of this dog and the thoughts and life of all other dogs. It was so amazing that this author got it right on as to how most of the books thought and believe how dogs life their life and are thinking in their minds.

Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS 

APPLE APPROPOS

Apple iPad apropos, indeed. Great cartoon by Patrick Chappatte, a great political or rather I must say Life Cartoonist...
from
Malka of RC CABINETS & CLSOETS

THE GOON SQUAD

A Visit From The Goon Squad
by Jennifer Egan

Certainly well written, probably too well for me at the moment but I kept getting lost. There were different stories going on but I was not engrossed and focused to follow well. Several people who were involved in the music business and a few of their dysfunctional time alone and together. One promising young woman was a kleptomaniac who's family were worried about her and took off to Italy.

Then there was a man once involved with her that went off and had his own life. I could not figure out clearing what on earth was the goon squad. The other man in the book, as a father of someone had hated women, but kept marrying them and loving his daughter and making more kids. He was a music producer I think.

A bunch of these people went on an African Safari together one time and reflected on it for a life time as well as the author reflected on how their lives were going to be in the future while integrating in Africa. Interesting book, again, certainly exceptionally well written.

Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

BYRON KATIE

I Need Your Love
by Byron Katie

Very nice in helping one, as in myself to take more responsibility to negative thinking and what it does to ones psyche. Which is not so good to do so and creates the energy that stays in the body. At least that is what I got from it. Basically it included many stories of other people's thinking and how they turn their judgement around on themselves to find out exactly how they are thinking.

Read by Malka of RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

KATE ATKINSON

One Good Turn
by Kate Atkinson

This includes many characters that are witness and participates in an incident in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is hard to follow and all very diverse, but it slowly reveals the coincidence of all involved. Sort a crime mystery if I can continue to follow.
One retired detective seems to be the common thread that keeps the story together. He is hooked up with an actress in a relationship that is on the skids and seems to start up with a woman cop. All wraps up in the end with one man who has died and who is the biggest crook involved with the Russians in fraud, prostitution and murder.

MALKA OF RC CABINETS & CLOSETS

LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN

Let The Great World Spin
by Colum McCann

Amazingly entertaining book written by wonderful author. I guess the main character was about the man who walked a tight rope across the twin towers in New York and then all the people who either observed it, or were in the court room for arraignment together and their friend and foes. The book felt many times like it was all several small books within it, yet it all was woven together during and the end. There was a couple of prostitutes that were being helped by the truly main protagonist, a monk and his brother who were Irish. Then the monk fell in love with a woman and the brother had a lot of misgivings about the life his brother the monk was taking. I loved this book.

Bel Canto
by Ann Patchett

A wonderful story teller like. It is a the story of a group of people caught in the cross fires of a kid napping for the president, but the president stayed home that night to watch his soap opera. Then the group of people were held for months getting to know each other as well as the guards.

THE EMPEROR OF ALL MALADIES

The Emperor of All Maladies
by Siddhartha Mukherjee

All very interesting of mainly the history of how all cancer treatments are experimental till the next plunder experiential treatments.

NOW IS THE TIME TO OPEN YOUR HEART

Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart
by Alice Walker

I got totally lost in trying to follow the story within this book. It was about an African American woman who is married several times and reflects on the those marriages and men. One beat her, one loves her, one I think leaves her. She ends up going to some kind of meditation retreat then ends up in another retreat in Hawaii. She speaks of her relationship with the others in the group and a relationship with a woman.

Of course Alice Walker is one of the greatest writers, the words and story were so wonderfully and descriptively written. More than lovely, more than beautifully written.

RIDING LESSONS

Riding Lessons
by Sara Gruen

Amazingly well written book with an interesting story of the dynamics and life's process of a divorce and going back to one old home. This old home is a training riding ranch. A story of this woman's daughter and mother relationship and the death of her father as well as her marriage. The entire book of her life was certainly captivating in each step of the book, but the woman was an idiot, a drama queen, a misfit in anything she did. She sabotaged her life as well as her family's with absolutely stupid moves and decisions while she chose to obsess on what she wanted to do so selfishly. She irritated me beyond end. She wrote Water for Elephants too. There is always something missing in her books, like reality?

QUEEN OF THE NIGHT

Queen of The Night
by J.A. Jance

Very confusing in the beginning with the background of all the characters. A man after he is laid off from being a banker pops his wife, kids and then goes after his mother and her husband. The mother gets killed on an Indian Reservation along with another couple. The couple has a kid that eye witnesses her mother gets killed. She is the cousin of the doctor who's adopted father was a cop and his step-son is hurt finding the killer. I cannot believe I remembered all this and was actually able to follow all the stories. Obviously well written again and quite captivating.

POINT OF ORIGIN

Point Of Origin
by Patricia Cornwell

Now this one is a of a terrible fire that destroys a wealthy man's estate including his loved race horses. A woman is found dead among the ruins that had apparently been killed prior to the fire. The murder turns out to be the her niece's former lover and cop who is on a killing rampage to get back at protagonist even kills the boyfriend.

ME, MYSELF AND WHY?

Me, Myself and Why?
by Mary Janice Davison

I have no idea why I continued to read this. This very last part was the only part that made any sense. It is when she sits down with the psychiatrist and all is explained as to how she came to have MPD. The protagonist has multiple personalities and they are all part of an FBI special team with other mentally disabled people that solved or investigated crimes. They made no sense though. It made no sense. Cadence jumping in and out of her personalities made the read far too jumping, erratic and confusing to me.

IN A STRANGE CITY

In A Strange City
by Laura Lippman

Alright, this may be the last book I read or listen to of Laura Lippman. The woman reading it sounds as though she may have emphysema or soon to have it. Defiantly a smoker voice; the a low throaty resonance in her voice that the enunciation all sounds like a monotone blur. Now I don't know the entire theme or plot of the story attempting to understand her at the same time being disgusted by her voice. Strangely the last person I think who read for Laura Lippman's book about this same detective, the voice was like 20 years younger.
Basically, there is a person killed at the anniversary of something to do with Edger Allan Poe and some thieves of antiques or they think are old from Poe.
I do not know what the main reason for the theft and killing was, nor who all these people really were. Just contrived dribble.
Read by Barbara Rosenblat.

CRUEL INTENT

Cruel Intent
by J.A. Jance

Very provocative. She is back home rebuilding her life and a house. Her contractor is now accused of murdering his wife. She helps him and herself rebuild her relationship with her family and son.

THE MEMORY PALACE

The Memory Palace - A Memoir
by Mira Bartok

A memoir indeed. An author's mediative memoir of her life with a dysfunctional family that can win a prize for the worst. Her father depressed leaves when she is a small child, her mother a schizophrenic attempts to warp Mira and her sister's minds while living with her anti-Semitic cruel abusive grandfather. Mira's grandmother is Jewish her grandfather is not. He eventually dies slowly eaten away with cancer.

Mira's mother goes on to live mainly on the street, a homeless distraught woman hiding away from gamma waves and people to talk to her. Mira has a brain injury and is almost homeless herself. In the end, her sister and her make some sort of peace with their mother after hiding away from her for 17 years.

Sad and educational about the state of our ill and homeless in this country under the dictatorship of several presidents - and us...

SING YOU HOME

Sing You Home
by Jodi Picoult

A husband and wife trying desperately to have a baby finally conceive and at the last moment have a still birth. Life goes on, the divorce, he becomes born again and she becomes gay. Now they are fighting over the couple of zygotes they conceived invetro, in their marriage. It has become a moral story of gay verses christian. In the end all is worked out and most people live happily ever after.

MAOSHING NI

Secrets of Longevity
by Maoshing Ni

His wonderful book of helpful hints on foods, health and longevity. A great leaning tool for a healthy and better life.

CAUSE OF DEATH

Cause of Death
by Patricia Cornwell

Interesting as always but I got lost with the conclusion of the death of this scuba diver. I guess he was just a reporter and the doctor's and her team including her niece attempt to figure it all out.

SONGS FOR THE MISSING

Songs for the Missing
by Stewart O'Nan

An 18 year teen is missing and her family is falling apart even more than they were when all was there. Rather aloof from each other. Also rather boring just listening to it all but we shall see as time goes by. No, still blah blah blah, their life as a daily grind, I was thinking that I would be interested. Falling asleep and eating dinner. It could have been nice if it was not that shallow. But it was shallow and the part about the father and mother and sister and a few friends were a bore. Never really knew what the secret these friends were keeping about the girl that went missing. But they found her body. Never knew what happened to her. It was just the lives of the parents and the sister.

THINK TWICE

Inside Of A Dog
by Alexandra Horowitz

So boring and the the information in the book is just this one woman's observation of her dog and some at a dog park. I found that she made a few mistakes and then I lost my interest. I spaced out most of the time and feel I had nothing to learn from it.

THINK TWICE

Think Twice
by Lisa Scottoline

Another good author I have now discovered. Good story about a successful attorney haunted and stalked by her twin sister she had never known. Her sister takes her identity and money and almost her boyfriend. Both sisters almost get killed in the process. The good sister wins and changes her life for the better with a different perspective on her life now since she almost lost it.

By A Spider's Thread
by Laura Lippman

I don't know where the title came from but this was certainly another provocative suspense mystery by her. The story was about an Orthodox Jewish man's missing wife who had been deceiving him for many years just waiting for her lover to be released from prison. Some the Jewish rules were wrong but the basic understandings were there. The man was a furrier with three children. His wife takes off with her lover and the kids almost ended up dead along with her husband. (Linda Emond, narrator)