Thursday, November 17, 2011

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...

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

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

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

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

Monday, November 14, 2011

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

Sunday, November 13, 2011

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

Friday, November 11, 2011

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

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

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