I've had a tough time lately finding an appropriate book to read. I started several and stopped, disappointed. Others that seem interesting violate my 350 page maximum. I reluctantly picked up the second part of a 2003 trilogy, The Sorority: Merilynn by Tamara Thorne. As expected, I didn't like it. It is set at a fictional small college in California, where a centuries old bad witch masking as a student leads a sorority where "Membership Is Forever. " Merilynn is a freshman and budding good witch. The narrative's sole purpose seems to be the setting up of the final installment. Fortunately, it is a quick work, its 201 pages reading like far less, as there are many blanks along the way. The prose and dialogue are disappointing. At first I thought the novel was geared to young adults, then the sexual content began, and it's quite candid. Unfortunately, it comes up short in that department as well, and this from someone who doesn't need a lot to get him going. In this respect it pales compared to the work of Henry Miller and Anais Nin. In 2013, Thorne did what she should have in the first place, combine the three parts into a whole. I feel she and her publisher took advantage of her fans. 30 users at Amazon have rated Merilynn, forging to a consensus of three on a scale of five. Twelve rated it five, nine rated it one. I side with the latter. Born in L.A. in 1957, Thorne has has at least 20 books published, including a non-fiction on ghost-hunting.
RIP Mars land rover Opportunity, 15. When first launched it was expected to last three months. Its greatest discovery was finding evidence that water may have once flowed on the Red Planet and that there may have been microbial life. Of course, it's open to debate whether the expenditure was worth it. I believe it was. Man's thirst for knowledge should always be encouraged.
I'm against giving a billion dollar corporation a huge tax break to move to settle in a prime location, so I'm not unhappy that Amazon has pulled out of its deal with New York. But what if the state continues to lose population to tax friendly states? This year the Empire State had a $2.3 billion shortfall. Will it be even greater in the future, and would Amazon's presence have helped close the gap? Will taxes have to be even higher to cover the outlays to government workers' pensions and health care, which are protected by law? Hopefully an economic boom will make the argument moot.
My thanks to Ira, who bought the massive pictorial Places to Go, People to see, and to the woman who purchased five kids' books; and to local porter Rob, who donated a cache of non-fiction, most of it self help and spiritual; and to Wolf, whom I hadn't seen in months, who selected a blend of Russian and English, including two books on Einstein that Rob had brought. After several operations on his back, Wolf's walking with a cane. He may also need pulmonary work. Through it all he remains a paragon of exemplary behavior.
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE
Read Vic's Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza
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