Amazon Diaries, Notting Hill Bookshop Proposals, One Day in December by Josie Silver, The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel and Blood Call by Lilith Saintcrow

My husband worked for Amazon, albeit on contract, so he wasn't an FTE of the company itself, but even he noticed the churn of workers and the way that even office workers are treated as replaceable cogs in the vast machine that is the mighty online retailer.

The Amazon Diaries Go Live

In what makes for fascinating reading, on Wednesday, the Guardian

published the first of a regular column written by an anonymous worker

in an Amazon warehouse in the U.K. called "The Amazon Diaries

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz39040674."

The initial installment, called "They Treat Us As Disposable," describes

the author's first day on the job. He or she writes, in part:

"It's important to take a step back and realize what an Amazon

fulfillment center really is. Prior to Amazon, the sale of stuff largely

took place through physical stores. Enter a store and there can be

dozens of employees, stocking shelves, managing the check-out counter,

controlling inventory. The pace and rhythm of the day, at least compared

to fulfillment centers, can be relatively relaxed.

"At Amazon, by contrast, we are not retail workers. We are factory

workers.

"A single fulfillment center can contain 1,500-2,000 full-time workers,

stowing, picking, packing, unloading, sorting, palletizing and

delivering hundreds of thousands of items every day. Centers are filled

with the whirl, grind, and moan of conveyor belts, the incessant drone

of a forest of Kivabots moving shelves.

"We work hard, and diligently, to make Amazon run. While our collective

efforts produce astounding results, we are supervised ever more

intensively. Through the use of digital trackers and indicators, our

workday is managed down to the second, with each task timed based on a

'rate' set by managers who push us ever faster. Work is often organized

to keep workers from talking or even taking breaks, with this time

considered 'off-task.' Like factory workers on the assembly line, we are

essentially extensions of the machine."

I always wanted a bookstore proposal, and living/working in or near a bookstore has long been a fantasy of mine. So I can only imagine the joy of these men and women getting their marriage proposals in such a famous bookstore! Lucky ducks!

Notting Hill Bookshop Expects Wedding Proposal Upsurge

The Notting Hill Bookshop http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz39046225 in

London is anticipating a flurry of requests

http://www.shelf-awareness.com/ct/uz3642037Biz39046226

next year as a location for marriage proposals because the movie Notting

Hill will be marking its 20th anniversary, the Telegraph reported.

Starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, the film prominently featured the

bookshop's interior, and the back section of the shop is still named

Travel Book Co. in its honor.

"We have had several approaches during the past few years and there's

other people that we are not aware of, like an American couple we didn't

find out about until they returned for their anniversary," said James

Malin, who has owned the bookshop with his brother Howard for the past

10 years. They anticipate that even more eager couples will line up to

honor the film characters' engagement next year and are delighted by the

frequency with which couples seek their help. "We don't always find out

they are proposing but if they want us to do something special, we

will."

In 2019, the brothers "are expecting to be inundated by tourists who

typically pose for photos outside the famous blue shop face before

flicking through their stock of classic books," the Telegraph wrote.

"I just hope that is chockablock all week," Malin noted, adding that

tourists "always have a smile on their face, it is just a great space to

work in."

One day in December by Josie Silver sounded like my kind of book, as it was billed as a romantic comedy (like Sleepless in Seattle) and a beautifully written love story that is about British people, (like Love, Actually) whom I have a huge fondness for on both the page and the screen. Unfortunately, the protagonists are both jerks, each in their own way, and by the time I was halfway through the book not only did I know how it would end, but I was ready to punch both Laurie and Jack in the face. There was precious little comedy involved in this novel, and not a whole lot of charm, either. There was a lot of sexist blather from the male characters, especially Jack, making men seem to be slavering goons focused only on the sexual aspect of any and all relationships with women, and being lead around by their genitals because they can't help themselves, which is total BS. Eventhe "perfect" best friend, Sarah, is an idiot who doesn't see any of the sparks between her boyfriend and her best friend for years, until it's too late. Here's the blurb: Two people. Ten chances. One unforgettable love story.

Laurie is pretty sure love at first sight doesn't exist anywhere but the movies. But then, through a misted-up bus window one snowy December day, she sees a man who she knows instantly is the one. Their eyes meet, there's a moment of pure magic...and then her bus drives away.

Certain they're fated to find each other again, Laurie spends a year scanning every bus stop and cafe in London for him. But she doesn't find him, not when it matters anyway. Instead they "reunite" at a Christmas party, when her best friend Sarah giddily introduces her new boyfriend to Laurie. It's Jack, the man from the bus. It would be.

What follows for Laurie, Sarah and Jack is ten years of friendship, heartbreak, missed opportunities, roads not taken, and destinies reconsidered. One Day in December is a joyous, heartwarming and immensely moving love story to escape into and a reminder that fate takes inexplicable turns along the route to happiness.

I didn't really feel the story was all that joyous and heartwarming. Laurie and Jack steal stolen moments and kisses, but for some reason they feel that they can lie about this to Sarah and still be considered friends. Laurie ends up traveling to Thailand, where she meets and falls in love with Oscar, whom she then marries, and oblivious Sarah doesn't catch on to the whole "Laurie and Jack have been in love the whole time" until Laurie's wedding day (to Oscar the banker-wanker-snob) where they have a huge falling out that leaves both devastated. Laurie, who wants to be a magazine journalist (but is too weak and silly to actually be hired as one) spends most of this novel whining and crying and feeling guilty and overwhelmed by her emotions (kind of like a large toddler...way to set the women's movement back 100 years!) and Jack spends most of the book whining and thinking about or having sex and being a huge asshole to everyone when he doesn't get what he wants (again, like an emotional infant). The stereotypical way the characters were written was sickening, and the cliches (rich people are all cold and snobbish, women are catty and cruel, etc) were everywhere, almost as if the author binge watched famous rom-com movies and then decided to use that as the template for a book, like a paint-by-numbers painting that really required no creativity or original thought. There's an HEA ending you can see coming miles away, and the plot is simple enough for a 5 year old to follow. I'd give this cotton candy book a C, and only recommend it to anyone who doesn't have the brain power to read Jane Austen or Adriana Trigiani.

The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel was a bizarre non fiction title about a guy named Christopher Knight who may or may not be autistic (I vote yeah on that one), who decided one day after graduating high school to shed his life in society and go live in the woods as a hermit, without human contact of any kind, for 26 years. The author of this book became obsessed with Knight after Knight was finally caught and arrested for theft and burglary. Knight was only able to survive in the Maine wilderness by stealing food and supplies from the vacation cabins and recreational facilities of those who retreat to Maine during the summer months (note that the main facility Knight steals from is a camp for disabled/handicapped children, which makes his crimes all the more heinous, in my opinion). Finkel, the author, attempts to make this thievery seem legitimate and Knight seem like a harmless and wise character because Finkel himself longs for the solitude of the forest, where he can shed the cares/responsiblities of his family life and just be a grubby camper. Finkel's childish infatuation and pursuit of Knight both while in jail and after he's been released is frankly creepy and slightly terrifying...especially when Knight repeatedly tells Finkel to leave him alone, to go away and never come back and to forget him. Why Finkel insists on harassing and stalking Knight is beyond me, and beyond reason. He obviously did enough hermit research to combine with Knight's story so that he could create this book, thin though it is, and while he never quite manages to pry from Knight exactly why he became an isolationist, he does give us a view into the life of a profoundly introverted man and the distant, cold, self-reliant family who raised him. Here's the blurb: Many people dream of escaping modern life. Most will never act on it—but in 1986, twenty-year-old Christopher Knight did just that when he left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the woods. He would not have a conversation with another person for the next twenty-seven years.
Drawing on extensive interviews with Knight himself, journalist Michael Finkel shows how Knight lived in a tent in a secluded encampment, developing ingenious ways to store provisions and stave off frostbite during the winters. A former alarm technician, he stealthily broke into nearby cottages for food, books, and supplies, taking only what he needed but sowing unease in a community plagued by his mysterious burglaries. Since returning to the world, he has faced unique challenges—and compelled us to reexamine our assumptions about what makes a good life. By turns riveting and thought-provoking, The Stranger in the Woods gives us a deeply moving portrait of a man determined to live his own way.

Finkel's prose is clean and determined, and while I felt a great deal of his hermit quotes and research were padding this story so that it could become a book, the story doesn't get bogged down in that research at all, and it's a tale that can be read in a day. That said, I would give the book a C+, and only recommend it to survivalists and people obsessed with living outdoors and alone. Personally, I think such a life is crazy, and I'd never put myself through something so dangerous just for a little alone time. 

Blood Call by Lilith Saintcrow is a supernatural mystery/thriller by the author of the Bannon and Clare steampunk series, the Dante Valentine and Jill Kismet series, the Gallow and Ragged trilogy and the Strange Angels series. This book would seem to be a one-off, but I have no way of knowing that, as the author doesn't mention whether or not she will write other stories in this world. Here's the blurb: Anna Caldwell has spent the last few days in a blur. She's seen her brother's dead body, witnessed the shooting of innocent civilians, and been shot at herself. Now she has nowhere to turn-and only one person she can possibly call.
Since Anna dumped him, it seems waiting is all Josiah Wolfe has done. Now, she's calling, and she needs his help — or rather, the "talents" she once ran away from. As a liquidation agent, Josiah knows everything about getting out of tough situations. He'll get whatever she's carrying to the proper authorities, then settle down to making sure she doesn't leave him again.
But the story Anna's stumbled into is far bigger than even Josiah suspects. Anna wants to survive, Josiah wants Anna back, and the powerful people chasing her want the only thing worth killing for — immortality. An ancient evil has been trapped, a woman is in danger, and the world is going to see just how far a liquidation agent will go.

Since I've read nearly everything Saintcrow has written, and I've loved her strong female protagonists who aren't afraid to kick some butt and be badasses on a regular basis, I was seriously surprised when the female protagonist of this book, Anna, turned out to be the cliche of a petite blonde girly coward who needs a man to save her at every turn, because she can't possibly make any good decisions by herself. She pukes at the sight of blood/violence, is always injuring herself while trying to escape and is pathetically unable to even hold a gun, let alone fire one at the people trying to kill her. She's also, of course, so sexy that she's irresistible to the male protagonist, Josiah, or Jo, who is an assassin for the government and the perfect stereotype of a predatory asshole guy who becomes so obsessed and possessive of a weak woman who he can abuse and dominate that he mistakes any feelings he has for her as love. Newsflash, coercing a woman into having sex with you "whenever I want it and you have to pretend to like it" in exchange for finding her brother's killer and keeping her safe is NOT LOVE. It is sexual abuse/rape. Jo even tries to force Anna to have sex with him when she's been beat up and is desperately trying to get some rest to recover from her injuries, which are mounting as the book progresses. She says no, and he doesn't listen. She practically has to fight him off...and he claims he "loves" her so much he can't handle life without her. A cabal of evil state and local government officials are at the root of all of Anna's troubles, and because her older brother was an idiot who got himself killed by prying into their affairs, now Anna has to run to Jo to keep all the hired thugs from murdering her to keep her silence about (SPOILER ALERT) the government's experiments on a vampire, whose blood and bone they've been using as a fountain of youth. Kit the vampire was actually the only character I liked in the whole novel. He was the only one with a modicum of sense and decency. WTF Lilith Saintcrow? Why try to normalize and rationalize sexual abuse? Why not have Anna give Jo a swift kick in the balls whenever he tries to force himself on her? Why would she allow him back into her life when he's still a murdering thug and a rapist who stalks her, is obsessed with her and makes it clear that he has some kind of mental disorder wherein he becomes a sociopath whenever he needs to be a stone cold killer? That's not sexy, that's disgusting and horrifying. But I gather because he saves her life, that somehow makes her morals irrelevant? Again, WTF? All that said, Saintcrow knows how to tell a story, and her prose is sterling, as is her swift plot. But I can't in good conscience rate this book above a D for it's dreadful treatment of women and it's stereotypical main characters. I don't know who I'd even recommend this book to, as I was so disgusted after reading it that I wanted to return it and get my money back. I don't know if or when I will ever meet this author, but if I do, I will have to tell her that this book is an abomination, and she should be ashamed for having written it, and for having created such a crappy, cowardly female protagonist.