Sebastian Vettel is looking increasingly likely to add a second world championship title to his collection after winning a hard-fought and incident-packed Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
Vettel extended his lead in the championship standings to a massive 92 points after winning from team-mate Mark Webber and Jenson Button as Lewis Hamilton's slim title hopes suffered a massive blow after he crashed out of the race.
Fernando Alonso took fourth having started eighth, while Michael Schumacher also had reason to be cheerful on the 20th anniversary of his grand prix debut, finishing an excellent fifth ahead of his team-mate after starting from the back of the grid.
It was Nico Rosberg who made the best start, sweeping into the lead from fifth on the grid to lead from Vettel as Massa leapfrogged Hamilton for third. Alonso was another fast starter, jumping to fifth from his starting position of eighth.
Mark Webber, plagued by poor starts in 2011, was at it again dropping down to eighth from third on the grid and it soon became apparent that his Red Bull was struggling on the softer compounds and Webber was the first to pit for new rubber on lap four. The tyres were a focus early on due to blistering in qualifying, but it turned out to be a manageable issue.
There was also early disappointment for Bruno Senna as a collision with Jaime Alguersuari into the first corner ruined his qualifying effort, the Brazilian going far too quickly into the first corner and siding into the side of the unfortunate Alguersuari, ending the Toro Rosso's man race. Others to suffer at the start included Button, pitting for a new nose cone as a result of the first corner melee. It was not long before a gaggle of early pit stops prompted a re-shuffling of the order, Vettel and Alonso emerging as the early protagonists at the front of the pack.
Between the stops, a dry Spa provided action aplenty, the DRS zone and graining rubber making for spectacular overtaking aplenty including arguably the most frightening move of the season as a charging Webber almost banged wheels with Alonso through Eau Rouge, the Australian literally risking life and limb centimetres from the Ferrari with two wheels on the kerb.
But the biggest moment and possibly a decisive one for the destiny of the title happened on lap 14, Kamui Kobayashi and Hamilton colliding into Les Combes. Hamilton had just passed the Sauber which had a damaged front wing, but Kobayashi tried to come back around the outside and tagged the rear of the McLaren in to crashing spectacularly through a polystyrene hoarding and into the barrier. His race, and almost certainly his title ambitions, over.
Back at the front, it promised to become a four horse race for victory ahead of the final series of stops, as Button scythed through the field. His pass around the outside of Massa in to the chicane the pick of a number of moves as he displayed his ability to overtake in the dry before showing the pace to close in on the front three.
After the final round of pit stops Button found himself in the lead for a lap, but Vettel had rejoined on fresh medium tyres and soon dispatched the McLaren, causing Button to pit and rejoin in fourth. He soon reeled in Alonso though and was able to secure third place with two laps to go using the DRS.
In the battle for the lesser points, Massa recovered from a puncture to take eighth on the final lap behind Adrian Sutil, while Vitaly Petrov crawled over the line ninth ahead of Pastor Maldonado who took the final point in tenth for the first score of his career.


text:
UnitedHealth Backs PPACA Consumer Protection Provisions
Life Health > Health Insurance > Health Insurance
A unit of UnitedHealth Group Inc. says it will stick with some of the patient relationship requirements set by the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) no matter what the U.S. Supreme Court concludes about the constitutionality of the law.
UnitedHealthcare, the health insurance arm of UnitedHealth, Minnetonka, Minn. (NYSE:UNH), says one of the PPACA provisions that it will adopt as its own standard includes the requirement that plans that offer dependent coverage make the coverage available to dependents up to age 26.
UnitedHealthcare also will continue to follow the new appeals process standards; a rule that bans moves to rescind coverage except in cases of fraud; a rule that bans lifetime benefits limits; and a rule requiring non-grandfathered plans to provide a package of basic preventive health services, such as blood pressure checks, with no out-of-pocket costs for the patient.
UnitedHealthcare will work with other companies to try to find a practical way to implement a rule banning plans from imposing pre-existing condition exclusions on children up to age 19, the company says.
UnitedHealth President Stephen Hemsley says in a statement that the company is voluntarily agreeing to keep the standards because the standards promote access to quality care and can help control health care costs.
"These provisions make sense for the people we serve, and it is important to ensure they know these provisions will continue," Hemsley says.
Observers expect the Supreme Court to issue a ruling on the constitutionality of PPACA by the end of the month.
The biggest health insurance company trade group, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), Washington, is getting ready to head to Salt Lake City for its annual meeting, which is set to start June 20.
Executives at two of UnitedHealth's competitors, Aetna Inc., Hartford (NYSE:AET), and Humana Inc., Louisville, Ky. (NYSE:HUM), told the Wall Street Journal that their companies are unlikely to rush to eliminate new PPACA-related coverage features such as the young adult coverage access provision.
Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, N.J., put out a statement welcoming news that the three big insurers will be continuing to abide by some of the PPACA patient relationship requirements.
"We applaud UnitedHealth, Humana and Aetna for their determination to not be held hostage by the political and judicial process and for their leadership in ensuring Americans have access to the health care they need," Lavizzo-Mourey says in the statement. "We encourage others to follow suit."
Paul Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, Washington, says he expects many plans will continue to offer no lifetime limits, expanded preventive health benefits and dependent coverage for dependents up to age 26.
"These are attractive to enrollees and relatively inexpensive," Keckley says in an e-mail. "The tougher discussion, if the individual mandate is set aside, will be how the guaranteed issue and community rating requirements of [PPACA] will be negotiated. Otherwise, plans will have no choice other than to raise premiums substantially."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
I Feel Summer Creepin' In and I'm Tired of This Town Again
July 29, 2016 By Damian in omnigatherum No Comments
Inspiration is hard to come by lately. That seems to be the case every summer. This year, especially, it seems that everybody is babbling about either the election or terrorism, and I have nothing interesting to say about either. I'm mulling over the thought of taking a moderate break from the web altogether to work on recording music like I did last year. We'll see. Perhaps I'll just continue to spend most of my free time hiking, swimming, reading, and playing video games for a few weeks until things become interesting again. Either way, here are a few good things I've read recently that you may enjoy:
Robert Herritt, "Hard to Believe". This one really resonated with me. I find it very unsettling to consider just how little I really know about any given topic, not to mention how much of what I think I know depends on being willing to trust this or that source of authority.
John Gray (the British philosopher, not the Mars and Venus self-help guy) has always been one of my favorite authors, and his reviews of other books are equally worth reading.
Speaking of books worth reading, I might be interested in this one.
John McWhorter on the empty platitude of having "a national conversation" about race. (The site informed me that I got free 24-hour access to a "premium" article, so if you run into a paywall, try clicking through his Twitter feed, as I did.)
Everyday Feminism is an excellent parody site. Or, at least, your enjoyment will be maximized by reading it in that spirit. "Whew!" you can say after closing the tab. "Thank goodness it was all just a hilarious joke and no one takes that stuff seriously! Right? Right?"
John Banville, "Let It Go"
James Ceaser, "Behind Enemy Lines" (Previously)
Quest for Solutions? You Ain't Gonna Get One Here
July 23, 2016 By Damian in political philosophy No Comments
Daniel Oppenheimer:
On a gut level I care a lot more about my friends and family than I do about the masses. I view with skepticism people who want to preach to me, from on their high horse, what I should be thinking and doing in the name of justice. I see our political system as being, on balance, one of the more half-decent ones that history has produced, and I'm somewhat horrified by radicals who think that its very real and deep flaws and sins justify tearing it all down. I think human societies, like human beings, are flawed, imperfect, frail things, and as such deserve both idealistic prods to be better than they are and some measure of tolerance and compassion for the many ways in which they'll inevitably fail.
These are all perspectives that fit comfortably under the rubric of "conservative." Yet my overt politics are democratic socialist.
At the most conscious, explicit level I would like for the U.S. to move (democratically, with moral urgency but not haste) in the direction of those lovely Scandinavian countries, or at least my fantasy of them, where a vibrant market economy co-exists with high taxes, a generous welfare state, strong unions, tough but well-engineered regulations, appropriate urgency about climate change, egalitarian views about sexuality and gender, and a general aversion to war and imperialism.
As a young man, I used to enjoy reading hair-splitting discussions of atheism and theology. Having long since become bored with all that, I now enjoy reading attempts by other questioning folks to pin down some sort of ontology of political identity. Perhaps we can start identifying as politically queer, or politically trans, even? Poli-fluid? Stop oppressing me with your political binary! Anyway, this is the first of what will apparently be a multi-part dialogue between Oppenheimer and a couple other people, so I don't want to read too much into what must, of necessity, be very general and broad statements, but a few things do jump out at me right away.
Here, he presents his situation as a standoff between his conservative heart and his democratic socialist head. The problem, as I see it, is that this particular formulation is one big ol' begged question. I would suggest that "even conservatives" are in favor of "appropriate" urgency about climate change, "a general aversion" to war and imperialism, and other noble-sounding ideals. The question is not about whether we all, right and left, would like to see a world full of Good Things; the question is whether these things are obtainable at a reasonable cost. Contrary to many progressive polemics, conservatism is not inherently opposed to change no matter what. Even Edmund Burke allowed that societies had to be flexible enough to adapt to new circumstances. The tendency of conservatism to err on the side of caution and inertia is not the first step on a slippery slope to the social vision of Joseph de Maistre. Progressives may not dream of an actual utopia in which all problems have been eliminated, but they do seem credulous toward the possibility of optimizing our way toward a perfect balance between liberty and security, individuality and equality, and other competing goods which may very well be incapable of occupying the same social space at the same time. Conservatives, in contrast, are more likely to insist that life is nothing but trade-offs, each unsatisfactory in its own way, and to rest resignedly with the assumption that not all social ills can be cured through policy solutions.
The optimism bias, also known as the valence effect, describes the common tendency of idealists to imagine the best-case scenario resulting from their actions. The fallacy sneaks in with the next step, which is to assume that the best-case scenario is also the most likely result. What you should do, instead, is try to imagine alternatives. What happens if your actions fall short of their goals and result in unintended consequences? What sort of backup plan do you have? How do you calculate whether the possibility of failure outweighs the urge to act? A conservative might ask Oppenheimer: what happens if an increasingly-powerful welfare state becomes invasive and oppressive, and how would a citizenry which had allowed its civic spirit to atrophy find the resources to resist it? What happens when the unions become corrupt and obstructionist? What happens if taxes and regulations become detrimental to the economy? What happens if platitudes about egalitarianism turn into Harrison Bergeron-style schemes of Procrustean leveling? These sorts of questions don't have a priori answers, which is why we shouldn't be cavalier about making significant changes.
But speaking of the progressive fascination with the supposedly-greener grass elsewhere, another problem presents itself. As I wrote elsewhere, those who would like to see the U.S. transform into a Scandinavian social democracy have to consider the implications of the fact that a numerically small, ethnically homogenous population seems to be a requirement for such a system to work. How would it translate to a nation of 320 million, bitterly riven by separatist identity politics? The obvious suggestion would be a civic creed that transcends ethnicity. Unfortunately, the only thing currently less popular among the American left than white male privilege is the idea that there was ever anything noble or worthwhile about the founding myth of America as a land of freedom and opportunity. So, if social democracy is unlikely to germinate organically from a deeply-felt common American identity, it seems that the left would have to settle for imposing it in the Saint-Simonian fashion. Hopefully, one doesn't have to be a doctrinaire conservative to look at that and say no, thanks.
This 21st century American left, which I suspect is on the rise, and will wield more influence over the next few decades than it has in the past few decades, is one I feel comfortable supporting. I think it's a far better bet, in terms of humanizing and stabilizing American society, than the right, and felt that way even before the right attached itself to Donald Trump, who truly scares the bejesus out of my conservative self. I can imagine a future in which the left becomes powerful enough, and indulges its worst instincts enough, that I'd turn against it, but to my eyes that isn't now. As we go forward I'll just have to do my best to remain flexible enough in my thinking, and secure enough in myself, that I can ally with the right side, whatever that side is.
Well, fair enough, that's all anyone can really ask. Other writers whom I respect have surveyed the scene and come to the opposite conclusion. Intelligent people can amicably disagree. However, I think it may well be too early to predict exactly what Trump's effect on the right will be, especially if he loses, as seems likely. The right is hardly unified right now. A best-case — but not necessarily most likely! — scenario might lead to a more mainstream conservative party no longer primarily beholden to the religious right or the neoconservatives. And in addition, I see nothing to reassure me that the left won't continue its post-Marxist withdrawal by continuing further down the dead-end road of grievance-mongering and identitarian fragmentation while making reflexive gestures in the direction of revolutionary salvation; if anything, Trump's likely defeat will only lead to more hubristic excess. I agree with the widespread perception that progressives are primarily concerned with their image as "the good people", happy to consider themselves members of a new cognitive elite, superior to the reactionary masses. I'm even sympathetic to the idea of writers like Joseph Bottum that this tendency is largely displaced religious yearning, a lingering desire among the mostly-godless to sort the world into the saved and the damned.
All of which is to say, I remain agnostic and noncommittal. But I'm looking forward to the rest of the exchange.
I Got an Open Mind So Whyntcha All Get Inside?
July 22, 2016 By Damian in identity, the cult of multi No Comments
Farhad Manjoo:
Though Silicon Valley has well-known problems with diversity in its work force, people here pride themselves on a kind of militant open-mindedness. It is the kind of place that will severely punish any deviations from accepted schools of thought…
[T]he novel explicitly shows people learning Doublethink and newspeak due to peer pressure and a desire to "fit in", or gain status within the Party — to be seen as a loyal Party Member. In the novel, for someone to even recognize – let alone mention – any contradiction within the context of the Party line was akin to blasphemy, and could subject that someone to possible disciplinary action and to the instant social disapproval of fellow Party Members.
Lucubrations, no. 22
July 20, 2016 By Damian in animals, books, lucubrations No Comments
Brad Warner:
To take an example related to animal intelligence, I can recall a moment around 15 years ago when I was sitting on a park bench in Tokyo eating my lunch. I was watching some crows strutting around the park looking for food. Suddenly I noticed that the very same intelligence that looked at the world through my eyes also looked at the world through the eyes of those crows.
It's very difficult to write a good, watertight, rational kind of explanation for why I knew this to be true. It's so unlike the way most human beings have been learning things about the world for the past few thousand years that it sounds kind of dopey. It even sounds dopey to me and I know it to be true.
…Intelligence isn't a function of the brain. It isn't contained there. The complexity of a creature's brain doesn't determine its intelligence.
Frans de Waal:
Griffin was at least three decades my senior and had impressive knowledge, offering the Latin name of the birds and describing details of their incubation period. At the workshop, he presented his view on consciousness: that it has to be part and parcel of all cognitive processes, including those of animals. My own position is slightly different in that I prefer not to make any firm statements about something as poorly defined as consciousness. No one seems to know what it is. But for the same reason, I hasten to add, I'd never deny it to any species. For all I know, a frog may be conscious. Griffin took a more positive stance, saying that since intentional, intelligent actions are observable in many animals, and since in our own species they go together with awareness, it is reasonable to assume similar mental states in other species.
That such a highly respected and accomplished scientist made this claim had a hugely liberating effect. Even though Griffin was slammed for making statements that he could not back up with data, many critics missed the point, which was that the assumption that animals are "dumb," in the sense that they lack conscious minds, is only that: an assumption. It is far more logical to assume continuity in every domain, Griffin said, echoing Charles Darwin's well-known observation that the mental difference between humans and other animals is one of degree rather than kind.
The Sigh of the Oppressed Creature
July 17, 2016 By Damian in bread and circuses, fresh hell, jests japes jokes jollies No Comments
There are many things to laugh at in this Marxist rant about the counter-revolutionary wrongthink of Pokemon Go, but after some tough deliberation, I think this has to be my favorite part:
The map of your neighborhood you see when you play the game is a GPS map, something originally designed to help steer guided missiles.
It's just so…so…mwah!… so gratuitous, so out of the blue! I mean, you expect to see theoretical jargon, you expect to see references to Marx and Heidegger, and you expect, oh my Lord do you expect to see the writer fuming about the way in which the bovine masses prefer their false consciousness and commodity fetishism to their revolutionary potential, but nothing so perfectly paints a picture in words of the futile pounding of tiny, ineffectual fists as this little aside. It's like he had a sudden attack of self-awareness, realized the absurdity of being forced to labor in the clickbait factory while holding onto a faint hope of salvation through a discredited religion, and made one last, desperate attempt, through some kind of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon-logic, to halfheartedly fling some shit against the walls of the system in the hope that something finally sticks. Yeah, man, I was ready to write you off as just another doctrinaire leftist with all that talk about changing the experience of reality from alienation to liberation, but that point about GPS, man, that really made me think, you know?
One Thing Leads to Another
July 16, 2016 By Damian in moralizing, ohferfucksake, the geist of the zeit No Comments
♫ You see dimensions in two
State your case with black or white ♫
Thirty years ago, moral panic profiteers like McIntosh and his vice squad partner Sarkeesian would have been leading the charge against subliminal messages on heavy metal records, or the epidemic of Satanic child abuse in day care centers. One day soon, we'll be able to look back and laugh at the thought that anyone took these frauds seriously. The bad news is, that will just mean that we've found a new moral panic to fixate upon. People don't "progress"; they just trade an older-model hysterical delusion in for a newer one. And so it goes.
Left, Left, Left Fight Left
July 14, 2016 By Damian in jests japes jokes jollies, the cult of multi No Comments
We are the left!
No, we are the left!
Fellows, fellows! You're both equally delusional in your own special ways, and we love you all the same. It wouldn't be nearly as entertaining with only one of you. You need each other.
If Laurie Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy
July 12, 2016 By Damian in fresh hell No Comments
Laurie Penny:
The isolating ideology of wellness works against this sort of social change in two important ways. First, it persuades all us that if we are sick, sad, and exhausted, the problem isn't one of economics. There is no structural imbalance, according to this view—there is only individual maladaption, requiring an individual response. The lexis of abuse and gas-lighting is appropriate here: if you are miserable or angry because your life is a constant struggle against privation or prejudice, the problem is always and only with you. Society is not mad, or messed up: you are. Secondly, it prevents us from even considering a broader, more collective reaction to the crises of work, poverty, and injustice.
Well, that's certainly one possibility, that there's an ancient neoliberal conspiracy, stretching all the way back to the Stoics, to keep us from rising up collectively and smashing the ruling class by deflecting our attention toward small, personal efforts at self-improvement which pose no threat to the system. But if the amount of liquid oppression in the glass of society is equal to half its volume, then it depends which part you choose to emphasize. Alternatively, it could be that you're just a congenitally miserable crank whose entire laughable, clichéd ideology is merely an attempt to transfer responsibility for your contentment to the rest of society. It might even be that your pose as the world's whiniest bodhisattva is less genuine concern for all the suffering beings in the world and more a means of making millenarian fantasies such as, uh, "the end of patriarchy and the destruction of the money system" the necessary conditions for your happiness, thus conveniently guaranteeing that you'll never have to stop complaining, and never have to risk being crestfallen should it turn out that all your revolutionary reveries came true and you were still unhappy, leaving you with no more excuses. Finally, there's the troubling likelihood that most people have considered, yet still reject, your false dichotomy of individual vs. collective well-being in favor of trying to strike some sort of imperfect balance between the two. Everything in moderation, as some damned neoliberal Greek once said.
Views Differ
July 11, 2016 By Damian in political philosophy, race No Comments
What does it mean to be a black conservative? If you ask Chidike Okeem, you'll get an interesting, nuanced response. If you ask Leah Wright Rigueur, well, hey, somebody's gotta provide the bite-sized news niblets for the busy progressive, I guess. I don't want to know all the boring details, I just want to know how to signal about it!
Verily, Verily, I Say Unto Thee (12)
July 7, 2016 By Damian in verily No Comments
Sunday and Monday were glorious — unseasonably cool temperatures in the 60s, overcast and drizzly. We spent the days hiking in the national park. Now we've got the first truly scorching weather of the summer, perfect for spending time in the pool. Reading about stupid people saying stupid things online has taken a reduced role as a consequence. So, until I feel truly inspired to write something, here's some links that might be worth your time.
Andrew Orlowski, "The Great Brain Scandal"
Yeah, I have to say, this doesn't sound all that outlandish to me anymore.
Helen Andrews, "The New Ruling Class"
Lawrence Glickman, "Everyone Was a Liberal"
Zach Weinersmith imagines Nietzschean trucks (really, though, it's unfair to single out any one of his comics; you should just read them daily).
Likewise, David Malki on question-begging, parts 1 and 2.
Ben Sixsmith on the tiresome contrarianism of Spiked! magazine. I find them equally exasperating and stimulating, but on balance, I'm glad they exist in the media landscape.
Ed Krayewski on guns, or rather, to be specific, on empty political grandstanding, due process, and the amazing way in which people who can recite from memory a hundred reasons why the War on Drugs has been a catastrophic failure and a moral travesty can still convince themselves that a War on Guns would somehow avoid the same problems.
Sonny Bunch on "artisanship", i.e. the culture war commissars.
The older I get, and the more time I spend online exposed to the demented screechings of damaged freaks, the more I, too, appreciate emotional continence in my friends and loved ones. (Related.)


text:
REVIEW: THREE BROKEN PROMISES by MONICA MURPHY
Series: Drew + Fable #3
Publication Date: 12/31/13
Breakout New Adult sensation Monica Murphy returns with a hot new contemporary romance—a heartfelt story of second chances, forgiveness, and redemption.
Commitment. That's what I really want from Colin. Ever since my brother, Danny, died in Iraq, Colin's done so much to help me, including giving me a job at his popular restaurant so I can leave my crappy waitressing job at the strip joint. But lying in bed with him every night to comfort him from his horrible nightmares isn't enough anymore. I know he feels guilty about Danny's death, about not going to Iraq, but I can't keep living this double life.
I love him desperately, but he's got so many demons, and if he can't open up to me now, then he'll never be the real partner I need him to be. I gave him a month, and now I'm out of here. If he truly loves me like he says, he knows where to find me.
First Impression .... Colin and Jen! I don't know them very well, but I'm excited. (And I hope Drew and Fable show up!)
The Story... Colin and Jen are tight, but no one knows the whole story. It seems Jen is in love with Colin, and after a lifetime of friendship, wants more. After her brother's death in Iraq, Jen fell on bad times. Baaaaaad times. Colin came to her rescue, but still holds her at arms length. He made promises to Jen's brother, his best friend. He's failed them all, in his eyes. Jen's ready to leave. Colin doesn't want her to go, but won't ask her to stay.
The Characters ... I went into Three Broken Promises with big expectations. Why? Because I love the Drew + Fable series. Colin and Jen both seemed to have an interesting story to tell. Their story was interesting, but I didn't feel an overwhelming attachment to either of them. Colin was a good guy, and I loved his devotion to caring for Jen. I was a bit confused over his turmoil. Not because I didn't understand his pain over losing a friend, but why he assigned so much blame to himself. Jen was a likeable girl, but wow, reeeaaally frustrating. I was the queen of irresponsible and naive when I was around her age, but Jen made me feel as if I really had my shit together in comparison.
I was really excited to have so much Fable in this story. As usual, that girl is a tiny, adorable badass. I love how she just steps in a lays the truth on the table. And yes, Drew shows up too!
The Writing .... Per typical for Monica Murphy's books, I enjoyed the writing. Her style always seems to suit my taste. But, as much as I enjoy the writing, I didn't feel as if I was reading anything new. What I loved about Drew + Fable was that their story, specifically Drew's, was so unique.
Three Broken Promises had a slower, introspective pace, with the story consisting of back-and-forth between Colin and Jen. I get that this was the sort of story they needed to tell, but I did get frustrated by them. The last half definitely picked up steam, and I loved the ending.
In the End... Three Broken Promises had big shoes to fill. The first two books in this series were books that completely blew me away and are at the top of my list of recommended New Adult books. I didn't love Three Broken Promises, but I did like it. I'm still very anxious to read Owen's book, Four Years Later.
A deep, dark secret part of me wishes there were strings. Plenty of strings that tie me to him, bind us together until we're so connected that we'd become one long word. Not just Jen. Not just Colin. JenandColin. ~eARC, 4%
Drew + Fable Series
(covers lead to GoodReads page)
One Week Girlfriend | Second Chance Boyfriend
Purchase Three Broken Promises
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Monica Murphy is a native Californian who lives in the foothills below Yosemite. A wife and mother of three, she writes New Adult and contemporary romance for Bantam and Avon. She is the author of One Week Girlfriend and Second Chance Boyfriend.
Connect with Monica:
Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads | Amazon
Posted by Unknown at 9:01 PM 22 comments
Labels: Bantam, Contemporary Romance, Drew + Fable #3, Monica Murphy, review, Three Broken Promises
REVIEWS: ANATOMY OF A BOYFRIEND and ANATOMY OF A SINGLE GIRL by DARIA SNADOWSKY
Series: Anatomy #1
Category/Genre: Young Adult Realistic Fiction
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Source: Received from publisher for review
Rating: 4 - 4.5 stars
Before this all happened, the closest I'd ever come to getting physical with a guy was playing the board game Operation. Okay, so maybe that sounds pathetic, but it's not like there were any guys at my high school who I cared to share more than three words with, let alone my body.
Then I met Wes, a track star senior from across town. Maybe it was his soulful blue eyes, or maybe my hormones just started raging. Either way, I was hooked. And after a while, he was too. I couldn't believe how intense my feelings became, or the fact that I was seeing—and touching—parts of the body I'd only read about in my Gray's Anatomy textbook. You could say Wes and I experienced a lot of firsts together that spring. It was scary. It was fun. It was love.
And then came the fall.
I'm going to make this short and sweet: Anatomy of a Boyfriend is one of, if not THE most realistic portrayals of teen sexuality and the emotional aspects of falling in love, that I have ever read.
Anatomy is not a romanticized account of the pleasure and pain of falling in love for the first time. It is an unflinching honest portrayal of the physical and emotional aspects, how they affect and reflect on one another. There are questions, and doubts, joy, and happiness. This story has sex-again, not unrealistically romanticized, and it even has (gasp!) masturbation. It is about remaining true to yourself and maintaining identity.
The story entails Dominique's journey with honesty, humor, and heart. This is a story that I wish had been available to me as a teen. It is a story that I will make available to my own children as teens. It is a story that can open dialogue, or serve as a gesture. It will speak to those it represents. And that is powerful.
Favorite Quotes:
Amy will sometimes accompany us on the boat, but she's too squeamish even to handle live bait. That she won't touch a shrimp with her hands but will take a random boy's dick into her mouth has always seemed bizarre to me. ~pg. 26
I feel dizzy and light-headed, like every cell in my body is pushing my arm that final inch. I'm just about to rest my hand on his crotch when a thunderous bang echoes through the car.
Did he just ejaculate? ~pg. 105
Rating: 4-4.5 stars
With Judy Blume-like honesty and insight, this sequel to Anatomy of a Boyfriend is about life after first love--romance, sex, friendship, family, and the ups and downs of life as a single girl.
After everything that happened—my first boyfriend, my first time, my first breakup—jumping back into the dating game seemed like the least healthy thing I could do. It's not that I didn't want to fall in love again, since that's about the best feeling ever. But as a busy college premed still raw from heartbreak, which is the worst feeling ever, I figured I'd lie low for a while. Of course, as soon as I stopped looking for someone, an impossibly amazing—and devastatingly cute—guy came along, and I learned that having a new boyfriend is the quickest way to recover from losing your old one.
The moment we got together, all my preconceptions about romance and sex were turned upside down. I discovered physical and emotional firsts I never knew existed. I learned to let go of my past by living in the present. It was thrilling. It was hot. It was just what the doctor ordered.
But I couldn't avoid my future forever.
In Daria Snadowsky's daring follow-up to Anatomy of a Boyfriend, eighteen-year-old Dominique explores the relationship between love and lust, and the friendships that see us through.
There's really no way to review Anatomy of a Single Girl without spoiling Anatomy of a Boyfriend. So... here goes.
Dominique has survived her freshman year at Tulane, and is back in Florida for the summer. She's not quite over the pain of her first heartbreak, but determined to move on and experience a fun summer as a single. It doesn't take long for Dom to meet a potential Mr. Right (for now), which brings a new set of questions and complications. This is a summer to have fun, discover, explore.
Once again, Daria Snadowsky has delivered what I consider to be the perfect depiction of a smart, healthy coming-of-age story. Sometime I question my "expertise" on the subject, considering the fact I met the guy I married at eighteen. But, this series is one I will undoubtedly hold onto and hand it over to my own daughter in the (waaay distant) future. Yes, it is that good.
The most important aspect to the Anatomy Series, one that will make it or break it for most readers, is to realize this is not a love story. Sure, there's romance, and sex, but the heart of the story is Dominique. Her search for love and pleasure, friendship and growing up, and most importantly, her search for self.
Anatomy is a brilliant series. I really hope we haven't seen the last of Dom.
"Damn, Dom. Are you crying?"
"Hmm? No."
But I brush my fingers across my cheeks, and sure enough, there're tears. My hands are quivering, too. I look back at Guy.
"I came!" I yelp.
"No shit, Sherlock. I could feel it."
"It was like...time-slowing, space-curving--"
"Now you're speaking my language."
"So...how many other people know about this?" ~pg. 159
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Daria Snadowsky is the author of the novels "Anatomy of a Boyfriend" and "Anatomy of a Single Girl." She also contributed the essay "To Sir Anthony, With Love," to the anthology "Crush: 26 Real-life Tales of First Love."
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Labels: Anatomy, Anatomy of a Boyfriend, Anatomy of Single Girl, Daria Snadowsky, Delacorte Books for Young Readers, review
SEXY SATURDAYS WITH ANDREA AND AUTUMN: THE VALENTINE'S ARRANGEMENT by KELSIE LEVERICH
Sexy Saturdays with Andrea and Autumn is a weekly meme created to spread the word about spicy reads.
Participating blogs:
The Autumn Review
The Bookish Babe
**If you would like to participate, let us know and we will happily add you on.**
Series: Hard Feelings #1
Publisher: Intermix
Tattoo artist Ronnie Clark is counting the days until Valentine's Day is over. Ronnie doesn't do romance. She doesn't do flowers or dates, and she sure as hell doesn't do love—not anymore. Love leads to heartbreak, and she's vowed never to let herself get hurt again.
Sergeant First Class Kale Emerson is home on his midtour leave from Iraq, but he only has one thing on his mind—returning to his soldiers to finish leading their mission. He's dedicated to his men and to his country, and he's not interested in getting wrapped up in a distracting relationship…but casual sex, that's a different story. From the moment he sees Ronnie, he wants her. And he agrees to her terms: no romance, no fluff—just passion.
But as their sexual chemistry ignites, the lines of their arrangement get blurry, and Ronnie starts to push Kale away. And when Kale realizes he's found his match in this gorgeous razor-tongued woman who is hell-bent against love, winning her heart could be the toughest battle he has ever fought.
First Impression ....I love a good novella. And I wish I had that chick's eyebrows.
The Story... Home on leave, Kale Emerson wants a tattoo to honor his fallen comrades. Well, he gets that tattoo, alright, created by the badass bombshell Ronnie Clark. Kale wants to make a connection with Ronnie while he's home, Ronnie is interested but intent on avoiding commitment. A short-term arrangement-no feelings involved-is what they set out to experience, but will the fire keep burning when their time is up?
The Characters ... The Valentine's Arrangement only had two characters with significant presence. Ronnie was completely rude, abrupt, and a little vicious. I loved that. I can see how a lot of readers might not connect with or enjoy her, but I did, a lot. She was hard core, a true badass who was quick to hand out a verbal beat down if the notion struck. Ronnie had her reasons for the tough exterior, but even if she hadn't, I still would have liked her.
Kale Emerson was perfect. A dedicated soldier who's job means everything to him, Kale has never been in love or had a significant relationship. I liked that the author allowed him to be a decidedly commitment-free guy without making him a jerk. Kale doesn't dick women around or recklessly break hearts. He just is who he is.
The two characters together were sexy and practically combustible. Ronnie is a compulsive ball-buster, but instead of being annoyed or intimidated, Kale gets off on it. Her fiery temperament amuses him. And turns him on. I liked seeing these two go into their situation believing they can control their feelings, but quickly realizing logic will not trump love.
The Writing .... was really good. I appreciate dual point-of-view in my romances, allowing me to know both characters thoughts and motivations, which reduces my book rage moments significantly.
Novellas are so hard to get just right. We need enough detail to form a strong connection, but too much can drag it down. Leverich found the perfect balance in my opinion.
The only nit-picky item for me was the "bad guy" who comes looking for trouble with Kale and Ronnie. Maybe I'm naive, but I just didn't get why he went through so much effort. But, he was arrogant and stupid, so it probably does make sense. Stupid dudes...I'll never understand them.
The Heat ... The Valentine's Arrangement was sexy, but not consumed in the only in physical act. That's not to say that Ronnie and Kale didn't get down. They did, and they did it well. But the chemistry and anticipation between them was just as hot. The foreplay, the intense build-up, was so hot and totally worth the wait.
Could I Put The Valentine's Arrangement Down? ... Throughout the first half, yeah, I could. I was really enjoying it, but not overwhelmed. The second half, specifically the last twenty-five percent, really grabbed me hard. With Kale pushing Ronnie for me as he was heading back to Iraq, and what happens next, I was definitely consumed. I basically sat in the middle of Red Lobster and ignored my family so I could finish. Any story that can make me miss out on Garlic-Cheddar Biscuits is worth a read.
In the End ... The Valentine's Arrangement was a very good novella. I would recommend it to fans of very well-developed novellas, such as Laura Kaye's Hearts in Darkness.
She turned around, her impassive expression turning irritated. "All right, soldier, you just gonna stand there and waste my time or do you want to get some ink?"
Kale put his head down and smirked as he started after her. He couldn't help liking her bad attitude. It was refreshing. She was feisty and quite possibly going to be a huge pain in the ass, but it turned him on. Oh, yes, this was going to be fun. ~eARC, 6%
She froze, letting every nerve ending fire to life as Kale's fingers traced over the lines of her tattoo. The softness of his touch was so light, so careful, it was if she was feeling the light pressure of a needle pressing ink into her skin. It was like he was tattooing her body all over again with the tip of his finger, and the feeling was addictive. She wanted more, and she wanted it everywhere. ~eARC, 53%
The Hard Feelings Series
Kelsie Leverich grew up in the small town of St. Joseph Illinois before getting married and following her husband from one Army post to another. After eight years, they finally settled down in Avon, Indiana with two adorable knuckleheads that are better known as her kids. Kelsie's life revolves around her family (to include two dogs and a cat) and most of the time, actually all of the time, it's a crazy mess—but that's the way she loves it! When Kelsie's not writing, you can usually find her snuggling on the couch with her kids and a good book or out on the lake with family and friends. Kelsie is not a morning person, has a soft spot for animals, loves musicals, hates seafood, and thinks laundry is the source of all evil.
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Labels: Contemporary Romance, Hard Feelings #1, Intermix, Kelsie Leverich, novella, review, Sexy Saturdays, The Valentine's Arrangement
HAPPY HOLIDAYS, LOVE ACTUALLY STYLE
Every year at Christmas to New Years, I take time off from blogging. And every year, I send out the year celebrating one of my very favorite movies ever (I'm actually watching it at this moment) and my very favorite Christmas movie, Love Actually.
Sigh...To me, Andrew Lincoln is perfect. I much prefer him looking all clean, happy (albeit heartbroken), and not running from zombies. My friend's daughter actually met Lincoln recently. I'm jealous.
Breaks my heart.
Billy. I love that old perv.
I loved these two. Striking up a friendship/romance while standing-in (naked) on a movie set? Priceless.
Don't answer the phone, Lauren Linney!
Don't be an idiot, Snape. Professor Trelawney deserves better than that.
"I am Colin Frissel, god of sex."
I had the biggest crush on Colin Firth.
Awww...Prime Minister Hugh Grant and "His" Natalie
Now, the music...
SERIES REVIEW: THE 'BURG #1-4 by KRISTEN ASHLEY
Series: The 'Burg #1
Genre: Contemporary/Romantic Suspense
Publisher: Kristen Ashley
Lieutenant Alexander Colton and February Owens were high school sweethearts. Everyone in their small town knew from the moment they met they were meant for each other. But something happened and Feb broke Colt's heart then she turned wild and tragedy struck. Colt meted out revenge against the man who brought Feb low but even though Colt risked it all for her, Feb turned her back on him and left town.
Fifteen years later, Feb comes back to help run the family bar. But there's so much water under the bridge separating her and Colt everyone knows they'll never get back together.
Until someone starts hacking up people in Feb's life. Colt is still Colt and Feb is still Feb so the town watches as Colt goes all out to find the murderer while trying to keep Feb safe.
As the bodies pile up, The Feds move in and a twisting, turning story unravels exposing a very sick man who has claimed numerous victims along the way, Feb and Colt battle their enduring attraction and the beautiful but lost history that weaves them together.
For You was such a good story. Though Kristen Ashley's style is as recognizable as always, the tone and suspense was different, darker and very suspenseful.
For You has a tragic story, about the lost love between Colt and Feb and the painful years that follow. I say lost love, but that's not the case; it is always clear that Colt and Feb have never stopped loving one another. Painful circumstances and manipulations drove them apart over twenty years before, and the years that followed were so painful to read about. My heart ached for Colt and Feb. The moment that broke the two up is not made instantly clear, Feb can't talk about it, and Colt isn't even sure what happened. What made the story so hard to put down was finding out exactly what did happened between them. The reveal was pretty shocking, and very sad. Theirs was a bittersweet story, thankfully heavier on the sweet side in the end.
For You not only had a beautiful love story, but also a suspenseful side as well. Feb's long-time admirer finally went off the rails, and on a murder spree. This aspect to the story was chilling, terrifying, and a real mind f*ck. Ashley did a great job of building and maintaining suspense until the very end.
For You, true to form for Ashley, was an excellent story, full of rich characters and tons of heart. I know I won't forget Colt and Feb anytime soon.
They didn't understand, it not being directed at them, what that smile could do. The power of it. It was like every time he smiled he'd opened a chest of treasure and said, "All this is yours."
"Okay, is it me, or is anyone else having a problem with deciding whether to have a heart attack or an orgasm?" Meems asked.
"Orgasm," Jessie said instantly.
"Yep, same here," Dee put in.
"Fuck," Al muttered."
He kissed me, his mouth opening over mine, mine doing the same under his, his tongue spiking inside, his fingers gliding into my hair, fisting. I felt pain in my scalp but it didn't register as I pressed into him, flattening my hands on his chest, caging them between us, caught up in a wordless promise that was the most beautiful gift I'd ever experienced, the most wondrous gift I'd ever been given in my life.
He'd been right the day before. Twenty-two years of her laughter, her smile, her body, her jewelry on his kitchen counter, he might have gotten used to it and moments like this would have been lost on him. Now he knew that he'd never miss these moments and he'd always feel that beautiful pain because he'd always understand how precious they were.
Publication Date: 4/2/11
Violet Winters once had it all but lost it when her husband was murdered by a criminal madman. During a cold winter night Violet has to leave her warm bed to tell her neighbor to turn the music down. And that's when she meets sinister, scarred, scarily attractive security specialist, Joe Callahan.
She wants to deny it, but Violet can't beat back the hunger she feels for Joe so she gives in again and again. Feeling it himself, Joe feeds Vi's hunger, breaking his own rules to keep her in his bed.
Even though Violet had only one man in her life, she's sure Joe is giving her the signals and Vi decides she's ready to take a second chance at life and, maybe, love. But Violet doesn't know the dark secrets in Joe's past, secrets so soul-wrenching, they've drained him dry. With nothing left to give, Joe's determined to live his life alone and he breaks Violet's heart.
Crushed by Joe's betrayal, Violet comes to terms with the fact that, no matter what signals he gave, Joe was not theirs to win. But Violet's husband's murderer is obsessed with her and heartbreak again haunts the door of the Winters home. When it does Joe is forced to face the knowledge that he can't fight Violet's pull, she's under his skin and filled him full to bursting.
Joe needs to win her back and put his life on the line to keep Violet safe. But, having had it all once, can Violet endure losing Joe?
After reading For You and gaining a sense for the type of series The 'Burg would be, I went into At Peace unprepared.
Kristen Ashley took two very compelling characters -- Joe Callahan, a badass security expert who burns through the women in the 'burg like cheap paper, a nice enough man, but completely closed off emotionally; and Violet Winters -- a widowed mother of two teens, trying to rebuild their life in a new town, she's damaged by her husband's tragic murder, but not broken, and created a story that went beyond any of my expectations. I've stated many times that Ashley is the Queen of Characterization, but even for Ashley, the depth that she gave Joe, Vi, her girls, their families, was truly remarkable. And FYI, Joe Callahan is one of KA's ultimate Alpha Men. Vi is one of her very best heroines.
Attempting to justify just how much I loved At Peace is a joke. I cannot do it anywhere near its due. At Peace made me laugh, a lot. It was also extremely sexy. It almost broke me, leading me into several of my most heart-wrenching, book-induced episodes of The Ugly Cry ever. At one point the noise I made and the way my body shook scared my husband, leading him to both hug me and offer me a beer.
At Peace was ridiculously heartbreaking, sexy, intense, and I loved every single delicious moment. It is a Kristen Ashley masterpiece.
"You don't know, Cal, you have no idea. You've shut yourself up for so long in this fucking house with your tragic memories, you have no idea what's about to walk out your door. Kate, Keira and me, we could have plugged that hole. We could have filled you so full,you'd be bursting. We would have loved that chance. We'd have given it everything we had."
He was wrong. I remembered. I remembered every second with him, even the ones we weren't having sex, and I missed them. God, so much, I had to bury it, covering it with everything I had so it wouldn't break me. But it all came back, the longing, the hurt, the hungry, everything we were, everything I wanted us to be and it was everything there was.
"I'm gonna piss you off, honey, probably enough for you to want to leave. I've got a temper and so do you, we're gonna clash. It won't feel good, it'll feel not worth it sometimes but, you leave me, I'll wait for you to come back. And you'll come back because, something we've both learned, this, what we have is worth getting over it. Whatever it is that ticks us off of holds us back, we know it's worth fighting for."
"Worth the wait," Joe muttered and my head tipped back.
"Every bit of it. Every day, every week, every year, every fuckin' second, buddy," he kept muttering, his eyes intense, his face serious and my breath caught, "this. All of it. Worth the wait."
Tanner Layne and Raquel Merrick fell in love young, hard and fast and both of them knew a beautiful life they thought would be forever.
Until Rocky left Layne, no explanation, no going back.
Layne escapes The 'Burg only to come back years later because his ex-wife has hooked herself to the town jerk and Layne needs to make sure his sons get raised right. Layne manages to avoid Rocky but when Layne gets three bullets drilled into him while investigating a dirty cop, he can't do that because Rocky stops avoiding Layne. They make a deal to work together to expose the dirty cop but they have no idea the strength of their enduring attraction or the sheer evil at work in The 'Burg.
As Tanner Layne and Raquel Merrick play their game and dance around the pull that draws them together, Layne has to discover the dark secrets buried so deep in Rocky's heart she doesn't even know they're there at the same time untangle a sinister web of crime so abhorrent it has to be stopped... at all costs.
And to do it, Layne has to enlist everyone, including his ex-CIA mentor, Rocky's detective brother, the town's unpredictable informant and Layne's two teenage sons all the while stopping Rocky from doing something crazy and keeping their game secret so Layne won't get himself dead
Gawd, I don't even know what to say about The 'Burg series at this point. This series has taken all of my expectations of Kristen Ashley's books and exceeded them.
The 'Burg series is all about second chance love. Layne and Rocky's story was tragic, and I felt every single moment of pain between the two. This one was much like Colt and Feb's book, For You, in that, not only do we get a second chance story, but a story twenty plus years in the making. Layne tried to move on, married, had kids, and divorced, then moved back home to the 'Burg. Rocky faked at moving on, but never got over Tanner Layne, though she was the one that left. The mystery is...why did Rocky leave Layne? It's the cloud hanging over the pair, and the question isn't answered until nearly the end. Grab the tissues, cos that one hurt.
What makes this so heart-wrenching is the depth of emotion Ashley puts into these characters. To see two such worthy and freaking fantastic characters find their way back, was a beautiful experience. But not only is it Layne and Rocky's story, but also his kids. Jasper and Tripp Layne were important to Golden Trail, and I will also say that without them, and the relationship between the two boys, their dad, and Rocky, the story would have been lacking. It's so weird, well, not really weird, but as well as Kristen Ashley writes hot Alpha Men and kickass Ladies, she also writes the hell out of teens. This series is the better for it. The fact that Layne's kids are tied to Cal and Vi's kids (from At Peace), it does great things to my heart.
If you are a Kristen Ashley fan and you haven't read The 'Burg, do yourself a favor and pick this series up.
He remembered everything. And she should know that.
His fingers curled around her neck and he put his forehead to hers before sharing, "I remember, Rocky. I remember everything. I remember every...fucking....thing."
"Dad?"
He looked to his boy. "Yeah?"
Jasper stared at him, expression hidden except a muscle ticking in his cheek. Finally, he spoke and the words seemed forced out of him. "I'm glad you're proud of me."
Layne jerked his chin up and started to turn the handle on the door when Jasper finished.
"'Cause I'm proud of you too."
A new burn ignited, just in his chest, so hot, he was finding it hard to breathe.
"Don't let me leave you," she whispered so quietly he almost didn't hear her.
But he heard her, he not only heard her, he understood what she was saying and his chest seized, his gut twisted but his arms got even tighter.
"I won't," he whispered back, his voice was quiet too and thick.
"No matter what." She was still talking low.
"No matter what," he replied.
"Promise."
"I promise, baby.""
"Christ,Rocky, I'm in love with you!" he shouted, leaning forward and putting his hands on the bar. "I've kissed more than two women and I've fucked more too, but I've only ever loved you. You cut me up, baby, when you left me. You cut me up bad." She winced but he kept talking. "So, what's it say to you I'd take this risk? What's it tell you? You nearly destroyed me, Rocky, I loved you that much" "...I existed for eighteen years. Now I'm livin' again. And I like it. I like it so much, it's worth the risk. You are worth the risk. Yeah, you had to play me because I needed that statement from you, but, baby, I didn't make you work too hard and you fuckin' know it. You did that to me and you're back in my life. Think about that, Roc, give that a second. What's that say about how I feel about you?"
From the balcony of his house, Mike Haines can see the quiet, commonplace beauty of the Holliday farm. But what he remembers is the little sister of his high school girlfriend, Dusty who grew up there. As a teen, Dusty had gone off the rails but when she was a kid, she was sweet, she was funny and she had a special bond with Mike. But after high school, she took off and Mike never saw her again.
Then tragedy strikes Dusty's family, she comes back into town and Mike thinks she hasn't changed back to the sweet, funny girl he knew but instead continued to be selfish and thoughtless, leaving her family alone to deal with their mourning. So he seeks her out and confronts her in an effort to understand what went wrong and to force her to sort herself out.
He finds out quickly he's wrong about Dusty Holliday. Very wrong. And right after Mike discovers that, the bond they had years before snaps back into place in ways he would never suspect.
But Mike Haines had a bad marriage then he played games of the heart for a good woman. And lost. In order to protect himself and his kids, he's cautious, he's careful to read the signs and he's not interested in finding a woman he has to fix.
Then he learns what happened to Dusty and he thinks she needs to be fixed. He swings, he misses and in this new game of hearts, for Dusty, Mike just got strike three.
Oh Mike Haines, how my feelings have changed for you since At Peace. In that book, all I could see was Cal and Vi, and I did not care if Mike got hurt in their tug of war. I just wanted him out of the way. Happy, sure. But as long as he didn't stand between my beloved Cal and his true love, I was good.
Games of the Heart is Mike's story. And it was so damn good. This series is all about second chances, and GotH is no exception. Mike and Dusty's path is a long and twisty one. Mike dated Dusty's (bitchy) sister in high school, and as a kid she fell in love with the gorgeous, kind boy who always made time to make her feel special. Dusty slipped away, from her family, from Mike, from the 'Burg, but Mike never forgot the beautiful young woman with the voice of an angel. Once they reconnect, Mike seriously messes up with Dusty. Twice. He was so clueless, but when you take into account his history with women and love, it makes a lot of sense.
Fortunately, this story gets down to the business of the two making a solid connection, building a future amongst his ex, his kids, her (bitchy) sister who's out to destroy the family farm, her nephews, her ex, and shady developers. Mike and Dusty obviously have a lot going on, but as always, the beauty in a Kristen Ashley story is experiencing the beautiful love story. As an added bonus, we also get a beautiful young love story as well, between Mike's daughter Clarisse and Dusty's nephew, Fin. And honestly, that sweet and thoughtful story of young love is what took Games of the Heart to a remarkable new level. And the epilogue? Kristen Ashley is known and loved for her brilliant epilogues. This one is beyond a doubt one of my very favorites. I sobbed happy tears throughout. Perfection.
Games of the Heart is another beautiful addition to The 'Burg series. I would be hard-pressed to say that this isn't my favorite of all of Ashley's series. Sadly, I am current on the series and will truly miss it. Thankfully, I have another book to look forward to in the near(-ish) future.
Right, I should probably not pray go God to give me great sex but, seriously, He created Mike and gave him his abilities, He had to know a woman would want more.
"Girl next door," Cal muttered through his grin and, getting it not to mention annoyed as fuck by it, Mike sat back in his chair. "What'd I say?" he went on to ask.
"Are we seriously doing this?" Mike asked back.
"What'd I say?" Cal repeated. Fuck, they were doing this. "Mine moved in right next door, man. Sounds of it, yours did too," Cal stated.
"Fuck me, The Lone Wolf is gossiping."
His kiss was a once in a lifetime kiss. It was the kind of thorough, heart-melting, stomach-plummeting, mind-numbing, soul-enriching kiss that altered lives. And I swear to God, it altered two, right there, in Mike's kitchen. His and mine.
And it hit him then, something he'd known for twenty-five years about Dusty but something he only understood right at that moment about the three people most important in his life. Dusty's voice, her pottery, her drawings, her writing. His son's drums, guitar, keyboards. His daughter's writing. He was surrounded by people who were extraordinarily gifted. Everything they did was beyond the pale. His life was touched all around by genius.
And Mike knew what he was seeing and how it made him feel was burning itself on his brain forever. Because in that moment, watching and listening, he was profoundly moved that God had seen fit to gift him, an ordinary man, an Indiana boy through and through, with these people in his life.
The 'Burg Series
Frankie and Benny (The 'Burg #5)
Purchase The 'Burg Series
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Kristen Ashley was born in Gary, Indiana, USA. She nearly killed her mother and herself making it into the world, seeing as she had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck (already attempting to accessorise and she hadn't taken her first breath!).
Kristen grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana but has lived in Denver, Colorado and the West Country of England. Thus she has been blessed to have friends and family around the globe. Her posse is loopy (to say the least) but loopy is good when you want to write.
Kristen was raised in a house with a large and multi-generational family. They lived on a very small farm in a small town in the heartland and existed amongst the strains of Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO Speedwagon and Whitesnake (and the wardrobes that matched).
Needless to say, growing up in a house full of music, clothes and love was a good way to grow up.
And as she keeps growing up, it keeps getting better.
Labels: At Peace, Contemporary Romance, For You, Games of the Heart, Golden Trail, Kristen Ashley, review, The 'Burg
REVIEW: PERFECT SEX by ROBIN STOREY
Source: Received from author for review
What happens when a middle-aged woman leaves a long, unfulfilling marriage and discovers she has the sex drive of a teenage boy?
Freelance writer Susie Hamilton joins an internet dating agency, attracts a long list of admirers and begins an exhausting dating schedule – all under the guise of professional research.
When she writes a novel based on her experiences and it becomes a best seller, her dream of being a successful author is realized. But after dozens of dates and some disastrous encounters, she's still relying on Fred, her vibrator, for sexual fulfilment.
Is perfect sex an oxymoron? Will Susie meet her Mr Perfect Sex or will she have to make do with Mr-As-Good-As-It-Gets?
First Impression .... I'm not a fan of the cover, but the story sounds fun.
The Story... Susie wants a man. And write a book. In an effort to kill two birds with one stone, Susie sets up a profile on an internet dating site, and sets out to write a book about her experiences. Along the way, she must contend with the man who come and go in her life, two trying teens, and a cast of friends with big problems of their own.
The Characters ... Susie was an interesting character. As a divorcee who wants to find struggles to make her way back into the dating world, she wants companionship, love, and yeah, sex. I think a lot of women in similar circumstances would find a soul sister in Susie. Her friends Annie, Jules, and Myf each came with their own set of problems, and were all interesting characters in their own right.
The Writing .... Was fast-paced and very humorous. The humor in Perfect Sex is what I enjoyed the most. I loved how self-deprecating Susie could be, and how she just rolled with whatever came her way. I found the parallel between what authors struggle with and through in the real world, and Susie's journey to be particularly interesting. The trials of writing a book, getting word of mouth to help promote, hitting it big and all that came with it, seemed to be authentic. And I'm sure that the huge success of Susie's book is what all authors dream of.
I enjoyed Perfect Sex. I liked that the story focused on Susie's journey more than the romance. I would have liked the ending to have a bit more resolution, but it certainly seemed that Susie was headed in the right direction.
In the End... Perfect Sex was a nice story. I was surprised that the story featured very little sex, mostly of the implied variety. That was fine. What appealed to me most was the author's voice, full of charm and humor.
"I can't remember the last time Richard and I did it during the day," Annie says. "We're flat out finding the energy to do it at all."
"Try phoning him at work and telling him to come home at lunchtime, and then meet him at the door in a see-through negligee," I say. "I wrote that once in an article on 'Fifty Ways to Spice Up Your Marriage'."
"Did it work for you?" Myf asks.
"I just wrote it; I didn't actually do it myself." ~eARC, 4%
If only Cara knew that not only did I date her maths teacher but he propositioned me as well! I flirted briefly with the idea of sleeping with him in exchange for passing Cara in maths, but after noticing his rough and calloused hands, decided it was too big a sacrifice for a mother to make for her daughter. ~ebook, 38%
Purchase Perfect Sex on Amazon
I live on the picturesque Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. I love the casual lifestyle and chilling out at the beach inspires me and kick starts my creative juices.
I've been a freelance writer for the print media for many years and am now concentrating on writing novels, which gives me the greatest satisfaction and challenges.
Labels: Perfect Sex, review, Robin Storey, Women's Fiction
THE WEEKLY REWIND is a weekly post in which I recap the bookish awesomeness from the past week, and post a book haul.
For Review:
Castle Hill (On Dublin Street #2.5) by Samantha Young - I read this last weekend and loved it.
Drew + Fable Forever by Monica Murphy - yay!
Party Girl by Rachel Hollis - Rachel is the owner of The Chic website, a party planner, and I adore her. I'm very excited to read her book!
Bought:
Law Man (Dream Man #3) by Kristen Ashley - Mitch Lawson in print!
Beautiful Stranger (Beautiful Bastard #3) by Christina Lauren - needed this paperback!
The Winning Season by Alison Packard - this sports romance made Jane at Dear Author's Best of 2013 list. I love a good sports romance, so I'll give it a go.
Addicted to You (Addicted #1) by Krista & Becca Ritchie - finally caved and bought this bc so many of my blog friends love it.
Amazon Freebies:
A Touch of Midnight (Midnight Breed #0.5) by Lara Adrian
She's Gotta Be Mine by Jennifer Skully - this has a different, better cover on Amazon
Gift/Won:
Breathe by Lauren Jameson - the fabulous Lauren sent me a signed copy!
Beyond Shame (Beyond #1) by Kit Rocha - I won this from a giveaway from Moira Rogers. I've heard great things about this series!
For Review Consideration:
Love Water Memory by Jennie Shortridge
The Spider (Elemental Assassin #10) by Jennifer Estep - I've been meaning to start this series. This is the second copy the pub has sent, so I'll give one away.
Clipped Wings (Clipped Wings #1) by Helena Hunting - this looks really interesting. I'll give it a try.
Lauren Jameson
Foolish Games by Tracy Solheim - 3 stars
Beautiful Wedding by Jamie McGuire
Holiday Reviews: Cross Country Christmas by Tiffany King/Every Year by Kristen Ashley - 4 stars
Searching for Someday by Jennifer Probst - 4 stars
Going Home Again by Abby Cavanaugh -3 stars
Unrestrained by Joey W. Hill - 4 stars
Next Week's Reviews:
Perfect Sex by Robin Storey
The Burg Series #1-4 by Kristen Ashley
The Valentine's Arrangement by Kelsie Leverich
US Only. Must be 18+ years of age to enter.
Labels: book haul, giveaway, The Weekly Rewind
REVIEWS: ANATOMY OF A BOYFRIEND and ANATOMY OF A S...
SEXY SATURDAYS WITH ANDREA AND AUTUMN: THE VALENTI...
SEXY SATURDAYS WITH ANDREA AND AUTUMN: UNRESTRAINE...
REVIEW: GOING HOME AGAIN, BY ABBY CAVANAUGH
REVIEW: SEARCHING FOR SOMEDAY by JENNIFER PROBST
BLOG TOUR: NEEDING HER by MOLLY McADAMS ~ INTERVIE...
WAITING ON WEDNESDAY: THE DAY HE KISSED HER
HOLIDAY REVIEWS: CROSS COUNTRY CHRISTMAS and A CHR...
TEASER TUESDAY: AT PEACE by KRISTEN ASHLEY
REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY: A BEAUTIFUL WEDDING by JAMIE ...
COVER REVEAL AND GIVEAWAY: UNDONE by REBECCA SHEA
REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY: FOOLISH GAMES by TRACY SOLHEI...
SEXY SATURDAYS: BEAUTIFUL PLAYER and BEAUTIFUL BE...
RELEASE DAY EVENT AND GIVEAWAY: FINDING JOY by JEN...
HOLIDAY REVIEWS: RIPPED, SLEIGH BELLS IN THE SNOW,...
COVER REVEAL ~ LEGAL AFFAIRS: OBJECTION by SAWYER ...
REVIEW: TRUST IN ME by J. LYNN
HARLEQUIN DECEMBER GIVEAWAY
REVIEW: TORN by MONICA MURPHY
WAITING ON WEDNESDAY ~ RAW
BLOG TOUR: HOLY FRIGGING MATRIMONY by EMMA CHASE ~...
TEASER: MASQUERADE by NYRAE DAWN
TEASER TUESDAY ~ TORN by MONICA MURPHY
REVIEW: BARELY UNDERCOVER by SARAH CASTILLE
RELEASE DAY EVENT: ENSLAVED BY THE OCEAN by BELLA ...
REVIEW: RIFT (CIPHER #2) by CINDI MADSEN
SEXY SATURDAYS WITH ANDREA AND AUTUMN: CRASH INTO ...
REVIEW: FULL THROTTLE by ERIN MCCARTHY
HARD AS IT GETS BLOG TOUR by LAURA KAYE: REVIEW, G...
GUEST POST AND EXCERPT: UNRESTRAINED by JOEY W. HI...
COURTNEY REVIEWS: PARALLEL by LAUREN MILLER
WAITING ON WEDNESDAY ~ SOME LIKE IT WILD
GUEST POST AND REVIEW: WHEN IT'S RIGHT by JEANETTE...
TEASER TUESDAY ~ HARD AS IT GETS by LAURA KAYE
BLOG TOUR: CRASH INTO YOU by KATIE MCGARRY
TEASER TOUR: SNEAKING CANDY by LISA BURSTEIN ~ TEA...


Here's another one for the Well, Duh file. Women need more sleep.
But here's the thing – what Huffington and Leive are really talking about is sexism, not sleep.
…Getting a good night's sleep, of course, is easier said than done. You have to tune out a host of temptations, from Letterman to the PTA to your e-mail inbox — and most of all, to ignore the workaholic wisdom that says you're lazy for not living up to the example set by Madonna, Martha Stewart and other notorious self-professed never-sleepers. Of course, the truth is the opposite: You'll be much more likely to be a professional powerhouse if you're not asleep at the wheel. (Even Bill Clinton, who used to famously get only five hours of sleep, later admitted, "Every important mistake I've made in my life, I've made because I was too tired." Huh! ) The problem is that women often feel that they still don't "belong" in the boys-club atmosphere that still dominates many workplaces. So they often attempt to compensate by working harder and longer than the next guy. Hard work helps women fit in and gain a measure of security. And because it works, they begin to do more and more and more of it until they can't stop. But it's a Pyrrhic victory: The workaholism leads to lack of sleep, which in turn leads to never being able to do your best. In fact, many women do this on purpose, fueled by the mistaken idea that getting enough sleep means you must be lazy or less than passionate about your work and your life.
Sleep deprivation, of course, comes with all sorts of nasty side effects, as the HuffPo piece points out. Among them: illness, stress, traffic accidents, weight gain (let no fat card go unplayed). But wait, there's more!
Rob yourself of sleep, ladies, and you'll find you never function at your personal best. Work decisions, relationship challenges, any life situation that requires you to know your own mind–they all require the judgment, problem-solving and creativity that only a rested brain is capable of and are all handled best when you bring to them the creativity and judgment that are enhanced by sleep.
The reason women don't sleep as well as men is not because of our misguided workaholic tendencies, or our short-sighted need to prove ourselves, but because the world, as it is constructed, gives women more to DO. Particularly during the hours when we should be sleeping. Some of this we can't control — a baby who needs to nurse at 1 a.m. and again at 3 a.m., for instance, or the fact that at least one study found women wake more easily to a baby's cry than men. We have those hormonal insomnia issues, too, and, with time, hot flashes and night sweats.
Other reasons are handed to us by society. The expectation is that mom will work a second shift, filling her evening with homework checking and lunch fixing and bedtime storytelling and clutter picking-upping and laundry sorting. Then, after that, so many of us get back to the pile of work we brought home from the office — an office we left early in order to be home for dinner. Yes, men do this more and more in many homes, but the social expectation is that this is still a mother's job, and shaking it requires more than a simple declaration that we will get more sleep.
It's enough to make me cry out for my blankie! So what are we to do, aside from putting ourselves down for a little bonus shut-eye every now and then? A good start might be recognizing the only marginally deeper truths in "personal challenges" likes this for the eye-openers that they are.


text:
U-M academic programs to anchor Detroit Center for Innovation
By Don Jordan / Public Affairs – The University Record
The University of Michigan will anchor the Detroit Center for Innovation, a 14-acre center in downtown Detroit aimed at stimulating entrepreneurial activity, educating students and further diversifying the regional economy.
The Oct. 30 announcement of the center marks the beginning of a bold new chapter in the university's two-centuries-long history of partnership and engagement with the city of Detroit and the region through local schools, community organizations and other partnerships.
In accepting the invitation to be a key partner in the project, U-M will operate a state-of-the-art research and academic center that is expected to focus on such areas as artificial intelligence, mobility, sustainability, data science, cybersecurity, entrepreneurship and financial technology.
The center will be designed to provide a new talent pipeline to current companies and attract new businesses to the area. Partners in the center include the state of Michigan, city of Detroit and Wayne County; Related Companies, Stephen M. Ross' development firm; and Bedrock, Dan Gilbert's full-service real estate firm.
The development of the academic building will be made possible by a major gift from Ross, a native of Detroit, and a leadership gift from Gilbert, as well as other public and private funders.
"The Detroit Center for Innovation is just the latest part of a thriving ecosystem of U-M engagement with the city of Detroit and its people," said President Mark Schlissel. "Our work involves collaborations that support many of our state's and communities' needs, and the foundations for many of these collaborations began years, or even decades, ago through connections with local leaders, public school teachers, businesses and community advocates.
"We greatly appreciate Stephen Ross' long and generous history of working to propel our university into the future, and we look forward to embarking with Dan Gilbert on this new venture for Detroit."
The Detroit Center for Innovation will be located at 1400 Saint Antoine St., the site of the former Wayne County Jail project, and will connect Detroit's Central Business District and Greektown District to adjacent neighborhoods, Lafayette Park and Eastern Market.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans and other project partners will take the next 90-180 days to assess the feasibility of the overall project and conduct community engagement with surrounding neighborhoods. Construction for the center is slated to start in 2021.
"This is an exciting opportunity for students around the world and is an exclamation point on Michigan's efforts to build, attract and retain the best work force in America," said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
The first phase of development will include a $300 million, 190,000-square-foot academic center designed to serve U-M students in the last year of their undergraduate programs, as well as those people seeking graduate degrees or what are called "stackable certificates" that indicate completion of specified programs to learn the tech and other skills needed to advance their careers.
Proposed plans for the center also include a business collaboration and start-up incubator space, residential units, and a hotel and conference and event space.
Main Photo: An artist's rendering of the planned Detroit Center for Innovation. (Image courtesy of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates)
[The University Record], [U-M]
Profile: Pioneer's Zofia Dudek takes the lead heading for the final lap - Saturday's State Finals
Everyone in health care should know about opioids – and a free new online course from U-M can help


Two sides hoping to make a late push for the Copa Libertadores Qualifiers, Santos will host a resurgent Botafogo side on Wednesday night.
Starting with the hosts, despite showing some signs of promise earlier in the season, Santos have once again begun to struggle and have slipped down the Serie A table. In their 35 games this season, they have won 12, drawn 10 and lost 13, scoring 41 and conceding 35 in return. With a points tally of 36, Santos now sit four points adrift of breaking into the Copa Libertadores Qualifiers. However, the hosts have drastically struggled of late. Now losing their last four Serie A outings on the bounce, they have also conceded seven goals on that run.
As for the visitors, enjoying a bright run of form, Botafogo have begun to climb up the Serie A table and are arguably the divisions in form side at the moment. In their 35 games this season, they have won 12, drawn 11 and lost 12, scoring 35 and conceding 43 in return. As for their recent run of form, it appears that Botafogo are saving their best form for the end of the season. Wednesday's visitors have now won their last four Serie A matches on the bounce and have also kept a clean sheet in three of those victories.


text:
National Science Foundation (NSF) Awards $2 Million for COVID Information Commons Extension for Pandemic Recovery (CIC-E)
New York, NY – October 5, 2021
The COVID Information Commons (CIC) project, a program led by the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub in the Data Science Institute at Columbia University, in collaboration with the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub, the South Big Innovation Data Hub, and the West Big Data Innovation Hub, received additional funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the COVID Information Commons Extension for Pandemic Recovery (CIC-E) proposal (NSF #2139391). This new grant will provide an additional $2 million in funding to the COVID Information Commons project through September 30, 2025.
The COVID Information Commons (CIC) was established in May 2020 via an NSF COVID Rapid Response Research (RAPID) award (NSF #2028999) to facilitate information sharing and collaboration across NSF-funded COVID research efforts. The initial focus was on compiling publicly available information from COVID-related RAPID projects funded by the various NSF Directorates in order to create an easily searchable corpus. In addition to the publicly available information, the CIC also collected self-reported information from the project leaders via a voluntary survey. A CIC research webinar series was created, featuring talks by researchers from the NSF-funded COVID RAPID research projects. The CIC Extension will extend this initial CIC effort to include all projects funded by NSF related to COVID-19 including the pandemic recovery phase. In addition, it will seek to include publicly available information on COVID-related efforts beyond those funded by the NSF.
The initial CIC effort clearly demonstrated the benefits of bringing together information about a diverse set of COVID-related projects into a single place, thereby enabling interested users to efficiently search for information and discover linkages among diverse efforts. This helped foster the creation of a CIC community of researchers and students, and helped catalyze local and global collaborations. The CIC Extension will carry forward this idea to include projects in the pandemic recovery phase, and will additionally incorporate contemporary ways of interacting with the information such as via search and discovery of linked information using semantic search methods, and the use of domain ontologies and knowledge graph mechanisms.
Broad impact is central to the idea of the COVID Information Commons, which pulls together publicly available information along with voluntary self-reported information on NSF-funded COVID-related research projects in order to enable search and discovery of information and collaborations among individual efforts. The CIC has demonstrated early successes in creating such collaborations among researchers from diverse scientific disciplines and from different parts of the country, and around the world, drawn together by their common interest in studying the COVID pandemic. By extending the CIC effort to the pandemic recovery phase, the CIC Extension will reach an even larger and more diverse community of COVID researchers and facilitate networking among researchers engaged in COVID-related research. The CIC Extension will also build upon and expand the successful CIC research webinar series and undergraduate engagement programs initiated in the initial phase of this effort. COVID researchers funded by NSF and NIH, including those newly funded through the American Rescue Plan of 2021 (ARP), will be invited to join the open CIC community and participate in collaborative webinars and events to increase researcher collaboration and accelerate COVID-19 recovery. Visit us at https://covidinfocommons.net to learn more and join the CIC community.
The Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub
The mission of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub is to build and strengthen partnerships across industry, academia, nonprofits, and government to address societal and scientific challenges, spur economic development, and accelerate innovation in the national big data ecosystem.
The Northeast Hub is a community convener, collaboration hub, and catalyst for data science innovation in the Northeast Region. The Hub amplifies successes of the community and shares credit across the community to encourage collaboration and mutual success in data science endeavors.
The goals of the Northeast Hub are to: build collaborations to address real-world challenges through translational data science approaches; foster innovation and scale endeavors that reflect regional interests and align with national priorities related to data science; support and promote representative community engagement/impact across all Hub activities; and increase data science capacity and talent, emphasizing underserved communities. Visit us at https://nebigdatahub.org/about to learn more.
The COVID Information Commons
The COVID Information Commons (CIC) is an open website to facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration across various COVID research efforts, initiated by the NSF Convergence Accelerator. The initial focus of the CIC website was on NSF-funded COVID Rapid Response Research (RAPID) projects. The CIC serves as a resource for researchers, students and decision-makers from academia, government, not-for-profits and industry to identify collaboration opportunities, to leverage each other's research findings, and to accelerate the most promising research to mitigate the broad societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CIC community is a dynamic, collaborative community of over 1,500 researchers, practitioners and students working on COVID-19 research and insights to enable pandemic recovery and mitigation. The entire CIC community is invited to monthly CIC PI lightning talk webinars, which have attracted over 835 participants from the CIC launch webinar in July 2020 through September 2021. The monthly CIC webinars have featured 78 PI lightning talks which are individually available on demand on the CIC website on the "Meet the Researchers" page. The full recordings of all monthly webinars are also available in the CIC Video Library on the CIC website. COVID researchers find research collaborators by participating in the live webinars and by watching recordings through the CIC portal. The addition of more researchers, research, publications, datasets, and metadata will further accelerate and increase collaboration on COVID research, through the CIC-E funded by NSF.
Upcoming COVID Information Commons Events
Every month, the CIC brings together a group of researchers studying wide-ranging aspects of the current pandemic, to share their research and answer questions from our community. Attend this event to learn more about their ongoing efforts in the fight against COVID-19, including opportunities for collaboration. Register here for your unique Zoom link and calendar information.
Florence Hudson
Executive Director, Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub
Email: florence.hudson@2417@columbia.edu
Lauren Close
Operations & Communications Manager, Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub
Email: lc3460@columbia.edu
Sign up for the COVID Information Commons newsletter to receive future updates, including event notifications and program announcements.
COVID, news
Big Data Neuroscience Workshop Brings Together a Transdisciplinary Research Community
Building a Midwest Carpentries Community


The majority of work carried out by Industry Cladding & Roofing involves the use of 100% metallic components. Occasionally where all criteria have been met by architects, engineers and surveyors we will install composite products that are specified only. Please contact our estimator on 03 5367 0613 for further details.
Where composite panel is specified we would only look to the following companies for supply.
Alpolic is an aluminium composite panel that's ideal for external and internal cladding. This type of cladding is lightweight and rigid, giving designers the ability to create beautiful composite cladding designs in Melbourne.
Alpolic uses a core of non combustible mineral, positioned between aluminium. This makes it fire retardant according to international standards and codes.
Aluminium composite cladding is easy to work with due to its lightweight nature. Simple to cut, bend and shape according to your design requirements, it also offers more consistency in colour than other materials and styles.
Alucobond is another composite cladding supplier. They're the world's most widely recognised producer of aluminium composite panelling, providing products that are highly weather and fire resistant.
Alucobond offers several variations of their composite cladding, including polyethylene cores and multiple application methods, meaning they have panels that are perfect for both external and internal use. The range comes in a huge selection of colours and finishes that can be seen on their website, and they are stocked and distributed from within Australia.
Vitracore is produced by Fairview, with a more advanced core than the rest of their range. This gives it the same fire resistant qualities as the aluminium composite panels from our other suppliers. The panel is resistant to both weather damage and industrial pollutants, so you can rest assured your building will retain its original beauty over time. This type of aluminium panel cladding also comes in a huge range of colours while appearing almost identical to traditional panelling.
For more detailed information such as colour selections, warranties and practicalities of composite panel options, please visit our supply partners' websites below.


She knows very well all the secrets of Linkedin, how you can use the tool to improve your profile, your network and, in fact, your career. She can make you aware of a know how which is neither intuitive nor easy to elaborate by yourself, and how you can take a real advantage in being on the network after her explanations. After her advice on how to rebuild my profile, the visits of the same significantly increased.
Elisabeth is an excellent speaker with a strong knowledge in Personal Branding, LinkedIn and Executive career Management. Early this year, we had the pleasure to welcome Elisabeth as a speaker to our members at the French Chamber of Commence & Industry in Italy . She shared incredible insight about online world for business.
I had the chance to work with Elisabeth in the last months. She really helped me understand the power of linkedin to improve my personal branding and to exploit the added values of linkedIn. With a very pragmatic approach Elisabeth helped me to reshape my own profile. Elisabeth has a true knowledge in executive coaching which together with her knowledge of LinkedIn really added value from the first interactions. I warmly recommend her.
Elisabeth is an extraordinary coach and skilled professional. She was highly recommended and I understand why. She provided constructive and effective feedback regarding my profile and resume. She also provided invaluable guidance on how to best position myself for a career transition. Her advice was spot-on and well-reasoned and I would not hesitate to consult with her in the future.
Elisabeth is a great expert in career transition management and an excellent coach. My personal career management coaching with Elisabeth, showed up her competencies and passion: these combined together, have been the fuel to create a new professional strategy, a personal branding approach and advices to leverage and reinforce the professional network. Her talent is also in actively listening and in creating an empathic atmosphere, thus allowing fruitful and focused meetings. The result is in a new vision of my carrier path and the confidence to move forward.
A big thank you to Elisabeth for our regular, thoughtful and productive meetings! They have been essential to manage the transition period I faced. I keep in mind the lessons learnt during this period for the next challenges. Thank you again!
La formation sur les réseaux sociaux pour dirigeants m'a permis de me sentir plus à l'aise avec la maitrise des outils et de valoriser mon profil. Elisabeth est une personne très enthousiaste, positive et de bon conseil. Sa disponibilité pour le suivi des participants après le cours est aussi très appréciable.
My meeting with Elisabeth has been a very good surprise. I participated to a very interesting and pleasant workshop led by Kite Up and discovered valuable methods to improve both my personal branding and my company image. Elisabeth is a very clever consultant able to drive you in a new age of networking with a very high involvement in achieving results for her customers. I recommend Elisabeth to any manager aiming at making his profile on the net more attractive and developing new business and contacts for his company.
Business Virtual Networks (not only social) is a reality that I needed to discover and understand. Thanks to Elisabeth now I'm on track. Elisabeth is a knowledgeable consultant with many facets, able to guide professionals and companies alike into a specific Marketing Planning. She's excellent in particular in opening your horizons to the digital age of communication for individuals. Being very result Oriented Elisabeth her trainings are effective and time –efficient. She's also a very kind person to know, energetic and with a broad culture.
Travailler sur mon évolution de carrière avec Elisabeth a été à la fois un plaisir et très professionnel. Elle a une très bonne connaissance du marché global de l'emploi et est capable de véhiculer des messages complexes avec enthousiasme. Grâce à son expérience elle offre une gamme complète de solutions innovantes et efficaces pour gérer sa carrière et préparer les dirigeants à de nouveaux défis.
Je cherchais du travail comme contrôleur financier quand j'ai rencontré Elisabeth. Elle a été très professionnelle, avec un grand sens pratique : adaptation de mon profil internet à la culture italienne, création d'un réseau dans les communautés française et italienne, simulation d'entretiens de recrutements avec des professionnels. Elle a très bien compris ce que je cherchais, mes défis.
Thoughtful and inspiring! Elisabeth is definitely a master of networking on LinkedIn. She has the expertise in creating, building and strengthening business relationships on social networks. The valuable methods she shared with me are very useful. She helps you managing your profile as a brand so it appears as you really are. Working with Elisabeth is GREAT!
I met Elisabeth back in November 2017. During the last 6 months she brilliantly helped me to transform my CV and LinkedIn profile from average to an outstanding level. Elisabeth is very well versed on how to fully exploit LinkedIn areas for your benefit. She understands very well the tools needed to optimize your information an turn it into an attractive professional story. I enjoyed very much working with Elisabeth and I'm very grateful for the knowledge that she provided to me. Looking forward to have an update with her in a near time soon. Thanks!!
I have worked with Elisabeth through professional workshops in Mexico. Elisabeth is always enthusiastic and positive in her approach and thanks to her broad international experience and great listening capabilities, she is able to quickly identify your competitive advantages on the local market place. Her LinkedIn expertise is an incomparable asset which allow quick and sound results. Thank you Elisabeth !
Ho seguito con Elisabeth la giornata di Formazione sull'utilizzo dei Social Network specializzati nell'ambito professionale, per migliorare il profilo della propria azienda, dei suoi prodotti e dell'immagine di noi stessi. Il seminario è molto utile anche a chi non è uno straniero in Italia, ma è interessato a capire le dinamiche dei social, la loro utilità, e soprattutto a massimizzarne l'efficacia. Complimenti ad Elisabeth per la sua chiarezza, impegno, collaborazione.