Tag Archives: Oprah

Skid by Rene Gutteridge

Posted on November 16, 2009 | 9 Comments

skidSkid by Rene Gutteridge, Occupational Hazards, book 3 (WaterBrook, 2008), 336 pages

Summary
Hank, the member of the Hazard family who’s highlighted in Skid, is working for the airline, undercover, to help the airline improve its service. He plays the role of demanding passenger and takes note of the responses he receives. It’s the last flight for the pilot; she’s been known to be a little … strange. And then a passenger brings a pig on board, and must accommodated, as well as the other passengers. That’s not even the half of it. A comedy of errors full of the quirkiest characters.

Thoughts
This is the fifth book by Gutteridge that I’ve read:
• Scoop (Occupational Hazards, book 1)
• Snitch (Occupational Hazards, book 2)
• Boo
• Never the Bride, which is co-authored by Cheryl McKay

Skid was not a disappointment. A very funny book without being nonsense. I was surprised how different this book was from the other books in the Occupational Hazards series — well, the other Gutteridge books I’ve read across the board, actually — but only in a way that just shows how great a writer she is. Rather than really focusing on Hank’s life and story, the story was really about the plane and all its quirky characters. This necessarily condensed the time covered in the book to a very small window, rather than a few weeks or months.

I want to read every novel Gutteridge has written. (I sincerely wish she had a blog, too.)

About the author
Gutteridge is a comedy writer and novelist. She is the author of 15 novels including the Boo series, My Life as a Doormat, the Occupational Hazards series, and the novelization of the motion picture The Ultimate Gift. She lives in Oklahoma with her family.

The author’s website. Gutteridge is also author of the Boo series and the Storm series.

Other reviews
Book Critiques
Tree Swing Reading

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I received this book from the publisher via a Twitter giveaway. I am an Amazon Associate and receive a small commission on sales through my affiliate links.

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Posted in books, Christian Fiction, fiction, review

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Free books conundrum

Posted on February 27, 2008 | 1 Comment

I just downloaded my second free ebook — Beautiful Children: A novel by Charles Bock — in the past two weeks.

First, Oprah viewers were offered, for a few scant hours, a free PDF download of Suze Orman’s 274-page Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny a couple weeks ago. I don’t necessarily think I need to read the book, but I rarely turn down a free book. I had previously seen Orman on PBS a few times.

Second, Random House is making available now, through midnight Friday, a free PDF download of the Beautiful Children, which weighs in at 434 pages. You can get the download — it was remarkably speedy on my connection — here; it’s also available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powells.

On to the conundrum: How do I read these books? I’ll at least probably read the novel at some point.

Note: I haven’t read them (or anything else by their authors), and thus can’t personally recommend them. For what it’s worth, The Elegant Variation, a literary blog in my feed reader, really likes Beautiful Children.

Oh, right, that quandary. I don’t really want to read that much content — particularly a novel — on screen. I enjoy my laptop, but I don’t think it would be the same. And yet I also don’t really want to print out that many pages (at least partially because my machine is not hooked up to a printer).

If this becomes a serious way of distributing book content and not just a publicity stunt, I’d like to see the book pages presented via Live Ink or something similar, for readability. [The Live Ink site has a demo of Moby Dick. The pages look appealingly short. Maybe I could finally make it through that classic in that format!] I realize that since such a solution costs money, it will never be used while free ebooks remain largely publicity stunts.

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New word: Shero

Posted on May 31, 2007 | Leave a comment

I first heard this word (pronounced with a long e sound, just like in hero) yesterday, on Oprah. The earliest definition at Urban Dictionary is dated March 25, 2003.

The definitions of shero vary, from a hero for women’s rights, male or female to, simply, female hero.

I haven’t found where it was first used, but that aside, I’m struggling (somewhat) with why a new word was needed. After all, heroine‘s first definition is “a woman admired or idealized for her courage, outstanding achievements or noble qualities.”

My guess: Someone thought the existing form was diminuitive. It also could be connected to other new forms associated with the women’s rights movement, changes made to remove man/he from the gender-specific feminine words.

Oprah used the word as a substitute for hero, while referencing a woman. She used it repeatedly, and several of her guests parroted the language. Her usage was not tied to women’s rights.

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Viable online presence a must

Posted on April 23, 2007 | 3 Comments

I’ve been musing recently about several television identities’ lack of useful presence online.

These shows are missing out on capturing the attention of younger audiences. We may not comprise the majority of their potential viewership, but it’s worth reaching out to the younger generations.

Effective websites today have new content on a frequent basis. They also must be fully, easily, searchable. We don’t have cable, and in our rocky, hilly region, we only get two channels. I’ll talk here about what I know, which is ABC. (The other option is PBS.)

Martha Stewart recently launched her new, upgraded site. It’s grand. It has video archives of the show, and you can search for past content, too.

Oprah only recently added video of recent shows to her website. Edit: Oprah’s website did recently add video, but it’s just the show intros. Even for past days, only the introduction is available.

Live with Regis and Kelly’s site doesn’t have a search box. I can’t see even today’s show online, either. It’s a big ad, to make visitors turn on the tube, rather than offering viable content in its own stead.

The View and Good Morning America both have sites only within the ABC site, which is cumbersome and nearly impossible to search. It also doesn’t offer video content.

TV shows have such an easy avenue for new content. Offering the entire show to be viewed online should be a gimme, just the start.

Our local ABC affiliate is, sadly, ahead of the curve when it comes to website content, although it’s still unwieldy and ugly. It even has a blog, however cheesy it may be.

One reason (besides it being a no-brainer) TV shows and networks should offer their shows online: People will watch them, and this can be advertising-supported.

Case in point: I catch up on new episodes of several shows (Ugly Betty among them) via the web, when the episode airs when I’m unavailable. I don’t have to pay for TiVo, but I can still watch when I want. A couple weeks ago, however, I decided I’d like to fill an hour or two with CSI. I like crime-fighting, investigative shows, and my husband doesn’t. Besides, we don’t get CBS, as I already mentioned, so I went to CBS.com. I didn’t get my fix, though. I spent more than thirty minutes trying to get it to work on my Mac, to no avail.

Moral of the story: Don’t just offer video content, offer it in an accesible format. I downloaded a couple pieces of new software and new plugins, but alas. No success. The industry has standards, so comply with them. Make your content accesible: Online, and in a reachable format. It’s a win-win: You can sell advertising for the site if it’s got decent content and visitor levels, so it’s another potential revenue stream. Why wouldn’t you?

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Posted in technology

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(product) Marketing for a cause

Posted on March 17, 2007 | 2 Comments

Bono’s (red) campaign to save lives in Africa: Shop (read: indulge your American consumerism) to help fight AIDS in Africa, a serious, good, immense cause. It’s part of The Global Fund.

In one respect it’s a good ploy, capitalizing on a well-known characteristic of America to reach your end. But does the end justify the means? No, a thousand times no, as I became convinced in my numerous philosophy classes and in life. The end does not justify the means. Couldn’t people do more good by not buying the new toy (shirts at Gap, Razr phones from Sprint, etc.) and giving the entire purchase price to the cause? Granted, this way (Bono’s way, and Oprah’s way) people you are around become instantly aware (if they’ve noticed the advertising of this campaign, anyway) that you support the cause. That’s good, because it may induce peer pressure to get them involved. But will it actually get enough more purchases that it would best the initial full purchase price? Probably not.

People may buy the items because they’re stylish, or because they like the color red, even if they don’t care (or know) about the campaign. This would add to the total haul.

Apparently the campaign’s founders claim people wouldn’t donate the cost of a new iPod, and they may be (sadly) right — but would they donate the cost of half an iPod? Or of half a T-shirt? I think it could happen. I’ve done such things.

Disclosure: I bought a GAP shirt, inspi(red).

I had a gift card to spend at GAP, and marketing for a good cause is a much better cause than giving all of the money to GAP. Sure, GAP gets its cut (half) on its (red) products — those items cost more to buy than other comparable items in the store — but I guess at least I’m helping to get the word out about a worthy cause.

It still makes more sense to me for people to donate.

If you must make a purchase: Buy an independent-designed, shirt to support your cause: More of the funds will be given toward the cause. Example: I recently bought a T-shirt on Etsy, from Saving Darfur to be exact. Right there in the shop it states where the proceeds have gone, exactly. It’s easier to believe that a (much) higher percentage of the sale will go toward the cause, rather than lining the pocketbook of the (greedy) merchants. I’d had my eye on this shirt for a while, and I’m glad I finally stepped out.

The (red) campaign has additional (unintended, I’m sure) repercussions for nonprofits as a whole, per this piece here.

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