Started this because certain aspects of Like A Love Story were starting to bug me. I would say I really like "gimmick " of her books of writing the fictionalized lives of her characters as if they were real people. Would have to say so far I still at this moment like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo better. This one is good so far,though, and has a very VH1 Behind the Musics vibe.
I really really do not like romance and yet I still read some of it because I am sure I will find something that will knock my socks off and will make me change my opinion on the genre . So far that has not happened.Just the plot of most romances are chessy to me and I get bored with them more likely than not. I thought the summary for this one sounded different and fun so I thought I would give it a chance. While is not all the worst romance I have ever read, in fact it is very from that, it still had certain cliches that drive me crazy and are sadly some cliches that are just particular to romance in general. I should know going into a romance that there are going to be certain cliches in it that will drive me crazy or that I will just not like . Yet here we are. I don't overall think cliches are the end of the world and depending on how they are used can be interesting. Then there are cliches that to me that are just cringy and no matter what the author does it will just not work for me.
Will get into that but first want to talk about what I did like about this book because again did overall enjoy it. Enough so that I am going to give the second in the series a shot. I did overall like the characters in this. They felt mostly liked flawed/real people. There were certain things about them that bugged me and will get into that in the things I didn't like section. Since in romance you should care about the characters felt this book did a good job of that. I also liked that this one focused on an already established relationship instead of strangers to lovers. Way way too many romance novels turn into insta love fests and it was nice to see trying to find love again in a not so perfect already established relationship. The writing overall was pretty well done there were some cases , and again will get into that in the things I didn't like section, but didn't find myself hating the writing or rolling my eyes while reading , which has what turns me off from a lot of romance. I also liked that the side characters were pretty well established . Too often in romance side characters are just there for the sack of being there. They get quick mentions every now and again but after the two main leads get together they are too soon forgotten . That are the side characters are just there and do nothing for the story. Felt like in this that all the side characters had personalities of their own.
Now to what I didn't like. What drew me into this was of course the book club element and to be honest just felt like that aspect was underused or just not used in the way I was expecting. Just felt at times it was just there and more often honestly forgotten about . Mentioning that is there are bits of the book that are from the book that that Gavin is reading. Books inside books can be done well and they can be done poorly . For this book felt like they were just sort of there . I would have loved if those chapters had underlines or sections marked out so it felt like you were reading Gavin's copy of the book. Just something. Otherwise they just felt sort of there again and oh look similar things in the book are actually happening to the characters. Honestly if you choose to skip those sections you really would miss anything and that is the thing . If you put something in it has to serve a purpose . Now Gavin commented on the book in the other chapters but again felt like you could read his comment without reading the sections from the book that came before and still been ok.
The sex..Oh ...just yeah. I get that sex scenes for romance and erotica are written way different but the sex scenes in romance is one of the top reasons I tend to avoid the genre. They were ok for what they were and thankfully they were not as cringy as they could have been and thankfully the author did not overdo it on euphemisms. Seriously drives me mad when authors go out of their way to avoid saying cock for instance. Young adult I get a bit more but seriously if a book is for adults I don't get the need for the overly flowery language. Least not in this day in age. Just it is not sexy to me personally and just feel it is silly. There were a few times here and there so the author is not totally immune to it but they were not so overused that they were distracting. Still even so the sex scenes were just sort of juvenile. I really disliked that these two adults sort of acted more like teenagers while having sex. And just some shocked dialogue in the middle of the sex scenes were so bad , ( The oh god's and oh fuck sort of things) Again ...just I will never get this sort of stuff. I don't even get it in romance where one or both have never had sex before. Especially not when it is adults. Just sadly see it too often and it is always distracting to me.
Another thing about most and this romance as well that are just not my cup of tea is the need to repeat over and over how attracted they both are to the other. Once or twice ..fine. Just like the reader should get that the characters are attracted to each other without having to have it repeated to it over and over. As stated before the characters didn't always feel like adults to me . Certain things just made them feel more like teens than two grown adults with kids. Thankfully it didn't happen so much that it ruined my reading experience but it is there from time to time.
Also the big issue in this book and how it is resolved just doesn't really make much logical sense. At the start of the book and hell in the summary , a big fact is made that Thea has been faking it in bed. Now with the book I get Gavin being able to say "the right" thing as way to make his wife fall back in love with me but I just don't buy it that chessy romance books would turn you from not realizing you can't make your wife cum to turning you into a sex god, which by the end is what happens. Now I do buy that books on sex (not romance books but actually books about sex, sex positions etc ) can help couples try things that can make them better lovers . Here,though, is the thing you actually have to try the things out a few times. Not be oh I read this thing in a book omg I am going to try this and be amazing at it. If that is the case than go you . Just Gavin is given a month to make his wife not want to divorcee him and again he goes from not being able to make her cum to by the end making her cum several times in a single love making session. Yeah, sorry not sorry , don't buy it. Not with what he had to work with and also because at the point they had been close but had not had sex at all during the course of the book til that moment.
Another thing that bugged me is that toward the end Gavin and Thea have a pretty serious fight to the point that Gavin leaves again. Now to be fair my issue is not about the fight. Thought it was pretty bold of the author to have a fight at the end. Shows that even if things seem ok that they are never perfect. No , my issue is how the fight is resolved because it is resolved with the romance cliche that I personally hate the most :The grand gesture. It's that scene in a romance novel, though, more so in romantic comedies when one of the main characters is running through the airport to catch the flight the other is on or running to the church to stop a wedding . To me they make no logical sense, they are stupid to watch and read and just feel lazy. There is a tiny joke about it made by one of the characters, but still Gavin and his group of friends are able to stop a flight so Gavin can get off the plane so he can go to Thea's father's wedding to whatever wife he marrying (the father has remarried quite a few times) . Again I get that a lot of things in romance don't always make sense but no matter how it is written I will also hate/dislike these sort of grand gesture moments. I don't find them sweet more so I find these stupid and annoying.
Overall though even with the things I did not like was still one of the better romance novels that I have read. I still wish the actual book club aspect had played a bigger role. Am still interested to read the next one in the series.
When it comes to wiring for anything, the specifics depend on the devices involved and the overall requirement. Audio cabling, in particular, has two basic analog cables, XLR cable, and RCA cable. These are largely for very different scenarios.
The connector on the XLR cable has three pins, whereas the one on the RCA cable only has one. XLR passes balanced audio whereas RCA passes unbalanced audio. This is also where the use case bifurcates. XLR connector also has a latch on it to lock the connection in place. RCA has no such clasp.
Let’s take a look:
Home Theatre Setup
For a home theatre setup, you need a decent or high-end TV for display, preferably one that has an OLED or QLED panel. But the display is not the only important part of the setup. These TVs generally don’t have the best audio output for optimal movie watching. For surround sound, you can connect up to eight audio channels via RCA cables. This can make your movie-watching experience more enjoyable, with the sound of every soft footfall in a horror movie and all the notes in a musical.
Audio Editing
If you want to edit audio, you want to be able to listen to it in stereo. Headphones that have RCA connectors are capable of handling stereo output. You will need a computer that has the left and right stereo channel RCA ports. If you are able to hear with accuracy, you will be able to make the edits accordingly.
Recording Studio
Here, you need balanced audio. The sound mixer has audio coming in from the microphone via an XLR cable. This produces significantly less noise in the audio transfer, thus giving purer, high-quality output. This recording can go for mass-market consumption through various mediums like music streaming services, CDs, vinyl records, etc.
Podcasting Studio
Podcasts have become an extremely popular way of creating content. It is so huge that there are now multiple dedicated podcast apps and big streaming platforms are putting them at the center of their revenue stream. While anyone can have a podcast, provided they have enough content, you do need decent equipment for it. Since it is a conversation or monologue based format that is just audio, you want superior-quality noiseless audio. For this, you should use XLR cabled microphones. This will give you top-notch audio, which you can then edit. As it already has less interference, you will not need to put too much effort into editing.
Live Performance
When it comes to any kind of live performance, whether it is a concert, a stand-up comedy show, a karaoke bar, or a quiet poetry reading, the audio needs to be clear, crisp and have no interference. Therefore, it needs XLR cables in connection with high-quality speakers. In a live performance of this sort, the speaker or singer’s utterances are of utmost importance to deliver the best experience and effect of the content.
Such differences in use cases are what really matter when it comes to the XLR cable and RCA cable. The technical differences are in their physical structuring, but to the average user, it all comes down to where to use what cable.
Take a look at the various use cases of XLR cables and RCA cables, so you know the right cable to use for your needs.
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Men may feel they get the upper hand by treating women poorly, but long before "me too" Yunior told us otherwise in these stories and in the novel.
Reread these after recent revelations by both Junot Díaz & women who were victimized by him. I was interested to see how this would affect the reading.
If you've missed the fireworks, a quick rundown:
All of this led to discussions - hell, thousands of discussions - around me, with women, with other survivors, with everyone but writers. I don't know any writers or I'm sure they'd have talked to me too. EVERYONE in the trauma community was afire with this discussion. Eventually some of us got around to his writing, and my response was that I hoped I'd still be able to read it, since I really have been a fan, and it made me sad to read in the NYer that he could no longer write. Then I grabbed these short stories off my shelf and read them. This is where I landed:
I loved these the first time I read them. I was just as uncomfortable with the over-flexing of what we now call toxic masculinity then as I was this time. In fact, I think my reaction was pretty much the same: the narrator's toxicity harms him and everyone else in his life, including his great love - but in the end, he's hurt himself badly (some great female writer might want to take the feminine perspective someday.) If only we could get people in real life to own up to how harmful toxic masculinity actually is for everyone.
The character in these stories is clear on how he's harmed himself, and while he may use bravado to try and mask his torment, it clearly doesn't work. Everything, including his body, breaks down.
Explanations are not Excuses.
This is not to say that these fictional stories should be taken as an indicator of real life, but misogyny is a problem for everyone, and the pain in the voice of these stories spells that out. In fact, I think these stories might be used as an example of how badly misogynistic bullshit works out for everyone. Men may feel they get the upper hand by treating women poorly, but long before "me too" Yunior told us otherwise in these stories and in the novel.
As a person who has lived through some stuff, I'm glad to have read these stories the first time and again now. They are excellent, and the message is probably more clear now than it was the first time I read it, though my history hasn't changed at all. I still react badly to the mind games, abuses of power and name calling, AND I appreciate the stories. They have a moral dimension I now see even more clearly, and it's about far more than diversity or a "unique voice." Yunor spells out how harmful his misogynistic buddies and lifestyle are to both the women and the men in his life.
Sexual abuse begets pain, anger, confusion, acting out and abuse - sometimes even more sexual abuse. The issue is not on whose side will we fight - we should all be on the side of protecting children and getting everyone (including rapists and child molestors) help before this cycle begins in yet another person. Otherwise we are doomed to an assembly line of horrors. I'd bet that if you spoke to the man who abused Junot Díaz, he'd probably have some horror tales to share about his life. None of this excuses anyone. It does show how harmful it all is for everyone, be it the abused person, the perpetrator or the many people who have relationships with either of them through lifetimes. Abuse is poison. It harms souls. It murders a part of us that we can never regain.
When we have no tools for coping with this existential terroristic threat, we often cope in tremendously harmful ways - both to ourselves and those we love. Interpersonal relationships are forever changed, and we're all the victim - everyone in society.
This is why "rape culture" and "toxic masculinity" must end. It's killing as many men as it is women. It's a way of acting out, and it's unacceptable, if understandable. It will reach us all eventually, and nobody comes through unscathed.
As for the stories, the final line "sometimes a start is all we ever get" rings just as poignantly as it did before I knew so much about Junot Díaz.
Much of this book was read in a state of disbelief that two adults who have jobs, raise children and own property could be as naive, insipid, psychologically stunted, and stupid as the couple who co-tells this woeful tale. As they conveniently hid things from each other and themselves "for the sake of the children" I kept saying aloud, "Your children could not possibly be as dumb as you two."
Luckily, the children were not as immature as the parents, but they were damaged in other ways. It would be hard to grow up with these parents and not be, actually.
Nonetheless, I kept reading, because we have two unreliable narrators telling a similar yet competing tale about a third person (the "girl unknown") who isn't trustworthy either. So I just wanted to see what kind of crash they were foreshadowing from sentence one.
I will admit, the crash was different than I imagined. And for that, they get an "it was OK" from me. If nothing else, this is a cautionary tale about trying to keep secrets from those around you and doing the things that make "the neighbors" or the PTA or whoever else you're trying to impress or shield from the truth happy.
Finally, one of the best parts of this book was that I kept forgetting who wrote it, and from time to time, I'd think "only a woman" or "only a man would write this." Turns out I was wrong, or maybe right, 100% of the time. "Karen Perry" is the pen name of a male/female Irish writing team who wrote this book together. I won't say the thing about two heads....
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