Mr. and Mrs. Popularity

In case last week wasn't enough, I now have more people to add to my 'Thinks Astarte Is An A-Hole' list! AND, get this - it's a published, popular author!!!! Oh, happy day!

I'm serious!

A few weeks ago, over at my other site, Literally Booked, I posted a review of a book called Cost, a novel about a family who is attempting to deal with a heroin-addicted family member. To paraphrase, I said it was too slow to get into the meaty stuff, and that the heroin-addicted boy didn't get his own voice in the story until approx. page 200, which was a little too late for my taste. Other than that, and a weird ending that seemed more like an afterthought, it was a good book, and I gave it three stars out of five.

Can I tell you how pissed the author is at me?!?! Oh, ho, she is MAD. Let me say, many people liked that book, and several prominent reviewers said it was very good. In case you don't want to click over, here's what she said:

"Astarte:
Just to set the record straight on my book, Cost, which you trashed last month, here are a few facts: Jack is introduced in the first chapter. His drug problem is introduced early, and his heroin addiction is announced by Stephen on page 94.

As to the rest of your comments, you might be interested in reading reviews of the book by real critics in The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, People, Down East magazine and many other publications.
All of these reviewers understood the book and what it was about.
It was an Editors' Choice at the New York Times, named one of the 10 Best Books of the Year at the Washington Post, one of the Twelve Best Books of the Year by the Wall Street Journal, and one of the Best Books of the Year at the Seattle Tribune and the Chicago Tribune."

I have to say, my first response to this post was to laugh. I mean, really?! WOW. How mad can one person be over a random book review by a regular person (whose opinion was echoed by several people over at Amazon.com, BTW), when they've had that much acclaim by so-called experts? I mean, that's like Patrick-mad when I tell him it's time to stop playing with his cousin and get ready to go home. I'm not sure if I should be pleased that my opinion is so concerning, or offended that she thinks the reason I didn't like her book was that I'm not intelligent enough to understand her genius because I'm not a paid critic. Anyway, I love that an author read my site, even if it WAS only to crap on me. She actually posted it in response to my recent post announcing the book for this month rather than my review of her book, so I copied it and gave it its own post so people could read it.

As I was giggling to myself, I heard from the living room the telltale sounds of Josie being a little #$%#@ to Patrick. This has been a real problem lately; she's apparently going through a real Queen Bee phase. Patrick, for his part, has been a bit of a pest, and was shortly in trouble with DH for having a too-tired tantrum. They both ended up in bed early, via route of a scolding, and DH got the benefit of 'I hate you all the time' from Patrick. Actually, that was kind of funny, because DH could see that he wanted to say something, and initially Patrick wouldn't say it because 'it would be mean to you', so how nice that he was concerned with DH's feelings even as he was contemplating the depths of his hatred. For my part, I only got The Look from Josie.

Also, I don't know how many of you would have seen this on the news, but both DH and I were trapped in terrible traffic today due to a massive pileup on Rt 70 in MD. I barely missed seeing it from the other side of the highway, thankfully, on my way to bring Brandon home, but apparently there was a FIFTY CAR pileup, including several eighteen-wheelers and box trucks, as well as an oil truck. They shut down Rt70 all day long after that, so everyone on their way home this afternoon had to take a dinky little side road. It took DH four hours to get home tonight.

Just to recap, I am on the shit list of my daughter's teacher, the teacher's union, my daughter, a nationally acclaimed author, and god knows who else. DH is on the poop list of everyone in the house but me (for the moment). Ah, it's nice to be popular. It's just like high school!