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Good Morning! (I woke up early and had breakfast)
I received this statement from Amazon in my in box this morning.

Hello,
I’m very sorry for your concern, and thanks for contacting us. We recently discovered a glitch in our systems and it’s being fixed. Please rest assured that this was a mistake and will be fixed.
As always, please feel free to contact us should you have future questions or comments. If you need to contact us back, you can do so by using the secure form at the following specialized link to ensure we receive your message:

http://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/contact/

Thanks again for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.
Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question.
Please note: this e-mail was sent from an address that cannot accept incoming e-mail.
To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help section of our web site.
Best regards,
Sara L.
Amazon.com Associates Program

So, according to them, it was a mistake and they are fixing it. I will closely follow this situation, but it seems that Amazon is still okay. Happy reading!

Hello all,
I was quite beside myself this morning when I read Elizabeth Bear’s Blog (author of Blood & Iron and Whiskey & Water) to find that Amazon, who I link my book reviews through, has made some rather undesirable changes to their “adult” title search policy. So I felt that I should write to them to see “What’s up?”

I am sure that you are all quite swamped with comments concerning the news that your “adult” policy has changed. I, like many others would like an explanation as to why this seems to target only gay, lesbian, and transgendered books, both fictional and non-fictional. Why this is targeting only items that are homosexual, and not heterosexual as well. When doing a search on Amazon today, books like “Unfriendly Fire” do not have ratings, but books like “Playboy: Six Decades of Centerfolds” still have a rating and are still searchable. I wish to know what the exact policy is. I also do not support the censoring of books. I can fully understand wanting to make sure explicit items do not end up in the hands of children, but this can easily be taken care of when an account is set up by asking for a certification that the owner of this account is over the age of 18 and would like to be able to search adult content. Stumble Upon does this quite well. If the user is either under age or does not want to have “adult” material show up when they search, that is up to them. I and other users should not be punished or limited because someone found an item that they deemed inappropriate. If an item is to be hidden by Amazon, Amazon should not be selling it and gaining a profit off of it. One of my managers (at a well known bookstore) once told a customer that “we are not in the business of censorship.” If the policy of Amazon is to censor books, in any way, shape, or form, I will be changing my website to a different book vendor and requesting that my account be deleted. I truly hope that this is not the case, but I am greatly interested on seeing the exact wording on the current policy. Thank you.

Until I hear back from Amazon, I will leave the links in place for all items. I fully understand if you do not wish to make any purchases until this matter has been resolved.

In other news, librarian Judith Krug, founder of Banned Books Week, passed away last night. This by itself is sad, and she will be greatly missed. But this should be a chance to honor her fight to highlight wonderful books that some in society deem inappropriate. I am in the mood to read Fahrenheit 451.

So it’s been awhile since I posted anything. Or read anything. Or done anything that I wanted to. On the big plus side to things, I have a new job that requires me to bus about one hour each way. That means two glorious hours every day of reading and working on homework and posts. So you will get to see more from me!! Still trying to find a new apartment in the bay area (wee fun in the not so fun sense). I have so much on my plate, it feels like I have a few plates going. Anywho, that is why you haven’t seen a new post from me in a while.

So I have always wanted to serve on a Jury. I find the whole process interesting, plus it gets me out of my normal job. This is day two of picking a jury out of the mass of us. But at least I got stuff done. Like a book recommendation, and some homework.

EDIT: So day three is when a deal is reached and we are all sent home. Sigh.

So, I have finished HP7. I would like to review it, but I don’t want to be killed by anyone who hasn’t read it. So I may wait another week before reviewing it. Let me just say it was really good and ended in a way that I liked. I am currently reading Whiskey and Water: A Novel of the Promethean Age by Elizabeth Bear. This is the sequel to Blood and Iron: A Novel of the Promethean Age. So far, really good. Little different from the first, but same world and same characters. The other one I am reading is Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. I seem to be in a sequel mood this week. This is the sequel to The Lies of Locke Lamora From what I have read so far it seems to pick up shortly after the last book. Scott, if you read this, my mother demands a third book. Hopefully I will have those out soon.

It has been nearly a year since I wrote anything. I very much suck. A year ago I decided to go back to school. I had forgotten how much fun college is. I have new information and new thoughts everyday. Also a year ago, I found that I have osteoarthritis in both of my knees. I was 22 at the time. I mean, I should not have knee problems this young. And to top off my medical journey, in March I found out that I have hypothyroidism. Basically, without a medication to control how much hormones my thyroid is making (or not making) I am cold, tired and cranky all the time. Once I was put on Levothyroxine, I felt fantastic. I wasn’t sleeping for 12 hours and not feeling rested. I wasn’t bundled up in two sweaters and six blankets. I wasn’t falling asleep in class. Now with classes under control, I can try to get back to writing. I miss writing. I do need your help though. Please email me the title and author of a book that you just read. You don’t need to tell me your opinion of it, just the title and author. I need to find more things to read.