814. Little Darlings by Melanie Golding - 4-Stars

Little Darlings by Melanie Golding

Publisher: Crooked Lane  Books

ISBN: 9781683319979

Little Darlings is dark and unsettling. Since I enjoy books that are disquieting, I liked the suspense. Any mother can identify with Laura's intense need to protect her babies.

I've read other books, fantasies about fairy lore, that include the idea of changelings, but I liked the epigraph citations that gave background to the origin of the legend. The old Irish tale set in modern times as a mystery thriller is a unique idea.

The long description of the birth process was unnecessary to the development of Laura's character. It slowed the start. I understood that she was a devoted mother without the lengthy description of a difficult delivery.  The first chapter grabbed my attention but then the next few chapters slowed the plot.

Overall, this is an enjoyable eerie tale. This book would make a new mom shiver.

Reviewer: Nancy

813. Blood Echo by Christopher Rice 5-Stars

I am now a reviewer on NetGalley.com and get to read/review books before they are available. Here's my first review (5-Star had I read Book 1 first):

Review of Blood Echo  by Christopher Rice
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer, Seattle

God-fanatic terrorists and corruption and greed versus the team of Graydon Pharmaceuticals (Cole and Dylan), its super-power drug Zypraxon, its technological field-operational inventions used to stop the female abusers and terrorists, and its weapon, a super-powered Charlotte, leads to an extremely thrilling story. The use of side-comments to illustrate a point or idea is very creative and constructional. Stephen King was always master at this. This is a very well written piece of art, excluding the lack of foundation discussed later. The reader level is probably college-level and because of violence, adult-rated. I especially applaud Mr. Rice for not submitting to the use of sex to supposedly strengthen his reader’s attention. None is needed!

The relationship of the main characters Charlotte, Luke, and Cole is interesting and dynamic. Supplemental characters, such as Dylan/Noah, Bailey, and Marty fill in essential missing information with history and timely interjections solidifying the plot to the point where it flourishes. Is the tunnel just a tunnel? Who are your friends in Altamira? Who are your enemies? The story has its villains and heroes, love and revenge, constant thrills, lies and deception, blame, admittance and forgiveness.

Unlike me who had torturous first 9 chapters because I did not read the first book Bone Music, my wife had no problems with the flow after reading it first!  Unlike many follow-on series books by most authors, this one in the Burning Girl series REQUIRES you to have read book 1! A Preface or first chapter of recap from book 1 introducing the basically 3-4 main characters and the Bluebird Projects would have made this a stand alone, great book. Not until Chapter 10, did the author’s story progress meaningfully, dynamically, and continuously into a 5-star performance. I had rated this only a 4.5, but the story itself is a 5-star. My wife overrules with her 5-Star rating with the caveat Bone Music first

Don’t despair if you start with this book 2. From chapter 10 on you will begin to love it. However, annoying in the first 9 chapters are unexplained technologies, like TruGlass, making you discover what it is and its function until later it does get explained. The uses of descriptions, rather than names, like Baby-faced Nerd or Tomboyish female, were odd and annoying, particularly when the characters had no further involvement in the story. They had no significance other than to possibly profile the thinking of Gays – actually tasteless. This continues for about several pages before names are given.

But, overall the book was outstanding. I really enjoyed reading it. I recommend reading Book 1 first. Plus, the ending presents unsuspected events that will commit you into getting the next book.


Kudos Mr. Rice.

812. Thunderbird email account order

Ever desire a different order to you multiple email accounts listed in Thunderbird? Well, forget looking for a Thunderbird function to allow you to. Get the Thunderbird Add-On "Manually Sort Folders", let it install, restart Thunderbird, and then look under Tools for Manually Sort (MUST be Tools on the Menu Bar, NOT the Setup Icon on right of window) for it to run it. It allows at the minimum sorting your folders AND email accounts.

811. Thunderbird and changing POP/IMAP email settings

Life isn't simple with free software. I only wanted to change my email account to IMAP from POP3. Looked simple enough. Go to settings and then Server Settings, then change POP to IMAP, save, restart Thunderbird and presto --- BUZZ...POP Error! Let me tell you really how to do it successfully, then guess at what causes the problem:

To change from POP3 to IMAP email server handler. Go to server settings for the email account and then bottom select from account actions, REMOVE ACCOUNT. That's right, you will remove the account and then do ADD ACCOUNT to add it back. When you ADD it back you will be asked email address, name you want to use on emails, and password. The next screen will ask (defaults to IMAP) you whether you want a POP3 or IMAP protocol. Make sure you select IMAP (just reverse if you want POP3) and let it rip. You will be in business after a restart of Thunderbird. So, instead of messing with server settings and changing Incoming Server to POP or IMAP and the correct pot, the workable solution is to REMOVE ACCOUNT and add it back.

What possibly causes the problem? Possibly the Local Library name at the bottom of the Server Settings screen. I would suspect that once you change from POP to IMAP above in the Incoming Server field it will generate e NEW file ID that needs to be in the Local Library field at bottom. Changing POP to IMAP does NOT change this ever. So, for example, I changed POP to IMAP and the Local Library remained the POP file in AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Mail/... and needs to be AppdDat/Roaming/thunderbird/IMAPmail/.... that gets created. I don't plan to try this to test my theory because Remove/Add of account is a simple, workable way to do it!

If you are now asking the difference between POP3 and IMAP, here's a very short, concise explanation: IMAP allows sharing and managing emails, including resends, deletes, etc., from any of you devices where you can read your email. For example, I have a PC with W10 system using Thunderbird, a Kindle, and an XP system with Thunderbird. If I work from my Kindle I can delete an email and it will be gone from the other devices too. I can use any of the systems to manage emails. Also, if you spifiy IMAP as a server option, the server KEEPS you messages on its site until you delete them there (Specifically). Thus, the amount of storage will build up until you delete them. 

Now, POP3 is completely independent, meaning y9ou DELETE from one system and the others stay in tact. ONLY yhe system your are working with performs the action you do. Thus means, you must handle the same emails in each system to remove them. However, I believe, if you bring up a system and delete a message and have not yet brough up any of the other systems, then you sill not see the message you deleted in the other systems when they do become active. Unlike the IMAP case that always saves messages in its IN basket and doesn't give you an option to delete to Trash, POP allows you to  DELETE to TRASH bucket for a while. You probably have an option at your ISP's website to specify whether deleted messages will go to Trash, AND how long they will remain in TRASH.

Enjoy