As I Was Saying.....

So when I am not reading Herbert Hoover's bio, etc., I read distracting stuff on the Kindle.  It's usually something short and fluffy.  A snack as opposed to my "meat and potatoes" reading.  Lot's of Zombie stuff.

The other night I wanted something different and I got an email from BookBub.  It's a free service that sends a daily email with one or two low price ebook suggestions.  I love it!

On July 27th I followed up on their suggestion of "I Wish I Could Say I Was Sorry...".  It boasted a #1 rating in the categories "Travel non-fiction" and "Biographies & Memoirs/Travelers & Explorers".  It had lots of 5 star ratings and mentioned that it was primarily about a young English girl growing up in Kenya as it's time as a colony ended in the 50s.

So I downloaded it.  It was only 99 cents.

Here's the same spoiler alert I put in my review.  I am going to tell you what I didn't like and you have to read the whole book to realize it.  Susie Kelly, the author, goes through her whole childhood and lists all the bad things and then there is no revelation.  At least not as far as I was concerned.  Adults in her life say and do things that she doesn't understand - typical for a child - but then, she never finds the answers.  Why did her father do "X"?  Why did her stepmother say "Y"?

Now I realize that not everyone's life wraps up in a bow with everything in order.  However, I do expect some answers when the person bothers to put pen to paper.  I read this book (it wasn't that long) straight through the evening of the 27th.  I wanted to know "WHY?".  After I finished I was peeved and wrote the review detailing this.

Here's my review -

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful

 Easily the MOST disappointing Kindle purchase I have ever made., July 27, 2014

By 

Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: I Wish I Could Say I Was Sorry... (Kindle Edition)

**Spoilers**
This book was ridiculously depressing and dissatisfying. After you suffer through her whole stupid, sad life, no answers! The author dwells on all the awful stuff that happened to her - everybody has some lows - and passes over the good happy stuff. I must say I totally misinterpreted the title, lol! I thought, "I Wish I Could Say I Was Sorry...." would finish up with "....but I'm not!" and there would be details on an interesting life well lived. But no, just drudgery and complaints.

I see it's rated highly and I am baffled. When you recount the people in her life who should have been there for her and weren't, I just want to line them up and slap them.

Hey, Susie, I'm here, you can apologize to me anytime you want. Thank goodness I only paid 99 cents.

The first reply comes from a woman identifying herself as Stephanie Zia, Susie Kelly's publisher.

Initial post: Jul 28, 2014 1:34:06 AM PDT

Stephanie Zia says:

Thank you for issuing a spoiler alert, though I can't see any spoilers in your review. As you are requesting an apology here for wasting your 99 cents, as Susie's publisher I am writing to say sorry to you for having to go through the purchase of and the reading of a book that wasn't to your taste. A book you read remarkably quickly for something you disliked so much, the offer only went out a day and a half ago. I am curious to know exactly what you based your opinion on?

So I reply because you know I have no problem with discussions and people disagreeing with me.  Whatever, it's fine.

There was someone else who replied, but they were trollish.  Stephanie was engaging me in a discussion, so I paid more attention to her.  I understood she was a little hurt.  After all, she was Kelly's publisher.

Your post, in reply to an earlier post on Jul 28, 2014 10:06:42 PM PDT

Diane Miller says:

I am a quick reader. Also, I was eager to get some answers, some resolution; so I basically sat all evening and read it in one go.

For me personally, the point of an autobiography is to learn something from another person's journey and self examination. Kelly didn't learn anything and had no answers. I'm not saying everyone's life has answers and wraps up in a pretty bow, but this was just a pity party. It sounds like a hard life, but she was just rambling.

By spoilers, I meant that I was revealing that there was no resolution.

But....

In reply to your post on Jul 29, 2014 2:47:43 AM PDT

Stephanie Zia says:

That's not a spoiler but an opinion. To which, of course, you are more than entitled to. Of course she could have added a whole chapter showing what she learnt from this difficult childhood: her successful life both professionally as an author, traveler and animal rights campaigner; and emotionally as a wife and mother and friend to so many who love her dearly, including thousands of fans who have never met her other than through her writing. But she's not that type. The resolution is there in this book. In one line (I won't spoil it for those who haven't read). That's the skill of this writer. I find your review such a strange one: you read the book in one sitting, you are so angry you want to line up the people who weren't there for Susie as a child and slap them. That's an emotional immersion that only a highly skilled writer can achieve. I have to say, I think the unpleasant sneering directed at the author says more about you than the book.

OK now she is apparently offended.  But that is not germane to my review.  Susie Kelly may be a wonderful person, but I am still ticked that she wrote this ebook with all these loose ends and doesn't wrap them up for me.  So I reply in this vein.  I say I can't say anything about her other books and fans because I haven't read these books.  And I say I am aggravated with the whole "says more about you than the book".  Everyone's review is colored by their thoughts and opinions and says something about them.  That phrase is a smoke screen.  I vehemently disagree that my being upset with the people who were emotionally abusing Kelly is because Kelly was such a great writer.  I wrote that a kid could scratch out "Someone was mean to me" with a crayon and paper and I'd wanna slap them too.  And I didn't like the "unpleasant sneering" part and didn't think that was a fair representation of my review.  I said my review wasn't about grinding any ax.  I hadn't even heard of Kelly before I ordered the book.  I was just expressing my aggravation.  Or something along those lines.  I can't quote it because Zia complained and got Amazon to remove it.

Then she left another comment crowing about it and mischaracterizing what I said

Posted on Jul 30, 2014 1:44:48 AM PDT
Last edited by the author 15 hours ago

Stephanie Zia says:

Pleased to see that Amazon noted and have removed the earlier comment by Diane Miller who wrote that her comments were intended as aggravation. We appreciate feedback from all readers and respect their opinions. Why anybody would go to the trouble of posting comments for the purposes of causing aggravation are a mystery, unless for the purpose of attention-seeking?

Yeah, I never said I wanted to cause aggravation.  And congratulations Ms. Zia, you have managed to aggravate me EVEN MORE!!!

So I wrote to Amazon to ask for a copy of the comment and a fair hearing.

So here I am.....beefing at you guys.  For pity's sake, don't people know better than to try and stifle me by now????