The Julius Romeros Extravaganza Part 2--The Perils of a Cliffhanger Ending

I liked Julius Romeros Extravaganza Part I by Hayley Lawson Smith very much.  It was in the top ten of the books I read for 2013, and I consider it one of the best circus novels that I've ever encountered.  I reviewed it on this blog in the entry called The Julius Romeros Extravaganza: Liminal Identity at the Circus.  The first novel had a much lighter tone.  It poked fun at Victorian attitudes and affirmed the value of circus sideshow performers. Its' narrative arc was like a fairy tale.  The story had what seemed to be a happily ever after ending. The second book is quite different.  Its tone is much darker.  Like Part I, I received this book for free from the author in return for an honest review. 

Abigail, the bearded girl of the first novel, has grown into a young woman and flourished under the benevolent paternal guidance of Julius Romeros.  Then one day everything changes and Abigail learns that  true evil exists in the world, and that villains aren't always bumbling idiots like you find in a satirical farce or a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta.  

I knew from the fact that the first book was Part 1 that Abigail wouldn't really have a happily ever after ending.  Conflict is needed for the purpose of storytelling, and the rather grim story line of  Part 2 is much more typical of  how sideshow performers lived in the real world of traveling circuses during the Victorian period.

I wanted to believe that this couldn't have happened to the characters described in the first book.  The characters didn't believe their situation either.  This is how evil can obtain a foothold.  People who are accustomed to everyone behaving in a reasonable civilized fashion can never believe that anyone could be completely ruthless.  There is also the phenomenon of  learned helplessness that happens to people who have been beaten down and convinced that they are worthless.  This is why people stay in abusive situations.  They no longer believe in themselves, and don't think they can survive on their own.  Hayley Lawson Smith describes how Abigail and other performers become victims of the learned helplessness syndrome very credibly. 

At that point in the narrative, I said to myself that this book could be very inspiring for readers who are being abused if the characters completely overcame their situation.  Unfortunately, we don't know what happens because Part 2 ends with a cliffhanger.

An author who decides to end a book with a cliffhanger is taking a risk.  Some readers will feel compelled to buy the next book because they need to know what happens next.  Other readers feel that cliffhangers are manipulative and that this is an overused device in series.  A certain proportion of the readers in the second category may be so annoyed by the fact that the book ended on a cliffhanger that they will never purchase a book by that author ever again.  Authors need to consider that they will be alienating a part of their audience when they end their books with a cliffhanger. 

I care about Abigail, and I'm willing to believe that the inspiring resolution that I was looking for at the end of this novel will happen in the next book.  Yet I have to admit that I would have preferred that the plot had gone in a different direction.  I have a limited tolerance for dark fiction, and have a strong preference for independent heroines who never surrender to learned helplessness syndrome at any point in their lives even though women faced with abuse are rarely that strong.  I believe that women need champions who are larger than life and more courageous than the majority of women.  Other readers may feel differently.  They may prefer characters drawn on a real world scale who may not be so certain of themselves, and are capable of being undermined. 

So when I say that this book is not for me, it doesn't mean that The Julius Romeros Extravaganza  Part 2 is a bad book or that it's poorly written.  I don't mean to say that at all.  I think it's very convincing.  I would just prefer to read a different type of story. 

Bellman and Black: The Advantages of the Janus Perspective

Janus was an ancient Roman deity of doorways with two faces.  One looked forward and the other looked backward.  This could be interpreted as a god who sees both the past and the future.  I have always felt that both perspectives are valuable.  If I were an ancient Roman consulting an oracle, I'd want a Janus faced one who could see both the history that brought about my current situation, and how my actions in the present would impact my future.

 Bellman and Black is about a man who never looked back.  He was always looking forward.  The story deals with the consequences of  dismissing the past as irrelevant.  Many readers might agree that there is no reason to concern ourselves with past events.  Saying that something is "history" means that it's over and done with.  It no longer has any significance.  "It's so yesterday."  Diane Setterfield's  latest book speaks to them.  She has written a cautionary tale.

 I received this book from the publisher through Net Galley and this is my belated review.  I can only plead the challenges of library school as an extenuating circumstance.

Protagonist William Bellman was a pillar of the  19th century English industrial revolution.  He was always more than one step ahead of everyone else.  He was remarkable at predicting future trends.  He put all his energy into his work and was committed to being better than his competitors.  Unlike some current corporations, he was decent and considerate toward his employees.  It was more important to make sure that his workers were happy than to make additional profit at their expense. He was certain that happy employees would be dedicated ones who would be loyal to the firm.  Surely William Bellman was a man who would have been widely admired and respected.  Yet he had a secret that he'd buried in the past.  He wasn't in the least bit haunted by his memories.  The past simply didn't exist for him.

I appreciated the fact that the fantasy aspect of this novel is drawn from Norse mythology rather than the more overused forms of mythology like Celtic Faerie or Native American shamanism.  I also appreciated the way the characters who were artists were portrayed.   I thought that Dora, Bellman's artist daughter, was the most sympathetic character in Bellman and Black.  I only wish that I could have seen more of her.

As for Black, he was an ongoing mystery for William Bellman.   I will leave readers with the opportunity to discover Black, and the mystery at the heart of this novel for themselves.

Those Fascinating Birds: Bird Brains by Budd Titlow

When I saw the title of this book, I thought that it would be a book about studies that evaluate the intelligence of birds.  It isn't, but it's still quite interesting.   I reviewed Bird Brains for The Bookplex.

This book contains photos and stories dealing with a hundred bird species.  Most, but not all, are North American birds.   Budd Titlow draws on his long history as a lover and observer of birds.  He always finds some attribute that sets each species apart from the others.  These characteristics can range from the roadrunner having two toes pointing forward and two toes pointing backward to the call of the barred owl that sounds very much like “Who cooks the soup?” A friend suggested that the great horned owls, who appear to be saying "Who's awake?" all night, would annoy human insomniacs so much that they could end up in the soup.  In that the case, the barred owl's cry might be that of an avenging predator. Whoever cooks the soup should keep an eye out for a sharp beak and claws.

It seemed to me that generally speaking, Titlow admires predators, despises scavengers and thinks prey birds need protection. These are rather typical attitudes.  Yet when I think about it, successful scavengers might merit more respect for their adaptability and resourcefulness.

I imagine that the photography in this book must be gorgeous in color.  Unfortunately, the Kindle on which I read this book displays in black and white only.  So I’m unable to comment about the quality of the color in the bird photographs. Titlow’s biography states that he is a photographer, and he discusses his adventures in photographing various types of birds.  So I was surprised to discover in the photography credits that almost none of the pictures in Bird Brains are Titlow’s.  I wondered about the reasons for this decision. 

Titlow’s writing style is engaging and insightful.  He gives us the history of how each type of bird has been viewed and in some cases the cultural role that it has played.  He reveals the threats to the preservation of certain species and how well they are currently thriving.  In his Afterword, Titlow discusses the measures needed for bird conservation in general .  They are key principles for maintaining the environment for all species including our own.  

I don’t know enough about birds myself to judge Titlow’s accuracy on this subject, but he cites a source as saying the Puebloan peoples have teepees.  This has never been the case.  I looked up the folklorist J. Frank Dobie who Titlow was citing to see what he actually said.  According to The Texas Parks and Wildlife Website, Dobie said that the Pueblos drew roadrunner footprints outside death tents to confuse evil spirits.  It's worthy of note that when I did a search about Pueblo death customs, I saw no reference to death tents.  I did find the following quote in a birding source,Southwest Birds :  "one of the New Mexico Pueblo groups felt that tracing the roadrunner's inscrutable tracks around a deceased person would confuse nearby evil spirits."  Again, no mention of death tents.  It's instructive to look up the meaning of the word "pueblo".  In the Free Dictionary it states that  a pueblo is " a communal dwelling of certain agricultural Indians of the southwestern U.S., consisting of a number of adjoining houses of stone or adobe, typically flat-roofed, multistoried, and terraced, with access provided by ladder." The Puebloan peoples got their name because they lived in these structures. Given this sort of architecture, does it seem consistent with their culture to erect teepees for death ceremonies? Teepees are characteristic of  Plains native cultures like the Lakota and the Cheyenne, not Southwest native cultures like the Puebloans. It seems to me that Dobie was mistaken. Titlow gave tacit support to Dobie's misguided comment by citing it.  

This may seem like a small error, but there is an unfortunate tendency of viewing the earliest inhabitants of North America as if all of them had the same beliefs and practices.  That is an indication of prejudice which is not a small error.  Even if  the prejudice was Dobie's , not Titlow's, perpetuating prejudice should be avoided.

Despite my concern about the mis-perception of the Puebloans, I did enjoy reading Bird Brains.  I feel that I got to know the included bird species a great deal better, and can therefore appreciate them more.    

Indie Writer Clinic: This Book Needs Help!

I agreed to review a book for The Bookplex called A Collection of Poetry and Prose because the description sounded interesting.  The first thing I noticed that could use help was the title.  It's much too generic.  Since the anthology has a spiritual focus and it contains content dealing with a number of traditions, my suggestion would be Syncretic Harmonies.  Syncretism means a combination of religious paths.  Few people will know what "syncretic" means, but it might intrigue readers.

The next thing I noticed that could use help is the cover.   Here it is:

This is an extremely common cover.  I actually reviewed another book on this blog with the same cover.  It was an excellent novel, but this cover is unlikely to attract readers. If you check on Google Images,  it will give you pages of book covers with this exact same image.  Here's a sample:

                                                                                                                                     

 
If you look at the cover at the right end on the top row, you'll find Evan Shaw's book, but as you can see, it's difficult to pick this book out of a crowd.  Why would readers purchase a book that looks like so many others?   An indie writer may think that he or she is saving money by not purchasing a custom cover, but they are actually losing money by losing sales.  Perhaps Evan Shaw and the other indie writers who chose this cover will learn from this experience and commission a cover for their next book.

                                             ******************************

Now let's discuss the poetry. Some of the poetry in this book seemed to indicate that the author understood something about poetry, but others made me wonder if he did.  A poem should be different from prose. What distinguishes a poem from prose is patterning. I should not have to ask myself whether this is a poem or an essay, as I did many times when I was reading Evan Shaw's book.  One way to do this, is to write the poem using a rhythm. Think of it in terms of drumbeats. A limerick has a specific rhythm.  If it doesn't have that rhythm, it isn't a limerick.  A rap song also has a specific rhythm which is very distinctive in that genre. Evan Shaw did use a rap rhythm in one poem.  A poem doesn't need to have a standard rhythm, or even any rhythm at all.  A rhythm is an attribute that a poem can have that separates it from prose. It's done by counting syllables and looking at where the emphasis falls in the words.

For example:

"There once was a young man from Skokie"

There are nine syllables and the emphasis falls on "once", "young" and "Sko".  If you want to have a similar rhythm in the next line, it will need to have nine syllables too, and a similar emphasis pattern.

The next line could be:

"Who wanted it all okie dokey" 

Notice that I included an additional pattern by rhyming Skokie and dokey.

Other sound patterns are alliteration and assonance.   Alliteration is a sequence of words with some that start with the same letter.

"The girl glittered with golden glamor" would be an example.

 Assonance is a sequence of words with the same consonant in the second syllable. 

An example of  assonance would be:

"There was an echo of  art deco."

Echo and deco have the same hard "c" sound. They also rhyme. 

Using techniques like these will improve a poem, but they must be employed consistently.  You shouldn't suddenly stop using sound patterns, and just tack on a prose sentence with no patterns at the end.  The  prose sentence will feel like it doesn't fit, and the poem will fall flat. 

Some people feel that they just need
To type prose in lines that make it
Look like a poem.

This is not a poem at all.  It's chopped prose.  There is nothing that distinguishes it from prose except the typographic convention of lines.

 Yet even words without sound patterns can turn into a poem if it uses imagery.

"The fire danced a tango " would be a good example.  If you're using images instead of sound patterns, you need to create a cluster of related images. This is called an extended metaphor. 

 Here's my improvised poem based on that first line:

The fire danced a tango
Inside the glass pavilion
Before the eye of the approaching storm.
 The storm hovered over the pavilion
Acting as an attentive audience.
Yet the performance incited no applause
Beyond a single clap of thunder.
The glass shattered and a lightning bolt
Rudely rushed the stage.
 Angered by this discourteous response,
A curtain of flames abruptly descended.
There would be no encore.

Every line draws on the metaphor of a fire during a storm as a dance performance.  This works as a poem  because it has an image pattern. There is nothing in the poem that doesn't relate to the central concept.  It doesn't wander by bringing in images or concepts that are unrelated. The reader can visualize what the poem is describing.  It makes sense within the context of the poem. Note that there is also some alliteration and assonance. Using both a sound pattern and an image pattern will make a stronger impression on the reader.

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Moving on to essays,  I have to say that the main problem with the essays in this anthology is that the author didn't establish a context for his ideas. If a reader hasn't read John Anthony West will that reader understand essays based on his theories that don't fully explicate them?  How do I make sense of  John Anthony West's theories without the reasons why he had them?  What was his evidence?  How much is speculation?  Do you know the chronology of ancient Egyptian Pharoahs?  If  Ramses II was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, could Moses have known Akhenaten? Has it really been established that a papyrus boat from Egypt could reach the Americas? How far did Thor Heyerdahl's papyrus boats get?  If you want to write essays dealing with history, you need to ask questions  before you start, and research the answers.  You then need to think through your ideas and see if they make sense in terms of what you've discovered during your research.

I didn't think much of Evan Shaw's fiction.  The utopian story had a huge plot hole that made it unbelievable. The piece about Plato at the Academy was a fragment.

Having said all that, I did think that some of the poems in Evan Shaw's book had potential, and that  he has a good sense of Hindu philosophy.  He needs a really good editor to critique his work, and some guidance about poetry that I'm trying to give in this review.

The Uncommon Philosopher: Only As Strong As Its Foundation

When  I requested The Uncommon Philosopher by James MacFarlane from The Bookplex my father had passed away six months previously.  He had always been a huge lover of philosophy.  He believed that there wasn't any subject that could be more significant.  Toward the end of his life, he read nothing else.  I myself rarely read philosophy, but my father taught me to respect it.  By the age of sixteen, I had read some of Plato's Dialogues and had written a short play about Socrates.

I thought about my father when I saw the title of this book.  I hoped that he'd be happy that I was reading philosophy and blogging about it now.  This is a little more personal than I normally get on this blog, but a blog can be whatever its author wishes and can evolve over time.

What about the review?  I'm getting to that.  I first want to talk about the title of this review.  A book's concept is its foundation.  The foundation needs to be strong for the book to be a viable one.  The subtitle of The Uncommon Philosopher is The Wisdom of Boethius, Maimonides and Schumacher.  In a book about ideas, a title that includes three thinkers would seem to imply that they are linked in some way, and that the book would deal centrally with what they had in common.  Maimonides was the figure with whom I was most familiar.  From what little I knew about Boethius and Schumacher, any commonalities between the ideas of these three would not be obvious ones.

                                                                 

Boethius was a Roman Christian patrician who wrote The Consolation of Philosophy.  He was exiled and sentenced to death by the Ostrogoth King Theodoric.  (Yes, Goths were once Germanic tribes. Ostrogoths were the eastern Goths.  Visigoths were the western Goths.  The word "Goth" is currently being used by a contemporary subculture.  See Goth Subculture on Wikipedia ) .

Maimonides was a Jewish physician in medieval Spain who was exiled as a result of Spain having less tolerant rulers.  No, they weren't Ferdinand and Isabella.  This was a change in Islamic rule. The rulers of Moorish Spain weren't always tolerant, cosmopolitan and enlightened as the current version of history would have it.  His best known work of philosophy is Guide For The Perplexed.

Ernest Fritz Schumacher was a business consultant and an economist who was interned by the British during World War II because he was a citizen of Germany. He also wrote a book called Guide For The Perplexed.

What do all three have in common?  They had very interesting lives.  They believed in God.  They wrote about religion.  They were unjustly treated by figures of authority. This could be said of a great many historical personages who wrote about religion.  As I said in my review on Amazon, the book could just as well have been about Abelard, Spinoza and Schumacher.

 The philosophical approaches of Boethius, Maimonides and Schumacher could not have been further apart.  Maimonides and Schumacher didn't write similar books.   For one thing, Maimonides was more in tune with science and the scientific perspective than Schumacher.  Maimonides said in his Guide For The Perplexed that it doesn't matter how many people disagree with scientific principles.  They are still the way the universe works. Based on what MacFarlane had to say, it seems to me that Schumacher thought that his discomfort with science somehow made it less true than the pronouncements of the Catholic Church.  Boethius and Maimonides weren't similar in their view of the definition of a good life.  Boethius didn't care about physical comforts.  Being strong in your faith was more important.  Maimonides took a more practical view of life.  As a physician he thought that physical matters were of tremendous consequence.  He thought that people should pay attention to diet and had very particular recommendations about it.   He thought that God would understand if you had to deny your faith to preserve your life.  Unlike Boethius, who calmly faced execution, Maimonides did not believe in martyrdom. Some biographers believe that Maimonides did in fact deny his faith when he briefly lived in Morocco. See the short but excellent biography by medical historian Sherwin B. Nuland.

 There are oceans of time,space and culture separating these thinkers.  If MacFarlane's intent was to show that they were somehow in continuity with each other, he failed to prove his case.   I'm really not sure at all why he chose these particular three figures.

I thought that the most compelling part of  McFarlane's book was the section on E.F. Schumacher.  I wanted to know more about him.  I particularly wanted to know about the differences and similarities between Schumacher and John Maynard Keynes on the subject of economics.  MacFarlane only touches briefly on the relationship that Schumacher's thinking had to Keynes' ideas.  I also wanted to know more about Schumacher's best known work, Small is Beautiful.  The ideas in Small is Beautiful are still very influential. Current urban planners who espouse sustainable growth are influenced by Schumacher whether they acknowledge him or not.  Here's an article by Madeline Bunting that advocates for Schumacher's perspective and shows his contemporary relevance.  I would very much have preferred a book that was entirely about Schumacher.  There are some ways in which he was indeed a very uncommon philosopher.  It doesn't astonish me to learn that there actually is one called Alias Papa written by Schumacher's daughter, Barbara Wood, who is not the same individual as the author of historical romances by the same name.  Find out more at The Schumacher Society Website

                                         

The Unmasked Persona in 2013

In 2013 I unmasked and changed the name of this blog to The Unmasked Persona's Reviews.  See The Masked Persona Unmasks for my reasons. My most favorable statistic is that I had more than twice as many views in 2013 than I had in 2012.  I had this increase in views despite the fact that I posted far fewer entries than I did in this blog's first year. Why did my activity slow down? I took a year off from library school in 2012, so I had more time to read, review and blog.  In 2013 I returned to my studies. 

Last year I posted an infographic, but I feel that a chattier style is more appropriate for summing up 2013. I have a great many observations to make in this post.

 I was delighted to find that my most viewed 2013 post was Jhumki Basu: The Science Educator Reformer Who Was Like A Nova .  I consider this an encouraging development.  I say this not just because the review deals with an inspirational and astonishing book, but because it wasn't traditionally published.  In 2012 my most viewed post was a review of a New York Times bestseller by Jodi Picoult.  It's still my most viewed post overall. Since it's the only book by an author of that magnitude that I've reviewed on this blog, this is only to be expected.  Discovering that a review of a book published by a non-profit foundation (the Jhumki Basu Foundation) is my most viewed review of the year is actually quite extraordinary.  This is yet more evidence of the paradigm shift that has taken place in publishing.  It means that the content of a book is more important than who published it. 

Last year I gave awards to notable books.  I'm continuing that practice this year.  So here is a list of the 2013 recipients of the Golden Mask Award.  I admit that I am very behind on my reviews.  With one exception, these are books that I am commenting about here for the first time. 

Favorite Read of 2013

Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography by Stephen Knight

What I liked most of about this book is that Knight views Robin Hood as a legend rather than a historical personage.  As a legend, Robin Hood evolves over time.  Every period and indeed every author can have his or her own Robin Hood.  Whether there was ever a historical personage by that name who inspired the legend is unimportant to Knight and to me. 

Favorite Novel of 2013

City of Lost Dreams by Magnus Flyte

I purchased this book at a local independent bookstore.  Support your local bookstores! City of Lost Dreams is my favorite piece of fiction published in 2013 and I finished it on December 31st.  This also happened in 2012.  I felt that the last novel that I read in 2012, Endangered by Eliot Schrefer, was the best one I read that year as well.  We'll see if the pattern holds in 2014.

What I liked most about City of Lost Dreams was  its inventiveness.  It testifies to the power of music like M.J. Rose's book, The Memorist  Yet it also expanded my perception of music.  Another Magnus Flyte theme is the relevance of history which is always close to my heart.  This book also made excellent use of mythology.  The most central myths were those of the Eleusinian and Orphic Mysteries.  It's the second Magnus Flyte book.  I have the first one, City of Dark Magic, on my Kindle.  I hope to read it in 2014.

Favorite Indie Novel of 2013

The Company of  Shadows by Zoe Brooks

                                             

My review of the previous book in this series can be found at  Love of Shadows: A Novel In Praise of the Persecuted . The protagonist is Judith, an herbalist and healer in a fictional country.  Some readers have virtually shelved these books as fantasy, but the author prefers to categorize them as magical realist.  She is most similar to Ursula LeGuin, but in this book I noticed a strong similarity to the Aspect novels  by Jeri Smith-Ready which begins with Voice of Crow . The Aspect series has been a favorite of mine for their portrayal of shamanism and their powerful support for inter-cultural co-operation.  In my review of Love of Shadows I said that it stood on its own, but I now realize that I didn't fully understand the Shadows until I read this book.  I enjoyed the gradual unveiling of Brooks' concept of the Shadows over the two books that I've read.  What I liked best about The Company of Shadows is the portrayal of magic, its connection to dreams and the unconscious, and the relationship of healers with their animal familiars.

Favorite Historical Fiction of 2013

Beltane by Christine Malec

I won this book as a member of the Historical Fictionistas group on Goodreads.  Only active members can enter Historical Fictionistas giveaways.  Beltane is a historical romance that mainly takes place in Scotland.  As such, it's part of a very popular romance sub-genre.  Unlike the most well-known examples of Scottish romance, it takes place in the 16th century during the turbulent regency of Mary of Guise, the mother of the far more famous Mary Queen of Scots. It was a period when divisions between Catholic and Protestant were beginning to dominate the political landscape as they were in neighboring England.  Lord Colin, the hero of this romance, is attempting to decide which direction would be most advantageous for him politically as the novel opens.  What stands out for me in this book is that the female protagonist is portrayed as bisexual, that she was in committed relationships with members of both sexes and that both relationships are equally important.  This is called polyamory in modern parlance.  Some readers might think that such things didn't happen in 16th century Scotland.  It seems to me that since noblewomen like Margarete weren't allowed to decide their own destinies, situations like the one described in this novel might have been more common historically than we realize. A woman of high rank who was emotionally committed to another woman in her entourage couldn't simply pack herself and her beloved off to a nunnery without the consent of her family.  She would need a dowry for the nunnery and women owned nothing.  So when her family arranged her marriage, she would really have no choice but to comply.  I loved the in-depth portrayal of the characters in this novel and their inter-relationships.  I also loved the independence of the female characters and the empathy of Owen, Lord Colin's Bard and closest friend.  It's wonderful that the current publishing environment allows for the publication of  novels like this one.

Favorite YA Novel of 2013

Stormwitch by Susan Vaught

Stormwitch was nominated for a Norton Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America.  It is an African American historical fantasy intended for young readers.  The central character is a paranormally gifted girl who was brought up in Haiti, but comes to live with her grandmother in a rather conservative small town in Mississippi in 1969.  Haitians are usually portrayed as victims in fiction, not heroes. Another important aspect of this book is the revelations about the history of Dahomey which led me to read Wives of the Leopard by Edna G. Bay which is a fascinating study very relevant to the history of slavery.  It also lends insight into the institution of women warriors in Dahomey which is part of the history of the protagonist of Stormwitch.

Favorite Mystery of 2013

Hard Row by Margaret Maron

This Southern novel is well written, dramatically intense and full of important issues such as immigration, the rights of agricultural workers, misuse of guns and domestic violence.  I also learned why cousins can be "removed".  I'd previously thought that this whole business of removing cousins sounded rather hostile, and not something I would do to a cousin for whom I had any affection.  Actually, removal of cousins refers to generational differences.  A first cousin once removed is the child of my first cousin which is interesting information for genealogical purposes.

Favorite Science Fiction of 2013

Angel on the Ropes  by Jill Shultz, a novel of the circus on an alien world. I downloaded it from Net Galley and reviewed it here.

I like to think that I chose quality over quantity in 2013, but you can judge that for yourself.

 HAPPY 2014!