Tell Me Why, Mummy: A Little Boy’s Struggle to Survive. A Mother’s Shameful Secret. The Power to Forgive. by David Thomas

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Title: Tell Me Why, Mummy: A Little Boy’s Struggle to Survive. A Mother’s Shameful Secret. The Power to Forgive.

Author: David Thomas

Genre: Memoir

Length: 321 pages

Published: 2007

Publisher: Harper Element

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) 'Most of the time, I thought I had the best mummy in the whole world. But then she'd change...'
A heartbreaking story of abuse, betrayal and ultimate redemption.

From the age of four, David Thomas carried with him the most terrible secret of all-his mother was sexually abusing him every time she got drunk.

When sober, David's mother was the perfect mum, baking cookies and playing games. David adored her. But when drunk she turned into the monster of David's worst nightmares. Half dressed, she'd rampage around the house, accidentally set things on fire and nearly always abuse David. 

Confusingly, when she sobered up, David's mother could never recall anything she'd done. David was completely alone with the daily horror. But things soon became even worse when his stepfather started beating him senseless. 

Locked in a downward spiral of self-loathing, David did anything to try to forget life at home. Even if it meant breaking the law. 

Then, one night, he saw a programme on TV that changed his life. Suddenly he found the strength to turn his back on his past and make his future worth fighting for.

My Review:

I give this book a 3 out of 5. 

OK. So this man's story is heartbreaking. Addiction is horrible. The reason this only gets three stars is that I felt like he was all over the place in relating different aspects of his story, like there wasn't a very good order to the stories he was telling. I wasn't too fond of his writing style, though it was easy to read.

You can purchase Tell Me Why, Mummy: A Little Boy’s Struggle to Survive. A Mother’s Shameful Secret. The Power to Forgive. through Amazon in hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read Tell Me Why, Mummy: A Little Boy’s Struggle to Survive. A Mother’s Shameful Secret. The Power to Forgive.? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

The Rose of Fire by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

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Title: The Rose of Fire

Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Series: The Cemetery of Forgotten Books (Book #2.5)

Genre: Historical Fiction

Length: 35 pages

Published: 2012 (originally in 2011)

Publisher: HarperCollins

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Set at the time of the Spanish Inquisition in the fifteenth century, “Rose of Fire” tells the story of the origins of the mysterious labyrinthine library, the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, which lies at the heart of Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s novels The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, and now The Prisoner of Heaven.

My Review:

I give this book a 3 out of 5. 

While it was pretty cool to learn some of the origin of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, I felt like the story was lacking. I loved the origin of the plans for the Cemetery, and how they came into the hands of an ancestor of Daniel Sempere. I would have loved to learn about who he found to help him make sense of the plans and build the Cemetery because that's what I thought this story was going to be about. It's free for Kindle on Amazon, so it is worth the read.

You can purchase The Rose of Fire through Amazon in Kindle format. 

Have you read The Rose of Fire? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin

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Title: Winter's Tale

Author: Mark Helprin

Genre: Contemporary Literature, Fantasy

Length: 673 pages

Published: 1983

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) New York City is subsumed in arctic winds, dark nights, and white lights, its life unfolds, for it is an extraordinary hive of the imagination, the greatest house ever built, and nothing exists that can check its vitality. One night in winter, Peter Lake, orphan and master-mechanic, attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side.

Though he thinks the house is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the love between Peter Lake, a middle-aged Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young girl, who is dying.

Peter Lake, a simple, uneducated man, because of a love that, at first he does not fully understand, is driven to stop time and bring back the dead. His great struggle, in a city ever alight with its own energy and besieged by unprecedented winters, is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary stories of American literature.

My Review:

I give this book a 3 out of 5. 

I had a hard time with this one. It was extremely descriptive, and that distracted me from the story itself quite a bit. The plot line was good, but hard to follow because of the excessive description. I understand why the author detailed everything so much, but it was tough to get through. I truly felt like the story could have been told in roughly half the pages. 

I found myself not wanting to pick it up and continue reading because it felt too tedious to devote the time and energy to in order to comprehend the events. In fact I found myself actually skimming a lot of the longer paragraphs, basically catching hold of the most important ideas and I still understood what was going on. 

All in all, the story itself is good. If you have time to kill this nearly 700-page story is worth it.

You can purchase Winter's Tale through Amazon in hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read Winter's Tale? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

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Title: Anna Karenina

Author: Leo Tolstoy

Genre: Classic Literature

Length: 636 pages

Published: 1998 (version I read); 1873 (original)

Publisher: Public Domain Books

Brief Synopsis: (taken from Goodreads) Married to a powerful government minister, Anna Karenina is a beautiful woman who falls deeply in love with a wealthy army officer, the elegant Count Vronsky. Desperate to find truth and meaning in her life, she rashly defies the conventions of Russian society and leaves her husband and son to live with her lover. Condemned and ostracized by her peers and prone to fits of jealousy that alienate Vronsky, Anna finds herself unable to escape an increasingly hopeless situation.

Set against this tragic affair is the story of Konstantin Levin, a melancholy landowner whom Tolstoy based largely on himself. While Anna looks for happiness through love, Levin embarks on his own search for spiritual fulfillment through marriage, family, and hard work. Surrounding these two central plot threads are dozens of characters whom Tolstoy seamlessly weaves together, creating a breathtaking tapestry of nineteenth-century Russian society.

My Review:

I give this book a 3 out of 5. 

This is a very, very long book. I think that's one reason it took me so long to finish it. Well, mostly it took me so long because I kept putting it aside in order to read other, shorter books. I did enjoy the story. Anna Karenina was a very tragic figure in the book, and the entire story shows the decisions she makes and the effects these decisions have on not only her but on her family members and friends. 

There was a lot of philosophizing and political talk that frankly bored me. That's why, even though I enjoyed the story, I had to lower the amount of stars I was giving it. I fully admit to skimming some of this in later parts of the story. If you have a month to sit and focus on one book, Anna Karenina is definitely worth the read. 

You can purchase Anna Karenina through Amazon in either hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read Anna Karenina? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

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Title: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Author: Ken Kesey

Genre: Classic

Length: 281 pages

Published: 1962 (original) 2002 (copy I read)

Publisher: Penguin Classics

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the seminal novel of the 1960s that has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. Here is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her. We see the struggle through the eyes of Chief Bromden, the seemingly mute half-Indian patient who witnesses and understands McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the awesome powers that keep them all imprisoned.

My Review:

I give this book a 3 out of 5. 

This one was rough for me. While I did end up liking the book, I had to mark this as three stars because I simply had the hardest time getting into it. I don't know if it's because I've been really distracted lately or if it's because I just didn't like Kesey's writing style, but it took me until around Part Three before I started really enjoying it.

The plot is good. The story is from the point of view of a half-Indian patient who everyone believes is deaf and mute. When a new patient comes in, he eventually opens up to him (McMurphy) and everyone is surprised to find that not only can he hear but that he is smarter than anyone has ever given him credit.

McMurphy enters into a battle of wills with Nurse Ratched, the head of the ward. As McMurphy and Chief Bromden eventually learn, the other wards are not nearly as awful as theirs but the nurses on those wards can't do much to help them as Nurse Ratched controls who is hired and fired, by making simple suggestions to the head of HR, her friend.

All in all, it was enjoyable, once I got over the hump of not getting into it enough to read more than a few pages at a time. 

You can purchase One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest through Amazon in hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

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Title: The Namesake

Author: Jhumpa Lahiri

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Length: 291 pages

Published: 2004

Publisher: Mariner Books

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies established this young writer as one the most brilliant of her generation. Her stories are one of the very few debut works -- and only a handful of collections -- to have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Among the many other awards and honors it received were the New Yorker Debut of the Year award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the highest critical praise for its grace, acuity, and compassion in detailing lives transported from India to America. In The Namesake, Lahiri enriches the themes that made her collection an international bestseller: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation, and, most poignantly, the tangled ties between generations. Here again Lahiri displays her deft touch for the perfect detail -- the fleeting moment, the turn of phrase -- that opens whole worlds of emotion. 

The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of their arranged wedding, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle together in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An engineer by training, Ashoke adapts far less warily than his wife, who resists all things American and pines for her family. When their son is born, the task of naming him betrays the vexed results of bringing old ways to the new world. Named for a Russian writer by his Indian parents in memory of a catastrophe years before, Gogol Ganguli knows only that he suffers the burden of his heritage as well as his odd, antic name. Lahiri brings great empathy to Gogol as he stumbles along the first-generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs. With penetrating insight, she reveals not only the defining power of the names and expectations bestowed upon us by our parents, but also the means by which we slowly, sometimes painfully, come to define ourselves. The New York Times has praised Lahiri as "a writer of uncommon elegance and poise." The Namesake is a fine-tuned, intimate, and deeply felt novel of identity.

My Review:

I give this book a 3 out of 5. 

First off, I liked the story. The plot was interesting enough to keep me reading. I enjoyed reading about the early struggles of Ashima and Ashoke when they first married and first immigrated to the U.S. The culture shock, the grief of being thousands of miles from everything you know and the people you love: these were all very realistic and compelling. As time goes on, they meet other Bengali couples, and band together for all major occasions. They don't spend much time interacting with the Americans around them except as needed. This remains the same throughout the whole book; as their children (Gogol and Sonali) grow, nearly every Saturday is spent at another family's home for a birthday party, or just a get-together. 

Most of the book is in Gogol's point of view, as he struggles against his parents in his teens and early twenties. He never understands his father or the reason for the odd name "Gogol". Not until the night his father tells him the real reason they chose the name Gogol. And even then, he still seems to resent his parents and their culture; as they just float through life in their tight circle of Bengali friends and never branch out or seem to enjoy things. 

As I said, the story was interesting enough to keep me going. It was the writing the style got me. To me, this book read more like a history of their lives, than a novel. That is the only reason I had to bump this down to 3 stars. You may pick this up and find that the author's writing style is more your cup of tea than it was mine.

You can purchase The Namesake through Amazon in either hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read The Namesake? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

The Family by Ed Sanders

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Title: The Family

Author: Ed Sanders

Genre: True Crime

Length: 412 pages

Published: 1971

Publisher: E.P. Dutton & Co. (NYC)

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) In 1971, Ed Sanders wrote The Family, a profile of the events leading up to the Tate-LaBianca murders. He obtained access to the Manson Family by posing as a "Satanic guru-maniac and dope-trapped psychopath."
Introduction
Section I: From the Beginnings to mid-1969
Section II: The Murders, 7/25/69-8/15/69
Section III: Manson Captured, 8/16-12/1/69

My Review:

I give this book a 3 out of 5. 

Ed Sanders researched a lot before writing this book, which is a very informative look into the lives of the members of the Manson Family. The author stated at one point that within a couple months of researching and interviewing people, he had over 10,000 pages of data. 

The author also pulled in information about other (Satanist) cults that crossed paths with Manson during this time period. You can definitely tell when the book was written, as the author uses a lot of era-specific slang. (I even had to look some of the terminology up to ensure I was understanding what he was saying!) The main thing that I didn't like was some of his phraseology. Throughout the book, he used phrases like this: "Sue met a human named Al Sund in San Francisco. Al and another human, Clint Talioferro...". If I'm remembering correctly, he used this phrase mostly referring to males. 

Another thing that truly bothered me about the writing, was that it seemed to be poorly edited. There were a lot of sentence fragments, repeated phrases, and even what appeared to be errors throughout the text. It was written probably how Mr. Sanders talked. 

This gets three stars because of the reasons above. It was very informative and gave me some more details on the Manson family that I did not know. 

You can purchase The Family through Amazon in hard copy format. 

Have you read The Family? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

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Title: The Metamorphosis

Author: Franz Kafka

Genre: Classic Literature

Length: 201 pages

Published: 1972

Publisher: Bantam Classics

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) "As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes." 

With this startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis.
It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing -- though absurdly comic -- meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. 

As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."

My Review:

I give this book a 3 out of 5. 

First, I'm going to admit that I only read the story. There are over 100 pages of essays by other people discussing the story. I chose to skip over those. 

This wasn't a bad tale. It was comical at first, and then slowly morphed into a horrible tragedy. Poor Gregor Samsa wakes one morning as a giant insect. He can understand his family, but they can not understand him. In their fear, they keep him locked to his room, opening it only twice daily to feed and clean the room. I did enjoy it for the most part, but the ending was fairly dark, though Mr. and Mrs. Samsa, as well as their daughter, Grete, are happy at the outcome. 

You can purchase The Metamorphosis through Amazon in hard copy format. 

Have you read The Metamorphosis? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski

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Title: Only Revolutions

Author: Mark Z. Danielewski

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Length: 360 pages

Published: 2007

Publisher: Pantheon

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) They were with us before Romeo & Juliet. And long after too. Because they're forever around. Or so both claim, caroling gleefully "always sixteen." Sam and Hailey, powered by an ever-rotating fleet of cars, from Model T to Lincoln Continental, career from the Civil War to the Cold War, barreling down through the Appalachians, up the Mississippi River, across the Badlands, finally cutting a nation in half as they try to outrace History itself. By turns beguiling and gripping, finally world-wrecking, Only Revolutions is unlike anything ever published before, a remarkable feat of heart and intellect, moving us with the journey of two kids, perpetually of summer, perpetually sixteen, who give up everything except each other.

My Review:

I give this book a 3 out of 5. 

I loved Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, so I knew I had to give this one a try. I started the book knowing that it would be in an odd format (something I really loved about House of Leaves was the formatting) and that it would take a bit to get used to. I neither loved nor hated this book. In truth, Only Revolutions is a novel length epic poem. Hailey and Sam are the two main characters and the book is written from each of their perspectives. 

The book jacket informs you to read the book starting with Hailey and flipping it over every 8 pages to read Sam's point of view. There's a lot of repetition by doing these revolutions, as you just read what happened from Hailey's point of view and then you are reading the same event from Sam's. While this made the book fun and interesting, it did get a little annoying.

It was really hard to get into the writing style. Misspelled words, random plant or animal names, etc, made it a little confusing until I got a little farther in and got used to the flow of things. The Misspelled words were on purpose, of course, since this was written as stream of consciousness. 

As I said before, I neither loved nor hated the book. If you want something quite a bit different from the normal novel, definitely check it out. 

You can purchase Only Revolutions through Amazon in hard copy format. 

Have you read Only Revolutions? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels by Henry James

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Title: The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels

Author: Henry James

Genre: Classic Literature

Length: 451 Pages

Published: 1962

Publisher: Signet Classics

Brief Synopsis: A collection of 6 short stories by Henry James. Stories include: The Altar of the Dead, The Aspern Papers, The Beast in the Jungle, Daisy Miller, An International Episode, and The Turn of the Screw.

My Review:

I give this book a 3 out of 5. 

The rating above is an overall rating based on my enjoyment of all six of the short stories in this collection. I have gone through each short story individually. There seems to be a trend towards the tragic ending with each of these stories.

The Altar of the Dead:
A man (Stransom) meets a woman in a church, where he lights candles for his Dead. She lights but one candle. For years, they barely speak but always meet at the church. Eventually he discovers who she lights her candle for: an old friend of his whom he had a massive falling out with. Stransom and the woman have a falling out due to his not wishing to light a candle for her former love.

This was pretty short story, but I liked it. It ended sadly, as most of these stories seem to end, but it was probably the most fitting end to the tale. I give this one a 4 out of 5.

The Aspern Papers:
This one took a little while to get into. The beginning was confusing, but eventually the mystery started to unravel In this story, a young man is looking for papers from a long-dead poet, Aspern. He goes to live with an elderly woman and her niece in order to try to take hold of these papers. The elderly woman had been the poet's lover in her youth.

Once I did get into the story, I enjoyed the conversations between Tita (the niece) and the young man. The elderly woman was definitely suspicious of him and even hid the papers in her mattress. The ending wasn't exactly happy, which made it very realistic. I give this one a 3 out of 5. 

The Beast in the Jungle: 
The story of May Bartram and John Marcher, who had met ten years prior and become reacquainted. Marcher had confessed a secret to May that something was coming that he wouldn't be able to control - a beast in the jungle, so to speak. When they become reacquainted, they spend much time discussing said beast until May falls ill.

In the end, Marcher learns what the Beast in the Jungle truly is, and that May met that Beast, while he failed to grasp it. All in all, not a bad story. I give The Beast in the Jungle a 4 out of 5.
Daisy Miller: 
An American man named Winterbourne has spent a long time in Europe, so he's become accustomed to European ways. When he meets young Miss Daisy Miller, he is quite taken with her despite her shockingly candid speech and her flirtatious ways. The story starts out in Vevey, Switzerland, where they first come across each other. He takes her to see the castle there and, despite her protests, he then must leave to handle business. He promises that he'll meet up with her in Italy when he visits his aunt.

The second part of the story shows when Winterbourne and Daisy meet up again in Italy. He learns that she flirts with all sorts of men, most especially one man named Giovanelli. She spends her days flirting with and leading on both Giovanelli and Winterbourne, and becomes the talk of the town. Eventually Daisy and her mother are no longer invited to parties, much to Daisy's chagrin.

I enjoyed this story quite a bit, and although it ended rather sadly, it was probably the best way to end it. I give Daisy Miller a 4 out of 5. 

An International Episode: 
It took me a little bit to get into this one. It starts out with two English gentlemen arriving in New York City. One of these young men is a lord. Through a man they met on the ship, they meet Mr. Westgate, who sends them to Newport where his wife and her younger sister are. The second part of the story shows the two Englishmen back in London and Mrs. Westgate and her sister, Bessie, are visiting London. Their paths cross again. Lord Lambeth is taken with young Bessie, despite his companion's warnings to not get involved. 

I found the first part of this story rather dull, but the second part was much more interesting and somewhat amusing. I felt bad for Lord Lambeth when Bessie turned him down after he proposed to her. I found the banter between Bessie and Lambeth amusing. I'd probably rate this particular story a 3 out of 5. 

The Turn of the Screw: 
A young woman becomes governess to two orphaned children: visions of loveliness and perfection. However, she begins to see the ghost of their former governess as well as the ghost of the Master's manservant. She is under strict orders not to disrupt the Master for any reason, and so undertakes to determine what these ghosts desire of her charges alone. 

I found this tale chilling. The governess finds herself dealing with two ethereal children, and two sinister ghosts. Her only confidant is the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose; as the children's uncle wishes to not be bothered about his niece and nephew. I was saddened for the children who had lost their parents, and the fact that their only living relative wanted nothing to do with them. The ending was absolutely spine-tingling. 

The beginning of the story starts out with a group of people being read the manuscript written by the governess regarding her experiences with these children. Despite the fact that I was left with the desire to hear this group's reaction to the governess' tale, I still give The Turn of the Screw a 5 out of 5. 

You can purchase The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels through Amazon in either hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

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Title: Lolita

Author: Vladimir Nabokov

Genre: Classic Literature

Length: 317 pages

Published: Original: 1955; Version I read: 1989

Publisher: Original: Olympia Press; Version I read: Vintage

Brief Synopsis: (Taken from Goodreads) Awe and exhilaration—along with heartbreak and mordant wit—abound in Lolita, Nabokov's most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. Most of all, it is a meditation on love—love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.

My Review:

I give this book a 3 out of 5. 

I read this book for the first and only time last summer. The name "Lolita" is strewn throughout pop culture, and I'd always wondered about it. They've made a couple of movies based on the novel, but I've never seen them. I will be honest and state that I probably never will, either.
The subject matter disgusted me. I had to read this book in seriously short bursts, practically forcing myself to finish it. It's filled with descriptive prose and, honestly, the main character (and narrator), Humbert Humbert, is a pedophile. He fell in love with the 12 year old daughter of his landlady, married the landlady so he could stay near his "Lolita", and finally, after an accident which kills Lolita's mother, manages to take off on a road trip throughout America with Lolita, posing as her father.

And then they consummate their love. Because, yes, this girl has a crush on him, too, at least at first. Eventually she tires of him and manages to escape his clutches. I cheered when she got away. And yet he continued to prose on about how he much he missed, loved, and desired her. 

Unless you can distance yourself from the truth of Humbert's relationship with Lolita, I don't really recommend picking this up to read.  

You can purchase Lolita through Amazon in either hard copy or Kindle format. 

Have you read Lolita? If so, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts! 

Please note: I was not compensated in any way for this review. It is strictly my opinion.