Title: Forever Interrupted Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Elsie Porter is an average twentysomething and yet what happens to her is anything but ordinary.  on a rain New Year's Day, she heads out to pick up a pizza for one.  She isn't expecting to see anyone else in the shop, much less the adorable and charming Ben Ross.  their chemistry is instant and electric.  Ben cannot even wait twenty-four hours before asking to see her again.  Within weeks, the two are head over heels in love.  By May, they've eloped.


Only nine days later, Ben is out riding his bike when he is hit by a truck and killed on impact.  Elsie hears the sirens outside her apartment, but by the time she gets downstairs, he has already been whisked off to the emergency room.  At the hospital, she must face Susan, the mother-in-law she has never met - and who doesn't even know Elsie exists.

Interweaving Elsie and Ben's charmed romance with Elsie and Susan's healing process, Forever Interrupted will remind you that there's more to one way to find a happy ending.

Elsie Porter, ready to give up on ever finding love, runs into Ben while picking up a pizza.

'He looked handsome in a way that suggested he didn't realize just how handsome he was... He was tall and lean with broad shoulders and strong arms.'

He asks her for her number and texts the next morning eager to see her for lunch.  Excited, Elsie gets ready too early and decides to go for a walk to lose her jitters, only to find she's locked herself out of her apartment.  She remembers a doggy door installed by the previous owners all the way up in her balcony door.  She tries and tries to climb up onto her balcony with the intent of fitting through the doggie door.

Ben arrives for their date and finds her in the awkward attempt.  He volunteers to ascend for her.  At first he thinks the doggy door too small, but after some intense wiggling he gets through.  He's her hero.  He promises to take her on a 'true adventure' which turns out to be a run-down, out-of-the-way taco stand.  After she insists they go for her favourite dessert in East L.A.

'"Gelato," [Elsie] says.'
'"Gelato?" he said... "We're racing across town for Gelato?"'

The Gelato is delicious and they're having such a great time together neither of them want the day to end.

'"What if we go back to your place?" he suggested.  "I promise I won't get handsy."'

'What's wrong with handsy?"' she teased.

To their delight the forgotten remains of unopened New Years champagne sits, waiting, in her fridge.  They waste the afternoon drinking and kissing.  Suddenly, it's evening and they're hungry.  They agree on Chinese.  Still reluctant for the evening to end she invites him to stay overnight, to sleep, she insists and all the time Ben continues with his 'gentlemanly behaviour.'

They part that morning eager to see each other again.  They meet for dinner later.  He worries they're going to fast, though they  come to agree it feels natural.  Elise thinks maybe they're crazy to have such a strong connection.  She compares them to a supernova.

'"It's some sort of start or explosion that's so powerful it can emit the same amount of energy that the sun will emit over it's entire lifetime but it does it in, like, two months and then dies."'

They agree on five weeks, where, at the end, they'll assess how well they're getting along.

'"... if... we just aren't jiving, we've only wasted five weeks."

'[Elsie] asked.  "Jiving?"'

At the end of the five weeks Ben admits, 'suddenly serious, "I made up the whole five week thing because I was afraid I'd tell you I loved you too soon and you wouldn't say it back and I'd be embarrassed..."'

He also admits he hasn't told his mom about Elsie yet.

'[Elsie] was confident enough by this point that [she] had Ben's heart, that the issue... was not [her].'

Elsie cannot understand but tries to act like it's no big deal.

'"I mean, you'll tell her eventually."'

When Elsie tells her best friend, Ana, that Ben is moving in Ana thinks she's crazy.  Elsie just smiles as if Ana doesn't even know what she wants.  Living with Ben is fun and exciting.  Elsie loves having him around so often.  The transition is smooth, their whole relationship is smooth.  At the end of the month, in a haze of doctor prescribed pain meds he asks her to marry him.  The idea thrills her and she is afraid to admit the truth to herself.

'[She] needed him in the future... [she] wanted him to be the father of [her] children..."

'"I think we should get married."'  Ben repeats after the brain numbing effect of the painkillers wears off.  '"I'm not joking," he says... "I want to be with you for the rest of my life and I know that it is soon, but I would like to marry you."' He echoes what is bouncing through her own mind.  Overjoyed, Elsie accepts.

Ben starts talking about planning a wedding but Elsie isn't close to her parents and shies away from the idea of a big wedding, even a small wedding.

'"If it were up to me, there wouldn't be anyone there," she says.'

'"... we're going to Vegas, right?  Isn't that how people elope?"'  en quickly warms up to the idea and the two of them pack to leave, eager to get married as soon as possible.

'"[They] were two hours outside Las Vegas when the cold fee set in."

They pull over under the guise of eating.

Ben is upset he never told his mother about Elsie.  To get married without here there is nearly unthinkable.  Elsie is worried it's because he doesn't want to marry her.  She feels her whole life, her whole future, slipping away.  He insists he does want to marry her.  She calls him a coward for not telling his mother sooner.  He is afraid they're rushing for no reason.  She wants to rush into it, it feels that good.  She knows that when they leave the restaurant they'll either drive to Nevada and get married, or home to Orange County.

***Bloggers note***

The novel, Forever Interrupted is a fairly simple read that enchants you right away.  Every page leaves you longing for the next bit of the story, the next heart-touching moment.  Each character poses a very different point of view, and as a reader, you begin to sympathize with each one, at different moments, for very different reasons.  The unexpected love and the importance of family are key to this novel's theme.

Spoiler: keep the tissues handy.

Click here to purchase Forever Interrupted

Title: Oryx and Crake Author: Margaret Atwood

The narrator of Atwood's riveting novel calls himself Snowman.  When the story opens, he is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death.  He searches for supplies in a wasteland where insects proliferate and pigoons and wolvogs ravage the pleeblands, where ordinary people onced lived, and the Compounds that sheltered the extraordinary.  As he tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier.  How did everything fall apart so quickly?  Why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories?  Alone except for the green-eyed Children of Crake, who think of him as a kind of monster, he explores the answers to these questions in the double journey he takes - into his own past, and back to Crake's high-tech bubble-dome, where the Paradice Project unfolded and the world came to grief.

Jimmy's family works and lives in a walled Compound protected by the dangerous CorpSeCorps and run by OrganInc Farms.  Jimmy's father works on a project designed to grow 'assortments of...human-tissue organs in a... pig host.  Organs that would transplant smoothly and avoid rejection, but would also  be able to fend off... microbes and viruses, of which there were more and more strains every year.'

Life for Jimmy is good, safe, comfortable.  He's grows up as any other child would, completely oblivious to what's really happening in the world in which his parents do business.  Soon Crake, a boy who turns out to be Jimmy's new best friend, arrives on the Compound.  The boys spend all their free time together playing computer games, and watching movies online, including live executions, assisted suicide and of course, porn.  The boys stumble across one website that kept them coming back: HottTotts, a sex-kiddie site.  There they see Oryx for the first time.

'None of those little girls had ever seemed real to Jimmy - they'd always struck him as digital clones - but for some reason Oryx was three-dimensional from the start.'

Crake prints an image of her face for him, her gaze piercing directly into the camera, 'right into Jimmy's eyes, into the secret person inside of him.  I see you, that look said.'

As the boys grow up they are divided into two basic groups that had been previously engrained on their society.  Crake, easily at the top of every class, a genetic genius, is classified as having a mathematical mind, was far above Jimmy who is classified as the class clown.  Crake goes on to be a genetic genius, Jimmy goes on to be a joke.  They are placed in separate schools, Crake, at the prestigious Watson-Crick, and Jimmy to Martha Graham, school for the perusal of the arts. 

'A lot of what went on at Martha Graham was like studying Latin, or book-binding: pleasant to contemplate in its way, but no longer central to anything.'

Jimmy and Crake keep in touch mostly by email and after a while Jimmy begins to doubt the friendship they'd once had.  He begins to think of Crake as someone he used to know.  Until he receives an invite from Crake.  Jimmy accepts, eager to see his friend.

'"Hi there, cork-nut," said Crake, and nostalgia swept through Jimmy like sudden hunger.  He was so pleased to see Crake he almost wept.'

Upon arriving at Watson-Crick Himmy can't help but notice how different their two schools are.  'Compared with Martha Graham Watson-Crick is a palace.'

Jimmy questions Crake about some of the work they're doing trying not to sound impressed.

'"This is the latest," said Crake.

What they were looking at was a large bulblike object that seemed to be covered with stippled whitish-yellow skin.  Out of it came twenty thick fleshy tubes, and at the end of each tube another bulb was growing.

"Those are chickens," said Crake.  "Chicken parts... twelve to a growth unit... That's the head right in the middle.  There's a mouth opening at the top, they dump... nutrients in there.  No eyes or beak or anything, they don't need those."

The thing was a nightmare... an animal-protein tuber.

"They'd removed all the brain functions that had nothing to do with digestion, assimilation and growth... They've already fog the take-out franchise operation in place... Investors are lining up around the block.  They can undercut the price fo everyone else.  ChickieNobs, they're thinking of calling the stuff,"' Crake explains.'

ChickieNobs?  Jimmy can't fathom eating what he imagines are equal to giant warts.  As his visits goes on he realizes that ChickieNobs aren't even the worst.

Crake begins to question Jimmy, probing the depth of his knowledge.  He begins to talk about conspiracy theories, even going so far as to suggest that both of their parents had known about and probably participated in immoral activities, namely infecting the population with manufactured virus's and bioforms. 

'"They're creating them," Crake confides..."They put the hostile bioforms into their vitamin pills..."'

Jimmy, who isn't as smart as Crake, can't quite grasp what his friend is telling him.  He puts it aside claiming to be tired.  After the visit Jimmy goes home, graduates from Martha Graham and forgets all about Crake's wild theories.  He finds a sleazy job in the marketing department for 'AnooYoo; Pills to make you fatter, thinner, hairier, balder, whiter, browner, blacker, yellower, sexier and happier.  It was his task to describe and extol to present the vision of what - oh, so easy! - could come to be... Once in a while he'd make up a work and never once got caught.'

After a few years of this and an endless string of married lovers, Jimmy finds himself restless and angry.  This is only alleviated by Crake randomly showing up at his door one night.

'"Let's go to the pleeblands," he says to Jimmy.

Accepted wisdom in the Compounds said that nothing of interest went on in the pleeblands apart from buying and selling... plus a lot of criminal activity: but to Jimmy it looked mysterious and exciting... on he other side of the safety barriers.  Also dangerous.  He wouldn't know how to behave...

Before setting out Crake stuck a needle in Jimmy's arm - an all-purpose, short-term vaccine he'd cooked up himself.  The pleeblands, he said, were a giant petri-dish; a lot of guck and contagious plasm got spread around there...

Jimmy had never been to the pleeblands before... he was excited... though he wasn't prepared for so many people... The pleebland inhabitants didn't look like the mental deficients the Compounders were fond of depicting... After a while Jimmy began to relax and enjoy the experience.'

After drinking and dining on rare delicacies Jimmy only barely remembers agreeing to come work for Crake, helping him with his highly respected and cutting edge projects.  Monday morning finds Jimmy being congratulated by co-workers and supervisors alike on his new promotion into Crake's prestigious world.  They 'had already been discreetly informed by Crake personally.'

'"My unit's called Paradice," said Crake.  "What we're working on is immortality."

Which had led to the concept of BlyssPluss... a single pill, that one and the same time:

1.  would protect the user against all known sexually transmitted diseases
2. would provide an unlimited supply of energy
3. would prolong youth
   

... There would be a fourth point which would not be advertised.  The BlyssPluss Pill would also act as a sure-fire one-time-does-it-all birth-cntrol pill, for male and female alike...

"So, basically you're going to sterilize people without them knowing it under the guise of giving them the ultra in orgies?" Jimmy asks.

"That's a crude way of putting it," said Crake.  "The investors were very keen on it, it was going to be global... You'll do the ad campaign."'

But Crake's real purpose is eventually revealed.  Under a secure air-locked dome Crake has gathered a group of the best, most advanced individuals he could find, the 'cream of the crop' most of whom had found themselves on the wrong side of the CorpSeCorps, or the government.  Crake offered them somewhere safe where they could continue their work anonymously on Crake's special and prestigious projects; the most important one being no less than Crake's life ambition.

'"I thought you were working on immortality," Jimmy asks after seeing the 'floor model' of Crakes latest work. 

Immortality," said Crake, "is a concept.  If you take 'mortality' as being, not death, but the fore knowledge of it and the fear of it, then 'immmortality' is the absence of such fear.'

It was all very top-secret and 'inextricably linked - the Pill and the Project.  The Pill would put a stop to haphazard reproduction, the Project would replace it with a superior method.  They were two stages of a single plan...'

Jimmy lives and works with Crake, and inevitably, Oryx, Jimmy's only true love.  Crake had rescued her, sort of speak, from a life of sex service to a life servicing him.  Both he and Jimmy are in love with her, though Oryx is certain Crake will never find out about her and Jimmy.  Jimmy is enjoying his time with them and the perks that come with being Crake's best friend.  Until one day the world seems to erupt in a new bioform attack, one that is devastating and deadly.  No one is immune, no one escapes, except Jimmy.  He watches Oryx and Crake die and is left alone locked inside the dome with the Project, waiting.

'For the first two weeks he followed world events on the Net... He lived off Crake's emergency stroes, the frozen goods first... Meanwhile, the end of[his] species was taking place before his very eyes... Finally there was nothing more to watch, except old movies on DVD.'

Jimmy knows that, at some point, he and the Children of Crake, must be set free from the dome to face a changed world, one where survival is not guaranteed.

Oryx and Crake is a descriptive novel focusing on the future of our world, the future of our technology, our ambition, our desire for power and greed for more, should it be allowed to continue unbridled.  It outlines the perils we as humans find ourselves in, trying to reconcile a healthier planet with the urge to buy more.  Orxy and Crake is a book that will not let you go.  You will think of it's implications long after the words are done.

Click here to purchase Oryx and Crake.

Title: The Right Thing Author: Amy Conner

Annie grows up to follow the path ordained for pretty, well-to-do Jackson women- marrying an ambitious lawyer, filling her days with shopping and charity work.  She barely recognizes Starr when they meet 27 years after that first fateful summer, but the bond formed so long ago quickly reemerges. Starr, pregnant by a powerful married man who wants her to get out of town, has nowhere to turn.  And Annie, determined not to fail her friend this time, agrees to drive Starr to New Orleans to get money she's owed.

During the eventful road trip that follows, Annie will confront the gap between friendship and responsibility; between her safe, ordered existence and the dreams she's grown accustomed to denying.

Mercy Anne Banks, or Annie, as she likes to be called, grew up, got married and continues to reside in the safe little city of Jackson.  Jackson is not a place to hide secrets, not in the fancy circles that Annie was a part of.  She is not surprised to find out that one of the men she grew up with had an extramarital affair with a girl who clearly grew up in a trailer park, making her trailer trash.  What does shock Annie is finding herself face-to-face with the woman who turns out to be nearly eight months pregnant.  The child a bastard from the affair.

What is even more surprising is the fact that the woman turns out to be someone Annie knows.

'Without thinking, the rite pertaining to social awkwardness comes to [Annie's] lips and [she says], "Do I know you?"

"I'm Starr Dukes," she says.  The look she gives [Annie] is as cold as the wind.  "It's sure been a long time."

It's been 27 years.'

Starr is Annie's best friend; a girl who showed up in grade one and vanished with her father halfway through grade two.  Annie can't just leave her alone in the cold so she offers the woman a ride home.  This gives them a chance to catch up.  The conversation quickly and predictably turned to Starr's condition.  She is determined to keep the baby and take on the fathers wealthy family through legal action if necessary.  Annie knows her friend stands little chance against such a formidable family.  Still, Starr was her friend and she needed help.

Starr claimed to have a friend holding $20,000 for her if she could only get to it.

'"Me and my baby are going to see that lying nickel son-of-a-bitch pays for every damn box of Pampers, every pair do soccer shoes, every trip to the orthodontist, and anything else I can think up.  I've got the money for the kind of lawyer I need. I just got to get to New Orleans."

"Starr, that's three hours from here, Annie exclaims.

"I can hitchhike if I've got to," Starr says, waving a dismissive hand.'

Even though she hasn't seen Starr for nearly 30 years Annie knows she can't just leave her stranded.

'"All right! I'll drive you..."'

Annie gives in easily though she knows it's not going to be that simple.  All she has to do is convince her husband that she is far too sick to join him at his business dinner that night.  She hates lying to him but knows he'd never allow her to help as their social life would be on the line, associating with the likes of Starr Dukes.

She somehow convinces him that she's too ill to go to dinner, but not so ill that she needs him to check up on her.  She hopes her deception will leave her absence undetected.  6 hours there and back and only a few more to pick up the money Annie prays her actions will remain hidden as Starr navigates them through the old neighbourhoods of New Orleans until they come to the fair grounds where Starr's mysterious friend lives.

Inside Starr helps herself to some freshly baked Snickerdoodles.  The mere sight of them make Annie's mouth water.  Determined not to have one she silently sips her coffee until a moment comes where Annie is alone in the kitchen and cannot resist a brownie.  She shoves it in her mouth before her friends come back and too late notices something strange about the treats.

"It tastes a little strange, as though Bette's recipe is a foreign one... [Annie] chews thoughtfully for a minute and can almost identify the herby aftertaste..."

She feels as if she should sit down or get some air and chooses the latter. She stumbles out the front door and nearly lands flat on her face.

'"Hey, watch yourself."  A strong, warm hand catches [her] elbow another across the small of [her] back, steadying [her.]'

In spite of her best intentions, and because of her influenced state, Annie lets this handsome stranger, Ted, lead her off to look at the horses he takes care of.

'Without thinking [she stretched] up on [her] tiptoes to give him a kiss on his stubble-covered jaw for being such a nice man, but at the same time Ted [turned] his face down to mine like he [wanted] to ask [her] a question...[her] mouth folds into his mouth...he feels so wonderful so amazing...[she] dare not let go.'

After a while, as the two try to make chit-chat, Ted offers to take her back to Bette's.  Thinking Starr and she still have time to get home before her disappearance is noticed, Annie returns to the trailer only to find that her car is missing.

'"Starr took your car and went back to Jackson.  You we're gone for...over and hour, and we didn't even know where you'd gone.  She said to tell you it couldn't wait," Bette explains.'

So Annie, stranded without any money, is devastated and alone in the middle if the night.  Luckily Ted is able to give her a ride.

'"He's one of the good guys, hon," Bette offers.'

Annie accepts and on the way they talk about it all; religion, politics, money, but it isn't long before Annie breaks down into a sobbing puddle of tears from exhaustion and disappointment.  She folds into Ted's arms for comfort.

'"Are you sure, Annie?" he says, low-voiced and hoarse.'

Annie knows that she is, even though she vows to never tell her husband.  When he gets her safely home she is dismayed to see her mothers cream-coloured Lincoln and a black and white police car parked in front of her house.  It's early, nearly 6:00 a.m. and they know she's gone.  It's up to her to explain.

'[She] can't speak up because [she doesn't] know what to say, how to justify the unjustifiable.

And then, with a jolt of self-awareness...[she's] amazed to discover [she's] mortally tired of this...[she'll] be damned if [she] can stand living like this anymore, always wrong, always apologizing.

"It's too much," [her husband] admits.'

She knows she should go after him, but she doesn't.  It seems her marriage is ending.  After 13 years of living a life, a life where she's yearned for a child to make her marriage whole; after 13 years she's given up hope of ever having a child.... Until she finds out that she's pregnant with Ted's child.

With her old life in ruins Annie knows there's no going back.  That she must continue doing the right thing.

This book tells a poignant story of a reconnection between two women intermittently laced with touching stories of their brief friendship as children.  Delightful and thought-provoking, The Right Thing will leave you thinking about it long after you put it away.


Click here to purchase 'The Right Thing'

Title: Treasure Island Author: Robert Louis Stevenson

Set in the eighteenth century, Treasure Island spins a heady tale of piracy, a mysterious treasure map and a host of sinister characters charged with diabolical intentions.  Seen through the eyes of Jim Hawkins, the cabin boy of the Hispaniola, the action-packed adventure tells of a perilous sea journey across the Spanish Main, a mutiny led by the infamous Long John Silver and a lethal scramble for buried treasure on an exotic isle.  

Jim Hawkins lives and works with his mother in the Inn his family owns and runs; the Admiral Benbow.  Here 'a brown old seamen' comes to stay.

"... a tall, strong, heavy, nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulders of his soiled blue coat, his hands ragged and scarred with black, broken nails, and [a] sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white."

This old sea dog asks Jim to, 'keep a weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg.'

No one of that sort ever visited the Inn until one day a sailorly man comes enquiring about his old friend; someone he calls Billy Bones, the captain.  Jim is wary of the stranger, but since he has two legs thinks nothing of it.

The captain isn't pleased to see his old shipmate, someone he calls 'Black Dog' but resigns to a private conversation.  It isn't long before the two men erupt in a fight, voices raised, cutlass's drawn and the stranger flees for his life.

It isn't long before the captain gets another visitor; an old, blind pirate who threatens Jim until he allows the him to meet with the captain.  The old blind man gives Billy Bones a piece of paper, blackened on one side.

The black spot.

The black spot is Billy Bones' undoing.  He drops dead right there.  Worried that the pirates will be back to ransack the Inn Jim warns his mother.  Together they search the dead man's chest, where he kept his only possessions, for money to pay for his stay at the Inn.  All they find are old, foreign coins and a oil parchment.  With no more time Jim grabs the parchment and he and his mother flee.

Just in time.  Pirates, scoundrels, call for Billy Bones and ransack the Inn.  Jim and his mother hide in the yard and escape certain death by the hands of those murderous, blood-thirsty pirates who cannot seem to find what they're looking for.

Jim hears the old, blind man swears that, "it's the people of the Inn... that boy."

Jim knows he's in trouble and clutches the parchment even tighter.  Jim prays that they remain hidden

It seems his prayers are answered for just then some revenue officers come charging on horses over the hill.  There is a scuffle, the blind man is dead and the rest of the pirates flee back to shadows of their ships.  After some investigation Jim discovers that in the parchment is a clearly marked treasure map.  Word gets out and the local Squire convinces a group of men, including a doctor and Jim himself, to suit up and ship out to find that treasure.

The Doctor warns the Squire to keep the true nature of the mission a secret.  "These fellows who attacked the Inn - bold, desperate blades, for sure - and more, I say, not far off, are one and all through thick and thin, bound that they'll get that money."

They make a pact and the secret is safe.

It's a few weeks until the Squire Trewlaney is able to finance the ship, but eventually word comes that they've acquired a schooner.

"You never imagined a sweeter schooner... name, Hispaniola."

With the help of a helpful old sailor, Long John Silver, they manage to put together a mighty fine crew with Jim serving as cabin boy.  Jim is allowed one night to say goodbye to his mother at the Inn but the next day finds himself in Bristol ready to sail off.  There Jim meets the charismatic and enigmatic cook, the man who helped hand pick the crew, Long John Silver.

Jim is worried at first because it is clear that the old sailor only has one leg, and the warning of Billy Bones still haunted Jim's mind.  But Silver turns out to be a charming and delightful individual and Jim warms up to him right away.

In spite of their pack the purpose of the trip, treasure, hasn't been kept very well and an unmistakable rumour that there is a treasure map on board make everyone anxious to leave.  They sail as planned on a course plotted with treasure in mind and it becomes clear that there is some mistrust between the sailors.  Though they find their destination as planned and without incident.

Until Jim, in a fortuitous blunder, overhears an incriminating conversation between Silver and his men.  They are planning a mutiny the likes that had never been seen in the history of his predecessors, or as Silver calls them, the 'Gentlemen of Fortune." 

Jim alerts the Captain, the Squire and the Doctor.  They agree it's best to continue with the expedition as if they know nothing, all the while preparing for attack.  They let some pirate men go ashore and Jim slips into their boat unseen.  As soon as he can, back on land, he dashes away from the pirates only to double back later with the intent to spy.  While watching Jim witnesses the men murder one of their own and in his horror and fear runs unseeing through the trees and marshes of the island.  

He runs wild until he comes across a man, or beast, or something else entirely.  It scares him to death and Jim actually contemplates returning back to the evil pirates.  But the creature is a man and it approaches Jim with a story so terrible and tragic that Jim immediately recognizes a friend.  The man, Ben Gunn, had been left alone, marooned, on the island for the past 3 years.  He swears to help Jim as long as he and his friends help him get off the island.

Meanwhile, the Doctor, the Squire and the Captain and whatever good men were left took a surveillance team to inspect the island themselves.  They come across a defence unit in which they know they can defend.  They do their best to load it with supplies, weapons, defences, and by the grace of God Jim is able to find them there and joins them in defending against the villainous pirates.

At first Long John approaches and politely asks for the map.  When he is refused he returns with his army and attack the stockade with the good men inside.  All seems lost as the pirates take the stronghold, but once the smoke clears Jim realizes that apart from one death and a few wounded, including the captain, the side of good has won.  Seemingly beat the pirates leave them alone.

As Jim sits and waits and grows increasingly restless, an idea grows.  He escapes the stockade to find the homemade boat Ben Gunn hid.  It is no more than a crudely made coracle that has no steering to speak of but that doesn't stop Jim from hatching another idea; use the coracle to cut the Hispaniola from her anchor.  Jim hopes that will beach the ship leaving the pirates unable to maroon the men.  With great risk, and expectation of death, Jim succeeds in his plan.

The next morning the Hispaniola pitches and yaws and sails erratically.  Jim suspects that there is no one on board.  With a little luck and a lot of effort Jim sacrifices the coracle and hangs onto the Hispaniola for dear life.  Once on board Jim finds one of the two men left to watch the ship is dead and the other badly wounded.  With no one to help steer the ship to safe waters Jim has no choice but to strike a bargain; save the man's wretched life in exchange for help with the ship.  Jim suspects that his life is at steak as soon as they are safe ashore.  The pirate will most certainly try to kill him once his use is gone.  Jim vows to be ready, but in the excitement of bringing in the ship he forgets to be prepared for an attack.  In one throw the pirate manages to pin a knife in Jim's shoulder.  Fearing death fortune intervenes.  The boat pitches and throws the unsteady and wounded pirate head first into the water.

Wounded but safe, Jim is determined to find his friends.  By the light of the moon he is able to make his way back to the stockade where he believes his friends are snoring away.  But to his chagrin the little dwelling is full of the villainous, bloodthirsty pirates.  They capture him and give him a chance to chose sides; them or die.

It's then that he gets a bold stroke of courage and reveals himself to the Gentlemen of Fortune.

"... here you are, in a bad way: ship lost, treasure lost, men lost; your whole business gone to wreck; and if you want to know who did it - it was I! ... As for the schooner, it was I who cut her cable, and it was I that killed the men you had aboard of her, and it was I who brought her where you'll never see her more, not one of you.  The laugh's on my side; I've had the top of this business from the first; I no more fear you than I fear a fly.  Kill me, if you please, or spare me."

After a dazed moment from the terrible lot, impressed with his courage Silver calls out, "I like that boy, now; I never seen a better boy than that.  He's more a man than any pair of you rats of you in this here house, and what I say is this: let me see him that'll lay a hand on him - that's what I say, and you may lay to it."

And so he was spared, for the time being.  This only adds to the crew's restlessness and anger.  They request a private meeting without their appointed leader, Long John Silver.  When they return they denounce him as captain and hand him the black spot.  Jim fears that he and Silver are both dead, but somehow Silver manages to convince the crew that everything he's done and everything he's planning has been and continues to be in the best interest of them all.

This mollifies the crew.  Silver is reappointed as leader as he promises them silver and a boat to sail it to safety.  The men set out, determined to find the treasure.  Jim's hopes sink when he finds out they have the map; all they have to do is find the treasure.  How they got the map Jim cannot know.  He left it in the safe keeping of the doctor.  Perhaps he was dead?  Why else would the doctor give it up so freely?  Jim fears the worst for his friends and himself as he is taken with the pirates to pursue their lust of gold.

The story of Treasure Island is one we are all familiar with.  Full of exotic locations, descriptions and narrative the reader is pulled into a story of daring adventure on the high seas.

Click here to purchase Treasure Island from Amazon.com

Title: The Rosie Project Author: Graeme Simsion

Don Tillman has a brilliant scientific mind, but social situations confound him.  He's never had a second date.  And so, in the evidence-based manner in which he approaches all things, he embarks upon the Wife Project: a sixteen-page questionnaire to find the perfect partner.  Then in walks Rosie Jarman.

Rosie is on a quest of her own.  She's looking for her biological father, a search that a certain genetics expert just might be able to help her with.  Soon Don puts the Wife Project on the back burner in order to help Rosie pursue the Father Project.  As an unlikely relationship blooms, Don is about to realize that, despite the best scientific efforts, you don't find love: love finds you.

Our main character, Don Tillman, is a highly organized and intensely practical man, who is “thirty-nine years old, tall, fit and intelligent, with a relatively high status and above-average income as an associate professor,” who is having a hard time finding a wife due to his immediately apparent lack of social skills. His days are planned out to the minute and he likes things a particular way. We find out he has two friends, another professor, Gene, and his wife Claudia. Gene and Claudia have been trying to help Don with his mission to find a wife. To his dismay, “their approach was based on the traditional dating paradigm, which [Don] had previously abandoned on the basis that the probability of success did not justify the effort and negative experiences... [He] never found it easy to make friends and it seems that the deficiencies that caused this problem have also affected [his] attempts at a romantic relationship.”

One night Don is obliged to replace Gene as a guest lecturer. The topic, Genetic Precursors to Autism Spectrum Disorders. The talk goes well, at least according to Don's observations, which are more than less conventional than the observations from other, less socially awkward individuals. Don decides the whole event is a success as one point sparks an idea so remarkable that he insist on clearing his schedule to develop it.

He has long assumed that he will one day find a wife, but his incredible lack of social manners has thus far made this feat impossible. Since dating doesn't work for him he must find a suitable alternative.

A questionnaire!

He is excited to talk to his friends about his new project. He receives excellent feedback.

'[It] was exactly the sort of input [he] was looking for. Subtle nuances of language that [he] is not conscious of.'

They suggest he test his questionnaire 'in the field' in addition to posting it online.

'[Don] returned to the dating process that [he] though [he'd] abandoned forever. On Claudia's advice, [he] had memorized the questionnaire to incorporate [the questions] subtly into conversation,' instead of bringing the entire questionnaire on the date. The only problem is his lack of subtly. Still, with her advice he manages to put his inquiry to good use and deducts through some strategically offered questions that one, 'very nice,' lady is simply not someone with whom to have a 2^nd or 3^rd date.

It's not very long before women start submitting the questionnaire. Gene inquires as to how many and is shocked and impressed at the volume. 'The actual total was greater than [Don] had told him, as [he] had not included the paper questionnaires. 304.'

Gene insists on choosing some of the women for Don to ask for dinner. Don argues that none of the women are suitable.

'“You don't think you're setting the bar just a tiny bit high?” his friend asks.'

'[Don] pointed out that [he] was collecting data to support life's most critical decision. Compromise would be totally inappropriate.'

Assuming Gene has sent her on account of the Project, Don asks a women to dinner. Her name is Rosie. Surprised at his offer she nonetheless accepts and names a venue. As usual, he arrives on time and finds himself socially incompetent in a bad situation before she's even made an appearance. Luckily, she is adept in handling the situation and they are allowed to leave without the proposed action of calling the police.

Since the dinner plans were ruined Don has no choice but to ask her back to his house for a meal (since eating at home would've been the next scheduled task.)

Back at Don's house Rosie can see how scheduled his organization really is. She takes the liberty to examine and go through his personal belongings. She is amazed at the extent of his meticulous scheduling system. Instead of being intimidated by it she offers him ways to work around the delays. Originally annoyed by her intrusion he begins to welcome her help going so far as abandoning all previously scheduled rules for that Tuesday evening and on top of that even making it seem like a joke.

Even with her variations to his schedule Don see's many flaws with her compared to his questionnaire. At the end of the meal he is almost relieved that he'll never see her again. She caused too much of a disturbance as it was.

In spite of his insistence to never see her again he decides that knowing her may add a benchmark to his Wife Project and since the project has found no matches to date he thinks he could spend more time with her. He also realizes that his expertise in genetics could be beneficial to her quest to find her biological father. He accompanies her to collect a DNA sample from her most likely prospect and takes her back to the lab to test it that same evening. When the results come back negative Rosie is disappointed and insist on going for a drink. Drinks turn into dinner and Don finds that although his Saturday schedule has changed he is surprised to find himself having a good time.

This causes him to want to help her further. There are two more men who might be her father. However, finding a DNA sample proved much harder than Don anticipated due to his lack of social skills. The duo is forced to three counts of petty theft to gain a sufficient DNA sample from each of the two men. Don is shocked at his actions and can't believe what he is going to help this girl.

As he continues the Father Project with her he is beginning to understand certain truths about human interaction, satisfaction and the comfortable companionship he clearly lacks. When the next two DNA samples prove negative he tries to convince Rosie to keep trying, all the while wondering why he cares so much.

Unwilling to leave a problem so unfinished Don is compelled into researching the other potential candidates for the Father Project. He has the fortune of good luck when he discovers a picture and the names of the attendee's at the party the night Rosie's mother got pregnant. His luck continues when he sees a 30 year reunion scheduled in the next three weeks. He convinces Rosie to get a job as a bartender at the reunion so they can easily continue to collect DNA.

Rosie gives Don 'The Complete Bartender's Guide' and tells him to memorize it for the event. He spends hours doing so only to find that his bar-tending knowledge far surpasses the other staff at the event. Not only does he have a complete list of cocktails in his head, but the recipes to accompany them as well as room to remember every drink ordered in the entire room. He becomes a huge success even as Rosie is flustered by it all. Yet they continue as planned and collect all of the necessary DNA samples. Don gets to work on analyzing the data with no success in finding a match.

One night, over pizza, Don makes the mistake of asking Rosie about the Wife Project to which she knows nothing about. She reveals to Don that she is a student in Gene's class. She had originally come to Don to settle a bet. This compels Don to explain his motivations with the Wife Project leaving both parties under the realization that they had met and gone for dinner under false pretenses and miscommunication. Rosie is unimpressed, even angry at Don for the whole charade and demands to know whey he continued helping her. Without a good explanation Don says nothing. Frustrated and angry Rosie storms out to return the next day with an apology right before Don mentions one, perfectly suitable, candidate of the Wife Project, which Rosie is still annoyed about.

Not fluent in social interactions Don goes ahead and asks this new candidate, Bianca, to the upcoming faculty ball. She says, 'yes.' Gene advises Don to ask Rosie to the ball instead saying she's already going alone.

'“Rosie and I discussed the question of a relationship explicitly. Neither of us is interested.” Don explains.

“Since when do women discuss anything explicitly?” Gene asks.'

Regardless of his friends advice Don meets Bianca at the ball under the guise that he can dance. He finds himself siting near the dance floor at a table with Bianca, Gene, a few other members of the University and Rosie. It does not escape Don that she is absolutely stunning. Before he knows it he is alone with Bianca on the dance floor. He proceeds to embarrass and then alienate his perfect candidate. She abandons Don there on the spot with Rosie, trying to help the awkward situation. She succeeds and they proceed to have an amazing evening, without Bianca.

Later, Don and Rosie share a cab, but before Don can get home Rosie asks him upstairs to her house.

'[He] needed to make sure [he] wasn't misinterpreting her.

'“Are you suggesting I stay the night?”'

Even with clarification Don's complete lack of social understanding ruins the moment and he continues home alone.

The next work day Don finds Rosie with her friends at the University during study hall. He tries to reconcile the situation but only manages to thoroughly embarrass her. He leaves vowing to contact her later only to find she is avoiding his calls.

'“These things happen,” said Claudia. “You get involved with a woman, it doesn't work out...”

So that was it. [Don] has, in [his] own way, become 'involved' with Rosie.'

He thinks that maybe she will be friends with him again if he continues the Father Project and follows it through to a successful conclusion. Why only nine more samples to go Don manages to collect seven of those samples even if it means picking used tissue from the trash.

With the samples all coming out negative Don feels he has no choice but to fly to New York to collect the samples from the remaining two candidates. He somehow convinces Rosie to go with him. Shortly after they arrive they successfully meet the first candidate and his wife. leaving them with a few days to explore New York.

Rosie demands the first two days be under her schedule with the last two days for his. She takes him for breakfast, they see a play and enjoy a traditional Japanese meal. She takes him to a baseball game and back to a sports bar for drinks after. Don finds himself enjoying their time immensely. They spend his two days at the Museum of Natural History where Don does his best to give Rosie the 'guided tour' as was suggested by Claudia. They also manage to collect the remaining DNA sample and soon find themselves ready to go home.

Once back at the University Don prepares to analyze the last two samples when he finds out what Rosie is planning on doing with the information.

'“You're planning to expose him?” [Don] asked horrified.'

He refuses to continue if it means bringing someone pain. Rosie is infuriated and again storms out and proceeds to ignore his calls. In the days after her departure Gene points out that Don might be in love, which would explain the sadness that had fallen over him since Rosie had left. He asks Claudia for help with social skills as a way to impress and win Rosie back. Claudia helps him and he learns many new skills that he is eager to try out. He also gets a haircut and buys new clothes in an effort to look more like someone Rosie would want him to look like. He does many things to try to impress her and win her back all to seemingly disastrous effect. In the end though, this story is simply stunning in it's straight-forward depiction of a man, like Don Tillman, in love. You'll be astounded at how awkward, yet perfectly sensible Don is towards everything but will have you wishing for his 'happily-ever-after' in spite of his being weird and wired wrong. 

Click here to order 'The Rosie Project' from Amazon.com 

Title: The Secret Author: Rhonda Byrne

It has been passed down through the ages, highly coveted, hidden, lost, stolen and bought for vast sums of money. This centuries-old Secret has been understood by some of the most prominent people in history: Plato, Galileo, Beethoven, Edison, Carnegie, Einstein – along with other inventors, theologians, scientists, and great thinkers. Now The Secret is being revealed to the world.

This book poses the question, 'what do you want?' or more correctly, 'why aren't you living out what you want?'

Bob Proctor, “The Secret gives you anything you want: happiness health and wealth. The Secret is the law of attraction.”

Which is the most powerful law in the Universe.

'The law responds to your thoughts, no matter what they may be... unfathomable magnetic power is emitted through your thoughts.'

Bob Proctor, “If you see it in your mind, you're going to hold it in your hand.”

Mike Dooley, “Thoughts become things.”

Think of it like a TV. You might not understand exactly how it works, but you know that each channel has it's own images and stories. You have the power to change the channel. The images and stories you see are what make up your life. You have the power to change your thoughts, which is the power to change the channel. Every thought attracts more thoughts like it. What channel are you tuned in to? What thoughts do you have in your head?

John Assaraf, “Here's the problem, most people are thinking about what they don't want, and they're wondering why it shows up over and over again.”

'What you think about most is what will appear in your life. Your life is a mirror of the dominant thoughts you think.'

Michael Bernard Beckwith, “... it has been scientifically proven that an affirmative thought is hundreds of times more powerful than a negative thought.”

'However, if you persist in thinking negative thoughts over a period of time, they will appear in your life.'

Dr. Joe Vitale, “You want to become aware of your thoughts and choose your thoughts carefully...”

'To become aware of your thoughts, you can set the intention, “I am the master of my thoughts.” Say it often... and as you hold to that intention, by the law of attraction you must become that.'

Dr. J. Vitale, “Everything that surrounds you right now in your life, including the things you're complaining about, you've attracted... This is one of the hardest concepts to get, but once you've accepted it life transforms.”

'You have a choice, and whatever you chose to think about will become your life experience.'

Bob Doyle, “Most of us attract by default... our thoughts and feelings are on autopilot, and so everything is brought to us by default.”

Marci Shimoff, “It's impossible to monitor every thought we have... our feelings let us know what we're thinking.”

'It's impossible to feel bad and at the same time be having good thoughts. If you don't make any effort to change your thoughts you are in effect saying, “Bring me more circumstances that will make me feel bad.”

Jack Canfield, “our feelings are a feedback mechanism to us about whether we're on track [to our desires] or not...”

'When you're feeling bad it's communication from the Universe saying, “Warning! Change thinking now. Negative frequency recording. Change frequency (thoughts). Counting down to [negative] manifestation.” In that moment you are blocking your own good from coming to you because of the negative frequency of your thoughts. Change your thoughts and think about something good, and when good feelings start to come you will know it was because you shifted yourself on to a new frequency, and the Universe has confirmed it with better feelings.'

Bob Doyle, “If you start out having a good day and you're in that particular happy feeling, as long as you don't allow something to change your mood, you're going to continue to attract, by the law of attraction, more situations and people that sustain that happy feeling.”

Michael B. Beckwith, “It means that whatever thought has done in your life, it can be undone through a shift in your awareness.”

Dr. J. Vitale, “... the more you can feel good, the more you will attract the things that help you feel good.”

Marci Shimoff, “Once you begin to understand and try to master your thoughts and feelings, that's when you see how you create your own reality. That’s where your freedoms is, that's where all your power is.”

B. Proctor, “Life can be absolutely phenomenal, and it should be, and it will be, when you start using The Secret.”

'Up until now you may have been thinking that life is hard... and you have experienced life as hard... Begin right now to shout to the Universe, “Life is so easy! Life is so good! All good things come to me!”

Step One, Ask.

Dr. J. Vitale, “It's life having the Universe as your catalogue. You flip through it and say, “I'd like to have this experience and I'd like to have that product, and I'd like to have a person like that.” It's you placing an order with the Universe.”

B. Proctor, “Begin [every thought] with, 'I am so happy and grateful now that I have …..'”

Step Two, Believe.

Lisa Nichols, “Believe that it's already yours... act, speak and think as though you are receiving it now.”

Focusing on your lack of having it only brings more lack of having it. That is why you need to think like you already have it, to make it manifest in your life.

Dr. J. Vitale, “The Universe will start to rearrange itself to make it happen. You don't need to know how it's going to come about....”

Just believe and feel like it's already happened. Cling to the contentedness you'd feel if all your dreams were really happening in your life.

'When you are trying to work out how it will happen you are emitting a frequency that contains a lack of faith.'

B. Proctor, “You will attract the way.”

Step Three, Receive

Lisa Nichols, “The final stop in the process is to receive. Begin to feel wonderful about it. Feel the way you will feel once it arrives. Feel it now.”

Feel it to achieve it. Allow yourself to feel how good it would be to receive your desires.

'When you feel as though you have it now, and the feeling is so real that it is like you have it already, you are believing that you have received it, and you will receive. Imagine life as a fast-moving river. When you are active to make something happen it will feel as if you are going against the current of the river. It will feel hard and like a struggle. When you are acting to receive from the Universe, you will feel as if you are flowing with the current of the river. It will feel effortless. That is the feeling of inspired action, and of being in the flow of the Universe and life.'

Dr. J. Vitale, “The Universe likes speed. Don't delay. Don't second guess. Don't doubt. When the opportunity is there, when the intuitive nudge from within is there, when the intuitive nudge from within is there, act. That is your job and that's all you have to do.”

'Trust your instincts... Remember, you are a magnet...'

Michael B. Beckwith, “You can start with nothing and out of nothing and out of no way, a way will be made.”

How long does it take?

Dr. J. Vitale, “It's... a matter of you being in alignment with the Universe.”

Are you aligned with the things that you want? Check your thoughts; your feelings will let you know.

You might argue that some are luckier than others. Those people simply expect to attract luck, and it works. They often receive good and lucky situations or things to prove that they are lucky, when really it was the belief that they were lucky in the first place that caused them to be lucky.

B. Proctor, “Desire connects you with the things desired and expectation draws it into your life.”

'Expect the things you want.'

Buddha, “All that we are is a result of what we have thought.”

Marci Shimoff, “Gratitude is absolutely the way to bring more into your life.”

'Whether it is jealousy, resentment, dissatisfaction, or feelings of, 'not enough,' those feeling cannot bring you what you want. They can only return to you more of what you do not want. Make it a habit to feel the feelings of gratitude in abundance, for the great day ahead as though it is done.'

Jack Canfield, “Our job is not to figure our the 'how.' The 'how' will show up our of a commitment and belief in the 'what.'”

Dr. J. Vitale, “What's really important to the whole Secret is feeling good... You want to be high, happy, in line, as much as possible.”

Marci Shimoff, “The only difference between people who live [The Secret] and those who don't is that [those who do] made a habit of using [The Secret] all the time.”

'The shortcut to anything you want in your life is to BE and FEEL happy now!'

Lord Langemeier, “I grew up on 'You'll have to work hard for money.' So I replaced that with, 'Money comes easily and frequently.'”

'Any action we take must be preceded by a thought. Thoughts create the words we speak, the feelings we feel, and our actions. Actions are particularly powerful, because they are thoughts that caused us to act.'

'Unless you fill yourself up first, you have nothing to give anybody. Attend to your joy first. When you tend to your own joy and do what makes you feel good, you are a joy to be around... and you will attract more joy. The reason you have to love you is because it's impossible to feel good if you don't love you. When you don't feel good about your, you are on a frequency that is attracting more people, situations, and circumstances that will continue to make you feel bad about you. All you have to do is begin with one prolonged thought of something good about you, and the law of attraction will respond by giving you more like thoughts.'

'All stress begins with one negative thought. The effect is stress. No matter what you might have manifested, you can change it... with one, small, positive thought and then another. When we think negative thoughts we are cutting ourselves off from our rightful [abundance.] No matter what you have manifested you can change it. Start being happy. You have [to keep] your finger on the 'feeling happy' button. Press it, firmly, no matter what is happening around you.'

Lisa Nichols, “In our society [we fight] against things. Fight against cancer... poverty... war... drugs.. terrorism... violence. We fight everything we don't want, which actually creates more of a fight.”

'Don't try to change the outside pictures. You have to emit a new signal with your thoughts and feelings to create new pictures. Everything in this world began with one thought. The bigger things get bigger because more people give their thoughts to it. If we took our minds off it and focused instead on love, it could not exist. Focus on everybody being in joy. Focus on an abundance of food. Give your powerful thoughts to what is wanted. You have the ability to give so much to the world by emitting feelings of love and well-being.'

Michael B. Beckwith, “Energy flows where attention goes.”

Lisa Nichols, “It's not your job to change the world, or the people around you. It's your job to go with the flow inside the Universe and to celebrate it inside that world that exists.”

'Your ability to think is unlimited, and so the things you can think into existence are unlimited. But you cannot create other people's lives for them. You cannot think for them. So let all others create the life they want.'

Robert Collier, “If you have any lack, if you are prey to poverty or disease, it is because you do not believe or you do not understand the power that is yours.”

Praise and bless everything that is good and beautiful. 'When you are praising or blessing you are on the highest frequency of love. The dictionary defines blessing as, “invoking divine favour and conferring well-being or prosperity.” So begin right now to invoke the power of blessing in your life, and bless everything and everyone. Likewise with praising, for when you are praising someone or something you are giving it love and as you emit that magnificent frequency, it will return to you a hundred-fold. Praising and blessing dissolves all negativity, so praise and bless your enemies. If you curse your enemies, the curse will come back to harm you.'

'Being energy, you also vibrate at a frequency and what determines your frequency is whatever you are thinking and feeling. All things you want are made of energy and when you think about what you want, and emit that frequency, you cause the energy of what you want and bring it to you. All you have to do is hold your mind on the end result and you will call it into being. As you ask and feel and believe you will receive. When you emit the perfect frequency of what you want the perfect people, circumstances and events will be attracted to you.'

All power is from within and therefore under our control.

Jack Canfield, “The real question is, 'what are you going to do now?' What do you chose now? When people start focusing on what they want what they don't want falls away, and what they want expands, and the other part disappears.”

Dr. Fred Alan Wolf, “Every single 'I'm not,' is a creation.”

'Knowing this, would it be a good idea to begin to use the most powerful words, I AM, to your advantage? How about, “I AM receiving good things. I AM happy. I AM abundant. I AM healthy. I AM love. I AM Always on time. I AM eternal youth. I AM filled with energy every single day.”'

Affirmation: I am whole, perfect, strong, powerful, loving, harmonious and happy.

'When you are aware, you are in the present and you know what you are thinking. You have gained control of your thoughts, and that is where all your power is. All of your power is in your awareness of your power.'

Charles Haanel, “The real secret of power is consciousness of power.”

'The truth is that they Universe has been answering you all of your life, but you cannot receive the answers unless you are aware. Take a moment and sit still. Focus on feeling the life presence inside of you.'

Charles Haanel, “[that presence]... the 'I' is perfect and complete; [it] is spiritual and can therefore never be less than perfect. It can never have any lack, limitation or disease.”

Start attracting the things that you want today.

'Erase everything from the past that does not serve you. Do the things that you love and that bring you joy.'

Dr. John Hagelin, “So inner happiness actually is the fuel of success.”

The knowledge of The Secret is being given to you and what you do with it is entirely in your hands.

Morris Goodman, “And then you can do and have and be things that people once said that's impossible for you to do and have and be.”

'The only thing you need to do is feel good now.'

And go buy the book because there are more tricks, tips and tidbits than I could ever incorporate in this blog.

***Please note, single quotations, 'quote,' are meant to signify the authors voice where double quotations, “quote,” are to signify a direct quote from the corresponding speaker in the book.

This does not apply for quotations within quotations in which the reverse will be applied.

Ex. Speaker, “I read this great book once, 'The Secret.' t was powerful. It moved me.”