Only Time Will Tell

Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book had so much promise. I like the writing style, the tone, and the overlapping timeline from chapter to chapter and from person to person to paint a full picture of how events unfolded. It also gave a well-rounded perspective from all the main characters. I was beginning to care about Harry and Emma.
However, the last 50 pages or so felt rushed. Mr. Archer spent so much time and energy describing the emotion and details of the events in the preceding chapters. The last 5 chapters felt like he just wanted to end the book and start on the next one.
Also, I felt manipulated by the way the book ended. It was worst then seeing the "...to be continued" words on the TV after watching an hour long drama show. I guess Mr. Archer thinks that I've already spent time reading the 400+ words novel, I will seek out the next book. But, I have no inclination to do so. It's not that I don't want to find out what happened, I just don't want to be manipulated into doing so.



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The Lucky One

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Lucky One satisfied the romantic in me. There's the handsome ex-Marine searching for a beautiful woman. The beautiful lonely woman is fits into the damsel in distress mold pretty well. All in all, it a fun fluffy book that I can easily read and finish in couple of sittings.
And as with other Nicholas Sparks books, it's sappy and a potential tear-jerker. The Lucky One is no exception. So, if you are not expecting a literary masterpiece, but just an entertaining escape, this will be perfect.



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Bribery not working

My little girl is just couple of months away from her 3rd birthday. She has achieved many of her developmental milestones. However, we still can't check off one thing on the list. Potty Training. She knows what the potty is. She has done #1 and #2 in the potty in the past. But she just doesn't seem to be interested to use it since going there would just interrupt her exciting activities.

So, as any amateur economist would do with incentive problem, is to create a new incentive that can elicit the desired result.  Or, in another word, bribe.   I was determine to bribe my little girl to start using the potty regularly.  The bride I chose is Hershey Kisses.  Desired result is to go to the potty and stop using the diaper.

After 2 days, failure.  I gave her an entire Hershey Kiss early in the morning after she went to the potty.  She can do that one pretty good.  I told her, every time she go pee pee in the potty she gets a chocolate.  As the hours ticked by, I watched her.  She looked like she needs to go.  I told her to go to the potty and if she pees, she gets chocolate.  She just looked at me and said, "no potty, no chocolate."

She would rather give up an entire Hershey Kiss instead of going to the potty.  Well, that was a failure.

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