Petals on the Wind

Petals on the Wind by V.C Andrews:

The continuing story of the Dollanganger family and it picks up right after the other book. The family is taken in by a wonderful doctor and they grow up under his watchful gaze.

                                    *SPOILER ALERT*

ok so I can’t really divulge anything without spoiler alert because its hard not to say anything. It isn’t as incestuous as I thought, Christopher never touches his sister again as she is growing up and none of her children and up being his. The doctor takes them in as he is infatuated by Cathy who is by far a huge tease and she knows it. Carrie is sent away to a boarding school and is consequently tortured by her underdevelopment. Chris studies hard and has tutelage from his benefactor the doctor so he can get thru medical school as quickly as possible. Cathy does become a famous ballerina and fucks the doctor and then in a fit of anger breaks their engagement and marries her dance partner. Julian makes her wish she never had when she finally realizes that she loves him he breaks her toes and then gets himself in a terrible car wreck rendering him unable to ever dance again. Upon hearing this tidbit of news he cuts his iv needle and kills himself. Cathy finally realizes she loves him and then goes to Foxworth Hall and is determined to seduce her mother’s husband and take him away from her. She succeeds and then when she gets pregnant she decides to unveil her plan, looking exactly like her mother 20 years ago she reveals the truth to everyone. Bart Winslow, her mother’s husband, takes her and her mother into the study where the old Grandmother is also waiting and her mother finally cops to all the horrible things she has ever done. Then the mom sets fire to the  house and Winslow dies. Cathy goes back and marries Paul and he dies and she marries Chris. They leave with their two children (one Julian’s the other Winslow’s ). Oh and Carrie dies she also kills herself.

Bitch Please!

This book was sad and pretty good I was annoyed with everyone telling Cathy how desirable she is and how they all pretty much rape her with the exception of Paul who is a gentleman and would never do that. Then there’s the whole brother obsession thing. I don’t know I won’t read the other books in the series they’re too depressing and honestly sometimes she goes overboard with the rape scenes. I think that its half well written and half ridiculous. Cathy is so miserable blaming shit on her mother she just can’t let herself be happy until she destroyed her. You know what I think I would have immediately seen that my mother went to prison and then lived my life in a wholly new way, trying to erase the horrible shit I’d been through. Overall the series wasn’t so bad it was better than some other stuff I’ve read and it was engrossing.

Her Fearful Symmetry

 

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger:

The story revolves around two different sets of twins. The latter twins are 21 years old and haven’t really decided what to do in life or how to go about it. They are content with sitting at home and watching the tube, reading and enjoying each others companies. The other twins are the mothers of the younger twins. Elspeth and Edie are twins who let a horrible secret keep them apart for years. Julia and Valentina are a product of Edie and her husband Jack. While on her deathbed Elspeth bequeaths her apartment and all her worldly belongings to her nieces. So Valentina and Julia make the valiant decision to move to England and inhabit the home of an aunt they never knew. There’s all the side story of the other residents of the building, Robert, Elspeths lover/life mate. Martin and Marijke a couple whom are basically the silver lining of the book. Without them the book would be a dreary history of a cemetery, selfish people and body robbing oh and twin things.

Bitch Please!

This is where the book ends being interesting and begins to get boring because the story seriously starts to get boring. The man upstairs Martin has OCD and he can’t leave his apartment the annoying twin Julia goes to visit him and discovers that she likes him immensely so she keeps going to keep him company. Here’s the thing the guy Robert who was in love with Elspeth is afraid of going to see the twins and avoids them and finally goes to see them and falls in love with Valentina. Remember I had just read Flowers in the Attic so this was the overall theme of the week. Uncles marrying nieces. What I hated most about this book was that Elspeth who was dead came back as a ghost. I wanted the twins to go on an adventure and figure out the dark secret their mother was hiding and then live a fulfilled semi separate life. But Valentina my initial favorite sister turned out to be selfish and stupid. *Spoiler Alert*

Valentina is a fucked up bitch, in her desperate attempt to leave Julia’s side she decides to kill herself with the help of Elspeth’s soul. She deserved to never figure out how to get back into her body because she was selfish. She didn’t care that she was making her parents heart break or that she was going to abandon Julia. I hate Elspeth for knowing beforehand she was never going to let Valentina back into her body and befriending her anyway. I hate that Julia was left alone and sad and couldn’t move on with her life. My favorite part of the book was Julia’s interaction with Martin. I definitely liked the idea of a man living with OCD and aided by a young curious girl who was determined to help him trump his fear and reunite his wife. In fact I vote for Ms. N to take this story and revamp it with different names and then make it a book. It would have been better than what she eventually presented in manuscript. This was really frustrating to read. I didn’t like how it ended, not even how Valentina figured out how to be free. I wish I hadn’t read this before Cather in the Rye and after Flowers in the Attic. Vomit.

Catcher in the Rye

 

Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger:

 

 

I’ve heard about this book about a hundred different ways and I imagined a hundred different scenarios this book could introduce. Therefore I was tremendously unprepared for what I ended up with. The book is about a guy named Holden and his three day journey in New York after he gets kicked out of his prep school. That’s it. Seriously that’s all this “Amazing” novel was all about. A piece of ass rich kid named Holden (what kind of name is that?) who kind of haunts New York.

Bitch Please!

I had so many problems with this book, starting with the premise, the whole idea. This little bitch kid that has some issues and who’s always had some issue applying himself in school, if his retelling of history is to be trusted, gets kicked out and decides to go to New York. Wait, I’m skimping on the details, first he decides to hang out with the guy next door whom he hates and then he hangs out with his roommate whom he thinks is underneath him and shallow. Later he gets jealous and starts a fight. He is jealous this guy is dating a girl he has the hots for but is too big of a pansy to ask out. Then he decides to leave and he heads to New York, signs in to a seedy motel and gets in trouble with a pimp and then he has to pick up the tab for some ugly out of town chicks. Afterwards he decides to call this girl he was seeing for a date the next day but he calls her at midnight. However the girl decides to go out with him and he takes her to a movie, which he purportedly hates to the max but goes about once a week anyway, and then gets mad when she makes friends with a guy. He is a ball of contradictions always saying he hates “phonies” that he really hates “ phonies”. He is probably the biggest fucking phony of them all, he is an expert liar and lets you know this his own opinion of himself and he also hates when people say things twice. Yet he does this particular annoying trait almost the whole fucking book. He is really crazy and if you ask me has way to much money and time on his hands. What he needs is a good fucking scare, a beating or to be put into a fucking public school where he can’t waste any more money. He is always talking about his brother and his sister Phoebe. Why is this book such a big fucking deal, I think its because the kid under all his bullshit wants to be a helpful guy. He wants to be the guy who helps people in short he wants to be a hero but he is all sorts of fucked up. I honestly don’t get the appeal and maybe its one of those books I’d like better if I had read in high school. I doubt it because the whole time I read it I waited for something to happen and nothing happened. Absofuckingloutley nothing super anticlimactic and stupid I didn’t understand what people make all the fuss about. Maybe I’m not as sophisticated or appreciative enough for this kind of work, or maybe I’m right and its fucking stupid. Either way I don’t recommend.

Flowers in the attic

Flowers in the Attic by V.C Andrews

I was kind of prepared for what this book was going to be about. I wasn't prepared for what other stuff would be going down. The book is about four children who are adored by their parents. A very doting dad and a devoted mother. However their world comes crashing down when their father dies. that's when the problems begin. Their mother is a self proclaimed trophy wife who never learned to do anything, she was beautiful she never needed too. She drags her four children to the house she grew up in. The problem is that she has to hide them. The poor children are sent up into a forlorn part of the house and the attic becomes their play area.
Bitch Please!
That's all I want to say about this book in the above *Spoiler Alert*
Ok what they don't tell you is that the mother married her half-uncle, which is super incestuous and when she tells her father she expects him to be ok with this. after he isn't, I mean how would you feel if your brother married your daughter? Ok here's my thing, I have an amazingly wonderful mother who babies me and is quite the charmer. My mom was born to be a mom. She tries to adopt all of my friends, Salinger has already been adopted. Whats my point? My point is that having this kind of mom I could not even for one second understand why the mother of these four children could have sacrificed herself them that way! Astounding her lust for money, its like she was her mothers clone. The Grandmother is set out to be the witch but honestly I think for sure it was the mother. Super Spoiler alert, the mom tries to kill her children and succeeds in killing one. What kind of mother does that! Honestly who fucking does that! I cried when that little one died. It wasn't fair and the mom acted like she did nothing. I hope in the next book her new husband dies and leaves her penniless and her money reverts to her children and then to have her be on the street poor where everyone who knew her and whom she belittled saw her and she would have to rely on the mercy of the children. fuck I just hate her. The book was good even if the main characters were dirty but I guess it wasn't as bad.. ok yes it was.. but still what can they expect?

The Conjuring

The Conjuring was a movie that I had wanted to see when it came out, but never really ha the time for. Yesterday Salinger suggested we go watch it and I was glad we did. We finally saw a good scary movie in a theatre. The premise of this movie a “true story” is about renowned demonologists, Lorainne and Ed Warren who have encountered a family with some nasty ass spirits. The family in question is a big family of seven the mother and father  and five girls. They move into this spacious house in Rhode Island and settle in until they figure that there are some malevolent things hiding their. The family asks the help of these demonologists and so the Warrens go ahead and check the house and find that there is definitely something wrong. Now I won’t spill the beans but I will say that whether or not this movie was based on truth or not it made for good entertainment. I was pleased with being sufficiently rattled and scared. Unlike some other exorcist movies this one was actually pretty good. One thing I have to say is I love it when in the theatre you hear people echoing your own thoughts “Don’t go down there, don’t do it, oh shit she went!”. It was kind of funny and after deciding not to pay for scary movies in theatres I have decided to maybe renew this belief. However I will not be watching Insidious 2. More on that later when I do my Fall Previews.

Mirror, Mirror

Mirror Mirror by Gergory Maguire:

 

 

Mirror, Mirror is a retelling of the Snow White fairytale and the author had set in the early 1500’s and the wicked witch is none other than Lucrezia Borgia. Needless to say it should have been pretty fricking awesome. Alas it wasn’t, it was kind of boring and hard to follow. The dwarves are the hardest thing for me to understand, first their a part of nature, then they begin to morph into humans and, well it gets tiresome to really comprehend where he wants to go with this. As per the story Bianca aka Snow White has no mother and she is the apple of her father’s eye. However he is under the control of the Borgia’s, I mean in those days who wasn’t, and he leaves Bianca in her care, yes crazy selfish Lucrezia Borgia. He is on a quest to find the branch of the tree of life, which if you ask me is dispersed too quickly.

Bitch Please!

This book was so far from what Wicked was that I just can’t comprehend how he got this published in the first place. It is extremely hard to follow whenever the dwarves come and when he writes in seven different voices it with no apparent difference. I was bored throughout the whole story, Bianca is asleep the bulk of the novel and the only interesting part is when Cesare tries to take Bianca and Lucrezia rescues her and then in turn tries to kill her. I don’t know if it was because I read it just after “The Swan Thieves” a work that tells its story through many voices and still manages to be coherent or that the language and logic in “Mirror, Mirror” is lacking in depth. Maybe its that he tried to tie many things together and they just didn’t work. Whatever the case it was pretty lame and I got through mostly because I had already started it and because once I start a book I pretty much have to finish it. I don’t recommend this.

 

The Swan Thieves

The Swan Thieves

 

 

The Swan thieves by Elizabeth Kostova’s second book and it didn’t disappoint. Although it didn’t move me and engulf me like her first novel “The Historian” did, I must say I liked this book a lot. The book revolves around the obsessive and wonderfully gifted genius painter Robert Oliver. He is brilliant and his work is extremely impressive so why is this man in the care of Andre Marlow? A renowned psychiatrist known for having the ability to make even stones talk. Oliver has gone to a museum and nearly destroyed a beautiful painting of Leda and the Swan by Gilbert Thomas. Why would a painter do that? That is how the book begins with Marlow only going on the first words and only words of Robert “I did it for her?”. But who is she? She is Beatrice de Clerval a female painter of the early Impressionism period, little known but clearly a genius with a brush. He paints her as if from memory in many forms. She is his secret muse. Oliver loves her but his love is for the long dead. So it is up to Dr. Marlow to go through Oliver’s history to his past life with his wife, his lover, and then to find out the life of the face perpetually staring from the easel of Robert Oliver.

Bitch Please!

So here’s the thing, the mystery of wanting to find out who this woman was kind of what kept me going into the story in the first couple of pages. I quickly found out that I REALLY didn’t like the main character. To me he seemed to, patronizing and careful. He talks all weird and, and this is weird for me to admit, I could never visualize him as real person. Usually with a book your characters, if they are well written, haunt you and you wish with all your soul that somehow they were real. Like for me it would be Lestat de Lioncourt from Anne Rice’s “Vampire Chronicles”. When I was thirteen after reading “The Vampire Lestat ” for the first time, I longed to see him floating outside my window with that ironic smile and golden hair, befriending me like Louis, Marius and Gretchen the nun (although nothing sexual) or David perhaps (later I made this association when I read “the tale of the Body Thief”). I wanted him to tell me his life story not read it thru through Rice’s voice. It sounds silly but that’s what good writers are supposed to do, make their characters so real you want to be a part of their world. I could go on with books, series that have engulfed me into their fantasy worlds and their characters that mesmerizing and imperfect have beguiled me. That being said, Kostova has failed with her main character to be able to, at least with me, to make that connection. Marlow is just that: a character. He really never comes to life like Oliver, Mary, Kate and especially Beatrice de Clerval. I believe her failing is that Kostova made her main character a man and he sounds like a woman, or more like a woman wrote him. There is nothing manly about him, more of like projections of what a man is supposed to be like. Despite this however I enjoyed the book, it was about 600 pages and it was a bit tedious what with all the painting descriptions and the unceasing descriptions of woods and nature that my inner city girl can’t appreciate fully. I wish that Robert Oliver was real and that I could see his collection of Beatrice de Clerval. That is primordial that you, dear reader, understand she makes you want those images to be real. I googled the image that Robert had supposedly ravaged and no it wasn’t a real painter and yes there it was Leda but I do have to say that the Leda in the painting and Leda in the description are two different things but I’ll let you figure out the differences if you decide to read this book. The story is mesmerizing and sometimes you wonder why some parts are necessary but it is all essential. In the end it all comes together falling into place neatly and clearly just there. Like the Historian the real fun is in trying to fit into place the story you get in pieces and painstakingly through letters. But is in the reveal you get the reward.

 

Man Up!

Man Up! by Ross Matthews:

Firstly let me introduce the author of this book, who doesn’t know it but is my gay soulmate, Ross Matthews. Maybe some of you know him from his work at Jay Leno as the uber cool correspondent or as a regular round table guest on Chelsea Lately. Sometimes he’ll actually host the show too! Or you might know him as the better half of the radio show “he said/ he said” Josh and Ross! Which by the way is super funny. You might read his blog “Hello Ross” or then again you might have read his book “Man up!” . I am guilty of being a fan since I saw him on Chelsea  about 5 years ago. He popped out on the round table and him and his little lady voice made my head spin. If you are not acquainted the photo will maybe help. I was anticipating his book for a really long time. And I was so not disappointed. I rarely read something that isn’t fiction unless it’s a biography. My favorite type of biography is a funny one. I’ve read all of the Chelsea Handler ones (My Horizontal Life, Hello Vodka are you there? It’s me Chelsea., Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, and the latest Lies that Chelsea Handler told me.) I’ve also read the bore fest “you’ll never blue ball in this town again” by Heather McDonald and the  quite depressing (good but super sad) “Life as I blow it” by Sarah Colonna. What Ross has that these two ladies don’t is honestly his gayness.

Bitch Please:

I was amazed that while reading this book I could imagine him reading it to me in his angelic lady like voice. And him pointing certain things out with his index finger the way he does on the round table. Everything about this book was funny, his obsession with Gwenyth Paltrow and the entertainment industry (which I share as well) his love of girls toys when he was a little boy, his run ins with homophobia, his love of tiny dogs and of course his brushes with fame. Now I cannot deny that he is my favorite Red Carpet correspondent and I so wish that one day he would interview me, (I need to hurry up and write a book, star in a movie or record a solo album). The book made me laugh a lot. It also made me think that my dreams can come true. He is leading my path to becoming… whatever it is I decide I want to become. I know at my age I should have that figured out already. I highly recommend everyone read this book as a pick me up or something to lighten the heavy load of literature. 

The Memory Keepers Daughter

The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards :

 

 

 

This one comes with a story. About three weeks ago Salinger and I were on our way back from shopping in weho. On a previous trip I had noticed a library by Pan Pacific Park, for you Angelenos ya’ know what I'm talking about. I was obsessed with the universal movie marathon my sister and I had been watching and here was a chance to rummage through the possible hidden gems of this library. We parked and entered a book sale. To me that’s like saying to a heroin addict, “Free Heroin”. My little heart started racing and my fingers started fluttering, oh the joy of a book sale! I quickly loaded my self with books and settled with six, here they are listed in order of remembrance ; Mirror Mirror, The Swan Theives, The Tale of the Body Thief, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Memory Keepers Daughter and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.” I had already read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Tale of the Body Thief so I don’t have to read those. As for the rest well I have already read two!  Out of the four anyway and considering I got them the same week as I got Affliction and In Cold Blood, well let me just say that its pretty impressive.

So that’s how I cam to have this book in my hands. I had heard about it from different sources, the library catalog had this on recommendation and so did some of the other literary websites I have visited. When I read the back I knew immediately I wanted to read it, it was compelling and even though I decided to read the Lisa See book first I kept drifting to the other. Finally after I finished “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” “In cold blood” and “Affliction” I finally read ‘The Memory Keepers Daughter’. The story starts on a winter’s day in 1964 in which Dr. David Henry delievers his own twins. The boy is healthy and essentially perfect while the surprise child shows the symptoms of having Down Syndromes disease. So he does something so fucked up, he gives his baby daughter to his nurse Caroline Gill and tells her to give her away to an institution. As the years go by Dr. Henry’s wife Norah is slowly growing away from her husband, inwardly pushing him away for not loving or acknowledging the existence of their lost daughter. Paul his son who loves his father also begins to grow away from his father angry and rejected, because he can not rise to his father’s expectations. Meanwhile Caroline keeps the baby runs away and raises the child as her own. Understanding that she will have to fight hard and fight many battles for her daughter to be seen as worthy to attend school and live a semi normal life. Dr. Henry receives a camera from his wife called a “Memory Keeper” and he becomes obsessed with his camera and the parallel universe between nature and the human body. The family that should be perfect, they have everything, money, success, they travel and have many luxuries others do not and still they are miserable. The secret of their Daughter weighing heavily upon David’s shoulders and his guilt takes his toll.

Bitch Please:

I really liked this book and that’s saying something because I could not stand for one minute the name of the Dr’s wife. Norah! God almighty is there a name for a woman so annoying. Norah is so stupid! And it sounds awful when u say it like ‘nugh’ just gross. But I guess it suits the character who is as shit brained as her name suggest. Possibly the #1 annoying character in the book I cant stand her. She is the perfect Susie Homemaker who just could never get over losing her baby girl, which I kind of understand, I mean she lost a child but fuck she just drags that shit for twenty years! I mean the first five were fine but the other 15 were like a lot. I know he should have told her the truth but then we wouldn’t have a story now would we. Paul is a little douchebag like his mother who can’t appreciate shit and even though David made a mistake he always tried to shoulder the brunt of the mistakes and he bore it in stride. I read this book in a day, the language is beautiful and the story is very moving. My one complaint is that their isn’t enough of Phoebe and Caroline Gill and way to much of Norah Henry (that soul sucking slut bag of a bitch). I would recommend this to everyone. The very idea behind David’s photography collection is one I wish was actually real.

 

 

In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote:

This  was the only non-fiction/ non-biographical book I think I have ever read. I just don’t like non-fiction, it makes me slow and I get bored almost immediately. However for some reason, (actually in all honesty it’s probably because I had just seen Sinister and the main character is like a modern Capote except family oriented.)I wanted to read this book. I had actually loved his ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ and his obsession with my girl Marilyn Monroe made me want to read anything of his further. This in mind I went to the library and checked it out, it took me about a week to finish this book, it being only 367 pages I should have finished it a lot sooner. But like I said, non-fiction makes me slow. It was written with a fiction like story, reconstructing the lives and the last days of the Clutters and the trip the killers Hickcock and Smith planned and excuted but by the 290 mark it was all newspaper articles and quotation marks and I was done with it but sheer will forced me to finish it. The story revolves around the murder of four members of the Clutter who were killed, in you guessed it, Cold Blood. The reason for the murder was never known and if it hadn’t been for one cell mate a Mr. Floyd Wells then no one would have ever made the connection. I don’t know if it was the longevity of it or the fact that it all took place in a sleepy agricultural town like Kansas (yawn) that made it so boring. I mean the killers were dumb and unorganized and had really annoying self esteem issues. The only thing I felt was just sorry for the Clutters who were nice outstanding people and didn’t deserve any of that shit.

Bitch Please:

The book actually wasn’t all that bad and im sure I would have liked it better if the killers had been more sinister. However that being said I don’t think id ever read this if I had known how slow it would be or how tedious and boring it would end up. Don’t read this unless you have to, I mean watch the movie, watch Sinister. Its just not worth the effort, it’s long and you can already guess how it ends.

Affliction

Affliction by Laruell K. Hamilton

 This is the twenty something book in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. Ok here’s the thing I honestly love this series. I love how bad ass anita is and even though through the years she has waned a lot in her convictions since book six but I still like her loads. I love her supporting characters her myriad of lovers especially Jean-Claude and Nathaniel. I don’t always love the writing. I don’t always love the defensive stance Anita always takes whenever she goes to the cop station in whatever state Vampire politics or Zombie armies take her. I hate that she always makes it several chapters of “I’m still the scariest bitch in town and even though you think your tough because you’re a man, you’ll never be the biggest BITCH and im the all powerful necromancer. Sex goddess.” If she gave this speech maybe Hamilton could shorten the chapters. That being said, I have toiled through these books since I laid eyes on the twelfth book ‘Cerulean Sins’ and then started from book one and never looked back. Now you may ask whats been the downfall of the series and believe it or not its : SEX. The series started with everyone else having sex but Anita. Then she started having sex somewhere in book four but it still wasn’t that bad because she (Hamilton) was a newbie and therefore apprehensive on the subject of sex in her novels, however as Anita’s appetite grew so did Hamilton’s. In book six she finally gave in to Jean Claude’s advances. After six long fucking years they have sex. I wish that was the end of it almost immediately she is having sex with a whole bunch of people, Richard and .. ok honestly Ive forgotten most of them let me think about this: Jason (werewolf) Micah, Nathaniel (wereleopards) Nicky(werelion), Damien (vampire), Asher, Requiem, Wicked, Truth, (vampires) there was Cookie Monster (but she killed him) oh and Mephistophiles although I have forgotten what he is already. Honestly you know that’s quite a full bed and she has been collecting lovers for quite sometime but this is why sex makes a series a downfall. As an avid reader I start forgetting names and sex details because they happen as often as every other chapter eliminating and robbing time from what I am really after, VIOLENCE! After all I came to love the bad ass chick who wasn’t all powerful and who battled monsters at her human pace and still won. This chick with her powers coming from her vagina and killing monsters left to right easily is not my cup of tea. This is why after book fifteen ‘The Harlequin’ I was less enthused to keep going but I did, year after year I checked out the new books from the library and year after year I kept getting disappointed. The last two books Flirt and Bullet were pathetic attempts to keep the franchise going. Then she goes off and kills her number #1 nemesis. Call me crazy but that’s highly anti-climactic. Now who the fuck is she gonna beat up on? So excuse me for sounding all jaded when ‘Affliction’ plopped into my lap and I was skeptical about the quality of it. However I was happily appeased. The book was not terrible and not full of sex, in fact this one was downright romantic, a little to romantic for my tastes but nice change of pace. I’m sad that it took her too fucking long to fix the fuck out of the necromancer,  I mean Hamilton killed seven people while she figured out when the timing was right for Anita to kill the Marmee Noir human vessel (think Harry Potter as a horcrux). I mean I figured right as soon as she said rampaging zombies the thing to do was for Anita to raise an Army of the undead. Nothing about it was special except that it was a throwback to old Anita and I take it as a sign she is going to start writing more violence and less sex. My advice? Read it if you’ve read more than half the series, don’t bother if your still on book ten and under.. read until book ‘Incubus Dreams’ and send in your cease and desist letters.