Where can I plug in my car?

Sure, gas stations are everywhere but what if you've decided to go green? The thought of making a long drive in an non-hybrid EV can seem a bit dicey - what if you run out of juice? (This exact problem faced a friend recently so it's been on my mind ...) Problem solved: Plugshare.com. It's a database of EV charging stations and there's a whole lot more of them than I realized. And yup, PlugShare makes an app.

Now let's stop a moment and collectively drool over that sleek Tesla Roadster.

Tampa Revisited

A number of people have asked me, "When are you going to post your review of Tampa?" Tampa is the new book I wrote about earlier this summer here.

Now, I want to preface this by saying that I had read numerous reviews of the book prior to buying a copy and had become almost afraid that reading it was going to permanently scar me psychologically.

I can laugh about this now, as nothing is further from the truth.

For the first ten pages or so, I would read a couple of paragraphs, stop, go back and have to re-read them to confirm that I had, in fact, just read what I thought. Why? Because this book goes from zero to smutty in a blink - right from the first sentence. And by smutty, I mean sexually frank and confessional.

I was attracted to the book in the first place really just out of curiosity - hoping to read about a sexually-carnivorous character. The book felt a bit like a character study. Tight prose and plot, no superfluous scenes, a bit of humor here or there and a very, very quick read. We learn little else about the life of the pedophile (aka Celeste Price) but delve into her mind - her one-tracked mind focused on pre-pubescent boys.

And while I consider a person's pursuit of sex a matter of empowerment and remaining grounded with nature, Celeste is different. Not only because of her preference for kids, but her completely selfish, ruthless, predatory actions.

I feared there would be pages and pages of graphic sex scenes that would make my stomach turn. But I skipped just a page or two at one particular point - because I really just didn't want to know what she was doing to that kid.

To conclude, I was interested in reading a sexually-carnivorous tale but instead found a sexually-predatory one. It made me cringe, feel even more protective of kids, disgusted with the main character but not scarred for having read it.

As I said in my earlier post, I applaud the bravado of the author for writing about such a volatile topic. And do I recommend the book? Absolutely, yes. It's unlike ANYTHING I've ever read before.