Diapora Dialogues

Diapora Dialogues Features Young Writers - Photo Courtesy of Dreamstime.com

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

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Young Writers from the Edge
Join us this March as high school students in Etobicoke, Danforth-Crescent Town, Jamestown and Malvern present their brand new creative writing at reading events in their neighbourhoods.

In Young Writers from the Edge, Diaspora Dialogues’ youth writing program, students work with professional mentors to develop their writing skills in three different forms, including fiction, drama, poetry, graphic novel, and journalism.

Based on the work developed through these workshops, the youth will present their pieces alongside their mentors at a celebratory reading event. Don’t miss the chance to hear our city’s freshest emerging writers!

For more information, contact Julia at 416-944-1101 x 277 or julia@diasporadialogues.com.

Young Writers from the Etobicoke Edge
Presented in partnership with Lakeshore Arts and Toronto Cultural Services
When: Thursday, March 4th, 2010 – 6 pm
Students from: Father John Redmond CSS and Lakeshore CI
Mentors: Julie Tepperman, Emily Pohl-Weary, Kerri Sakamoto, Isaac Thomas, Melissa Dean
Where: The Assembly Hall – 1 Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive (SE corner of Kipling Ave and Lake Shore Blvd W)

Young Writers from the Danforth-Crescent Town Edge
Presented in partnership with S Walter Stewart Branch
When: Friday, March 5th, 2010 – 6 pm
Students from: East York CI and Danforth CI
Mentors: Emily Pohl Weary, Catherine Graham, Diana Tso, Lauren Kirshner and Nicholas Keung
Where: S Walter Stewart Branch Library – 170 Memorial Park Avenue (Danforth and Coxwell)

Young Writers from the Jamestown Edge
Presented in partnership with Albion District Branch
When: Saturday, March 6th, 2010 – 6 pm
Students from: North Albion CI, Kipling CI, Thistletown CI, and Monsignor Percy Johnson CHS
Mentors: Andrea Thompson, Andrew Mitrovica, Philip Adams and Greg Beettam
Where: Albion District Branch Library – 1515 Albion Road (Albion and Kipling)

Young Writers from the Malvern Edge
Presented in partnership with Malvern Branch
When: Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 – 6 pm
Students from: Lester B Pearson CI and Blessed Mother Teresa CSS
Mentors: Julie Tepperman, Ibi Kaslik and Tory Woollcott
Where: Malvern Branch Library – 30 Sewells Road (Neilson and Sheppard Ave E)

Diaspora Dialogues is supported by Maytree, Canadian Heritage, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, the George Cedric Metcalf Foundation, TO Live With Culture, and the Vital Toronto Fund through the Toronto Community Foundation.

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Diaspora Dialogues
170 Bloor Street West, Suite 804
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
M5S 1T9

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Book haunt

If the world lacked bookstores, I have every reason to think that this human race will be deprived of imagination, character and clarity.

Through books, we are drawn to its characters, plots, suspense, thriller and conclusion which seals our anticipation. Add pre-loved bookstores and there’s more excitement at hand to any book lovers and eager book hunter like me.

I’ve always been a regular at  pre-loved bookstores. Salvos, Vinnies, garage sales, small Ops shops operated by churches and the spread of quaint pre-loved bookstores has taken my fancy. I recently came across Owl, a well stocked pre-loved bookstore at Archer St, along O’Connell St in North Adelaide, and instantly fell in love. With an inviting bohemian reading room, a chaise lounge and an antique fireplace, it provides a calm and reflective background as you hover over rows and rows of books.

I came across some bargains and picked up three books for under $4, plus another at $8. A steal indeed!

The Diary of a Married Call Girl by Tracy Quan follows a stream of journal entries of a married woman, Nancy, who’s living it big but falls into the darker side of frolic and sharing her body with other men, other than her rightful spouse. Am looking forward to reading Nancy’s vivid and humorous notes to her diary.

Love takes you Home by Julie Capaldo, embraces 13 delicious meals and recipes retold in wonderful snippets of Grace Sabato pilgrimage in soughting  life’s beauty and experiences which starts from the kitchen. This one should offer food to my soul, and no doubt I shall devour this with a big bite!

I got The String by Morris Lurie as I thought it would be a good read for my young sons when they can appreciate a short novel in a few years time. Morris wax lyrical of fatherhood, friendship, grief and love via eleven linked stories.

My favourite read so far and I haven’t finished this read is Preethi Nair’s One Hundred Shades of White. Satchin and Maya, siblings, lives are changed dramatically when they move from India to London, only to discover later that their father’s dad has left them penniless in an alien culture. As they struggle to keep it together, the children are kept in the dark of their father’s other double life. He is in fact alive, and with another family of his own. I will share my review at my soonest and cannot wait to share this riveting plot to all.

Enjoy some photos of my finds from Owl bookstore and I managed to snap some pixs from Owl too.

Till then, I hope you untap some hidden bookstores wherever you may be. Happy reading! xx

[Via http://mumbees.wordpress.com]

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski

Parts of this book, I loved and other parts, I really disliked. The writing is incredible when it describes Edgar’s relationship with his family’s dogs. So poignant and believable! However, I found the ghost element of the story unbelievable. All and all, it’s an enjoyable read and probably a must for dog-lovers. The book really redeems itself by not analyzing the villain. You get to do that all on your own.

Book Bitch says: It’s decent, but not worth all of the hype

[Via http://bookbitchsays.wordpress.com]

Book review: The Last Theorem, by Arthur C Clarke and Frederik Pohl

The Last Theorem.

By Arthur C Clarke and Frederik Pohl, HarperVoyager, €22

Published in The Sunday Business Post on August 31st, 2008, reviewed by Alex Meehan

It’s always tempting to address a writer’s body of work through their most recently published book, and never more so than when the writer in question has recently passed on.

Arthur C Clarke died in March this year aged 90, having started The Last Theorem in 2002.Unable to finish it due to his ailing health, he invited fellow science fiction heavyweight Frederik Pohl to complete the book, although he apparently read and approved the finished draft just a few days before his death.

However, it would be a real shame if this massively influential author’s legacy as a futurist and writer hinged on this final novel.

The Last Theorem tells the story of Sri Lankan protagonist Ranjit Subramanian and his obsession with Pierre de Fermat’s infamous mathematical theorem. In real life, Fermat’s last theorem went unproven for 357 years until 1995, when Andrew Wiles published a proof.

In Clarke and Pohl’s novel, the story begins by introducing Ranjit as the son of a Hindu priest and a student in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo. He is obsessed with maths and astronomy, and when he is caught in a compromising situation with his best friend Gamini Bandara, his father disapproves, not because Gamini is male, but rather because he is of the wrong social class.

As a result, Ranjit is temporarily disowned by his family and, in a bizarre twist of events, is kidnapped by pirates and held captive for several months. With nothing to do except think about maths, he hits upon a solution to his life’s obsession – Fermat’s last theorem.

When he’s released and the proof is published, Ranjit is catapulted into a position of global recognition. As a result of his new found fame, he comes into contact with representatives of a shadowy international organisation, Pax per Fidem (Peace through Transparency), keen to recruit his services as a mathematician.
Click Here!

Ranjit can initially find out little about this group until an overnight military attack on North Korea brings them into the light of public scrutiny. Pax per Fidem is the guardian of a new super weapon held in common by the largest of Earth’s nations – silent thunder.

Based on electromagnetic pulse technology, the weapon destroys all electrical devices for hundreds of miles in every direction but leaves people unharmed. When North Korea is effectively neutralised as a nuclear threat, a new period of peace arrives as rogue nations around the world are rendered impotent.

However, unbeknown to the people of Earth, a race of overlord beings known as the Grand Galactics have had their attention drawn to Earth by the unmistakable trace signatures of nuclear explosions.

The book follows Ranjit throughout his life from youth to old age, taking in his involvement in the new world order that emerges as a result of the use of silent thunder, as well as his marriage and subsequent children.

However, the characters around Ranjit are not well fleshed out and, as a result, it’s hard to stay truly immersed in the story.

The Last Theorem is an imaginative and challenging book, but many of its ideas and themes will already be well known to Clarke’s fans. Most, such as the use of space elevators and the question of man’s place in a wider universe likely to have intelligent life, have been dealt with before in previous works, most notably in Fountains of Paradise, Childhood’s End and the hugely influential 2001: A Space Odyssey.

What this book does very well is to take some fascinating science and maths, and make them intelligible. It’s just a shame the story doesn’t carry its technological payload a bit more proficiently.

[Via http://yamabiko.wordpress.com]

Julia Duin's Days of Fire and Glory book review

Julia Duin, an assistant religion editor for the Washington Times has written a very interesting account of the influential Houston Charismatic Episcopal church, Church of the Redeemer. She builds on first hand knowledge and close to 150 members who were parishioners. The story pivots around the church’s rector Graham Pulkingham. The bare facts of what happened to Graham are not new. After two decades of influence in Charismatic and Evangelical circles as an author, speaker, and bible teacher, Graham admitted to having seduced many of his male coworkers. As the person who finally got Graham to admit what he’d done, Julia broke the story to the larger news media. Her book, Days of Fire and Glory: The Rise and Fall of a Charismatic Community, is a biographical narrative whose primary interest seeks an answer to the question: “How could things go so wrong at Redeemer?”

Set alongside other communal biographies, Julia Duin’s research is equally detailed, chronological, including everything from where the money came from and went to how time was spent among members on a daily basis. Her very vivid use of word pictures to describe a given setting really draw you into each moment. Her description of the workings of communal households is especially inviting. Redeemer’s household style, where a particular nuclear family would take in singles to live with them and be cared for, was adopted by Reba Place Fellowship in Evanston, IL. The book uses interviews from so many different families that it can get rather cumbersome to remember all the names and situations involved. Days of Fire and Glory references and builds on the five books written during the 1970s by Graham and Betty Pulkingham and Michael Harper.

The book’s weaknesses are found simply in its being a biography as deconstruction. Duin mirrors the fast changes at Redeemer with those of the larger Charismatic movement. As a religion editor during the many scandals and moral failures among Charismatic leadership beginning with the Shepherding Movement and into the early 1990s, she writes of Redeemer in reference to larger trends. But the further she gets from first person accounts, the more subjective her reporting becomes. Her narrative tries to weave seamlessly between communities in different places: Redeemer in Houston, Woodlawn in Colorado, Word of God in Ann Arbor, and Celebration in Scotland. She looks for abuses in leadership, suffering members, or a general lack of spiritual power. But if hard pressed, many of the stories she alludes to might seem incidental if kept separate and her perspective anecdotal. Charismatic communities live or die by their sense of identity in the worship and teaching, their sense of mutual calling and their commitment to the story they’re living. It’s clear that each of these different communities in her story have similarities, but with different membership they are also very distinct. She looked for a common sickness infecting the whole. This is where her narrative is much more about deconstruction and less about the people and stories themselves.

There are several things that really unnerve me about Duin’s approach in this book. The first concerns the importance of the gift of prophecy to direct the future of the communities. Of equal importance is spiritual discernment. Taken together we see the development of some kind of spiritual sixth sense. If church leaders and members are both tuned into the life of the spirit, everything falls into place. The future of the church is assured. God’s protection will cover everyone from all harm, no one will fall into sin and everyone will be one big happy family full of the Holy Spirit’s power. The power and influence will continue to increase and spread the world over. As I read the book I get the feeling that this is what the author and members were expecting to come of their worship and common life. She is constantly taking the church’s spiritual pulse in her expectation that things will just pull back in line and they’ll all be one happy family again.

Of course there are some other assumptions as well. Part in parcel to the Spirit’s infilling comes a conservative doctrinal and political worldview. She points out everything that smacks of a politics reflecting Graham Pulkingham’s liberal period before the infilling. That period where he smoked cigarettes and tried to change the neighborhood out of liberal altruism. These political allusions are few and far enough between to keep from belaboring the point, but she makes it clear—Spirit filled Christians are conservative. Backslidden ones go all liberal again. This is just as narrow and devoid of political imagination as it sounds.

What’s taken as a given is Duin’s own ability to know where God is moving and when things are dead or dying. Of chief importance is evidence of an impact. Long after Graham Pulkingham had left Redeemer and had settled in Aliquippa Pennsylvania with the Community of Celebration she is assessing their impact in the early 1990’s:

“The community still envisioned itself as a group of poor believers, living in the neighborhood and challenging the larger political and social structure for change, but it was questionable whether such laudable things had made a dent in Aliquippa. After five years there, they had not made nearly the impact that Redeemer had made in Houston in the five years after Graham’s baptism in the Spirit. Instead, the community seemed more shell-shocked by Aliquippa’s daunting challenges and the need to constantly protect themselves. Graham and his community, I realized, did not have the spiritual power to make changes. They were the same actors with a similar script, but 25 years had made all the difference in the world.” (Pg. 269)

Excuse me, but I just have to ask where she lays claim to the authority to say where God is working and where He is not? I mean, let’s think about this. When I die I would hope that there would be family and friends there who could say, “This man loved God and his family. He served the church and was used by God.” This is every Christian’s greatest hope right? But who gets to go further than that and say x number of people’s lives were forever changed because of his impact? Who before God gets to say I have or don’t have the spiritual power to change anything?

There are a number of things that break my heart about Graham Pulkingham’s teaching recounted in the book, and much of the teaching in the Charismatic and Jesus Movement circles he moved in. The first is that they were preaching community. Now I’ve lived in two different Charismatic communities and I’m still close to both of them. But to my knowledge, neither of these preached community as some sort of special spiritual endowment. The leadership sought out the writings of other communities that had been at it quite a bit longer and learned that community is simply not for everyone, and we don’t get some special favor from God for living in it. We’re certainly not more spiritual for living in community.

But more than that, what Graham and the other leaders and families at Redeemer experienced in the early years of the Spirit’s power seemed to cause them to want more power and not necessarily more love. They wanted more of the worship experiences, the healings, the new converts, and these things didn’t necessarily strengthen their marriages, their families, or even their social skills. What we’re left with is a great sense of loss.

It’s a book of great sadness, shattered hopes, and broken relationships in the midst of great yearning. In the end she writes:

“Graham was right. It was community that made Redeemer and other powerful charismatic fellowships across the country what they were; it was community that allowed the Holy Spirit to move so quickly; it was community that birthed the music and the worship, that encouraged the spiritual gifts, that created an indefinable quality of love that drew thousands to Houston, that caused millions to read the books and listen to the music. People there gave generously because they had been loved generously by God, so much like the Christians who, 2000 years earlier, gave away all they had to gain Christ. It was a sacrificing community that made love so real to so many, that rescued the neighborhood for a brief few decades, that drew in the lost and unwanted. This is not the conclusion I expected to find, but a reporter’s job is to tell the truth. My task is done, and here you see it complete.” (pg. 318)

My only response to this is that community is not some special place that we dream about but that only comes in heaven. Community happens where we work for it. It’s not always the place we want to be. In my case it was where I was born, not what I chose initially. It’s full of many impossible people who without the love of Christ we would never choose to live with. Most importantly, Christian community does not belong to us.  Serving Jesus involves laying down our visions of what the outcome of our efforts will look like.  This is perhaps what is most difficult in the best of communities, where leaders don’t lie and cover up sexual sin and deceive their parishioners. How can we not have expectations when we put so much time and money and attention into our little projects, which we’re so certain are blessed of God? Attempts to shape people into our image will fail or God willing should hopefully fail soon. A lot can be learned from Julia Duin’s work. It is sad that so much heartbreak went into this story and that in the end Duin’s own relationship with the Community of Celebration is broken.

I keep thinking about all the failed expectations for the many white upwardly mobile Houstonians who sold everything in order to buy dilapidated houses in Redeemer’s neighborhood. Communities are rarely formed from so many professional elites. They all came looking for something. They wanted to bring God glory the way they knew how. That meant making a name for themselves: writing books, hymns, and influencing the world over. It all happened so fast, and as I look back at it I can’t help but think why should their dream succeed? Everything I know of God is that the first things that get sacrificed along with money and time are my expectations. I get hurt the most when I’m going to write that great book for God, knock them dead with my preaching, or simply say the exact “right” thing in the wrong spirit at the wrong time.

Finally, I think it’s important to realize that we never know the whole story where people are concerned. Every person entering community remains their own individual while they are there, with their own perspectives and spin on what goes down at a given time. There are many others who were at Redeemer or are now maybe at Celebration who would tell their story very differently. In so far as Julia Duin stuck to the facts that she received from her interviews and sources, her story is a valuable witness for us today. I dare say many other communities from the same era, Charismatic or not, are now passing from memory without anyone to tell their story. If you have an interest in communal narratives pick up a copy of Julia Duin’s book Days of Fire and Glory: The Rise and Fall of a Charismatic Community.

[Via http://justthischris.wordpress.com]

Dominican Sisters Office Book

As I noted yesterday, I received my Dominican breviaries. I have decided to ease myself in by using “The Dominican Sisters Office Book” and then graduating at some point in the future to the Breviarium S. O. P. (Breviarium juxta Sacri Ordinis Praedicatorum)

Having used the Benedictine (Monastic) Breviary for a long time, transitioning was not difficult for me. In many ways, learning to use any breviary is like learning to ride a bicycle. After one has mastered the basics and the rubrics, then one is ready to ride down the road. When switching bicycles, one merely has to re-examine the bike for its own particular peculiarities and the rest is taken care of.

The Dominican Sisters Office Book is one of a series of short breviaries that were published throughout the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe and the United States. Geared towards Dominican teaching and nursing sisters, in particular, the Office Book consists of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary as well as numerous other prayers and devotions (the Ordinary of the Mass, the Most Holy Rosary, litanies in honor of Dominican saints, etc.).

The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary in this breviary is similar to what one would find in the Baronius Press edition. However, there are some variations. For example, the Baronius Press Little Office is divided into three different seasons (Advent, Christmas, and Purification to Advent) and includes full Lauds and Vespers for these season. The Office Book does not go to such great lengths. The editors have only included the proper prayers and antiphons for those particular season.

Another difference is that the Dominican Divine Office is generally longer than what would find in the Baronius Press edition. The reason for this is that the Dominican Order adapted many things from the Praemonstratensians, Benedictines, and monastic communities that were active at the time St. Dominic founded them. One example of this is a series of prayers that are read immediately after Lauds and Vespers.  In the main they ask for the intercession of St. Dominic, the Dominican saints and blesseds, and for Our Lord to grant us peace.

Another difference is to be found at the end of Compline where the final antiphons would be. The Dominicans only recite the Salve Regina and that in a procession.

Also, the distribution of the psalms is different as is the wording of certain hymns. However, I view these as variations on a theme and not strictly as departures from what the original Little Office. After all, it has been adapted by all kinds of congregations for their own specific needs over the centuries beginning with the Carthusians.

One of the best things about the Office Book is that it has a calendar of Dominican saints and blesseds as well as their proper antiphons and prayers which one adds after the proper prayers of Lauds and Vespers. I find that this will be a useful tool for me as I learn about the great heroes and heroines of St. Dominic’s family.

The Dominican Sisters Office Book is an exceedingly rare publication. It appears on ebay from time to time, but it is not generally available and can go for extremely steep prices depending on its condition. I found mine in a dusty box at a former seminary library, but that was more luck than anything else.

[Via http://brotherjuniperonline.com]

Monday Children’s Book Reviews for February 22

The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My by Tove Jansson

“In a delightful, curious game of what comes next, Moomintroll travels through the woods to get home with milk for Moominmamma. A simple trip turns into a colorful adventure as Moomintroll meets Mymble, who has lost her sister, Little My. Along the way, they endure the hijinks of all the charming characters of the Moomin world, including the Fillijonks and Hattifatteners. Will Moomintroll ever make it home safe and sound? First published in 1952, the late Jansson’s first picture book to feature the Moomins returns with its droll, rhyming text and singular characters intact.”         [JPB JANSSON]

The Time Quake: Being the Third Part of the Gideon Trilogy by Linda Buckley-Archer

“Abducted to 1763, Peter Schock and Kate Dyer begin to understand that history has reached a tipping point. The antigravity machine is in the hands of the cruel and ambitious Lord Luxon — who has set his sights on the most valuable prize of all: America. He is determined to manipulate time to his advantage, no matter what the cost.

And the cost is great indeed. As Lord Luxon changes more and more of the past for his own gain, terrible time quakes begin to sweep through all of history. Kate Dyer, adrift in time and suffering from an overexposure to time travel, knows that if Lord Luxon is not stopped, the time quakes will tear the universe apart.

Meanwhile Gideon and Peter hunt for their enemy, the Tar Man, in the dark streets of eighteenth-century London, and Peter begins to realize that he may hold the fate of the world in his hands.

The stunning conclusion to the critically acclaimed Gideon trilogy finally reveals the fates of Peter, Kate, Gideon, and the universe itself. This long-awaited book lives up to the promise of Gideon the Cutpurse and The Time Thief, delivering a rousing historical adventure that will have readers of all ages on the edge of their seats.”     [J BUCKLEY-ARCHER]

Guinness World Records 2010: The Book of the Decade

“Guinness World Records 2010 continues to build on the intriguing, informative, inspiring and instructional records and superlatives that have made Guinness World Records one of the most famous brands and an annual best-seller around the world. Over 100 million copies have sold since the first edition was published in 1955. Nearly 4 million copies are sold every year in more than 100 countries and in 25 languages.

What’s new in GWR10?…

- Free downloadable content, including videos, photographs, screensavers and interviews – 100% new photographs and fully updated records – Brilliant new “steampunk” graphic novel design – New sections and record threads celebrating the first decade of the 21st century – Top 50 Records of the Decade – Record of the Day – one for every day of the year – Unbreakable Records (those that will seemingly never be broken) – Lasts (records such as the last living survivor of the Titanic disaster, or the last known dodo) – The Name’s Bond (celebrating the James Bond phenomenon) – Culture Shock (unusual rituals and festivals around the globe) – Gold (the commodity that never loses its luster) – Updated gazetteer sections covering records in all major regions of the world – Fully updated regular sections, including Space, Planet Earth, The Animal Planet, The Body, Human Achievements, Engineering and Technology, The Modern World, Arts and the Media and, of course, Sports.”         [J032  GUINNESS 2010]

 

[Via http://unioncitylibrary.wordpress.com]

Fun Books You Might Have Missed -- The Keeper of the Grail (The Youngest Templar, Book 1)

Every now and then someone comes into the store and wants something for that kid who’s read everything.  You know the kind — the kid that says “read it” to literally every book you can think of, and then some.

I like those kids.

Not only are they reading (always a plus), it forces me to think outside of my usual selling box and come up with some fun, but lesser known titles, and it occurred to me that you, Dear Reader, might be interested in these books too.

So, I present my “Fun Books You Might Have Missed” Series where I and the other fabulous folk in the children’s book department here at BookPeople will tell you about some great kids’ books you may have overlooked in the past.

And, the next time you want a recommendation, you can click on the “Fun Books You Might Have Missed” Category Link and see all the books we’ve recommended.

To get us started this week, I chose The Keeper of the Grail (The Youngest Templar, Book 1).

In this fun book, young squire Tristan is given one of the holiest relics of Christendom, the Grail, by his master just before the fall of Acre.  Forced to flee the land and try to get the Grail back to Scotland, Tristan is befriended along the way by one of King Richard’s archers (named Robard Hode) and Maryam, a Saracen Al Hashshashin (or assassin).  And no, his friend’s names are not a coincidence.

The book is action packed with battles, journeys, and plenty of brushes with death.  Most historical novels don’t seem to be written to appeal to boys, but there is more than enough adventure for even the most reluctant of readers.  It’s also a fairly fast read, perfect for a rainy afternoon.  Best of all Book 2 is already out, and the final book will release in October, so you won’t have to wait long to find out how it all ends.

[Via http://kidsblog.bookpeople.com]

Infinite Field Book Club

For the past several months, I have been contemplating starting a book club for The Infinite Field Magazine. I will be honest that I was pretty reluctant in the beginning to even have book reviews in the magazine. Blame it on the…Terri Lee-Johnson got me into this…It was ALL her idea! LOL!

It’s several months later since we started the doing book reviews and this section really has added so much to the magazine. It’s given us a way to connect with so many wonderful authors and truly opened the door for some pretty amazing opportunities. You guys, TIFM readers, are avid readers and highly intellectually evolved beings so it’s really quite intuitive for us to have book reviews each month and to begin a book club. And it has been our pleasure to share books with you that are spiritually relevant and ground breaking in their subject matter and have a unique yet strong audience appeal.

I feel like it’s time for TIFM readers to connect with the author and the books that we review.  A LIVE book club event would definitely give us the opportunity to spend time with the author and to ask some of our deepest and most nagging questions!  Who’s book have you read recently that after reading it you thought to yourself, “If I could ask the author one question, it would be…” Well, the Infinite Field Book Club would give you, the reader, the chance to do just that!  To me, it’s the CHANCE OF A LIFETIME…

So I have been searching for an author who would be our first book club participant. I’ve got a laundry list of items that I think our first book club pick should BE in order to really have an impact and connection with TIFM readers. The book and author should be “visionary” in nature, compelling, strong read, and simply interesting. So I’m on the hunt for a book for our first book club meeting, but not just any book. I’m looking for something SPECTACULAR!

I’m on the hunt and I’ll keep you posted so stay connected!

If you got some ideas about what and/or who the FIRST TIFM book club pick should be, leave your comment below!  I NEED to hear from YOU!

Namaste

[Via http://infinitefieldnews.wordpress.com]

New Books of the Moment

Here are two excellent books that were just reviewed by us, the helpful staff at Unabridged.

Stefan had this to say about …  ABOUT A MOUNTAIN by John D’Agata

D’Agata crafts a stylish and circuitous investigation of the controversial government plan to store our nation’s nuclear waste inside of Yucca Mountain to illuminate the state of the modern metropolitan area. The prose whips by in a series of montages that affect a sublime, lucid quality that skilfully interweaves many desperate sources to tell the overarching story. There is a lot going on here, but D’Agata never lets the material consume the moment. Stefan loved, loved, loved! This book.

Shane read/loved/and recommends SHADOW TAG by Louise Erdrich. He said:

What initially attracted me to Erdrich’s novel was not the plot, but rather the format in which the book is written. Shadow Tag alternates between excerpts from two diaries (one fake and one real) and third-person narration. The idea of keeping a manipulative fake diary (that you know your spouse is secretly reading) fascinated and disturbed me. And Shadow Tag did fascinate and disturb me – from beginning to end. Ultimate, it is about the collapse of a marriage and family. but with powerful imagery and engaging prose, Shadow Tag is a highly original tale, leaving the reader with profound insights into sex, love, and power. Some readers may be put off by the unlikable characters and bleak subject matter, but it is worth the plunge. Intense, poetic, chilling, raw and fearless – I really cannot recommend this unforgettable novel enough!

They are, of course, available for your pleasure. Stop by today to chat about them or, you know, whatever. Just not about squirrels. We are not currently fans of squirrels.

[Via http://unabridgedbookstore.wordpress.com]

A Lesson in Murder - Augustus Cileone, Author

A Lesson in Murder – Review by Martha A. Cheves, Author of Stir, Laugh, Repeat

‘George Wheeler sat in the driver’s seat, looking as lifeless as the car in which he was sitting. On the seat next to him, was a stuffed animal which looked like Walt Disney’s Pluto. A large, flat, hardback book lay open in his lap. Wheeler’s usual black horn-rimmed glasses had been replaced with large, bright yellow-framed spectacles. Barnum again peered in the window quickly. Wheeler’s tan, healthy-looking face had been smeared with what appeared to be charcoal ashes.’

George Wheeler usually met with his advertising agent at 6:30 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for their jogs in the park. During this time, Wheeler who was in the pharmaceutical business would pitch ideas to Barnum as they ran. But as Barnum soon found out, Wheeler had performed his last job and pitched his last idea. Someone had murdered him.

Maxwell Hunter is an English teacher for Eastern Friends School in Pennsylvania. Eastern Friends School (EFS) was originally a private school for the wealthy but had started adding a few students, through grants, that were exceptionally intelligent. Hunter has a passion for mystery solving and is a stickler for details. That and Hunter’s familiarity with the people involved prompted Lt. Frank DiSalvo to ask Hunter for his help in solving the murder of George Wheeler. But, as it turns out, Wheeler wasn’t the only one to be murdered and each murder is in some way connected with the school.

As I read A Lesson in Murder I found myself second guessing my own ideas as to who the killer was. And I have to say that I was surprised with the ending. I had several suspects in mind but never really narrowed it down to one. I really enjoyed reading A Lesson in Murder and recommend it to anyone who would like a quick read mystery.

1st Edition 2007
Oak Tree Press
185 pages
ISBN 978-1-892343-03-1

[Via http://yvonnemason.wordpress.com]

The Idea of Communism, by Tariq Ali

It’s been a really long time since I’ve written a book review and I just finished reading this book, so I thought what better time to write a review.  I understand my reviews don’t follow the standard format.  I’m really just doing this to get the word out there.  To pass on some information.  I try to read as much as I can, but don’t do it as much as I would like.  I was just in San Francisco and happened to stop by a bookstore that I like.  I had been there a few times when I was living in the SF Bay Area.  I happen to be in the neighborhood and decided to stop in.  The place is called Dog Eared Books.  It’s a really cool place, that I like.  It’s pretty small, but has a big enough selection on history, politics and other social sciences to keep me interested.  I think if it was too big I would just wander around too much.  The other cool thing is that they have used books and some are almost new, but for a discounted price.

So anyways, I was in the place and ended up buying three books that I haven’t read.  I will write more on those when I finish reading them.  I read this one first, because it was the smallest one of the three and because I’m most interested in the subject.

I feel like I have heard of the author, Tariq Ali before, but have never read any of his work.  The cover artwork and subject is what first drew my attention to the book.  It is a wonderful book to handle if you ever see it.  It’s a small hard cover book with great cover art.  It was interesting because you could fit it in your back pocket and take it with you with no problems.  The problem with that is the text is so damn small.  So you gotta have good lighting when reading this book.

To be honest, I was disappointed with the book.  If your looking to learn about communism, this is not the book for you.  According to the author this was an essay that a publisher insisted he write on the subject.  So it’s not an explanatory text.  I was hoping I could come away with a deeper understanding of Communism and Marxism and that wasn’t the case.  This text is designed more for the person who already knows a lot about Marxism and Communism.  It gets more into the history and geopolitics of Communism.  He gives more of his insights into how and why Communism transpired the way it did in Europe and China.  He touches on Latin America.  I didn’t really get too much out of this book.  Perhaps if I knew more about the history and geopolitics of European communism than I would have enjoyed this book more.

Again, not for the beginner.  If you are interested in learning more about communism, socialism and/or Marxism there are plenty of other text and websites out there.

One of my favorites is by Marx for beginners by Ruis.  O.k. so it’s illustrated, but it’s for beginners, so it’s not intimidating and it’s fun to read.  What better way to start off learning about a subject.  There is always the PSL page also, we have short articles on various subjects and answers to many questions about socialism.  Just click on the following link Marxism 101

[Via http://nativejourney.wordpress.com]

Book Review: Ted Dekker's Tea With Hezbollah (co-written with Carl Medearis)

Let me say right from the beginning—I am a huge fan of Ted Dekker’s works of fiction.  I was unsure of what to expect from this book, though, as it is the first non-fiction work of his that I have read.  I was not disappointed.

Tea With Hezbollah focuses on the central teaching of Jesus that one ought to love their neighbors, including their enemies, as they love themselves.  This is a teaching that Jews, Christians and Muslims alike would acknowledge as beneficial, but it is also a teaching that all of us have failed to live out—both in our everyday lives and in the situation in the Middle East.  In part, Dekker seeks to understand what it might mean to live out this teaching, and why it is hard to do so.

Dekker and Medearis take the reader along for the ride as they travel through the Middle East from country to country, as they have tea and interview religious and political leaders.  These interviews form the core revelations of the book.  These international leaders are sometimes asked about this specific teaching to love one’s enemies, but more often they are asked about day-to-day life—questions like “What do you do for a living?” and “What makes you laugh?”

The idea of drinking tea and spending time with leaders in the Middle East is, to some, terrifying, and to others, intriguing.  The whole twist of the idea, though, is that as Dekker and Medearis are drinking tea and interviewing these Middle Eastern leaders, they are living out the very teaching that they are examining.  What better way to love one’s enemies than to sit down and have honest conversation with them?  Honest conversation is a way to say to one’s enemies, “We recognize that we are no better than you.  We have an opinion, but so do you.  Maybe we could seek to understand one another better.”  Not only do Dekker and Medearis try to discover what it might mean to love one’s enemy, but they exemplify it for the rest of us.

If you only read one book this year, let it be this one.  It will change your thinking about Middle Eastern situation.  It will challenge your assumptions about who your neighbor is.  Most importantly, though, the example of Dekker and Medearis will likely spur you on to fulfill the teaching they are examining—namely, to love your enemies.

[Via http://themanyfacesoftruth.wordpress.com]

Book Review: "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" by David Sedaris

So I told a good friend of mine that I was thinking of writing a book about some of my experiences over the last few years. 

The book had to be clever, witty and funny, I said.  I gave him a few top secret examples of what I intended to write about, and my friend said, “This stuff reminds me of a book I read recently.  It is so awesome.  You have to read it.”

The next day he brought the book for me.  It had a skeleton smoking a cigarette on the cover (which turned out to be a 1885 Van Gogh!).  The author’s name is David Sedaris (award-winning, best-selling author that I didn’t know), and the book’s name is When You Are Engulfed in Flames.  It is his sixth book, and as of 2008, Sedaris had sold over seven million books all up.

However, I was sceptical.  The book cover didn’t really appeal to me, and the blurb on the back was very ‘meh’.  Didn’t seem like a particularly interesting read.

Well, I was dead wrong.  This David Sedaris guy is truly a genius comedic writer.

I don’t throw around such titles lightly.  To me, making people laugh out loud with writing on the page is the hardest thing to do.  A lot of books considered “funny” are really just “amusing”.  I might smile at the book every now and then, but rarely does writing make me laugh out loud, especially when I am in public.

To be fair, I don’t usually read a lot of “funny” books, but in recent memory, only four books have made me laugh out loud, hard, and consistently when reading it: The Basketball Diaries (1978) by Jim Carroll, American Psycho (1991) by Bret Easton Ellis, The Timewaster Letters (2004) by Robin Cooper, and the one I am currently reading, Bill Simmons’ The Book of Basketball (2009) (review coming soon).

I now add When You Are Engulfed in Flames to that list.

The book is a memoir, a collection of essays, or an autobiography of sorts.  It comprises 22 chapters of varying lengths, each chapter tackling a different topic, scenario, or period in Sedaris’ life.  It’s almost like a collection of short stories, because the chapters aren’t necessarily linked or in chronological order.  However, whatever Sedaris is talking (or writing) about, it’s funny.  Whether it’s retelling a story about burning mice, getting angry at a horny taxi driver, wondering if he should remove a lozenge that has fallen from his mouth into a sleeping passenger’s lap, or trying to quite smoking in Tokyo, Sedaris manages to find the hilarious in daily life.

There is something about Sedaris’ writing.  He talks about everyday things and experiences, but there’s always a twist to it – whether it’s some witty dialogue or sharp thought, or some colourful insight into the dark side of human nature.  Often it feels like he is being self-deprecating, but really, he’s just being brutally honest with himself.  His ability to turn what would otherwise be a mundane topic into a riveting read, often with a touch of poignancy, makes me extremely jealous.  So does his willingness to discuss some extremely awkward, disgusting or offputting subjects, seemingly without embarrassment or hesitation.

I would say that the first 100 pages or so (of the 310-page book) is not quite as good as the rest of the book, which is unusual as there is a tendency to put the best stuff upfront.  The turning point for me was the chapter on Sedaris’ crazy old neighbour Helen.  She’s what would best be described as a loudmouth sociopath who has nothing better to do apart from make the lives of those around her miserable.  But somehow, Sedaris manages to portray her as somewhat endearing, I’m sure, reflecting his own mixed emotions about her.  He brings Helen to life with vivid descriptions of her rants and disregard for normal human decency, but at the same time he makes her almost sympathetic, especially towards the end.

From that point on, the book was virtually unputdownable for me.

5 stars out of 5!

[Via http://pacejmiller.wordpress.com]

Jason and Kyra

Name of Book: Jason & Kyra

Author: Dana Davidson

Illustrator: Elizabeth Clark

Publisher: Hyperion Paperbacks

Audience: Ages 10-17.  I feel that both girls and guys can relate to this book equally because it shows the internal and external emotions of both genders. Teenagers are the best keepers of their internal emotions.  This book may open the eyes of a teenager to let them know that it is ok to talk to someone  and their emotions are normal and understandable. This book may also be recommended for parents who can identify with the plot or the pain their child may be suffering.   

Summary: Jason is his high school basketball star and very popular with the girls. Lisa is a very outgoing beautiful girl in comparison to her rival Kyra who is a very brainy, shy girl who believes that she is not very attractive. Jason begins a relationship with Lisa, but, after he and Kyra are paired up for a class project their relationship ignites. This book explores relationships between family, a popular guy, a shy girl, and the reaction of their friends, and the entire school.    

Literary Elements at work in the story: Contemporary Realistic Novel

This book is a fictionalized novel well written for teens. It does touch on sexual relationships that are very realistic to our youth.  It is a book that will make you think about relationships with the opposite sex, platonic and intimate. This book also deals with familial relationships.  One family includes emotional and verbal abuse and the other shows a very loving and supportive family.

The plot of this story begins with centering on Jason and his relationship with a very popular girl, Lisa. Their relationship is one of envy because other girls want Jason and other guys want Lisa.  They seem to have a perfect relationship until Jason becomes friends with Kyra. Jason then realizes how shallow his relationship with Kyra which is based on popularity, beauty and sex. After sharing a class project with Kyra, Jason learns to trust Kyra with his emotional pain. From his relationship with Kyra, Jason begins to share with her his emotional turmoil with his father.  The plot also moves into the stormy relationship with Jason and his father in comparison with the loving relationship Kyra has with her family.

There is painful emotional conflict within the relationship of Jason and his father. The book also touches on the demons Jason father has which contributes to his emotions and has a domino effect with Jason. Some may characterize it as generational curses. As with many teenage girl relationships, there is also conflict with Kyra and Lisa over Jason. The book does a great job in showing teenagers how conflict can be handled in a mature versus immature way.

The language of the book does describe some sexual activity, but not to explicit for teenagers. The language is written for teenagers in today’s culture also touching on topics such as drug abuse, and partying.

The book is generally in a high school setting. It focuses on the classroom, basketball games, and after school activities.

Theme:   Relationships between opposite sex, friends and family.

Perspective: Multicultural.  A young girl or guy of any culture could find herself in any of the situations included in the book. 

Theology: I believe that God created man for woman and woman for man. From this union they are to populate the earth, if God’s will. I also believe that if they are blessed to have children, as parents God expects them to provide the most loving home possible for themselves and their children. However, this is not always the case. When God and love are not visible displayed in the home, children will look for love and acceptance elsewhere. This book deals with lack of relationship between a parent and a child; sexual activity with teens and how they deal with pain, anger, and hurt in their lives.

Focused Scripture: Genesis 18:19, Deuteronomy 11:19, Proverbs 22:6, Ephesians 6:4, James 3:16, Titus 2:11-12

Faith Talk Questions:

1. With which of the main characters do you most identify with? If you see yourself in the characters of Jason, Kyra or Lisa, as a Christian how do you think you would handle the conflict of the triangle relationship of Jason, Kyra and Lisa? Also, how would you try and help Jason with his relationship with his father?  
2. Both parenting and being a teen-ager are both tough places to be in, in today’s society. As a teen when the pressures come up against you, for example, sexual activity, drugs, parties, friends; do you pray and ask God for guidance? Why or why not: If so, do you find that praying often help you deal with the situation?
3. After reading this book, how did God speak to you?
4. If you were a friend of Jason, Kyra, or Lisa, what Christian advice would you give them if asked?

Review prepared by Vera Witherspoon, MDiv, Entering cohort Fall 2005

[Via http://storypath.wordpress.com]

Is Harry Potter good reading for kids?

My daughter, Autumn, is quite the reader, and she’s only ten years old. She especially loves to read fantasy books. For the past two years she has begged me to read the Harry Potter books, but her mother and I have been hesitant. I’ve decided to begin reading the Harry Potter books for myself, so that I can decide if the books are acceptable reading for my ten year old daughter. I’m interested in opinions from those who have read through the series.

[Via http://grizzin.wordpress.com]

Book Review: Boneshaker

Steampunk? Check. Zombies? Check. Movie potential? Huge. Novel quality? Eh.

Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker reminded me of Paolo B’s The Windup Girl because both have the same strengths and weaknesses. On the plus side, they both feature vividly imaginative worlds with bizarre and richly explored scifi/fantasy elements, and both feature a variety of interesting characters. But neither one really has a plot, and on this particular weakness, Boneshaker is clearly the weaker of the two.

Spoilers in the full review!

If you were to ask me, in passing, in an elevator, to tell you what Boneshaker was about, I would stare into space for a moment, and then stammer, “It’s sort of about zombies in the Wild West, I guess.”

If you were to ask me that question in a more literary setting, the answer would be, “A son goes looking for the truth about his allegedly evil father, and 300 pages of zombie-gore later, his mother tells him that yes, his father was evil.”

It may look as though I’m over-simplifying for the sake a cheap laugh, but I’m not. Boneshaker is so riddled with unnecessary coincidences and conveniences that the characters become totally irrelevant. This isn’t a novel so much as an action/horror movie in paper form.

The back story: Leviticus Blue used a giant mining machine to destroy downtown Seattle, releasing toxic fumes from the ground that turn people into zombies (and allegedly robbing all of the downtown banks while he was there). To contain the plague, the locals built a giant wall around the center of the city, which we will call “Zombietown” in this review, or “Z-town” for my New Jersey readers.

Sixteen years later, Blue’s son Zeke wants to know whether his dad was really a bad man, and since his mother Briar doesn’t want to talk about it, he sneaks into Z-town looking for clues. Mother Briar promptly goes after him because, well, he’s probably going to be eaten by zombies.

Zeke slips under the walls and immediately meets a man who takes him on a tour of the Z-town underground and teaches him some zombie survival skills. An earthquake conveniently closes the tunnel that Zeke used, so his mother must go find the really cool airships to take her over the wall. Once inside, she too immediately meets a man who takes her on a tour of the Z-town underground and teaches her zombie survival skills.

Mother and son wander around the city for two days, fighting zombies and trying to find things. The mysterious Dr Minnericht unleashes some zombies on Briar’s new friends, for no reason at all. Just because he’s mean, I suppose. Then Zeke’s ride out of the city crashes and he’s conveniently captured by Minnericht’s agent, who apparently has nothing better to do than stand around waiting for airships to crash right in front of him.

Briar’s new friend Lucy needs to visit Minnericht, providing a convenient excuse for Briar to meet him, too. Some people think this masked doctor might be the evil Leviticus Blue! But one big zombie battle later, Minnericht is killed, and mother and son are reunited. They then take a leisurely stroll to Briar’s old house where she tells her son that yes, his father was a bank robber, and SPOILER ALERT it was Briar who killed him, sixteen years ago.

And then they take the stolen money and fly off to start a new life, somewhere. I guess.

The problem, obviously, is that the book could have been about anyone at all who happened to wander through Z-town, met the locals, and fought some zombies.

Alternately, a story about Briar and Zeke should have ended in Chapter One with the following dialogue:

ZEKE: Mom, I want to know what really happened to Dad.

BRIAR: You want the truth? He was a mean husband and a bank robber, and I shot him.

ZEKE: Oh, I see. I’m glad we had this talk.

End scene.

I’m a little grumpy that the zombies are just dangerous creatures. They could have been replaced with packs of rabid dogs, or giant man-eating bats, or just really hungry homeless people. The classic wolfman, vampire, and frankenstein monster are symbols of human fears and weaknesses. The classic zombie is supposed to be a symbol of mindless conformity, but it isn’t used as anything but a creature in Boneshaker, which is a bit drab.

Bottom Line: If you want a steampunky adventure with plenty of airships, gadgets, and zombie-horror, this is your ride. It’s sort of pointless, but it is fun.

[Via http://josephrobertlewis.wordpress.com]

A Walk To Remember

You don’t choose who to love, love chooses you.

A love so real, so pure, and so kind. A love willing to wait and sacrifice for a few months, days, or even minutes just to spend a little time with the one you love. That’s the kind love Nicolas Sparks successfully told in his book A walk to remember. After turning the last page of the book, people in love will surely feel the urge to keep loving, and those looking for love will find the courage to find that one true love.

The story of two couple from different worlds united as one because of love.  Landon is famous chap. He is the president of their class and the most sought-after man in campus. Jamie is a preacher’s daughter and a dork. In a strange twist of fate, the two unlikely students are thrown together in an attempt to bring out the best in each other.

But just like any love story, there was a catch. In this particular story, it was Jamie’s sickness. Unknown to Landon, Jamie has leukemia and has only months left to live. She has stopped responding to treatment and just waiting for the time to leave this mundane world. When Landon found out Jamie’s condition, he promised to fulfill every thing on Jamie’s wish list. That includes making a telescope to watch a comet and marry on the same chapel her father and deceased mother marry.  Soon after getting married, Jaime died.

Real love, indeed, does the strangest things to people. There’s no knowing that such a simple feeling can move mountains and evoke the deepest emotions from a person. Landon and Jamie’s love for each other was so real. It was their devotion to each other that made me realize real love will accept a person who ever they are; real love will never make demands; and real love will build up and not tear down.

Nicolas Sparks’ A walk to remember was released in October 1999. Three years after the book release, a movie was release with the same title.

[Via http://bookreviews01.wordpress.com]

SSSSSQQQQQQUUUUUUEEEEEEAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL!!! (SQUEAL!!!)

Momicon has generously gotten my books on hold for me, and I am squealing with delight! You see, I read this book, it was in one of my kindergarten-5th grade teachers’/’s classrooms, and I loved it! Aaah..The Pushcart Wars. I still remember the plot. I had put it on hold, and it came! Now,I can relive my (younger)childhood, even though I’m young now. Relatively young, at least.

And the second good book information tidbit is….that I’ve finally gotten DC vs Marvel Comics. It features an  immense crossover between characters from DC comics and Marvel Comics(not a typo). Also, my favorite superhero is Spider-Man, and my favorite villain is the Joker. So, guess which two awesomely awesome characters were in the first few pages? If you said Superman and Batman, then you were way off. The Joker and Spider-Man met and were speaking to each other! Here’s another trivia bit. J.Jonah Jameson is Peter Parker’s boss at The Daily Bugle, and Perry White is Clark Kent’s boss at The Daily Planet. Why am I telling you this? Well, they both met while arguing with the Kingpin of Crime(a Spider-Man enemy; otherwise known as Kingpin) they were drawn with almost exactly  the same features! Even the hair looked the same, except for a few different splotches of coloring! Finally, (for this book anyway)the last “comic book issue” in here was about Dark Claw,  an amalgamation of Batman and Wolverine.

And, last but not least, I can finally read When the Ghost Dog Howls, by R.L.Stine. He’s actually making seven new books for the Goosebumps Horrorland book series. Now, I’ll stop blogging and get back..into…my…cage. Uh, oh. Zarion, what are you doing?! Where did you get that paper clip. You gave it to me for breakfast, Karion. GRRR!! Well, you were being a bad little kid. And when kiddies do something bad, they need to be punished. You know what’s going to happen. What, you mean the even tinier cage? Wait, NO!!!!!!!! NOT THAT!! Please, anything but that! Heh, heh. Bad kids need to be punished so they don’t make the same mistake again! Now, go! Get into the Tickler 5000! Please, no! I’m extremely ticklish! The last time you put me in there, I was laughing for 5 hours!! Sorry. (bonk-sound effect.) There. The button has been pressed, and it’s tickle time for you! HAhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!! I…ha, ha…can’t…ha,ha..stop, HA, HA, laughing, HA! HA, HA, HA, HA,HA ,HA, HA , HA , HA! I hate, HA,HA.. being tickled!! NNNNOOOOOOOO!! Ha, ha, ha, ha,ha!!!

Hello, kiddies and adults. The only reason that I’m not deleting this, is because I want to make Zarion look like a fool!  The categories for this are, in order, “Book Reviews”, “Cool Books”,”Wanna Hear Some Cool Facts”, and “Grab Bag Or Things That Can’t Be Uncategorized”!! Good night, and remember. I’ll be watching you, in order for my ultimate plan to succeed. Bye, bye.

[Via http://miscellaneoussoup.wordpress.com]

<i>Catching Fire</i>, by Suzanne Collins

When The Hunger Games ended, there was no question that Katniss Everdeen was in trouble.  She’d defied the oppressive Capitol in as public and inescapable a way as possible, and the ramifications of those actions carry both her and the reader through the second novel in the series, the excellent Catching Fire.

It is a rule of the fantasy trilogy that the second installment is often the trickiest.  It must move the broader saga forward without sacrificing its integrity as a standalone story. Tolkien’s The Two Towers and Weis & Hickman’s Dragons of Winter Twilight spring to mind as second books which actually surpassed their predecessors (to say nothing of the best sequel ever: The Empire Strikes Back).  Either this has become more difficult or authors have become less adept, because I have found many recent follow-ups tepid and uninspired.  While Collins may not have eclipsed her success with book one, she has certainly not left her fans disappointed either.

The story picks up a few months after Peeta and Katniss return from the Games, not long before they are scheduled to begin their grand Victory Tour of the 12 districts.  At the close of the first book, the reader is left with a strong impression that what’s to come will focus on the three-way relationship between the two victors and Katniss’s male best friend, Gale.  While there is time and consideration given to that concern, I was surprised the treatment did not arrive closer to the beginning.  After all, the three of them have lived in close proximity for several months, and yet there has apparently been no confrontation.  I suppose my discomfort here could be ascribed to a certain taste when it comes to human reality in fantasy stories.

Broadly speaking, I am not one for actual human drama.  I can get more than my fair share of that in real life.  I would much rather my fictional characters be better or worse than real people.  That said, I have to give Collins credit for creating believable human tensions and reactions in this book.  I was probably looking for some progress on the relationship front so that the story could move on to more adventurous pastures.  But who among us wouldn’t avoid personal confrontations, especially when love is involved, even though it might mean months of awkwardness.  Despite the surroundings and the setting, Collins’s characters are imbued with real emotion, unlike the stylized human characters we’ve all been so conditioned to expect.

As much as I admire the author’s ability at creating empathy, I must register a complaint with Katniss’s tendency, a growing one it seems, to go catatonic when things fall apart.  Within the confines of the story, I can live with it, even though I still find it frustrating.  I can’t honestly say I would react much better if forced to kill people I know.  From a broader point of view, though, I am concerned that this is the beginning of a trend.  I’m thinking here of New Moon, which features another young female narrator withdrawing from the world as a reaction to personal catastrophe.  While Katniss doesn’t take it quite to Bella’s extreme, the pattern is too similar to ignore.  As young adult literature continues to grow (or at least the proliferation of books marketed to teens), I think it’s important for authors and readers alike to be conscious of the models the genre puts forth.

The tangles of emotion aside, the rest of the story is strong.  As a second book, there is less need for back story, which allows the introduction of a wide variety of interesting characters.  We meet President Snow, the Capitol leader who seems alarmingly hate-filled behind a jolly politician mask.  As a reader, I was more than a little disturbed at Katniss’s insistence that his breath smelled like blood.  It’s thoroughly haunting that this is never explained and is certainly a powerful tease for the third book all by itself.  Haymitch also becomes more fully rounded, as the reader is given something of his history in winning the Hunger Games and the life he’s lived since.  Even at the end, there is more to be revealed about this drunkard of a mentor.

Collins’s decision to send Peeta and Katniss back into the arena came as a shock on the one hand, but also seemed somewhat forced on the other.  This new round of games features the inclusion of past winners, despite their age or physical condition.  While this introduced an interesting element and expanded the emotional breadth of the created world, it also felt underdeveloped.  Prior to the start of the games, much was made of the connection the Capitol felt with the victors, as well as ties between many of the individual winners.  Once the killing started, though, that largely disappeared.  Also noticeably absent was an awareness of the games as a televised event.  In The Hunger Games, Katniss was constantly considering the effect her actions would have on various viewers.  In this case, the games are populated by characters who are experienced participants and audience members, and yet there is little to no discussion of the fact that they’re all on T.V.  As a reader, I found this a glaring omission amongst an otherwise tightly written novel.  Indeed, the absence of this element which had been so prominent in the first book made me wonder if Catching Fire had been a much longer story before it met with an editor’s eye.

All told, I found this book completely satisfying.  While it is not of the same level of The Hunger Games, it succeeds in keeping the story arc high and interesting.  Furthermore, it is independent enough for a new reader to pick it up without feeling too lost.  Moving forward, I think that the Games, as an institution and narrative tool, have served their purpose and hope to see Collins take the series strongly in a new direction when the final book is released in August.

[Via http://runningbowline.com]

inspirational quotes from Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons"

while many may think of Dan Brown’s books as controversial and anti-church, i have found many lessons in his books about the Catholic faith.

noctice that at first glance, his books may always seem to depict the Catholic Church as an enemy. reading deeper into the books when the lead characters — Robert Langdon being my favorite— go in their quest for truth, the Church is always turns out to actually just be a victim in some chaotic misunderstanding.

i recommend his books only for those who have strong faith in God and the wisdom to know whether what one is reading are facts of just a figment of imagination and exaggeration as i have researched some statements to be exaggerated. he writes good books. oh, the suspense!

Carlo Ventresca: Open the doors, and tell the world the truth. 

Vittoria Vetra: Religion is like language or dress. We gravitate toward the practices with which we were raised. In the end, though we are all proclaiming the same thing. That life has meaning. That we are grateful for that created us.

Vittoria Vetra:  Faith is universal. Our specific methods for understanding it are arbitrary. Some of us pray to Jesus, some us go to Mecca, some of us study subatomic particles. In the end we are all just searching for truth, that which is greater than ourselves.

Robert Langdon: Science tells me God must exist. My mind tells me I will never understand God. And my heart tells me I am not meant to.

Carlo Ventresca: Religion is flawed, but only because man is flawed.

Leonardo Vetra: Science and Religion are not enemies. They are simply two different languages saying the same thing.

in addition to all that, here is what the author himself thinks:

“My sincere hope is that THE DA VINCI CODE, in addition to entertaining people, will serve as an open door through which curious souls might pass to begin their own exploration. ” — Dan Brown (http://www.ascensiongateway.com/quotes/dan-brown/index.htm)

see? now reflect and explore God’s love visible all around us. these are only some of the parts i liked in the book, by the way. there are more.

[Via http://cakewalks.wordpress.com]

Book Club!

I recently read Jodi Picoult’s latest paperback, Handle With Care. Anyone who’s read her books will know that she loves writing about tragedy and doesn’t shy away from difficult subjects. In her previous books she’s discussed paedophilia, rape and even a school massacre, and in her latest offering she looks at the moral dilemmas of abortion, disability, parenting and friendship.

Charlotte O’Keefe is struggling financially to look after her daughter Willow, who suffers from Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bones). But then a lawyer tells her that she has a case for wrongful birth – she could win a sum of money that would help with the medical bills for the rest of Willow’s life, but she would also have to stand up in public and tell the world that if she’d known of Willow’s condition before she was born, she would have had an abortion.

The best thing about Picoult’s writing is her ability to look at situations from all sides. Perhaps the characters do things you consider to be morally terrible, but Picoult’s talent lies in the way she can make you feel sympathy to even the most tainted individuals.

Her research into the subject is evident. Osteogenesis Imperfecta was something I’d never heard of before I picked up the novel but it’s clear that Picoult believes that getting the facts right is of the utmost importance. However, she writes about medicine and law in a way that’s interesting. Rather than falling asleep in the court scenes I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know the outcome.

This book will make you question your feelings about medicine, genetics and disability, and will stay with you long after you’ve read the final sentence.

[Via http://jellybabyblog.wordpress.com]

New review from Historical Novels Review Online

Coming February 25!

The Fairest Portion of the Globe comes out in about two weeks! We were thrilled to receive this rave review from Historical Novels Review Online, the website of the venerable Historical Novel Society. Our heartfelt thanks go out to reviewer Steve Donoghue. Check out the Historical Novel Society website for more reviews of fascinating fiction.

If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that one of the biggest attractions held by historical novels is the chance we’ll get to hear famous figures from the past vilifying, bad-mouthing, and otherwise slandering other famous figures from the past. After all, we weren’t around to slander such famous figures ourselves, and we probably wouldn’t have had the courage to do it even if we were. So it’s smiles all around when, in Frances Hunter’s fantastic new novel The Fairest Portion of the Globe, General “Mad Anthony” Wayne unloads these choice words on none other than Meriwether Lewis: “Ensign, as an officer, you’re not worth the shit on my shoes.” 

The novel delivers such smiles frequently (“He’d been warned to expect coldness from the American temperament,” we’re told of a French visitor who’s just been presented to George Washington, “but had anyone checked Washington’s pulse lately?”), but thankfully, there’s much more to it than a little costume irreverence. Hunter has crafted a well-researched, fast-paced, and incredibly lively novel of frontier war and intrigue in 1793 Louisiana, as Jefferson and his various agents seek to wrest the territory from the control of Spain using any means necessary—including two young officers who are just beginning to forge the friendship that will become the famously ampersanded Lewis & Clark. 

The Fairest Portion of the Globe abounds with great set pieces, fascinating period details, and a compelling “backstage” look at history in the making, but none of those things will absorb you the way Hunter’s sheer bravura writing ability will. The characters here leap off the page, vibrantly living their lives, reading their books, worrying their worries—and the end result is nothing less than wonderful. Urgently, wholeheartedly recommended. — Steve Donoghue 

[Via http://franceshunter.wordpress.com]

No Book Review...

Because at the moment, eejit that I am, I am reading two books…the first is the dip in sort of book which you don’t need to read continuously to enjoy. The second I was reading on the train into and out of work, but at the moment I am driving! The police, especially old Shiny Buttons, wouldn’t be too chuffed if I read it in the Blackwall Tunnel queue.

The first is Bill Simmons Book of Basketball, which takes us through ESPN’s Sports Guy’s recollections, opinions and judgements on the NBA. So far in the first 100 or so pages he seems over-obsessed over the lack of black guys playing the game in the early years, a lot of references to the adult entertainment industry, and in a bizarre list he excludes Drazen Petrovic from a list of white guys as he is European, and that doesn’t really count, but includes German Dirk Nowitzki! A whole chapter on why repeated champion Bill Russell was a better player than stat-driven Wilt Chamberlain seemed overly long when who could really dispute it has been the highlight. I hope it improves.

The second book is John Feinstein’s “Next Man Up” about the 2004/5 Baltimore Ravens. Thus far it has been excellent, and they have only just got to pre-season camp. The book received mixed reviews and I can understand why. Feinstein’s writing is not for all. He is a little too nicey-nicey at times, and his defence of Ray Lewis could be seen as overly influenced by speaking to him, naive, or a bit of both. Certainly Lewis is never seen as guilty of anything, let alone a double murder, but he did deceive officers and the reason why (panic) doesn’t seem good enough. But that’s for the final review. I have a long way to go, but I am back on the trains next week…..

[Via http://sevenandseven.wordpress.com]

Solo

A few days ago, I finished reading Deborah Madison’s What We Eat When We Eat Alone. I picked it up hoping for something akin to Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant, but wasn’t as delighted with Madison’s take on cooking & eating solo as I was with Jenni Ferrari-Addler’s.

But perhaps this isn’t a fair comparison.  Ferrari-Addler’s book collects essays from a range of authors, foodie and not, grouped roughly by solitary meals and dining out.  There may have been a final section as well, but I’ve lent my copy out and cannot, for the life of me, remember who has it now.  Hm.  Madison’s book, though, co-written (and illustrated by) with Patrick McFarlin, is a two-person look at what other people eat by themselves.  So instead of dozens of firsthand accounts, or confessions, as Ferrari-Addler calls them, the book comprises of Madison & McFarlin explaining what other people told them that they make for themselves.  Most disappointingly, Madison and McFarlin stick to an often-negated point that men eat one way when they eat alone and women eat another way.  For instance, in the early pages of the book, they claim that men alone eat strange or exotic meat products especially when their wives or partners aren’t there.  But in a later chapter, they discuss on woman who can’t get enough of kidneys as her own solo meal (or am I being pedestrian in assuming there’s something strange or exotic in kidneys?).  And take, outside of their book, Judith Jones in The Pleasures of Cooking for One: some of her most lauded meals include veal kidneys, oxtail, veal tongue, and calf’s liver.  Take, also, Julie Powell in Cleaving, making and eating blood sausage and raw meats and brains.  Clearly men are not the only eaters of exotic meats.  Women, of course, are eaters of salad or vegetables or eggs, which is also contradicted by the many men who claim vegetables or eggs as their favorite solo dish.

The language and descriptions of people’s solitary cooking made me think that the survey population was entirely white, middle class Americans.  I don’t think Madison & McFarlin spoke only with that group, but perhaps their own class bias seeps through too strongly?  There is much discussion of the young twenty-something eating alone for the first time, the harried mom claiming a sloppy solitary supper with wine, the burnt, middle-aged divorcee eating alone, and the lonely widow adjusting to sad solo meals.  A bit heavy-handed with the stereotypes and assumptions.

Finally, the last chapter of the book focuses on meals cooked with a particular intention: seduction.  What is this, a romance novel?  How to find a lover through cooking?  Please don’t assume that everyone who cooks alone is looking for someone to cook for!  None of that section was relevant to cooking alone as all the meals were prepped with someone or with someone in mind.  Completely out-of-place in a book on what you eat by yourself.

I really can’t recommend What We Eat When We Eat Alone.  There are better, more entertaining books out there for the solitary diner or those who like seeing into people’s houses or looking at someone else’s shopping cart.  (as a bona fide Craig’s List addict and supermarket frequenter, I can happily attest that those are some of life’s little joys).  Instead, try Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant, for a more intimate look at solitary cooks and eaters.  Or for a more recipe-and-advice-heavy book, pick up The Pleasures of Cooking for One.  Jones’ cooks very much in the traditional French style (think: Julia Child–they were friends), but she has superb advice for downsizing meals and recreating leftovers.  Also, even though she’s cooking from the widow’s perspective, she doesn’t assume everyone else is.

[Via http://eatenword.wordpress.com]

Anne of Bleak House

The vale of tears is but the pathway to the better country.
C H Spurgeon

 

If you plan on reading Before Green Gables, by Budge Wilson, don’t read this post!  It’s full of spoilers, such as, Anne takes a train to Prince Edward Island in the last chapter, to be adopted by Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert. (Oops!) 

Or, if you don’t like reviews, skip past this one, for words of hope and  grace from the Scriptures, Paul David Tripp and Spurgeon!  It’s really all related, somehow.

~~~~Review~~~~

Before Green Gables, by Budge Wilson was on my must-read list that I posted HERE.  This book was given to me by an extremely devoted fan of Lucy Maud Montgomery, who has read every single one of her books–none other than my son-in-law, Andrew.  He hasn’t read this book yet,  so I hope he doesn’t read my review. 

For fans of Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, Avonlea, Windy Poplar, this self-proclaimed, “Prequel to Anne of Green Gables” may be received with mixed emotions.  You can probably detect my sentiments by the title of this post. 

The book starts off much like any other ”Anne” read, and one falls immediately in love with her endearing parents, Walter and Bertha Shirley.  But we know, before ever opening the book,  Anne could never have boarded that train to Prince Edward Island if things went well for the sweet Shirleys.  They die…and the bleakness begins.

Anne’s life goes from bad to worse, as she’s taken in by an angry, over-worked mother of five, with an alcoholic husband.  Fast-forward eight or nine years, and she’s placed with another family with three sets of twins under four years old, then finally, on to a Dickensesque orphanage.  LMM alluded (in her books) that trials were the very making of young Anne, so I was prepared for some hardships.  However, I couldn’t help but yearn for more light and happiness for our “Anne girl.”   As one reviewer on amazon. com wrote, “the only thing that bothered me about the book was that it was DEPRESSING.”

However, I could get past the bleak backdrop of her daily life, knowing that Green Gables lay in wait for Anne in a mere 11 years… But, the most disturbing aspect of the story was the uber-wise, hyper-intellectual Anne of 4 years old!  True, she’s a unique, gifted, insightful, opinionated and verbose young lady when we and Matthew Cuthbert first meet her, but as a toddler (?)–her thoughts, emotions, and conversations depart from reality too much for this reader.   

Well then, do I recommend the book?  Actually, yes!  Surprise!!  The bleakness of Anne’s childhood contrasts so significantly with Green Gables and Avonlea, that the reader gains a greater appreciation for all that lies ahead for our kindred friend, making the real Anne series shine brighter, happier, and thankfully, full of promise and hope.

~~~~End of Review~~~~

 

Our lives are much like Before Green Gables, filled with pages, or maybe chapters, of struggles and difficulties, highlighted with some joys and a lot of grace.  We don’t know what a turn of the page will bring, but we do know how the story ends! 

 ”Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” John 5:24

The riches of such an ending, or beginning, is beyond our understanding: 

 ”As it is written, ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.’”  I Cor. 2:9 

 

Paul David Tripp, puts it like this:

“The world is still a terribly broken place, not yet restored to what it was created to be. [But] we live with celebration and anticipation.  We celebrate amazing gifts of grace what we’ve already been given, while we anticipate the end of the struggles that will face us until the final chapter of the great story of redemption comes.

We do live in the in between. We do live in the hardships of a world that teeters between the beginning and the end.  But we dont need to be discouraged and we don’t need to fear, because the end of all those struggles has already been written, and so we’re guaranteed that the things that are not, yet will someday be!” [1]

 [1]  Paul David Tripp, Whiter than Snow: Mediations on Sin and Mercy, Crossway Books, 2008. Wheaton, IL.  pg 92.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Want some other perspectives of the reviewed book?  Try here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/apr/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview28

http://www.amazon.com/Before-Green-Gables-Budge-Wilson/dp/039915468X

[Via http://absolutegrace.wordpress.com]

Tickle Me Pink!

I got home last evening after a long (emotional) day, and found something in my mailbox to “Tickle Me Pink!”...

Healthy Eating with Kelly Cookbook

Yay!!!

It was the cookbook I won in a contest a few weeks ago from (my seemingly long-lost BFF) Kelly @ My Healthy Passion.

I had no idea Kelly had even written or published a cookbook – so I was extremely excited and happy to participate – let alone win!

To provide a little background on the fabulous Author, Kelly has her personal training license from The American Fitness Training of Athletics (AFTA), and is a certified Nutrition Manager from The American Academy of Sports Dieticians and Nutritionists (AASDN). She writes in the book’s introduction:

“My passion is to show people that healthy living can be a lifestyle that is obtainable and not a sacrifice…eating healthy is easy, fun, and, best of all, it can taste REALLY good!”

True story Kelly!

Her cookbook (now mine! hah) includes: Appetizers, Salads, Vegetables and Side Dishes, Main Dishes, Meatless Dishes, Breads and Muffins and Desserts.

What I really like about it is that it contains a nutritional breakdown of each recipe listed, substitiutions for ingredients (i.e what can you use if you don’t have butter or chocolate squares in the pantry?), equivalents (i.e how many ounces of cheese = a cup), a description of various herbs (nice!), and a glossary of common cooking terms (now I finally know what “braise” means haha!).

As well, for those who are perhaps “going green” or looking to save money, there are some great “recipes” for common household cleaning subsitutions listed at the end of the book, from cleaning your countertops to your oven or sinks!

I love this Kelly!

Thus far, I have my eye on a Chicken Enchilada Casserole, Black Bean Burgers, Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins and Pumpkin Raisin Cookies…:)…and those are just the beginning!

LOVE IT!!!

HUGE THANKS TO KELLY!! Please check out her Blog if your interested in her cookbook or just reading her good vibes

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now, as an aside, a few questions pour vous:

1) Do you enjoy cookbooks? What is/are your favorite(s)?? ;

2) What usually “sells you” on a cookbook? (Recipes, Presentation, Nutrition, popularity,etc.);

3) (and – this has nothing to do with cookbooks – hah – but: Any recommendations on a good writing Laptop – portable, economical, efficient, lovely! ??? (and how long do laptops usually “last” for???…)

Peace & Love To You All

(P.S – To those on Blogspot – I can’t comment at all – it hasn’t let me the last few days…:( )

 

[Via http://eatmovelove.wordpress.com]

February 2nd...

Groundhog’s Day(My buddy, Larry, made this postcard… thanks Larry!)

For being 123 years old Punxsutawney Phil has eyesight enough to still see his shadow.  That means six more weeks of winter.  If you’re wondering what Groundhog’s day is all about, click here.  (you can learn great little facts like Phil’s full name… Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators and Weather Prophet Extraordinary)

Or if you want more info on other weather predicting rodents click here.  Don’t forget about Cape Cod Quahog Day?

So we’re celebrating, or mourning, Groundhog Day at Bookworks on our ‘coffee table.’ Stop by, grab a coffee and cookie, and peruse the store.

Check our selection of “shadow books” displayed on our Coffee Table

The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins

Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson

The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan

Happy Birthday James Joyce

Dick is celebrating February 2nd for a far more literary reason…not only is it Joyce’s birthday, but also the anniversary of the publication of  Ulysses, what many consider his masterpiece.

A complete list of his publication dates is found here.

One more thing….

The New York Times Book Review had an article on Patti Smith’s Just Kids.  Smith notes Mapplethorpe’s love for Andy Warhol, one of the few things the pair didn’t share.  She says “I hated the soup and felt little for the can.”  

After sharing this with me, Dick adds, ” I think she and I could have had a great life together.”  He’s probably right…He usually is.

[Via http://nantucketblogworks.com]

News post is newsy

Two great tastes that taste great together…

A quick round-up post:  my life in coffee spoons.

• I recently watched John Sayles’s cult classic, Brother From Another Planet on Netflix.  Joe Morton is fantastic, and there’s something so strangely nostalgic about seeing the old New York City of the 1970s and 80s.  The dirty, downcast, dangerous city that made Griffin Dunne afraid for his life.  The city of Sesame Street and Lo Pan.  The city you used to have to escape from, like the Thunderdome.  I lived for a while in Morningside Heights, and ah yes, on more than one occasion I was one of those dopey white kids who strayed from the Columbia campus and walked at a brisk clip, whistling nervously, in what I hoped was the direction of home.  No one ever bothered me.   Anyway, BFAP is short on plot and budget but long on style, character, and smarts.  The goofy barfight choreography alone is worth the price of admission.
• I’ve been listening to Charles Portis’s novel True Grit on CD, read by Donna Tartt.  The book was recently reissued by Overlook Press, with a gorgeous cover and an essay by Tartt.  It is, as Tartt points out, a masterpiece.  I was struck in particular by how sad it is, and by how much it made me nostalgic for another dingy, unpleasant past–the Old West, in this case.  I have zero reason to nostalgize the American Southwest, and the nostalgia I feel is strangely impersonal, or maybe impartial.  It’s as if I feel nostalgia on behalf of the characters–as if Mattie Ross and Rooster Cogburn are so real to me that I mourn their younger years for them.  It’s one of the stranger reactions I’ve ever had to a book, and also one of the stronger ones.  I came away feeling that Mattie Ross had her best years as a child, that she never fit into the adult world (or she fit too well into its stereotypes), and that even though she lived to old age, a large part of her life was over when she came home from the hunt for her father’s killer.  The hunt itself is so alive, so purposeful and directed–and what’s left after it’s done?  Mattie’s father is still dead, and she has to grow up and find her own way in the world, and Rooster Cogburn is no help with that.  It’s a brilliant, brilliant book, and I recommend Tartt’s reading of it.  (She does accents.)
• In completely other news, the Internet has been recasting popular movies and television  shows (and now books!) with people of color.  I love this.  You can find a list of many sample recasting jobs here.
• Leaping away again, I continue to post semi-regularly at Reading Local Portland.  One recent highlight:  a reading at Powell’s bookstore by Nick Flynn.
• And in a final segue, I’ve been working on a lightning talk for the last week–who knew five minutes’ worth of monologue could take so.  Bloody.  Long.  To prepare?  Not I.  The fault is mine; the topic is “the future of publishing,” with an emphasis on the digital.  Well done, me.  Of course, I’m working on this in the midst of the iPad release and the Amazon/Macmillan kerfuffle, and everything is feeling very WAIT WAIT HOLD ON WHILE I TYPE THAT UP.  It’s also feeling very much like Amazon is perhaps not the best and greatest thing for authors, publishers, and booksellers.  I’m frustrated with Amazon, and growing more and more determined to spend my money with local bookstores.  Which I just did, ordering a copy of True Grit.  Thus closing the circle of my post, almost.  Ta da.

Seriously, buy local.  Read local.  It matters.

[Via http://munrovian.wordpress.com]

Made to Stick

Made to Stick is Dan and Chip Heath’s first book. This book is for EVERYONE who has an idea and wants it to be accepted. Whether you have a business idea and you need to convince partners, bankers, or lenders, or project ideas and you need to convince team partners and others of its merits, this book becomes a “guide” that will help you communicate your ideas in the most effective way possible.

From the book: Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” Meanwhile, people with important ideas, struggle to make their ideas ’stick’.

Why do some ideas thrive while others die? Here are the principles of ’sticky ideas’”

Principle 1: Simplicity
It’s the elevator pitch for your ideas: simple, straightforward, a 12-year-old can understand.
Principle 2: Unexpectedness
Violate people’s expectations, find the gaps and fill it in.
Principle 3: Concreteness
Explain our ideas in terms of human actions, and concrete images: ice-filled bathtubs (reference to kidney harvesting), apples with razors (reference to Halloween in the past). Strong mental images.
Principle 4: Credibility
Sticky ideas have to carry their own credentials, “try before you buy” philosophy.
Principle 5: Emotions
How do you get people to care about our ideas? Make them feel something!
Principle 6: Stories
How do we get people to act on our ideas? We tell stories.

Buy the book.

[Via http://entrepreneursatutsa.wordpress.com]

"Everything I Know About Writing" Review

So, number 2 book in my 100+ Book Challenge for 2010 was John Marsden’s “Everything I Know About Writing”…

This is a guide to writing, written by a top-selling and much-loved (particularly by me!) Australian author.

The blurb claims that “Everything I Know About Writing” is “as readable as a novel”…and it really is.

Throughout, Marsden gives tips about what makes good and bad writing, using his deep and wide knowledge of literature and language. He doesn’t just list tips on what’s good or bad – he uses a range of really apt examples to drive these points home. While a lot of what is covered in this book is either common writing sense, or something I’ve learned before, Marsden still presents these points in entertaining and clear ways, and I appreciate having so many useful things written in one place as a handy future reference.

Although this book was first originally published in 1993, the examples used in it are so timeless and sound that the book has aged very little in 17 years. Using a mixture of timeless texts taught in most high schools, and great Australian writing, Marsden’s crossover between teaching and writing is obviously one he’s been making the most of for some time now.

As someone who mainly writes young adult fiction, Marsden’s writing guide is an insightful guide for teenagers, simply and clearly spoken – however, it still stands as a helpful and fun guide for writers of all ages. Even if you know most of the stuff that’s being covered, it’s presented in such an entertaining and simple way that it’s still interesting.

A wide range of conventions and problems are dealt with here – how it’s essential to deal with sex and death in writing, how psychology affects characters as much as writers, the rules of reality and how they must apply to writing… One particularly interesting chapter deals with “banality”, where Marsden challenges the connections we automatically make between certain words, particularly in similes and metaphors (eg, “feather” and “light”).

In the “new and revised edition” (which I believe happened around ‘98), a new chapter has been included - “600 Writing Ideas”… these range from ideas for personal stories, starters for short stories, “quickies” (“What is your favorite kitchen appliance, and why?”)… These are perhaps one of the most helpful things about this book. If ever there’s a day where I have nowhere to start, these ideas give me a starting point, which then usually leads on to something else and turns into a story I love… or hate.

The most resounding advice Mr Marsden leaves us with is this; “You’re God when you’re writing: you can do anything. The only unforgivable sin is to be boring”…
“Everything I Know About Writing” is a clear and helpful bundle of tricks to stop your writing from becoming boring.

[Via http://littlegirlwithabigpen.wordpress.com]