News and Media Books

That's how I feel when reading one of Stephen Krensky's adaptions of the "Arthur" stories. He manages to do justice to the entire story, while also adding new details and bits of information to make it even more interesting. Unlike some books based on TV series, major plot or character details aren't changed and you don't feel like you're missing anything.

In this story, Arthur and his friends discover the game of marbles. Arthur and Buster find that there's a fun game to be played with them after Muffy dismisses the collection she received as a useless birthday present. Arthur learns that his Grandma Thora was champion player and starts taking lessons from her, but finds that she didn't teach him everything.

Fans who saw the original television story will once again be pleased with Krensky's ending. It keeps to the moral of the story, while at the same time adding something new. Another great addition to the Arthur Chapter Book series.

This, part of a new series of Arthur books targeted towards slightly younger readers, is another wonderful addition to the series. Like all the books in this set, this book features bright, attractive full page illustrations and an engaging story. Also included on the back is a fun Mad Libs game for kids to play --- although you'll probably wanna make a copy or write it down, rather than writing on the book itself.

The plot is this: Mr. and Mrs. Read are going out and Arthur and D.W. are curious as to just who their babysitter will be. Mom and Dad think Arthur and D.W. will like a surprise, but as kids will do, Arthur and D.W. think of the worst. They're soon spinning fantasies that the babysitter could be anything from a robot to even Arthur's strict teacher, Mr. Ratburn. (A scenario that seems to appeal only to Baby Kate --- in the fantasy, D.W.'s dozing and Arthur's barely awake, while Baby Kate is scribbling at the bottom of a whiteboard, having apparently just done some advanced algebra!) Can any of these aweful scenarios be as bad as reality?

So who's the mystery babysitter? Well, if you're at least somewhat familiar with the series, then you'll probably be able to guess just from the profile with a question mark on the front cover. If not, then prepare to be surprised just like Arthur and D.W.

I read Articles: What's News Is News; and we have added this book to our book club. It is truely one of the most unique works ever written and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who travels alot; anyone who is part of a book club; all libraries; all schools, colleges, etc. This book is packed with all kinds of knowledge on EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING! Whatever you want to know, it's there! I enjoyed the author's candidness; I enjoyed the author's wit; I enjoyed the variety of this work. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING LIKE IT ON THE MARKET. The author's genious shines through ENORMOUSLY. Whoever buys this book, is going to be MORE than surprised; and I beleive that this book will be the talk of the year. I purchased three from Barnes & Noble and will we will be purchasing our additional copies from AMAZON for our club; and am sending a copy to the author for his autograph. The book covers EVERYTHING from race, sex, drugs, death, crime, quips, advice to unique poetry. WHAT A GREAT FIND!

From Danish merchant seaman to the Mexican movie industry and, for three decades, one of broadcast journalism's top combat cameraman, Carl Sorensen covered some of the toughest and most meaningful stories of the late 20th century. Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, wherever hot news was breaking, Sorensen was there, armed with camera, a good memory and a sly sense of humor. His book tells of some of the leaders and the lowlifes he met. It's a book for historians, students, arm chair adventurers and anyone who likes a good story about real people and real events.

What a book! It was SUCH a good idea to write a book about a fake tour to a place that you can't go to! This book gives a very good detailed history of Atlantis, its culture, how they eat, what they eat, where to dine, where to rest, good "sights" to see, and more! Keeps you very entertained. I wanted to laugh a couple times 'cause I had to remind myself that I couldn't go to this place!!! It's SO ironic!

Well, what can I say? A truly fantastic book.

It is apparent that Abadie relishes in breathing spiritual fresh air, and her enthusiasm and enlightenment shines through to an overwhelming degree. In this book, Abadie reveals the true meanings of spirituality - experiencing a sense of completeness, increasing self confidence and learning to respect the sacred in the ordinary; and it's all refreshingly free from any kind of religious dogma or regulation.

Abadie explains the powerful effects of prayer and mediation, and shows that when we choose to shift our focus away from the folly and stress of society, we can all find an inner peace and a strength by focusing on the 'spiritual level' of existence. For me personally (as a Christian), her comments about us being in contact with the "Universal Spirit", and our oneness with the "Universal Body" shows that when we pray or meditate, we are all in contact with the same thing - whatever we want to call it.

Indeed her talk about the importance to treat one's own body as a "temple", and her three vivid accounts of the intervention of "angels" in her life, and also her comments about the "Universal Spirit" is very compatible with Christianity, yet Abadie's outlook is completely compatible with Buddhist thought and with spirituality in general.

If you know there must be something more to life than the stress and folly of society and materialism, but you haven't quite found it yet, then this is the book for you.

Highly recommended.

Kate Chopin: "The Awakening"

"Awakening" (In Chopin C. "Awakening and Other Stories" Random House, New York, NY: 2000) involves issues of feminism whereby Edna Pontellier, the center of the American Creole/New Orleans story, often and perplexingly reflects on her role of mother-of-two who is married to a well-off and often traveling (for business or pleasure) brokerage-business husband (Leonce Pontellier). The community views Leonce as the epitome of the ideal husband, for Leonce greatly adores and provides for wife and children, he is quite consistently concerned about the welfare and happiness of his household. Yet Edna does not look at Leonce as her choice of husband, she says their marriage was accidental, that as she was growing up there are particular men that came around her that she would have wished to take her hand. Leonce is disciplined, insistent and low-toned, often dissatisfied about Edna's attention to the children and other household issues, more so because he is often away on business and Edna has a lot of help, Leonce sometimes causes Edna to walk off and cry. Perhaps Edna was the precursor of the modern era American woman...one who is prevalently independent (or at least longs to be), one who has more power in making decisions about what she prefers, one whose identity is not predominantly defined by wealth, looks, family, husband, or children. In her state of psychological disillusionment ("An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with vague anguish" [179]), Edna's love for the two boys she gave birth to is uncharacteristically distant, the mother's instinct seemingly weak, the kids have more fondness for their father. "If one of the little Pontellier boys took a tumble whilst at play, he was not apt to rush crying to his mother's arms for comfort....Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman..." (181). The author Chopin hence paints a picture of a soul plagued by a mixture of feminist and psychological issues. It is to be remembered, that even in this age of feminist liberation, providing men who love and care for their wives and children are still held in high esteem and are still in high demand. Chopin implicitly displays that female emancipation and longing can be of numerous forms. Further, Chopin often compares and contrasts main characters in terms of their beauty and body textures/ forms, illustrating that this issue has been strong in the United States for centuries. "[Edna] was rather handsome than beautiful...face...captivating by reason of a certain frankness of expression and a contradictory subtle play of features" (174). Chopin writes of Edna's companion and friend Adele Rattignolle (as somewhat contrasted with Edna) that, "...her beauty was all there, flaming and apparent...two lips that pouted...the grace of every step, pose, gesture... (182). Many writers have noted that Kate Chopin was not a suffragist and did not join any feminist movements; and indeed, many feminist writers reduce the value of the esthetic features and comparisons of women, aspects that can remind of Hollywood vagueness.

Eventually, Edna wants to leave her family big house and settle "...in a four-room house along the corner" (294). A woman who had great difficulty at learning how to swim, one who is still sophomoric at it, Edna will ultimately find disturbing comfort in introspectively walking alone to the sea, in taking off all her clothing, reflecting on her life and swim into and allow herself to be swallowed by the sea, a fatal blow to the self-possession and psychological emancipation that she sought. Edna was born a reserved child, she was miserable and felt stifled, her marriage and sketches did not reach the standards she wanted them, there was something lacking in her "ideal, loving family; her comfort and big house," the lustful affair with the lad Robert the conspicuous and philandering son of Madame Lebrun the property owner was full of gaping holes and would not last. Edna did not fit in the conventional mode of the beginning of the 20th Century American dream woman. She instead provides a window into what the woman, over the numerous decades to come, would perhaps evolve into as the individualist and the emancipated female.

In "Awakening," Edna Pontellier is supposed to be one of the most fortunate women in the world. She has a present, fidel, hardworking and earning, capable, loving husband, who sired with her two male kids, she does not have to go outside of home to work. Yet, she is dissatisfied with her status quo, a rich homely situation that many women crave to be in. The narrator is telling us that women are complex persons, each of individual personality, one size does not fit all; needs and interests, and ambitions of each woman vary. Edna is horrifyingly distant from the two boys she gave birth to. "If one of the little Pontellier boys took a tumble whilst at play, he was not apt to rush crying to his mother's arms for comfort....Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman..." (181). But indeed women (and female animals) have been known to neglect and even kill their children, reasons for which vary from psychological to dislike for tending to offspring. Women have been known to chase down and drown their children in bathtubs (Andrea PiaYates, in 2002, drowned all five offspring in a bathtub; she has had a history of post-partum depression and psychosis), or let a car-ful of their children roll into a river and get them drowned (Susan Smith, in 1994 did this to her two sons). Edna Pontellier had two sons, she drowns herself in the end. Women have been known to leave their enviable husbands and children in a comfortable life, and fall for a top-notch criminal who is locked up in prison. Edna mentions wanting to leave her comfortable home and enviable family, and living in a smaller habitation down the street "...in a four-room house along the corner" (294). Post-partum depression has been mentioned about women, and in Edna's case it seems to have become indefinite. Many women, even in the contemporary times long for biological or at least adoptive motherhood. Still, there are those who opine their biologically begeting children as one of the most unfair ways a woman is exploited as a painstaking residence of a baby during gestation. Human gestation is a trying experience, compared to that of most other species (consider squirrels and rabbits). Human fetuses comparaatively have many defects, miscarriages are common. At the same time it is a man who shoots the fertilizing sperm into the woman; he acheives orgasm easily and does not have the burden of carrying the child to chilbirth and keeping a sleep-ridden eye on the child. The fathers of the child sometimes wander away, abandoning their offspring. Edna portrays that a woman can want much more than a family of children and a husband, perhaps she was a lesbian who had not discovered herself as one. She was at least discontented with her husband Leonce who comes off as conventional, disciplined, and inflexible. This dicontentment is understandable...it happens. But why the distance from her offspring, and then the lustful interest in the young man Robert, eventually adultery? Edna will always be an enigma! Perhaps Edna suffered from multiple-personality disorder, something psychological irked her. Perhaps she longed to be the independent free woman, one who had the freedom to love or have sex with her choice of person, the precursor of the 20th and 21st Century independent and upstanding woman free to express her sexuality and stick to her preferences. Edna, many times in subtle ways, brings forth into question, feminism in the context of individuality, sexuality, marriage, freedom and choice, reproduction and child-rearing, spousal attachment and power, and the context and role of marriage in a woman's life. Edna brings it out that each female is of unique individuality, of personal talent and likes that beg to be fully uncovered so she need not be comfortable with how society compartmentalizes women, more so as wives, mothers, home-makers, and as cherished articles of beauty and ownership.

I was pregnant with my daughter when I came across this book at a bookstore and, being a person that's very fond of short stories, I bought it - thinking that it's just something to pass the time. I got much more than that. This is not a book about religion, but it nevertheless gave me peace of mind and renewed faith. Truly inspiring!

Whatever caused you to read this must be the result of some completely unusual messup, but, furthermore, the book version of this popular (yet stupid) movie is one of those priceless oddities that one might stumble on perhaps once in a lifetime, probably not even noticing it. But let me tell you... I did! Wow, I got this book at a book fair when I was like 9 and I never thought much of it. But think of the possibilities! This is a novel written about a cheesy movie that a great many people know. Just reading randomly from a section is a laugh riot... on so many levels. If you ever see a copy of this book, purchase it! Its a non-stop comedy aide, really. And it's the singlemost important centerpiece for performance art I have ever known.