Archive for May 17th, 2008


Audiobook: Love the One You’re With by Emily Giffin

Author: admin
May 17, 2008

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“Giffin’s fluid storytelling and appealing characters give her novels a warm, inviting air, and her fourth is no exception . . . Giffin’s snappy prose makes (her heroine) Ellen’s dilemma compelling, once again proving she’s at the top of the chick-lit pack.”

“Giffin delivers another relatable and multifaceted heroine who may behave unexpectedly but will ultimately find her true path. Sure to be a hit with the New York Times bestselling author’s many fans ‘

How do you know if you’ve found the one? Can you really love the one you’re with when you can’t forget the one who got away?

Emily Giffin, author of the New York Times bestselling novels Something Borrowed, Something Blue, and Baby Proof, poses these questions-and many more-with her highly anticipated, thought-provoking new novel Love the One You’re With.

Ellen and Andy’s first year of marriage doesn’t just seem perfect, it is perfect. There is no question how deep their devotion is, and how naturally they bring out the best in each other. But one fateful afternoon, Ellen runs into Leo for the first time in eight years. Leo, the one who brought out the worst in her. Leo, the one who left her heartbroken with no explanation. Leo, the one she could never quite forget. When his reappearance ignites long-dormant emotions, Ellen begins to question whether the life she’s living is the one she’s meant to live. At once heartbreaking and funny, Love the One You’re With is a tale of lost loves and found fortunes-and will resonate with anyone who has ever wondered what if.

Here are the 10 bestselling fiction and non-fiction books in Canada

FICTION
1 (8) Love the One You’re With - Emily Giffin (hardcover)

2 (3) Remember Me? - Sophie Kinsella (hardcover)

3 (6) The Host - Stephenie Meyer (hardcover)

4 (1) A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini (hardcover)

5 (2) The Hollow - Nora Roberts (paperback)

6 (-) Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition Core Rulebook Collection - Wizards RPG Team (hardcover)

7 (4) The Shack - William P. Young (paperback)

8 (-) Careless in Red - Elizabeth George (hardcover)

9 (7) The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory (paperback)

10 (10) Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen (paperback)
NON-FICTION
1 (2) The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch (hardcover)

2 (1) A New Earth (Oprah Edition) - Eckhart Tolle (paperback)

3 (5) Audition - Barbara Walters (hardcover)

4 (4) Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (paperback)

5 (3) In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan (hardcover)

6 (6) The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle (paperback)

7 (7) Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert (paperback)

8 (8) An Imperfect Offering - James Orbinski (hardcover)

9 (-) Martha Stewart’s Cookies - Martha Stewart (paperback)

10 (10) Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food - Gordon Ramsay (hardcover)

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SMALL PRESS SPOTLIGHT: DANIEL A. OLIVAS

Author: admin
May 17, 2008


Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature, Bilingual Press, 2008.

Daniel A. Olivas is the author of the story collections Devil Talk and Assumption, the novella The Courtship of Maria Rivera Pena, and the children’s book Benjamin and the Word. He has a book of poetry forthcoming from Ghost Road Press in 2010, and another short-story collection to be published by Bilingual Press in 2009. A co-blogger on La Bloga (which is dedicated to Chicano/a and Latino/a literature), Olivas practices law with the California Department of Justice in Los Angeles where he makes his home with his wife and son.

A mini history lesson: The city of Los Angeles was once called by the Spaniards who founded it in 1781, El Pueblo Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula. In 1821 Mexico declared its independence from Spain, and the city (and much of what is now known as the Southwest) came under Mexican rule. The year of the Gold Rush, 1848, California (and the aforementioned Southwest) became a territory of the United States after the controversial Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. History shows such a preoccupation with sovereignty, and yet, culturally, the city (and state) has thrived from these various shifts in national identities. This anthology taps into one of those identities: Latino. What will the reader learn about who Latinos are, and more specifically, who California Latinos are?

Yes, I think there is certainly an undercurrent of disruption arising from the forced multiculturalism that is endemic to California’s shifting sovereignty. This has resulted, I believe, in a great complexity of experiences which I hope comes through when you read the stories and novel excerpts that make up the anthology. The narratives include protagonists such as journalists, cement pourers, folklorico dancers, curanderos, teenage slackers, artists, wrestlers, saints, priests, druggies, script writers, college students, and even a private detective. Just this listing of characters demonstrates the two worlds (i.e., pre- and post-1848) that are being straddled.

Moreover, I tried to include Latino writers who were not of Mexican ancestry. Thus, we have stories by writers who have roots in Cuba and Brazil. I wished that I had included more stories by other non-Chicanos but much was dictated by what I received in response to my call for submissions. Not surprisingly, I received work primarily from Chicano/a writers.

I also note that the protagonists represent all ages, income and education levels, and various immigration histories. We have gay and straight characters, people who are single or in committed relationships, folks who are political and those who are not. Also, virtually every style of writing is represented which is one of the facets of the anthology that is most gratifying to me. Each piece brings the reader something different from the last one read.

Finally, though it is difficult to pinpoint, the Latino experience in California, in general, and Los Angeles, in particular, is tied rather dramatically to the State’s varied terrain (from beaches to mountains to deserts to asphalt), dependence on the car to get virtually anywhere, the freeway system, almost unrelenting sunshine, and the entertainment industry. I don’t believe that the stories in the anthology could not be transplanted to, say, Denver or El Paso or Las Vegas.

Latinos in Lotusland limits itself to short stories and novel excerpts, including a piece from Robert Vasquez’s groundbreaking 1970 novel Chicano, and a piece from a consummate California writer, Helena Maria Viramontes. You also include (among others) three much-celebrated writers in the early stages of their promising careers, Reyna Grande, Alex Espinoza and Manuel Munoz. Why are stories and books such an important component of Chicano/Latino cultural production?

I think that we use storytelling in book form the same way our elders used oral storytelling: to pass on culture, life lessons and a sense of place. In many ways, I think there is more truth in fiction than there is in so-called non-fiction. When someone writes an autobiography, so much is left out, so much is inflated, so much is shaped into what the writer wants others to see. In fiction, all that matters is the story. It’s safer because the writer can always say: hey, it’s not true, it’s just fiction. That sense of safety has allowed many writers to produce some of the truest fiction around.

Your introduction doesn’t mention why that word- “Lotusland” -appears on the title. Besides its alliterative value, are you trying to bridge a connection to another state of existing/being or with the Asian populations in the Southwest, which are also sizeable and significant?

As Gary Keller (Bilingual Press’ director) and I kicked around ideas for naming the anthology, he suggested that we use a nickname for Los Angeles. The city had been disparaged by many a writer (usually those who moved here from elsewhere) with such nicknames as La-La Land, El-Lay, etc. One such nickname is “Lotusland” which harkens back to the mythological race of lotus (or “lotos”) eaters “represented by Homer as living on the fruit of the lotus and living in a state of dreamy forgetfulness and idleness” according to The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Thus, the term has entered the English language to mean “a place or state of idle pleasure and luxury, contentment and self-indulgence.” (Websters New Millennium Dictionary of English.) So, some clever wags have pinned it to Los Angeles’ lapel. Similarly, as William Safire noted in a New York Times essay:

“La-La Land is a play on the initials L.A., perhaps influenced by Lotos-land in ‘The Lotos-Eaters,’ a poem by Tennyson: ‘In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined / On the hills like Gods together.’ In his 1941 novel, The Last Tycoon, F. Scott Fitzgerald had a character describe Hollywood as ‘a mining town in lotus land.’”

So, I use the name “Lotusland” ironically because, as I note in my introduction: “[N]otwithstanding the fact that the characters who populate this anthology may have feasted on the City of Angel’s lotus flowers, they do not live in blissful oblivion and they certainly have not forgotten who they are.” I thought long and hard about whether I should explain all of this in my introduction but I decided to allow readers to do a little exploration if they were curious. Many readers who live in Los Angeles chuckle when they hear the title and readily understand the allusion.

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A Cathedral Courtship by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

Author: admin
May 17, 2008

free ebooks

Kate Douglas Wiggin (September 28, 1856 - August 24, 1923) was an American children’s author and educator.

Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin was born in Philadelphia, and was of Welsh descent [1]. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878 (the Silver Street Free Kindergarten). With her sister in the 1880s she also established a training school for kindergarten teachers. For a time, she lived at Quillcote, her summer home in Hollis, Maine. The Tory Hill Meeting House in the adjacent town of Buxton inspired her book (and later play), The Old Peabody Pew (1907). Wiggins founded the Dorcas Society of Hollis & Buxton, Maine in 1897. Quillcote is now a private residence.

She was also a writer of children’s books, the best known being The Birds’ Christmas Carol (1887) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903).

Kate Wiggin died at Harrow, Middlesex, England.

A Cathedral Courtship

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25493/25493.txt

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Free Audio book The Memoirs of Colonel John S. Mosby by John S. Mosby (1833-1916)

Author: admin
May 17, 2008

This is not a work of fiction! These are the actual memoirs of a legendary leader of partisans who bedeviled the Union army for years, almost within sight of the capitol. With only a few local men under command, John Singleton Mosby’s ability to strike fast and then melt away before an effective pursuit could be organized kept the Yankee forces awake and often snarled in knots. With daring feats like capturing a Yankee general out of his bed within his defended headquarters, Mosby made his name a synonym for guerrilla warfare. Even today you can purchase in Middleburg, Virginia, a map showing ‘Mosby’s Confederacy.’

The mettle of the man may be judged by the enemies he kept. Said General Joseph Hooker, ‘I may here state that while at Fairfax Court House my cavalry was reinforced by that of Major-General Stahel. The latter numbered 6,100 sabres. . . . The force opposed to them was Mosby’s guerrillas, numbering about 200, and, if the reports of the newspapers were to be believed, this whole party was killed two or three times during the winter. From the time I took command of the army of the Potomac, there was no evidence that any force of the enemy, other than the above-named, was within 100 miles of Washington City; and yet the planks on the chain bridge were taken up at night the greater part of the winter and spring.’

Mosby outraged many of his Southern admirers after the war when he publicly endorsed General U.S. Grant for President. After an appointment as U.S. Consul to Hong Kong and a 16-year career with the Southern Pacific Railroad, he came to Washington as an assistant attorney in the Department of Justice. Loyal to the end to his commander, J.E.B. Stuart, Mosby also answered accusations that Stuart’s grandstanding cost Lee the battle of Gettysburg.

(Summary by Mark Smith)

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Ruth by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Author: admin
May 17, 2008

The book is a social novel, dealing with Victorian views about sin and illegitimacy. It is a surprisingly compassionate portrayal of a ‘fallen woman’, a type of person normally outcast from respectable society. The title of the novel refers to the main character Ruth Hilton, an orphaned young seamstress who is seduced and then abandoned by gentleman Henry Bellingham. Ruth, pregnant and alone, is taken in by a minister and his sister. They conceal her single status under the pretence of widowhood in order to protect her child from the social stigma of illegitimacy. Ruth goes on to gain a respectable position in society as a governess, which is threatened by the return of Bellingham and the revelation of her secret. (Wikipedia)

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Free audiobook Storm Over Warlock by Andre Norton (1912-2005)

Author: admin
May 17, 2008

The Throg task force struck the Terran survey camp a few minutes after dawn, without warning, and with a deadly precision which argued that the aliens had fully reconnoitered and prepared that attack. Eye-searing lances of energy lashed back and forth across the base with methodical accuracy. And a single cowering witness, flattened on a ledge in the heights above, knew that when the last of those yellow-red bolts fell, nothing human would be left alive down there.

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Free audiobook David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Author: admin
May 17, 2008

‘David Copperfield’ or ‘The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery’ was first published in 1850. Like all except five of his works, it originally appeared in serial form. Many elements within the novel follow events in Dickens’ own life, and it is probably the most autobiographical of all of his novels. It is also Dickens’ ‘favorite child.’ (Summary adapted from Wikipedia)

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Isaiah (YLT) by Young’s Literal Translation

Author: admin
May 17, 2008

Young’s Literal Translation is a translation of the Bible into English, published in 1862. The translation was made by Robert Young, compiler of Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible and Concise Critical Comments on the New Testament. Young produced a ‘Revised Edition’ of the translation in 1887. After he died on October 14, 1888, the publisher in 1898 released a new Revised Edition. (Summary from Wikipedia)

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Le Comte de Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870)

Author: admin
May 17, 2008

Language: French

Edmond Dantès, a young seaman with a promising future, is arrested at his wedding ceremony under calomnious charges, and locked up in the Chateau d’If for 14 years. During this time, he secretly meets another detainee, l’Abbé Faria, an erudite believed to be insane, who becomes his friend and teacher, and who, upon his death, gives Edmond the secret to a hidden treasure.

Dantès then manages to escape, almost drowning in the process, and is believed by all to be dead. With the knowledge and the treasure transmitted by l’abbé Faria, and his own wish for revenge, Edmond Dantès plots the downfall of his enemies under the identity of the Count of Monte-Cristo.

Summary by Jc Guan.

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Matthew from Weymouth New Testament

Author: admin
May 17, 2008

Richard Francis Weymouth was born on October 26, 1822 near Plymouth Dock, now known as Devonport, near Plymouth, Devonshire, in England. Dr. Weymouth was a Bible scholar and a philologist (a student of the origins of language), as well as a layman, in the English Baptist denomination. He edited ‘The Resultant Greek Text’, after which he based his ‘New Testament in Modern Speech’, which was published posthumously in 1903. He passed away on December 27, 1902 in Essex. His work is known for its simpler language and use in private reading.
(Summary by Mark Penfold)

Matthew audiobook

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