della book summary

Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend

2009-08-13T18:28:00.001+07:00

Scaredy Squirrel doesn’t have a friend.
He’d rather be alone than risk encountering
someone dangerous. A squirrel could get bitten.

Scaredy Squirrel is destined to remain in his tree, friendless. That is, until he spots a potential pal that appears perfectly safe—a goldfish swimming in a fountain nearby. According to Scaredy, goldfish don’t do much, but are 100% safe. They have a bubbly personality, are quiet, squeaky clean, germ-free, and most important of all, toothless.

Scaredy makes the perfect plan (complete with map) for meeting the goldfish. Unfortunately, things quickly go awry when a dog shows up just as Scaredy gets to the bottom of his tree. Scaredy runs from the dog, until, finally, he gives up and plays dead. Two hours later the dog is still there. "After all this time, Scaredy Squirrel realizes that the dog doesn’t want to bite him . . . He just wants a friend!"

This is perhaps the funniest picture book we have seen here at the Oasis. Every teacher who read it immediately ran out to buy one for his or her classroom. The witty text is accompanied by cartoon-like artwork that is laugh-out-loud hilarious.

Classroom Uses: A superb choice for story hour as well as the shy child who is hesitant about making friends.

The Writing on the Wall

2009-08-13T18:21:00.001+07:00

In this sequel to Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra, Tess and her friends are back in school from winter break. The second semester is not off to a good start. There is a mysterious fire in the computer lab the first week back, and Richard, Tess’s nemesis, continues to bully her. His pranks, such as tearing pages from her English journal and stealing her backpack are not only annoying, but making her look like a slacker to her teachers.

It seems the only good thing in Tess’s school life is algebra class—a subject she loves. Algebra is logical, it makes sense. One can find solutions by looking for patterns and using formulas. Indeed, Tess has taken to using math as a metaphor as she negotiates the ups and downs of her middle-school existence.

When some mathematical graffiti shows up on the wall of the church behind her school, Tess becomes obsessed with solving the code. With the help of her grandfather, she realizes the tagger (the person who created the graffiti) has written ARSON. Could this somehow be related to the computer lab fire? Tess decides to communicate with the tagger.

Using paint sticks and a coded math formula, Tess asks "Where?” When the tagger responds with the room number of the computer lab, Tess decides to investigate. What she finds, ultimately, is that things—and people—are not always what they first appear, and the "hard part about the kind of problems you have in real life . . . is that there are no formulas."

The Writing on the Wall is wonderfully appealing. Tess is a well-drawn, likable character that middle schoolers will relate to. The setting and situations are realistic and spot-on. Lichtman has cleverly woven together the stuff of algebra (variables, factorization, symbols) and the stuff of middle-school life (friendships, drama, finding one’s place in the world) into a highly readable, unique story.

Highly recommended.

cinderella

2009-08-13T18:08:00.004+07:00

Once upon a time there was a young girl called Cinderella. She lived with father and two step sisters.
One day a royal messenger came to announce that there was to be a grand ball at the king's palace.The ball for honour of the king's only son, very handsome prince.who not found a bride yet. When, the evening of the ball arrived, Cinderella had to help her sisters geWhile her step sisters were living in joyfully, Cinderella had to do every hard work in the house.When step sisters wore pretty new clothes Cinderella had to wear old,ragged clothes, but Cinderella sweet and prettier than her sisters.
One day a royal messenger came to announce that there was to be a grand ball at the king's palace.The ball for honour of the king's only son, very handsome prince.who not found a bride yet. When, the evening of the ball arrived, Cinderella had to help her sisters get ready.But they didn't think a second that Cinderella might like to go to the ball.She had toremain at the home in sadly.t ready.But they didn't think a second that Cinderella might like to go to the ball.She had toremain at the home in sadly.
At once,her fairy god mother appeared before Cinderella,asking-"Why are you worring,my dear?"Cinderella explained her desire to fairy god mother,wiping away her tears.The fairy god mother said."I can help you,but you must do exactly as i say.""Yes.I will" promised Cinderella."Then go into the garden and fetch the biggest pumpkin."fairy god mother said.Cinderella found a very larg pumpkin.and the fairy wave her magic wand and the pumpkin became a beautiful golden coach.
"Now bring me six white mice from the kichen."said fairy god mother and Cinderella did as she was told. Waving her magic wand,the mice changed into six bright white horses to pull the coach.Then Cinderella looked down at her old ragged clothes with amazement.Her fairy mother changed the old ragged cothes to fine white ballgown trimmed with blue silk ribbon, in trice waving.There were jewels and dainty glass dancing slippers."Now you can go." said fairy mother."just one thing remember, the magic only for midnight."
So, Cinderella went to the ball in her wonderful golden coach.In the ball,every body was enchanted by the beautiful girl in the white and blue dress."Who is she?" they murmured.The price thought Cinderella was the loveliest girl he had ever
seen."May i have the honour of this dance?"He asked,bowing low.Cinderella danced with the prince all evening.She forgot her fairy mother's warning until the clock bagan to strike midnight.She ran from the ballroom with out a word.In her hurry, she lost one of her glass slippers.The prince ran-out just as the lovely girl slipped out of sight."I don't even know her name." he sighed.
When the Cinderella's sisters arrived home from the ball,they were chitting - "The girl left in such a hurry,he wouldn't dance at all."Cinderella's heart was whirling with memories of the handsome price who had held her in his arms.
Next day the prince was desided to find out the mysterious beauty who had stolen his heart.The glass slipper was the only clue he had.The prince set out, with a royal messenger carried the slipper on a silk custion,saying - "The girl whose foot will fit this slipper shall be prince's bride."Every girl in the kindom wanted to try on the slipper. But no one fit.At last the prince came toCinderella's house.
Each ugly sister in turn tried to the elegant slipper.But too big and clumsy.Then prince asked from father."Do you have any other daughters?""One more" father replied."She is much too busy in the kitchen."said one sister.But price wanted to give chance all the sisters.Cinderella hung her head in shame.But she have to put the slipper."Of course,it fitted her perfectly." cried the messenger.the prince recognised Cinderella's sweet face.He said "It is you,Please be my bride."Cinderella's god mother appeared and dressed her in a gown fit for a princess,waving her magic wand.Then the prince led Cinderella home to the royal palace.
Cinderella and her prince were married at the most magnificent wedding that any one could remember.Even Cinderella's sisters had to agree that she was the loveliest bride they had ever seen.

Getting the Love You Want

2009-04-23T20:49:00.002+07:00

REVISED AND WITH A NEW FOREWORD

ARE YOU GETTING THE LOVE YOU WANT?

Originally published in 1988, Getting the Love You Want has helped millions of couples attain more loving, supportive, and deeply satisfying relationships. The 20th anniversary edition contains extensive revisions to this groundbreaking book, with a new chapter, new exercises, and a foreword detailing Dr. Hendrix’s updated philosophy for eliminating all negativity from couples’ daily interactions, allowing readers of the 2008 edition to benefit from his ongoing discoveries during his last two decades of work.

Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., in partnership with his wife, Helen LaKelly Hunt, PhD., originated Imago Relationship Therapy, a unique healing process for couples, prospective couples, and parents. Together they have more than thirty years’ experience as educators and therapists and their work has been translated into more than 50 languages, with Imago practiced by two thousand therapists worldwide. Harville and Helen have six children and live in New York and New Mexico.

What to Do When Someone You Love Is Depressed

2009-04-23T20:46:00.002+07:00

Aclinical psychologist and expert on depression updates the book that has helped thousands with its combination of professional advice and comfort

There are few circumstances in life as hard and at the same time as important as being a friend to a person who is suffering from depression. What to Do When Someone You Love Is Depressed offers guidance to the friends and family of a depressed person on how to keep one’s own spirits up and at the same time do what is best to help a loved one get through a difficult time. Among the many subjects addressed are

• the warning signs of serious illness
• how to maintain intimacy and communication
• the most successful forms of treatment
• what to do when someone threatens suicide
This updated edition addresses readers’ questions and provides new and expanded information on
• how to choose the right psychiatrist
• the role and limits of medication
• resistant depression
• the link between depression and chronic illness
• specific challenging situations and advice on handling them
Praise
"[This] book will bring hope and comfort to the loved ones of those who struggle to overcome this most common of mental illnesses."—Rosalynn Carter

Between Therapist and Client

2009-04-23T20:37:00.002+07:00

Perhaps the most important aspect of the therapeutic process is the relationship between therapist and client. For years, two major schools of thought have strongly disagreed about what the nature of that relationship should be. The humanists emphasized warmth and empathy. The psychoanalysts kept a neutral, cool distance. Recently, however, the beginnings of a reconciliation between these traditions have opened new possibilities for the way therapists relate to clients.

In Between Therapist and Client, Michael Kahn shows why this new consensus is promising. Beginning with Freud's discovery of transference, Kahn traces the history of the clinical relationship from Carl Rogers' introduction of humanistic concerns through Merton Gill's theory and technique of transference analysis, to the pioneering work of Heinz Kohut, who has most successfully brought together psychoanalytic and humanistic thought. Using vivid examples from his own practice, Kahn shows how a coherent synthesis of these various approaches leads to the most successful clinical relationships.

Completely updated with greater discussion of ethics and countertransference, the new edition of Between Therapist and Client is essential reading for those in psychotherapy both therapist and client.

Emotions Revealed, Second Edition

2009-04-17T21:33:00.003+07:00

“A tour de force. If you read this book, you’ll never look at other people in quite the same way again.”—Malcolm Gladwell

Renowned psychologist Paul Ekman explains the roots of our emotions—anger, fear, disgust, sadness, and happiness—and shows how they cascade across our faces, providing clear signals to those who can identify the clues. As featured in Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller Blink, Ekman’s Facial Action Coding System offers intense training in recognizing feelings in spouses, children, colleagues, even strangers on the street.

In Emotions Revealed, Ekman distills decades of research into a practical, mind-opening, and life-changing guide to reading the emotions of those around us. He answers such questions as: How does our body signal to others whether we are slightly sad or anguished, peeved or enraged? Can we learn to distinguish between a polite smile and the genuine thing? Can we ever truly control our emotions? Packed with unique exercises and photographs, and a new chapter on emotions and lying that encompasses security and terrorism as well as gut decisions, Emotions Revealed is an indispensable resource for navigating our emotional world.

nside The Lionel Trains Fun Factory: The History of a Manufacturing Icon and The Place Where Childhood Dreams Were Made

2009-04-16T22:11:00.002+07:00

Review
The experts agree, Inside The Lionel Trains Fun Factory is a must read for every toy train and manufacturing enthusiast

"The toy train hobby will long be in debt to Bob Osterhoff for the outstanding research he has conducted and the many insights he has shared about Lionel, its development as a business and its growth as a manufacturer. Everyone who loves electric trains will gain immensely from reading this superb study." Roger Carp, Senior Editor Classic Toy Trains magazine and author of The World's Greatest Toy Train Maker: Insiders Remember Lionel

"Phenomenal! This never-before-seen research makes vivid how a brash Joshua Lionel Cowen created the Fun Factory of the world. Consider this Volume 2 of All Aboard! that every collector needs as much as a 700E." Ron Hollander, author of All Aboard! The Story of Joshua Lionel Cowen & His Lionel Train Company

"Marvelous historical insight in what it takes to run a toy manufacturing company given all the challenges of wars, strikes, and corporate intrigue that Lionel's fun factories encountered over the years. Truly a masterful story of an American icon and a must read for history buffs." George J. Schmid, CEO Kiehl Engineering Co. (1972-2000)

"Bob Osterhoff, a meticulous and devoted researcher, has written the definitive book on Lionel factories. I strongly recommend the book for all students of Lionel history." Bruce C. Greenberg Ph.D., President Greenberg Publishing Company (1975-1991)

Lionel employees and executives from every era say Inside The Lionel Trains Fun Factory is the most accurate and enjoyable story of Lionel's many fun factories

"Bob Osterhoff has written an interesting and accurate history of the Lionel factories. I know, because I was there! Starting in 1917, as a young boy I spent many Sundays at Lionel's Newark shop with my father. During my Lionel career, I played a major role in planning and construction of the plant and in the installation of new processes and equipment to meet the growth in business. Bob has captured the excitement of that period." Tom Pagano, Assistant Superintendent Parts Production and Infrastructure Maintenance The Lionel Corporation (1935-1959)

"Growing up with a love for Lionel trains, it was my childhood dream come true to join The Lionel Corporation. This book recreates that dream with the most accurate and enjoyable portrayal of Lionel during my tenure at the company. Come see where childhood dreams were made." Bruce Parmett, Sales Manger The Lionel Corporation (1964-1966)

"This book finally tells the Lionel story the way it actually happened: the good, the bad and the ugly. I know because I was there for many years as an officer of the company." Robert Stein, Vice President The Lionel Corporation (1965-1982)

"Inside The Lionel Trains Fun Factory provides a wonderful journey into the history of a cherished brand accurately portrayed right up to present day." Michael Braga, Regional Sales Manager Lionel L.L.C. (1972-present)

--Reviews

Product Description
Do you like Lionel toy trains? Enjoy corporate history? Or just want to take a nostalgic journey back to your childhood?

Then Inside The Lionel Trains Fun Factory: The History of a Manufacturing Icon and The Place Where Childhood Dreams Were Made is for you delivering a fascinating trip through the rise, fall and rise again of Lionel, one of the manufacturing and pop icons in modern American life. The impeccable research by Lionel historian Robert J. Osterhoff, along with hundreds of unpublished photos and images, tells the history of Lionel's trains, factories, employees and business practices from the late 19th century until today.

About the Author
Robert Osterhoff, a retired executive of the Xerox Corporation, has conducted extensive international management consulting, specializing in the practices of business effectiveness, benchmarking and knowledge management. He served on the Board of Examiners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and as Treasurer and Director of the Baldrige Foundation. A graduate of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, Bob received a master's degree in business administration from Rochester Institute of Technology.

This is Bob's third book, having previously authored Greenberg's Guide to Lionel Paper and Collectibles and Greenberg's Guide to Lionel Prewar Parts & Instruction Sheets. Bob and his wife, Laura, have three married children and six grandchildren, and they live in the St. Louis area.

What Smart Teenagers Know...About Dating, Relationships & Sex

2009-04-16T22:09:00.001+07:00

Review
"I can't believe an adult figured this out and put it in a book." -- Janet Krupin, age 15, Kennewick, WA

"Should be required reading for all romantically curious teenagers—which is 99% of all teenagers!" -- Dr. Mike Riera, Author,

"This book explained the exact problems I had from what I was feeling, to what my boyfriend was thinking." -- Alexandra, age 17, Florida

"This book is a key that will take you to the heart of what’s on a teenager’s mind." -- Jack Canfield, co-author Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul

It would be an excellent tool for parents, teachers, clergy, and health professionals to reach and support teens. -- ForeWord Magazine

This comprehensive guide weaves such themes as self-esteem, trust, mutual respect, thoughtful decision making, and communication throughout each chapter. -- ForeWord Magazine, June, 2003

Product Description
Funny, easy to read, practical and straight talking. Yes, you’ll love this book, whether you’re a teenager or not. Let’s face it; relationships can be tough, no matter what your age. Wanting to get honest information that will increase your odds of success while minimizing anxiety is something everyone in a relationship can understand. For teens, it’s no different.

But, for some teens, it’s hard to talk to parents about the hard questions. And for some parents, it’s hard to talk to teens about the hard questions. The answer is here for everyone in this teen-friendly book.

Real-life stories by teenagers pepper each chapter giving the topics an edge. But, this isn’t just a collection of stories. It’s hands-on information that teens can use, starting immediately.

A bigger bonus is that it’s written for both guys and girls. Many dating books today are aimed only at young girls. This book is applicable for both sexes of any age.

Be careful; once you pick it up, it’s hard to put it down. You’ll be laughing and nodding your head while you learn new ways to have confidence with the opposite sex and create healthy relationships that make you feel good about yourself.

Critically praised by teens, parents and professionals, What Smart Teenagers Know…About Dating, Relationships and Sex® is sure to be the most dog-eared book on your shelf.

From the Inside Flap
Got a Relationship? Make it work!

Want a Relationship? Here’s How!

Everyone is at a different stage in the relationship game. You might be shy and not know how to break the ice, or you don’t know how to flirt. Maybe your relationship is headed for a crash-&-burn and you need to know what to do next. You just got dumped and don’t think you’ll be able to breathe. Or, you want to break up, but don’t know how. Okay, so you’re interested in sex too, but this isn’t one of those birds-and-the-bees "sex talk" books. This is about the stuff you care about right now.

PLUS – You get fun How-To’s and Quizzes:

·Are You Ready to Date

·Top 10 Turn-ons (find out what really attracts people)

·10-Step guide to giving a Killer Kiss

·And More

Note to Parents: Don’t freak out! There’s even a chapter for you. See page 267.

16-year old Jason had problems with his girlfriend, so he turned to his mom for advice. He liked his mom’s suggestions so much that he asked her to write a book for him. As teenagers found out about the book, Deborah Hatchell had an avalanche of calls and visits from teenagers all over the country. Their real-life stories are right here in What Smart Teenagers Know…About Dating, Relationships and Sex®

About the Author
Deborah Hatchell wrote What Smart Teenagers Know...About Dating, Relationships and Sex® while attending college as a full-time re-entry student. She’s also the single mother of a teenager.

What Smart Teenagers Know…About Dating, Relationships and Sex® is the result of her 16-year old son asking for advice about dating and his relationship with his girlfriend.

She is the founder and director of The Teen Dating Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping parents talk to their teenagers about relationships and sex.

Deborah worked for several years as Executive Assistant to Jack Canfield, the nation’s leading self-esteem expert. She was also the Vice President of Operations for Chicken Soup for the Soul® Enterprises, Inc.

Deborah lives with her teenage son, Jason, in Santa Barbara, California.

Food for Tots

2009-04-16T22:02:00.002+07:00

Review
Contains an amazing number of very practical suggestions to help parents encourage healthy eating behaviors in their young children. -- Kim Lampson Reiff, PhD, Eating Disorders Therapist

Great resource for parents. Information about nutrion, behavioral aspects of feeding children, and fun recipes to engage toddlers. -- Danette Glassy, MD, President of Washington Chapter of Academy of Pediatrics

Packed with helpful tips on first foods, finger foods, and family meals,and creative ways to involve the little ones. -- —Carol Fenster, Ph.D., author, Special Diet Solutions and other cookbooks for food allergies and celiac disease

Provides a wealth of kid-pleasing recipes, medical insight and good old fashioned mom-sense to help promote nutritious eating. -- C.APPEL• 11/01 Fearless Reviews

Ways to deliver nutritious foods to little people who appear to their parents to live on air and apple juice. -- Meredith Hughes, The Food Museum

“I love the format, it’s very friendly and would calm a nervous mom." -- —Debra A. Indorato, RD, CPFT, Approach Nutrition and Fitness, Allentown, PA

“This is a wonderfully yummy book, my favorite chapter is Food for Play. Enjoy!” -- —Diane Morgan – Editor, New Book Reviews

“a wealth of kid-pleasing recipes, medical insight and good old fashioned mom-sense. Food for Tots should find a healthy audience.” -- — C.Appel 11/01 Fearless Reviews

Product Description
Food for Tots is written for “parents, teachers, grandparents, and other caregivers of those children who will put anything but food into their mouths.” Food for Tots, the complete guide to feeding preschoolers, is a comprehensive cookbook and nutrition guide. It is a great resource for parents, grandparents, day care providers and other caregivers of young children. The book includes tips for raising healthy eaters, from first foods to finger foods to family meals. There are more than 100 kid-tested recipes that will please even the pickiest eaters. Young children love to help cook. Woolley and Pugmire provide plenty of creative ways to involve the little ones in cooking. There are great recipes for playdough, bubbles, and other fun kitchen crafts. The book also contains four chapters of essential information about food allergies, food safety, nutrition, and how to encourage healthy eating behaviors. It addresses the common concerns that parents of young children! have. The format is lively, and easy to use.

From the Publisher
Increasing numbers of children in the United States are obese. On the other hand, children’s diets are often lacking in important nutrients. Why is this? Simply put, children are eating too much of the wrong foods and too little of the healthy ones! For example, a survey of the diets of more than 3,000 children found that only 1 percent met all of the national recommendations for daily food group intake.

Good eating habits need to begin early in life but preschool children, on average, do not eat enough vegetables and fruits. Their diets are low in fiber, vitamin A, and vitamin C but too high in fat. The vegetable most eaten by U.S. children is¯you guessed it¯french fries!

Part of the problem is that preschoolers are notoriously “picky eaters.” They like routine and predictability and usually don’t take easily to new foods. In order to develop a taste for a new food a child has to taste the food. It may take 8, 10 or more exposures to a new food before a young child is ready to try it. So what happens? Too often parents give up and stick with “kid foods” such as macaroni and cheese, hotdogs, fast foods, etc. These are high fat, low nutrition foods. Sadly, a pattern of lifelong poor eating can be established at a tender age. What can parents do to change this trend?

Having a battle at the dinner table is not the answer. Fortunately, there is a better way. According to Janice Woolley, M.D. and Jennifer Pugmire, B.S., authors of Food for Tots, there are some basic rules for helping children develop good eating habits. One of their Seven Rules for Encouraging Healthy Eating is to resist power struggles. They say, “Don’t try to force a child to eat. That is a battle you can’t win. Children who are pressured to eat actually end up eating less than those who are allowed to decide how much they want.” They provide the know-how and the healthy recipes to achieve the goal of healthy eating for the whole family.

About the Author
This mother and daughter coauthor team speaks from experience. Dr. Janice Woolley is a pediatrician with more than twenty five years of experience practicing pediatrics. Over the years she has helped numerous parents with their concerns about providing healthy food for their preschool children. She is also a mother and grandmother.

Jennifer Pugmire is a stay-at-home mom with three young children. She has taught in a coop preschool, provided home daycare, and been leader of a church-operated program for toddlers. She knows from experience how challenging it can be to get toddlers to eat nutritious foods.

Prescription Drug Addiction: The Hidden Epidemic

2009-04-14T21:09:00.002+07:00

From Booklist
Colvin, whose brother died from prescription drug abuse, brings what he calls the hidden epidemic of such abuse into the light. In the course of writing his book, he talked with persons from many different occupations and activities, and excerpts from his interviews occupy a considerable portion of the text. Abusers discuss their methods and sources and disclose that many of them felt that because they had prescriptions, they were not really drug abusers. Medical, pharmaceutical, and legal personnel comment on the scope, sources, procedures, and possible solutions of the prescription drug problem. Although the presentation of that problem sometimes beautifully exemplifies how a few bad apples can give misleading pictures of their particular barrels, it also shows that a problem definitely exists. Solutions must be found; Colvin discusses some now in use, such as drug diversion control systems, and at the end of the book lists sources of additional information and help. William Beatty --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
This book fills a long-standing void--that of the need for education about the rampant abuse of prescription medication -- Jean Sheffield, Pharmacist

EyeScapes: Plastic Surgery of the Eyelids

2009-04-14T21:06:00.001+07:00

Product Description
Dr. Engler explains eyelid surgery in detail, including the anatomy of the eyelid, the surgical techniques involved, the initial consultation, and what the typical recovery is like. The last chapter displays before and after photos of the types of results that can be achieved. Readers will become well informed and know what to expect before, during, and after surgery.

About the Author
Alan M. Engler, M.D., F.A.C.S., is a board-certified plastic surgeon (The American Board of Plastic Surgery, Inc.). He is a graduate of Yale University and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in New York. A Clinical Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, he is a member of numerous professional societies, including the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (ASAPS), the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), and the American College of Surgeons (ACS). Dr. Engler is a Member of the Advisory Board of Healthcare.com and is an Expert for Allexperts.com Dr. Engler was named One of The World s Most Famous Aesthetic Surgeons, (Aesthetic Surgery, Taschen, Ed. Angelika Taschen), and he has been listed as one of New York Magazine s Best Doctors in New York and in Castle, Connolly Medical Ltd s The Best New York Metro Area Doctors. He is the author of four books, BodySculpture - Plastic Surgery of the Body for Men and Women (Second Edition - 2000), EyeScapes - Plastic Surgery of the Eyelids (2006), Restylane (2003), and The Slim Book of Liposuction (1993). He has appeared on numerous radio and television shows, including four times on the Ricki Lake Show. Dr. Engler has received a U.S. Patent (D458,680) for a surgical instrument he designed. The instrument, called the Engler Lighted Retractor, is manufactured and distributed by ASSI (New York). It is used for procedures on several different areas of the body, including the face (facelifts, liposuction of the chin/neck) and breasts (breast enlargements).

Your Complete Guide to Facial Cosmetic Surgery

2009-04-14T20:59:00.002+07:00

Product Description
From choosing a doctor to postsurgical recovery, this guidebook for facial cosmetic surgery provides tips for every stage of the most popular procedures including facelifts, lip augmentation, and rhinoplasty. Potential risks and complications, realistic expectations, and criteria for determining if one is a good candidate for surgery are addressed by three experienced plastic surgeons. The newest materials used in cosmetic surgery, such as Restylane, longer-lasting wrinkle filler, and surgical techniques that promote quicker healing are discussed. An insightful introduction supplies a brief history of cosmetic surgery and dispels common myths.

About the Author
Jon Mendelsohn, MD, is the coauthor of The Non-Surgical Facelift Book. He is the medical director of the Advanced Cosmetic Surgery & Laser Center and a facial plastic surgeon in private practice. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. William Truswell, MD, is the coauthor of The Non-Surgical Facelift Book. He is the medical director of the Aesthetic Laser and Cosmetic Surgery Center and a facial surgeon in private practice. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts. Kriston Kent, MD, is a plastic surgeon. He lives in Naples, Florida.

Nurturing Nuggets For Dementia Caregivers: 25 Supportive Strategies In Caring For Persons With Dementia

2009-04-14T20:44:00.003+07:00

Review
"A gem of a book filled with ideas and levity to help caregivers through the journey of living with dementia". -- Joanne Koenig Coste, Author, Learning To Speak Alzheimer's, April 2006

"Finally caregivers of those with dementia can expect a hug in the form of an adorable mini book for them"! -- Jacquell Marcell, Author, Elder Rage or Take My Father Please!: How To Survive Caring For Aging Parents, April 2006

"This book provides abundant thought filled, helpful ideas calling forth and enhancing the caregiver’s practical insights and inner wisdom". -- Carly Hellen, OTR/L, Author, Alzheimer's Disease: Activity-Focused Care, April 2006

"A gem of a book filled with ideas and levity to help caregivers through the journey of living with dementia". --Joanne Koenig Coste, Author, Learning To Speak Alzheimer's, April 2006

"Finally caregivers of those with dementia can expect a hug in the form of an adorable mini book for themÂ”! --Jacquell Marcell, Author, Elder Rage or Take My Father Please!: How To Survive Caring For Aging Parents, April 2006

Â“This book provides abundant thought filled, helpful ideas calling forth and enhancing the caregiverÂ’s practical insights and inner wisdom". --Carly Hellen, OTR/L, Author, Alzheimer's Disease: Activity-Focused Care, April 2006

Product Description
This beautiful gift book offers thanks, comfort and reassurance to dementia caregivers in the form of Nurturing Nuggets or "word bites for the heart". A perfect choice for unpaid and professional caregivers. To all the caregivers of persons with dementia, we thank you!

About the Author
Susan E. Lanza is a nursing home administrator, author, consultant and speaker with over 20 years experience in working with persons with dementia and their caregivers.

why we love?

2009-04-10T18:18:00.001+07:00

"If you want flashes and particular experiences of romantic love, read novels. If you want to understand this central quality of human nature to its roots, read Why We Love."
—Edward O. Wilson

In Why We Love, renowned anthropologist Helen Fisher offers a new map of the phenomenon of love—from its origins in the brain to the thrilling havoc it creates in our bodies and behavior.
Working with a team of scientists to scan the brains of people who had just fallen madly in love, Fisher proved what psychologists had until recently only suspected: when you fall in love, specific areas of the brain "light up" with increased blood flow.

This sweeping new book uses this data to argue that romantic passion is hardwired into our brains by millions of years of evolution. It is not an emotion; it is a drive as powerful as hunger.

Provocative, enlightening, engaging, and persuasive, Why We Love offers radical new answers to age-old questions: what love is, who we love—and how to keep love alive.
Praise

why him? why her?

2009-04-10T18:16:00.001+07:00

Agroundbreaking book about how your personality type determines who you love

Why do you fall in love with one person rather than another? In this fascinating and informative book, Helen Fisher, one of the world’s leading experts on romantic love, unlocks the hidden code of desire and attachment. Each of us, it turns out, primarily expresses one of four broad personality types—Explorer, Builder, Director, or Negotiator—and each of these types is governed by different chemical systems in the brain. Driven by this biology, we are attracted to partners who both mirror and complement our own personality type.

Until now the search for love has been blind, but Fisher pulls back the curtain and reveals how we unconsciously go about finding the right match. Drawing on her unique study of 40,000 men and women, she explores each personality type in detail and shows you how to identify your own type. Then she explains why some types match up well, whereas others are problematic. (Note to Explorers: be prepared for a wild ride when you hitch your star to a fellow Explorer!) Ultimately, Fisher’s investigation into the complex nature of romance and attachment leads to astonishing new insights into the essence of dating, love, and marriage.

Based on entirely new research—including a detailed questionnaire completed by seven million people in thirty-three countries—Why Him? Why Her? will change your understanding of why you love him (or her) and help you use nature’s chemistry to find and keep your life partner.

the easter chicken

2009-04-10T18:09:00.002+07:00

Product Description
One disgruntled chicken and one major holiday equal a refreshingly funny Easter tale and begs the question...Can the chicken really replace the Easter Bunny? Sure to entertain readers of all ages, this sarcastic chicken is on a mission. Told in rhyme and humor, The Easter Chicken has become a staple in thousands of Easter Baskets and bookbags. Like all Franklin Mason Press titles, a portion of each sale benefits our charity partner, St. Jude's Children's Hospital. In addition, two pages are saved to publish the work of 6-9 year olds through our Guest Young Authors and Illustrators Contest. This contest has become immensely popular with schools, teachers, and parents and a large part of our marketing program.

About the Author
Lisa Funari-Willever is the author of 16 books for children and teachers and is a former elementary school teacher in the city of Trenton, NJ. As a past member of the New Jersey Education Association (state teachers union), the National Education Association, and New Jersey Reading Association, her titles have received enormous support nationwide. She has had books featured on the Rosie O Donnell Show and at the White House, as well as named to the prestigious New Jersey Battle of the Books List. A graduate of Trenton State College, she is married to Todd Willever, a captain in the Trenton Fire Department, and the mother of Jessica, Patrick, and Timothy. They are also in the process of adopting a little girl from Moldova. Lisa is a member of Authors and Illustrators Who Visit Schools and visits 70-80 schools, each year, all over the country and world.

silly horse

2009-04-10T18:00:00.002+07:00

Poetry can truly be enjoyed at all ages. As a child I loved Shel Silverstein. As a teenager I was into Allen Ginsberg. So when I found a book of poems for young children I figured I'd give it a chance with my own son.

Silly Horse is the title of the book as well as the title of one of the poems. Vadim Aleksandrovich Levin writes the poems in this book aimed at people aged 3 years and up. The poems were originally published in 1969 in Russia but have since been translated and even become lyrics for songs. There are fourteen poems translated by Tanya Wolfson and Tatiana Zunshine.

These poems are supposed to be humorous and I'll admit some of them are quite silly but I just didn't find the humor in all the poems. I also think perhaps some of it was lost in the translation. The rhyming is a little off and I found myself having trouble figuring out a good rhythm. This made it so I didn't read the book very smoothly to my son and I don't think he liked it as much.

Here is an example from a poem entitled A Little Poem about a Big Rain

For a month the sky's been grey.
All we get is rain all day:
Soaking houses, trees and leaves,
Dripping noses, shoes and sleeves,
Soggy ground is soaked right through,
Parks and fields are soaking too,
And too far away to see
Ships are soaking in the sea.

I liked the dripping noses, because does it mean rain is dripping down them or does it mean when it's rainy you are more likely to catch a cold and have a runny (dripping) nose?

Some poems are about people, others about animals, like Silly Horse. And like the one above, just about weather. The Tale of a Trunk is probably the silliest in the book and I did enjoy it with my son quite a bit.

The illustrations are done by Evgeny Antonenkov and I really liked them. It is easy to tell what everything is, but everything has a little bit of a twist to it. The homes in the rain poem all have umbrellas coming out of them. Another illustration about a cow shows the cow with some burrs on his ears. Antonenkov uses lines to create shadows, fur, and other distinctions and it has a nice effect. I liked the use of colors as well. The lines make it so nothing is bright or brilliant but there are so many shades and colors used that the illustrations are quite pretty in many cases.

Overall this was a visually engaging book, and some of the poems were humorous, but I didn't really like any of the poems a whole lot, nothing worth remembering. I don't recommend it, even with all the praise that the covers imply it has received. I'll be finding my son some other poetry books to enjoy instead.

Antarctica: Journey to the Pole

2009-04-07T18:51:00.001+07:00

The journey to Antarctica was harsh. well, as if we were among the eager men heading towards what they called “the bottom of the world.” We heard each characters opinion, including Jack, the expedition leader, Colin and Andrew, Philip, Captain Barth, and Kosta, the dog trainer. We all thought Antarctica was an exciting novel, with strong personalities, great emotions, and a well-thought-out storyline.

While the book goes on, each character develops a special personality, and throughout the book, they use it.

Jack is the expedition’s leader, and he is smart, logical, educated, and hopes his two sons will get along. Those sons are Colin and Andrew. Colin is lazy at first, often gets frustrated, and does not want to go. Andrew is much different. He prepares for the trip by reading all the books, knowing about Antarctica journeys, and he wants to be a hero. Colin already is a strong hero. He once pulled a man up ‘as if it was a child’ and with ‘the strength of the moose’. But there are others on the ship, for example the captain, Elias Barth. Barth is strict, wants discipline, and is loyal to the ship. None of the men like him. These men include Philip. Philip is the nephew of the millionaire sponsor, which means he is spoiled, and later on, you learn he’s a criminal. Although polite, he is part of the problem. Everybody has a special personality in the novel, Antarctica.

We think the book Antarctica is interesting because it expresses strong emotions of the people who had to deal with a harsh journey while worrying about conditions in their family. Each of them seem to have something going on in their life, like criminal records, a family member that recently died, or financial worries. It beginning of the book, Andrew’s mother dies, and he finds it hard to get over, but towards the end of the book he starts accepting the fact and he matures slowly. For example, when he says, “Listen to you all- “is he too heavy is he going to eat all our food, will he slow us down”- he’s not a thing. He’s a man. The best one of us all, he’s telling us to leave him. Would you do that? Would any of you offer to sacrifice yourselves?” this states that he is brave, strong willed and not scared to speak up for what he thinks.

At the beginning Jack and Colin are always fighting but towards the end of the book they realize they have to work together to survive. In the book all the characters develop and have to leave their past lives behind. In the end the people who went on the journey are struggling to survive, and find themselves fighting for survival, while the people on board, are just worried about what is to come, and if the people will be alright. This book really demonstrates how to use emotion well in writing and is very emotional.

The storyline in this story is full of adventure. This story is about the main characters wanted to go to Antarctica. They thought going Antarctica is very simple like other explorations. They think, ‘It was that simple, to go to Antarctica you needed a ship.’ But I think they will have some trouble or dangerous things happen. Because, they didn’t brought that much of what they need. Second, it is not simple to go to Antarctica and the record of temperature is -89.8* F. 1909 ships could be crash at the reefs or iceberg and it can sink. When they sail to Antarctica, they argue and sometimes they fight each other. Then, later they went to Antarctica and have a very hard time. They try to not yield of their goal and they successfully go back to the ship. So, this is the storyline of this book.

In this novel, the author, Peter Lerangis, explains what happens when you take a journey to Antarctica. Everybody who reads it will enjoy the personalities the author created, the emotions that made you feel that you were there, and a great storyline that brought the story together. We hope you like the thrilling story of the bottom carried to you from Antarctica: Journey to the Pole.

Shiloh

2009-04-07T18:45:00.001+07:00

We’ve always been concerned of animals, just like Marty an 11 year old boy who makes friend out of a mistreated dog, Shiloh. The dog is owned by a cruel man named Judd Trevors. Marty keeps Shiloh as a secret, up on his father’s hill in a pen he made, but then something tragic happened that reveals the secret of Shiloh. We liked the book Shiloh because we think that the author, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, has the power to keep the reader’s mind going and there was lots of character development. We could also make lots of connections about things that happen in this world, such as, mistreated animals. We could also feel for the character, through voice.

Judd Trevors, Shiloh the dog’s cruel owner, always controls his bad manners and his mean words. He controls himself, and didn’t lose his anger. Judd didn’t blow up when “He saw Shiloh in Marty’s house and the family was enjoying with him, Marty’s family liked him, but one bad thing was that Shiloh was hurt. Judd just took Shiloh and came out of the house.” Judd causes some problems, but sometimes fixes them… He also tries not to hurt other people’s feelings, but when he can’t help it, he blows up. You may think Judd is mean, but he is nice sometimes

The book has a deep meaning, but is hard to understand because the author makes the writing looks written in an old way. Even though, this book is amazing because it shows how some people mistreat their dogs and how everybody has feelings, not only people. This book has lots of voice, it made us feel happy when the whole family started loving Shiloh, and it looked like a real family to us. We felt scared when Judd comes in the kitchen and sees his dog that has been missing for more than a week in a box and all the family petting it. But most of all we felt sad, like when the author describes how badly Shiloh gets hurt.

We don’t get why people have to be so cruel to animals, but also being cruel to nature, we are also cutting down many trees and it feels like people are ruling this world. We aren’t the only ones on this planet; we are keeping animals as slaves. This book made me think this over a lot, like the part were Judd goes hunting a deer when he knows that is not the deer season.

We think that this author as done a really good job in keeping me and my group interested in the story, but the author was weak in describing people. Like in the part where Shiloh was injured and there was a chance the dog could die, and then the doctor comes back with Shiloh and shows that he is alright. The author could have added something like, when I saw Shiloh my eyes almost popped out of my head.

The emotions that are in this book are mainly in the middle where Marty’s family starts feeling for Shiloh. This happens because Shiloh is injured and needs help so they keep him safe in a box. After a few days of Shiloh living in the box someone unexpected pays a visit which causes everyone to panic. Afterward everyone is confused and scared because of what happened. We felt as if we were there with them when that happened because of how the author describes the characters feeling at that moment. We felt quite scared with what was happening. We thought as soon as Judd saw Shiloh that he would shoot him. “What are you doing to my dog,” Judd shouted. When he said that we thought he would kill Marty’s dog.

This story helped us paint a picture in our head, how Marty’s family wants to stop those who mistreat their pets; we also felt that we were part of Marty’s adventures. We really enjoyed this book and we plan to read other books from this author. We suggest you to read this wonderful book, and join Marty to try to save Shiloh from Judd Trevors.

The Good Master

2009-04-03T22:54:00.002+07:00

This book is an amazing book because it talks about the life of an uneducated kid who lives in a farm and helps his father with his farmer’s duties. The boy’s name is Jancsi, he as a desire, wants a little sibling. One day Jancsi’s cousin came to visit his family, a spoiled and active city girl, Kate, which her father sends to Jancsi’s father to let her measles heal so she will become healthy again.

“The Good Master” had many different types of feelings, connections, and character development. The book makes us feel that we are part of Jancsi and Kate’s life times. We had many connections with Kate and Jancsi, for example, Jancsi loved animals and we do too, we care for them and look after them, Jancsi also does the same thing! Kate had character development, she was rude, not nice, and hyper, all these bad things, but as you continue reading the story you will realize that Kate is becomes nicer; she is fitting in Jancsi’s family.

“The Good Master” brought out many personal feelings in us. For example, we felt kind of bad when the book said that Jancsi can’t afford an education, but after a while I felt happy, because we felt like Jancsi likes how he is living now. Jancsi also want siblings, but his parents didn’t agree. First Jancsi felt really depressed, sad all these dark feelings. Later on he felt better when he realized that he didn’t need any siblings, because he had all his animal friends. You may think some animals are just animals, but to Jancsi they are like a family.

Jancsi reminds me of one time in my life. I really liked my pet rabbit. I felt like the rabbit was a part of our family. After coming back from school, I ran to the rabbit to watch what it was doing, I feel better when I see my rabbit, just like how families make you feel better. I believe that Jancsi will enjoy his life even though he can’t afford an education, I’m sure he will have a fun and exciting life!

In this book Kate, the main character, is spoiled mean and not nice in the beginning of the book, but as the book continues Kate learns to be nice and considerate to others. The people whom have done all this for Kate are Kate’s cousin Jancsi and his family. An example are in the beginning when Jancsi goes to pick her up at the train station she was very rude and unkind to the train station man who brings her to him. Another person who develops character development it Jancsi he was a shy and boring person until Kate came Kate always gave him lots of work looking after her. In the beginning he was so shy and boring because he had no siblings, but when Kate came he had to be fun and interesting so the “screaming monkey", Kate, would not scream and have fun. He changes from a shy and boring person to an open, fun, and confident around everything and everyone.

From the beginning to the end Kate’s attitude developed a lot, with the help of Jancsi and his father, she became nicer to other people and not as spoiled as she was when she first came. Also Jancsi changed; he became more open to different people. This book is also very interesting for its different topics. In every chapter it has at least two different ideas. It is like a tree the main topic is the trunk, the chapters are the stronger and thicker branches, from them comes out smaller and thinner branches, that look like sticks, which are the ideas.

So in conclusion Jancsi is a boy with nothing in his life except his mom, dad, and animals until Kate comes along and changes his life to a more fun and active life where he can enjoy living in the country.

The Great Brain

2009-04-01T15:42:00.001+07:00

We haven’t met a person like Tom, the main character, who has the great brain. However, if we meet anyone with the characteristics of Tom, who’s greedy, even clever, we don’t trust him. We found that this book is very descriptive, showing rather than telling, and shows character development, well. The story of how The Great Brain solves the problems, is told by the younger brother of Tom, J.D. The author was trying to tell us what happen to him when he was younger about him and his brothers.

We think that John D. Fitzgerald did a superb job trying to show rather than tell. We know this because he describes the town in the beginning of the book. He even describes how many people, what their religions are, and other stuff about the town, but mostly he describes all the things in the town and what they all remember. An example of what the author has done is he showed rather then told when someone was dieing he described what he looked like. We hope that now we can conclude that this paragraph has shown you that John D. Fitzgerald did an awesome job at showing and not telling.

The author showed character developments well, especially Tom. D. In chapter 2, John, Tom, and Sweyn caught childhood disease of mom. They couldn’t even go to school because of their mom’s system with childhood disease. Just like other kids, they didn’t like it. We with agree him. But, the thing we could understand from their mother was that she was trying to help them as a mother. Tom couldn’t understand her; all he thought was that she’s so annoying. But, later on, in chapter 7, we realized that Tom wasn’t just one, be patient for only himself, by the quotation of Tom “But it just doesn’t seem right getting paid for helping somebody not to be useless anymore. You keep the set, Andy. I’ll come over and play with it sometimes.”

He maked good decision, be patient. We see his growth of critical thinking.

We hope that by reading this, you’ll know how awesome of a book this is. This book is emotional, descriptive, and shows rater than tells. We think it’s a great book to recommend to someone who wants to read a book about impressions which are normal.

Bridge To Terabithia

2009-04-01T15:40:00.001+07:00

Bridge to Terabithia is a magical novel packed with emotions, description, suspense and well developed characters. Starring with Leslie Burke and Jesse Oliver Aaron’s Jr.; these two make the world seem boring and their magical place Terabithia inspiring. However a terrible incident might put an end to Terabithia. Could they push certain buttons that could put Jesse in trouble? Read on and find out where is the bridge to Terabithia.

The inspiring novel, Bridge to Terabithia is an amazing book filled action, suspense and exciting events. One of them was the coming of Leslie Burke, one of our main and magical characters of this book. You might think that Leslie is like all the other girls at first; neat, tidy and has lots of manners which you would expect from any ordinary girl. However, Leslie isn’t an ordinary girl, when Jesse meets her and both of them created Terabithia they thought nothing would break their friendship apart. You might not believe it (Jesse didn’t), but a terrible accident that separated the two friends caused grief and a depressing end to this book. Despite the incident, Terabithia still survived with its new queen but same king.

Katherine Paterson, the author of the book, is someone who describes a book like a movie. She has every little bit of details like she had seen the movie before she started writing the book. For example, she doesn’t just write they crossed a river to Terabithia, but she says Leslie was swinging the rope back across the other side of the river gracefully… The book can make the readers visualize as they read throughout the book. In the middle of the book, Paterson writes, “They didn’t look like Jess’s idea of rich, but even he could tell that the jeans they wore had not come off the counter of Newberry’s”, you know that Bill and Judy are not really rich, but you can eat well and live like an ordinary family. Bridge to Terabithia is a wonderful book to read and is suitable for all ages.

In any book, not only the suspense develops, but the characters develop as well. At the beginning of the book, Bridge to Terabithia, Jesse Oliver Aarons, Jr, one of the main characters, didn’t know that he could be as imaginative as he became. Leslie Burke, the new girl from town, comes and becomes Jesse’s friend and changes people that are around her and mostly changes Jesse. Jesse is usually scared of Janice Avery, the school bully, but on page 36, he got the courage to stand up for Leslie. On page 66-68, if Leslie hadn’t noticed that Jesse didn’t really like being around her dad, Jesse will be uncomfortable whenever he’s at the Burkes.

Janice Avery was another person that changed throughout the book, on page 75-76 Leslie went to talk to Janice since Jesse heard Janice cry in the bathroom. Her two so-called friends had betrayed Janice by spreading her secret all around seventh grade. Leslie comforted Janice by telling her about not having a TV set and being made fun of and even gave her some advice. The author, Katherine Paterson, has developed the characters well. That’s one of the reasons why this inspiring book makes the reader want to read on.

The emotions in this novel are descriptive in a way that the author described how characters felt like a waterfall of beautiful words woven together, and we think the author did well on this. The main characters, Jesse and Leslie, were best friends, and they found a secret country in their imagination. When Leslie accidentally fell down to the river, Jesse was frustrated. “Leslie-girl friend-rope broke-fell- you-you-you. The words exploded in his head like corn against the sides of a popcorn pan.” This example from the book, is the best way we think the author showed how he felt; even though it’s not a description about his feeling.

Bridge to Terabithia is a beneficial book for children of all ages that will spread their imagination. It is a book packed filled with beautiful description, a variety of emotions, suspenseful actions, and a smooth development in character. The problem is that a few parts in this book were sometimes confusing or didn’t give out quite enough information to satisfy the reader. Our recommendation is to try and improvise or put a piece of information that you, as the reader think is suitable for the part. We together as a group thought about all the events and related them to our life. As we said in our last book review, make connections to your own life, and spread your imagination.

Girls Fight Back!

2009-03-24T20:01:00.001+07:00

Girls Fight Back!
The College Girl’s Guide to Protecting Herself You’re leaving for college and the family minivan is packed to the gills with your stuff. On the brain are good times, parties, new friends…and oh yeah, classes too. College is a blast, but it’s a good idea to get informed on how to stay safe and strong while on campus. Girls Fight Back will show you how to trust intuition, avoid bad situations, and if necessary, defend yourself. You will learn practical and empowering strategies for walking on campus at night, dating, partying, traveling and living on your own.

In this book you will learn:

* How to secure your dorm, apartment or house from break-ins
* Everything you need to know to avoid date rape drugs
* How to live your life as a “bad victim”
* How to recognize and escape from violent confrontations
* Ways to avoid crime and cyber stalkers on the Internet
* Strategies for staying safe on Spring Break

Why I Love My Mom

2009-03-24T19:58:00.002+07:00

Review
"Fabulous sentiments, Tugs at heart strings." -- N. Curone-Ronney, 1st Grade Teacher

"The story line was excellent. It teaches kids not to be superficial. Altruistic vs. materialistic" -- Miss Mona Wong, 2nd Grade Teacher

Description
This book reminds children that toys and other material things don't matter when you have a mom who cares about and loves you.

Do you know any ten-year-old children who tell their Mom not to buy toys for them? Unheard of! this is the true story of one ten-year-old boy who turned to his Mom one winter day and said "Mom, from now on, you don't need to buy me anymore toys. I can buy them with my own money. You've already provided enough for me...."

When his Mom heard her son's words, she had tears in her eyes with disbelief. She realized that her son had grown up and understood what she had been teaching him, to spend wisely and not let the craze of impulsiveness takes over one's decisions. Moreove, he realized how hard she's been working to provide for him; therefore, he decided to ease her tension at the height of the gift-buying season. This heart warming true story captures the essence of true family values.

Hailed by teachers and parents that "finally there's a book written to give parents the gratitude they deserve." "WHY I LOVE MY MOM" is the winner of the Baldwin Stocker Elementary School Award for the most Creative and Meaningful Writing.

Uniquely designed, ths interactive book gives children amply space to write and draw for their Mom. Lead questions direct childre's thoughts about their favorite moments with their Mom being captured. There is even a photo frame at the back of the book for a photo of "me and my Mom."

"WHY I LOVE MY MOM", is the ultimate gift from the heart for a Mother and child to share together and cherish for a lifetime.

Gifts For Mom

2009-03-24T19:38:00.006+07:00

What could be more important than showing your Mother that you love and appreciate her? You would think that finding a gift for someone you've known since birth would be a piece of cake, but too often that's just not the case. Trying to choose the ideal gift for Mom can be anything but easy!

So, how do you show your appreciation to someone who has done so much for you? To get started with some gift ideas, consider Mom's hobbies and interests. Does she like to garden or sew? Is she a gourmet cook? Would she like the latest fashion, or does she favor casual sportswear? Choosing a gift that accurately reflects Mom is not only thoughtful, it is bound to give her lots of enjoyment!

What about the Mom who has everything? Well, with a little careful research, finding the right gift for Mom can be easy. Find out where she shops, as well as which brands and styles she likes. If your Mother collects things, find out what she needs to round out or add to her collections. Is there something she has had her eye on but just hasn't gotten around to buying for herself? You've probably found the perfect gift!

Still having trouble selecting a gift? Often, you can simply go shopping with your Mom to learn what she would appreciate as a gift. You can even ask Dad or other family members what she's been hinting for!

While we don't need a special day to celebrate Mom and all the good things she has done for us, there is one day each year which is dedicated to Moms. In the United States, Mother's Day is celebrated each year on the second Sunday in May. Traditional Mother's Day gifts, as well as birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, or gifts that say "I love you" at any time of the year, include flowers and plants as well as perfume and cosmetics, handbags and accessories, kitchen gadgets and appliances, gourmet chocolates, and apparel.

On GiftsForMom.us and on the related gift sites below, you will find links to several carefully chosen gift shops and boutiques where you can find the perfect gift for Mom.

Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus

2009-03-24T19:28:00.002+07:00

Chapter 1

It is important to remember that men and women have reciprocally different natures. Men and women need to appreciate these differences, and cease expecting each other to act and feel the way they do.

Chapter 2

Men love to have their abilities recognised and appreciated, and hate to have them scorned or ignored; women love to have their feelings recognised and appreciated, and hate to have them scorned or ignored. Men don't rate feelings highly as in their view they can result in hotly impassioned, wildly unstable behaviour; women don't rate abilities highly as in their view they can result in coldly dispassionate, aggressively competitive behaviour.

Men like to work on their own, and exercise their abilities by solving problems quickly and singlehandedly; women like to co-operate, and exercise their feelings through interactive communication with one another. Men value solutions, and view unsolicited assistance as undermining their effort to solve problems alone; women value assistance, and view unsolicited solutions as undermining their effort to proceed interactively. Men desire that their solutions will be appreciated; women desire that their assistance will be appreciated.

Chapter 3

When faced with tough problems, men become non-communicative so they can work out how best to help themselves, while women become communicative so that others can work out how best to help them. Men like to demonstrate their abilities by being allowed to solve problems without interference; women like to demonstrate their feelings by being allowed to relate problems without interference.

When men do communicate, they like to get to the point, and generally only want to listen if they feel the conversation has a point; women enjoy talking for its own sake, and are happy to listen unconditionally.

Chapter 4

A man's instinct is to look after himself, even if it means sacrificing others; a woman's instinct is to look after others, even if it means sacrificing herself. In a relationship, a man has to learn how to care for his partner rather than sacrificing her needs in favour of his own, and a woman has to learn how to be cared for by her partner rather than sacrificing her needs in favour of his, so that the needs of both are met. If they do this successfully, both win, unlike their instinctive behaviours where one person gains from another’s loss. This has to be worked at, because if either partner feels their efforts towards the relationship are not being successful in pleasing their partner, they may feel hurt and decide to revert to their instinctive behaviour. Unfortunately this then causes the other partner to do the same, and the relationship unravels inexorably.

In a relationship, a man needs to feel that his attentions are needed, and a woman needs to feel that her needs are attended. To achieve this, a man has to express his desire to fulfil her needs and her worthiness to receive his care, and a woman has to express her desire for his care and his worthiness to fulfil her needs. Both must remember to appreciate, accept, and forgive the other, and avoid blaming them when they fail.

Chapter 5

Men talk in very literal terms for the purpose of relaying information; women employ artistic licence and dramatic vocabulary to fully express and relate their feelings.

Men like to sort their thoughts out before communicating them, and have the tendency to become distant and non-communicative as they ponder their concerns. At this time, a woman needs reassurance that her partner still rates her as worthy of being taken care of. Women like to sort their thoughts out in the process of communicating them, and have the tendency to pour forth a litany of general grievances as they relate their concerns. At this time, a man needs reassurance that his partner still rates him as worthy of taking care of things. Both must try to avoid feeling personally to blame when their partners are dealing with problems.

When a man is troubled, he does not want his partner to express concern for him, but loves to be told that the problem is easily within his abilities to rectify because of the implicit vote of confidence in his abilities. When a woman is troubled, she loves her partner to express concern for her, but does not want to be told that the problem is a simple one to solve because of the implicit dismissal of her concerns about the issue. A solution should be sought once her feelings have been fully listened to: too quick a solution justifies his abilities but devalues her concerns, too enduring a problem justifies her concerns but devalues his abilities.

Men feel validated and gratified when they are left to sort things out by themselves, and feel undermined by being offered sympathy or unsolicited assistance. Women feel validated and gratified by being offered sympathy or unsolicited assistance, and feel undermined when they are left to sort things out by themselves.

To accommodate their partners' responses, each should make small changes to their behaviours and communication towards the other, but without compromising their own true natures.

Chapter 6

Men periodically bolt for cover when they suddenly fear that their self-sufficiency is becoming threatened. At these times they may become utterly unapproachable, demanding the right to be left on their own and to be allowed not to express their feelings, but if given support by being afforded space for a little while, they will soon feel better and spring back into their usual loving selves once again. It can be hard for women to handle the suddenness and speed with which men bolt for cover, and then subsequently spring back.

At times when men retreat into themselves, they can assist their partners not to be overly concerned or take it personally by providing some brief reassurance that they will return in due course. Women should resist the temptation to try to drag their partners back prematurely or criticise them over this natural behaviour.

Chapter 7

Women periodically sink into a depression when they feel it is time for emotional cleansing and resolution. At these times they may become utterly negative in their outlook, dwelling on every problem which troubles them, including long-standing ones which will generally have been raised and addressed before, and if they cannot find any real issues to concentrate on, then they will find some random other things to worry about.

They suspend their normal giving natures, demanding the right to express their feelings and not to be left on their own, and if supported and allowed enough time to express and release their negative feelings, they will begin to feel happier again and return to their usual loving selves. The slowness in which they sink into depression and subsequently recover may be hard for men to handle.

At times when women sink into themselves, they can assist their partners not to be overly concerned or take it personally by providing some brief reassurance that it is not their partners’ fault. Men should resist the temptation to try to lift their partners back up prematurely or criticise them over this natural behaviour.

Men demand the right to be free from time to time; women demand the right to be heard from time to time. When a man feels free he finds it easier to support a woman’s need to be heard; when a woman feels heard she finds it easier to support a man’s need to be free.

If a man’s periodic need to be free coincides with a woman’s periodic need to be heard, the best solution is for the woman to make do with being heard by her friends instead.

Chapter 8

Men and women need to remember that the emotional needs of the opposite sex are not the same as their own. Providing our partners with the wrong type of emotional needs will not be greatly appreciated.

Deep inside every man is a knight in shining armour seeking a damsel in distress who will love him, and shower him with trust, acceptance, appreciation, admiration, approval, and encouragement. Deep inside every woman is a damsel in distress seeking a knight in shining armour who will love her, and shower her with caring, understanding, respect, devotion, validation, and reassurance. Men must listen attentively to women to understand their needs, avoiding getting angry or defensive; women must have faith in men's abilities and best efforts to fulfill their needs, avoiding trying to change or control them.

Chapter 9

Communication between relationship partners should be loving and respectful; verbal attacks by contrast are highly destructive. It is often not so much what is said that causes the damage, but the tone of voice and body language which accompanies it.

Arguments thrive on men failing to pay sufficient attention to women’s feelings, and women being critically disapproving of men. Either one may be the initial trigger, because a man’s inattentiveness can cause a woman to get upset and express disapproval, and a woman’s disapproval can cause a man to get defensive and stop listening to how she is feeling.

When men make mistakes they become frustrated and angry, and are best left alone until they calm down. Men consider apologies to be admissions of guilt; women view apologies as expressions of compassion. This difference of perception is why men are generally much less willing to apologise than women.

When engaged in an argument, men use strong and aggressive words to ensure that they win the argument, and women are frequently forced to back down in the face of a totally determined and implacable opponent. Men then feel that they have won the argument, but it is a hollow victory as their partners have not changed their views, but merely buried them in order to avoid an ever-escalating conflict. Sometimes people prefer to evade arguments instead of engaging in them. Men tend to do so by withdrawing inside themselves and refusing to talk; women often just pretend that the disagreement has been forgotten. The resultant peace is a cold one, because the issues continue festering unresolved.

To stop communication degenerating into arguments, men should strive to listen without getting defensive, and women should try to express their feelings without criticising their partners.

Chapter 10

Men feel loved if their efforts at giving are appreciated; women feel loved according to what they receive. For women, loving someone means knowing and attending to their needs without waiting to be asked, and so a loved person should never have to ask for anything as their needs ought to be anticipated ahead of time. So women give unconditionally, and proactively seek ways to help others, whereas men only give when they feel that their efforts will be fairly appreciated and rewarded, and often will not know how or what to give without being specifically asked. Men often quickly suspend giving when feeling pleased about having done something; women may only suspend giving when feeling displeased with their partners for doing nothing.

Men value results; for women it’s the thought that counts. Consequently, men value big things much more than do women, who feel more appreciated by receiving lots of little gifts instead. A woman may consider a bunch of flowers to be just as good a proof of love as an entire month of hard work towards paying the bills.

If men and women do not take account of these different perspectives, they may fail to give their partners what they actually want. When this occurs, the man will frequently suspend giving as he feels he is not receiving enough reward back for what he has given, but the woman will continue to give unconditionally even though she feels she is giving more and has started to feel unloved, unappreciated and resentful.

Men should try to identify various little ways to give to their partners without waiting to be asked first, and should avoid the mistake of assuming their partners to be happy giving and not asking for anything back. Women should be careful not to give a false impression to their partners of being happy when they are not, and if they begin to feel resentful they should gently reduce their giving, learn to ask for things back, and be sure to keep expressing lots of appreciation of their partners’ efforts so as to encourage them to give more. Men should try to listen lovingly and respectfully to women’s feelings, women should try to express their feelings in a loving and respectful manner. If men give, and women appreciate, both end up feeling happy.

Chapter 11

Unresolved negative feelings can cause us to act in ways we really don’t want to, or become manifest in all kinds of compulsive or addictive behaviours. Avoiding our negative feelings doesn’t make them go away, but compassionately embracing them can heal them and enable us to start loving again. By acting as loving parents to our own inner child, we finally allow our repressed feelings to be fully expressed and released.

To ease the pain and win love, men often obsessively seek success, and women obsessively seek perfection. Men may use anger, ego, or oblivion (such as burying themselves in their work) to avoid vulnerable feelings of pain or fear; women may lapse into depression or confusion to avoid having aggressive feelings of anger.

Constructive communication is a learned skill, and many of us must first unlearn the paradigm of negative communication and repression of feelings which we experienced during childhood. Communication works best if it presents the full picture, so that the root of the problem is revealed rather than just the symptoms.

Writing our feelings down is excellent for expressing our negative emotions (anger, pain, fear, and regret) in a controlled manner, rather than letting them explode at our partners in the heat of the moment. Having done so, we can get back in touch with our loving feelings, and are then in a much better state to explain to our partners what we are feeling, and what they can do to help us feel better. It is important to communicate such feelings in a loving atmosphere because we may need to feel securely loved while communicating such intimate and revealing feelings, and our partners may need the same if some of those feelings will be painful to hear, or could be taken personally. At times it is worth discussing them with friends or counselors first.

Chapter 12

Men love to do things which are appreciated, and hate to do things which are demanded. Criticising him or giving excessive instructions will make him feel more like a slave than a loved and trusted partner.

Men love to prove their worth through the things they do, but they generally wait to be asked, and take a long time to learn to offer their services unsolicited. Women should therefore control their expectations of men being able to anticipate their needs, ask for help without making it sound like a demand because they resent the need to do so, and appreciate the help they receive even though it needed to be requested first.

Women should avoid requesting help from a man in a way which either doesn’t sound like a clear request, or carries implicit criticism that he should have already done it. Questions which begin with the words ‘Could you’ or ‘Can you’ are often interpreted by men as questioning their abilities, and they therefore respond more positively to the same questions if they begin instead with ‘Would you’ or ‘Will you’. The difference may seem tiny, but it can feel as different as the man saying ‘No I can’t’ or ‘No I won’t’ in response to the request.

It is best to allow a man the freedom to do things in a way and at a time that works for him. If a man is busy doing something and a woman needs his help on something else, she should feel free to ask him for help, but be prepared for him to request to defer it or even to refuse it; if requests always require positive answers, they are really demands, and men will sense the difference. If a man grumbles about a request then he is actually considering it, and the best approach is to simply wait for him to come to a decision without saying anything further, and aim to accept the outcome graciously.

Chapter 13

In relationships, unresolved negative feelings can pop up without warning, and we suddenly become upset, or sensitive, or distant. When this happens to our partners we should encourage them to work through it, accepting that it may take some time and that they may need support from outside as well as from ourselves, and do our best to control any impatience or resentments we may feel towards them during these times.

Love inevitably changes over time: the pristine bliss we feel when we first fall in love doesn’t last forever, and over time our personal faults and negative baggage inevitably become exposed. But if we stick tight through the ups and downs of life and each other, then our initial bliss gradually changes into a mature form of love which can become stronger and fuller with every passing year.

Snow

2009-03-24T19:26:00.001+07:00

Ka, a poet and a turkish political exile, returns to Turkey from Germany after 12 years. Upon a friend's advice he decides to undertake a life changing journey to Kars, a sleepy little town on the eastern border, posing as a journalist. A suicide epidemic has broken out among th young girls of Kars and a municipal election is on the cards. The story is being told in third person by a close friend of Ka's long after the events have actually taken place.

The girls of Kars are forbidden from wearing headscarves in the university and this along with other forms of ill treatment meted out to them has led to the epidemic. A snow blizzard engulfs the city and breaks all modes of communication and transport from the rest of the world. Ka himself is reunited with an old crush from college, Ipek, and falls in love with her. Her sister, Kadife, is the leader of the headscarf girls, who refuse to give up thier right to religion. Kadife is also in love with an (alleged) Islamist terrorist called Blue.

Ka and Ipek witness the murder of the education director of the local university, the man behind the ban on headscarves. Blue's involment in the murder is widely rumoured and Ka finds himself surrounded by political controversies. Also a writers block that he has been suffering from suddenly gets lifted and several beautiful poems start 'coming' to him. The love between Ka and Ipek develops further and he starts harbouring dreams of a happy life ahead with Ipek back in Germany. Though he is a long time atheist, newly found love, the politico-cultural unrest and the 'divine' poems confuse him and he starts looking for answers in religion. A budding friendship with a religious student Necip (who interestingly is bending towards atheism himself) also helps.

A revolutionary theatre group has also arrived in the city and they stage a play which becomes a front for a military coup and an army takeover of Kars to prevent an Islamist victory in the forthcoming elections. Necip is killed in the coup. Many religious students are arrested and tortured. In the course of events, Blue is arrested as well and is sentenced to death by the new regime.

The mastermind behind this coup, Sunay Zaim, is a forgotten theatre personality who has ideas of his own. He decides to stage another play and broadcast it on local television and wants Kadife to remove her headsacrf in it as a political statement. In return he is ready to release Blue. He chooses Ka to act as an arbitrator in this deal and threatens him with arrest if he does not comply. Scared of losing his new found happiness, Ka falls in with the plan. Eventually he brokers a deal and Blue is released and he hides at a secret location. Now however Blue changes his mind and sends for Ka once again. He tells Ka that he no longer wants Kadife to bare her head.

When Ka is on his way back from Blue's secret hideout the secret police of Turkey, The MIT, takes him in and interrogates him on the whereabouts of Blue. When Ka feigns ignorance they tell Ka that Ipek was in a relationship with Blue and is still in touch. They then release him. Heartbroken, he returns to his hotel where he asks Ipek if what the MIT has told him is true. Ipek concedes that she was once in love with him but denies any contact now whatsoever.

Meanwhile, preparations are underway for the play and Ipek and her father plead with Ka to go and stop Kadife from performing in it. Ka agrees and tries to persuade Kadife but she decides that she will bare her head after all. Ka makes his way back to the hotel but is apprehended by the army on the way. The blizzard being over, the transport links have opened again and the army decide to send Ka away for good. Ka sends word to Ipek to reach the railway station directly. Ipek recieves the message and begins preparations for leaving. Then she recieves a message that Blue has been found out and murderd by the secret police. Convinced that Ka has given him away out of jealousy, Ipek decides to stay and Ka has to leave without her. He spends the rest of his life in Germany a dejected man. Four years later he is assasinated by a Turkish Islamist group which holds him responsible for Blue's fate.

Orhan (probably the author himself), the narrator, decides to find out the 'divine' poems that Ka wrote while in Kars and also find out whether Ka had really sold Blue out. He visits Frankfurt and then Kars. He is unable to find the poems but discovers that Ka had indeed been the person because of whom Blue died. As a farewell to his friend, Orhan decides to write a book on his journey to Kars.

2009-03-23T06:43:00.002+07:00

For more than a decade, Linc Menner has raised the status of househusband to an art form. . . .

While his wife, Jo, brings home the bacon, Linc Menner holds down the fort–his gourmet cooking is sublime, his cleaning unrivaled, and his devotion to his daughter, Violet, unparalleled.

But when the Menners relocate from upstate New York to the steamy beaches of Naples, Florida, life takes an unexpected turn. As the Menners renovate their new home Linc’s bliss turns into a war zone of contractors, dry wall dust, and chaos. And suddenly being surrounded by guys whose faces go blank as he expounds on the virtues of lump-free gravy makes Linc realize he has forgotten what it feels like to be a man.

So Linc trades his flip-flops for work boots, and his wild mop of hair for a barbershop buzz, and marches his flabby physique to the nearest gym–attracting the secret devotion of one of Violet’s teacher in the process. And his stunned family watches helplessly as they lose the man who keeps them all together. To make matters worse, it’s hurricane season and there’s a category 5 heading right for Naples. As life on the home front explodes into hilarity and catastrophe, Linc must chart his own delightfully crooked course to finally become the Man of the House.

My Review:

Linc Menner has tasted the Martha Stewart life, and it's beginning to curdle. Is he man enough to handle hurricanes, hormonal female overload, power tools, and a ripped-up kitchen?

Told in different first person points of view the reader watches a man's search for meaning and his place in steamy Florida. A very entertaining read, I enjoyed my visit to Linc's world. I was impressed with Hudler's writing skills and sarcastic sense of humor. His handling of family was sensitive, down to earth, and satisfying.

Linc's journey boils down to, a real man isn't defined by muscles, the vehicle he drives, or his knowledge of interior design, a real man should be defined by the whole package. I will warn the more sensitive readers that Linc's world veers into R-rated. A man who is redetermining exactly what a man is and how he's supposed to act sometimes visits some dark thoughts and places.

AGAINST ALL ODDS By Irene Hannon

2009-03-23T06:35:00.001+07:00

Back Cover:

For FBI hostage rescue team member Evan Cooper and his partner, dignitary protection duty should have been a piece of cake. Unfortunately, beautiful but determined Monica Callahan isn't making it easy. Estranged from her diplomat father – who is involved in a sensitive hostage situation in the Middle East – she refuses to be intimidated by a related terrorist threat back in the states. That is, until a chilling warning convinces her that the danger is very real – and escalating.

As Coop and his partner do their best to keep her safe, the threat against Monica is rising. And with every second that ticks by, Coop knows that the odds of saving the only woman who has ever breached the walls of his heart, are dropping. After all, terrorists aren't known for their patience – or their mercy.

REVIEW:

This is the first book I have read by Irene Hannon. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed how this author put Monica's struggle with God and her faith throughout the story. She made it so real, so natural.

David Callahan, a diplomat, struggles with the tough stance he has taken with terrorists, now that his only child's life is on the line. Will he cave in?

Monica Callahan doesn't want anything to do with her father. Diplomat David Callahan abandoned his family years ago for the sake of his job. He chose his career over family life when she was only six years old. She wasn't letting him back into her heart now. Monica remembers her mother and what she said "Forgiveness is hard, honey. But it's what God calls us to do...You don't have to wait for someone to apologize to forgive them.". Ouch! Deep inside she knew her mother was right. Now Evan Cooper a FBI hostage rescue team member is asking her questions she doesn't want to think about. He happened to find the book she wrote on her shelf and read parts of it. He asked her, Monica "…I'm having difficulty reconciling your obvious commitment to your faith with your bitterness toward your father….. Let me rephrase. How do you justify your feelings toward your father in light of what your faith teaches?" She doesn't have answer that. This has nothing to do with the terrorists.

She was an author that taught others how to communicate and here she was stuck not knowing what to say. She was human and couldn't help how she felt. It was a cop-out and she knew it. Who was this guy anyway? He had no right to start getting in her face about personal matters. He was there to protect her against terrorist attacks period the end.

I enjoyed the story of these real and believable characters stuck in the middle of high terrorist drama. It's amazing what goes on in a hostage situation and the procedures to deal with them. Irene brings you into all the action and suspense without being gross. I'm looking forward to her next adventure.

Storm Warriors By Jon Nappa

2009-03-23T06:30:00.001+07:00

Back Cover:

Somewhere off the coast of England, Lionel Lunkin and his family fight for their lives. Caught in the cross hairs of a violent storm, their small ship is quickly slipping beneath the crashing waves. Lionel is miraculously washed to shore, only to discover that his wife and son are lost at sea.

Broken and alone, Lionel determines to help others avoid the same tragic fate. Now he will overcome tremendous odds to save countless lives and change the world forever.

Discover the incredible story of Lionel Lunkin, the inventor of the English lifeboat. Inspired by real-life rescues that took place in the nineteenth century, "Storm Warriors" shares a compelling story of personal tragedy to heroic triumph, and the inspirational legacy of one man who dared to make a difference.

Review:

I was submerged into raging storms and thrust onto ships battling Mother Nature herself from the very first page. I was swept up into this astonishing story that went from personal tragedy to God's victory in Lionel Lunkin’s life.

This riveting story shows how the enemy wanted to destroy Lionel life but God helped him overcome many horrendous circumstances. His passion to save others from shipwrecks brought a community together in the most unlikely way. I love how Lionel talks to himself and says, “Now he wondered if it was an idea that had existed long before he had ever thought of it. Had he found it, or had it found him?”

Lionel is definitely a 'Rocky Balboa' type of guy - fighting for something he believes in with his whole heart. The scripture about laying your life down for another becomes real to Lionel as he embarks on this new lot in life.

While reading this book, I experienced the ocean and storms like I have never done before. Jon Nappa has a way of putting you in the middle of the action. He has one of his characters say this about the ocean, “…We didn’t kill your family. The sea rules the coast. The sea decides who lives and who dies. It’s the way of things…” Because Jon’s story was based on real life events I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters and circumstances long after reading the very last page. Jon’s story will change the way you look at lifeboats and life situations forever.

2009-03-22T08:26:00.002+07:00

Jess Aarons lives with his family on a farm a few hours out of Washington D.C. The community is poor and his family is struggling. Leslie Burke and her family move into the run-down farmhouse next to them. Jess has been practicing running all summer so he will be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. Unfortunately, Leslie outruns all the boys in the school.

Jess is prepared to dislike Leslie because she is a girl, new, and an outsider. But Leslie is able to overcome his antogonism and becomes his best friend. Jess helps Leslie adjust and she helps him learn to examine his creativeness. They create their own special hiding place of fantasy, Terabithia. Fifth grade continues as they continue to deal with their families, their peers, their problems, and their joys.

Bridge to Terabithia is a wonderful book for a reader just getting into what my daughter called "chapter books", around eight to ten or so. This book looks at the emotions of a ten-year-old boy as he is going through the changes that happen as he changes from a self-centered boy into an aware youth who is beginning to learn more about the world around him. This is a moving, poignant book that is aimed for the child approaching and entering the stage where Jess is in his life.

It is also a good book for a child to realize that their families love them and have plans for them. But they are able to look into themselves and discover what they want. Hopefully, the young reader will understand they can look into different options for their life.

The Chemist

2009-03-22T08:21:00.002+07:00

“Theories abounded. Everything from cults to witchcraft covens, from serial kidnappings to random relocation from the area. Through it all, however, one troubling question remained. How could three healthy, drug-free women, along with their automobiles, vanish without a trace?”

Last spring, three girls went missing. Nothing linked the cases except a frustrating lack of clues or motive. Then, one of them turned up headless in Lake Michigan pumped full of date rape drugs. Detective Cale Van Waring doesn’t have proof, but he knows that girls are being abducted. Now, spring has returned, and so has Van Waring’s invisible kidnapper. Another girl is missing, but this time Van Waring finds a spotty trail. With his boss on his back and his girlfriend threatening to leave unless he commits, Van Waring struggles to put the pieces together before another girl ends up missing—or dead.

Review:

The book started with a bang and ended with one, too. In between lay a series of twists and turns that had me struggling to piece together the hows and whodunnits of this cop/thriller ride. I was particularly impressed with the ‘real’ feel of the police officers and their daily lives. Also of note was the obvious research that went into the scientific aspects of the story. Adding professional football players (Green Bay Packers) to the suspect list was a nice twist. This was a fast read, one that with few exceptions, kept me turning pages. Mancheski really cranked up the intensity, however, in the last quarter of the book. I stayed up late getting to the end.

Weaknesses lay in the dreaded sagging middle. While the story did not slow enough to make me stop reading, I did find myself anxious to move forward, to uncover new clues, or see some sort of unexpected twist. This was a minor flaw, however, in a relatively engaging novel that I’m happy to recommend.

Economic Survey of Greece, 2007

2009-03-22T08:16:00.002+07:00

Growth performance over the last decade has been among the best in the OECD, though a precise calibration is not yet possible following the recent revisions to GDP data. High growth has been driven by a range of factors, some of which are transitory. It is particularly encouraging that growth has been sustained over the last two years, despite substantial fiscal consolidation, mainly being driven by investment and exports. However, significant further reforms are needed to ensure that good performance is sustained in the years to come. It is imperative to use this period of strong performance to tackle remaining weaknesses in product and labour markets and move fiscal policy further towards a sustainable position by vigorous continued consolidation and pension reform. The key challenge, in terms of political economy, is to manage the required reforms in a context where society may be unduly complacent because the “good times” appear to be continuing.

Fiscal consolidation has been substantial and should continue. Government debt and estimates of the prospective increase in fiscal costs from ageing are among the highest in the OECD. There is considerable scope for fiscal savings from reducing the high cost of public administration, raising efficiency in state-owned enterprises and further efforts to tackle tax evasion. But ensuring long-run fiscal sustainability will also require a fundamental overhaul of the pension system. There are substantial benefits from taking action early: debt service costs would be lowered; the tax burden would be much less skewed towards later generations; there will be more time for people to adapt; and fiscal policy would have scope to play a counter-cyclical role.
Labour market flexibility needs to be raised. While overall labour utilisation is quite high, overly rigid labour market institutions contribute to a low employment rate among the old, young and women. In particular the retirement income system provides strong disincentives to continue working, and the setting of minimum wages and strict employment protection legislation makes it difficult for first time entrants (mainly the young) and re-entrants (mainly women) to join the job market.
Human capital needs to be increased through improvements to the education system. A particular priority is reform of tertiary education where Greece currently has one of the most centralised and least flexible systems in the OECD. The recent reform is a clear and essential move in the right direction.
Product market regulation which hinders competition needs to be further improved. It has inhibited inward foreign investment in the past and has contributed towards a poor innovation performance. A particular priority is to further raise competition in network industries.

Over the past decade, Greece has progressed rapidly in closing the income gap with the best performing economies, particularly once the recent 26% upward revision to the level of GDP is taken into account. This data revision is largely the result of improved measurement of the fast-growing services sector, while, contrary to many press headlines, the contribution from the inclusion of illegal activities was less than 1% of GDP. A full assessment of growth performance is difficult because data revisions prior to 2000 have yet to be published, but it is likely that growth in GDP per capita over the past decade has exceeded 4½ per cent per annum, which would rank Greece second highest (after Ireland) in the OECD. Explanations for the rapid catch-up in living standards include: financial market liberalisation coupled with membership in monetary union, which led to a substantial reduction in borrowing costs; buoyant activity in export markets in south-eastern Europe; and the fiscal stimulus and focal point given by the Olympic games in 2004. The fact that strong growth has continued since 2004 in the context of substantial fiscal consolidation is consistent with enhanced robustness stemming from structural reforms. The strong performance over the last decade has occurred despite product and labour market regulations which are still strict in international comparison. However, product market regulations have been eased and there has been a large boost to productivity growth given an initially weak starting position. In addition, a large informal sector exists and tight regulation may be less of an impediment to growth if it is not strictly enforced. An example is the employment of illegal immigrants which has satisfied a latent demand for less-skilled workers that labour market rigidities helped to create. However, competition-impeding regulations that are weakly enforced and a large informal sector are clearly second best to a well-performing regulatory framework with people working in regular jobs, particularly because the former combination gives rise to tax evasion on a large scale.
Contrary to expectations of a post-Olympics slump, the economy has continued to grow briskly in 2005 and 2006 during a period of substantial fiscal consolidation. The government deficit has been substantially cut from a peak of 7¾ per cent of GDP in 2004 to an estimated 2½ per cent in 2006 (based on the unrevised GDP data, which are the basis for judging compliance with the Excessive Deficit Procedure, pending confirmation of the revised GDP data by Eurostat). This is the first time the deficit has been brought below 3% since the adoption of the euro. While strong growth of around 4% is expected to continue for some years, headwinds are likely to become stronger over time. The clearest sign of macroeconomic tension is an increase in the current account deficit to about 9½ per cent of revised GDP in 2006. In the absence of currency risk, this mainly serves to highlight concerns about a continuingloss in competitiveness, with consumer price inflation running at about 3¼ per cent at the end of 2006, having remained persistently above the euro area average for many years. Relatively high inflation implies low real interest rates, which fuel domestic demand. However, losses in competitiveness may ultimately undermine growth performance. They may continue for some time in a favourable external environment, but the longer they last, the larger and more protracted the adjustment in relative prices and wages that may be needed to restore competitiveness.
While short-run prospects remain good, sustaining robust growth over the longer term will necessitate further product market reforms – and their effective implementation – as well as the mobilisation of the large unused potential of labour inputs, especially among the old, young, and women andimprovements in human capital. While there is considerable scope for action over a wide range of policies, the particular focus of the current Survey is on the five structural priorities identified in the OECD’s recent Going for Growth publication:
• Removing the financial disincentives to work at older ages which are inherent in the pension system while constraining the possibilities for early retirement.
• Reducing the minimum cost of labour by introducing a sub-minimum wage for young people and lowering social security contributions for the low-paid.
• Reforming employment protection legislation. In particular, rebalancing employment protection across different occupations.
• Reducing barriers to entry and promoting competition in network industries.
• Making tertiary education more efficient and raising its standards to international levels.
Having front-loaded the reduction in the fiscal deficit, the government’s main macroeconomic objective is to more gradually reduce the deficit, by about ½ per cent of GDP per annum until the budget is in balance or surplus by 2012 at the latest. As the government debt-to-GDP ratio is high and prospective pressures of population ageing on public health and pension spending are estimated to be among the largest in the OECD, fiscal consolidation should continue, possibly at a more rapid pace than planned taking advantage of strong economic growth. Currently Greece is the only euro area country which does not include quantitative long-term fiscal projections in the annual stability programme. To raise awareness of the impending problems a long-term fiscal scenario to mid-century should be published to show how fiscal policy will cope with the expected spending pressures from ageing. In this context, delaying fiscal consolidation might have longer-term costs in terms of additional debt service costs, including an increase in the risk premium paid on government debt, and higher taxes, which would also be more heavily skewed towards future generations. However, aggressive fiscal consolidation is at best a stop-gap. A preferable approach is for a far-reaching pension reform to be put in place soon. Achievement of the government’s medium-term objective might be an adequate platform for ensuring future fiscal sustainability, if also accompanied by reforms which would help to contain future spending pressures on health, and especially, pensions.

The Passion of Mary-Margaret

2009-03-22T08:12:00.001+07:00

Lisa Samson can write. Not only was I transported by the skill and beauty with which Samson told this story, I was sucked into this memoir of a religious sister as she shared her life journey and the threads of faith and God's sovereignty within that life.

Mary-Margaret was born into a calling. She always knew what and who she needed to be. Her family depended upon her following in the footsteps and completion of the call her mother was unable to fulfill.

Jude, the son of the lightkeeper, became a friend. One who both horrified and amused Mary-Margaret. A young man she didn't need but enjoyed having around.

Circumstances and life surged forward. And a difficult thing is asked of Mary-Margaret, a difficult thing asked by Jesus, Himself, of Mary-Margaret. A seven decade narration wending through past, present and future by a woman who chose to follow Christ whatever the cost compels and horrifies and bleeds with love and compassion. Samson weaves a tapestry that is full of ugly details into something worthy of heaven.

This is a challenging book of fiction that contains massive amounts of truth. Some shouldn't read it. The truth is sometimes painful, raw, ugly and often not polite Sunday School conversation material. Samson delves into Catholicism and the Holy Spirit. Not a traditional Christian novel in any way. Some of the topics are rough: racism, violence, AIDS, sexuality and the acceptance of those who believe yet behave differently than what you may believe to be right. If you are concerned about content, read more reviews and tread with caution. However, if you hunger for great storytelling, literary writing, edgy or raw fiction that points at the lavish grace of the gospel message, then please look further into The Passion of Mary-Margaret. It's that good.

2009-03-22T08:10:00.001+07:00

Sir Bentley, an honorable young knight, abandons his calling in order to seek the truth of the Prince. Choosing to live as the Prince did, he forsakes his former lifestyle and wealth to live as a pauper.

His travels take him to Holbrook, where the townsfolk live in poverty, paying high taxes to support the lavish lifestyle of Lord Kingsley and his court. But something even darker is lurking in the shadows of the beautiful castle.

Bentley Soon befriends Eirwyn, a mysterious but compassionate young woman who often distributes food among the poor. When Eirwyn is kidnapped by a ruthless tribe to serve as a sacrifice, Bentley battles a vicious mountain creature to save her life. But when he discovers who is really behind Holbrook’s downfall, he is faced with an even bigger challenge—battling the Dark Knight’s most evil commander and his shadow warriors as they attack the castle.

Will greed destroy the kingdom the way it destroyed Lord Kingsley? Or can Sir Bentley and Eirwyn work together to restore order and Prosperity to the kingdom through the compassion and grace of the Prince.

Journey to Arrethtrae, where knights of noble heart live and die in loyal service to the King and the Prince.

These knights are mighty, for they serve a mighty King. They are…..the Knights of Arrethtrae.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

2009-03-21T07:17:00.001+07:00

The book is the story of a person (the narrator and author) who has two fathers: the first was his biological father – the poor dad - and the other was the father of his childhood best friend, Mike – the rich dad. Both fathers taught the author how to achieve success but with very disparate approaches. It became evident to the author which father's approach made more financial sense. Throughout the book, the author compares both fathers – their principles, ideas, financial practices, and degree of dynamism and how his real father, the poor and struggling but highly educated man, paled against his rich dad in terms of asset building and business acumen.

The author compares his poor dad to those people who are perpetually scampering in the Rat Race, helplessly trapped in a vicious cycle of needing more but never able to satisfy their dreams for wealth because of one glaring lack: financial literacy. They spend so much time in school learning about the problems of the world, but have not acquired any valuable lessons about money, simply because it is never taught in school. His rich dad, by contrast, represents the independently wealthy core of society who deliberately takes advantage of the power of corporations and their personal knowledge of tax and accounting (or that of their financial advisers) which they manipulate to their advantage.

The book’s theme reduces to two fundamental concepts: a can-do attitude and fearless entrepreneurship. The author highlights these two concepts by providing multiple examples for each and focusing on the need for financial literacy, how the power of corporations contribute to making the wealthy even wealthier, minding your own business, overcoming obstacles by not fostering laziness, fear, cynicism and other negative attitudes, and recognizing the characteristics of humans and how their preconceived notions and upbringing hamper their financial freedom goals.

The author presents six major lessons which he discusses throughout the book:

* The rich don’t work for money
* The importance of financial literacy
* Minding Your own business
* Taxes and corporations
* The rich invent money
* The need to work to learn and not to work for money

PHYSICAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN.

2009-03-21T07:07:00.001+07:00

Paper Abstract:
Discusses the problem of abuse of school age children. Reviews the historical background. Examines the scope of the problem. Factors that place children at risk for physical abuse. Proposes three health promotion strategies to prevent abuse., including family therapy, anger management, child development. Presents research to support each strategy. Abstract.

Paper Introduction:
ABSTRACT This paper examined the problem of physical abuse in school-age children. The paper began with a brief historical description of the problem, noting that it was not really until the later part of this century that the problem was fully recognized. This review of the historical background of the problem was followed by an examination of the scope of the problem, the psychoemotional and physical effects of the problem, an epidemiological discussion, and a delineation of several factors that place children at risk for physical abuse. The problem was shown to be both substantial and complex in nature. The second section of the paper proposed three health promotion strategies for remediating the problem of physical abuse in childhood. These strategies were: (1) a primary prevention screening strateg

Computer Forensics: The Issues and Current Books in the Field

2009-03-21T06:57:00.003+07:00

In June 2000, when the home of alleged serial killer John Robinson was searched, five computers were collected as evidence. Robinson used the Internet to find victims and persuade them into meeting him, at which time he allegedly sexually assaulted some and killed others. More recently, several hard drives were seized from the home of FBI spy Robert Hanssen. In addition to searching private government computer systems to ensure that he was not under investigation, Hanssen hid and encrypted data on floppy disks that he allegedly passed to the KGB, and used handheld devices to communicate securely with his collaborators.

While executing a warrant to search the basement office/bedroom of a suspected double-murderer, police found a computer along with several peripheral devices. Upon inspection, they found that the computer was on a network and it was subsequently discovered that the network included a computer upstairs in the same structure and a third computer in an adjacent structure. This computer was in hibernation mode, so that police investigators had to carefully power down the suspect's machine. After ascertaining that all three computers had open file and print shares, additional search warrants were obtained, as was consent from the other computers' owners for an analysis of those computers. The original thrust of the search was to find e-mails between the victims and the suspect to establish a motive in the murder case. During this examination, investigators found suspiciously named folders and files on one of the other networked computers, such as LOLITA and BOYS2.JPG; upon examination of these and other files, they discovered a collection of approximately 10,000 child pornographic images and video clips. Upon being presented with this evidence, the suspect told investigators where he had gotten the images and even asked if it was possible to delete these files from his computer. The investigators had to provide affidavits and testimony, demonstrating that the e-mail and pornographic files really came from these computers and could be tied to the suspect, and that the handling of the evidence was consistent with all legal requirements.

Those two scenarios, described in more detail in Eoghan Casey's computer forensics text, are less than the tip of the iceberg of how computers and crime today often go hand-in-hand. Consider also these examples

* Local and federal law enforcement officers were somewhat surprised to find evidence of attempts at online fraud along side collections of child pornography as they executed a search warrant at the home of a self-described heroin addict in rural Vermont, while looking for evidence in an armed bank robbery.

* The exchange of child pornography via traditional mail was almost entirely wiped out in the last decade by the vigilance of postal service inspectors. Internet e-mail and the World Wide Web have given trafficking in child pornography new life by providing almost instantaneous access to these images and a nearly infinite number of Web-based repositories.

* People — mostly men — seeking underage and other vulnerable males and females for illicit sexual activity used to be limited to the geographic area in which they lived or traveled. With Internet chat rooms and e-mail, trolling for potential victims has an almost unlimited population and geographic scope.

* Illegal gambling generally requires a bookie or other intermediary with whom to place bets, and the operation often operates outside of the boundaries of the country of the person placing the bet. Online Web-based virtual casinos make such gambling quick, simple, and obviates the need for a person in the middle. But it is still illegal — and a one trillion dollar industry around the world.

From preferential sex offenders to disgruntled corporate insiders, street level con men to members of organized crime, well-respected businessmen to clergy, people you would never have suspected of high technology crime are being convicted regularly. Since the early 1990s, law enforcement agencies at every level have become increasingly aware that the threats they face as they endeavor to protect the public come not only from the dark alleys and cold basements in which criminals have historically operated, but from the new landscape of computers and the Internet that is so much a part of the way we live today.

Dramatic growth of the Internet and sales of personal computers, migration from tapes to compact discs (CDs) to digital versatile discs (DVDs), the Walkman to the MP3 player, and the Polaroid camera to high resolution digital imagery, has changed lives at a pace never before seen. Likewise, crime and mischief have evolved from days past when the threats were from a few highly motivated and well "educated" hackers attacking our bulletin board systems to today where innumerable hacker, crackers, and script kiddies utilizing highly automated, easy to use utilities seize control of systems remotely, alter Web sites, and send viruses and worms worldwide with surprising precision. Additionally, offenders seeking to exploit our most valuable and precious resource, children, have found new ways to exploit emerging technology to their own benefit.

Among the most prevalent challenges facing law enforcement as we enter the 21st century is education and training to respond to computer and Internet crimes, and the emerging field known as computer forensics. Forensics is the use of science to investigate and establish facts in criminal or civil courts of law, so that computer forensics is squarely a branch of law enforcement just as forensic medicine. But forensic computing also includes the activities that many information security professionals do every day in managing corporate IT resources, protecting servers and computers, and tracking intruders on their networks.
Computer crime investigation is a multidisciplinary profession and almost no one today has been trained purely as a computer forensic analyst. Most police officers receive traditional training in legal issues, law enforcement procedures, and investigative techniques, so that those who get into computer forensics do so as their criminal investigation background and an interest in computers combine as the need emerges in their community. Most independent computer investigators, on the other hand, are either former police officers or computer professionals who have learned something about the law or have been called upon as law enforcement or other participants in the legal system require technical assistance. Forensic scientists and technicians trained in the analysis of digital media now play a critical role in law enforcement and corporate investigations. All of these professionals need to know about computer and network technology, analysis tools, and the law, and subsequently present what they have found so that a judge and jury can understand how it relates the crime(s) alleged to have occurred.

Toward that end, investigators need professional reference guides and texts that cover the major points of computer forensics. In this article, we discuss some broad issues related to forensic computing and include a review of four texts on the subject:

* Computer Forensics: Incident Response Essentials, Warren G. Kruse II & Jay G. Heiser
* Computer Forensics & Privacy, Michael Caloyannides
* Cyber Forensics: A Field Manual for Collecting, Examining, and Preserving Evidence of Computer Crimes, edited by Albert J. Marcella Jr. & Robert S. Greenfield
* Handbook of Computer Crime Investigation, edited by Eoghan Casey

Forensics Procedures and Analysis Tools

Forensic analysis of a computer, whether for a criminal investigation or as part of a more general security incident response, requires that there be a set of well-defined procedures that comply with appropriate laws, organizational policies, and best industry practices that cover issues such as when (and how) to notify law enforcement and the physical seizure of the computer(s) to obtaining and protecting evidence and performing an orderly search of the system. It doesn't matter, really, whether the evidence gathering is for legal purposes or just to understand an incident so as to avoid it in the future; analysis requires tools and processes.

Computer forensics involves the "preservation, identification, extraction, documentation, and interpretation of computer media for evidentiary and/or root cause analysis," a point made specifically by Kruse & Heiser but echoed in all of the books. In addition, all of the books agree on some fundamentals of the analysis:

1. The analysis should be performed on a copy of the media and never, except under the most extraordinary circumstances, on the original.
2. The copy should be made in such a way as to not alter the original information in any way and the copy must be authenticated as an exact duplicate of the original.
3. The analysis process should not alter the information in any way.

This latter point is trickier than it might first appear. Consider that many operating systems, such as Linux and Windows 2000, maintain a number of timestamps associated with every file, including the last access date. Using ordinary operating system tools to examine the contents of files will probably cause the last-access date to be changed while specialized analysis tools can examine files without modifying this date. It is important to maintain the integrity of the original data so that you can be sure that the results of the analysis are legally and technically valid.

Troy Larson in Casey notes that the most well-publicized uses of forensics tools are for "finding hidden data, recovering long-forgotten deleted files or otherwise proving through bits and bytes that the adverse party is a liar and a cheat." Forensic computing, he goes on to say, also has a defensive side and that is to examine one's own systems when involved in a criminal or civil discovery process. The same tools and procedures that police use to prepare a prosecution can be used by security administrators and private investigators to defend themselves and their clients.

Regardless of the purpose of the analysis, then, forensic computing is as much art as it is science. There are a large number of tools that the analyst has available but the first thing is to determine what evidence is to be gathered based upon the activity that is being investigated. In a child pornography case, for example, the investigator will naturally be looking for JPEG, GIF, and other image files. Since users can easily change file extensions, however, simply looking for .jpeg and .gif file names is not sufficient; the contents of all files need to be examined. All non-text files contain a header within the file that identifies the type of contents and good forensics software can find files where the file type extension doesn't match the file header to cause a so-called signature mismatch.

The heart of the actual forensic analysis, of course, is examining the computer(s) and/or network, recovering all possible information, and reconstructing the activity related to the incident being investigated. One of the most well-known computer forensics tools is the Windows-based analysis software package EnCase, used to perform a thorough analysis of the contents of a system's hard drive. The relative coverage of this tool by the four books is somewhat indicative of the different books' coverage of tools, in general. Casey, for example, provides a detailed chapter on the use of EnCase, covering the entire process from media acquisition to analysis to reporting. The other three books discuss EnCase at a much higher level and show it to be one of several tools that can be used to examine the contents of media.

No single tool can perform all aspects of a computer forensics analysis and all of the books discuss other tools to aid the investigator:

* Create disk images
* Recover passwords
* Perform file access, modification, and creation time analysis
* Create file catalogs
* View system and application logs
* Determine the activity of users and/or applications on a system
* Recover "deleted" files and/or examine unallocated file space
* Obtain network information such as IP addresses and host names, network routes, and Web site information

The analyst must be familiar with the myriad of command line system utilities and specialized forensics tools so that they can prepare their own toolkit with which to perform an examination related to a specific incident.

The analyst's toolkit, though, is primarily reactive. There are additional tools that system and information security managers might employ to protect themselves from having a security incident and/or to simplify information gathering should an incident occur. These tools, primarily for defense rather than analysis and investigation, include anti-virus software, digital signature protection of critical system file, intrusion detection systems (IDS), firewalls, proxy servers, and desktop/network surveillance software.

There are also tools that end users might employ for defense of their own system, including anti-virus software, IDS, and firewalls. But end users might also deploy tools that make forensics difficult, such as file scrubbers that really do delete files and purge the browser cache, and encryption and steganography software that make the examination of file contents next to impossible without a crypto key. Corporate policies may or may not prohibit use of these tools on a corporate computing resource, but these anti-forensics tools are well known to criminals as well as benign users.

The coverage of the tools clearly distinguishes these books from each other. Kruse & Heiser and Caloyannides provide the best high-level discussions of the broad spectrum of tools that are available for analysis and defense, and both spend a major portion of their pages on this topic. Their descriptions give the reader a very good idea of what information can be obtained from a computer system, what tools and utilities are available, what tools would be useful for what tasks, and what the tool interface looks like. There are two primary differences in the how these two books cover this subject matter, however.

First, Kruse & Heiser is clearly written for the forensics investigator and takes that perspective. Caloyannides, on the other hand, is written from the perspective that users/administrators need to know how to protect themselves from a thief or other unscrupulous individual who might want to steal data from their computer, which includes an forensic investigation; the key word in the book title here really is "privacy." If Kruse & Heiser would write "when you delete a file it isn't really removed from the disk, here's how to recover the data," for example, Caloyannides would write "when you delete a file it isn't really removed from the disk, here's how the data might be recovered, and here's how to really delete it." Caloyannides also covers many tools that might be used to invade one's privacy such as keystroke monitors and spyware; these are hardly forensics tools, per se, but well within the scope of the "privacy defense."

Second, Kruse & Heiser address tools that run on, and can analyze, both Windows and Unix/Linux systems, whereas Caloyannides only covers Windows software because, in the author's words, "...most computers today utilize Windows." This difference in operating system coverage is undoubtedly due to the different perspectives in approach, but lack of Unix coverage is a significant weakness.

Casey provides very detailed coverage about four specific forensics tools, spending a chapter on each (about 20% of the book) to provide in-depth descriptions on the functionality and use of these Windows and Unix/Linux tools. There is, however, very little broad coverage of other tools. While what the authors of these chapters offer is excellent information, there might be a nagging voice in the back of the reader's mind that these chapters are advertisements for the respective software since the authors are all directly affiliated with the vendor or developer of the software that they write about. The good news is that the choice of tools is excellent but the bad news is that the reader is not presented with a spectrum of choices.

Finally, Marcella & Greenfield's coverage of tools is sparse but that may not be surprising given its focus on forensics guidelines and policies. There is passing mention of different tools and the one chapter with the most information merely is a list of different software. This book, too, only discusses tools for Windows systems.

The absence of coverage of Unix/Linux tools is a major deficiency for the professional investigator. Given the large percentage of Internet servers that run Linux/Unix and are, therefore, the target of computer crimes, knowledge of tools with which to analyze these systems is essential.

Computer and Network Technology

To testify as an expert computer forensic analyst, one cannot merely be aware of the analysis tools; an individual must also be able to speak to the efficacy of the information gleaned from the tools (which is why only fingerprint and DNA specialists testify about these types of evidence). The investigator, then, needs to know the rudimentary basics about the computer's hardware and software, operating system, and underlying file system. The professional investigator needs to be comfortable with both Windows and Unix/Linux, including the command line interfaces of both; how each operating system moves, manipulates, and "deletes" files; and how to examine areas of the storage media beyond the file structure, such as unallocated space, file slack, and a host of other areas; in the words of Kruse & Heiser, "The operating system sees all, but it may not tell you about it." The analyst even needs to know how to properly power down and power up a computer, as well as how to disconnect peripherals and network connections, without destroying any of the information on the computer.

If an investigation involves more than a single computer, the analyst may also have to examine network activity along the suspected path of the attack. Since a large number of attacks and compromises occur via the Internet or local area network (LAN) rather than from a human at the local keyboard, investigators must understand:

* System logs, such as those from Unix or Windows Event Viewer, that describe operating system activity and events
* Application logs, such as those from the e-mail or Web server, for example, that describe events and activities related to specific applications
* Packet traces from sniffers such as tcpdump, showing the protocol traffic for host-to-host communication
* Intrusion detection system reports, such as those from Snort or BlackICE, that signal possible security events based upon network traffic patterns

Taken together, these logs and reports allow an analyst to get a full picture of an particular event, from the packets on the network to the specific events that took place on a given computer. To this end, investigators need to understand the rudiments of network protocols, particularly TCP/IP.

But that's not all. Casey and Seglem (in Casey) make the point that "[t]he proliferation of handheld devices connected to wireless networks has ushered in an era of pervasive computing." In this context, part of the difficulty is just obtaining all of the systems from which evidence can be obtained; it's not just the desktop or laptop computer system anymore. In addition, encryption software for everything from e-mail to PDAs is becoming routine, even for the casual user.

The networked environment not only involves communications protocols but the network operating system (NOS) environment, such as Linux/Unix, NetWare, and Windows NT/2000. If a computer on a network is to be examined, then the entire operating environment must be examined which includes the file and print server, e-mail server, remote access and communications server, etc. This is also important when examining multi-user systems. Windows 98, for example, supports multiple user logons but the operating system does nothing to protect one user from another on the local system, or even to enforce the use of usernames and passwords. Windows 2000 and Unix, on the other hand, can allow multiple users to share the same computer and protect one user's files from another user. This adds a new wrinkle to the analysis of the computer — if you are investigating User A, can you look at User B's files? And what if User A knows User B's password and is secretly storing files in another user's file space?

This plethora of technologies coming together adds to the complexity of any analysis. As Casey and Seglem observe, "[b]ecause every network is different, combining different technologies in unique ways, no single individual is equipped to deal with every situation." Indeed, the person being investigated doesn't need to be a computer and network whiz to hide information; the very complexity of the today's interconnected world may obfuscate things sufficiently, including making it very difficult to prove that an individual actually is responsible for a specific computer or network activity.

Casey provides the broadest coverage of computer and network technology, spending over 50% of the book in this space. Two chapters are devoted to the analysis of Windows and Unix systems, and this is supplemented by a chapter on the analysis of networks (with nice coverage of Unix and Windows log files, TCP/IP, packet sniffing, and intrusion detection) and another devoted to wireless network technologies. A final really interesting technology chapter covers embedded systems, which are basically computers that are part of some "appliance" and cannot be programmed by the user; these would include computers in office systems (e.g., telephones, fax machines, and copiers), communications systems (e.g., routers, hubs, and data and voice switches), transport systems (e.g., air traffic control, automobiles, and parking meters), household equipment (e.g., microwave ovens, smart house managers, and air conditioning systems), building management equipment (e.g., emergency systems, elevators, and secure ingress/egress systems), and a lot more. This chapter teaches the reader how to access embedded systems' read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), and processor. This is an important perspective; consider that a "secret" document on someone's computer might have been printed and, therefore, there might be traces of it on a file server, in the print queue on the print server, and within the memory of the printer itself.

While Casey provides a broad coverage of technology, it is not deep. Kruse & Heiser provides narrower and deeper coverage of computer technology, covering such topics as the basics of storage media, encryption and steganography, hiding data, and hostile code. The authors also cover Windows and Unix forensics in detail, providing four times as many pages on Unix as on Windows. This provides an excellent introduction to these operating systems for the forensics investigator while assuming no prior knowledge of the operating systems and file systems. The book is much lighter on the network side, but does offer an introduction to the Internet and how one would track down intruders over the Internet. Casey provides excellent coverage of Windows and Unix, as well, but assumes that the reader has a better a priori understanding than Kruse & Heiser.

Caloyannides also provides detailed coverage of technology that will be of interest to the forensics analyst, covering similar topics as Kruse & Heiser. Much of the Windows discussion, however, is a long set of tips on how make Windows more secure and private — such as disabling the built-in microphone and not using virtual memory — but doesn't fully explain the underlying rationale for the steps that are recommended. Despite the absence of Unix, Caloyannides provides detailed and broad coverage of a variety of network and computer technologies. Consistent with the emphasis of his book, the strength of his presentation is with respect to privacy-related technologies, providing detailed coverage of how data is stored in the memory, registry, and hard drive of computers; modes of data insertion and self-protection, including keystroke logging software, telephone taps, spyware, and even Van Eck radiation; the application and detection of encryption and steganography software; and two long chapters about achieving and protecting on-line privacy covering such topics as the browser, e-mail, secure protocols, firewalls, and encryption.

Marcella & Greenfield provide the weakest coverage of technology, again not surprising given its focus. There are a number of chapters covering a variety of relevant topics; a chapter on Windows discusses how files are stored on the computer with particular emphasis on the Internet Explorer history buffer, cache, and temporary files, the registry, and Event Viewer, while the chapter on Internet abuse primarily describes browsers' cookies, bookmarks, and swap files. A chapter on the tools of the trade covers vulnerability detection tools such as nmap and nessus, protection tools such as BlackICE and swatch, and analysis tools such as The Coroners Toolkit (TCT) and Encase. Finally, there is a nice chapter on tracking and profiling network intrusions. Each of these chapters, however, are too short and spend insufficient time to really develop the topic; instead, the reader gets only a glimpse into these important topics.

Laws Related to Computer Forensics

Carol Stucki, in a chapter in Marcella & Greenfield, suggests that while most computer forensic investigations are not initially headed for court, analysts "should always conduct the investigation as if you are going to trial, just in case you have to." By following a rigorous law-based procedural framework, all of the evidence necessary for litigation will be available without having to backtrack and redo any work — and without having to explain to a judge why proper procedures weren't followed in the first place.

Investigators, particularly law enforcement officers and their agents, need to be aware of applicable local and federal legislation as they relate to obtaining warrants and subpoenas, conducting a legal search, determining what to seize, securing the evidentiary chain, obtaining affidavits and testimony, etc. In some cases, investigators may also need to be aware of applicable international laws and treaties. System and network administrators within private organizations also need to be aware of certain legal issues, including when to call for law enforcement assistance and their responsibilities once they do report a computer crime. Ignorance of the law or a lapse in protecting the evidence, in either criminal or civil matters, can make the entire analysis moot.

In addition to the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the plethora of case law associated with it, such legislation as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and the Privacy Protection Act (PPA) are critical to an investigator's understanding of the legal environment that the field of computer forensic exists within. Knowing when a subpoena, court order, or search warrant is needed to obtain specific evidence is critical to conducting an investigation. Without proper implementation of these legal tools, the collection of evidence is simply not possible in many cases. Investigators must be aware what types of evidence are available utilizing the varied means of legal process. For example, subscriber information from an Internet service provider is available via a subpoena, while content, depending on where it is stored, whether it has been opened by the end user or not, or whether it is in the midst of transmission, requires varying court orders and search warrants. In addition to the federal legislation noted, each state may offer additional protections of privacy that state and local investigators must be aware of.

Marcella & Greenfield devote more than half their book to a collection of relevant laws and guidelines covering the search and seizure of computers, computer crime policies, U.S. national critical infrastructure protection, privacy issues, legal aspects of e-commerce, and international computer crime laws. Providing such a collection is the raison d'etre for this book which is specifically intended to be "not a text, but rather a field manual." Much of this material has been drafted by Federal Law Enforcement workgroups, which is important because these are the documents that will guide everyday forensics analysis of computers that might have been used as the tool of a criminal. Many of these documents, however, are available freely on the Internet so while it is very useful to have all of these documents available together in one place, it is unclear that an agency couldn't put much of this information together themselves; in fact, one chapter ("Searching and Seizing Computers and Obtaining Electronic Evidence in Criminal Investigations") supercedes the contents of another chapter ("Federal Guidelines for Searching and Seizing Computers"). Since a large portion of this part of the book contains reprints of previously-published material, the book suffers from the absence of an author's voice giving expert analysis and guidance about the applicability of the legal material.

An additional twist on forensic investigation, of course, is that of privacy. Expectations of privacy and consent to search often go hand-in-hand. Most corporate policies explicitly state that company computers are owned by the company and are not to be used for personal purposes, limit corporate network connectivity to company-owned systems, and state that users of the corporate network should have no expectation of privacy with respect to their computer, files, or e-mail. This pretty much gives the investigator a free hand to examine any aspect of network hosts and servers without individual consent; all that is required is consent of appropriate corporate management.

Kruse & Heiser and Caloyannides both provide a general overview of applicable laws that guide investigators. Rather than cite the individual laws, Kruse & Heiser provide a brief overview of the legal system for the non-law enforcement professional, including such issues as what happens after a law enforcement agency is notified, how search warrants are obtained and executed, how suspects are charged, the chain of custody of evidence, and tips for dealing with law enforcement agencies. In fact, the only specific laws cited are the U.S. wiretap statute (18 U.S.C. 10-25) and 18 U.S.C. 1029 Amended which, among other things, makes possession of computer passwords potentially illegal. By contrast, Caloyannides' coverage of legal issues provides detailed discussion about such topics as civil legal discovery, e-mail, criminal evidence collection and handling, federal guidelines for searching and seizing computers, and how businesses (and individuals) can protect themselves. Where relevant, specific laws are cited in the discussion, with particular attention to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA). The book also covers some of the emerging privacy legislation, particularly the differences in views of data privacy in North America versus the European Union.

Casey takes a different approach by using case studies to present some of the legal aspects of forensic computing. A case study by McLean, for example, discusses how privacy extends to a premises without specific privacy policies, such as a private residence. As the case study demonstrates, a homeowner or parent may not be able to give permission for the search of every computer in a household; unless an investigator can prove that a computer is in common use by multiple users without any restrictions to access (real or implied) and that there is no real expectation of privacy by an individual, each respective owner must provide their consent for a search. In the absence of such permission, search warrants must be obtained. This is rather dry stuff to read statute by statute and, indeed, various specific laws are cited, but the case studies cover the entire aspect of the analysis and the "case," and are, therefore, interesting and compelling reading. The coverage of legal aspects is slight compared even to Kruse & Heiser, although the coverage is the best at showing the specific application of relevant laws to the investigation, analysis, and prosecution.

The issue of protecting the privacy of files on your own computer is, of course, a very hot issue in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. One result of the "war on terrorism" has been what some critics suggest is an erosion of personal privacy and civil rights. In any case, criminals and some civil libertarians alike are adopting a posture of privacy at almost any cost and this is of increasing concern to forensics analysts.

2009-03-21T06:56:00.001+07:00

Summary:
This book is a compilation of chapters by a number of authors and primarily focuses on available tools and procedures to analyze Windows and Unix systems, as well as providing information on other technical topics such as wireless networks, network protocols, and embedded systems. Detailed coverage on a few tools brings the reader further into the actual analysis of digital media utilizing specific tools and procedures than other books, but discusses relatively few tools. This book is very practical for the investigator, particularly the neophyte to computer and network technologies.

Pros:

* Describes Unix/Linux and Windows
* Case study approach to legal aspects
* Good coverage of computer and network technologies

Cons:

* Covers only a few forensics tools (although those are covered in detail)

2009-03-21T06:54:00.001+07:00

Summary:
This book is a field manual containing rules and guidelines governing the legal aspects of computer forensic investigations. (We should note that we were working with a prepublication draft of this book.)

Pros:

* Contains an excellent set of appropriate and relevant documents for the investigator

Cons:

* No coverage of Unix
* No analysis or advice in the applicability of the laws and guidelines
* Limited coverage of tools and technology

Computer Forensics & Privacy

2009-03-21T06:51:00.002+07:00

Summary:
This books is written from an "information is your best defense" posture, designed primarily as a resource for users/administrators who want to protect themselves from someone who might want to analyze their computer, such as a data thief — or law enforcement officer. This is a good resource for the end user looking to safeguard their own system.

Pros:

* Good description of basic computer technology
* Good coverage of available forensics tools
* Excellent coverage of privacy invasion and other surveillance tools — and defenses

Cons:

* No coverage of Unix/Linux
* High-level discussion of legal aspects

Computer Forensics: Incident Response Essentials

2009-03-21T06:43:00.004+07:00

Summary:
This book is designed by the authors as an incident response handbook for investigators, and meets the needs of basic and intermediate level field officers, detectives, and information systems investigators well. The book focuses on the forensics, providing an overview of the different types of tools available in the field and supplies the reader with invaluable citations to other texts, articles, and Web sites where more detailed and advanced information can be obtained. (In the spirit of complete disclosure, we note that Jay Heiser is a columnist for Information Security Magazine.)

Pros:

* Very good coverage on basic computer and Internet technology
* Detailed coverage of Unix and Windows
* Excellent overview of the computer forensics analysis process and forensics tools

Cons:

* Only a high-level coverage on the laws and applying them

2009-03-19T22:51:00.002+07:00

I never have been one to show great interest in fiction books. From a young age, I tried desperately to be like everyone else, reading the latest teenage fiction novel to no avail. Obviously during education I had to read a certain percentage of novels especially to get through my English Literature exams, but for some reason they never did ‘float my boat’ so to speak. Give me a magazine, research material or philosophical texts and I’m quite happy to read up on my gossip and debate things like the existence of god. This has always been the way until recently when I was introduced to a range of novels written by Sophie Kinsella.

Confessions of a Shopaholic had me hooked within the first few pages, a sneak peek into the life of Rebecca Bloomwood - Financial Journalist. I stood by her as she went through the twists and turns of life, through her tears and joys, love and heartbreak. A character whom I think we can all identify with to some degree, for myself, alongside loving shopping, it was the belief that if I hide bad things away for long enough they might just disappear. My addiction had begun. Each book that followed carried on the story.

Needless to say when it was announced that they were making the story into a film, I was looking forward to it. Being able to re-live the novel, but this time on the big screen where the characters are brought to life. The trailers teased and made the anticipation that little more exciting.

As Rebecca Bloomwood would write; ‘Contemplating the film on the big screen was like finding the perfect dress you’ve longed for, in the sale at Barney’s; it’s the right size and has no faults. The feeling of exhilaration flows through your veins, everything seems better. Until you realise when you wear it to the most amazing ball that the perfect dress has a nick in it at the hem, at first not that noticeable, but through the night, the hem slowly unravels and the dress falls apart at the seams. You’re so disappointed, you feel let down as if you’ve been cheated.

One of the main nick’s in the hem of my perfect dress was evident within the first 5 minutes. As I watched in disbelief, I couldn’t help thinking to myself; “This didn’t happen in the novel”, “I don’t understand” and “I don’t remember it happening like that in the novel”, so much so that I found it very difficult to absorb myself in the film. There were so many inconsistencies; so many so that I asked if we’d walked into the wrong theatre therefore missing part of the story. Why was it all set in New York? Why was Becky working for Successful Saving? Why did she go to work for Luke? Why was Alicia ‘Bitch’ Longlegs working for Elite fashion magazine? Why were Tarquin and Suze engaged within the first 5 minutes? Where was the on air argument between Becky and Luke? Why did Becky not work on Morning Coffee in a regular slot? And so many more…

The unraveling of my hem happened before my eyes as we were introduced to the main characters of the story. The character of Rebecca Bloomwood was unbelievable, although Becky is slightly naive in her dealings and imaginings within the novel and obviously does have a shopping addiction; the movie portrayed her as a plastic, simple minded and superficial. Suze was impersonal, unlike how she is described within the novel; she lacked her caring and motherly side and instead came across as quite aggressive and selfish. What happened to the girl who would do anything for her friend, who stuck by Becky no matter how many mistakes she made? Tarquin was quite confusing, he held a very small role so it was impossible to judge the character too much, yet I was left asking the question; what happened to the scrawny, un-stylish and awkward character described in the novel that Rebecca found so repulsive? Luke Brandon was possibly the most believable character within the movie, although I found it difficult to relate Luke’s mysterious, almost distant and driven characteristics portrayed by Kinsella to the actor playing the role. Whatever did happen to him running Brandon communications from the beginning?

I understand that changes have to be made on screen to fill the film reel and that sometimes it may be necessary for the range of novels to be merged slightly. Yet why the producers and script writers omitted important events and almost re-wrote an already fantastic storyline is beyond me.

I can’t help but feel rather deflated; the lovable and hilarious ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ was obviously lost in translation.

odd man out

2009-03-13T08:18:00.003+07:00

This is another superb novel by Sarah Ellis. Odd Man Out is a multifaceted story full of imagination, suspense, family, fun, and even fear. While his mother and new stepdad go on a honeymoon, Kip travels to BC's west coast to visit his Gran at her island home. Sharing a house with his five girl cousins is only one adventure Kip faces during his stay. From writing on walls and building a yurt to being buried alive on the beach and discovering a mysterious binder that once belonged to his late father, Kip encounters a world where, downstairs, anything goes, girls rule, and ideas abound, and upstairs, in his attic, solitude comforts him, a mystery unfolds, and Kip struggles with his own ideas and memories.

Kip retreated to the living room and closed the door to an indignant ballerina duet of "But we are dressed!"

His head was buzzing.

A phrase popped into his mind. The female of the species. He was used to females. Correction: he was used to one female, his mother. Just the two of them. Except it wasn't just the two of them anymore. Kip put that thought in a box and shelved it.

Odd Man Out will appeal to readers of all ages. This book has something for everyone: pure summer silliness and fun at the beach, espionage, issues of complex family dynamics, and conflicting thoughts and emotions swirling around in a boy's mind. One of the biggest strengths of the novel, aside from its solid plot, is in its characterization. The girls are boisterous, precocious and entertaining, though Kip doesn't always think so.

The kitchen was full of steam and girls. The Sea Urchin of Doom was boiling a big pot of water for corn.

"I told you," said Alice from atop her ladder. "He's got to be building a climbing wall. I tried that but the holes just kept crumbling."

"Nope," said Hilary. "He's making a den of iniquity."

"No fair," said Emily. “I want a den of iniquity, too."

"Do I hear whining?" said Gran.

"You don't even know what a den of iniquity is," said Alice.

"Do, too. It's like a doghouse."

Kip fingered the key hanging around his neck.

"Kip will reveal all when he's ready," said Gran. "Meanwhile, we've got some things to plan."

Gran is also a compelling character as she facilitates debates and encourages the discussion of ideas as a means of cultivating creativity, responsibility, critical thinking, and empathy. She is also fun loving, laid back, and open minded, for the most part. I guess she would have to be adventurous to allow the girls to give her a new hairstyle which requires a lot of hair gel and a vacuum cleaner.

Rich-Gran was shocked but she kept her cool. She tried to enlist Hilary as the police but Hilary just pulled her sun visor low over her face and hid behind her book. After lengthy negotiations the ransom, consisting of half a package of mints, was paid. The kidnappers divided them up fairly. They included the bossy kidnapper and even the prisoner himself because they were not, after all, really wicked, just very, very greedy.

The prisoner made a powerful escape in a shower of sand and then everyone, young and old, rich and poor, joined him in a final swim.

They dripped all the way home.

Another salient theme in the book has to do with blurring the lines between what is imagined and what is real. These more complex themes combine with a sense of the playfulness to add a refreshing dynamic to Ellis' familiar familial themes. As well, inquiring young minds will be satisfied by the interspersed factoids and "rarely asked questions."

The cover comment is accurate in that it describes Odd Man Out as a "many-layered novel" that is "quirky, funny, smart, insightful, and surprising." In the end, Kip finds some answers to his questions (he even finds answers to questions he never thought of!), but his journey is one that readers won't soon forget.

This is another successful and high quality novel from BC writer, Sarah Ellis, and, without a doubt, Odd Man Out deserves a spot on every library and classroom shelf.

Breaking Dawn

2009-03-06T13:43:00.004+07:00

My overriding thought when I was reading Breaking Dawn was that it was a good thing this wasn’t the first book because I wonder how many people would have glommed onto the series after reading this mess of a story.

I totally loved Twilight, was less than enthralled with New Moon, watched the wheels fall off the bus in Eclipse, and now have come to this sad and somewhat crazy conclusion.

I confess that when I first started reading this I wondered what fan had ghost written it because it reads like total fan fiction. The first section is told by Bella and relates her marriage in great detail. Of course Bella does not like pretty dresses or pretty decorations or being the center of attention. Despite that, we readers are treated to pages and pages of descriptions about the wedding. And some strange info dump in the beginning that is randomly inserted about immortal children and how turning them is a danger.

The first section was very difficult for me to follow. The transitions from one scene to another to a flashback weren’t clearly denoted and half the time I hadn’t realized that I was switching times and scenes until a quarter or half the way through. For example, in the first “chapter” Bella is in the present talking to her friend. Then she is thinking about telling Charlie about getting married which happened sometime in the past and this immediately segues into Bella telling her mother sometime after telling Charlie but sometime before the present time.

“But you have to tell your mom! I’m not saying one word to Renée! That’s all yours!” He busted into loud guffaws.

I paused with my hand on the doorknob, smiling. Sure, at the time, Charlie’s words had terrified me. The ultimate doom: telling Renée. Early marriage was higher up on her blacklist than boiling live puppies.

Who could have foreseen her response? Not me. Certainly not Charlie. Maybe Alice, but I hadn’t thought to ask her.

“Well, Bella,” Renée had said after I’d choked and stuttered out the impossible words: Mom, I’m marrying Edward. “I’m a little miffed that you waited so long to tell me. Plane tickets only get more expensive. Oooh,” she’d fretted. “Do you think Phil’s cast will be off by then? It will spoil the pictures if he’s not in a tux—”

The first section meanders from the wedding to the honeymoon where Bella begs for sex and I assume that Edward gives it to her. It’s very stream of consciousness storytelling. Oh, and in true romance style, the first time was fantastic. Utterly divine which is par for the course in the book. Even minor issues of pain and suffering are rewarded with perfection.

I talked to Robin about this and she pointed out that is Freud’s theory of omnipotence. Basically Bella wishes for things to come into fruition and they do. She has utter control over herself and her surroundings. There is no conflict, suspense or urgency because the reader knows that Bella’s wishes will ultimately triumph in her favor. The voices of the narrators and their actions are very immature. They show no forethought, planning or reasoning. It’s response, reaction, act. In fact, I thought the voice of the characters (their maturity level) is shown by the name of Bella’s daughter: Reneesme, a combo of both Bella and Edward’s mother’s names. Because Renee Esme Cullen is not as good as Reneesme. After all, who is going to mock a vampire on the playground, right?

There was an interesting theme that was brought up: Is it better to rule through free will or subjugation? There is no resolution to the theme, no showing that free will is better. There’s discussion but no action. Any resolution comes not because one concept is superior to the other but because Bella wishes that the resolution would end and it does.

I’m not even sure what the conflict was/is anymore. I think that Edward didn’t want to make Bella a vampire but agreed to do so if she married him. This was explained because Edward was old fashioned. (Apparently in the Victorian period, it was only okay to change someone after you married them. WTF?). During the honeymoon, Edward’s strength leaves bruises on Bella’s body and so he refuses to make love to her again until she is changed. But does he change her? Of course not because where would the artificial tension come from?

The faux conflicts were wall bangers in and of themselves but when Bella becomes pregnant (yes, this is just like fan fiction), the story really hits the wall. Any semblance of world building that was created in the past is just thrown out the window. Humans and vampires can mate! They can have children! You can see your old family! You can have more than one gift! Throw out the rules! We need conflict!

I think the most disappointing thing about this book was the lack of organic conflict. Everything seemed so manufactured from Edward not wanting to turn Bella into vampire which we know he ultimately will otherwise why the marriage, to Bella becoming pregnant, to the ultimate resolution to the baby issue. Some deem this a dark book? How so? She gets pregnant, lives forever with the most perfect man, everyone lives to serve her, she has uber riches, and suffers hardly at all. She has ultimate control over her vampire urges, as if she had been a vampire for centuries. Her child is the most perfect individual. Bella herself even has two gifts while every other vampire has one.

There were parts of the story that were interesting. I found Jacob’s section, the middle one, to be the best told. His struggle with his role in the Pack and his feelings for Bella and the concepts of free will and domination were probably the most compelling part of the story. In his eyes, through his voice, the story was the most authentic. But, the whole concept of free will is undermined by imprinting. Imprinting is when one shapeshifter finds its fated mate. Where’s the free will there?

The Great Gatsby

2009-03-06T13:35:00.005+07:00

"He talked a lot about the past and I gathered that he wanted to recoversomething, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. Hislife had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return toa certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what thatthing was . . ."The Great Gatsby (1925), F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, stands among thegreatest of all American fiction. Jay Gatsby's lavish lifestyle in a mansion onLong Island's gold coast encapsulates the spirit, excitement, and violence ofthe era Fitzgerald named `the Jazz Age'. Impelled by his love for DaisyBuchanan, Gatsby seeks nothing less than to recapture the moment five yearsearlier when his best and brightest dreams - his `unutterable visions' - seemedto be incarnated in her kiss.A moving portrayal of the power of romantic imagination, as well as the pathosand courage entailed in the pusuit of an unattainable dream, The Great Gatsby isa classic fiction of hope and disillusion.

This edition is fully annotated witha fine Introduction incorporating new interpretation and detailing Fitzgerald'sstruggle to write the novel, its critical reception and its significance forfuture generations.

Eclipse

2009-03-06T13:29:00.002+07:00

"BELLA?"

Edward's soft voice came from behind me. I turned to see him spring lightly up the porch steps, his hair windblown from running. He pulled me into his arms at once, just like he had in the parking lot, and kissed me again.

This kiss frightened me. There was too much tension, too strong an edge to the way his lips crushed mine—like he was afraid we had only so much time left to us.

As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob—knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death. But which is which?
The Review

Eclipse is the third novel in Stephenie Meyer’s popular Twilight series. You really want to have read Twilight and New Moon (in that order) first before reading Eclipse, because the author doesn’t spend too much time expounding the story-lines of the previous novels but rather drops the reader straight in to the story. You also want to read Twilight and New Moon because they are both excellent novels and, trust me, you are missing out if you haven’t read them.

Eclipse carries on not long after New Moon left off. Bella’s high school graduation is approaching and she will soon be leaving Forks forever, ostensibly to go to college - but in reality she is planning to join her boyfriend in his vampire existence and will therefore be unable to return home, due to being dead and possessed by a terrible blood lust for the first few years. Not that the reader is actually taken that far in this story, we make it through graduation but then the dangerous vampires from Seattle come to Forks and dealing with them dominates the rest of the novel.

This is only one part of the story though. Eclipse is primarily a romantic saga, so Bella and Edward’s relationship is the primary focus of the novel. Or as I should say Bella, Edward and Jacob’s relationship - because there is a love triangle in the plot of this novel.

Bella and Jacob have always been friends, at least they were - right up until Jacob became a werewolf. Then the enmity between vampires and werewolves put a huge strain on their friendship. Besides which, Jacob is in love with Bella, who is in love with Edward so this is going to make things awkward between them.

At this point, Eclipse descends into soap opera territory – Bella has found her soul mate in Edward but Jacob is the soul mate she should have / could have / would have had if Edward didn’t exist. She loves him too but not as much as Edward. Why she loves Jacob is beyond me – he knows that she loves Edward but Jacob still tries to make her feel guilty that she can’t love him like he wants her too.

Blatant emotional blackmail is unattractive whatever way you serve it up and it detracted from his otherwise fine character. Worse, it lead to a large proportion of this book being devoted to teenage angst and with this book being 628 pages long that a substantial amount of angst!

To be fair, Eclipse is written for the young adult market so I really shouldn’t complain about the teen angst and the drama but for me it meant that this book lacked the magical quality that made Twilight stand out from the crowd of vampire romances available in bookstores today. Don’t misunderstand me - Eclipse is still a really good read. The book didn’t feel like it was over 600 pages long, I literally flew through the pages and had to make a conscious effort to slow down my reading so I didn’t finish the whole book in a couple of sittings.

For teens already hooked on the series, Eclipse is another solid instalment of Forks goodness. Adult readers may be put off by the teenage relationship angst in this novel but if you have already enjoyed the author’s previous offerings I think there is still plenty here to entertain.

It will be intriguing to see where Stephenie Meyer takes the ideas and characters in this series next. Writing for the Young Adult market always means that there is some expectation for the author to set a good example for impressionable young minds yet criticisms that Bella’s character is too dependent and needs to set a better example for young women seem unfair. This is romantic fantasy – enjoy it!

Romeo And Juliet

2009-03-06T13:23:00.002+07:00

The play begins with a large fight between the Capulets and the Montagues, two prestigious families in Verona, Italy. These families have been fighting for quite some time, and the Prince declares that their next public brawl will be punished by death. When the fight is over, Romeo’s cousin Benvolio tries to cheer him of his melancholy. Romeo reveals that he is in love with a woman named Rosaline, but she has chosen to live a life of chastity. Romeo and Benvolio are accidentally invited to their enemy’s party; Benvolio convinces Romeo to go.

At the party, Romeo locks eyes with a young woman named Juliet. They instantly fall in love, but they do not realize that their families are mortal enemies. When they realize each other’s identities, they are devastated, but they cannot help the way that they feel. Romeo sneaks into Juliet’s yard after the party and proclaims his love for her. She returns his sentiments and the two decide to marry. The next day, Romeo and Juliet are married by Friar Lawrence; an event witnessed by Juliet’s Nurse and Romeo’s loyal servant, Balthasar. They plan to meet in Juliet’s chambers that night.

Romeo visits his best friend Mercutio and his cousin Benvolio but his good mood is cutailed. Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt, starts a verbal quarrel with Romeo, which soon turns into a duel with Mercutio. Romeo tries to stop the fight but it is too late: Tybalt kills Mercutio. Romeo, enraged, retaliates by killing Tybalt. Once Romeo realizes the consequences of his actions, he hides at Friar Lawrence’s cell.

Friar Lawrence informs Romeo that he has been banished from Verona and will be killed if he stays. The Friar suggests Romeo spend the night with Juliet, then leave for Mantua in the morning. He tells Romeo that he will attempt to settle the Capulet and Montague dispute so Romeo can later return to a united family. Romeo takes his advice, spending one night with Juliet before fleeing Verona.

Juliet’s mother, completely unaware of her daughter's secret marriage to Romeo, informs Juliet that she will marry a man named Paris in a few days. Juliet, outraged, refuses to comply. Her parents tell her that she must marry Paris and the Nurse agrees with them. Juliet asks Friar Lawrence for advice, insisting she would rather die than marry Paris. Fr. Lawrence gives Juliet a potion which will make her appear dead and tells her to take it the night before the wedding. He promises to send word to Romeo - intending the two lovers be reunited in the Capulet vault.

Juliet drinks the potion and everybody assumes that she is dead — including Balthasar, who immediately tells Romeo. Friar Lawrence’s letter fails to reach Romeo, so he assumes that his wife is dead. He rushes to Juliet’s tomb and, in deep grief, drinks a vial of poison. Moments later, Juliet wakes to find Romeo dead and kills herself due to grief. Once the families discover what happened, they finally end their bitter feud. Thus the youngsters' deaths bring the families together. Romeo And Juliet is a true tragedy in the literary sense because the families gather sufficient self-knowledge to correct their behaviour but not until it is too late to save the situation.

The Kite Runner

2009-03-06T13:22:00.003+07:00

Amir, a well-to-do Pashtun boy, and Hassan, a Hazara and the son of Amir's father's servant, Ali, spend their days in a peaceful Kabul, kite fighting, roaming the streets and being boys. Amir’s father (who is generally referred to as Baba, "daddy", throughout the book) loves both the boys, but seems critical of Amir for not being manly enough. Amir also fears his father blames him for his mother’s death during childbirth. However, he has a kind father figure in the form of Rahim Khan, Baba’s friend, who understands Amir better, and is supportive of his interest in writing stories.

Assef, a notoriously mean and violent older boy with sadistic tendencies, blames Amir for socializing with a Hazara, according to Assef an inferior race that should only live in Hazarajat. He prepares to attack Amir with his steel knuckles, but Hassan bravely stands up to him, threatening to shoot Assef in the eye with his slingshot. Assef and his henchmen back off, but Assef says he will take revenge.

Hassan is a successful "kite runner" for Amir, knowing where the kite will land without even watching it. One triumphant day, Amir wins the local tournament, and finally Baba's praise. Hassan goes to run the last cut kite, a great trophy, for Amir saying "For you, a thousand times over." Unfortunately, Hassan runs into Assef and his two henchmen. Hassan refuses to give up Amir's kite, so Assef exacts his revenge, assaulting and raping him. Wondering why Hassan is taking so long, Amir searches for Hassan and hides when he hears Assef's voice. He witnesses the rape but is too scared to help him. Afterwards, for some time Hassan and Amir keep a distance from each other. Amir reacts indifferently because he feels ashamed, and is frustrated by Hassan's saint-like behavior. Already jealous of Baba's love for Hassan, he worries if Baba knew how bravely Hassan defended Amir's kite, and how cowardly Amir acted, that Baba's love for Hassan would grow even more.

To force Hassan to leave, Amir frames him as a thief, and Hassan falsely confesses. Baba forgives him, despite the fact that, as he explained earlier, he believes that "there is no act more wretched than stealing." Hassan and his father Ali, to Baba's extreme sorrow, leave anyway. Hassan's departure frees Amir of the daily reminder of his cowardice and betrayal, but he still lives in their shadow and his guilt.

Five years later, the Russians invade Afghanistan; Amir and Baba escape to Peshawar, Pakistan and then to Fremont, California, where Amir and Baba, who lived in luxury in an expansive mansion in Afghanistan, settle in a run-down apartment and Baba begins work at a gas station. Amir eventually takes classes at a local community college to develop his writing skills.
Every Sunday, Baba and Amir make extra money selling used goods at a flea market in San Jose. There, Amir meets fellow refugee Soraya Taheri and her family; Soraya's father, who was a high-ranking officer in Afghanistan, has contempt of Amir's literary aspiration. Baba is diagnosed with terminal oat cell carcinoma but is still capable of granting Amir one last favor: he asks Soraya's father's permission for Amir to marry her. He agrees and the two marry. Shortly thereafter Baba dies. Amir and Soraya learn that they cannot have children.

Amir embarks on a successful career as a novelist. Fifteen years after his wedding, Amir receives a call from Rahim Khan, who is dying from an illness. Rahim Khan asks Amir to come to Pakistan. He enigmatically tells Amir "there is a way to be good again." Amir goes.

From Rahim Khan, Amir learns the fates of Ali and Hassan. Ali was killed by a land mine. Hassan had a wife and a son, named Sohrab, and had returned to Baba’s house as a caretaker at Rahim Khan’s request. One day the Taliban ordered him to give it up and leave, but he refused, and was murdered, along with his wife. Rahim Khan reveals that Ali was not really Hassan's father. Hassan was actually the son of Baba, therefore Amir's half-brother. Finally, Rahim Khan tells Amir that the true reason he has called Amir to Pakistan is to go to Kabul to rescue Hassan's son, Sohrab, from an orphanage.

Amir returns to Taliban-controlled Kabul with a guide, Farid, and searches for Sohrab at the orphanage. In order to enter Taliban territory, Amir, who is normally clean shaven, dons a fake beard and mustache, because otherwise the Taliban would exact Shariah punishment against him. However, he does not find Sohrab where he was supposed to be: the director of the orphanage tells them that a Taliban official comes often, brings cash and usually takes a girl back with him. Once in a while however, he takes a boy, recently Sohrab. The director tells Amir to go to a soccer match and the man "who does the speeches" is the man who took Sohrab. Farid manages to secure an appointment with the speaker at his home, by saying that he and Amir have "personal business" with him.

At the house, Amir has his meeting with the man in sunglasses,who says the man who does the speeches is not available,. The man in sunglasses is eventually revealed to be his childhood nemesis, Assef. Assef is aware of Amir's identity from the very beginning, but Amir doesn't realize who he's sitting across from until Assef starts asking about Ali, Baba and Hassan. Sohrab is being kept at the home where he is made to dance dressed in women's clothes, and it seems Assef might have been sexually assaulting him. (Sohrab later says, "I'm so dirty and full of sin. The bad man and the other two did things to me.") Assef agrees to relinquish him, but only for a price - cruelly beating Amir. However, Amir is saved when Sohrab uses his slingshot to shoot out Assef's left eye, fulfilling the threat his father had made many years before.

Amir tells Sohrab of his plans to take him back to America and possibly adopt him, and promises that he will never be sent to an orphanage again. After almost having to break that promise (after decades of war, paperwork documenting Sohrab's orphan status, as demanded by the US authorities, is impossible to get) and Sohrab attempting suicide, Amir manages to take him back to the United States and introduces him to his wife. However, Sohrab is emotionally damaged and refuses to speak or even glance at Soraya. This continues until his frozen emotions are thawed when Amir reminisces about his father, Hassan, while kite flying. Amir shows off some of Hassan’s tricks, and Sohrab begins to interact with Amir again. In the end Sohrab only shows a lopsided smile, but Amir takes to it with all his heart as he runs the kite for Sohrab, saying, "For you, a thousand times over.".

Twilight

2009-03-06T13:01:00.003+07:00

Synopsis

When seventeen year-old Bella Swan leaves sunny Arizona to live with her father in the small and gloomy Pacific North-West town of Forks she doesn’t expect to like it. After all she has made excuses not to go there enough times over the past few years. If living in Forks, with its constant mist and rain, wasn’t bad enough she will have to make a whole new set of friends and settle into a new school.

Bella soon makes some new friends at school but when she sees a boy called Edward Cullen sitting with his brothers and sisters in the cafeteria she is instantly intrigued. Edward is stunningly attractive, almost inhumanly beautiful, and yet he is an outsider too. Although Edward and his family have lived in Forks for two years they have never really been accepted by the townsfolk.

At first Edward is aloof, sometimes it almost seems like he can’t stand to be in the same room as her, but eventually they strike up an unlikely friendship. Even as Bella falls hopelessly and irrevocably in love with Edward, she still can’t work out exactly what makes him so different to everyone else.

On a trip to the beach, Bella is told of the local legend about the “cold ones”, a group of blood drinkers who have sworn off hunting humans but are still not welcome on Indian land because vampires are not to be trusted. Realising Edward is vampire changes nothing for Bella, she knows that she still loves him even if he’s not human.

Edward and his whole family are vampires. Edward himself was made a vampire when he was seventeen years-old, although that was at the end of World War I. For Edward his love for Bella is both a delight and a torment. A delight because she is the first person he has loved since he was made a vampire. A torment because although he has sworn off human blood and only hunts animals the craving for human blood never truly leaves him and the very scent of her also stirs his hunger for blood….
The Review

Twilight is the story of Edward and Bella’s romance. Forget any vampire romance you have read before, Twilight is so unique it is almost like it’s in its own genre. The book is marketed at Young Adult readers but it has the ability to cross age barriers and will satisfy both teenagers and adults alike.

The story is told in first person from the perspective of Bella, so the reader only ever know what she knows, making Edward and his family a mystery that is slowly unravelled through out the book. Even by the end of the book I was still thirsting for more of the Cullen family back story - hopefully their characters might be developed further in future books. Bella herself is a well written and realistic character, shy and lacking in confidence, her sarcastic inner voice narrates the story for the reader.

Twilight is simply and yet beautifully written. The descriptions of Forks leave you feeling like you can almost smell the damp air and hear the rain falling on the roof.

The romance between Edward and Bella is both touching and compelling. There is a melancholic feel to their impossible love, yet at the same time they both are unwilling to give up hope that their relationship is not doomed. The book reaches a fever pitch of excitement as the romance between Bella and Edward turns into a frantic race to stay alive.

I have heard Twilight described as “a vampire story for people who don’t like vampire stories” and I think I would agree with that. This book really has something for everyone. Young adult readers, vampire fans or romance readers will all find Twilight to be an appealing story.

For a Young Adult novel the book is quite long but don’t let that put you off reading it because each page is to be savoured. Believe me, this is one book that you won’t want to end.

Harry Potter And The prisoner of azkaban

2009-03-06T12:58:00.003+07:00

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban opens on the night before Harry's thirteenth birthday, when he receives gifts by Owl Post from his friends at school. The next morning at breakfast, Harry sees on television that a man named Black is on the loose from prison. At this time, Aunt Marge comes to stay with the Dursleys, and she insults Harry's parents numerous times. Harry accidentally causes her to inflate. Harry leaves the Dursley's house and is picked up by the Knight Bus, but only after an alarming sighting of a large, black dog. The Knight Bus drops Harry off at Diagon Alley, where he is greeted by Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic. He rents a room and awaits the start of school. In Diagon Alley, Harry finishes his schoolwork, admires a Firebolt broomstick in the window of a shop, and after some time, finds his friends Ron and Hermione. At a pet shop, Hermione buys a cat named Crookshanks, who chases Scabbers, Ron's aging pet rat. Ron is most displeased. The night before they all head off to Hogwarts, Harry overhears Ron's parents discussing the fact that Sirius Black is after Harry.

The students board the Hogwarts Express train and are stopped once by an entity called a Dementor. Harry faints and is revived by Professor Lupin, the new defense against the dark arts teacher. Soon afterward, the students arrive at Hogwarts and classes begin. In divination class, Professor Trelawney foresees Harry's death by reading tealeaves and finding the representation of a Grim, a large black dog symbolizing death. In the care of magical creatures class, Hagrid introduces the students to Hippogriffs, large, deeply dignified crosses between horses and eagles. Malfoy insults one of these beasts, Buckbeak, and is attacked. Malfoy drags out the injury in an attempt to have Hagrid fired and Buckbeak put to sleep. In Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor Lupin leads the class in a defeat of a Boggart, which changes shape to appear as the viewer's greatest fear. For Lupin, it turns into an orb, for Ron, a spider. Harry doesn't have a chance to fight it.

During a Hogwarts visit to Hogsmeade, a wizard village which Harry is unable to visit because he has no permission slip, Harry has tea with Professor Lupin. Harry discovers that the reason he wasn't allowed to fight the Boggart was that Lupin had worried that it would take the shape of Voldemort. This concern catches Harry by surprise, because Harry had been thinking even more fearfully about the awful Dementors. Snape brings Lupin a steaming potion, which Lupin drinks, much to Harry's alarm. Later that night, Sirius Black breaks into Hogwarts and destroys the Fat Lady portrait that guards Gryffindor Tower. The students spend the night sleeping in the Great Hall while the teachers search the castle. Soon afterwards, Quidditch moves into full swing, and Gryffindor House plays against Hufflepuff. During the game, Harry spies the large black dog, and seconds later he sees a hoard of Dementors. He loses consciousness and falls off his broomstick. Harry wakes to find that his trusty broomstick had flown into the Whomping Willow and been smashed in his fall, and the game itself had lost. Later, Harry learns from Lupin that the Dementors affect Harry so much because Harry's past is so horrible.

During the next Hogsmeade visit, from which Harry is forbidden, Fred and George Weasley give Harry the Marauder's map, written by the mysterious quartet of Moony, Prongs, Wormtail and Padfoot. This map leads him through a secret passageway into Hogsmeade, where he rejoins Ron and Hermione. Inside the Hogsmeade tavern, Harry overhears Cornelius Fudge discussing Sirius Black's responsibility for Harry's parents' deaths, as well as for the death of another Hogwarts student, Peter Pettigrew, who was blown to bits, leaving only a finger. Back at Hogwarts, Harry learns that Hagrid received a notice saying that Buckbeak, the hippogriff who attacked Malfoy, is going to be put on trial, and Hagrid is inconsolable. The winter holidays roll around. For Christmas, Harry receives a Firebolt, the most impressive racing broomstick in the world. Much to his and Ron's dismay, Hermione reports the broomstick to Professor McGonagall, who takes it away out of fear that it may have been sent (and cursed) by Sirius Black.

After the holidays, Harry begins working with Professor Lupin to fight Dementors with the Patronus charm; he is moderately successful, but still not entirely confident in his ability to ward them off. Soon before the game against Ravenclaw, Harry's broomstick is returned to him, and as Ron takes it up to the dormitory, he discovers evidence that Scabbers has been eaten by Crookshanks. Ron is furious at Hermione. Soon afterwards, Gryffindor plays Ravenclaw in Quidditch. Harry, on his Firebolt, triumphs, winning the game. Once all the students have gone to bed, Sirius Black breaks into Harry's dormitory and slashes the curtain around Ron's bed. Several days later, Hagrid invites Harry and Ron over for tea and scolds them for shunning Hermione on account of Scabbers and the Firebolt. They feel slightly guilty, but not terrible. Soon Harry, under his invisibility cloak, meets Ron during a Hogsmeade trip; when he returns, Snape catches him and confiscates his Marauder's Map. Lupin saves Harry from Snape's rage, but afterwards he reprimands him severely for risking his safety for "a bag of magic tricks." As Harry leaves Lupin's office, he runs into Hermione, who informs him that Buckbeak's execution date has been set. Ron, Hermione, and Harry are reconciled in their efforts to help Hagrid. Around this time, Hermione is exceptionally stressed by all of her work, and in a day she slaps Malfoy for picking on Hagrid and she quits Divination, concluding that Professor Trelawney is a great fraud. Days later, Gryffindor beats Slytherin in a dirty game of Quidditch, winning the Cup.

Exams roll around, and during Harry's pointless Divination exam, Professor Trelawney predicts the return of Voldemort's servant before midnight. Ron, Hermione, and Harry shield themselves in Harry's invisibility cloak and head off to comfort Hagrid before the execution. While at his cabin, Hermione discovers Scabbers in Hagrid's milk jug. They leave, and Buckbeak is executed. As Ron, Harry, Harry and Hermione are leaving Hagrid's house and reeling from the sound of the axe, the large black dog approaches them, pounces on Ron, and drags him under the Whomping Willow. Harry and Hermione and Crookshanks dash down after them; oddly, Crookshanks knows the secret knob to press to still the flailing tree. They move through an underground tunnel and arrive at the Shrieking Shack. They find that the black dog has turned into Sirius Black and is in a room with Ron. Harry, Ron, and Hermione manage to disarm Black, and before Harry can kill Black, avenging his parents' deaths, Professor Lupin enters the room and disarms him. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are aghast as Lupin and Black exchange a series of nods and embrace.

Once the three students calm down enough to listen, Lupin and Black explain everything. Lupin is a werewolf who remains tame through a special steaming potion made for him by Snape. While Lupin was a student at Hogwarts, his best friends, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew, became animagi (humans able to take on animal forms) so that they could romp the grounds with Lupin at the full moon. They explain how Snape once followed Lupin toward his transformation site in a practical joke set up by Sirius, and was rescued narrowly by James Potter. At this moment, Snape reveals himself from underneath Harry's dropped invisibility cloak, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione disarm him, rendering him unconscious. Lupin and Black then explain that the real murderer of Harry's parents is not Black, but Peter Pettigrew, who has been presumed dead but really hidden all these years disguised as Scabbers. Lupin transforms Scabbers into Pettigrew, who squeals and hedges but ultimately confesses, revealing himself to be Voldemort's servant, and Black to be innocent. They all travel back to Hogwarts, but at the sight of the full moon, Lupin, who has forgotten to take his controlling tonic (the steaming liquid), turns into a werewolf. Sirius Black responds by turning into the large black dog in order to protect Harry, Ron, and Hermione from Lupin. As Black returns from driving the werewolf into the woods, a swarm of Dementors approaches, and Black is paralyzed with fear. One of the Dementors prepares to suck the soul out of Harry, whose patronus charm is simply not strong enough. Out of somewhere comes a patronus that drives the Dementors away. Harry faints.

Harry awakens in the hospital wing to hear Snape and Cornelius Fudge discussing the fact that Sirius Black is about to be given the fatal Dementor's Kiss. Harry and Hermione protest, claiming Black's innocence, but to no avail; then Dumbledore enters the room, shoos out the others, and mysteriously suggests that Harry and Hermione travel back through Hermione's time-turning device, and save both Black and Buckbeak. Hermione turns her hour-glass necklace back three turns, and Harry and Hermione are thrust into the past, where they rescue Buckbeak shortly before his execution. From a hiding place in the forest, Harry watches the Dementor sequence and discovers that he had been the one who conjured the patronus, and he is touched and confused to note that his patronus had taken the shape of a stag that he recognizes instantly as Prongs, his father's animagi form. After saving his past self from the Dementors, Harry and Hermione fly to the tower where Black is imprisoned, and they rescue Black, sending him away to freedom on Buckbeak's back. The next day, Harry is saddened to learn that Professor Lupin is leaving Hogwarts because of the previous night's scare. Dumbledore meets with Harry and gives him wise fatherly advice on the events that have happened. On the train ride home, Harry receives an owl- post letter from Sirius that contains a Hogsmeade permission letter, words of confirmation that he is safe in hiding with Buckbeak and that he was, in fact, the sender of the Firebolt, and a small pet owl for Ron. Harry feels slightly uplifted as he returns to spend his summer with the Dursleys.

Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire

2009-03-06T12:57:00.004+07:00

The story begins fifty years before the present day, with a description of how the Riddle family was mysteriously killed at supper, and their groundsman, Frank Bryce, was suspected of the crime, then declared innocent. Frank Bryce, now an elderly man, wakes in the night to see a light in the window of the abandoned Riddle House. He investigates and overhears Voldemort and Wormtail plotting to kill a boy named Harry Potter. Voldemort takes note of him and kills him on the spot. Harry Potter wakes up in the night with a throbbing pain in the scar Voldemort gave him. He worries that Voldemort is nearby, and he writes to Sirius Black, his godfather, mentioning the pain in his scar.

The next morning Harry's Uncle Vernon receives a letter from the Weasleys asking Harry to join them at the Quidditch World Cup, and Vernon grudgingly agrees to let Harry go. The following day, the Weasleys arrive in the Dursleys' boarded-up fireplace to pick up Harry. The Weasley twins "accidentally" leave a trick toffee on the ground, which Dudley eats, causing his tongue to engorge itself. The Dursleys panic and throw things at Mr. Weasley as the Weasley boys and Harry exit through the fireplace. Harry arrives at The Burrow, the Weasley household, and there he meets for the two eldest Weasley brothers, Bill and Charlie, and there, Mrs. Weasley berates the twins for making Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and giving them to Dudley.

Early the next morning, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione head off to the Quidditch World Cup. They travel by Portkey, a process that involves using a piece of trash as a touchstone for warping across space. They use the same Portkey as Cedric Diggory, another Hogwarts student, and his dad. Together they are carried to the World Cup campground. Upon arrival, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione head off to pitch their tent. Soon, Ludo Bagman arrives, jubilant at the festivities, and makes a wager with the twins on the outcome of the Cup. Soon afterward, Mr. Crouch arrives, throwing Percy into a great reverent fuss. Before they leave, they allude to a mysterious event that will happen at Hogarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione buy souvenirs and troop to the Top Box, where they meet Winky, a house-elf who is saving a seat for her master. The game begins, after a show from the respective mascots. In the end, Ireland wins, but Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker, catches the Snitch.

The night after the game, a crowd of Death Eaters, followers of Voldemort who escaped punishment, torture four Muggles by levitating them in the air. Harry, Hermione and Ron escape by fleeing into the woods, where Harry discovers that his wand is missing. Moments later someone fires the Dark Mark (the sign of Voldemort) using his or her wand. Winky the house-elf is found holding a wand at the scene of the crime. Mayhem ensues at the Ministry of Magic through the week.

Ron receives horrible second-hand robes from his mother and is upset. Amos Diggory brings news that a man named Mad-Eye Moody attacked an intruder at his house. Mr. Weasley runs to the Ministry to sort everything out. The Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione take taxis to the train station and board the train to Hogwarts. Upon arriving, after the Sorting ceremony and in the middle of dinner in the Hogwarts Great Hall, Dumbledore announces that the Triwizard Tournament between schools will take place this year at Hogwarts, and also that Mad-Eye Moody will be the new teacher of defense against the dark arts.

Mad-Eye Moody is a competent teacher. He turns Malfoy into a ferret for trying to attack Harry while Harry's back is turned. In class, Moody teaches Gryffindor the three unforgivable curses, Imperius, Cruciatus, and Avada Kedavra (the curse that killed Harry's parents). Meanwhile, Hermione founds a society that advocates freeing house-elves, who are slaves. She asks Harry and Ron to wear badges. As Defense Against the Dark Arts progresses, Harry learns to successfully ward off the Imperius Curse.

In late October, the delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrive, and Ron is thrilled to see that Viktor Krum, a famous Quidditch player, has come with Durmstrang. On halloween night, the Goblet of Fire spits out the names of the champions who will compete in the Triwizard Tournament; along with Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, and Viktor Krum, Harry Potter is selected. Mass chaos ensues, since Harry is too young. But because the Goblet's decision is final, it is generally decided that Harry is obligated to compete. Gryffindor House is triumphant, but Ron is sullen and envious, and he doesn't speak to Harry for quite some time. School resumes, and Harry is frustrated that few people believe he didn't place his own name in the Goblet of Fire. The first task approaches, and Harry is fretful; during the weighing of the wands, a reporter named Rita Skeeter accosts Harry and interviews him for what she says is a story about the tournament, but instead publishes a sappy, exaggerated article about Harry's tragic past.

A few nights before the task, Hagrid invites Harry for a late night walk, which ultimately turns into a glimpse of the first task: dragons. Harry hurries home, and in the Gryffindor common room fireplace, Sirius's head appears, warning Harry that Karkaroff, the head of Durmstrang, was a Death Eater and possibly still is dangerous, and that Moody was the Ministry's best dark wizard catcher ever, and is probably at Hogwarts for a reason. The next day, Harry warns Cedric about the first task; Moody overhears, commends Harry's decency, and hints that Harry should use his broomstick to get past the dragon. Harry and Hermione spend hours practicing summoning charms, and the day of the first task, Harry summons his broomstick and flies past the dragon, capturing the golden egg and receiving high marks. Everyone in Gryffindor is ecstatic, and Ron and Harry are reunited.

Soon afterward, Hermione drags Harry and Ron down to the kitchens, where they encounter Dobby, who is thrilled at his freedom, and Winky, Mr. Crouch's ex- house-elf, who is miserable at hers. In class, Professor McGonagall announces that the Yule Ball is approaching and that the champions must find partners; this is an unexpected and difficult task. Harry gathers his courage to ask Cho, but finds out that she is already going with Cedric. Hermione has a date, but won't say who it is; and she is annoyed when Ron asks her as his last-resort date. Finally, Harry and Ron procure the pretty but annoying Patil twins as their partners for the Yule Ball. On Christmas, the night of the ball, Ron wears his awful dress robes and spends the entire night staring at Hermione, who is there as Viktor Krum's date. Harry spends the whole night feeling miserable about Cho and Cedric, and so Harry and Ron leave the ball for a stroll, during which they overhear Hagrid telling Madame Maxime, the giant head of Beauxbatons, that he is half-giant. After the ball that night, Cedric hints for Harry to take a bath with the golden egg, but Harry is wary of this advice. Harry returns to Gryffindor tower to find that Hermione and Ron are having a huge fight about why she went to the ball with Krum instead of with him.

The next day, Hagrid is not teaching class. Rita Skeeter has written an article saying that his ancestors, who are giants, give him a violent and dangerous nature. He is embarrassed and refuses to emerge from his cabin. During a trip to Hogsmeade, Ludo Bagman offers to help Harry with the tournament and mentions that Mr. Crouch has stopped coming to work. Hermione insults Rita for writing such horrible articles. Harry, Ron, and Hermione return to Hogwarts, visit Hagrid, and persuade him to return. Hagrid is grateful for their loyalty, and he begs Harry to win the tournament. That night Harry takes the egg into the bathtub. It sings that he will have an hour to reclaim something valuable that has been taken into the lake. On his way back to his dorm from the bathroom, Harry, wearing his Invisibility cloak, checks his Marauder's Map and spies Mr. Crouch in Snape's office. In his surprise, he drops the golden egg, which makes a loud screeching noise. Filch and Snape appear instantly. Moody also appears, shoos away the other men and returns Harry's egg to him. Moody asks to borrow the Marauder's Map, which shows every part of Hogwarts grounds and castle, and where every person is within it.

The night before the second task, Harry still has not figured out how to breathe under water. He falls asleep in the library and is awakened in the morning by Dobby, who gives him a ball of gillyweed and sends him off to the lake, where the task is starting. The gillyweed gives Harry gills, so he swims easily through the lake, finding Hermione, Ron, Cho, and Fleur's sister asleep and tied together in a merpeople village. Harry waits to make sure all of the champions rescue their hostages before returning to the surface. Fleur never comes, so he returns with her sister and with Ron, coming up last, but gaining high marks for his moral fiber in his completion of the task.

Soon afterwards, Rita Skeeter publishes an article claiming that Hermione toys with the hearts of both Harry and Krum. The three friends read the article in potions class. After class, Harry overhears Karkaroff confiding fearfully in Snape that something on his arm has returned. The following day, Harry, Ron, and Hermione meet Sirius Black, disguised as a large black dog named Padfoot, in Hogsmeade. He informs them that Mr. Crouch's son was convicted as a Death Eater, and he finds it peculiar that Mr. Crouch has not been coming to work, as well as that he never showed up to take the seat saved by Winky, his house-elf, at the World Cup. Back at Hogwarts, Harry, Ron, and Hermione visit the kitchens to give a gift of socks to Dobby, who is delighted. Winky is still sad and currently drunk, and she mentions between hiccups that she is guarding a great secret for her ex-master. Around this time, Hermione begins getting hate mail for supposedly breaking Harry Potter's heart.

The four champions are taken to see the grounds for the maze, their third task, and on the way back, Krum pulls Harry into the forest to ask if he is at all romantically interested inHermione. When Harry answers no, a disheveled Mr. Crouch appears from the forest, speaking to trees and madly demanding to see Dumbledore. Harry runs to get Dumbldore while Krum waits with Mr. Crouch; when Harry returns, Mr. Crouch has stunned Krum and disappeared, much to everyone's puzzlement. Sirius sends Harry a letter warning him to be careful and to practice hexes for the third task; Harry tries to follow both instructions. In Divination class, Harry falls asleep and dreams about Voldemort, and he wakes up screaming and clutching his scar. Harry leaves class and goes to tell Dumbledore what happened. As he waits for Dumbledore to return to his office, he peers into a Pensieve and enters Dumbledore's memories of various Death Eater trials, including that of Ludo Bagman, Karkaroff, and Mr. Crouch's son. Dumbledore returns, pulls Harry from the memory-world, listens to his story, and says that he suspects that Voldemort is growing stronger.

The morning of the third task, Rita Skeeter prints an article about how Harry fainted in class and is possibly disturbed. The evening of the task, the four champions enter the maze, and Harry finds his path relatively manageable. Soon both Fleur and Krum are out of the running, and Harry and Cedric, the only remaining contestants, arrive at the trophy at the same time, and they both agree to touch it together. The trophy turns out to be a portkey, and it takes both boys to a far away graveyard, where a man in a hood instantly kills Cedric and ties up Harry. The man, Wormtail, drops the bundle he is carrying (Voldemort's current form) into a cauldron, as well as ashes from Voldemort's father, blood from Harry's arm, and Wormtail's own right hand. Voldemort resumes his body and rises from the cauldron. Voldemort presses a tattoo of the Dark Mark on Wormtail's arm, and suddenly Death Eaters begin appearing in a circle around them. Voldemort explains to Harry and his Death Eaters his fall from and rise back to power, and then he challenges Harry to a duel. Harry prepares for death, but he manages to use the disarming spell on Voldemort just as Voldemort cries "Avada Kedavra!" the killing curse, at Harry. The light from the two wands meets in midair and remains connected. Voldemort's past victims emerge from his wand and protect Harry once the wand connection is broken, giving him time to grab Cedric's body and touch the trophy, thus returning to Hogwarts.

Once Harry returns, he is weak and shaken. Moody carries him into the castle, where Moody reveals that he is in fact a Death Eater, and that he was responsible for placing Harry's name in the Goblet and for turning the trophy into a portkey. Moody also informs Harry that Karkaroff felt his Dark Mark burn and then fled that night. Moody prepares to kill Harry when Dumbledore and other teachers burst into the room, stunning Moody and saving Harry. Dumbledore explains to Harry that Moody's body is a disguised version of Mr. Crouch's son, the young Barty, and that he has made the switch by drinking Polyjuice potion every hour. After some time, the potion wears off and Harry recognizes Barty Crouch. Snape gives Crouch truth serum, and Crouch explains how his father smuggled him out of prison and allowed him to live under an Invisibility cloak, guarded by Winky; and how Bertha Jorkins discovered him and ultimately was relieved of his information by Voldemort, who returned to find young Crouch. He also says that he killed his father, and that he was hoping to bring Voldemort back into power by bringing Harry to him. Then Dumbledore takes Harry into his own office, where he asks Harry to explain what he saw in the graveyard to him and to Sirius, who had arrived. After listening to Harry, Dumbledore explains that the wands of Harry and Voldemort are made of feathers from the same phoenix, so one was forced to regurgitate its spells when the two wants met.

Harry is sent to bed, and in the night he is awakened by an argument between Cornelius Fudge and Dumbledore, in which Dumbledore tries unsuccessfully to persuade Fudge to take precautions against Voldemort's new power. Fudge refuses to believe that this is possible. He gives Harry the tournament prize money and leaves huffily. Soon the term ends, and at the final dinner Dumbledore makes a speech telling everyone how Cedric was murdered by Voldemort, and how the future looks bleak and would require them to join together. On the train ride back to London, Hermione shows Harry and Ron a beetle in a jar—Rita Skeeter's animagus form—that she caught and warned not to write any more untrue things. As the students leave the train, Harry gives his gold to the Weasley twins to help start their practical joke company, and he asks that they use some of it to buy Ron a new pair of dress robes. Harry returns to the Dursleys for the summer.side. A large-scale battle is sure to come.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

2009-03-06T12:56:00.002+07:00

Mr. Dursley, a well-off Englishman, notices strange happenings on his way to work one day. That night, Albus Dumbledore, the head of a wizardry academy called Hogwarts, meets Professor McGonagall, who also teaches at Hogwarts, and a giant named Hagrid outside the Dursley home. Dumbledore tells McGonagall that someone named Voldemort has killed a Mr. and Mrs. Potter and tried unsuccessfully to kill their baby son, Harry. Dumbledore leaves Harry with an explanatory note in a basket in front of the Dursley home.

Ten years later, the Dursley household is dominated by the Dursleys' son, Dudley, who torments and bullies Harry. Dudley is spoiled, while Harry is forced to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs. At the zoo on Dudley's birthday, the glass in front of a boa constrictor exhibit disappears, frightening everyone. Harry is later punished for this incident.

Mysterious letters begin arriving for Harry. They worry Mr. Dursley, who tries to keep them from Harry, but the letters keep arriving through every crack in the house. Finally, he flees with his family to a secluded island shack on the eve of Harry's eleventh birthday. At midnight, they hear a large bang on the door and Hagrid enters. Hagrid hands Harry an admissions letter to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry learns that the Dursleys have tried to deny Harry's wizardry all these years.

The next day, Hagrid takes Harry to London to shop for school supplies. First they go to the wizard bank, Gringotts, where Harry learns that his parents have left him a hefty supply of money. They shop on the wizards' commercial street known as Diagon Alley, where Harry is fitted for his school uniform. Harry buys books, ingredients for potions, and, finally, a magic wand—the companion wand to the evil Voldemort's.

A month later, Harry goes to the train station and catches his train to Hogwarts on track nine and three quarters. On the train, Harry befriends other first-year students like Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, a Muggle girl chosen to attend Hogwarts. At school, the first-years take turns putting on the “Sorting Hat” to find out in which residential house they will live. Harry fears being assigned to the sinister Slytherin house, but he, Ron, and Hermione end up in the noble Gryffindor house.

As the school year gets underway, Harry discovers that his Potions professor, Snape, does not like him. Hagrid reassures Harry that Snape has no reason to dislike him. During their first flying lesson on broomsticks, the students are told to stay grounded while the teacher takes an injured boy named Neville to the hospital. Draco Malfoy, a Slytherin bully, snatches Neville's prized toy and flies off with it to the top of a tree. Harry flies after him. Malfoy throws the ball in the air, and Harry speeds downward, making a spectacular catch. Professor McGonagall witnesses this incident. Instead of punishing Harry, she recommends that he play Quidditch, a much-loved game that resembles soccer played on broomsticks, for Gryffindor. Later that day, Malfoy challenges Harry to a wizard's duel at midnight. Malfoy doesn't show up at the appointed place, and Harry almost gets in trouble. While trying to hide, he accidentally discovers a fierce three-headed dog guarding a trapdoor in the forbidden third-floor corridor.

On Halloween, a troll is found in the building. The students are all escorted back to their dormitories, but Harry and Ron sneak off to find Hermione, who is alone and unaware of the troll. Unwittingly, they lock the troll in the girls' bathroom along with Hermione. Together, they defeat the troll. Hermione tells a lie to protect Harry and Ron from being punished. During Harry's first Quidditch match, his broom jerks out of control. Hermione notices Snape staring at Harry and muttering a curse. She concludes that he is jinxing Harry's broom, and she sets Snape's clothes on fire. Harry regains control of the broom and makes a spectacular play to win the Quidditch match.

For Christmas, Harry receives his father's invisibility cloak, and he explores the school, unseen, late at night. He discovers the Mirror of Erised, which displays the deepest desire of whoever looks in it. Harry looks in it and sees his parents alive. After Christmas, Harry, Ron, and Hermione begin to unravel the mysterious connection between a break-in at Gringotts and the three-headed guard dog. They learn that the dog is guarding the Sorcerer's Stone, which is capable of providing eternal life and unlimited wealth to its owner and belongs to Nicolas Flamel, Dumbledore's old partner.

A few weeks later, Hagrid wins a dragon egg in a poker game. Because it is illegal to own dragons, Harry, Ron, and Hermione contact Ron's older brother, who studies dragons. They arrange to get rid of the dragon but get caught. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are severely punished, and Gryffindor is docked 150 points. Furthermore, part of their punishment is to go into the enchanted forest with Hagrid to find out who has been killing unicorns recently. In the forest, Harry comes upon a hooded man drinking unicorn blood. The man tries to attack Harry, but Harry is rescued by a friendly centaur who tells him that his assailant was Voldemort. Harry also learns that it is Voldemort who has been trying to steal the Sorcerer's Stone.

Harry decides that he must find the stone before Voldemort does. He, Ron, and Hermione sneak off that night to the forbidden third-floor corridor. They get past the guard dog and perform many impressive feats as they get closer and closer to the stone. Harry ultimately finds himself face to face with Quirrell, who announces that Harry must die. Knowing that Harry desires to find the stone, Quirrell puts Harry in front of the Mirror of Erised and makes him state what he sees. Harry sees himself with the stone in his pocket, and at that same moment he actually feels it in his pocket. But he tells Quirrell that he sees something else. A voice tells Quirrell that the boy is lying and requests to speak to Harry face to face. Quirrell removes his turban and reveals Voldemort's face on the back of his head. Voldemort, who is inhabiting Quirrell's body, instructs Quirrell to kill Harry, but Quirrell is burned by contact with the boy. A struggle ensues and Harry passes out.

When Harry regains consciousness, he is in the hospital with Dumbledore. Dumbledore explains that he saved Harry from Quirrell just in time. He adds that he and Flamel have decided to destroy the stone. Harry heads down to the end-of-year banquet, where Slytherin is celebrating its seventh consecutive win of the house championship cup. Dumbledore gets up and awards many last-minute points to Gryffindor for the feats of Harry and his friends, winning the house cup for Gryffindor. Harry returns to London to spend the summer with the Dursleys.

Komet Lulin, si Hijau yang Mendekati Bumi

2009-02-22T11:46:00.004+07:00

Tahun 1996, seorang bocah laki-laki di China melihat sesuatu lewat eyepiece teleskop kecilnya. Sesuatu yang mengubah seluruh hidupnya. Yang ia lihat saat itu adalah sebuah komet dengan nyala yang indah, terang dan mengepulkan asap pada ekornya. Saat itu, si bocah megira dialah satu-satunya yang melihat dan menemukan keajaiban itu. Namun ia kemudian mengetahui sudah ada orang lain yang lebih dahulu menemukannya. Kedua orang itu bernama Hale dan Bopp. Dan mereka telah mengalahkannya. Walau kecewa, Quanzhi Ye muda bertekad untuk menemukan kometnya sendiri suatu saat nanti.

Dan hari itu pun tiba. Si bocah berhasil meraih impiannya.

Sore itu di antara kehangatan musim panas bulan Juli 2007, Ye yang sudah berusia 19 tahun dan menjadi mahasiswa meteorologi di Universitas Sun Yat Sen, China, berada di belakang mejanya memandang taburan bintang dalam medan tanpa warna yang ada di hadapannya. Itu sebuah foto yang diambil beberapa malam sebelumnya oleh astronom Taiwan Cie Sheng Lin dalam patroli angkasa di Observatorium Lulin. Jari-jemari Ye bergerak dari satu titik ke titik lainnya dan ia pun berhenti. Ada yang berbeda di foto itu. Salah satu bintangnya bukanlah bintang. Yup.. itu sebuah komet, dan kali ini Ye yang pertama kali mengenalinya.

Komet Lulin, begitulah ia kemudian dinamakan menurut nama observatorium tempat fotonya diambil, kini tengah menempuh perjalanan mendekati Bumi. Sebuah komet cantik berwarna hijau yang dapat terlihat oleh siapapun saat ini dengan mata telanjang.

Dari Arizona, astronom amatir Jack Newton mengirimkan foto Komet Komet C/2007 N3 atau Komet Lulin dari observatoriumnya di Arizona. Foto indah itu diambil dengan teleskop 14 inch pada tanggal 1 February 2009. “Mataku yang sudah tua masih tak mampu untuk mengenali cerlangnya komet itu, karena itu teleskopku yang melihatnya.” kata Newton.

Pada tanggal 24 februari 2009, Komet Lulin akan berada pada jarak terdekatnya dengan Bumi yakni 0,41 SA atau 61.335.180 km. Pada saat itu, Komet Lulin akan tampak terang di angkasa dengan kecerlangan 4 atau 5 magnitud, dengan kata lain area dengan langit yang gelap akan dapat melihat keindahannya. Inilah untuk pertama kalinya Komet Lulin mengunjungi area bagian dalam Tata Surya, dan membiarkan dirinya mengenal sinar Matahari sehingga kejutan apapun bisa saja terjadi.

Keindahan warna hijau pada diri Lulin datang dari gas yang membentuk atmosfer berukuran Jupiter pada dirinya. Letupan yang muncul dari inti komet juga mengandung cyanogen (CN: gas beracun yang ditemukan pada banyak komet) dan karbon diatomik (C2). Kedua substansi ini akan berwarna hijau saat disinari matahari dalam ruang hampa udara.

Pada tahun 1910, masyarakat panik saat astronom menyatakan Bumi akan dilewati Commet Halley yang kaya dengan ekor gas cyanogen. Peringatan yang salah saat itu dberikan kepada masyarakat. isinya : seutas ekor komet tak akan mampu menembus atmosfer Bumi yang rapat. Seandainya bisa, cyanogen yang ada tidak akan cukup untuk menjadi masalah di Bumi. Komet Lulin yang sedang mendekat bulan ini akan memberi dampak yang lebih sedikit dibanding komet Halley. Pada titik terdekatnya dengan Bumi, Lulin akan berada pada jarak 38 juta mil dari Bumi, dan tidak akan membahayakan.

Nah untuk melihat komet Lulin, bangunlah jam 3 dini hari. Komet ini akan terbit beberapa jam sebelum Matahari terbit dan akan tampak di area 1/3 di atas langit selatan sebelum fajar. Nah untuk menemukan komet Lulin, inilah jadwalnya :

6 Februari : Komet Lulin akan meluncur di Zubenelgenubi, bintang ganda yang berada pada titik tumpu Libra. Zubenelgenubi merupakan penunjuk arah yang bagus karena bisa dilihat oleh mata. Binokular yang diarahkan ke bintang ganda ini akan mengungkap keindahan komet Lulin. Dini hari tadi, para pengamat melaporkan kalau Komet Lulin tampak dengan kecerlangan 5.8-6.4 magitud.

16 Februari : Komet Lulin melewati Spica di rasi Virgo. Spica adalah bintang bermagnitudo 1 magnitud. Finderscope yang diarahkan ke Spica akan menangkap Komet Lulin dalam medan pandangnya.

24 Februari : Lulin berada pada titik terdekatnya dengan Bumi. Lulin akan berada beberapa derajat dari Saturnus di rasi Leo. Saturnus seperti biasa dapat dilihat oleh mata telanjang. Demikian juga Lulin.

Gerhana Matahari 22 Juli 2009

2009-01-27T21:47:00.003+07:00

Gerhana Matahari 22 Juli 2009

Gerhana ini cuma dapat dinikmati oleh mereka-mereka yang tinggal di bagian utara Indonesia seperti: Banda Aceh, Jayapura, Manado, Medan, Padang, Palu, Pekanburu, Pontianak, Samarinda, Sorong, Ternate. Jenis Gerhana ini adalah gerhana Matahari Total, namun di Indonesia, bulan hanya akan menutup sebagian kecil dari matahari. Jika ingin melihat gerhana matahari total ini secara full, anda bisa ke Shanghai, karena disana, Bulan akan menutupi seluruh bagian matahari.

Gerhana Matahari 15 Januari 2010

2009-01-27T21:42:00.001+07:00

Gerhana Matahari 15 Januari 2010

Fenomena alam ini cuman bisa dinikmatin oleh mereka yang tinggal di bagian utara dan barat Indonesia seperti: Balikpapan, Banda Aceh, Tanjungkarang Telukbetung, Bandung, Banjarmasin, Bengkulu, Jakarta, Manado, Medan, Padang, Palembang, Palu, Pekanbaru, Pontianak, Samarinda, Semarang, Surakarta, Yogyakarta. Bagian Timur Indonesia sudah keburu malam ketika bayangan bulan melewati bagian sana.

Sama halnya dengan gerhana Juli 2009, bulan cuma akan menutup sebagian matahari saja. Karena pusat jalur Gerhana Matahari ini melewati daerah India dan Cina sana, sehingga di Indonesia cuma kebagian sebagian kecil bayangan dari Bulan.

Gerhana 26 Januari 2009

2009-01-27T21:35:00.002+07:00

Gerhana 26 Januari 2009

Gerhana ini spesial karena jatuh pas di hari libur Imlek. Gerhana ini dapat dilihat oleh hampir seluruh masyarakat Indonesia (Dari Banda Aceh sampai Ambon), beruntunglah mereka yang tinggal di daerah Lampung, Samarinda, dan Teluk betung, karena bulan menutup hampir seluruh bagian matahari. Gerhana ini terjadi pada waktu sore hari sekitaran pukul 3 - 4.

Yang perlu diperhatikan dari jenis gerhana ini adalah jenis gerhana ini adalah gerhana matahari anular (bukan total) artinya ukuran bulan tidak cukup besar untuk menutupi seluruh priringan matahari berbeda dengan gerhana matahari total dimana bulan menutupi seluruh

Harry Potter And The deathly hallows

2009-01-19T16:35:00.002+07:00

Harry has finally come of age, and finally started on his final journey to defeat Voldemort for good. The Durselys are forced to go into hiding so that Voldemort’s Death Eaters will not torture them for information, and Harry sets off with Ron and Hermione on a difficult quest to find and destroy the last of Voldemort’s Horcruxes. Only once those have been destroyed, Harry knows, can Voldemort truly be killed.

It’s not easy. Harry is plagued with rumors of Dumbledore’s past, and begins to wonder if the Headmaster he so long revered might have had a much darker past than he ever let on. The three are frequently without food, and with winter coming their journey is no day at the beach. Because of their lack of plan, lack of food, and lack of progress, their spirits are often low, and Ron especially becomes argumentative. One night he and Harry get into an epic fight and Ron leaves to go back home.

Harry and Hermione are devastated that he’d abandoned them. They finally decide to revisit Godric’s Hollow in search of clues, and once again they’re almost caught by Voldemort. Every step they make, it seems, he is there anticipating them. They’ve almost died too many times to count, and their spirits sink even lower when Harry discovers his wand was broken in the battle.

Ron redeems himself a few weeks later by coming back and saving Harry’s life in the nick of time. They manage to destroy another Horcrux with Gryffindor’s sword, and they become excited again as they begin to learn about a mysterious trio of magical objects called the Deathly Hallows. Whomever possesses the three objects will be a master of death, and to Harry, it’s his one chance to beat Voldemort and live to tell the tale.

As his adventures and the danger he’s in increases, Harry begins to truly understand what Dumbledore intended him to do. He realizes, almost at the last minute, that his own life will have to be sacrificed in order for Voldemort to truly be vanquished. Filled with love for his friends, he willingly gives his life so that they may live.

His last act of heroism, however, saves his life. He meets Dumbledore again in death, and Dumbledore answers many of his questions. He is given a choice to stay or to go back, and he chooses to go back and fight.

It’s all over between Harry and Voldemort with just one spell. Harry is left alive, the true master of the Hallows, and Voldemort is killed for good. He now understands more than he ever has about love, and life, and sacrifice, and in spite of the loss of many of his friends during the last battle, is grateful for the second chance he’s been given at life, and love.

Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets

2009-01-19T16:28:00.003+07:00

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets begins when Harry is spending a miserable summer with his only remaining family, the Dursleys. During a dinner party hosted by his uncle and aunt, Harry is visited by Dobby, a house-elf. Dobby warns Harry not to return to Hogwarts, the magical school for wizards that Harry attended the previous year. Harry politely disregards the warning, and Dobby wreaks havoc in the kitchen, infuriating the Dursleys. The Dursleys angrily imprison Harry in his room for the rest of the summer. Luckily, Harry's friend Ron Weasley steals Harry away in a flying car, and Harry happily spends the rest of the summer at the Weasley home.

While shopping for school supplies with the Weasleys, Harry has two unfortunate encounters. He first encounters Lockhart, one of his teachers, who demands to be in a photo shoot with Harry. Harry then encounters Lucius Malfoy, the evil father of one of Harry's enemies, who almost starts a fight with Mr. Weasley. As Harry prepares to return to Hogwarts, he finds that he and Ron are unable to enter the magically invisible train platform, so they fly the Weasley car to Hogwarts. They land messily, and both boys are given detentions. Lockhart, who believes Harry flew the car to get attention, lectures Harry.

Quidditch practices begin and Draco Malfoy is the new Slytherin seeker. On the field, he calls Hermione a "mudblood," insulting her Muggle heritage. After taunting Hermione, Draco is the suspect when, on Halloween night, someone petrifies the school caretaker's cat and writes a threatening message. Before the cat is attacked, Harry twice hears an eerie voice. He hears it first during his detention and second during a party, moments before the cat is attacked. Everybody in the school is alarmed. By doing some research, Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn that fifty years ago a chamber at Hogwarts was opened and a student was killed.

Playing for Gryffindor, Harry wins the Quidditch match against Slytherin. During the game, an enchanted ball hits Harry and causes him to lose the bones in his arm. Dobby, a house elf, has enchanted the ball in an effort to have Harry injured and sent home. That night, Harry sees the body of a first-year who has been petrified arrive at the hospital. Soon after, Lockhart begins a dueling club. During the first meeting, Harry terrifies his fellow students by speaking in Parseltongue to a snake. Harry's ability frightens the others because only the heir of Slytherin, who is responsible for opening the chamber, would have the ability to converse with snakes. Harry comes under further suspicion when he stumbles upon the petrified bodies of Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly- Headless Nick.

Determined to catch the culprit, Ron, Harry and Hermione brew a potion called Polyjuice. The potion allows them to assume the bodies of Slytherins and question Malfoy on the Chamber of Secrets. They find out that Malfoy is not the heir of Slytherin. No more attacks occur for a while, and right before Valentine's Day, Harry finds a diary in the broken toilet. The diary belongs to a ghost named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' restroom. Harry writes in the diary, which responds by writing back. Through this dialogue, Harry meets Tom Riddle, a boy who many years before had accused Hagrid of opening the Chamber of Secrets.

Hermione and a Ravenclaw girl are mysteriously petrified. Harry and Ron venture out of the castle to question Hagrid. Before they reach Hagrid, the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, and Lucius Malfoy remove Dumbledore and Hagrid from Hogwarts. As Hagrid is led away, he instructs the boys that by following the spiders, they can find out about the Chamber monster. Several nights later, Harry and Ron sneak into the Forbidden Forest to follow the spiders. They discover the monster who killed the girl fifty years before was not a spider, that the girl's body was found in a bathroom, and that Hagrid is innocent. The boys are almost killed by a colony of giant spiders. As they escape, Harry and Ron decide that Moaning Myrtle must have been the girl killed by the monster.

A few days later, Ron and Harry discover a piece of paper with a description of a basilisk on it in Hermione's frozen hand. They deduce the Chamber monster is a basilisk. Before the boys can act on their knowledge, the teachers announce that Ginny Weasley has been taken into the chamber. Ron, Harry, and Lockhart slide down a secret passage in Myrtle's bathroom to underground tunnels. When Lockhart accidentally curses himself, Ron helps him and Harry leaves them behind. Harry enters the Chamber of Secrets and encounters Ginny's still body and Tom Riddle. Tom turns out to be a younger version of Voldemort, who has been enchanting Ginny through his journal. Harry calls for help from Dumbledore. A phoenix and a magic hat arrive. Tom summons a basilisk, but the phoenix punctures its eyes. The hat produces a sword, which Harry uses to kill the giant snake. Harry sticks a basilisk fang through the diary, destroying Tom. Ginny wakes up.

Harry explains his adventure to Dumbledore. Lucius Malfoy storms into the office with his house-elf, Dobby, and Harry frees Dobby from by tricking Lucius into giving Dobby a sock. All is well in the castle as the students leave for their summer vacations.

Malin Kundang

2009-01-18T00:46:00.003+07:00

Long time ago, in a small village near the beach in West Sumatera, lived a woman and her son, Malin Kundang. Malin Kundang's father had passed away when he was a baby, and he had to live hard with his mother.
Malin Kundang was a healthy, dilligent, and strong child. He usually went to the sea to catch fish, and brought it to his mother, or sold it in the town.
One day, when Malin Kundang was sailing as usual, he saw a merchant's ship which was being raided by a small band of pirates. With his brave and power, Malin Kundang defeated the pirates. The merchant was so happy and asked Malin Kundang to sail with him. Malin Kundang agreed.
Many years later, Malin Kundang became a wealthty merchant, with a huge ship, loads of trading goods, many ship crews, and a beautiful wife. In his journey, his ship landed on a beach. The villagers reconigzed him, and the news ran fast in the town: Malin Kundang became a rich man and now he is here. His mother, in deepful sadnees after years of loneliness, ran to the beach to meet her beloved son again.
When the mother came, Malin Kundang, in front of his well dressed wife, his crews and his own gloriness, denied to meet that old, poor and dirty woman. For three times she begged Malin Kundang and for three times yelled at him. At last Malin Kundang said to her "Enough, old woman! I have never had a mother like you, a dirty and ugly peasant!" Then he ordered his crews to set sail.
Enraged, she cursed Malin Kundang that he would turn into a stone if he didn't apologize. Malin Kundang just laughed and set sail.
In the quiet sea, suddenly a thunderstorm came. His huge ship was wrecked and it was too late for Malin Kundang to apologized. He was thrown by the wave out of his ship, fell on a small island, and suddenly turned into stone.

Lutung Kasarung

2009-01-18T00:45:00.003+07:00

King of Pasir Batang, Prabu Tapa Agung, was old. He had two daughters, Purbararang and Purbasari. Prabu Tapa Agung planned to retire as a king. He wanted Purbasari to replace him as a king. Hearing this, Purbararang was angry because she is older than Purbasari.
But the king still selected Purbasari to be the next king. Purbararang then set a bad plan with her fiance, Indrajaya. Together they went to a witch and asked her to put a spell on Purbasari. Later, Purbasari had bad skin. There were black dots all over her body. Purbararang expelled Purbasari to a jungle.
With sadness, Purbasari had to stay in the jungle. Everyday she spent her time playing with some animals there. There was one monkey that always tried to cheer her up. It was not just an ordinary monkey, he had magical power. And he also could talk with humans. The monkey's name was Lutung Kasarung.
Lutung Kasarung planned to help Purbasari. He made a small lake and asked her to take a bath there. Amazingly, her bad skin was cured. Now she got her beautiful skin back. After that, she asked Lutung Kasarung to accompany her to go back to the palace.
Purbararang was very shocked. She come up with another bad idea. She asked Prabu Tapa Agung to select who has longer hair as a king. The king then measured his daughters' hair. Purbasari had longer hair. But Purbararang did not give up. She asked Prabu Tapa Agung to choose who has more handsome finace as a king. Purbararang was sure that she would win the competition because Purbasari did not have a fiance yet. Purbasari was sad. Lutung Kasarung came forward. Suddenly, Lutung Kasarung changed into a very a handsome man.
He said that he is actually Guruminda, a son of Sunan Ambu, the God of ancient Sundanese, and want to marry Purbasari. Guruminda was even more handsome than Indrajaya. Prabu Tapa Agung then selected Purbasari as a king. She forgave Purbararang and her fiance and let them stay in the palace.

Tangkuban Perahu

2009-01-18T00:36:00.004+07:00

Long time ago in the West Java, lived a woman named Dayang Sumbi. She lived alone and she was thirsting for a husband or a live-friend.
One day when quilting, her quilt fell off from her house. Then she prayed to gods "If a man picks up my quilt, he will be my husband. If a woman, she will be my sister." Then, a male dog picked it up. So Dayang Sumbi got married to the dog, and called him Tumang.
Dayang Sumbi gave a birth to a baby, named him Sangkuriang, but never tell him who is his father.
One day, Sangkuriang was hunting with Tumang in the forest and he found nothing. He blamed Tumang for the failure and killed Tumang. When Dayang Sumbi knew that, she hit Sangkuriang's head with a big spoon and expelled him.
Many years later, the wandering Sangkuriang found a house in the forest, and an old beautiful woman was in the house. The woman, Dayang Sumbi, recognized the adventurer as Sangkuriang.
Sangkuriang forced her to marry him and she told that Sangkuriang had to build a vast boat for their honeymoon, just in one night.
In the night, Sangkuriang called his friends, ghosts and forest fairies to help him. Feared the boat to complete, Dayang Sumbi asked another women in the nearby forest to help her. So the women punched the grains with grains puncher to make noise which disturbed the ghosts and fairies.
The morning came before they completed the boat, and the ghosts and the fairies ran away, leaving Sangkuriang. Enraged, Sangkuriang kicked away the boat to the downside, and it turned into a mountain, called Tangkuban Parahu, which stood in the north of my city Bandung, until now.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

2009-01-15T23:15:00.006+07:00

This is the foundation, the book that sets the stage for the series and introduces the major characters. The hero is Harry Potter, an 11-year-old boy reared Cinderella-style by his cruel aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley. In contrast, the Dursleys lavish gifts and attention on their son, Dudley. Harry spends the first years of his life sleeping in a cupboard under the stairs.

The villain is Lord Voldemort, an evil wizard who for some reason killed Harry’s parents when he was only a year old. Voldemort used a death spell to first kill Harry’s father, James Potter, and then his mother, Lily, who begged for Harry’s life. When Voldemort tried to kill Harry, the spell ricocheted and hit the former, severely weakening him and virtually destroying his body.

Albus Dumbledore, head of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Minerva McGonagall, assistant headmistress, work with the school's Keeper of the Keys and Grounds, Rubeus Hagrid, to deliver Harry to his aunt and uncle. Petunia is Lily Potter's sister. While McGonagall feels these guardians are horrid people, Dumbledore says it's better for Harry to grow humble and not totally aware of his fame in the wizards' world.

They notice a still bleeding scar on the toddler's forehead, shaped like a lightning bolt. Dumbledore says the boy will have it for life -- it is the place where Voldemort's death spell hit him.

Harry is a thin boy with unruly black hair, green eyes, round eyeglasses and a distinctive lightning bolt shaped scar in his head. He rather likes this scar. His guardians tell him he got it in the car accident that killed his parents. This is how he grows up for 10 years, think his parents died in the crash.

Harry is very mistreated. He wears Dudley's huge hand-me-down clothes, hardly gets any good food, and experiences no family love. His eyeglasses are fastened together with clear plastic tape because of the many times Dudley has broken them by punching him in the nose. Vernon and Petunia try as much as possible to hide his existence from the neighbors. Dudley and his pals beat up Harry at school and prevent the other kids from befriending him.

Things that can't be explained also happen. Aunt Petunia, furious about his unruly black hair, chops it off down to the scalp. The next morning, it has completely grown back. Another time he tried to run away from Dudley's bully friends and somehow ended up on the school roof. A third time when Petunia was trying to force one of Dudley's ugly sweaters over his head, it kept shrinking until it was no bigger than a piece of clothing for a hand puppet.

On Dudley's 11th birthday, Harry is dragged along to the zoo after Mrs. Figg, his regular babysitter, was unavailable. He is relieved -- Mrs. Figg is an odd old lady whose house always smells like cabbage and bores him with endless stories about her huge collection of cats.

Uncle Vernon warns Harry that there better be no "funny stuff" when they visit the zoo. At first, things go swimmingly, because Harry gets a lemon ice cone and the rest of Dudley's knickerbocker glory sundae. Harry sees a primate in the ape house that he laughingly thinks to himself looks like Dudley.

At the reptile house, Dudley and his friend Piers Polkiss poke at a boa constrictor's cage. The snake seems to tell Harry that he wants to go home to South America. Before anyone -- especially Harry -- knows what has happened, the front of the cage has totally vanished, and the snake has gotten away! The distraught Dursleys comfort Dudley and rush home, locking Harry in his cupboard for the night.

until the Dursleys finally decide to give him a vacant bedroom jam packed with broken castoffs from Dudley

Harry's world is this bad -- a prisoner of unkind people...

...Until the letter arrives. It's only one letter, but it's addressed to Harry, who has never gotten any mail in his life. It's from Hogwarts School, but Harry does not know that yet. Vernon takes it away, looks at it with Petunia, and they both gasp. It is immediately tossed out.

More and more letters arrive, showers of them delivered by owls. These birds of prey serve as the letter carriers in the wizard world. Letters come through the mail slot, the fireplace and inside of eggs! They won't stop! Afraid that the wizards might hurt them, Vernon tells Harry to start living in a vacant bedroom jam packed with broken castoffs from Dudley. He bawls and protests, but his parents will not give in to him this time.

The letters pursue the Dursleys and Harry from their house, to a hotel, to a remote shack on a rocky point jutting out into the ocean. Late at night, midnight arrives. Harry sees the time on Uncle Vernon's watch. It is 31 July, his 11th birthday, and no one remembered.

The door is pounded upon during the stormy night. Hagrid finally knocks it off its hinges and strides inside. He has finally reached Harry and the Dursleys at the hovel. He is a giant of a man, with bushy black hair and beard. Vernon tries to point a gun at him, but Hagrid simply bends the barrel and throws it into a corner. Hagrid is head gamekeeper and Keeper of the Keys at Hogwarts. delivers the Hogwarts admission letter to Harry. He also tells Harry the truth about how his parents died and the terrible reign of Lord Voldemort. After Vernon shouts out that he won't pay to have a "crackpot old fool" teach Harry "magic tricks," Hagrid loses his temper and points his pink umbrella at Dudley. The boy yells out, and they look -- he now has a pigtail growing out of his behind! (Later the Dursleys must take him to a private hospital to have it discreetly removed.) Hagrid, who was expelled from Hogwarts years ago for some reason, had his wand broken in half and still keeps it inside his umbrella.

After a hearty breakfast the next morning, Harry begins to discovers the “wizarding world," with Hagrid as his guide. The Keeper of the Keys takes Harry to London and through the doors of the Leaky Cauldron, a pub few non-magical people ever notice. Before moving on, Harry's hands are pumped, and he's eagerly greeted by many witches and wizards who are well aware of his fame that he is only beginning to discover. Hagrid introduces him to a shaky, stuttering man named Quirrell, whom the big man says will be Harry's Defense the Dark Arts professor come fall.

Hagrid goes into the courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron and taps a certain brick in the courtyard wall. Instantly the bricks draw aside and reform into a tall archway leading into a hidden shopping district! This is Diagon Alley, the place in London where wizards do their shopping and business.

Harry first goes to Gringotts Wizarding Bank and withdraws money from the small fortune his parents left him. Gringotts is a very secure place, managed by clever, tough little goblins who also use dragons to guard wizard fortunes stored in vaults deep beneath London. A goblin named Griphook takes Harry and Hagrid on a crazy ride in a little cart along a track that is part of a network that leads to the vaults. Hagrid gets very sick in the speedy ride.

Harry shops for his school supplies in the alley. He buys a robe, books and cauldron with wizard money --bronze Knuts, silver Sickles and golden Galleons. Hagrid buys him a snowy owl named Hedwig for a birthday present. She will become a dependable, loyal pet. He also gives Harry his boarding ticket for the Hogwarts Express and lets him know to report to King's Cross Station in London to catch the train on 1 September.

The biggest adventure is yet to come: attending Hogwarts, the United Kingdom's private boarding school for young sorcerers, located in a secret place in Scotland.

In September, Harry gets the Dursleys to begrudgingly give him a ride to King's Cross. He must find Platform 9 3/4, and he's afraid to ask people about it. He feels odd and out of place, what with a trunk full of wizard supplies and a caged owl. At last he hears the phrase "...packed with Muggles..." and sees a mother and her large family of kids, all of whom have red hair.

Harry cannot believe his eyes when one of the students seems to vanish before his eyes by a wall. Then a second boy, and a third. He approaches their mother, who is Molly Weasley. She tells him not to be nervous and introduces him to her son Ron, who also is a Hogwarts first year. She tells him to go straight at the wall, which is really a magic portal to Platform 9 3/4. "Best to do it at a bit of run, if you're nervous," Mrs. Weasley adds.

Harry looks at the seemingly solid wall and makes his dash. Instead of crashing into masonry, he passes through and finds himself at a train platform in the sunlight. He's made it. Before the Hogwarts Express leaves the station, Harry is the object of much attention, since he survived Voldemort’s attack. He unknowingly has been a celebrity among wizards since he was a tot.

He becomes further acquainted with Ron. He has a pet rat named Scabbers that he tries to turn yellow with an old, battered wand. Ron reports that just about everything he owns he inherited from his five older brothers because money is so tight in their household.

Harry also befriends Hermione Granger, a very smart girl whose parents are “Muggles,” or nonmagical people. She comes barging into their compartment, stating that she is helping Neville Longbottom look for his missing toad, Trevor. She also mentions that she's excited to begin school and has already read most of her textbooks.

Neville Longbottom is a clumsy, shy boy from an all-wizard family whose own magical abilities appeared rather late in life.

On the Hogwarts Express, Harry again meets up with the snooty Draco Malfoy and his two bullying bodyguards, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. He rejects Draco's offers of friendship and to help him not mix with riffraff, choosing to stay with Ron instead. This sets up an emnity with Draco that continues at least through the fourth book.

In a lighter note while riding the train, Harry also gets his first taste of wizard candies, such as Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, whose flavors include grass, dirt and boogers; Drooble's Best Blowing Gum; and Chocolate Frogs, each of which comes with a collector's card showing a famous witch or wizard. It is from these cards that he learns that the subjects in wizard photographs move around!

The Hogwarts Express pulls into the school's station late at night. Hagrid ushers the first years to magically self-propelled boats to take them across Hogwarts Lake to the school castle. A ripple of water is the giant squid living in the depths. Hagrid also locates Trevor, the missing toad.

Professor and Assistant Headmistress Minerva McGonagall meets the first years in Hogwarts' vast entrance hall. She lets them know that tonight they will be selected for the house in which they will spend their next seven years of study.

In the Great Hall, Harry studies the faculty sitting at their head table. He sees a glowing man with a hooked nose and long, black greasy hair talking to Quirrell, who is now wearing a silly purple turban. His scar begins to burn, which unnerves him. He asks Ron who the black-haired prof is, and is told that he is Severus Snape, professor of Potions.

After a sumptious feast in the Great Hall, Dumbledore makes a welcoming speech. Everyone sings the school song -- out of tune and not in unison. Harry is very, very nervous, because Fred Weasley, one of Ron's older twin brothers has told him he must pass a test in order to be selected for a Hogwarts house.

Hogwarts has four houses, Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, named after the school's original founders. The enchanted Sorting Hat, a garrulous, singing headgear, selects the house into which each child will enter. This is actually the "test" about which Fred teased Harry!

Student after student is summoned to a stool by Professor McGonagall. Hermione and Neville are sent to Gryffindor. Draco naturally joins Slytherin. The hat shouts out each house. Finally, "Potter, Harry."

"Not Slytherin!" Harry thinks. The hat can read his mind and replies telepathically that he could do great things in Slytherin. Harry again says no, and the hat says, "Better ... be ... GRYFFINDOR!" Great cheers arise from the house's table as he joins them.

Harry and his friends and foes quickly settle into school life: the monotonous History of Magic with Professor Binns; the intriguing world of plants in Herbology with Professor Sprout; astronomy withe Professor Sinistra; perfecting spells with Professor Flitwick in Charms. Binns is the school's only ghost professor; he died one day while sleeping in the staff room, woke up and didn't even know he was a spirit. Professor Quirrell is only a so-so Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor.

The harhest class is with Snape in Potions. The Gryffindor first years must attend Snape's course with their Slytherin counterparts. Snape liberally takes away house points from Gryffindors and repeatedly belittles them while the Slytherins laugh.

Harry meets many friends and foes at Hogwarts. McGonagall is the head of his school house, Gryffindor, and the woman who gets him a slot on the team for Quidditch, a fast game played aloft on broomsticks. Harry's talent is discovered by accident after Nevill falls off a broom in Madam Hooch's flying class and drops his Remembrall, a device to help him stop forgetting. Draco flies off with it and throw it, and Harry makes a spectacular flight and save of the ball, catching McGonagall's eye.

Harry becomes the youngest Seeker -- the one who goes after the prized Golden Snitch ball -- in the history of Hogwarts. Madam Hooch pushes him to improve his natural talent and learn to be the best Quidditch player -- an area where Gryffindor team captain Oliver Wood also works with him.

Hagrid becomes a best friend, with whom he shares tea and the dilemma of a nippy baby Norwegian Ridgeback dragon named Norbert. He must be not be kept as a pet due to wizarding regulations and his danger to people. Harry and his friends help get Norbert delivered to Ron's older brother, a dragon expert.

Harry's two major foes are Professor Snape and Draco. Snape heads Slytherin House and resents Harry for his fame and is especially hard on him in Potions. Malfoy also mocks Harry’s fame when he is sorted into the rival Gryffindor.

The Hogwarts castle is haunted by friendly resident ghosts, and one each represents the four houses. Harry meets Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, or "Nearly Headless Nick." Nick was beheaded, but the axe did not go all the way through his neck, so his ghostly head sometimes flops around. Nick and Harry also become good friends.

The worst ghost is Peeves the Poltergeist, an annoying little man dressed like a court jester who appears out of nowhere to sing mocking songs, tattle on students to caretaker Argus Filch, and sometimes throw things at people, such as walking sticks. Mrs. Norris, Filch's big-eyed, scuffy cat, also is a pest who patrols the corridors and quickly lets the caretaker know if she's found students sneaking around.

Outside of class, there's Quidditch practice. It is a sport that combines elements of soccer, basketball and polo. It is played aloft, with all team members on broomsticks. There are seven players on each team. Three players called Chasers try to score in the three hoops at the end of each field with the Quaffle. The Seeker looks for the fastest ball, worth the most points, the winged Golden Snitch. Two Beaters protect the Chasers and Seeker from the attacking black balls called Bludgers and try to whack them back toward the opposing team members. The Keeper is like a goalie, flying back and forth and trying to keep the rival Chasers from scoring.

The topic that causes the biggest buzz in Hogwarts is a break-in at the wizard bank, Gringotts. Later Harry, Hermione and Ron learn that whoever tried get into Gringotts was looking for the Sorcerer’s Stone, a magical substance that makes the owner immortal, cures all ills and gives them enough power to rule over the world. The stone is eventually brought to Hogwarts, where it is surrounded by a series of traps and a nasty three-headed dog that Hagrid ironically has named "Fluffy"!

Harry, Ron and Hermione think that Professor Snape is the one trying to steal the stone. They become even more suspicious when Harry's broom goes out of control at a Quidditch came, and he is nearly killed. Ron and Hermione spot Snape mumbling spells or other words under his breath, so Hermione goes over toward him and sneakily sets his robe on fire. She crashes into Quirrell, who also was nearby.

Halloween is very eventful. The best is Professor McGonagall quietly arranges for Harry to receive a Nimbus 2000, the top broomstick on the market. This will make him even better at Quidditch. However, the broom causes Ron and Hermione to stop speaking to each other, because she believes it is a reward for breaking rules during flying class. He believes it's a great thing that will help Gryffindor be Quidditch champions.

The worst, though, is someone lets a mountain troll into the school – and Harry and his friends are the ones who discover it – in a girls' bathroom! And Hermione is trapped in there with him. She went their to pout and cry after fighting with Ron. Through sheer bravery and luck with magic spells, they defeat the huge, stinky creature.

At Christmas Harry and Ron stay over at Hogwarts. They get hand-knit sweaters and pies from Mrs. Weasley, which is her annual tradition. Harry receives a most unusual gift, the Invisibility Cloak, which completely hides the one who wears it. The person who sent this gift is unknown.

With the Invisibility Cloak, Harry begins on occasion to explore Hogwarts' corridors at night. He must dodge Peeves, Filch and the ever-vigilant Mrs. Norris.

Harry comes across a disused classroom containing a fancy looking glass. He becomes obsessed with this Mirror of Erised, a magic thing that shows the person their deepest wishes. He sees his mother, father and ancestors when he looks into it. He is compelled to come to it nightly to stare at his long-dead parents, until Dumbledore intervenes and explains its powers, to bring Harry back to his senses. Some people have starved to death before the Mirror of Erised after they could not tear themselves away from its imagery, Dumbledore tells Harry.

After the holidays, school resumes in earnest. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Draco are given detention for creating a fracas in Snape’s Potions class. Filch leads them to Hagrid, and laughingly tells them he hopees they don't get killed that night.

Hagrid has them enter the Forbidden Forest to look for an injured unicorn. The students meet the thoughtful centaurs, Bane and Ronan, who want only to discuss the stars and signs in the skies. Centaurs, half man and half horse, are not much as conversationalists.

Harry is at one point paired with Draco and Hagrid's huge, friendly dog, Fang, to find the horned horse. Something startles Draco, Harry and the dog. They watch in terror as some cloaked creature crawls over to the now dead unicorn and starts drinking its blood! Harry's scar begins to burn. Draco and the dog run away. The creature notices him and starts to come toward him until something sounding like another horse comes running up and scares it off.

The rescuer is Firenze, a third centaur who is different from the others. He is outspoken and not shy about mentioning that some evil is lurking around Hogwarts. He takes Harry back to the other centaurs, who criticize him for letting a human get on his back and for getting involved with people's problems. Firenze tells Harry that drinking unicorn blood helps restore life to people. The creature is doing this until it can get to the Sorcerer's Stone and become immortal.

Harry Potter and the half -blood prince

2009-01-15T22:50:00.003+07:00

The movie starts when the muggle prime minister is visited by the new minister of magic, Rufus Scrimgeour. He tells the prime minister that Lord Voldemort has returned.

Meanwhile Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange visit Severus Snape. And Snape makes an unbreakable vow to protect Draco Malfoy while he's at school.

Meanwhile, Harry Potter is waiting for Albus Dumbledore to pick him up from his house. Dumbledore brings Harry to Horace Slughorn's house to try and get him to work at Hogwarts. Slughorn gives in. Then Dumbledore takes Harry to Ron's house and tells Harry that he will be giving him private lessons this year at Hogwarts.

The next day Harry finds out that Bill and Fleur are getting married. Harry then goes on the train to Hogwarts. When he gets to Hogwarts, Harry sees Draco Malfoy carrying something. Then Dumbledore announces at the feast that Snape is taking the place of Defense Against The Dark Arts and that Slughorn will be teaching Potions. Harry, Ron, and Hermoine all agree that letting Snape teach Defense Against The Dark Arts was a bad Idea.

The next day they have their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class with Snape. Snape tries to teach them to use Protego while saying the incantation in their head. They got into partners and one partner would cast Stupefy out loud and the other partner would try to cast Protego in their head. People start to fall backwards and some start to go flying backwards into the wall.

Their next class was Potions. Slughorn gave Harry a Potions book that said on the inside property of the Half Blood Prince. They learned about Felix Felicis, the luck potion. Slughorn said whoever made it perfectly they would get a bottle of Felix Felicis. The directions in Harry's book were crossed out and different directions were written in. Harry followed the directions that were written in and he won the Felix Felicis.

The next day was Griffindor's fist Quiditch game with Harry as team captain. That morning he slipped a bit Felix Felicis into Ron's drink so he could play better. Hermoine caught Harry doing it but Ron didn't believe her. That game Hufflepuff couldn't get one point since Ron did so good as a Keeper. Griffindor won 660 to 0. Harry then tells Ron and Hermoine that he faked slipping the Felix Felicis so Ron would feel lucky. Then Neville walked up to Harry and gave him a note from Dumbledore that said their first private lesson would be that night.

That night Harry went to Dumbledore's Office and he showed Harry a memory from his past. It was a memory of when Dumbledore was a teacher at Hogwarts and he visited a kid named Tom Riddle(who is now Voldemort) to try and get him to go to Hogwarts. Dumbledore thought this would be a way to defeat Voldemort.

Meanwhile in the streets of London a couple of Death Eaters are torturing muggles with the torture curse. Then Mad Eye Moody, Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and a couple other aurors appear and start to fight them. One auror is killed. The Death eaters disapperated and got away.

The next day, Harry and Ron went to Ron's house for Christmas. Harry and Ron were racing on their brooms when they heard a crack and some Death Eaters appeared. Mr. Weasley ran out the house and started casting stunning spells like crazy. Harry and Ron join in the fight and Harry disarmed them and Mr. Weasley had them put in Azkaban.

When Harry got back to school they went to Hogsmeade. When they were heading back to the school they saw Katie Bell and another girl fighting over something. Katie touched what she was holding in her hand and she screamed and floated into the air. She was cursed.

That night was another lesson with Dumbledore. He told Harry that Horcruxes are Dark Objects that wizards put some of their soul in. He asked Harry to come with him to a cave that might have one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

They went to the cave and Dumbledore drank a potion to find the Horcrux. It turned out to be fake. The real one was taken by someone with the initials R.A.B. They went back to Hogwarts and saw the Dark Mark in the sky. Harry put his invisibility cloak on. Then Dumbledore was frozen still and Draco Malfoy was standing their with Snape. Malfoy was supposed to kill Dumbledore but Snape killed him instead.

Harry ran to the tower to find his friends battling Death Eaters. He helped them. He made them fly out the window. He told Ron and Hermoine that Dumbledore was killed. They ran up the stairs to find Professor McGonagall fighting Bellatrix Lestrange. Eventually Bellatrix disapperated. They told McGonagall about Dumbledore. Then Fenrir Greyback (the werewolf) grabbed Hermoine and dragged her into the woods. Harry, Ron, and McGonagall stunned Greyback and Hermoine was free. Snape appeared and Harry cast a spell that was written in his potions book. It was called Sectumsempra. Snape disabled the spell and said " How dare you use my spell against me. I am the Half Blood Prince!" Snape disapperated with Greyback.

The next day was Dumbledore's funeral. Harry told Ron and Hermione about the fake Horcrux and R.A.B. They decided that they wouldn't go to school next year and they would go searching for the Horcruxes and defeat Voldemort.

In From the Cold

2009-01-04T19:56:00.001+07:00

In terms of plain narrative, the Nativity story is hard to beat. It has pretty much everything: a journey, a baby, a mass murderer, refugees, the kindness of strangers, music, animals and big, big special effects. Picture-book artists have presented this story with originality and brio, from Dick Bruna and his squat, minimalist Holy Family to Julie Vivas and her realistically weary Mary.

Why is it, then, that so many picture books on the more general or secular themes of Christmas lack fiber? There is nothing remotely sappy in the original story, but legions of books featuring little angels and animals at the manger or anthropomorphized Christmas trees and indefatigable drummer boys fall flat. Perhaps Christmas simply provides too much material. The secular accretions of Santa Claus, figgy pudding and Suzy Snowflake are enough to make you look for inspiration in some less excessively explored holiday. Groundhog Day starts to look good.

One way around this problem is to focus on something elemental. Frank McCourt’s “Angela and the Baby Jesus” is built around the theme of cold. This family anecdote involves McCourt’s mother as a 6-year-old deciding that the infant Jesus figurine in the Christmas crib at church must be cold in his scant loincloth, then stealing him to take home to her warm bed.

Readers of McCourt’s 1996 memoir, “Angela’s Ashes,” will remember his rare gift for entering the minds of young children. He captures the way they construct complicated plans and notions based on basic misunderstandings. He never lets his adult perception of their vulnerability get in the way of the pleasure he takes in children’s complexity and sturdiness. In this small story he lets us know that Angela’s kind impulse is laced with naughtiness, sibling rivalry, attention-getting and a desire to escape the position of smallest in the family. Angela is endearing, but she is not cute.

The heist itself, which involves hiding in the confession booth and throwing Jesus over a backyard wall, is masterly and lively. The only hitch in the proceedings concerns Angela’s older brother Pat, who “was like a baby himself and often said foolish things even she wouldn’t say.” When Pat discovers Angela’s secret, he announces the truth to the family: “She have God in the bed, so she do.” But of course they don’t initially believe him. In this, Act 2 of the drama, the emotional heart of the story switches to Pat and his relationship with Angela. In Act 3, both strands, now tightly woven, come to a neat, unexpected, satisfying conclusion.

The lilting cadence of McCourt’s prose — “Was it having a bit of a rest you were?” “’Twas” — is matched by Raúl Colón’s watercolor-and-pencil illustrations, in a limited palette of blue and ochre. We move up and down stairs and streets, but we seldom stray from Angela’s viewpoint. The moonlit road home from the church is so long as to seem never-ending, the backyard wall is high as high, and when the twin forces of church and state confront Angela, the priest and the policeman are so tall that the tops of their heads are cut off the page. A message McCourt never makes explicit lies in the composition of the family scenes, the rounded sculptural figures echoing the solidity, formality and closeness of the manger crib.

Anticipating a crossover market, the publisher has also issued a smaller-format “adult” edition of “Angela and the Baby Jesus,” with illustrations by Loren Long (Scribner, $14.95). The tale is a natural for a seasonal family read-aloud (McCourt opens for Dylan Thomas), but the Long illustrations are dark and dreary, so you might as well stick with the picture-book version.

Kate DiCamillo’s “Great Joy” is also a story of cold, set in 1940s America.

Frances, who appears to be 8 or 9, looks out her apartment window to the street below to see an organ grinder and his monkey. She discovers that they sleep on the street and, concerned for them, invites them to her church’s Christmas pageant. During the play, Frances, who has the role of the angel who appears to the shepherds, chokes on her lines; but at the critical moment, when musician and monkey enter the church, she recovers, and the angelic announcement is made.

Memorable picture-book texts often emerge when two stories entwine. In “Angela” the story of Pat winds around the story of the liberation of the baby Jesus, giving it strength and universality. It is Ireland in the 1910s, and it is all other times as well. In “Great Joy” the two strands of the plot — pageant and organ grinder — don’t convincingly mesh, and neither has enough substance or originality on its own. To invite a homeless person to come in from the cold for a couple of hours is not a sturdy enough premise to justify the emotion the narrative seems to be asking of us.

This blandness and sentimentality is mitigated somewhat by Bagram Ibatoulline’s illustrations. His paintings, in acrylic gouache, portray people with very particular faces, and their gestures are meaningful and familiar. Frances stops to gather new-fallen snow on her way to church. Her mother steps gingerly on the slippery steps. He adds back-story details — a framed photograph of a man in uniform suggests a father away at war. And the concept of joy, which is not convincingly realized in the text, is made manifest in a personality-filled double-page spread that follows the final words. Ibatoulline depicts the church social after the pageant. One shepherd picks his nose, the camel (front end) emerges from his costume, the monkey sits on Frances’ shoulder and investigates her hair, and the organ grinder, illuminated by Old World charm, flirts with Frances’ mother.

Christmas books wear their messages on their sleeves. They can’t help it. We allow them an extra measure of sweetness. But the demands of storytelling still apply, even in the season of marzipan. Fully realized characters, nongeneric places and voices, an acknowledgment that virtue is complicated — these are what make the message palatable and create a space for yet one more Christmas tale.

Sarah Ellis is a writer and teacher in Vancouver. Her latest book is “Odd Man Out.”

Animal Spirits

2009-01-04T19:51:00.001+07:00

In his 2005 film, “Grizzly Man,” Werner Herzog reconstructed the final years of Timothy Treadwell, an animal advocate who went into the Alaskan backcountry to live among the bears he loved, and — in an unanticipated form of bonding — was eventually devoured by one of his subjects. Herzog was fundamentally dismissive of Treadwell’s project, finding “no kinship, no understanding, no mercy ... only the overwhelming indifference of nature.” He believed Treadwell’s death was pointless. Those of us who have ever loved a pet may feel otherwise. Animals — wild or domestic — are sentient creatures and have much to teach us about our own emotional lives.

To the spiritually inclined, this is old news. In the classic training manual “How to Be Your Dog’s Best Friend,” by the monks of New Skete, in upstate New York, is this quote from the Book of Job: “Ask the beasts and let them teach you, and the birds of the air and let them tell you.” Buddhism in particular stresses a compassion for all living creatures, transcending the boundaries of species.

For anyone unfamiliar with these traditions, here is “Samsara Dog,” a lovely and surprising picture book by Helen Manos, an Australian writer. The book illustrates the twin Buddhist concepts of samsara (the cycle of rebirth) and nirvana (fulfillment, or more literally, the extinction of earthly desires) in the story of a dog: “Samsara Dog lived many lives. Some of his lives were very long, some lasted only a few days. ... Dog lived each life as it came until, finally, he learned the most important lesson of all.”

In matter-of-fact language, this is the story of a dog’s journey from violence and anger to companionship and love. Watercolors by Julie Vivas, an award-winning illustrator, complement the text with soft washes of color. Samsara Dog — who clearly has some dingo in his ancestry — sports a fox-colored pelt (recalling the saffron robes of Buddhist monks?), and the face of his final companion, a small boy, has the smooth androgynous geometry of an ancient statue. In the end, the dog devotes himself to the boy, saving the boy’s life and in the process attaining nirvana.

The dog’s death — his final departure from the cycle — may have some children in tears (not to mention some of the adults reading to them). But Manos, a practicing Buddhist whose previous books include “Lucky Baby Yak,” a story of ethnic displacement in Tibet, published in Australia, has an insight and sensitivity that make her an excellent guide to this difficult subject.

Of course, our kinship with dogs reflects a samsara of sorts, a shared evolutionary history, while our social evolution has pulled us along a path increasingly insulated from the wild. Werner Herzog may have dismissed the value of Timothy Treadwell’s quest, but he accurately assessed its hazards: some boundaries are crossed only at peril. In “The Snow Leopard,” Jackie Morris visits a land where respect for the wilderness is a fact of life. The book is set in the western Himalayas, where shamanistic traditions are preserved in the folklore of isolated mountain valleys. The craggy, ice-covered slopes are home to ibex, blue sheep, eagles and of course the fabled snow leopard. It is feared as a predator, revered in legends as a shape-shifter, and the upper zones of its domain are entered only with great caution.

Morris’s flowery text follows the well-worn tracks of the language of myth: “From the beginning of time, out of the silence, Snow Leopard sang the stars to life, the sun to rise and the moon to wax and wane. High above the hidden valley, her song clothed the world in white and built a crackling fortress of snow, buttressed with ice, to keep all things safe and secret.”

Down in the valley, a girl sleeps while marauding soldiers come. The leopard leaps down to shelter her, and there’s an odd moment of mutual recognition: long ago, it seems, the leopard was once human. The leopard carries the girl away and begins to teach her sacred mountain secrets. After an ethereal apprenticeship, the girl becomes a snow leopard herself, guardian of the mountain domain, while the old leopard retires to the heavens, her song “a whisper of starlight,” and the cycle is complete.

The book succeeds largely through vivid watercolor illustrations that meld ink-brush abstraction and subtle detail into a gorgeous fantasy. Morris, who has illustrated more than two dozen books, paints a dramatic portrait of the snow leopard and her environment; the big cat glides from flatness to depth across a landscape dressed in stark blue-whites and blue-blacks. With its focus on a severely endangered animal at a time of global warming and species eradication, “The Snow Leopard” sends a valuable message about the beauty and power of the natural world.

Both “Samsara Dog” and “The Snow Leopard” tackle a profound problem of the modern era: how to address our increasing alienation from one another and from the other living creatures of our world. By way of response, each book depicts a stewardship of sorts — the dog and his boy, the cat and her girl. Whether one is a cat person, a dog person or not a pet person at all, the two books hint at a way forward toward a more responsible relationship with nature, born of love and understanding, which is to say, compassion.

Bruno Navasky is a teacher and writer in New York City.

BALLERINA DREAMS

2009-01-04T19:49:00.000+07:00

This portrait of five girls “who dreamed of being ballerinas” depicts the challenges of an unusual ballet class in Queens. The director, Joann Ferrara, runs the class for children with cerebral palsy and other disorders, and Estrin (a staff photographer for The New York Times) documented the class as the girls prepared for their first recital — tutus, tiaras and all. The simple text fills out the background of the class, and the pictures convey the girls’ progress and delight.

2009-01-04T19:46:00.000+07:00

A paper-over-board book based on a new technology that its inventor, the author, calls “scanimation”: mimicking the effect of a kinetoscope, the pictures of animals, birds and fish seem to move with extraordinary naturalism. The text to “Gallop!” doesn’t add much: “Can you swing like a chimp? Swoop-swoopslide!” But the swinging chimp (and leaping cat or soaring eagle) are mesmerizing enough for all ages, especially for aspiring artists who will want to know how it’s done.

DOWNTOWN OWL

2009-01-04T19:40:00.003+07:00

It feels so Chuck Klosterman to say so, but the problem with Klosterman’s first novel, “Downtown Owl,” is that the author’s voice — which many readers will know from his magazine writing or his four books of reportage and cultural criticism — intrudes on an otherwise engaging story about the fictional Everytown of Owl, N.D.

Early in the book, Mitch Hrlicka, a third-string high school quarterback (and one of three main characters), is driving around with some of his teammates before a game, listening to the radio, all of them talking. The scene, Klosterman writes, is “like an Altman film.”

It’s an unambiguous signal that he’s aiming for a cinematic feel in “Downtown Owl.” But to the extent he achieves one, it’s less like Altman than like “Slacker” or “Drunks,” or any of the meandering ’90s ensemble films that my local video store lumps together as “indie.”

The story — such as it is — ambles through seven months, from August 1983 to February 1984 (each chapter is dated), when an epic snowstorm hits Owl.

It is told, for the most part, through the not-quite-interwoven stories of Mitch, the teenage quarterback; Julia Rabia, a newly arrived resident of Owl who teaches at the high school; and Horace Jones, a septuagenarian retiree who drinks coffee and commiserates about nothing and high school football with five other men every afternoon at the local diner, Harley’s Café.

Horace leads an external life of purpose and duty and an internal one of regret over missed opportunities and personal failings, the stories of which account for some of the most poignant writing in the book. Julia bops along in a harmless, hopeful way, drinking and frequenting the bars to avoid having to confront her need to take action and wrest control of her destiny — her inability to do so is the reason she ended up in Owl in the first place.

And Mitch, when he’s not playing football or puzzling over his friends’ musical inclinations (he’s the odd teenager not into rock music), is consumed by two things: violent, detailed fantasies of the ways he would kill his football coach/English teacher/nemesis, John Laidlaw, and the outcome of a hypothetical fight between the local wild child, Cubby Candy, and his schoolmate Chris Sellers, whom everyone calls Grendel.

Wait. A high school kid in a decidedly unliterary North Dakota town is nicknamed after a beast from “Beowulf”? Yes. And there are more puzzling nicknames, for characters who amount to no more than stage dressing: Disco Ball, Little Stevie Horse ’n’ Phone and the Drunken Elf, who we are supposed to believe is called “the Drelf” by everyone in town.

Of the main characters, only Mitch Hrlicka has a nickname: “Vanna,” which his coach assigns after joking that his last name needs more vowels. That detail places the story squarely in 1983-84, when “Wheel of Fortune” entered national syndication and Vanna White entered the popular lexicon. But from it are we supposed to infer that Mitch will never transcend his third-string status, never move on from the sidekick’s role? Is it significant, in other words, or is it there just because the author couldn’t resist its timely wit?

I have my suspicions. “In Owl,” Klosterman writes, “nicknames were spawned by random, unmetaphoric events that offered no meaningful reflection on the individual. Yet these nicknames would last decades.” And there is a seemingly endless stream of them here, their volume distracting from the central characters’ stories and undercutting the realism Klosterman works hard to create through details like the mundane but portentous reminders of how to keep a car running in the arctic cold of North Dakota winters.

During quiet, contemplative moments, Mitch, Julia and Horace all come across as startlingly self-aware. But at times, it’s hard to know what elements of the story are more important — Horace’s regret over never fighting in a war, or the fact that a minor figure named Phil Buzkol “actually had three nicknames, but he was customarily called ‘McGarrett’ ”? (Fortunately for the reader and the story, it’s the regret.)

There’s also the issue of pop culture name-dropping. When Mitch mistakes Def Leppard as “the Dead Leopards,” it at least tells us something about him. But here’s how Klosterman describes Julia at work, vacantly reciting facts about North Dakota during a history lesson: “Inside her skull, words and sentences sounded like Side 3 of ‘Metal Machine Music,’ an album she had never heard of.” The intentionally obscure cultural reference (“Metal Machine Music” is Lou Reed’s 1975 record of electric guitar feedback) reveals nothing at all about the character and everything about the man behind the curtain.

When Klosterman says that Mitch, skulking down a school hallway, “slouched toward Bethlehem,” I put down the book, read the Yeats poem and flipped through my copy of Joan Didion before slouching back to “Downtown Owl,” realizing the line wasn’t meant as an allusion so much as a knowing turn of phrase.

There are a few too many of these pop culture cul-de-sacs here, tics left over from Klosterman’s thoughtful essays. They derail our attempts to form a relationship with the sympathetic folks who populate his town. If he can rein in the hip whimsy on his next fictional outing — or put it to work in service of the story he’s telling — he, his readers and his book will be better served.

Peter Meehan’s “Momofuku,” a cookbook written with the chef David Chang, will be out in the fall.

The Ashes

2008-12-15T17:39:00.003+07:00

There have been good novels about living in the post-9/11 world (Ian McEwan’s “Saturday”), pretentious ones (Don DeLillo’s “Falling Man”) and sentimental ones (Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”). But sorting through the pile of so-called 9/11 novels is a sad exercise, one that grows more pointless by the day. They’re all 9/11 novels now.

It’s impossible, though, to stop scanning the horizon for something else — the bracing, wide-screen, many-angled novel that will leave a larger, more definitive intellectual and moral footprint on the new age of terror.

Joseph O’Neill’s “Netherland” is not that novel. It’s too urbane, too small-boned, too savvy to carry much Dreiserian sweep and swagger. But here’s what “Netherland” surely is: the wittiest, angriest, most exacting and most desolate work of fiction we’ve yet had about life in New York and London after the World Trade Center fell. On a micro level, it’s about a couple and their young son living in Lower Manhattan when the planes hit, and about the event’s rippling emotional aftermath in their lives. On a macro level, it’s about nearly everything: family, politics, identity. I devoured it in three thirsty gulps, gulps that satisfied a craving I didn’t know I had.

O’Neill, who was born in Ireland, raised in Holland and now lives in New York, seems incapable of composing a boring sentence or thinking an uninteresting thought, whether he’s writing about dating (“We courted in the style preferred by the English: alcoholically”) or the darker stuff that keeps us awake at night, like the nuclear plant just up the river (“Indian Point: the earliest, most incurable apprehensions stirred in its very name”).

O’Neill’s prose glows with what Alfred Kazin called “the marginal suggestiveness which in a great writer always indicates those unspoken reserves, that silent assessment of life, that can be heard below and beyond the slow marshaling of thought.” And O’Neill knows how to deploy the quotidian fripperies of our laptop culture to devastating fictional effect. There’s a moment in “Netherland” involving a father, the son who has been taken from him, and Google Earth that’s among the most moving set pieces I’ve read in a recent novel. The father hovers over his son’s house nightly, “flying on Google’s satellite function,” lingering over his child’s dormer window and blue inflated swimming pool, searching the “depthless” pixels for anything, from thousands of miles away, he can cling to. O’Neill’s novel is full of moments like this: closely observed, emotionally racking, un-self-consciously in touch with how we live now.

The plot in “Netherland” runs on two tracks. The first tells the story of a family. The narrator, Hans van den Broek, is a Dutch-born equities analyst (he compares himself, in terms of influence if not infamy, to Henry Blodget) who lives in a TriBeCa loft with his British-born wife, Rachel, and their son. When 9/11 forces them to flee farther uptown, they end up living, almost by accident, in the shabby-glamorous Chelsea Hotel, and it is there that their marriage slowly cracks apart.

Rachel wants to take their son back to London and her family. He’ll be safer there, far from George Bush and the United States, a country she has begun to think of as “ideologically diseased.” Hans, unsure of his feelings, starts to believe he is “a political-ethical idiot.” O’Neill writes beautifully about what it sometimes felt like in the months after 9/11, when you couldn’t attend a dinner party unless you were intellectually armed for hours of bitter debate: “For those under the age of 45 it seemed that world events had finally contrived a meaningful test of their capacity for conscientious political thought. Many of my acquaintances, I realized, had passed the last decade or two in a state of intellectual and psychic yearning for such a moment — or, if they hadn’t, were able to quickly assemble an expert arguer’s arsenal of thrusts and statistics and ripostes and gambits and examples and salient facts and rhetorical maneuvers. I, however, was almost completely caught out.”

What Hans and Rachel are trying to avoid, he tells us, is “what might be termed a historic mistake. We were trying to understand, that is, whether we were in a preapocalyptic situation, like the European Jews in the ’30s or the last citizens of Pompeii, or whether our situation was merely near-apocalyptic, like that of the cold war inhabitants of New York, London, Washington and, for that matter, Moscow.” It doesn’t matter. Rachel and their son are soon gone, while Hans stays behind in New York.

The book’s second story line, and perhaps its more resonant one, is about the solace Hans finds in the vibrant subculture of cricket in New York, where he is among the few white men to be found on the hundreds of largely West Indian teams in the city, teams that fan out, in the hazy summertime, across scrabby, lesser-known public parks.

O’Neill seems to know all there is to know about this sport. He writes about it with casual grace, describing, for example, the cricket batsman’s array of potential strokes: “the glance, the hook, the cut, the sweep, the cover drive, the pull and all those other offspring of technique conceived to send the cricket ball rolling and rolling, as if by magic, to the far-off edge of the playing field.”

The cricket these men play is, they realize, not quite the game they fell in love with back in the Antilles. The New York fields are too small, and not well tended. Here is more of O’Neill’s lovely writing about the game: “This degenerate version of the sport — bush cricket, as Chuck more than once dismissed it — inflicts an injury that is aesthetic as much as anything: the American adaptation is devoid of the beauty of cricket played on a lawn of appropriate dimensions, where the white-clad ring of infielders, swanning figures on the vast oval, again and again converge in unison toward the batsman and again and again scatter back to their starting points, a repetition of pulmonary rhythm, as if the field breathed through its luminous visitors.”

O’Neill cracks open a teeming world on the fringes of Manhattan, and through it we witness the aspirations of countless men who otherwise are invisible to wealthy Manhattanites. (“You want a taste of how it feels to be a black man in this country?” one character asks. “Put on the white clothes of the cricketer. Put on white to feel black.”)

Hans’s guide through this alternative city is Chuck Ramkissoon, a talky, street-smart Trinidadian who is alive in ways Hans is not. Some of Chuck’s business practices are shady (he runs an old-world “weh weh” gambling ring and intimidates his rivals), but he’s a Gatsby-like American dreamer as well, a man who hopes to build a world-class cricket arena in Brooklyn.

Chuck wants to make a killing on his cricket center, but he also has bigger ambitions: he essentially wants to save the world. “All people, Americans, whoever, are at their most civilized when they’re playing cricket,” he explains. “What’s the first thing that happens when Pakistan and India make peace? They play a cricket match. Cricket is instructive, Hans. It has a moral angle. ... I say, we want to have something in common with Hindus and Muslims? Chuck Ramkissoon is going to make it happen. With the New York Cricket Club, we could start a whole new chapter in U.S. history. Why not?”

Some of the best parts of “Netherland” are Chuck’s rambling political and cultural monologues, delivered as Hans drives him around the boroughs. (Ostensibly, Chuck is helping Hans prepare for his driving test. Unwittingly, Hans is Chuck’s chauffeur, shuttling him to some of his least tasteful business dealings.) The book’s few lesser moments occur at the Chelsea Hotel, where a cast of eccentrics — including a man who wears angel’s wings and a wedding dress — are asked to carry cheap metaphorical freight.

Chuck’s vast cricket plans don’t pan out, and he vanishes under murky and ultimately grisly circumstances. Did he kill himself? one friend asks. Another responds: “You idiot! Chuck isn’t a suicide guy! This guy has more life inside him than 10 people!”

“Netherland” is a bit like the wily and ebullient Chuck Ramkissoon. It has more life inside it than 10 very good novels.

Gemma Doyle Trilogy

2008-12-15T16:56:00.001+07:00

The Gemma Doyle Trilogy books written by Libba Bray are some of my favorite novels ever. Mostly because they're entertaining, well-written, and include magic, secret societies and mysterious and beautiful worlds.
In the beginning of the first book, A Great and Terrible Beauty, in India Gemma's mother has just committed suicide and her father has become depressed. So, she is sent to a girls' boarding school in the England countryside. There she begins to discover her powers (I forgot to mention that she has some) and begin a friendship with three other girls. Also, she is continually under surveillance from a member of a secret society.
As the series continues in Rebel Angles and The Sweet Far Thing the story progresses into something that is impossible to put down. Be prepared for excitement, intrigue, mystery, and magic.