Tuesday, March 23, 2010

“Book Reviews - News Slashdot” plus 2 more

“Book Reviews - News Slashdot” plus 2 more

Book Reviews - News Slashdot

Posted: 22 Mar 2010 04:18 PM PDT

For the future, the company also plans to target other specialized applications, such as pitch-black night vision goggles, cheaper solar cells and even spray-on displays.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

People Vote For A Rex Change And His Name is Humberto ... - CNW Group

Posted: 23 Mar 2010 07:13 AM PDT

rabble.ca "not Rex Murphy" contest winner creating an alternative commentary.

TORONTO, March 23 /CNW/ - rabble.ca visitors have spoken and elected union activist Humberto DaSilva as the winner of the "Not Rex Murphy" contest. The contest was launched to provide some balancing voices to Rex Murphy's contribution to CBC's The National and to have fun while raising serious issues.

Mr. DaSilva is a union representative and a writer born and bred in Toronto. His first video commentary, Greek Shock (http://tiny.cc/SoZGW), can be found on rabbletv (http://www.rabble.ca/rabbletv) and explores how the debt crisis in Greece is connected to Wall Street, which has been profiting from Greek debt for years.

"Being selected to be Not Rex Murphy is an honour and a therapy for me," said DaSilva. "I'm honoured that real people voted for me as an alternative to Rex's retrograde commentary. It's therapeutic to have a safety valve for stress that builds up from right-wing drivel and uncritical journalism that pollutes the ostensibly public airwaves."

"The response to the contest was fantastic," said Kim Elliott, rabble publisher. "We had great applications, lots of people checking out the application videos and voting, as well as a lot of activity on Twitter and a Facebook fan club. Clearly this contest has struck a chord with people that want to hear more diverse views on The National."

Judges for the contest were new-media journalist, consultant, video podcaster and web 2.0 guru Amber MacArthur, journalist, broadcaster, author and rabble guest senior contributing editor Murray Dobbin, rabbletv coordinator Tor Sandberg, rabble director of emerging technology Wayne MacPhail and rabble publisher Kim Elliott. Judges narrowed down the applicants and visitors voted for the final winner.

Humberto DaSilva's next commentary will appear on rabble.ca on March 25th.

rabble.ca is Canada's most popular source of independent news and views, and features original news, opinion, book reviews, podcasts and live and pre-recorded video exploring issues facing Canadians. rabble.ca is in its 9th year of providing 100% free news content to Canadians. rabble is a non-profit, community-supported organization.

For further information: Kim Elliott, rabble.ca, Publisher, (647) 477-8534; Wayne MacPhail, Director of Emerging Media, (905) 979-7019, wmacphail@gmail.com; Murray Dobbin, rabble.ca, Contributing Senior Editor, (604) 483-9667

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

New and Notable book reviews - AZCentral.com

Posted: 20 Mar 2010 08:53 PM PDT

'Appetite for America'

Stephen Fried

(Bantam, $27)

According to Fried, Fred Harvey "was Ray Kroc before McDonald's, J.W. Marriott before Marriott hotels, Howard Johnson before Hojo's, Joe Horn and Frank Hardart before Horn & Hardart's, Howard Schultz before Starbucks." A paragraph later he adds a splendid afterthought: Harvey was Walt Disney before Disneyland, too. Harvey, who at 17 came alone from England to New York, got a job in a restaurant and soon ran his own, was a remarkable entrepreneur whose influence is woven into the fabric that became America as we know it. Fried covers the hospitality empire that Harvey founded and his son continued; his company's relationship with the railroad; his influence on American cuisine and travel; and his foresight in creating the "Harvey Girls," promoting Native American art and culture, and seeing that his company had access to drivers on Route 66 before it was even paved. It's the affectionate and entertaining story of a man who saw the American West for what it could be, and made it a reality. Fried will appear at the Heard Museum on April 15.

'Next'

James Hynes

(LB, $23.99)

Be patient with the early pages of this novel, in which you'll be stuck on a plane with a man who isn't very likable as he frets about terrorists (bombings have just taken place simultaneously in six European cities) and steals furtive glances at the young woman - she's half his age - in the window seat. Kevin Quinn, who's in his 50s, is on his way from Michigan to a job interview in Austin, but the plane lands hours ahead of his appointment time, so he decides to follow the woman, whom he calls "Joy Luck" because she was reading an Amy Tan book on the plane, around the city. All the while, he replays in his head memories of the women in his life, how they met, the sex they had, the reasons it all went sour. Dense though it sometimes is, this internal monologue is redeeming because Kevin is funny and smart - and yes, self-absorbed and lecherous, but you must bear with him because it will take you to (and make sense of) an ending that will leave you breathless. "Next" is one of the most audacious novels I've read in years.

'Imperfect Birds'

Anne Lamott

(Riverhead, $25.95)

I love Anne Lamott's non-fiction. I want to love her novels but I never do. In "Operating Instructions," her irreverent and hilariously unrestrained book about becoming a single mother, and in "Bird by Bird," her generous book of "instructions" for would-be writers, she and her foibles and epiphanies are the heart of the stories she tells. What sets them apart is what's missing in her fiction, where Lamott tends to play by the rules. This book is her third novel (after "Rosie" and "Crooked Little Heart") about a girl and her mother. Rosie is now 17 and lives with her mom, Elizabeth, a recovering alcoholic, and stepfather, James. Elizabeth worries about Rosie and knows that she has experimented with drugs and sex, but she opts to hold back, to give Rosie space. Rosie's a good kid, but when she falls in with others who aren't and begins to come apart, Elizabeth and James must take action. Lamott makes this believable without resorting to melodrama, but her characters are never as interesting as she is.

'The Leisure Seeker'

Michael Zadoorian

(Harper, $13.99)

John Robina has Alzheimer's disease. Ella, his wife of 60 years, has cancer. The surprise of this deeply satisfying novel, now new in paperback, is that John and Ella are renegades. They set out from their home in Detroit (against the wishes of their doctors and without telling their children) and drive their small camper van toward Disneyland via Route 66. John can't remember Ella's name, but he's still a credible driver, and his pill-popping wife narrates the story with humor and a bittersweet sense of determination that will be explained only at the end of the journey. "Between the two of us," Ella says, "we are one whole person." And so they go, state by state, on a trip that is wacky and difficult, nostalgic yet mysteriously new. Zadoorian walks a fine line as he balances the fragility of two old people against the urgency of their mission and the demands of the road they follow. Through Ella, he suggests that freedom is not reserved for the young, and that in life's most important matters, triumph is in the eye of the beholder.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
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