My Den

Of China, Life And Death And Its Many Spring Moons.

2008-08-13T00:13:00.000-07:00

The recent launched of the the Beijing Olympics reminded me of a period in my reading interests, some twenty odd years ago, when I was intrigued with events inside the Bamboo Curtain, at a time when China had yet to open itself to the world.

Books like Re d Star Over China, written by acclaimed journalist Edgar Snow, and The Soong Dynasty by Sterling Seagrave, provided fascinating historical perspectives and insights about China during a period of turmoil and struggle between the late 19th and early 20th century.

But it was the individual but rare accounts of life and struggles amid a nation trying to find its identity - from feudalism under the Manchu Dynasty to China's emergence as a republic and communism under Mao Tse Tung - that left lasting impressions on me.

To this end, two particular books and the stories that they told - Life and Death In Shanghai and Spring Moon - remained vividly in my mind after all these years. My recent re-reading of them did not diminished the impact they had on me when I first read them so many years ago but instead reminded me of the strength of the human spirit during times of adversity and I highly recommend them to readers.

And by the way, after recovering from my recent accident, it does feel good to be able to blog regularly again.

Life & Death In Shanghai by Nien Cheng
An autobiography published in 1987, Nien Cheng's memoir is an exceptionally gripping story of a woman caught in the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution and excesses under Mao Tse Tung's China.

Poignant and haunting, Life and Death in Shanghai is a detailed and courageous account of her imprisonment, incarceration, persecution and torture during the Cultural Revolution of the 6os'. A former adviser for Shell Petroleum China, her refusal to admit to being "an imperialist spy" led to six years of solitary confinement, torture and harsh deprivations in 1966. When finally released in 1973, she found out that her only daughter, Mei Ping, had been beaten to death by the revolutionary Red Guards.

Providing fascinating insights of life in Mao's China, Life and Death in Shanghai is an intimate, honest and addictive literary classic of a woman's determination to survive and the courage, triumphs and ascendancy of the human spirit in times of adversity and tyranny.

Spring Moon By Bette Bao Lord
Nominated for the American Book Award for First Novel when it was published in 1990, Spring Moon is an epic spanning five generations of a Chinese family and is set amidst a background of tumultuous events when China abandons its ancient tradition of an imperialistic monarchy and adopts the philosophies of a socialist order.

Seen through the eyes of Spring Moon, the headstrong daughter of the aristocratic Chang family, the epic provides an intimate glimpse of traditional China and the joys, sorrows and struggles of a great family amid uncertain and often, violent, social and political upheavals of late nineteenth- and twentieth-century China.

Thronged with memorable characters, compelling and exceptionally well-written, Spring Moon is an engrossing read and a spell-binding story of one remarkable woman - a woman ahead of the times - and of a love that is forbidden and a China in tremendous turmoil.

Back From The Dead And The Indomitable Spirit Of Charmaine Tan.

2008-06-08T08:08:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, there are moments in our lives when things happen that changes the way we look at and live our lives. One of these moments occurred to me some three months ago when after dropping my kids at the school, a monster of a truck, against the flow of traffic, came charging at me after I did a right-turn.

The thoughts at that moment : "Damn, this is it." and "What about my kids?", the impact and the resultant black-out remained vividly in my mind three months down the line. Waking up in the hospital, disorientated and unable to move my legs, prompted another worry that I might be paralysed.

Well, I am not dead and neither am I paralysed. Guess somebody up there was looking out for me but the accident broke both my legs and right arm, fractured my hips and landed me in hospital for the past three months.

Moments like this reminded me of the unpredictability of life, of the importance of your loved ones and not taking them for granted, and more importantly, spending as much time as possible with my family, especially my kids. In the face of what I just went through, all other pursuits and considerations are actually distractions and are secondary.

There is an old saying that I could not remember in its entirety but it goes something like this : "I come this way but once, so any good...." Essentially it means that we live only once and we should be kind, compassionate and do as much good as we can while we are here. So, I intend to be less critical, more accommodating, compassionate and open-minded to others. And where possible, volunteering at some of the local charities.

While the focus of this blog will still be on books and the literary scene, my blogging will also take on a social bend, using my various blogs to promote social causes especially for the less-privileged.

Besides the change in perspective, there was another lesson learned - strength in adversity. This was largely due to an elderly gentleman, Marcus, who was my next-bed neighbour and in for colon cancer treatment.

Though clearly in pain, Marcus showed remarkable courage in facing his condition and also much grace in cheering me up during my hospitalisation. A fellow book lover, he also related a story that touched me profoundly - a story of courage, of dreams and hopes.

Charmaine Tan is one of the authors of the book "Pick Me Up", a community project by the "Make-A-Wish" Foundation Singapore. Her story, “Ceryni’s Secret”, is one among a compilation of short stories written by more than 40 people for the book - a collection of true stories about how people overcame their circumstances and turn their dreams into reality.

Nothing unusual about a published author except for the fact that she has a congenital eye condition which visually-impaired her, losing 95 per cent of her eyesight, and is also suffering from end stage kidney failure.

Despite her sickness and disability, Charmaine's love for writing resulted in “Ceryni’s Secret”, a 12,000- words story written in three days and it represented her first published effort. It also fulfilled her dream of being a published author.

When Marcus told me the story of Charmaine Tan, I realised, besides encouraging me, he was also drawing strength and inspiration from her, vis-a-vis his condition. The story of Charmaine Tan epitomised determination, courage and strength in adversity and with strength in adversity, the fulfillment of hopes and dreams.

All the more so for Charmaine. You see, Charmaine Tan is only 13 years old.

*Readers who wish to order the book can drop an email to : pickmeupbook@gmail.com or visit the Pick Me Up website. All proceeds from the sales of the book will be donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

*For regular readers of this blog, please be patient as it will take some time ( for my right arm to heal ) before I can resume regular posting.

*Related post :
- For The Love Of Writing

Another Blast From The Past - Vampiric Thrills With Anne Rice.

2008-02-28T21:25:00.001-08:00

Besides Stephen King, who got me hooked on the horror genre in the early 70s', another author whose books have left a lasting impression on me was Anne Rice, especially with her Vampire Chronicles.

I remembered picking up a copy of Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire in the late 70s’, largely piqued by the interesting title and wanting to try out books by not so-well known authors (Anne Rice at that time, have yet to become the highly popular author that she is now). And what a thrill it WAS!

Rather than being just creepy, evil and one-dimensional creatures of the night, Anne Rice’s vampires were imbued with so much depth, pain, loneliness and fluid sexuality that one just can’t help but identify with her vampires’ sufferings.

The lush and descriptive background that the stories were set in - from ancient Egypt in Queen of the Damned to biblical history in Memnoch The Devil - together with her immaculate grasp of history and the beauty she creates with her tales got me fervently hooked. So hooked, that I remembered eagerly waiting for her next novel in the Vampire Chronicles.

Rice's magical tales and her rare ability to make readers identify and connect with her characters' sense of alienation, their search for the meaning of their existence in a human world, and her excellent casting of vampires as metaphors for the human condition, have made names like Lestat, Louis, Armand, Marius and Akasha very special and memorable to me. And I have yet to come across vampire literature that can match the depth and breadth of the tales by Anne Rice.

Even though I have read her other books like The Witching Hour series and The Mummy, it has always been the Vampire Chronicles that made Anne Rice such a great author in my mind.

Sadly, for me anyway, since 2005, having reaffirmed her Catholic faith, Rice announced that henceforth, she will “write only for the Lord “ and that there will be no more such vampire tales.

While I respected her decision, I also mourned the loss of such rich vampire literature. So, to readers who have yet to experience the magic of Anne Rice tales, here are my favorite Rice’s tomes and I hope you will experience the same vampiric thrills as I did.

The Vampire Chronicles
Interview With the Vampire
Published in 1976, this is the first of her Vampire Chronicles and the book that started my vampiric thrills. Set apart from other works of the vampire genre by it’s confessional tone from a vampire’s perspective, it has the vampire Louis relating the story of Lestat, a vampire with a conscience. It is an engrossing tale of the despair of an alienated being who searches for the meaning of his existence, and his conflicts because he cannot find redemption and does not have the strength to end the evil that he is.

The movie adaptation in 1994, with Tom Cruise as the vampire Lestat and Brat Pitt as Louis, was a rare and surprise hit of novels brought to screen. As an indication of its popularity, Interview With The Vampire remains the best-selling book in the Vampire Chronicles.

The Vampire Lestat
Set in the late 18th century to the late 1980s’, the 2nd book in the series is a rich narrative of the beginnings of the anti-hero, the vampire Lestat. From his origins as a penniless aristocrat to his becoming a vampire at the hands of Magnus, a vampire elder, The Vampire Lestat is an extravagant and dazzling story spanning prehistoric Egypt, ancient Rome to 20th century New Orleans.

The Queen of the Damned
My favorite among the Chronicles, The Queen of the Damned explores the rich history and mythology of the origin of vampires. Dazzling in depth and lush in historical myths, the story tells of the awakening of Akasha, Mother of all vampires, after more than 6000 years of slumber. Awaken by the electrifying songs of Lestat, it is now up to him to stop her monstrous plan of ruling the world of the living.

Breathtaking, imaginative and complex in plot, it is a must read for fans of vampire literature. The 3rd book in the series was also adapted into a movie in 2002, with the deceased R&B star, Aaliyah, as Akasha and Stuart Townsend as Lestat.

The Tale of the Body Thief
Published in 1992, The Tale of the Body Thief is a departure from Rice’s previous settings in history, with the novel set entirely in the late 20th century. Dealing with Lestat’s desperation to be free from the nightmare of his own immortality and his efforts to regain his lost humanity, it tells the tale of a mysterious figure, Raglan James, who has the ability to switch bodies and thus, possesses the cure for Lestat’s depression and conflicts. A unique and unconventional tale of despair and redemption.

Memnoch The Devil
Probably the boldest and most controversial book in the series, Memnoch the Devil goes back to the beginning of Creation and is a breathtaking and ambitious tale that reinterprets biblical stories to create a complete history of Earth, Heaven and Hell.

Imaginative as only Anne Rice can be, Lestat finally meets the Devil, who calls himself "Memnoch" and he takes Lestat on a whirlwind tour of biblical history, Heaven and Hell in an attempt to convince Lestat to join him in a noble quest. Lestat even meet God and his time on earth as Jesus. Lavishly narrated, it is an epic reinterpretation of biblical history and brought the Vampire Chronicles to a close.

Not surprisingly, with Rice’s portrayal of God as a flawed being and the idea that Jesus sacrifice was insufficient, Memnoch the Devil came under severe criticisms from Christians as being heretical and blasphemous.

*Related posts :
- In Memory Of Gary Jennings
- A Blast From The Past - My Journey With Stephen King

A Blast From The Past - My Journey With Stephen King.

2008-02-22T01:05:00.000-08:00

Looking at how Duma Key, the latest book by Stephen King, is rapidly climbing up the bestsellers chart reminded me that the horror master has not lost his magic touch and at the same time, brought back many fond memories.

My journey with Stephen King began more than 30 years ago, in the 70s', when I was still a boy. Like most children during the 70s' who made do with hand-me downs, including books, I remembered being attracted by the book cover of Salem's Lot, brought to school by a better-off classmate. The black cover, with an etching of a girl's face and a drop of blood at the corner of her mouth, captivated me. Well, guess what I did? I "borrowed" the book (it's still with me) and so begun my journey with Stephen King.

Over the years, I have read most of King's books, including his earlier novels Carrie, Cujo, Christine, Firestarter and even books that he had written under a pseudonym, the "Richard Bachman" novels like Rage and The Regulators. So ardent am I a fan of his, that I have also watched all the movie adaptations of his work (unfortunately, the adaptations are all bad except for Misery).

Spell bounded by his rich imagination and his gift for telling compelling stories, Stephen King was largely responsible for my induction into and love for the horror genre. And every time the word "horror genre" comes up, his name will automatically pop up in my mind. So, going down memory lane, here are my all time favorite Stephen King books :

Salem's Lot
The book that started it all. Published in 1975, it came about when Stephen King asked his wife : "What if Dracula came to modern America?" "He will probably be knocked down by cars in Sixth Avenue!" said his wife.

Originally titled "Second Coming", this is the only book in my life that I finished in one night and it left me scared *stiffless. Set in a small town, it tells the story of the arrival of an old vampire, his corruption and decimation of the town populace and the struggles of a man to fight this menace. Rich in characterization and plot, it stands out among the many vampire novels during that time.

*Readers are advised that I, sometimes, take liberties with the English Language and there is no such word as "stiffless."

The Shining
Having watched the movie adaptation of this book, with Jack Nicholson as the derange father, I felt the movie paled in comparison in fleshing out the sense of eeriness of the hotel and the helplessness of the young son.

Published in 1977, though a simple premise of a couple with a young son isolated from the outside world in a old haunted hotel up in the Colorado mountains, the story fleshed out brilliantly the eeriness of the hotel and the helplessness of the young son in trying to deal with both the demonic forces and a murderous father. King's description of the derange morphing of the father got me hooked on this book and made me think twice about looking too long at a mirror.

IT
Even among favorites, there are "favorites". I have read "IT" a total of 4 times over the years and I had never gotten tired of it. Published in 1986, it is one of King's few books of the monster-horror genre. Set in Derry, Maine (like most King's books), it tells the story of a evil clown who lurks in sewers and lures children to their death.

Spanning across their childhood years to growing up as adults, it also describes the heroic efforts and determination of a group of children in fighting this evil. King's superb characterization of the group's fears and their triumph over evil, especially the stuttering leader Bill, made "IT" a book to remember for a long time. And "IT" was definitely no clown.

The Talisman
Imagine a book that can transport you to another world, a parallel universe, a world so different and enchanting that you do not want to return. That was what the magic of "The Talisman", my all time favorite, did to me. Published in 1984, the book was King's collaboration with Peter Straub (another great horror master).

Wonderfully told, rich in characterization and plot, it tells the story of a boy, Jack Sawyer, and his travels in a parallel universe - The Territories - in search of the "Talisman" to save his mother. I was spell bounded by the rich imagination of the authors with their description of this parallel world and its inhabitants. Most of all, their concept of "Twinners", our twins in the parallel world, made this book such a wonderful read and further introduced me to the magical world of the "fantasy" genre.

Misery
When I first read the synopsis at the back of this book, my first thought was : "This is so unlike Stephen King, what is there to be scare about a fan and an author?" How wrong I was! Published in 1987, "Misery" was unlike King's previous books with its story about a rabid fan and her favorite author.

With only two main characters in the story, only King can turn it into a bestseller. His story of an author being kept prisoner by his number one fan and forced to bring back a character from the dead was a masterpiece. And the movie adaptation was, in my view, the only one of the many King's adaptations that was able to fleshed out the story. Kathy Bate's portrayal of the fanatical fan was fanatically good.

*Related Posts :
- In Memory Of Gary Jennings

Phyllis A. Whitney - A Lifetime Of Words.

2008-02-17T01:38:00.000-08:00

For a person with a voracious reading habit, there was a recent piece of writing that I wished I never laid eyes on - an obituary. Beloved American novelist Phyllis A. Whitney, whose romantic suspense tales has sold millions of copies, passed away recently at the age of 104.

Born in Yokohama, Japan, the superb and gifted story teller wove her magic for more than 80 years and words were her life even before she began writing professionally. She started writing at the age of 12 while still a student, and worked in libraries and bookstores, eventually serving as Children's Book Editor of the Chicago Sun and the Philadelphia Inquirer in the 40s'.

After graduation from Chicago's McKinley High School in 1924, Phyllis began to write seriously, starting with short stories. A prolific writer, her first hardcover success came in 1941 with A Place For Ann, a book for teenagers, and by 1960, had 37 books and hundreds of short stories.

Hailed by Time Magazine as "one of the best genre writers" in 1971, her popularity reached international proportions by the mid 1960's, particularly in England and the Scandinavian countries.

While she had great success with juvenile mystery, turning to adult fiction brought her international fame. Striking a chord with readers, her adult romantic mysteries always had a vulnerable female protagonist, offered optimism and have happy endings. Among her bestsellers were Feather On The Moon, The Flaming Tree, Daughter Of The Stars and her last novel in 1997, Amethyst Dreams.

Re-known for her exhaustive research, Phyllis A. Whitney also won many literary awards and accolades.

In 1961, Whitney's sixth juvenile mystery, Mystery of the Haunted Pool, received the prestigious Edgar Allen Poe Award for best children's mystery story of the year from the Mystery Writers of America. She won the same award again three years later with The Mystery of The Hidden Hand.

In 1975, Phyllis A. Whitney was elected President of the Mystery Writers of America. In 1988, she was named a Grand Master, the pinnacle of achievement for a mystery writer, by the Mystery writers of America, honoring her high quality work and contribution to the genre. With this lifetime achievement award, Phyllis A. Whitney joined the exalted ranks of former honorees like Alfred Hitchcock, John le Carre and Agatha Christie. She also received another lifetime achievement award - the Agatha in 1989 from Malice Domestic.

Phyllis A. Whitney's 1956 novel The Trembling Hills was also recently reprinted in the United Kingdom as part of the Hodder Great Reads series "celebrating the best and most-loved popular classics of the 20th Century." All in, she wrote more than 75 books and her works have been published in more than thirty countries.

* Fans of Phyllis A. Whitney can sent their condolences here

* Related posts :
- For More News From The Literary World

The Boy Who Saw Angels.

2008-02-10T10:19:00.001-08:00

A Short Story by My Den
A NEW JOURNEY
All he wanted was to die at home. On 20 Jan 2007, with his parents by his side, *Adrian got his wish and was finally relieved of the pain he bore for four years. Adrian was only seven years old.

THE BEGINNING
"Look at those round eyes!" a delighted Joanne said. "Going to be a very handsome man when he grows up!" echoed Dan, both joining in the celebrations of *David and *Mary on the birth of their first child.

Adrian's birth was an answer to a long wished-for prayer and filled his parents lives with purpose and hopes. With his ever-present laughter, Mary loved to bask in the compliments heaped upon her son by both friends and strangers. But things changed when Adrian turned
three.

The PAIN
"The sudden onset of fevers, chills and flu accompanied by the loss in appetite and rapid weight loss were serious enough for the hospital to conduct blood tests and a bone marrow biopsy on Adrian. I am sorry but Adrian is suffering from acute leukemia," said Dr. Wong. David's and Mary's world collapsed.

The next four years of Adrian's life were spent in and out of hospital, undergoing painful chemotherapy. "It was so painful to see Adrian undergoing chemo, injecting drugs to the brain through a catheter under the scalp," choked Mary. There were also the side effects - the constant nausea, vomiting, mouth sores and lost of hair that three year old Adrian had to coped with.

DECISION
"Please Ma, no more chemotherapy," pleaded Adrian on hearing about his third relapse in Sept 2006. "I just want to live normally with whatever time I have left. I want to go to school, to Disneyland and I want to be at home when I die." Adrian knew he would die without treatment.

Saving Levi by Lisa Bentley

"It's time to let go," with a lumped in his throat, David told his wife. "Let's grant him his wishes and allow him to enjoy whatever time he has left with us."

For the first time in his life, Adrian went to school, something which he always longed for. A trip to Disneyland, Hong Kong, was also made possible with the help of "Make-A-Wish" foundation which grants the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses. Adrian waited every night for his father to come home from work so that they can spent time together. He enjoyed his time left in this world tremendously.

RELEASE
Holding her son's hands, "Adrian! Look out for the angels!" Mary besieged. In the early hours of 20 Jan 2007, Adrian's condition took a turn for the worse. He was so cold and in so much pain. Choking back tears, she could feel her son's life slowly ebbing from his tiny hands.

Summoning a last drop of strength, Adrian look at his mother and shouted :"Mama, I can see angels, angels, angels!"

REMEMBRANCE
Adrian will always lived in my heart. A brave young child whose life was cut short by a terrible illness and my heart goes out to his parents. Tribute should also go to "Make-A-Wish" Foundation for making possible the wishes of children with terminal illness.

*Names were changed to protect privacy

*More stories by MyDen
- A Live Unlive

Short Story Writing Contest.

2008-02-07T23:41:00.000-08:00

For aspiring writers, head over to BeboAuthor for the perfect writing contest. Totally free to enter and requiring no registration, the short story contest is open to anyone and other than erotica, all genres are accepted.

Just send in a short story of at least 1,000 words and win attractive prizes ranging from one year’s free hosting, including domain name, for a WordPress blog, one year Flickr Pro account, Amazon vouchers to Entrecard credits. So, put on your creative caps and submit your entries before March 21, 2008.

*About BeboAuthor (from the website) :

Elements Of Storytelling

"I first set up this blog to give those with author pages on Bebo a place to advertise and promote their work outside of Bebo. The aim of that was to have another way to get visits to their pages and hopefully a little bit of support and constructive criticism too. I began to review or advertise these author pages through my posts.

With that in mind, I felt that anyone interested in writing should have a place to promote their work which is why anyone can leave their links here in the link submissions page or else in the genre of their choosing. I occasionally talk about some of these unpublished works but I also review books, share any writer’s resources I find and talk about as many different areas of writing as possible.

I like the idea of writer’s sharing their ideas and readers having a chance to get to know writers who, with a bit of encouragement and advice, could someday be published. Although I have focused on young writers in particular, this blog should be for anyone interested in reading or writing."

Mangling Wednesday - What You Says?

2008-02-06T01:06:00.000-08:00

Mangling Wednesday is a new category that I am starting and is a light-hearted attempt to put into print the hilarious moments that I come across in my daily life - moments when the English Language is mangled in daily conversations.

There is no intention to mock anyone and neither am I as linguistically sound as I wish I was, and I am as susceptible to committing these faux pas as the next person.

Mangling Wednesday also features a fictional and pompous Professor X, and his attempts to correct, in his own words, " those grave grammatical sins!"

What You Says ?
(Overheard at a cafe about his date yesterday.)

"So, I asked her what she want to eat. She says: "I doesn't know. You choose ok!" So, we went to Long John Silver."
"So, what you all do next?" asked his friend.

Unable to contain himself any longer and biological programmed to correct grammatical mistakes, Professor X walked over to the two teenagers and with a huff, said :

Writing Wide
by Billie Williams

"First of all, when you are relating an event in the past, you should say ".....what she WANTED to eat," and it is 'she SAID' and not 'she says.'"

"It was also atrocious that your......girlfriend said : "I doesn't know!" Only 'he' or 'she' take a 'doesn't know' and 'I', 'you' and 'they' use 'don't know' or 'do not know'."

Turning to the friend : "And it is not "So, what you all do next?" but "So, what did both of you do next?"

"Furthermore, to inject eloquence into your conversations, use 'And' or 'Then' instead of the incessant 'So' that both of you are so fond of!"

The young man glared at Professor X for a second, then turned back to his friend and continued with gusto : "So, I says to her......."

For The Love Of Writing.

2008-02-03T10:18:00.000-08:00

Writing in itself is a remarkable experience. It is an act of discovery and of joy, and it gives meaning to thoughts, feelings, hopes and life. And writing a book is an even more impressive achievement - a labour of love that can take months, maybe even years. But what if we are lacking in the only tools we have for writing - our hands?

Imagine the severe limitations, the frustrations of being unable to express ourself in print if we are unable to use our hands to write those words that are crying to be written. But the human mind is, in fact, boundless, and here are some inspirational examples of authors who, through sheer determination and grit, transcended their physical limitations and produced brilliant works of literature :

1. The Diving Bell And The Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby.
About the author : Jean-Dominique Bauby was a prominent French journalist and editor of French Elle when he suffered a massive stroke in Dec 1995 at the age of 43. When he regained consciousness 20 days later, he was completely paralysed except for being able to move only his left eyelid.

Writing Method : To describe Bauby's method of writing as painstaking is a gross understatement as he literally wrote the 139-page book letter by letter. He would compose whole paragraphs in his mind, editing and memorising sentences for hours, got someone to recite the alphabet and he would blink when the letter he required was reached.

His Book : The Diving Bell And The Butterfly is a poignant memoir about living with Locked-In syndrome, a neurological disorder in which a person is of sound mind but almost completely paralysed. An extraordinary book that paints a luminous portrait of a mind dancing within a frozen body, it was an international bestseller and sold 150,000 copies in its first week of publication in France.

Wistful, witty and written with considerable humor, it is a remarkable tribute to the majesty of the human spirit. The book was also made into a movie in 2007 by American director, Julian Schnabel and won the Best Foreign Language Film at the 65th Golden Globe Awards.

Sadly, Jean-Dominique Bauby passed away two days after the book's release at the age of 44.

2. My Left Foot by Christy Brown.
About The Author : Christy Brown is an Irish poet and painter who was born with cerebral palsy. As a child, he was incapable of voluntary movements and despite the advice of the medical community to institutionalize him, his mother remained supportive of him. Remarkably, at the age of five, he grab a piece of chalk with his left foot and scrawled a mark - the letter "A"- on the floor, stunning his family in the process.

Writing Method : As suggested by the title of his autobiography, he used his left foot to write, type and even paint, but was also helped by his brothers, who recorded as he dictated.

His Book : Imprisoned in a world all his own and seemingly without any means to communicate, My Left Foot is an inspiring account of Brown's life and the struggles he had to overcome. Published in 1954, when Christy Brown was 22, it is a triumphant story of his battle to learn to read, write and paint, all with the aid of his left foot, and his yearning for acceptance and fulfillment. Giving readers a first-hand account of what it is like to be a person with severe cerebral palsy, My Left Foot is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

Christy Brown passed away in 1981 at the age of 49 and his book was adapted into a movie, with Daniel Day-Lewis as Christy Brown, in 1989.

3. A Brief History Of Time by Stephen Hawking.
About The Author : Recognised as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicist in history, Stephen Hawking was stricken with Lou Gehrig's disease when he was a 21-year-old graduate student at Cambridge University. He subsequently lost the use of his limbs and voice, and is now almost completely paralysed.

Writing Method : Using a special infra-red device which detects blinks from his eyes, he communicates with the computer attached to his wheelchair, allowing him to "type". Through an electronic voice synthesizer attached to the computer system, it also allows him to "speak".

The Book : A Brief History of Time, published in 1988, was an iconic piece of science writing which has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and was on the London Sunday Times bestseller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. Using a minimum of technical jargon, Hawking helps the average man understand highly complex topics like the origin and nature of the Universe, black holes and gravity with vivid clarity.

*Related posts :
- Poetry & The Innocence of Children
- Of Old Book Stores & Literary Gems.

Poetry And The Innocence of Children.

2008-01-28T08:53:00.000-08:00

They say children say the damnest things but children can also come up with beautiful poetry - simple and from the heart. Their innocence, together with an imbued ability to be in awe of the natural beauty surrounding us and the wonders of life as they grow up, makes them natural poets. Unlike most adults.

We lose something, don't we, as we aged and travel on this journey called life. Tempered by pragmatism and numbed by the harsh realities of life, we no longer feel inspired and rarely are there times of exhilaration or that "eureka" moment, and neither does life allows us the luxury to be melancholic or even time for self-reflection - all necessary ingredients for writing poetry and along with poetry, an appreciation for life.

I certainly can no longer come up with the poems that I had written in my childhood, poems that were kept in a dusty box and tucked away, and re-discovered recently in The Magic of Poetry. Sad actually, for poetry is the language of life.

So, it was with great delight that my 9 year-old daughter told me about her maiden effort at writing poems. Her "What Is Red?" was a simple but delightful piece of poetry that gave me more insights about her than many sessions of father-daughter chats.

Written with a natural rhythm, it shows me her ability to feel, to appreciate and enjoy the natural beauty surrounding us and the simple things that life has to offer, a fast disappearing trait in an age where children are sometimes rushed to grow up, taught to be like adults before their time, without enjoying the best times of theirs and everybody else lives - childhood. It also reminded me what I had lost.

That it came in 2nd after her teacher had submitted it to her school's poetry competition, makes me even prouder of her.

Poetry by
Wislawa Szymborska

What is Red?

Red
is a rose
as beautiful as can be.

Red
is an apple
as juicy as can be.

Red
is a chilli
as spicy as can be.

Poetry by Billy Collins

Red
is a strawberry
as sweet as can be.

Red,
my favorite colour
how beautiful
it is!
- By Teri
Aged 9.

"A poem begins with a lump in the throat, a home-sickness or a love-sickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where the emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the words." - American poet Robert Frost

* Related posts :
- The Magic of Poetry
- The Joy of Writing

*For more poems of startling originality :
- View with a Grain of Sand by Wislawa Szymborska
- The Best Poems of The English Language by Harold Bloom

Of Old Bookstores and Literary Gems.

2008-01-22T01:07:00.000-08:00

There is just something magical about old or second-hand bookstores that makes me feel at home. Sure, modern bookstores like Borders and Kinokuniya, all gleamingly bright, lushly carpeted, neatly merchandised and having the "hip" element makes them a nice place to shop but to me, nothing compares to the 60s' and 70s' feel that a run-down old bookstore have.

Perhaps it's only me, at an age where I start to miss the many old familiar landmarks, cultural icons and old neighbourhoods that are fast disappearing in the face of relentless modernisation, and old bookstores, with their musty smells of old books, dusty shelves and counters that have seen better days and haphazard merchandising methods that have no apparent system to them, represent a trip down memory lane - back to a time when I was a boy, spending many splendid afternoons browsing old books, rummaging through dusty tomes and the joy of unearthing literary gems. Almost like a time-machine.

So it was with great delight that I chanced upon an old bookstore, tucked away in a row of old shops, on a recent trip to town. And what a find it was, turning up 2 sizzling reads :

1. People Of The Book by Geraldine Brooks.
A Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction in 2006 for her novel, March, Geraldine Brooks' People of The Book is an epic and fascinating tale based on an actual 15th century Hebrew manuscript, the Sarajevo Haggadah.

Stunningly written, it begins in 1996 in Bosnia, where the rare book, feared destroyed, turned up in a bank vault and the task of analysing and conserving the book falls on rare book conserver, Hanna Heath. As she pores over the ancient manuscript, she finds tiny clues as to its history littering its pages - an insect wing, saltwater marks, wine stains and a fine white hair and begins on a journey to unravel the stories behind the book.

From anti-Semitic 19th-century Vienna to the Spanish Inquisition in 17th-century Venice to 15th-century Barcelona, People of the Book takes us on a journey of historical grandeur and spans centuries and continents, and follows the trials and tribulations of individuals who, driven by circumstances and conscience, created and preserved the Haggadah amid war and persecution. Breathing life into the history of a rare illustrated Hebrew manuscript, People of The Book is an electrifying tale that takes us on a journey from the Haggadah's salvation back to its creation.

2. The Solitude Of Emperors by David Davidar.
A former CEO of Penguin India and the author of acclaimed novel, The House of Blue Mangoes, David Davidar's new work is an unflinching look at fundamentalist beliefs in modern India.

Inspired by the Mumbai riots of the early 1990s' between Hindus and Muslims, Davidar's ambitious and disturbing new novel has Vijay at the heart of the story, a young man who left his suffocating small town home in south India to cosmopolitan Mumbai to work as a journalist for a small but respected magazine - The Indian Secularist. He finds himself in the middle of violent riots and sees the chilling effects of a country caught in a surge of fundamentalism.

Written as a novel within a novel, Davidar's deep understanding of India, its people and cultures is demonstrated by the colourful characters that peppered his story - from the idealistic Rustom Sorabjee, Vijay’s mentor and boss at The Indian Secularist, to his roommate Rao, the wastrel son of a wealthy landowner to the ganja-smoking, poetry-spouting and messiah-like Noah Yesudas. Brutal and honest, The Solitude Of Emperors is a stunningly perceptive novel about India and looks at intolerance and sectarian violence unflinchingly.

*Related posts :
- The Top 5 Books For 2007
- Great Books For The Holidays

Cassie Edwards Accused of Plagiarism.

2008-01-16T23:05:00.000-08:00

An article in the local newspaper recently caught my eye. Headlined :"Romance Novelist Accused of Plagiarism," the article - where popular romance novelist Cassie Edwards was criticised for allegedly using other writers' material in her books without attribution - actually stunned me.

Apparently, Cassie Edwards, the author of more than 100 novels with about 10 million copies in print, had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar after a romance novel website, SmartBitchesTrashyBooks, compared numerous excerpts from her novels with passages from magazines and non-fiction books found through Google's search engine.

Getting it right

One of the examples juxtaposed text from Edwards 1997 novel, Savage Longings, with a passage from George Bird Grinell's The Cheyenne Indians, an ethnography published in 1928. The plagiarism was startling with the stolen passages and words standing out like an ocean beacon shining in the dark of the night.

Worse, she has now angered the biggest name in the romance genre : Nora Roberts, the bestselling romance novelist whose works has sold hundreds of millions of copies. "Given the side-by-side comparisons I've read, it seems clear Ms Edwards copied considerably portions of previously published work and used them in her books without attribution to the original source. By my definition, copying another's work and passing it as your own equals plagiarism. As a writer, a reader and a victim of plagiarism, I feel very strongly on this issue," she told The Associated Press.

Plagiarism guide
And the accusations of plagiarism seems to be growing. In an interview with Newsweek, nature writer Paul Tolme, accused Cassie Edwards of copying his work on the endangered black-footed ferrets in her romance novel Shadow Bear.

What took the cake was Edwards defence. In an interview with Associated Press, she acknowledged that she sometimes "takes" material from reference books but did not know she was supposed to credit her sources. Come on! A writer with at least 25 years experience not knowing basic protocol and etiquette? Even much lesser mortals like me know the need to first ask permission and attribute accordingly any borrowed content, notwithstanding the doctrine of fair-use.

Having been a victim of content theft myself, I can certainly understand the anger felt by those whose works have been stolen by Cassie Edwards, but while plagiarism - something that is very common and happening with increasingly regularity in the Web - is a nasty habit that lesser mortals like me have to live with, it has never occurred to me that it can happen in the hallowed halls of established and published authors.

If the accusations are true, it just goes to prove that nothing is sacred anymore, not ethics or hard work - just instant gratification, money and fame. The joy and pride in the efforts that are needed for any success seem to be traits that are fast disappearing in modern society where the incessant need for instant success without wanting to put in the efforts required has led to an erosion of values like ethics, hard work and integrity. That it is happening in the hallowed halls of the literary world just makes it so much harder to accept.

*Further reading :
- Romance Novelist Accused of Copying - The New York Times.
- Paul Tolme Amused by Cassie Edwards - Newsweek.
- Plagiarism by BeboAuthor

* Other interesting literary news :
- The World's Most Published Author.
- Robert Ludlum & The Business of Ghost Writing.

A Life Unlive - An Untold Story.

2008-01-13T01:10:00.000-08:00

A Short Story By My Den
NO NAME.
"How is Patient No. 2 today?" Doctor Ang asked. "Same as usual, staring into space," replied nurse Devi. Entering the ward, Doctor Ang saw the back of Patient No.2, with her long white hair, sitting in front of the window. In her 70's, she is the longest-staying patient in the Institute of Mental Health. Nobody knew her name and all efforts to trace her family and relatives were fruitless. She was found dumped at the Institute's gate one morning 53 years ago.....

SICKNESS.
"Stop!, Ah Mui, no!," shouted her mother. Ah Mui was banging her head repeatedly into the wall, the living room was a mess of broken glass and porcelain. Blood was streaming down her face and dripping onto the floor. Since she was 8 years old, Ah Mui has been suffering from fits accompanied with violence and destructive behaviour. Now a teenager, she had on occasions, attacked her mother, siblings and even strangers during her frequent bouts of fits.

Writing guide

With her husband having abandoned the family and three other children to care for, Ah Mui's mother found it extremely hard to cope and care for her. There were also the gossips and friction in the family to deal with : "I think she is possessed, better don't go near her," neighbours would warned their children. "We cannot live here anymore as we are frightened of her. Ma, you have to do something!" implored the eldest son.

While her fits has always been a part of Ah Mui's life since she was young, it deteriorated rapidly 3 years ago when one day.......

3 YEARS AGO.
"Ah Seng, I am home!" shouted Ah Mui's mother. With no sign of her alcoholic husband, she started to call out to Ah Mui but instead heard crying coming from her room. The scene that greeted her in the room chilled her heart.

Writing guide
Ah Mui was crouching in a corner, her clothes in tatters and hair dishevelled with blood and bruises on her face. "What happened, Ah Mui?" she cried. All Ah Mui could uttered was : "Papa...he...very pain here..." she pointed to her groin. Ah Mui was only 11 years old.

Out of shame and not wanting to subject her family to further humiliation, Ah Mui's mother did not report the rape to the authorities. Since that fateful day, her husband has not been seen and Ah Mui's condition degenerated rapidly.

ABANDONED.
"Who is making all that noise so early in the morning?" Duty Nurse Chin grumbled, irritated that the loud wailing had woke her from her much needed rest. Looking out the window, she was shocked to see a young girl been tied to the gates of the Institute, wailing and struggling to be free of the ropes.

The magic of words

So began Ah Mui's stay at the Institute of Mental Health. For 53 years, Ah Mui had never talked, just the occasional mutterings that nobody understood. Staring blankly at the walls all day long, her nights were always accompanied by her wailings.

Each day passes placidly and for 53 years, Ah Mui never had any visitors, not her mother, siblings or relatives.

YESTERDAY.
Going through the paperwork, Nurse Devi just couldn't help being distracted by Patient No. 2 : "Just who was she ?," she wondered.

Patient no. 2 passed away in her sleep last night, leaving no trace of her identity. No siblings, relatives or friends were by her side when she slipped away.

*Author footnote :
As a reflection of the times and the stresses of living in a modern society, the incidences of people suffering from mental illness have being rising worldwide. A taboo subject in most societies, many are shunned, treated like pariahs and dumped at mental institutions by their families, just like Ah Mui, many.... with lives unlive.

*More stories by MyDen
- The Boy Who Saw Angels

A Pleasant Surprise From Blog Catalog.

2008-01-05T12:33:00.000-08:00

Five days into 2008 and what a way to start the new year!

A recent participation in Bloggers Unite In Acts Of Kindness, an event organised by Blog Catalog, had turned into an unexpected but pleasant surprise as my post was among the top 20 as announced in the campaign results.

While there was never an intention to participate for the purpose of winning any prizes or garnering attention, and especially in a kindness campaign where everyone participating is a winner, the unexpected result nevertheless provided a positive boost as the campaign included hundreds of bloggers around the world coming together in acts of kindness.

Taking part in Bloggers Unite In Acts Of Kindness has also changed the way i perceived certain things. To be honest, there was a certain discomfort with coming out with a post about my contribution to the campaign and the initial feeling i had when i realised that my...simple act was within the top 20 was actually one of embarrassment as within certain cultures, especially Asian, and definitely the older generation, drawing attention to good deeds is actually not the norm.

But having seen the viral nature of blogging, from the Myammar crisis - where local bloggers were the first to alert the world about the abuses by the regime - to Blog Action Day to the Bloggers Unite in Acts Of Kindness campaign, i realised a lot of good can actually come out if the message is spread. A reply by Rich of CopyWriteInk to my comment on his article about this campaign, aptly summed it up :

"It took me almost ten years to learn that sometimes the result of saying nothing is the same result as doing nothing. Times have changed. It used to be that everyone did good deeds and didn't talk about them. But something changed. People stopped doing good deeds because they believed they were the only ones. Nowadays, it requires a few brave people to stand up and say that they did something good to inspire others."

Bloggers Unite In Acts Of Kindness, with the multitude of bloggers who took part, clearly demonstrated that blogging can be an effective platform for change and reinforced the views in one of my earlier article - Blogging, Society and What It Means To Me - about the impact of blogging on society and its effectiveness as a platform for dissemination of information.

Like all the great innovations and ideologies in man's history that started with a simple idea or a conviction, it is to the credit of the administrators at Blog Catalog, most notably Tony, Nine, The GoodKnife and Rich, for having the gumption to come out with the campaign and harnessing the power of blogging to do something good for society, especially in a cynical modern world where acts of kindness are sometimes viewed with disbelief or as being hypocritical.

Bloggers Unite In Acts of Kindness have also reinforced a view that i had about Blog Catalog : It is an exceptionally unique blog directory and networking site. Unlike many other networking sites, their responsive behaviour towards members suggestions, most of whom are using the services for free, and genuine efforts in constantly improving the Blog Catalog experience for users is something that is very rare in the wild frontiers of the Web where almost everything is about building eyeballs and traffic in the shortest possible time, and the resultant monetary value they can fetch when these sites are sold.

Together with keeping a tight lid on spam, the Blog Catalog team have succeeded in creating a strong sense of belonging in its community members and in attracting large numbers of respectable and notable bloggers throughout the world, and as a result, the standards of the members' discussions is a notch or two higher than other networking sites, making them a delight to participate.

Blog Catalog is a networking site with a difference and with the social conscience it had recently displayed, truly deserves the "Premier" tag to its name.

If there is one New Year wish that i have to make, it will be to see Blog Catalog grow from strength to strength, to the size and popularity of MySpace or Facebook, while retaining its core set of guiding principles that made it such a wonderful experience.

*Related posts :
- Bloggers Unite In Acts Of Kindness
- Blogging, Society and What It Means To Me

The Top 5 Books And Most Memorable Literary Events For 2007

2007-12-31T08:01:00.000-08:00

The year is coming to a close and what a remarkable year it has been for the literary scene.

With the released of the much-anticipated last book of the Harry Potter saga, 2007 saw the magic of author J.K. Rowling. A record-breaking 11 million copies were sold on the first day in the United States and Britain and on that day, millions of children and adults read or flipped through the 607-page tome to find out the hero's fate. It was also the year that saw the world's most expensive fairy tales - The Tales of Beedle The Bard. A book of fairy tales created, handwritten and illustrated by author J.K. Rowling, The Tales of Beedle The Bard was bought by online bookstore Amazon for a record $1.95 million pounds at a Sotheby's auction.

Besides the frenzy generated by Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, 2007 was also a year of controversies with both J.K. Rowling, with her outing of Dumbledore as gay, and Philip Pullman, the author of the award-winning His Dark Materials trilogy, whose first book has been adapted into a movie - The Golden Compass, coming under attack by Christian evangelicals in United States for being unsuitable for children and promoting atheism.

2007 also saw the sad passing of Norman Mailer of renal failure at age 84. The literary icon and two-times winner of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, with The Armies of the Night in 1968 and The Executioner's Song in 1979, was noted for his acerbic wit, biting prose and as an antagonist of the feminist movement.

It was also a year of achievement for Irish author Anne Enright who won the Man Booker Prize award. Her 272-page tome, the Gathering which chronicles the disintegration of an Irish family, pipped five other contenders and hot favorites like British writer Ian McEwan and New Zealander Lloyd Jones for the award, netting her $52,500 pounds.

And in closing what had also been a wonderful and remarkable year of blogging adventure for me, here, with the last post of 2007, are the top five books that i have enjoyed reading :

TOP FIVE BOOKS OF 2007
1. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
After his stunning bestseller, The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most talented literary writers today. Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and the story of two women, Mariam and Laila, born a generation apart and brought together by war, by loss and by fate.

It is a deeply moving story of faith, family, friendship and the salvation to be found in love. As Mariam and Laila endure the ever escalating dangers around them, they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other which will alter the course of not just their own lives but of the next generation. A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship and an indestructible love.

2. The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon
From the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, comes a compelling novel of alternate history, a gripping whodunit and a love story with 1940s vibes. A what-if, the story is set in a present-day alternate reality in Sitka, Alaska, a safe haven for Jewish refugees after World War II and the collapse of Israel, and after nearly 60 years, the Federal District of Sitka is about to revert to American rule.

Into this setting comes Chabon's hero, Meyer Landsman, a drunken rogue cop, who wakes up one day to find a dead body next to him. Poignant, lyrical, hard-boiled and funny all at once, The Yiddish Policemen's Union's central murder mystery has its roots in the Biblical tale of the Messiah, who would one day lead God's chosen people to the promised land. With elements of an international terrorist thriller complicated by religious conspiracies, it is a haunting account of alternate history and demonstrates the power of a good story.

3. The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas
Voted as one of the best young writers in UK, Scarlett Thomas's narrative is a breathless one, a combination of postmodern philosophy, physics and spine-tingling science fiction, that propels you relentlessly like a bullet train. About a smart young woman, Ariel Manto, who stumbles upon a rare book by an obscure 19th century Victorian scientist at a secondhand bookshop and through the book, discovers the secret to accessing the "Troposphere", a universe of the collective unconscious and the ability to leap into the minds and bodies of other living beings.

This book is the literary equivalent of the science fiction movie, The Matrix, and is a rollicking adventure story with ideas about sub-atomic particles, existence and reality. A delirious valentine to the pleasures of reading.

4. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Composed of 108 short chapters, based on the beads in a traditional Indian prayer necklace, this beautifully written and heartfelt memoir comes across as scenes in a movie. Plagued with despair after a nasty divorce, the author made the difficult choice of leaving behind all the trappings of modern America and embarked on a soul-searching journey on the aspects of her nature amid three different cultures.

Exploring her competing urges for earthly delights and divine transcendence, Gilbert first savored Italy's buffet of delights - the world's best pizza and free-flowing wine, then spiritual rigor and seeking communion with the divine at a sacred ashram in India and followed finally by the seeking of balance between the two in Bali, where she studies with a merry medicine man and plunges into a charged love affair. Eat, Pray, Love is down-to-earth, honest, conveys infectious rapture and delight and recalls anguish with touching candor. It is a sprawling travelogue of soul-searching and self-discovery.

5. The City Of Joy by Dominique LaPierre
The last spot in my list is for a book that is at least twenty years old and into my seventh reading. Dominique LaPierre's heart-wrenching account of the lives of the poorest of the poor in one of Calcutta's most devastating slums, Anand Nagar - "The City of Joy"- touches at a visceral level.

From the dedication of Polish priest, Steven Kovalski, to Hasari Pal, an inhabitant of the slum, to American physician Max Loeb, the book is a searing vision of the struggle for survival of the poor. It is a story of hope and love amid all the devastating realities of poverty, desperation and death and is a testament to the majesty of the human spirit, unbowed by the most wretched of circumstances. City of Joy epitomized the philosophy of the Christopher Award it won in 1986 - "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness."

*Related posts :
- J.K.Rowling Under Attack
- The World's Most Expensive Fairy Tales
- Turmoil In The Kingdom of The Golden Compass
- Winner Of The Man Booker Prize 2007

J.K. Rowling's Tales Of Beedle The Bard - The World's Most Expensive Fairy Tales.

2007-12-21T01:30:00.000-08:00

Just as fans of J.K. Rowling eagerly await her next work, supposedly to be in the crime/thriller genre, out pops a collection of fairy tales - The Tales Of Beedle The Bard.

A book of fairy tales created, handwritten and illustrated by author J.K.Rowling, The Tales of Beedle The Bard has been sold for a record $1.95 million pounds at a recent Sotheby's auction, making it the world's most expensive fairy tales.

The astounding price the book fetched is a record on three fronts. It is the highest ever achieved at an auction for a modern literary manuscript, a record for children's fiction and a record for a work by Rowling. In keeping with Rowling's philanthropic character, all proceeds from the book's sale will benefit The Children Voice, a charity which campaigns for children rights in Europe which she co-founded with Emma Nicholson, a member of Britain's House Of Lords.

The 157-paged tome is one of only seven handmade copies in existence and is bound in brown moroccan leather and mounted with silver and semi-precious stones. The book is actually the volume of five wizarding fairy tales left to Hermione Granger by Albus Dumbledore in the Potter book, Harry Potter And The Deathly Harrows. One of the tales, The Tale Of The Three Brothers, appeared in the Deathly Harrows but the remaining four are told for the first time.

Rowling was naturally ecstatic with the record amount that the book garnered, "...this means so much to children in desperate need of help. It means Christmas has come early for me," she said. The book has been described by Rowling as a distillation of the themes found in the Potter books, calling it a farewell to the Potter world she has inhabited for she last 17 years. As for the remaining six copies of the Beedle book, it have been given to people closely associated with the Harry Potter series.

The buyer of the book is none other than online bookstore, Amazon, and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, truly seems to love books and understand the following that Rowling commands by displaying photos of the book together with reviews on the site. Interested readers can see it here.

While there are no plans currently by Rowling to publish the Beedle book for distribution, the burning question in my mind is whether the book will eventually be mass published for the public. As fairy tales are an intrinsic part of childhood, it will be a shame if the Beedle tales are confine only to the rich, and Rowling's large following of fans, most of whom are children (including some adults like me), are deprive of the enjoyment of such rich literature.

*Related posts :
- J.K. Rowling Under Attack
- What is J.K. Rowling Working On Next?
- The Next Harry Potter
- Life After Harry Potter

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Bloggers Unite In Acts Of Kindness.

2007-12-17T01:09:00.000-08:00

Having been bitten by the viral nature of blogging in my recent participation in Blog Action Day, today will be another special day where I will take a break from my usual fare of books and literature, and celebrate Bloggers Unite, a day where thousands of bloggers around the world unite in doing acts of kindness. With Christmas, a time for sharing and giving round the corner, Bloggers Unite In Acts Of Kindness is especially timely and these acts of kindness will definitely spread cheer and joy during this festive season.

After hearing about Bloggers Unite about a month ago at Blog Catalog, a blog directory, it got me thinking about what will be meaningful acts of kindness that will not only benefit disadvantaged individuals but also society as a whole, especially since environmental issues are very close to my heart, and i wanted to involve my 10 year-old daughter in the process as well. Well, this was what we did.

Since last Thursday till Saturday 15 Dec 07, with a van borrowed from a close friend, my daughter and I scoured almost the entire neighbourhood in my housing estate, collecting old newspapers, magazines and anything that is recyclable. A whopping total of about 415 kg of old newspapers and magazines, 22 kg of plastic bottles, 6 old mattresses and 1 mini hi-fi set were collected. The items collected was sold to a recyclable goods dealer, netting us a grand total of $197.75.

At a loss who to donate the money to, my daughter suggested taking part in the Boy's Brigade Sharity Gift Box project. Held during the Christmas season, the Boy's Brigade Sharity Gift Box project, in its 20th year, promotes the spirit of giving and sharing and distinguishes itself as a charity initiative that goes beyond monetary donations for the less privileged among us. Through various donation locations in the city, members of the public can choose to either donate daily necessities or fulfill a specific wish of a child, elderly or family to bring joy to their lives.

The entire $197.75 that we have collected was used to buy daily necessities like rice, canned food, beverage and milk powder plus a Barbie doll - a Christmas wish of a 9 year-old girl - and left at the donation box outside a local supermarket outlet.

While I am no Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, with their ability to donate millions to charity, the experiences and lessons learnt from these 3 days were priceless. Besides spending quality time with my daughter and inculcating the importance of helping the less fortunate, the large amount of recyclable goods collected in such a short duration reminded me of our social responsibilities and the importance of doing our bit to cut down waste, recycle, preserve and protect our environment.

Caught up in the maddening rat race in our competitive society, we sometimes forget about the less fortunate and disadvantaged among us, and taking part in Bloggers Unite In Acts Of Kindness has made me.... human again. It also reminded me that anyone can make a difference and effect change, all it takes is just a little bit of time and effort.

*Read more acts of kindness by :
- Cybercelt
- Lisa Mcglaun
- Matts Nutts
- Blog Catalog members

*Related post : A pleasant surprise from Blog Catalog

Christmas - A Time For Humanitarians.

2007-12-11T18:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas Celebration Series
Do you know of anyone or have relatives and friends with dead-beat jobs, desperately trying to obtain small loans or finance to start simple businesses to break out of their poverty cycle but were unsuccessful, as all financial institutions requires either collateral or an income that meets the borrowing criteria? Or have you met or heard of....knights in shining white armour, helping the poor with small loans to start simple enterprises, loans with easy-to-meet criteria and repayments terms? What about a story of a man who with just US$27 and through his beliefs and vision, started a revolution and created an institution that lifted millions of people out of poverty in the Third World through micro-loans?

Christmas, besides saints like Mother Teresa, is also a time for remembrance of humanitarians like Dr. Mohammad Yunus.

"......these millions of small people with their millions of small pursuits can add up to create the biggest development wonder." - Dr. Mohammad Yunus

Born on 28th June, 1940 in the village of Bathua, in Hathazari, Chittagong, in what was then Eastern Bengal, Mohammad Yunus was the third of 14 children of a successful goldsmith father. His father, believing in the importance of education, sent him to the United States where he graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Ph.D in Economics in 1970. He returned to Bangladesh in 1972 and took a chair in economics at the University of Chittagong. But it was his mother, Sufia Khatun, with her generous spirit of helping the poor, who was his biggest influence in his early childhood years and inspired him to a lifelong mission of helping the poor and the eradication of poverty.

In 1974, a time of famine in the country, Dr. Yunus led his students on a field trip to Jobra, a poor village in Bangladesh where they came upon a woman who struggled to etch out a living by making bamboo stools and learnt that she had to borrow capital, at outrageous repayment terms, to buy the raw bamboo for the stools she made. After repaying the usurious loan, she was left with just a penny profit margin, barely enough for subsistence. Shocked by the poverty surrounding him and the struggles of the poor, he realised that something is terribly wrong with the economics he was teaching, "What is the point of all these splendid economic theories when people around me are dying of hunger?" he asked himself.

Yunus took matters into his own hands and lent US$27 dollars out of his own pocket to 42 craftsmen in the village, telling them that they could pay the money back when they could afford to. He found out that with tiny loan amounts and the removal of usurious repayment terms, it was possible to not only help the poor and give them a chance to survive, but also create the spark of personal initiative and enterprise necessary to pull themselves out of poverty. He decided that there have to be an institutional solution and hit upon the idea of a bank for the poor.

Going against banking wisdom that loans to the poor are not viable and against the advice of many banks, government officials and even threats from violent radicals and warnings from the conservative clergy, Yunus's persistence finally secured a loan in Dec 1976 from the government-owned Janata Bank to start lending to the poor in Jobra. On Oct 1, 1983, what began as a pilot project to help the poor with micro loans became a full-fledged bank - the Grameen Bank, a bank for the poor.

Mohammad Yunus reversed conventional banking practices by removing the need for collateral and provided credit to the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh to start simple enterprises, and created a banking system based on mutual trust, accountability, participation and creativity. By 2206, in Bangladesh alone, Grameen has more than 2,200 branches serving 6.74 million borrowers in over 72,000 villages, 97 percent of whom are women. With more than US$6 billion in loans dispensed, Grameen boasts of a repayment record of over 98 per cent, a recovery rate higher than any other banking system.

Dr. Mohammad Yunus efforts in eradicating poverty did not stop with Grameen Bank. In the late 1980s', he started major social projects aimed at increasing agricultural yield and productivity for the thousands of peasant farmers like the Grameen Agriculture Foundation, Grameen Fisheries Foundation and Grameen Telecom. Projects like the Village Phone has brought cell-phone ownership to 260,000 rural poor in over 50,000 villages since the beginning of the project in March 1997.

With more than one billion people in the world living on less than one US dollar a day, the struggle against poverty is an existential struggle for survival. Through the granting of micro-credit, Dr. Mohammad Yunus has helped millions of the poor get out of the poverty cycle. He has given the poor a chance where none have existed before and promoted entrepreneurship that puts the poor, especially women, in the control of their lives. Even beggars are not turn away from Grameen bank as he firmly believes that alms destroy initiative and creates dependency. The story of Mohammad Yunus and the success of the Grameen initiative not only shattered stereotypes about the poor but also proves that the poor and disadvantaged are no different from you and me, they just needed to be given a chance. It is an inspirational story of how so simple an idea could have worked so well for millions of poor around the world.

Dr. Mohammad Yunus's tireless humanitarian efforts in eradicating poverty and uplifting the lives of millions of the poor have been widely praised and acknowledged, and has won many awards including the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the World Food Prize and the Sydney Peace Prize. Along with Grameen Bank, he was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 and is the author of Banker To The Poor. The success of the Grameen model of microfinancing has also inspired similar efforts in hundreds of countries throughout the developing world and even in industrialized nations, including the United States, Canada and France.

".....at the rate we're heading, we'll halve total poverty by 2015 and create a poverty museum in 2030," - Dr. Mohammad Yunus.

*Sources :
- Nobel Prize.org
- Mohammad Yunus.org

*Related post: Christmas - A Time For Saints

*Author's footnote :
This is the second of my "Christmas Celebration Series" - a celebration of the human spirit.

Turmoil In The Kingdom Of The Golden Compass

2007-12-04T12:24:00.000-08:00

With shades of the recent attacks on J.K. Rowling with her outing of Dumbledore as gay, here is another controversy generated by the movie The Golden Compass.

Book 1

Based on the award-winning trilogy His Dark Materials by British author Philip Pullman, the US$180 million film has been attacked by the Catholic League in the United States for promoting atheism - the belief that there is no god - among children. An e-mail campaign promoting a boycott of the film has been circulated among the Christian community.

Book 2

Author Philip Pullman's, whom the New Yorker once called England's most outspoken atheist, trilogy comprises of Northern Lights which was retitled The Golden Compass for the American release, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. The award-winning series, once hailed as the next Harry Potter, tell the tale of an orphan girl, Lyra Belacqua, who rescues children kidnapped by a mysterious and evil organisation.

Ironically, the uproar over The Golden Compass has been fueling book sales worldwide with major book retailers reporting a surge in sales of the trilogy. Even yours truly here has sold 3 copies of Northern Lights, 2 of The Subtle Knife and 1 copy of The Amber Spyglass through Amazon.

Book 3

Putting the controversy aside, Philip Pullman's trilogy is actually a good read, with breadth and depth matching the Harry Potter series. An adventurous fantasy tale of magic and wizardry, the series gallop along at an adventurous speed and celebrate universal values such as friendship, bravery, sacrifice and loyalty. The richly textured series come with an intelligent subtext which advocates free will and thought over slavish devotion to doctrinal authorities. And if one read between the lines, you will find that Pullman's tale is not about killing off God but removing an understanding of a God who is antiquated and resurrects a far more sophisticated divinity.

For fans of Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings, Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is a trilogy i highly recommend and its popularity has been acknowledged with more than 12 million copies sold worldwide.
Save 20% With The
Complete His Dark
Materials Trilogy

*Related posts :
- J.K.Rowling Under Attack
- The Next Harry Potter
- Great Books For The Holidays

Great Holiday Gifts For Children.

2007-11-29T14:50:00.000-08:00

Having done a post on great books for the holidays, it just doesn't seem complete if i did not come up with a selection of gifts for children, just like what my daughter pointed out to me : "What about gifts for children?" Being relatively clueless about what children would like for the coming festive holidays, i roped in my daughter and 11 year-old nephew to help me with the selection. So, here is a selection of gifts from Amazon that would bring on the smiles in a child's face :

Imported from Europe, this fun Happy Zebra bead frame on wheels is beautifully crafted of wood and wood beads and will keep little hands and minds busy for hours and develops fine motor coordination and critical thinking skills as the child slides beads across the tangle of wires. Washes easily with a damp sponge. Recommended ages 1 & up.
Size - 7" x 3" x 6".
Happy Zebra Bead Frame Play Toy on Wheels From Friendly Company. Price : $19.99

Delightful and adorable Monchhichi 8"Dolls. Based on the adventures of a monkey from the popular Japanese animated series "Futago no monchhichi", these cute 8" dolls are highly sought after collectibles by young and old.
Assorted Monchhichi 8" Dolls From Sekiguchi.
Price : From $15.95 onwards.

KidKraft Veranda Swivel Dollhouse , mounted on a 360 degree swivel, offers plenty of room for your child's dolls and her BIG imagination. With 24 pieces of furniture, 4 rooms and 2 levels, the included wooden doll family of four, can move in right away. Let your little one use their creative eye to arrange and decorate the living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. It's a dream house your little doll will love! Measures 23 1/2 x 2 1/4 x 8"
KidKraft Veranda Swivel Dollhouse From KidKraft
Special Price : $71.62

With Hasbro Transformers Cyber Stompin' Action Figures, kids can take control of the Autobots and rescue Earth from the ruthless Decepticons. Based on the characters from the 2007 summer blockbuster hit movie, "Transformers," this action figures series has battle sounds and features galore and will let kids relive all of the movie's best scenes. Recommended for ages 4 and up.

Assorted Hasbro Transformers Cyber Stompin' Action Figures.
Price : From $9.99 onwards.

Girls can style Princess Rosella for the royal ball as they sing along to favorite songs from the beloved "Barbie as The Island Princess" movie. The beautiful island rose becomes the microphone and girls can even record and play back their performances. Play set includes hairbrush, clips, faux makeup and a special tiara that girls can share with Princess Rosella.
Measures 11.5"H x 13.5"W. Requires 4 "AA" batteries, included. Barbie Island Princess Rosella Karaoke Styling Head From Mattel
Special Price : $34.99

The bride Giselle debuts from the blockbuster Disney movie "Enchanted," in stunning lightweight tulle and rich brocade with princess sleeves, gloves, a tiara and hair adorned with sprays of delicate faux flowers. Doll measures 12" tall.
Disney Giselle Fairytale Wedding From Mattel.
Special Price : $28.70

Based on Cartoon Network's smash hit - Ben 10, this game features a three-dimensional Omnitrix that tells players what alien they turn into. Will it be the one they need to fight the villain they just encountered? If it is, you've captured it and continue on to your next challenge. For 2 to 4 players ages 7 and up.
Ben 10 Total Transformation Game From Pressman Toys
Price : $14.99

Attach Jedi Starfighters to hyperdrive rings and blast off into hyperspace. Removable Jedi Starfighter features retractable landing gear, multi-position wings and an opening cockpit that can seat Obi-Wan Kenobi or the firstever Kit Fisto minifigurine. Hyperdrive ring features flick-launching missiles and opening starfighter connection plates. Size 11.34"H x 18.92"W x 2.83"D.
LEGO® Jedi Starfighter™ with Hyperdrive Booster Ring
Price : $49.99

Discover the fantastic micro-world of ants with Forest Ants, of the Antquarium range. An educational and interactive game, learn how ants build tunnels and their habitat in a blue transparent Gel, while a rain forest grows on the gel surface.The tiny Forest Ant Ecoterrarium measures 5" x 3-1/2" x 1"
Globus Space-Age Ant Habitat, Antquarium From Noted
Special Price : $19.99

*Related post : Great Books for The Holidays

Christmas - A Time For Saints.

2007-11-24T08:05:00.000-08:00

Christmas - a joyous occasion where millions of people around the world celebrate the joys of love, the wonders of giving and the importance of family. A time of togetherness when children and adults alike, dream of wishes come true. And what would my Christmas wish be?

Like parents around the world, I wish for happy, peaceful and joyous lives for my family and children. But with the way things are in the world now - the crisis in Darfur, strife in Middle East especially Iraq, extreme poverty in many parts of Asia, foreclosures and bankruptcies of millions of people affected by the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the multitudes of people displaced by natural disasters - I also wish for more advocates of peace through non-violent means like Mahatma Gandhi, many more humanitarians like Dr. Muhammad Yunus and Dr. Paul Farmer, freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela but above all else, I wish for more authors of compassion and love like Mother Teresa and Polish priest Stephen Kovalski.

Christmas is a time for remembrance of saints like Mother Teresa.

"To care for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone." - Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity

Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born on 26 August 1910, in Skopje, Yugoslavia, of Albanian parents. Fascinated by stories of the lives of missionaries and their service at an early age, she left home at age of eighteen and entered the Missionary Order of the Loreto Sisters, taking the name of Teresa in memory of the little Flower of Lisieu, the patron saint of missionaries.

On January 20, 1931, she came to Calcutta, then the largest city of the British Empire after London and served as a teacher at the Loreto convent school in eastern Calcutta. For sixteen years, she taught geography to daughters of the well-to-do in British and Bengali society and although Mother Teresa enjoyed teaching at the school, she was increasingly disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Calcutta. One day in 1946, on a train journey to Darjeeling, a town on the slopes of the Himalayas, she heard a voice.

God was asking her to leave the comfort of the convent and live among the poorest of the poor in the vast city beyond. In 1950, having obtained permission from the Pope, she started the order of the Missionaries of Charity, a congregation which began as a small order with 13 members in Calcutta. Today it has more than 4,000 nuns running orphanages, AIDS hospices, caring for the poor, the blind, disabled, aged and homeless, and victims of floods, epidemics, and famine and has several thousand charitable foundations throughout India and the world.

In 1952, an incident gave birth to "Nirmal Hriday - the Place of the Pure Heart - Home for Dying Destitutes." It was June 1952 and the time of the monsoons when Mother Teresa stumbled upon an old and dying woman outside the Medical College Hospital in Calcutta. The old woman was hardly breathing and her legs had been gnawed to the bone by rats. Mother Teresa scooped the old woman in her arms and ran into the hospital, depositing the dying woman in a stretcher. "Take that woman away immediately!," an hospital attendant intervened. "There is nothing we can do for her." Mother Teresa took the dying woman and set off to another hospital. Suddenly, she felt the woman's body stiffened and realized that it was too late. "In this city, even the dogs are treated better than human beings," she sighed.

So was born "Nirmal Hriday - the Place of the Pure Heart" - a place for the dying to appear before God in dignity and love. Those brought to the home received medical attention and were given the opportunity to die with dignity, according to the rituals of their faith; Muslims were read the Quran, Hindus received water from the Ganges, and Catholics received the Last Rites. "A beautiful death," she said, "is for people who lived like animals to die like angels — loved and wanted."

Taking in dying destitutes was only a first step for Mother Teresa, for the living too needed care and among the most neglected of the living were the abandoned newborn babies that might be found in a gutter, on a rubbish heap or in the doorway of a church. On February 15, 1953, she founded "Shishu Bhavan - the Children's Home of the Immaculate Heart," and welcomed its first guest, a premature baby wrapped in a piece of newspapers and left on a street pavement. "Shishu Bhavan" was to serve as a haven for thousands of discarded babies, orphans and homeless youth.

After the dying and the abandoned children, Mother Teresa turned her attention to the most wretched of Indian society, the lepers. At Titagarh, a shantytown in an industrial suburb of Calcutta, she constructed on land borrowed from the railway company, a haven to harbour the worst leper cases, bringing them medicine, dressings and words of comfort. She named the hospice, "Shanti Nagar - the City of Peace."

For over forty years, Mother Teresa ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, the unwanted and dying in Calcutta, and her selfless dedication and compassion for the underprivileged has been widely recognised and acclaimed throughout the world. She has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize in 1971 and the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding in 1972. She was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her humanitarian efforts.

Mother Teresa passed away on September 5, 1997, nine days after her 87th birthday. At the time of her death, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity had over 4,000 sisters, an associated brotherhood of 300 members, and over 100,000 lay volunteers, operating 610 missions in 123 countries. Following her death, she was beautified by Pope John Paul II and given the title "Blessed Teresa of Calcutta."

"....but I found the poverty of the West so much more difficult to remove. When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread, I have satisfied. I have removed that hunger. But a person that is shut out, that feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person that has been thrown out from society - that poverty is so hurtable and so much, and I find that very difficult." - Mother Teresa's Nobel Prize speech

*Sources :
- Nobel Prize org.
- Wikipedia
- City Of Joy by Dominique Lapierre

*Author's footnote :
Beginning today right up till Christmas, there will be a series of articles dedicated to humanitarians who have made tremendous contributions to society and these articles - the "Christmas Celebration series", will truly be my Christmas celebrations - the celebration of the human spirit.

*Related post : Christmas - A Time For Humanitarians

In Memory Of Gary Jennings.

2007-11-23T01:04:00.000-08:00

Norman Mailer, an American literary icon, passed away this week but today's post is not about him. Instead it is dedicated to a personal literary icon of mine - Gary Jennings, who passed away in 1999, something which I had belatedly found out.

Going down memory lane, I remembered browsing at a local book store some twenty years ago and chanced upon Aztec whose synopsis about the life and times of a lost civilization looks interesting enough for me to buy it. And what a find it was!

Meticulously researched and exceptionally well written, I was spell bounded by the unique prose, wit and bawdy spirit of the epic novel. The breathtaking story of the protagonist's, Dark Cloud, adventures as a warrior and traveling merchant in what the Aztecs called The One World, was a novel of heroic dimension.

Rich with memorable characters and colorful exoticism, it was an epic tale full of surprises and led me on a wonderful journey back to a time now lost. Jennings's Aztec world was filled with vivid details and written with an authenticity that is hard to matched. Over the years, Aztec is one of the few novels in my collection that I had read many times and remains one of my all time favorites.

Besides the evident amount of research Gary Jennings pours into his historical epics, he also has this special ability to imbue his protagonists and characters with an irrepressible and zany lust for life, exotic wit and roguish charm, so much so that a reader wants to identify with them.

Who can be untouched by the adventures of Dark Cloud or the loss of his wife and daughter? What about the Goth, Thorn, the protagonist in Raptor and his spell bounding narration of his tempestuous exploits through his exciting journey across Europe at the time of the Roman Empire? Or Jennings's take on Marco Polo in Journeyer? His men and women were eccentric, always roguish and unabashedly bawdy. Jennings enlivened their adventures with an energetic prose and a narrative drive that many believed unique to historical fiction.

Nearer to our times, Jennings's Spangle was another tour-de-force of fascinating circus lore set in nineteenth-century Europe, with its stolid innkeepers to drinking poets amid a continent on the brink of change and the emergence of the new nations of Italy and Germany. The journey brings us from the impoverished post-Civil War South to the decadent courts of Europe, the grim of the Russian Czar and finally to Paris under wartime siege.

To the literary world, Gary Jennings was acknowledged as a man of intellect and erudition. His novels were international best sellers, praised for their stylish prose and widely acclaimed for the years of research he put into each one. To me, he was a rare literary great that comes once in a while and I mourn the loss of such a great icon in historical literature.

Thank you very much, Gary Jennings, for the memories.

"I'm a writer. I write not only for a living, I write because I'm a writer."
- GARY JENNINGS

* Gary Jennings other works :
- The Rope In The Jungle
- Sow The Seeds Of Hemp
- The Terrible Teague Bunch

* As Gabriel Quyth
- The Lively Lives of Crispin Mobey

*Reference :
- Gary Jennings net

*Related post :
- A Blast From The Past - My Journey With Stephen King

Great Books For The Hoildays.

2007-11-22T01:02:00.000-08:00

Whenever anyone ask me what i would like for a Christmas gift, my answer has always been books, even when i was a young boy. I still remember the thrill of receiving my first book, Moby Dick, as a Christmas present from a dotting aunt when i was about 10 years old. The excitement and joy was simply beyond words.

Unlike other gifts, books to me are timeless and i experience the same joy, if not more, when reading a book a second or even a third time round. There is just something about books, maybe it's their texture, the smell of printed paper, the visual impact of the cover or the promise of a wonderful journey, that make books so attractive to me. So, here is a selection of books from Amazon.com and with 34 per cent off books over $25, would make wonderful gifts for the coming festive holidays :

INSPIRATIONAL


Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Yo... by Joel Osteen $11.19	The Secret $13.17	You: Staying Young by Michael F. Roizen $15.60

Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, ... by Tony Dungy $16.19	Conversations with God : An Uncommon Dialog... by Neale Donald Walsch $16.29	Basic Black $14.97

Become a Better You by Joel Osteen $13.75	Five Wishes by Gay Hendricks $10.80	Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld $14.97

NON-FICTION


I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert $16.19	Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert $8.99	90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper $7.79

Three Cups of Tea:One Man's Mission to Pro... by Greg Mortenson $8.99	Clapton: The Autobiography by Eric Clapton $15.60	The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New ... by Alan Greenspan $20.99

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks $15.60	The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls $8.99	Rescuing Sprite by Mark R. Levin $13.20

FICTION


Love in the Time of Cholera (Oprah's Book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez $8.97	Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen $8.37	The Gathering (Man Booker Prize) by Anne Enright $8.40

The Choice by Nicholas Sparks $13.74	A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini $14.27	World Without End by Ken Follett $19.25

The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold $13.74	The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta $16.47	The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield $10.20

*Related posts :
- August sizzling reads
- This week's bestsellers

Red Clay Media - The Right Partner For Mortgage Lenders.

2007-11-21T08:34:00.000-08:00

It is the time of the year where celebrations are in order but i cannot help sympathizing with the plight of the people who were affected by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis. Defaults on mortgage loans in the US are at their highest in years and the damage to homeowners is extremely severe. There are already more than 1 million foreclosures in 2007 and many more people are facing the prospect of losing their homes, and are going through painful bankruptcies when they should be enjoying and celebrating the festive season.

Other than home owners, an estimated 110 mortgage lenders have collapsed, with US investment firm Bear Stearns and Northern Rock in UK becoming the poster boys of the crisis in sub-prime mortgages, and the troubles have spread beyond sub-prime mortgages to so-called Alt-A mortgages.

With the spectacular collapse of so many mortgage lenders and the expected contraction in the mortgage market, it seems only prudent that mortgage lenders should adopt currently available marketing intelligence services such as those offered by Red Clay Media, who generates premium mortgage leads of people who can actually afford to take out a mortgage.

Red Clay Media provides a range of solutions, specifically targeted at mortgage lenders, from acquiring exclusive mortgage leads, live transfer mortgage leads to online mortgage lead generation. With exclusive mortgage leads, all the leads come pre-qualified and are ready to buy, with all the screening work done by Red Clay Media. Their online mortgage leads can help mortgage lenders set up multiple internet marketing campaigns to drive leads directly to their sites. Together with their network of websites that generate quality leads for refinance, debt consolidation and new home loans, mortgage lenders can lower their cost per funded loans by as much as 40 per cent.

Rather than adopting aggressive marketing campaigns that push financial products and homes at people who actually cannot afford them and contributing to defaults and foreclosures, using targeted marketing intelligence services and exclusive mortgage leads generation offered by Red Clay Media is the way to go for mortgage lenders.

The Magic Of Poetry.

2007-11-04T02:39:00.000-08:00

A bit of spring cleaning done over the last week, in view of the coming festive seasons, turned up something unexpected. Lying inside an old, dusty and out-of-shape box in my store room was a scrapbook containing poems which I had written a lifetime ago, when I was a boy.

Looking through them brought back memories of a time long gone. The places and neighbourhoods that I grew up in - changed beyond recognition by modernisation, and the childhood friends that, for one reason or another, have drifted apart and lost contact with. It reminded me of what it was like to be a child - innocent, naive, full of hope and optimism and also, the regret of passing into adulthood. How I missed those simple childhood days!

Days spent flying kites and playing marbles, hunting for fighting spiders, catching fish and grasshoppers and the wonder of puppy love for the girl with the twin pleated long hair. So, what is it about poetry that, through a few simple sentences, is able to evoke such feelings?

Poetry, meaning "I create" in ancient Greek, is a human language art form and is a powerful way of expressing feelings and ideas. Like art, the beauty and magic of poetry lies in the eye of the beholder and is subjected to different interpretations. It is intangible, an act of self-discovery and defines deep feelings and emotions. It is intense, captures distilled perceptions and is personal and unique to its author.

Poetry has the ability to take us on a journey, to places we have never been before. It is everywhere - in nature, in the moment we look into the eyes of those we love, in the depth of one's soul, in our memories and in the flashes of our childhood.

Poetry is there for you to contemplate - "It is as it is."

Mother
Once,
my tears
were dried
by you
but no
longer.

Once,
i loved you
but no
more.

Yet,
my mind
is full
of you.

Not,
as a
mother
but a
long lost
friend.
- My Den (circa1971)

Emptiness
Night time is overtaking me
as daylight falls behind.
My life is slowly losing
the sparkle and shine.

A life filled with promises
and empty bottles of wine.
This loneliness is beginning to

encloak me,
I've lost all sense of time.

Self-pity overwhelms me,
I've begun to lose my mind.
While death is overtaking me
and daylight falls behind.
- My Den (circa 1976)

"A poem begins with a lump in the throat, a home-sickness or a love-sickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where the emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the words." - American poet Robert Frost

*For more poetry of startling originality :
- The Eye Of A Poet by Billy Collins
- Each Happiness Ringed By Lions by Jane Hirshfield
- View With A Grain Of Sand by Wislawa Szymborska
- The Best Poems Of The English Language by Harold Bloom

*Related post : The Joy Of Writing.