Jackie "the Librarian"'s comments (member since Jul 09, 2008)

Jackie "the Librarian"'s comments from the True North group.

She's not avoiding you guys, she's just not near a computer. So, don't worry.

Maybe it has come back, and gone out again, Carlie. It may just be being passed around. Everyone wants to read that book, you know.

I was suffering from sleep deprivation, too, thanks to a cranky old cat and my night owl ways. I slept all day today. Must get out now while the sun's still up...

Here's another reworking of a classic, and this one I am DYING to read!

Pinocchio Vampire Slayer, by Dustin Higgins.

Horrified by the death of Geppetto to vampires, Pinocchio swears vengeance!

But unlike Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Pinocchio doesn't need to carry a stake. He just uses his NOSE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

And the review from The New York Times

http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/mov...

The National Book Foundation has announced the finalists for the 2009 National Book Awards. One debut fiction writer made the list, as well as three previous NBA finalists and the second graphic novel in the Awards’ history, Stitches by David Small.

Fiction
Bonnie Jo Campbell, American Salvage
Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin
Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders
Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite
Marcel Theroux, Far North

Nonfiction
David M. Carroll, Following the Water: A Hydromancer's Notebook
Sean B. Carroll, Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species
Greg Grandin, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City
Adrienne Mayor, The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy
T. J. Stiles, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt

Poetry
Rae Armantrout, Versed
Ann Lauterbach, Or to Begin Again
Carl Phillips, Speak Low
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Open Interval
Keith Waldrop, Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy

Young People’s Literature
Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
David Small, Stitches
Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/...

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What do you think? Have you read any of these? I've read Stitches, and am surprised to see it listed as a Young Adult title, because it is ADULT.

Yeah, Bun! Wanna see!

I just had a thought. If Obama hadn't won, who would you have liked to see win?

Did anyone stand out this year in advancing peace in the world?

Hah! I like your analogy, Bun.

No, I agree, Bun. Obama has done some impressive work on the world stage.
I wonder if our country is so used to disparaging its leaders, and so focused on what hasn't been done, that we just can't see what Obama HAS accomplished.

I bet the conservative commentators are having a field day with this.

Hah! I like your point about not sympathizing with the moon, Bun.
I'm sorry they didn't find a way to make viewing the event more interesting. They need to get the CNN team on it. If they can make red and blue states visually exciting, why not a moon CRASH?

Put things into different spectra, or something. Use slo-mo. Or super-closeup. I'm sure there's a way to make it cool.

Obama: Nobel Peace Prize is 'call to action'

(CNN) -- President Barack Obama said Friday that he was humbled by the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

President Obama, speaking Friday, said the award was "an affirmation of American leadership."

"I am both surprised and deeply humbled," Obama said at the White House.

"I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments. But rather as an affirmation of American leadership. ... I will accept this award as a call to action."

Obama said he did not feel he deserves "to be in the company" of past winners, but would continue to push a broad range of international objectives, including nuclear non-proliferation, a reversal of the global economic downturn, and a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

He acknowledged the ongoing U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, noting that he is the "commander in chief of a country that is responsible for ending" one war and confronting a dangerous adversary in another.

"This award is not simply about my administration," he said. It "must be shared" with everyone who strives for "justice and dignity."

The Nobel Committee said it decided to honor Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

The president had not been mentioned as among front-runners for the prize, and the roomful of reporters in Oslo, Norway, gasped when Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the Nobel committee, uttered Obama's name.

The Nobel committee recognized Obama's efforts to solve complex global problems including working toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said.

Jagland said the decision was "unanimous" and came with ease.

He rejected the notion that Obama had been recognized prematurely for his efforts and said the committee wanted to promote the president just as it had Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 in his efforts to open up the Soviet Union.

"His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population," it said.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/...
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Okay, I like Obama, and I think he's made some progress on the world stage, but even I think this is too soon for the Nobel committee.

Your thoughts?

It's lazy writing, Bun. Adults are easy targets, and it would take more work to make them complicated, three dimensional characters.

Good to know, Bun.

Yes! Perfect, Bun. Turnabout is fair play.

Definitely have to see that one. I think I could talk Chris into going. :)

My favorite was Tock, the watchdog. Who went "tick". :D

Me, either. I think Mary'd had enough horror in her life by then to easily be able to conjure up plenty of monsters in her writings.

If Percy could have claimed credit for the book, I'm sure he would have. I'm glad he didn't, it makes me think well of him.

Percy Shelley died in 1822 and so could not participate in the 1831 revision. But he did take a pen to the 1818 edition. The Shelley scholar Dr. Charles E. Robinson has gone back to the evidence, publishing the surviving portions of the original manuscript, which reposes at the Bodleian Library at Oxford. He carefully analyzed the original in order to distinguish Mary Shelley's handwriting from Percy's and determine who put which words on the paper. Percy deleted some words, added others, and occasionally suggested a line or two. The new edition italicizes all of the words added by Percy; they amount to 3,000 words in a manuscript of some 72,000. He hypothesizes that Percy also added words to the sections of the manuscript that did not survive and surmises that his total contribution was about 4,000-5,000 words.



Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/victoria-r...

Oh, man, that SUCKS! That's like an author giving co-author status to her editor.
Grrrrr.....