A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle

Spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle, who was a research scholar at Cambridge University, England, has been inspiring Oprah Winfrey since he wrote his first book, The Power of Now. In A New Earth, published in 2005, Tolle shows how negativity and unhappiness is a disease on our planet. People believe themselves to be dependent on what happens for their happiness, that is to say, dependent on form and trapped in their egos. People don't realize that what happens is the most unstable thing in the universe. It changes constantly. The joy of Being, the only true happiness, cannot come to us through any form, possession, achievement, person, or event. It emanates from the formless dimension within us, from consciousness itself after we allow the diminishment of the ego.

The author identifies the many faces of the "Ego" (the voice in the head that pretends to be you), which is the culprit of our mental suffering that the author calls "The Pain-Body". He provides simple solutions for getting rid of the noise in the head and focusing on the present moment, by giving examples from the Bible and Zen Buddhism.

What We're Reading:The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is one of those rare books that you'll want to hand to everyone you know and say, "Here, read this!" It is a celebration of the healing power of literature, love, and the human spirit.

Through a series of letters, you meet Juliet Ashton, an English author whose personal losses during the Second World War have not diminished her humor, sense of fair play, or love of the written word. One day she begins a correspondence that changes her life forever. A man, Dawsey Adams, has come across a secondhand book with Juliet's name in it. He writes to ask her if she knows of any other books published by the same writer. Dawsey lives on Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands recently liberated from Nazi control, and has been out of touch with England throughout the war years.

Thus begins to unfold the story of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and the brave men and women whose love of good books helped them survive the terrors and deprivations suffered under German occupation. Juliet is soon captivated by their stories as she comes to know the members through their remarkable correspondence.

You'll laugh, you'll cry, and frequently forget that these are only characters in a book, not your friends and neighbors. Before long, you will have fallen in love with these Guernsey Islanders. Their story is like a beautiful bouquet of rose buds. As the flowers bloom, more and more layers are revealed.

Sadly, Mary Ann Shaffer, the author of this enchanting tale, passed away before she could see the amazing popularity of her book. Her niece, Annie Barrows, completed the book for publication. Before her death, Shaffer wrote "I hope too that my book will illuminate my belief that love of art--be it poetry, storytelling, painting, sculpture, or music--enables people to transcend any barriers man has yet devised."

Read and enjoy!

What We're Reading: American Wife

When I discovered that Curtis Sittenfeld, author of Prep, had a book due out in September, I was elated. When I was informed that it would use the life of Laura Bush as its inspiration, I was uncertain. I didn't necessarily want to put a face to the characters and, in bedroom scenes, definitely not. (Reaction? Mild embarrassment and fascination, coupled with horror.) Sittenfeld is a master of the coming-of-age female voice, however, and I was immediately drawn in and reluctant to do anything other than read. It even won out against the Xbox 360, which had admittedly seen way more of my time over the past month than other sedentary activities. (1000 achievement points in Viva Piñata, yay me.)

You may think you know what such a book would be, but you don't, really. At least, I didn't. Her life as first lady comes late in the novel. It feels a little like an afterthought, actually. The main excitement and drama comes at the beginning, when a sudden and unexpected tragedy occurs that colors the rest of the story. Family dynamics and social classes, familiar themes in both of her earlier novels, get the chance to "grow up" with the main character of Alice. That she started her life as a librarian is one of the many reasons I grew to love the character, and I can't help but wonder what is based in truth and what is fantasy. My main and only complaint with American Wife is that the jump from governor's wife to first lady is awkward. So much care and detail is poured into the first part or her life, from childhood to early motherhood, that the second part has no other choice than to accelerate. Much of her life in the governor's mansion is also intermixed here, which is confusing. In fact, there's enough past-present fluctuations here to befit a particularly engrossing episode of Lost, though it doesn't quite work here.

THAT SAID, it is an excellent book and she does tie everything together nicely by the end. If you're looking for a fast-paced read with richly described characters and more than a little scandal, this would be it. Links to the catalog are forthcoming.

New This Week in AskWiki

Here’s an entire page of dyslexia resources: Dyslexia
There's a new "green" business organization site:
Co-op America whose mission is to "to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society",admirable, indeed.
There's California earthquake aftershock map from the US Geological Survey, and a directory of consumer blogs from Consumer Reports.
Box Office Mojo has movie info and Cyndi's List is a useful resource for genealogical research.

Gay Teens: Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You
BY PETER CAMERON

The title is from the Roman poet Ovid, “Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.” The pain explored in this novel is that of adolescence, a time when, unfortunately, the poet’s assurance is not likely to seem very reassuring or of much consolation. Our hero James Sveck bungles terribly an attempt to let the manager of his mother’s art gallery know that he is interested in him. His life is one of boredom, alienation, awkwardness and mystification. James, with reason, may doubt if the embarrassment and pain ever come to be useful when he looks at the adults in his life. His divorced parents have not managed the issues of love and belonging any better than James has it would seem. His father is a self-absorbed prominent lawyer getting a facelift and his mother has opened a modern art gallery in New York where James idles away his summer hours as the receptionist. She has just returned alone from an unfortunate honeymoon in Las Vegas where her third husband, met with the assistance of her “life coach,” has stolen her credit cards and gambled away a good deal of her money.

But for all of their inability to understand and navigate the important issues in their own lives, his parents have definite plans for James and know what will be best for him. He has just graduated high school. Their expectation is that now he will attend Brown University in the fall and begin avidly the vaguely sterling career that awaits him. James doesn’t want to go, finds those his own age boring, and he has spent a lot of his summer locked in his New York apartment taking virtual real estate tours of older houses located in Midwest suburbs. The alienation of their son from all the values and expectations of their world, and even from those of his own age group, are incomprehensible to his parents. They have found him a psychiatrist.

James is gay, but this is a novel not so much about being gay as it is about the perennial issues that come with adolescence, the existential questions about meaning, about what is of value, about how to make connections with other people, about how one fits in, and about finding love. James comes to understand what all teenagers come to realize to their secret horror and chagrin, that our parents are pretty useless as you cross the divide. Cameron softens this hard truth with a tender yet urbane comedy of manners, something readers are likely to find a stylistic novelty in books for young adults. James is a highly intelligent young narrator, an exasperating match for the adults in his life as he challenges the truth of their arguments and the value of their advice. His exchanges with his parents are amusing, the scenes where he explains the “modern art” art in his mother’s gallery to reviewers and customers are hilarious, and his tug of war with his psychiatrist will have you cheering.

James, like his literary progenitor, Holden Caufield, has discovered much “phoniness” in the world, but this is ultimately a sweet and hopeful novel. We come to care for James and we don’t imagine a future for him of resignation to any conventional role in the sad theatre of the world. As we leave him we sense a strength in his stubborn intelligence and share a trust in his instincts. He has seen through what is meretricious and phony, but he has too a sense of what is genuine. It may not save him any pain, but we believe it might just see him through.

College Freshman: Class of 2012

Beloit College Mindset List: 2012

Each August for the past 11 years, Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation.

This month, almost 2 million first-year students will head off to college campuses around the country. Students entering college for the first time this fall were generally born in 1990.

The Mindset List is not a chronological listing of things that happened in 1990, the year they were born. It is instead an effort to identify the worldview of 18 year-olds in the fall of 2008. The list identifies the experiences and event horizons of students and is not meant to reflect on their preparatory education.

For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

First 10 of 60:
~ Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
~ Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
~ They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
~ GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
~ Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
~ Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
~ Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
~ Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
~ Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
~ Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.

Check out the complete lists for 2012 - 2002 @ Beliot College

It's OK If You're Clueless: and 23 more tips for the college bound
by Terry McMillan
378.198 MCMIL

What We're Reading: City of Thieves

It appears I am on a WWII kick. This time, it takes the form of a very somber, suspenseful novel set in Russia. In City of Thieves by David Benioff, two unlikely men - a teenage boy accused of looting and a Red Army soldier accused of desertion, are spared execution from their comrades in exchange for an odd (and impossible) task. The colonel demands they locate a dozen eggs for his daughter's wedding cake. Should they succeed, they will be pardoned. Should they fail, they will die. It's truly a nail-biter, wondering if one or the other will even live long enough to find the ingredients before the deadline. (This is the grandfather's story to his grandson, however, so you're fairly certain he will make it out alive.) No matter - there are enough characters you grow to care about that you long for a happy ending even as the darkness looms and blood is shed.

Lĭt / uh / ruh / sē Äw / fĭs

Simple English Wikipedia

Just about everyone has heard about Wikipedia.
Did you know there is a ' Simple English Wikipedia ? '
It has over 34,000 articles written in plain, basic English.

Here is a sample from the article on the violin:

The violin is a string instrument that is played with a bow. The violin has four strings which are tuned to the notes G, D, A, and E. The violin is held between the left collar bone (near the shoulder) and the chin. Different notes are made by fingering with the left hand while bowing with the right. It has no frets or other markers, so players have to learn the exact place to put the fingers of the left hand by memory alone.

The violin is the smallest and highest pitched instrument in the string family. The other instruments in the family are: viola, cello and double bass. A person who plays the violin is called a violinist. A person who makes or repairs a violin is called a luthier.

Fans of Burbank Public Library

Vivek Chauhan
My life and travel log

Monday, July 28, 2008

Bowled over by ..

The library... yesterday I visited the Buena Vista Library of Burbank and nothing has impressed me more in US. Its a public library which is free for the residents in Burbank. The collection and variety of books and DVDs is phenomenal and guess how many of them can be borrowed at a time...?? 50 (for all practical purpose its unlimited.. unless one wants to create another library at home). The staff is friendly, space is sufficient, collection is huge and I can go on but I would rather spend my time now on reading the books I have borrowed from there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/burbanklibrary/

http://www.burbankreads.blogspot.com/

What We're Reading: The Candy Bombers

The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour by Andrei Cherny

This book delves into the aftermath of WWII, when the Americans, Russians, English and French begrudgingly set up residence in the land of their enemies and sectioned off the whole of Germany and, on a smaller scale, Berlin. At first, the nations generally got along peaceably. Gradually, tensions and differing ideologies bubbled to the surface, resulting in an east-west divide and the threat of nuclear war. In the midst of the conflict were the Berliners, loathed by their occupiers and starving amidst the rubble of the war. The Soviets raised a blockade which prevented any of the necessities from entering by land into West Berlin, making matters even more dire. It was becoming ever more likely that the other nations would have to surrender the territory and risk the spread of Communism.

And, yes, there was candy. It should be noted that the promised candy did not appear until well into the second half of this hefty, 500+ page book. That said, it was worth the wait. An airlift was set up to bypass the blockade and bring food, coal, and other items into the city. Its contents were barely enough to keep the Berliners alive. In fact, it was laughably inadequate. However, from those planes rained down chocolates and sweets that the Berlin children had never tasted. This act of kindness was enough to turn the tide. Highly recommended, especially for those who are not familiar with the post WWII years or the presidency of Harry Truman.

What we're listening to: "Harps and Angels" by Randy Newman.

Recent years have seen Randy Newman focused upon recording film scores and songs for animated movies. His recent release of "Harps and Angels", his first new album of songs since 1999, posed the to this listener the question, "Does Randy Newman still have it in him to write worthy additions to his songbook of dark twisted characters and their ironic/satirical commentary on life, love and the USA"?

From the most appropriate opening line, "Hasn't anybody seen me lately, I'll tell you why" which begins the title song, a nice little take on a near death experience, complete with Heavenly intervention [a clerical error], Randy shows that he is still the smartest songwriter alive. Musically, Newman does what he does best, create tunes while catchy, use a full and rich pallet of his composer's arsenal, horns, strings, mixed in with his New Oreleans flavored piano as only he can. Less rock 'n' roll this time out, and more in the flavor of his "Sail On" days. Lyrically, Randy takes aim at many topics: the state of America [A few words in defense of our country] [how many songs feature a reference to King Leopold of Belguim and the Congo?], the middle class [A piece of the pie] [I wonder what Jackson Browne feels about this one?], education and parenting with [Korean Parents] [a likely candidate for as much misunderstanding as his classic "Short People" was in its heyday, and also mixes in a few trenchant views on relationships in songs like "Losing you", "Potholes" and lastly, a new recording of "Feels like home" that was originally featured on his Faust soundtrack and maybe his most beautiful "normal" lovesong which appropriately concludes the CD with its last line of "Feels like I'm all the way back where I belong."

Yes indeed, Randy Newman is back where he belongs, in your CD or MP3 player, just be careful of singing along to his songs or you may sing things you might not want to admit to in public!

Visit Randy Newman's website.

Summer Olympics on TV

NBC Universal will present the most Olympic coverage in history with over 3,600 hours on NBC, USA, MSNBC, CNBC, Oxygen, Telemundo, Universal HD and NBCOlympics.com.

Coverage by Channel:

NBC
Weekends: 9 am-5 pm; 7-11 pm; 11:30 pm- 1 am
Mon-Fri: 10 am-1 pm; 7 pm-about midnight; 12:05 am-1:30 am

~ All gold 32 swimming gold medal finals, four key nights of men's and women's gymnastics, beach volleyball, men's and women's marathons, basketball, water polo, diving, cycling, track and field, rowing and whitewater canoeing.

USA Network: Midnight-10 am
~ USA men's and women's basketball and soccer, tennis, volleyball, water polo.

MSNBC: 3 am-3 pm
~ Softball, soccer, (including opening soccer matches), beach volleyball, wrestling, basketball, volleyball and weightlifting.

CNBC: 10 pm-2:30 am; 3 pm-6 pm
~ Boxing, long-form coverage of softball, tennis, weightlifting, wrestling and badminton.

Oxygen: 7 pm-9 pm
~ Gymnastics, equestrian and tennis.

Telemundo: 1 am-5 am; 6:30 am-9 am; 11 pm-midnight
~ Spanish-language coverage of soccer, basketball, gymnastics, diving, volleyball, track and field, swimming and baseball.

Universal HD: 24 hours
~ 24-hour high-definition simulcasts of Olympic events as well as repeats of CNBC and MSNBC coverage.

Video On Demand
~ Access recaps from Athens, previews of Beijing, Team USA profiles, daily highlights, and feature stories anytime through video on demand services by cable and satellite providers.
Comcast's Video on Demand will offer 60 pre-games shows including "Athens in Review," "Classic Moments," "Beijing 411," "Meet the Athletes" as well as next day highlights.

Interactive TV
News, medal counts, TV listings, Team USA profiles and more from NBCOlympics.com also will be available through interactive TV applications available through some cable and satellite providers.

Full TV schedules (all subject to change) available @
~ USA Today: can jump to specific day
~ On the Baseline: by Channel
~ Seattle Times: by time and events