September 2007 Archives

Local author Judy Wolfman will lead an intensive one-day seminar, Get the Creative Jucies Flowing, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 20 at Martin Library, 159 E. Market St., York.

Christopher Hivner of Dallastown has had a collection of horror stories published as an electronic book.

"The Spaces Between Your Screams" can be found at www.etreasurespublishing.com.

So, which came first, the chicken or the egg?

So, which comes first, reading the book or seeing the movie? Rereading the book or reading about the film’s director and its young star?

I read the paperback edition of “Into the Wild” in 1997, a year after the hardback’s publication and about three years after author Jon Krakauer’s article on Chris McCandless in “Outside” magazine.

That young man — reborn as Alexander Supertramp — hiked into the wilds of Alaska in 1992, an innocent abroad.

Now, in 2007, with the movie already in some theaters and I hope soon coming to the York area, I thought it time to reread the book, to see if it still holds up a decade on.

Here is a review from one of our readers, Judy Wolfman of York:

I just finished reading "Hands Upon My Heart," by local author Perry Foster, and all I can say is WOW! Perry's personal account of what he experienced before, during and after his quadruple heart bypass surgery is a gripping story that wouldn't allow me to put the book down.

With the holidays approaching (yes, it's only September, but the holidays will be here before you know it), we're getting information about many of the new sports books that are coming out this fall.

Many of them could serve as great gifts for sports fans.

One new title is "Playing for Paterno" -- which is unique because it's co-authored by a father and son who both played for Joe Paterno at Penn State. The authors are Charlie Pittman, who played for the Nittany Lions in 1960s, and Tony Pittman, who played in Happy Valley in the 1990s. Between the two of them, they played on three of Paterno's five unbeaten teams.

According to the dust jacket of this book, which came out earlier this month: "Off the field, the Pittmans applied the lessons they learned from Paterno to achieve success in the business world."

"Playing for Paterno" is published by Triumph Books.

Numerius Popidius Ampliatus rebuilt Pompeii’s Temple of Isis in 62 A.D., some 17 years before Mount Vesuvius would bury the structure until its unearthing in the mid-1760s. Ampliatus is also one of the main characters of Robert Harris’ historical novel, “Pompeii.”

Volcanoes have to be one of the top wonders for a child — all fire and ash and liquid rock running red-hot. Other things can capture an imagination — sharks or the Titanic or stars — but mountains that explode are just the best.

And a volcano that buries whole cities? Absolutely, the peak.

And at that wonderful top, Pompeii and Herculaneum and the towering Mount Vesuvius just don’t let go after that first youthful introduction.

I bet Robert Harris was one of those day-dreaming kids. And now, as an adult author, he’s written “Pompeii,” an historical novel that lets you time travel back to southern Italy during the last days of August 79 A.D.

I always tell my kids that little things can mean a lot. In Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference,” we learn that little changes can have big effects.

This is an amazing book about how ideas, products, behaviors and messages spread, often starting with a few people, just like viruses until they reach a critical mass or “tipping point.”

I couldn’t put this book down. Gladwell uses examples from history (Paul Revere), fashion (the rebirth of Hush Puppies shoes), etc. to illustrate his point.

From The Associated Press

Author Robert Jordan, whose “Wheel of Time” series of fantasy novels sold millions of copies, died Sunday of a rare blood disease in Charlestown, S.C. He was 58.

Jordan, whose real name was James Oliver Rigney Jr., wrote a trilogy of historical novels set in Charleston under the pen name Reagan O’Neal in the early 1980s.

Then he turned his attention to fantasy and the first volume in his Wheel of Time epic, “The Eye of the World,” was published in 1990 under the name Robert Jordan.

"90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life” by Don Piper and Cecil Murphey

This book is not only for people who believe in heaven, but also for those who don’t.

The Rev. Don Piper was driving home from a conference when he was hit by a tractor-trailer. He and his car were so mangled that the police and EMTs pronounced him dead. As they waited for a coroner to arrive to officially pronounce him, the Rev. Dick Onerecker, another minister from the same conference, came upon the accident.

Set in October 2002, "Wild Fire" by Nelson DeMille involves an American right-wing plot to nuke two U.S. cities. The blame would be put on Middle East terrorists.

The intent is to implement an existing U.S.government plan called Wild Fire, setting off a nuclear attack to wipe out most of the Middle East. Such a plan is rumored to actually exist, according to an author's note.

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse won the 1998 Newberry Award for best book for children. Once you read it you’ll see why.

“The Dark Is Rising Sequence” by Susan Cooper

Nothing pushes a book to the front of the bookstore shelves more quickly than to use it as the basis for a movie.

The upcoming movie, “The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising,“ aroused my curiosity about the book upon which the flick is loosely based.

The movie follows the second of five books in Susan Cooper’s series known as “The Dark Is Rising Sequence.“

Originally published in the late ’60s and early ’70s, the Sequence is technically classified as teen fiction.

Though long past my teens, I found the stories to be an enjoyable read.

I can understand why Cooper refers to the stories as a sequence.

To follow the five intertwined stories to the ultimate conclusion, they must be read in order.

James Frey, whose addiction memoir "A Million Little Pieces" turned out to be largely fabricated, is writing a novel.

"Bright Shiny Morning," described by the publisher as a portrait of modern Los Angeles, will be released in summer 2008 by HarperCollins.

Al Gore is going to tell us some more inconvenient truths. And Rodale of Emmaus, Pa., will again publish them.

What to eat?

In this age of mercury-laden fish and E. coli-tainted spinach, aren’t we all asking what we should be feeding our families?

Marion Nestle to the rescue!

"New England White" By Stephen L. Carter.

I loved his earlier mystery --"The Emperor of Ocean Park"--and was delighted to see that he had a new mystery. The plus of his books is that he gives you a glimpse into the lives and mores of African-American upper society and intellectual elites.

Alas, I was disappointed in this new novel; you almost needed a program beside your chair to keep track of the many characters, none of which was adequately developed. It is the tale of a murder of an economy professor, who is black, at a small New England college where Julia Carlyle, his one time love, has been acting as dean of the divinity school and to which her husband, Lemaster Carlyle, has just been appointed president.

Joan Didion, the author of “The Year of Magical Thinking,” will receive an honorary National Book Award medal this fall for “Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.”

Terry Gross, host of National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air” program, won the “Literarian Award” for “Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.” Gross records the program at WHYY-FM in Philadelphia.

After 46 years as a resident of York and Adams Counties, award-winning author Nancy Springer has moved to Bonifay, Fla.

Random House author Marie Lamba will read from her new young adult novel, "What I Meant ...," at noon Sept. 22, at the Southern York County Library’s tent during the New Freedom Fest in New Freedom.

This event is free.

Lamba also will sign her novel until 3 p.m.

"What I Meant ..." is about a 15-year-old girl, her mysterious guy, her Indian dad, her American mom, her evil aunt, and tons of drama and laughs.

For details, contact the library at 235-5806.

Madeleine L'Engle, author of "A Wrinkle in Time," died Thursday at a nursing home in Litchfield, Conn., of natural causes, according to Jennifer Doerr, publicity manager for publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

This petroglyph of a man with big hands and big feet is said to represent a leader, one who walks a lot and has a good grasp of situations. The etchings, found on several rocks just below Safe Harbor Dam, were made by Algonquin-speaking Indians who lived in the area before the Susquehannocks. While “The Rough-Face Girl” doesn’t take place along the Susquehanna River, it does tell the Algonquin version of the Cinderella story. Photo by Bil Bowden, York Daily Record/Sunday News.


The Cinderella story is such a good yarn, so good that many cultures around the world have their own versions of the chargirl’s charming life.

The earliest is the story of Rhodopis, a Greco-Egyptian girl of the first century B.C. The French version came in the 1600s and the Brothers Grimm gathered a tale for their collection in the early 1800s.

The “persecuted heroine” is a type in the Aarne-Thompson classification system for folktales in 1910. I’d just love to know how the put-upon girl’s perils and prince made it to North America and its native peoples.

July 20, 2007 - The seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series made its debut. Didn't mean too much for me.

I never read any of them. But the buzz in the newsroom was all about the last Harry Potter book. Almost everyone was reading it and talking about it. There were even special meetings to discuss it. I couldn't understand why all the hoopla. So I decided to find out for myself.