What's it About? About.com

Have you ever surfed over to About.com?
If not, check it out; this site is supreme for
looking up lots and lots of interesting
topics.

Give it a try and expand your horizons
while deepening your knowledge. I hope
that you find it as interesting and as
useful as I do.

See you there.  :) 
Bob Hoff
10/18/11

about.com

Betty White's...

...new book--If you ask me: and of course you won't

Body and mind. Growing older -- On reflection -- Health -- Senses -- Humor -- Enthusiasm -- Hollywood stories. Hot in Cleveland -- Saturday night live -- Awards -- Name-dropping -- Turning down roles -- Carl Reiner -- The red carpet -- The proposal -- Lost Valentine -- Letters. Interviews (Redford) -- Writer's block -- Fans and fanmail -- Stagecraft. Ranger -- On stage fright -- On plum roles (and typcasting) -- Cast chemistry -- Stand up? -- The craft -- Television -- Love and friendship. Full circle -- Dating du jour -- Loss -- Friendships -- Agent Jeff -- - Animal kingdom. Butterscotch -- Koko -- Stuffed animals -- Beethoven -- Pet adoption -- Speaking animal -- State of affairs. Names -- Dining room table -- Entourage -- Poker -- Modern technology (thoroughly modern Betty?) -- Children -- Since you asked -- Integrity -- Advice column -- I'm 89?.

If you like the humor of Betty White (and who doesn't?) check out this book--above.

Betty White at Wikipedia

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Importance of reading

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I love books and reading; how about you, my friend?

The Self-Taught Blogger-- or I'm Blogging This

I'm teaching myself blogging and have been doing that since I
retired from the National Park Service in 2005.

I have been teaching myself blogging the old fashioned way:
by looking up "how to information," then by using that information
in doing blogs. This method is slow, but steady. Sometimes, what
slows my progress at is when I start other blogs and they grow into
All my Children.

At one point my children numbered around twenty, so when I work on one post, the other blogs may languish. Such diversity gives me pleasure and  more experience at different types and contents of blog posts and technique. I also am glad about that.

So when I am not blogging here, I am probably blogging somewhere else. Or playing with my grandson. Or reading. Or doing chores. Or resting my fingers/ hands/wrists. Or brain. Or one of my favorite activities: procrastination

Yep, I'm probably just doing something different, just like you all do daily throughout your days.

That's the meat of what I wanted to say.

Back later.

Bob Hoff
10/10/11

same kind of different as me (book title)

The co-author relates how he was held under plantation-style slavery until he fled in the 1960s and suffered homelessness for an additional eighteen years before the wife of the other co-author, an art dealer accustomed to privilege, intervened.

A book about modern slavery, homelessness, an art dealer, courage in fighting cancer, and love of fellow man. A true story of religion and people touching other people's lives. BH

(From Amazon.com)
Meet Denver, a man raised under plantation-style slavery in Louisiana in the 1960s; a man who escaped, hopping a train to wander, homeless, for eighteen years on the streets of Dallas, Texas. No longer a slave, Denver's life was still hopeless-until God moved. First came a godly woman who prayed, listened, and obeyed. And then came her husband, Ron, an international arts dealer at home in a world of Armani-suited millionaires. And then they all came together. 

But slavery takes many forms. Deborah discovers that she has cancer. In the face of possible death, she charges her husband to rescue Denver. Who will be saved, and who will be lost? What is the future for these unlikely three? What is God doing?

Same Kind of Different As Me is the emotional tale of their story: a telling of pain and laughter, doubt and tears, dug out between the bondages of this earth and the free possibility of heaven. No reader or listener will ever forget it.

4 stars out of 5


Reading/Books Quotes Korner

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.


Read more: http://quotationsbook.com/quote/42721/#ixzz1NScktfM7
on Quotations Book

Save Money at Your Public Library 10 Ways to Save Money at the Library

By Elizabeth Kennedy,
http://childrensbooks.about.com/od/libraries/a/save_money.htm

I love public libraries because I love books, but I also love the public library because I save so much money by using it. As is the case with many public libraries, at the Wichita Public Library library cards are free, and except for overdue fines if we don’t get things back on time, that’s our only cost to use the library. Here are 10 ways our family has saved money at our local public library. There we can:

1. Borrow books for all ages. The library has board books, picture books, chapter books, novels and nonfiction for kids, as well as fiction and nonfiction for teens and adults, including large print books and other resources for people with visual handicaps.
2. Enjoy free programs, including storytimes, films, puppet shows and other performances for children, as well as lectures, programs and book clubs for adults.
3. Check out DVDs of movies instead of buying or renting them. You'll find feature-length movies, including movies based on children's books like Coraline and The Tale of Despereaux, as well as excellent shorter movies based on children’s literature, nature movies for kids, and more.
4. Get advice from librarians about good books for children, teens and adults. Our library also provides all kinds of reading lists of recommended books, from books for Black History Month to books for specific grade levels. Many public libraries also provide recommended reading lists on their Web sites.
5. Buy gently used books at the annual Friends of the Library book sale. We have found hardbound children’s books there for as little as 25 cents. It's wonderful to be able to find children's books at bargain prices.
6. Read magazines. This is big for me because I tend to buy too many magazines. By previewing magazines at the library, I can limit myself to only buying the ones that I want to keep.
7. Borrow music CDs, from showtunes and popular music to music for kids and classical music.
8. Enjoy audiobooks for all ages. It’s fun to share an audiobook that the whole family can enjoy while you’re on a long car trip. It’s also nice to gather together as a family and enjoy the classics. Adults and teens also often like listening to audiobooks while they exercise. Many audiobooks for kids come with the print version so kids can read along as they listen. The benefits of audiobooks are many, particularly for struggling readers.
9. Keep the kids happily occupied – and reading throughout the summer with the library’s summer reading programs. Our library’s program includes all kinds of special activities for younger kids as well as teens. Enjoy summer reading fun at the library.
10. Borrow framed prints of artwork. That service is available at our main library where free technology classes are also available.

I could go on and on (I haven't even mentioned some of the online resources), but you get the idea. Getting a library card is one of the best investments you’ll ever make. While every public library is different, they all have wonderful resources available. Even if your public library charges a fee for a library card, you'll save lots of money if you take advantage of all of the resources available there.

Suggested Reading

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Suggested Reading

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Suggested Reading

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About.com Guide since 2000

Elizabeth Kennedy
Children's Books Guide
"Give a child the desire to read; it is a lifelong gift of inestimable worth and love.

Reading/Books Quotations Corner

From reading too much, and sleeping too little, his brain dried up on him and he lost his judgment.
Miguel de Cervantes




Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/reading_4.html#ixzz1NSefE4CX

Frankenstein

I wrote about Frankenstein and the author Mary Shelley in a August 29, 2007 post on this blog.

Frankenstein_at_a_082907_post

Now that my 20-year old son Erik read it in a literature class last semester and pointed some interesting bits of tid out to me I have read it. These include:

• the book is many times better than any Frankenstein movie that he has ever seen (I agree with all these literary tidbits).
• the book is superbly written, chock full of suspense, and terrifying surprises lurk on every page.
• the book is a wonderful story, and if you have in the region of a normal pulse, will likely keep your attention..
• no bolts stick out of the monster's neck.
• the book deals with ethics, feelings, and values.
• Frankenstein does wantonly and willfully with malice aforethought murder several people in the book. The book explores his major motivations for his killing spree.
• The ending will catch you by surprise, I am betting.

So, now, having read it myself, I, along with Erik, recomend that you buy a copy or borrow it from the library and enter the tormented and horrific world of Dr. Victor Frankenstein. And while reading it, buckle up your reading armchair seatbelts. Consider yourself warned.

With the Amazon Kindle, you can get a free Kindle electronic version of this book at:


Free e-book collections at Amazon.com


Note from Blog Author Bob Hoff: While I read Frankenstein two years ago at my son Erik's suggestion, I have a free copy on my new Kindle that I have plans to read soon on the Amazon Kindle that I received on 5/20/11 for my latest (and greatest) birthday.


I love using my new Kindle.

Frankenstein on line at:
Frankenstein

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Notice new link to Erik's Horror Movie Reviews on this blog

© Bob Hoff, 2009

Some Recommendations

I asked Kristin, an on-line friend of mine who has earned her M.A. in a course of study in literature, to recommend her top ten favorite books. She replied,

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

Back Roads by Tawni Odell

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

Falling Man by Don Delillo

Mating by Norman Rush

Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks

Ishmael by Daneil Quinn

The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
--KHR--

Thanks, Kristin.
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If anyone is interested in any of these books, ask one of our librarians about them. Check to see if they are in our library's card catalog or if they can be borrowed through the Inter-Library loan system.
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Don't know what to read first; try The Kite Runner.

From Publishers Weekly Hosseini's stunning debut novel starts as an eloquent Afghan version of the American immigrant experience in the late 20th century, but betrayal and redemption come to the forefront when the narrator, a writer, returns to his ravaged homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy's parents are shot during the Taliban takeover in the mid '90s. Amir, the son of a well-to-do Kabul merchant, is the first-person narrator, who marries, moves to California and becomes a successful novelist. But he remains haunted by a childhood incident in which he betrayed the trust of his best friend, a Hazara boy named Hassan, who receives a brutal beating from some local bullies. After establishing himself in America, Amir learns that the Taliban have murdered Hassan and his wife, raising questions about the fate of his son, Sohrab. Spurred on by childhood guilt, Amir makes the difficult journey to Kabul, only to learn the boy has been enslaved by a former childhood bully who has become a prominent Taliban official. The price Amir must pay to recover the boy is just one of several brilliant, startling plot twists that make this book memorable both as a political chronicle and a deeply personal tale about how childhood choices affect our adult lives. The character studies alone would make this a noteworthy debut, from the portrait of the sensitive, insecure Amir to the multilayered development of his father, Baba, whose sacrifices and scandalous behavior are fully revealed only when Amir returns to Afghanistan and learns the true nature of his relationship to Hassan. Add an incisive, perceptive examination of recent Afghan history and its ramifications in both America and the Middle East, and the result is a complete work of literature that succeeds in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation that has become a pivot point in the global politics of the new millennium.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

The Kite Runner at Amazon
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The author has a second book out, A Thousand Splendid Suns.

From Booklist
Hosseini's follow-up (ATSS) to his best-selling debut, The Kite Runner (2003) views the plight of Afghanistan during the last half-century through the eyes of two women. Mariam is the illegitimate daughter of a maid and a businessman, who is given away in marriage at 15 to Rasheed, a man three times her age; their union is not a loving one. Laila is born to educated, liberal parents in Kabul the night the Communists take over Afghanistan. Adored by her father but neglected in favor of her older brothers by her mother, Laila finds her true love early on in Tariq, a thoughtful, chivalrous boy who lost a leg in an explosion. But when tensions between the Communists and the mujahideen make the city unsafe, Tariq and his family flee to Pakistan. A devastating tragedy brings Laila to the house of Rasheed and Mariam, where she is forced to make a horrific choice to secure her future. At the heart of the novel is the bond between Mariam and Laila, two very different women brought together by dire circumstances. Unimaginably tragic, Hosseini's magnificent second novel is a sad and beautiful testament to both Afghani suffering and strength. Readers who lost themselves in The Kite Runner will not want to miss this unforgettable follow-up. Kristine HuntleyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the edition.

Khaled_Hosseini at Wikipedia
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Books/Reading Quotations Korner

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
Oscar Wilde

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
Benjamin Franklin

Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere.
Mary Schmich

But really, it was reading that led me to writing. And in particular, reading the American classics like Twain who taught me at an early age that ordinary lives of ordinary people can be made into high art.
Russell Banks

Brainyquote.com