New Children’s Books Podcast

Sony turns the page with new eReader

It’s hard to imagine much in Sony’s reader that can be improved technologically, but the question remains, can a digital reader match the experience of reading a traditional book?

JACK KAPICA From Thursday’s Globe

*The Good: Sleek, light and highly portable in a leatherette binder, with excellent storage for a number of books.

* The Bad:A retrograde grey-on-grey display; the price.

* The Verdict: The best e-book reader yet, but it has a way to go before it can match real books.

The arrival of a new generation of e-book readers in Canada, led by the Sony Reader PRS 505, is a story that suggests we’re nearing a peak of technological development. Does it mean e-book manufacturers will finally realize their dream of the past dozen years or so? Technologically, perhaps. The Sony Reader PRS 505 is, compared to most of its competitors, small, capable of storing whole libraries, thin (15 mm, including its soft front and back leather-like covers), light enough (337 grams) to hold for a long period of time without fatigue, and ultimately really cool-looking. And the number of books being released is growing every day. In short, wow.

Find the entire article here.

I wasn’t thrilled to receive “Three Girls and Their Brother” as an Early Reviewer Book through LibraryThing. The cover text sounded like a Brittney Spears or Lindsay Lohan story of fame and celebrity gone bad. My interests do not include reading stories about paparazzi and dollar worship perpetuated by the 24-hour media. But, as I am thrilled to be included in the world of book reviewers, I committed to read this book.

And I was surprised by the depth of it. I read mostly for character in my fiction choices and this book was structured like Barbara Kingsolver’s “The Poisonwood Bible”. It looks at all four characters separately and the story from was related from within their skin. Four siblings; a fourteen year old girl, a fifteen year old boy, a seventeen year old sister and another eighteen year old sister, each get a fourth of the book. You begin with the brother; Phillip, whose stature in the family and whose take on the newly acquired family fame, makes him the the odd man out. Although being nearly the youngest, he is the clearest thinker and grounds his family in common sense and his protective instinct. The girls go through stages of being thrilled with the attention to beginning to understand how insidious fame and fortune in modeling and show business are. Instead of being disgusted with a waste of another thin story of fame, it was fascinating to get an inside look at how this family navigates the sticky world of celebrity.

The only thing that left me curious was how Rebeck might have handled an additional section from the mother’s perspective. This story and parallels in real life lead to questions like “what are the parents thinking?” The mother may be insignificant and impotent as parental figure and the story is focused on the growth and bonding of the “Three Girls and Their Brother”. The writing is excellent and if you chose to read this it surprise you with the authenticity of characters. Theresa Rebeck in this debut novel, has previously been a playwriter and that influence is visible.

From PC Mag.com

Top 10 Strangest Keyboards

by Jennifer L. DeLeo

A year or so ago, computer keyboards with LED backlighting, wireless capabilities, and ergonomic designs were a bit, well, curious to me. It took awhile, but my feelings have changed. I’ve learned that LED backlighting can be quite helpful when computing in low-light situations, not to mention that it’s fun for gamers. USB keyboards just add to the messy tangle of cables, so a wireless-enabled keyboard makes perfect sense to me. And I’m in love with my ergonomic keyboard; no more wrist strain!

Click here for the Top 10 Strangest Keyboards slideshow.

I bet you thought we shelved books !

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation

FBI Withdraws Unconstitutional National Security Letter After ACLU and EFF Challenge

Gag Order Lifted on Internet Archive, Allowing Founder to Speak Out for First Time

San Francisco - The FBI has withdrawn an unconstitutional national security letter (NSL) issued to the Internet Archive after a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). As the result of a settlement agreement, the FBI withdrew the NSL and agreed to the unsealing of the case, finally allowing the Archive’s founder to speak out for the first time about his battle against the record demand.

“The free flow of information is at the heart of every library’s work. That’s why Congress passed a law limiting the FBI’s power to issue NSLs to America’s libraries,” said Brewster Kahle, founder and Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive. “While it’s never easy standing up to the government — particularly when I was barred from discussing it with anyone — I knew I had to challenge something that was clearly wrong. I’m grateful that I am able now to talk about what happened to me, so that other libraries can learn how they can fight back from these overreaching demands.”

Read the entire article here.

The Value of Information Sharing

The Internet gives new meaning to the notion that, by sharing ideas, we build a better understanding of the world around us. If you use YouTube or Wikipedia, exchange gaming tips on the Internet, or have a blog, you probably well understand the value of sharing information, ideas, and knowledge.

Sharing can also be a vital tool in helping to address complex problems that challenge society - like disease, hunger, global warming, and economic disparity. The sharing of ideas gives us ways to discover, collaborate, and create in unprecedented ways.

The SPARKY Awards challenges you to illustrate in a short video presentation what you see as the value of sharing information. Use your imagination to suggest what good comes from bringing down barriers to the free exchange of information.

Interested? See the 2007 winners and view the details here.

f you have an apple and I have an apple, and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea, and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.

Why Women Should Rule the World by Dee Dee Myers

Everything could change, according to former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers. Politics would be more collegial. Businesses would be more productive. And communities would be healthier. Empowering women would make the world a better place-not because women are the same as men, but precisely because they are different.

The Sky Isn’t Visible From Here by Felicia C. Sullivan

Felicia Sullivan’s mother disappeared on athe night Sullivan graduated from college and has not been seen or heard from in the ten years since. Sulivan, sho grew up on the tough streets of Brooklyn in the 1980’s, now lookks back on her childhood-lived among drug dealers, users, substitute fathers, and a host of unsavory characters.

The Greatest Gift The Courageous Life and Death of Sister Dorothy Stang by Binka Le Breton

In 1966, sister Dorothy Stang went to Brazil as a missionary, and in 1992 she moved to a small town on the Amazon to work with an organization to protect poor farmers and their land from loggers and land developers who stop at nothing-including murder-in pursuit of profits.

This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust

An illuminating study of the American struggle to comprehend the meaning and practicalities of death in the face of the unprecedented carnage of the Civil War. during the war, approximately 620,000 soldiers lost their lives. An equivalent proportion of today’s population would be six million.

Perfect Hostage A life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s Prisoner of Conscience by Justin Wintle

She is known simply as “the Lady”, becuase in Burma to utter the wrong words can mean imprisonment of death. Aung San Suu Kyi has bcome not only a national hero, but an international icon for the peaceful pursuit of justice.

With Honor Melvin Laird in War, Peace, and Politics by Dale Van Atta

In 1968, at the peak of the Vietnam War, centrist congressman Melvin Laird (R-WI) agreed to serve as Richard Nixon’s secretary of defense. It was not as Laird know, a move likely to endear him to the American public-but as he later said, “Nixon couldn’t find anybody else who wanted the damn job”.

Slavery by Another Name The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon

Under laws enacted specifically to intimidate blacks, tens of thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily arrested, hit with outrageous fines, and charged for the costs of their own arrests. With no means to pay these ostensible “debts” prisoners were sold as forced laborers to coal mines, lumber camps, brick yards, railroads, quarries, and farm plantations. Thousands of other African Americans were simply seized by southern landowners and compelled into years of involuntary servitude.

(Taken from book flaps)

NBCC Suggests Spring and Summer “Good Reads“

by Craig Morgan Teicher — Publishers Weekly, 5/5/2008

The National Book Critics Circle has released the Spring installment of its “Good Reads” lists. The list provides an alternative to standard bestseller lists by offering a look at what “critics and authors have been impressed by at this point in the year,” said current NBCC president Jane Ciabattari. The NBCC polls its membership—composed of active book critics—as well as former NBCC award winners and nominees in order to compile the seasonal lists. While some of the usual suspects appear on the list—the Spring 2008 list features recent titles by Peter Carey and J.M. Coetzee—there are also a few more surprising choices. The full lists in fiction, nonfiction and poetry are below.

FICTION

1. Richard Price, LUSH LIFE, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
2. Jhumpa Lahiri, UNACCUSTOMED EARTH, Knopf
3. Steven Millhauser, DANGEROUS LAUGHTER, Knopf
*4. Charles Baxter, THE SOUL THIEF, Pantheon
*4. Peter Carey, HIS ILLEGAL SELF, Knopf
*4. J. M. Coetzee, DIARY OF A BAD YEAR, Viking
*4. James Collins, BEGINNNER’S GREEK, Little, Brown
*4. Brian Hall, FALL OF FROST, Viking
*4. Roxana Robinson, COST, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
*4. Owen Sheers, RESISTANCE, Nan A. Talese: Doubleday

Read the rest of the titles here.