Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Jodi Picoult: My Sister's Keeper
We only have 3 weeks left in April (sorry for the late post), but you're welcome to join me in reading My Sister's Keeper if you want!
Here's the inside flap:
"Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate - a life and a role that she has never questioned… until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister - and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable… a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life… even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less?"
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Benjamin Franklin: Question #1
Benjamin Franklin: Question #2
Benjamin Franklin: Question #3
Benjamin Franklin: Question #4
Sunday, March 8, 2009
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
"Benjamin Franklin was the most famous American in his day. Wherever he went, crowds formed. People worldwide pictured Franklin when anyone said, "American."
The diversity that is the Internet may be epitomized by few people in history — Benjamin Franklin is one such person, commercially successful, ever concerned and involved with the public good, a great communicator, and a remarkable man of science and technology, finding practical effective solutions to real problems.
Trying to comprehend Benjamin Franklin's life and legacy is like trying to grab a shadow. Each time one tries to get a fix on the reflection, it darts away and grows even larger.
By turns pamphleteer, apprentice, printer, balladeer, inventor, philosopher, politician, soldier, firefighter, ambassador, family man, sage, delegate, signer, shopkeeper, bookseller, cartoonist, grandfather, anti-slavery agitator, Mason, and deist — he was all of the above and none of the above.
His great biographer Carl Van Doren called Franklin "a harmonious human multitude." As Franklin was an "electrician" also, we kept looking for a common current that defined him. From the time he was a teenager thinking about ways of education to the time he was an 83-year-old man agitating for abolition, the mainspring of the "human multitude" may well have been public service.
Each generation produces people who reshape their world. Benjamin Franklin was one such man."
If that's not enough to get you excited, what other books have we read where the whole text was online?
I have been wanting to read this for a while, I only hope it is as interesting to read as his life seems like it was.Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Question 1
On the flip-side, we also see corporations like Halliburton and Blackwater are in trouble with war crimes, and satellites intended to reduce our CO2 levels are falling from the sky. Will this be the book that finally substantiates the conspiracy theorists?
Question 2
Any ideas on how to 'take the power back'?
Question 3
Is this perspective helpful in understanding the reasoning behind terrorism and drug-trafficking?