Novelist John Ringo, the miltary science fiction and adventure author, signs his latest thriller “Unto the Breach” at 7 pm at Flights of Fantasy bookstore (488 Albany Shaker Road, Loudonville NY 435-9337).
Author: Michael Janairo
-
Events for Wednesday, Jan. 24
-
Events on Wednesday, Jan. 24
From Christopher D. Ringwald’s A DAY APART press release:
Ringwald is a journalist (and a former Times Union reporter) and educator based as a visiting scholar at The Sage Colleges in Albany, NY. A DAY APART has been hailed by Asma Gull Hassan as “a solemn, brilliant call to multi-faith commonalities and by Solomon Schimmel as “illuminating and inspiring.”
(Oxford University Press, Jan. 2007; Aly Mostel, publicist, 212 726-6111)
Reception and book signing. Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2007, 5:30-7 p.m. Opalka Gallery, Sage College of Albany, 140 New Scotland Ave. Albany, NY 12208 (at intersection of New Scotland and Lake avenues just west of Albany Medical Center) Contact author.
-
Caldecott and Newberry awards
From the Book Standard:
The American Library Association today announced the winners of several major literary awards for children’s and young adult books, including the Caldecott and Newbery Medal, from its Midwinter Meeting in Seattle.
Susan Patron, author of The Higher Power of Lucky, won the 2007 John Newbery Medal, for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature. The winner of the 2007 Michael L. Printz Award for excellence in young adult literature is the graphic novel American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang.
The story is here.
-
Spelling Bee for adults
Albany Public library plans a spelling bee for adults next month. More info here. Any hopefuls out there?
-
Unspeak — the book
A review in today’s Slate about Steven Poole’s new book “Unspeak” seems worth a look. Times Union editorial cartoonist John de Rosier showed me this link. His favorites are “ethnic cleansing” and “death tax”:
Unspeak, writer Steven Poole‘s term for a phrase or word that contains a whole unspoken political argument, deserves a place in every journalist’s daily vocabulary. Such gems of unspeak, such as pro-choice and pro-life, writes Poole in the opening pages in his book Unspeak: How Words Become Weapons, How Weapons Become a Message, and How That Message Becomes Reality, represent
an attempt to say something without saying it, without getting into an argument and so having to justify itself. At the same time, it tries to unspeak—in the sense of erasing, or silencing—any possible opposing point of view, by laying a claim right at the start to only one choice of looking at a problem.
Pro-life supposes that a fetus is a person and that those who are anti-pro-life are against life, he writes. Pro-choice distances its speakers from actually advocating abortion, while casting “adversaries as ‘anti-choice’; as interfering, patriarchal dictators.”
Poole’s list of suspicious phrases rolls on for more than 200 pages. Tax relief and tax burden, which covertly argue that lowered taxes automatically relieve and unburden everybody. Friends of the Earth casts its opponents as enemies of the earth and implies that the Earth is befriendable, a big, huggable Gaia.
The full article is here.
-
On Truth — by Harry Frankfurt
I recently finished reading Harry Frankfurt’s “On Truth” — a followup to a book with an opposite title that couldn’t be published in the newspaper (the euphemism I used then was “hot air.” But that review is available here.
(more…) -
Write back to Iran’s president
UAlbany’s Edward Schwarzschild writes with his latest project:
Here’s a quick note to say hello and happy new year and I hope your 2007 is off to a terrific start. Also, thought you might enjoy taking a look at a new project that just went up as the lead feature on a cool webzine today. The project involves getting a bunch of writers to reply to President Ahmadinejad’s open letter to the American People. You can see my brief introduction to the project plus, during the course of this week, the various letters written by all sorts of people at: www.jewcy.comHere’s an excerpt from his letter to Ahmadeinejad:I won’t discuss your hate-mongering campaign against the historical fact of the Holocaust. Instead, I’ll point out, as I’m sure you’re aware, that Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and the Bush administration’s “war on terror” are the subject of intense national debate, a debate which led in our most recent election to the large-scale defeat of those who support President Bush’s agenda. Can you say the same about the level of debate within your own country? -
Jennifer Armstrong in the news
The Saratoga Springs children’s author was among a group of people (organized by Emma Dodge Hanson and including Jane Haugh) who traveled to Africa to give gifts to orphans, including books.
Click more for the story from Times Union staff writer Leigh Hornbeck.
-
Test your Bible knowledge
The Of Books and Bicycles blog has a link to a Bible quiz. Give it a shot at http://www.gotoquiz.com/ultimate_bible_quiz
The quiz reminds me of a book I’m reading now, a review copy of a book coming out next month, called “Religious Literacy” — it’s a fascinating book saying that knowing about religions in the U.S. isn’t only a religious matter, but also a civic matter. That book includes a quiz about the major religions that the writer gives to his college students. I plan on reviewing the book for the Times Union when it comes out.
