Dora's Book of the Month: November: Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

Half Broke HorsesThis is an awesome book, an awesome read!

It is a true-life novel about Lily Casey Smith - who happens to be the author's grandmother. At age six Lily helped her father break horses, then at age fifteen she left home to teach in a frontier town. Later as a wife and mother, Lily runs a vast ranch in Arizona where she survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the most heartbreaking personal tragedy - but despite a life of hardscrabble drudgery (as is described in a post literary review, which also garnered the book five stars ★★★★★), Lily Casey Smith remains a woman of indomitable spirit.

Dora's Book of the Month: October: Fahrenheit - 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit - 451 (1953)

Indeed a classic. The book, as always, is way better than the movie. The book contains better details and explanations. In a way the book is more frightening than the movie. Not in a scary or horror movie sense, but as a reminder that our rights are always threatened. A reminder that as American citizens we should all be fully aware of all the things that the government (all branches), politicians, political parties, and private citizens may be doing (to us) which limits or tries to take away our freedoms and abilities.
Fahrenheit - 451 (1966), the book, was awesome and a little bit ahead of its time. How? Well, although there are no book burnings spurred on by the government in present-day America, however, in Texas the Board of Education is trying to re-write history and denounce certain books due to their content. Plus, many private citizens are in agreement and wrongfully encouraging the very ignorant idea. But that is another story for another day in itself.
The book, perhaps reminds us that government control of what we read, believe and such is not a far-fetched idea. That the government can often patrol certain aspects in our lives - sometimes it is obvious and sometimes it is not, but as citizens we must be fully aware of all things as they occur and stand up in protest when our rights are impeded and infringed.
The movie, Fahrenheit - 451 (1966), is okay - a bit cheesy, but okay. It was also a little bit ahead of its time as it showed us bits of cinematic trickery (without CGI - lol) ala mise en scène! If you'll also notice, in the movie, there were television sets very similar to the flat screen HD teles which have taken us by storm these past few years. Still good viewing and the actors were good - overly dramatic but those were the times.

*** As always - read the book (first) ***

GOOD READING TO ALL!

Dora's Book of the Month: September: CZARS: RUSSIA'S RULERS FOR OVER ONE THOUSAND YEARS By James P. Duffy & Vincent L. Ricci

CZARS: RUSSIA'S RULERS FOR OVER ONE THOUSAND YEARSThis book depicts the history of Russia's history into four distinct periods:
1) First period: Ascendancy of Kiev (now known as the Ukraine)
2) Second period: Russia's new political center...from Vladimir to Moscow
3) Third period: The reign of Ivan the Great: the "autocrat"
4) Fourth period: Viking Prince Rurik to the House of Romanov (the last Czars)
***

I read it last year, but wanted a refresher course for personal reasons. As an avid follower and reader of Russian history, this book gave me an enlightened view of Russia and much of its history which I had not read about before, not in this kind of detail - that is!

Not very different than my own heritage. How - you ask?

Well in a simplified explanation, my own Hispanic (Mexican) history is often difficult to research mainly because the lack of education, thus an inability to read and to write, which clearly made it difficult for my ancestors to keep hand-written documentation of their early years. Most of the accounts are based on folk tales and hear-say. Researching our genealogy is a challenging and an arduous task for that reason alone (illiteracy) and details often murky and obscure as to what really occurred versus what may not have.
Similar issues with the Slavs, early on they had no written language with which to be able to record their own history. Most of their history was chronicled from folk tales as well that were handed down from one generation to the next. It was not until Christian missionaries arrived in the latter part of the 9th century that Russia's history was officially recorded on paper. Prior to that, we can only assume that the stories as once told long ago by the people (Slavs) then documented was less than certain. As the book states most of the data either "diluted, lost or embellished in the process".
My Mexican heritage and our early history as much uncertain same as the early years of the Slavs history being uncertain. Most of our history unable to be confirmed or refuted - good or bad - we are simply stuck with early historical accounts based on folklore and such.
Anyway, this book was a good one to read, and I do recommend it to those with interests in history (Russian or overall history). I enjoyed it although it is geared more towards education as it is entirely information-based with lots of historical facts, dates, etc... It can be a 'dry-read' for some, but if history is your forte, then this is your book.

Dora's Book of the Month: August: DEWEY: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron (with Bret Witter)

DEWEY: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the WorldDewey was an abandoned kitten who would one day become world-famous. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the returned book slot at the public library in Spencer, Iowa. He was found the next morning by library director Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Named Dewey Readmore Books, the little cat won her heart, and won over the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of them in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next 19 years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer with his enthusiasm, warmth, humility (for a cat), and, above all, his sixth sense about who needed him most. In this inspiring, moving story, Myron tells how Dewey became more than just a friend; as his fame grew from town to town, then state to state, and finally worldwide, he became a source of pride for an extraordinary Heartland farming town pulling its way slowly back from the greatest crisis in its long history.

Pros and Cons: OR Prose verses Cons: Defining them first!

Definition of PROSE:

1. the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse. 2. matter-of-fact, commonplace, or dull expression, quality, discourse, etc. 3. Liturgy . a hymn sung after the gradual, originating from a practice of setting words to the jubilatio of the alleluia.

Definition of VERSE:

1. (not in technical use) a stanza. 2. a succession of metrical feet written, printed, or orally composed as one line; one of the lines of a poem. 3. a particular type of metrical line: a hexameter verse. 4. a poem, or piece of poetry. 5. metrical composition; poetry, esp. as involving metrical form. 6. metrical writing distinguished from poetry because of its inferior quality: a writer of verse, not poetry. 7. a particular type of metrical composition: elegiac verse. 8. the collective poetry of an author, period, nation, etc.: Miltonian verse; American verse. 9. one of the short conventional divisions of a chapter of the Bible.

Meaning of it all:
Prose is considered one of the two major literary structures, with the other being verse. Prose lacks the more formal metrical structure of verse that is almost always found in traditional poetry. Poems often involve a meter and/or rhyme scheme. Prose, instead, comprises full, grammatical sentences, which then constitute paragraphs and overlook aesthetic appeal. Some works of prose do contain traces of metrical structure or versification and a conscious blend of the two literature formats is known as prose poetry. Similarly, any work of verse with fewer rules and restrictions is known as free verse. Verse is considered to be more systematic or formulaic, whereas prose is the most reflective of ordinary (often conversational) speech.

SB 1070: Judge Intervenes Today: Blocks Parts of Bill:

Read the full story here:

Judge rules to block provisions of Ariz. law

She moves to hold requirement that officers check immigration

Dora's Book of the Month: July: THE HISTORIAN by Elizabeth Kostova

THE HISTORIAN(from a post book review)

In this riveting debut of breathtaking scope, a young girl discovers her father's darkest secret and embarks on a harrowing journey across Europe to complete the quest he never could -- to find history's most legendary fiend: Dracula. When a motherless American girl living in Europe finds a medieval book and a package of letters, all addressed ominously to "My dear and unfortunate successor..." she begins to unravel a thread that leads back to her father's past, his mentor's career, and an evil hidden in the depths of history. In those few quiet moments, she unwittingly assumes a quest she will discover is her birthright: a hunt that nearly brought her father to ruin and may have claimed the life of his adviser and dear friend, history professor Bartholomew Rossi. What does the legend of Vlad the Impaler, the historical Dracula, have to do with the 20th century? Is it possible that Dracula has lived on in the modern world? And why have a select few historians risked reputation, sanity, and even their lives to learn the answer? So begins an epic journey to unlock the secrets of the strange medieval book, an adventure that will carry our heroine across Europe and into the past -- not only to the times of Vlad's heinous reign, but to the days when her mother was alive and her father was still a vibrant young scholar. In the end, she uncovers the startling fate of Rossi, and comes face to face with the definition of evil-- to find, ultimately, that good may not always triumph.

America: Get with the times already!

Get with the times my dear America, after all football is the most celebrated and the most popular game in the entire world. Yes, America, there is another game named football and it does not consist of our usual American-type football game requiring an 11 man roster on defense, offense and special teams. This world-wide game of football requires plenty of endurance, power, and the need for each player to be involved in all aspects of the game. Someone once said: “a football player (referring to the game coined as such in the United States) can play football but he cannot play soccer; however, a soccer player can play both sports with no problem”. True or not, I casually smirk as I think on that comment and am more apt to lean towards believing it than not.
Anyway, whether or not the USA –as a whole- ever tries to learn this great game of football -or stops calling it soccer which is doubtful but understandably so- and whether it ever embraces it as the rest of the world has is irrelevant in my story.
FIFA World Cup 2010 has arrived and its popularity keeps growing and shows no sign of slowing down or even diminishing. In ending I ask more Americans to support Team USA and give football (hmm, I meant soccer for you) a chance.

FIFA World Cup 2010: The Games Must Go On!

In South Bend Notre Dame wins one for the “The Gipper” (George Gipp), but in South Africa, Team Bafana Bafana wins one for Madiba.

As the world comes together to celebrate the beginning of FIFA World Cup 2010, there is so much pride and so much anticipation brewing through-out hallowed football walls everywhere.
My story involves the ups and downs of life and how it seems that any sporting event at some point or another is hit with what I call “the human factor”.
Such “human factor” reared its ugly head already in this event in the early hours of Friday morning near Johannesburg when a car accident took the life of Nelson Mandela’s 13 year-old great-granddaughter, Zenani Mandela (picture above). I am not sure about the circumstances surrounding it so I will not write about that. In few words which I hope contain some wisdom, great compassion, due respect, but certainly no apathy, what has happened has happened and that is all that I need to say about that.
In my own love of the game of football (soccer) and having been an avid follower for over 15 years, I was watching anything on t.v. which pertained to this 2010 World Cup. Early this week there was a bit of perplexity or ambiguity spread about regarding whether or not 91 year-old Nelson Mandela would show up for the opening game. After all, we all know what he did for his country back when they won their first-ever Rugby World Cup in 1995…Madiba himself was there – he was always there. Speculation would lean on the side that he would be at the opening game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup to see his beloved South Africa go head-to-head as the under-dogs versus Mexico. The Nelson Mandela Foundation (earlier this week) said he would be there, but one of his family members said “no”. Sad to say that fate would intervene and make that decision for him following the World Cup Opening Ceremonies in Johannesburg.
I am certain that it was with a heavy heart that Mr. Mandela watched the game from his own home. Torn apart as would be expected by his love of his country, the game and what he had just lost.

Note:
Bafana Bafana - It is a term of endearment which means "the boys the boys".
Madiba – This is the name of the clan of which Mr Mandela is a member. A clan name is much more important than a surname as it refers to the ancestor from which a person is descended. Madiba was the name of a Thembu chief who ruled in the Transkei in the 18th century. It is considered very polite to use someone’s clan name.