Posted: July 18, 2007 | Author: Mika | Filed under: Book of Sand |
by Nick Hornby
I ought to have read something more than a brief summary before getting this book from the library. If I had known it was a thoroughly contemporary British novel, I probably wouldn’t have read it…too much editing was required. Dirty mouths!
But, aside from the language, it was a rather interesting story. A Long Way Down has four narrators – Martin, Maureen, Jess, and JJ – who, by coincidence, each go to the roof of a very tall building at midnight on New Year’s Eve with the intention of committing suicide by jumping off. The strange circumstances lead them to go back downstairs, and over the next three months they (somewhat unwillingly) help (and sometimes destroy) each other’s lives.
Rating: Unless this plot sounds desperately thrilling, like a book you couldn’t live without reading, skip it.
Posted: July 18, 2007 | Author: Mika | Filed under: Book of Sand |
by Michael Ende
This is the only book I ever remember my dad reading to my siblings and I; I’m not sure that we even finished. But it is an excellent book.
Momo is a young girl who comes to live in an old amphitheater. Everyone in the little village loves her, because she helps them solve their problems. Actually, what Momo does best is listen: she listens patiently, and she listens with interest. Two men who were once friends and have entered a long feud go to see Momo, and with her “help” manage to sort things out.
The main theme of the book, however, is time. The Men in Gray have begun appearing throughout the village and city, although few people notice them. They work for the TimeSavings Bank, where people can deposit the time they save – and, supposedly, withdraw it later. The result of the Men in Gray is that the citizens become obsessed with saving time, whether by converting an inn into a fast food restaurant or by creating “child depots” where children will be out of the way, learning “useful” skills.
Momo is definitely not as intricate a story as Neverending Story, but it is well-written and captivating. The message is clear and applicable. Rating: read it, but read Neverending Story first.
Posted: July 17, 2007 | Author: Mika | Filed under: Howl's Moving Castle |
DEARBORN, Mich. – A police officer will avoid criminal charges despite admitting he took marijuana from criminal suspects and, with his wife, baked it into brownies.
The police department’s decision not to pursue a case against former Cpl. Edward Sanchez left a bad taste in the mouth of at least one city official, who vowed to investigate.
“If you’re a cop and you’re arresting people and you’re confiscating the marijuana and keeping it yourself, that’s bad. That’s real bad,” said City Councilman Doug Thomas.
Sanchez, who resigned last year from the department in this Detroit suburb, declined comment Wednesday to the Detroit Free Press. Police Cmdr. Jeff Geisinger did not return calls seeking comment.
The department’s investigation began with a 911 call from Sanchez’s home on April 21, 2006. On a 5-minute tape of the call, obtained by the Free Press, Sanchez told an emergency dispatcher he thought he and his wife were overdosing on marijuana.
“I think we’re dying,” he said. “We made brownies and I think we’re dead, I really do.”
Sanchez later told police investigators that his wife took the marijuana out of his police vehicle while he was sleeping. In a subsequent interview, he admitted he got the marijuana out of the car himself and put it in the brownie mix, police said.
His wife also was not charged.
(From MSNBC.com)
by Nick Hornby
by Michael Ende
Jarom
Mika
hilleries 