Monday, April 25, 2011

500 year old book of World History discovered in Utah


In this photo taken April 23, 2011, a copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle published in 1493 is displayed at Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. The Utah book dealer came across the 500-year-old German language edition while appraising items brought in by locals at a fundraiser for the town museum in Sandy, about 15 miles south of Salt Lake City. It's considered to be one of the earliest and most lavishly illustrated books produced after the invention of the printing press. (AP Photo/Brian Skoloff)
 

Monday, April 18, 2011

Greg Mortenson called a Liar

Greg Mortenson, the author of 2 books (both reviewed on this blog) was called a LIAR yesterday by the CBS current affairs program - 60 Minutes.   

Mortenson wrote two books about the charity for schools that he began after getting lost in the Karakoram mountains while on a climbing trip.  His charity - called Central Asia Institute  (CAI) - builds schools for rural children in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The CBS report which aired on "60 Minutes" claimed that most of the stories Mortenson wrote about never actually happened,. And when the reporter went to visit the schools, he found them empty. There are more questions and answers from the CBS to Mortenson on the CAI website

Mortenson's books are reviewed here.

Three Cups of Tea

Stones into Schools

Saturday, April 16, 2011

The Stream Runs Fast - Book Review

Just so you all know, I am still around, still reading and still making lenses on Squidoo.

The last book I finished reading was called The Stream Runs Fast by Nellie McClung. This was her autobiography. It covered her life from 1896 when she got married until 1945 when the book was published.

Nellie is a reasonably big name in Canadian History. At least she SHOULD be. She was a suffragette and a political activist. She helped Canada to bring in the vote for women and she also helped Canada to give women legal status by having them recognized as persons so that women could sit in the Canadian federal government. She was also a writer and wrote a number of books as well as numerous newspaper columns and editorials. Some of her writings can be read at Project  Gutenberg.

Nellie wrote The Stream Runs Fast towards the end of her life. It was first published in 1945 and she died in 1951. I wrote a lens about Nellie using The Stream Runs Fast to review all that she did in her life. Nellie really made a difference.

My edition of The Stream Runs Fast was published in October 2010 byThomas Allen Publishers.