The George W Bush $250 million library, on the campus of Southern Methodist University -a school attended by the likes of former first lady Laura Bush, actor Powers Boothe, and Kourtney Kardashian – was formally dedicated Thursday in a ribbon cutting ceremony.
George Bush bathed in the admiration of a friendly crowd and choked up as he finished speaking and wiped tears from his eyes after sitting down.
Am I required to write something about the fucking Geroge W Bush library? Because I really don’t want to.
Children’s book author E.L. Konigsburg, died at 83 in Falls Church, VA.
The first book I read of hers was her first book: “Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth.” It’s about the friendship of two girls, Elizabeth and Jennifer, one of whom claims to be a witch. “A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver” taught me all about Eleanor of Aquitaine and multiple perspective story telling.
Konigsburg’s most famous book is “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler”, which she wrote in 1967. It’s about a couple of Greenwich-residing, grammar-school-aged siblings, Claudia and Jamie Kincaid. Claudia is tired of the injustices and monotony in her life. She is the oldest child and the only girl therefore subject to many injustice. She is bored. Bored with being “straight-A’s Claudia Kincaid”, bored with arguing about whose turn it is to choose the Sunday night television show, bored of the monotony of everything. So, Claudia forgoes her hot-fudge sundae indulgences for weeks to finance a getaway plan. She forages in the garbage for train passes and pores over the good old AAA tour guide. Continue reading
Her, A Memoir by Christa Parravani
The Foundation Trilogy from folio society
Introduction by Nobel Prize-winner Paul Krugman.
3 volumes. Each book is three-quarter bound in buckram, with a paper side on the front board, printed with a design by Alex Wells. Illustrated by Alex Wells.
Foundation
It is the heyday of the Galactic Empire. Nearly 25 million inhabited planets are ruled by this civilisation, which has existed since time immemorial. But one man has dared to predict the Empire’s fall. Hari Seldon is a pioneer of the science of psychohistory, which predicts the patterns of mass behaviour, and he has foreseen galactic war. He establishes two Foundations; one to preserve Imperial knowledge, the other whose purpose and location are unknown. As the Empire collapses, the First Foundation’s inhabitants labour on their Encyclopedia Galactica – unaware that an even more important role has been predicted for them by Seldon.
Foundation and Empire
In the second book, the Foundation has grown in power to rival the dying Empire. With superior technology, and access to energy that other planets lack, it receives tributes from the rest of the Galaxy, all in accordance with the Seldon Plan. But this plan does not take into account the rise of a rogue individual: the Mule, a warlord with the power to manipulate thoughts and emotion. All that stands between the Mule and total conquest of the Galaxy is the mysterious Second Foundation; but its location is a secret that others will die to protect.
Second Foundation
The mule has conquered the Galaxy – or most of it. The First Foundation’s leaders have been either killed, or ‘Converted’. Yet the Mule is still haunted by the existence of the Second Foundation. It is located at ‘Star’s End’ of the Galaxy; but what does that mean? And does this other Foundation even exist? The Mule sends his most loyal general, a former resistance leader who is now brainwashed, and Bail Channis, an ambitious young man whose mind is still free, to investigate. But others are searching for it too, including the 14-year-old Arcadia Darell, who understands Seldon’s plan better than many of her elders …
The Republican Party is so dumb that their last presidential nominee was a Twilight fangirl. Mitt Romney actually admitted on The Today Show back during the hellfire that was the 2012 presidential election cycle, that he enjoyed the stories about the sexy abstinent vampires from the Twilight series of books and movies.
“I mean, I like the Twilight series. I thought it was fun,” Romney said. “I don’t like vampires personally, I don’t know any, but you know my granddaughter was reading it and I thought, ‘Well this looks like fun,’ so I read that.”
(Mitt went on to say that he was on Team Jacob before he was on Team Edward. Unless you like Jacob, in which case he does too. Has he mentioned that he saved the Olympics?)
So, Mittens was down with a bunch of asexual Mormon vampires. Definitely qualified him for the highest office in the nation. I mean, knowing this, aren’t you more glad than ever that Obama won? I do not know one single adult who would dare to admit enjoying those books. And here I thought that George W Bush was a mental midget for waiting until he was in his 50’s to read The Stranger. W is like Aristotle compared to Mitt.
Didn’t the LDS Church President declare Twilight to be infallible scripture?? Maybe Mittens is just doing his homework. Bonding with lonely 15 year old girls. That’s laying groundwork for another future Mrs. Mittens. Mormons can have oodles of them wives, you know. Besides, Twilight is way more credible than The Book of Mormon. Genius, in a horrible, twisted, pedophilia kind of way. But genius nonetheless.
Call me shallow and a reading elitist, never, but I would ever, never in a million years vote for a man that admits to reading that stuff. I will, however, kick him in the nuts repeatedly, if given the opportunity.
Now I can’t wait for Romney to tell us whether he prefers the Sneeches with stars upon their tunnies or the Sneeches without.
Beyond Belief by Jenna Miscavige Hill
I love Judith Krantz’s house in Bel Air, on the 17th hole of the Bel-Air Country Club off Sunset Boulevard. The 8,000-square-foot house was built in 1938 and has a two story library.
