Amazon Doesn't Believe in Censorship!!! Bad Press!!

Watching the news this morning, I was dismayed appalled to hear that a popular online retailer, Amazon, has among its listings, a guide for pedophiles!!  They cited that while they don't condone criminal activity, they also don't believe in censorship (paraphrased). See Blog Fairfield House  for further details. 

On the news they said Amazon has pulled the title from its listings, however it does not end there.  Apparently there are other titles listed with Amazon of equally disdainful content.  It is a criminal offense to have such materials in your possession.  Shouldn't it be criminal to sell such items?  I have written an email to express my disappointment in this practice.  We shall see what they have to say.  I will keep you posted.

I encourage you to do the same.  Go to their site, go to help, in the right hand column select "contact" and write.  Make your opinion known!  Make your voice count!  For the rights of innocent children everywhere, please make a stand.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Our local book club read for the month of November is "Persuasion" by Jane Austen.  This novel is Jane Austen's last completed novel and was published posthumously December 1817.  Her works stand the test of time, a tribute to a woman who wrote novels highly valued in the English literary tradition.

Persuasion -  first line, first page "Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage, there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one, there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents, there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt."  Possibly the longest written sentence in history, thus begins the story.

Touted the story of Jane's most memorable heroine, Persuasion's lead character is Anne Elliot, "a young woman of breeding, depth of emotion and unswerving integrity." (from the back cover).  Anne is a strong woman who finds freedom from less than ideal familial relations through her relationships with other women of strength.  Personal fulfillment, something every human desires, is hers in this novel where men and women are equals in morality and roles of hero and heroine are reversed.

Thus begins the read of the month.   

Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life by Justine Picardie

Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life by Justine Picardie

Her childhood, stories of the life she hid well, her rise to fame and fortune, the romanticism with which she partially revealed her upbringing...all here in this new biography by Justine Picardie. Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life. Now available from Harper Collins Publishing.

Shoe Addicts Annonymous

Author:  Beth Harbison.  Copyright 2007.  Published by St. Martin's Press, New York. 344 pages

"Four different women.  One common shoe size.  And a shared lust for fabulous footwear."

Synopsis:  "Helene Zaharis' politician husband keeps her on a tight leash and cancels her credit cards as a way of controlling her.  Lorna Rafferty is up to her eyeballs in debt and can't stop her addiction to eBay.  Sandra Vanderslice, battling agoraphobia, pays her shoe bills by working as a phone-sex operator.  And Jocelyn Bowen is a nanny for the family from hell.  (who barely knows a sole from a heel but who will do anything to get out of the house).

On Tuesday nights, these women meet to trade shoes and, in the process, form friendships that will help them each triumph over their problems-from secret pasts to blackmail, bankruptcy, and dating.  "Funny emotional, and powerful...." so reads the back cover.

This is an interesting and unique story of four women from different walks of life brought together under the guise of shoe addiction.  What happens between them and in each of their lives is a result of this meeting of minds.  A good story, though too descriptive in sexual detail.  If you like a good read without this detail, skip this book.

Soon to be made into a movie with Halle Berry cast as one of the lead characters, this book has been on the national bestseller list.  If the movie stays close to the plot, it will have to be rated 18A.

Rated 3/5