Beyond Reading in Easton
Book Discussion Group

Beyond Reading book discussion takes place on ce a month on Thursday evenings in the Library Conference room at 8:30 PM. Discussions are facilitated by the Rev. Nayiri Karjian, Pastor of the Congregational Church of Easton. Sign-up sheets are located at the circulation desk of the Easton Public Library and questions may be directed to Bernadette Baldino at 203-261-0134.

November 2, 2006

The Shadow of the wind

by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

From the Publisher
Barcelona, 1945—A great world city lies shrouded in secrets after the war, and a boy mourningthe loss of his mother finds solace in his love for an extraordinary book called The Shadow of the Wind, by an author named Julian Carax. When the boy searches for Carax's other books, it begins to dawn on him, to his horror, that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book the man has ever written. Soon the boy realizes that The Shadow of the Wind is as dangerous to own as it is impossible to forget, for the mystery of its author's identity holds the key to an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love that someone will go to any lengths to keep secret.

December 7, 2006

MYTHS, LIES, AND DOWNRIGHT STUPIDITY

by John Stossel

Publishers Weekly
ABC News correspondent Stossel mines his 20/20 segments for often engaging, frequently tendentious challenges to conventional wisdom, presenting a series of "myths" and then deploying an investigative journalism shovel to unearth "truth." This results in snappy debunkings of alarmism, witch-hunts, satanic ritual abuse prosecutions and marketing hokum like the irradiated-foods panic, homeopathic medicine and the notion that bottled water beats tap. Stossel's libertarian convictions make him particularly fond of expos s of government waste and regulatory fiascoes, which are usually effective but lead inexorably to blanket denunciations of "monster government" and sermons on the wisdom of the market. Sloganeering-"Myth: The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) will make America less sexist. Truth: The EEOC will torment people and enrich lawyers"-sometimes crowds out objectivity. The author's complacent glosses on overpopulation and global warming ("we can build dykes and move back from the coasts") are especially glib and one-sided. Fans of Stossel's similarly opinionated bestseller Give Me a Break will eat up this new book, but other readers may wince when the author's ideology overshadows the facts.