The highly-collectible storycards are expected to attract bids from as far afield as New York and Hong Kong. The cards include a new work by Children’s Laureate and much-loved poet Michael Rosen, original illustrations from Lauren Child, creator of Charlie and Lola, and Axel
Scheffler, illustrator of The Gruffalo, and a whimsical African tale by Nobel Prize for Literature winner Doris Lessing. Fans of Irvine Welsh, Neil Gaiman, Richard Ford and Lisa Appignanesi, president of English PEN, will relish this rare opportunity to purchase original – and one off – pieces of their work.

Margaret Atwood will be joining the auction live from Paris to write her original storycard via her unique LongPenâ„¢ machine, which allows her to sign books remotely using a touch sensitive pad and a computer link-up to guide a robotic arm.Gerry Johnson, Managing Director, Waterstone’s comments: “It’s impossible to say how much this charity auction will raise, but with the calibre of authors involved then really the sky is the limit. Owning an original piece of work by a favourite writer is the ultimate limited edition for fans, so with the names we have involved in What’s Your Story? I think we could see some very large sums being bid – all the better for English PEN and Dyslexia Action!”

Dr Philip W. Errington, Deputy Director, Department of Printed Books and Manuscripts at Sotheby’s comments: “This is a wonderfully exciting event with a stellar cast of authors supporting Waterstone’s What’s Your Story? campaign. The auction represents a wonderful opportunity to contribute to English PEN and Dyslexia Action, but uniquely, Waterstone’s are also enabling customers and the public to participate with their own stories.â€

Inspired by the Royal College of Art’s annual display and auction of postcard-sized original artworks, Waterstone’s asked thirteen well-loved authors from around the world to write an original piece of work, on a blank storycard. There is no minimum or maximum word-count and the authors have free reign to tell their story in any fashion they choose. The only rule is that their story fits on one side of an A5-size storycard.

Shortly after the auction, facsimiles of selected cards will be displayed in Waterstone’s windows nationwide. Blank storycards will be available instore, and customers and the public will be invited to join in and write their own stories. These customer cards will also make their way into the window displays, and will be featured in an online gallery at Waterstones.com.

What’s Your Story? forms part of the Waterstone’s Writer’s Year which will see unique projects unveiled each month, celebrating the writer and coinciding with the National Year of Reading 2008. The monthly events included the introduction of The Bookseller’s Bursary in April, a scheme designed to encourage budding authors within the company by sending two booksellers on an all expenses paid writing course.

In May, Sebastian Faulks will select 40 books that shaped his writing for The Writer’s Table, and October will see the launch of the Waterstone’s Featured Poet. Lisa Appignanesi, President, English PEN says: “Stories are vital in creating bridges between individuals and cultures. They are our life-lines to imaginative understanding. They help to shape our dreams and our inner life. What’s more, everyone has at least one. English PEN applauds this wonderful initiative.â€

Ann Campbell, Communications Director, Dyslexia Action adds: “Campaigns like What’s Your Story? are vital in raising awareness of dyslexia. Books and stories are often closed to the 10% of the population affected by dyslexia. The money and attention raised will help these adults and children find a new and lasting interest in reading and writing. Please tell us your story.â€

About the Author:

Waterstones.com – the UK’s leading bookseller, with millions of books covering every subject – including children’s books, eBooks, cookbooks and travel books.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – J K Rowling Leads Stellar Line-up of Top Authors for Waterstone’s Charity Auction

Angela Carter Interview by Lisa Appignanesi

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

To Kill A Mockingbird – 3 Stars (Good)

Gregory Peck won a Best Actor Oscar in this adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about white lawyer Atticus Finch defending an innocent African American man accused of raping a white woman.

This is a story that illuminates everything that is wrong about hate, prejudice, bigotry, ignorance, stupidity, lack of backbone and lack of a heart. It is a story about an all-white male jury who makes important life decisions without right thinking and right motives.

Finch (Gregory Peck) suffers retribution because of his defense of Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) who is accused of raping Mayella Violet Ewell (Collin Wilcox). The real villain is her father Bob Ewell (James Anderson) who beats her and tries to kill Finch’s daughter Scout (Mary Badham) and son Jem (Phillip Alford).

Scout narrates this story about her childhood memories. She and Jem team up with friend Dill Harris (John Megna) in a subplot involving “Boo” Radley (Robert Duvall) who ultimately saves Scout and Jem from Bob Ewell by killing Ewell with his own knife.

Sheriff Heck Tate (Frank Overton) would later claim that Ewell fell on his own knife. Tate knew that Ewell was two legs and bad news coming in the form of one bigoted human being; there would be no charges filed against Boo.

In the end, the innocent Tom Robinson is found guilty and shot to death when he tries to flee his injustice.

It is no irony that this 1932 story takes place in Macon County, Georgia, a cesspool of racially motivated hate even in 1962 when this film was released.

To Kill a Mockingbird shows that some people will never have any discernable personal growth in their entire life; thank God that others do.

Boo, a scary recluse who only came out at night, was Duvall’s first movie role. Duvall apparently stayed out of the sun for six weeks and dyed his hair blond in preparation for the role.

Dill was modeled after author Harper Lee’s childhood friend Truman Capote. Finch was the middle name of Harper Lee’s father.

Horton Foote, who wrote the screenplay for To Kill a Mockingbird, won an Oscar and the film also won for Best Art Direction for a black and white film. The film earned 5 other Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, won by Lawrence of Arabia with Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif.

Gregory Peck picked up the Golden Globe for Best Actor, and the film also won another for Promoting International Understanding. Peck has said that this film was his favorite work.

His character Atticus Finch was voted the top screen hero of the last 100 years by the American Film Institute. This is truly a no-spin honor. To Kill a Mockingbird is also ranked No. 2 on AFI’s 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time (It’s a Wonderful Life with James Stewart is No. 1).

The evidence of just how emotional To Kill a Mockingbird is comes from Brock Peters (the accused) who started to naturally cry while shooting the testifying scene. Gregory Peck said he had to look past him to keep from choking up himself.

Racial bigotry is an extremely emotional and hateful occurrence that continues to linger with us today. Were it not for a loving God who is color blind, the hurt would be even deeper and more destructive.

To Kill a Mockingbird is as appropriate today as it was when it was released. Each generation must work to progress past the sins of past generations. Tom Robinson may rest in peace knowing his descendants will then have a better system of justice.

About the Author:

Ed Bagley’s Blog Publishes Original Articles with Analysis and Commentary on 5 Subjects: Sports, Movie Reviews, Lessons in Life, Jobs and Careers, and Internet Marketing. Read my 3-part series on “Secrets Men Don’t Want Women to Know” and reviews on the Broadway musicals “Camelot”, “Chicago” and “The Phantom of the Opera”. These are all excellent films. Find my Blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/MovieReviews.html

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – “to Kill a Mockingbird” Exposes the Destructiveness of Bigotry

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Pocahontas (Two-Disc 10th Anniversary Edition) $29.99 A powhatan maiden rejects the warrior her father chose for english settler john smith. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 09/14/2007 Run time: 84 minutes Rating: G…

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The Grief Recovery Handbook, 20th Anniversary Expanded Edition: The Action Program for Moving Beyond Death, Divorce, and Other Losses including Health, Career, and Faith $6.82 The Grief Recovery Handbook helps people complete the grieving process and move toward recovery and happiness. Incomplete recovery from grief can have a lifelong negative effect on the capacity for happiness. The authors illustrate how it is possible to recover from grief and regain energy and spontaneity using specific actions needed to move beyond loss. This edition includes: How to choose which…

Rebecca $6.49 With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten—a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper…

This season\’s lineup includes senior forward Jeff Adrien from Brookline, senior guard Craig Austrie from Stamford, sophomore guard Kyle Bailey from Lancaster, sophomore guard Donnell Beverly from Hawthorne, senior guard Johnnie Bird from Fort Bragg, junior guard Jerome Dyson from Potomac, junior forward Gavin Edwards from Gilbert, freshman guard Scottie Haralson from Jackson Mississippi, junior Alex Hornat from South Windsor Connecticut, senior John Lindner from Cheshire, freshman Ater Majok from Stone Mountain, sophomore Charles Okwandu from Lagos Nigeria, senior A.J. price from Amityville, junior Stanley Robinson from Birmingham Alabama, junior Hasheem Thabeet from Dar Es Salaam Tanzania, senior Jim Veronick from Durham Connecticut and freshman Kemba Walker from the Bronyx.

No basketball team amounts to much without the necessary guidance from the basketball coaching staff who supports, educates, trains and instructs the team. The Huskies are no exception. Coaching support for the Huskies includes head coach Jim Calhoun who is in his 23rd season with the Huskies. Associate head coach George Blaney is in his 8th season with the Huskies. Assistant coach Andre LaFleur is in his 8th season with the Huskies. Assistant coach Patrick Sellers is in his 5th season with the Huskies and director of operations Beau Archibald is in his 2nd season with the Huskies.

The Huskies will continue their participation in the 2008-2009 season with games against the Providence, at Louisville, Michigan, Syracuse, at Seton Hall, Pittsburgh, South Florida, at Marquette, Notre Dame and at Pittsburgh.

Thus far the Huskies have an overall game record of 18 wins and 1 loss. These statistics can be further broken down into 9 wins and 1 loss at home games, 5 wins and no losses at away games and 4 wins in neutral areas.

Adrien appears to be quite the contender for most valuable player on the team this season with point scoring averaging 14.3 and a total of 271 points. A very close competitor, however is Dyson, who has 257 points and is averaging 13.5 points per game. Of course, there are more than a few games left to be played this season, which means numbers can change quickly.

The Harry A. Gampel Pavilion is the location that all home games for both men\’s and women\’s basketball are held. Opened for business in 1990, the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion is over 171,000 square feet in the overhead dome and offers 39,000 square feet of space that is attached to the Wolff-Zackin Natorium.

With state of the art facilities, the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion offers modern scoreboards with complete player lineup information that includes fouls, points, and full color game video boards, wood grain professional style individual lockers, an adjoining varsity team lounge and an audio visual area with a large screen television that features satellite dish hook-up for game reviews and scouts.

The Huskies are NCAA participants and follow the rules of the organization regarding agents, amateurism, contact with students and athletes at the school and with high school and junior college coaches and student-athlete employment.

About the Author:

When you need tickets for the UConn Huskies you can count on Ticket America to get you the best seats at the best prices. If you need tickets Ticket America is the place to get them. To get UConn Huskies College Basketball tickets before anyone else visit our website today!

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Uconn Huskies Tickets What About Those Huskies?

Life As a House [VHS] $7.82 A respectable tearjerker, Life as a House is a welcome throwback to angst-ridden family dramas like Ordinary People and Terms of Endearment. It falls short of those modern classics, but you’ll probably still need Kleenex if you appreciate Kevin Kline’s underrated dramatic skills. As the title suggests, Kline’s project is a broad metaphor for repairing damaged lives from the foundation up. Playing …

Life As a House [VHS] $9.48 A respectable tearjerker, Life as a House is a welcome throwback to angst-ridden family dramas like Ordinary People and Terms of Endearment. It falls short of those modern classics, but you’ll probably still need Kleenex if you appreciate Kevin Kline’s underrated dramatic skills. As the title suggests, Kline’s project is a broad metaphor for repairing damaged lives from the foundation up. Playing …

Life as a House [VHS] A respectable tearjerker, Life as a House is a welcome throwback to angst-ridden family dramas like Ordinary People and Terms of Endearment. It falls short of those modern classics, but you’ll probably still need Kleenex if you appreciate Kevin Kline’s underrated dramatic skills. As the title suggests, Kline’s project is a broad metaphor for repairing damaged lives from the foundation up. Playing …

Life as a House [Region 2] $4.87 A respectable tearjerker, Life as a House is a welcome throwback to angst-ridden family dramas like Ordinary People and Terms of Endearment. It falls short of those modern classics, but you’ll probably still need Kleenex if you appreciate Kevin Kline’s underrated dramatic skills. As the title suggests, Kline’s project is a broad metaphor for repairing damaged lives from the foundation up. Playing …

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Freddie the Frog and the Bass Clef Monster: 2nd Adventure Bass Clef Monster $15.28 Freddie the Frog Books– Parent-friendly music education at home. The book/CD does more than entertain. Freddie the Frog products teach basic music concepts simply by playing the CD and turning the pages. “The Bass Clef Monster loveszz frogszz. Why don’t you ask him?” Freddie awakens from hibernation to discover he is not on his beloved Treble Clef Island. Freddie’s search for home lea…

I’m OK-You’re OK $5.68 Are you OK? It’s probably the most important question you’ll ever have to answer. Because right now, whether you’re aware of it or not, all the relationships with the most important people in your life are strongly influenced by a combination of how you feel about yourself (OK or not OK) and what you think of them (again, OK or not OK)….

Gentlemen and Players: A Novel $2.98 For generations, privileged young men have attended St. Oswald’s Grammar School for Boys, groomed for success by the likes of Roy Straitley, the eccentric Classics teacher who has been a fixture there for more than thirty years. This year, however, the wind of unwelcome change is blowing, and Straitley is finally, reluctantly, contemplating retirement. As the new term gets under way, a number of …

The story is told from the imaginary point of view of Inés Suárez from what she may have written in her diary when seventy years old. The diary’s existence is also imaginary. Only a writer of Isabel Allende’s stature would dare to tell this very complicated story in flashback and succeed so brilliantly.

In her diary, Inés addresses Isabel, her stepdaughter from her last marriage. In the first chapter, Inés Suárez says: “I beg you to have a little patience, Isabel. You will soon see that this disorderly narrative will come to the moment when my path crosses that of Pedro de Valdivia and the epic I want to tell you about begins.”

Inés, a poor seamstress from Plasencia–a town in Spain, comes to the new world in a ship with her niece to search for her husband Juan de Málaga. In reality, she is determined to escape from poverty and the backward thinking of the society she was born into. When she learns her husband is dead, she tries to make it on her own with her nursing and housekeeping skills. When a man who was in the same ship with her tries to attack her, she kills him out of self-defense, but the shipÂ’s captain takes the body of the man from her house and discards it, keeping her name clear. After this, Inés wants to move on to other towns in the new world, partly with fear of being found out. It is at this time that she meets Pedro de Valdivia, the conquistador of Chile, and becomes his mistress.

Inés gets Pisarro’s permission by saying that she knows dowsing and can find water in the desert; so, together with Valdivia she travels to Chile, crossing an impossible arid region and facing many hardships to establish the city of Santiago in the Mapocho Valley as a Spanish settlement. They call the new town, “Santiago de la Nueva Extremadura.” The date is February 12, 1541.

In this settlement, cut away from Peru because of distance and dreadful travel conditions, the group faces a terrible struggle against chief Michimalonko’s fierce Mapuche Indians. Inés’s story continues until 1580 when she is writing her memoirs at age seventy as a rich and successful widow but somewhat boastful and full of pride.

Even if the story is filled with battles, cruelty, and blood and gore, the central theme is the passionate love and companionship between two lovers. The relationship between Pedro and Inés is that of a fairy tale, passionate, loving, and full of communication. Even if Pedro changes from an idealistic man to a man of greed eventually, his love for Inés survives to his last breath.

Although Isabel Allende, through Inés, does not lionize or conceal the brutality of the conquistadors, she romanticizes the idea of establishing settlements in the new world and the exploits of those who went through so much to conquer the continent. Inés, a remarkable woman who comes up with solutions to most problems the people of the settlement face in the new world, is portrayed as the modern women’s rights advocates would like to see a heroine. How much of this idealizing might have come close to the truth is debatable.

Inés of My Soul is the fifteenth book for Isabel Allende. In this book, too, her narrative style takes over the story, but her delightful storytelling with the exciting twists and turns in her narration grip the reader fully and make him want not to leave a word unread.

Isabel Allende is a Chilean novelist who was born on August 2, 1942 in Lima, Peru. His books are: The House of the Spirits (1982), La gorda de porcelana (1984), Of Love and Shadows (1985), Eva Luna (1987), The Stories of Eva Luna (1989), The Infinite Plan (1991), Paula (1995, Afrodite (1997), Daughter of Fortune (1999), Portrait in Sepia (2000), City of the Beasts (2002), My Invented Country (2003), Kingdom of the golden dragon (2004), Forest of the Pygmies (2005), Zorro (2005), Ines of My Soul (2006), and Dos Palabras.

The book is in hardcover and 336 pages with ISBN-10: 0061161535 and ISBN-13: 978-0061161537.

As expected from Allende’s wonderful storytelling, “Inés of My Soul” is a brilliant historical epic, full of excitement and suspense.

Joy Cagil is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Writers Her portfolio can be found at http://www.Writing.Com/authors/joycag

Isabel Allende: Tales of passion

From the moment you saw that positive pregnancy test, you knew life would never be the same. For the next nine months, you’ll be doing everything for two, from eating a healthful diet to getting regular medical care. You’ll also be exercising for two, which is why it’s critical to find a safe exercise, like prenatal yoga, that will keep you and your baby healthy and comfortable.

Prenatal Yoga is Good for You

Like any safe exercise, yoga has a host of benefits for expecting moms. According to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), exercising just 30 minutes on most days of the week may help prevent gestational diabetes, which is a factor in the development of preeclampsia, a potentially serious pregnancy complication.

Studies also support prenatal yoga’s benefits. Research at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital found that pregnant women who practiced yoga had lower blood pressure than those who walked for an hour each day. Thai researchers concluded that prenatal yoga shortened the amount of time participants spent in labor as well as the amount of labor pain they reported. A potentially shorter labor and perhaps less labor pain. What woman wouldn’t want that?

Yoga practice may also relieve common pregnancy aches. For example, child’s pose can help relieve the back pain that afflicts nearly 90% of expecting moms. If you suffer with sciatica, a compressed nerve that triggers shooting pain, specific forward bend poses can provide much-needed relief.

Insomnia, another common complaint, stems from a number of causes, including excitement, anxiety, and heartburn. But you don’t need to suffer through those sleepless nights— after all, you’ll have enough of those after the baby comes. The ACOG recommends using yoga relaxation techniques as a way to cope with pregnancy insomnia. These relaxation methods are a common feature in many prenatal yoga classes, and, once you learn to use them properly, they’re an effective, drug-free way to find insomnia relief.

Harry Lawrence

Visit http://www.harryzbiz.com/yogaforlife/category/prenatal-yoga for more articles and videos about prenatal Yoga.

http://www.ezinearticles.com/?Prenatal-Yoga—Ohm-Your-Way-to-a-Healthier,-More-Comfortable-Pregnancy&id=2414691

About the Author:

I am 44-year old advocate of healthy living and have resided in Tokyo, Japan for the last 20 years. I have years of experience working as a Medical Laboratory Technician and also have years of practical experience in the fields of physical training and well being.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – “Prenatal Yoga: ‘Ohm’ Your Way to a Healthier, More Comfortable Pregnancyâ€

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K-9 [VHS] $3.00 A not very subtle variation on the buddy picture, this fluff comedy/action story squeaks by on the surprising charm generated by Jim Belushi (About Last Night, Salvador). Belushi plays the typically acerbic loner cop who relentlessly pursues a criminal mastermind while trying to juggle a relationship at home with girlfriend Tracy, played by Mel Harris of television’s thirtysomething. The catch is …

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