Catholicism: A Journey To The Heart of The Faith by Father Barron

In Chapter 3: "That Than Which Nothing Greater Can Be Thought": The Ineffable Mystery of God, Father Barron explores the concept and nature of God. He begins by relating Moses' encounter with God on Mount Sinai.

Father Barron explains only one of Thomas Aquinas' five arguments for the existence of God by considering the principle of contingency. Every thing in this world is "contingent" upon something else for its existence here. Every living thing and every inanimate thing begins and ends, it has a cause to start it and eventually an ending. "Such things do not contain within themselves the reason for their own existence. If they did, they would exist, simply and absolutely;they would not come and go...in regard to contingent things, we have to look outside of them, to an extrinsic cause, or set of causes, in order to explain their existence."

Documentary: Burning The Future: Coal In America

Burning the Future: Coal in America examines the explosive forces that have set in motion a groundswell of conflict between the Coal Industry and residents of West Virginia. Confronted by an emerging coal-based US energy policy, local activists watch the nation praise coal without regard to the devastation caused by its extraction. Faced with toxic ground water, the obliteration of 1.4 million acres of mountains, and a government that appeases industry, our heroes demonstrate a strength of purpose and character in their improbable fight to arouse the nation's help in protecting their mountains, saving their families, and preserving their way of life. Written by David Novack

With the rising price of oil, industrial nations such as the United States and Canada continue to seek other sources of energy that are both cheap and plentiful. For the United States, the coal of West Virginia is seen as a secure source of domestic fuel. Promoted by the US coal industry as a "clean" source of energy, residents of West Virginia tell the rest of the world, the effect of coal mining on their communities. The large coal mining companies such as Massey Coal, have changed their mining practices and now mine coal through a method known as mountain top removal. Mountain top removal is exactly that - the removal of the top portion of a mountain to completely mine a shallow coal seam. The mountain top is then replaced with the left over fill. However, what the rest of the United States doesn't know is how damaging mountain top removal is to the beautiful West Virginia mountains. Besides destroying the delicate Appalachian ecosystem, mountain top removal has poisoned the groundwater of countless communities, destroyed ecosystems and damaged the health of those living near the mining operations and the coal slurry ponds.

This film is an eye-opening account of how individual families have been adversely affected by the coal mining. It brings the viewer into the personal nature of the devastation that families who have lived in Coal River Mountain, West Virginia for centuries, have experienced. Maria Gunnoe, whose family has lived in these mountains for generations, shows viewers how her life has been impacted by the extensive coal mining operations. It was disturbing to see the massive environmental devastation from the open coal mines and to see that even after the mountains are "restored", the Appalachian ecosystem is changed forever. Having a background in hydrogeology, I was horrified to see how the slurry ponds and the coal waste is destroying the groundwater supplies for millions of communities in the eastern US. I did not know that 50 percent of the electricity in the United States is generated using coal.


Made in 2008, I wondered what progress activists have made in the past 3 years or so. A second documentary, The Last Mountain, was shown at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Activists like Maria Gunnoe are determined to save the last mountain and continue to fight Massey Coal.




 
Below is the trailer for The Last Mountain.

Movie Review: The Vow

The Vow, released in time for Valentine's Day, is definitely a tear-jerker, a romantic movie for couples and for singles alike, about staying faithful to a vow even in the most difficult situations. The movie directed by Michael Sucsy, is loosely based on the real life events which Kim and Krickitt Carpenter lived through. Ten weeks after they were married, the couple were in a car accident in New Mexico. When she woke up from a coma, Krickitt could not remember anything from the previous eighteen months. Her doctor suggested that they begin dating again and Krickitt says that since she loved him before she decided to take a second chance. The couple were remarried in 1996, three years after their first marriage. You can learn more about their story in this interview:



The Carpenter's story is about hope, perseverance and commitment, all three virtues the movie more than adequately captures. Leo(Channing Tatum) and Paige Thorton (Rachel McAdams) are a couple who have been together for five years. Deeply in love, they are supportive of one another and share a strong commitment. Leo owns a small recording studio and Paige is a sculptor who is working on a series of sculptures for the Chicago building. Out on a date one evening, the couple are involved in a serious accident that sees Paige in hospital with severe brain trauma. When she awakes, her last memory is of being engaged to her former boyfriend, Jeremy. Paige has lost five years of memories and no longer remembers nor loves Leo.

Like his real-life counterpart, Leo meant what he said in his vows, that he would love Paige forever and prophetically that they would always find a way back to one another. When Paige's parents attempt to persuade her to come home with them, Leo steps in and convinces Paige to return home to their apartment and their life together. But things don't work out as he hoped, and Leo finds himself trying to cope with the loss of the one person he loves more than anything - his wife Paige. Will they ever be able to find their way back to the love they once knew?

Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams have a wonderful onscreen chemistry that makes this movie work. There's a strong supporting cast of Sam Neill as Paige's father Bill, and Jessica Lange as her mother, Rita. The accident scene, done in slow motion but not gory, adds drama and horror to the situation of a couple, in love, enjoying an intimate moment before their lives are shattered. The movie also does a good job of providing viewers of a glimpse of what Rachel's life was like before she met Leo and why she cut her family out of her life.

While the real-life Carpenters are thrilled to see the movie made, they wish that it reflected more the role their Christian faith had in keeping their marriage together. It was their belief in God and in his grace to help a couple through trying times that saved their marriage. Having said that, it's very apparent that the studio wanted this to be a mainstream movie and there is little if anything Christian in this portrayal of the Carpenter's real life experience. In fact Leo and Paige's marriage is a bizarre ritual, occurring in an art gallery and comprising strange vows on the part of Paige.

What impressed me most about this movie is the message of love, forgiveness and fidelity it imparts to viewers. As Rachel's parents and Leo struggle over who wins Rachel's heart, we learn that she left her family over five years ago because of a betrayal of trust. When she relearns what this was and confronts her mother, her mother tells her that she made a promise years ago to Rachel's father and that she made a decision - to forgive him and to love him. "I chose to stay with him for all the things he's done right; not the one thing he's done wrong." says Rita. It's a message worth hearing and taking to heart. Rachel must not only make the decision to love and forgive her parents, but also she learns that mainly, love is almost always a decision.

The Pale Assassin by Patricia Elliott

The Pale Assassin is the first of two books by Patricia Elliott that tell the story of an aristocratic family during the French Revolution. 

In The Pale Assassin, Elliott concentrates on developing her characters and setting the stage for what will happen in the second novel. The reader develops a good sense of what Paris and France was like before the Revolution.  The Pale Assassin works its way to a thrilling conclusion.

In this novel readers are introduced to our heroine, Eugenie Boncoeur, a fourteen-year-old aristocrat and her older brother, Armand, a royalist who is intent on helping King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette escape from Paris. Armand is part of a secret group who are plotting to save the King. Helping him is his best friend, Julien de Fortin, whom Eugenie doesn't much like. We also meet their adversaries, the "Pale Assassin", Raoul Goullet, an evil man who is intent upon destroying the Boncoeur family, and who is determined to kidnap Eugenie who has been promised to him in marriage. He is aided in his attack on the Boncoeurs by Guy Deschamps, a two-faced scoundrel, whom the naive Eugenie is infatuated with. Deschamps goes by the pseudonym of "Le Scapel".

As the situation in Paris grows increasingly violent, the Boncoeurs realize, almost too late, that they must leave for England, where they have a wealthy uncle. Armand decides to delay their departure until the day King Louis is to be guillotined, also the day when the royalists plan to attack and save the king. Julien is part of this attack, but when things do not go as planned, Armand and Julien must change their plans. Will they be able to get Eugenie out of Paris, out of France and more importantly away from La Fantome?!!

Discussion

The Pale Assassin is a well-crafted novel which will appeal to teens who enjoy historical fiction.  The Pale Assassin evokes memories of Baroness Orczy's Scarlet Pimpernel series written at the turn of the last century (1905).  It has a dashing hero, a damsel who is being blackmailed by a scoundrel all set against the backdrop of the French Revolution. The Pale Assassin has believable characters, an exciting plot line and is well written. 

Book Details:
The Pale Assassin by Patricia Elliott
New York: Holiday House 2009
336 pp.

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo

Private Peaceful is the heart-rending telling of the life of Charlie and Tommy (Tommo) Peaceful in the hours leading up to the execution of Charlie for "cowardice in the face of the enemy". 

The story is narrated by Tommo who wishes not to think about what will happen at dawn, but to remember instead what went before. "I want to try to remember everything, just as it was, just as it happened. I've had nearly eighteen years of yesterdays and tomorrows, and tonight I must remember as many of them as I can. I want tonight to be long, as long as my life, not filled with fleeting dreams that rush me on towards dawn."

Tommo recounts his years growing up in England with his mother, his older brother Charlie, whom he admired, and Big Joe, a older brother who was severely affected by a bout of meningitis when he was a baby. 

Thomas begins by remembering his first day of school, as he is taken by Charlie. Their brother Big Joe who is older than Charlie has never been to school. Big Joe nearly died from meningitis a few days after he was born. He had brain damage: he couldn't speak well, nor read or write but he loved everyone and everything. At school, they form two lines, with Charlie in the "Bigguns" and Thomas in the "Tiddlers". Thomas is singled out by Mr. Munnings who tells him he is his lord and master and that he better obey his "commandments". Thomas is in Miss McAllister's class where he is seated next to the teachers oldest and best student, Molly. She teaches him how to tie his shoelaces and her smile tells Thomas that he has a friend. From that point on Tommo adored Molly.

Before he began attending school, Thomas's father, James Peaceful died in an accident. Thomas was with his father the day he died. His father often took him to his work as a forester on the Colonel's estate. That day as his father was chopping away at a tree, Thomas looked up and saw that it was coming down on him. His father yelled for him to run but Thomas was paralyzed with fright and didn't move. In an effort to save Thomas, his father ran to him and tossed him out of the way. When Thomas woke up he saw his father pinned to the ground by the large tree, dead. At his father's funeral Thomas was unable to cry or talk. "...I have inside me a secret so horrible, a secret I can never tell anyone, not even Charlie. Father needn't have died that morning in Ford's Cleave Wood.  He was trying to save me. If only I had tried to save myself, if I had run, he would not now by lying dead in his coffin...I have killed my own father." 

With the death of his father, life for Thomas and his family changed. Soon after  Thomas's mother stopped singing and was quieter and sad. Then the Colonel arrived one day to tell them that with the death of her husband, she would have to leave the cottage on his estate. However, he suggested that she come work at the house to care for his wife as the two older boys would be able to look after themselves. He also suggested placing "the other one" - that is Big Joe,  in the lunatic asylum. Without much choice, Thomas's mother took the job as maid and his mother's aunt, whom they called "Grandmother Wolf" moved in. She had once worked at the Colonel's house as a housekeeper but had to leave. She quickly took charge, was strict and was harsh with Big Joe. During this time, Thomas's mother was too tired to protest Grandma Wolf's treatment of the boys and of Molly whom she often hit. 

The Colonel's wife died and Thomas's mother returned home. without much money they began to go hungry.  To alleviate this, Charlie began poaching salmon, trout and rabbits from the Colonel's land while Molly and Thomas kept watch. Finally during this time, Grandma Wolf left their home and moved back to the Colonel's house as a live-in housekeeper. Thomas's family were allowed to remain in the cottage because of a promise made by the Colonel's wife. 

Shortly after this Molly became ill with scarlet fever. Without her watching, Thomas fell asleep and Charlie was caught poaching by the Colonel's bailiff, Lambert. Charlie was made to apologize, but their mother's intervention prevented the boys being whipped. Instead they were made to clean out the Colonel's kennels for several months. Thankfully Molly recovered and visited the Peacefuls on Christmas Eve.

When Thomas turned twelve, both Charlie and Molly left school. She was fourteen and Charlie was thirteen. Charlie worked in the hunt kennels at the Colonel's  house while Molly became under-parlor maid there. For Thomas, this began the separation of the three friends. There was more trouble with the Colonel when Charlie took Bertha, one of the Colonel's foxhounds to save her from being shot by Colonel. This led to Charlie being fired but keeping Bertha who became Big Joe's faithful companion. Charlie managed to find work with Farmer Cox as a dairyman and shepherd. At this time Molly stopped visiting Charlie and they knew this was because of the Colonel. Thomas managed to meet with Molly in the trees by the brook where she revealed that her parents won't let her visit because Charlie is a thief. However, they got around this by having Thomas bring letters back and forth. 

With Europe at war the army had bought up many horses in the village. Molly's mother visited the Peaceful home to insist that Charlie and Molly stop seeing one another. Thomas was hurt by the revelation that his brother has continued to see Molly because he too loves her. Then Big Joe went missing. This happened after the Bertha was shot by the Colonel. It was Molly who determined that Big Joe, in an effort to get to heaven, has gone to the church tower. And that is where Thomas found him.

At this time, the battle on the Marne had left the British and the Germans at a stalemate. Molly and Charlie married after she showed up at the Peaceful home, pregnant with Charlie's baby and disowned by her parents. This was a struggle for Thomas to accept so he kept his distance from Molly. One day when Thomas who was now fifteen years old, was in Hatherleigh to sell Farmer Cox's rams, he watched as a military band entered the maarket. The sergeant-major began singling out young men including Thomas, to enlist. Jimmy Parsons stepped forward followed by others, but Thomas did not. Instead he fled the market in fear and shame, being labelled a coward.

At home, Charlie told Thomas he never planned to join because he has\d no quarrel with the Germans. He couldn't understand why he would want to shoot a German. However, a few weeks later the Colonel visited the Peaceful cottage and threatened Charles into enlisting as the British military needed more men. To force Charlie to enlist, the Colonel told his mother that if he didn't they would no longer be able to live at the estate's cottage. So both Charlie and Thomas pretended to be twins and enlisted together. It was a decision that was to have terrible repercussions for Charlie and Molly and change the Peaceful family forever.

Discussion

Private Peaceful is a story about World War I that explores the injustice of executing soldiers for desertion, cowardice or for merely falling asleep. The two main characters, Thomas and Charlie Peaceful are fictional, but the executions of soldiers during World War II was very real.

The novel is narrated by Thomas (Tommo) Peaceful, the younger brother of Charlie Peaceful. It is the night before Charlie's execution. However, the reader is initially led to believe that it is Thomas who is facing execution and reminiscing about his life. Each chapter is titled with a time stamp, the first chapter being Five Past Ten (the night before) and ending with One Minute To Six (the morning of the execution). In these chapters, Thomas is remembering his life with Charlie beginning with the day Charlie carried him to school on his back. Throughout the narrative Thomas portrays his older brother as someone unfraid to confront those injustice.

This is first seen when Thomas fights Jimmy Parsons for calling Big Joe a "loony" and is beaten. Charlie takes on Jimmy and gets canned by Mr. Munnings, their harsh school master. However, unlike Jimmy Parsons who cries, Charlie doesn't flinch. Later on, Charlie attempts to save the Colonel's foxhound Bertha from being shot for simply being too old. This gets Charlie labelled a thief. But it is in the army where Charlie rebels against the harsh and cruel discipline. Forced to enlist by the Colonel in order for his mother, Big Joe, and his wife Molly to stay in their cottage, Charlie is accompanied by younger brother Thomas to Salisbury Plain where they train and then travel to Etaples, France to fight. 

In France they meet Sergeant "Horrible" Hanley who is abusive and cruel to the new soldiers. He immediately singles out Charlie Peaceful. It begins with Charlie's crooked cap badge. Charlie would not give Hanley the satisfaction of intimidating him and so he is put on extra sentry duty. When he couldn't break Charlie, Hanley singles out Thomas in an attempt to provoke Charlie. He succeeds after Thomas is ordered to run five times around the parade ground with his rifle above his head and he passes out. This leads Charlie to confront Hanley, resulting in him being administered Field Punishment Number One. "All day long Charlie was lashed there in the rain, legs apart, arms spread-eagled."  Charlie wasn't the only soldier that Sergeant Hanley subjected to this treatment. "Caught sleeping one night at his post, Ben Guy, the innkeeper's son from Exbourne, on of the new recruits, was subjected, as Charlie had been before him, to Field Punishment Number One. For day after day he was strapped ther on the gun wheel in all weathers." This especially cruel form of punishment was used over sixty thousand times by the British army in World War 1. In truth it was a form of torture labelled "the crucifixion" that was eventually abolished in 1923 in Britain. 

The final confrontation comes during a battle when Charlie rescues Thomas after he is buried by a shell explosion.  Charlie, Thomas, Pete, along with many others and Sergeant Hanley are trapped in no-man's land in an old German concrete dugout. They are pinned down by machine guns on three sides. Charlie believes it is best for them to stay put and wait until dark especially since Thomas is so seriously wounded he cannot stand, let alone run in an attack. When Hanley gives the order to attack and no one moves,  Charlie explains the Germans have seen them go into the dugout and are simply waiting for them to move out so they can open fire. Even when Hanley threatens Charlie with the firing squad, Charlie doesn't back down but explains that Thomas cannot run and that he's not leaving his brother. Hanley and the men go out but only he returns. "By nightfall there was still no sign of Pete, nor of a dozen others who'd gone out with the sergeant to join that futile charge. The sergeant decided it was time to go. So in the dark of the night, by twos and threes, the remnants of the company crawled back to our trenches across no-man's-land, Charlie half-dragging me, half lifting me all the way." After this Charlie is arrested. 

The result is a sham of a trial without legal representation. Charlie describes the court-martial to Thomas: "They had their one witness, Sergeant Hanley, and he was all they needed. It wasn't a trial, Tommo. They'd made up their minds I was guilty before they even sat down. I had three of them, a brigadier and two captains looking down their noses at me as if I was some sort of dirt. "  He tells Thomas that he told them everything and admitted to disobeying the order because it was "stupid, suicidal". Charlie tells Thomas that the military commanders knew that the attack was futile but that didn't matter. His record of "insubordination", of being wounded in the foot all sealed his fate. In the end, Charlie Peaceful was executed. 

Charlie Peaceful's trial and execution highlights the unethical treatment of soldiers during World War 1 court martials. This included the lack of legal representation, and the absence of witnesses for the soldiers' defense. The execution of soldiers by all countries during World War I was seen as a way to enforce discipline ensuring that soldiers obeyed orders to attack, even when the situation seemed "suicidal" to the soldiers. It was also considered a deterrent to desertion. The British often carried out these executions before major offensives for this reason. The result was three hundred and six British soldiers were executed by firing squad during World War I. 

As author Michael Morpurgo writes in his Author's Note, "That a shameful injustice had been done to these unfortunate men seemed to me beyond doubt. Their judges called them "worthless."  Their trials, or court martials, were brief, under twenty minutes in some cases. Twenty minutes for a man's life. Often they had no one to speak for them and no witnesses were called in their defense. There was, I felt, a presumption of guilt. We know now, as they knew then, that most of these men were traumatized by shell shock. When their ends came it was always at dawn, and often they were shot by a firing squad made up of unwilling friends and comrades. The youngest soldier to be executed was just seventeen."

It also frames the growing disillusionment of soldiers as the war dragged on. The initial sense of patriotism gradually waned as both sides seems to achieve little progress. This is expressed by Charlie and Thomas's friend Pete who becomes angry upon hearing that Charlie has told his mother that they are "having a fine time in Belgium".  Pete angrily responds, "So that's what we're having, is it?...A fine time. Why does he tell them that? Why doesn't he say what it's really like out here, what a hopeless bloody mess it all is, how there's good men, thousands of them, dying for nothing -- for nothing!..."

Author Michael Morpurgo effectively portrays the brutality of war in the novel. Soldiers like Charlie and Thomas and many of their school friends, are coerced into enlisting. Thomas experiences the wrath of an old woman who accuses him of being a coward while Charlie is bullied into enlisting by the Colonel. Although they are physically trained in England, it isn't until they see the huge training camp and see the wounded that Thomas and his brother begin to understand what the war might be like. Morpurgo captures the terror Thomas experiences during a gas attack even though he has a mask on. There are vivid descriptions of the rats and freezing mud in the trenches, the shelling, charges across no-man's-land, and the deaths of friends and mentors. Thomas remembers the fear, the panic and the pain of loss.

Private Peaceful is a novel of contrasts. The Peaceful family is one of love and kindness, of helping one another. Their simple tenderness and care for Big Joe is touching and its clear he has taught them to care for one another by his innocence and love for everything and everyone. In contrast to the rhythms of rural life in England is the chaos of war where the noise, fear, pain and death are ovewhelming.

Morpurgo has crafted believable characters in Charlie and Thomas, and in many of the secondary characters. The two brothers are friends and competitors with Thomas looking up to his older brother. Charlie is protective of Thomas and is a role model. Both Charlie and Thomas love Molly but it is Charlie who marries her. Knowing he will die, Charlie asks Thomas to take care of her and their little boy, Tommo. And as a final gift to Thomas, Charlie tells him that he was never responsible for their father's death. 

The novel concludes with a Postscript about the World War 1 court martials and that the men who were executed were likely suffering from shell shock or what is now called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It also mentions that these men are still not pardoned. Morporgo's novel was published and 2004 and these men were "conditionally" pardoned in 2006.

Book Details:

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
Toronto: Scholastic Press 2004
208pp.

Between by Jessica Warman

Between is a story about two ghosts/spirits who spend time "between" Earth and the afterlife solving the mystery of how they died, so they can find eternal peace.

It is the eve of Elizabeth Valchar's 18th birthday and she's spending it on her family's boat with friends, drinking and doing recreational drugs. Elizabeth is attractive and popular, part of the "in" crowd in her high school. She has it all; beauty, a cute boyfriend, a flashy car, and plenty of money. Early in the morning, Liz is awakened by an annoying, persistent, thumping noise outside the boat. When she goes to investigate she makes the shocking discovery that it is her body, face down in the water. Liz soon discovers that while she can see and hear the living, she cannot touch or interact with them in any way.

However, Liz is not alone for long. Her spirit is soon found by another spirit, that of Alex Berg, a boy from her school who was killed a year ago by a hit and run driver. His death was never solved with the identity of the driver unknown. Alex can see and touch Liz and communicate with her. Because Alex lived in another part of town, wasn't wealthy or popular, Liz and her posse ignored Alex. Now in death, Alex can barely contain his contempt for her.

Liz finds that she has no memory of what happened on the night she died, nor of many other details of her life. But she learns that she can slip back into memories, which begin to help her piece together the final months leading up to her death. Together Alex and Liz begin through a series of flashbacks to uncover the truth about what happened on the eve of Liz's eighteenth birthday.

Jessica Warman does a good job of retaining the reader's interest throughout the novel with a well paced narrative that paints a picture of a group of selfish, spoiled teens concerned only with looking good and being popular. There are several mysteries to be solved, and these serve as the hook drawing the reader in. A few examples will suffice. What is the connection between Liz and Alex? Was Liz's death an accident or the result of something more sinister? Some readers may solve these mysteries sooner than others but as the story begins to come together it's not hard to piece together what happened.

As the narrative progresses, we see Liz undergo a process of self-discovery that transforms her from a self-absorbed, spoiled teenager, concerned only about money, looks and status, to a more caring person who is sorry for some of the things she did when she was alive. So the book opens with most of the characters being being genuinely unlikable, including Liz. That changes by the end with Liz having redeemed herself as much as is possible for a ghost.

Between is a book with themes of redemption, loss, love and forgiveness. The premise of the book is what caught my attention and I wasn't disappointed. Some readers might be put off by the length of the book (slightly over 450 pages) but the story is well told in Liz's voice, which is authentic, full of angst and regret at some of her poor choices.

Book Details
Between by Jessica Warman
New York: Walker & Company 2011
454 pp.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder is a unique mash-up of fairytale and science fiction.  The fairytale is an underlying theme until the end of the book where it rears up in full force.

The story is set in post World War IV Earth, during which whole cities were been annihilated, including Beijing. Cinder is set specifically in New Beijing which is part of the Eastern Commonwealth, ruled by Emperor Rikan. Many generations ago, Earth colonized the moon. The descendants of the colonists became known as Lunars. Lunars are not considered human but a different race that is greedy and violent. This is partly due to the fact that they have developed the unique ability to manipulate what humans see and feel through the use of bioelectrical energy. For this reason, they can easily control humans and are considered very dangerous to "Earthens". However, not all Lunars have this ability and these are known as "shells".

Earth is experiencing a deadly plague called metumosis for which there is no cure. Anyone who becomes ill with the plague is automatically taken away and quarantined to die. Emperor Rikan is on his deathbed from metumosis and his son, Kai is poised to be named the new emperor. This occurs at the time that Emperor Rikan was attempting to negotiate a new alliance with the Lunars, possibly through the marriage of Prince Kai and the Lunar monarch, Queen Levana.  Queen Levana is cruel and manipulative and it is widely held that she murdered her sister to ascend the throne. Queen Levana is also believed to have murdered her niece, Princess Selene who was her only threat to rule. Because of her ability to control others, the Lunars have been unable to rise up against Queen Levana. Some Lunars have escaped to Earth and live as Earthens. This is the dsytopian world that Cinder lives in.

Linh Cinder is a cyborg and an extraordinary mechanic who runs her own repair booth at the nearby marketplace. Cinder's body was altered when she was eleven-years-old. She has a mechanical hand and foot, a heart that is partly silicon and her brain has computer software integrated into it. Cinder is ashamed that she is a cyborg.

Cinder lives with her guardian, Adri Linh, and her two stepsisters, Pearl and Peony, in New Beijing. Her stepmother is cruel to her and Cinder's only friend is Peony, whom she loves dearly. Similar to the Cinderella fairytale, Adri orders Cinder around, pushing her to do all the repairs. When they learn that there is to be a ball held by Prince Kai on the occasion of his coronation as Emperor, Pearl, Peony and Adri discuss dresses and shoes. But Adri makes it quite clear that Cinder will not be attending. She has too much to do and besides, why would an ugly cyborg want to attend anyway?

Because Cinder is well known for her mechanical abilities, Prince Kai shows up one day at her booth with a malfunctioning droid. They meet and are instantly attracted to one another. But Prince Kai is unaware that Cinder is a cyborg and Cinder knows she can never be with him.

When Peony sickens from the plague and is quarantined, Adri has Cinder sent to the research facility to be used as a test subject for a plague cure. It is during these tests at the research facility attached to the palace that Cinder is discovered by Dr. Erland, head of plague research, to have some remarkable qualities. When he questions her about her past life, all Cinder can remember is that she was injured in a hover accident and made into a cyborg. Dr. Erland promises Cinder that he will run tests to try to understand her situation better. The reader though, by this time should have a pretty good idea just who Cinder is, so that when Dr. Erland reveals to Cinder what he has learned about her, it really comes as no surprise.

Cinder also meets Kai again and he invites her to the coronation ball. Despite her repeated  refusals to attend, Kai continues to insist that she do so. Meanwhile Prince Kai must deal with the evil Queen Levana who has arrived on Earth for his coronation. Queen Levana continues to pressure Prince Kai into marriage by blackmail. Kai knows that if he marries her, his life will be over but that if he refuses, war with Lunar will ensue.

Pearl and Adri leave for the ball,  and Cinder is left at home to finish her mechanical chores. But instead of a fairy godmother showing up to provide a way to get there, Cinder learns some important information that makes it imperative that she attend and warn Prince Kai of a trap. The resulting confrontation places Cinder in great peril and brings the book to its climax.

Discussion

Cinder was an imaginative start to what will be a four book series known as The Lunar Chronicles. While the plot is complicated but interesting, there are many similarities to the first Star Wars movie story line; a prince in distress with an android carrying a secret message that must be accessed and a young girl who has a knack for mechanics, adopted by people she hardly knows, drawn into a crisis of potential planetary war against a cruel dictator with special powers! All of this is superimposed on the Cinderella fairy tale, with its potential to be a love story.

Because there was so much to be developed in this first book, the dystopian world building (Earth and Moon), the complicated story, and introduction of many important characters, Cinder is somewhat weak on depth of characterization but long on action and description.

However, it sets the stage well for the next book, which hopefully develop the complicated and conflicted characters both Kai and Cinder seem to be. This series promises either to be very very good, or a hot mess of characters and plot lines. Fans of twisted fairy tales will love Cinder!

Book Details
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
New York: Macmillan (Feiwel and Friends Book)   2012
390 pp.

Movie Reveiw: Hachi

Hachi is a wonderful, poignant family movie about a lost dog and the man who finds him. Parker Wilson, known as Professor, finds a lost Akita puppy one day on his way home from work. The puppy has a tag with Japanese characters on it and when Parker is unable to locate his owner, he asks a close Japanese friend what the characters mean. He is told that the dog's name is Hachiko. Parker and his family decide to keep Hachi and gradually a strong bond is formed between man and dog.

Every day Parker catches the train into the city where he works as a professor at a college. Every day, despite Parker's attempts to prevent Hachi from doing so, the dog faithfully follows him to the train station and every night he returns to wait for Parker's arrival home. Gradually the two of them develop a strong bond that touches many of the people Parker knows.


One day, Hachi doesn't seem to be himself. Repeatedly he seems demonstrate that he doesn't want Parker to take the train to work. It is to be the last time the two are together and when Parker doesn't return home, Hachi continues his daily ritual of waiting at the train station for Parker to return.

Hachi is loosely based on the true story of Professor Ueno who died at work one day and whose Akita dog waited faithfully for nine years at the train station for his master to return. Eventually, the dog died.

The real Hachiko.

Be prepared because Hachi will make you cry. A beautiful, touching story of loyalty and friendship, this movie is a must for those who love animals, especially dogs. I'm not a fan of Richard Gere but he does a fine job in this movie. I would have loved to see Mark Harmon or Bruce Greenwood as Parker.

Catholicism. A Journey To The Heart Of The Faith by Robert Barron

Chapter 2. Happy Are We: The Teaching Of Jesus explores some of the teachings of Jesus Christ by considering the eight beatitudes presented in the Sermon on the Mount. Father Barron goes through the "more 'positive' formulations" first; essentially he considers these beatitudes as helping us achieve a right ordering of our lives with God central and foremost.

These beatitudes are "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.","Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.", "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will by satisfied.", and "Blessed are the peacemakers,for they will be called the children of God.".

From these "positive" beatitudes, Barron moves onto those beatitudes which help to reorient us towards God. In our fallen nature, "we sense within ourselves the hunger for God, but we attempt to satisfy it with some created good that is less than God." Those substitutes are usually one of the following four; wealth, pleasure, power and honour. We usually discover that, as we seek to fill the void created by a lack of God, with one of the above four or any combination of them, our lives become more disordered and more directed towards achieving that substitute. Barron terms them addictions that block our path to developing a closer, more meaningful relationship with God.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." is a directive towards detachment from material goods.

"Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted." is a summons to avoid the "addiction to good feelings". These feelings can be anything pleasurable in the realm of physical,emotional or psychological.

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land." is a warning against seeking power in life as a substitute for God. The desire for power is probably the strongest and most irresistible, probably because power often brings about more of the other three.

"Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." exhorts us to shun the love of honour.

Barron goes on to further explore Jesus' exhortation to love one's enemies. Jesus' directive, "But I say to you, offer no resistence to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.', is not an instruction to acquiesce to evil, or to do nothing. Instead, he challenges his followers to try a different approach - that of standing our ground and showing the aggressor the injustice of his actions. The intent is possibly to reform that aggressor.

Father Barron concludes this chapter with an excellent discussion of the parable of the prodigal son and the parable of the sheep and the goats contained in chapter 25 of Matthew's Gospel.  I will leave the reader to discover these gems on their own.

The Traitor's Smile by Patricia Elliott

The Traitor's Smile set in revolutionary France is the sequel to Elliott's Pale Assassin. Eugenie De Boncoeur, a young aristocrat from France, has newly arrived in Deal, England, along with Julien de Fortin, a friend of Eugenie's brother, Armand. They are finally safe from the French Revolution which has claimed most of France's aristocrats. But Eugenie's brother, Arman De Boncoeur is languishing in La Grande Force, once a beautiful palace of the Marais, lately a prison for men.
Eugenie has escaped to Deal to stay with her English uncle, Thomas Coveney, who is a surgeon at the Naval Hospital in Deal, and his daughter Hetta. Hetta is an intelligent and spirited young woman who believes that the monarchy should be replaced. She often dresses as a boy so that she can go down to the harbour and help out the local smugglers. And she seems to have taken a romantic interest in Julien, much to Eugenie's dismay.

Unknown to all, Eugenie has been followed to Deal by Guy Deschamps, once a friend of Armand but who is now a spy who goes by the name of La Scapel and who is working for the sinister and cruel Raoul Goullet, known as La Fantome. Eugenie is unaware of Deschamps connections to Goullet and refuses to believe that Deschamps is the one who attacked Julien in France. However, she soon learns that Deschamps is quite willing to take her back to Paris, by force if necessary, to marry Goullet whom her guardian promised her to, years before. Guy Deschamps tells Eugenie that if she upholds her end of the contract, her brother will be set free by Goullet.

Eugenie and Hetta end up back in France, via a wayward balloon trip in a last minute escape from the clutches of Guy Deschamps. Once in France they are helped by those fighting the revolution. They eventually meet up with Julien who has returned to his country to continue fighting for peace. In pursuit, is Deschamps, who is determined to capture Eugenie and kill de Fortin, thus raising his profile with Goullet and ultimately Robespierre. Goullet's motives are more personal - he is out for revenge, the details of which the reader learns near the end of the book.

Discussion

For the most part, The Traitor's Smile was an exceptionally exciting read, even if it was a bit predictable and even a little familiar. The Traitor's Smile is reminiscent of The Scarlet Pimpernel books written by Baroness Orczy. There are some similarities between the storyline of the two books, but the Pimpernel books are by far, better written. If you haven't read them, and you love historical fiction AND romance,  the entire series by Baroness Orczy is highly recommended.

The characters are well developed even if our heroine, Eugenie, is at times frustratingly naive. Elliott's portrayal of the decay of France and the decline into anarchy is well done. Young readers will get a true sense of how a the French citizen's attempted to forge a new path for their country but inevitably lost the jewels of justice and liberty.

The story is marred by romantic sections that read like cheap paperback romances and were out of character with the quality of the writing in the rest of the book. 

Book Details:
The Traitor's Smile by Patricia Elliott
New York: Holiday House 2010
308 pp.

It's A Girl - Documentary Film

From the official website for the documentary film, "It's A Girl!" :

In India, China and many other parts of the world today, girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls(1) are missing in the world today because of this so-called “gendercide”.

Girls who survive infancy are often subject to neglect, and many grow up to face extreme violence and even death at the hands of their own husbands or other family members.

The war against girls is rooted in centuries-old tradition and sustained by deeply ingrained cultural dynamics which, in combination with government policies, accelerate the elimination of girls.

Shot on location in India and China, It’s a Girl! explores the issue. It asks why this is happening, and why so little is being done to save girls and women.

The film tells the stories of abandoned and trafficked girls, of women who suffer extreme dowry-related violence, of brave mothers fighting to save their daughters’ lives, and of other mothers who would kill for a son. Global experts and grassroots activists put the stories in context and advocate different paths towards change, while collectively lamenting the lack of any truly effective action against this injustice.

Currently in post-production, It’s a Girl! is scheduled for a 2012 release.

Many feminist and women's groups in the Western world do not want to fight against the cultural and religious beliefs nor the policies that result in gendercide, fearing that abortion rights will be eroded. In their silence, they are complicit in this holocaust of girls. All baby girls have the right to be born. All women have the right to bear their children, including their baby girls.

Please share this documentary trailer.




Visit It's a Girl! The Three Deadliest Words In The World.



Other organizations working to save women and their girl babies include: Women's Rights Without Frontiers.

Also check out Elzabeth Vargas' video below:

Dangerous Neighbors by Beth Kephart

It is the late summer of 1876 and the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia is on. Seventeen-year-old Katherine's twin sister Anna died this past February 6th and she is convinced it was her fault. So one hot September day, Katherine sets out for the exhibition determined to end her life.  

After the death of Anna in February, Katherine had taken to walking the ridge along the river or the heights of St. George's Hill, trying to find the courage for what she plans to do. Meanwhile her father and mother appear to have gone on living, having breakfast served by their cook, Jeannie Bea and reading their morning papers. Her father who works at the Philadelphia National Bank, is constantly looking for trends and indicators for the future, while her mother is preoccupied with women's rights, and tea and crackers. There was no investigation in to Anna's death.

Katherine has waited on their front porch for her mother to come home from one her many ladies' meetings, or outside her bedroom door hoping for the chance to tell her what happened. "Let me tell you what has happened, she has tried to say. Blame me so that you might forgive me, so that I might forgive myself." 

But her mother simply insists that the past remain in the past and that they look to the future. Katherine knows that when she is gone, life for her parents will simply go on as before.

So on this day Katherine has chosen the Colosseum as the place "she will fly and soon feel nothing." She enters the Colosseum at 4PM and takes the Otis elevator to the balconied tower. There are stairs to cliimb higher, but also a set of  then windows above the cyclorama that lead out onto the roof. From there it is a straight drop onto the street. "The smack of absolution."  Once out on the roof, Katherine now has to wait until five o'clock when the crowds leave.

When a hawk perches near her and stares at the window, Katherine realizes that Bennett, her sister Anna's lover has followed her. He's been following her for months. With one leg out the window he tells her not to do what she's planning, that this is not what Anna would want. He pulls her through the window ending her attempt.

Katherine and Anna had been born twenty minutes apart, with Katherine the younger of the twins. They both had ginger hair and green-gray eyes. Anna was more inquisitive, and the one who seems to indulge in risky behaviour. Katherine always was on guard,  They attended Girls' High and Normal School on Sergeant Street where there were classes in algebra and Shakespeare. Anna liked to pass notes to Mary Phelps at the back of the class. Then last April something changed.

Anna had revealed that the boy at the bakery on Walnut likes her. Whenever they came to the bakery, he'd give Anna something extra, sweet rolls or a slice of coconut pie. So that afternoon in April, while their father was at lunch at Union and their mother was hosting a butter sculptor, Anna had decided not to attend her lesson at Miss Louise's School of Elocution. After sending Jeannie Bea to let the school know she asked Katherine to accompany her to Crowell & Granger, then to the tailor as DeWees. Anna states that she has a gift for Bennett, however, Katherine reminds her that her father hopes to marry her to Alan Carver. But Anna is not interested in Alan. At Crowell's, aided by Mrs. Childress, Anna choses material for new dresses for their seventeenth birthday. And afterward, Anna had visited Bennett in the bakery. Katherine realized that night that Anna had fallen in love with Bennett, the baker's boy.

Once again Katherine decides to make another attempt to end her life. With her mother off to yet another meeting at Mrs. Gillespie's, she leaves her home on Delancey and takes the streetcar to the Trans-Continental Hotel. Katherine follows a young girl with a white bird in a cage and ends up at the Operti's Tropical Garden where Guiseppie Operti and his orchestra will be performing that night, and where the girl's father plays the clarinet. The young girl lets her white bird, named Snow out of its guilded cage to fly around the beautiful space that is painted with gorgeous frescoes. Katherine returns home.

On September 9, Katherine finds herself at the Centennial's south gate above the Schuylkill River and wanders through the exhibition until she reaches the west entrance and is exhausted. Katherine remembers the events of last August during the summer before Anna's death in February. Their father announced that they would be vacationing with the Carvers during the third week of August at Cape May. Anna was not happy about this as she wants nothing to do with Alan Carver, the boy her father is set on having her marry. Katherine and Anna quarrelled as Katherine attempted to get her sister to stop lying and to tell their father what's been going on. Anna doesn't do this even as Katherine diverts Alan's attentions by dancing two valses with him.

Still seated at the Centennial Exhibition, Katherine recalls a particular November day. The two sisters had gone out to do shopping errands that morning after breakfast. But they also stop at the bakery where Anna has Katherine stand watch as she goes in and spends time with Bennett. While she is standing by the door, a young man named William stops by wanting to enter the bakery. William peers into the window and he and Katherine see Anna and Bennett kissing. Ashamed and overhearing Anna tell Bennett that she is forever disappointing Katherine, she leaves and goes home alone. It is at this point that Katherine decides to leave Anna to herself: she spends time with someone else at school, she walks  home alone and doesn't speak to her sister for weeks.

But it is the events of New Years Eve that finally make Katherine reach a decision regarding Anna. Katherine decides that she can no longer save Anna. "That night Katherine gave up trying to talk sense into Anna. That night she did not try to argue her twin sister out of her gargantuan joy; she did not try to save her. It was then that Katherine decided to begin to look the other way on purpose, but this time without anger, without the intent to prove a point. She decided to stop protecting Anna, so that she might love her more truly."

It is this decision that Katherine believes makes her responsible for Anna's death. She stopped watching out for Anna. Still intent on ending her life, it is a series of events that September day at the Centennial Exhibition, meeting Bennett, comforting the little girl who has lost her bird Snow, and meeting William that help Katherine face the reality of Anna's accidental death and how living her life is the answer to her unspeakable loss.

Discussion

Dangerous Neighbors is a historical fiction novel about the coming of age of twin sisters set against the backfrop of the Centennial Exhibition in Philadephia. 

The Centennial International Exhibition was held from May 10 to November 10, 1876 in Philadelphia. The exposition was located at the Fairmont Park along the Schuylkill River. Instead of one large building there were five main buildings along with numerous smaller exhibition buildings that featured different nations. Katherine visits the Colosseum, a round building which exhibited a cyclorama entitled "Paris by Night". It was an immersive oil painting that extended from floor to ceiling to create the illusion of being in Paris. The Colusseum building also featured a tower that exposition visitors could climb.

Kephart ably describes the fair and gives modern readers a sense of the setting with the modern up-to-date novelties on display at the fair across the street from Shantytown with its prostitutes and hucksters and the squalor of its wooden shacks. "The wonders of the world slide past. Parisian corsets cavorting on their pedestals. Vases on lacquered shelves. Folding beds. Walls of cutlery. The sweetest assortment of sugar-coated pills, all set to sail on a yacht.....   At the intersection of the main aisle and the central transept is a palace of jewels: Tiffany, Starr & Marcus, Caldwell. ...See these cinnamon colored cameos; this diamond necklace; these perfect solitaires; these black, white, and pink pearls...."

The novel also incorporates the Shanty Town fire that occurred in Philadelphia on September 9, 1876. The fire began in an establishment on Elm Street across from the Centennial International Exhibition. Although Philadelphia had banned the construction of wooden buildings, Elm Street was filled with restaurants and hotels. The fire spread from the Broadway Oyster House to surrounding buildings very quickly.

The novel opens with Katherine attempting to jump from the Colosseum building at the Centennial International Exhibition. Katherine is wracked with guilt over her twin sister Anna's death in February. Anna died in an accident while skating on the Schuylkill River.  Their relationship has been frought with tension and dysfunction.  Although Katherine was the younger of the twins, somehow she had taken on the role of the older, protective twin, always watching out for her more self-absorbed, reckless and impulsive sister. With their parents seemingly disengaged and absorbed in their own lives, it fell to Katherine to be watchful and on guard. She felt responsible for her sister. Katherine was "responsible for interrupting Anna's drift towards the perilous, for fixing the fences and defining the borders, the edges, the ends. Anna listened to Katherine when it was important, because Katherine's talent had never been beauty; it was saving, rescue." 

Unable to save Anna that past February, Katherine is experiencing intense guilt. As she spends time at the Centennial Exhibition Katherine has time to remember the months leading up to the accident. The April prior to her death, Anna had become interested in Bennett, a boy outside her social class who worked at the bakery on Walnut. When Katherine learns of Anna's attachment she warns her that their father has Alan Carver "in mind" for her. And so when they go out on a shopping trip that ends in a stop at the bakery, Katherine goes along "To make sure that nothing unforgiveable happened in the pitch of an adventure."  That night Katherine realizes that "Anna had fallen in love with Benett: Katherine had lost her."  

During their vacation at Cape May, Katherine found herself caught in the middle. Her father suspects something isn't quite right with Anna but Katherine, caught in the middle, feels she cannot reveal her sister's secret. "She wanted to confess the truth and be done with it."And so when they are alone Katherine attempts to point out their father is doing what he believes is best for her, but Anna is having none of it stating that it is all a charade and that  "They've put me on the auction block"  Katherine  reminds Anna that she has been forced to be responsible for Anna and that she should have been honest about what was going on with Bennett. Katherine begs her to tell father about Bennett, stating "But you have to tell Father about Bennett, Anna, and soon. Promise me that. You've turned us both into liars." Katherine tells Anna that she is being unfair to their parents, to Bennett, and to her by putting her in the middle.  Although Katherine feels abandoned by Anna, she loves her sister too much to do the right thing and tell their parents. 

However, after Cape May Anna continues to lie, sneaking out even during the night to see Bennett.This continues throughout the fall and even during New Years celebrations, and finally to the day the two sisters go skating on the Schuylkill River. The circunstances of Anna's death are not revealed until well into the novel. While Katherine is enjoying learning how to spin on ice skates, Anna skates towards the dam and falls through the thin ice, Bennett unable to save her.

After Anna's death, Bennett has been attempting to talk to Katherine for months, even writing letters to her, but she has spurned all his attempts. His concern for Katherine leads Bennett to save her from the first attempt to end her life.  Eventually Katherine and Bennett meet a second time, on September 9th in the Main Exhibition Hall. She accuses Bennett of not saving Anna and of stealing Anna from her. She is referring to the loss of Anna well before she died and their secret Katherine is now forced to keep forever, of Anna and Bennett. He tells her that he could not save Anna and that she is not responsible for her sister's death. Faced with this reality, Katherine's identity is shattered. "For if Katherine isn't needed for anything, if she is no longer responsible for Anna, who is she now? What can she give?" 

As she reflects after Bennett leaves, Katherine realizes that she had to let go of her sister, in order to keep at least some part of Anna's heart. She remembers,  "By October, Katherine understood that she had this choice: either settle her debts with her sister, or lose her altogether. There could be no more fighting about Bennett. No more accusations, either way...She would leave Anna and her lies and her Bennett be, for the return of at least some fraction of Anna's heart."  This was very difficult for Katherine because she has been so enmeshed with watching out for Anna's recklessness. It is why she feels so guilty over her sister's death.

After the fire, when Katherine is searching for William the young man who finds lost animals and whom she has seen before near her home, she comes to the realization that Bennett really tried to save Anna, that he would have gone after her but they wouldn't let him. She knows she must forgive both him and herself. As she's searching to make sure William is safe after helping rescue animals from the Shanty Town fire, Katherine encounters the little girl who is looking for her bird, Snow. When the little girl asks Katherine what will happen if Snow isn't found, Katherine tells her, "Then you will always have Snow in your heart..."  Katherine has stumbled upon the realization that in moments of desolate loss, one needs to go on living. That in living, the memory of Anna will live on too. "Anna in her heart, she thinks. Katherine living, staying alive, so that Anna lives within."

The novel takes its title from a phrase Katherine's father offers during their stay at Cape May. While talking about Anna, Katherine's father tells her that the world is changing and that Anna doesn't understand, "that there are among us dangerous neighbors." Katherine wonders if the baker's son is a "dangerous neighbor".  Later on she twice sees a young man, with "wheat-colored hair" and eyes "...the color of a river at night". The young man is not from her social status: she's seen him capturing a pig in a neighbor's yard and then sees him again outside the bakery. He speaks to Katherine but he has no business speaking to her. "He was from another side of town. He was from another place. Dangerous neighbors, her father has said... Katherine studied him, decided against deciding he was handsome, though he was --- undeniably he was." At the end of the novel, Katherine decides to act on her attraction to William - a man who seems respectful and whom she admires because he rescues things that are lost. 

Although the novel focuses on the emotional turmoil of the surviving twin Katherine, her parents are remote, secondary characters,  a common feature in young adult novels. Katherine and Anna's parents seem self-absorbed and almost completely disengaged from their daughters' lives. There appears to be no repercussions to Anna's rude treatment of Alan Carver and Anna appears to come and go without her parents even remotely aware of her activities. And her visits to the bakery and even kissing Bennett in the store seem unrealistic - one wonders where was the baker?

While Dangerous Neighbors is an intriguing novel, its structure is somewhat confusing. Instead of chapters the novel might have been better divided into Present and Past. The reader doesn't know how Anna died until near the end of the novel, although there are hints that it has to do with the river. Nevertheless, Kephart manages to convey the dysfunctional relationship between the two sisters and the intense guilt and self-reproach that Katherine experiences. Dangerous Neighbors has at it's core themes of loss, guilt, and redemption. Dangerous Neighbors is a good, short read for teens looking for something different.

Book Details:
Dangerous Neighbors by Beth Kephart
New York: Laura Geringer Books, Egmont USA 2010
176 pp.