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        <description>bookbuffet.com::for book groups that click</description>
        <copyright>Copyright 2007, Bookbuffet LLC</copyright>
        <pubDate>Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:44:45 -0700</pubDate>
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            <title>bookbuffet.com::for book groups that click</title>
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            <title>The Fear Index by Robert Harris</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/type/home/article_ID/5092B766-5009-446C-846122C7327CC188/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[If you have an interest in these two things; CERN and the consequences of algorithmic trading, then Robert Harris&#039;s new novel The Fear Index (Hutchinson UK, Knopf NAmerica Jan2012) is a must read. I told my husband about it and he picked up a copy at Heathrow airport and says it&#039;s a real page-turner, er, iPad-turner. 

Bloomberg&#039;s correspondent Hephzibah Anderson met up with the author to discuss his book the premise to which is a "physicist-turned-hedge-fund-manager unleashes a trading algorithm that feeds on human emotions to predict market fluctuations. In just a week, VIXAL-4 makes a profit of $79.7 million. Then, on May 6, 2010 -- the day of the so-called flash crash, when the Dow briefly dropped 9.2 percent -- it goes rogue, catapulting its creator into a paranoid universe of murder and market mayhem."

“The fund is like a malevolent creature,” says Harris, 54, the author of bestselling novels including “Pompeii,” “Fatherland” and “The Ghost,” the basis for Roman Polanski’s movie about a thinly veiled Tony Blair. Speaking from the depths of a leather chair in a London hotel, he shares some of his own anxieties over club sandwiches and lounge music.

Anderson: What inspired the switch from historical and political thrillers?

Harris: I see myself as writing books about power and this is the same -- it’s all about control.
A dozen years ago I wanted to write a version of George Orwell’s “1984” in which the threat to the individual wasn’t the state, but rather corporations and computers. I got very interested in artificial intelligence. It wasn’t until the financial crisis that I realized I could marry finance and computers.
Financial Research

Anderson: How much did you know about finance going into this project?

Harris: I didn’t understand what a short was, or a credit derivative, or even precisely what it was that a hedge fund did. I asked a lot of very embarrassing questions of very busy people.
Anderson: So plenty of research, then?]]></description>
            <author>Paula Shackleton</author>
            <category>Book Reviews</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/bb-reviews-rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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            <title>New Biography of KURT VONNEGUT by Charles Shields</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/type/home/article_ID/0759F849-B9E9-4F3C-BCAC2C42418C87C7/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Upon learning that Kurt Vonnegut&#039;s mother successfully committed suicide when he was 21 - on Mother&#039;s Day, a peep of insight into the writer&#039;s life works begins to dawn. The author of “Cat’s Cradle”, “Sirens of Titan”, “Breakfast of Champions” and his masterpiece, “Slaughterhouse-Five”]]></description>
            <author>PKS</author>
            <category>Book Reviews</category>
            <pubDate>Sat, 26 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/bb-reviews-rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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            <title>Ape House by Sara Gruen</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/type/home/article_ID/9E17410D-D475-448B-A18344BC4EB5DD85/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[

What would you do if you could talk to animals? What would you say? What would this discovery mean to our society? Sara Gruen’s award winning novel Ape House  
is a thought provoking read, which poses several questions about how we treat our closest relatives.

Gruen holds a mirror to human culture and we can see it reflected in the engaging eyes of a great ape. Bonobos are part of the great ape family, they are less aggressive and dominant than chimpanzees and are distinguished by their long legs, pink lips, and dark faces. Their facial expressions, and hand gestures are freakishly human in nature, and it’s this human connection that intrigued award-winning writer Sara Gruen.

“Although John already knew that the bonobos’ preferences varied (for example he knew Mbongo’s favourite food was green onions and that Sam loved pears), he was surprised by how distinct, how different, how almost human, they were.”
]]></description>
            <author>Dee Raffo</author>
            <category>Book Reviews</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/bb-reviews-rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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            <title>Angelology by Danielle Trussoni</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/type/home/article_ID/D9E03B52-8248-46B4-976861DEB1D57302/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[ 
Oddly enough I have actually studied angel iconography as part of my English Language degree. I shied away from the phonetics and advanced syntax classes on offer and delved into the eclectic mix of subjects that made up the Folklore Department. We covered supernatural beliefs, place name study, and eventually we were allowed to choose a subject to research that would give us the larger portion of our marks. When I saw the cover of Danielle Trussoni’s second novel Angelology
I was immediately drawn in. The dramatic black front with a white winged figure in chains sets the tone for the book - the story is as dark as the image suggests. These are not the angels of self help books, or the ones on the front of Christmas cards, this book depicts them as more demon than angel. In a modern world obsessed with vampires, myth and legend, secret sects, and anything dark and sexy, Danielle Trussoni could be adding angels to the aforementioned list.]]></description>
            <author>Dee Raffo</author>
            <category>Book Reviews</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/bb-reviews-rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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            <title>Shanghai Girls by Lisa See</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/type/home/article_ID/560F63AB-1089-4414-8B9816F88E911ACC/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[ 
 Shanghai Girls I have just finished Lisa See’s latest novel, and I am devastated. I turn to the next page in hope that it’s a misprint and that there must be more written – this just can’t be the end. I have been following two Chinese sisters, May and Pearl, as they embark on a journey from their home country to America. It is a story of displacement and identity. Underpinning it all is the tale of sisterly love, as well as sibling rivalry. Lisa See weaves an enthralling tale at a time in history where there were so many stories to be told.

Lisa See is the author of critically acclaimed and international bestseller, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005). She has also written a three part mystery series, as well as non-fiction and short story works. Lisa See released her first book in 1995, On Gold Mountain: The One Hundred Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family . This is the story of her grandfather’s journey to Los Angeles, and how he became the godfather for Chinatown. Her latest novel is the third in her Chinese set, and from what I hear will not be the last.]]></description>
            <author>Dee Raffo</author>
            <category>Book Reviews</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 12 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/bb-reviews-rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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