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        <description>bookbuffet.com::for book groups that click</description>
        <copyright>Copyright 2007, Bookbuffet LLC</copyright>
        <pubDate>Sat, 31 Jul 2010 13:41:06 -0700</pubDate>
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            <title>Song Over Quiet Lake by Sarah Felix Burns</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/type/home/article_ID/657EF917-D43B-4C15-94FB7054B21B2B63/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[ 
Song Over Quiet Lake is the second novel by Canadian author, Sarah Felix Burns. Her first novel Jackfish the Vanishing Village, 2007 (reviewed here) won the 2009 Northern Lit Award. This built anticipation for her next book. What shines through in her writing again is Burns&#039; understanding of the human condition and the degree of empathy she evokes in readers for her characters. It is not surprising that she holds a degree in Women’s Studies and History from the University of British Columbia, with a masters degree in Social Work from the University of Toronto.]]></description>
            <author>Dee Raffo</author>
            <category>Book Reviews</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/bb-reviews-rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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            <title>Point Dume: by Katie Arnoldi</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/type/home/article_ID/50F24DD4-9922-43DD-A71B0D4C176C7FE5/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[If you crossed T.C. Boyle&#039;s Tortilla Curtain with Kem Nunn&#039;s surf noir trilogy novels and added breasts you would almost get this book, Point Dume written by Los Angeles author Katie Arnoldi (published by Overlook Press, May 28, 2010). Katie grew up in a tiny beach enclave just north of Malibu called Point Dume, popular among surfers. Sounds like she may have been the bad-ass version of Gidget, that is if she bears any similarity to her novel&#039;s saucy protagonist, Ellis Gardener. Somewhere between hanging up her own surf board, a short body-building stint and obtaining a degree in art history, Katie learned to write. She likes obsessive and damaged characters from dysfunctional families set in throbbing plots within issue-related themes. This is her third novel. The first thing that intrigued me was the rave review printed on the back cover by one of my literary icons, Joan Didion in praise of her first novel Chemical Pink a story about the weight lifting culture. It&#039;s written from Arnoldi&#039;s real life experience as an amateur competitive weight lifter. Point Dume is also a real place, and like all idyllic locations within close proximity to a thriving metropolis, it has been invaded by the rich: film directors, A-list actors, successful business types all looking for that fresh salt air, unobstructed sun and wide-open space. They&#039;ve bulldozed the surf shacks and built mansion compounds verily driving out the original residents and their way of life. The beat-up pickup trucks along the beach loaded with short boards tacky with layers of thick bumpy wax are being crowded out by the BMW-driving wanna-be&#039;s who ride squishy 7-9 footers enabling them to take up the sport and in Ellis&#039;s opinion, fake the lifestyle. Yuppy yoga practicing housewives exchange psychologist referrals and drink soy-chai lattes while their hispanic nannies, gardeners and pool boys enable their privileged lifestyles.  With the Pacific Ocean in the front yard, there&#039;s a whole big back yard consisting of miles of hills covered in tall wild scrub brush made accessible by a crisscross network of trails and fire access roads. Add a little water via an illegal tap into state water pipes and domestic irrigation systems, and you&#039;ve got a thriving local industry of clandestine grow-ops run by various drug cartels looking to avoid the post 9-11 border hassle importing las herb. Point Dume the novel, could be on the bibliography list for a college degree in hydroponic canibisology. That seems to be Arnoldi&#039;s forte - capturing the underbelly of her subject with...]]></description>
            <author>Paula Shackleton</author>
            <category>Book Reviews</category>
            <pubDate>Sat, 22 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/bb-reviews-rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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            <title>Deloume Road by Matthew Hooton</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/type/home/article_ID/8CFA109D-81E5-4BED-9421E034AC503C9C/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Canadian author Matthew Hooton spells his first name with double t&#039;s and his last name with double o&#039;s. This inherent symmetry is reflected in his prose, and who knows, may have been the subliminal force in his entire life, starting from the moment when he began to practice printing those consonants and vowels with a large diameter pencil on lined paper in primary school. After all, one of the first things we learn to print is our own name. That means that Matthew Hooton, with double t&#039;s and double o&#039;s, has been writing parallel and contrasting letters his whole life. I think that is rather a clever observation, and one that portends well for readers, because his first novel, Deloume Road (Knopf, Canada 2010) is the embodiment of sublime and subtle symmetry. Deloume Road is located on Vancouver Island on the "wet coast" of British Columbia where the dense forest grows to giants with just enough space between the trees to permit a few rays of light to penetrate down onto the forest floor and sustain a carpet of thirsty ferns and moss. It&#039;s the perfect playground for brothers Josh and Andy and their neighbourhood pal Matthew on this particularly hot August. Other folks living on Deloume Road will factor in the story as well, and their narratives, told in chapters as short as one paragraph, will skilfully lead the reader into a gentle and ominous tension that is contrasted by the pastoral setting of this country road community. Not since John Vaillant’s GG winning novel The Golden Spruce (also set on Vancouver Island) has there been a writer able to capture the essence of the Pacific Northwest and bring us a host of meaningful characters whose lives intersect in touching and disturbing ways.]]></description>
            <author>Paula Shackleton</author>
            <category>Book Reviews</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/bb-reviews-rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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            <title>Why Women Have Sex</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/type/home/article_ID/41C1AB90-FE2A-4C2E-AE5B6E80F213C797/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[ Sex holds a universal fascination. From our basic limbic drive of "preservation of self and species" to the furthest extremes of sexual practice, everyone wants to know how it works and where they fit into the spectrum. Starting from our first sexual stirring and tracking behavior to the oldest fornicators, researchers are gathering information to determine what stimulates our sex drive, the mind-body connection and social-cultural differences for normal and abnormal behavior. In 1998 when Viagara came on the market for men, the push was on to discover the pink pill equivalent for women. Female sexuality, these studies show, is even more complex and nuanced than male sexuality. Researchers Cindy M. Meston and David M. Buss, both psychology professors at the University of Texas at Austin discovered some fascinating new information, which is contained in Why Women Have Sex: Understanding Sexual Motivations from Adventure to Revenge (and Everything in Between). I am particularly interested to read the section talking about the sex practices of young women today. What are these third generation feminists up to? You&#039;d be surprised to see the frank level of experimentation and use of sex, almost as a tool in their armanentarium to get what they want. Seems like a good book to purchase for anyone who wants to understand the sexuality of women better. (Uh... who doesn&#039;t that include?)]]></description>
            <author>PKS</author>
            <category>Book Reviews</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/bb-reviews-rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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            <title>The Soul of Money, by Lynne Twist</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/type/home/article_ID/238DED3E-7BCB-43B2-AAB43FAEDB40EAE3/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[What if you were the head of a struggling non-profit that was working for the good of humanity, to stop global hunger, and a top executive at a food conglomerate offered you $50K as a public relations gesture to counter some bad press his company had received lately. Would you accept the check? Fast forward to a meeting in Harlem you are holding that same night where a group of significantly less privileged people have gathered because of your appeal for help for the hungry people in Africa. A tear-choked woman dressed very plainly listens and then, with barely any hesitation, comes forward from the back of the room and joyfully gives the $50 she earned that day doing housework for a white woman. This sets a stream of people in the room to come forward with shouts of glee as they toss their their dollar bills and change into the basket. The gifts that evening total $500. 

Remarkably Lynne Twist was that struggling non-profit representative realized at that moment in time that money has a soul. She returned the food executive’s check to him the very next day with a note that went something like, “Dear Sir, I am returning your check to you. Please use it toward a charity that has meaning for you.”  Years later when the executive retired, he contacted Ms. Twist, this time to give a far more substantial monetary donation from his own personal funds toward her cause, with the comment “In all my years of business, nothing stuck with me more than your act of returning our donation. Please accept this now, from the bottom of my heart.” 

That point illustrated to me the very essence of, The Soul of Money: Reclaiming the Wealth of Our Inner Resources. Money can be used for good, or it can be used to destroy hope, integrity and incentive. It doesn’t matter how much you have, it is our attitude surrounding money that determines which way the balance tips. We have the power to choose.]]></description>
            <author>Paula Shackleton</author>
            <category>Book Reviews</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/bb-reviews-rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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