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        <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/</link>
        <description>bookbuffet.com::for book groups that click</description>
        <copyright>Copyright 2005, Bookbuffet LLC</copyright>
        <pubDate>Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:40:05 -0700</pubDate>
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            <title>bookbuffet.com::for book groups that click</title>
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        <item>
            <title>The Man Within My Head by Pico Iyer</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/article_ID/29F7C4B6-28BD-4513-AABE5C00CBC17595/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[I&#039;ve always been a fan of Graham Greene. He was a journalist turned novelist, an avid traveler who wrote about external and internal forms of conflict; during war or occupation; in matters of the heart; spiritual conflict. He appeals to the philosopher and psychologist in all of us. Pico Iyer&#039;s new book, The Man Within My Head (Random House, Feb 2012) is about his own close identification with Graham Greene life and work. This book make you see the deep connections we each have for the writers we admire. 

You may know Pico Iyer through his prodigious 100 yearly articles appearing in Time, NYRB, Harper&#039;s, National Geographic, Financial Times and other fine publications. They demonstrate his shared breadth of interest in Green-esque topics—indeed Mr. Iyer wrote the introductions for Greene&#039;s Collected Stories, as well the introductions for authors: Michael Ondaatje, Somerset Maugham, Peter Matthiessen (Snow Leopard) and others. His own books deal with faith, The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, and travel: Sun after Dark: Flights into the Foreign, The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, & the Search for Home, Imagining Canada: An Outsider&#039;s Hope for a Global Future, The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto for starters. Of his current book Random House writes, 

In The Man Within My Head, Pico Iyer sets out to unravel the mysterious closeness he has always felt with the English writer Graham Greene; he examines Greene’s obsessions, his elusiveness, his penchant for mystery. Iyer follows Greene’s trail from his first novel, The Man Within, to such later classics as The Quiet American and begins to unpack all he has in common with Greene: an English public school education, a lifelong restlessness and refusal to make a home anywhere, a fascination with the complications of faith. The deeper Iyer plunges into their haunted kinship, the more he begins to wonder whether the man within his head is not Greene but his own father, or perhaps some more shadowy aspect of himself. 

The New York Times Book Review says, "The Man Within My Head demonstrates, there’s fellowship to be found in the community of eloquent strangers, an eternal literary companionship.” ]]></description>
            <author>PKS</author>
            <category>bookbuffet features</category>
            <pubDate>Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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            <title>Gear to Jumpstart 2012</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/article_ID/CEB9E285-54E3-4056-B39F7D58F06C0B4B/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[With an eye to keeping up with the latest technology trends, here is a list of gear and gadgets you&#039;ll want to take with you into 2012. 

Apple iPad 2 
Rightly called "the game changer" the iPad2 sold out on all channels with 500,000 units flying out the door on the first weekend alone. The reason? Our smart phones aren&#039;t really large enough to read books or browse websites and many of the new apps are easier to see and use on an ipad. Our laptops are too cumbersome to pack and carry for international travel, or for that matter commuting by bicycle to work. Two cameras make FaceTime and HD video recording possible. Using the ipad as a surrogate office station is possible through the free (or larger data subscriber rates) of iCloud, where all your memory heavy programs and data is kept on a remote server you can access and update from anywhere. The dual-core A5 chip and 10-hour battery life keep you powered. Over 200 new software features in iOS 5. Manipulate and share photos art. Carry all your digital and audio books, music & films, world newspapers and magazines in one slim device. Use the GPS positioning system for every app that you now rely on: google maps, cinema and restaurant locator, taxis, that wine label locator, etc. 

Boxee Live TV ($50)
Now that you&#039;ve streamlined your office, why not dump your cable company? How many times have you lamented that you were paying for hundreds of stations that you never use or want to see or have to negotiate around? Boxee Live TV ($50) uses an HDTV antenna or unencrypted cable connection to access to local broadcast stations with a friendly show-finding interface that lets you receive recommendations from friends, and even remove channels that you never watch. Boxee puts viewers in control of their television viewing preferences for the first time! It&#039;s a positive revolution that may save us all from a Kardasian-esque future idiocracy. 

The Audio Bulb:
It&#039;s a light bulb and a wireless audio speaker. Just screw it into your light bulb socket for added sound. What a great idea!]]></description>
            <author>Paula Shackleton</author>
            <category>bookbuffet features</category>
            <pubDate>Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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        <item>
            <title>Dickens 2012: The Biggest Literary Celebration</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/article_ID/9F6A90DA-4E78-4E6F-86EF755ED33445F8/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Next year will mark the 200 anniversary of the birth of English author Charles Dickens, and all kinds of things are planned to mark the occasion. Check out www.dickens2012.org. I just downloaded a cool App for my iPad. It&#039;s a narrated and illustrated copy of Dickens: Dark London by the Museum of London that is interactive, and takes users on a journey through the darker side of Charles Dickens’ London in a unique series of interactive graphic novels narrated by Tinker Tailor Solder Spy actor Mark Strong. It&#039;s compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.2.1 or later.


Since it is "that festive time of year" let us focus on Dickens&#039; classic short novel  A Christmas Carol. The book has remarkably been in print continuously for 167 years. The novella was first published by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843 during the Victorian era when people were experiencing a nostalgia for traditions - the Christmas carol and the German tradition of decorating evergreen trees.  In fact, Dickens is credited with changing the way Great Britain, the rest of the Commonwealth and western Christian society now celebrates this holiday, which before the runaway success of A Christmas Carol wasn&#039;t even a bank holiday. This Penguin copy, Classics Christmas Carol And Other Christmas Writings has a wonderful combination of stories you can read aloud in your family to start your own family aural tradition. 

Each year our local library puts on a collective reading of  A Christmas Carol for the public. And each year our family watches the black and white remastered film version starring Alister Sims on Christmas Eve, all of us huddle together on our old couch at the ski cabin with a fire blazing, hot rum toddies and various savory treats along with Nana&#039;s traditional Christmas fruitcake with a large chunk of aged cheddar on the side, and Purdy chocolate balls wrapped in green or red tin foil being tossed around the room along with Mandarin oranges that we compete to remove the skins in one intact piece. Get the new Blu-ray version.]]></description>
            <author>PKS</author>
            <category>bookbuffet features</category>
            <pubDate>Sat, 17 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Christopher Hitchen Dies at 62</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/article_ID/0D0D5F7A-837A-4882-BA3C283333794159/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[It might seem ironic that the man considered one of this generation&#039;s best, if not most controversial, essayists and speakers, prone to a prodigious often vitriolic verbal attack on his topic or target d&#039;moment (Mother Teresa, Henry Kissinger, the royal family—God) has died of complications of esophageal cancer. It&#039;s as though the words and the cigarettes conspired against him. He was a great friend of other great literary personalities and minds: Ian McEwan, Martin Amos, Salman Rushdie, and I watched him with great interest on all the Charlie Rose interviews. He could recite in entirety several of his favorite books and also his favorite plays by Shakespeare. A prolific writer he contributed articles to: The New Statesman, the London Evening Standard, London’s Daily Express, Harper’s, The Spectator, and The Times Literary Supplement, among others. He was an editor and writer at Vanity Fair and wrote for Slate, The Atlantic among others. His books include The Trial of Henry Kissinger (Verso, 2001), Letters to a Young Contrarian (Basic, 2001), God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (Twelve, 2007), Hitch-22: A Memoir (Twelve, 2010), and Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens (Twelve, 2011), a collection of his later essays. He took pains to assure people he had not changed his views on religion after being diagnosed with cancer. The world shall miss his brilliant mind, "slashing polemicist in the tradition of Thomas Paine and George Orwell" to use a quote from William Grimes of The New York Times eulogy in today&#039;s paper.

Here is a selection of tributes: 
Vanity Fair
The New York Times
NPR]]></description>
            <author>PKS</author>
            <category>bookbuffet features</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>The Best</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/article_ID/9225CAB4-5E9B-4D0C-A079BA8EF67679A5/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[The lists are coming out fast and furious these days and I always enjoy finding new books as recommended by sage review teams and of course noted authors. Check out the Guardian&#039;s list recommendations from heavy-hitters: Julian Barnes, John Banville, Tariq Ali, Chimamanda Adichie, AS Byatt, William Boyd et al - all my favorites. Then there is the annual lists from: 

NYT 100 Notable Books of 2011
Globe & Mail Best Books 2011
Salon&#039;s top Picks for 2011 by editor Laura Miller.
NPR&#039;s Top Books 2011 with links to picks in each category.
The Economist&#039;s Best Picks 2011
Financial Times Best Business Book of 2011 with video of author and excerpts of all the finalists - great browsing.]]></description>
            <author>Paula Shackleton</author>
            <category>bookbuffet features</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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        <item>
            <title>Masterpiece: December Returns to Cranford</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/article_ID/8E780E37-F666-48FE-85BB3205A311DA16/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Cranford is the mythical setting for Elizabeth Gaskell&#039;s novels. Sue Bertwhistle has a love affair with period pieces. She adapted Gaskell&#039;s Wives and Daughters and of course the ever popular Jane Austen"s Pride & Predjudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle and Emma starring Kate Beckingsdale. When asked how she came upon the Carnford series she replied that it was recommended to her after the success of Pride & Predjudice and she quickly became entranced with the author who uses her characters over and over with each new work of fiction substituting different names and scenarios, but whose work remains true to her own life experiences: a brother that went off to sea at age 16, the death of an infant (her own). Like Austen these tell the minutia of women&#039;s country lives in the period, and adhere to all the details Masterpiece productions are well know for, including a repertoire of wonderful actors such as: Dame Judy Dench, Claudie Blakley, Julia McKenzie and Alex Jennings, to name but a few here. This story has the addition of curious animal behavior - a cow that is dressed up in pajamas daily that is based on a real sartorial cow in the author&#039;s hometown of Knutsford,. Oh those Brits! Get the DVD package here ]]></description>
            <author>PKS</author>
            <category>bookbuffet features</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>The Fear Index by Robert Harris</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/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>bookbuffet features</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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        <item>
            <title>An Economist&#039;s Views On The Occupy Movement</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/article_ID/F7ACFD8E-73A1-468F-812E6DE77597A81F/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[Jeffrey Sachs is a writer economist with numerous distinctions; he&#039;s on the list of the 100 most influential people in the the world, the 50 most important leaders in globalization, the 500 most influential foreign policy advisors, and he&#039;s the director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. In his previous 14 books and publications Sachs has written about the economies of the developing world and macroeconomics of the globe. He&#039;s been a champion of people in extreme poverty and as director of the UN Millennium Project he helped write the Millennium Development Goals among other groundbreaking initiatives. He&#039;s been criticized as "leftest" and "neoliberal". His latest book, The Price of Civilization: Economics and Ethics After the Fall (Random House 2011) turns the telescope away from those "other nations" and focuses it firmly on the USA. And although the book was written before the "occupy movement", he feels that it is the banner to which his book&#039;s message speaks. 

The following video posted on You Tube comes from a talk he gave at the Toronto Public Library. It is a 3 part series.]]></description>
            <author>PKS</author>
            <category>bookbuffet features</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>New Biography of KURT VONNEGUT by Charles Shields</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/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>bookbuffet features</category>
            <pubDate>Sat, 26 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title>Wine & Book Group Pick for December</title>
            <link>http://www.bookbuffet.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/news.article/article_ID/A86269D8-A751-4958-B09C48F78915DD4C/index.cfm</link>
            <description><![CDATA[ There has been a general trend in western society toward political apathy to the point where both the US and Britain have gone down on the "democracy index" as compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a think tank that examines information collected on countries around the world. Evidence shows poor voter turnout, bounding cynicism, young people like those of the occupy movement disenfranchised with the political system, the candidates running and disgust for the collusion between big money and big government. The US is frustrated by political gridlock and a seemingly backward mandate by fully 50% of the political combatants. The Euro debt crisis further shows government mangling our collective economic future. 

As a timely respite, Canada Reads —the countrywide competition to choose the next book that Canadians will read en mass, discuss and possibly become influenced  by—was announced yesterday. The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis is a great way for folks on both sides of the 49th parallel to enjoy a political satire addressing all of the above. The Globe writes: "[Best Laid Plans is a] political satire about a crusty old engineering professor named Angus McLintock who agrees to run as an MP because he&#039;s certain to lose. He is accidentally swept into office and decides to see what good an honest MP, who doesn&#039;t care about being re-elected, can do in Parliament and hilarity results."

Ali Velshi, the CNN journalist who defended Best Laid Plans, said Canada needs people like [the fictional character] McLintock. "This book is about the current thing that affects us now in our world, which is the people who make decisions for us," he said. The book "speaks to frustration and disenfranchisement around the world."

Former NHL enforcer Georges Laraque agreed, saying the book could inspire interest in the political process in younger readers. "Today, in Canada, people don&#039;t vote and we live in a democratic country. If people read this book, they would want to vote. We need this," he said.

Best Laid Plans also won Canada&#039;s Stephen Leacock Award for Humor. We&#039;re picking a wonderful Canadian winery for the spirit side of things: Laughing Stock Winery in BC has some fabulous choices. Join the group, purchase the wine and discuss this book with your group!]]></description>
            <author>PKS</author>
            <category>bookbuffet features</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
            <source
                url="http://www.bookbuffet.com/feeds/rss2.php">Bookbuffet LLC</source>
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