Book Reviews

Today's society may find it easy to ignore homelessness. However, Lisa Candelaria Bartlett not only confronts the ugly truths of life on the streets, she embraces them. Then, she adds beautiful insightful sprinkles showcasing human emotion at its best, enveloping and underscoring the concept of soul. She does all this through solid crisp writing found in her new book, Train Tales.

This sharp witted, thought-provoking collection of tales invites the reader to experience the world through the eyes of homeless characters. We see first hand the day-to-day struggles, and challenges experienced by those without a real bed to sleep in. With crystal clear descriptions, the author allows the readers to easily grasp how being without an address doesn't diminish from, the depth of emotions felt, the dreams for the future envisioned, and the promise of love and passion gripped around our hearts. All are alive and stirring in her homeless characters.

Intertwining and spanning over years, told through the hearts of several main characters in third-person narrative, Bartlett offers a diverse set of individuals with varying backgrounds: Benito, Darry, Vega, Gypsy...grab the attention of the reader --immediately. Every character is intriguing in a multi-faceted way and presented to the reader in a fresh stand-up writing style.

Train Tales is a book reminding us that we are all humans no matter where we find and make our homes. Every single one of us has secrets to hide, partners to love, enemies to plot revenge against. These emotions, stir, swell, erupt, explode, recede, and reside in the spirit of all living beings --not just a privileged few.

An added bonus: Bartlett, an award-winning author, uses poetic expressions to further illustrate her characters. These poems not only exemplify her writing talents, they give the reader a deeper look into the depths of her characters. Her tight wording, flow of rhythm, poignant dialogue, make the book an easy read without being "preachy".

Title: Train Tales Written by: Lisa Candelaria Bartlett

PublishAmerica ISBN-10: 1604415118 ISBN-13: 978-1604415117 73 pages five stars

Great news for Harry Potter fans!!!

In celebration of Harry Potter's birthday, the Children's High Level Group (CHLG), the English charity co-founded by J K Rowling and Emma Nicholson MEP to help children suffering in institutions, announces that it is to publish The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

Fans around the world have been clamouring to read the wizarding fairy tales - created, handwritten and illustrated by J K Rowling - since last December, when Amazon famously bid £1.95 million / $4 million for the charity copy, one of only seven in existence, at Sotheby's in London.

The Children's High Level Group will publish three editions of the book, all in the English language, to be printed and distributed by Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon. The Bloomsbury and Scholastic editions (£6.99 / $12.99) will feature additional commentary on each fairy tale from Professor Dumbledore and an introduction by J K Rowling. Amazon will produce up to a maximum of 100,000 Collector's Edition copies (£50 / $100), which will aim to closely replicate the look and feel of the original 'Beedle'. All editions will go on sale on Thursday 4 December 2008.

J K Rowling says: "There was understandable disappointment among Harry Potter fans when only one copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard was offered to the public last December. I am therefore delighted to announce that, thanks to the generous support of Bloomsbury, Scholastic and Amazon (who bought the handwritten copy at auction) - and with the blessing of the wonderful people who own the other six original books - The Tales of Beedle the Bard will now be widely available to all Harry Potter fans. Royalties will be donated to the Children's High Level Group, to benefit institutionalised children in desperate need of a voice. The new edition will include the Tales themselves, translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger, and with illustrations by me, but also notes by Professor Albus Dumbledore, which appear by generous permission of the Hogwarts Headmasters' Archive."

Containing clues that were to prove crucial to Harry Potter's final mission to destroy Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes, The Tales of Beedle the Bard is the volume of five wizarding fairy tales left to Hermione Granger by Albus Dumbledore in the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Only one - The Tale of the Three Brothers - is recounted in the book. In The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the four remaining stories are revealed for the very first time.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard Collectors Edition will fly off the shelves and it will make a great Christmas present for fans and investors alike.

Make sure you pre-order it from amazon.co.uk here!

To find out more information about The tales of beedle the bard visit the tales of beedle the bard collectors edition website here!

Don Quixote is often nominated as one of the world's greatest works of fiction.(Most recently in a poll of leading authors around the world conducted by the Norwegian Book Clubs in 2002).

The novel's landmark status in literary history has meant it has had a rich and varied influence over later writers, from Cervantes' own lifetime to the present-day.

Miguel de Cervantes originally intended Don Quixote to be a parody on traditional popular ballads, yet he also parodied the romance of chivalry. He has also produced one of the most entertaining adventure stories of all time and two of the greatest characters in fiction; Don Quixote and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza.

Don Quixote is the world's first novel and by far the best-known book in Spanish literature.

The novel introduces us to Alonso Quixano who was a retired country gentleman in a part of Spain called La Mancha. In retirement, Alonso became obsessed with the whole concept of the rules and customs of knighthood and of chivalry in general. He spent so much time and effort in this pursuit that local people believed him to be a little deranged.

He was so obsessed with chivalry that he decided to become a knight-errant and went in search of adventure. He donned an old suit of armour, renamed himself Don Quixote of La Mancha and renamed his horse Rocinante.

After an initial encounter at an inn which Don Quixote believes to be a castle, he recruited a neighbour called Sancho Panza to be his "squire" and between them set off on their adventures, the first of which was their encounter with windmills, which they believed to be ferocious giants. Many more adventures followed and the whimsical nature of the novel can be appreciated by the content pages alone. One of the chapters - 52 is entitled: "Of the Quarrel that Don Quixote had with the Goatherd, together with the rare adventure of the penitents, which with an expenditure of sweat he bought to a happy conclusion."

The novel ends with Alonso Quixano's return to sanity his complete disenchantment and renunciation of chivalry, and finally, his death.

The Don Quixote novel has been translated into more languages than any book other than the bible; adapted to the stage more than any other non-dramatic text; illustrated more than any other novel; and inspired more films than any other literary work.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) studied in Madrid then became a soldier and was wounded in battle. He was captured by pirates in 1575, put in prison at Algiers, and was ransomed five years later. He spent the rest of his life struggling to earn a living from literature and humble government employment. His first attempt at fiction was a pastoral novel, La Galatea (1585), which was followed by his masterpiece, The Adventures of Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605).

Don Quixote is available to listen as an audiobook (unabridged and 19 hours long). It is narrated by Robert Whitfield who was born in England and worked for the BBC for ten years as a radio news announcer and also worked as a narrator for the Royal National Institute for the Blind in London. In addition to narrating for Blackstone Audiobooks, he involves himself in numerous stage-acting projects in the United States and Europe. He is the recipient of several Earphones Awards.The audiobook is currently being offered with a free full-text e-book