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Our 2015 book choices
Through April 23, 2014, 22 CRPCA members chose 12 books from this list as our 2015 book selections. See the results in our May 2014 newsletter.
Alvarez, Julia: In the Name of Salomé (2000)
Review: © Library Journal: When Camila was three, her mother, Salomé Urena, the Dominican Republic's "National Poetess," died. For years, the youngster wrestled with the loss, holding fast to the dream that her mother would someday reappear, a mysterious, larger-than-life stranger. Meanwhile, her aunt Ramona struggled to help the child understand Salomé's demise, teaching her a special, if sacrilegious, incantation to soften what had happened: "In the name of the Father, the Son and my Mother, Salomé." Alvarez (How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents) has written a brilliantly layered novel that is grounded in 100 years of Latin American history. As Salomé's story intertwines with Camila's, we are made privy to politics both personal and international. Passionate and unpredictable, the book quietly lambastes colonialism and imperialism. At the same time, feminist themes emerge, from the enduring agony of motherless daughters to the integration of lesbians into progressive movements. Well wrought and powerful–if at times structurally confusing–this is a novel to be passed from friend to friend, from madre to hija.
Betancourt, Ingrid: Even Silence Has An End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle (2010)
Synopsis: Ingrid Betancourt tells the story of her captivity in the Colombian jungle, sharing teachings of resilience, resistance, and faith. Born in Bogotá, raised in France, Betancourt at age 32 gave up a life of comfort and safety to return to Colombia to become a political leader in a country that was being slowly destroyed by terrorism, violence, fear, and hopelessness. In 2002, while a candidate in the Colombian presidential elections, she was abducted by the FARC. She spent the next six and a half years in the depths of the jungle as their prisoner. Chained day and night for much of her captivity, she succeeded in getting away several times, always to be recaptured. The facts of her story are astounding, but it is Betancourt's indomitable spirit that drives this very special account, bringing life, nuance, and profundity to the narrative.
Boo, Katherine: Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity* (2012)
* Winner of 2012 National Book Award for Nonfiction
Review: © Booklist: While the distance between rich and poor is growing in the U.S., the gap between the haves and have-nots in India is staggering to behold. This first book by a New Yorker staff writer (and Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter for the Washington Post) jolts the reader's consciousness with the opposing realities of poverty and wealth in a searing visit to the Annawaldi settlement, a flimflam slum that has recently sprung up in the western suburbs of the gigantic city of Mumbai, perched tentatively along the modern highway leading to the airport and almost within a stone's throw of new, luxurious hotels. We first meet Abdul, whose daily grind is to collect trash and sell it; in doing so, he has "lifted his large family above subsistence." Boo takes us all around the community, introducing us to a slew of disadvantaged individuals who, nevertheless, draw on their inner strength to not only face the dreary day but also ponder a day to come that will, perhaps, be a little brighter. Sympathetic yet objective and eloquently rendered.
Bulawayo, NoViolet: We Need New Names (2013)
Review: © Booklist: In Bulawayo's engaging and often disturbing semiautobiographical first novel, 10-year-old Darling describes, with childlike candor and a penetrating grasp of language, first, her life in Zimbabwe during its so-called Lost Decade and then her life as a teenager in present-day America. What is at once delightful and disturbing is the fact that young Darling and her friends are so resilient amidst chaos. Darling must cope with absentee parents gone to who-knows-where, seeking jobs and a better life; abusive adults; and murdering bands of self-appointed police in a country gone horribly wrong. Yet she evinces a sense of chauvinism regarding her corrupt homeland when she joins her aunt in America. There she discovers a country that has fallen into a different kind of chaos, primarily economic. She and her new family struggle while America fails to live up to her hopes. Ultimately what lingers is Bulawayo's poignant insights into how a person decides what to embrace and what to surrender when adapting to a new culture in a new land.
Cleave, Chris: Little Bee (2009)
Review: © Booklist: Little Bee, smart and stoic, knows two people in England, Andrew and Sarah, journalists she chanced upon on a Nigerian beach after fleeing a massacre in her village, one grisly outbreak in an off-the-radar oil war. After sneaking into England and escaping a rural "immigration removal" center, she arrives at Andrew and Sarah's London suburb home only to find that the violence that haunts her has also poisoned them. In an unnerving blend of dread, wit, and beauty, Cleave slowly and arrestingly excavates the full extent of the horror that binds Little Bee and Sarah together. A columnist for the Guardian, Cleave earned fame and notoriety when his first book, Incendiary, a tale about a terrorist attack on London, was published on the very day London was bombed in July 2005. His second ensnaring, eviscerating novel charms the reader with ravishing descriptions, sly humor, and the poignant improvisations of Sarah's Batman-costumed young son, then launches devastating attacks in the form of Little Bee's elegantly phrased insights into the massive failure of compassion in the world of refugees. Cleave is a nerves-of-steel storyteller of stealthy power, and this is a novel as resplendent and menacing as life itself.
Cooper, Helene: The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood (2008)
Review: © Booklist: Cooper, a descendant of the founding families who developed Liberia in the 1800s, was part of the mixed-race elite. Her ambitious, quirky extended family is caught off guard when one of the numerous uprisings by the downtrodden against the privileged turns into a dangerous coup in 1980. Her uncle was killed, her mother raped, and her father wounded before the family fled into exile in the U.S., leaving behind adopted sister Eunice. Cooper and her sister adjust to life in the U.S., grappling with ignorance of Africa, their lower socioeconomic status, and the typical confusion of adolescence, all the while trying to stay in touch with Eunice. Cooper's intelligence, ambition, and wanderlust lead to a career in journalism as a foreign correspondent with the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, although she assiduously avoided Liberia. But when she was nearly killed covering the war in Iraq, Cooper realized she needed to go home to face Liberia and to find Eunice. Cooper's memoir is an absorbing look at the complexities of politics in Liberia and the compelling pull of family ties.
Danticat, Edwidge: Breath, Eyes, Memory (1998)
Review: © Choice: Danticat's first published novel moves back and forth between the author's two homes, Haiti and the US, touching on the characters' complex relationships to both places. The central protagonist must come to terms not only with her place in a long line of strong women, but also with the violence inflicted on them by strangers and by their own mothers. The "test," used by generations of Haitian mothers to ascertain their daughters' virginity, is revealed as a violation which cripples women's spirits and suppresses their sexuality. It also, inevitably, distorts mother/daughter relationships. The style of the novel is lyrical and often arresting, the narrative fast paced. The information it contains about Haiti, while incidental, is substantial. The characters are convincing and sympathetic. The sexual violation theme does, however, seem heavy-handed at times. The main character, Sophie, and her mother, for instance, have fewer dimensions than one might wish. In all, this is a very readable, moving story.
Delijani, Sahar: Children of the Jacaranda Tree (2013)
Review: © Publishers Weekly: Born in 1983 in an Iranian prison, Delijani delivers a fictionalized account of her harrowing origins. This debut novel opens with blindfolded and handcuffed pregnant dissident Azar's water breaking in the back of a van. During labor in the prison, Azar encounters both sympathetic doctors and iron-fisted interrogators. Her struggle to keep her story straight; limit stress to her baby, Neda; and get word to her family that she's alive is heartbreakingly heroic. During the chaotic birth, Delijani rapidly shifts between locations and conditions, creating confusion and a maelstrom of imagery. After this strong opening in Evin Prison, Delijani turns from the powerful immediacy of Azar's fight to the struggle outside, touching on the bleak sadness of four prisoners' families over three repetitious sections. While the dissidents undergo random and brutal interrogations, their children are punished daily by the absence of their parents, and fear twists and deforms relationships, making the whole world a prison. At the book's end, Neda reappears as an adult in Italy, contemplating her situation within a global context. A contrivance connects her to the Arab Spring through the son of a Revolutionary Guard, leaving it unclear if she'll be able to fully transcend her bloody history.
Desai, Kiran: The Inheritance of Loss* (2006)
* Winner of 2006 Man Booker Prize
Review: © Publishers Weekly: This stunning second novel from Desai (Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard) is set in mid-1980s India, on the cusp of the Nepalese movement for an independent state. Jemubhai Popatlal, a retired Cambridge-educated judge, lives in Kalimpong, at the foot of the Himalayas, with his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, and his cook. The makeshift family's neighbors include a coterie of Anglophiles who might be savvy readers of V.S. Naipaul but who are, perhaps, less aware of how fragile their own social standing is—at least until a surge of unrest disturbs the region. Jemubhai, with his hunting rifles and English biscuits, becomes an obvious target. Besides threatening their very lives, the revolution also stymies the fledgling romance between 16-year-old Sai and her Nepalese tutor, Gyan. The cook's son, Biju, meanwhile, lives miserably as an illegal alien in New York. All of these characters struggle with their cultural identity and the forces of modernization while trying to maintain their emotional connection to one another. In this alternately comical and contemplative novel, Desai deftly shuttles between first and third worlds, illuminating the pain of exile, the ambiguities of post-colonialism and the blinding desire for a "better life," when one person's wealth means another's poverty.
Ebadi, Shirin*: Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope (2006)
* Winner of 2003 Nobel Peace Prize
Review: © Booklist: Most Americans date troubles with Iran to the 1979 overthrow of the shah and the 444-day U.S. embassy hostage drama. Iranians date the friction back to 1953, when the U.S. orchestrated a coup that removed beloved Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. Ebadi recalls that period as the beginning of shifting politics that would erode basic freedoms and notions of human rights in Iran. Raised to believe in gender equality, Ebadi became a judge but was demoted to secretary when the Islamic Revolution under Ayatollah Khomeini demanded subservience of women. Ebadi estimates that five million Iranians, feeling oppressed by the revolution, left the country, draining valuable resources and leaving bitterly separated families. Ebadi lost her profession, her friends, and her country but was determined to stay and speak out against oppression. She eventually returned to public life as a human-rights lawyer taking on the defense of women, children, and dissidents. Ebadi offers a very personal account of her life and her fight for human rights in Iran.
Eggers, Dave: What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng (2006)
Review: © Publishers Weekly: Valentino Achak Deng, real-life hero of this engrossing epic, was a refugee from the Sudanese civil war-the bloodbath before the current Darfur bloodbath-of the 1980s and 90s. In this fictionalized memoir, Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) makes him an icon of globalization. Separated from his family when Arab militia destroy his village, Valentino joins thousands of other "Lost Boys," beset by starvation, thirst and man-eating lions on their march to squalid refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, where Valentino pieces together a new life. He eventually reaches America, but finds his quest for safety, community and fulfillment in many ways even more difficult there than in the camps: he recalls, for instance, being robbed, beaten and held captive in his Atlanta apartment. Eggers's limpid prose gives Valentino an unaffected, compelling voice and makes his narrative by turns harrowing, funny, bleak and lyrical. The result is a horrific account of the Sudanese tragedy, but also an emblematic saga of modernity-of the search for home and self in a world of unending upheaval.
Fadiman, Anne: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures (2012)
Review: © Publishers Weekly: When two divergent cultures collide, unbridgeable gaps of language, religion, social customs may remain between them. This poignant account by Fadiman, editor of the American Scholar, of the clash between a Hmong family and the American medical community reveals that among the gaps yawns the attitude toward medicine and healing. The story focuses on Lia Lee, whose family immigrated to Merced, Calif., from Laos in 1980. At three months of age, Lia was diagnosed with what American doctors called epilepsy, and what her family called quag dab peg or, "the spirit catches you and you fall down." Fadiman traces the treatments for Lia's illness, observing the sharp differences between Eastern and Western healing methods. Whereas the doctors prescribed Depakene and Valium to control her seizures, Lia's family believed that her soul was lost but could be found by sacrificing animals and hiring shamans to intervene. While some of Lia's doctors attempted to understand the Hmong beliefs, many interpreted the cultural difference as ignorance on the part of Lia's parents. Fadiman shows how the American ideal of assimilation was challenged by a headstrong Hmong ethnicity. She discloses the unilateralness of Western medicine, and divulges its potential failings. In Lia's case, the two cultures never melded and, after a massive seizure, she was declared brain dead. This book is a moving cautionary tale about the importance of practicing "cross-cultural medicine," and of acknowledging, without condemning, differences in medical attitudes of various cultures.
Fuller, Alexandra: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood (2003)
Review: © Booklist: Fuller, nicknamed "Bobo," grew up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) during the civil war, and she watched her parents fight against the local Africans to keep their farm. Fuller writes from a child's point of view, masking neither her family's prejudices nor their passions. Fuller's father, Tim, is a determined and strong man, married to Nicola, who is gradually cracking under the pressure of the civil war and also of the deaths of her children. The Fullers lost three children; only Alexandra and her older sister, Vanessa, survived. The losses take their toll on Nicola, who turns to alcohol to combat her overwhelming depression. After the white colonialists lose the civil war, the Fullers' farm is taken away, and they move to Malawi, where Bobo begins to get a sense of the life of an average African. But the overbearing Malawian government motivates the Fullers to move on, and they finally settle in Zambia. Fuller is a gifted writer, capable of bringing a sense of immediacy to her writing and crafting descriptions so vibrant the reader cannot only picture the stifling hot African afternoon but almost feel it as well. Writing a memoir powerful in its frank straightforwardness, Fuller neither apologizes for nor champions her family's views and actions. Instead, she gives us an honest, moving portrait of one family struggling to survive tumultuous times.
Goyal, Rajeev*: The Springs of Namje: A Ten-year Journey From the Villages of Nepal to the Halls of Congress (2012)
* RPCV Nepal (2001-2003)
Review: © Booklist: Goyal, the son of Indian immigrants, joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to teach English in the small village of Namje in eastern Nepal. In this very frank memoir of the hardships, failures, and successes, he recalls dealing with the discomforts of the caste system and learning that supposedly ignorant villagers had skills and knowledge helpful to developing their communities and nations. He is brutally honest about the unintended consequences of well-meaning efforts, such as building a water pump system to pull water up the mountain, a project that likely brought the villagers into contact with Maoist rebels. When his service ended, Goyal remained involved in issues of development, including boosting funding for the Peace Corps. He tells the story of his 10-year journey as attorney and activist, walking the halls of Congress, shaking hands and securing promises for more funding at a time of budget cutting, eventually securing an additional $60 million for the Peace Corps. An honest and inspiring look at the hard work and reward of development efforts.
Hosseini, Khaled: And the Mountains Echoed (2013)
Review: © Booklist: Saboor, a laborer, pulls his young daughter, Pari, and his son, Abdullah, across the desert in a red wagon, leaving their poor village of Shadbagh for Kabul, where his brother-in-law, Nabi, a chauffeur, will introduce them to a wealthy man and his beautiful, despairing poet wife. So begins the third captivating and affecting novel by the internationally best-selling author of The Kite Runner (2003) and A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007). An immense, ancient oak stands in Shadbagh, emblematic of the complexly branching stories in Hosseini's vital, profound, and spellbinding saga of family bonds and unlikely pairings forged by chance, choice, and necessity. We meet twin sisters, one beautiful, one plain; one an invalid, the other a caretaker. Two male cousins, one a charismatic wheeler-dealer; the other a cautious, introverted doctor. A disfigured girl of great valor and a boy destined to become a plastic surgeon. Kabul falls and struggles to rise. Shadbagh comes under the rule of a drug lord, and the novel's many limbs reach to Paris, San Francisco, and a Greek island. A masterful and compassionate storyteller, Hosseini traces the traumas and scarring of tyranny, war, crime, lies, and illness in the intricately interconnected, heartbreaking, and extraordinary lives of his vibrantly realized characters to create a grand and encompassing tree of life.
Jiang, Rong: Wolf Totem (2005)
Review: © Library Journal: Deep in Inner Mongolia, at the time of the Great Leap Forward, Han Chinese scholar Chen waits for hours with his mentor, Old Man Bilgee, watching wolves as they prepare an attack. He's already learned how closely the wolves and the nomads are linked-Tennger, god of the grasslands, has seen to it, and even Genghis Khan borrowed the wolves' tricks. Suddenly, the wolves drive an enormous herd of gazelle into deep snow, where many of them literally drown. The wolves leave the carcasses preserved in the drifts, to be eaten later when food is scarce. Bilgee allows that they can take a few, but others, less attuned to the ways of the grasslands, take more. And so the wolves go hungry and manage a gruesome revenge. Thus commences a struggle that symbolizes not only the subjugation of nature by humans but the subjugation of Mongolia by China. The author, who writes under a pseudonym, volunteered along the border of Inner and Outer Mongolia in the 1960s and writes with piercing perception about native and wolf ways. The result is a naturalistic, gripping, and deeply affecting novel reminding us how badly we humans have managed our world.
Johnson, Adam: The Orphan Master's Son* (2012)
* Winner of 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Review: © Booklist: Pak Jun Do lives with his father at a North Korean work camp for orphans. In a nation in which every citizen serves the state, orphans routinely get the most dangerous jobs. So it is for Jun Do, who becomes a tunnel soldier, trained to fight in complete darkness in the tunnels beneath the DMZ. But he is reassigned as a kidnapper, snatching Japanese citizens with special skills, such as a particular opera singer or sushi chef. Failure as a kidnapper could lead directly to the prison mines. But in Johnson's fantastical, careening tale, Jun Do manages to impersonate Commander Ga, the country's greatest military hero, rival of Dear Leader Kim Jong Il and husband of Sun Moon, North Korea's only movie star. Informed by extensive research and travel to perhaps the most secretive nation on earth, Johnson has created a remarkable novel that encourages the willing suspension of disbelief. As Jun Do, speaking as Ga, puts it, people have been trained to accept any reality presented to them. Johnson winningly employs different voices, with the propagandizing national radio station serving as a mad Greek chorus. Descriptions of everyday privations and barbarities are matter of fact, and Jun Do's love for Sun Moon reads like a fairy tale. Part adventure, part coming-of-age tale, and part romance, The Orphan Master's Son is a triumph on every level.
Kidjo, Angélique, with Rachel Wenrick: Spirit Rising: My Life, My Music (2014)
Review: © Library Journal: Kidjo's memoir brims with the same joy, exuberance, and wisdom exhibited in her music while adding depth and insight into her art and life and the triumph of making connections through music. She grew up in Benin (West Africa), with a family full of songs and love. In order to continue to create her music, Kidjo fled a dictatorship and moved to France, where she struggled to support herself and against the "coolness toward African immigrants." She studied music, got married, and built on her interest in human rights. Through many collaborations-with Carlos Santana, Ziggy Marley, and Branford Marsalis, to name only a few-across cultures, styles, and countries, she details how she combines the music of Africa with music from the diaspora, extracted through slavery, constructing unique combinations and blending modern and traditional, roots and technology, jazz, and more with drums and complex rhythms at the center. She outlines how she has used her notoriety, as well as her predilection to speak her mind, to visit and advocate for women and children through UNICEF and her own foundation.
Lessing, Doris*: The Grass is Singing (1950)
* Winner of 2007 Nobel Literature Prize
Synopsis: Set in Southern Rhodesia under white rule, Doris Lessing's first novel is at once a riveting chronicle of human disintegration, a beautifully understated social critique, and a brilliant depiction of the quiet horror of one woman's struggle against a ruthless fate. Mary Turner is a self-confident, independent young woman who becomes the depressed, frustrated wife of an ineffectual, unsuccessful farmer. Little by little the ennui of years on the farm works its slow poison. Mary's despair progresses until the fateful arrival of Moses, an enigmatic, virile black servant. Locked in anguish, Mary and Moses–master and slave–are trapped in a web of mounting attraction and repulsion, until their psychic tension explodes with devastating consequences.
Mandela, Nelson*: Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (1995)
* Winner of 1993 Nobel Peace Prize
Review: © Library Journal: This is an articulate, moving account of Mandela's life from his "country childhood" following his birth on July 18, 1918 to his inauguration as president of South Africa on May 10, 1994. Mandela traces the growth of his understanding of the oppression of the blacks of South Africa; his conviction that there was no alternative to armed struggle; his developing belief that all people, black and white, must be free for true freedom; and the effect that his commitment to overthrowing apartheid had on his family, who "paid a terrible price." Over a third of Mandela's memoir tells of his 27 years in prison, an account that could stand alone as a prison narrative. He ends his book with the conclusion that his "long walk" for freedom has just begun: "For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."
Meisler, Stanley: When the World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and Its First Fifty Years (2011)
Review: © Booklist: Few government programs enjoy the reputation of the Peace Corps, a political afterthought by President Kennedy that became one of the more enduring legacies of his administration. Succeeding administrations have had testy relations with the Peace Corps. Johnson railed against volunteers' opposition to his invasion of the Dominican Republic, and Reagan tried to use the program to advance his agenda in Central America. Since its 1961 inception, the Peace Corps has had to manage its mission to advance peace and provide development assistance, from teaching to building wells, against political onslaughts within the U.S. and host nations even as it managed its image as symbol of American idealism rather than tool of the CIA. Meisler, a deputy director during its early years, offers informed perspective from the turbulent years of the Vietnam War, when many volunteers were conflicted about their government, to the future direction of the Peace Corps. Drawing on his experience and interviews with former volunteers, he presents the fascinating characters, locales, and political background noise from a near-universally admired program's 50-year history.
Mengustu, Dinaw: All Our Names (2014)
Review: © Publishers Weekly: Immigrant stories are often about self-invention, but in his latest novel, in which an African escaping to America cannot leave his past behind, McArthur Fellow Mengestu (How to Read the Air) portrays the intersection of cultures experienced by the immigrant with unsettling perception. Each of the two narrators-one speaking from the past in Africa, one in present-day America-has a relationship with a young man named Isaac, and the two take turns describing these relationships. The African narrator, a 25-year-old aspiring writer, recounts how he leaves his rural village to subsist on the margins of a university in a city that he simply calls "the Capital." There, he finds a friend in the magnetic Isaac, a young revolutionary who draws him into an antigovernment insurgency. The second narrator is Helen, a Midwestern social worker, who takes under her wing and into her heart an African refugee named Isaac, knowing little about his situation and nothing of his history. The action is set after the first flush of African independence, as democratic self-rule proves elusive, while in America racial and social divides persist. In Africa, Isaac, the revolutionary, endures beatings and torture before confronting his own side's penchant for violence. In America, Helen and the man she calls Isaac face their own intractable obstacles. Mengestu evokes contrasting landscapes but focuses on his characters-Isaac, the saddened visionary; Isaac, the secretive refugee; Helen, the sympathetic lover-who are all caught in a cycle of connection and disruption, engagement and abandonment, hope and disillusion.
Namu, Yang Erche, and Christine Mathieu: Leaving Mother Lake: A Girlhood at the Edge of the World (2003)
Review: © Booklist: Namu grew up in Moso country in south China, in a community where people usually live their entire lives in the same village they are born in. In Moso society, women own the houses and are heads of the households. Their adult children take lovers and have children of their own, but they do not leave their mother's house–except for Namu's mother, Latso, who, after almost joining a group of Chinese Communists, instead settled in a nearby village and took a series of lovers. Namu, her third child, was as willful as her mother. As a teen, Namu left home to tour with a musical troupe. Namu and her troupe won contests all over China, but when she returned to Moso country again, she found her village too small and once again made plans to leave–this time without her mother's approval. A fascinating look at a unique culture and a determined, ambitious young woman. (Coauthor Mathieu's afterword provides more insight into Moso culture from an anthropological standpoint.)
Newby, Eric: A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush (1958)
Review: © The Independent: Genial godfather of modern British travel writing, Eric Newby taught a generation of adventurers how to blend the light touch with the long view. This classic trek from 1958 sees him blunder through the Near East and into Afghanistan, through a rugged land of dangers and marvels where "we shoot people without permission" (plus ça change). In a gloriously improbable finale, he runs into Wilfred Thesiger himself. The epic voyager meets his lighter-hearted heir – but Newby, for all his comic gifts, never loses for one dusty mountain mile his own "capacity for wonderment."
Obreht, Téa: The Tiger's Wife (2011)
Review: © Bookbrowse: The Tiger's Wife is, on the surface, a tale of one woman's search for the truth behind her beloved grandfather's death, but the implications of this search are fundamental to the way we make sense of life and death. Obreht's delicate unfolding of Natalia's grandfather's past presents a multi-dimensional view of a man Natalia believed she knew. From the reader's view, these different perspectives are suspended but never resolved, so that we are left with the final, breathless conclusion that they could all be true. The tantalizing notion that the fantastic and unbelievable can co-exist with the mundane has long fueled religion, fiction, and folklore. Obreht teases out the human impulse to create stories, to contrive wonder in the face of temporality, and the result is extraordinary.
Pamuk, Orhan*: The Museum of Innocence (2009)
* Winner of 2006 Nobel Literature Prize
Review: © Publishers Weekly: Nobel laureate Pamuk's latest is a soaring, detailed and laborious mausoleum of love. During Istanbul's tumultuous 1970s, Kemal Bey, 30-year-old son of an upper-class family, walks readers through a lengthy catalogue of trivial objects, which, though seeming mundane, hold memories of his life's most intimate, irretrievable moments. The main focus of Kemal's peculiar collection of earrings, ticket stubs and drinking glasses is beloved Fusun, his onetime paramour and longtime unrequited love. An 18-year-old virginal beauty, modest shopgirl and "poor distant relation," Fusun enters Kemal's successful life just as he is engaged to Sibel, a "very special, very charming, very lovely girl." Though levelheaded Sibel provides Kemal compassionate relief from their social strata's rising tensions, it is the fleeting moments with fiery, childlike Fusun that grant conflicted Kemal his "deepest peace." The poignant truth behind Kemal's obsession is that his "museum" provides a closeness with Fusun he'll never regain. Though its incantatory middle suffers from too many indistinguishable quotidian encounters, this is a masterful work.
Parkin, Gayle: Baking Cakes in Kigali (2009)
Review: © Booklist: In a land where human tragedy is wrought in epic proportions due to AIDS, famine, and genocide, one woman has a gift for fighting hardship one cake at a time. An emigrant to the Rwandan city of Kigali, the sublimely named Angel Tungaraza creates luscious gourmet cakes for neighbors and friends, diplomats and villagers who have learned the value of celebrating life's joys. A menopausal matron, Angel has lost both her adult children to disease and its violent adjuncts, and is now raising her five grandchildren. Such personal experience with her country's catastrophes makes Angel the ideal confidante, a skill she puts to charming and clever use as she empathetically elicits each customer's history with the subtle skill of a trained counselor. Client by client, cake by cake, Angel whips up the perfect blend of honor and hope, reflection and thanksgiving. A native of Zambia and consultant on AIDS and gender education, debut novelist Parkin delivers a buoyant, astute, and sensitively pragmatic portrait of contemporary African challenges.
Patchett, Ann: State of Wonder (2011)
Review: © Publishers Weekly: Patchett (Bel Canto) is a master storyteller who has an entertaining habit of dropping ordinary people into extraordinary and exotic circumstances to see what they're made of. In this expansive page-turner, Marina Singh, a big pharma researcher, is sent by her married boss/lover to the deepest, darkest corner of the Amazon to investigate the death of her colleague, Anders Eckman, who had been dispatched to check on the progress of the incommunicado Dr. Annick Swenson, a rogue scientist on the cusp of developing a fertility drug that could rock the medical profession (and reap enormous profits). After arriving in Manaus, Marina travels into her own heart of darkness, finding Dr. Swenson's camp among the Lakashi, a gentle but enigmatic tribe whose women go on bearing children until the end of their lives. As Marina settles in, she goes native, losing everything she had held on to so dearly in her prescribed Midwestern life, shedding clothing, technology, old loves, and modern medicine in order to find herself. Patchett's fluid prose dissolves in the suspense of this out-there adventure, a juggernaut of a trip to the crossroads of science, ethics, and commerce that readers will hate to see end.
Paton, Alan: Cry, The Beloved Country (1948)
Synopsis: The most famous and important novel in South Africa's history, and an immediate worldwide bestseller when it was published in 1948, Alan Paton's impassioned novel about a black man's country under white man's law is a work of searing beauty. The eminent literary critic Lewis Gannett wrote, "We have had many novels from statesmen and reformers, almost all bad; many novels from poets, almost all thin. In Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country the statesman, the poet and the novelist meet in a unique harmony." Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.
Roy, Arundhati: The God of Small Things* (1997)
* Winner of 1997 Man Booker Prize
Review: © Publishers Weekly: With sensuous prose, a dreamlike style infused with breathtakingly beautiful images and keen insight into human nature, Roy's debut novel charts fresh territory in the genre of magical, prismatic literature. Set in Kerala, India, during the late 1960s when Communism rattled the age-old caste system, the story begins with the funeral of young Sophie Mol, the cousin of the novel's protagonists, Rahel and her fraternal twin brother, Estha. In a circuitous and suspenseful narrative, Roy reveals the family tensions that led to the twins' behavior on the fateful night that Sophie drowned. Beneath the drama of a family tragedy lies a background of local politics, social taboos and the tide of history–all of which come together in a slip of fate, after which a family is irreparably shattered. Roy captures the children's candid observations but clouded understanding of adults' complex emotional lives. Rahel notices that "at times like these, only the Small Things are ever said. The Big Things lurk unsaid inside." Plangent with a sad wisdom, the children's view is never oversimplified, and the adult characters reveal their frailties–and in one case, a repulsively evil power–in subtle and complex ways. While Roy's powers of description are formidable, she sometimes succumbs to overwriting, forcing every minute detail to symbolize something bigger, and the pace of the story slows. But these lapses are few, and her powers coalesce magnificently in the book's second half. Roy's clarity of vision is remarkable, her voice original, her story beautifully constructed and masterfully told.
Rushdie, Salman: Midnight's Children* (1980)
* Winner of 1981 Man Booker Prize, and of Booker of Bookers in 1993, and of Best of the Bookers in 2008
Teaser: Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India's independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs; his health and well-being are inextricably bound to those of his nation; his life is inseparable, at times indistinguishable, from the history of his country. Perhaps most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India's 1,000 other "midnight's children," all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts.
Russell, Mary Doria: Dreamers of the Day (2008)
Review: © Booklist: On the heels of a family tragedy precipitated by the influenza epidemic of 1919, middle-aged spinster schoolteacher Agnes Shanklin inherits enough money to embark on the journey of a lifetime. Traveling to Egypt, she settles in at the Semiramis Hotel, where she meets and becomes involved with a number of members of the Cairo Peace Conference, including T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Winston Churchill, and Lady Gertrude Bell. As these luminaries begin to carve up the Middle East, the unassuming Agnes wins the confidence of the conference attendees and attracts the attention of a dashing German spy. Narrated by Agnes from beyond the grave—a twist that is not revealed until the end of the book—this atmospheric entrée into a bygone time and place provides a first-person peek into the international political machinations that forged the contemporary Arab world.
See, Lisa: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005)
Review: © Library Journal: Foot binding; nu shu, a secret language used exclusively by the women of Hunan Province for 1000 years; and laotong, the arranged friendship between little girls meant to last a lifetime, provide the framework for See's (Dragon Bones) riveting look at a little-known chapter in 19th-century Chinese history. In 1903, 80-year-old Lily looks back on her life, which was anchored by her laotong relationship with the beautiful Snow Flower. As little girls, the two communicated in nu shu, writing of their mutual devotion on a fan they passed between each other over the years. Raised according to the traditional restrictions of the times, they lived most of their lives confined to the upstairs women's chamber in their homes, enduring the relentless societal insistence that women are worthless except for their value in producing sons. The laotong bonds of Lily and Snow Flower endure through family tragedies, a typhoid-fever epidemic, and the Taiping Rebellion of 1851-64, but it is a misunderstood message in nu shu, the language that held them together for decades, that ultimately tears them apart. See's meticulous research and exquisite language deliver a story that is haunting, powerful, and, at times, almost too painful to bear.
Tayler, Jeffrey*: Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat, and Camel (2005)
* RPCV Morocco (1988-1990)
Review: © Publishers Weekly: This engrossing narration of crossing the Sahel–the Saharan borderlands of Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Mali–by tortuous and frequently hair-raising local conveyances finds a barren, wind-scoured region, wracked by hunger, tribal conflict, animosity between Muslims and Christians and–a particular bane of wayfarers at border crossings–an infuriatingly corrupt and high-handed bureaucracy. Journalist Tayler (Glory in a Camel's Eye) is guilt-stricken by the appalling poverty and enchanted with a Tuareg tribal sword dance ("This is how people were meant to live… shouting their joy into the wild night sky!"), but he generally avoids being overwhelmed by either the region's problems or its exotic charms. Indeed, his critical perspective makes him an often cantankerous presence. Fluent in Arabic and French, he is drawn into debates about religion and politics (President Bush's words and deeds are a favorite topic among Sahelian Muslims), skeptically cross-examines folklore about tourist spots, argues vehemently.with local defenders and Western relativists alike.against the persistent customs of slavery and female circumcision, and faces down bribe-hungry customs officials. Appreciative of the generosity and patience of the region's long-suffering inhabitants, he also sees their cultures as bogged down by dogma and fatalism. Vividly written and trenchantly observed, Tayler's account opens an everyday window on a world that the West normally confronts only in crisis.
Tzemach Lemmon, Gayle: The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe (2011)
Review: © Publishers Weekly: In 2005, Lemmon went to Afghanistan on assignment for the Financial Times to write about women entrepreneurs. When she met a dressmaker named Kamila Sediqi, Lemmon (once a producer for This Week with George Stephanopolos) knew she had her story. It's an exciting, engrossing one that reads like a novel, complete with moments of tension and triumph, plus well-researched detail on daily life in Kabul under Taliban rule. When that regime descended in 1996, it brought fear, violence, and restrictions: women must stay home, may not work, and must wear the chadri-a cloak, also known as a burqa, that covers the face and body-in public. After Sediqi's parents left the city to avoid being pressed into service, or worse, by the Taliban, it fell to her to support the family. Her story is at once familiar (she came up with an idea, procured clients, hired student workers, and learned as she went) and wholly different (she couldn't go anywhere without a male escort, had to use an assumed name with customers due to the threat of being found out and punished, and could fit in work on the sewing machine only when there was electricity). It's a fascinating story that touches on family, gender, business, and politics and offers inspiration through the resourceful, determined woman at its heart.
Vásquez, Juan Gabriel: The Sound of Things Falling (2013)
Review: © Publishers Weekly: "That story is to blame," declares a character in Colombian author Vasquez's latest novel (after The Secret History of Costaguana). Indeed, this book is an exploration of the ways in which stories profoundly impact lives. Around 1996, when murder and bloody mayhem fueled by the drug trade were commonplace in Bogota, the young law professor Antonio Yammara befriends enigmatic stranger Ricardo Laverde. One night, assassins on motorbikes open fire on the two, killing Laverde and seriously wounding Yammara. Conflicted and at a loss to understand the damage Laverde has wrought, Yammara looks into his life story. Yammara suffers from crippling psychic and physical wounds as a result of the shooting, and his investigation takes him to Laverde's shabby Bogota apartment, where he receives a gruesome clue from the grieving landlady. Yammara eventually finds Laverde's daughter Maya, a beekeeper who lives in the Colombian countryside. She shows Yammara photos and letters she's collected about the father she never knew. Together they lose themselves in stories of Laverde's childhood; of Maya's American mother, Elaine Fritts; and of Elaine and Laverde's love affair. Vásquez allows the story to become Elaine's, and as the puzzle of Laverde is pieced together, Yammara comes to realize just how thoroughly the stories of these other people are part of his own.


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Keeping food in a cooler
- free sample addict aka Tracy L Jan 8, 2013 09:32 PM
My fridge died, but the freezer works. The part is on it's way; however, in the mean time what are some guidelines about keeping food safe in a cooler/ice chest? I have been successful eating meals I have frozen meals that I have prepared. My larder is running low and now I am missing fresh meals. With the exception of small amounts of cheese I don't cook with much dairy so I don't need to keep milk. It has been years since I went camping so I am unsure about what keeps and what doesn't. Also, I have a small ice chest, it holds about a days worth of food. I would like to cook with some protiens like chicken or lean ground beef. Most of all I am really missing making eggs on the weekends. I would normally keep the chest outside in but I live in a condo complex and will get written up if I keep it outside (it's been in the 30's at night and 50's during the day).
My fridge was broken for several weeks last year. I was able to keep it stocked with dry ice. I used my probe thermometer to monitor the temperature without opening the door. The fridge is really just a fancy cooler!
I kept a small cooler with ice for each days needs, refilling once or twice a day from the fridge.
I did purchase a bit of fresh stuff from the grocery salad bar to eliminate some storage issues.
re: meatn3
I like the dry ice idea thanks. It beats draining water from the cooler all the time.
re: free sample addict aka Tracy L
It's not cheap, but it was cheaper than replacing the contents of the fridge!
If you haven't used it before make sure to wrap it well in newspaper. It lasts longer and that will protect the surfaces in the fridge - especially if you have glass shelves. Have some heavy duty gloves to handle it.
In my area Kroger sells it by the pound. The cooler is often hidden away...it pays to call since it isn't a popular item, especially in winter!
Good luck & hope it is fixed soon and properly.
Edit - check at pharmacies and health food stores if you need more coolers. Many supplements are shipped in Styrofoam coolers and they will just give them to you. They often have blue ice packs free for the taking too. Since your freezer is working you may be able to just rotate through a bunch of them for the cooler.
If your cooler only holds a days worth of food then all you have to do is put enough ice in there to keep the food safe until you eat it, which will be 24 hours. I wouldn't even bother with dry ice in that situation. Just don't drain all the water out as water conducts cold better than ice alone does.
Keep everything wrapped so it doesn't come into contact with the melted ice. When I used to go on annual tuna fishing trips I would keep 30-40 pounds of tuna steaks in a big cooler with regular ice for 2-3 days, never had a problem.
re: KarenDW
this egg info is correct.
re: alkapal
Thanks, I had a bad experience with eggs left out too long.
Buy ice blocks (if they fit in your chest) versus ice cubes. That's what we do when we go camping. Keeps beer cold for 2-3 days in the summer.
We just went through this exact same situation a couple of weeks before this Thanksgiving, of all times!!
Luckily, my pack-rat instincts (which hubby always complains about) did us in good stead this time around, since I had saved between 8-10 medium-size styrofoam coolers from online food purchase orders.
Cleaned out the fridge of leftover unwanted sundries, & everything that was left fit into those coolers with a few bags of Walmart-purchased regular ice, which lasted for DAYS out on our deck. I understand the OP doesn't have a deck. But it still might work in the house with more replenishment of ice.
Since the freezer was stuffed full, everything in there remained frozen solid for a full week without even an iota of thawing. By then, we had our brand-new fridge installed & all was right with the world.
Needless to say, hubby said I can continue to keep a complimentary amount of styrofoam coolers on hand from now on. :)
Oh, & if your "condo association" can't grant you an exemption due to a failed appliance, I feel REALLY sorry for where you're living. I thank God every single day that when we were looking for a new home we told the real estate agents not to bother showing us ANY properties that had home owners' associations. Home Owner/Condo Associations are the Nazis of real estate.
re: Bacardi1
Thanks, actually it is one of those trade off situations that I agreed to when I bought my unit. They are really responsive to other issues like someone parking in my space, security issues, trash pickup etc. I am happy to comply with their wishes because for the most part they are fair and do a good job of maintaining the property and quality of life.

subset: commoncrawl


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Meanwhile down at Windsor…
August 19th, 2014
K.G. has been putting in work down at the old 1970′s BMX track at Windsor station building some new additions and blasting them. Continue reading »
August 19th, 2014
K.G. has been putting in work down at the old 1970′s BMX track at Windsor station building some new additions and blasting them. Continue reading »
August 4th, 2014
The Set in Cairns 2014 from Kym Grosser on Vimeo.
"Just got back to Melbs last night from a week holiday in Cairns, Nick Harris an I hung out with Levi and managed to film a little edit at the local skatepark , spent more time soaking up the sun than riding but got enough footage to throw this together , enjoy ." – Kym.
August 1st, 2014
This looks to be the first Dirty Deeds frame built up by a non team rider by Scott Oyster who bought the 1st DD frame on the globe via Strictly BMX a couple of weeks ago.a few more pics after the jump and more on Scotts Flickr page. Continue reading »
July 9th, 2014
Kyms long time local shop & sponsor Strictly BMX have the 1st Dirty Deeds frame available in the world ! Be first!
June 1st, 2014
May 27th, 2014
May 26th, 2014
Kym Grossers 'Dirty Deeds' signature frame.
This is our 1st signature frame . Kym has been killing hard for years and is one of the reasons the brand was started to shine some extra light on him .It features a steeper 75 degree head tube angle, top tube integrated seat clamp & single bend, ovalised tapered chain stays. Keeping in theme with his signature KG/BC bars the frames name is taken from a classic Acadacca song hence the name 'Dirty deeds' and incorporates Kyms' love of guitars, and his & their old stomping ground Prahran in Melbourne. more pics & specs after the jump.. Continue reading »
May 21st, 2014
May 15th, 2014
Here's a sneak peak of the Kym Grosser signature DIRTY DEEDS frame….
May 14th, 2014
Spilk Milk Promo from blue on Vimeo.
Kym & Nick spill some milk in this melbourne mix tape promo by Adam stone.


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Drake on Amanda Bynes Tweets: Weird and Disturbing!by Free Britney at . Comments
After months at the center of Amanda Bynes' Twitter universe, Drake has finally weighed in on the actress' bizarre and frequent missives about him.
It has long been a mystery whether Drake cared, or even knew what was being said about him by Amanda Bynes, for the last 4-5 months. No longer.
"I don't even know who that is doing that or what that's about," Drizzy told XXL magazine. "If that is her, I guess it's a little weird and disturbing."
"It's obviously a behavioral pattern that is way bigger than me. Whether it's her or somebody else, they know people are paying attention so they keep it going."
Amanda Bynes' Twitter has been radio silent since she was placed on a 5150 hold a few weeks ago. Her last tweet, fittingly, was "Drake is gorgeous."
The actress' inconsistent emotions toward the rapper began in March.
At times, Drake has been "a hot fellow." The most gorgeous man in the world at one point, even. One who Amanda straight up wanted to murder her vagina.
Other times, Drake was "ugly" with "Down syndrome eyes." Classy.
We wish Amanda the best as she undergoes treatment in a psychiatric hospital, though we wouldn't hold out hope for a future romance with Drake.
Not getting the sense that he's into the mysterious, unstable type.
This could only be believable coming from a young white woman. No class, no dignity, no real substance. Just an open invitation. Needing the black rapper to gain popularity and people wonder why they are seen in a certain light. She should wear a for sale sign around her waist instead of a belt.


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|New Red Sox pitcher Shunsuke Watanabe is stone-skipping champ, Masahiro Tanaka admirer
|02.12.14 at 8:24 am ET
FORT MYERS, Fla. – It didn't take long for Shunsuke Watanabe to distinguish himself.
The 37-year-old Japanese pitcher strolled into camp Sunday morning, wearing workout clothes visible from across the JetBlue Park complex thanks to streaks of fluorescent orange on his shirt and shorts.
But that was just the beginning.
Watanabe, who is in camp on a minor-league deal with the Red Sox (and will be working out with the minor leaguers), is primarily known for having perhaps the lowest arm angle in the world. As he pointed out through a translator, his knuckles actually hit the ground "once or twice a season," although never to the point of pain.
It is an arm motion that he began as a 14-year-old upon his father's advice, and has served him well through 13 seasons as a starter for the Chiba Lotte Marines.
"It's not that I'm trying to go lower, but I'm just trying to get the ball to hop," the 5-foot-10 Watanabe said. "I'm not very tall and my specialty is my flexibility so in order to fully utilize that it was probably the best way to maximize my starts."
Besides his pitching production (which also included an appearances in the 2006 and '09 World Baseball Classic tournaments), the arm action has also led to another bit of notoriety: Watanabe holds the Japanese record for skipping stones.
As it turns out, Watanabe appeared on a Japanese variety show (that former Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine also happened to be making an guest spot on) when he was put to the stone-skipping test. A new record was soon discovered.
"Twenty-seven," he said when asked what the mark was.
Watanabe can also offer something else of interest to Boston baseball fans. He has first-hand knowledge of the pitcher many view as one of the keys to the American League East race, Masahiro Tanaka.
While the new Red Sox pitcher rates Texas' Yu Darvish as the most impressive Japanese pitcher he's ever watched, Watanabe also believes Tanaka can be a difference-maker for the coming season.
"He's very good. His physical strength is very impressive," he said regarding Tanaka. "He might do as well as Darvish. But Darvish is the best I've seen. Every year he gets better."
As for Watanabe's chances, he is a long shot to make the Red Sox out of camp. The righty has done due diligence, working out with major league baseballs since October, while also coming to camp understanding he has to excel as a reliever (a new role for him) from Day 1.
"I'm ready to pitch now," he said. "Whatever is needed."
|John Farrell named Sporting News AL Manager of the Year
|10.22.13 at 2:17 pm ET
The first of what is expected to be many awards for the Red Sox this year was bestowed upon John Farrell on Tuesday, as the Sox skipper was named American League Manager of the Year by the Sporting News.
One year after the Red Sox lost 90 games, Farrell took over following a stint as manager in Toronto and led the Sox to a league-best 97-65 record and the American League pennant.
Pirates bench boss Clint Hurdle was the National League winner after guiding Pittsburgh to its first winning season (94-65) and playoff appearance since 1992.
Voting was done by a panel of 19 major league managers, who voted only in their own league.
Farrell received five votes, two more than Indians manager Terry Francona, who was manager in Boston when Farrell was the team's pitching coach from 2007-10. Bob Melvin (A's) and Ron Washington (Rangers) received one vote apiece.
Hurdle also received five votes, beating out the Braves' Fredi Gonzalez (3) and the Cardinals' Mike Matheny (1).
|Buster Olney on M&M: John Farrell deserves Manager of the Year award
|10.02.13 at 1:33 pm ET
ESPN's Buster Olney appeared on Mut & Merloni on Wednesday and made his picks for the Manager of the Year award and the World Series winner.
'I turned in my picks the other day, I've got John Farrell,' said Olney. 'I think we can't have a conversation last year about what a disaster Bobby [Valentine] was and see the team improve as much as it did and see John Farrell's presence make as much of a difference — and I know they added other players as well — without giving him a lot of the credit for the turnaround there.
Farrell took a 69-93 team from last year and made the Sox into AL East winners with the best record in baseball (97-65) in his first year at the helm.
'I think Terry [Francona] has done a phenomenal job in Cleveland, but I'd give it to John,' Olney said.
Before the start of the playoffs, Olney chose Boston as the team to beat in baseball. However, he's had a change of heart.
'I wound up picking Oakland, because I think they're playing really well down the stretch, I do think that like Boston, they have a heck of a home-field advantage,' said Olney, who added that one could make a case for seven of the eight playoff teams (leaving out the Indians due to their lack of pitching depth). 'The way they're playing right now, they're not concerned with convention or how people perceive them, they are going really well and to me that's a really dangerous team.'
The wild card-winning Indians and Rays square off in Cleveland on Wednesday night for the right to play the Red Sox, the top seed in the AL. This is Cleveland's first playoff appearance since 2007.
'The city's all fired up, everywhere you go everyone's wearing Indians garb,' Olney said. 'I was in the Indians clubhouse after they clinched they other day, and they celebrated hard. This means a lot to those guys, and I think Terry Francona especially."
|Cubs fire former Red Sox managerial candidate Dale Sveum
|09.30.13 at 1:58 pm ET
In November 2011, Dale Sveum appeared to be the frontrunner for the managerial vacancy in Boston after the departure of Terry Francona. But when Sveum met with Red Sox team owners at the GM meetings in Milwaukee, the owners were not ready to extend an offer to the then-Brewers bench coach, and so the Cubs swooped in and hired the former Sox third base coach. That, in turn, led to a search that resulted in the Sox' ill-fated hiring of Bobby Valentine for one season, before Valentine was fired and replaced by John Farrell.
While it wasn't as stormy as Valentine's tenure, Sveum's time in Chicago has now likewise reached a conclusion. After a last-place finish in the National League Central, including losses in 41 of their final 59 games, the Cubs on Monday announced the firing of manager Dale Sveum.
Sveum, a former Red Sox coach, finishes with a 127-197 record in two seasons at the helm in Chicago. The Cubs finished 66-96 this year. Sveum had one year remaining on the three-year deal he signed before the 2012 season.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi is reportedly a candidate to replace Sveum. A Chicago-area native who played college ball at Northwestern and broke into the majors as a catcher with the Cubs in 1989, Girardi was rumored to be a target when the position was vacant two years ago as well, but he was entering the second year of a three-year contract that expires this offseason.
|Larry Lucchino on D&C: 'It'll be great when [Xander Bogaerts'] time comes'
|08.08.13 at 9:23 am ET
Red Sox president and CEO Larry Lucchino joined Dennis & Callahan on Thursday morning, and with the Red Sox' come-from-behind win over the Astros Wednesday night meaning they have surpassed their 2012 win total, Lucchino had plenty of praise for first-year manager John Farrell.
Lucchino noted that Farrell had been the team's first choice in the fall of 2011 following Terry Francona's departure, but when the front office couldn't pry him away from the Blue Jays, they ended up hiring Bobby Valentine.
'I don't want to attribute it all [the improvement from last season to this one] to a difference between Bobby Valentine and John Farrell. John Farrell has done a fantastic job. He is a solid leader. He was our first choice last year,' Lucchino said. 'But John has done everything, everything right. There's no question. One of the things he did right was help select the coaching staff that is as dedicated and hard-working as any coaching staff in baseball. So there is not just a kind of chemistry among the players, but there is a chemistry among the players and the manager and the coaches in the clubhouse.'
Lucchino went as far to say that chemistry factored into every move general manager Ben Cherington made during the 2012-13 offseason, mentioning Jonny Gomes in particular as an example.
Aside from Gomes' ability to hit lefties, the Sox noticed that wherever he went, his team was successful, and they liked what he brought in terms of 'clubhouse demeanor.'
'We weren't trying to put together a team of nice guys who kind of got along,' Lucchino said. 'We were trying to put together a team of talented baseball players who also happened to have the personality characteristics that we thought were important to winning, to changing the culture that we had here that had developed ' unintentionally, of course ' over time. There was a real examination.'
|Our turn to learn: A baseball tradition reconsidered
|08.07.13 at 6:42 am ET
As I strolled up to the plate at the Tokyo Dome, on a random date early in my only Japanese (partial) season of 2005, a thought bubble appeared above my head: 'How in the world did I get here?'
I had begun to feel like a character in a comic strip as I surveyed the stands and heard the drums banging in unison. A chant had begun to fill the stadium, 'KA-PU-AH, KA-PU-AH.' The fans seemed to find it immaterial that I was off to the worst start of my career and they couldn't sense the level of embarrassment that permeated my body in the moment; they simple wanted to see me 'Ganbatte' (do your best!). The Japanese fans never booed their own players.
The experience got better and . . . stranger.
I stepped in the batter's box and stared down my Japanese counterpart. I allowed the moment to sink in. I represented the only Western face in sight. In a flash — and before I was ready — the pitch was on its way. A sinker at about 90 mph stayed up in the zone and in the middle of the plate just enough. It was likely the only pitch, speed and location that I had any chance to put a good swing on instinctively at the time and I smoked a high line drive into the left-center field seats. The cheering sections in the stadium halted their calculated, rhythmic approach and went bananas in unison.
As I rounded third base, the experience climaxed in comedy. Jumping up and down behind home plate were two young women in pigtails and Yomiuri Giants colors holding giant stuffed animals. I crossed the plate and the women thrust the furry toys into my arms. My second thought bubble arrived. Read the rest of this entry »
|Cody Ross on M&M: Red Sox 'lied to my face' regarding contract negotiations
|08.02.13 at 2:07 pm ET
Diamondbacks outfielder Cody Ross, who was one of the few bright spots on the 2012 Red Sox, joined Mut & Merloni on Friday afternoon as he prepared to play his former team in a three-game series at Fenway Park. Ross expressed his disappointment that he was not able to re-sign with the Red Sox, and he talked about the difficulty the 2012 Sox had playing for Bobby Valentine.
Ross left Boston as a free agent, but he said it was his clear preference to stay with the Red Sox. He said he still doesn't understand why the team did not give him a fair shot.
"We might have made the mistake of going to them first and saying that I like it here, kind of I guess you would say showing your hand," Ross said. "I guess it's called showing your hand when you tell a team that you want to come back, you want to play here. I don't see how that could hurt me, but I guess it did.
"When they didn't trade me [during last season], I thought we were going to get something done. Ben [Cherington] sort of [dragged it out] and let it go to the offseason when we could have gotten it down easily during the year. The problem was they were hung up on the years. They wanted me for two, and I wanted three. We could never come to terms on that.
"To be honest with you, the day until I signed with Arizona, I thought it could still possibly happen someway, somehow. Maybe it was wishful thinking."
In the end, the Sox went in another direction — giving other players the contract length they told Ross he could not have.
"Once I got into free agency, I didn't drive the price up or do anything that would possibly affect me coming back here," Ross said. "I just wanted fair value and fair years. They weren't willing to go there — for whatever reason, I have no idea.
"They told me that they didn't want to sign guys to long-term deals, and then they gave [Shane] Victorino a three-year deal, and then [Mike] Napoli a three-year deal or four-year deal, whatever it was [later shortened to a one-year deal after health issues popped up]. So, basically they lied to my face. At that point, I kind of got a bad taste in my mouth and wanted to move on, and that was it.
"It is what it is. Like I said, it was a great time being here."
Ross joined the Red Sox as a free agent in January 2012, just as Valentine took over for the popular Terry Francona. Valentine had a tough time in Boston, and it ended with his removal as manager after one season.
"There were a lot of people here that were unhappy," Ross said. "Maybe it was the fact that a lot of the players were just so used to the way Tito ran things and the way he did it, and then Bobby comes in and tries to change the whole culture and the whole everything. Nobody really wanted to buy into it, and it sort of rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. That's just kind of how it went. … We could never really get on a roll or never play well. The injuries sort of tampered it a lot, too."
Added Ross: "Bobby and Mike Aviles had a little deal that happened [a confrontation in spring training], and from then on it was just like one thing after another, player after player. It was tough. It was tough having to answer the questions every time day in and day out just about it. You know how the media is here, obviously. They're not going to let up on it."
Ross was one of the few Red Sox who did not make news for a dust-up with Valentine.
Said Ross: "To be honest with you, I might have been the only guy who didn't have issues with him."
To hear the interview, go to the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page. For more Red Sox news, visit the team page at weei.com/redsox.
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I recently returned from the Cook islands where I used there (Slow) wifi to skype call. Since returning t-mobile has been using my data every time i use skype with my home wifi. Everything off (network etc) except for wifi. One skype video call cost me 70mb. T-mobile says that should not happen and dont know why it is. There suggestion is to boot my phone back to factory reset but no guarantee it will fix the problem. Don't really want to do that. Any thoughts out there.
Yeah, do a factory reset and see if that helps. I hate doing them, too, but sometimes you just have to. Back up your apps and start from scratch.
Good luck...
If your wifi is connecting you to Internet service from another provider, there is no way that TM can monitor, record and bill for that data use. Wireless data consumption is tracked on their network, not the phone, so if the traffic doesn't route through their equipment, they have no data transactions to bill.
What this means is that somehow, despite what your device is reporting, you are making connections to the TM data network. If you are certain that your "Data enabled" setting is unchecked, then you will need to do a factory data reset (having backed up the content you want to keep using something like MyBackup) to try unscramble the settings.
I appreciate the help. I think I may have figured out my problem. In my wi-fi advanced settings the wi-fi sleep was somehow set to 15mins. If it went to sleep then I guess the network data would kick in and charge my t-mobile usage when I got a skype call.. I set it to never and I think the problem is resolved. When I used skype from my home wi-fi no data usage showed up on T-mobil.
They're lying to you. They know exactly why you got charged. Because they're greedy dooshes who no longer are going to allow people to enjoy free wifi. I got a letter/email from T-mobile a few weeks ago stating that after April 5th they were no longer going to allow unlimited free wifi usage and were going to cap it at 100mb. After you use up that free wifi, you're forced to use your own data off your plan. WTF. T-mobile blows. I wont be staying a customer much longer.
I was having a dandy time with my 2gb of data with the ability to use wifi for other stuff... now they just want you to use their data. I might as well go with another company that's truly unlimited. I'd rather give my money to another company.
I think you are misunderstanding the communication you have received. What changed after April 5th was the amount of data you are allowed to use on another carrier's network here in the USA while roaming. That use is wireless, just the same as when you are normally on the TM wireless network. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with your use of wifi, which TM has no right, ability or interest in controlling (unless of course you are connected to one of their wifi hotspots).
Go back and re-read the notice and if you find that you have received something completely different from the rest of us, by all means let us know ghe details.
Retrieving data ...


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Disability Ramp Contractors in Tulsa, OK (Oklahoma)
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AmRamp Oklahoma
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Tulsa, OK 74133
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Serving Tulsa, OK
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I got a call from P&B Custom Woodwork the day after I sent my request ito Service Magic...Chris came out and gave me an estimate, he worked with me until he understood exactly what I wanted. We talked several times after I chose P&B and then he came out and did the work in one day. My ramp is wonderful...it is exactly what I wanted and needed. He also did some extra repairs I needed. He is very good, very professional and very helpful. I will use P&B with any home improvements I need or remodeling. I have already recommended them to friends.
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Frank was very courteous and went out of his way to complete this job during extreme weather. I enjoyed doing business with him!
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Things to Consider Before You Build or Replace Wheelchair Ramps in Tulsa, Oklahoma:
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text: FOX's 'Sleepy Hollow' Is Ridiculous, Spirited and Tea Party Friendly Print article Send a Tip by Zachary Leeman 24 Sep 2013 post a comment FOX has a fun and ridiculous new show called Sleepy Hollow on its Monday night schedule. It doesn't have much to do with the famous short story by Washington Irving, but everyone involved from Len Wiseman to Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman to the actors make sure the show has a lot to do with conspiracy theories, the book of Revelations and the Revolutionary War. It's a unique endeavor that more conservative, right of center and libertarian viewers may derive some extra pleasure from. Sleepy Hollow harkens back to the Revolutionary War and clouds it with some Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter type mythology. Turns out that the tyrannical, over-taxing British are on the side of the devil and actually trying to bring about the end of the world, and George Washington and his merry freedom lovers are trying to save not just the future United States but the entire world. Told you this show was fun. Another aspect to the show to love is Tom Mison's Ichabod Crane who is thrust into the future with that famous headless horseman. He's against tyranny, enslavement and taxes! He's a wonderful fish out of water and it'll be great to see the writers contrast him with the politically correct and government heavy twenty first century. Fingers crossed that they don't mess it up and keep him a fun and stern, freedom-loving "Captain America" to foil with today's more liberal and/ or fascist populace of Occupy Wall Street, scheming career politicians and war mongers. Sleepy Hollow will certainly appeal to any and all conspiracy theorists, right of center viewers or perhaps even some religious crowds looking for a fun television show. I'm not necessarily saying that Wiseman and company mean to have created a Tea Party friendly series. Based on the pilot, they've merely created a ridiculous show with a lot of cool themes and a good sense of humor. It's one of the more fun shows on network television. The series has the potential to be a favorite for right-leaning audiences. It's certainly got the potential to be one of mine. Sleepy Hollow airs at 9/8c Monday nights on FOX.


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The Laguna Hills native gets ready to conquer Coachella with his unstoppable music
For Chris Manak (aka Peanut Butter Wolf), the 90s will always hold a special place on his turntables. After starting his official career as a recording artist in 1990, this revered L.A. DJ/producer birthed Stones Throw Records, a premier source of eclectic hip hop culture, in 1996. Tonight, he ki ... More >>
Peanut Butter Wolf
From June 10-16, L.A. disc jockey and Stone Throw Records honcho Peanut Butter Wolf (Chris Manak) is attempting what could be interpreted as the decathlon of DJing. Over seven consecutive nights, he'll be spinning a different style in a different Los Angeles club. Making the feat even more impressiv ... More >>


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Cold Shoulder Floral Print Top
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$34.50 $9.98 $5.99
Possibilities are endless with this must have colorful flirty top! Plus size top features a scoop neckline that leads to cutout accents at length sleeves, an allover floral pattern print and is finished with a self-tie bow embellished smocked hemline.
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- 29 inches from shoulder
- 100% polyester
Please Select a Size and Color
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Now Black Friday - Extra 40% off! Details
Take an extra 40% off. Can not be combined with any other offer.


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Get More Info on Wine on Tap for Weddings & Events: Please contact us below For Wine on Tap for your wedding or event?
Rich Janshen
Sales Manager
rich (at) piccolawine.com
Is your restaurant interested in learning more about wine on tap, cost and most importantly offering the freshest wine possible to your customers with the highest ROI?Please contact your American Northwest Distributor Rep reordering and new installs at 206-877-4404 and email@example.com
Interested in adding Wine Totes to your store? Contact your Distributor Rep or Contact a Piccola Cellars rep
Rich Janshen
Off Premise Channel Manager
Online Orders, Tasting Room Questions, Wine Catering, please call the rep at the above contact info or call us at 425-486-9463 or send us a message and we'll get back right back to you!
Subscribe to our E-Newsletter for the latest news and events from Piccola.


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The current exhibition at Cornerstone is an anniversary exhibition titled TEN. The exhibition is on until Friday 10th October 2014 to coincide with the Liverpool Independents Biennial. Artists exhibiting include: Bryan Biggs, Rebecca Gouldson, Kaety Moore, Nick Sykes and Elizabeth Willow. To see the full list of artists click here. Here are a few snaps from the private view, lots of beautiful work on display.
The bare walls in and around the Baltic Triangle were recently transformed in to colourful murals by local, national and international Street Artists. Mark-it was Liverpool's first festival dedicated to street art and attracted and intrigued visitors from all over the city and further afield. I took part in the event and painted one of my swirly haired characters, you can see more pics on my website here. Mark McNulty snapped the whole event, see his wonderful pics here. It's Liverpool also featured it, take a peek.
Image credit | Mark McNulty
Wall collaboration by Charlie, (Nonconform) Claire Rye and Faye Oliver.
We love working with South Liverpool Homes. They're always looking for creative ways to engage with their stakeholders, so we typically end up doing something a bit unexpected. We're currently working on a project that pulls a number of important strands together, using SLH's 15th birthday campaign to tie things up nicely.
Brief – SLH wanted to use their 15th birthday as a means to evaluate and celebrate the impact they have had in the South Liverpool area, but also to help map out their vision for the future.
This is to be communicated through established channels, including their next Annual Report and the Your Bulletin tenant newsletter. A web and digital presence is also required.
Our thinking -
Personal Stories: Statistics have their place, but the most powerful way to communicate is to tell the human story.
Fun and interaction: If we want to engage tenants, we should do it in an unusual way.
Longevity: The campaign can live beyond the birthday year by generating an archive of content for SLH to use when advocating for themselves, or for the South Liverpool communities they serve.
Bigger picture: As in all cases, the campaign should contribute towards SLH's corporate aims (represented by their 5 Every's)
Concept – The SLH Tree
A tree is multi faceted. It symbolizes SLH's growth from the past to the present and on to the future. It represents the strong foundations that SLH has both given to South Liverpool and established within the organisation. A tree bears fruit and symbolizes good health. They are the lungs of the community and branch out to other places.
The annual SLH Neighbours' Day provided an opportunity to begin to involve tenants in the campaign. Our 'tree inspired' 15th Birthday graphics, were rolled out on banners, balloons and cakes.
Members of the community wrote their stories on tags bearing questions that drew out their personal stories and hopes for the future. The questions connected the tree theme to the 5 Everys and SLH's corporate aims.
Tenants hung the tags on 'wishing' trees, 2 metres tall and sprayed bright SLH red. SLH staff filmed tenants talking about how SLH has improved their lives and neighbourhoods, and what they would like to see happen next.
What's next
Launched externally in April, the revamped HouseMark brand and the 'See the bigger picture' launch campaign were rolled out at Housing 2014.
Alongside recent sector-wide regulatory change, HouseMark evolved their brand proposition to meet the requirements of their members, who during extensive research in 2013, told HouseMark that they needed to change the business proposition and offer to match members needs for the future.
As benchmarking services would no longer be a compulsory regulatory requirement for Housemark's members, the brand needed to evolve from its 'functional' foundation to an 'emotional' one (I need HouseMark to make my business better).
The aim of this strategy is to change, over time, the perception amongst HouseMark's members and the wider sector that HouseMark is purely a data-driven, benchmarking business, with a regulatory mind-set, to one known for expertise in business intelligence.
The focus is on one main brand – business intelligence – which divides into three supporting sub-brands – 'Data, Knowledge and Consultancy'.
HouseMark launched the brand internally first as they recognise that an internal brand strategy informs, includes and incentivises people at a time of fundamental change.
This is our third year working with CEL Procurement on PfH Live, a three-day event that takes place at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Conference.
Stephanie Eaton, Marketing Executive at CEL Procurement tells us how PfH Live contributes to Procurement for Housing's bigger picture.
Related Case Study: Procurement for Housing
Why do you deliver PfH Live?
Overall, our aim is to strengthen and support the important relationships we have with CIH, our customers and our supply chain.
It is also a brand positioning exercise. We see ourselves as thought leaders for the sector, challenging the housing industry as a world-class procurement provider. Partnering with CIH, the professional body for housing, to present the biggest event in the housing industry, positions our brand exactly where we want it to be.
By delivering PfH Live, we raise brand awareness, beyond the procurement managers we currently serve. The promotion of the event, the Conference itself and any follow-up activity includes the PfH brand, which is powerful in terms of recognition and reputation.
How does the brand support what you are trying to achieve?
The brand that Nonconform have developed for PfH Live reveals the connections between CEL Procurement, PfH and PfH Live. It is important to us that the event branding is recognizable in itself, but that it is identifiable as part of the corporate brand family.
It also works beautifully in partnership with the CIH brand, which it sits next to on innumerable occasions before, during and after the conference. A huge amount of promotional activity takes place, and much of it takes place in partnership with CIH.
This visual partnership between the two brands communicates the literal partnership we have with CIH.
How successful has the PfH Live branding project been this year?
We're extremely pleased with how the brand has progressed over the last three years. We need the identity to be recognizable each year, but we also need it to look different enough to grab people's attention.
We can't look the same every time and Nonconform have been done a great job of refreshing the brand, so that it feels like a new campaign.
Nonconform have added some texture to the logo, and although it incorporates elements of the CEL and PfH corporate brands, we think it feels like an event – it reflects the excitement and buzz of the conference.
We feel like our relationship with Nonconform is very successful. They understand what we are trying to achieve and are active in coming up with creative ideas for the event.
Our partnership with them means that the event brand supports our key corporate messages and that it doesn't operate in isolation from our ongoing marketing themes, such as our 10th campaign and our 'World Class Procurement' message.
We've worked with Fusion21 for over a decade, and were excited to see the latest incarnation of their brand revealed at last week's CIH Conference.
Fusion21 links spending programmes across numerous organisations, to the creation of training opportunities and sustainable jobs for local people. As well as generating social value, this model improves efficiency in the procurement process and generates significant cash savings.
Fusion21 have refocused on the Social Value aspect of their unique business model, which runs through all aspects of their organisation, including the wider Community Regeneration Services offer.
They challenged us to devise a new identity that unified Fusion21's Social Value message across all of their services. This is the key point of difference between Fusion21 and their competitors.
After teasing the new brand with Social Media campaign graphics, we rolled out the new identity on the Fusion21 stand at the CIH conference. Animated TV graphics, a 'pop-up' overview document, print and promo materials supported the brand launch at the conference, whilst the new brand went live on the redeveloped Fusion21 website.


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Guess who's back?Tuesday's�episode of�Sons of Anarchy�featured the return of Venus Van Dam, the transgender escort played by�Justified's Walton Goggins in each of the FX drama's last...
Will you make a date with�Manhattan Love Story? Do you give�Selfie�a thumbs-up?�Now that ABC's newest romantic comedies have debuted, we want to know: Did you fall in love?
Each week, executive editor Adam Bryant satisfies your need for TV scoop. Please send all questions to�firstname.lastname@example.com am dying for...
Erica Messer can't think of a more perfect day for
Apparently all of Hollywood wants to shake their stuff for the anticipatedMagic Mike�sequel.�
Kevin Williamson�is no stranger to defending his work. At the�
It's getting really real on The Goldbergs.
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GeoExpert - USA Geography
Have fun learning US Geography!!
Games included:
- States.
- Capitals.
- Flags.
- Mountains.
- Rivers.
- Study mode with information about each State (population, area and density).
GeoExpert is unique among games in the App Store due to the fact that it is educational in nature and makes learning fun. Because of this, it is used in various schools to teach geography.
Available for Mac, iPad and iPhone.


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A key challenge for companies developing biologics is the control of particles in the final formulation. Managing product contamination from intrinsic and extrinsic particles, and protecting patients from the associated risk, is increasingly important.
Combined measurements of net charge and kD were made in order to understand the difference between two formulations with different stability behavior. While they have approximately the same net charge, their stability is dominated by the secondary effects of asymmetric charge distributions and hydrophobic residues.
The drive to reduce the manufacturing costs for biological therapeutics have increased the demands placed on downstream unit operations to the point where a single processing step is expected to accomplish a multitude of purification objectives. Where anion exchange resins have traditionally been used to remove DNA, endotoxin, and as a viral clearance step in the purification of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), new ligand chemistries make it possible for anion exchange chromatography to do more. In the following paper, TOYOPEARL NH2-750F, a salt tolerant anion exchange resin from Tosoh Bioscience, is shown to be able to remove mAb dimer and higher order aggregates from mAb monomer.
Analysis of Synthetic Cannabinoids from Whole Blood for Forensic Toxicology using Ostro Sample Preparation Plates and CORTECS UPLC Solid-Core Columns
Micro-Flow Imaging (MFI) provides accurate and sensitive detection of sub-visible particles and protein aggregates in biopharmaceuticals. Even better, MFI can classify particle populations. This application note takes you through how easy it is to develop custom particle filters to get more accurate and sensitive discrimination between the particles in your protein formulations.
Nuvia™ HR-S media is a new cation exchanger designed for high resolution of closely related product impurities such as aggregates. It delivers excellent resolution with a final aggregate content of <0.3% and a high recovery of >80% from a heterogeneous feed of monoclonal antibody aggregates and monomer. Aggregate content and recovery in the eluate were shown to be a function of the target conductivity measured at the end of collection.
Glycan characterization has remained a challenging aspect of biotherapeutic characterization compared to techniques such as intact mass or peptide map analysis, which most labs consider routine today. The addition of the glycan UPLC/FLR/MS workflow and use of the experimentally derived Waters Glycan GU Library within the Glycan Application Solution with UNIFI have addressed the desire for compliant-ready, automated, high-confidence glycan structure assignments by enabling rapid acquisition, review, and communication of individual glycan profile results, and the larger sets of glycan analyses used for comparability studies.
This application note compares the amount of leached Protein A ligand that is present in purified monoclonal antibody, post elution, when using TOYOPEARL AF-rProtein A HC-650F, TOYOPEARL AF-rProtein A-650F, and another commercially available high capacity Protein A resin. Protein A ELISA tests specific to each resin evaluated show that the TOYOPEARL AF-rProtein A HC-650F is very stable and exhibits a markedly lower level of ligand leakage compared to the other resins tested.
Most pharmaceutical manufacturers have adopted lean initiatives within their production areas in order to survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive economy. But an often-overlooked area, quality control, has been left untouched by lean initiatives. Pharmaceutical companies can achieve maximum efficiency by evaluating and streamlining microbial quality control procedures using lean principles to automate and accelerate the work microbiologists have traditionally done manually with a rapid microbial method. Learn key components to include in a business case.


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Dr. Michael Charboneau specializes in general surgery in Monroe, Michigan.
Dr. Michael Charboneau has been compared 306 times. Details of Dr. Charboneau's 26 years experience as an DO, his hospital affiliation and education at Des Moines University are available on your free doctor report.
Primary Location for Dr. Charboneau
730 N Macomb St
Suite 222
Monroe, MI 48162
Ratings and Reviews for Dr. Michael Charboneau
Board Certification, Specialty and Expertise
Dr. Michael Charboneau has been identified as specializing in General Surgery.
Hospital Affiliation
A hospital affiliation covers any doctor who has an affiliation, association or admitting privilege with a hospital. A doctor's particular affiliation to a specific hospital can translate to the overall quality of that provider.
Dr. Charboneau is affiliated with 1 hospital:
718 N Macomb St
Monroe, MI 48162
Dr. Charboneau attended medical school at Des Moines University College of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences and graduated in 1988 having 26 years experience.
While there is no proven correlation between the quality of one's educational institution and the quality of one's professional competence, it is often an indicator. Medical schools have various levels of selectivity (some are harder to get into than others), and both the quality of their clinical training and level of research are measured. Additional medical training in both residency and fellowships and the facilities they are conducted at also provide a history of the doctors' level of training and experience.
Patients may also know Dr. Michael Charboneau DO as:
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Do you want to see Ryback vs. Brock Lesnar?
View Single Post
Evil Peter
Getting ignored by SCOTT STEINER
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 991
Re: Do you want to see Ryback vs. Brock Lesnar?
Originally Posted by
Lets not overrate Lesnar that much. He fucking sucked as a fighter for the most part of his MMA career. He got killed by Cain. Looked like he was about to cry from the beating he took. He got murdered by Overeem. I mean, he really got the shit beat out of him by Overeem. Then, he got killed by Shane Carwin for the entire round, before locking in a submission to win the match. He tapped out to Frank Mir 3 minutes into the first round.
All he did was use his size to win, but then when he started fighting guys more his size, he showed that he is not some tough guy. His standup sucked, his ground game was decent, but his massive size helped a lot.
Its just the stupid WWE fans that think Lesnar is god because he beat a 45 year old man, who he outweighs by 50 pounds in order to win the UFC title.
Lesnar was certainly never the best in the world but to say that anyone that's ever captured a major title in MMA, or just beat a top 10 fighter, "fucking sucked as a fighter" is downright pathetic. It also sounds like you're suggesting that the only people Overeem and Cain can beat easily are people that really sucks, which seems very insulting.
And if you only think he used his size to win then you don't understand the techniques of MMA. Of course he was helped by being big and unusually athletic for that size, but that's not nearly enough to beat anyone at that level. His wrestling was good and his BJJ top game developed really well and how he managed to completely shut down Mir's hips in the second fight was very impressive for such a new guy.
So while Lesnar certainly wasn't god it's just as silly to downplay Couture as just a smaller, older man.
I've trained in martial arts for 20 years and have had some international competition success but I couldn't step into the UFC and do what he did. Therefor I'm impressed by what he managed to do with so little time.
Last edited by Evil Peter : 11-09-2012 at
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Megabus is offering a great deal right now, a free ticket. The city-to-city express bus service is offering 200 thousand free seats. The seats are for travel from January 4 to March 1, and can be booked to or from more than 70 cities and Toronto.
Travelers must use the promo code "Go Free", on the Megabus website. You're more likely to get the deal if you're flexible on your travel dates and can travel in the middle of the week. But you should look soon, the offer is limited.


text: Smooth soul from Cliff Dawson – a singer as classy as his look on the cover, and definitely a cut above most of the mainstream soul artists of his time! The album's an overlooked gem that's very nicely put together – well recorded, arranged with a subtle flair, and usually done with a warmer sound than you might guess for the vintage of the set – almost like some late 70s underground modern soul set, which is saying plenty to ears like ours! Thor Baldursson did most of the arrangements, but in ways that are much more restrained than his disco years – and titles include "It's Not Me You Love", "Waiting For Your Love", "Betcha Didn't Know", "I Can Love You Better", "Ocean Green Eyes", and "Never Say I Do". © 1996-2014, Dusty Groove, Inc.


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Fighter Destiny 2 Nintendo 64
- Publisher: SouthPeak Games
- Release Date: Jul 14, 2000
- Summary: Enter the arena and do battle with the toughest, most skilled martial arts experts on the planet. As one of the international fighting elite, you'll vie to become the true authority of hand-to-hand combat. Your destiny awaits. Defeat any of your 11 opponents and gain their abilities. Launch 5 different modes of attack, from Training to Record Attack. Adjust scoring, ring sizes and difficulty settings. Compete in points-based martial arts tournaments. Force your opponent to relive defeat in instant replay. Gain new abilities and skills when you face the Master in the Fighter's Arena.… Expand
- Developer: Opus
- Genre(s): Fighting Games
- Cheats: On GameFAQs
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
Positive: 2 out of 13
Mixed: 8 out of 13
Negative: 3 out of 13
While it is basically the same game with a couple tweaks and polishes, "Fighter Destiny 2" reigns as one of the system's best fighting games, a title to be checked out by all fighting-starved Nintendo owners.
Its a shame, because the first game had some really innovative ideas and it would have been nice to have seen a few of them here!
Little more than a rehash of the earlier game, "Fighter Destiny 2" would have been acceptable in 1998, but feels extremely dated today.
Frankly, I liked this game better the first time around. FD2 doesnt have the style that the first crack at this franchise had.
It is sluggish and boring, unoriginal and tedious. It makes me ill. Don't buy this game.
Score distribution:
Positive: 3 out of 3
Mixed: 0 out of 3
Negative: 0 out of 3
Nov 11, 2013THE GOOD: This is an underrated fighting game that is one of the best that the N64 has to offer. A great cast of characters, nice graphics, good soundtrack, responsive controls, and a large variety of game modes, on top of an already polished experience. You can get a lot of enjoyment out of this title, and it has aged better than many other fighters of the same generation. Heck, its even better than the original Super Smash Brothers!
THE BAD: There could have been just a bit larger character cast,
Underrated fighting game that satisfies. WORTH BUYING!… Expand