The James Logan Courier

Note: Each week, The Courier spotlights books newly arrived, or expected to arrive, in the James Logan Media Center.

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Miramax (March 21, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0786851961
ISBN-13: 978-0786851966

From the publisher:
Like many smart, ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner seeks entry into Manhattan’s most prestigious school, Executive Pre-Professional High School. With single-minded determination, he works night and day to ace the entrance exam and gets in. That’s when everything starts to unravel.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)

Here are the best-sellers for the week that ended Saturday, Oct. 27, compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide.

(Reprinted from Publishers Weekly, published by Cahners Publishing Co., a division of Reed Elsevier, USA. (c) 2007 by Reed Elsevier, USA)

HARDCOVER FICTION
1. Book of the Dead. Patricia Cornwell. Putnam, $26.95
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
2. A Lick of Frost. Laurell K. Hamilton. Ballantine, $24.95
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
3. Playing for Pizza. John Grisham. Doubleday, $26.95
Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 5
4. World Without End. Ken Follett. Dutton, $35
Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 3
5. The Almost Moon. Alice Sebold. Little, Brown, $24.99
Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 2
6. The Choice. Nicholas Sparks. Grand Central, $24.99
Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 5
7. A Thousand Splendid Suns. Khaled Hosseini. Riverhead, $25.95
Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 23
8. Now & Then. Robert B. Parker. Putnam, $25.95
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
9. Dark of the Moon. John Sandford. Putnam, $26.95
Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 4
10. You've Been Warned. James Patterson & Howard Roughan. Little, Brown, $27.99
Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 7

By Paul Salopek
Chicago Tribune (MCT)

RUTSHURU, Congo — Peace wasn't sweet — it tasted like soggy crackers — when a warlord surrendered in Congo's lawless east October 27.

Kasereka Kabamba, the shaved-headed chief of a militia known for dressing in animal pelts and invoking magical powers in battle, gave himself up "for the good of the people" at a United Nations military base. Indian peacekeepers in short pants offered bowls of cookies and saltines to the 29 sulky gunmen and one wide-eyed boy, aged about 9, who joined in Kasereka's capitulation.

LUNCH: Spicy Chicken Salad with Cheddar, Tomatoes, and Ranch Dressing,
Milk, Fresh Fruit, Fun Chips
Main Cafeteria Pizza: Vegetarian with Bell Peppers, Mushrooms, Fresh tomato, & Olives

ACTIVITIES:
Make sure to pick up your id card and/or pictures in the Activities Office at lunch.

After school tutoring for next week will only be afternoons (3:30-4:30) in Room 64. Normal tutoring days and times will resume in Room 77 the week of 11/26.

By Gabriel Hinojoza, Courier Correspondent

Recently I’ve begun to notice how easy the truth is to find, if you have the desire to look for it. I believe that this desire is something that many people lack, unfortunately. There are so many problems with the world right now that it is staggering, but most people seem content to simply ignore them or admit that are terrible and do nothing.

This ignorance and foolishness brings a feeling of comfort and safety and makes it much easier to get through the day, but it breeds even more problems. The “I’ll fix it later” mentality has caused countless problems, both historically and presently. I am writing to encourage students and others to get out and learn the truth for yourself and, because sooner or later you will be forced to step out of your protective shell and look at the world and by then it may be too late.

By Najia Qadir, Courier Staff Writer

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig
Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: NAL Trade (December 27, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 045121742X
ISBN-13: 978-0451217424

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation is a story to fit almost all genres. This book has it all: history, drama, romance, mystery, humor, and intrigue. It keeps you interested until the very last page.

There are two main characters and two stories in this book. It is a book within a book.

By Sarena Bains, Courier Staff Writer

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
Paperback: 486 pages
Publisher: Multnomah (May 11, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1576738167
ISBN-13: 978-1576738160

Redeeming Love is a Christian novel which is set in the 1850's during the Gold Rush in California. The story is taken from the Book of Hosea in the Bible.

It is a heartbreaking romance between a prostitute, named Angel, and a kind farmer named Michael. Angel was sold into prostitution as a child, and is the representation of someone with sin and shame.

From wikipedia:
Ibn Hazm (7 November 994–15 August 1064) was an Andalusian-Arab philosopher, litterateur, historian, jurist and theologian born in Córdoba, present-day Spain. He was a leading proponent of the Zahiri school of Islamic thought and produced a reported 400 works of which only 40 still survive, covering a range of topics such as jurisprudence, logic, history, ethics, comparative religion, and theology, as well as the The Ring of the Dove, on the art of love

Lineage
Ibn Hazm was born into a notable family - his grand father Sa'id and his father Ahmad both held high positions in the court of the Umayyad Caliph Hisham II- and professed a Persian genealogy. However scholars believe that Iberian converts adopted such genealogies to better identify with the Arabs and favor evidence that points to an Christian Iberian family background hailing from Manta Lisham (near Sevilla).

Read Ibn Hazm's work, The Tawq-al-hamâma, in Arabic, free from the Library of the University of Leiden.