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No Greater Joy: Another child dead from Biblical child-rearing advice

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

A couple, with nine children, beat one of them to death and left another in critical condition with kidney failure, while following the teachings on child discipline promulgated by Michael and Debi Pearl, which are very popular in the fundamentalist Christian community and in particular the Christian homeschooling movement. Here's the story at Salon, and check out the links in it, particularly by a friend of the family. In short, a 7-year-old girl named Lydia Schatz was beaten until her organs failed from chemicals released by broken-down tissue. She died, and her older sister Zariah is in critical condition.

Review: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha


TITLE:Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
AUTHOR: Roddy Doyle
PUBLISHER: Penguin
LENGTH: Novel
GENRE: Nostalgic mainstream fiction
COST: $15.00

The life of a ten-year-old Irish boy named Paddy Clarke, as seen through his eyes…

To call this Booker Prize-winning novel aimless misses the point of the narrative. It might seem like that. Ten-year-old boys tend to be self-involved, with attention spans that wander before they’ve crossed the street, so choosing one as the eyes and ears of the story’s events might seem counterproductive. It’s not. It’s the whole point. What Doyle has done here is recreate the rhythms of what it’s like to be a child, especially one on the verge of adolescence. He captures that driving need for escape and fun and combines it effortlessly with the vestigial beliefs in innocent hope that are so typically child-like.

Sins of Analytical Chemistry

Science, they say, is the truly noble pursuit. Men and women from all national, racial and cultural backgrounds come together to work tirelessly, dedicating their intellects and their training to the improvement of the human condition and the advancement of our knowledge. Regardless of the nature of scientists as individuals, science as a whole can only march towards greater truth and the betterment of the entire world.

Well… not quite.

Review: The Sweetheart's Knitting Club

TITLE: The Sweethearts' Knitting Club
AUTHOR: Lori Wilde
PUBLISHER: Avon Books
LENGTH: Novel
GENRE: Contemporary romance
COST: $7.99

In the town of Twilight, Texas, people take their romances – and their knitting – very seriously. There’s the Sweetheart Tree, Twilight Bridge, the knitting club comprised of women who married their high school sweethearts…and in the middle of all of it, Flynn MacGregor, the girl next door who’s been dating the boy next door now sheriff for the past ten years. Flynn has turned down Beau’s marriage proposal three times already, always with an excuse that other people need her – her alcoholic father, her dying mother, her wild sister – but deep in her heart, she knows the real reason. The bad boy who stole her heart in high school, Jesse Calloway. The one who went to jail the day of graduation for possessing cocaine. The one who just got released after ten years, determined to come back to Twilight and claim what always belonged to him…

Review: Polar Reaction

TITLE: Polar Reaction
AUTHOR: Claire Thompson
PUBLISHER: Samhain
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 63k)
GENRE: Contemporary gay menage erotic romance
COST: $5.50

When a sudden storm strands three research scientists in their Antarctic compound, suppressed desire and feelings bubble to the surface between them. Tuck has wanted Brendan for a year, Jamie has been attracted to both Tuck and Brendan, and Brendan doesn’t want to admit he just might want another man. The storm is giving them time to explore. But what happens when it stops? What if it never does?

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