Says that he jumped on Young Jeezy’s “Trap or Die 2″ (produced by Zaytoven) and that Jeezy jumped on “Heavy” (produced by Shawty Redd.)

He also discusses part 2 of The State vs. Radric Davis series, called “The Appeal” dropping in April 2010. He says that he finished recording it and that it’s getting mixed and mastered. When he gets out he plans on recording part 3, “The Final Verdict,” and dropping it in December of next year.

Previously: Young Jeezy feat. Gucci Mane – Trap or Die 2 (Remix)

Bonus: Gucci Mane feat. Pharrell – Have It All [DJ] | Mediafire via UHTN

Via: Nah Right

“I also recorded a CD to be released right before I come out called The Appeal of the State vs. Radric Davis.  I had to leave my fans with something because they’ve been supporting me through the tribulations and trials I’ve been going through in my life.”

Although down, Gucci Mane is never out of the game.  Fresh off the release of The State vs. Radric Davis, Gucci is already making his next moves once he steps outside of the prison walls.

Appropriately titled The Appeal, the next album from the rising rapper is set to be released once he is released from his current bid. 

The buzz must have fed his ego with two CDs already waiting for the world.

While behind the prison walls, La Flare was able to speak on Big Boy’s Neighborhood and give some more detail on the story behind his latest album. 

“I’m a very hard worker and I always try to outwork every artist in the industry.  With that being said, I recorded so much music and did so many collaborations.  I recorded two CDs before I even went to jail.  I already got an album that came out December 8, The State vs. Radric Davis and it’s doing exceptionally well and it details all that I’ve been going through with the legal system.”

With the beef officially dead between Gucci and Young Jeezy, the rapper elaborated on the need for the two to put their differences behind them and the fact that it was much bigger than them.  Both residing in Atlanta and having such a strong following, they had to play as role models to make sure their problems didn’t spill out to affect those that support them.

“Before the interview had came out, we had collaborated.  Before the interview came out, we had been talking and came to a mutual agreement to co-exist with each other.  The city ain’t but so big and both of us got so many people that run up under us that it’s kinda selfish to say that we traveling the world and making all this money and people in our crew are on the front lines.  I know with me personally, I didn’t want that on my hands so I did it for me as well my team.”

The two collaborated before for the track “So Icey”, and Gucci assured fans to look out for more with one already dropping recently.

“We already collaborated on two songs.  One is already out and one is debuting in a couple of weeks.”

Gucci Mane is taking his time away in stride and not looking at things as the end, but as a brief intermission before he can start the show up once again.

Exams are finally over! Hahaha… But just out of sheer consolation that is. In reality, that’s just two papers out of ten modules, and quite frankly, they’re the easiest modules. LOL~ Like they said, the worst has yet to come… =P

Unexpectedly, the Quantitative Skills paper was easier than I thought, and it took me exactly one hour to finish the  required five questions (we were given three hours), and another ten minutes to check through all my answers. I’m praying that my answers matched the ones in the answer sheet, and an ‘A’ grade would be in the bag. God bless.

On a side note, I have also finished reading a fiction novel authored by John Grisham, entitled The Appeal. It’s really a great book that talked about the judicial system in the United States, and how it could be manipulated by the rich and famous to their favor. Read it, and you’ll be hooked to it right to the end. My rating for the book is 4 out of 5. Excellent piece of work indeed, and highly recommended!

Well, it’s back to work tomorrow, and the first lesson of our next module next Thursday before we take a long break till mid-January 2010 when the next lesson proper starts. All the best to me! =)

Writing with Heart

Writing a piece is more than telling a story.  If you are passionate about writing, you write with your heart.  You give something in you, to the story.  Author Harlan Coben expressed in a Borders interview:  “I like to write with heart, otherwise it is not going to work for me.”  I agree with his comment; to make a piece that captures the readers, there has to be passion in it.

Author Wally Lamb expressed:  “Write a book for yourself, and let the readers that have to find it, find it.” 

Another author that follows the same rule is Jamie Lee Curtis.  She told Borders:  “I don’t do it for achievement; it is pure expression for me.”  Another good example of this is best selling author John Grisham.  He writes legal thrillers, mostly, but he says that he writes whatever he wants; he has fun with the genre.  He says he does not know where he is going as far as sticking with a genre.  Some of his books have been made into movies (The Firm, The Appeal).  In his own words to Borders:  “You can’t get too serious, the pages have to turn.”

And perhaps, the best example we have about a best selling author that writes with heart is Stephenie Meyer.  Her first book, Twilight, she wrote for herself – at the kitchen table.  The very successful series followed, and captured the heart of fans all over. 

So, next time you pick up your pen (or your mouse), ask yourself this question:  “Am I putting my heart to it?” 

Will John Grisham’s legal drama The Appeal (2008) join other literary works like Upton Sinclair’s political fiction novel The Jungle (1906) and Rachel Carson’s literary broadside Silent Spring (1962) [1] in influencing changes in real world legislation? In his PhD dissertation Gordon (2008) argued that literary works such as those by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Karl Marx, Ralph Nader, Jonathan Swift, Upton and Carson, serve as legislative flash points and have had a demonstrable impact on the law.

Grisham’s writing is clearly popular fiction and he has enjoyed writing books with no redeeming social value like The Broker, but he now wants to tackle social issues (Grossman 2006.) He has fierce political convictions and admitted that, “Everything I’m thinking about writing now is about politics or social issues wrapped around a novel.” He admires the work of Truman Capote, John le Carré and John Steinbeck whom he would like to emulate. So is The Appeal also an appeal to reason [2]? 

John Grisham’s legal drama/legal thriller/crime novels deal with the power and influence of major US corporations in America and their potential for abusing the American legal system. Previous novels concluded with the victims being vindicated and giant corporations paying huge rewards for damages to personal health and to the environment. But in 2006 there was already a shift when he published his first book of nonfiction, a true-crime story entitled The Innocent Man.

The Appeal (2008) is the most openly political book he has written in which he probed the world of US judicial elections, a burning issue in the US (AF-P 2008). The debate over the best way for states to select judges is more than 160 years old. According to Wall Street Journal’s Levy, within days of the release of The Appeal, “critics of judicial elections began to connect it to examples of real-life corruption. Mr. Grisham himself says his story has “already happened” in West Virginia. Others have tried to link the book’s intrigue to next month’s Supreme Court election in Wisconsin, where a controversial judge is facing a strong challenge for re-election, helped in part by business groups. Mr. Grisham has plenty of allies in his crusade among liberal interest groups, who insist that judicial elections somehow represent a blight on the rule of law  (Levy 2008-03-20).”

In The Appeal fictional Wall Street financier Carl Trudeau, launched his appeal against plaintiffs from cancer county where his company had dumped toxins for years, to the Mississippi Supreme Court. Then he stacked the Court by funding an unknown to run against incumbent Court Justice Sheila McCarthy. Trudeau flooded media with ads designed to vilify Justice McCarthy as an extremely liberal judge who would protect criminals not citizens and would restrict gun ownership. Trudeau’s campaign allowed Fisk to win the election. Grisham in the telling of this fiction, practically laid out a formula for CEOs, corporate lawyers and politicians to overpower and ruin ordinary citizens while enjoying financial huge gains. The characters are highly stereotyped with lawyers and CEOs who are clearly the bad guys in this story. 

The mysterious, expensive consultant Barry Rinehart works quietly in the background using financing from from industries like energy, insurance, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, timber, all types of manufacturing as well as doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and banks, to target supreme court justices whose values differ from these special interest groups. He engineers the fixing of elections so the unfriendly judges lose to their own groomed judicial candidate. (31 states elect their appellate and supreme court judges while the remaining states appoint their courts.)  ”To Grisham, that is the sad truth: No one’s justice will be served. While chilling, Grisham’s tale of modern legal machinations is also, unfortunately, timeless (Patrick 2008-01).”

 ”Literature—even persuasively powerful literature—does not operate in a void: conditions must be ripe if it is to draw energy from the social milieu and thereby attain a kinetic force capable of influencing the law. This [...] requires an alignment of narratives: the literary narrative with the larger cultural narrative within which it subsists (Gordon 2008:41).”

Tagging

law and literature movement, dedicated interest groups, big-money politics, Amicus-Curia, Plaintiff’ Paradise, judicial hell holes, consumer-friendly, Cancer County, cancer cluster, pulpit for reform, real world politics, US legal system, vexatious corporate litigation, senior academic lawyers, appelate benches of the Federal Appeal Circuit and the Supreme Court, M$ anti-trust investigations, Anti-Trust suit compliance issue, proven complicity, meritless SCO litigation, Patent and Copyright systems, East Texas fiasco, legal corruption, amicus-curia briefs, Commerce and Justice, Economic Crisis, US corporate malfeasance, US corporate greed, US corporate lack of transparency, tort, Rylands rule, Fletcher v. Rylands, Johnstown Flood, 

Timeline of related events

1860 One of the wealthiest industrialists in England, John Rylands, a textile manufacturer, hired a contractor to dig a large ditch and create a reservoir to add water power for one of his mills. The reservoir collapsed into an abandoned coal-mining shaft which connected to Thomas Fletcher’s neighboring coal mines. The reservoir flood destroyed those mines. (Wiki, Shugerman 2008)

1865 Fletcher v. Rylands, 159 Eng. Rep. 737, 740. The dispute in Rylands concerned escape of water onto neighbouring land. Later cases in which the Rylands test was applied involved the escape of all manner of wastes and materials, extending outwards to a broad range of inherently dangerous activities considered essential to modern life. The Court found in favour of Fletcher and ordered Rylands to pay for all the property damage to the mine. The Court agreed that Rylands had a duty in maintaining the reservoir and of being liable for all harm caused by it with broad scope of liability. This case was a major development in modern law and has influenced many subsequent rulings. The changes in negligence law as a field of torts has in some jurisdictions incorporated the Rylands rule. (Wiki, Shugerman 2008)

1889-05-31 In the mountains east of Pittsburg, a dam holding back a 450-acre artificial recreational lake, one of the largest reservoirs in the world, collapsed unleashing 20 million tons of water into the valley below, completely destroying Johnstown and killing two thousand people. The elite members of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, titans-of-industry including Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon, and Henry Clay Frick (also called the Bosses Club) ignored the dam’s crumbling foundation, warnings of structural problems and leakage. It was one of the most deadly disasters in American history. The public focused its anger on the South Fork Club and its wealthy members, and the media called on the club members to compensate the Johnstown victims. Before the Flood, the court emphasized the “great public interest” of industry’s unfettered development, and dismissed the “mere personal [and] trifling inconveniences” that were caused by industrial damage, and which must “give way to the necessities of a great community.” (Shugerman 2008.)

1890s There was a rise of populists as critics of industry’s excess in the 1890s and ruling leaned towards Fletcher against Rylands (Shugerman 2008.)

1980s- US Supreme Court Judicial elections became increasingly nasty, noisy, and costly (Pozen 2008:265).

1981 John Grisham (born 1955) graduated from law school.

1988 The Willie Horton ad from the 1988 presidential race was considered to be offensive and race-bating.

1981-1991 John Grisham practiced law for nearly in Southaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation.

1983-1990 John Grisham served in the state House of Representatives.

1984-1987 Grisham wrote his first novel A Time to Kill (1987) in his spare time exploring the theme of what would have happened if the girl’s father in a real trial had actually murdered her assailants. “After four years of practicing I got this idea for what I thought was a very compelling courtroom drama – small town, the South, a racial conflict – all seen through the eyes of an attorney who was basically me. A guy who wanted to be a big trial lawyer. That was my dream. I wanted people to call me – people who could pay me for the big case (Grisham in Slater 2009-01-27).”

1991 John Grisham’s novel, The Firm, was one of the biggest hits of 1991, spending 47 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Grisham gave up law and concentrated on writing. All his books have been bestsellers and six have been made into movies. Grisham lives with his wife and two children in Mississippi and Virginia.

1993 “Investor and philanthropist George Soros in 1993 created OSI as a private operating and grantmaking foundation to support his foundations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Those foundations were established, starting in 1984, to help countries make the transition from communism. OSI has expanded the activities of the Soros foundations network to encompass the United States and more than 60 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Each Soros foundation relies on the expertise of boards composed of eminent citizens who determine individual agendas based on local priorities (OSI).”

1999  Tabarrok and Helland investigated “the forces that explain why trial awards differ across the United States. In 23 states judges are elected and in 10 they are elected via partisan elections. Elections have two important effects. First, defendants are often out‐of‐state nonvoters while plaintiffs are typically in‐state voters. [They] predicted, therefore, that elected judges will redistribute wealth from out‐of‐state businesses to in‐state plaintiffs. Second, the realities of campaign financing require judges to seek and accept campaign funding from trial lawyers, who uniformly are interested in larger awards. [They]  hypothesized that these two forces cause awards to be larger in states where the judiciary is elected rather than appointed. [They]  also hypothesized that the demand for redistribution will increase as poverty increases and, thus, that awards will be larger in states with greater poverty. Using a sample of over 7,000 cases across 48 of the 50 states, [they]  found significant evidence in support of these hypotheses ( Tabarrok and Helland 1999-04).”

1994-2000 “By most measures, Grisham was the most successful novelist of the 1990s, when he sold over 60 million books. For seven straight years, 1994-2000, he had the best-selling novel in the country (Grossman 2006 ).”

2004 Swift boating refers to smear tactics used during the US Presidential campaign against candidate John Kerry. Vietnam veterans who served on the US Navy’s swift boats mounted a smear campaign to oppose Kerry who was a swift boat commander in Vietnam but was later allegedly involved in antiwar activities. 

2005-02-18 President Bush signed the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005. This pushed for by business and Republican leaders since President Bush took office in 2001. It targeted consumer-friendly “Plaintiff’ Paradise” courts also termed “judicial hell holes” by corporations being libeled in mutiple-state class action suits (like those in Madison and St. Clare in Illinois and Jefferson County, Texas accused of being pro-consumer). Texas. Those “judicial hell holes,” and others in Alabama and Mississippi, are the favorite venues for some in the plaintiffs’ bar because of consumer-friendly juries and elected judges who routinely certified national classes and apply their state law and/or the laws of other states. Such cases after 2005 ended up in federal court, where corporate defendants tend to do better (O’Brien 2005).

2007 US Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler was publicly reprimanded for a conflict-of-interest violation.

2007 Harvard Law School’s Shugerman’s paper entitled “The Twist of Long Terms: Disasters, Elected Judges, and American Tort Law” was selected for the Yale-Stanford Junior Faculty Forum and the Conference on Empirical Legal Studies, New York University. “The received wisdom is that American judges rejected strict liability through the nineteenth and early twentieth century. To the contrary, a majority of state courts adopted Rylands v. Fletcher and strict liability for hazardous or unnatural activities after a series of flooding tragedies in the late nineteenth century. Federal judges and appointed state judges generally ignored or rejected Rylands, while elected state judges overwhelmingly adopted Rylands or a similar strict liability rule. In moving from fault to strict liability, these judges were essentially responding to increased public fears of industrial or man-made hazards. Elected courts were more populist: They were more likely to adopt strict liability than appointed courts. But surprisingly, state courts elected to longer terms were the most populist. Many of these judges never expected to face another election, but even without direct political pressure, they were the most responsive group of judges in adopting Rylands after the floods. This historical episode illuminates the differences between types of political influence on judges. Judicial elections generally may produce judges more sympathetic to public opinion and more responsive to recent events. Longer terms, shielding judges from opposing political pressure from industry favoring the fault rule, then allowed judges to follow those sympathies or new perceptions of public interest in favor of strict liability. The historical record suggests that judicial elections plus long terms shaped a more responsive bench. A shorthand for these effects are: filtering, role fidelity, and fear and favor. First, these elections created a populist filter: Elections seemed to have filtered out some elite jurists from major urban centers and filtered in more local lawyer-politicians, who would be more connected to public opinion. Second, borrowing from the language used by nineteenth-century advocates of judicial elections and by modern historians, I suggest that the elected judges’ “fidelity” to the people led them to perceive public opinion as an important factor in their decisions. Even with filtering and role fidelity, judges elected to short terms would still face the reality of “fear and favor,” due to special interests and partisan renomination politics. Elected judges with more job security could be more faithful to their role (hence, “role fidelity”) and could follow their own perception of public interest or public opinion, rather than industrial interests. The Article concludes with some priorities for judicial reform based upon this historical episode.”

2008-01 Grisham noted that there was a lot of truth in The Appeal. ”As long as private money is allowed in judicial elections we will see competing interests fight for seats on the bench.” The Appeal was published in the midst of the presidential primaries making it all the more compelling (Memmott 2008).

2008 “In John Grisham’s new novel, Mississippi judges are bought, marketed and sold.  In a crowded courtroom, a jury delivers a multi-million-dollar verdict against a chemical company accused of tainting a town’s water supply with waste. The chemical company retaliates with an appeal, but in order to win, it rig the state Supreme Court. As judicial elections loom, the company hand picks an unsuspecting judge and manipulates him for the job. In The Appeal, Grisham provides a cautionary tale about judicial elections and political campaigns in general. Like the so-called “swift-boating” of political candidates in the last presidential election, Grisham’s characters resort to harsh smear tactics to defeat their opponents. Jacki Lyden spoke with Grisham about his novel, judicial politics and his personal political engagement. In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town’s water supply, causing the worst “cancer cluster” in history. The company appeals to the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will one day either approve the verdict or reverse it ( All Things Considered).”

2008-03-18 Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a progressive citizen advocacy group dedicated to bringing transparency to the electoral system, filed a compliant against Michael Gableman with the Wisconsin Judicial Commission claiming the little-known county judge from Burnett County in northwestern Wisconsin used attack ads that were “highly offensive and deliberately misleading” against Incumbent Justice Louis Butler claiming he found a “loophole” to free a convicted sex offender.” The ad placed a picture of a convicted rapist and Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler on the screen at the same time. Both are black. Butler handled the man’s appeal of his rape conviction when he worked as a public defender.

2008-04 “Challenger Michael Gableman defeated incumbent Justice Louis Butler to win a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Tuesday’s election. The results mean that a sitting Supreme Court justice won’t return to the bench for the first time in 40 years. The interest in the race by special interests is troubling to some, including the unseated justice, WISC-TV reported. Third-party TV ads were a centerpiece of one of the most negative Supreme Court races in state history (Channel 3000).”

2008-10 “The Wisconsin Judicial Commission alleges Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman violated the code of judicial conduct, which prevents judicial candidates from knowingly misrepresenting facts about their opponent. Gableman’s campaign ran an ad in the Milwaukee area before the April election against Incumbent Justice Louis Butler claiming he found a “loophole” to free a convicted sex offender.” Gableman defeated incumbent Justice Louis Butler in the April election. At the time, Gableman was a little-known county judge from northwestern Wisconsin. Citizen Action of Wisconsin, a progressive citizen advocacy group dedicated to bringing transparency to the electoral system, filed the compliant with the Wisconsin Judicial Commission on March 18. One local government watchdog group said fallout from recent Supreme Court campaigns is cause for concern.Channel3000

2008 Soros’ Open Society Institute made donations to dozens of groups seeking to sway the judicial selection process in states from Illinois to North Carolina, as well as funding national groups like Justice at Stake. According to Levy of the right-wing Wall Street Journal Soros and Grisham prefer “merit selection” where in order to keep politics out of judicial appointments, an appellate judicial commission selects a slate of judges from which the governor must choose. Right-wing critics argue that judicial commissions can also become agents of politicization leaning towards to left. Levy cited a 2007 “Harvard study” supporting his own views on an elected judiciary. The 2007 Harvard study mentioned by Levy was actually a paper presented at a Junior Faculty Forum based entirely on a historical analysis of how judges in the 19th century responded to Rylands (1865-). Given the complexity of the 21st century surely there are better sources for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of merit selection versus elected judiciary. Grisham is merely drawing attention to potential areas of corruption and the lack of information available to civil society by using popular culture.

2008-12-08  US Federal authorities in New York arrested Marc S. Dreier in a $100 million fraud scheme, portraying his recent undertakings as a massive hedge fund fraud. The Yale graduate who 1996 founded the Dreier L.L.P. 250-lawyer firm in 2006 allegedly took advantage of the current financial crisis by selling phony debt to hungry hedge funds looking for deals. (Rashbaum and Kowan 2008-12-08). 

2009-01 In a 2008 statewide survey entitled ”Public Attitudes Regarding the Selection of Judges in the State of Washington“ funded in part by Open Society Institute Professors Brody and Lovrich reported that,

“A little over 26% of respondents rated Washington’s current, non-partisan election method of judicial selection as good or very good, while 35% rated it bad or very bad; The largest areas of concern about the current method of selecting judges involved the lack of contested elections, the prominence of judges being appointed to the bench, and the lack of information available to voters to use in judicial elections; A little over 60% of respondents rated a commission system (merit system) of judicial selection to be good or very good, while roughly 16% rated such a selection system as bad or very bad; The aspects of the commission system viewed most positively were: (1) the use of a nominating commission as part of the appointment process; (2) the fact that retention elections provide voters with the opportunity to vote for or against all judges at regular intervals; (3) the fact that all judges may be held accountable by voters without the need for a person to run against a judge in a contested election; and (4) that judges always appear on election ballots at regular intervals; When asked to choose between the current system or a commission system of judicial selection, over 60% indicated a preference for adopting a commission system while about 23% preferred staying with the current system; Over 90% of respondents would support the development of a judicial performance evaluation program in Washington to provide information to voters about candidates in local and statewide judicial elections.”

2009-01-27 Wall Street Journal’s Dan Slater interviewed John Grisham to talk about his 22nd book. Grisham revealed that his favorite story was that of  Marc Dreier. “[I]t’s incredible. Pretending to be someone else? Taking over a conference room? I knew something was wrong when I read about his 120-foot yacht. When you’ve got a yacht that big you’re living like a billionaire. And you can’t do that as a New York lawyer. I don’t care how big your firm is.” Grisham explained that even as a writer of fiction that he could not improve on the real life stories of Dreier and Madoff. They have already been covered too much by the media. “The sushi restaurant (Dreier) owned? All the cars? The secretaries making $200,000 a year? It’s too much. When I see stuff like that my imagination just goes into overdrive (Grisham interviewed by Slater 2009-01-27).”

Notes
1. Randy Gordon’s PhD dissertation (2008) examined the impact of literary works on rehumanizing law and democracy. Gordon reiterated the argument that there “is a direct and demonstrable connection between publication of The Jungle and adoption” of the 1906 Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drugs Act (Gordon 2008:41). Historian James Harvey Young (1981) observed that two key political figures, James R. Garfield and Senator Alfred J. Beveridge presented President Theodore Roosevelt with Sinclair’s novel. Gordon also added that other landmark legislation in the meat packing industry book decades to be adopted. President, John F. Kennedy asked his Scientific Advisory Committee to investigate Carson’s claims and they largely vindicated Carson’s work (1963-05) particularly in the report’s condemnation of indiscriminate pesticide use and call for additional research into potential health (Gordon 2008:52).

2. Author and journalist Upton Sinclair’s influential novel entitled The Jungle (1906) about the corruption of the American meatpacking industry is an example of how fiction portrayed social reality and is an early example of is one of the finest examples of the “muckraking” tradition begun by journalists. In this novel Sinclair contrasted the lives of the “have-nots” and “haves” and deplored American “wage slavery”. Sinclair’s novel was first published in the left-wing newspaper The Appeal to Reason.

3. “Law is institutional normative order (MacCormick 2007).”

4. “The rhetoric of scientific objectivity, pressed too hard and taken too seriously, has led us to people like B.F. Skinner on the one hand and like Althusser on the other—two equally pointless fantasies, both produced by the attempt to be ‘scientific’ about our moral and political lives (Rorty 1996:573, 585).”

5. In his influential article on law’s autonomy by Judge Posner (1987) argued that law had been treated historically in practice and as a matter of training as if it were an autonomous discipline (Posner 1987:761 in Gordon 2008:17). 

6. The concept of “Narrative” as developed by Gordon’s in his literature review has a common thread of a “story,” a relational and temporal ordering of human events that culminates in “closure.” His sources include definitions of narrative as: “a story of events arranged in time sequence and offering some sort of meaning (Papke and McManus 1999:449)”; “the organization of material in a chronologically sequential order and the focusing of the content into a single coherent story . . . its arrangement is descriptive rather than analytical and . . . its central focus is on man not circumstances (Stone 1979:3)”; “first a ‘selective appropriation of past events and characters;’ second, a temporal ordering that presents these events with a beginning, a middle and an end; and third, an overarching structure that contextualizes these events as part of an opposition or struggle (97)”; “a recognizable discourse or operation . . . that . . . can be abstracted from [its] medium [of expression] . . . as in the plot summary (Clawson 1998)”; a story (99); “a metacode, a human universal on the basis of which transcultural messages about the nature of a shared reality can be transmitted (100).”

Webliography and Bibliography

2008-01-27. “Grisham’s ‘Appeal’ Tackles Down-and-Dirty Politics. “ All Things Considered. 

Agence France-Presse. 2008-01-09 “Author John Grisham has no shortage of book ideas.” Madrid. 

Asimow, Michael. “Analyse This! John Grisham’s Lawyers from a Megafirm.” Picturing Justice. University of San Francisco. 

Brody, David; Lovrich, Nicholas. 2009-01. “Public Attitudes Regarding the Selection of Judges in the State of Washington: Results of a Statewide Survey 2008.” American Judicatur Society and Washington State Judicial Selection Coalition. 

98 Brooks, supra note 91, at 1.

Clawson, Mark A. 1998. “Telling Stories: Romance and Dissonance in Progressive Legal Narratives.” 22 Legal Studies F. 353, 364 (citing and partially quoting Ewick, Patricia; Silbey, Susan S. 1995. “Subversive Stories and Hegemonic Tales: Towards a Sociology of Narrative.” 29 Literature and Sociology Review. 197, 200.

Gordon, Randy. 2008. “Rehumanizing Law: a Narrative Theory of Law and Democracy.” Ph.D., Law. The University of Edinburgh. 2008.

Grossman, Lev. 2006-10-09. “Grisham’s New Pitch.” Time.

Levy, Collin. 2008-03-20. “Grisham’s Judicial Appeal.” Wall Street Journal. 

Hamilton, Kevin J. 2008-01-29. “New side to John Grisham: storytelling of substance.”  The Seattle Times. (Hamilton 2008)

MacCormick, Neil. 2007. Institutions of Law: an Essay in Legal Theory.

Memmott, Carl.  2008-01-28. “Grisham’s ‘Appeal’ rules harshly on bought election.” USA Today. 

O’Brien, Tim. 2005-03-21. “New Jersey No ‘Judicial Hell Hole’: State judiciary’s restraints may spare it full impact of Class Action Fairness Act.” New Jersey Law Journal. CLXXIX:12. 

Papke, David Ray; McManus, Kathleen H. 1999. “Narrative and the Appellate Opinion.” 23 Legal Studies. F. 449, 449.

Patrick, Bethanne. 2008-01. “Justice Denied.” Washington Post. 

Posner, Richard A. 1987. “The Decline of Law and an Autonomous Discipline: 1962-1987.” 100 Harvard Law Review. 761. 

Pozen, David. 2008. “The Irony of Judicial Elections.” 108 Columbia Law Review.

Rashbaum, William K; Cowan, Alison Leigh. 2008-12-08. “Lawyer Is Accused in Massive Hedge Fund Fraud.” New York Times. 

Rorty, Richard. 1996. “Solidarity or Objectivity.” in Cahoone, Lawrence. Ed. 1996. From Modernism to Postmodernism. 573, 585.

Slater, Dan. 2009-01-27 A Law Blog Q&A With John Grisham. Wall Street Journal. 

Stone, Lawrence. 1979. “The Revival of Narrative: Reflections on a New Old History.” 85 Past and Present. 3, 3.

Shugerman, Jed H. 2008. “The Twist of Long Terms: Disasters, Elected Judges, and American Tort Law.” Harvard Law School.

99 Van Dunne, supra note 92, at 463.

100 White, supra note 90, at 6.

Young, James Harvey. 1981-06.“The Long Struggle for the 1906 Law.” FDA Consumer.

Ach! After a couple months of sluggishly trying to get back into the habit of blogging, and an even longer diversion from SecondLife, I’m finally posting a new Viral Video Wednesday meme. Embarrassingly pathetic show on my part given I started VVW, but I’m back on task… finally.

And since it took me awhile to get back into the swing of reading, too, I’m struggling to catch up on books. With a goal of 75 books by December 31st (same as last year, but unmet), I figured out I need to finish 6 books a month which is an average of 1 and a half a week, and by the middle of February, when I committed to this goal, I had only finished 3 books. To be on track, I should have finished 14 books now, and I’m currently reading book 14, The Appeal by John Grisham, and expect to finish it this evening.

However, reading like a fiend and not taking a lot of time exploring the realms of the YouTube for VVW offerings. Alas, I am in the dark for what is popular videos at the moment. So I figured the best way to resolve this issue AND be able to post what has always been my favorite meme (I have so much fun planning the posts and finding the vids!) is my favorite vids of YouTube’s most-viewed.

So here we go!

I happened to catch this first one on the “Featured Video” section. With a little over 75,000 views, it’s not a “top viewed video” but it’s fun to watch. It’s midly obnoxious, but apparently the girl in it has done that on purpose, mocking an even more obnoxious video “kittens inspired kittens“. And now, Cats! inspired by Cats!:

With nearly 830,000 views, YouTube lists Dirty Hotel Stories with Nadine Velazquez as the most viewed video today. This vid brings you …what else? Truly dirty stories of real-life experiences of hotel stays. A sultry hostess in a black neglige and pearls relays these tales (relax, it’s brought to you by <a href=”http://www.tripadvisor.com/ target=”_blank” TripAdvisor.Com:

The following video proves that the “hot air” in government doesn’t just issue from politician’s mouths… With nearly 335,000 views, this clip is a gas:

Bo Burnham gives a brief tutorial with eight steps on how to be a YouTube star. With nearly 260,000 views today, it’s a funny look at the lengths some vloggers go to to become popular.

Aussie vlogger Natalie Tyler Tran of CommunityChannel has entertained nearly 144,000 viewers today exposing herself as that person in the house who puts back all-but-the-last-dribble empty container back in the fridge. Quite adorable, she’s fun to watch and with her accent she’s a pleasure to listen to:

Sheeba the Cat and her pet man play a game of Risk in the next video. Sheeba, a funnel-headed black cat, exhasperates her man (who alerts her to the fact that he called in sick to work to entertain her) by making illegal moves and trying to eat the game pieces. The clincher to this funny video is when he asks her if she’s ready to play TWISTER. With nearly 500,000 views this week, Cat Plays Risk by Daneboe:

As many of you know, I am a fan of FRED, and last month Fred was a guest star on Nickelodeon’s iCarly. I actually cancelled an appointment to be able to stay home and watch the episode… lol. I love the show anyway and watch it with my kids, but we definitely couldn’t miss the double… or, quadruple? pleasure of Fred in a faux-iFight with Freddie, iCarly’s director and producer, not to mention ardent-worshipper of Carly and antagonist to iCarly’s co-host Sam. With over 5 million views in a moth:

And now, one of YouTube’s most watched videos of all time, nearly 85 million views, Achmed the Dead Terrorist. Creator and comedian Jeff Dunham has been one of my favorite comedians since I first saw his act on HBO about twenty years ago, when he, Peanut (a woozle) and Jose Jalepeno… on a stick… made both my mother and I laugh, a rare teenage-parent event.

And NOW… it’s your turn! What are your favorite videos? Post links in the comments or, better yet, blog them and join the VVW meme!

Wow! What a week of reading! I have been reading more or less NON STOP all week, stopping only to write the reviews and blog or when life called me away, and even then I had my book in my coat pocket. I polished off four books this past week, so today I am kicking back and watching movies

Books read this week:
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson ~ Of the four books I’ve read this past week, I have to say I enjoyed Miss Pettigrew the most.

Yesterday, the kids and I went to the library for their monthly family movie, “Beverly Hills Chihauhau.” Saturated with the “aww factor,” which was supplied by toy dogs in Italian Leather and Pepto-pink cashmere sweaters. It’s definitely an adorable movie and worth seeing again

And yesterday evening brought our Netflix movies in the mail, one of which was disc 1 of Dexter season 2 \O/ Woo-Hoo! \O/ . Poor Dexter struggles with an identity crisis after finding out his adopted father and mentor, Harry, lied to him about crucial information. Then, divers discover his body-dumping ground. Rita thinks he’s an addict and tells him he either goes to NA or it’s over. And Doakes, Dexter’s nemesis, tails him wherever he goes leaving Dexter the Dark Avenger all Jekyll and no Hyde. I can’t wait for disc 2!

For Maggie’s Netflix movie, The Forbidden Kingdom was a fun fantasy movie about a western teen boy with a fascination for martial arts movies who is magically whisked away to a mystical Middle Kingdom China. While I could have lived without Jason, the movie stars both Jet Li and Jackie Chan as Kung Fu masters. There is even a rare sight in this movie, Jet Li ACTUALLY throws his head back in a hearty laugh!

For my middle daughter, Penelope is the romantic tale of title character Penelope, who had the misfortune of being the victim of an old family curse that gave her the nose and ears of a pig. Penelope has to learn that being happy with who you are is more important than what others think of you. As an added bonus, Penelope’s love interest is played by James McAvoy :-p

And finally, for my oldest daughter, The Crow. She thinks the Crow is cool, and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the movie.

Books on the menu for the coming week are:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Appeal by John Grisham
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
Derailed by James Siegel

If I actually manage to get through all those in the coming week, which I doubt, I’ll start The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

So, what are your plans for the coming week?

I used to love John Grisham, he could do no wrong.  From the “The Pelican Brief” (which I’ve read at least seven times), to bawling while finishing “The Chamber,” to the more intense page turners “The Firm” and “A Time to Kill” – they were all wonderful.  I used to be able to pick up the latest Grisham novel and know I was in for a good time.

I had been looking forward to yesterday for awhile.  Not only was I taking the train to meet my mom and sister half-way for a shopping spree (someone has to support this dismal economy!), but I knew I would have quality train time to finish a couple books without distraction. Grisham’s legal thriller “The Appeal” from 2008 was on the top of my list.

Taking place in Bowmore, Mississippi, a sad little town that mammoth company Krane Pharmaceuticals has turned into “Cancer County, USA,” it’s a simple case of good vs. evil, David vs. Goliath.  The novel opens with a huge verdict of $41MM awarded to a woman whose son and husband have both died as a direct result of the poison from Krane that ended up in the water system.

From here, the book goes horribly wrong.

Spinning off in tangents – religion, supreme court, bought politicians, local banks and bankruptcy, class action suits, greedy CEOs – while I won’t deny all the tangents somehow link back to the original verdict, there is so much going on that as the reader, it’s impossible to focus on the bigger picture or get attached and relate to any of the characters.

"The Appeal" - already delegated to my bag of books to donate, unworthy of taking up space on my book shelves

And the ending… wow.  You hope for some character growth, and while it’s probable, the book ends with quite a few threads left hanging.  Spoiler alert: I may be unrealistic, but I like to see karma come back in some form.  I was hoping against hope the evil CEO and his co-conspirators aboard his mega-yacht in the last chapter would be the victims of some sort of boat explosion/lightning strike/iceburg hitting event, but it was not meant to be.

But please, by all means if you feel differently let me know.  Am I jaded? Expecting too much of Grisham?  Too naive to appreciate a book with a disappointing ending?

My advice: If you’re looking for a big-business trial book, try Grisham’s old school (1997) “The Runaway Jury,” in which a big tobacco company is taken to trial by a grieving widow.  I read this book a decade ago and still remember the plot and characters.  ”The Appeal,” on the other hand, is about to be forgotten as soon as this post is published!

• Title: The Appeal
• Author: John Grisham
• Publisher: Doubleday
• NovelWhore’s Grade: D

Buku yang memuncaki daftar bestseller harian New York Times tak selalu menjadi primadona di dalam negeri. Namun daftar ini tetap menjadi acuan penerbit Indonesia memilih buku-buku terbarunya.

Berikut ini daftar buku laris NY Times di pengujung Januari 2008:

FIKSI

Edisi hardcover

1. PLUM SPOOKY, by Janet Evanovich
2. THE HOST, by Stephenie Meyer
3. BLACK OPS, by W. E.B. Griffin
4. SCARPETTA, by Patricia Cornwell
5. THE STORY OF EDGAR SAWTELLE, by David Wroblewski

Edisi paperback trade

1. THE SHACK, by William P. Young
2. SUNDAYS AT TIFFANY’S, by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
3. A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, by Khaled Hosseini
4. REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, by Richard Yates
5. STILL ALICE, by Lisa Genova

Edisi paperback mass-market

1. THE APPEAL, by John Grisham
2. MARRIED IN SEATTLE, by Debbie Macomber
3. PLUM LUCKY, by Janet Evanovich
4. SHADOW MUSIC, by Julie Garwood
5. THE FIRST PATIENT, by Michael Palmer

NONFIKSI
Edisi hardcover

1. OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell
2. GUILTY, by Ann Coulter
3. DEWEY, by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter
4. AMERICAN LION, by Jon Meacham
5. TOO FAT TO FISH, by Artie Lange with Anthony Bozza

Edisi Paperback

1. MARLEY & ME, by John Grogan
2. THREE CUPS OF TEA, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
3. DREAMS FROM MY FATHER, by Barack Obama
4. THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, by Barack Obama
5. TEAM OF RIVALS, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

note: semua gambar cover buku dikutip dari situs NY Times.

I’d love to be able to tell you that this is a ride report as well as a brief report of a very enjoyable weekend away, but the bike stayed firmly in the garage while Sue and I travelled to York by car.

Over the past few years we have traditionally had a few days away in North Wales between Christmas and New Year, but this year we both fancied a change and after some research on the interweb, Sue found a good deal at the Marriott Hotel in York and booked it through Superbreak.

The hotel deservedly has 4 stars, and offers newly refurbished leisure facilities overlooking York racecourse, and is a mere 5 minutes drive from the city walls. We took our swimming things, although it turned out that we didn’t use them, but the pool looked inviting each time we passed it o the way to somewhere else.

Our weekend  started with a laid-back drive on Saturday morning to York that included a stop over at Ferrybridge Motorway Services. The coffee there was OK, if a little expensive, but this merely set the tone for the weekend. Our first stop in York itself was the National Railway Museum.

I have not been to the NRM for very many years and I was blown away with the place. We spent four hours there and only saw about half of it. I would have stayed longer, but Sue was justifiably tired and after I had a bit of a grump, I agreed that we had to go back again sometime soon – so maybe there will be a ride report about this during 2009?

Quite a lot of our time there was spent in the Great Hall where most of the exhibits are British steam era locomotives, although I also enjoyed seeing the gigantic steam locomotive that had been built in the UK for Chinese railways and had been repatriated after a lifetime’s service. I also loved the Japanese Shinkansen Bullet train.  That’s not to say that I didn’t hover for a while around Lode Star, the last remaining member of the Great Western Class. We also spent some time with Ellerman Line, the Southern Bullied pacific locomotive that has been cut away to show how a steam engine worked. I must admit to feeling sad at this act of butchery, for if any locomotive there is effectively lost to any future restoration, it has to be this one.

I also remember reading a very thoughtful article in one of railway magazines a while ago that explored the dilemma between preservation of the history and originality of these historic engines against the desire of enthusiasts and the public to see, hear and smell steam locomotives in operation. The museum and its staff have a difficult task in finding that balance and I believe that they have done this very well in deciding that some of its charges are too valuable to be restored and used, while others, such City of Truro and Leander should be seen in action.

However, the undisputed highlight of our visit to the NRM for both Sue and I was the area of the museum known as the Warehouse.

This area is being used to show a large number of items in the museum’s collection that would otherwise be stored somewhere inaccessible to the public. There were racks, pallets and piles of small to medium sized objects that ranged from stained glass window panels to wheelchairs, from models of locos and ships to station signs. It is an Aladdin’s cave of goodies with discoveries and memories at every turn. I remember seeing some of those model ships and locos in station booking halls and waiting rooms as a child.

We were also able to watch a demonstration of traditional block signalling on a model that used to be used to teach signalmen that is now in the Warehouse area.

I also enjoyed the exhibition about the Flying Scotsman. This famous brand name is actually three different things, the route, the train and locomotive . We saw the real loco, or at least its frames, in the museum’s workshop undergoing major restoration. However, the exhibition was also about the LNER and Eastern Region’s named train as well.

We also spent some time watching the museum’s other O-gauge model railway layout in action before we decided to head for the hotel and check in.

At the hotel, we were allocated Room 164, a first floor room at the end of a very long corridor. This was not really a problem, though, and when I realised that our room was very quiet, the walk became much more worth while. Indeed, an encounter with a young family along that corridor gave Sue and I a big smile that lasted for most of the weekend when a young girl, who could only have been four or five years old danced past us singing “I’m a mulberry bush”.

OK, it doesn’t look much in print on the screen, but it tickled us.

After walking round the museum, we were both tired, so decided to sleep for an hour or so on the massive, and very comfortable bed in our room. This became something of a theme of our weekend and there is no doubt that we used our time away to catch up on some of the sleep that we had been lacking during the very busy month that has just passed.

Dinner in the hotel was also included in our Superbreak package deal for our first night there and we had booked our table for 7pm. After a pre-dinner drink (Magers Cider), we arrived at the restaurant  at the appointed hour and were shown to a lovely table in a corner, next to the window overlooking the hotel’s expansive gardens. We splashed out on a bottle of wine to accompany our three course meal. Both Sue and I agreed that our meals were outstanding, both from the quality of the food itself to the friendly and professional service. I commented at one point to Sue that I would be very good at being seriously rich!

During our meal we watched five rabbits enjoying their own evening meal on the floodlit lawn.

After dinner, we retired to our room where I started to read a book, “The Appeal” by John Grisham. I am a real fan of John Grisham’s writing and read two thirds of the book in one go before finally settling down to sleep in the early hours.

Sunday saw a sumptuous breakfast in the hotel of fruit and yoghurt followed by egg, bacon, sausage, hash brown, beans and mushrooms. This set us up for the day and we set out toward Pickering and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

In Part 2, I’ll write about our visit to the railway, mention another food highlight of our trip and introduce you to a fantastic Italian restaurant in York.

Ride Safe
Dave

Every year, about a week from Christmas.  I would sit down and write my Christmas Wish List.  It’s just a wish list because, there’s no way in hell am I gonna get them.

Why?

Simple, I can’t afford them ( although 1 or two I might be able to..) and some is definitely out of my control.

And so here’s my list for this year.  And I do sometimes pray that Santa is real.

1.) Peace of mind, and financial security for my wife, children and parents and my brothers - Hey you can’t beat that right?  This is the only thing that’s always on my list and always my number 1 wish. My love ones comes first no matter what!  ALWAYS

2.) An original Converse All-Star shoe.  You know “Chucks”.  I have been wanting to own both high and low tops for almost two years now.  Black preferably, because they go with anything.

3.) The Appeal by John Grisham – I’m a big Grisham fan. One of my dreams is to own all of his books in Hardcover.  The Appeal is his latest so far!  The Associate would come out next year.

4.) Playing for Pizza by John Grisham – Mr. Grisham’s 2nd Novella. As I said:  “I love his work.”

5.) The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis – Got interested with it after I saw the first movie adaptation.  Now I’m hooked.

6.)  Superman Ultimate Collection – Superman Films at it’s best.  Christopher Reeves’ Movie legacy.  And of course it includes “Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut. ‘Nuff said.

7.)  Nokia N96 Smart Phone – The most smartest phone in the market (well, at least that’s what I think.) truly optimized for video and TV. With a large 2.8″ screen, 16 gigabytes of internal memory and support for high-quality videos in a wide range of formats.

8.)Play Station Portable: Slim and Lite – Everybody I know owns one of these babies.  So versatile and oh so beautiful and handy.  No more boring idle time!

9.) Home Theater System – I am foremost a movie fan.  I discovered movies first before I was into books, and before I wrote blogs;  And there’s nothing like taking a load off, with some hot buttered popcorn and a nice  tall glass of Coca-cola and your favorite movie playing in the comfort of your own home.  Ah….the life!

10.) The most lucrative of all $1,000,000,000.00.   With this amount I can buy all that I want, give Financial Security to all the people I love and have a nice sum to donate to charities and a few more to live on the beach forever!

So that’s it folks!  My list for 2008.  How about you?  What’s on your wish list this year?

As I was browsing books at a Hudson News in the Portland, Oregon airport terminal, I smiled to myself because it was the first time that I had ever bought an “airport book” to read while traveling in an actual airport. Don’t get me wrong, I have read many such books. They are fairly short, easily digestible, and have brisk enough pacing that every cover editor feels the obligation to bandy around the workhorse clichè “page-turner.” There was a particularly fruitful stretch when I was between the ages of 11 to 14 where I must have read upwards of 600 of them; Robin Cook and Michael Crichton (may he rest in peace, that’s a different post altogether) scientific thrillers, Tom Clancy military thrillers, Ian Fleming and Clive Cussler action-adventure novels. Then there were the mysteries. I read all of the current writers, Janet Evanovitch, J.A. Jance, Patricia Cornwell, Lilian Jackson Braun, Carolyn Hart. I read all of the old series: Nero Wolfe, Hercule Poirot, Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe. Then I discovered the magic of British mysteries: G.K. Chesterson, Agatha Christie, P.D. James…

I just drifted completely off track. The point I want to make is that I have read more than a few legal thrillers in my day. I have even read more than a few written by John Grisham.And that is the reason why I am so puzzled by his latest offering, The Appeal. The narrative of, as you might guess, an appeal from original verdict to supreme court decision, is certainly compelling, and several times I thought to myself, “Wow! That storyline could be a whole book on its own.” And that is perhaps why the work as a whole does not work. It reads like the outline that John Grisham writes for himself before he goes about his work focusing the narrative and fleshing out all of the details.

I have always thought that his strength as a writer has been anchoring his clever legal fictions in extremely authentic and relatable protagonists. Who could forget such memorable narrators as Rudy Baylor, such ruthless opponents as Rankin Fitch, or such nebulous enigmas as Marlee? Indeed, it is this reason why I enjoyed Bleachers so much. I thought it was an opportunity for John Grisham to dispense with the contrivances of his thrillers and just write characters.

The Appeal holds no such characters. Many characters feel half-written, and I could imagine any number of them being the protagonists of their own novel. Instead they, like the attenition of the reader, are abandoned and never found again.

4/10

Kallidaikurichi  is a small town (Latitude: 8.7 N, Longitude: 77.47 E, Altitude: MSL+75Mtrs/249Ft). I will take you through a tour of Kallidaikurichi, its present and distant past – historical and cultural aspects. 

Like any Indian rural town, this town too is steeped in tradition and has a rich heritage. It is located on the right bank of river Thamiraparni, in Tirunelveli District of Tamilnadu, a southern state of India, struggling to hold on to its past glories. Local tongue is Tamil. Here the modern co-exist peacefully with the bullock-carts and rickshaws of yester years.

 This  town in the southern  Tamilnadu is located 5 Kms from Ambasamudram and  about 70 kms north of  Kanyakumari (Cape Comerin). Tirunelveli and Palayamkottai are two towns (twin towns) nearby, about 35 kms away. Indian Railways touch Kallidaikurichi. Throu Tirunelveli to Kollam route

Paddy is the main crop here. Other crops are groundnut (peanuts), chilies (red pepper) and cotton, though these are seen less frequently now-a-days. Like most parts of Tamilnadu, the climate here too is rather hot, except during the rainy season of November/December months.

Kallidaikurichi, endowed with a rich heritage, is dotted with many ancient Hindu Shrines. These are of ancient temple architecture style having high-rise Gopurams (ornamental gateways of temples) with intricate sculptures, heralding the past glory of this region. Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar, the Great carnatic composer, whose songs abound with geographic and iconographic references, sings of the curative properties of the river Thamiraparani. To him, The Goddess at Tirunelveli, is Hima-saila-sutaa (daughter of the mountain Hima), and also suddha Tamraparni tata sthitaa while Vishnu in Kallidaikurichi, is bhangahara Tamraparni tirastha.

This place, predominantly a Brahmin stronghold of the past, was a place of learning and Music. Many scholars and musicians were born here. However, vast changes in the social structure have taken its toll.  One of the educational institutions here is established about 160 years back as George English School, renamed Thilak Vidyalaya after independence of India. 

The village of Kallidai, was originally called Silasalipuram, and is mentioned in the 5000 year old Matsya Purana, a holy book from India. According to the 13th Chapter of the Matsya Purana, the village was in a kingdom ruled by a great devotee of Lord Krishna, called Vishnudharma. The king had conducted many sacrifices and performed penance and charity in the village of Silasalipuram. Once, when he was performing a huge ashwamedha sacrifice in this village, he was visited by Lord Brahma, his sons, the four Kumaras, and Lord Shiva who was with his friend, Kubera. They were accompanied by the denizens of the heavenly planets, who were led by Lord Indra. The rishis and saints also arrived and were led by Agastya, Gautama and Kapila.At that time, two of Lord Krishna’s associated, Sunanda and Nanda, prayed to the Lord to make His appearance at the village. Summoned by his devotees, Lord Vishnu arrived there and was worshipped with great reverence by Vishnudharma. After this, Brahma, Shiva, Indra, Kubera, the rishis and all the demigods offered their worship to Lord Vishnu. At that time, Kubera, prayed to Lord Vishnu to permanently reside in the village. The utensils that had been used in the sacrifice then turned miraculously into a Deity form of Lord Vishnu in his boar incarnation. The Deity was luminous and in a seated form, holding the conch and the discus. On his left lap, Goddess Lakshmi was seated, and hence the Deity was called Lakshmi Varaha. The main Deity (called the mula murti)  also had supplementary Deities (called the utsava orsri murti), who were called Lakshmipati. The utsava murti is usually taken out of the temple in processions and festivals, while the mula murti never leaves the temple. Kubera then installed the Lakshmi Varaha deity and showered his blessings on Vishnudharma, who continued to worship the Lord at the village. The Matsya Purana also mentions that Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma and others adorned themselves with the `Y’ shaped vaishnava marking called the urdhvapundra on their foreheads and offered their worship to the Deity of Lakshmi Varaha. The narration of Silasalipuram (Kallidai) and the glories of Lakshmi Varaha were recited by Markandeya Rishi in the Matsya Purana.  The famous classical composer Muthuswami Dikshitar had composed a  song in praise of the Deity, which is still sung by the villagers. This is the Puranic Story of The Main Deity Of Kallidai. At The Same time around, Another Temple Dedicated To Lord Vishnu Is called Kosakkudi Perumal Came Up in the Eastern Region of the place. 

I decided to review John Grisham’s The Appeal last week, but I’m so glad I did because yesterday, this book just got a whole lot more timely.

WIthout giving too much away, The Appeal deals with the question of whether at some point (or perhaps even now), special interest groups will be able to buy positions on the state supreme courts and beyond.

I’ll admit that I haven’t read a lot of Grisham before and I realized while reading The Appeal that I’m not a huge fan of his style. But his knowledge of the law and the legal system is clear and that I can appreciate.

However, the most interesting aspect, I think for us, is the candidate that the special interest groups choose to for the a judgeship in the Supreme Court of Mississippi. The candidate is an unknown. A young attorney with little experience. No skeletons in his closet. First marriage. No time on the bench, so no controversial decisions made. A family man.

And, since no one knows the man, when his candidacy is announced at the last minute, the other “party” has no way to respond. Nothing has been prepared. Nothing is known about the man.

Now, when I switched on the TV yesterday and saw Sarah Palin announced as McCain’s running partner, I immediately thought of The Appeal. Good work, Grisham. I think you may be psychic.

On a more writerly note, while the premise was interest and the book was, of course, high concept, the characters fell flat. Instead of real people, they felt like characters. There were good guys, bad guys, and nothing in between.

I tend toward the old adage, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Grisham apparently does not. His villains felt like they were straight out of Scooby Doo, being bad for the sake of being bad.

Also the trigger that set the story in motion was basically the plot of Erin Brockovich. And I’m sure he chose water contamination because it is reprehensible without question and kept with the black-and-white theme he was going for, it left the story feeling less fresh.

Finally, the third person omniscient narrative style distanced me. I’m not sure if all his books use this POV, but it wasn’t my cup of tea.

So, what I’m telling you is this: Read the book for the political theories. Read it to learn about class action suits. Read it to gain insight as to why Palin was chosen as McCain’s running partner. But, don’t read it if you’re look for deep characters or writing that makes your hair stand on end.

Overall though, a worthwhile read.

Status: Sent queries today. I have 15 out in the world now with 6 requests. I sent about 7 today. I thought it was time to get it out more. After all there are so many fabulous agents to query! Next week, I think I’ll sent 3 or so more, then pause to wait for answers. As I continue the submission process, prayers and positive thinking are much appreciated!

Allie tagged me, so here I go!

Rules:
I am going to list three categories of books: 5 MUST Read Books, 5 Books on Your Nightstand, and 5 Look For These Soon. Anyone I tag should put these same lists on their blog but SUBTRACT one book from each list and ADD one of their own. (I’ve highlighted my additions) Then they should tag at least 5 more bloggers. It will be fun to see how the lists change as it goes around the blogosphere. Please come back to this post and leave a comment so I can see how the lists are changing as they go around the blogosphere!

(Since this is Book Buzz…please keep your lists to titles released in 2007-2009.)

5 MUST Read Books:
It Only Takes A Moment by Mary Jane Clark
A Mile in My Flip-Flops by Melody Carlson
Cast in Stone by Kerry A. Jones
Yellow Moon by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

5 Books on the Nightstand:
Sun Kissed by Catherine Anderson
Nightswimming by Rebecca James
Pleasure by Eric Jerome Dickey
From Harvey River by Lorna Goodison
The Appeal by John Grisham

5 Look For These Soon:
Wanted by Shelley Shephard Gray
Just One of the Guys by Kristan Higgins
After the Fire: A True Story of Friendship and Survival by Robin Gaby Fisher
Midnight: A Gangster Love Story by Sister Souljah
Fairy Lust by Cyn Balog

Now…I’ll tag Creative A, Jay, Puttin’ Words on Paper, and Georgie B!

Shoot, this has me itching to visit the bookstore and I have so much work to do!

Status: It’s all coming together. Scott is whipping up fabulous cover art and he and I are both super excited about it. The package is going out today. Can you believe it? Ok, now let’s all hold our breath at once. Great, thanks.

Today, I’m so pleased to have Cyn Balog chat with us. She’s the author of the forthcoming Fairy Lust (Delacorte, 2009). She’s a fellow frequenter of both the Blue Boards and Absolute Write, so be sure to support her win her book hits the shelves. To whet your appetite, here’s a bit about her novel:

               Morgan Sparks has always known that she and her boyfriend, Cam, are made for each other. They’re next-door neighbors and have been friends practically since birth. They tell each other everything, and are totally hot for each other.
            But suddenly, a week before their joint Sweet Sixteen party, Cam starts acting distant. His mysterious and awkward cousin, Pip, comes to stay with the family. Finally Pip confesses to Morgan what’s going on: Cam is a fairy. No, seriously, a fairy. Because Cam was a sickly baby, the fairies came to Earth the night he was born and switched him with Pip, a healthy human boy. Nobody expected Cam to live, and nobody expected his biological brother, raised in the fairy world and heir to the fairy throne, to die. But now the fairies want Cam back to take his rightful place as Fairy King.
            There’s no way Morgan is going to let this happen. As Cam begins to physically change, Morgan becomes determined to fool the fairies so that she and Cam can stay together forever. Soon she has to decide once and for all whether their love can weather an uncertain future.

Can’t wait to get my hands on this one!

And without further ado…

Hi Cyn! Thanks for doing this. This is such an exciting time for you and I’m excited to get to have you on Fumbling with Fiction! As I understand it, Fairy Lust is your debut novel, can you give us a little statistical rundown on how long it took you to get to this point? How many books? How many rejections? How many days, months, or years?

I knew I wanted to be a writer very young– almost from the moment I learned to write.  However when I got to college I was really daunted by the statistics about how improbable it is to make a living off of writing fiction, so I actually attempted to give it up to have a “real” career in marketing– and succeeded for almost 15 years.  But after awhile I couldn’t ignore it anymore, so I wrote my first book, which landed me an agent fairly easily.  It didn’t sell, but eventually I began to work on another idea– Fairy Lust, which sold.  So I guess you can say the journey has been pretty long– it’s been decades since I first decided I wanted to be a writer!
 
 
Which “Call” thrilled you more? The call in which you landed an agent or the call in which you landed your book deal? Can you describe to us what it felt like?

Definitely the call where I got my book deal!  It came completely out of the blue!  My book had been on submission for six weeks, and I was under the impression that if my book was going to sell well, the second my agent unleashed it upon the publishing world, offers were going to come in.  Didn’t happen.  I had just resigned myself to picking up a new idea and starting over, as painful as that was, because ANOTHER one of my books was going to be shelved.  And then suddenly, I got a call from my agent.  She told me that Delacorte loved it.  I thought, “Well, that’s good news, so now they need to go through meetings and a bunch of other hoops, and then maybe it will sell . . .” and that’s when she told me they’d offered a pre-empt.  I was at work and started screaming and crying, which is, of course, a very professional thing to do.
 
 
 
I love seeing authors succeed like that! Throughout your journey as a writer, what resources have you found most valuable to your success? Websites? Books? Conferences?

Since I started writing, I don’t think I have made it through a day without checking Verla’s boards, the Absolute Write Boards, and my LiveJournal.  I have so many writer friends on all those sites that “get it”, more than any of my family or friends, who still seem to think that since I write YA, I must be best friends with the only other YA writers out there, J.K. Rowling and Stephenie Meyer.  The writers I have met online are so supportive and encouraging, I love sharing my problems and successes with all of them because they know what I’m going through.  Two of my best friends, Mandy Hubbard (Prada & Prejudice, Razorbill, 2009), and Brooke Taylor (Undone, Walker, 2008), were met online years ago, before any of us had agents or book contracts . . . I honestly don’t think FAIRY LUST would exist without them and the online community of writers. 
 

I love how you talk about making your “writer friends” online and elsewhere. I’m just starting to make some similar bonds and I think it would be so neat to see some of these aspiring writers succeed and I value their support already. Thanks for reminding us how important those relationships are. On your blog, you have something called the “ABCs of Writing.” Can you tell us a little bit about what that entails?

Mandy Hubbard lives on the West Coast and I live on the East Coast, and so we email back and forth constantly.  We both love the Greens’ Brotherhood vlog series, and wanted to learn how to vlog.  So we decided that we would do a really goofy vlog series, all about our experiences as writers.  We started with a topic beginning with the letter A, and we alternate every couple of weeks.  Mandy did a really cute one for the letter “C” because it was right after she got “The Call” that Prada & Prejudice was going to be published.  We don’t do anything flashy because we’re complete amateurs, we’re just acting goofy, trying to have fun.  But maybe somewhere, buried in there, might be some helpful advice for aspiring writers.
 

Too funny! Can you tell us a little about your writing schedule and where you do most of your writing?

I have a full-time job which requires me to be active (I manage the events for fitness magazines) so in between dealing with my job schedule, working out, and my family (I have a toddler) . . . I get maybe 19 minutes during my lunch hour?  And sometimes my very supportive family will leave me alone for a few hours on the weekends.  When you have such a rigid schedule, you really start to value and make the most of your writing time.  I used to have a lot more time for writing, and I wasted it!
 

We all know that writers go through hard times on their way to success. How have you handled rejection in the past?

I mope.  Seriously, it’s okay to mope for a day or two, eat a pint of ice-cream, whatever.  But then you pick yourself up and get moving again.  I think I hit one of my biggest lows after my first novel didn’t sell, and I wrote a second novel, which I excitedly sent to my agent and got a “meh” response.  I had shelves of novels, months and years of blood, sweat, and tears, and nobody in NYC wanted them!  I was so frustrated, and I contemplated giving up writing.  And then I remembered that I had tried that, so many years ago, and it didn’t work.  Writing– not to sell, but just for fun– is like my salvation.  Writing gives me a high unlike anything I’ve every experienced before– my fingers itch to be at the keyboard when I’m away.  So I told myself that I would just keep writing, and not worry about selling.   And then, of course, I sold.  It was like that old adage they tell you about finding a relationship…. when you’re not looking, THAT’s when you find it.
 

I like your honesty and think you are right on the mark. On a happier note, now that you are a soon-to-be-published author, seeing the view from the other side, what has most surprised you about the publishing process?

I was floored to learn how much work manuscripts go through, even after they’ve been bought.  I thought editors only bought manuscripts that were just about perfect.  If it needed more than a little work, they’d pass.  Not true.  Some of my friends had dozens of pages of changes to make on their manuscripts, and multiple rounds of revisions. Editors don’t just sit there, reading stacks for manuscripts and saying “yes” or “no.”  They, and the copyeditors, are pretty much geniuses.    
 

I always ask this question of interviewees, so I hope you’ve been thinking on it. If you could have written one book previously published by another author, which book would it be?

Actually, there are many books out there that I wish I could have written, anything by M.T. Anderson because I have no idea how he manages to get in his character’s heads so completely and so convincingly.  And it’s funny, a year or two ago, I’d written four or five chapters of a book about the zombie apocalypse, based on a dream I’d had, since I am a huge fan of zombies.  Then, I gave it up to write FAIRY LUST.  And I am so glad that I never attempted to finish it because it would have paled drastically in comparison to Carrie Ryan’s THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH.  

Oh! I have so been wanting to read Carrie Ryan’s book. Thanks for reminding me.

Cyn, you gave fantastic, thoughtful answers. Thank you so much. It is helpful and inspiring to see a writer going through all of this with fresh eyes. Thanks for taking the time to give us your insight and a BIG congratulations!

You can find out more about Cyn Balog at http://cyn2write.livejournal.com .

Status: First day of law school orientation complete! I read The Appeal by John Grisham for today and had a book discussion, so I will be reviewing that on Saturday if y’all are interested. Other than that I’m still playing the waiting game, but will be working on taking my own advice from yesterday and not wasting time that I could be writing!

I’m changing it up on y’all…getting crazy with the schedule, aren’t I? Like book review on a Sunday! What will I do next?

Anyway, I just finished Eclipse. Yes, I know, I’m behind the times. But remember, Nate and I had to share copies of Eclipse and Breaking Dawn, so I read the House of Night series in between and now we are switching. So, it’s not that I’m not a fan or anything…just practical reasons.

I’ll say, that Eclipse is my favorite of the Twilight books of the first three. And I think I can break that down into a few simple reasons.

1. Stephenie Meyer didn’t shy away from the action sequences. In the previous two books I was disappointed when she built up to big payoff scenes and then forgot to pay up. The fight with James…off scene. The solution with the Volturi…too easy. Finally! On camera fight scenes. I think she did a good job. I won’t say that the fight scene near the end was the best I ever read, but she found a way to stick with Bella’s point of view and to add play-by-play action. So, thanks Stephenie Meyer! It was fun.

2. I’ve never been one to  live for the trashy romance, but I must say that this made me rethink my genre choices. Two alpha males with their undivided attention aimed at one girl. What’s not to love? Mainly, I think it’s every girl’s fantasy. To have a man so devoted that you never need reassurance or validation. To be rescued and to feel protected–in the old fashion sense. I know, I know…we’re supposed to be modern and it’s not a good message to be sending to young girls, blah blah blah. I got it. But, seriously, deep down inside it’s fun to think about having that–if only for a second.

3. Bella wasn’t so dizzy! Ok, so she was still dizzy, but much less. And that made me happy because that description got old.

4. I cried. I really did. Cried during Eclipse and I’m not ashamed to say it. I just love Jacob so much. I’ll leave it at that.

I’m sure I’ll have more insight once I read Breaking Dawn. I’ve got ants in my pants to get my hands on it, so Nate better send it my way! I’ve heard mixed reviews. If you have any opinions about it that don’t contain spoilers, I’d love to hear them before I begin.

Status: I should be able to fall into a more regular routine now. I have to read The Appeal by John Grisham for law school orientation, but luckily that’s kind of a hot book right now, so I can review it here! See? Law school and writing working out already!

More pages to show for SCOUT later. Remember, good vibes for a speedy recovery for Scott, ok?

Denny Ott considered all of Bowmore to be his mission, and no one would go hungry or homeless or sick if he could possibly prevent it. Not on his watch, and his watch never ended.

 - The Appeal

Stepping into a major trial is like plunging with a weighted belt into a dark and weedy pond. You manage to scramble up for air, but the rest of the world doesn’t matter. And you always think you’re drowning.

 - The Appeal