Book review - The camel bookmobile

I can't resist popping in my first book review. And of course discussing the music it sent me to.

The camel bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
I read The camel bookmobile in a day, borrowing it mainly as I had seen an article on the real camel bookmobile in a library journal several years ago.
An American librarian, Fiona Sweeney, has volunteered to get the camel bookmobile off the ground and goes to Kenya to visit small desert communities with donated books transported around the desert on camels.
The novel focuses upon the experiences of the small semi-nomadic village of Mididima whose tribal ways are challenged by the infusion of books, ideas and a world beyond the village fence. The tribal elders are very suspicious of losing traditional tribal values and ways of life. Younger villagers welcome the opportunity to experience vicariously the world outside Mididima through the words and images portrayed in the donated books. Others like Scar Boy, a boy damaged in an attack by a hyena, use the books in ways not forseen by Fi, her boss and the villagers. In the middle is the teacher, Matani, who has experienced both worlds and has chosen to return to his village and try to educate the children of the village. Fiona seeks to help and educate others and finds herself receiving a life education in return. She will never be the same again.
Beautifully written, this novel is about love, loss and a collision of cultures. The story will resonate with you long after you’ve finished reading it.

This book quite literally sent me back to U2 for the rest of the weekend. I hadn't played All that you can't leave behind for quite a few months yet the themes of love and loss resonate through this album as they do through The camel bookmobile. In the end I felt compelled to play all my U2 albums (in order naturally - can't you tell I'm a librarian!)

Fd's Flickr toys and Trading Cards

Well I have used fd's Flickr toys to create a Dog trading card using my Dog photo labelled with that famous quote from the cover sleeve of the second album At the Sound of the Bell. The quote comes from a play titled Richelieu written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in the nineteenth century.

Too many things with signins

Is anyone else as sick as I am of all the different accounts, signins and passwords you have to establish. How does anyone remember it all? I am having pages of lists for yahoo, google, flickr,etc...
I feel better now I've whinged. Nothing like doggy droppings, huh!

Pavlov's Dog Photo

Naturally I feel a compulsion to have a Pavlov's Dog photo on my blog named in honor of this great band. so this is what I did for my Flickr photo.

Welcome

Welcome to The Pampered Menial named after the great 1970s band Pavlov's DogI'm going to talk about books and music as they go so well together and well, why not!Don't you think about what album might fit the book you are reading or have just read? I do and it can be a fascinating journey sometimes to see what a book makes you listen to.