FRRL

Monday, June 27, 2011

ODD LOTS #6

IT'S TIME AGAIN for OOOOOOODDDDDD LLLLLLOOOOOOTTTTTTSSSSS! (Think Echo Chamber here)

Yep, we have an assortment of things that go together but don't necessarily make a complete collection. We need to make room, so an Odd Lots sale must occur. While we make more shelf room, you get to pick up great bargains.

If any of these interest you, you must have a current Friends of Reston Library membership to purchase. If you don't have one, they're easy to get. Just click on the sidebar where it says "JOIN".

To let us know that you're interested, E-MAIL US, or call us at 703-829-5467. First come, first served.

Here are 16 special bargains available first to Friends members in good standing! (all items as is, no returns)

A)       $10       Professional Financial Planning Course / published by the College for Financial Planning

instructional / assumed copyright circa 2004
12 volumes in original shrink wrap plus 3 additional volumes spiral bound

B)    $10   Studies in Intelligence: Journal of the American Intelligence Professional / and related items

for the layman as well as for the professional
10 glossy 4/C publications spanning 1986-2002 / stapled wraps, plus 1 perfect bound
most published by The Office of Strategic Services (CIA)

C)        $10        The New England Journal of Medicine

professional journals
51 issues spanning Oct 23 2008 - Oct 8 2009

D)        $15        Sporty's Complete Pilot Course

14 instructional VHS tapes plus 1 VHS tape "Finding the Best Flight Instruction"
comes complete in its original carton / contents as new, unused
published by Sporty's Pilot Shop [Batavia, Ohio] / copyright circa 2000

E)        $5        Fordham Law Review

professional journals / perfect bound
4 issues spanning 2009-2010

F)        $8        lot of 10 issues of Foreign Affairs magazine

scholarly magazine published by Council on Foreign Relations
spanning 2005-2009

G)        $8        The Great Ideas of Psychology / Great Courses / The Teaching Company

48 lectures on 24 audio cassette tapes, with course books

H)        $6        William Shakespeare: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies / Great Courses / The Teaching Company

36 lectures on 18 audio cassette tapes, with course books

I)        $4        Buddhism / Great Courses / The Teaching Company

24 lectures on 12 audio cassette tapes, with course books

****    special offer! all 3 Great Courses above on audio cassette for just $12
          [as is, no returns]

~~J) $5 10 volume set / A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1897~~

~~by James D Richardson, a Representative from the State of Tennessee~~

~~published by authority of Congress, Government Printing Office (1896)~~

~~hardcover volumes have been stripped of steel engravings of the various presidents~~

~~but steel engravings remain for various Federal government buildings,~~

~~including the Executive Mansion, the US Post Office Department, and the State and Navy Department~~

~~text blocks are probably complete~~

~~1 volume has water damage~~

K) $5 lot of 19 magazines related to American History

assortment of issues of American History (7), American History Illustrated (9)
and American Heritage magazines (3)

L) $10 lot of 77 issues of Popular Mechanics magazine / spanning 2000 - 2011

M) $5 lot of 11 romance-related magazines / year 2010

issues of Romance Writers Report (6), RT Book Reviews (5)

N) $3 lot of 7 issues / dog-related magazines / year 2010

issues of Dogfancy (4), Healthy Pet (1), Gun Dog (2)

O) $8 lot of 20 issues Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine / years 2010 and 2009

P) $10 lot of 28 gun-related magazines / year 2011

Guns / Gun Digest / Guns & Ammo / Gun Tests / Gun World / American Rifleman /

American Cop / Shooting Illustrated

Friday, June 17, 2011

A Book Worth Reading

The blogger tends to be anti-trend. If everyone else is reading a book, she tends to put that book at the very bottom of her list. But for some reason, this year the All Fairfax Reads book came to the top of the list, and the blogger came to the top of the "holds" list. (Yes, she has to wait like everyone else).

The book is "The Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Children of Nepal." Fully expecting another heart wrenching book about how the US involvement overseas ruins people's lives, the blogger opened the first page reluctantly. And . . .

FINALLY, a book that lives up to its hype. This book is a beautiful testimony of how cluelessness and no sense of purpose can be transformed into a love that knows no bounds.

One might think from the title that this book is about children who have been taken out of the home country by nefarious means, and the author's quest to return them. The truth is worse. In the midst of the Civil War in Nepal, when parents were desperate to keep their children from ending up in the Maoist army, child traffickers promised the parents a future for the child in exchange for a lot of money. Once the children were in the system, the traffickers sold them to other Nepalese for use as beggars, servants, or worse.

Conor Grennan went to Nepal with no more than a vague idea that he would volunteer in an orphanage for three months and then get on with backpacking around the region. When he got to the orphanage, Little Princes, he discovered that these children were probably not orphans; instead, they were unable to be reunited with their families due to distance and war. The children at Little Princes were the lucky ones who had been rescued from the child traffickers pipeline. They were living in comparative luxury, with clothes and the opportunity to go to school.

In those three short months at Little Princes, Grennan was changed forever. In addition to caring for the boys at Little Princes, he was involved in trying to rescue seven more children whom he visited with and helped feed. Unfortunately, when the authorities went to rescue the children, they had been spirited away by the traffickers. Grennan left Nepal feeling he had been responsible for their fate, and resolved to return to make it right.

Grennan went from being a self-indulgent Westerner with little thought about the plight of others to a man determined to find out if he could return the children to their families some day. When he returned to Nepal with this goal in mind, the story he tells is gripping enough to stay up late at night turning pages.

Conor Grennan's writing is superb. He is honest about his humanity and selfishness, just as he is honest about the cold, the fear, and the joy. The way he writes about the interactions with the children conveys love and great respect for his little charges who had endured so much. A particularly interesting part of the book is the moral dilemma set up by his contacting parents of these children. This white foreigner was telling them that their children were safe, well, and getting to go to school but that it was wrong to have let them go with the child traffickers (who of course did not represent themselves that way). Although they missed their children, they were delighted that they were doing so well, and feared that Grennan would change that in some way. It must have seemed odd to them for him to say they should not have done something that had benefited their child so much.

The blogger highly recommends this book. Even if you're not a trend follower, this All Fairfax Reads selection is worth being a lemming.

Grennan will present a program on September 21 as part of the Fall for the Book Festival. Watch for more details!