Book News: Newly Found Pearl Buck Novel To Be Published This Fall (NPR.org)

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Pearl S. Buck

Pearl S. Buck at her desk in the study of her Philadelphia townhouse in 1967, Pearl Buck looks at a bound volume of the magazine Asia from 1925 that contained her first published work. (AP)

A never-before-seen novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl Buck that was discovered in a Texas storage unit . Publisher Open Road Integrated Media describes the book, titled The Eternal Wonder, as “the coming-of-age story of Randolph Colfax, an extraordinarily gifted young man whose search for meaning and purpose leads him to New York, England, Paris and on a mission patrolling the DMZ in Korea,” according to The New York Times. The newspaper reports that Buck “is believed to have completed the manuscript for the book … shortly before she died of cancer in 1973, said her son Edgar S. Walsh, who manages her literary estate.”

Excerpt taken from NPR.org

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2Fer

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2 awards for the price of 1 post.  Call me lazy or call me efficient, just call me!  Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.

Some months ago I placed moratorium of sorts in regard to the posting of awards I had been so thoughtfully nominated for.  Since I don’t post regularly, the number of nominations I was receiving on a regular basis was getting a bit out of hand and I was spending what little time I devote to my blog posting on these awards.  It just didn’t feel right to me after a while.  I decided that I had to stop posting on awards and expressed to those bloggers who thereafter nominated me, my heartfelt thanks and appreciation but respectfully declined to post.  I hope that this post will make up for some of those non-posts by me nominating those very deserving bloggers and others in this post.  One caveat:  I will be reinstating immediately upon publication of this post and until further notice, a moratorium on awards.

The best thing about blogger awards is the opportunity to highlight blogs and bloggers who I can live vicariously through. Each unique in their own personality, style and passion.  I follow quite a large number of blogs and have a very diversified reading list which is just the way I like it.   As mentioned above, I will reinstate the moratorium on future awards, however I am making a promise to myself and to my fellow bloggers to more frequently mention and link to my favorite blogs and bloggers in upcoming posts.

I’m also going to break some of “the rules” that apply to both of these awards and only display the award logo, thank and link to the blogger who nominated my blog and nominate some of my favorite blogs.  I will, of course, post “the rules” for each award in their entirety so that those of you who never break the rules, can keep with tradition.

Geez, I must be reliving my teenage rebellion years!

Now let’s get to it.

1.  WordPress Family Award

wordpressfamilyaward

The first nomination comes from Fransi over at Three Hundred Sixty-Five.   Thanks Fransi!  I’ve been a fan of her blog since its inception.  You really must check it out. Fransi has committed to post every day for one year.  She is a wonderful writer and, obviously, very disciplined.  Oh, if only that last attribute were contagious!  I might read her daily posts in the morning with my coffee or, as so often happens, I’m doing catch up and reading maybe a week’s worth of her posts in one sitting.  Either way I’m always entertained, informed and completely engrossed when reading her posts.  Thanks again, Fransi, for nominating me for this award.

WordPress Family Award Rules:

  • Display the award logo on your blog.
  • Link back to the person who nominated you.
  • Nominate 10 as few or as many bloggers you see as having an impact on your WordPress experience.
  • Let your Family members know you have awarded them.
  • That’s it.  Just please pick those who have taken you as a friend, and then spread the love to more folks

My nominations for the WordPress Family Award:

The second award I have been nominated for is:

2.   A Great Moment in My Life Award

a-great-moment-in-my-life-award

Thanks so much to ExperiencedTutors for this award.   Please link over to ExperiencedTutors’ blog.  ET is a private tutor, lecturer, and is currently in the process of writing a book but has yet to disclose the subject matter.  ET has pointed out the following benefits of blogging in a recent post celebrating his first  anniversary as a blogger:  “Artistic creativity, reading wonderful writing and establishing virtual friendships around the world are but three of the positives.”  I could not agree more.  So why not take a trip across the pond and visit ExperiencedTutors!

A Great Moment in My Life Award Rules:

  • Create an acceptance speech either by video or a written speech post
  • Pass the award on to 15 other bloggers

(Apologies, ET, for not completing the award assignment as directed.)  Is there a make-up quiz?

My nominations for the A Great Moment in My Life Award:

So there you have it.  Thanks again to ExperiencedTutors and Three Hundred Sixty-Five both who have been such wonderful supporters and contributors to me and my blog.

Back to Basics With Two New Book Releases

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New book releases: Simple & Simpler

Is less more? The bare essentials. Back to basics. User-friendly. No fine print. Clutter-free. Transparent. Clean. Easy. 

The older I get the more I yearn for a simpler life.  I can easily make this happen for myself but I have to be willing to give up some things.  Still, it is possible and achievable on a personal level.  On a grander scale in general and in corporate America and government specifically, is the idea of trimming, cutting, and simplifying … Possible? Realistic? Probable?  Apparently so.

The books, “Simple” and “Simpler” are not related.  Simpler is not a follow up to Simple.  These are 2 mutually exclusive books that just happened to be released at the same time. It’s just a coincidence.  Or is it?  Have the pleadings of middle America finally reached the ears of those in decision making roles who previously turned a deaf ear?

“Simple”, by two business consultants, Alan Siegel and Irene Etzkorn, is a straightforward brief on simplicity, providing the reader with interesting examples of companies that have successfully embraced it as a business strategy while only occasionally slipping into overly simplistic advice.

In Simple, Mr. Siegel and Ms. Etzkorn cite a study showing that half of the gadgets returned to stores (and the cost of returned products in America, they estimate, is some $100 billion a year) are “in good working order, but customers can’t figure out how to operate them.” (You can count me as one of those customers!) The authors also mention a study showing that “80 percent of child safety seats are improperly installed or misused and the instructions for installing them are the root of the problem.” (Yikes!)

“Simpler”, by Cass R. Sunstein — who as the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs from 2009 to 2012 helped oversee the issuance of nearly 2,000 rules from federal agencies” — is a more detailed, more nuanced look at how rules and regulations can be made simpler, and how the social environment in which we make decisions can be “nudged” in ways that help us to make more rational, sensible choices.

Simpler government arrived four years ago. It helped put money in your pocket. It saved hours of your time. It improved your children’s diet, lengthened your life span, and benefited businesses large and small. It did so by issuing fewer regulations, by insisting on smarter regulations, and by eliminating or improving old regulations. Cass R. Sunstein, as administrator of the most powerful White House office you’ve never heard of, oversaw it and explains how it works, why government will never be the same again (thank goodness), and what must happen in the future.

Simple and Simpler…check!

Certain excerpts in this post gathered from:
The New York Times article:  Be Fruitful and Simplify
Simpler: The Future of Government: on Amazon.com