Books For Africa To Mark 30th Year By Shipping School Books to 54th African Country

Erin’s Note: This is a press release I’m sharing. I'm not personally affiliated with Better World Books in any way. I buy books from them and appreciate that they donate books to non-profit organizations, but I'm not endorsed by them in any way.

Celebration at Atlanta Warehouse June 9 to feature South African music sensation ShenFM and remarks from the Embassy of the Central African Republic

St. Paul, MN, June 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Books For Africa (BFA), which has shipped over 41 million books to students in Africa over the last 30 years, will celebrate a long-time goal on June 9 of sending books to every country on the continent when it ships books to the Central African Republic.

The shipment of the books will be part of a celebration from 1 to 4 p.m. at Books For Africa’s Atlanta warehouse, 3655 Atlanta Industrial Drive, Building 250, Atlanta, GA 30331. The Central African Republic is the last of the continent’s 54 countries to receive books from Books For Africa.

Michele Marie Claude Benzot, Counselor in Charge of Finances, Administration and Material at the Central African Republic Washington, D.C., embassy, will be on hand for the celebration. Better World Books is sponsoring the 22,000 book shipment.

“We are proud to celebrate this milestone for which Books For Africa has been working all these years,” said Patrick Plonski, BFA Executive Director. “There is no better place to mark the occasion than our Atlanta warehouse, from which every one of the more than 40 million books is sorted, packed and shipped.”

Plonski also praised the many volunteers in Atlanta and Minnesota, where BFA has its headquarters, who have helped over the years. The Atlanta warehouse is one of the top volunteer destinations in Atlanta. Last year 15,121 people volunteered at the warehouse.

The celebration is free and open to the public and will feature the South African music sensation ShenFM as well as the BFA Warehouse Band, along with African food and drinks.

Books For Africa remains the largest shipper of donated text and library books to Africa. Last year alone, BFA shipped over three million books, 93 computers and e-readers containing 223,000 digital books and 10 new law and human rights libraries to 18 African countries.

The nonprofit was founded in 1988 by Tom Warth, a British native who now lives in Minnesota. On a visit to a library in Uganda, he noticed that the shelves were nearly empty. He started BFA with a simple mission: To end the book famine in Africa.

“We’ve come a long way over the years, but we’ve still got a long way to go,” Warth said. “There are 450 million children in Africa and a total population of nearly 1 billion so there is still a need for more books.”

Doug Stone
Books For Africa
651-366-9907
stone7586@gmail.com

Patrick Plonski
Books For Africa
651-291-2713
patrick@booksforafrica.org

https://amzn.to/42KrbC8 - this is an affiliate link

Historical Person with No Right To Be So Good-Looking: Lewis Powell

Look at Lewis Powell. Look at him.

Public domain.

He's so handsome he looks like he should play an antihero in a Marvel Comics Universe movie. Yet this historical hottie has absolutely no right to look so attractive. He is, in fact, an attractive sociopath who had no problems taking part in a conspiracy to brutally murder up to four people, as part of the larger conspiracy to assassinate president Abraham Lincoln.

I read about Lewis Powell and his better-known co-conspirator, John Wilkes Booth, in Killing Lincoln by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard.

Mr. Tit Elingtin scoffed when I told him I was reading one of Bill O'Reilly's books. We're not very much fans of Mr. O'Reilly's loudmouthed talk show on Fox News - or anything that's on Fox News, really. (As a person of Middle Eastern descent, I often come away from watching Fox News with the feeling that I'm being blamed for something I haven't done. This is a familiar feeling to Jewish persons, but not one of which we are fond.)

Perhaps my husband would be happier if, instead, I had chosen to read Fox News Fuckfest.

(Yes, that's a real book, a piece of "bizarro erotica." I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to reading it someday, just out of curiosity.)

To be perfectly fair, it should be noted that the co-author with the real experience in historical research and writing is Mr. Dugard.

Let it be further noted that I purchased this book off my Irish Granny's want list. I bought it from Better World Books, then gave it to her, and she read it. Then my dad read it. When he was done it passed back to me, and I read it, and then I'll re-donate it Better World Books to await its next reader(s).

Bill O'Reilly notwithstanding, this was a fascinating little slice of American history. I knew a little bit about Booth being part of a larger conspiracy, but I never knew the details. The story of Mary Surratt, the only woman ever executed by hanging in the U.S., is quite sad. She didn't really do anything wrong, but got swept up in the fervor to punish Lincoln's killers because of the actions of her son.

Lewis Powell was a scumbag, but his last act was one of compassion, declaring before the crowd (100 people won a sort of lottery to witness the hangings) that Mary Surratt was innocent. But that still doesn't excuse the fact that he savagely beat Secretary William Seward, Seward's son Frederick, and Frederick's wife, leaving all three for dead. He was also very rude to the Sewards' butler, William Bell. He called Mr. Bell a very bad name such as only the likes of Draco Malfoy or Donald Trump would use.

But the Sewards survived, and William Seward would go on to purchase Alaska for the United States (known at the time as "Seward's folly" before oil and gold were discovered there. Now that Sarah Palin has been discovered there, maybe we should go back to calling it a folly again).

So the unfairly handsome Lewis Powell probably deserved his fate, to be hanged by the neck until he was dead.

Why is it always the sexy people who get hanged?

The Woman Who Couldn't Stop Reading 'The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming'

Hanukkah begins at sundown tomorrow, but I (finally) read this book at a really inappropriate time: in mid-March, much closer to Purim than to Hanukkah.

...but I couldn't find any books about screaming hamantaschen, so it had to do.

Actually, I bought it because I got a good deal on a used copy from Better World Books, and it happened to be almost springtime. I'd been wanting to read this for years, and I wasn't disappointed.

Like almost everything Daniel Handler writes as Lemony Snicket, it's laugh-out-loud funny. Some of the best quotes in it are:

1) “Santa Claus has nothing to do with it," the latke said. "Christmas and Hanukkah are completely different things."

"But different things can often blend together," said the pine tree. "Let me tell you a funny story about pagan rituals.”

2) “It is very frustrating not to be understood in this world. If you say one thing and keep being told that you mean something else, it can make you want to scream. But somewhere in the world there is a place for all of us, whether you are an electric form of decoration, peppermint-scented sweet, a source of timber, or a potato pancake.”

One caveat: It did make me crave deep-fried foods.

The Second #BookHaul From Better World Books @BWBooks

Look what came in the mail yesterday! There's no mail today, of course, because it's U.S. Independence Day! We're celebrating our independence from the U.K. and also the time Will Smith and Bill Pullman defeated those awful, awful aliens.

You can find the photos from my previous Better World Books haul here.

What's inside this mysterious-looking chartreuse package? As it turns out:

...Three new (well, new to me) books from Nalini Singh. I already had Slave to Sensation, Visions of Heat and (unfortunately, in hardcover) Kiss of Snow. Today I acquired Mine to Possess and Hostage to Pleasure (books 4 & 5 in the Psy-Changeling series), plus Play of Passion (which is the ninth book and comes immediately before Kiss of Snow).

The plan is to finish reading Kate Douglas's DemonFire, then finally finish off Jackie Kessler's Hell on Earth series by reading Hotter Than Hell (technically there's a fourth book in the series, but you can't get it in paperback - and I'm scared of what's going to happen to Paul), then read Visions of Heat. When that happens, then I'll need to get Book #3, Caressed by Ice. I'll feel good when I have books 1-5 all ready to go. I'll worry about 6-8 later.

What else was in that package?

I love my monster mash-ups, and now that I've read Jane Eyre (not to mention Jane Eyre Laid Bare), I have to read this vampire mash-up.

These are a few of my mash-ups. Little Vampire Women is not pictured (it's at my parents' house), nor is Android Karenina.

And yes, I did donate a paper bag filled with gently used books to Better World. Books come in, books go out. It's the circle of life.

Photos: The First of Two Hauls From Better World Books

Better World Books is my arch-nemesis. They see me coming from a mile away, offer me a deal on used books too tempting for a bibliophile like me to resist, and suck all the willpower to resist buying books right out of me. This happened last week, when they offered 40% off an order of 5 or more selections from the discount bin. I paid about $12 for these five books - BWB always offers a free shipping option, anywhere in the world.

On the plus side, for every book purchased, they donate a book. Proceeds from book sales go to support a wide variety of literacy projects in the U.S. and in other countries, plus the Haiti relief fund.

This is how they get me.

My original plan was to stock up on the Psy/Changeling series by Nalini Singh. I read Slave to Sensation last year and thought it was a really good paranormal romance. I don't read enough books in which women of Asian descent are the main characters. I have the second book, Visions of Heat, and haven't read it yet.

According to Maryse.net (a great resource for the reading orders of paranormal romance series), the proper order should be:

-Slave to Sensation
-Visions of Heat
-Caressed by Ice
-Mine to Possess
-Hostage to Pleasure
-Branded by Fire
-Blaze of Memory
-Bonds of Justice
-Play of Passion
-Kiss of Snow
-Tangle of Need
-Heart of Obsidian

Unfortunately, I couldn't find most of those in the discount bin. What I did find:

That's a lot to catch up with, but I think I can do it...eventually. If I'm not determined to have all of them in physical form, my brand-new Nook HD+ can help me with that. (Up until this week, I've been reading e-books on my laptop.)

My next shipment (another $14 worth of books - they got me again!) will include Mine to Possess, Hostage to Pleasure and Play of Passion. As I said on Twitter:

I know I SHOULD'NT want to buy 3 more books in @NaliniSingh 's Psy/Changeling series since I bought Kiss of Snow the other day - but I do
— Erin O'Riordan (@ErinORiordan) June 25, 2013

But then:

@ErinORiordan Do it... ;-)
— Nalini Singh (@NaliniSingh) June 25, 2013

Well, if you say so, Ms. Singh.

I'm currently reading the first book in Kate Douglas's DemonSlayers series, DemonFire. When I finish that, I'll now have the next two waiting for me:

After Starfire, there's only one more book in this series, CrystalFire. I never finished Douglas's Wolf Tales series - although I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books - but I'm pretty sure I can easily handle four. I think I'll rotate various PNR series I have to catch up on.

This one isn't paranormal, but it is from Cara Lockwood.

This last one is purely for nostalgic reasons; it's a book I read in middle school.

Now I really, really need to donate some books to Better World Books or to Goodwill, another worthy nonprofit. I'm out of room on the bookshelves.

What are your summer reads?