I was talking to a moth the other evening
He was trying to break into an electric light bulb
And fry himself on the wires
why do you fellows pull this stunt I asked him
Because it is conventional for moths
Or why if that had been an uncovered candle instead of an electric light bulb
You would now be a small unsightly cinder
Have you no sense
Plenty of it he answered
But at times we get tired of using it
We get bored with the routine
And crave beauty and excitement
Fire is beautiful
And we know that if we get too close it will kill us
But what does it matter
It is better to be happy for a moment
And be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
And be bored all the while
So we wad all our life up into one little roll
And then we shoot the roll
That is what life is for
It is better to be a part of beauty for one instant
And then to cease to exist than to exist forever
And never be a part of beauty.

-Unknown

On the Death of Anne Bronte

There is little joy in life for me,

And little terror in the grave;

I’ve lived the parting hour to see

Of one I would have died to save.

Calmly to watch the failing breath,

Wishing each sigh might be the last;

Longing to see the shade of death

O’er those beloved features cast;

The cloud, the stillness that must part

The darling of my life from me;

And then to thank God from my heart,

To think Him well and fervently;

Although I knew that we had lost

The hope and glory of our life;

And now, benighted, tempest- tossed,

Must bear alone the weary strife.

- Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte Bronte who was born in 1816, was the eldest of 3 sisters who lived in their father's parsonage at Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. Their home's remoteness and their lack of any companionship outside the family, as Charlotte said, to be ' wholly dependent on ourselves and each other, on books and study for the enjoyments and occupational of life.' And amongst their activities ' the highest stimulus, as well as the liveliest pleasure we knew from childhood upwards, lay in attempts at literary composition. In 1845 they managed, with great difficulty, to publish a volume of their poems under the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Each of them then set to work on novels, Charlotte (Currer) writing 'The Professor' and 'Jane Eyre', Anne (Acton) 'Agnes Gray', and Emily (Ellis) 'Wuthering Heights'.
'Jane Eyre' was the first to appear in print- in 1847 the year, also, of Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair' and Disraeli's 'Tancred'. It quickly became one of the most talked about novels of the day, while 'Wuthering Heights' which also followed later in the same year, was for a long time regarded as an earlier and cruder attempt by the same author. Emily and Anne Bronte died soon afterwards, but Charlotte wrote 2 more novels, 'Shirley' in1849 and 'Vilette', a re- handling of the material used in 'The Professor', in1853. In 1854 she married her father's curate, Rev. A.B. Nicolls, but died a few months later.

The Firm

This can be termed undoubtedly the best from John Grisham as of yet...

When Mitch McDeere signed on with Bendini, Lambert and Locke of Memphis, he thought he and his beautiful wife Abby were on the way. The firm leased him a BMW, paid off his school loans, arranged a mortgage, and hired him a decorator. Mitch McDeere should have remebered what his brother Ray- doing fifteen years in a Tennessee jail- already knew. You never got nothing for nothing. Now the FBI has the lowdown on Mitch's firm and needs his help. Mitch is caught between a rock and a hard place, with no choice- if he wants to live.

Jane Eyre

Orphaned Jane Eyre endures an unhappy childhood, hated by her aunt and cousins and then sent to the comfortless Lowood School. But life there improves, and Jane stays on as a teacher, though she still longs for love and friendship. At Mr. Rochester's house, where she goes to work as a governess, she hopes she might have found them- until she learns of the terrible secret of the attic.

Charlotte Bronte with this masterpiece has captured the hearts of millions- including mine. She is truly, a jewel among the Bronte sisters.

Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff, a wiaf found on the streets of Liverpool, is brought home to the Yorkshire moors by Mr. Earnshaw and raised a sone of his own children. Hindley despises and ill- treats him, but wild Cathy becomes his constant comapnion, and he falls violently in love with her. But when she will not marry him, Heathcliff's terrible venegeance ruins them all- but still his and Cathy's love will not die. Considered to be a crude model on sister Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte too marks a niche for itself.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte is a powerful and sometimes violent novel of expectation, love, oppression, sin, religion and betrayal. It potrays the disintegration of the marriage of Helen Huntingdon, the mysterious 'tenant' of the title, and her dissolute, alcoholic husband. Defying convention, Helen leaves her husband to protect their young son form his father's influence, and earns her own living as an artist. Whilst hiding at Wildfell Hall, she encounters Gilbert Markham, who falls in love with her.

Jeffrey Archer

Jeffrey archer was educated at Oxford University. He became the youngest member of the House of Commons in 1969, was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party in 1985, and was elevated to the House of Lords in 1992. All his novels and short story collections- including Kane and Abel, Honour Among Thieves, and to Cut a Long Story Short- have been international bestsellers, selling over 120 million copies worldwide. Archer is married with two children and lives with England.

Kane and Abel

TWO STRANGERS BORN WORLDS APART... ONE DESTINY THAT WOULD DEFINE THEM BOTH...

William Lowell Kane and Abel Rosnovski, one the son of a Boston millionaire, the other a penniless Polish immigrant- born on the same day near the turn of the century on opposite sides of the world- are brought together by fate and the quest of a dream.

Two men- ambitious, powerful, ruthless- are locked in a relentless struggle to build an empire, fuelled by their all- consuming hatred. Over sixty years and three generations, through war, marriage, fortune and disaster, Kane and Abel battle for the success and triumph that only one man can have....

Shall we Tell the President

WHAT THE PRESIDENT DOESN'T KNOW MAY KILL HER>

After decades of struggle, sacrifice and personal tragedy, Florentyna Kane has finally attained her goal- the presidency of the United States. Yet even as she gives her inaugral speech, those who oppose her are plotting to silence her forever.

Only one man knows when the assasins will strike, and even he doesn't know where, how or more importantly, who they are. He has only six days to track down the senator at the heart of the cold- blooded conspiracy. Siz days in which he can waste no time, leave no trail, and trust no one. One wrong word, one false move, and both a nation and a dream will crumble.

Master storyteller Jeffrey Archer keeps the pace sizzling in this daring political thriller where treason and betrayal threaten to topple an American dynasty.

The Eleventh Commandment

Connor Fitzgerald is the professional's professional. Holder of the Medal of Honour. Devoted family man. Servant of his country. The CIA's most deathly weapon. But for the past 28 years, Fitzgerald has been leading a double life. And only days from his retirement from the Agency, he comes across an enemy even he cannot handle. The enemy, is his own boss, the Director of the CIA. And she has only one purpose: to destroy him. Meanwhile, the Unites States is faced with an equally formidable foe: a new Russioan President, determined to force a military confrontation between the two superpowers.

Ranging form the oval office in the White House to the Russian Mafia's secret luxurious hideaway outside St. Petersburg, the Eleventh Commandment sets new standards in contemporary thriller writing by Jeffrey Archer.