Novelʼs dramatis personae beleaguer KONNIE SEWELL ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Iʼm open-minded and always willing to try something I would usually find unappealing, like Civil War fiction. “The Curse of Cain” begins when Confederate military policeman Jack Tanner learns that a renegade rebel congressman has hired Basil Tarleton, a cold-blooded professional killer, to murder Abraham Lincoln. President Jefferson Davis is worried that if Tarleton succeeds, it would undermine the Confederacyʼs cause for independence. He orders Tanner to track down Tarleton to Washington and use any means necessary to keep him from murdering Lincoln. Along the way to Washington Tarleton is always one step ahead of Tanner. Once in Washington, Tarleton happens to meet John Wilkes Booth, the famous thespian, and falls in with his plot to kidnap Lincoln. Of course, Tarleton has designs to take it much further than a simple kidnapping. Jack, meantime, takes on a job he believes will lead him to clues about Tarletonʼs whereabouts, and eventually it does: he meets Kate St. Claire, an undercover Confederate intelligence agent who decides to help him. “The Curse of Cain” isnʼt a rewrite of history: Lincoln is still shot at Fordʼs Theater. All the authors want to do is give history a twist. What else is good about it is that chapters alternate between Jackʼs doings and Tarletonʼs doings, so the suspense is palpable. However, there are many plot holes. Tarleton seems to be accept-
Entertainment
THE WICHITAN Oct. 3, 2007
Banned Books Week Sept. 29 – Oct. 6
“Every burned book enlightens the world.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson First observed in 1982, Banned Books Week reminds Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom for granted. The most challenged book for the past year was Justin Richardsonʼs “And Tango Makes Three.” Rounding out the list are:
ed by Booth and his cronies almost immediately, and how exactly does Kate, a woman, become an expert at espionage and manage to accumulate that much responsibility? And donʼt get me started on the love story. The love story between Jack and Kate (seriously, did you not see that coming?) is ridiculous in its brevity and its seriousness. The fact the authors felt compelled to include a love story at all is a little pathetic and a lot cliche. Also, who wants to watch as two people with the personalities of wood fall in love? Thatʼs another serious problem with “The Curse of Cain.” No one in this novel except Tarleton has any kind of personality whatsoever. These people are hard to love and even harder to connect with. Theyʼre like cows chewing grass out in a field – thatʼs how interesting they are. The novel also doesnʼt address any of the deeper issues of the war. Jefferson Davis makes a big to-do about saving Lincolnʼs life, but what about all the soldiers dying in battle? The authors make no mention about the ethics and morality of risking almost everything to save one manʼs life (even if he is the leader of the country) when countless others are being butchered daily. And Jack, assigned to save the enemy leaderʼs life, has no qualms whatsoever about his mission. Oh well. At least itʼd (probably) make a decent movie.
“Gossip Girl” by Cecily Von Ziegesar Phyllis Reynolds Naylorʼs “Alice” series “The Earth, My Butt and Other Big, Round Things” by Carolyn Mackler “The Bluest Eye” and “Beloved” by Toni Morrison “Athletic Shorts” by Chris Crutcher “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky “The Scary Stories” by Alvin Schwartz “The Chocolate War” by Robert Cormier Fore more information, check out the ALAʼs Web site at www.ala.org or check out the groups the ALA has set up on Facebook and MySpace.
Frequently challenged and banned books:
“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque “American Psycho” by Bret Easton Ellis “Animal Farm” by George Orwell “As I Lay Dying” by William Faulkner “Bless Me, Ultima” by Rudolfo A. Anaya “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley “Candide” by Voltaire “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker “A Day No Pigs Would Die” by Robert Newton Peck “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway “Gone With the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” by D.H. Lawrence “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding “The Manchurian Candidate” by Richard Condon “1984” by George Orwell “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey “The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut “Song of Solomon” by Toni Morrison “Sons and Lovers” by D.H. Lawrence “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee “Tropic of Cancer” by Henry Miller “Ulysses” by James Joyce “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harvey simply impresses
RICHARD CARTER FOR THE WICHITAN The enjoyable thing about writing about music is listening to the artists and imagining how they might trace back through the history of so many different art forms. More experimental musicians have always want to do something new. And sometimes, in rare instances, they are able to push the musical envelope into creating something new. If the real “new” is something that is probably unattainable in music anymore, the “new” can still sometimes be made. Let me suggest the newest CD by PJ Harvey, her eighth release. Titled “White Chalk,” the 11 songs run a little over 33 minutes and sound outwardly like nothing like the English rocker has yet released. Putting away her Telecaster guitar and Marshall amp, Harvey has taken up the piano as her primary instrument for an album that is more Victorian in temperament and mood.
Other musical differences are that Harvey sings primarily in a higher pitch, without quite reaching falsetto. Also, there is almost nothing outwardly rock-oriented about her new album. The songs are still developed on strong melodies, with the key word in the arrangements being simplicity. Itʼs nice to know that intriguing songs can still be based on little more than a voice and a piano. That combination of vocal and musical instruments can be sometimes textured with occasional keyboards, acoustic and bass guitars and a fiddle, a harp or a banjo. The key to Harveyʼs new record being able to break with her past and also for it to work is that it had to be honest — to her and then to her discerning listeners. That means no pandering to her past or to what listeners might expect from her. “White Chalk” sounds to me like a labor of love from a singer, songwriter and performer who wants to break new musical ground — for herself and for listeners who care to follow.
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The album sounds like Harvey brought her past melodic sensibilities to a more piano- and folkishlybased music. She also introduces seemingly true events from her life into a much larger story mix, like an episodic 19th century novelist might have done. Her lyrics possess an emotional gravity, but they are not insulated nor do they become too general so that they end up losing their impact. Either way, they are not self-indulgently opaque. It is an album that breaks free of any past musical constraints that Harvey might have inadvertently developed for herself. Unlike the repetitious albums that so many “artists” including Harvey on several occasions have put out, “White Chalk” must have been an act of self-discovery for her to make. For that matter, itʼs an equally enjoyable gathering of songs for a listener to discover. The good thing is that a copy of the CD can be found locally. Good luck finding anything on par.
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New Releases MUSIC: “The Hits,” Faith Hill; “Exile on Mainstream,” Matchbox Twenty; “Cowboy Town,” Brooks & Dunn; “The Shade of Poison Trees,” Dashboard Confessional; “Iʼm Only a Man,” Emery; “Revival,” John Fogerty; “Songs of Mass Destruction,” Annie Lennox; “The Very Best of Mick Jagger,” Mick Jagger; “Bend to the Breaks,” Five OʼClock Heroes; “We Are the Pipettes,” the Pipettes; “White Chalk,” PJ Harvey; “Born Into This,” the Cult; “No Really, Iʼm Fine,” the Spill Canvas; “Mantaray,” Siouxsie; “Dylan,” Bob Dylan; “Warchest,” Megadeath DVD: “Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” “1408,” “Civic Duty,” “Bram Stokerʼs Dracula,” “Criminal Minds, Season Two,” “Entourage, Season Three, Part Two,” “How I Met Your Mother, Season Two,” “Jericho, Season One,” “Jindabyne,” “The Jungle Book,” “Metalocalypse, Season One,” “Shark, Season One,” “The Unseen Beatles,” “The War: A Ken Burns Film” BOOKS: “If Democrats Had Any Brains, Theyʼd Be Republicans,” Ann Coulter; “The Day of the Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 19431944,” Rick Atkinson; “The Secret of Letting Go,” Guy Finley; “Signs of Life: Back to the Basics of Authentic Christianity,” David Jeremiah; “Dark of the Moon,” John Sandford; “Anaʼs Story: A Journey of Hope,” Jenna Bush; “Mine Till Midnight,” Lisa Kleypas; “Halting State,” Charles Stross VIDEO GAMES: “The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass,” DS; “Enemy Territory: Quake Wars,” PC; “Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels,” Wii; “Project Gotham Racing 4,” X-box 360; “NBA 2K8,” X-box 360, PS3, PS2; “Loki: Heroes of Mythology,” PC; “SpiderMan: Friend or Foe,” X-box 360, PS2, PC, Wii, PSP, DS; “MLB Power Pros,” Wii, PS2; “Crash of the Titans,” X-box 360, Wii, PS2, DS; “Syphon Filter: Loganʼs Shadow,” PSP; “Hour of Victory,” PC; “The Chosen – Well of Souls,” PC
Lady Sings the Blues Itʼs a sad day when ghetto gold-digger extraordinaire Kevin Federline is seen as the better parent. Britney Spears, 25, will have to give up custody of her children, Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, following a court ruling Monday. Federline, 29, is to have custody of the children by noon today. He will retain custody “until further order of the court.” The ruling came in part by the testimony of Spearsʼ former body guard, who said that Spears had a substance abuse problem.
For the Fans Radioheadʼs new album, “In Rainbows,” will be released Oct. 10 and will be available only through digital download (at first) from the bandʼs Web site, www. radiohead.com. They will sell tracks directly from their site and ask fans to pay what they think the album is worth instead of charging a set price. No record label or online distribution service like iTunes will be able to dictate the price or get a piece of the profits. Seven years ago, their album “Kid A” was leaked onto the old free-music version of Napster three months before its official release and still managed to hit number one on the U.S. charts its first week.