Doesn't take much to start the talk in this town. And no one knows that better than Francesca Raffa.

Feeling at the top of her game when she is suddenly diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease, Harvard psychologist Alice Howland struggles to find meaning and purpose in her everyday life as her concept of self gradually slips away. A first novel. Simultaneous.

Olive, an orphan reindeer who lives at the North Pole, enjoys helping get the presents ready for Christmas Eve but dreams of joining the team of deer pulling Santa's sleigh on the Big Trip.

" Time was, with most of us, when Christmas Day encircling all our limited world like a magic ring, left nothing out for us to miss or seek; bound together all our home enjoyments, affections, and hopes; grouped everything and every one around the Christmas fire; and made the little picture shining in our bright young eyes, complete. Time came, perhaps, all so soon, when our thoughts over-leaped that narrow boundary; when there was some one (very dear, we thought then, very beautiful, and absolutely perfect) wanting to the fulness of our happiness; when we were wanting too (or we thought so, which did just as well) at the Christmas hearth by which that some one sat; and when we intertwined with every wreath and garland of our life that some one’s name.That was the time for the bright visionary Christmases which have long arisen from us to show faintly, after summer rain, in the palest edges of the rainbow! That was the time for the beatified enjoyment of the things that were to be, and never were, and yet the things that were so real in our resolute hope that it would be hard to say, now, what realities achieved since, have been stronger!"

Aung San Suu Kyi has suffered constant harassment and abuse from the Burmese authorities, long separation from her family and six years of house arrest. In these 12 interviews, she talks about her passion for justice and the sacrifices she has had to make. One of the very few people she has trusted enough to take her message to the wider world is Alan Clements.The Voice of Hope is the result of the secret and dangerous meetings they had over several years, and offers unquestionably the most wide-ranging collection of her views on the political situation inside Burma, her non-violent approach to democracy and human rights, her Buddhist beliefs, her family, and how she keeps a sense of meaning and purpose under the most appalling conditions. Brand new material includes an inspiring discussion with U-Gambira, the leader of the All-Burma Monks Alliance, conducted after the 2007 uprising (he has since 'disappeared'). There is also an updated Chronology of Events of recent Burmese history, a new introduction and a new list of Burma-related websites.