The Sentinel from Carlisle, Pennsylvania • 48

Sunday, October 12, 2008 wwwxumbtrlink.com TVBooks Page F8 The Sentinel Nielsen Cable Ratings I Odd couple: Maddow and Buchanan By David Bauder AP Television Writer 'i I I i it It i lion homes, 6.19 million viewers. 9. "The O'Reilly Factor (Thursday, 8 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 4.21 million million viewers. 10. Baseball Division Series: L.A.

Dodgers vs. Chicago Cubs (Wednesday, 6:29 p.m.), TBS, 4.06 million homes, 5.38 mil-; lion viewers. 11. Baseball Division Series: Boston vs. L.A.

Angels 9:30 p.m.), TBS, 3.78 million homes, 5.26 million viewers. 12. Baseball Division Series: Chicago Cubs vs. L.A. Dodgers (Saturday, 10:13 p.m.), TBS, 3.72 million homes, 5.22 miK lion viewers.

13. "The O'Reilly Factor" (Monday, 8 p.m.), Fox News' Channel, 3.62 million homes? 4.65 million viewers. 14. "Hannity Colmes (Thursday, 11:20 p.m.), Fo, News Channel, 3.6 million homes, 4.93 million viewers. 3 15.

Baseball Division Se-, ries: Boston vs. L.A. Angels (Wednesday, 10 p.m.), TBS 3.44 million homes, 4.44 mij- lion viewers. 1. NFL Football: N.Y.

Baltimore vs. Pittsburgh (Monday, 8:30 p.m.), ESPN, 8.59 million homes, 11.78 million viewers. 2. 'Vice Presidential Debate" (Thursday, 9:01 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 7.46 million homes, 11.09 million viewers. 3.

"Vice Presidential Debate" (Thursday, 9:02 p.m.), CNN, 6.51 million homes, 10.68 million viewers. 4. "On the Record With Greta Van Susteren" (Thursday, 10:33 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 6.46 million homes, 9.8 million viewers. 5. "Vice Presidential Debate Coverage" (Thursday, 8:50 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 5.32 million homes, 7.37 million viewers.

6. "Anderson Cooper 360" (Thursday, 10:33 p.m.), CNN, 5.02 million homes, 7.96 million viewers. 7. "Vice Presidential Debate Analysis" (Thursday, 1 1 p.m.), Fox News Channel, 4.89 million homes, 6.97 million viewers. 8.

Baseball Division Series: L.A. Angels vs. Boston (Sunday, 7:50 p.m.), TBS, 4.47 mil Associated Press Rachel Maddow from MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" is shown. NEW YORK (AP) At 19, Rachel Maddow shared a house with friends in Philadelphia and wasn't paying much attention to the 1992 Republican National Convention on television until Pat Buchanan took to the podium. She was transfixed.

Buchanan's combative conservative speech, which denounced gay rights, was a milestone for people on two sides of a political divide. Either a call to arms or intolerant, depending on your point of view, it couldn't be ignored. "Pat's culture war speech at the Republican convention hit me right between the eyes," said Maddow, MSNBC's new star and a lesbian. "He was, without euphemism, declaring that my own country was at war with me. I get it intellectually and strategically now, but at 19, 1 only got it emotionally." So there's a certain irony that Maddow and Buchanan have a prime-time date many nights now on television.

"It's Pat" is a semi-regular feature on "The Rachel Maddow Show," a program that has surprised even the people who put it on with its success after only a month on the air. Maddow is a regular on the liberal "Air America" radio network and had appeared frequently on MSNBC, particular on Keith Olbermann's "Countdown." She was given the 9 p.m. EST slot when network executives judged Dan Abrams' show a failure. Its second week on the air, Maddow's audience was bigger than CNN's "Larry King Live." King won the third week and the two are settling into what promises to be a competitive battle behind Fox News Channel's dominant "Hannity Colmes." During the week of Sept. 22, Fox's show averaged 3.2 mil- Nielsen Prime-time Pat's culture war speech at the Republican convention hit me right between the eyes.

Rachel Maddow 33 him. Maddow frequently brings on guests to argue with her, none more so than Buchanan. He can exasperate her, and vice versa. To date, it hasn't become nasty. To a certain extent, Maddow credits Buchanan with giving her television career a push.

A few years ago when Buchanan hosted a show at MSNBC, he remembered her and sought her out for work. "I like debating things with Pat," Maddow said. "He's funny and quick and intellectually coherent, even when his views are totally toxic." Thinking back to the culture war speech, Maddow sees how one of Buchanan's contribution to Nixon-era politics was the idea of "positive polarization," or dividing the country against itself and siding politically with the bigger half. 1. (1) "Dancing with the Stars," ABC, 18.88 million viewers.

2. (4) "NCIS," CBS, 17.47 million viewers. 3. (11) "60 Minutes," CBS, 16.65 million viewers. 4.

(5) "Desperate Housewives," ABC, 15.68 million viewers. 5. (9) "Dancing with the Stars Results," ABC, 15.49 million viewers. 6. (7) "The Mentalist," CBS, 1 5.48 million viewers.

7. 14.89 million viewers. 8. (6) "Criminal Minds," CBS, 14.78 million viewers. 9.

(7) "CSI: Miami," CBS, 14.35 million viewers. 10. (3) "NBC Sunday Night Football: Pittsburgh vs. Jacksonville," NBC, 14.21 million viewers. 11.

(12) "Two and a Half' Men," CBS, 13.58 million viewT ers. 1 12. (14) "Survivor: Gabon," CBS, 13.08 million viewers. 13. (13) "House," Fox, 12.98 million viewers.

14. (X) "America's Got Talr-ent" (Wednesday), NBC, 12.69! million viewers. 15. (16) "Without a Trace," CBS, 12.61 million viewers. 16.

(16) "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," ABC, 11.83 million viewers. 17. (18) "Cold Case," CBS, 11.1 million viewers. 18. (20) "Amazing Race CBS, 1 1 million viewers.

19. (22) "Law Order: NBC, 10.39 million viewers. 20. (18) "Brothers Sisters," ABC, 10.33 million viewers. lion, CNN had 2.1 million and Maddow was at 1.7 million.

She has more than doubled the audience that MSNBC had been getting in the time slot, according to Nielsen Media Research, and is keeping much of the audience that watches Olbermann. Naysayers told MSNBC chief executive Phil Griffin that Maddow would be too much like Olbermann, and there was a risk in turning his prime-time lineup completely over to one political point of view. Instead, Maddow is something of a happy warrior compared to Olbermann's increasingly dark prince. The Rhodes Scholar can lap almost anyone intellectually without making you hate her for doing it. "She's likeable," Griffin said.

"She smiles, she has fun. She's interesting." If Olbermann's show has a drumbeat that drives it, Maddow's "got a little bit of a symphony," he said. She also doesn't back down from a fight. Olbermann's "Countdown" is well-written and meticulous, but he relies on guests who rarely disagree with USA Today Best-sellers List Novel offers cynicism, timely nuances On Books f'j Larissa Boyer Sen tinel Copy Editor FYI Title: A Lion Among Men Author: Gregory Maguire Publisher: HarperCollins Release Date: Oct. 14, 2008 Pages: 336 List Price: $26.95 Key: F-Fiction; NF-Nonfic-tion; H-Hardcover; P-Paper-back 1.

"Brisingr" by Christopher Paolini (Knopf Books for Young Readers)(F-H) 2. "The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing) (F-H) 3. "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown for Young Readers) (F-P) 4. "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown for Young Readers) (F-P) 5. "The Shack" by William P.

Young (Windblown Media) (F-P) 6. "Eclipse" Stephenie Meyer (Little, Brown) (F-H) 7. "Breaking Dawn" by Stephenie Meyer (Little Brown) (F-H) 8. "The Story Of Edgar Saw-telle: A Novel" by David Wro-blewski (HarperCollins) (F-H) 9. "Nights in Rodanthe" by Nicholas Sparks (Warner Vision) (F-P) 10.

"Collateral Damage" by Fern Michaels (Zebra) (F-P) 11. "First Impressions" by Nora Roberts (Silhouette) (F-P) 12. "The Snowball: Warren BufTett and the Business of Life" by Alice Schroeder (Bantam) (NF-H) 13. "Double Cross" by James Patterson (Vision) (F-P) 14. "Mr.

Cavendish, I Presume," by Julia Quinn (Avon) (F-P) 15. "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow (Hyperion) (NF-H) 16. "The Rustler" by Linda Lael Miller (HON) (F-P) Lisa Kleypas (St. Martin's Pa- perbacks) (F-P) 18. "Amazing Grace" by Dan- ielle Steel (Dell) (F-P) 19.

"What in the World is Go-: ing 10 Prophetic Clues You Cannot Afford to Ignore" by Dr. David Jeremiah (Thomas Nelson) (NF-H) 20. "A Bold Fresh Piece of, Humanity" by Bill O'Reilly (Broadway) (NF-H) 21. "The Rogue Hunter' by Lynsay Sands (Avon) (F-P) 22. "Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World" by Vicki Myron, Brett Witter (Grand Central) (NF-H) 23.

"A Cedar Cove Christmas" by Debbie Macomber (Mira Books) (F-H) 24. "Dark of the Moon" by John Sandford (Berkley) (F-H)'3 25. "Heat Lightning" by John! Sandford (Putnam Adult) (F-H) 26. "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin)(F-I P) 27. "Hot, Flat and Crowde by Thomas Friedman (Farrar Straus and Giroux) (NF-H) 28.

"Untamed: A House of Night Novel" by P.C. Cast,) Kristin Cast (St. Martin's Grif- fin) (F-P) 29. "One Fifth Avenue" by' Candace Bushnell (Voice) (F-H)j 30. "Deadly Night" by Heaths er Graham (Mira) (F-P) l' 3 1 "Book of the Dead" by Pa-; tricia Comwell (Berkley) (F-P) 32.

"Giada's Kitchen: New-Italian Favorites" by Giada De! Laurentiis (Clarkson Potter)' (NF-H) 33. "Inkdeath" by Cornelia Funke (The Chicken House) (F-; Gregory Maguire 5 4 Gregory Maguire doesn't want you to read his books not until you're a freshman in college. At least that's what The New York Times Magazine reported in March 2007. He has a good point, though, as books based on the classic tale "The Wizard of Oz" can be quite intriguing to younger readers. Don't be fooled by their innocent origins, "Wicked," "Son of a Witch" and "A Lion Among Men" are far from being children's books.

In fact, they are extremely intelligent books filled with adult topics ranging from sex and politics to war and murder certainly not a light-hearted read for elementary students. Written in 1995, "Wicked" captured the hearts of readers with its spin on the classic L. Frank Baum books instead of telling the story of Dorothy and her companions, we become witnesses to the life story of Elphaba, more popularly known as The Wicked Witch of the West. The novel was made even more popular in 2004 when the musical adaptation of the same name premiered on Broadway. Then, 10 years after its initial publication, Maguire continued his adventure into the land of Oz with "Son of a Witch." This time we follow Liir, Elphaba's son, as he tries to discover his identity and his powers.

On Oct. 14, "A Lion Among Men," the third volume in the Wicked Years, will hit bookstores. In case you couldn't tell from the title, this third installment follows the Cowardly Lion, otherwise known as Birr. The story begins at an all too familiar mauntery caught in the middle of a civil war between Oz and Munchk inland. Here, Brrr attempts to glean information about Elphaba, Liir and the Grimmcrie from Yacklc, a very old oracle on her deathbed.

Since Yacklc is very cratchity, she demands payment from Brrr in the form of details from his own past. In this manner we discover why the Cowardly Lion is so cowardly and how exactly he came to know the infamous Dorothy. Wc also learn of his love for a Cat princess and his role in the massacre of a band of trolls. More than anything else, "A Lion Among Men" is a stunning look at the course of fate in every being's life and whether or not we have any say in what that fate may be. It is comical, serious and disturbing all at the same time.

It is vibrant, and manages to make its reader ponder his own life and fate. Maguire also manages to make the story surprisingly relevant to modern society. He incorporates many timely nuances some so intelligent even I don't get them. According to a press release provided by HarperCollins Publishers, one of Maguire's many word plays involves the Emerald City Messiars invading Munch-kinland over water. It then reads: "Messiars: Say it aloud.

Get it?" No, I don't and I even asked around the newsroom. Please enlighten me. Other word plays noted by the press release are Amplcton Quarters (lodging near a university), Miss Eldersodtter (judge and professional scold) and Miss Sauccrly (her assistant), Burntpork district (for shopping) and Saint Satalin's Nook for Petty Criminals (a jail). That last one I'm assuming is a reference to Stalin, but I'm not sure. Don't laugh, but this is a pretty smart novel and sometimes it confuses me.

But then there are jokes (and cynicism) that I do gel and find absolute hilarious. Take for instance this passage with Dorothy trying to teach a moral to Brrr during their adventures together: sec, I grew up on a farm. I had a little pet hen once. She 17. 'Seduce Me at Sunrise" by H) fTYW fTB-TTIj readers of certain aspects of the past novels it is trying to refer to.

With 10 years between releasing the first two books and another three years between the second and third, it's not unlikely for most readers to be a bit forgetful when it comes to such intricate plot lines. While Maguire does provide family trees for the significant families of Oz and a brief outline of the Throne Ministers of Oz, a more detailed prologue summary of the past two books would've been helpful. Or I guess one could just reread the first two books before tackling the third. Now, if "A Lion Among Men" is as popular as the first two books, I wonder if Maguire will delve into his imagination further to give us even more tales of Oz. Maybe a full-length story on the Tin Man who needed a heart or the Scarecrow who needed a brain.

Or what about the Wizard? He's actually portrayed as somew hat of an evil guy, so what's his real story? Whoever Maguire chooses to do next, I'll be sure to read. followed me around, in and out of the kitchen, into the farmyard. She couldn't speak, of course. We're talking Kansas, where free speech in general is not highly there a moral to this day she crossed the road. Do you know why the chicken crossed the "Ms this a "Nothing was a joke to Dorothy.

'Because I was on the other she finished. 'I was standing on one foot and singing a little song about, oh, I don't know what. And that brave little hen crossed the dangerous road to be with happened to Saturday night Uncle Henry wrung her neck and Auntie Em made chicken stew. I cried and cried but actually she tasted pretty That, my friends, is classic humor right there. But again emphasizes the point that this is no children's story.

One of the few downfalls to the book is its inability to remind Monroe Fire Company uii nuuie in inurcniown Sunday, October 12th Doors 0pn Noon Bingo Starts 1:30 PM 27 Prizes for $20 1 Small Games of Chance Smoke Free Good Food No ums No ont under 18 admitted Call In advance get $2 off at the door. Donna March 258-5397 or miuic noons oyi-ojzu uay or UII Zi8-i458 NIGHT BINGO PROGRAM EVERY THURSDAY I REGULAR I Next Baiket Bingo lanuary 18, 2009 i.