Fill and Sign the Bank Declaration Form

4C | LAREDO MORNING TIMES SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2005 ITALIAN WEDDING | POPE’S BLESSING Literary help available for marriage-minded readers By JAIME SPANGRUDE LA DAILY NEWS Valentine’s Day is just two days away, which means those who are lucky in love will be popping the question to that special someone. We can’t help you work up the nerve, but we can help you plan your big day. Look to the following items to ensure memorable marital moments: THE BIG DAY ON A BUD GET: “Wedding Planning for Dummies” (Wiley; $19.99) is a must-have guide for engaged couples with limited funds. The book is filled with tips on everything from setting the date and picking the invitations to choosing the right music and planning the honeymoon. HERE COMES THE BRIDE: Planning a wedding is a huge job, but with the support from “It’s Her Wedding, But I’ll Cry If I Want To: A Survival Guide for the Mother of the Bride” (Rodale Books; $15.95), the mother of the bride will be prepared for the financial and emotional fallout of her daughter’s special day. The book takes a humorous look at stories of weddings gone wrong and then made right by mothers of the bride, picking mother-of-thebride attire and learning about wedding food and flower talk. There is even a mother-daughter prenuptial agreement in the second chapter. The reality checks in every chapter are hilarious and helpful, as is the “Mother of the Bride Movie Guide” at the conclusion. THE RIGHT ROCK: Picking the ring is very crucial, so if you’re having a hard time finding “the one,” then grab a copy of “With This Ring: The Ultimate Guide to Wedding Jewelry” (Bulfinch Press; $24.95) and ask the experts. Jewelry virtuosos Penny Proddow and Marion Fasel offer a wealth of information on the history and traditions of rings, presents and wedding day jewelry, as well as modern cuts and styles. Get inspired by celebrity styles, or make it all your own by learning all about choosing a diamond and engagement ring design. TOGETHER FOREVER: “Everlasting Matrimony: Pearls of Wisdom From Couples Married 50 Years or More” (Noble House; $39.95) offers advice and insight from 75 couples who have achieved spousal success by celebrating no fewer than 50 wedding anniversaries. These couples share their views on important topics like communication, sex, money and children, as well as qualities that make up a relationship — honesty, commitment, trust and humor. The best part of the book is the wedding-day and present-day photographs of the happy couples. TASTEFUL TENTS: Bay Area-based tent rental company Raj Tents offers its one-of-akind collection of handmade luxury tents and accessories in order to create a magical setting on your wedding day. The elegant Pergola measures 9 feet by 9 feet, walls are 7 feet high, and the apex is just over 10 feet high and supported by a metal frame. The Quadruple Pergola is four interconnected Pergolas that make an open area in the center. The tents are waterresistant, handmade with the highest-quality cotton and are available in a variety of attractive colors with white voile drapes. Prices begin at $3,950 for sale and $1,250 for rental. For more information, go to www.rajtents.com. VALENTINE’S GIFTS SWEET SCENTS: Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics offers products ripe for the Valentine’s Day picking. Spice up your night with the following: Sex Bomb Bath Bomb — This bath bomb produces a pleasant scent that lasts for days, softens the skin and turns your bathwater a fun pink color. It also has a rose inside that blooms in the water ($4.30). French Kiss Bubble Bar — This lavender bubble bar slice has the refreshing fragrance of lavender, rosemary and thyme ($6.95). Soft Coeur Massage Bar — $6.55. This heart-shaped shea and cocoa butter bar is filled with a sticky blend of honey and cocoa powder that melts all over your body ($6.55). To purchase these and other products online, or to find a LUSH store, go to www.lush.com. SEEING RED: If you’re cooking a romantic dinner for two this Valentine’s Day, check out T.J. Maxx’s decorative tabletop accessories to enhance the mood: Heart Napkin and Red Placemat Set — This eight-piece placemat set (four napkins, four placemats) is made of cotton and is machine washable. The napkins are 18 inches by 18 inches, and the placemats are 13 inches by 19 inches ($9.99). Red Ceramic Bowl — It has a flower imprint bordering the bowl and leaves on the inside ($2.99 each). Red Ceramic Plate — It matches the bowl and has a leaf border ($3.99 each). Colors and styles may vary among T.J. Maxx stores nationwide. Koontz strong in ‘Expectancy’ By CAROL DEEGAN ASSOCIATED PRESS “Life Expectancy.” By Dean Koontz. Bantam. 401 Pages. $27. ——— “Life Expectancy” begins in a Colorado hospital on a stormy night in 1974. Jimmy Tock is born at the very moment of his grandfather’s death, and in the final minutes of his life, Grandpa Tock predicts there will be “five terrible days” in Jimmy’s life. It is in the telling of Jimmy Tock’s impending birth that best-selling author Dean Koontz supplies an important clue to the events that follow. Grandpa Tock also accurately predicts that Jimmy will suffer from syndactyly, a congenital defect in which two or more fingers or toes are joined. Jimmy’s dad, Rudy Tock, shares the hospital’s expectantfathers’ waiting room with a chain-smoking clown named Konrad Beezo, who is married to Natalie, a trapeze artist. As they await the birth of their children — both boys, as it turns out — Beezo rails against his wife’s relatives, a renowned aerialist family that qualifies as circus royalty. The Vivacementes don’t approve of Beezo (they don’t want any one of their kind taking a clown for a husband). And as the bitter, deranged Beezo waits nervously, he mutters unkind judgments of his in-laws. Josef Tock, who predicted the dates of those “five terrible days” in his grandson’s life, also Photo by Bantam Books/Jerry Bauer | AP Dean Koontz appears to have another good one in ‘Life Expectancy.’ warns: “Don’t trust the clown.” But the fate of the Tock family is already forever entwined with the Beezos and the birth that night of Konrad’s son, Punchinello. On the surface, “Life Expectancy” is a wildly improbable tale about a pastry chef’s son who is menaced by crazy clowns and aerialists. But Koontz’s latest novel also is a ‘Lost German Slave Girl’ breaks barriers “The Lost German Slave Girl: The Extraordinary True Story of Sally Miller and Her Fight for Freedom in Old New Orleans” By John Bailey. How a 19th-century trial compelled America to re-examine the color line (Atlantic Monthly, $24). “Calamity and Other Stories”By Daphne Kalota. Well-made fictions on a delicate scale, from a professor at Boston University (Doubleday, $15). “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed,” by Jared Diamond. A keen historical observer explains how poor choices, whether environmental, cultural, or technological, led to some civilizations’ decline and fall (Viking, $29.95). “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking”By Malcolm Gladwell . A provocative, insightful analysis of instinct vs. experience in the way we make split-second decisions (Little, Brown, $25.95). Selected from books recently reviewed in the Boston Globe. “Baker Towers”By Jennifer Haigh. Set in a mining town in western Pennsylvania, Haigh’s second novel is a hypnotic portrait of a vanished industrial age (Morrow, $24.95). story of love as Jimmy and his wife, Lorrie — “prettier than a gateau a l’orange with chocolatebutter icing decorated with candied orange peel and cherries” — endure hostage-taking, explosions, abduction and gunfire. While Koontz may not be everyone’s cup of tea, those who savor his brew will be treated to a scary, powerful and entertaining story. Courtesy photo Culminating a lifetime friendship and a seven-year courtship, state Rep. Ryan Guillen and Dalinda Lopez were married December 28, 2004. The private ceremony was held in the ancient church, Pieve di San Leonardo in Artimino, Tuscany, just outside of Florence, Italy,where Guillen’s grandfather served during World War II.The church was built in the first millennia after the birth of Jesus Christ and is considered a rare example of pre-Romanesque architecture. The couple’s union was blessed by Pope John Paul II. Gardner strikes paydirt with Boston-based police thriller By ANNE STEPHENSON THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC Capsule reviews: “Alone” By Lisa Gardner (Bantam, $24) There’s nothing fancy about the writing in this thriller, but the storytelling — for most of the book, at least — is terrific. Bobby Dodge is acting as a sniper for Boston’s elite tactical police team when he kills a man who is threatening his wife and child with a gun. Bobby thinks he has followed procedure and saved two lives, but within hours he is a suspect in a possible homicide. It seems that the dead man’s father is a powerful judge who believes his daughter-in-law — a beautiful woman who was once the victim of a vicious pedophile — set up the shooting in order to escape her marriage and run off with her child and her husband’s money. Was Bobby her accomplice? Everyone in this book has a secret, and Gardner unveils them skillfully, connecting characters in farfetched but suspenseful ways. Unfortunately, it all falls apart at the end, in a climactic scene that has the feel of a Keystone Kops movie (except when characters pause to explain plot twists to each other even though they know there’s a deranged killer in the next room). It’s a silly finale in an otherwise satisfying book. “God’s Gym” By John Edgar Wideman (Houghton Mifflin, $23) Some of the 10 stories in this collection are sublime. Others are maddening. Among the latter are several that you will finish anyway, because Wideman is such a mesmerizing writer that the side trips he introduces aren’t enough to distract you from the heart of the story. A notable exception is “What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence,” in which he generates enough suspense to carry readers through rambling passages (two are about the heat and landscape of Arizona, which always ignite the fires of writers who live elsewhere), only to reach an ending that is abrupt and lame. In contrast, “Weight,” one of Wideman’s best stories, is a tribute to the narrator’s mother. It unfolds slowly, clarifying like the surface of a pond after a stone’s thrown in, and ends with a two-word sentence that will break your heart. Other stories include “Are Dreams Faster Than the Speed of Light,” in which a man contemplates his imminent death and its effect on his aged father, and “Sharing,” in which an encounter between neighbors trumps loneliness, if only for a while. “Good Dog” By Maya Gottfried, illustrations by Robert Rahway Zakanitch (Knopf, $15.95) Here’s a charming book for young children (ages 4-8) that probably will please their parents even more. Gottfried has written a short poem for each of 15 different dog breeds (a 16th is devoted to the most beloved creature of all, the happy mutt). Together, the poems and Zakanitch’s wonderful paintings convey the moods and idiosyncrasies of these animals, as well as the affection and compassion that exist between dog lovers and their favorite breeds. We’re at a disadvantage, here, in quoting Gottfried’s words without being able to show you Zakanitch’s mournful-looking bulldog, but here goes: “All I really want is a hug and a bone. / Is that too much to ask? / Maybe it’s the snout . . . or the snoring. / And the drool - well, it dries. / But you know, don’t you? That / Beneath this tough exterior there thumps a gentle heart.” Other dogs inspiring paintings and poems are a Westie (he’s on the cover), Boston terrier, chow, collie, Pekingese, Chihuahua, Maltese, corgi, Pomeranian, Springer spaniel, pug, borzoi, King Charles spaniel and Scottie. “The Underminer” By Mike Albo and Virginia Heffernan (Bloomsbury, $19.95) This will be released next week, which is good because it gives you time to work up the nerve to read it. The voice is that of the friend we’ve all had, the one who smilingly sows the seeds of self-doubt and smugly watches them grow. Her methods (or his — Albo keeps everyone’s gender rather