Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro5/21/2023 ![]() ![]() She remains hopeful that a customer will soon choose her. Here is the story of Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, who, from her place in the store, watches carefully the behavior of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass on the street outside. “What stays with you in Klara and the Sun is the haunting narrative voice - a genuinely innocent, egoless perspective on the strange behavior of humans obsessed and wounded by power, status and fear.” (Booker Prize committee) This magnificent novel from the Nobel laureate and author of Never Let Me Go is “an intriguing take on how artificial intelligence might play a role in our futures.a poignant meditation on love and loneliness” (The Associated Press). Once in a great while, a book comes along that changes our view of the world. ![]()
0 Comments
The new tsar book5/21/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() His inside-baseball account, often focused on little-known personalities and behind-the-scenes political machinations, will intrigue readers but leave them with only a shadowy picture of this enigmatic modern-day “tsar.” Agent: Larry Weissman, Larry Weissman Literary. ![]() Myers provides little historical context to explain Putin’s appeal and the broader Russian disposition. His book appears as tensions between the West and Russia are rapidly rising, involving areas from the Baltic to the Ukraine and escalating to threats of nuclear force. Myers concludes with Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. The narrative also covers Putin’s moves against the country’s oligarchs, such as the imprisonment of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and expropriation of his company, Yukos. They are revolutionaries who defy social standards. Myers emphasizes the suppression of internal dissent, which includes the Pussy Riot arrests and-many theorize-whistle-blower Alexander Litvinenko’s poisoning. The deeply faithful Dostoevsky is interested in a new generation - the young people who grew up after the abolition of serfdom in 1861. As the book reveals, his authoritarian, highly nationalistic style and assertive foreign policy are directed toward rebuilding Russian power in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, not reestablishing Soviet ideology. He ascended to power nine years later, and now controls the vast Russian Federation as tightly as a czar. Putin, a KGB operative, cannily decided to leave the agency during the Soviet collapse in 1991. New York Times reporter Myers has written a timely, richly detailed, if too narrowly focused biography of Vladimir Putin. ![]() Best charlotte bronte books5/21/2023 ![]() ![]() Here’s a brief highlight of some of Charlotte Brontë’s famous books. Books such as ‘ Jane Eyre’ and ‘ Shirley’ are among the most famous to her name, while others such as ‘ Villette’ and ‘ The Professor’ also come up as outstanding and important to society and the literary community. Her friend and publisher George Smith once revealed the author would have gladly swapped her fame and talent for beauty and looks.Ĭharlotte Brontë wrote several important books before her eventual death in March 1855.
![]() ![]() ![]() Somewhere along the way it got lost or sold or discarded but I have always kept an eye out for another copy so I could enjoy the story once again. I went off to college and left that book behind. That particular printing was under an alternate title, “The Synthetic Man,” and I have fond memories of reading that slim volume in a younger, simpler time for me. I remember picking up a copy of this book sometime in the mid-'80s, in a little section of paperbacks at one of the pawn shops near where I grew up in Texarkana, Texas. ![]() My room growing up was full of cheap paperbacks and sci-fi and fantasy magazines like “Analog” and “Galaxy.” My tastes have branched out over the years, but I always enjoy coming back to a good science-fiction or fantasy paperback, literary comfort food for my soul. Bradbury, Aldiss, Carter, Asimov, Moorcock, Blish….too many giants of the genre to mention wrote tales that staggered my young imagination. But it just seems like there was a certain extra gear of craftsmanship in the older novels and short stories. Oh, I like the modern stuff, too, don’t get me wrong. ![]() I’ll admit right off that one of my reading weaknesses is classic science fiction. ![]() Call Me Cassandra by Marcial Gala5/21/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Rauli cannot escape his doom any more than the nymph Thetis can protect her son, Achilles, by dressing him as a girl. Before he dies, though, he will converse with Greek gods and African orishas and be accompanied by a chorus of Erinyes that gives his story the shape of classical tragedy. Because he has Cassandra’s curse, he knows that he will die in Angola at 19. ![]() His difference will make him a target-for other kids, for his fellow soldiers, for the captain who brutally abuses him-but it also gives meaning to a life that he knows will be short. This is the historical backdrop for Gala’s tale of a boy from the port city of Cienfuegos who believes that he is the reincarnation of Cassandra, the priestess of Apollo “forever condemned to know the future and never be believed.” Rauli’s sense that he is in the wrong time and place is exacerbated by the fact that he is a slight, fair, bookish boy who likes to wear dresses in a culture that prizes machismo. Over the next decade and a half, more than 300,000 Cubans would participate in this proxy war between Soviet-style communism and Western powers led by the United States. In 1975, Cuba sent troops to support the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola in that country’s civil war. A figure from Greek mythology is reborn in the Caribbean in this novel by the award-winning author of The Black Cathedral (2020). ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The most popular author with the British public in those days was Edgar Wallace, who turned out dozens of racy thrillers and many passable detective stories: some of the best of these are collected in The Mind of Mr J.G. The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie’s first novel, was published in 1921 it was regarded as a good beginning but did not stand out dramatically from those around it. Much longer than this, and either the plot becomes too complex to follow or the author has to resort to padding. It was during this period that an ideal size for a detective novel was established at somewhere between 180 and 220 pages. More important was the change in publishing formats – short story magazines became less common and novels became much shorter novels appearing in the 1920s were only a half to a third the size of their Victorian counterparts. Unlike the Second World War, the First World War made little impact on detective fiction as we have seen, Freeman was able to ignore it altogether. Berkeley, Anthony - The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1928)ĭevelopments in Detective Fiction, 1914-1930 ![]() ![]() ![]() “Momma! Look!” a young child shouted as the mother tried to shush him. Yips and grows of warning rang through the air as the wolven raced through the trees and by the frightened people as they now froze where they were, cowering close to the ground. A piercing howl penetrated the stillness, followed by another and another. Setti tensed under me as I lifted the helmet, sliding in on.ĭeep in the woods, a murmur of unease sounded from those who fled the city. ![]() I removed the golden crown, letting it fall from my fingers, to the ground. “And those who have decided to remain?” I asked. “That is the last of those who have chosen to leave the Capital, your Highness.” Then the doors closed on the massive Rise. A monster? Liberator? Death?įor some, I would become all of those things before the day was done. The gaze of small girl with her cheek resting on her father’s shoulder met mine. A few, the youngest among them, stared with wide eyes. The stream of pale faces and harried features was endless as they passed the three of us, most not daring to even look in our direction. Others bore the burden of the elderly and the sick. Thousands poured from the Capital, carrying all that they could in their arms and on the backs. Armentrout, here’s the teaser she posted on facebook for book four: (Keep Reading because SPOILERS) FBAA Book 4 Teaser: The War of Two Queensįor those of you who just had your heart ripped out Landell style by Jennifer L. ![]() The strange case of origami yoda5/21/2023 ![]() ![]() The story begins when a social outcast in the school named Dwight Tharp creates a finger puppet that is dubbed "Origami Yoda." Tommy Lomax opens a case-file to investigate when it seems as though Dwight is using the Force to channel power through Origami Yoda to answer people's questions about topics such as life and love.Ī new threat emerges in the form of " Darth Paper," who unlike Origami Yoda, gives snide and crass answers to questions. Featuring Star Wars elements whose use was officially licensed by Lucasfilm Ltd., the series presents the adventures of a group of children in middle school. The Origami Yoda series of children's books was created by American author Tom Angleberger. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda, the first book in the series This article covers a Star Wars Legends subject that was published under the Infinities label or that Lucasfilm otherwise declared non-canon within the Legends continuity. This article is non-canon within the Star Wars Legends continuity. ![]() The gilded hour by sara donati5/21/2023 ![]() ![]() With the gravity-defying Brooklyn Bridge nearly complete and New York in the grips of anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock, Anna Savard and her cousin Sophie-both graduates of the Woman’s Medical School-treat the city’s most vulnerable, even if doing so may put everything they’ve strived for in jeopardy.Īnna's work has placed her in the path of four children who have lost everything, just as she herself once had. The year is 1883, and in New York City, it’s a time of dizzying splendor, crushing poverty, and tremendous change. ![]() DJ wrapped in protective plastic cover, pages clean and straight, light library markings, binding tight. ![]() Ex-library Hardcover in Good (G) condition. ![]() My heartbeat by garret freymann weyr5/20/2023 ![]() Perhaps it is because on some level I identify with quiet, socially awkward Ellen. I myself am struggling to put into words why this book moved me so much. The result is not an answer so much as a catalyst to a watershed of events and experiences that lead to a particularly moving coming of age. And when she finally decides to ask the question, “Are you gay?”. She doesn’t understand a lot of what is going on with her brilliant but secretive brother and James. Written in the first person, Ellen is from the very beginning struggling to understand the “unwritten social laws” that remain just beyond her comprehension. What this novel lacks in volume it makes up for in intensity. About the nature of love and of whether or not you can really know somebody else and about the art of seeing. About the nature of Link and James’ relationship. ![]() ![]() But as they enter their senior year of high school and Ellen is finally going to the same school as her two favourite people in the world, she sees how the two boys are the objects of much speculation and begins to ask questions of her own. She has all the company she needs in her older brother Link and his best friend James, with whom she is “totally madly in love”. ![]() Ellen is a fourteen year-old who doesn’t need many friends. ![]() |