5/27/2023 0 Comments Red clocks zumas![]() ![]() With spare prose that sets a tone as chilly and bleak as the Oregon coastal setting, Zumas doesn’t shy away from the grotesque while presenting a tale that’s haunting, thought provoking and painfully timely.ĪLSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our Q&A with Leni Zumas for Red Clocks. Why can Eivør watch the gruesome slaughter of pilot whales but not lambs? Why can Mattie conceive an unwanted baby when Ro can’t get pregnant? Zumas plays with extremes, exposing the inner hypocrite in everyone, including the reader. Gin, an introverted healer, becomes the subject of a witch-hunt after being accused of conspiring to perform an abortion.Įach woman explores her sense of self and what it means to be selfish or selfless about her desires and ambitions. ![]() Susan, a mother of two, is so unhappy with her nuclear family that she contemplates driving off a cliff. Also 42, Ro dreams of having a child, but under the new Personhood Amendment and the “Every Child Needs Two” act, in vitro fertilization is banned, and adoption is reserved for married couples. Ro, a high school teacher, works tirelessly on her biography of the 19th-century trailblazing Faroese explorer Eivør Mínervudottír, who shucked societal norms for decades, ultimately freezing to death at age 42 on a polar expedition. ![]() Leni Zumas refers to her protagonists by these descriptors, invoking the reductive distance from which women are viewed in a patriarchal society: “That’s someone’s daughter.” They are also Ro, Mattie, Susan, Gin and Eivør-the dynamic women of Zumas’ magnificent second novel, Red Clocks. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() Looking to express herself through literature, she’d always show a strong fascination for reading and writing. With a lot more to follow this isn’t stopping any time soon either, as her writing career keeps growing from strength-to-strength.īorn and raised in American, Joanna Davidson Politano would grow up with a strong passion for the written word. ![]() Always looking for the goodness in people and humanity, her work reflects this, with it being accessible to read, whilst leaving a lasting impression. With a message and something to say, she’s never been afraid to speak her mind, and this is something that many readers the world over have warmed to.įast becoming a household name, she’s enjoyed a great deal of success with her work, which has included both fiction and non-fiction in the past. This is something that continually runs throughout all of her work, conveying a sense of positivity and life affirming lessons. ![]() The American author Joanna Davidson Politano is as well known for her inspirational literature and stories, as she is her faith. ![]() 5/27/2023 0 Comments Colson whitehead zone one review![]() ![]() ![]() Like every survivor, Mark Spitz suspects he has PASD (Post-Apocalyptic Stress Disorder) and struggles to keep his memory and sentimentality in check.Īfter all, Whitehead notes - authorial tongue planted firmly in cheek - Mark Spitz had grown up on Long Island and always wanted to live in New York. ![]() But now he works with Kaitlyn and Gary, the other two members of Omega Unit, a civilian sweeper crew that clears zombie "stragglers" out of "Zone One," formerly known as lower Manhattan. Mark Spitz spent a long stretch of time out in this zombie wasteland, cohabitating occasionally with other survivors on the run. Where: Norris Center's Red Oak Ballroom, Cit圜entre, 800 W. HOUSTON CHRONICLE BOOK & AUTHOR DINNERĬolson Whitehead will appear with John Besh, Anthony Horowitz, Sylvia Nasar and Calvin Trillin at the Chronicle's Book & Author Dinner. ![]() 5/27/2023 0 Comments Faceless killers wallander![]() The first in both the book and television series is “Faceless Killers.” Recently divorced detective, Kurt Wallander, is sent to determine who killed an elderly couple who lived on a farm deep in the Swedish countryside while trying to regain control of his personal life and break developing bad habits. The series ended back in 2016, but it is high time the books be given a second glance. BBC’s “Wallander” series is a television adaptation of Swedish author, Henning Mankell’s works. Where film goes, television is sure to follow. From “Black Panther” and its comic book inspiration to Jane Austen’s influences on “Clueless,” directors and producers are smitten with adapting these stories into blockbusters and, sometimes, using them to make subtle social comments. For example, many popular movies and television shows were books first. When lacking inspiration, people often turn to books. ![]() ![]() – Over a century’s worth of cases, from Conan Doyle’s 1890s parodies of his own creation to Neil Gaiman’s “The Case of Death and Honey” (2011) ![]() No matter if your favorite Holmes is Basil Rathbone, Jeremy Brett, Robert Downey, Jr., or Benedict Cumberbatch, whether you are a lifelong fan or only recently acquainted with the Great Detective, readers of all ages are sure to enjoyThe Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories. Henry, not to mention genre-bending cases by science-fiction greats Poul Anderson and Michael Moorcock. Hughes, Kingsley Amis) and current (Anne Perry, Stephen King, Colin Dexter) and parodies by Conan Doyle’s contemporaries A. ![]() King, Lyndsay Faye and Daniel Stashower pastiches by literary luminaries both classic (P. Featuring pitch-perfect cases by acclaimed modern-day Sherlockians Leslie S. John Watson, published over a span of more than a hundred years. ![]() Here, Otto Penzler collects eighty-three wonderful stories about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Ever since his first appearance, in Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1887 novella A Study in Scarlet, readers have loved reading about him almost as much as writers have loved writing about him. Presenting Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler's latest anthology, The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories, the largest collection of Sherlockian tales ever assembled-now in a deluxe hardcover edition, perfect for the collector and gift markets.Īrguably no other character in history has been so enduringly popular as Sherlock Holmes. ![]() 5/27/2023 0 Comments The Fire Rose by Mercedes Lackey![]() ![]() Fortunately, the Fates, and a few magickal creatures, are watching out for her and she is offered a position as tutor to the children of Jason Cameron, a rail baron with a coastal estate south of San Francisco. Rose is suicidal after her father's death leaves her destitute and unable to continue her language studies at the University of Chicago. It begins with an intriguing premise, relocating the classic love story to 1905 San Francisco and the wild coast of Northern California. And so the romance in The Fire Rose is off to a promising start. In a story that teaches us to see beyond appearances, who better than a bookish woman to not judge a Beast by his exterior? Indeed, Rose comes to know her Beast through letters and conversation before ever laying eyes on him. ![]() Rosalind "Rose" Hawkins is a bookworm of the most academic sort, with a knowledge of ancient languages and a pair of corrective lenses attesting to her studiousness. And so it is in Mercedes Lackey's retelling, The Fire Rose. Disney's Belle is seduced not by the opulence of the Beast's castle or his all-singing, all-dancing dinnerware, but by his incredible library. It is the ultimate story of what Huey Lewis would call the transformational "Power of Love." And my favorite heroines are bookworms. I LOVE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: the original telling by Jeanne-Marie le Prince du Beaumont, the adaptations by the Brothers Grimm, Cupid and Psyche, Disney, even Jane Eyre. ![]() 5/27/2023 0 Comments The cost of hope by amanda bennett![]() ![]() The book is an impressive feat and a darn good read, reflecting the skills Amanda acquired during decades of reporting and editing, as well as her biting wit, knack for the just right anecdote, and pitch perfect ear for the incisive quote. Along the way, Amanda dishes one of the most illuminating and digestible accounts I’ve read of why the U.S health care system is an unfathomable mess. ![]() ![]() In her latest book, The Cost of Hope: The Story of a Marriage, a Family, and the Quest for Life (Random House), Amanda carries off a high-wire act worthy of a novel, as she weaves together a hilarious retelling of the couple’s courtship in claustrophobic, pre-boom China and their cross-country lives together in the U.S., as they build a family and she builds a career, with a heart-tugging tale of their nine-year battle with Terrence’s cancer. Little did I know that her most enduring adventure there was her raucous romance with her late husband, the exceedingly eccentric polymath Terrence Foley. I first met Amanda Bennett in 1983 when she joined the New York bureau of the Wall Street Journal after her several-year posting for the paper in Peking (it was still Peking then). ![]() ![]() ![]() Such a tumultuous political past arises in part from a fascinating native people, and "A History of the Czech Lands" profiles the Czechs in great detail, delving into past and present traditions and explaining how generation after generation adapted to a perpetually changing government and economy. Panek and Tuma's history begins in the Neolithic era and follows the development of the state as it transformed into the Kingdom of Bohemia during the ninth century, into Czechoslovakia after World War I, and finally into the Czech Republic. With "A History of the Czech Lands", editors Jaroslav Panek and Oldrich Tuma - along with several scholars from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Charles University Prague - provide one of the most complete historical accounts of this region to date. Despite its youth as a nation, this land and the areas just outside its modern borders boasts an ancient and intricate past. ![]() Born January 1, 1993, after it split with Slovakia, the Czech Republic is one of the youngest members of the European Union. ![]() ![]() ![]() (If you sense an animal theme, I’m guilty as charged.)The library visits sparked wonder and imagination – and were only made possible by a parent who could take us. It’s how I met the venerable Clifford, Arthur, and Berenstain Bears. But the real joy – and first taste of independence – came afterward when our mom would let us wander the aisles choosing new books to check out. What I do remember are regular trips to the public library in Merrillville, Indiana, with my mom and twin sister.We’d enter the book fortress and make a beeline for the children’s floor upstairs. I grew up in the era of Toys R Us, when Geoffrey the Giraffe beckoned kids from across the parking lot or through the television screen to a wonderland that seemed to offer every toy imaginable. Yet, other than a vague recollection of toy-filled aisles, I have no specific memory attached to that store. ![]() 5/26/2023 0 Comments A god in ruins series![]() ![]() and it should be talked about because it was risky and well-handled. The two things about life that resonated with me long after i closed the book had nothing to do with its structural playfulness, which seems to be "the thing" about the book that most people wanna talk about. ![]() who does not spend this book dying on every other page, lucky girl. I say "technically," because although teddy is definitely the center of this book, we are still treated to the stories and perspectives of some of our other friends from life, as well as some new additions: sylvie, izzie, nancy, hugh, sunny, viola, bertie. if you have not read Life After Life - what the crap is wrong with you? go!! read!! meet us back here when you're done! this is a companion book to Life After Life, and technically, it is "teddy's story." teddy, you will recall from life, is ursula's little brother. ![]() |