![]() It's told in a dual timeline, and the writing style for the 1917 chapters is soo much better than the 1926 chapters. The First Bright Thing had all the buzzwords that usually appeal to me, but for some reason, the writing was so stilted and slow I could not get into it. ![]() I have a rule of thumb, that if a book does not draw me in in the first quarter, I am no longer wasting my time on it. This was a really impressive book, especially considering it’s a debut novel! It was really impactful to see the events of the World Wars juxtaposed with the magic of the Circus of the Fantasticals. There were so many sad, horrible moments but also a lot of happy, beautiful moments. The dichotomy of this story really hit me. I love when a group of perceived misfits and outcasts find their home with one another and that’s exactly what Rin’s circus gave to these characters. The found family feeling to this book was superb. ![]() The beginning of the book felt a little slow to me but the pacing picked up deeper into the story. It had an atmospheric quality to it that transported the reader right into the circus and the world of the Sparks. It was so very immersive and just added a lot of depth to the story itself. It was a really interesting mix of fantasy and historical fiction with a bit of romance sprinkled in. This was such a cool story! Don’t get me wrong, it was definitely emotional and deep but it was unlike anything I’ve read before. ![]()
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![]() ![]() When he does just that, AJ and his group of scrappy friends begin a series of amazing journeys to the past-1830, to be exact. While on the job, AJ finds an old key labeled with his birth date, and he’s determined to find the door it will open. ![]() So when he’s offered a junior clerk position at a London law firm, he hopes his life is about to change-and it does, but he could never have imagined how much. Will he find it in the past or the present? AJ Flynn has just failed all but one of his major exams, and at almost seventeen years old, he sees a future that’s far from rosy. In this fast-paced young adult mystery, Printz Honor winner Sally Gardner brings London to life as she explores crime, poverty, and ignorance over the span of almost two centuries, as a young man is given the opportunity to go back in time in order to make sense of the present. ![]() ![]() ![]() VanderMeer is a prolific author-writing short stories and non-fiction as well as novels. ![]() He first became a best-selling author with his trilogy, The Southern Reach, which consists of the books Annihilation, which was adapted into a Hollywood film starring Natalie Portman, Authority, and Acceptance. Eco-fiction? Definitely-the New Yorker has named him the “King of Weird fiction.” But however you classify it, VanderMeer’s work is utterly his own and absolutely fascinating. ![]() Fantasy? Well, he won the World Fantasy Award three times. ![]() Jeff VanderMeer is a prizewinning author and former NEA literary fellow whose work eludes genre classification. And this is Art Works, the weekly podcast produced at the National Endowment for the Arts. Jo Reed: That's author Jeff VanderMeer describing the plot of his novel Borne, which is one of the newest Big Read titles. Music Credit: “NY” composed and performed by Kosta T, from the cd, Soul Sand. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() As Steinem observed, ' I think Hefner himself wants to go down in history as a person of sophistication and glamour. Spanning two decadesfrom the early sixties to the early eightiesthe pieces in Gloria Steinem's diverse, stimulating, and often prescient first collection dare to ask how our world might change for the better if we each behaved ' as if everyone mattered.' An early assignment as a ' girl reporter,' going undercover as a Bunny in Hugh Hefner's Playboy Club, becomes an eye-opening expose of appalling work conditions and sexual harassment. ![]() This New York Times bestseller from the legendary feminist featured in the film The Two Glorias is as relevant today as when it was first published. ![]() ![]() ![]() “Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.” (When I read this, I cheered.) How can you understand the meanings of words without knowing their roots? asks Mr. “I almost always urge people to write in the first person,” says William Zinsser. ![]() Each of the books pro‐ vides a useful checklist of warnings and prescriptions-stop usinab the illogical form of the adverb “hopefully” in such a sentence as “Hopefully, he will undertake the project hopefully” look up the true meaning of such words as “escalate” and “preempt” before you misuse them in any more sentences: learn to distinguish between “repel” and “repulse,” “precipitate” and “precipitous,” and “compose” and “comprise.”Įach of the books confirms certain of my pet enthusiasms. As someone who makes his living by putting words together, I cannot finally fault these two guides to writing better-one of them, “Simple & Direct,” a quasitextbook by Jacques Barzun, who last year retired from a distinguished teaching career at Columbia University the other, “On Writing Well,” based on a course taught at Yale by the popular journalist William Zinsser. ![]() ![]() ![]() Yes, Darren Shan is the name that will spring to the minds of most young people when asked to name a writer of YA horror, but his Demonata stories can appear amateurish in comparison with the output of Alan Gibbons. Now Witch Breed, the fourth book in the series, has been published and I feel very confident in proclaiming that in my opinion this is the best YA horror series around today. ![]() At the time I was somewhat effusive with my praise for the series. One woman - whether innocent or guilty - possesses the only power available that can help Paul in his quest.īack in April, as part of my horror themed month, I reviewed the whole series (so far) of Alan Gibbons' Hell's Underground books. ![]() Meanwhile, beyond the city, innocent women are being killed for it is so easy to claim that they are witches. But Paul too has his own weapons and is gaining strength and losing inhibitions about using it. Somewhere underground, Lud is waiting in his crypt, preparing to rise again. Instead, Paul roams alone, learning how to survive in a city where all the talk is of the savage civil war that rages beyond its ramparts. When Paul arrives in 17th century London, he expects to be thrown into a life or death struggle for the three gates that imprison the ancient King Lud. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Jade Daniels is an angry, half-Indian outcast with an abusive father, an absent mother, and an entire town that wants nothing to do with her. But beneath is its beating heart: a biting critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification, and a heartbreaking portrait of a broken young girl who uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life. Shirley Jackson meets Friday the 13th in My Heart Is a Chainsaw, written by the author of The Only Good Indians Stephen Graham Jones, called “a literary master” by National Book Award winner Tananarive Due and “one of our most talented living writers” by Tommy Orange.Īlma Katsu calls My Heart Is a Chainsaw “a homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre.” On the surface is a story of murder in small-town America. In her quickly gentrifying rural lake town Jade sees recent events only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror films could have prepared her for in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones. “Horror fans be blown away by this audacious extravaganza.” ![]() ![]() ![]() #design #strategicdesign #afghanistanwar #pentagon #JPME #nsc #whitehouse #terrorism #clausewitz #strategy #rand #warfare #management #internationalrelations #usmc #war #personaldevelopment #conflict #csis #cia #dod #sof #russia #hybrid #militaryhistory #future #hybridwar #innovation #china #india #grayzone #asiapacific #usa #politicalscience #britain #rusi #american #securitystudies #grandstrategy #strategicstudies #army #pme #defence #newbooks #securityprofessionals #limitedwar #europe #defense #russia #nato #otan #dni #nationalsecurity #intelligence #analysis #hybrid #hybridthreats #securitystrategy #aies #grayzone #culture #technology #productivity #carreers #leadership #innovation #strategicthinking #history #usmc #counterinsurgency #insurgency #coin #navy #airforce #coastguard #security #publications #afghanistan It is updated with information on Afghanistan and a new conclusion. The paperback version of my "Why America Loses Wars" has just been released. ![]() ![]() Five years later, I am still seething with indignation. 'Helen Garner writes the best sentences in Australia.'Īugust 2022. 'Garner has always had a mimic's ear for dialogue and an eye for unconscious symbolism, the clothes and gestures with which we give ourselves away.' 'She is outstanding in the accuracy of her observations, the intensity of passion.her radar-sure humour.' There is not a paragraph, let alone a page, where she does not compel your attention.' 'Helen Garner is an extraordinarily good writer. In 2006 she won the Melbourne Prize for Literature. Her most recent books are The First Stone, True Stories, My Hard Heart, The Feel of Stone and Joe Cinque's Consolation. She is also one of Australia's most respected non-fiction writers, and received a Walkley Award for journalism in 1993. ![]() ![]() She has published many works of fiction including Monkey Grip, Cosmo Cosmolino and The Children's Bach. Helen Garner was born in Geelong in 1942. ![]() ![]() WONDER at the daring theft of the priceless CLOCKWORK SPARROW! TREMBLE as the most DASTARDLY criminals in London enact their wicked plans! GASP as our bold heroines, Miss Sophie Taylor and Miss Lilian Rose, CRACK CODES, DEVOUR ICED BUNS and vow to bring the villains to justice… *** Cover and interior illustrations by Júlia Sardà ‘A wonderful book, with a glorious heroine and a true spirit of adventure’ – Katherine Rundell, award-winning author of Rooftoppers Katie, age 10 for .uk – 'A brilliant historical detective novel – I read it in one sitting and couldn’t put it down! The characters were really believable and the story was so exciting. Read more hats, perfumes and MYSTERIES around every corner. You are cordially invited to attend the Grand Opening of Sinclair’s department store! Enter a world of bonbons. Perfect for fans of Enid Blyton, Chris Riddell's Goth Girl and Robin Stevens' Murder Most Unladylike series. A fast-paced historical mystery adventure for readers aged 9+, with gorgeous Edwardian period detail. Katherine Woodfine's bestselling debut novel. Wonder at the daring theft of the priceless Clockwork Sparrow! Tremble as the Dastardly criminals in London enact their wicked plans! Gasp as our bold heroines, Miss Sophie Taylor and Miss Lilian Rose, Crack Codes, Devour Iced Buns and vow to bring the villains to justice. ![]() ![]() Enter a world of bonbons, hats, perfumes and Mysteries around every corner. Description for The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow Paperback. ![]() |