![]() ![]() Morgan has given life to a tale as mythic and fraught as the South itself - a moral epic for our time. But when Allmon Shaughnessy, an ambitious young black man, comes to work on their farm after a stint in prison, the violence of the Forges' history and the exigencies of appetite are brought starkly into view.Įntangled by fear, prejudice, and lust, the three tether their personal dreams of glory to the speed and grace of Hellsmouth.Ī spiralling tale of wealth and poverty, racism and rage, The Sport of Kings is an unflinching portrait of lives cast in shadow by the enduring legacy of slavery. Henry Forge has partnered with his daughter, Henrietta, in an endeavour of raw obsession: to breed the next superhorse. Hellsmouth, an indomitable thoroughbred filly, runs for the glory of the Forge family, one of Kentucky's oldest and most powerful dynasties. ![]() Listen to me, I created this world with my own two hands, and I am going to leave it all to you Shortlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction 2017 ![]()
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![]() ![]() Culture of Removing Policies: At Netflix, there is no vacation policy nor there is travel and expense approvals. HIGH PERFROMANCE + CANDOR = EXTREMELY HIGH PERFROMANCEģ. At, Netflix, the day you don't say what you really think or stay salient, is the day you have done the most disservice to the company.
![]() ![]() ![]() It was fun holiday reading but I won’t remember it in 5 minutes. The writing in this book feels very YA, but the steamy scenes definitely do not. ![]() And of course, their romance rekindles.Ī little bit mystery, a little bit romcom, with a dash of spice. Her sexy ex, Rhys, starts making a mess of things around town so the two must team up to stop impending doom. This short, steamy little story follows a newbie witch named Vivienne who accidentally puts a hex on a boy that she recently dumped, only to meet up with him again 9 years later and still feel totally attracted to him. I think it took me about 37 minutes to read. Not all spooky season reading has to be thrillers and horror! The Ex Hex is an easy, breezy romcom for your holiday entertainment. As we wrap up our spooky season reading, I thought I’d share this light hearted little romcom. ![]() ![]() I bought this on a whim, after being stunned by the ethereal beauty and insight of A Field Guide to Getting Lost this summer, which I reviewed HERE. ![]() A product of the California public education system from kindergarten to graduate school, she is a columnist at the Guardian and a regular contributor to Literary Hub. Her forthcoming memoir, Recollections of My Nonexistence, is scheduled to release in March, 2020. ![]() Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than twenty books on feminism, western and indigenous history, popular power, social change and insurrection, wandering and walking, hope and disaster, including Call Them By Their True Names (Winner of the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction), Cinderella Liberator, Men Explain Things to Me, The Mother of All Questions, and Hope in the Dark, and co-creator of the City of Women map, all published by Haymarket Books a trilogy of atlases of American cities, The Faraway Nearby, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Wanderlust: A History of Walking, and River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West (for which she received a Guggenheim, the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism, and the Lannan Literary Award). ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I tentatively settle on four stars, because the parts I liked, I really really loved. I was quite torn about what rating to give this book. You can read my full review at my website Andy's Anachronisms. Kalp as a character will remain with readers long after they finish the book. Frey has managed to create in Kalp a wholly believable and touching character that is both alien in his biology and sexuality, and yet immediately recognizable and accessible for readers. Meanwhile his attempts to understand human culture and not offend his hosts are both heartbreaking and amusing by turns. We feel Kalp's pain acutely at his loss of his homeworld and his consuming loneliness before he is accepted by Gwen and Basil. Personally, my favorite chapters were the ones told from Kalp's point of view. Frey pulls no punches in her depiction of the humanity of Gwen and Basil as they come to accept Kalp, including some very graphic and touching sex scenes, or in the depravity and savagery of humanity as several of the aliens are the targets of vicious attacks in the novel. Gwen, Basil and Kalp get caught up in a plot of intrigue as various memebers of the institute are targeted and a wedge is slowly driven between the more tolerant humans and their alien guests. Frey successfully creates a complex world in Triptych, where a lot of larger events unfold around her characters, yet always makes the story feel personal and intimate. ![]() ![]() ![]() But this, argues Pixar cofounder Ed Catmull with the help of journalist Amy Wallace in an especially enthralling chapter of the altogether excellent Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration ( public library), is a grave mistake itself - not only from an abstract moral standpoint, but also as a practical strategy for cultivating a strong creative culture in a company and an entrepreneurial spirit within ourselves as individuals. And yet most of us, being human and thus fallible yet proud, go to excruciating lengths to avoid making mistakes, then once we inevitably do, we take great pains to hide them from ourselves and the world. “The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them - especially not from yourself,” philosopher Daniel Dennett asserted in his magnificent meditation on the dignity and art-science of making mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before,” Neil Gaiman urged in his commencement-address-turned-manifesto-for-the-creative life. ![]() ![]() ![]() In the novel, Souljah is the antithesis of Winter. Both on and off the page, Sister Souljah is a prominent activist. While the novel is a work of fiction, the author makes herself a nonfiction character. In this way, it’s clear that drugs, violence, and prison are inextricably linked in the novel. By the end of the novel, Winter ends up sentenced to 15 years in prison for helping her drug dealing and illegal gun selling boyfriend. Early in the novel, Winter’s mother is shot in the face by a rival drug-dealing gang, and her father is imprisoned. Inherent to the drug-dealing lifestyle comes a level of violence and the constant threat of prison time. Selling drugs is what makes Winter’s family wealthy, but it’s also what leads to her family’s ultimate downfall. Much urban fiction deals with themes such as prison, drugs, and violence, and The Coldest Winter Ever is no different. In this way, Winter’s sexuality is as much a focus of the novel as her family’s involvement in the dealing of drugs. As a result, much of the novel details Winter’s most intimate thoughts and moments with men she doesn’t shy away from describing men’s genitals or her physical sensations during sex. She is acutely aware of her sexuality and how best to use it to get what she wants. ![]() ![]() Winter is best described as self-absorbed and highly carnal. Told from Winter’s point of view, the language in the novel often reflects hip hop and street culture colloquialisms. ![]() ![]() There's an interview with Garner and a lecture at the Oxford literary festival in March, an exhibition of the author's works in Chester this autumn, and most joyfully, a weekend festival in October in Alderley Edge where, among guided walks and lectures and readings and commemorative badges, there will even be a medieval fair.Ĭount me in: The Weirdstone of Brisingamen is a book that deserves to be celebrated, along with the rest of Garner's dark, unforgettable children's books: The Weirdstone's sequel The Moon of Gomrath, The Owl Service and Elidor. But I'm reminded of my childhood adoration of Garner by the startling news that it is 50 years – 50 years! – since he published The Weirdstone, his first novel, and the occasion is being marked with events throughout this year. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened, and we returned home. ![]() ![]() I wanted the svart-alfar to attack me, Cadellin to rescue me, and the still, anticipatory atmosphere of those dimly lit woods almost convinced me they might. ![]() ![]() We went to an autumnal wedding near Alderley Edge when I was 10, and I remember so clearly the walk we went on the next day: cold and gloomy and grey though it was, I scurried off by myself to lean against a rock and try, desperately to imagine myself into the world of Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. ![]() ![]() ![]() The following Tales are meant to be submitted to the young reader as an introduction to the study of Shakespeare, for which purpose his words are used whenever it seemed possible to bring them in and in whatever has been added to give them the regular form of a connected story, diligent care has been taken to select such words as might least interrupt the effect of the beautiful English tongue in which he wrote: therefore, words introduced into our language since his time have been as far as possible avoided. Download cover art Download CD case insert Tales from ShakespeareĬharles Lamb (1775 - 1834) and Mary Lamb (1764 - 1847) ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() So many drug references and descriptions were included though, to the author's credit, were not described in a positive light. I think part of what the author had in mind was to nurture wonder and an appreciation for stories and lovely, different things, which is a noble purpose, but everything ended up coming across with a bent toward sorcery and witchcraft.Ī character in the story acts seductively to get what she wants, attempts to teach a young girl to do the same, and runs a drug den. This had well-developed vocabulary and was well-written, but was so heavy on the idea that magic is what keeps our world alive and without it we'd all die. ![]() However, there was major emphasis on magic, charms, spells, and summoning magical things and people from a set of 4 magical books. This second installment was also mysterious, fast-paced, and intriguing. The first book in the series was eccentric, mysterious, somewhat gruesome, and a tad violent. ![]() |