6/28/2023 0 Comments El sueno del celta![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In 1904, Roger Casement exposed the atrocities of the Belgians in the Congo, and later the genocide committed by Peruvians and British against the Colombian indians – the Bora and Huitoto – of the Amazonian Putumayo. Using slave methods, many children and women were chained by the neck and under the threat of receiving a beating, even to the point of exhaustion and death, forced to extract rubber as demand around the world grew for this commodity. Mario Vargas Llosa, the winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature isn’t the first writer who has tried to rescue the memory of Sir Roger David Casement, the 19th Century Irish nationalist and central character of the Nobel Laureate’s book “El Sueño del Celta” (The Dream of the Celt). ![]()
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![]() ![]() Kerman comes across as much more aware of her privilege in the memoir, and her situation is a fair bit shittier. But it turns out that the changes made to Piper for the show are largely responsible for her ability to vex.Kerman’s career – a jobbing editor and producer – is swapped out for a boutique soup company in the show. Given that she’s based on a real person who is lurking around in the credits, I figured this was an awkward, unfixable, holdover. I’m not alone in finding Piper Chapman somewhat annoying. ![]() ![]() Piper Kerman was named as a co-conspirator in a drug ring and served 13 months of a 15-month sentence from February 2004 to March 2005. The real Piper served time in FCI Danbury (just over the border in Connecticut rather than the New York of the show’s Litchfield). Piper Chapman is based on Piper Kerman, loosely in some aspects and closely in others. ![]() 6/28/2023 0 Comments Bill mcgowan coloring the news![]() ![]() "Coloring the News" is an impressively documented and provocative book about how a journalism slanted by good intentions has allowed a narrow multicultural orthodoxy to restrict debate just at the point when information about America's changing national identity needs to be robust, knowledgeable and honest. Along the way, he dissects the way the press "mis-told" key stories involving figures like Kara Hultgren (the Navy fighter pilot who died after missing a carrier landing), Kelly Flinn (the Air Force officer cashiered for an affair with a married man) and Patrick Chavis (the black physician who was once a poster boy for affirmative action and then had his license taken away because of medical incompetence). Focusing on coverage of the "diversity issues" of immigration, race, gay rights, feminism and affirmative action, McGowan gives a fascinating analysis of what stories get reported and how. William McGowan opens the door to the newsrooms at "USA Today," the "New York Times," the "Washington Post" and other pillars of the "mainstream press" in this carefully researched investigation of how the quest for "diversity" has affected American journalism. ![]() 6/28/2023 0 Comments Ida, Always by Caron Levis![]() Gus’ distress is emphasized in large, bold type: “ ‘Don’t go,’ he growled. The book is very blunt about what’s happening: “one day, when her body stopped working, Ida would die.” Levis writes about death and the bears’ mutual devotion with surprising beauty: “There were growling days and laughing days / and days that mixed them up.” But some of the most affecting passages are hardly poetic at all. Some days, Ida is too weak to swim or play, and sometimes she coughs or sleeps too long. This is apt, as the main characters in the book are Gus and Ida, two polar bears living in the city zoo. They’re city skies, so the clouds are shaped like buses and taxis, but sometimes they look like bears chasing each other through the air. When the sky isn’t visible, it’s usually reflected in a pool of water. There’s a spectacular view of the sky on almost every page of the story. ![]() This is a picture book about loss and grief, so it is probably not a coincidence that it is pictorially dominated by skies. ![]() ![]() ![]() We do have our fair share of bigots, though, just like every other part of the globe. Since we’re in the South, some assume we’re all racist, and that simply isn’t true. Most of my stories take place in Louisiana because I want to give a different view of life here for those who have probably heard negative things about my home state. I purposely make the small towns I include in some of my stories fictional because they are a conglomeration of the things I admired most about the places I’ve visited in south Louisiana. ![]() ![]() I love anything to do with the water, so these places are particularly interesting to me, and they all have their own unique character. The towns in swampland tend to be smaller, and most are tied to the fishing and shrimping industry. Unlike the rest of the states along the Gulf, Louisiana doesn’t have a typical coast the majority of it is swamp. I’ve always enjoyed exploring my home state, especially the small towns near the Gulf of Mexico. I grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and I live in the small town of Walker, just outside of Baton Rouge. Where did you grow up and where do you live now? How has the area influenced your writing? Thank you for inviting me, TB! I’m thrilled with this opportunity to connect with the wonderful people who read my books. ![]() More details are below.īefore we begin, thanks so much for stopping by today for a chat. She’s giving away seven e-copies of Kellen’s Moment to seven lucky winners. ![]() 6/28/2023 0 Comments Hunting ground alpha and omega![]() The stage is set, and the werewolves of North America are ready to come out of the supernatural closet. Now Anna and Charles must combine their talents to hunt down the real killer – or Charles will take the fall. Charles’s reputation makes him the prime suspect, and the penalty for the crime is execution. Mated to werewolf Charles Cornick, the son – and enforcer – of the leader of the North American werewolves, Anna Latham now knows how dangerous being a werewolf is, especially when a werewolf opposes Charles and his father is struck down. And last year, I read and loved Cry Wolf, got to interview the lovely Patty Briggs in person, and…well, do you really need any more? Long story short, I was chomping at the bit to get my paws on Hunting Ground. Then, I discovered her new Urban Fantasy series about a coyote shapeshifter VW mechanic named Mercy, and I was hooked. ![]() I’m a huge fan girl and have been since discovering her fantasy novels in middle school. Why did I read this book: It’s no surprise I adore Patricia Briggs. Stand alone or series: The second full length novel in the Alpha & Omega series, following last year’s release of Cry Wolf, though it’s really the third entry in the series proper (the first story is a novella titled “Alpha and Omega” in the On the Prowl anthology). ![]() Publication Date: August 2009 (US)/October 2009 (UK) ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Reviewers LOVE Bunny's Book Club Goes to School: "Silvestro and Mai-Wyss make plain the joys of intellectual curiosity and exploration, and their message is clear: Libraries and schools are wonderful places to learn, grow, and seek your joy."-Kirkus "In this appealing story, Silvestro offers a new twist on the familiar first-day jitters theme by switching from the child's perspective to the outsiders' point of view. ![]() Bunny has an idea: He'll go with her! Soon, Bunny's friends Bear, Raccoon, Bird, Porcupine, Squirrel, Mole, Mouse, and Frog decide to join him-and Josie's first day of school turns into a critter-filled adventure! For any child starting school, here's a comforting, funny, and very fuzzy celebration of friendship that will make everyone excited to hit the books. But one summer day, their library buddy Josie confesses to Bunny that she's nervous about starting school. Bunny and his forest friends meet at the town library every Saturday morning for book club. Bunny and his forest friends from Bunny's Book Club are back! And this time they're heading to class to make sure their young friend has the best first day of school ever. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() They would remain life-long friends.Īfter several years, mother Eliza moved the family to Fort Union, where she cooked for Army officers. While there, young Marion was befriended by famed mountain man Kit Carson, who nicknamed her Little Maid Marion. Marion and her brother attended Catholic schools (even though they were Protestants) and they were among the very few Anglo children at the time in the exotic city of Santa Fe. Mother Eliza's savings were stolen, aborting the family's journey to California.Įver resourceful, the family settled in Santa Fe, where Eliza ran a boarding house. After a stop at the then-new Army outpost of Fort Union, the family continued on to Santa Fe, where disaster struck. This was seven-year-old Marion's first journey along the Santa Fe Trail. The family set off from their home in the Midwest for California in 1852. Marion Sloan Russell with her husband Richard. ![]() ![]() Bauby died just ten days later of pneumonia. The book was published in France in 1997. To make dictation more efficient, Bauby had his interlocutor read from a special alphabet which consisted of the letters ordered in accordance with their frequency in the French language. Bauby had to compose and edit the book entirely in his head, and convey it one letter at a time. Bauby also lost 60 pounds in the first 20 weeks after his stroke.ĭespite his condition, he wrote the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by blinking when the correct letter was reached by a person slowly reciting the alphabet over and over again. This rare condition is called Locked-in Syndrome, a condition wherein the mental faculties are intact but the entire body is paralyzed. ![]() When he woke up twenty days later, he found he was entirely speechless he could only blink his left eyelid. ![]() On Decemat the age of 43, Bauby suffered a massive stroke. Jean-Dominique Bauby was a well-known French journalist and author and editor of the French fashion magazine, ELLE. ![]() 6/27/2023 0 Comments The case of missing marquess![]() ![]() Sherlock and Mycroft come to the estate, and treat Enola with little more consideration than a housepet, being patronizing and condescending, and planning to pack her off to boarding school.Enola, who has a mind of her own that is quite the equal steel of the brothers' (although it takes them a while to grasp this), will have none of that, and is bent on finding her mother. ![]() The tale begins with the disappearance of Enola's mother, on Enola's fourteenth birthday. ![]() Her two older brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft, live in London, and are estranged from their mother and young sister since the death of their father about a decade before. She is a late child, born when her mother was thought to be rather beyond child-bearing years. Springer has created a genuinely inspired character of depth, passion, emotion, and isn't afraid to make her fallible and and occasionally unlikeable - in other words, a believable fourteen-year-old girl.Enola is fourteen, the daughter of gentry and living in the country in 1888. ![]() The concept of a 'Sherlock Holmes Younger Sister' young adult genre could have been as dull, vapid, and predictable as - sorry - the old 'Nancy Drew' serials. ![]() |