7/4/2023 0 Comments The Mermaid by Christina Henry![]() ![]() Red’s journey jumps back and forth between before the Cough and as she’s experiencing three months later in the present. I wanted to explain this all upfront so you can gauge whether or not to continue with the review, or even if you’d want to pick up the book. The action and general violence is graphic in its depiction and Henry does not skimp on details regarding blood and viscera. There is no sexual violence on the page, but references are made to it occurring in a general sense. The ableist language happens once or twice, as Red uses the term “cripple” in a moment of self-hatred and anger. ![]() Once the Cough (as the outbreak is named) begins spreading and shit hits the fan, her parents are killed in a hate crime. It’s revealed within the first few pages. It’s not a spoiler to say that Red is on her own and her family is dead. At the age of eight, she was hit by a car and lost her leg below the knee she uses a prosthetic. Her Black mother is a college professor of Shakespeare and I believe her White father is also an academic. ![]() Red is a biracial, bisexual twenty-year old woman. Let me first address the context of some of the content warnings above. ![]() We never figure out where the outbreak came from, methods being taken to combat it, or any related sciencey details. ![]()
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7/4/2023 0 Comments The leavers novel![]() ![]() This powerful debut is the winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for fiction, awarded by Barbara Kingsolver for a novel that addresses issues of social justice. It's the story of how one boy comes into his own when everything he's loved has been taken away - and how a mother learns to live with the mistakes of her past. Set in New York and China, The Leavers is a vivid and moving examination of borders and belonging. They rename him Daniel Wilkinson in their efforts to make him over into their version of an "all-American boy." But far away from all he's ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his new life with his mother's disappearance and the memories of the family and community he left behind. ![]() He is eventually adopted by two white college professors who move him from the Bronx to a small town upstate. With his mother gone, eleven-year-old Deming is left with no one to care for him. The Leavers is Lisa Kos first novel, published on May 2, 2017. One morning, Deming Guo's mother, an undocumented Chinese immigrant named Polly, goes to her job at the nail salon and never comes home. In Lisa Kos stirring debut, The Leavers, her Chinese immigrant characters butcher meat, sew garments, work in restaurants and paint nails like unseen stagehands who complete the backstage tasks. ![]() 7/4/2023 0 Comments Exhalation by Ted Chiang![]() ![]() a ready-to-hand comparison that encapsulates his method is to think of his work as a prose version of ideas similar to those explored by the highly popular Black Mirror television series. His reflections significantly enhance the collection, providing, as they do, a brief insight into Chiang’s mind at work. ![]() brief notes at the end of the volume in which Chiang explains the occasions or ideas that motivated each story. Chiang’s stories are about choice and regret, about taking responsibility for one’s actions, about love, and about forgiveness, of oneself as much as of others. stories are clearly philosophical thought experiments, they are also what we might call parables of the human condition, albeit without the didacticism this term might imply. Chiang’s ongoing interest in questions of free will and determinism is the motif that emerges most strongly across this collection. ![]() ![]() In defining this aim, the task force wrote that any federal program must acknowledge who benefited from slavery, restitute the descendants of those who were enslaved, and provide closure by partnering with them to understand what fair compensation looks like. ![]() ![]() Part of that restructuring, the task force suggests, should include Durham working in conjunction with other cities to pursue a national plan for reparations. With the arrival of the 64-page report, the task force set concrete goals and measures for the city to adopt, including a city-wide restructuring of its health care, education, criminal justice, and economic systems. ![]() ![]() ![]() Beautifully rendered and rippling with family dysfunction, secrets, deaths, alcoholism, and old resentments, Shonda Buchanan’s memoir is an inspiring story that explores her family’s legacy of being African Americans with American Indian roots and how they dealt with not just society’s ostracization but the consequences of this dual inheritance.īuchanan was raised as a Black woman, who grew up hearing cherished stories of her multi-racial heritage, while simultaneously suffering from everything she (and the rest of her family) didn’t know. ![]() Black Indian, searing and raw, is Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple meets Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony-only, this isn’t fiction. ![]() 7/3/2023 0 Comments White Belt by Faye McCray![]() Thanks for follows, the tweets, the emails, the downloads and the love! There is only one thing on that list that I would want to stop doing. The only problem is, it is really, really time consuming!īetween my day job, my spouse, my munchkins, my writing and marketing, I barely have time to take a deep breath. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading White Belt (Dani's Belts Book 1). ![]() Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. The sense of community and solidarity has been absolutely amazing. White Belt (Dani's Belts Book 1) - Kindle edition by McCray, Faye. and share their tips and tricks to success. People have been so willing to support While Belt and me. not a race). And an awesome Chick Lit blogger who shared my affinity for fall boots. A bestselling author who gave me a how to guide on how to market (it's a marathon. Local bloggers looking to find and support other local bloggers. A whole seedy world of the Black and Nerdy. ![]() ![]() Over the past week, I have found a ton of people on GoodReads, Facebook, Twitter, and the good old fashioned world wide web. I am rooting for her and I can't wait to see where her journey takes her. My protagonist, Dani tripped into my fraidy-cat heart with her clunky shoes and horrible taste in men and I fell in love. I LOVED writing White Belt. So much so, I am turning it into a series. ![]() 7/3/2023 0 Comments Bring me back ba paris![]() ![]() The Dilemma – how far would you go to give someone you love a last few hours of happiness?ī A Paris is the internationally bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors, The Breakdown and Bring Me Back. He needs to tell Livia, because how can the party go on? But she’s so happy, so excited – and the guests are about to arrive. During the day, he hears some terrible news. She needs to tell Adam something about their daughter but she’s waiting until the party is over so they can have this last happy time together.Īdam wants everything to be perfect for Livia so he’s secretly arranged for Marnie to come home and surprise her on her birthday. ![]() But although Livia loves Marnie, she’s secretly glad she won’t be at the party. Everyone she loves will be there except her daughter Marnie, who’s studying abroad. ![]() It’s Livia’s 40th birthday and she’s having the party of a lifetime to make up for the wedding she never had. One day that will change a family forever, The Dilemma is the breath-taking, heart-breaking new novel from the million-copy-selling, Sunday Times bestseller, B A Paris Jane Doe – Victoria Helen Stone (Jane Doe #1) May 9, 2023.Problem Child – Victoria Helen Stone (Jane Doe #2) May 9, 2023.The Last Passenger – Will Dean May 11, 2023.Looking for something? Search for: Search MY MOST RECENT POSTS ![]() 7/3/2023 0 Comments Chain of gold the last hours![]() ![]() All the while, she must hide her secret love for James, who is sworn to marry someone else.īut Cordelia’s new life is blown apart when a shocking series of demon attacks devastate London. Soon Cordelia encounters childhood friends James and Lucie Herondale and is drawn into their world of glittering ballrooms, secret assignations, and supernatural salons, where vampires and warlocks mingle with mermaids and magicians. ![]() Cordelia’s mother wants to marry her off, but Cordelia is determined to be a hero rather than a bride. When her father is accused of a terrible crime, she and her brother travel to London in hopes of preventing the family’s ruin. An unconquerable foe.Ĭordelia Carstairs is a Shadowhunter, a warrior trained since childhood to battle demons. ![]() 7/2/2023 0 Comments Player one book![]() And considering how bad the real world is, the OASIS is pretty much the only good thing left. The prize? Whoever wins, gets to own the OASIS. When Halliday (Mark Rylance) passed away, he left a huge quest inside the OASIS, a search for a literal Easter Egg to be undertaken by so-called “gunters” who are required to steep themselves in all the stuff Halliday loved as a kid. Set in the near-future, the film adaptation - written by Cline and Zak Penn - stars Tye Sheridan as Wade Watts (also known by his avatar name “Parzival”), who spends most of his time inside a massive virtual reality system known as OASIS, invented by the elusive Steve Jobs-like inventor James Halliday. Of course, Spielberg has taken his own liberties with the material, though the creative spirit that informed Cline’s book is very much in evidence. ![]() ![]() ![]() It’s only appropriate that the movie version of the film, out later this week, was helmed by no less than Steven Spielberg, one of the biggest inspirations for Cline’s story. The movie doesn’t exactly require its audience to know the ins and outs of “Dungeons & Dragons,” but man, it can’t hurt. Ernest Cline’s bestselling novel “ Ready Player One” takes America’s obsession with pop cultural references, the unstoppable push of technology, and an unlikely hero and combines them all up into a single vivid story. ![]() 7/2/2023 0 Comments Felix salten books![]() ![]() ![]() Jack Zipes has written, translated, and edited dozens of books, including The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (both Princeton). The forest is a whole different worldFelix Salten’s classic story of wild and tame animals coming together is brought vividly to life in this refreshed edition, ideal for collecting. Bambi is the perfect story for bedtime reading and the original story is not to be missed by lovers of the classic Disney adaptation. Felix Salten (18691945) was an Austrian novelist, journalist, and critic. Little does the young deer know that love might just be the most powerful thing of all.įelix Salten's treasured 1923 novel has been loved by many generations and has now been republished by Read & Co. It is not until the tragic death of his mother that Bambi truly realises he must embody his father's courage and heroism if he is to survive. ![]() There are dangers lurking around every corner of the forest, from the evil weapons of Man to the treacherous possibility of forest fires. As he grows, he learns that his home is not all that it may seem. A prince in his woodland home, the young deer is destined to be King of the Forest. ![]() With strong themes of love, friendship, conservation and hope, Bambi is the timeless tale of a young deer and his journey to becoming the Prince of the Forest.īambi is born with a large responsibility on his shoulders. ![]() |