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The stone angel by margaret laurence6/27/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() "This is a revelation, not impersonation. Laurence gives us in Hagar a woman who is funny, infuriating, and heartbreakingly poignant. Mingling past and present, she maintains pride in the face of senility, while recalling the life she led as a rebellious young bride, and later as a grieving mother. In The Stone Angel, Hagar Shipley, age ninety, tells the story of her life, and in doing so tries to come to terms with how the very qualities which sustained her have deprived her of joy. Each of these books is narrated by a strong woman growing up in the town and struggling with physical and emotional isolation. ![]() The Stone Angel, The Diviners, and A Bird in the House are three of the five books in Margaret Laurence's renowned "Manawaka series," named for the small Canadian prairie town in which they take place. ![]()
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Runaway by Meg Cabot6/26/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() She is now the author of nearly fifty books for both adults and teens, selling fifteen million copies worldwide, many of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers, most notably The Princess Diaries series, which is currently being published in over 38 countries, and was made into two hit movies by Disney. She worked various jobs to pay the rent, including a decade-long stint as the assistant manager of a 700 bed freshmen dormitory at NYU, a position she still occasionally misses. After six years as an undergrad at Indiana University, Meg moved to New York City (in the middle of a sanitation worker strike) to pursue a career as an illustrator, at which she failed miserably, forcing her to turn to her favorite hobby-writing novels-for emotional succor. Fortunately she grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, where few people were aware of the stigma of being a fire horse - at least until Meg became a teenager, when she flunked freshman Algebra twice, then decided to cut her own bangs. Meg Cabot was born on February 1, 1967, during the Chinese astrological year of the Fire Horse, a notoriously unlucky sign. Librarian note: AKA Jenny Carroll (1-800-Where-R-You series), AKA Patricia Cabot (historical romance novels). ![]()
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BioShock by John Shirley6/26/2023 ![]() Bill McDonagh, Ryan's lead engineer and the sympathetic underdog of the novel, has so many unbelievable English archaisms shoved into his mouth that he ends up looking like a parody of himself. ![]() Unfortunately, it's here that the Rapture novel starts to stumble, as few of the characters feel believably voiced thanks to the unusual focus that's put on to bringing their accents or linguistic idiosyncrasies to life. We want to know Andrew Ryan and his anti-cadre in their own words. After two BioShock games, we know enough about those who tore down Rapture, but we want to know more about those who built it up. It's therefore gratifying to see that Rapture, which is written by Bram Stoker Award-winning author John Shirley, explores the origin of Andrew Ryan's aquatic megalopolis. The BioShock universe, with its Randian politicising and cast of crooks and billionaires, is ripe with potential. ![]() ![]() It may seem like the release of Titan Books' BioShock novel is oddly timed, given how 2K Games is set to abandon Rapture entirely and take to a new setting next year with BioShock Infinite, but it's still an exciting prospect for the literary-minded. BioShock: Rapture Review Platform: Paperback, Hardback ![]()
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Share my ice cream6/26/2023 ![]() The underlying theme of sharing and friendship also make this a great option for parents and teachers as they promote those important principles with younger children. The ‘comic-strip’ story structure is great for beginner readers and is certain to amuse audiences from pre-school to adult. The simple but funny story really highlights Willem’s entertaining form of storytelling that has won him numerous awards as an author and illustrator. Should I Share My Ice Cream? is a perfect addition to Mo Willem‘s Elephant & Piggie series. ![]() It’s a really big decision for Gerald, but will he make it in time? Throughout the story, Gerald is fighting with his conscious as he decides whether or not to share his treat with his best friend Piggie. In Willem’s fifteenth installment of the series, Should I Share My Ice Cream?, we see Gerald purchasing one of his favorite snacks, ice cream! ![]() The series features more than 25 different stories with beloved characters Gerald and Piggie, and are best known for their witty dialogue and fun comic-strip illustrations. Recommended Age Group: Pre-School, ElementaryĪrguably one of the most popular, modern children’s book series, Mo Willem‘s Elephant & Piggie books have been a fixture on children’s bookshelves for the last ten years. ![]()
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I charlotte simmons6/26/2023 ![]() The average-looking Adam is a desperate wannabe intellectual and student journalist. JoJo is a frustrated but generally well-meaning athlete-a star basketball player at Dupont U. Hoyt is the hot, preening frat boy, always read to sell-out a situation to get laid. She is a first generation, wide-eyed college girl-poor by way of means, but exceptional for her self-awareness, good looks, and raw intelligence. None of the four characters are particularly likeable, but one might find one or more interesting by way of a student type, circa the 2000-2004 period, each represents. The story lines occur in the form of four characters: Charlotte, Hoyt, JoJo, and Adam. The book conveys four story lines of interest at the fictional Dupont University in Pennsylvania. ![]() ![]() A few months ago, however, it came up in conversation with a workmate. I had wanted to read it upon publication, but it appeared in the midst of dissertation research and writing. Yesterday I finished Tom Wolfe’s *I Am Charlotte Simmons* (2004). ![]()
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Thief of time by terry pratchett6/25/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() “Whatever I do, the game ends on the basis that I’ve been spotted – even if, as I head up the slope, I go invisible. In a post titled: “Help! Spotted Every time” he requests assistance with Thief II’s eighth mission Trace the Courier, in which players must follow a Lieutenant of the City Watch as she carries a secret message to an unknown recipient. ![]() ![]() Like so many players who become involved in online communities, he posted because he was stuck. Pratchett first appears on the forum in August 2001. Combined, they provide a fascinating record of Pratchett’s evolving relationship with both the Thief series and video games in general. That newsgroup, analogous to a modern forum, has long since been deactivated, but its posts survive in a Google groups archive. He played all three games in the series, and often contributed to a Usenet newsgroup named -dark-project. But Pratchett held a particular affection for Thief. He even helped to create a mod (an unofficial add-on) for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, writing lines of dialogue for a character. Always technologically savvy, he was an early adopter of PC gaming, and enjoyed everything from Doom to Deus Ex and Call of Duty. Pratchett’s relationship with video games is well documented. To slip past guards in Thief, you must hide in shadows, and avoid treading on noisy tiles and metal. ![]()
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![]() ![]() The Faustian bargain of high-profile, publicist-driven journalism is ripe for sendup, but with so many broadly drawn characters, the film has no satiric bite. The story’s dividing lines are nothing if not unambiguous. Not far beneath her flintiness she’s sweet and “real” - a Midwestern transplant who’s writing a novel in longhand, dontcha know, all too clearly setting her off from the superficial climbers around her. While riding elevators with lots of tall women in designer clothes, coveting a Tinseltown It girl (Megan Fox) and overturning every A-list apple cart he stumbles upon, Sidney falls for co-worker Alison (Kirsten Dunst). Sidney wants to believe that his mission is to inject some of the old Snipe (read: Spy) spirit into Sharps, but Clayton isn’t interested in what he has to offer. Clayton summons Sidney from London - where he publishes a snarky alternative mag from his apartment over a kebab joint - to the haute publishing world of New York. The protagonist here is Sidney Young, Vanity Fair is called Sharps, and its imperious rebel-turned-power-broker editor, Graydon Carter, is dubbed Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges). The names have been changed, just barely. ![]()
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The bookshop penelope fitzgerald review6/25/2023 ![]() ![]() Nonetheless, Coixet has no trouble with her theme, which is centred on the power of ideas and the books that contain them. Spanish writer-director Isabel Coixet takes on the job here and quite a few of Fitzgerald's sharp edges have been planed away, along with the wit that makes her such fun to read. Violet has had the Old House earmarked for the site of an arts centre, where she will preside as tastemaker-in-chief, and she's not going to give up until she gets her way.īill Nighy and Emily Mortimer become allies in The Bookshop. She's both slippery and indomitable – as Florence Green soon learns when she opens a bookshop in a mouldering ruin known by all as the Old House. ![]() Class rules and perched at the top of the pyramid is Violet Gamart (Patricia Clarkson), wife of a retired general. In 1959, Hardborough on the East Anglian coast may possess the necessary quota of oddballs but the governing spirit of the place is far from benign. Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop is a wryly satirical antidote to all that. ![]() In a crisis, everybody pitches in and after the confusion subsides, all ends happily. It's a place teeming with full-blown eccentrics, many of them testy in the extreme, but somehow a sense of community manages to embrace them all. One of the British film and television industry's most popular exports is nostalgia and its centrepiece is the English village. ![]()
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Firestarter by stephen king6/25/2023 ![]() ![]() It is at his farm where Andy and Charlie get confronted by the The Shop for the first time since being on the run. He stood up for what was right, even as it caused him to be shot, and to have his farm burn to the ground. Irv saw that a wrong had been committed and did not take the easy way out. Without any promise of reward, he takes them back to his farm, to feed them and make sure that they are alright. An old farmer, he picks up Andy and Charlie while they were hitchhiking. ![]() One of my favorite King characters is Irv Manders. I thought about those questions a lot as I read this story. ![]() What lengths do we go through as parents to ensure that our children are safe, cared for, and free from the stresses of this world. I instantly connected with Andy and his plight of being on the run, unjustly pursued due to no fault of his own. Reading Firestarter now, 38 years old, with a daughter about the same age as young Charlie McGee, gave me a lot of different feelings than when I read this book for the first time in college. ![]()
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The academy love match monica seles6/24/2023 ![]() ![]() The Open was also her first tournament since deciding to go pro. Getting that passport was one of the prerequisites for admission to the school. True, the venue was just over the border into Canada, but Maya had never even had a passport until she started at the Academy. The Ontario Open was her first international competition. She’d been playing the junior tennis circuit for years, but this game was different in so many ways. ![]() ![]() Occasionally silence followed a thump until the crowd broke out in a mixture of cheers and groans as the score increased. A few pop-pop-pop volleys brought a staccato intensity to their play. There were occasional breaks in the rhythm when Maya or Donata hit the ball before it struck the ground. Maya was exactly where she was supposed to be. It hit the ground with the deep bass of a thump followed by the stringy twang of the pop as Donata Zajacova sent it back over the net at her. The music filled her body as she moved across the court, striking the ball and sending it back at her opponent. ![]() |