Octavia butler alien book6/12/2023 ![]() Butler, keeping tension high, reveals the mysteries of the Ina universe bit by tantalizing bit. The lone survivor, Shori must rely on a few friendly (and tasty) people to help her warn other Ina families and rediscover herself. Shori was their most successful experiment: she can stay conscious during daylight hours, and her black skin helps protect her from the sun. As is later revealed, her family and their symbionts were murdered because they genetically engineered a generation of part-Ina, part-human children. ![]() They are Ina, and they've coexisted with humans for millennia, imparting robust health and narcotic bliss with every bite to their devoted human blood donors, aka "symbionts." Shori is a 53-year-old Ina (a juvenile) who wakes up in a cave, amnesiac and seriously wounded. They need human blood to survive, but they don't kill unless they have to, and (given several hundred years) they'll eventually die peacefully of old age. ![]() ![]() “The much-lauded Butler creates vampires in her 12th novel (her first in seven years) that have about as much to do with Bram Stoker's Dracula as HBO's Deadwood does with High Noon. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Now a noted historian, who served as consultant for a new French film on Martin Guerre, has searched archives and lawbooks to add new dimensions to a tale already abundant in mysteries: we are led to ponder how a common man could become an impostor in the sixteenth century, why Bertrande de Rols, an honorable peasant woman, would accept such a man as her husband, and why lawyers, poets, and men of letters like Montaigne became so fascinated with the episode. Told and retold over the centuries, the story of Martin Guerre became a legend, still remembered in the Pyrenean village where the impostor was executed more than 400 years ago. The astonishing case captured the imagination of the continent. The clever peasant Arnaud du Tilh had almost persuaded the learned judges at the Parlement of Toulouse when, on a summer’s day in 1560, a man swaggered into the court on a wooden leg, denounced Arnaud, and reestablished his claim to the identity, property, and wife of Martin Guerre. ![]() The mountain is you wiest6/12/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Intuitive thoughts often sound loving, while invasive thoughts sound scared. Intruding thoughts tend to be persistent and induce a feeling of panic. Intuitive thoughts usually come to you once, maybe twice, and they induce a feeling of understanding. Intuitive thoughts are “quiet” intruding thoughts are “loud,” which makes one harder to hear than the other. Intruding thoughts are often random and have nothing to do with what’s going on in the moment. They give you information that you need to make a better-informed decision. Intuitive thoughts help you in the present. Intruding thoughts are irrational and often stem from aggrandizing a situation or jumping to the worst conclusion possible. Intuitive thoughts are rational they make a degree of sense. Intruding thoughts are hectic and fear-inducing. “This is how to start telling the difference between thoughts that are informed by your intuition and thoughts that are informed by fear: Intuitive thoughts are calm. ![]() ![]() Though Janina is, on the face of it, an animal rights activist, the core of this drama is about the condition of being human: how we live and age, our burdens, privileges and abuses. ![]() Hadingue inhabits her so fully that we feel her grief over the death of her dogs – “my girls” – as an epic tragedy. She is a thorn in the side of the authorities, shooting off messages to the police and quoting government laws at the council – a Miss Marple, lady of letters and Fargo’s Marge Gunderson in one. was published in Polish in 2009, and in English translation in 2018. ![]() Janina is a fabulous creation, both hero and antihero. Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead. Her friends – Dizzy (Alexander Uzoka), a former student Boros (Johannes Flaschberger), an entomologist and Oddball (César Sarachu), a neighbour – are all outsiders and non-conformists. ![]() The dead are all from the hunting club and Janina volubly espouses the theory that woodland animals are getting their revenge. With the help of an autocue (entirely excusable given the gargantuan burden of narration), Hadingue plays Janina, a beady-eyed, chronically sick animal lover living in a remote Polish village rocked by a series of inexplicable murders. ![]() Spies of no country by matti friedman6/11/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() Initially, the Arab Section “didn’t even own a radio,” Friedman notes. ![]() Training was haphazard at best, and disorganization was rampant. The Arab Section had its origins as a British creation to bolster the fight against the Nazis in the Middle East. The heretofore untold story of the Arab Section is thrilling and interesting enough. ![]() That unit is the Arab Section, or - as it appears in official reports - “The Dawn.”įriedman is careful not to exaggerate or embellish history. Their stories, he notes, have “something to tell us about the country they helped create.”įriedman tells their tales in vivid and highly readable prose - the careful Gamliel Cohen, alias Yussef, born in Damascus, Syria the quiet Yemeni-born Havakuk Cohen, alias Ibrahim Yakuba Cohen, an impatient Jerusalemite who goes by the name Jamil and Isaac Shoshan, aka Abdul Karim, a Jew from Syria, whose dalliances with a Lebanese Christian woman endanger the unit. His latest work, Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel, examines the careers of four spies, born in Arab lands, working for the fledgling Jewish state. “Time spent with old spies,” author Matti Friedman writes in his new book, “is never time wasted.”įriedman, a Canadian-born Israeli and former Associated Press correspondent, has devoted much of his career to shedding light on the unexplored and misunderstood aspects of Israel and the Middle East. ![]() Criterion wild strawberries6/11/2023 ![]() So, here we have a 38-year-old director and a 78-year-old actor making a film about a 78-year-old man with a 38-year-old son, trying to make sense of life. And was constantly fighting his own demons and fears, complaining that he didn’t really want to do it, that he was old and just could not do it anymore. Sjöström was 78 during filming the same age as his character. ![]() ![]() Bergman even believed that this film came out to be more of Sjostrom’s than his. But Victor Sjöström, the legendary director and actor of Swedish silent cinema who plays Professor Borg, brings in his own personality. Wild Strawberries reflects much of Bergman’s personal struggles. It recognizes his success in his career, but was he successful in life in general?īergman directed Wild Strawberries in 1957 when he was 39, having written the script while hospitalized and recovering from a serious illness that his doctor eventually concluded to be psychosomatic. ![]() Professor Isak Borg is about to receive an honorary award for 50 years of medical practice. Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries follows one day of an elderly man trying to reevaluate his life. ![]() Loren eiseley books6/11/2023 ![]() ![]() Over the next twenty years, Eiseley continued to publish works that found a large audience and critical acclaim. It would take some time to find success - he was just a month shy of fifty when he published his first collection, The Immense Journey, though the earliest essays were originally published nearly a decade earlier - but when success came it was huge: this debut of science writing sold over one million copies. ![]() While in high school he already wanted to be a nature writer. ![]() His fascination with nature started young. ![]() So far, this is a profound body of work that, while exploring and reveling in the beautiful mysteries of the earth and the universe, touches on my own fascination with existential concerns.Įiseley was born in Nebraska in 1907. It’s scientific writing, yes (and astute and interesting and wonderfully crafted as such), but it’s also a work of philosophy. Until The Library of America announced that they were releasing a boxed set of his work, I had never heard of Loren Eiseley, who, during his tenure in the Anthropology Department of the University of Pennsylvania, produced a body of science writing so poetic Publisher’s Weekly rightly referred to him as “the modern Thoreau.” Now, though still thumbing my way through The Library of America’s 1,000+ page set, I’m confident that this set will make my annual year-end favorite reads list. ![]() Philadelphia chickens book and cd6/11/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() and dancing pigs? Welcome to the magical menagerie of author Sandra Boynton.” ![]() The Philadelphia Chickens are sure to be there. To the pretty little city on the Delaware. Heading toward the sunset on the East River Drive Well, I’m coming from Connecticut on I-95, With the collaboration of composer Michael Ford, Philadelphia Chickens is that rarest of kids’ record collections-one whose inimitable lyrics and music make it as irresistible to parents as it is to their children. What exactly it is / I don’t know.”Īlso joining in are Eric Stoltz, Scott Bakula, and two Boyntons, including daughter Caitlin McEwan, who performs a piece that every little listener will relate to-a love song to the chocolate chip cookies that are just out of reach. What an event! What a show! Here is a full-color songbook of 17 ½ illustrated story-poems, and a full-length, fully orchestrated CD of original songs performed by such luminaries as Patti LuPone, Kevin Kline, Meryl Streep, The Bacon Brothers, and Laura Linney, who pleads “Please, Can I Keep It?-it followed me home. * A platinum album with over 1 million copies sold! Celebrating its 21st anniversary, this catchy and quirky musical-in-a-book has been completely redrawn and redesigned for the next generation of readers, singers, and musicians. ![]() From the one and only Sandra Boynton comes the tuneful, toe-tapping hardcover Philadelphia Chickens. ![]() The stonekeeper series6/11/2023 ![]() ![]() Kibuishi managed to make me so invested in the characters and their journey in so few pages, and I have so many predictions and ideas about what’s going to happen with them all, I need to get my hands on the rest of this series! Definitely would recommend this story to anyone who likes unique, magical worlds or who is looking to try out graphic novels! Rating: 4 out of 5 I was just beginning to understand Emily and Navin’s surrounding and gain interest in them, and then the story ended! On one hand, definitely a rip-off, but on the other hand, I am definitely going to be continuing with the series. I could read an entire story in a matter of hours with no real trouble, yet was still able to fully enjoy the tale and immerse myself in the magical world. It was able to tell a story, both through images and words. When I was done, I loved the visual elements and how quick it was for me to read. Review: This was my first real experience with a graphic novel, so I wasn’t super sure what to expect. Emily and Navin quickly chase after her, but soon find themselves lost and fighting for survival in this new world. ![]() On their first day, Emily finds a mysterious amulet tucked away in an abandoned library, and their mother gets kidnapped and taken into a magical realm. Summary: Emily and Navin’s father passed away in a car crash, and to get a new start, they move with their mother into an ancient, nearly-decrepit house. ![]() Turtles all the way down audio book6/10/2023 ![]() She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett's son, Davis.Īza is trying. ![]() Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there's a hundred thousand dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. ![]() #1 bestselling author John Green returns with his first new novel since The Fault in Our Stars All tickets include an autographed copy of Turtles All the Way Down. In this multimedia event, the brothers will talk about John’s latest book, answer audience questions, perform live music, and more. Join #1 bestselling author John Green and special guest Hank Green on tour in support of John’s new novel, Turtles All the Way Down. ![]() Tickets: $35 - $50 (includes signed book) ![]() |