![]() ![]() The book’s later chapters are reminiscent of the work of Helen Oyeyemi, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Jhumpa Lahiri. These chapters, set in Ghana, resonate with the orality of spoken history and myth that has elicited comparisons of Gyasi to Zora Neale Hurston. Some of the best storytelling occurs at the start of the novel. ![]() Each chapter is from the point of view of one character, and as the chapters move chronologically and without skipping generations, each protagonist is the child of one we’ve formerly met. The story ends with the reunification of the two family lines: Marcus, raised in New York, courts the bookish Marjorie, who, in an echo of Gyasi’s own life, moved from Ghana to America in her infancy. ![]() Effia’s Ghanaian descendants weather wars and colonialism Esi’s are sold into slavery in America, and witness the passing of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, the Harlem Renaissance, and the heroin epidemic. The book subsequently moves over a period of three hundred years, with each chapter swapping between the two family branches. ![]() While Effia lives in luxury in the Cape Coast Castle, unbeknownst to her, her half-sister Esi is captured in warfare, and then raped and beaten in the ordure-filled dungeon below. Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing opens in the eighteenth century in what is modern-day Ghana, where a character named Effia is sold by her parents to an English governor. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The second novel in Blake Crouch’s blockbuster trilogy, Wayward delves deeper into the irresistible mysteries and horrors of this perfect little town, even as it asks what it means to live with secrets-and what price we’ll pay for the truth. Everyone secretly dreams of leaving, but those who dare face a terrifying surprise.Īs sheriff, Ethan Burke is tasked with enforcing the town’s laws, and he’s one of the few entrusted with the truth-even though, for all his knowledge, he’s as much a prisoner of Wayward Pines as anyone else.īut when a murder investigation draws him deeper into the town’s inner workings, Ethan learns that its past is darker than even he suspected-and finds himself faced with an impossible choice. Others think they’re trapped in an unfathomable experiment. Nestled amid picture-perfect mountains, the idyllic town of Wayward Pines is a modern-day Eden-at least at first glance.Įxcept that within its fences, the residents are told where to work, how to live, and who to marry. Pines (Wayward Pines 1) by Blake Crouch 4.0 (22) Paperback 18.00 Paperback 18.00 eBook 7.99 Audiobook 0. The second book of the smash-hit Wayward Pines trilogy, from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter, Recursion, and Upgrade Listen Free to Wayward: Wayward Pines: 2 audiobook by Blake Crouch with a 30 Day Free Trial Stream and download audiobooks to your computer, tablet and iOS. ![]() ![]() This smaller cast really throws light on the racial and gender relations at that time. ![]() In book 1 there was a large cast of characters, but in book 2 it is narrowed down to about 7 or 8 as it is almost totally set on one of the ships headed to Mars. ![]() Because of the population decimation, the space program is international and it adds a different perspective than typical stories dealing with civil rights in the U.S. While the space program is the backdrop, there is a lot of commentary on civil rights and women's rights. In book 2, they are attempting the first trip to Mars. The moon is just the first step Mars is the target. Because of the rapid climate change (which people want to deny) caused by the meteor, a new planet to live on it needed. They land on the moon a decade before we actually did. In the first book, a meteor hits earth and it accelerates the space race. The Lady Astronaut series is an alternate history story set in the late 1950s, early 1960s. I don't know if there are more books planned in this series. I know I still have the novella to read, but then that's it. If possible I loved The Fated Sky even more and it blew all my expectations out of the water. I really loved The Calculating Stars and I was really hoped that The Fated Sky would live up to my expectations. Ebook, audio (10hrs 14mins), print (384 pages) ![]() ![]() Then his head began to be flooded with music that seemed to come, unstoppably, from nowhere. He bought recordings, acquired a piano and began to teach himself to play. Everything seemed normal until this fan of rock music was suddenly seized by a craving for classical piano music. Cicoria's heart apparently stopped, but he was resuscitated, and a few weeks later he was back at work. ![]() His new collection starts quite literally with a bolt from the blue, when a 42-year-old surgeon, Tony Cicoria, was struck by lightning in 1994. The result is a sort of reverse-engineering of the soul. But Sacks is adept at turning neurological narratives into humanly affecting stories, by showing how precariously our worlds are poised on a little biochemistry. The genre could have been an exploitative sideshow: a parade of misfits whose brains have been weirdly affected by disease, trauma, congenital defect or medical treatment. In his earlier collections of clinical tales - most famously in "Awakenings" (1973) and "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" (1985) - Sacks presented with compassion, sensitivity and learning what, in coarser hands, might have been freak shows of the mind. ![]() But there does seem to be no shortage of doctors who are musical and one of them is Oliver Sacks, a neurologist and author, who has now combined two of his passions in one book. Perhaps the concert was a medical benefit more likely, it never happened. ![]() Urban legend has it that when a patron fell ill in Carnegie Hall and the call went out for a doctor in the house, half the audience stood up to help. ![]() ![]() ![]() Items are usually dispatched within twenty-four to seventy-two hours. ![]() Orders are processed and dispatched Monday to Friday. ‘ Sharp insights into the way geography shapes the choices of world leaders’ – Gideon Rachman ‘ Like having a light shone on your understanding…I can’t think of another book that explains the world situation so well’ – Nicolas Lezard ‘ Another outstanding guide to the modern world. Marshall is a master at explaining what you need to know and why’ – Peter Frankopan ![]() ‘ Fascinating…I can’t imagine reading a better book this year’ – Daily Mirror This is essential reading on power, politics and the future of humanity. If you’ve ever wondered if humans are going back to the Moon, who will benefit from exploration or what space wars might look like, the answers are here. From physical territory and resources to satellites, weaponry and strategic choke points, geopolitics is as important in the skies above us as it is down below. We’re heading up and out, and we’re taking our power struggles with us.Ĭhina, the USA and Russia are leading the way. Now, it is the latest arena for human exploration, exploitation – and, possibly, conquest. It is already central to communication, economics, military strategy and international relations on Earth. Space: the new frontier, a wild and lawless place. We’re entering a new space race – and it could revolutionise life on Earth. ![]() ![]() Intertwined is the tale of a young woman troubadour whose role suggests the sweep of the drama to come. ![]() In A Song for Arbonne, GGK went further still into the field he has made his own historical fantasy. Kirkus reviews described it as One of the most impressive fantasies in a long timeexhilarating, complex and compelling. The revelation of Blaise's lineage and a claim for sanctuary by his sister-in-law sets the stage for a brutal clash between the two cultures. A Song for Arbonne was first published in 1992. Into this cauldron of brewing disaster comes the mysterious Gorhaut mercenary Blaise, who takes service with Bertran and averts an attempt on his life. His chief advisor, the high priest of Corannos, is determined to eradicate the worship of a female deity, whose followers live to the south. ![]() ![]() To the north lies militaristic Gorhaut, whose inhabitants worship the militant god Corannos and are ruled by corrupt, womanizing King Ademar. The matriarchal, cultured land of Arbonne is rent by a feud between its two most powerful dukes, the noble troubador Bertran de Talair and Urte de Miraval, over long-dead Aelis, lover of one, wife of the other and once heir to the country's throne. Based on the troubadour culture that rose in Provence during the High Middle Ages, this panoramic, absorbing novel beautifully creates an alternate version of the medieval world. ![]() ![]() ![]() It and saw that it was all a blank I remembered what my gentleman acquaintance said,Īnd so then I realized that it was a diary. ![]() ![]() Is another book and we have not read half the ones we have got yet.” But when I opened And so when my maid brought it to me, I said to her, “Well, Lulu, here So it might have all blown over but this morning he sent c., and when he comes into contract with brains he always notices it. Senate and he spends quite a great deal of time in Washington, d. And he said he ought to know brains when he sees them, because he is in the So this gentleman said a girl with brains ought to do something else with them besides Recreation and sometimes I sit for hours and do not seem to do anything else but think. I mean I seem to be thinking practically all of the time. This almost made me smile as what it would really make would be a whole row of encyclopediacs. I took a pencil and a paper and put down all of my thoughts it would make a book. A gentleman friend and I were dining at the Ritz last evening and he said that if ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Her parents are determined that she marry, and have arranged a match with an earl who is well into his fifties. Maryann Fitzwilliam is considered a wallflower, and, at twenty-three, nearing spinster status. So far, there is only one man left to identify, a man Nicolas calls the Black Dahlia, and Nicolas has a lead on who he may be. His sole purpose in life has become finding the identity of each man who abused her, and ruining them. When Nicolas received Arianna’s letter, he was devastated and full of guilt. Then she threw herself into the river, not wanting to live. With her spirit broken, Arianna sent a letter to Nicolas, describing the men and what they had done. Her journey was interrupted by an encounter with several young aristocrats, who proceeded to rape her, uncaring that she was just sixteen years old and an innocent. Knowing they could never marry, Arianna decided to set off for London to try to find success as an actress. Years ago, as a teenager, Nicolas had a friend, Arianna, who was his first young love but was the daughter of servants. These characteristics are greatly exaggerated, but they have allowed Nicolas to keep company with the very men he seeks to ruin. Ives, the Marquess of Rothbury, has spent years cultivating a reputation for himself as a rake and libertine. "Will His Desire for Revenge Outweigh His Desire for Her?" Her Wicked Marquess ![]() ![]() ![]() The author Robert Macfarlane mentions in his article, ‘The Eeriness of the English Countryside,’ the nation’s obsession with the ‘sceptred’ in this ‘sceptred isle.’ This seems to ring true with Parnell’s mission to travel to its furthest corners and poke about in all its ‘sequestered places.’ Using his own memories to exorcise some sad periods, this also becomes an exercise in dealing with grief, to ‘not let those particular ghosts slip away, even when the very act of remembering is sometimes terribly painful.’ M. ![]() Parnell returns to his own childhood experiences and revisits the parts of the country directly connected with each story, speaking to people connected to the history and taking a fresh look at the landscape involved. ![]() James, Kipling, Algernon Blackwood and others, the hypnotic hurdy-gurdy music of the black and white productions, often shown at Christmas in line with the Dickens tradition of an uncanny tale for Christmas Eve. ![]() As a reader whose own childhood is rooted in the 1970s, I instantly recognised a very familiar soundtrack to this book: essences of the eerie that accompanied the TV productions of gothic tales from M. ![]() ![]() ![]() Also, Winter felt more like a fully-fledged story, rather than a collage, which I personally prefer.ĭid I mention the language? Smith’s wordplays in Autumn were enjoyable, but Winter takes it to another level, partly because of Lux. I found the characters in Winter easier to connect with. Interestingly, the characters in Autumn and Winter are linked, but the connection isn’t obvious, you have to pay attention to figure it out. In the brief space of time she enters the lives of the dysfunctional family, she manages to show them truths about themselves and facilitate a renewed bond between the family members.īut none of it is real? Lux says. Lux can be seen as a catalyst or maybe an illuminator (Lux – light). ![]() So he hires Lux to pretend to be Charlotte. ![]() Art invites Lux to spend Christmas at his mother’s place, because he can’t face showing up without his girlfriend Charlotte, with whom he broke up. The final character is Lux, a young Croatian woman. He also writes a blog, art in nature, but all his stories and memories are made up. He works for the mysterious SA4A organisation, scanning the internet for unlicensed use of music. Her estranged sister, Iris, is a social activist, the antithesis of Sophia. Sophia is retired, but used to be a successful business woman. The novel revolves around four characters. ![]() |