![]() Meanwhile, a community in Union Grove, a town in upstate New York, grinds out its existence without electricity and running water. A phantom government exists, but nobody can recall the last election. Jihadists have bombed the United States three times, and a paralyzing pandemic with a name that would make Lou Dobbs proud - the Mexican flu - has killed millions. ![]() Television, the Internet, anything that poses as the press, has been shut down. Coffee, wheat, black pepper and cinnamon - all gone. Global trade has devolved into wars to reclaim resources. The Earth's resources have been plundered, and the most-prized commodity - oil - is but a vague memory. It seemed fitting, if only because there are no turnpikes in Kunstler's novel, no cars and certainly no gas. ![]() ![]() I confess I started reading "World Made by Hand," James Howard Kunstler's new dystopian novel, while waiting for gas in a long line off the New Jersey Turnpike. ![]()
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![]() ![]() In a style similar to his book A Walk in the Woods, Bryson's research enabled him to include many stories about Australia's 19th-century explorers and settlers who suffered extreme deprivations, as well as details about its natural resources, culture, and economy. In this book, Bill Bryson describes his travels by railway and car throughout Australia, his conversations with people in all walks of life about the history, geography, unusual plants and animals of the country, and his wry impressions of the life, culture and amenities (or lack thereof) in each locality. In other countries, including Britain, the book was titled Down Under. ![]() The title is taken from the famous Australian poem, "My Country". ![]() In a Sunburned Country is the 2000 travelogue book about Australia written by best-selling travel writer Bill Bryson. ![]() ![]() Overall this was a very cute and fun little fantasy read. The book teaches some good lessons basically that it’s okay to do your own thing and that girls are fully capable of rescuing themselves when they are in tricky situations. I also really enjoyed all the scenes where knights kept turning up to rescue her and she would turn them away.Īdditionally the dragon Kazul was a very fun character and I really enjoyed how Kazul and Cimorene developed a solid and caring friendship over the course of the book. I loved Princess Cimorene and her desire to do something that fell outside the norm for a princess. The story is very simple and very short, so I think most adults will be a bit bored…however if you are an adult that really enjoys middle grade level reads you will probably like this. I enjoyed the humor throughout and all the quirky dragons and princesses. This was a very cute read best suited to middle grade readers. ![]() However she doesn’t count on the evil wizards trying to wreck havoc with the dragons and their politics. Instead of waiting to be kidnapped by a dragon she runs away and strikes a deal with a dragon. Princess Cimorene doesn’t want to do normal princess things so she comes up with a plan. This was a cute fantasy read with a lot of humor in it, I enjoyed it and think it would be best suited to middle grade and young adult readers. ![]() ![]() I have had this book on my bookshelf to read for a very very long time. Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles ![]() ![]() Presently he teaches Creative Writing at the University of Maryland.Ī zoom account is not required to join, but a microphone is. He has received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writing Conference, Kimbilio and the Colgate Writing Conference as well as a 2019 Maryland Individual Artist Award. He was raised in Silver Spring, Maryland and earned an MFA from George Mason University where he won the Mary Roberts Rinehart award, a Completion Fellowship and an Alumni Exemplar Award. ![]() His story, “Shape-ups at Delilah’s” was published in Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020. His work has been published in places such as The New Yorker, The Kenyon Review, Crab Orchard Review, Best Small Fictions 2020 and The Rumpus, among others. With his second book, he is exploring the lives there and their unrelentingly real struggles hard, humane stories that are free of grandstanding yet full of grace that loom long in the mind after reading. ![]() First he imagined a fictional town of Cross River, MD founded by rebel slaves. His most recent collection, “The World Doesn’t Require You,” was listed as one of 50 Notable Works of Fiction 2019 in The Washington Post. ![]() ![]() ![]() The adults in town miss the good old days and want to return to them they want to go back to a time before technology and so-called progress altered their way of life. The Baypen Corn Syrup Factory, which was a huge player in the local economy, shut down, and that devastated the town in many ways. Kettle Springs is a slice of old Americana with its Main Street and cheap diner, but there’s plenty of darkness under that simple façade. ![]() Quinn Maybrook moved to the tiny town of Kettle Springs with her father to find start a new life after the loss of her mother. ![]() I’m happy to report that Clown in a Cornfield is not only classic Cesare, but it may also be his best book yet. ![]() After reading every other book by him, I went in with certain expectations and worried about how the limitations YA imposes on gore and violence were going to affect his work. When I heard he had a YA novel coming, I knew I’d be the first in line to read it. From indie press up-and-comer to Big Five success, watching him shift and redefine himself while never changing his punchy style and always staying loyal to his unique brand of slasher/nostalgia/chaotic/fun horror has been a pleasure. In my case, Adam Cesare is one of those writers I’ve followed from his first release and have read everything they have ever published. You know how sports fans memorize stats and talk about following their favorite athletes from their rookie year onward? Well, book nerds do the same thing with authors. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Kalogridis reveals the great love and desire Catherine bore for her husband Henry, and her stark determination to keep her sons on the throne. The Devil’s Queen A Novel of Catherine de Medici, by Jeanne Kalogridis is available as an ebook. Jeanne Kalogridis is a more recent writer who sees a ruthless queen. Jean Plaidy’s books are older but she remains one of the Grand Ladies of historical fiction so I am delighted to find her books available again and as ebooks moreover. These four historical novel tell the story of Catherine de Medici,France’s most reviled queen. So it should be no surprise they dominate historical fiction in English written about the period, although two other women are catching up: Diane de Poitiers and Anne of Brittany.īelow you will find a brief summary of each and a link to Amazon* where you can buy it, if it appeals. Especially when they’re about the two most notorious queens of the period Catherine de Medici and her daughter, Marguerite de Valois. Nine novels about two French Renaissance Queens! What a delightful array to choose among when you next want something to read. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It’s a very modern movie about the idea of being Emily Brontë, misfit of the moors. So little is known about Emily’s actual life and times that the picture is free to indulge in thrillingly salacious speculations and semi-informed attempts to explore the roiling passions and mercurial contradictions that might have inspired our socially awkward wallflower to put pen to paper. O’Connor’s film - for which she also wrote the screenplay - is likewise mostly made-up stuff. Beyond being an index of backhanded compliments, the surviving Brontë sister’s words kicked off a legacy of wild speculations and dopey literary conspiracy theories fueled by chauvinism, intellectual snobbery and our culture’s unfortunate disinclination to believe that sometimes people are just really good at making stuff up. All artist biopics are to some extent or another attempts to “solve” their subjects, and the mysteries of how an informally educated and unworldly homebody like Emily Brontë came to write such a singularly radical Gothic romance have been swirling around ever since Charlotte outed author Ellis Bell as her recently deceased sibling way back in 1850. “How did you write ‘Wuthering Heights?’” pinch-faced buzzkill Charlotte Brontë asks her dying sister during the opening moments of “Emily,” actress Frances O’Connor’s atmospheric and welcomely irreverent directorial debut. ![]() Emma Mackey in "Emily." (Courtesy Obscured Pictures) ![]() ![]() Leaving Magnus to live out his curse alone isn't an option because - heaven help her - she's fallen for him.Īs a debtera, nineteen-year-old Andromeda performs exorcisms to cleanse households of the Evil Eye, but when she agrees to work for handsome, young heir Magnus Rorschach, her job becomes truly terrifying. Death is the most likely outcome if she stays, and the reason every debtera before her has quit. But she quickly realizes this is a job like no other, with horrifying manifestations at every turn, and that Magnus is hiding far more than she has been trained for. If Andromeda wants to learn a living, she has no choice. and that almost a dozen debtera had quit before her. Never mind that he's rude and demanding and eccentric, that the contract comes with a number of outlandish rules. When a handsome young heir named Magnus Rochester reaches out to hire her, Andromeda takes the job without question. ![]() Now her only hope of steady work is to find a patron - a rich, well-connected individual who will vouch for her abilities. ![]() She would be hired, that is, if her mentor hadn't thrown her out before she could earn her license. Andromeda is a debtera - an exorcist hired to cleanse households of the Evil Eye. ![]() ![]() ![]() In the video, the elderly man can be seen slowly approaching a lion inside the enclosure. Witnesses who saw the incident unfold were heard screaming in fear as they watched Hodge being mauled and dragged away by an adult male lion. The then 67-year-old Hodge, who is the British owner of the Makarele Predator Centre in Thabazimbi, had entered a lion enclosure during the day when the attack happened. However, the viral video of the attack which has resurfaced is not for the faint-hearted. Mike Hodge is one of the lucky few who lived to tell the tale of a horrific lion attack in South Africa in 2018. It's said that the only real hope for a human being caught in such a situation is that the predator loses interest before killing them. These predators are known to be merciless, and their prey often ends up being a lifeless carcass that has been ripped apart. In fact, the chances of survival are estimated to be just 25%. ![]() Trending News: It's a known fact that lions are some of the most ferocious creatures in the wild, and surviving an attack by these beasts is highly unlikely. Follow us on Image Source : TWITTER lion attacks man ![]() ![]() ![]() Kevin Kwan, the author of Crazy Rich Asians (Doubleday, May 2014), is back with a second book, China Rich Girlfriend (Doubleday, June 2015), another juicy comedy of manners set in a world of characters whose lives are spent darting between private jets, ballrooms at the Ritz Carlton, and buzzy auction house sales. ![]() |