It takes us behind and beyond the diary - which means that, on finishing it, we can reread the diary with greater pleasure and understanding then ever before' Noel Malcolm, Evening Standard 'In Claire Tomalin, Pepys has found the biographer he deserves. Fast, vivid, accessible' Hermione Lee, Guardian 'A rich, thoughtful and deeply satisfying account. Tomalin has managed to unearth a wealth of material about the uncharted life of Samuel Pepys' Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday 'Sex, drink, plague, fire, music, marital conflict, the fall of kings, corruption and courage in public life, wars, navies, public execution, incarceration in the Tower: Samuel Pepys's life is full of irresistible material, and Claire Tomalin seizes it with both hands. Samuel Pepys is the astonishing biography by bestselling author Claire Tomalin 2002 WHITBREAD BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Immaculately well done.
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And you can have no better guide than Odd Thomas. You’re invited on an unforgettable journey through a world of terror and transcendence to wonders beyond imagining. In the hours to come there can be no innocent bystanders, and every sacrifice can tip the balance between despair and hope. Through tragedy and triumph, exhilaration and heartbreak, word of Odd Thomas’s gifts filtered far beyond Pico Mundo, attracting unforgettable new friendsand enemies of implacable evil. A fry cook named Odd was rumored to have the extraordinary ability to communicate with the dead. But when a childhood friend disappears, Odd discovers something worse than a dead body and embarks on a heart-stopping battle of will and wits with an enemy of exceptional cunning.The legend began in the obscure little town of Pico Mundo.Yet he feels an obligation to do right by his otherworldly confidants, and that’s why he’s won hearts on both sides of the divide between life and death. Bartholomews Abbey, where he hopes to seek peace and understanding. During that time, Odd Thomas has been a guest at St. The 400 million copy worldwide bestseller Dean Koontz is at his very best in this critically-acclaimed page-turner soon to be a major motion picture. The novel begins seven months after Forever Odd. The novel is the third book in Koontzs series focusing on a young man named Odd Thomas. He’s just an ordinary guy trying to live a quiet life in the small desert town of Pico Mundo. Brother Odd is a novel by Dean Koontz, published in 2006. Odd Thomas never asked for his special ability. The actors in this project could not have been better, and perform their roles with great dignity, and without the slightest irony. Having listened to this recording, I am amazed at the difference truly great readers make in the meaning of a story. Also, to a modern mind (or at least to my mind) some of the descriptions of Adam and Eve and their time in the garden seemed almost campy. I was not a great fan of Paradise Lost before, largely because Eve annoyed me so (she looks to Adam for leadership, while he looks to God), and some of Milton's inventions (mainly those surrounding the character of Sin) seemed gratuitous. I found myself revisiting this story recently, having last read it almost 30 years ago. Paradise Regained, published in 1671, tells of the temptation of Christ by Satan as he wanders in the wilderness for 40 days and nights. John Milton's epic, biblically-inspired poems are wonderfully dramatised for BBC Radio starring Denis Quilley as Milton, Ian McDiarmid as Satan and Robert Glenister as Christ, enhanced by specially composed music.įirst published in 1667, Paradise Lost describes Satan's plot to ruin God's new and most favoured creation, Mankind, and recounts the temptation of Adam and Eve and their banishment from the Garden of Eden. Out of chaos shall come order and out of darkness shall come light. The highly-acclaimed BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of Milton's epic poem telling the story of the fall of man and also its sequel, Paradise Regained. He talks about the good it does transgender people when their churches accept them – but also the good it brings to churches when they embrace their transgender members. He brings in the voices of many other transgender people. This book is written by a transgender pastor. At the same time, I’ve read happy stories of what happens when people transition with love and acceptance from their faith communities. I’ve heard many sad stories of what happens when a church family rejects a transgender person and the harm it causes their entire families. I’m also in a Facebook group for mothers of transgender children. I’ve seen for myself this isn’t some kind of delusional temporary whim. My own oldest child is a transgender woman. I picked this book up from the library, and the very next day was glad I did, having a reason to defend transgender people to some well-meaning Christian friends. The Bible & the Lives of Transgender Christians Many of us in the learning and development field talk about challenging the “banking system of education” as Freire calls it (put rote knowledge in, then take it out in tests) as if the participants were empty vessels to be filled. Reading her words I felt I’d come home again. Teaching, says bell hooks, is in part a sacred vocation and education is a practice of freedom. But it was her principles that reminded me why I stayed in adult education all these years. I was so surprised to learn that her early “teachers” or inspirations included Paulo Freire and Thich Nhat Hanh. After bell hooks, feminist and critical theorist on race, gender, and cultural politics passed away in December of 2021, I began to read one of her early books: Teaching to Transgress. The latter focuses on the early mischief and mayhem of the two main protagonists Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater. The Riyria Revelations is a six book series and The Riyria Chronicles is an ongoing collection of fiction. He is best known for his epic fantasy, the Riyria cycle, which has been translated into fourteen languages. Sullivan is both an artist and an author. Both like-able and realistic, the personalities of Royce-a young man with cocky swagger and mean sword fighting skills-and Hadrian-his counterpart with a more straight laced, wise demeanor-play well off of one another throughout the series and have become beloved heroes to fans worldwide. Moving at a light but rapid pace at the beginning, this fantasy saga gains depth and complexity with each successive part. Caught in a mammoth conspiracy, they soon realize that their only way out is by unravelling an ancient mystery, before it's too late. Royce and Hadrian are two resourceful thieves unwittingly set on an adventure in order to escape being framed for the death of a king. The first installment in the best selling and mesmerizing Riyria Revelation series, Theft of Swords is divided into two books-The Crown Conspiracy and Avemparth-and introduces protagonists Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater. Theft of Swords was selected as one of the Library Journal's and Barnes and Noble's Best Fantasy and Science Fiction Books in 2011. The time is 1942, the Second World War is at its height, and the Africa Campaign is raging along the northern coast of Egypt as far as El Alamein. Famed for his skill as a storyteller, Naguib Mahfouz has here produced a novel that is as colorful and entertaining as the book that inspired it. Amid all of this, as in the Thousand and One Nights, genies appear out of bottles accidentally opened by innocent individuals, affecting their lives in exciting, sometimes detrimental ways. The chief of police is kept particularly busy dealing with the underground activities of various religious sects that are intent on changing the unscrupulous regime. It depicts a city plagued by widespread corruption among its most powerful citizens, and a pervasive sense of social unrest and insecurity. Though it is set in an Islamic city in medieval times, the modern reader will find much in this novel that is surprisingly familiar. Though he is best known for chronicling his own times, in this novel, first published in Arabic in 1982, Mahfouz injects new life into an Arabic masterpiece. Drawing on the characters and the spirit of the classic A Thousand and One Nights, Arabian Nights and Days is a significant departure for Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz. It relies for the most part on sympathetic sources such as Richard Nixon's autobiography and Julie Nixon Eisenhower's biography of her mother. When Nixon, after his humiliating loss in the California gubernatorial race in 1962 (which most people at the time thought ended his career in politics), lashed out drunkenly at the press in his so-called "last press conference," his wife, "still bitter about press coverage of her husband," rather than being appalled at Nixon's intemperate outburst, yelled "Bravo!" There is a very fine line between being supportive of one's spouse and being an enabler of his bad behavior if Nixon was, as Swift points out, "quick to feel victimized," his wife was even quicker to agree with him.īased on newly released letters and documents unavailable to previous Nixon biographers (most of whom Swift ignores, with the notable exception of the sycophantic Jonathan Aitken), "Pat and Dick" is very much a popular, not a scholarly biography. But as you get further into Swift's account of the Nixons' marriage and their journey though American politics, you start to wonder whether Pat Nixon was really suited to be a political wife, or if her chronic inability to let go of a grudge exacerbated her husband's worst instincts. It is hard to read about Pat Nixon's difficult if not traumatic childhood and not deeply admire the strength and determination that allowed her to overcome obstacles that would have crushed a lesser person. Their paths cross in adult-hood when Mia’s friend talks her into going on a no-holds bar fantasy site to book a service. Both grew up in a small town with incredibly humble beginnings, Tax’s more so than Mia’s. Mia is successful in her own right she’s an executive at an “adult toy” company. Tax is an extremely rich, good-looking, and successful business man. What does it say about me that I really enjoyed this book? That’s a post for another day. I don’t give disclaimers on too many books, but be forewarned on this one–subject matter content is extremely intense, graphic, and down right disturbing. This falls into the totally twisted category for sooo many reasons. So, in a “go big or go home” kind of way–let’s kick off the month with a review of the book Debt, by Nina G. In recognition of Valentine’s Day, tara’s take will be celebrating romantic reads for the month of February. When we give ourselves time to view and think about what we are seeing, we can recognize how our habits and our contemporary culture are leading us to a particular assessment of the piece of art whether it is a painting or color photography. Our perception changes when we give ourselves a chance to quietly study a painting. Berger notes that what we see is a “function of habit and convention” (BBC Episode 2). Some of our perceptions of what we see are conscious and some are sub-conscious. If we stop and gaze at the art though, the longer we observe the painting, the more time our eye has to understand the painting. If we glance at the oil painting as we walk by then we have one understanding of the painting. When we view an oil painting the oil painting stays the same. I suggest that a color photograph, just as with an oil painting, is seen differently the longer we allow ourselves to view the image. Modern technology has given us color photography which is perhaps the modern substitute for oil paintings. When we view art museum paintings created in the last half of the twentieth century we see something different than a viewer of that time would have seen. John Berger is an artist and art critic who helps us think about the different ways art is ‘seen’ or perceived. |