![]() ![]() ![]() More than that, his long-awaited final year in law school promises to deliver a crucial puzzle piece of the Great Plan immigrant: a degree from a prestigious university.īut a year is more than the sum of its parts, and en route to the future, the present must be lived through and even the past must be survived in this “hilarious and heartbreaking” (Adam Smyer, author of Knucklehead) intersection of pre- and post-1994 Rwanda, colonial and post-independence Windhoek, Paris and Brussels in the 70s, Nairobi public schools, and the racially charged streets of Cape Town. Soon he will leave the confines of his family life for the cosmopolitan city of Cape Town, where loyal friends, hormone-saturated parties, adventurous conquests, and race controversies await. One might as well start with Séraphin: playlist-maker, nerd-jock hybrid, self-appointed merchant of cool, Rwandan, stifled and living in Namibia. The most one can do is make some sort of start and then work toward some kind of ending. Nobody ever makes it to the start of a story, not even the people in it. ![]() “Meet the future of African literature” ( Mukoma Wa Ngugi, author of Nairobi Heat) with this “gorgeous, wildly funny, and, above all, profoundly moving and humane” (Peter Orner, author of Am I Alone Here) coming-of-age tale following a young man who is forced to flee his homeland of Rwanda and make sense of his reality. ![]()
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![]() Since its May 2019 debut through Knopf, Disappearing Earth was selected as one of The New York Times Book Review’s ten best books of the year. “I was grateful I had done the work of relationship-building at an earlier moment,” Phillips said. The change, Phillips says, was palpable: at one Kamchatka bathhouse, visitors wiped their feet on an American flag as they crossed the sauna’s threshold. The government had cracked down on protests. By that time, Russia’s economy was recovering from crisis. The third moment occurred in 2015, when Phillips returned to Kamchatka to gather colorful details about contemporary life in the remote peninsula. Occupy Wall Street protests had overtaken lower Manhattan, while anti-corruption protests swept Russia. At that time, Putin was preparing to resume the presidency. The second was in 2011, when Phillips traveled to Kamchatka as a Fulbright fellow, intending to write a novel. The first of these moments came in 2008, when Russia had just invaded Georgia. ![]() ![]() Her sojourn there led to Disappearing Earth, a novel set in the Far East that centers on a community’s response to the kidnapping of two girls. Īuthor Julia Phillips says three significant political moments framed her time in Russia. ![]() Julia Phillips is the debut author of the nationally bestselling novel Disappearing Earth. Abby Latour is a journalist and MA student in Russian Studies at NYU. ![]() ![]() ![]() The characters are well-rounded and likeable and you feel for them and with them as significant actions take place. By the time I hit the middle of the book, any idea of restraint went right out the window. We were learning about the new characters and the new world, easy to take in small chunks. As I mentioned, I tried to restrain myself – which worked in the beginning. ![]() The Four Kingdoms come to life throughout the story and I found myself eagerly anticipating more. That is not the case with The Maiden Ship. Sometimes this exposition can become tedious and distracting. ![]() Often a fantasy book can become word-heavy as the author necessarily needs to world build and transport the reader to a new setting – before only existing in their brain. This book is so well written it is just about perfect. I recommend a lot of books, so let me do better. ![]() ![]() Listen to our complete interview with Andrew Liptak, Carol Pinchefsky, and Christopher Cevasco in Episode 230 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). “After this you kind of think he’s got to become the next Philip K. Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy host David Barr Kirtley is thrilled that Hollywood has finally discovered Ted Chiang, and he hopes to see more of Chiang’s stories adapted in the future. “It’ll be something that’s so elegant and artistically done that sometimes I just have to sit back and marvel at it.” “I’ve actually had these moments where, as a writer myself, I’ll suddenly sit back and almost feel myself getting choked up just being so in awe of how he’s managed to accomplish something he’s been able to accomplish in a story,” Cevasco says. Writer and editor Christopher Cevasco is one of Chiang’s many admirers. His writing process is famously slow and painstaking, resulting in an output of less than one piece of short fiction per year, but everything he writes is of unusually high quality. ![]() In the science fiction world, Ted Chiang is one of the most widely admired authors working today. “I thought it was just such a poignant, heartbreaking story, and I wanted to see it brought to film, and it was translated so beautifully.” “I loved ‘Story of Your Life,'” she says. ![]() She gives much of the credit for that to its source material, the novella “Story of Your Life” by science fiction author Ted Chiang. Writer Carol Pinchefsky agrees that Arrival is exceptional. ![]() ![]() ![]() There’s not a lot of subtlety in the good guy/bad guy dynamic for this book-the elephant hunters are unabashed bad guys-but that doesn’t bother me in a kids’ adventure tale. It’s great to read a children’s book with a Thai main character who isn’t a refugee, and there’s a strong environmental and ethical message running through the story. Everyone loves the “little peanut”-that’s what Tua’s name means-and wants to help her in general and in her quest. Tua lives with her hard-working mom, but everyone in the village feels like part of her family: Uncle Somchai, who makes the best banana roti pancakes Auntie Nam, who always has a curry treat for Tua Uncle Sim, who tries to teach her how to haggle to get the best deals at the market and famous Auntie Orchid, one of Thailand’s best known actresses. This is a fun adventure story, but what makes it so fun to read aloud is the way that it brings the culture and landscape of Thailand to life so vividly. ![]() Determined to rescue her new friend from his abusive handlers, Tua orchestrates a nighttime elephant liberation, and-with the elephant’s evil owners hot on her trail-makes her way first to her aunt’s house, then to a temple, and finally to an elephant sanctuary where Pohn-Pohn can live happily ever after. ![]() Tua knows every inch of her Chiang Mai neighborhood, but she’s never seen an elephant like Pohn-Pohn there before. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The final section of this contribution traces the play’s performance history from its first staging to the present and discusses how scholarship has shaped the reception and perception of the play. ![]() The play explores the power of language to construct the image of England as a ‘blessed isle’ and evokes a growing sense of nationalism. ![]() Written entirely in verse, Richard II foregrounds poetic language and probes the limitations of words to render meaning, while also displaying the rhetorical power of speech. These two foci revolve around the question of whether a king anointed by God is accountable to his subjects, and whether a nation dominated by factions can act as a legitimizing ‘body politic.’ As the debate unfolds, the play’s two principal characters, Richard and Bolingbroke, tease out ideas of kingship that are situated between Plato’s ideal of the philosopher-king, medieval notions of a divine king, and the early modern concept of the amoral ruler as outlined by Machiavelli in his Il Principe (1513). Shakespeare’s play can be read as a dramatic exploration of two interlinked themes which were prevalent at the time: political theology and national identity. Your FREE sample of our No Fear Translations ended above. With this set of four plays, Shakespeare re-invented a genre, going back to Aeschylus’s The Persians (472 BCE), that we now refer to as the history play. Richard II William Shakespeare Study Guide No Fear Translation Table of contents No Fear Act 1 Scene 1 Continue reading with a SparkNotes PLUS trial Start your FREE trial Already have an account Log in Enjoy a FREE sample of our No Fear Translations below. Richard II is part of a tetralogy that dramatizes the historical events from the deposition of Richard II to the reign of Henry V. ![]() ![]() In this majestic story of love, sacrifice and allegiance, bestselling novelist Holden brings to life the early years before Queen Elizabeth II became monarch. Marriage, children, her own views: all are compromised by proximity to royal glory. But being beloved confidante to the Windsor family comes at huge personal cost. ![]() Afterwards, she is present when Elizabeth first sets eyes on Philip, her future husband. As Hitler’s planes fly over Windsor, she shelters her charges in the castle dungeons (not far from where the Crown Jewels are hidden in a biscuit tin). She steers the little princesses through it all, as close as a mother. From her ringside seat at the heart of the British monarchy she witnesses the trauma of the Abdication, the glamour of the Coronation, the onset of World War II. At Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Balmoral, Marion defies stuffy protocol to take the princesses on tube trains, swimming at public baths, and on joyful Christmas shopping trips at Woolworth’s. Her one stipulation to their parents is that she bring some doses of normalcy into their sheltered and privileged lives. ![]() In 1933, twenty-two-year-old Marion Crawford accepts the role of a lifetime, tutoring the little Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose. During the childhood years of Queen Elizabeth II, one of the most famous women who ever lived, a young governess helped shape her into the icon the world knows today. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Wilhelm II: Emperor and Exile, 1900-1941. Wilhelm’s paranoid fear of a deliberate encirclement of Germany served only to increase her isolation. Kaiser Wilhelm II Head of State, Royalty () SUBJECT OF BOOKS Michael Leonard Graham Balfour. He was followed by Friedrich Wilhelm I in. He assumed the crown as Friedrich I in 1701. His obsession with the enlargement of the German Navy, pro-Boer stance during the Second Boer War and blustering claims for German colonial expansion just brought Britain and France closer together. Kaiser Wilhelm II / Kaiser William II The first King of Prussia was Elector Friedrich of Brandenburg. He was Queen Victoria’s first grandson, but his ambivalent, love-hate attitude to Britain strained relations between the two countries. ![]() His dismissal of Chancellor Bismarck in 1890 and ambitious aim to make Germany a world power served to disrupt the established balance of the European order. Utterly convinced of his right to rule, Wilhelm always overestimated his capacity for wise political judgment. Wilhelm’s life, actions and complex character played a significant part in this destructive process. It also saw the fragmentation of Europe into opposing camps of mutually-mistrusting alliances, a world war ending in Germany’s humiliating defeat and the abolition of German monarchical rule. ![]() The reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II as King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany from 1888 to 1918 saw the meteoric rise of Germany as an economic and military power. ![]() ![]() ![]() *** Below, you’ll find links to the SEVEN full-length novels in Damien and Nikki’s Saga (Release Me, Claim Me, Complete Me, Anchor Me & Lost With Me, Damien, Enchant Me). I intend to explore so very many of them.” ![]() To possess her, wholly and completely.Īnd Damien’s not a man who takes no for an answer. And there’s nothing that he’s wanted more than Nichole Fairchild. In his entire adult life, nothing he’s wanted has slipped out of his grasp. I wanted a sexy steamy romance with characters that have some issues and I GOT IT…īillionaire. I wanted something where it was love/lust at first sight and I GOT IT. I wanted something where the guy swept the girl off her feet and I GOT IT. This book has a life of it’s own and in my opinion was fanfreakintastic …ĭamien was EXACTLY what this girl needed! I wanted something sizzling and I GOT IT. I didn’t want to read something exactly the same but craved something alike. Hallefreakinlujah! This is the book I have been seeking out since I first read the Fifty series. ![]() YESSSSSSSSSSS…You heard me!!!! A series that’s similar to Fifty but NOT an exact replica. “Calling all Fifty Shades Of Grey fans!!! This.Is.It. (Scroll down for all the Nikki & Damien books in order!)ĭon’t miss this runaway, #1 international bestselling series that hit as high as #2 on the New York Times list and captured the attention of millions of readers!ĥ SCORCHING DAMIEN STARK STARS – Angie’s Dreamy Reads ![]() ![]() ![]() He played a leading early role in the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in Lower Manhattan in 2011. Graeber admitted that imposing an objective measure of social value would be challenging, and that a world without, say, teachers, wouldn’t work. “It is a scar across our collective soul.”ĭr. “The moral and spiritual damage that comes from this situation is profound,” he added. Huge swaths of people, in Europe and North America in particular, spend their entire working lives performing tasks they believe to be unnecessary. Instead, technology has been marshaled, if anything, to figure out ways to make us all work more. “In technological terms, we are quite capable of this,” Mr. (“This book asks readers whether there might be a better way to organize the world of work,” Alana Semuels wrote in her Times review. In “Bullshit Jobs: A Theory” (2018), he wondered what happened to the 15-hour week that the economist John Maynard Keynes, in 1930, had predicted would be possible by the end of the 20th century. ![]() Graeber explored the changing definitions of borrowing and who owed what to whom. In his book “Debt: The First 5000 Years,” Dr. ![]() |