6/8/2023 0 Comments Trick mirror jia![]() ![]() We fall into her argument regarding these “heroine texts” and their selfhood trajectory, from “brave to blank to bitter,” eager and unsuspecting. ![]() In conversation with research by Nancy Miller, she helps rebrand the literary definition of “heroine,” expanding it considerably into novels that feature women who are less extraordinary than representative. ![]() Tolentino extracts the foundational relationship each of the protagonists and their societies has to men, both familiar to them and in the abstract, and studies it. Her examples range from adolescent to adult women, mostly contemporary, some classic, all oozing with the nostalgia one naturally imposes when reading about one’s past. ![]() In one of the longer essays, “Pure Heroines,” Tolentino walks readers down a lovely road of vignettes of their childhood literary favorites, all reverently analyzed, slipping into writing about writing. Her sharp sense of self-awareness and disillusionment brew together to create nine essays that are inherently millennial, challenging in thought, and a perfect mix of academia and story. Jia Tolentino’s collection of essays, Trick Mirror, is a critical study of the internet age, capitalism, and religion through the slant of her own contemporary feminism. ![]()
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6/8/2023 0 Comments Fool moon by jim butcher![]() ![]() There is also an amount of "deus ex machina" going on but the quality of the prose and the world weary dogged determination of the protagonist more than makes up for this. We do treat over familiar ground to a certain extent, for those of short memory or who haven't read the previous novel but this is fairly minimal. Not content to make this simply a "werewolf" novel, we are actually treated to four different kinds of werewolf each type explained much better than I would have expected. The author again manages to hit the nail on the head here, we've got a great plot, excellent continuity (which I do find important) and even more importantly we get to see the major characters develop and learn a few more snippets regarding Harry's intriguing past. ![]() I really do love this alternative reality urban fantasy that we were introduced to in Jim Butchers first novel Storm Front and we are again immersed into this rich world full of magic and magical creatures. A full moon, strange paw prints and a mutilated body doesn't take a genius to guess just what they are up against. Just when it looks like he can't even afford his next meal a murder comes along that requires his very particular expertise. ![]() Since we left Harry business has been pretty non-existant and he's been unable to find any kind of work at all mundane or magical. Fool Moon is the second book in the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher and once again we meet up with Chicago's only professional wizard and one of only a dozen of his power in the country. ![]() 6/7/2023 0 Comments Book andy weir![]() ![]() Project Hail Mary will make you feel good. Here are three reasons you should try Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary.ġ. ![]() If a paragraph starts with an asterisk, know that it may contain a mild spoiler). It’s pretty hard to avoid spoilers when discussing this novel, but I will try to keep details as vague as possible. (However, I would like to disclaim that this review will include some spoilers-mostly because when readers begin the book, both the reader and narrator know absolutely nothing about what’s going on. Project Hail Mary was breathtaking, tear-jerking, captivating, hilarious, and heartwarming. I wasn’t sure I was ready to slog through a somewhat lonely, desolate, and math-heavy text (I majored in Creative Writing for a reason!) again.īut I am more than willing to be proven wrong, and in my assessment of Andy Weir as a storyteller, I certainly was. ![]() ![]() So when a friend recommended his latest novel, Project Hail Mary , I was a bit skeptical. I am about to admit something that is probably pretty taboo for a science fiction reader: I didn’t love Andy Weir’s The Martian. I didn’t dislike it-I just wasn’t Matt Damon-movie-level taken in by the story or its characters. ![]() 6/7/2023 0 Comments Atonement novel![]() I am going to respond to this challenge." I sat down that very day to write a piece, like a number of fellow writers. Then I thought, "Well, I'm not writing a novel at the moment. I instinctively said "Certainly not", which gave me time to think about it. How are you bearing up?" and she said "Write something for us." The whole newsroom was in turmoil. It was really a kind of accident for me because I happen to be married to an editor at the Guardian. Ian McEwan: Well, I think the events of September 11 were quite anomalous. Firstly, if he'd like to talk to us about the novel, and also if he has any thoughts about the relationship between writers like himself and, if you like, 'real-world events'. These are two topics I think we should kick off with. ![]() Both attracted a lot of attention and seem to represent a new engagement of the British creative writer with current events. I felt it was a very moving piece and on October 11 he wrote another. ![]() ![]() Ian wrote a piece for the Guardian for the day after - a speed which was incredible, given the quality of the writing. But also, and more seriously, like others among us I have been very impressed by Ian's contribution to the discussion in the wake of the awful events of September 11. His latest novel, Atonement, made the Booker shortlist. John Sutherland: I am here solely to act as the thinnest of membranes for Ian McEwan this evening. ![]() 6/7/2023 0 Comments Jon klassen i want my hat![]() ![]() Wryly ad-libbing through the vocal responses of younger spectators, Larwood gives a brilliantly deadpan performance, which plays to two levels simultaneously. ![]() There’s plenty for the big kids in the audience too, from Arthur Darvill’s genre-hopping music to Joel Horwood’s book and lyrics, which retain Klassen’s concision and offer knowing winks to the adults. It’s a production that gets that kids understand pretending. Fly Davis’s DIY design has pot plants for trees and animal ears for costumes, while the chorus’s rapid changes of character often happen in full view. Wilson’s version lets young audiences in on its tricks, welcoming them on stage at the beginning and making few attempts to hide its make-believe. Bear’s attempts to track it down lead him through a series of encounters with his fellow forest inhabitants. But when he leaves it unguarded in the forest, opportunistic Rabbit ( Steven Webb, with all the hyperactive energy he has brought to the Lyric Hammersmith’s pantomimes) is quick to snatch it up. ![]() Photograph: Richard Davenportīear ( Marek Larwood) loves his red, pointy hat. Hyperactive energy … Steven Webb (Rabbit) in I Want My Hat Back. ![]() ![]() ![]() Will Allen's parents were sharecroppers in South Carolina until they took part in the Great Migration and moved to Rockville, Maryland, where Allen grew up. Upon retirement, Allen moved to his wife Cynthia's hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Īllen retired from basketball in 1977, when he was 28. He also played professionally in Belgium. He never played in the NBA, but appeared in seven games with The Floridians of the ABA during the 1971–72 season. Īfter college Allen was selected by the Baltimore Bullets in the 4th round (60th pick overall) of the 1971 NBA draft. ![]() He was the first African-American to play basketball for the University of Miami. Will Allen was a high school state champion in basketball at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland Allen played collegiately for the Miami Hurricanes at the University of Miami, where he was on a basketball scholarship. Will Allen (born February 8, 1949) is an American urban farmer based in Milwaukee and a retired professional basketball player. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Not the innocent African Americans who can’t escape being put in the frame for murder by racist law enforcers. Not those who can’t perform their pain to the satisfaction of those predisposed to be sceptical. Who gets believed, asks the Iranian-born American writer Dina Nayeri, author of two novels and an award-winning book of creative nonfiction, The Ungrateful Refugee (2019). The outrage of what happened to K underpins this ardent, harrowing and occasionally exasperating book. K had told the truth, but for many years was disbelieved a form of torture in itself. It took until 2019 for the supreme court to decide that there was no evidence to back this theory. ![]() ![]() ![]() Kate likes to keep to herself, she’s pretty quiet and would rather be doing anything but hosting a podcast. The story follows Kate, Alana, Diego, and Frank. ![]() It also made me want to read the previous 9 books, then I had to curse life for not giving me the next 9 days free. After finishing the book I turned to the acknowledgements and the first 2 sentences were that this was Kasie West’s book ten and this was the number of books she was hoping she would write and reading this just made me so much happier for reasons I can’t comprehend. The writing complemented the story perfectly and I have no words for the joy I’m feeling right now. The characters were written very well and each played off the others’ role very well. ![]() But now after everything I just read I wouldn’t change a word. Sometimes a book can have a great concept but the execution may not be up to the par, but when I first read the blurb of this book I will admit I was bit skeptical because of the possibility of a love triangle, and that too between best friends. This story is wonderful and was narrated in the perfect way. ![]() I just finished the book a minute ago, literally, and I can’t stop grinning because of everything that I just read. This book is so beautiful it’s making my head hurt. ![]() ![]() It was a daunting experience, one with many missteps and misunderstandings. She studied computer science in college, got hired as a product designer and then a few years into the job she suddenly got a tap on the shoulder. One of them was Julie Zhuo, who started there as the first intern. The entire company staff could fit into a backyard party. In the early 2000s, Facebook had set up in California and like a lot of startups there, a handful of bright, recent graduates were working long hours and fantasizing about changing the world. Not quite all the way back to founder Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard dorm room days, but not that long after. ![]() I’m Curt Nickisch.įlash back with me to the early days of Facebook. Zhuo is the author of the book The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You.ĬURT NICKISCH: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. She says that becoming a great manager also helps you know yourself better. ![]() Eventually, she grew to find joy in the role and today she leads hundreds of people. ![]() Like many first-time bosses, she made many missteps and acted how she thought managers were supposed to act. Julie Zhuo, Facebook’s VP of product design, started at the company as its first intern and became a manager at the age of 25. ![]() 6/6/2023 0 Comments Book apeirogon![]() ![]() It feels as if the situation in the Middle East is always a reflection of its age. It’s a strange time for a novel as full-hearted as Apeirogon. It does far more than make an argument for peace it is, itself, an agent of change. But it’s indisputably a novel, and, to my mind, an exceedingly important one. It achieves its aim by merging acts of imagination and extrapolation with historical fact. it allows us to inhabit the interiority of human beings who are not ourselves. Apeirogon is an empathy engine, utterly collapsing the gulf between teller and listener. Reading Apeirogon we move beyond an understanding of Rami and Bassam’s grief from the outside we begin to share it. the novel succeeds brilliantly at its larger project. ![]() McCann’s brilliant act of novel-making builds a wholly believable and infinitely faceted reality around Rami’s and Bassam’s first-person accounts, a rich and comprehensive context that allows us into the fathers’ experiences, their histories, their minds. They’re also the most intimate pages of the book, and the most difficult to read. these fathers’ grief-stricken voices are already part of the public consciousness. This novel, divided into 1,001 fragmentary chapters.reflects the infinite complications that underlie the girls’ deaths, and the unending grief that follows. ![]() |