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Big lies in a small town6/28/2023 ![]() Alone in the world and desperate for work, she accepts. North Carolina, 1940: Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence and a conspiracy of small-town secrets. ![]() Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Her dream of a career in the arts is put on hold – until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will see her released immediately. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, she finds herself serving a three-year stint in the North Carolina Women’s Correctional Centre. North Carolina, 2018: Morgan Christopher’s life has been derailed. ‘Fans of Jodi Picoult’s style will love how Diane Chamberlain writes’ - Candis Big Lies in a Small Town, by the bestselling author Diane Chamberlain, is an emotional novel about two women connected by a painting that holds many dark secrets. ![]() ![]() A decades-old disappearance, and a quest to find the truth. ![]()
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Throne of jade by naomi novik6/28/2023 ![]() ![]() If you haven’t read His Majesty’s Dragon yet, I definitely do not recommend beginning the series with this book. Give me a chance to spend all night with you between the sheets. I might not be as taut and compelling as my predecessor, but I promise to be compulsively readable just the same. ![]() Slightly awkward transitional book full of high seas adventure, political intrigue, derring-do, exotic locales and nascent musings on the nature of liberty, natural rights and sentience seeks geeky reader who squeals with glee at the thought of an alternate history of the Napoleonic war with dragons. If I had to write a compulsively honest personal ad for Throne of Jade, it’d go something like this: ![]()
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Best friends book shannon hale6/28/2023 ![]() She didn't know about the current TV shows because she's not allowed to watch TV on weeknights like her classmates. ![]() She didn't know the current cool songs that everyone seemed to know because her family listened to different kinds of music. She's part of a group of girl friends but sometimes she felt left out. This book followed Shannon, a sixth grader. The rules about friends with boys and girls are cute and funny. Shannon was good with earning money for her young age. And she did it only after she thought it through. She's a good role model when she stood up for herself by confronting Jenny of stealing her job. ![]() I liked how Shannon felt bad for gossiping and being mean. ![]() This book has some great advices about friendship. I like the main character, Shannon because she appeared humble and nice. I didn't realize this book was the second to the series until I started to read it but it's okay to read as a stand-alone. ![]()
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Victoria laurie psychic eye series6/28/2023 ![]() Victoria Laurie delivers yet another charming edition to her psychic eye series. How Abby gets herself into these situations, I will never know. Love the series and I love Abby.Īt this point I wasn't sure Abby should be with Dutch, but I know I grow to think differently. ![]() ![]() I don't think I was bothered by it the first time around because I didn't know what was going to happen and now that I did, I was more critical. Basically, it reminded me I was reading a story instead of experiencing. It got old and took me out of the experience. At the end of half the chapters is was something like, "Little did I know that." Something bad was going to happen. One thing that bothered me this time around was the constant warning to the reader that something was going to happen. It made me wonder what he'd been up to while they were apart and since we only get Abby's POV, we just don't know. ![]() I didn't buy that Dutch would be so forgiving. After the way Dutch had treated her, she had every right to do that. I'm glad Abby let herself see what could happen with Duffy. My 3rd time reading this book and still love it. ![]()
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Will by will smith and mark manson6/28/2023 ![]() ![]() "The Jump" will show Smith bungee jumping out of a helicopter and into the Grand Canyon. 25, which just happens to be Smith's 50th birthday. In a press release Friday, YouTube announced new original content, "Will Smith: The Jump," airing Sept. The book announcement coincides with other news from Smith, this time related to his active YouTube channel. "I grew up watching this guy after school," Manson wrote on Instagram. ![]() On Instagram, Manson wrote that the book is coming in 2019. What can we expect from the new work? The book will reportedly be a mix of personal stories from Smith's life, mingling the memoir aspects with inspirational, self-help guidance. Manson appears in the video and Smith asks, "Are you feeling confident? Are you feeling like we'll be able to make transcendent art with this book?" "I've got years and years of stuff I want to say, and I’m finally going to write a book for y’all,” he said. “I’m writing a book!" Smith announced in the video. ![]()
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The old drift characters6/28/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() On the face of it, the form and storytelling are familiar, recalling many of the sweeping, colonial narratives authored in decades past in the global north. Stylistically, the novel is something of a Trojan horse. Over its course we meet, among many others, blind British tennis player Agnes who marries across the colour bar, a philandering doctor intent on finding a vaccine for AIDs, the Zambian astronaut who never was, and a woman covered in hair. Similar in scope to The Eighth Life, which R also enjoyed, the novel begins in 1904 with a small pioneer settlement near Victoria Falls, and traces how the connections and traumas forged in that messy collision of people ricochet down the generations. Spanning more than a century, a large cast of characters and numerous countries, The Old Drift is a proudly ambitious book. Their favourite read not featured on my list was The Old Drift by Zambian author Namwali Serpell. Having been keen to expand their horizons, they had embarked on an international quest, using the List on this blog as a source of ideas and supplementing these with their own discoveries when they felt like it or didn’t like my choices (the best way to use this website, if you ask me). ![]() Like many over the past couple of years, they’d had a tough time and found solace in reading. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() And so all the dire effects of coral reefs dying off, of it becoming, you know, basically impossible to work outdoors in the tropical regions - these things are simply proportional to how many of those emissions you make. ![]() ![]() Sadly, as long as you're emitting CO2, you're causing the temperature to go up. On his belief that the world has to reduce emissions of greenhose gasses from 51 billion tons a year to zero In his new book How To Avoid A Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have And The Breakthroughs We Need, he outlines how his own thinking on the topic has evolved over the years - and he describes a path forward that he says everybody can participate in in some way. Now Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, one of the world's most prominent business leaders and philanthropists - the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been a supporter of NPR - is sharing his thoughts on how to solve it. How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, by Bill GatesĮditor's note: The introduction of this interview with Bill Gates should have stated that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is an NPR funder.Ĭlimate change has been called the greatest existential threat of our time - and it has already had devastating effects on people throughout the world. ![]()
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The autobiography of malcolm x audible6/27/2023 ![]() After reading this book I was perplexed! I wonder why Malcolm X hasn't been given the same respect as Dr. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X was barely mentioned. ![]() The majority of those pages were on Rosa Parks and Dr. ![]() In High School my history syllabus covered just a few pages on African-American civil rights heroes. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” - Malcolm X I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. “I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda. ![]() Malcolm has become a sort of tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which people of different positions can write their own interpretations of his politics and legacy. The meaning of his public life - his politics and ideology - is contested in part because his entire body of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a collaborative autobiography whose veracity is challenged. Kelley wrote, "Malcolm X has been called many things: Pan-Africanist, father of Black Power, religious fanatic, closet conservative, incipient socialist, and a menace to society. ![]() Less than a year later, he was assassinated in Washington Heights on the first day of National Brotherhood Week. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little), also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was an American Black Muslim minister and a spokesman for the Nation of Islam.Īfter leaving the Nation of Islam in 1964, he made the pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca and became a Sunni Muslim. ![]()
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Wandfasted series6/27/2023 ![]() ![]() As his own magic calls out to her, seeking to awaken a dark force within, Elloren finds it more and more difficult to believe that she's truly powerless, as her uncle always claimed.Ĭaught between her growing feelings for the rebellious Yvan Guriel and the seductive power offered by Lukas, Elloren must find a way to stay true to what she knows is right and protect everyone she loves…even if that means protecting them from herself. Though Elloren tries to keep him at arm's length, Lukas is determined to tie himself to her, still convinced that she is the heir to the power of the Black Witch, a legacy of magic that will decide the future of all Erthia. When Tessla Harrow is driven from her home by the fighting, she discovers a depth of power she never knew she hadand an irresistible draw toward Vale Gardner, the son of the Black Witch who is destined to save their people. While the Resistance struggles to fight back against the harsh rulings of the Mage Council, more and more Gardnerian soldiers descend upon the University…led by none other than Lukas Grey, now commander of the nearby military base. WANDFASTED Twenty years before The Black Witch, Erthia was rent asunder during the devastating Realm War. The last thing they expected was to be thrust into a realm-wide underground resistance against Gardnerian conquest. Dark forces are on the rise in this sweeping sequel to The Black Witch by critically acclaimed author Laurie Forest.Įlloren Gardner and her friends were only seeking to right a few wrongs when they rescued a Selkie and freed a military dragon. ![]()
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A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant6/27/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Mirkwood’s buttons were generally related to his moral development and business astuteness. Russell’s buttons were generally related to sex and bedroom action, and Mr. It was so delightful to watch them push each other’s buttons. And there’s an undercurrent of mild humor not in a “ha ha” way but constantly smile-worthy. ![]() The level of heat worked appropriately in this telling. And I, a person who enjoys heat in a book, still find the book so enjoyable. And for some people, it might not have enough heat. The only possible concerning term for some listeners-though not me-was cock. They are, however, sensual and revealing without any rawness or, what I would consider, detail. The story does not have any explicit sex scenes though it’s full of sex scenes due to the story’s basis. There was little internal dialogue, so the focus was on seeing not telling the story, which was great. And everything was plausible, including all of the dialogue and how people engaged with another. It had engaging characters, including but not limited to the h and H. As a result, both of them were changed in surprising and, at times, unwanted ways. Mirkwood as their “business arrangement” takes an unexpected turn, including the endearing development of a friendship. Russell being loosened by the rake-ish Mr. What a wonderful tale of widowed, prudish Mrs. Wonderful tale of developing love & changing ![]() |