Jason and Deiree performed Welcome to the Dark Side beautifully. One that I won't forget about anytime soon. A special shout out to Mute, a character I absolutely adored in this book. The symbolism surrounding how she copes and how she survives, made me love her more. As for Lou, well she is quite the inspirational heroine, what she goes through and comes out of the other side of shows a true strength of character. He is far from cold hearted, mean and immoral. However for me I enjoyed the storyline of this novel, I could form an attachment to the characters and Zeus as a president of an MC really isn't the man you expect. The romance element is forbidden and may not be to everyone's taste. An unlikely friendship grows over more than a decade and one that is endearing as the heroine Lou goes through so much in the first 20 years of her life. Welcome to the dark side focuses on the president of The Fallen Men MC and a girl 18 years his junior who he saves when a rival gang launch an attack on The Fallen Men's territory. So when I found out that Jason Clarke (one of my favourite narrators) was voicing Zeus I just had to listen. Everyone that has read this series, always talks about Zeus Garro and when I read it for myself I understood why. This is my favourite of The Fallen Men series.
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Section three of the book takes on a more political and societal focus. The following poem, “It’s Not,” sees the speaker accepting their father’s death as a transition into a deeper unknown unbound by the strictures of life. “The Speed of Belief,” the first and longer poem of the two poems in the section, is a seven part piece that examines the complexity and nuances of grief, from denial and depression to anger and bargaining. Section two of the book focuses solely on the poet’s experiences following the death of her father. “Don’t You Wonder, Sometimes?” is the second long form piece in the book, tackling issues of loss and alienation while simultaneously paying tribute to David Bowie. “The Museum of Obsolescence” and “At Some Point, They’ll Want to Know What It Was Like” focus on how people living in what used to be considered the future will look back on and attempt to understand or explain the past. The poem “Sci-Fi” describes the poet’s predictions for the future while “My God, It’s Full of Stars” and “The Universe is a House Party” explore the expansiveness and chaos of space and time. Life on Mars begins with a series of poems in section one that focus on visions of the future and meditations on outer space and the universe. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Smith, Tracy K. To fund the colony, all the settlers put money into a central fund to buy ships and supplies. Others are interested in travel and beginning again for various reasons of their own. Many of the new settlers are part of more traditional societies seeking a way to maintain their way of life. Dragonsdawn begins with a group of Terrans, or earthlings, traveling in three ships to the planet Pern, where they plan to start a new pastoral colony away from the industrialization and technology that plagued them on planet Earth. It also details their fight against the deadly Thread, a silvery thread-like energy that falls from the sky and consumes all organic matter. Dragonsdawn follows the early settlers of Pern on their mission to establish a new pastoral colony with limited access to industrialization and technology. The book is a prequel McCaffrey wrote to elaborate on the early years of a human colony on the planet Pern, which is the setting for eight previous fantasy novels written by McCaffrey and her son Todd. Dragonsdawn is a fantasy novel by prolific American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. But Smith’s brilliance is that, like Mantel, like Ishiguro, she always doubles back for another meaning. For those of us living out this winter in fear and rage, watching Twitter, reading notifications, how dreadful and true that seems. “There was always a furious intolerance at work in the world no matter when or where in history,” she writes. Our own century feels so intricately fractured that this maturity has attained a renewed power, exposing the corporate sunniness of the Clinton-Blair 90s, when for a brief cheerful moment we thought we had solved everything, as a tragic lie. All write with the humility of adulthood. She has none of their cocky charismatic Oxbridge certainty instead, she shares with Mantel and Ishiguro a sense of human caution, a need to understand, a wariness of the high-handedly authorial. Why have Smith, Mantel, Ishiguro and others surpassed Rushdie and Amis in our estimation? Smith may offer the best response to the question. Our main character, Elyse, suffers from a rare disorder where words she or others say will appear on her body. And this is a great one, but with an even better twist. I assumed that this was going to be another take on something we see a lot in fiction-the misunderstood main character trying to find their place in the world. By the time I finished chapter one, I was convinced I knew where this story was heading.Īnd I couldn't have been happier. Mainly because I can't wait to dive into another world, but also because I'm always afraid there will be a hint of a spoiler on there. I started reading this without taking a look at the synopsis on the back. Because Abby Cooper's book, Sticks and Stones, is proof that originality isn't dead. If anyone ever tells you that all the good ideas in fiction have been used up, scoff at them. I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Cassandra’s story has always been one I related to, and I enjoyed reading her story just as I had imagined it but with that special touch that only Saint can add to it. I love how the story stays very close to the Ancient Greek plays that introduced them and went on to add a depth that plays cannot convey in their written form. It’s a story that has touched me at my core with the relatable pain and heartache all three women experience through no fault of their own. This writing style makes the poignancy of this tragic tale all the more impactful and memorable. I immediately felt drawn into the story with its beautiful, lyrical prose that flowed through the many years that the story covers. I expect a tragic but beautiful story of three strong and courageous women for whom life dealt the worst hand. And it’s through my study of those plays I first learned about the characters in this story. The previous story reminded me of a tragic Greek play. I read Ariadne by Jennifer Saint, and I expect a similar tale. Initial Expectations (before I began reading): This tale is based on Greek Mythology and touched my heart in profound, everlasting ways. Elektra by Jennifer Saint is the poignant and epic story of three women whose lives were irrevocably changed by Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae – Elektra, Clytemnestra, and Cassandra. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything Mulan meets The Song of Achilles in Shelley Parker-Chan’s She Who Became the Sun, a bold, queer, and lyrical reimagining of the rise of the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty from an amazing new voice in literary fantasy. Kaye's satire usually hits the mark, coming at the expense of rural gastropubs with names like The Snooty Fox,Īs well as the world of hipster taxidermy (Mirka starts assembling Dazed and Confused-friendly scenes called things like 'Freelance squirrels' and 'Rats at an office party'). Don't be fooled by the spare, quiet prose Kaye and her characters will do cartwheels over your expectations * Sara Novic, author of Girl At War * Chronicling a Slovakian immigrant's story in the UK, English Animals is an important novel in an uncertain time. Kaye offers an engrossing look at the English countryside, complex in friendship, love, violence and with a touch of mystery. A bubble of pleasurable reading * Sainsbury's Magazine * Hyland, author of the Man Booker-shortlisted Carry Me Down *īetter than a burst of February sunshine, this is a pitch-perfect story. The dreadful marriage, the horrific father and above all Mirka herself with her courageous honesty and kindness make this something very special * Amanda Craig *Ī beautiful and bold debut * M.J. I loved the taxidermy ideas and details, and how beautifully they chimed with the human animal scenes presented. Its command of tone, narrative and character is so assured, and both its wit and perceptiveness about a certain kind of English life make it a joy to read. It's a long time since I've enjoyed any debut novel as much as English Animals. confident novel that engages with love, belonging, prejudice and, above all, quintessential Englishness * Daily Mail * Kaye has a keen eye for social observation. America may be going through a rough patch, he acknowledges, but he is optimistic that Americans can overcome the hard times and make their country-or the federal government, at least-great again.ĭespite this book’s grandiose title, its contents are mostly less than fanciful. or around the world thought that the American government was getting a lot right at any level. Yglesias wrote his “maximum America” prescriptions during the Covid pandemic, at a time when few in the U.S. What precedes this curtain-call hat tip is a somewhat haphazard menu of policy items that Yglesias would like to see implemented in and by the United States. “In tweet form,” Yglesias says, “this whole book is simply ‘ Maximum Canada, but for America’” (p. At the end of One Billion Americans (on the very last page, buried in the Acknowledgements), Vox co-founder and Beltway pundit Matthew Yglesias writes that his book “owes a vast inspirational debt” to Saunders and Maximum Canada. (New York, NY: Portfolio/Penguin, 2020, 288 pages, hardcover, $24)Ĭanadian journalist Doug Saunders’ 2017 book Maximum Canada: Why 35 Million Canadians Are Not Enough is about growing Canada’s population in order to amplify the nation’s presence on the world stage. ONE BILLION AMERICANS: THE CASE FOR THINKING BIGGER If not allow me to introduce to you the Bookish Dregs starting with Jill came up with the name for our little group, Melissa Megan Now, we all went into Crooked Kingdom with high expectations since Six Of Crows absolutely delivered on Plot, Characters, Writing, and last but not least Pacing. This time around I participated in a buddy read with some awesome bloggers you all have probably seen around. A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets―a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of magic in the Grisha world.Ĭrooked Kingdom is the 2nd installment in Leigh Bardugo’s Six Of Crows Duology, the conclusion we’ve all been waiting for following the huge success of Six Of Crows. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties. Double-crossed and left crippled by the kidnapping of a valuable team member, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. Crooked Kingdom (Six Of Crows #2) by Leigh Bardugo |