![]() The part where I’m now furious at the end and not the middle? Gonna have to sort that! Terrific book. ![]() ![]() Anyway, the part where this book has affected me this deeply over this many years, well, that says a lot about the book, the author, and me. Nobody sorts dysfunction better than Tyler, even if she never actually fixes anything. Her work (prior to Ladder of Years) was healing to me in my 20’s as I sorted through the wreckage left from a chaotic childhood and dysfunctional family. I’d like to argue with the book’s end, oh I want to argue!, but the ending is typical Tyler (as I recall all these years later), and typical Tyler is generally a good thing. Here I am 25 years later, first I’ve picked up by Tyler since, back where I left off with an ENTIRELY different perspective. ![]() I was at that time a mother of young children, babies, and the book made me so angry at the main character (and Tyler) that I threw the book against the wall 2/3 through, vowed to never read another word by Tyler, and kept my vow. I have a personal history with this title, having read it in hardcover in 1995. I could make an essay out of a review, a long essay. I wish there were more than 5 stars for performance. This is the first book I’ve listened to narrated by her and I will go through the list of books she has narrated to seek out more. First narration: Elisabeth Rodgers is an outstanding narrator. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Guests can indulge in Corn Flake Fried Chicken, and comforting sides such as Johnetta's greens, black-eyed peas, stewed okra & tomatoes, Miller's cornbread, macaroni and cheese, and banana pudding. On the following evening, July 31, the Big Easy Dinner, the restaurant’s family-style supper series, will feature a fried chicken feast alongside a thoughtful conversation with Adrian about the roots of soul food and its future direction. ![]() As Chef Danny demonstrates how to prepare soul food dishes such as Creole "Black-Eyed Pea" Gumbo, Hill Country Quail & Waffles, and Cooper Farm Peach Cobbler, Adrian will share his knowledge, illuminating the nuances of this dynamic culinary culture. ![]() On July 30, Danny and Adrian will collaborate on a special cooking class that explores the similarities between soul food and Creole cuisine. This month, Brennan’s of Houston is honored to welcome “Soul Food Scholar” and James Beard Award-winning author Adrian Miller for two back-to-back culinary events. ![]() ![]() ![]() Dos Passos saw only oppression and futility. ![]() In war, Hemingway found adventure, women, and a cause. Their friendship and collaboration developed through the peace of the 1920s and 1930s, as Hemingway’s novels soared to success while Dos Passos penned the greatest antiwar novel of his generation, Three Soldiers. When the war was over, both men knew they had to write about it they had to give voice to what they felt about war and life. Later in the war, he briefly met another young writer, Ernest Hemingway, who was just arriving for his service in the ambulance corps. ![]() After meeting for the first time on the front lines of World War I, two aspiring writers forge an intense twenty-year friendship and write some of America’s greatest novels, giving voice to a “lost generation” shaken by war.Įager to find his way in life and words, John Dos Passos first witnessed the horror of trench warfare in France as a volunteer ambulance driver retrieving the dead and seriously wounded from the front line. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Honestly, while Anne Rockwell does (I guess) present a sweet enough little piece of basic and simple storytelling fluff about a family going on an autumn excursion to pick (to harvest) apples and pumpkins, there is really (in my opinion) nothing contained in either the featured text or the accompanying illustrations of Apples and Pumpkins that has in any manner managed to lastingly and truly wow or impress me (and no, even as a young child, I most definitely would have found Anne Rockwell's presented narrative of Apples and Pumpkins much too frustratingly lacking in verbal description and Lizzy Rockwell's artwork as too cartoon-like and one dimensionally stagnant, with especially the depicted facial features of both the family and the farmer feeling aesthetically devoid of even rudimentary and basic necessary expressiveness). ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And she’d never have predicted she’d fall in love with him… or that he’d help her unlock the powerful truth of who she really is. But in all her years spent dreaming of leaving home, she never imagined she’d gallop away on a mythical horse, fleeing the murderous Sultan’s army, with a fugitive who’s wanted for treason. ![]() When she meets Jin, a mysterious and devastatingly handsome foreigner, in a shooting contest, she figures he’s the perfect escape route. But there’s nothing mystical or magical about Dustwalk, the dead-end town that Amani can’t wait to escape from.ĭestined to wind up “wed or dead,” Amani’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to get her out of Dustwalk. ![]() Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mystical beasts still roam the wild and barren wastes, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinni still practice their magic. She’s more gunpowder than girl-and the fate of the desert lies in her hands. The fabulous team from Allen and Unwin also sent me the sequel of this book – Traitor to the Throne, which is on my April TBR (look out for its review soon!). I won this copy of Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton from Allen and Unwin last year and finally got around to read it after hearing many great things (yay!). ![]() ![]() How they too could be blind - or willfully blind - to frightening changes taking place right in front of them.” The author hopes “readers will feel a connection to this chapter of history and to the experiences of ‘ordinary Germans’ who fell somewhere on the spectrum between victim and villain.” She feels that “reading about characters drawn in by the Nazi movement helps people imagine how they too could be swept up in dangerous political and cultural currents. ![]() Through them and those close to them, readers consider the physical, emotional, and psychological experiences of everyday Germans. Shattuck asks the question: What happened to the wives of those involved in the July 20 th event? And she poses an answer involving three women and their children trying to survive after Germany’s defeat. ![]() This is the pivotal event behind Jessica Shattuck’s The Women in the Castle. Jmarked the last assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler’s life. Most thought of themselves as German patriots. Most of the military leaders involved knew that Hitler’s plans for conquering Europe harboured the seeds of Germany’s own destruction. Others were revolted at the horror of Nazi war crimes. Some perpetrators were convinced of the sheer madness of Hitler and his regime. Many assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler’s life occurred prior to and during World War Two. ![]() ![]() She did a wonderful job painting the picture for me to see the characters in. A kingdom of darkness, frigid cold and otherworldly. Otherwise, the story was well thought out, beautiful and moved at a quick pace (maybe that’s just because I was devouring it). I would have loved to have more danger, maybe a strong antagonist, but the fact that a future antagonist was hinted at gives me hope for more books in this series. I think it was really sweet and made quite an easy read. But she finds much more than she was looking for in Axton, her hero/enemy/infuriating guide. Shailin, a seemingly normal human girl, is thrust by her mother into the dark world of The Immortal, hoping to find a way to save her sick and ailing brother. I, for one, hope she keeps writing (and definitely am hoping for more of this story) Estrada, who seems like a fairly new author. ![]() ![]() I was pulled in right from the get-go, and couldn’t put it down once I started. If it involves magic, otherworld’s, fantasy creatures and romance? I’m there. I’ll say that in every review I write in the genre, and I’m going to re-iterate it here. ![]() ![]() Even with this case at stake, he’s enjoying a new romantic relationship with a woman named Frankie Nobles. Virgil Flowers is happy with life, at least for the most part. And like the perverted doctor will soon learn the hard way, you do not want a man like Virgil Flowers breathing down your neck if you’ve got something to hide. In fact, the state’s best investigator, Virgil Flowers, has been assigned to the case. Peck’s instincts eventually prove right, because things are far from over. He was successful getting in and out of the zoo using a couple of dumb, expendable accomplices. But after catching some serious public backlash for stealing the tigers, especially from animal rights activists around the country, Peck realizes this story isn’t about to just go away. Hired by a California-based criminal named Zhang Min, Peck’s job was to steal the tigers and harvest their organs as quickly as possible. ![]() Now he’s mixed up in the world of Chinese medicine, a practice that, since it requires killing and harvesting the organs of endangered animals, is illegal in multiple countries. Winston Peck VI used to be a doctor, but he lost his license to practice medicine after displaying inappropriate tendencies, something he demonstrated to his patients on a regular basis. ![]() The action starts when a pair of rare Amur tigers are stolen from a zoo just outside of St. Virgil Flowers, who started out as a secondary character in author John Sandford’s bestselling Prey series (starring Lucas Davenport), proves once again that he has plenty of star power to carry his own franchise. ![]() ![]() Knapp describes her love affair and obsession with alcohol with such clarity I struggled to completely step away from her words. Only someone who has dealt with alcoholism first-hand will recognize the truths she freely shares. I found myself cringing and wanting to look away as Knapp chronicles her twenty-year relationship with alcohol. Published in 1996, “Drinking – A Love Story” is shocking in its brutal honesty. ![]() (And, by the way, I am not writing a memoir, so relax parental figures and sibs.) When she tells you to read something, you obey. ![]() “Drinking – A Love Story” is considered to be one of the best examples of memoir according to Marion Roach Smith, whom I believe to be THE master teacher of memoir-writing. I did NOT want to read what I considered to be a sad, depressing story of a drunk getting sober – probably because I’ve seen that played out in real life and even though it might end well, it’s still tragic and depressing to walk alongside someone you love as they take this journey. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Prior to that, they still had access to technology capable of colonizing the entire Solar System and beyond. The Star People had access to incredibly advanced technology, developed during the so-called Summer of Man. They were known to be quite destructive to the local ecosystems of colony worlds, preferring to replace them with plants and animals created from modified species native to Earth, possibly to create environments more familiar to them. While they originally had no armies or weapons, they developed such defensive measures after seeing evidence of other advanced lifeforms. Despite their separate colonies, their communication and sharing of technology allowed all Star People to prosper as a sort of empire of man. Early colonization attempts were strife with their own arrays of problems, from generation ship crews failing due to loving machines over other Star People. ![]() The Star People created highly advanced societies across hundreds of billions of star systems, although individual colonies rarely met in-person. While bearing an overall appearance very similar to that of Humans, they bore bald, larger heads to accommodate their larger brains. The Star People were genetically engineered Humans with bigger brains and heightened talents, in every way superior to the humans of Earth and the Martians. ![]() |