Geraldine brooks the secret chord review6/26/2023 (I should confess that I did not read with pen in hand, which means I have no detailed notes from which to write a review.) Using the the top attributes of favourite historical fiction from the 2013 historical fiction survey, here’s my perspective. Told from the perspective of Natan (Nathan), the king’s prophet, Brooks has created a compelling drama of David’s life. The Secret Chord reveals the man behind the legends, a man with both great strengths and great failings. According to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, “It is safe to say that David’s musical genius and commitment to the worship of God cast a refreshing shadow over the entire book of Psalms.” In addition to his skills as a leader and military man, King David was a brilliant musician and composer. Most of us know the story of David and Goliath, but how many know of David’s life after that? According to the Books of Samuel, David was the second king of the united kingdom of Israel and according to New Testament accounts, an ancestor of Jesus. It’s set around 1000BC in the second iron age, the time of King David and had all the qualities I was looking for:īrooks, a Pulitzer prize winner for her novel March, had many votes for favourite historical fiction author in 2012, 20. I purchased Geraldine Brooks‘s latest novel The Secret Chordfor the twenty-hour trip home from New Zealand.
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The book of disquiet best translation6/26/2023 As Adorno famously said, the finished work is, in our times and climate of anguish, a lie. Hence the fragmentary condition of The Book of Disquiet, which contains material that predates 1913 and which Pessoa left open-ended at his death. Hence the vast torso of Pessoa's Faust on which he laboured much of his life. The very kaleidoscope of voices within him, the breadth of his culture, the catholicity of his ironic sympathies – wonderfully echoed in Saramago's great novel about Ricardo Reis – inhibited the monumentalities, the self-satisfaction of completion. "The fragmentary, the incomplete is of the essence of Pessoa's spirit. The Book of Disquietude was various books (yet ultimately one book), with various authors (yet ultimately one author), and even the word disquietude changes meaning as time passes." In his introduction, he writes that "if Bernardo Soares does not measure up to the full Pessoa, neither are his diary writings the sum total of Disquietude, to which he was after all a johnny-come-lately. Richard Zenith, editor of a new Portuguese edition in 1998, took the option of presenting a single volume, as in his English translation of 1991. The second phase, more personal and diary-like, is the one credited to Bernardo Soares. However, António Quadros considers the first phase of the book to belong to Pessoa himself. Fernando Pessoa drinking a glass of wine in a Lisbon tavern in 1929. Second founding eric foner6/26/2023 His newest book is The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution. The DeWitt Clinton Professor Emeritus of History at Columbia University, he writes frequently for The Nation and other major periodicals. His books have garnered every major award, including the Pulitzer Prize for The Firey Trial, his study of Lincoln and American slavery. His teaching and scholarship have shaped our understanding of that period. Eric Foner is the preminent historian of the Civil War Era.This program is presented in conjunction with the Center’s exhibit Civil War and Reconstruction: The Battle for Freedom and Equality. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates. The Declaration of Independence declared the truth of equality to be self-evident, but it took the Civil War and the adoption of three constitutional amendments to establish that ideal as part of our fundamental law. Foner traces the arc of the Reconstruction amendments from their dramatic pre-Civil War origins to today. Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Eric Foner joins America’s Town Hall for a timely discussion about the history of the battle to inscribe equality into the Constitution. Determined to thwart his attempts to whitewash his reputation, Ellie also returns to Oldham, intent on creating a Website and writing a book that will conclusively prove his guilt. Nonetheless, the convicted killer is set free and returns to Oldham. When he comes up for parole, Ellie, now an investigative reporter for an Atlanta newspaper, protests his release. Steadfastly denying his guilt, he spent the next 22 years in prison. Ellie's testimony eventually led to the conviciton of the man she was convinced was the killer. And it was Ellie who was blamed by her parents for her sister's death for not telling them about this place the night Andrea was missing. It was Ellie who had led her parents to a hideout in which Andrea's body was found - a secret hideaway where she met her friends. There were three suspects: Rob Westerfield, 19-year-old scion of a wealthy, prominent family whom Andrea has been secretly dating Paul Stroebel, a 16-year-old schoolmate, who had a crush on Andrea, and Will Nebels, a local handyman in his 40s. Ellie Cavanaugh was only seven years old when her 15-year-old sister, Andrea, was murdered near their home in a rural village in New York's Westchester County. The scythe trilogy6/26/2023 The idea of a future world that has conquered death and disease is an amazing concept, and I loved all the little hidden gems throughout this book. The way they developed throughout this book was amazing, and I loved how Faraday trained them. But oh my gosh, this book was phenomenal and I adored the complexity of this stunning story!Ĭitra and Rowan are both amazing characters, and I loved reading about them and comparing their characteristics with one another. Oh, and for a while I thought it was going to be too dark for me to enjoy (I was wrong!). Holy crap! So I’ve been (stupidly) putting off reading the Arc of the Scythe trilogy for no better reason than I just felt like I had better things to do and lacked time. As they learn the art of killing, Citra and Rowan realize that there are many players in the game that they have been thrown into. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe– a role that neither wants. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life– and they are commanded to do so in order to keep the size of the population under control. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Quote: “Have we ever had an enemy worse than ourselves?” Series: Book 1 in the Arc of the Scythe Trilogy Edward snowden book6/25/2023 According to estimates, Snowden netted approximately $1 million from his public speaking career to date, charging an average cost of $18,000 per event. Snowden's speaking career involves him making 56 appearances where he charged speaker fees. The publishing house offered him a $4 million advance on the book before the ruling. Unfortunately, this puts Snowden in a precarious position. However, the US government states that he cannot make money from the book's proceeds, and Edward had to agree to profit the profits from his writing. His book, "Permanent Record," received worldwide acclaim, earning Snowden over $5 million in sales. He would appear at select conferences for a reasonable fee to sustain himself while in hiding from the US government in Russia.Īfter committing what many people view as treason, Snowden lost his government pension, and the CIA and FBI seized his American bank accounts.Īlong with his speaking engagements, Snowden spent the last ten years in isolation writing a book about the events surrounding his leaving the NSA and his thoughts on the increasing threat of the surveillance state. Of course Edward Snowden no longer draws a salary from the NSA or any US government entity.Īfter fleeing from the US for Russia, Edward survived on speaking fees. How did Edward Snowden build his net worth? How the Duke Was Won by Lenora Bell6/25/2023 I loved the plot I loved Charlene I loved that the Duke was drawn to her, even though he didn’t want to be. Since the Duke is, indeed, disgraceful, he is drawn to Charlotte’s bold and bawdy ways. When her legitimate half-sister (who looks exactly like her) gets an invitation to a house party from a very available Duke, but cannot attend, Charlene is “hired” to impersonate Dorothea to win the Duke for her. She is smart, and wants to get herself and her younger sister out. Let’s get into it!Ĭharlene is the bastard daughter of a Lord, brought up in a whorehouse, but is not a whore. This one caught me very quickly and didn’t let up. Lenora Bell is a new author to me, but I love historical romance, the cover is on point, and the series is titled “Disgraceful Dukes,”… how could I go wrong? Answer: I couldn’t. Captain america brubaker omnibus6/25/2023 Where Brubaker shines in this collection are the Winter Soldier issues. They were a little shallow depth wise, but even the weaker issues are better than some other writers' good issues of Cap (sad to say). I thought the Cap issues towards the end of the run weren't the best issues from Brubaker. Also included is the beginning issues of the Winter Soldier series written by Brubaker (14 issues). So, Marvel finished their classic numbering of the Cap book and rebooted with a new number one. But, it was a little sad finishing it off and knowing there is no more of the run to read now. I'm so glad Marvel printed the whole of Brubaker's run in omnibus format. I let this one sit on the shelf for a little bit after I got it. My life next door book series6/25/2023 (They don’t go to school together as the Garrett children attend public school and Samantha attends a private school.) And, since her mother’s busy campaigning, Samantha’s able to spend time with Jase without her mother knowing. Naturally, like all boy next door novels, Samantha meets one of the neighbor boys, Jase. Samantha spends years fascinated by the Garrett family, with their roudy warmth that’s so different from her own family. Her mother is very concerned about appearances, and maintains a perfect house, which stands in stark contrast to the chaotic family of ten next door, the Garretts. She’s got a bit of a Sarah Palin thing going on, with high fashion, a youthful appearance, marketable rhetoric and daughters that fit her political image perfectly. Samantha’s mother is an up-and-coming state senator in Connecticut. However, while this wasn’t a perfect read for me, there were elements that stuck out to me as “doing it right” where a lot of other contemporary young adult fiction falters. Huntley Fitzpatrick’s debut novel, My Life Next Door, has been reviewed quite a bit, so I wasn’t planning on contributing my thoughts on this novel. As it became clear that the EU would not allow the implementation of a programme challenging the prerogatives of neoliberal capitalism (including privatisation, fiscal austerity, deregulation, free trade, and reductions in government spending), a narrative presenting « Europe » as a capitalist, class project started to gain visibility.ĢMigration is also more than ever at the heart of debates around the future of the European project. The negative outcome of the Syriza-led government’s attempt at negotiating anti-austerity policies within the framework of the EU has started changing this. Yet, until recently, deeper questions regarding the nature of the European project, and the ideologies animating its trajectory and setting its goals, hardly ever seemed to be raised 1. The 2009 Eurozone crisis has sparked heated debates between partisans and opponents of austerity and the recent « negotiations » opposing the Greek Syriza-led government to European leaders and institutions have made the headlines for months. 1 « Europe » has never been as present in the media and in political discourse as it is today. |