![]() ![]() ![]() She had a serious, thoughtful face, and her clear, deep blue eyes were fixed intently on the distance, without seeming to see anything, as if she were in trouble" (page 5).ģ. How does the following description of Alexandra forshadow the rest of the book? "His sister was a tall, strong girl, and she walked rapidly and resolutely, as if she knew exactly where she was going and what she was going to do next. ![]() Alexandra puts all of her trust into the land, which she works with instead of against, understanding that the land is a force of its own, and in return recieves peace, comfort, independence, and tranquility.ġ. ![]() Alexandra leads a life of hardship and even though eventually successful, continues to suffer heartache and loss. She struggles to keep her family together during the difficult times when everyone else on the Divide moves away in hopes of finding better land yet, through hard work, determination and the willingness to take chances she transforms the wild prairie into a succesful and widely admired farm. Alexandra sacrifices her childhood, love and beauty to the stretch of plains known as the Divide. After her father's death, Alexandra is left in charge of her brothers and the success of the family's harsh prairie land in Hanover, Nebraska. It tells the story of Alexandra Bergson, who encompasses the "American Dream." Alexandra is a determined, couageous woman with a strong and singular devotion to the land. O Pioneers! is considered Willa Cather's first recognized novel. ![]()
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![]() ![]() I could have done without that.Īll of that said, I did find some good points in the book, and reading it did make me think about my life and some changes I could make to it. This book is an advertisement for Apple and its products. If finding a minimalism lifestyle worked for him, that's great, but I doubt that it would be a common cure for alcoholism, as he implies. Sasaki writes about being an alcoholic (he doesn't use the term but, to me, getting drunk every night and going to work hung over the next morning is being an alcoholic) before finding minimalism. Minimalism is the one true religion and you can change your life for the better by converting to minimalism. Reading Goodbye Things, I felt as if I was listening to a combination TV preacher and motivational speaker. ![]() In a way, it's the same deal - just going in another direction. However, he's gained an identity as a minimalist by giving things up. Sasaki writes about people gaining an identity through the things they have. ![]() In fact, the book could have almost been condensed to the "55 tips to help you say goodbye to your things" on the last few pages of the book. A good editor could have cut this book down to the length of a magazine article, added a few of the book's photographs, and nothing much would have been lost. Sasaki writes about minimalism in maximalist manner. ![]() ![]() Using her characters to thrilling effect as well, she creates personalities that really resonate with the reader on every level. ![]() Getting to the heart of what she wants to say almost instantly, she makes sure her work it properly grounded, really offering a believable experience. Her work is well-paced with intricate yet highly accessible narratives that fully draw the reader in right from the very start. With more and more returning time and time again, she really has become a mainstay on the bookshelves of many worldwide. ![]() Over the years this approach to writing has seen her create something that’s quite different, providing something different that many readers have been looking for. Allowing her work to essentially speak for itself, she takes it in new and interesting direction, really letting it come alive on the page ![]() Pushing the format of the genre to its full potential, she really makes the most of each of her compelling and engaging premises. ![]() Reaching scores of readers from all over the world, she’s an enormously gifted author with something important to say and offer. A Canadian fantasy novelist with a huge sense of scope and scale when it comes to her work, the imagination of Victoria Goddard is unrivalled. ![]() ![]() Cast a Cold Eye by Alan Ryan (1984): Blood Will Fo.Psycho by Robert Bloch: Warner Books 1982 edition. ![]() RIP: James Herbert, Horror Fiction Icon.Now an inherent part of the post-apocalyptic pop-culture landscape, such as in video games like 'Fallout'. 'The Spear' (1978) was a good novel, superior to Straub's 'Floating Dragon', with which it shared some thematic similarities.Īnd of course the volumes in the 'Lair' (1979) series.no one can beat post-nuclear Mutant Rats ! I, too, remember reading 'The Fog' back in 1975,as a 14 year-old HS student, and its vivid imagery stays with me till this day.the 'Garden Shears' incident.the super-cool British NBC reconnaissance vehicle (was it the 'Badger' ?) John Holman drives into the Fog.and the revelation of the cause of the Fog, which avoided contrived 'supernatural' explanations in favor of something more plausible. He paid a price for being a Splatterpunk pioneer in terms of never being invited to contribute to 70s and 80s horror anthologies, even as a steady stream of crud from Ramsey Campbell got star billing. Herbert made it feasible for Clive Barker and Shaun Hutson to write, and publish, the way they did in the 80s. ![]() ![]() Compared to the other, more heralded practitioners of the 70s, like Thomas Tryon, Ira Levin, and Stephen King, Herbert was a live wire of grue. He was one of the very first Splatterpunks, and paved the way for that sub-genre of horror fiction. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This was how the likes of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Dave Sim and Frank Miller came to each write an issue of Spawn. Deciding to take what the critics were saying about the writing to heart, Todd McFarlane hired what many considered to be the best writers working in comics at the time. ![]() Spawn was no exception, as the initial issues threw in a lot of half-formed ideas that struggled to come together into a cohesive whole. When Gaiman came in for a single issue he introduced a handful of characters and changing Spawn’s world forever after.Īlthough the Image Comics titles like Spawn broke sales records, critics weren’t impressed when it came to the actual stories the comics told. Todd McFarlane’s Spawn #1 debuted in 1992, but it wasn’t until eight issues later when the character’s mythology truly began to take shape thanks to acclaimed writer Neil Gaiman. ![]() ![]() ![]() Told with the same old-fashioned narrative power as the novels of Herman Wouk, The Seamstress is the true story of Seren (Sara) Tuvel Bernstein and her survival during wartime. When she, her younger sister Esther, and two friends were sent to the Ravensbruck concentration camp in Germany, the four girls became one another's shelter. As the Nazis encircled the country and bombs rained down, Seren stitched her way to survival, scraping together enough money to provide for her family. She became the apprentice to a seamstress, and her skill with needle and thread enabled her again and again to patch the fraying pieces of her life. At thirteen, faced with a teacher's anti-Semitism, Seren walked out of her classroom and into a new existence. ![]() When she won and accepted a scholarship to a Gentiles-only Gymnasium, she was forced to make a decision that would change her path forever. Growing up, Sara (Seren) Tuvel was the smartest, most ambitious girl in her Romanian mountain village. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Thomas asked productive questions, not least challenging the prevailing assumption that folk belief was unworthy of serious scholarly attention, and his work usefully reframed the existing debate in much broader terms, allowing for more extensive exploration of correlations, not only between different sorts of popular belief, but also between popular belief and state religion. At root, his book can be seen as a superb exercise in problem-solving: one that actually established "magic" as a historical problem worthy of investigation. Keith Thomas's classic study of all forms of popular belief has been influential for so long now that it is difficult to remember how revolutionary it seemed when it first appeared.īy publishing Religion and the Decline of Magic, Thomas became the first serious scholar to attempt to synthesize the full range of popular thought about the occult and the supernatural, studying its influence across Europe over several centuries. ![]() ![]() ![]() Lockhart, Sarah also wrote How to Be Bad, and along with Farrin Jacobs, she wrote See Jane Write, a guide to writing. Me the New York Times bestselling middle grade series Whatever After the middle grade series Upside-Down Magic (with Lauren Myracle and Emily Jenkins) and the teen novels Bras & Broomsticks, Frogs & French Kisses, Spells & Sleeping Bags, and Parties & Potions (all in the Magic in Manhattan series), as well as Gimme a Call, Ten Things We Did (And Probably Shouldn't Have), Don't Even Think About It, Think Twice, and I See London, I See France. ![]() Since then, Sarah has written four additional novels for adults: Fishbowl, As Seen on TV, Monkey Business, and Me vs. While she never met Fabio, she used her romance publishing experiences to fuel her first novel Milkrun. After graduating with an honors degree in English literature from McGill University, she moved to Toronto to work for Harlequin Enterprises. ![]() ![]() ![]() A terse, thanks-but-no-thanks, it’s- not-me-it’s- you-now-kindly-get-lost note. It wasn’t that long ago that I thought I would be writing you a break-up letter. He lives in San Francisco with the illustrator Lisa Brown, to whom he is married and with whom he has collaborated on several books and one son. His books have sold more than 70 million copies and have been translated into 40 languages, and have been adapted for film, stage and television, including the recent adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events for which he was awarded both the Peabody and the Writers Guild of America awards. ![]() Handler has received commissions from the San Francisco Symphony, Berkeley Repertory Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has collaborated with artist Maira Kalman on a series of books for the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and with musicians Stephin Merritt (of the Magnetic Fields), Benjamin Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie), Colin Meloy (of the Decemberists) and Torquil Campbell (of Stars). ![]() Snicket’s first book for readers of all ages, Poison for Breakfast, will be published by Liveright/W.W. Daniel Handler is the author of seven novels, including Why We Broke Up, We Are Pirates, All The Dirty Parts and, most recently, Bottle Grove.Īs Lemony Snicket, he is responsible for numerous books for children, including the thirteen-volume A Series of Unfortunate Events, the four-volume All the Wrong Questions, and The Dark, which won the Charlotte Zolotow Award. ![]() ![]() ![]() But there’s something that seems a bit strange about Ann-and perhaps a secret she is keeping from him. Until he meets Ann, a girl who lives in the area and shows Zack all the special places to be discovered. ![]() Zack, at first, feels lost in Vista Point. Vista Point is home to many mysterious landmarks: The great domed Tower casts inscrutable shadows, and what is the cryptic message in its ceiling medallion? There are several hidden watering holes and even a secret cave in the woods with messages written on its walls. Eleven-year-old Zack blames himself for his sister’s death, and he struggles to find any comfort in his new surroundings. When Zack’s younger sister dies in a tragic accident, his family moves to a small town in the Northwest to try and heal from all the pain. After the tragic loss of their sister, Zack and his siblings band together to investigate a Morse Code-inspired mystery in this stunning novel about grief and resilience. ![]() |