![]() ![]() ![]() Much to his surprise, an anonymous letter comes back in return, and a tentative friendship is born. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest.Īfter yet another exasperating run-in with Mercy, Hart finds himself penning a letter addressed simply to “A Friend”. It’s an unforgiving job, and Hart’s got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness. ![]() Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the strange and magical wilds of Tanria. Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo,, Better World Books Genres: cozy fantasy, fantasy, fantasy romance Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweissįormats available: paperback, ebook, audiobook The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen ![]()
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![]() ![]() Readers who welcome and relish protest fiction, whether Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, and Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, might enjoy Kingsolver’s novel. The time is now, though there are very few references to contemporary events. You’d think he was from around here.” For Copperhead, whose hair is the color of copper wire, “around here” means Appalachia, where Kingsolver lives on a farm with her husband. ![]() In the body of the novel, Kingsolver’s protagonist and narrator- a poor white kid, a drug addict, an orphan and a born again artist- explains that while Dickens was a “seriously old guy, dead and a foreigner, but Jesus Christ did he get the picture on kids and orphans getting screwed over and nobody giving a rat’s ass. ![]() To write her most recent novel, (2022 549 pages $32.50 Harper Collins) her tenth in the past 35 years, Barbara Kingsolver turned for inspiration to Charles Dickens whom she calls her “genius friend.” In the acknowledgements, she writes, “I’m grateful to Charles Dickens for writing David Copperfield, his impassioned critique of institutional poverty and its damaging effects on children in his society.” She adds, “Those problems are still with us.” Isn’t that obvious? Why hit us over the head with it? ![]() ![]() ![]() Orual, who has been like a mother to Psyche, cannot believe that it is actually Cupid to whom Psyche has joined herself. The one rule that Cupid gave Psyche was that she not look upon his face. Psyche, the younger sister, was so beautiful that Cupid himself desired her for his bride. Orual was the older sister and so ugly that she spends most of the book with her face veiled. Their childhood was filled with great love, but eventually, tragedy strikes. The first part of the book shows the sisters Orual and Psyche growing up together, along with their mentor the Fox. In doing so, he depicts a life centered on one such abuse of love that is far more extreme than that of the teenager and her parents. ![]() Lewis retells the myth of Cupid and Psyche. Rare indeed is the person who has not treated love so poorly. The only lever she has to persuade her parents is their love for her. Reeling at the blow to her social life, the words bubble up, “you don’t really love me!” She says this only because she knows that her parents do love her and that it will hurt them to hear these painful words. ![]() Picture the scene, cliché as it is: A young teenager’s parents have just refused her permission to go with friends to a concert this Friday. “Love is not a thing to be so used” -The Fox ![]() ![]() ![]() Her black and white illustrations are more than paragraph breaks, they show the story of Dory and all of the characters she dreams up over the course of the day. Hanlon’s art makes this a book that younger readers will happily pick up and read. Dory could have been a problematic character, but thanks to the book being told from her point of view, readers will get to see how strong a person she is long before she displays it to her family. Hanlon brilliantly captures the wild imagination of a little girl who doesn’t slow down for a minute, zinging from one idea to the next even as those around her groan. In the end though it is Dory’s own creativity and bravery that will save her and maybe even get her siblings to play too. Hopefully the little man who says he’s her fairy godmother will be able to help defeat her. Gobble Gracker, a horrible woman who steals baby girls and is looking for Dory! So when the doorbell rings, Dory knows it is Mrs. When Dory continues to bother her brother and sister, they make up a story about Mrs. There are also other monsters all over their house. ![]() ![]() Dory has a best friend, Mary, a monster who sleeps under her bed and is always willing to play. So she is left to play on her own and thanks to her great imagination, Dory has a lot of fun. Dory is the youngest in her family and her older siblings won’t play with her at all. ![]() ![]() ![]() I also loved the way that the author wove the hymn "He Hideth My Soul" into the story it was really beautiful and touching. And finally, the story line was phenomenally engaging. The Gospel message was clearly given in a simple and winsome way. The book was well-researched and important details were carefully and engagingly highlighted without making the book boring in any way, but rather enhancing the story. ![]() The research into the historical period that she wrote about (including tiny details that fleshed out and really "explained" the time period and location in the Appalachian mountains where the book takes place) was fascinating for me. ![]() What an incredible book! There were many facets to love about it, but I'll share my three favorites-close attention to historical detail, the centrality of the Gospel message, and finally, the poignant, engaging story line.Įvery time I read one of this author's books, it becomes "one of my favorites" of hers. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() What he has delivered in this sixth of his tales is a glorious overstuffed “secondary world” fantasy that manages to balance the picaresque mode with that of the (far too often overdone) quest mode the cosmic with the mundane comedy with tragedy the scatalogical with the ethereal and unmitigated selfishness with noble dedication and altruism. But certainly my enjoyment of his newest, The Blacktongue Thief, will propel me to search out his earlier books. ![]() The Blacktongue Thief, Christopher Buehlman ( Tor 978-1250621191, $25.99, 416pp, hc) May 2021.Īuthor of five previous novels, Christopher Buehlman had not previously fallen across my radar screen. ![]() ![]() Maybe I do need this book now more than ever. So how do I say yes now? How do I move forward from here even when I am trying to say yes? Please Shonda, tell me and shed some light. ![]() Here I am trying to say YES!!! and so many doors have closed with big fat NOs. NO! This year has been relentless and continues to feel like one roadblock after another. NO! Then a global pandemic which caused Australia to close their borders. ![]() Personal growth was a guarantee! This was going to be my year of self discovery! YES! YES! YES! These yeses were sure to introduce me to opportunities that would be full of saying yes to things that scared me and challenged me. I had said yes to wanting to start a program in order to expand my education and to upskill. I had said yes to leaving my job to pursue this new adventure. ![]() Sean and I had said yes to moving across the world. I had started 2020 thinking that it would hands down be my biggest Year of Yes yet. When I ordered the Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes, I thought that it felt ironic as 2020 has been more like the big fat Year of No. ![]() ![]() ![]() Suddenly, she finds herself heiress to Castile-a realm on the verge of chaos, prey to avaracious nobles and scheming lords bent on thwarting her rule. One by one, tragedy decimates Juana's family in Spain. ![]() Intelligent and beautiful, proud of her heritage, Juana rebels against her fate when she is chosen as a bride for the Hapsburg heir-until she arrives in Flanders and comes face-to-face with the prince known as Philip the Fair, a man who will bring her the greatest of passions, and the darkest despair. Juana of Castile is just thirteen when she witnesses the fall of Moorish Granada and uniting of the fractured kingdoms of Spain under her warrior parents, Isabel and Fernando. One of history's most enigmatic women tells the haunting, passionate story of her tumultuous life. ![]() ![]() ![]() It aims to establish the foundations on which the design, control and implementation of the underlying mechanical systems are based. This book deals with robots - such as remote manipulators, multifingered hands, walking machines, flight simulators, and machine tools - that rely on mechanical systems to perform their tasks. Since then, robotics has evolved to connect with many branches of science and engineering, and to encompass such diverse fields as computer vision, artificial intelligence, and speech recognition. Modern robotics dates from the late 1960s, when progress in the development of microprocessors made possible the computer control of a multiaxial manipulator. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The memoir is written with a unique voice well-suited for story-telling, and includes original research of the USA Southwest and the Mojave Desert. After living alone in a cave for twenty-nine months in the desolate Avawatz Mountain Range, David shares with readers hysterically funny yarns about how he dealt with tarantulas, excessively annoying tourists, traveling preachers, boot-stealing desert varmints, foul water, a hungry owl forty feet tall, irate fathers, and sheriff deputies in hot pursuit of him. ![]() |