![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() While the book does contain some compelling claims-for example, that the Chinese were able to calculate longitude long before Western explorers-drawn from Menzies's experiences at sea, his overall credibility is undermined by dubious research methods. Because China burned the records of its historic expeditions led by Zheng He, the famed eunuch admiral and the focus of this account, Menzies is forced to defend his argument by compiling a tedious package of circumstantial evidence that ranges from reasonable to ridiculous. Menzies alleges that the Chinese not only discovered America, but also established colonies here long before Columbus set out to sea. According to Menzies's brazen but dull account of the Middle Kingdom's exploits at sea, Magellan, Dias, da Gama, Cabral and Cook only "discovered" lands the Chinese had already visited, and they sailed with maps drawn from Chinese charts. The amateur historian's lightly footnoted, heavily speculative re-creation of little-known voyages made by Chinese ships in the early 1400s goes far beyond what most experts in and outside of China are willing to assert and will surely set tongues wagging. A former submarine commander in Britain's Royal Navy, Menzies must enjoy doing battle. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() This thread from earlier books reaches a head during the climax, when Aru must make a fateful decision about immortality and who is deserving of having their story live on. ![]() Several of these characters possess legacies that have been twisted or forgotten. During the journey to find the remaining jewel pieces, the Pandavas encounter more Otherworld characters from Hindu cosmology who test the heart and soul of each sister in their own ways. He gives them one piece of the Sun Jewel, which, when reunited with its two other parts, will light their way through the labyrinth. Seemingly out of options, Aru remembers the IO(F)U coin from god of fire Agni. The recent betrayal of Aru’s half sister, Kara, adds to the complexity of Aru’s familial relationships and the self-doubt that has plagued her throughout this quest. The Pandava series finale finds heroes Aru, Mini, and Brynne weaponless and thus unable to enter the labyrinth to protect the nectar of immortality from the villainous Sleeper.Īlthough Aru has proven her strength and courage many times over, without Vajra, her celestial lightning bolt, she feels powerless. ![]() ![]() ![]() When she catches him, he explains that his name is Sage and that he is a 500-year-old immortal. While on trip to Brazil, Clea runs into the man from her photos and chases him down. Ben also tells her that her father was looking for the Elixir of Life when he went missing. ![]() She brings up the phenomenon to her friend Ben, who informs her that her father had noticed the man years earlier and investigated for a while before deciding that he was a harmless guardian spirit. Several months before the story begins, her father disappeared while on a humanitarian mission and is presumed dead.Ĭlea looks over some old photos of herself and notices that a mysterious man wearing black appears in the background of all of them, including several where he is floating in the air. The book is now a New York Times Best Seller.Ĭlea Raymond is a talented photojournalist and the daughter of a United States Senator and a famous neurosurgeon. Elise Allen collaborated on the first book with Duff, and became committed to work jointly with her on the others. It is the first in a series of books that Duff became committed to write. It was available at booksellers on October 12, 2010. Elixir is the debut young adult novel co-written by American entertainer Hilary Duff with Elise Allen. ![]() ![]() ![]() We also still see the quintessential Lennox/Archer character development at work. But even then, the writing remains consistently sharp and inspired. In fact, the Hijacked plot borders on the preposterous at times. Hijacked definitely departs from the small town, found family grounded stories we experienced in the original Licking Thicket trilogy of Fakers, Liars, and Fools. With Hijacked, Lucy Lennox and May Archer’s latest joint venture, we see this power writing duo push the boundaries of their Licking Thicket brand of humor into new territory. Īs the saying goes: The more things change, the more they stay the same. In short, Carter’s peaceful, well-planned life has been… hijacked. Falling for his very hot, very mouthy ex-Special Forces bodyguard. ![]() ![]() Getting kidnapped by a monologuing drug lord.Being the meat in a feuding cartel sandwich.Things he can’t control this time around: His life, his prestigious reputation, his career, his future. Renowned cardiologist Carter Rogers is used to having things under control. SERIES: Licking Thicket: Horn of Glory Book 1 ![]() ![]() ![]() Throughout the book, she debunks commonly held views about idols, calling believers to account when directing their worship toward anything but their Creator. God’s “otherness,” she writes, makes possible his moral perfection, transcendence, goodness and justice. In six chapters, Perry walks her readers through a Scripture-based argument for God’s holiness: God’s holiness serves as the foundation for every other facet of his character and nature. If he can’t sin against you, shouldn’t that make him the most trustworthy being there is?” Jackie Hill Perry uses this thought-provoking quote to introduce Holier Than Thou. ![]() If God can’t sin, then he can’t sin against you. Holier Than Thou: How God’s Holiness Helps Us Trust Him By Jackie Hill Perry (B&H Books) ![]() ![]() ![]() They had a daughter, O'Hara Parrot, born in 1908, who died of skin cancer in her early teens, and a son, Kay (Ken) Parrot (born in 1910).įollowing the end of her marriage to Parrot, Mary O'Hara worked as a Hollywood screenwriter during the silent film era. She married her third cousin, Kent Kane Parrot, in 1905 against her father's wishes. Her siblings included an older sister, the writer Gulielma ("Elma") Fell an older brother, Reese and a younger sister, Elizabeth ("Bess"). ![]() O'Hara, who was named after her maternal grandmother, Mary O'Hara Spring (née Denny), grew up in Brooklyn Heights, New York. Mary O'Hara Alsop was born July 10, 1885, in Cape May Point, New Jersey, the third child of the Reverend Dr. The room on the Remount Ranch outside Cheyenne, Wyoming where Mary O'Hara wrote "My Friend Flicka" was made into a "bar room" around 1946. ![]() ![]() ![]() These pulls in opposite directions-a modernist and a postmodernist as it were-can be related to the first and the second edition of the novel. The novel evidences-for many readers frustratingly and irritatingly-a pull in opposite directions between dichotomous philosophical assumptions which manifest as unresolved tensions in the formal structure as well. It seems The Magus is the work in which the transition occurs, a novel poised on the threshold of postmodernism, but still tied in many ways to assumptions of an earlier modern era. ![]() According to Brian McHale (2013, 174), Fowles has produced three fully fledged postmodernist works (The French Lieutenant's Woman, Mantissa and A Maggot). With The French Lieutenant's Woman generally accepted as one of the first British works of postmodern fiction, John Fowles must be seen as a key writer linking modernism and postmodernism (McHale 2013, 174). ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() But as they pursue the final spells acquiring strange companions, welcome allies, and unexpected foes along the way Sarah and Ruith realize that their true quest has only just begun. Many mages seek their power, and in the wrong hands, Gair’s magic would plunge the Nine Kingdoms into an eternity of darkness. But he and Sarah must collect and destroy his father Gair’s spells soon. A reluctant sorcerer still learning to trust his own magic, Ruithneadh of Ceangail knows he’s woefully unprepared for the adversaries they’ll face. Sarah’s gift of sight only allows her to see the spells themselves, not the person behind them. With each page, each powerful rune, she and Ruith are being led somewhere, to someone but by whom, she cannot tell. Sarah of Do re knows the pattern of spells is no accident. Gift of Magic is the latest installment in New York Times bestselling author Lynn Kurland’s breathtaking Nine Kingdoms saga, which follows the daughter of a dreamweaver and the son of a mage as they struggle to save the realm from a magic as dark as it is powerful. ![]() ![]() ![]() They disliked each other, Emily couldn’t stand Simon and there was time she even tried to do all to avoid Simon’s dagger throwing stare and Simon was out to find teeny tiniest fault in Emily and whatever she did. ![]() I enjoyed bickering and small fight between them in first half. Shakespeare lovers would love to read this as there was idea of Shakespeare theme, his plays and sonnet. It was fun reading the story of Emily and Simon. The message was deep and thought provoking. It was about family love, belongingness, getting over grief, letting others help and share responsibility, and need of change without affecting the essence of originality. Well Met was cute, refreshing romance with hate to love arc that revolved around caring organized Emily, uptight rule-follower Simon, and Willow Creek renaissance fair with its historical theme. ![]() ![]() ![]() Puzo retreated to a small basement room in his New York house and started hammering out plotlines on a 1965 Olympia typewriter, occasionally admonishing his children about noise. I knew the gambling world pretty good, but that’s all.” “I never met a real honest-to-god gangster. “I’m ashamed to admit that I wrote The Godfather entirely from research,” Puzo wrote in The Godfather Papers and Other Confessions. In 1996, the author told interviewer Charlie Rose about being approached soon after the movie’s release by two “ominous” figures – one of them was John Roselli, a Chicago mob assassin whose corpse was later found floating in Biscayne Bay, inside a chain-locked 55-gallon barrel – who insisted that Puzo must have “had access to the top guys” to pen such an accurate depiction of organised crime. ![]() Puzo’s screenplay for the 1972 film adaptation, arguably the defining portrait of the Mafia in the 20th century, contained some of cinema’s most memorable lines – “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” among them – and introduced the Italian words consigliere, capo and omerta into the popular vocabulary. Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel The Godfather was on the bestseller list for 67 weeks, selling more than 21 million copies worldwide. ![]() |
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May 2023
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