Stephen Markley is the acclaimed author of Ohio, which NPR called a “masterpiece.” A graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, Markley’s other books include the memoir Publish This Book and the travelogue Tales of Iceland. As their stories hurtle toward a spectacular climax, each faces a reckoning: what will they sacrifice to salvage humanity's last chance at a future? A singular achievement, The Deluge is a once-in-a-generation novel that meets the moment as few works of art ever have. From the Gulf Coast to Los Angeles, the Midwest to Washington, DC, their intertwined odysseys unfold against a stark backdrop of accelerating chaos as they summon courage, galvanize a nation, fall to their own fear, and find wild hope in the face of staggering odds. His fate will become bound to a stunning cast of characters-a broken drug addict, a star advertising strategist, a neurodivergent mathematician, a cunning eco-terrorist, an actor turned religious zealot, and a brazen young activist named Kate Morris, who, in the mountains of Wyoming, begins a project that will alter the course of the decades to come. In California in 2013, Tony Pietrus, a scientist studying deposits of undersea methane, receives a death threat. America is in upheaval, battered by violent weather and extreme politics. In the first decades of the 21st century, the world is convulsing, its governments mired in gridlock while a patient but unrelenting ecological crisis looms. Click here to watch the livestream for this event.
0 Comments
And he needs to, because his first year has been a catalogue of unintentional insults. Most of his antipathy is reserved for his boss, the self-absorbed Professor Welch, whose academic career has been smoothed by his wife’s money and who enjoys a bourgeois lifestyle in his country house, complete with musical weekends and artistic gatherings, which Dixon is expected to attend if he wants to make the right impression. It’s a subject for which he feels no particular affection or aptitude indeed, he has developed a particular loathing for it. His discontent radiates outwards, encompassing the insular and petty world of the university, those of his students intelligent enough to risk exposing him for the fraud he is, and virtually all his colleagues. Having served in the Second World War, he has returned to academia in lieu of anything better to do and is now at the end of his first year teaching Medieval History at an unnamed provincial university. In literary terms, Heydrich is a wonderful character - “It’s as if a Dr Frankenstein novelist had mixed up the greatest monsters of literature to create a new and terrifying creature” - whose horrifying exploits earned him various names, including “The Butcher of Prague”, “ The Hangman of Europe” and “The Blond Beast”. In fact, he was regarded as the most dangerous man in the Reich and was seen as a natural successor to Hitler. The book focuses on a particular real-life event: the attempted assassination of Nazi SS officer Reinhard Heydrich in Prague on by two British-trained parachutists, one Czech and one Slovak, in a plot dubbed Operation Anthropoid.Īs well as exploring the parachutists’ exploits once they are behind enemy lines and all the events leading up to, and after, the planned assassination, it also looks at Heydrich’s stellar rise up the Nazi ranks to become acting Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, where he violently suppressed Czech culture and helped plan the “Final Solution”. What results is an intriguing hybrid, one that constantly reminds us that we can’t always trust the portrayal of history to be accurate or “truthful”, because there will always be elements that are confusing, ambiguous or simply unknowable. Laurent Binet’s HHhH is a unique take on the historical novel: it not only blends fact with fiction, the narrative includes the author’s own thoughts on researching and writing the story. Translated from the French by Sam Taylor. Fiction – paperback Vintage 336 pages 2013. We also have young Tavvy, Drusilla, teenage twins Ty and Livvy, and the return of Mark Blackthorn from the Wild Hunt. It is forbidden to fall in love with one’s own parabatai, though, the reason for which is explained at the end of the novel. Emma is able to live with Julian and his family at the Los Angeles Institute, but only because they are parabatai, bonded together by a sacred ritual to be stronger for and with each other. Lady Midnight has many characters that are kind of hard to keep track of, but the main two are Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorn, who readers have met five years previously in the events of City of Heavenly Fire. There were very early hints that a forbidden romance would evolve between the parabatai, but other than that, it felt like the overall arch of the story-investigating the murder of Emma’s parents and their connection to recent murders-took awhile to become interesting. Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed at the rather slow start of the novel. Her Shadowhunters novels are all phenomenal, so of course I had very high expectations of Lady Midnight, the first of the Dark Artifices trilogy. Cassandra Clare is by far my favorite young adult writer. Read onlineīastion was supposed to mean safety. Even proud old dragons can learn new tricks, and with everything I love falling to pieces, the father I’ve always run from might just be the only force in the universe stubborn enough to pull us back together. When gods fight, mortals don’t usually survive, but I’m not alone this time. When a rival spirit attacks my god/boss with the aim of turning the famously safety-optional city into a literal death arena with Nik as his bloody champion, I’m thrust onto the front lines and way out of my comfort zone. Turns out, things can always get worse in the DFZ. That wouldn’t be so bad if he wasn’t such a jerk, or if every dragon on the planet wasn’t out to kill him, or if he was my only problem. Instead, I’m stuck playing caretaker to the Great Dragon of Korea. I thought getting rid of my dad’s bad luck curse would put things back to normal. My name is Opal Yong-ae, and I’m in way over my head. They say family always sticks together, but when you’re your dad’s only lifeline and the whole world-humans, dragons, and gods-wants you dead, “family bonding” takes on a whole new meaning. It’s a long story for a children’s book at 64 pages, not a detail was left out. Family, friends and neighbors inspire all of the characters in the book. One Morning in Maine gives readers a rare look into the life of author and illustrator Robert McCloskey. Excited that she is now big girl, Sal spends her whole day telling everyone she meets about her loose tooth – the fish hawk, the loon, and the seal. Afraid that it will hurt and that she will not be able to sail to Buck’s Harbor with her dad, Sal becomes distressed but is reassured by mom that a loose tooth is just one of many childhood passages to becoming a grownup. Sal wakes up one morning to discover she has a loose tooth. To this day I still cringe when I hear a door slam. Annie would like to make me sweat and enjoyed giving it a couple of practice runs not enough force to yank out the tooth, but enough to draw blood. Sometimes he would let my sister do the honors. Standing a good couple of paces from the open door, anxiety would build while I wait for the door to slam and set in motion a chain of events that would send my tooth flying through the air. My dad would tie one end of the string around the loose tooth and the other end to a doorknob. There was a time-honored tradition in our family whenever my sister and I had a loose tooth. The subject matter is intense and unspeakably tragic, but it is the deliberate inclusion of belligerent, unrestrained queer joy alongside the characters’ realization that it is almost inevitable they, too, will become victims of the deadly virus, that makes this an invaluable addition to a genre that has largely excluded this piece of history. This book is historical fiction, riddled with early 1990s pop culture references that teens may find perplexing, but the frank, personable writing style circumvents many of the challenges the genre often has in generating teen appeal. The boys’ stories are told from alternating points of view and barely intersect, allowing Shaw to comprehensively explore the effects of the AIDS crisis on the queer community. In the spirit of the author’s massively popular Twitter thread, Tucker Shaw’s When You Call My Name is a heartrending novel about two gay teens coming of age in New York City in 1990 at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, perfect for fans of Adam Silvera and Mary H. Ben is living with his older brother, a doctor, after their mother finds his stash of gay magazines Adam is working at a film store when he meets the man who will become his boyfriend, first love, and raw introduction to the reality of being a queer man in that era. Gr 10 Up–The year is 1990 and two queer boys on the cusp of adulthood find themselves searching for community and purpose in New York City. The author of several influential books on the world’s leading playwright, among them Shakespeare After All(which won Phi Beta Kappa's 2005 Christian Gauss Award), Profiling Shakespeare (2008), and Shakespeare and Modern Culture (2008), Dr. chair in English and American literature and oversees two prestigious interdisciplinary programs. Offered a sprightly SPEAKING OF SHAKESPEARE event with Marjorie Garber, a popular Harvard professor who has been described by the New York Times as “one of the most powerful women in the academic world.” She holds the William R. At 8:00 on Monday evening, December 14, at the NATIONAL ARTS CLUB, the GUILD A movie adaptation of "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" is out now and getting some rave reviews. And it's a story that still resonates with audiences today. MCCAMMON: Writing honestly for adolescent readers about puberty and sex is not so unusual in 2023, but at that time, in the 1970s, it was revolutionary. KELLY: Like chicken wings flapping as we're - Yeah. KELLY: We should, for people who don't know what we're talking about, would you just say that - what we're talking about here?īLUME: We're talking about I must, I must, I must increase my bust with the proper accompanying arm movements. And one day, when you're as old as I am, you might even be glad. And when I talk to kids, I tell them it doesn't work. If I had, among other things, I might have complained that the bosom-increasing exercise that Margaret does fervently does not work because I tried. MARY LOUISE KELLY: Well, Judy, I did not write you a letter. Recently, she spoke with Judy Blume about the many letters Blume has received from fans and readers over the years. It was a staple for many childhood readers, including my co-host, Mary Louise Kelly. Judy Blume's 1970 novel, "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret," tells the story of a preteen girl who moves to New Jersey with her family, makes new friends, and awaits the arrival of her period. Discover more activities in the Activity Kit.Īs the many accolades attest, including winning the 2021 ALA Caldecott Medal, We Are Water Protectors is an exceptional picture book.Are you a water protector? How can you preserve and protect water in your community? Even simple actions like using less water to bathe or while you’re brushing your teeth, or cleaning up litter near a pond or river bank, helps.Water is the first medicine, Nokomis told me.īrief Synopsis: When a black snake arrives and threatens the water sources, a young girl finds courage to rally her people to fight it. Themes/Topics: water, #OwnVoices, Indigenous Peoples, ecology, social activism |