![]() ![]() a most attractive introduction to the artist and his work School Librarian The excellent illustrations include some of Van Gogh's own work and the picture of him in his bedroom is cleverly based on his own painting. The themes are that of being patient, whilst not giving up, in the face of rejection and tolerance of people who are different. The writing is simple and spare but with well-chosen words, which should leave children effortlessly remembering that van Gogh painted sunflowers, and that he was unappreciated in his lifetime. The illustrations are bright and cheerful, with a couple of repeated motifs, such as van Gogh's pipe and straw hat, to ensure the images are simple but memorable. ![]() Degas and the Little Dancer, Laurence Anholt (Illustrator), Edward Degas. Use of a child's perspective renders the subject matter more accessible for children, helps to disguise the educational aspect of the book and brings a fresh sense of wonder to the artist. Camille and the Sunflowers, Laurence Anholt (Illustrator), Frances Lincoln, (1995). ![]()
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6/12/2023 0 Comments Wheels Up by Annabeth Albert![]() ![]() Petty Officer Wes Lowe has a smart mouth, a take-charge attitude and an uncanny ability for making things go boom. His latest chat buddy is more than a sexy online distraction-they’re taking their very not-safe-for-work relationship into real time. He’s kept his bisexual identity under wraps for years, along with his kinky side and a fondness for the military-themed semianonymous hookup website Joe4Joe. ![]() No longer a twentysomething hell-raiser, he’s his SEAL team’s new XO-and a man with a secret. Lieutenant Dustin Strauss is a reformed man. ![]() Their love is forbidden, but their hearts aren’t listening to rules and regulations… I stayed up way past my bedtime with this one!” - Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews “Each book in this series keeps getting better and better. ![]() 6/12/2023 0 Comments Author of 50 shades of gray![]() ![]() ![]() Related: Who Dakota Johnson Played In 21 Jump St (& Will She Return In The Spinoff?) In the end, the Fifty Shades films were utterly maligned by critics, though the series did end up grossing over $1.3 billion worldwide. James wielded immense power over the making of the Fifty Shades films, hand-picking the producers who would go on to make major creative decisions, such as controversially casting Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson in the lead roles as Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele over several bigger names. The film adaptations experienced a notoriously chaotic production process, with original director Sam Taylor-Johnson departing after the first installment due to disagreements with James. ![]() 6/11/2023 0 Comments Egyptology book emily sands![]() ![]() a gilded eye-of-Horus amulet with a "jewel" at the end a facsimile of the gilded mummy mask of King Tut a souvenir booklet showing how to read simple hieroglyphs a playable game of Senet - ancient Egyptian checkers - including board, pieces, original-style dice, and rules an extravagantly gilded cover, featuring a raised Horus hawk pendant with three encrusted gems ![]() Here are just a few of Egyptology'sspecial features: But luckily, her keen observations live on in the form of a lovingly kept journal, full of drawings, photographs, booklets, foldout maps, postcards, and many other intriguing samples. Alas, Miss Sands and crew soon vanished into the desert, never to be seen again. Who can resist the allure of ancient Egypt - and the thrill of uncovering mysteries that have lain hidden for thousands of years? Not the feisty Miss Emily Sands, who in 1926, four years after the discovery of King Tut's tomb, led an expedition up the Nile in search of the tomb of the god Osiris. Discover the wonders of ancient Egypt through a fascinating journal from a lost expedition - a treasure trove of fact and fantasy featuring a novelty element on every spread. ![]() ![]() ![]() So for me, to read a great story alongside someone like Saunders, is a meditative experience. ![]() I had no idea that Russia had a golden age in literature in the 19th century. I’m not a literature major, I’d probably be farthest from it, writing computer software for a living. I felt like that student, sitting in a literature class, listening to an award-winning writer explain what makes a great story great. After that reading, Saunders was not only convinced of the power of the short story, but also “desperate” about writing better short stories himself.Īnd that’s partly how I felt reading his book. The professor reads three stories, and in doing so, brings Chekhov to life. Saunders didn’t know much about Chekhov then: he thought Chekhov’s stories were “mild” and “voiceless”. His professor, a short-story writer, gave a reading of Chekhov. Close to the end of A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders looks back on a class from his graduate school. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Lucid, sharp, and crisp as spring water, this collection holds a sweeping narrative power that will stay with you long after the last line. Taking seed in the dilapidated barns and warm sunlit rooms of Standish McIntyre’s personal history, these poems weave a filigree of well-worn remembrances and time-honoured treaties of the self, half forgotten yet ever lingering. ![]() Standish McIntyre gives voice to the unspoken, shining a light into the dark corners of our collective memory to reveal an indelible past that gleams with clarity, empathy, and humanity. Way’s Mills, Quebec, is the setting for these poems, although as with Mark Twain’s Mississippi, physical place becomes a place in the heart in this elegy for lost ancestral farms. Her richly lyrical phrases capture both the fear and the beauty of growing up in a rural working-class community, anchored by the magical bond between a young girl and her grandfather. ![]() With vivid imagery and endless compassion for her subjects, Tanya Standish McIntyre’s words breathe life. A keeper of things forgotten, a vase / for pictures made by words, a riverbed / for the stories you tell, an earthen silhouette / of a child ![]() 6/11/2023 0 Comments Pandemic by Sonia Shah![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It adapted ways to form colonies, making it harder to dislodge from the human gut, and it developed a toxin that flushes all the fluids from the body, causing death by dehydration. But to make the jump to human-to-human transmission, the vibrio changed. Disease might occur if a fisherman swallowed some brackish water, a direct transmission from the vibrio to a human. In grim detail, science journalist Shah ( The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years, 2010, etc.) demonstrates how it became the global source of horrendous deaths and how the story of cholera is paradigmatic of how pandemics happen.Ĭholera emerged in the early 1800s after the East India Company began to fill in and settle the wetlands. Vibrio cholerae was once a species of marine bacteria attached to some plankton in the coastal wetlands of the Bay of Bengal. ![]() ![]() The review begins with a brief summary of the book. In the book “The Battle for the Falklands”, Jenkins and Hastings produce a carefully researched, thoughtful, and balanced account of the Falklands affair. The statement involves the direction of the review and the integration of ideas from other authors into the discussions provided by Jenkins and Hastings. The current book review revolves around one major thesis statement. The predisposition of the inhabitants of these islands is also addressed by the two authors. Other themes included are disputes over sovereignty, failure in peacekeeping, and the nature of the islands. The themes of the roles played by the Argentine, British, and American governments are explored in the book. ![]() It also highlights some of the major issues leading to the war. The book provides the reader with an overview of the historical background in relation to the battle. ![]() “The Battle for the Falklands” is reviewed from the context of the conflict and what is known to members of the public and the scholars. The following study is a review of the book mentioned above. The scholars who have reviewed the engagement in the past have focused on varying themes. ![]() Hastings and Jenkins are some of the experts who are interested in this encounter. The battle, also known as the Falklands affair, has been reviewed by several authors over the years. The text focuses on the war the British fought with Argentina over the Falklands. “The Battle for the Falklands” is one of the books authored by Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins. ![]() 6/10/2023 0 Comments Mad About You by Mhairi McFarlane![]() She currently lives in Nottingham where she worked as a local journalist. ![]() Her second novel Here’s Looking at You published in 2013 was a Sunday Times Bestseller. It has been translated into over fifteen languages, and it’s being optioned for adaptation for the big screen. It made record becoming the best HarperCollins best-selling eBook to date. Her debut novel, You Had Me at Hello was an instant sensation after publication in 2012. After roles as a feature writer, trainee reporter, reporter and columnist, Mhairi discovered that it was time to write a novel. She made a return to Nottingham to delight the natives with her journalism. Born in Falkirk, Scotland, she schooled in Nottingham and advanced her studies at Manchester University where she graduated with a degree in English Literature. ![]() ![]() Mhairi McFarlane is an internationally bestselling English author of humor, literature and fiction books. ![]() ![]() ![]() What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera doesn’t know what comes over her, but after calling the cops like any good citizen would, she sort of… swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Then one morning, Vera trudges downstairs to find a curious thing - a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. Sutanto brilliantly blends Asian culture, humor, tragedy, mystery, and just enough drama and suspense that the pages turn quickly. The book was both very funny and very warm, and is definitely one I can enthusiastically recommend. ![]() ![]() She likes nothing more than sipping on a good cup of Wulong and doing some healthy detective work on the Internet about what her Gen-Z son is up to. I absolutely LOVED Vera Wongs Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. ![]() Despite living alone, Vera is not needy, oh no. Vera Wong is a lonely little old lady - ah, lady of a certain age - who lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. Sutanto, bestselling author of Dial A for Aunties. A lonely shopkeeper takes it upon herself to solve a murder in the most peculiar way in this captivating mystery by Jesse Q. ![]() |