But he soon discovers that Davies has an ulterior motive for wanting him there – Davies suspects that there’s some kind of German plot being developed along the Baltic coastline, and wants Carruthers to help him investigate… Throwing off his initial grumpiness, Carruthers settles in to learn the art of sailing under Davies’ expert tutelage. He’s expecting a well-appointed leisure yacht complete with crew, so is taken aback to discover that the Dulcibella is tiny, strictly functional and manned only by his friend, Davies. Released at last for his annual holiday, he finds himself with nowhere in particular to go, so when an old friend writes inviting him to spend some time on his yacht duck-shooting in the Baltic, he decides to take him up on the offer. Our narrator, Carruthers, finds himself having to stay on at his job in the Foreign Office while all his fashionable friends depart for country house parties, apparently managing to cope with his absence with less difficulty than he’d have liked. Britannia rules the waves? □ □ □ □ □
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Though many books from the 1950s have gone out of print, ‘From Here to Eternity’ has escaped that fate. In one, Private Maggio (the character played in the film by Sinatra) mentions having oral sex with a man for money - the kind of detail that must have been very difficult for an author to let go. In addition to the four-letter words, scenes that explicitly mention gay sex have been restored to the text. The publisher was concerned about getting through the censors.’ “My father fought bitterly to hold on to every four-letter word in the manuscript. ‘It’s been on my mind for quite a few years, and the right moment just hadn’t come up yet,’ Kaylie Jones told the New York Times. The Canadian Lit scene, for example, is a strong and supportive part of our cultural landscape, and an absolutely necessary one. I’m of the belief that literature can define a place. When I’m sitting in a bus navigating my way from Montenegro to Croatia, the last thing I want to be absorbed in is a top ten list. I recently had a conversation with some editors about the fact that what we read online can be very different from what we read offline. I almost exclusively read fiction these days, as you might have realized from my book lists. When I’m planning a trip, the first thing I do is seek out well-written travel blogs and guidebooks like Lonely Planet and all the rest.īut when I’m on the road, there is nothing – and I mean nothing – that beats a good chunk of fiction for understanding a place’s spirit. I am a blogger, a travel writer, a personal narrative junkie. Full of sorcery, adventure, sizzling romance, and secrets that challenge everything she believes, this is a bold and powerful conclusion to an extraordinary trilogy. And she must rise up as champion-even to those who have hated her-or her kingdom will fall. Elisa will stand before the gate of the enemy. Martin's style of sweeping and deeply satisfying epic fantasy, the third and final book in the trilogy takes the young queen on a journey more dangerous than any she has faced before. Perfect for fans of Tamora Pierce and George R. Veronica Roth called The Girl of Fire and Thorns "intense, unique. Elisa, the seventeen-year-old sorcerer-queen, will travel into an unknown enemy's realm to win back her true love, save her kingdom, and uncover the final secrets of her destiny. “The third book in Rae Carson's award-winning The Girl of Fire and Thorns fantasy trilogy. If you ladies will excuse me.” He inclined his head and stepped back. “While all that is undoubtedly true,” he said to the small group of mothers and chaperones, “I fear it is time for me to return to my room. Now he did this without even thinking, the effort so rote he’d forgotten why he started doing it in the first place. He knew how to put others at ease and make them feel important. He’d spent a lifetime perfecting a genuine-sounding laugh, a grin to win over the hardest of hearts. Dazzled everyone in attendance without breaking a sweat. Over coffee and port, he joked and smiled, nodded and winked. Since the end of dinner service, Kit had held court in the drawing room, with no less than eight pairs of eyes on him at all times. “This house party would be dreadfully dull without you.” “You are the most adorably charming man,” the older woman said as she patted Kit’s arm. Candid, humble, wry and gutsy, he begins with his crossroads moment when at 24 he decided to start his own business. Now, for the first time, he tells his story. In an age of start-ups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all start-ups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognisable symbols in the world today.īut Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Today, Nike's annual sales top $30 billion. Selling the shoes from the boot of his Plymouth, Knight grossed $8000 in his first year. In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Phil is a very wise, intelligent and competitive fellow who is also a gifted storyteller' Warren Buffett 'The best book I read last year was Shoe Dog, by Nike's Phil Knight. 'A refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like. Gibbon’s work is lauded for not just its elegant, graceful prose but also for its remarkable historical accuracy. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – Volume I Let’s briefly look through the six volumes together to see what exactly he has in store for us. He details the history of the decline of the Roman Empire. If you are curious and wondering where to start reading about it, I have the perfect suggestion for you.Įdward Gibbon, an English historian, has penned a six-volume book series called The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It is inevitable, then, for one to be curious and to wonder how exactly the mighty empire fell after it was one of the strongest in history. The Roman Empire has impacted cultural aspects, religious beliefs, technological advances, engineering, language, law, and so much more in various aspects. I barely knew any of these characters before, and just from these six issues I feel like they might become some of my all-time favourites. I don't know if the series will maintain the same level of quality as seen in this debut volume - probably not - but I'm kind of excited to find out, because I really enjoyed this team.īut yeah, the team! What an amazing ensemble cast. But 22 volumes? Holy wow, that's a lot for a western comic from any publisher, let alone the house of prematurely cancelled ideas. I don't know how Peter David does this, because most of his runs I come across are all very long, but it's even more baffling considering that similar underdog titles at Marvel tend to last for 6 to 10 issues max nowadays. The premise may not sound as exciting as it is, so let me just say - this series is great!įirst of all, it's 22 volumes long. They investigate crimes and keep the peace in their neighbourhood after the events of House of M, which left 90% of the mutant population depowered and brought a lot of angry ex-mutants out on the streets. X-Factor is a detective agency consisting of quirky B- and C-listers of Marvel's mutant world, like Madrox the Multiple Man, Guido the Strong Guy (literally his superhero alias), Syrin, Wolfsbane and others. Sometime religious outsider and social disaster, sometime celebrity preacher and establishment darling, John Donne was incapable of being just one thing. Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, Times Literary Supplement, and Literary Hub From the standout scholar Katherine Rundell, Super-Infinite presents a sparkling and very modern biography of John Donne: the poet of love, sex, and death. Shortlisted for the 2023 Plutarch Award A Wall Street Journal Top 10 Best Book of 2022Ī New York Times Notable Book of the Year Winner of the 2022 Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Prize Winner of the 2022 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction About the Book "A very modern biography of John Donne-the poet of love, sex, and death-by bestselling children's book author and superstar academic Katherine Rundell". Luckily for Georgie the dashing Darcy also turns up – he happens to be a cousin of Lady Hawse-Gorsley, the hostess for the weekend. Her sojourn is livened by the fact that her scandalous mother and Noel Coward have taken a nearby cottage, and they’re waited on by Georgie’s beloved (though working class) Grandfather. Georgie has good instincts and an uneasy feeling, however. The murder victims are an array of various villagers, all killed or found dead in odd ways, many of them explainable as accidents. This has all the classic British village house party elements, with a super high body count. In this novel she is rescued from the gloom of her ancestral Scottish castle by an ad asking for a hostess at a country house party. Georgie is impoverished and forced to eke out a living in various “lady like” occupations, none of them very remunerative. The tone of these novels is lighter and funnier than Bowen’s Molly Murphy series, but like that series, the action revolves around a strong female lead. My favorite in this series, A Royal Pain, involves Queen Mary’s request for Georgie’s help in quashing the romance between Mrs. There are references to “Great Grandmother” Victoria and the horrors of Mrs. This is another fun entry in Rhys Bowen’s delightful Lady Georgie series, about the travails of a young woman in the 1930’s who is 35 th in line to the throne. |