![]() This well-researched tale also presents many interesting facts surrounding the Lusitania’s demise, including that British intelligence knew there was a U-Boat in the area and neglected to alert the ship, the German threat to take down the Lusitania once it entered British waters printed in the New York papers, and the fact that some members of the British admiralty actually hoped the Lusitania would be sunk because it would galvanize the United States to enter the war on the side of Great Britain. Each story makes a unique contribution to the whole tale of the Lusitania. Larson does an amazing job following different people, from the captain to one of the crew to the passengers, as they prepared for and embarked on the fateful journey. “Dead Wake” follows the final crossing of the Lusitania, a civilian ship famously sunk by a German U-Boat off the coast of Ireland in 1915 during World War I. The fact that this one was written by Erik Larson, who also wrote the amazing “ Devil in the White City”, was just a bonus. ![]() Confession: if there’s a nonfiction book about a manmade disaster, especially a shipwreck, I am going to read it. ![]()
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![]() Punchinello admires the other Wemmicks who are coated in gold stars and stares sheepishly at his own body covered in grey dots. The story centers around one particular character, Punchinello, who has only ever received grey dots. Each Wemmick has a box of gold stars and a box of grey dots that they hand out throughout the day. Each and every day the Wemmicks do the same thing – they hand out stickers. Eli carves each and every wooden person yet he allows them all to look different and possess varying traits. In Max Lucado’s children’s book “You Are Special” Lucado creates an allegorical world full of wooden people called Wemmicks who live in a town where every single person is carved by a man named Eli. Imagine being branded and therefore being forced to wear the title of better than or less than. ![]() ![]() Imagine wearing the thoughts, feelings and judgements of others outwardly. The gold stars in fact are handed out to people who don’t have grey dots simply to award them for being better, while grey dots are given to anyone with no stars to remind them of what they lack. The gold stars are awarded to the best looking and most talented individuals while the grey dots are given to those whose looks are deemed unworthy and whose talents are seen as lacking in merit. ![]() Imagine living in a world where the social currency is gold stars and grey dots. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This painful episode preceded, by only a few months, the momentous announcement from the American Psychiatric Association that removed homosexuality from its roster of psychiatric disorders-December 15, 1973. (The psychiatrist gave up on me after one visit and no, I did not change my name.) They loved me, and love eventually prevailed. My parents, who, trust me, were excellent people, died many years ago, having long since repented their bigotry. After a late-night scene of tears, insults, reproaches, and rage worse than anything I had imagined, they implored, then insisted, that I see a psychiatrist to be “cured.” My father, a gentle, mild-mannered man, very proud of me, suggested that I change my name to spare him a family scandal. ![]() Rather, they confronted me with the “evidence” of a phone bill. My parents’ learning that I’m gay triggered a family trauma. ![]() ![]() ![]() It was rediscovered in the 1960s and has since become a standard of American literature, appreciated for its sophistication Kate Chopin was an American novelist and short-story writer best known for her startling 1899 novel, The Awakening. The Awakening, considered Chopin's masterpiece, was subject to harsh criticism at the time for its frank approach to sexual themes. ![]() ![]() She turned to writing and published her first poem in 1889. Oscar died in 1882 and Kate was suddenly a young widow with six children. Less than a decade later Oscar's cotton business fell on hard times and they moved to his family's plantation in the Natchitoches Parish of northwestern Louisiana. Louis, she moved to New Orleans after marrying Oscar Chopin in 1870. Kate Chopin was an American novelist and short-story writer best known for her startling 1899 novel, The Awakening. ![]() ![]() ![]() Given the fact that the earliest dates for habitation of the American continent occur below Canada in South America, it is highly suggestive of the fact that Africans made it to America first by crossing over from Africa before the Ice melted at the Bering Straits. ![]() ![]() The argument that Africans made it to America first is also based on the theory that Aboriginal Austrtalian Paleoamericans first settled South America between 130-25000 years ago.Ī second Paleoamerican migration led to Black African Khoisan Grimladi people becoming the first settlers of North America, Brazil and Mexico between 22 000-10 000 years ago. In addition, according to P aleobiologist James Critters, suggests that Africans made it to America first because the oldest American skeletons resemble Black Africans which may be explained by the fact that the oldest American Skeletons are from the period of African settlement dating back 100 000 years, whilst Modern Native American Skeletons date back to the Mongoloid Population that arrived circa 6000 BC. In The Black Native Americans, Dr Clyde Winters also suggests that Africans made it to America first since anatomically Black modern humans have been found in the Americas for over 100,000 years. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Usually two Chinese characters were combined the unaltered one represented the meaning, the altered character showed how the word was pronounced in Vietnamese. Chu Nom borrowed Chinese characters but altered them to phonetically represent the spoken Vietnamese. Chu Nho can be literally translated as "the script used by Confucius -Nho Giáo: Confucianism." Chu Nho had been the official written language in Vietnam until the French domination (19th century)Ĭhu Nom: Han Thuyen, a famous Vietnamese poet in the 13th century is believed to be the inventor of this form of writing. In the long history of Vietnam, different forms of written languages have been adopted: chu Nho, chu Nom, and now chu Quoc Ngu.Ĭhu Nho was borrowed directly from the Chinese, just like the use of Latin in Europe. My "English" name is actually written in the modern romanized Vietnamese - the Japanese equivalent is Romaji - without the diacritical marks above, under or by the side of the vowels. Most Americans expect the written Vietnamese to look like the Chinese characters, or the written Korean, or the Japanese Hira-gana and Kata-gana. More than once, I have been asked to write my name in "real Vietnamese" and not in "English". ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The precursors of comfort-privacy and intimacy-first became important in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century and flourished with the growth of a middle-class devoted to family and home. In fact, the word in the sense we use it did not even exist until the eighteenth century. ![]() That such a basic need should be ignored in teaching students how to design buildings seemed so surprising to him that he set about exploring the history of comfort. By Witold Rybczynski Viking 256 pages $16.95.ĭuring the six years of the author’s architectural education, he writes in the foreword to this arresting book, the subject of comfort was mentioned only once-by an engineer talking about air conditioning. ![]() ![]() But then I started to try and tamp down my expectations because … could it match the first installment with Murderbot’s deadpan, sarcastic, leave-me-alone humor? I think I actually did a wiggle, happy dance in my chair when I got the notification that I’d been given an ARC. ![]() I’m well and truly hooked on “The Murderbot Diaries” and so thankful that I didn’t have to wait a year for the next installment. What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…īut you may have noticed that for a terrifying murderbot I fuck up a lot. Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more. ![]() ![]() A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. It has a dark past-one in which a number of humans were killed. ![]() ![]() She’s divorced, and after an explosive disagreement a decade ago, she’s estranged from her younger sisters, Minh Pham (the middle and the mediator) and Khuyen Lam (the youngest who swears she just runs humble coffee shops and nail salons, not Little Saigon’s underground). ![]() Oanh’s current descendant Mai Nguyen knows this curse well. It started with their ancestor, Oanh, who dared to leave her marriage for true love-so a fearsome Vietnamese witch cursed Oanh and her descendants so that they would never find love or happiness, and the Duong women would give birth to daughters, never sons. ![]() A WASHINGTON POST BEST FEEL-GOOD BOOK OF THE YEARįor fans of Amy Tan, KJ Dell’Antonia, and Kevin Kwan, this “sharp, smart, and gloriously extra” (Nancy Jooyoun Kim, author of The Last Story of Mina Lee) debut celebrates a family of estranged Vietnamese women who experiences mishaps and unexpected joy after a psychic makes a startling prediction about their lives.Įveryone in Orange County’s Little Saigon knew that the Duong sisters were cursed. ![]() ![]() ![]() At times the narrative tension is undermined by flashbacks that readers already know the conclusions to and by occasional repetition caused by the multiple point-of-view jumps, but there’s a wide variety of action scenes, daring escapes, and betrayals. Dom seeks Cortael’s secret daughter, Corayne, a bright but sheltered teenager with a pirate mother. Grieving Elder Dom requires both a person of Corblood (a descendant of human travelers from another realm) and the Spindleblade Andry protects to stop Taristan from bringing ruin to the realm. A disastrous battle sends squire Andry fleeing with Cortael’s sword so villain Taristan can’t get his hands on it. ![]() Half the Companions are human heroes and half are immortal Elders they seek to stop a rogue thief and his wizard accomplice from using a magical Spindle to tear a passage between worlds for nefarious ends. When the realm is in danger, only a small band of misfits can save Allward.Īn in medias res prologue, told from the point of view of the lone squire accompanying the 12 Companions of the Realm, tosses readers into the thick of a quest. Realm Breaker is the first book in the Realm Breaker by author Victoria Aveyard. ![]() |