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Quicksand book larsen5/23/2023 ![]() Tiring of that and suddenly in possession of a small inheritance, she travels to Denmark and stays with her aunt who tricks her out in colourful clothing, offering her to Danish society as an exotic curiosity. Helga rattles straight from her teaching job into a naïve and frantic search for work eventually landing an assignment with a Chicago politician’s widow leading to a job with a New York insurance company. ![]() Tired of what she considers to be its smug superiority and emphasis on conformity, she decides to leave despite her engagement, her precarious financial position and any idea of what she might do with her life, impulsively heading for the principal’s study to tell him her decision before boarding the next train for Chicago. She’s a teacher at Naxos, an all-black school in the American South. It opens with a young woman in a gorgeously decorated room contemplating her future. Written in 1928, it’s widely considered to be an autobiographical novel – like the book’s main protagonist, Larsen was the daughter of a Danish mother and a West Indian father – knowledge that makes reading it all the more chilling. They each deserve to be treated separately so I’ll start with Quicksand and save Passing for later. ![]() Recently published in a single volume, Quicksand and Passing are the only two novels – well novellas, really – written by Harlem Renaissance writer Nella Larsen. ![]()
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![]() Jeanette’s selfless devotion to God and to her church is, she finds, unfortunately in direct competition with her burgeoning sexuality. ![]() As Jeanette grows up, she struggles to make sense of the complicated and rule-ridden world around her through stories of princes, knights, and sorcerers, all of which reflect the very real and complicated trials she faces as a young queer woman in a repressed environment, despite their fanciful characters and settings. Headstrong, self-sufficient, devoted to God, and a natural story-teller, Jeanette grows from a young girl to a young woman over the course of the novel, and as the story progresses she wrestles with her homosexuality, her uncertainties about evangelism, and her relationship with her domineering adoptive mother. The protagonist of the novel, Jeanette is a fictionalized version of the writer Jeanette Winterson. ![]()
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No more mr nice guy book robert glover5/22/2023 ![]() Rapid social change in the late 20th century and early 21st century has contributed to a worldwide explosion of men struggling to find happiness, love, and purpose. The Nice Guy Syndrome typically begins in infancy and childhood when a young boy inaccurately internalizes emotional messages about himself and the world. He also believes that he must hide anything about himself that might trigger a negative response in others. ![]() ![]() He is convinced that he must become what he thinks others want him to be liked, loved, and get his needs met. Robert Glover, a pioneering expert on the Nice Guy Syndrome, is a man who believes he is not okay just as he is. How did you know me so well?Ī Nice Guy, according to Dr. ![]() “I have read every self-help book out there, but this was the first that put everything together in a way that made perfect sense to me.” “One of the best books I’ve ever read on men’s emotional health and development.” Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck and Models. ![]()
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The Sacred Art of Fasting by Thomas Ryan5/22/2023 ![]() But fasting doesn't have to be intimidating. It is a wellspring for the spiritually dry, a compass for the spiritually lost, and inner nourishment for the spiritually hungry."-from chapter 9Though fasting is practiced in some form by nearly every faith tradition throughout the world, it is often seen as scary or something only for monastic life. It is a discipline of self-restraint, a ritual of purification, and a sanctuary for offerings of atonement. It is an invitation to awareness, a call to compassion for the needy, a cry of distress, and a song of joy. ![]() ![]() ![]() Open your mind and heart and discover how the sacred art of fasting can strengthen your spiritual appetite"Fasting as a religious act increases our sensitivity to that mystery always and everywhere present to us. ![]()
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Reconstruction amelia5/22/2023 ![]() Reconstructing Amelia is about secret first loves, old friendships, and an all-girls club steeped in tradition. ![]() Until she gets an anonymous text: She didn’t jump. And clouded as she is by her guilt and grief, it is the one she forces herself to believe. ![]() At least that’s the story Grace Hall tells Kate. And for Kate.Īn academic overachiever despondent over getting caught cheating has jumped to her death. By then it’s already too late for Amelia. But Kate’s stress over leaving work quickly turns to panic when she arrives at the school and finds it surrounded by police officers, fire trucks, and an ambulance. Amelia has been suspended, effective immediately, and Kate must come get her daughter-now. Kate's in the middle of the biggest meeting of her career when she gets the telephone call from Grace Hall, her daughter’s exclusive private school in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The stunning debut novel from Kimberly McCreight in which a single mother reconstructs her teenaged daughter Amelia’s tragic death, sifting through her emails, texts, and social media to piece together the shocking truth about the last days of her life. And like Gone Girl, it should be hailed as one of the best books of the year.” - Entertainment Weekly ![]() “Like Gone Girl, Reconstructing Amelia seamlessly marries a crime story with a relationship drama. ![]()
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No filter by sarah frier5/22/2023 ![]() ![]() Readers looking for the power dynamics and interpersonal drama that fuel many Silicon Valley sagas will find them here, though Frier’s compelling narrative style is more journalistic than soapy. Paris Hilton), the invention was the brainchild of Stanford graduates Kevin Systrom, who parlayed his personal interest in photography into an early version of the app called Burbn, and levelheaded engineer Mike Krieger. Long before the site became the darling of celebrities and socialites (e.g. ![]() ![]() The story of the supercharged rise and inevitable distortion of one of the world’s most wide-ranging and influential social media platforms.Īs a technology reporter for Bloomberg News, Frier has covered social media for years, so she is well positioned to chronicle the founding and subsequent evolution of Instagram, the ubiquitous photo- and video-sharing service. ![]()
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Comic little nemo5/22/2023 ![]() ![]() Ĭampers, did you know that you can sleep in a lookout tower in California that was built in 1931? Or a fire tower that sits above treeline in Oregon’s Willamette National Forest and offers 360-degree views of pristine mountains? The Dyrt camping app - founded by Portland, Ore.-based entrepreneur Sarah Smith - helps you locate some of the hardest-to-book fire towers in the country and about 2 million other public and private campsites on 50,000 properties nationwide. As the hotel brand suggests (JdV stands for “joie de vivre”), the property draws young-at-heart guests who believe in connection and celebrating life. ![]() ![]() Rooms offer premium amenities, free high-speed Internet, Espresso coffee makers, and mini fridges, while two suites feature kitchenettes. Wicker and wooden touches abound at The Pell, where sand-colored tones mingle with coral decorations and clean lines. It has 127 guestrooms and suites, a relaxing library, a fitness center, and an onsite restaurant called The Helmway that serves locally sourced American cuisine (try the lobster risotto starter and the maple scallops entrée). The Pell - the state’s first JdV by Hyatt hotel - is located less than 10 minutes from Newport’s top swimming and surfing beaches (Sachuest Beach, Third Beach, and Easton’s Beach). ![]() Visit the new boutique hotel on Rhode Island’s Aquidneck Island and enter a place where modern bohemian meets coastal chic. ![]()
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Julius cesar by shakespeare5/22/2023 ![]() ![]() Having just been informed of Caesar's death, and with the assassins having convinced the Roman public that they'd saved Rome from a tyrant, Mark Antony gives his famous speech which is a masterpiece of mob manipulation, turning them against the conspirators and in favor of the slain Caesar. Among the famous lines to which we owe this play: "Et tu, Brutus?" "Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!" "Cowards die many times before their deaths the valiant never taste of death but once." And "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves." Mark Antony's speech is probably the highlight of the play. So, this is the famous play about the conspirators who assassinated Julius Caesar, fearing his ambition to become king. ![]() However, you also miss a lot if you aren't already familiar with the context and the Shakespearean language, because of course ol' Will packs a lot into every single line. I think that reading Shakespeare's plays does not do them justice - they aren't meant to be read, they are meant to be performed, and seen performed. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars ![]()
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![]() ![]() Thais is left to discover what her mother bargained for while lies, deceit, and secrets propel her and all of her people into one epic struggle for survival.Įxperience the rise of tyranny, discover the power of a people amid a sea of lies, deceit, and secrets, and unveil the legacy behind the legend. Seeing no other option to end the pending war, Thais' mother strikes a bargain with their Mother Goddess, trading her life for her daughter's future. Yet the biggest threat to the people of Tiryns is not the soldiers on the plains but the growing division within the city. Thais, the Tiryns chieftain's daughter, is caught between her father's wish for peace without bloodshed and the senior councilman's desire to wage war. In 1650 BC, King Oceanus, a self-proclaimed lord of the sea, arrives with his soldiers on the shore of Tiryns and begins a struggle for power and dominance. Grab this gripping historical drama, and go back to a time when men became legends and kings became gods. Before the Muses spoke of Medusa, a woman inspired the myth. ![]()
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His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis5/21/2023 ![]() ![]() Interior regions - The strenuous squire - First in war - Destiny's child - Introspective interlude - First in peace - Testament ![]() Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-312) and index His Excellency is a full, glorious, and multifaceted portrait of the man behind our country's genesis And yet each of them, Franklin, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison, acknowledged Washington to be his superior, the only indispensable figure, the one and only: "His Excellency." Both physically and politically, Washington towered over his peers for reasons this book elucidates. In the pantheon of our republic's founders, there were many outstanding individuals. ![]() Ellis strips away the ivy and legend that have grown up over the Washington statue and recovers the flesh-and-blood man in all his passionate and fully human prowess. ![]() He is on our landscape and in our wallets but not, Ellis argues, in our hearts. When Washington died in 1799, Ellis tells us, he was eulogized as "first in the hearts of his countrymen." Since then, however, his image has been chiseled onto Mount Rushmore and printed on the dollar bill. Drawing from the newly catalogued Washington papers at the University of Virginia, the author paints a full portrait of Washington's life and career in the context of eighteenth-century America, richly detailing his private life and illustrating the ways in which it influenced his public persona. ![]() |