![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The novel begins with colonial explorer Dr Livingstone looking for the source of the Nile in the wrong place. Set mostly in what is now Zambia and partially narrated by a chorus of malaria-carrying mosquitos(!), this is a confident, ambitious, and supremely intelligent book that explores class and race tensions, the development of revolutionary politics, and technology usurping nature while flitting between characters, eras, and genres seamlessly. Namwali Serpell’s impressive debut novel The Old Drift is a 563-page sprawling epic that follows the bloodlines of three interconnected families over the course of three generations. ![]()
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![]() Certainly, there has been evolution, however, as the repercussions of what happens resonate throughout the BDB world. The way it works for me is that the stories and the places and the people in the books just flood into my brain and the writing for me is recording what I'm shown. Did you imagine the particulars of the vampire society in Caldwell, New Jersey, before you began writing the books, or did the details evolve as you wrote the individual stories?įirst of all, thank you for the opportunity to talk about the Brothers! As for the world… well, to be honest, the whole Brotherhood universe just presented itself as is. The world of The Black Dagger Brotherhood is firmly grounded and exceedingly well developed. Sit down, fasten your seatbelt and get ready for a non-stop roller-coaster ride of thrills and chills. Rehvenge’s story is everything this reader had hoped for-and then some. Not surprisingly, the drug dealing bar owner named Rehvenge, with a history of shady dealings and bad blood, becomes a certifiable Hero in the telling.Īs always in this wildly popular paranormal series, there are secrets to be revealed and tantalizing glimpses of books to come. Ward returns to her romance roots while pushing the envelope on the suspense side in this tale of good vs. Ward doesn’t disappoint in Lover Avenged, her first hardcover. ![]() And New York Times best-selling author J.R. ![]() ![]() Ardent fans of The Black Dagger Brotherhood have been waiting impatiently for the story of Rehvenge, half-vampire and half-sympath, an outlaw among outlaws. ![]() ![]() ![]() She’s never forgiven him, and she’s much more focused on her current work to build a tunnel under the Thames. Now George is an Earl who’s determined to use his power for good, and Margaret is a widow just returned from France with a plan to open her own engineering firm. But then George backed out of their plans to run away together, and their lives took very different paths. Margaret and George met when they were kids and quickly became best friends. ![]() ![]() Special thanks to the publicists at Penguin Random House and to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book! Summary Was it still enjoyable to start with the third book, though? Absolutely! Is it better to read this series in order? Probably. I’ve been meaning to read A Lady’s Formula for Love and A Perfect Equation, but instead I’ve chosen chaos and started with book #3, A Love by Design. These are smart books highlighting women who fit within the STEM label (and STEMinist label), except it’s the 1840s and they’re facing even more career pushback than women today. In the last couple of years, the Secret Scientists of London series by Elizabeth Everett has emerged as a standout among historical romances. ![]() ![]() ![]() I’m drawn to beautiful, poetic titles, both in their own right and because they inspire confidence in the author’s writing. ![]() I haven’t read all the books I mention here, but those I can recommend (not just for the title) are in bold. ![]() Of those I hadn’t already heard of, the title which appealed to me most was Between Summer’s Longing and Winter’s End (Leif Persson), of which more later. It’s an awful lot to ask of a few little words! A bland or misleading title spells disaster – it won’t get noticed or talked about it may put people off and if it sounds like something it isn’t, the book risks bypassing its target market altogether.Īs an experiment, I looked in the window of one of my favourite bookshops, Daunt Books in Marylebone High Street earlier this week (see photo). A great title is often all it takes to make us want to read a book. Since writing about the importance of titles in Being Selective – How do you choose which books to read? I’ve given this subject a lot more thought and I’m delighted that bestselling crime writer Sophie Hannah has shared her experience of creating great titles with me for this piece.Ī good title gives a flavour of the novel’s theme, tone and genre it sounds interesting, entertaining, possibly intriguing (the last being particularly popular in the UK) it is original, maybe clever and must be memorable. ![]() ![]() ![]() Pained, tender, and vividly rendered, this elegy for the Anthropocene twines the couple’s philosophical, scientific, and highly personal musings with arresting, often disquieting visions of a natural world in dangerous flux, where “thawing earth” lets loose “corpse-y smells” and ash continually falls. ![]() ![]() Time passes, the Earth grows less hospitable, and as they face a possible ending Alice and Antius increasingly look back, recalling “a summer before the ash fell” and wondering at what point humanity should have understood that it had poisoned its own world. Intensely intimate, the conversation finds the pair holding tightly to each other (“my ear to your heartbeat / listening for a thrill”) as their ever-expanding caravan wends its way through “the hottest summer on record” beneath “clouds flickering over a grave of trees.” The couple seize moments of peace and beauty (“a perfection of calm / a quirk of stars”) as they set about the good work of raising children born to a fallen society. Ingram’s novel-in-verse presents a lyric colloquy between parents and life partners Alice and Antius, the former a scientist, the latter a poet, as they face life in a world ravaged by climate change. ![]() ![]() ![]() Lia's parents, Foua and Nao Kao, were part of a large Hmong community in Merced, refugees from the CIA-run "Quiet War" in Laos. When three-month-old Lia Lee arrived at the county hospital emergency room in Merced, California, a chain of events was set in motion from which neither she nor her parents nor her doctors would ever recover. Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interestīoston Book Review Ann Rea Jewell Non-Fiction AwardĪ Detroit Free Press Best Book of the Yearįinalist for the PEN / Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction ![]() ![]() Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction ![]() Cass’s trademark love triangle is set against the fictitious 16th-century kingdom of Coroa and its elaborate customs, and the threat posed by the insidious Isolte king adds some needed danger. ![]() ![]() When the Eastoffe family arrives seeking asylum from the neighboring rival nation of Isolte, Hollis is captivated by the oldest son, Silas, and questions both her feelings for Jameson and her desire to be queen. Jameson is smitten with Hollis’s honest stories and optimism, but the Coroan nobility is not. Having captured the heart of the handsome young Coroan king, Jameson, Hollis suddenly faces the very real prospect of being Coroa’s next queen, despite her family’s inferior social standing and her own lack of political interest. Lady Hollis Brite, a charming member of the Coroan royal court, is ordered around by her overbearing parents and attended by her best friend, outcast Delia Grace. ![]() ![]() Tracking delivery Saver Delivery: Australia postĪustralia Post deliveries can be tracked on route with eParcel. NB All our estimates are based on business days and assume that shipping and delivery don't occur on holidays and weekends. Order may come in multiple shipments, however you will only be charged a flat fee.ġ-2 days after each item has arrived in the warehouseġ The expected delivery period after the order has been dispatched via your chosen delivery method.ģ Please note this service does not override the status timeframe "Dispatches in", and that the "Usually Dispatches In" timeframe still applies to all orders. Items in order will be sent via Express post as soon as they arrive in the warehouse. Order may come in multiple shipments, however you will only be charged a flat fee.Ģ-10 days after all items have arrived in the warehouse ![]() ![]() Items in order will be sent as soon as they arrive in the warehouse. ![]() ![]() The story reads much more like an all-American tale of a growing family amid middle-class suburban life than it does of a black middle-class family raising four black boys in the suburbs-an approach that broadens the spectrum of books aimed at young urban boys of color. While it’s clear from the illustrations that Richard and his family are African-American, the text is largely free of cultural signifiers. One memorably depicts Richard struggling with the spelling of q-u-o-t-i-e-n-t in a crucial spelling test in which perfection stands between him and the skate park. English’s longtime collaborator Freeman (the companion Nikki & Deja series) contributes illustrations throughout, often representing critical moments in the story. Eventually, of course, the truth comes out, and there are consequences, chief among them missing the birthday party where he plans to show off his trick. Shelby-Ortiz knows that Richard can do better, but Richard just doesn’t want to think about it, so he leaves her note buried in his backpack. ![]() ![]() Richard dreams of landing the perfect flat-ground Ollie, but before he can attempt the daring skateboard feat, he must recover from an earlier trick that he played on his parents by concealing a teacher’s note informing his parents of lackluster effort. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Then it gets REALLY WEIRD out of nowhere!! The older sister is sound asleep, and the TV flicks on and off and the reader, who is kindof acknowledged by the author as being in the room, sees a man in a chair in the TV, and the man in the tv is watching the older sister sleep. (the chapters are entitled as times of night, not ‘chapter one’ etc. ![]() Then, in the second chapter, I realized it was a novel, not a short-story collection, because the older sister in chapter one comes into play. I like how Murakami uses simple scenarios to communicate profound ideas in life what makes us feel good within ourselves, how can we capture that? How do we stop comparing ourselves to others (such as beautiful older sisters)? How can we tell if someone has our best interest in mind? It seemed to be a character-study type of short story. I read the first chapter, which was deceivingly slow-moving, wherein a quiet, studious girl reads a book in a Denny’s in the late morning, and a boy who had a crush on her sister sits down next to her. When I first started reading After Dark, I thought it was a short-story collection, somehow. ![]() |