7/8/2023 0 Comments The Virtuoso by Grace BurrowesIf you try too hard or too soon to regain it, you’ll make the hand worse than ever.” Not just days, not just weeks, and by then you will have lost some of the dexterity you hone so keenly now. The hand might heal but only if you rest it until you’re ready to scream with frustration. “You are possibly done with music for the rest of your life, my friend. Silence, until Val opened his eyes and glanced down at where his left hand, aching and swollen, lay uselessly on his thigh.ĭavid sat beside him, making a polite pretense of surveying the surrounding paddocks and fields. He closed his eyes and drew breath into his lungs by act of will. To give up the home he’d forged for his soul despite his ducal father’s ridicule, his mother’s anxiety, and his siblings’ inability to understand what music had become to him. To give up the one mistress Val loved, the one place he was happy and competent. Being called the baby boy any time he’d shown the least tender sentiment had fired his will to the strength of iron and given him the ability to withstand almost any blow without flinching.īut this… This was diabolical, this demand David made of him. Being the youngest of five boys and named Valentine-for God’s sake-had given him fast reflexes, abundant muscle, and an enviable poker face. Lord Valentine Windham neither moved nor changed his expression when he heard his friend-a skilled and experienced physician-pronounce sentence. “My best advice is to give up playing the piano.”
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7/8/2023 0 Comments Musicology oliver sacksThe neurologist explains that there is no single musical center in the brain, but rather 20 to 30 networks spread throughout every region that analyze different components of music, from pitch to melody. Although Musicophilia revisits some of his earlier cases, Sacks has refocused the stories on music's healing role, making the book "not so much a greatest-hits collection as a purposeful set of remixes," according to the Los Angeles Times. Sacks is the author of numerous books, including Awakenings, about people who suffered Parkinson's-like paralysis for decades after being stricken with sleeping sickness, and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, a national bestseller about the far reaches of neurological experience. His newest collection of clinical tales, Musicophilia, examines the uniquely human power of music. Physician and author Oliver Sacks has spent 40 years studying the human brain and illuminating a host of neurological disorders through the compassionate telling of his patients' stories. Each week, we present leading authors of fiction and nonfiction as they read from and discuss their work. Books A 1987 'Fresh Air' Interview With Oliver Sacksīook Tour is a Web feature and podcast. 7/8/2023 0 Comments Audible norse mythologyHere, too, is Odin the all-father, who sacrificed his eye to see the future Thor the thunderer, who defends Asgard with his fearsome strength and mighty hammer and Freya the understandably angry, most beautiful of the gods and always being gambled for by unwanted suitors.įrom the beginning of the universe in fire and ice, to the very end of the world, Ragnarok, these enthralling tales of gods, goddesses, dwarves and giants bring the ancient myths to vigorous life.ĭiana Rigg, Derek Jacobi, Colin Morgan, Natalie Dormer and Neil Gaiman himself are among the stellar cast in these spellbinding stories of old betrayals – and new hope. 'They're beautiful,' Ryoko whispered, admiration audible in her voice. Meet the trickster god Loki and his astonishing children – the giant wolf Fenrir, Jormungundr the snake that encircles the world, and Hel, the little girl who grows up to be Queen of the dead. An urban fantasy academy series based on Norse mythology and including a lesfic. Winner of The London Book Fair CAMEO Award 2020 for Book to Audio adaptation. Buy a discounted audible edition of Norse Mythology (Audio CD) from Australias. A full-cast dramatisation of Neil Gaiman's magical retellings of the Norse myths, inviting us into a world of gods and monsters, tricks and trust, fiery endings and new beginnings Booktopia has Norse Mythology, 6 Audio CDs Included Audio CD by Neil Gaiman.
But the narrator reiterates that their “love it was stronger by far” (line 28) and neither demons nor angels could separate their souls, for she is in his dreams and in the stars. Annabel Lee, however, could not recover from her sickness and died in her young age, physically separating the two lovers. Her family took her home and “shut her up in a sepulchre” (line 20), bedridden, in order for her to try to get healthy again. The poem is a story of love between two children (one being the narrator) who felt so strongly for one another that the angels in Heaven became envious and casted “the wind” from “out of the clouds at night” (line 26), causing Annabel Lee to get sick. Poe creates heartbreaking imagery, symbolism, alliteration, and repetition to induce the pain the narrator felt and establish the theme of the inevitability of death replacing life and prevailing love. It adopts a dark and melancholy tone while simultaneously encompassing a fairytale, sing-song manner. The poem is the retelling of a beautiful memory that has a tragic twist. Edgar Allan Poe’s last completed poem and one of his most famous, Annabel Lee, embodies the dark romanticism/gothic literature style that he perfected throughout his lifetime. Poe’s brand of romanticism was characterized by elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom, as well as romantic elements, such as nature, individuality, and high emotion. Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer known for his works of poetry distributed throughout the Romantic era. Caramon’s devotion to his brother is stretched to the utmost limit in Time of the Twins. This second trilogy follows the stories of the Majere twins, Caramon and Raistlin. Time of the Twins is the first book in the second Dragonlance trilogy, Dragonlance Legends, following on after the end of Dragons of Spring Dawning. There, together with the ever-present kender Tasslehoff, Caramon will make his stand to save Raistlin’s soul. Made aware of his brother’s plan, a distraught Caramon travels back in time to the doomed city of Istar in the days before the Cataclysm. She is blind to his shadowed designs, and he draws her slowly into his neatly woven trap. One is Crysania, a beautiful and devoted cleric of Paladine, who tries to use her faith to lead Raistlin from the darkness. Sequestered in the blackness of the dreaded Tower of High Sorcery in Palanthas, and surrounded by nameless creatures of evil, archmage Raistlin Majere weaves a plan to conquer the darkness-to bring it under his control. New York Times–bestselling series: The War of the Lance has ended, and the darkness has passed. This week on Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub‘s blog is Dragonlance Week – so I thought I should get my act together and post a Dragonlance review before the week is over! There have been many excellent Dragonlance posts this week – including an interview with Margaret Weis so head on over and take a look: Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This is President Carter's call for action, and he lays out a practical and doable path to peace. President Barack Obama is committed to a personal effort to exert that leadership, starting early in his administration. leadership, he says the time for progress is now. Most of all, since there will be no progress without courageous and sustained U.S. He argues persuasively that the road to a peace agreement is now open and that it has broad international and regional support. He knows the leaders of all factions in the region who will need to play key roles, and he sees encouraging signs among them.Ĭarter describes the history of previous peace efforts and why they fell short. For the last three decades, as president of the United States and as founder of The Carter Center, he has studied the complex and interrelated issues of the region's conflicts and has been actively involved in reconciling them. President Carter has been a student of the biblical Holy Land all his life. In this urgent, balanced, and passionate book, Nobel Peace Laureate and former President Jimmy Carter argues that the present moment is a unique time for achieving peace in the Middle East - and he offers a bold and comprehensive plan to do just that. 7/7/2023 0 Comments Women in love dhThe emotional relationships are given further depth and tension by an intense psychological and physical attraction between Gerald and Rupert. Lawrence contrasts this pair with the love that develops between Ursula and Rupert Birkin, an alienated intellectual who articulates many fashionable nihilistic opinions. Gudrun is an artist who pursues a destructive relationship with Gerald Crich, a rich industrialist who is haunted by family tragedy. In ‘Women in Love’ Ursula Brangwen's younger sister Gudrun comes into equal focus as the two sisters embark on love affairs. Set in a mining town in Nottinghamshire, this drama is a celebration of Lawrence at his most bold, pushing the boundaries of sexuality in the dawning of the Twentieth Century. Sexual awakenings, transgressive same sex love and internalised repression are explored as his characters try to find fulfilment in uncertain times. ‘DH Lawrence: Tainted Love’ dynamically puts centre stage Lawrence's daring writing on the complexity of human love. But Gerald and Rupert have a troubled friendship. They meet two friends who live nearby, school inspector Rupert Birkin and Gerald Crich, heir to a coal-mine, and they become romantically attached. Ursula is a teacher and Gudrun an artist. The Brangwen sisters are looking for love in the Midlands mining town of Beldover. 7/7/2023 0 Comments The trial of henry kissinger"If the courts and lawyers of this country will not do their duty, we shall watch as the victims and survivors of this man pursue justice and vindication in their own dignified and painstaking way, and at their own expense, and we shall be put to shame."įorget Pinochet, Milosevic, Hussein, Kim Jong-il, or Gaddafi: America need look no further than its own lauded leaders for a war criminal whose offenses rival those of the most heinous dictators in recent history-Henry Kissinger.Įmploying evidence based on firsthand testimony, unpublished documents, and new information uncovered by the Freedom of Information Act, and using only what would hold up in international courts of law, The Trial of Henry Kissinger outlines atrocities authorized by the former secretary of state in Indochina, Bangladesh, Chile, Cyprus, East Timor, and in the plight of the Iraqi Kurds, "including conspiracy to commit murder, kidnap, and torture." Thorby slowly realizes that his foster father is not a simple beggar but is gathering intelligence, particularly on the slave trade. Thereafter Baslim treats the boy as a son, teaching him not only the begging trade but also mathematics, history, and several languages, while sending Thorby on errands all over the city, carefully passing along information and keeping track of the comings and goings of starships. He is purchased by an old beggar, Baslim the Cripple, for a trivial sum and taken to the beggar’s surprisingly well-furnished underground home. Thorby is a young, defiant slave boy recently arrived at the slave auction at Jubbulpore, capital city on Jubbul. Last time it was The Star Beast, this time it’s Citizen of the Galaxy a favorite of many readers. Again, though these aren’t forgotten, I recommend them, some more than others. Yet another of the Heinlein juvenile SF novels. Originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction (September, October, November, December 1957 – see cover to right) and then published in hardcover as part of Scribner’s series of Heinlein’s juveniles. Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein, Scribners 1957, hardcover and paperback. |