![]() ![]() ![]() It follows Jared, a 16-year-old living in his mother’s basement, who has to navigate shifting mysteries within and without as the world he thought he knew turns into something he doesn’t know at all.ĭealing with more than just the typical teenage escapades with booze, drugs, sex, and fickle social circles, Jared’s world of domestic dysfunction teeters between extremes of tenderness and violence. The story takes place in Kitimat, 10 kilometres north of Kitimaat Village, where Robinson spent her own youth. ![]() But that seems to be part of Robinson’s point, as she explores simultaneity and the opportunities that come when you have to face it. For in this book, the seemingly normal and the magical inhabit the same space. Like the reader, Jared has a lot of learning to do. As a small child, his maternal grandmother called him Wee’git-“Trickster”-and told him: “You still smell like lightning.” While she’d treat his cousins to fudge and caramel apples, for his birthday she gave Jared a jar of blood and animals’ teeth. ON THE OPENING PAGE of Eden Robinson’s new novel Son of a Trickster (Knopf, February 2017), we learn that Jared is different. A coming-of-age story invites us to step out of the comfortable. ![]()
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![]() Another sandwich and a package of cookies tumbled onto the new snow. His rifle slipped off his shoulder and clattered on the ice, a sandwich fell out of his pocket. Tub stood for a moment, still holding up his hand, then jumped back. The truck jumped the curb and kept coming, half on the street and half on the sidewalk. Tub moved to the sidewalk and held up his hand. The whiteness seeped up the sky.Ī truck slid around the corner, horn blaring, rear end sashaying. He shifted the rifle strap to his other shoulder. Across the road the clouds whitened just above the rooftops, and the street lights went out. Tub stood below the overhang of a building. One driver stopped for him but before Tub could wave the man on he saw the rifle on Tub's back and hit the gas. ![]() ![]() He paced the sidewalk to keep warm and stuck his head out over the curb whenever he saw lights approaching. Tub had been waiting for an hour in the falling snow. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() "Mixing religion with erotic horror dosed with a funky African-American beat. "The stakes have never been higher, and the excitement and tension are palpable in this installment of Banks' complex, sexy series." – Booklist And for a world where blood runs like a river, one drop of this blood will be the end. A powerful lord of darkness has hijacked a mystical key containing the blood of Christ. Between them, they know how high the stakes have risen. For Damali, once a pawn, has been given a new, pulsating power of her ownbitten by lover and vampire extraordinaire Carlos Rivera. For Damali, once a pawn, has been given a new, pulsating power of her own – bitten by lover and vampire extraordinaire Carlos Rivera. Bank's astounding new Vampire Huntress novel, an unforgettable scene of seduction touches off a violent race around the worldand into a realm beneath us. Bank's astounding new Vampire Huntress novel, an unforgettable scene of seduction touches off a violent race around the world – and into a realm beneath us. And when she makes love to a master vampire, it changes everything in a struggle between good and evil – with the future of humanity hanging in the balance. She is a woman who lives between pleasure and pain – the pure, scintillating pleasure of the flesh and the kind of pain that has rocked the world and left it strewn with chaos set to a hip-hop beat. ![]() "Tell me your darkest fantasy," she murmured. ![]() ![]() Then came “Crouch End.” Directed by Mark Haber, who had established himself with a resume full of TV movies, and scripted by writer/producer Kim LeMasters, the episode was the first episode of Nightmares & Dreamscapes to draw on source material actually from the show’s titular collection. ![]() ![]() Making it the debut of Nightmares & Dreamscapes told Constant Readers and horror fans that the show would deliver faithful takes on King’s work that would be both creepy and entertaining, and it was a great choice. As I noted in last week’s column about the episode, it’s a high concept story about toy soldiers that lead an assault against an assassin who kills a famous toy maker, and it’s executed with tremendous style and flair – opting not to features a single line of dialogue, and featuring some impressive, state-of-the-art visual effects. ![]() For the premiere, the obvious choice to lead things off was “Battleground,” the adaptation of the Stephen King short from 1979’s Night Shift directed by Brian Henson and starring William Hurt. ![]() ![]() ![]() Maya Jasanoff of The Guardian notes that the book is an ". By the end of 1803, they have gained control over the entire subcontinent and command a large private army.ĭalrymple draws from known sources and previously untranslated or unknown sources like the Shah Alam Nama, a biography of Shah Alam II, the Mughal emperor during most of the events. The main part of the book deals with the territorial conquests, starting from the Battle of Plassey in 1757, which results in the conquest of Bengal, the richest province of Mughal India. ![]() By the end of the first half of the 18th century, they had established bases in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. The book deals with the history of the East India Company in the Indian subcontinent, beginning with the humble origins of the East India Company, founded in 1599 when it received a royal charter awarding them a monopoly on all trade between England and Asia. It recounts the rise of the East India Company in the second half of the 18th century, against the backdrop of a crumbling Mughal Empire and the rise of regional powers. The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company is a 2019 history book by William Dalrymple. Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond ![]() ![]() ![]() The collection’s title and inspiration, Ma notes in her acknowledgements, come from the film historian Jeanine Basinger’s book A Woman’s View. ![]() ![]() She continues her blending of speculative and realist in Bliss Montage, a collection of eight sometimes satiric stories, all told from a woman’s point of view. With fluid ease, Ma merges speculative and realistic fiction as she explores what happens in the aftermath of disaster, including who’s in power (in Candace’s case, Bob, a former IT technician), who controls culture, and who decides the guidelines for religious practice. Ling Ma’s eerily prescient 2018 novel Severance, which she has described as an “apocalyptic thriller, coming-of-age roman à clef, immigration narrative, and office novel,” revolves around Candace Chen, a millennial who works at a Bible-publishing firm, and who is one of nine survivors who flee New York City during the fictitious 2011 Shen fever pandemic. ![]() ![]() Taylor's most famous book is Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. " Taylor has talked about how much history was in the stories some stories took place during times of slavery and some post-slavery. She has stated that these anecdotes became very clear in her mind, and in fact, once she realized that adults talked about the past, "I began to visualize all the family who had once known the land, and I felt as if I knew them, too. Many of her works are based on stories of her family that she heard while growing up. ![]() She now lives in Colorado with her daughter. Taylor was born in Jackson, Mississippi, but lived there only a short amount of time, then moved to Toledo, Ohio, where she spent most of her childhood. ![]() Mildred DeLois Taylor is an African-American writer known for her works exploring the struggle faced by African-American families in the Deep South. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The woman died, but Dazai was rescued by a passing boat. Shortly thereafter, he tried again to die by suicide, this time attempting to drown alongside a woman he’d met at a bar. He then went to Tokyo Imperial University to study French literature, but he was expelled for not going to class. He survived and was ultimately able to graduate the following year. Dazai started spending his money on alcohol and sex workers, and-two years later-he tried to take his own life. However, he soon lost all interest in school when one of his favorite writers, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, died by suicide in 1927. Dazai eventually went on to study literature at Hirosaki University, where he edited and wrote for several student publications. As one of the richest landowners in the Aomori Prefecture, Dazai’s father became a politician in Japan’s House of Peers, which ultimately meant he was absent for most of Dazai’s childhood-he died of lung cancer shortly before Dazai entered high school in 1923. He belonged to a large family that was wealthy and influential, having found success in moneylending. The famous Japanese author known by the penname Osamu Dazai was born with the name Shūji Tsushima in 1909. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It may be blasphemous of me to admit it, but sometimes I find myself a little dissatisfied with Elinor Dashwood’s fate at the end of Sense and Sensibility – even though Edward has some good qualities, I do sometimes feel Elinor deserved better. True Love Comes to Delaford story poses the question: What if Colonel Brandon’s and Elinor Dashwood’s easy camaraderie and growing mutual respect and admiration for each other developed into something more? As an ardent reader of variations ( I love wondering ‘what if?’), I was most excited to see that Virginia Kohl’s debut release was a variation on Sense and Sensibility (so unique, right?)! And I loved learning that with this variation, quite a significant change takes place. Especially stories that are variations ( not sequels or modern adaptations). While Pride and Prejudice variations are in plentiful supply with dozens of new releases coming out each month, stories inspired by Jane Austen’s other novels are a bit more rare. What If Colonel Brandon Fell in Love with the Other Dashwood Sister? ![]() ![]() ![]() With that being said, “Kindred” was written with a purpose to explore how a modern-day African-American woman would experience the time of a slavery society, where African-Americans were considered property and inferior to their Caucasian counterparts despite both being human beings. The story explores various dynamics and dilemmas of pre-war slavery from the sensibility of a late-twentieth-century African-American, who is aware of its brutal and disturbing legacy in contemporary American society and culture Mainly through the two interracial ‘couples’ (Rufus & Alice and Dana & Kevin), who form the emotional plot of the story, the novel attempts to touch upon the interconnected issues of power, gender, and ethnicity issues and speculates on the idealism of future equality. The book is written in the first-person perspective of an African-American woman, named Dana, who finds herself being transported between ‘present’ time Los Angeles, California in 1976 and a pre-Civil War Maryland slave plantation. “Kindred” is a novel by Octavia Butler that includes aspects of the time-travel genre and is based on a slave narrative perspective. ![]() |