![]() ![]() Russia is a dangerous place, run by nasty people. Such was our single direct contact with Russia before beginning our discussion of the book, the book about systemic human abuse, greed, corruption. State Department said to pay it before the boy became an embarrassment and disappeared. Bill told a more recent story about the son of a friend who was held at Russian border only 3 years ago, for a $65,000. Bill had visited USSR in the 1970's: gray, dingy, repressive. We began with a few personal experiences with Russia. ![]() As well as a story of power, greed and corruption in Russia today. Red Notice is the story of big finance in Russia by Bill Browder, founder and driving force behind Hermitage Capital, a uniquely successful mutual fund that took advantage of undervalued, recently privatized Russian companies' assets in the early to mid 1990's. ![]()
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![]() An obscure author named Mary Webb is said to be Gibbons' specific target. It's instantly clear that author Stella Gibbons was doing a very clever parody, and the books she was targeting were pastoral dramas full of acute Victorian emotions, which were apparently all the rage at the time. That sparked my interest to find out what readers were laughing at back then, but it's the sort of book to have you shaking your head asking, 'What the heck just happened?' Oh man, what a ridiculous book! It's my choice for the comedy classic in the 2019 Back to the Classics Challenge. I'd never heard of either book or author before, but it was published way back in September 1932, when my Dad was a two-month-old baby. ![]() Flora Poste, a recently orphaned socialite, moves in with her country relatives, the gloomy Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm, and becomes enmeshed in a web of violent emotions, despair, and scheming, until Flora manages to set things right. ![]() ![]() Winner of the 1933 Femina Vie Heureuse Prize, COLD COMFORT FARM is a wickedly funny portrait of British rural life in the 1930s. ![]() ![]() ![]() Teamed up with Peter Parker, the two Spider-Men must stop the winged duo before they can unleash experimental tech across the whole city. ![]() When Vulture starts wreaking havoc across the city with his new accomplice Starling, Miles can't just sit back and watch. Tempted by the power and freedom of his new abilities, Miles must decide what kind of Spider-Man he wants to be. After a misunderstanding with the law, Miles questions what it means to be a hero when people are ready to believe the worst in you. MILES MORALES has a lot going on, what with moving to a new neighborhood, dealing with the loss of his father, and the whole gaining super-powers thing. The official prequel to Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales from Marvel and Insomniac Games, with an exclusive adventure that leads directly into the game itself. ![]() ![]() ![]() I’m currently reading The Second Life of Tiger Woods by Michael Bamberger. I got this one in my strand box and was so excited when I heard that was the pick, but it felt like a few disconnected stories that were all pretty boring. The second was another new release this month that didn’t reach expectations, Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin. I enjoyed this one, geography is one of my random interests so this one had been on my radar for a few months and it lived up to the hype. The first was one that I got in my BOTM box, The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd. ![]() ![]() I wound up getting two books done this week, though I wasn’t a fan of one of them unfortunately. Hi friends, hope everyone has been well! We’re approaching mid-March and with that the first day of spring, even though we got some snow around NYC yesterday. ![]() ![]() ![]() And yes, little girl's verbal images have therefore also become my own and personal images, she has become me and I have become her, and both of us have in Hello Ocean merged with the water, with the waves, with the magic of the sea and its surroundings.Īnd of course Estrella's accompanying illustrations are also equally wonderful, realistic, yet also at the same time magical, evocatively enchanting, showing, presenting on a visual and concrete, pictorial level the translucent, magical beauty of the waves, of the sky, of the reflection of the setting sun on the surface of the water. ![]() And wow, I do feel myself so much and so completely immersed in and enveloped by the the author's presented narrative that with Hello Ocean I can almost literally see, feel, touch and smell the ocean myself (and can actually also and well imagine being that little girl, experiencing the waves, the sun, the scent of the salt wind, the touch of the sand, the squishy sea kelp on my bare skin). Poetically, lyrically, evocatively a young girl delightfully and glowingly textually describes how the ocean is her oldest and dearest friend, how she loves the sights, the sounds, the touch, the smells and tastes of the sea. Yes indeed, Hello Ocean (penned by Pam Muñoz Ryan and graced with and by Mark Estrella’s glowing and luminous accompnying illustrations) truly and utterly delightfully present an opulent magical feast for the senses, and definitely for ALL of the senses. ![]() ![]() ![]()
![]() His tale is a powerful, harrowing depiction of Afghanistan, but also a lyrical evocation of the lives and enduring hopes of its resilient characters. Hosseini gives a forceful but nuanced portrait of a patriarchal despotism where women are agonizingly dependent on fathers, husbands and especially sons, the bearing of male children being their sole path to social status. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a 2007 novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini, following the huge success of his bestselling 2003 debut The Kite Runner. ![]() ![]() Against a backdrop of unending war, Mariam and Laila become allies in an asymmetrical battle with Rasheed, whose violent misogyny-"There was no cursing, no screaming, no pleading, no surprised yelps, only the systematic business of beating and being beaten"-is endorsed by custom and law. Eighteen later, Rasheed takes another wife, 14-year-old Laila, a smart and spirited girl whose only other options, after her parents are killed by rocket fire, are prostitution or starvation. Mariam is the scorned illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced at age 15 into marrying the 40-year-old Rasheed, who grows increasingly brutal as she fails to produce a child. The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny through the lives of two women. With another searing epic of Afghanistan in turmoil. A thousand splendid suns / Khaled Hosseini. ![]() ![]() Afghan-American novelist Hosseini follows up his bestselling The Kite Runner ![]() ![]() ![]() If they say the wrong answer just remind them that the numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 are odd while 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 are even. Have them pick a duck out of the water and when they see the number ask them if it is an odd number or an even number. ![]() This is another great activity for younger students. For example, if it is the number five and they do not know what to say, you can tell them, "This is the number we talked about that comes after four." 2. Ask the student to identify what number it is. Have a student pick a duck out of the water and turn it upside-down so they can see the number. Number Identificationįor really young students (preschool-age) simply being able to identify a number is a good skill to build. Here are five number recognition activities you can do with your classroom that are full of fun and learning!Īll you need to do is write a variety of numbers on the bottom of your ducks (generally it is good to have at least 20 ducks so that you can have two of each number up to ten) and you're ready to play! 1. The book, "10 Little Rubber Ducks," by Eric Carle is beloved by children all around the World, and at Sunshine and Rainbows Learning Center in Joliet, Illinois they did a number of fun activities with their own little rubber ducks inspired by the book! 5 Activities Inspired by the "10 Little Rubber Ducks," Book ![]() ![]() The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter the city's hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere. ![]() "It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured." An escaped convict with a false passport, Lin flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of Bombay, where he can disappear. Now a major television series from Apple TV+ starring Charlie Hunnam! ![]() ![]() About the Book Based directly upon the experiences of its author, this is the story of a man who escapes from prison in Australia to arrive in Bombay where he works in a first-aid station and smuggles drugs and guns. ![]() ![]() But beneath is its beating heart: a biting critique of American colonialism, Indigenous displacement, and gentrification, and a heartbreaking portrait of a broken young girl who uses horror movies to cope with the horror of her own life. Shirley Jackson meets Friday the 13th in My Heart Is a Chainsaw, written by the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Good Indians Stephen Graham Jones, called “a literary master” by National Book Award winner Tananarive Due and “one of our most talented living writers” by Tommy Orange.Īlma Katsu calls My Heart Is a Chainsaw “a homage to slasher films that also manages to defy and transcend genre.” On the surface is a story of murder in small-town America. The good kind, of course” ( BuzzFeed) from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones. In her quickly gentrifying rural lake town Jade sees recent events only her encyclopedic knowledge of horror films could have prepared her for in this latest chilling novel that “will give you nightmares. ![]() ![]() Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel ![]() |