![]() Now he turns his attention to a new war, and in the initial volume of the Revolution Trilogy he recounts the first twenty-one months of America’s violent war for independence.įrom the battles at Lexington and Concord in spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, American militiamen and then the ragged Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable fighting force. Rick Atkinson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning An Army at Dawn and two other superb books about World War II, has long been admired for his deeply researched, stunningly vivid narrative histories. ![]() ![]() Winner of the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Awardįrom the bestselling author of the Liberation Trilogy comes the extraordinary first volume of his new trilogy about the American Revolution Winner of the Excellence in American History Book Award Winner of the Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() Living in an alternate universe, in historical England where vampires and werewolves not only exist, but are known and accepted members of society, Tarabotti stars as a soulless woman, or a preternatural (the only one in Great Britain), who finds herself under the heated lights of a murder investigation after accidentally killing a vampire.ĭespite her commission of the original murder, Tarabotti maintains innocence of a piling stack of high society murders plaguing Victorian England, but as she is a spinster with a deceased father and a disapproving mother, she is left to prove for herself that she is innocent. ![]() Her first novel was entitled Soulless and begins a saga based on the life of her sole protagonist, Alexia Tarabotti. In 2009, Gail Carriger released the first of a series of novels known as The Parasol Protectorate. ![]() ![]() ![]() Rogues is a compilation of these half-remembered pieces - a quick Empire of Pain follow-up - and as entertaining and perplexing a publishing project as any other volume of collected journalism. That one about the fine wine fraud? Or about the Dutch gangster and his sister who turned against him? The El Chapo one? The one about the mass shooter who also happened to be a neurobiologist? Deeply disturbing, plainly told tales of everyday and extraordinary wickedness, crookedness and corruption - they’re all Keefe’s. In fact if you’ve read the New Yorker over the past decade or so - if you’re a rootless cosmopolitan, say, or a non-Manhattan-dweller of vaguely liberal inclinations who can nonetheless afford both private medical insurance and Condé Nast’s subscription rates - you’ll have come across Keefe’s features. An overnight sensation, it was years in the making. ![]() Let’s be honest, Patrick Radden Keefe is not one of them - or wasn’t, until the publication last year of Empire of Pain, his book about the Sackler family and America’s opioid epidemic, based on an old New Yorker article. ![]() White, Joseph Mitchell, Janet Malcolm, Anthony Lane and Malcolm Gladwell. The magazine has always had its stars, among them James Thurber, E.B. Roguesisn’t a book book: it’s a kind of high-end sizzle reel, a “best of” articles by Patrick Radden Keefe, a staff writer for the New Yorker. ![]() ![]() Esther is constantly bombarded with messages about what she should be, what she should do, and how she should behave. Throughout the novel, Plath explores the ways in which societal expectations and gender roles can impact the lives of women. Society’s Expectations and Pressure on Women Despite her successes, she finds herself struggling with depression and a sense of detachment from the world around her. As she navigates the challenges of city life and the expectations placed upon her, Esther begins to feel overwhelmed and isolated. ![]() She is a bright and talented young woman who is given the opportunity to spend a summer working as a guest editor in New York City. The Protagonist: Esther GreenwoodĮsther Greenwood is the central character of The Bell Jar. The novel is a powerful exploration of the impact of societal expectations on the individual, and it provides a unique and compelling look at the experiences of women in the mid-twentieth century. The story follows the journey of a young woman named Esther Greenwood as she navigates the complexities of life and struggles with depression and mental illness. The Bell Jar is a novel written by the American poet Sylvia Plath, published under a pseudonym shortly before her death in 1963. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() I looked up the author, because I was sure this was a man's writing. What the hell was she doing, leaning against the door? Ridiculous. She knocks on his bedroom door in nothing but a robe, and when he abruptly opens the door, she stumbles into his arms and her robe flies open. (Honestly, I almost wanted to start counting.) His glance to his feminine counterpart causes her nipples to "peak into rock hard nubs". The hero doesn't simply walk into the room, he STRIDES. ![]() This should have been in Harlequin Romances. For some reason, books that have an English accent are mostly boring. I did listen to the sample because I've learned that the narration means a lot. I also like books in a series, I typically listen to every one, in order. I picked this book up because it was in Mystery/Thrillers, which is definitely my genre, Give me a good serial killer mystery any day of the week and I'm there. ![]() ![]() ![]() His story is intercut with that of Nora Lark, an Arizona farm wife in the early 1890s whose husband has disappeared in search of water. He’s sought by a dogged lawman and flees across the (not yet) United States of the mid-19th century. ![]() He falls in with a rough crowd and becomes a thief, then a murderer. ![]() Lurie Mattie is an orphan forced to fend for himself in dangerous times – the wild west. Six years later, her second novel appears at first a wholly different proposition. Obreht left Serbia as a child when the Yugoslav wars broke out and moved to the US as a young woman, but her debut still came firmly out of the tradition of European magic-realism, incorporating folk tales and ghost stories into a narrative that was both fantastical and moving, an intergenerational excavation of the ground where the personal and political meet. Its framing device was the dialogue between Natalia, a young doctor, and her storytelling grandfather, as they chewed over the history of an unnamed Balkan state. T éa Obreht’s wildly successful first novel, The Tiger’s Wife, was a tale of exuberant surrealist allegory. ![]() ![]() “Oh, that’s gone,” she’d say, meaning her voice.īut Andersen played live music in her living room that night, and while Mitchell’s voice was absent, it was the sound of musicians and the camaraderie that this self-professed “rowdy” missed. Often asked if she’d sing again though, Mitchell’s response was usually less promising. Sixty-one years later, at a similar crossroads, she vowed the same thing. ![]() After being diagnosed with polio at age 9, she declared she’d walk again. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard that. It was just a few years after the sudden brain aneurysm that stilled Mitchell’s voice and brought her the medical verdict that she’d likely never walk again. In 2018, in town for a show, singer-songwriter Eric Andersen had visited Mitchell’s Bel-Air home with his band. Tonight is the latest edition of “Joni’s Jam,” the first since the world opened up a bit. Her face is filled with promise and a touch of mischief. It is a Saturday night in late May, and Joni Mitchell finds a seat in her living room, a high-ceilinged space with a pool table, an array of guitars, a grand piano and a generous collection of her paintings. ![]() ![]() ![]() Each profile features an eye-catching image of both heroic and villainous women in command from across history and around the world, from a princess-cum-pirate in fifth century Denmark, to a rebel preacher in 1630s Boston, to a bloodthirsty Hungarian countess, and a former prostitute who commanded a fleet of more than 70,000 men on China’s seas. Illustrated in a contemporary animation style, Rejected Princesses turns the ubiquitous "pretty pink princess" stereotype portrayed in movies, and on endless toys, books, and tutus on its head, paying homage instead to an awesome collection of strong, fierce, and yes, sometimes weird, women: warrior queens, soldiers, villains, spies, revolutionaries, and more who refused to behave and meekly accept their place.Īn entertaining mix of biography, imagery, and humor written in a fresh, young, and riotous voice, this thoroughly researched exploration salutes these awesome women drawn from both historical and fantastical realms, including real life, literature, mythology, and folklore. Good thing these women are far from well behaved. Blending the iconoclastic feminism of The Notorious RBG and the confident irreverence of Go the F**ck to Sleep, a brazen and empowering illustrated collection that celebrates inspirational badass women throughout history, based on the popular Tumblr blog. ![]() ![]() ![]() We then meet the rest of the cast: the four children preparing for their first day of school. Veve exudes the capable warmth and command of a master teacher. ![]() The tone and theme are thus communicated right away: we are all unique and worthy beings with stories to tell. Veve warms up the audience by celebrating and shouting out the singers, dancers, teachers, basketball players, etc. The musical intersperses interactivity throughout, but especially at the beginning when Ms. Scenic Designer Jian Jung and Props Designer Sam Bay clearly did their research and it paid off in droves. ![]() Veve, played by the effervescent Audrey Hailes, the set makes clear it’s a place where any child or adult would want to spend their time. Even before we meet the classroom’s teacher Ms. ![]() The set, a classroom that is visible upon entering the theater, is inviting, fun, and cheerful. Nguyen, and Carla Duren in ‘The Day You Begin.’ Photo by Teresa Wood. And for this musical version (billed as “A Play with Lots of Music”), what it lacks in narrative plot, it makes up in an atmospheric bubble of positivity and acceptance. Like the book, the musical is big on empowerment and inclusivity. The Day You Begin, a new musical directed by Charlotte Brathwaite and based on the picture book of the same name by Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence Jacqueline Woodson, made its debut this weekend at the Kennedy Center’s Family Theater. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() More so, in the disparate circumstances facing his primary Black character, Burma Jones, and his primary gay White male character, Dorian Greene, Toole contrasts the imprisoning effects of systemic racism to the liberating pleasures of queer White privilege. Complementing these twin threads of his narrative, Toole also addresses the pervasive discrimination faced by Black and gay people in the novel’s mid-twentieth-century Southern setting, while simultaneously framing the gross mistreatment of vast swaths of humanity as part of his carnivalesque humor. Both quickly collapse into comic disarray. The first involves an insurrection of the underpaid Black employees of Levy Pants the second entails a conspiracy to infiltrate the government with gay White men. ![]() Reilly’s riotous exploits in New Orleans, which center around two so-called “crusades” to rescue humanity from its modern-day ills. John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces recounts Ignatius J. ![]() |