6/12/2023 0 Comments The native son novel![]() This, despite the fact that the Daltons wish to help Bigger (although to a limited extent, based on their own paternalistic understanding of African-American culture). Bigger is ashamed and angry when he first meets Mary, Jan, and the Dalton family-even Peggy, the Daltons’ head housemaid-because he senses that his blackness has led him into a position of servility to a white family. ![]() Bigger’s blackness, and the “whiteness” he encounters in large swaths of society, are not merely skin colors or racial barriers: they become, to Bigger and many others, symbolic distinctions between the morally fallen (blackness) and the morally pure (whiteness).įrom the beginning of the novel, when hanging out with “the gang” (including Jack and G.H.), Bigger announces that he cannot pursue his dream of becoming an aircraft pilot, because African Americans in Chicago are not permitted or encouraged to gain even a basic education. ![]() Native Son is a meditation on racial relations in 1930s Chicago, told from the perspective of Bigger Thomas, a young African-American man who, enraged at society, accidentally kills Mary Dalton, whose body he later burns in a furnace and Bessie, his “girl.” The novel’s author, Richard Wright, drawing in part on his own experiences as an African-American male growing up in the South and moving to Chicago, describes the sensation of “blackness” from Bigger’s perspective. ![]()
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6/12/2023 0 Comments Clover by dori sanders![]() If it was intentional, I'm not sure why Sanders did it. I wasn't sure if it was a stylistic decision or just a copy editing problem. While some of the scenes are interesting, most never seem to lead to anything bigger and by the end of the book I felt like I'd just started getting to know these people.Ī side note-there are several slips between past and present tense, sometimes in the same paragraph. ![]() Instead the story wanders through disconnected episodes of peach selling, confrontations with friends and relatives, gossiping over the new white woman in the household, and scenes of Sara Kate trying to mother Clover as well as she can. Many of Clover's observations felt clichéd and rote, and she never seemed to suffer shock or grief over the sudden loss of her father. And there are some moments of personality and humor, like when ten year-old Clover observes her white stepmother struggling to adapt her palate to a rural southern African-American diet (read: pigs' feet, sweet tea, and everything cooked in grease.)īut Clover herself, her stepmother Sara Kate, and her father Gaten never really came alive for me. ![]() There are passages that stood out for me-moments where Sanders creates interesting, distinct characters, like the old woman who has no foil in her house because she uses it to wrap endless five-dollar bills to send to television evangelists. ![]() ![]() I wanted to like this one more than I did. ![]() 6/12/2023 0 Comments Samuel r delany's dhalgren![]() Hemingway would consider Delaney a literary Lucifer wandering aimlessly around Bellona. Kid’s notebook, and the whole theme of the book as it relates to creativity is much more interesting than the sex. Now, I have also become a writer of science fiction. The mental distress of Kid, which makes the city and the time he spends in it seem like nothing more than madness or a nightmarish dream, is of a much different style than that written about by Philip K. Still, I remembered all the scenes in the book quite well even if last night’s dinner takes a moment to recall. Now, I am much older, and the slippage of time in the city along with the constant low cloud cover, smoke, and fog seems symbolic of my own fading short term memory that makes events seem disjointed, difficult to put in the proper order, and separated by darkness. Kid, the hero, was a persona that I could imagine inhabiting while trying to adjust to my own life in the 70s. ![]() I read a lot of sci-fi and knew this was bound to become a classic. ![]() ![]() My hair was longer then and I had reluctantly served my time in the army so I recognized some of the characters. As a young man, the sex scenes, and there are a lot of them, were highlights. ![]() I’ve read this before, and each time it is a different experience. ![]() 6/12/2023 0 Comments Newton optics![]() ![]() ![]() His discovery of periodicity in Newton's rings, which would later prove to be so useful to Thomas Young, led Newton to postulate that periodicity was a fundamental property either of light waves or of waves associated with light. ![]() The book summarized Newton's discoveries and theories concerning light and color: the spectrum of the sunlight, the degrees of refraction associated with different colors, the color circle (the first in the history of color theory), the invention of the reflecting telescope the first workable theory of the rainbow, and experiments on what would later be called "interference effects" in conjunction with Newton's rings. Unlike most of Newton's works, Opticks was originally published in English, with the Latin version following in 1706. Isaac Newton published Opticks: Or a Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. Also Two Treatises of the Species and Magnitude of Curvilinear Figures in London in 1704. ![]() 6/11/2023 0 Comments Minaret leila aboulela summary![]() ![]() Yet in a climatic event, Sammar leaves Aberdeen and goes back to Khartoum with her son, mother-in-law and other family members. Her relationship with Rae is close and gets even closer as Christmas approaches. Through Sammar’s daily interaction and schedule, the readers get to know her story: a tragic accident that made her leave her son in Sudan and follow this silent life. Rae is a professor and the Arab expert of the university, albeit he is not Muslim himself. She follows a silent, lonely and observant life where her only interactions include those with her work friend and her boss, Rae. It is a short and powerful novel about Sammar, a Sudanese woman living in Aberdeen, Scotland, working as an Arab translator for the university. While searching for Sudanese and African women authors, Leila Aboulela’s “The Translator” appeared in many lists of recommendations, so I decided to give it a try. ![]() 6/11/2023 0 Comments Ballad maggie stiefvater![]() ![]() We provide a 100% money back guarantee and are dedicated to providing our customers with the highest standards of service in the bookselling industry. Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie Show full title By Maggie Stiefvater 3 / 5 ( 298 ratings ) About this ebook FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING NOVEL SHIVER Remember us, so sing the dead, lest we remember you James Morgan has an almost unearthly gift for music. Praise for Ballad: 'Readers of Holly Black's Tithe (2002) or Charles de Lint's The Blue Girl (2004) will enjoy this rich foray into faerie. As Halloweenthe day of the deaddraws near, James will have to battle the Faerie Queen and the horned king of the dead to save Nuala's life and his soul. ![]() Our donations to The Rainbow Centre have helped provide an education and a safe haven to hundreds of children who live in appalling conditions. After a summer of hell, filled with faeries, almost death, and an awkward text, James is headed off to Thornking-Ash, a prestigious musical school that also seems to be aware of the strange world. But the rest of the fairies are not as harmless. We aim to provide a vast range of textbooks, rare and collectible books at a great price. At Mockingbird Lounge we pride ourselves on stocking second-hand books in exceptional pre-loved. We are a world class secondhand bookstore based in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom and specialize in high quality textbooks across an enormous variety of subjects. Ex-library, so some stamps and wear, but in good overall condition. ![]() Your purchase helps support Sri Lankan Children's Charity 'The Rainbow Centre'. Ships from UK in 48 hours or less (usually same day). ![]() ![]() ![]() Content /EditorialReview EditorialReview Source Amazon. On a trip that turns Caroline’s already tumultuous world upside down and forces her to question all that she holds dear. Her black grandmother, a slave on the plantation, accompanies her… Caroline receives permission from Rawdon to fetch Johnny, but she is not to make this journey alone. Caroline soon learns that Johnny is injured and needs her help to get home. Caroline Whitaker’s father is in prison for refusing to pledge allegiance to the king her brother, Johnny, is away fighting for the Loyalists and she, her mother, and her sister are confined to an upstairs chamber as British colonel Lord Francis Rawdon occupies their spacious plantation house. It’s 1780, and war has come to Camden, South Carolina. The Journal of Jasper Jonathan Pierce (2000). ![]() Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons (1996). ![]() 6/10/2023 0 Comments Saramago cain![]() Much of the slim novel (159 pages) consists of debates between cain and god over just how omnipotent the Creator really is, as well as how fair. ![]() ![]() Refusing to capitalize all of his character's names appears to be just another way that the author places his human characters on an equal footing with the divine figures in the story. The deliberate lack of capitalization, combined with vintage Saramago irony, is indicative of cain's disdain for the omnipotent being who has condemned him to wander the Earth forever, marked by the ugly brand that identifies him as his brother's killer. The central character in the novel, however - besides cain - is God – or “god,” as Saramago writes him. In its citation, the Nobel Foundation described him as a writer “who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality.” True to form, Cain is an imaginative journey into a world where Adam and Eve, various angels, Abraham, Noah, Moses and Job all dwell, sharing the landscape with “cain” by virtue of a time-shifting reality facilitated in part by a handsome donkey. Saramago, who died in 2010, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998. ![]() Nobel prize-winner José Saramago has built his novel, Cain, around the scaffolding of that original tale – and then populated it with other figures from the Old Testament. ![]() The name Cain is, of course, synonymous with fratricide, thanks to the biblical story in Genesis that describes the world's deadliest sibling squabble. ![]() 6/10/2023 0 Comments Heart of faerie oracle![]() ![]() I was disappointed that the packaging had failed. ![]() The deck itself was supposed to have been held together by a little strip of what looks like butcher paper and a small piece of tape. I opened the box and pulled out the contents to discover that the insert inside the box, that should have been holding the cards in place was torn and the cards were loose and several were scattered around the bottom of the box. I could hardly wait to get home to dive into the box to see what wonderful elementals were waiting to meet me. She even showed me another copy that had not yet been put out on the shelf and it also was lacking the plastic. ![]() She assured me that the set was brand new, even though there was no protective plastic around the box. Trying to keep an open mind, I asked her if the deck was new or if it had been returned. Upon picking it up, I immediately had a question for the shop keeper. It was a very exciting moment when I discovered a copy of this deck/book set in a dark corner of an indie bookstore. The Heart of Faerie Oracle by Brian and Wendy Froud ![]() 6/10/2023 0 Comments Mcdougall christopher![]() Gini WoyĪt 52, the 1.9-metre McDougall is strongly built and balding. McDougall assures that I will "absolutely be able to keep up".Ĭhris McDougall. I'd anticipated a run, arriving in skin tight running leggings and joggers after driving two hours from Washington DC to McDougall's home in Peach Bottom in the United States north-east. "As long as he goes easy on me," I remark. She encourages McDougall and I to brave the crisp spring day – temperatures haven't got much above four degrees – and go for a run through the surrounding farmland, where many Amish live. Fortunately, Chris's wife Mika senses my interest lies more in a casual run and less so in knife throwing. ![]() ![]() It's based on the true story of a World War II German general who was kidnapped on the Greek island of Crete. I've come to his home to talk about his new book, Natural Born Heroes. Immediately, the writer famous for triggering the barefoot running revolution a few years ago with his book, Born To Run, has wrong-footed me. ![]() "I thought we could do some knife throwing," he says. As we walk into Christopher McDougall's log cabin home in rural Pennsylvania, the best-selling author reveals he's contemplating a change of plans for our lunch date. ![]() |