![]() ![]() ![]() Pratchett never gets into rock music, never really explores from a satirical perspective what rock music has meant as a cultural force, beyond its obvious role as upsetter of the establishment's applecart. The chuckles are there, but they are, in many cases, as superficial as a lame pop song itself. Jokey song titles like "Anarchy in Ankh-Morpork" and "Born to Rune" pop up, effortless puns that any lesser humorist could have come up with just as easily. And when it gets there, its targets are, for the most part, fairly obvious ones. It's a reasonably good book, and funny in all the right places, but it takes a while to get to all of those right places. ![]() Considering that its topic of satire is rock and roll, Soul Music could have been the most outrageous, blistering satire of Terry Pratchett's entire Discworld series.but it isn't. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() She describes Molly as “a child of nature and of the drawing room”, and revisits the rooms that now survive only in her mother’s novels, where “sun still bleaches a hall table and silk curtains rot slowly in the windows, or a master cook lifts a perfectly risen soufflé from her sulky kitchen range”. Keane’s writing was sensual and Phipps’s is too: she gives us the texture of the past. There is a family likeness (though she is never slavishly imitative) between Phipps’s writing and her mother’s. ![]() Keane went on to suggest the biography be approached as though it were a novel – advice that has been partly, and brilliantly, followed. Phipps was understandably uncertain about the undertaking – this, incredibly, is her first book – whereas Keane’s only fear was that the elder of her two daughters would not be “nasty enough”. There was a question in the air (implied, if not directly asked): what had her life amounted to? Presumably, Keane encouraged this biography not only to settle the question, but because she wanted to spur on a daughter she would have known to be a born writer. ![]() Sally Phipps is Keane’s daughter, and, early on, remembers having a conversation with 90-year-old Molly amid the driftwood of her possessions, in Ardmore, County Waterford, Ireland. ![]() ![]() What's the harm in satisfaction? Hawk would never feel anything for him. ![]() The desire to teach Nathaniel the pleasure men can share grows uncontrollable. Yet as days pass in close quarters, Nathaniel's feisty spirit and alluring innocence beguile and bewitch. ![]() He has a score to settle with his captive's father-the very man whose treachery forced him into piracy-and he's sure Nathaniel is just as contemptible. Bitter and jaded, Hawk harbors futile dreams of leaving the sea for a quiet life. Until pirates strike and he's kidnapped for ransom by the Sea Hawk, a legendary villain of the New World. Under the thumb of his controlling father, he's sailing to the fledgling colony of Primrose Isle, where he'll surrender to a respectable marriage for his family's financial gain. ![]() Will an innocent captive surrender to this pirate's sinful touch? Nathaniel Bainbridge is used to hiding, whether it's concealing his struggles with reading or his forbidden desire for men. ![]() ![]() ![]() While survival is vital, it isn’t enough. But, as I ripped through the book, I realised it was offering what other apocalyptic fiction never seemed to even bother with. It’s a mess, it’s lawless, it’s chaotic and it’s brutal. It’s not the world we know, or would want to. Mandel switches between the day the pandemic hits her native Canada and the world 20 years later.Īnd while the ground zero stuff is as terrifying and horrible as you’d expect, the revelation comes in the chapters set two decades after the supposed end of the world. Station Eleven’s apocalypse is wrought by the Georgia Flu, a virulent disease that races across the planet, kills within hours and wipes out 99% of the world’s population. I must have been feeling particularly bleak one day, because I sat down to read it. No more trains running under the surface of cities. No more porch lights with moths fluttering on summer nights. ![]() No more diving into pools of chlorinated water. ![]() But I kept picking it up again, and flipping through, even as Mandel’s “incomplete list” of things that the post-ruin world has lost forever chilled and depressed me: ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The Excalibur Curse is the final entry in The Camelot Rising trilogy. Guinevere has been a changeling, a witch, a queen-but what does it mean to be just a girl? To undo the mistakes of the past.even if it means destroying herself. Guinevere is determined to set things right, whatever the cost. When Guinevere makes an agonizing discovery about who she is and how she came to be, she finds herself with an impossible choice: fix a terrible crime, or help prevent war. ![]() Vowing to unravel the truth of her past with or without Merlin's help, Guinevere joins forces with the sorceress Morgana and her son, Mordred-and faces the confusing, forbidden feelings she still harbors for him. But the greatest danger isn't what lies ahead of Guinevere-it's what's been buried inside her. Behind her are Lancelot, trapped on the other side of the magical barrier they created to protect Camelot, and Arthur, who has been led away from his kingdom, chasing after false promises. While journeying north toward the Dark Queen, Guinevere falls into the hands of her enemies. The gripping conclusion to the acclaimed Arthurian fantasy trilogy from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White finds Guinevere questioning everything-friends and enemies, good and evil, and, most of all, herself. ![]() Genres: Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy, Wizards & Witches, Historical, Medieval, Arthurianīuy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository Published by Random House Children's Books on 2021 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() “Why do you want to hide it from me?” he asks. It is not normal that a girl teaches her boy, but I am only showing him what I want, what plays on the inside of my eyelids as I fall asleep.” She takes this young man as her husband, offering him her whole self – all except the mystery of what lies beneath the green ribbon tied in a bow around her throat. The narrator begins as a bold girl in the tradition of Angela Carter: “This isn’t how things are done, but this is how I am going to do them. It’s also the title of the standout story in Carmen Maria Machado’s debut collection, a finalist in last year’s US National Book awards: a tense, seductive fairytale about rumour and silence, sex and power, autonomy and being ignored. “You offer that, right?” “The husband stitch” – the term for an extra stitch to tighten the vaginal opening when repairing an episiotomy – is considered a dark joke from the battlefield of birth, but has been attested to as part of the violence visited on women’s bodies during labour. “H ow much to get that extra stitch?” the narrator’s husband asks in the labour room as his wife is sewn up after a difficult birth. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Dilla & Phat Kat Makes Its World Premiere (Audio)Ĭharnas writes: “ John Salley used his celebrity and R.J. Salley had launched Hoops, a Detroit-based recording studio and fledgling label and production company.Ī Previously Unreleased Gem From J. In those days, the group had ties to then-Detroit Pistons star John Stalley, who allegedly insisted on the crew’s record deal. Although Slum Village would rise to power in the early 2000s, the group’s days in the early 1990s are discussed. Several highlights are discussed that come straight out of Dan Charnas’ research and reporting. ![]() On episode #74 of the What’s The Headline podcast, the Ambrosia For Heads team discusses the book ( at 51:40), having an early read. Dan Charnas’ Dilla Time was published this week, and the comprehensive text sheds new light on James Yancey, his upbringing, his career, and his impact as a true revolutionary of rhythm. However, in 2022, fans have a definitive biography- several years in the making-on a Hip-Hop legend who often kept a low profile. Traditionally, there are concerts and events around the globe honoring the producer/MC who co-founded Slum Village, JayLib, J-88, The Ummah, and the Soulquarians. James Yancey was born February 7, 1974, and passed just after his 32nd birthday on February 10. ![]() February is widely celebrated among Hip-Hop Heads as a month dedicated to J Dilla. ![]() ![]() Oh, how I've fallen in love and don't want any help up!!! A New York Times bestseller, Pulse is the unforgettable conclusion to the story of Emily and Gavin that began with Collide. Emily isn't used to being the strong one, but she'll have to find the daring and confidence within to fight for their love and bring Gavin back from the edge-even if it means losing herself to their all-consuming, pulse-pounding passion. Nursing his wounded heart, Gavin has cut himself off from society and retreated into a self-destructive, mind-numbing world. Unraveling fast, she can only cling to the hope that Gavin Blake still wants her. "Do you know how scary it is to want something so bad you're willing to change your whole life for it?"Įmily Cooper is ready to risk everything to be with the man who has consumed her thoughts and dreams since the fateful day they met. ![]() ![]() From the New York Times bestselling indie author, the conclusion to the sexy contemporary romance that began in Collide, about a woman torn between her seemingly perfect boyfriend and a dark, mysterious stranger. ![]() ![]() The spicebush swallowtail caterpillar has a faux snake face on his rear end to fend off angry birds who might otherwise slurp him up. The thorny devil (a spiny Australian desert lizard) sports his spikes to discourage predators from trying to swallow him, but his thorns do double duty, also sluicing rare rainwater toward his mouth. While Jenkins' and Page's creatures hold their tongues about how funny we look to them, they are happy to describe the perfectly sensible reasons why they look the way they do. and as you can see, I have a lot of tongue to protect. ![]() ![]() My tongue, which I use to pluck leaves and grass, is dark purple so that it won't get sunburned. I live in Africa, where the sun is very bright. ![]() Here's lookin' at you, Human!ĭEAR AXOLOTL: Why do you have feathers growing out of your head? If the bald-faced truth is what you want, have I got the book for you! Steve Jenkins' and Robin Page's forthcoming curious critter book, Creature Features: Twenty-Five Animals Explain Why They Look the Way They Do (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), tells it like it is. ![]() I'll tell you.I stick my face into the bodies of the dead animals I eat, and the feathers would get pretty messy. DEAR EGYPTIAN VULTURE: Why no feathers on your face? ![]() ![]() ![]() I know whatever she writes will be sharp, fun, and sexy. Anytime I start one of her books, I look forward to reading it because of this. Well…looks like I’ve got a plan, after all.Įmma Chase writes the male POV like a boss. Do everything you wanted to do-everyone you wanted to do-for as long as you could. If you were told that the world as you knew it-life as you knew it-would end in five months, what would you do? You’d make the most of the time you had left, of course. or the man who gets to love Olivia forever. In the end, Nicholas has to decide who he is and, more importantly, who he wants to be: a King. ![]() Nicholas grew up with the whole world watching, and now Marriage Watch is in full force. ![]() While they've traded in horse drawn carriages for Rolls Royces, and haven't chopped anyone's head off lately, the royals are far from accepting of this commoner. ![]() There's a disapproving queen, a wildly inappropriate spare heir, relentless paparazzi, and brutal public scrutiny. Nicholas wants to find out if she tastes as good as her pie, and this heir apparent is used to getting what he wants.ĭating a prince isn't what waitress Olivia Hammond ever imagined it would be. Then, one snowy night in Manhattan, the prince meets a dark haired beauty who doesn't bow down. Nicholas Arthur Frederick Edward Pembrook, Crowned Prince of Wessco, aka His Royal Hotness, is wickedly charming, devastatingly handsome, and unabashedly arrogant hard not to be when people are constantly bowing down to you. ![]() |