5/23/2023 0 Comments Starmaker olaf![]() I already have The Great Reddit Reading List to work through and frankly, it’s going to take me a very long time to do that. ![]() I will say up front that I’m not planning to make a series of posts about this. Naturally, I was hooked at once! And so, I assembled a list of authors and books, using the article I linked above, and set out to dip my toes in this particular forgotten pool of science-fiction. Unlike most literary awards, it’s not an award for a particular book it’s for the author, and so various works by each author may fall under this umbrella. This award, founded in 2001, exists to recognize and promote some of the great science-fiction authors of the past, who may have fallen out of print and out of common knowledge. To that end, I recently discovered the existence of the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award. It’s not that I have anything against them it’s just that I’m so far behind on great books of the past that I’ll never catch up!īut I’m not alone in this, nor in my love for–especially–classic science fiction. There’s a good reason for that: I rarely read new or very recent books. ![]() If you’ve been with me for awhile–or at least long enough to know me for book reviews–you may have noticed that I rarely cover new or very recent books. ![]()
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5/22/2023 0 Comments Hannah barnes time to think![]() " Time to Think draws upon thousands of pages of documents, including internal emails and unpublished reports, and over a hundred hours of personal testimonies, to tell the inside story. "In the same period, the number of referrals exploded, increasing 30-fold, while the profile of the patients shifted from largely pre-pubescent boys to mostly adolescent girls, who were often contending with other difficulties. "In the last decade the GIDS came to refer more than 1,000 children, for medication to block puberty," the synopsis reads. ![]() The NHS announced recently that the clinic will close in spring next year. The Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), based at the Tavistock and Portman Trust in London, was initially launched to provide talking therapies to young people who were questioning their gender identity. Publisher Mark Richards bought world English rights from Toby Mundy at Aevitas Creative Management UK. Swift Press has acquired Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children by BBC "Newsnight" journalist Hannah Barnes. ![]() 5/22/2023 0 Comments On the Edge by Richard Hammond![]() He describes the personalities, the camaraderie, and the stunts with which they entertain their weekly audiences until the day of his 300 mph crash that took Top Gear off the air and plunged a nation into mourning. For such a lively and intelligent communicator, TV beckons and he becomes one of the daredevil trio, with Jeremy Clarkson and James May, who make such an enormous world-wide success of the revamped BBC-TV programme Top Gear. He finds an attractive girl, Mindy, who shares his interests and helps him organise his high-speed life. Richard Hammond describes his childhood and adolescence and the emergence of the adrenalin junkie, the first ridiculous stunts on his tricycle, and an increasing and near-obsessive attraction to speed and the smell of petrol. ![]() ![]() ![]() Shortlisted for the British Book Awards, Biography of the Year, 2008. ![]() 5/22/2023 0 Comments Paulette jiles books![]() ![]() ![]() The Commanche raid his community, kill his oldest son, and take his wife and two younger children captive. He has plans to become a freighter, hauling goods by wagon to outposts and forts. ![]() Very basically, it is the story of Britt Johnson, who comes to Texas as a free black man just after the Civil War. I get overwhelmed just thinking of how to describe this book and all it contains. Well written historical fiction can teach me more than years in a classroom, because it gives me people with personalities, names, faces, motives it leads me step by step into dangerous but lovely landscapes, it shows me why certain things happened as they did, and in this book it explains so much about the western expansion and the tragedy of the American Indian. The cover blurb from the Washington Post on my edition says, "Meticulously researched and beautifully crafted.This is glorious work.". ![]() ![]() ![]() Data is clearly more important than ever. Democracy has championed over authoritarianism in the late-20th century, however the changes that artificial intelligence will inflict on data processing could lead to digital dictatorships. Automation might replace millions of individual humans with an integrated computer network, leading to an increase in post-work societies. This disillusionment is occurring at a time when problems are global in nature and will require global solutions. The average individual believes they are losing their economic worth. ![]() People all over the world, including in the core liberal nations, are becoming disillusioned with the liberal story. In Part 1, Harari offers an overview of the biggest political and technological challenges of humanity’s collective lifetime. ![]() ![]() I'm also really enjoying McNaughton's style, which despite the depravity of its subject matter, can be surprisingly humorous. All great authors, but I already know of them. Perhaps a touch of Clive Barker too? The gore, the artistic flair. I might even say he's reminiscent of Mervyn Peake at times (elegant prose, exaggerated characters, focus on art, insular society), although McNaughton is definitely bolder in his depictions of violence, sex and ugliness. I'd say the closest author I know of would be China Miéville due to his great world building and focus on the dark, grotesque and fantastical. Any suggestions to slake this thirst for more McNaughton-isms?Ī few guiding points: I really don't see the comparisons to Lovecraft or a "darker" Tolkien. I can't say I've read many authors similar to him and was saddened to find he passed at a fairly early age. ![]() In a choice entirely appropriate for the season, I recently acquired Brian McNaughton's Throne of Bones and am absolutely loving it. ![]() 5/22/2023 0 Comments Chesapeake requiem book![]() ![]() Mapped by John Smith in 1608, settled during the American Revolution, the tiny sliver of mud is home to 470 hardy people who live an isolated and challenging existence, with one foot in the 21st century and another in times long passed. Tangier Island, Virginia, is a community unique on the American landscape. "THE BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR." - Stephen L. ![]() "A MASTERFUL NARRATIVE." - Christian Science Monitor."BEAUTIFUL, HAUNTING AND TRUE." - Hampton Sides A brilliant, soulful, and timely portrait of a two-hundred-year-old crabbing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay as it faces extinction.Ī BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Washington Post, NPR, Outside, Smithsonian, Bloomberg, Science Friday, Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Review of Books, and Kirkus ![]() ![]() ![]() Emily, who resented the beauty and courage of Hari Morgan, nonetheless was delighted with the dancing slippers she made for her debut at the Race Ball, one of the grandest events of the year. One of the first to realise this was Emily Grenfell, spoilt, pettish daughter of Thomas Grenfell, one of the richest men in Swansea. ![]() But what he also passed on to his daughter was a rare and unusual gift - that of designing and making shoes that were stylish and different. ![]() When Hari Morgan's father died, he left her nothing but an ailing mother and the tools of his shoemaking business. ![]() 5/21/2023 0 Comments Blindsight aliens![]() ![]() Theseus is crewed by a highly trained and very specialised crew. The ship Theseus is sent to study this object which turns out to be a massive and very alien craft called Rorschach. Years pass, and nothing happens until a strange object is found in the Kuiper belt. Subsequent analysis shows these objects were making some form of survey and Earth's population prepares for some sort of alien contact. The novel begins with a shower of shooting stars, thousands of objects fall and burn across Earth's skies in a clearly artificial way. This isn't necessarily a problem, but it might not be what was expected. Unfortunately for those reading for a SF narrative this rather obscures the story. Blindsight is actually that, but it is much more - it is a novel that probes human psychology as much as speculating about alien culture. I bought it thinking it would be a 'hard' science fiction of first contact with a mysterious alien ship along the lines of Arthur C Clarke's Rendezvous with Ramaa book that amazed and inspired me many years ago. ![]() I'll admit to making a mistake with Blindsight. ![]() 5/21/2023 0 Comments P djèlí clark ring shout![]() ![]() Can Maryse stop the Klan before it ends the world?". ![]() But something awful's brewing in Macon, and the war on Hell is about to heat up. Armed with blade, bullet, and bomb, they hunt their hunters and send the Klan's demons straight to Hell. Standing in their way is Maryse Boudreaux and her fellow resistance fighters, a foul-mouthed sharpshooter and a Harlem Hellfighter. All across the nation they ride, spreading fear and violence among the vulnerable. ![]() About the Book "In this dark fantasy historical novella that gives a supernatural twist to the Ku Klux Klan's reign of terror, The Birth of a Nation cast a spell across America, swelling the Klan's ranks and drinking deep from the darkest thoughts of white folk. ![]() |