Taken together, the essays reflect the collective preoccupations of the unsettling era in which we now live: mass shootings and terrorism, unaddressed mental health issues, and the many flavors of financial corruption. Taken separately, each piece offers a portrayal of rogues variously defined, ranging from the overtly criminal to the lovable (in the case of chef Anthony Bourdain). His latest book, "Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks," offers a glimpse at these preoccupations in his shorter-form work, a collection of essays originally written for the New Yorker. In most of his previous bestselling books, including "Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland" and "Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty," journalist Patrick Radden Keefe has masterfully illuminated what he calls his "abiding preoccupations." These are, namely, "crime and corruption, secrets and lies, the permeable membrane separating licit and illicit worlds, the bonds of family, the power of denial."
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"You are glowing like a Christmas lantern, even "Look at you," he says, taking my face into one of his spacious bowl-shaped hands, where the palms have lost their lifelines to the machetes that cut the cane. They are steel, hardened by four years of sugarcane harvests. He is lavishly handsome by the dim light of my castor oil lamp, even though the cane stalks have ripped apart most of the skin on his shiny black face, leaving him with crisscrossed trails of furrowed scars. I grab his body, my head barely reaching the center of He levels my balance with the tips of his long but curled fingers, each of them alive on its own as they crawl towards me. I lurch at him and stumble, trying to rise. He says, "I will take you back into the cave across the river." "Back where?" I ask without feeling my lips moving. While my body is struggling against sleep, fighting itself to awaken, he whispers for me to "lie still while I He comes most nights to put an end to my nightmare, the one I have all the time, of my parents drowning. Molly starts to freak out and breaks the circle, allowing whatever spirits they have summoned to be released. They find a spirit and quickly find out that it is Taylah. One girl, Abby, proceeds to pull out a Quiji board and explains the rules. Meanwhile, Beth is convinced to participate in a séance, though she has repeated stated that her friends should not be messing with anything of the sort. However, she is convinced to attend and decides to dress as up as an angel.ĭuring the party, Xavier leaves to follow a tradition amongst jocks that involves running down to the lake. Bethany doesn’t see much point in celebrating the holiday considering that it is against God’s will to do so. They are now in their senior year of high school and are planning on attending a Halloween party together. Beth and Xavier are closer than ever and start planning out their future together. It is now six months since the events of the previous book. Her goal nearly within reach, Lara will have to decide her own fate: Will she be the destroyer of a king or the savior of her people? As her mission drives her to deeper understanding of the fight to possess the bridge, Lara finds the simmering attraction between her and Aren impossible to ignore. Around her, she sees a kingdom fighting for survival, and in Aren, a man fiercely protective of his people. So when she is sent as a bride under the guise of fulfilling a treaty of peace, Lara is prepared to do whatever it takes to fracture the defenses of the impenetrable Bridge Kingdom.īut as she infiltrates her new home – a lush paradise surrounded by tempest seas – and comes to know her new husband, Aren, Lara begins to question where the true evil resides. The only route through a storm-ravaged world, the Bridge Kingdom controls all trade and travel between lands, allowing its ruler to enrich himself and deprive his enemies, including Lara’s homeland. A princess trained from childhood to be a lethal spy, Lara knows that the Bridge Kingdom represents both legendary evil – and legendary promise. What if you fell in love with the one person you’d sworn to destroy? Lara has only one thought for her husband on their wedding day: I will bring your kingdom to its knees. if we want to use wind instead of solar, we need more space. Small town: 1 megawatt, mid-size city: 1 gigawatt, United States: 1,000 gigawatts, the world: 5,000 gigawatts.3.3 - How much power are we talking about? For comparison, keep the following figures in mind (the more watts the more energy consumed per second).Keeping warm and cool 7%: cooling, heating, etc.Getting around 16%: cars, trucks, planes, ships, etc.Growing things 19%: plants, animals, etc.Making things 31%: cement steel, plastic, etc.3.2 - How much greenhouse gas is emitted? (When we make it and when we use it).3.1 - Think in percentages, how much of the 51B tons are we talking about? This will help prioritize resources to serve the competing initiatives.The good news: We can do it.ģ- Five questions to ask in every climate conversations: 2- Bad news: Getting to zero will be really hard. Coerced into a life-threatening mission, and straight into the path of a shadowy ruler bent on revenge, Andi and her crew will either restore order to the ship-or start a war that will devour worlds. When a routine job goes awry, the Marauder's all-girl crew find themselves placed at the mercy of a dangerous bounty hunter from Andi's past. Maas "Epic, mesmerizing and heart stopping."-Danielle Paige, New York Times bestselling authorFrom #1 New York Times bestselling author duo Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings comes the first book in The Androma Saga, an action-packed thrill ride of adventure, intrigue and steamy star-crossed romance.Known across the galaxy as the Bloody Baroness, Captain Androma Racella and her motley crew of space-bound privateers roam the Mirabel galaxy on the glass starship Marauder, taking what mercenary work they can find to stay alive. "A whirlwind, out-of-this-galaxy adventure!"-#1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. In the Iliad, Achilles loves Briseis, comparing their relationship with that of man and wife (he refers to her as his wife and bride often) and explicitly to that of Menelaus and Helen, which was, after all, what the war is about.Īchilles is angry at Agamemnon, and seethes with rage in his tent: understandably made furious by the thought of Agamemnon sleeping with Briseis. Despite Agamemnon's grand offers of treasure and women, he did not return to the fray until the death of Patroclus. His absence has disastrous consequences for the Greeks. This prompted a quarrel with Achilles that culminated with Briseis' delivery to Agamemnon and Achilles' protracted withdrawal from battle. When Achilles led the assault on that city during the Trojan War, her family died at his hands she was subsequently given to Achilles as a war prize.Īccording to Book 1 of the Iliad, when Agamemnon was compelled by Apollo to give up his own woman, Chryseis, he demanded Briseis as compensation. In Greek mythology, Briseis, a daughter of Briseus was a princess of Lyrnessus. Her character lies at the center of a dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon that drives the plot of Homer's Iliad. 490 BC, Louvre (G 152).īrisēís ( Greek: Βρισηΐς also known as Hippodameia Greek: Ἱπποδάμεια) was a mythical queen in Asia Minor at the time of the Trojan War. Briseis and Phoenix, red-figure kylix, ca. Too frequently Niven puts words and thoughts into the participants' mouths and heads that may not have been there due to the lack of (corroborating or existing) evidence. This fact is unfortunate for those of us who would like more depth and more accuracy to the story. Those whose diaries survived and/or whose parents wrote the most surviving letters are the ones who get to write the history. Winston Churchill wrote that "History will be kind to me for I intend to write it." That rings very true for this work as well. Ada didn't write or talk much so how can we really know who she was beyond the surface? She merely scratches the surface of these individuals. (I don't include Fred Maurer in the above list since his diary didn't survive and hence he doesn't get as much coverage as the others.) So the question Niven poses on page 2, "Who was Ada Blackjack?," is not fully answered. It isn't any more her biography than it is of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Allan Crawford, Lorne Knight, or Milton Galle. Ada Blackjack isn't a bad book, by any means, and I enjoyed it, but it isn't nearly as good as The Ice Master.įirst of all, it is supposed to a biography of Ada Blackjack. If you go into this book expecting a better book than Niven's brilliant first effort you'll be somewhat disappointed. Todd likes a happy workplace and he tries to encourage a positive mental attitude amongst his staff. This is a mysterious little band of men whose work is very mysterious. Todd is that manager of the team in Room Six. His child reminisces about this and remembers how the pole eventually came to represent his father's declining mental state after the death of his wife, he gradually descends into madness, and decorates the pole in more and more eccentric ways. Dad decorates it each holiday choosing a different kind of decoration as a theme for each celebration. There is a very tall pole in the front yard of the family home. Written by Polly Barbour and other people who wish to remain anonymous We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. When Neil began to conceive the steampunk fantasy story that eventually became Clockwork Angels, he used me as a sounding board for some of his ideas, since he had read some of my earlier fantasy novels that had steampunk elements, Eventually, as the story of the album - as told in snapshots of the music tracks - grew, Neil asked me to work on the novel. We've known each other for more than twenty years, interacted in our separate creative fields - his music, my fiction - and we even wrote a short story together. Because of that novel (and a nod to the inspiration of Rush in the acknowledgments), I got to know Neil Peart, who writes the lyrics for Rush. As I was developing the framework of the novel, listening to that album, it seemed as if the songs drove my plotting. (1988, and just reissued) was almost entirely inspired by the Rush album Grace Under Pressure. Listening to the music, along with innovative or thought-provoking lyrics, was like a catalyst for my imagination, triggering scenes or whole plots. I've always been inspired by music as I envision and write my stories, and the music of Rush has been a particularly strong influence. |