![]() ![]() Drawing on unprecedented access to the Owens family, previously unpublished interviews, and archival research, Jeremy Schaap transports us to Germany and tells the dramatic tale of Owens and his fellow athletes at the contest dubbed the Nazi Olympics. It is also the intimate and complex tale of one remarkable man's courage. The story of Jesse Owens at the Berlin games is that of an athletic performance that transcends sports. This New York Times–bestselling author's account of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin offers a "vivid portrait not just of Owens but of '30s Germany and America" ( Sports Illustrated).Īt the 1936 Olympics, against a backdrop of swastikas and goose-stepping storm troopers, an African American son of sharecroppers won a staggering four gold medals, single-handedly falsifying Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Dark secrets and dangerous exploits swirl around the pursuit of the beast, and Ishmael must do his best to survive-if he can. But there may be more to Captain Ahab’s obsession. It’s rumored that the ship’s captain, Ahab, lost his leg to the beast years ago, and that he’s now consumed by revenge. Even though easy prey abounds, time and again the chase boat crews are ordered to ignore it in order to pursue the elusive Great Terrafin. He’s here to work, risking his life to hunt down great ocean-dwelling beasts to harvest and send back to the resource-depleted Earth. But Ishmael isn’t on Cretacea to marvel at the fresh air, sunshine, and endless blue ocean. When seventeen-year-old Ishmael wakes up from stasis aboard the Pequod, he is amazed by how different this planet is from the dirty, dying, Shroud-covered Earth he left behind. Starbuck joins the cast of characters, also Starbuck, Fedallah, Queequeg, with mad Captain Ahab at the helm (you need a crazy captain), plus a wise old. Master storyteller Todd Strasser reimagines the classic tale of Moby Dick as set in the future-and takes readers on an epic sci-fi adventure. He’s shunted Ishmael and buddies from the Pequod off-world, a workplace that still has water, unlike the baked earth left behind. ![]() ![]() ![]() From her second marriage to painter Peter Pinchbeck, which ended in divorce, came her son, Daniel Pinchbeck, also an author. ![]() Joyce was married briefly to abstract painter James Johnson, who was killed in a motorcycle accident. Ginsberg arranged for Glassman and Kerouac to meet on a blind date while she was working on her first novel, Come and Join the Dance, which was sold to Random House when she was only twenty-one and appeared five years later in 1962 just as she was starting her long career as a book editor. It was at Barnard that she became friends with Elise Cowen (briefly Allen Ginsberg's lover) who introduced her to the Beat circle. She matriculated at Barnard College at 16, failing her graduation by one class. She was a child actress and appeared in the Broadway production of I Remember Mama, which she writes about in her 2004 memoir Missing Men.Īt the age of 13, Joyce rebelled against her controlling parents and began hanging out in Washington Square. Born Joyce Glassman to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, Joyce was raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a few blocks from the apartment of Joan Vollmer Adams where William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac lived from 1944 to 1946. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() He was of that breed that needed room and space. Behind him he left the conflicting mix of peoples already beginning to crowd in upon one another. Thus he had begun his sojourn away from that temperate region of the south. He had no stomach to contest against humankind. He would rather battle the elements, and the earth itself. He would not take a life to retain even something he considered his own. And this was not a man who desired to fight other men. But more and more invaders-Orientals from the east, Huns and Celts from the European west-were now intruding into the land between the Dnieper and Don. The warm southern plains had been good to his people. He made his way slowly, but with purposeful step and determined gaze fixed on the unknown path before him. The solitary figure of a man receded into the distance. Though the Prologue is not essential to understanding the story, some readers may wish to begin with chapter 1 and come back to the Prologue later. It will introduce the historical roots of our story with some fictional characters and symbolic events as well as expand the historical framework with the sections in italics. But for those of you who love history as we do and who have become fascinated with the land of Russia and its people, we invite you to read the Prologue. Anna and Katrina’s story begins on Part I, chapter 1. ![]() ![]() ![]() Rosie's ER paramour, meanwhile, seems unconcerned about Jason's deteriorating health. ![]() During the proceedings, the court takes Jason away from Rosie, forbidding all contact, placing the child first with Quinn and then in a foster family after Quinn allows Rosie to see the boy. A smug social worker inexplicably agrees that the charge is warranted, and so Rosie must go to court, all the while wondering whether Quinn or Diana, or both, instigated her troubles. The plot thickens when someone-whose identity is shielded by law-makes a claim to the Department of Children and Families that Rosie neglects Jason. ![]() But Quinn has a new, young girlfriend, Diana, while Rosie is dating the ER doctor who treats Jason. ![]() The diagnosis of their son, Jason, as an asthmatic and the attacks that send him to the local ER have recently brought the couple back into each other's lives. Here, it's charges of child neglect and abuse, not of kidnapping, that face Rosie Sloan, who's separated from her husband, police officer Quinn. In a premise similar to that of her last novel, Sleep, Baby, Sleep, a mother plunged into dire legal trouble over her alleged mistreatment of her young child is at the center of Auerbach's harrowing new one. ![]() ![]() Well, the good news is the rest of the world has forgotten about Rob Ford. Here, in no particular order, are some of the stories - some significant, some definitely not - that Times Colonist readers will remember from 2016. Here on Fantasy Island it felt a long way away from the grimness of the globe - not that we didn’t have our own reasons for sorrow. (including the slaughter of 50 in a Florida gay bar). Other events seemed all too predictable: the world’s failure to deal with the horror of Aleppo, the latest string of terrorist attacks (Istanbul, Nice, Lahore, Brussels, Berlin …) and the latest mass shootings in the U.S. ![]() “Post-truth” became the word of the year. Still, there were reasons to celebrate: the African Ebola outbreak was contained, global literacy rates hit a new high and the Toronto Maple Leafs finished dead last in the NHL (this last one might reflect a personal bias). The world offered plenty of reasons to be frightened in 2016. ![]() ![]() ![]() “The moon?” exclaimed the Lord High Chamberlain, his eyes widening. ![]() The conflict and the theme are more complex, as well. Yes, it’s a fairytale about a princess, but it’s also great fun. Many Moons is a great choice if you are using picture books with middle school or high school students to introduce them to literary analysis. ![]() It is a longer picture book easily enjoyed by older students and adults due to the humor and the subtly profound ideas. If you are new to James Thurber, start with the picture book Many Moons, published in 1943. He is possibly most famous for his very short story The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (click on link to read the whole story), which was published in The New Yorker in 1939 and recently turned into a full-length movie (both fantastic discussion material for slightly older students). Thurber’s life story is quite interesting, particularly the William Tell story (which I shared with my wide-eyed Book Detectives). I will be sharing notes from another short chapter book by Thurber, The 13 Clocks, later in this series. His books read like an ode to language, particularly his short chapter book The Wonderful O. If there is another children’s book author who loves words as much as William Steig, it must be James Thurber. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Signature Theatre Company performed In The Blood from Augto Octoalongside Fucking A (also by Suzan-Lori Parks and inspired by The Scarlet Letter). Schaeberle Studio Theatre at Pace University produced a well-received production of show in the fall of 2004. In The Blood was performed at the Edison Theater in Los Angeles on July 18, 2003. She later won the Pulitzer Prize for another play, Topdog/Underdog. The play was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Directed by David Esbjornson, the cast featured Charlayne Woodard as Hester, Rob Campbell, Gail Grate, Bruce MacVittie, Reggie Montgomery and Dierdre O'Connell. In The Blood, presented by The Public Theater, originally opened at the Susan Stein Shiva Theater on Novem(previews), officially on November 22, 1999, and closed on December 19, 1999. She later wrote a different play that she did title Fucking A. She later wrote the story based on the main character from The Scarlet Letter, and turned the story into more modern era, and changed the title to In The Blood. She originally wanted to call the play Fucking A, but scrapped the idea. Parks borrowed many aspects from Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter, and wanted to create a play based on the novel. In The Blood is a play written by Suzan-Lori Parks which premiered at The Joseph Papp Public Theater in 1999. ![]() ![]() ![]() Only death or repayment will fulfill the obligations. For the last seven years she’s been collecting a bracelet of black beads up her wrist, magical IOUs for favors she’s received. ![]() DescriptionĬallypso Lillis is a siren with a very big problem, one that stretches up her arm and far into her past. I stayed up until 11.15pm to finish it, which is stupidly late for me (I’m old). Despite my busy schedule I devoured Rhapsodic in 24 hours. I love fae, I love fantasies that tie in with the modern world, and I love strong female leads. Big mistake.Īs soon as I started Rhapsodic, I couldn’t put it down, this book has a lot of my favourite things within its pages. Rhapsodic by Laura Thalassa was one of those books that kept popping up in my book groups as a must read but I kept putting it off because for some reason or other it wasn’t doing it for me. ![]() I know I’m a bit late to the party with this book so I can only apologise. ![]() ![]() On its own terms, I would say Plummer’s Ralph is the greatest. Plummer gives Ralph a bit too much of a sense of humor at times, the actor’s own personality is clearly in evidence. What I meant was that he did the best job recreating the character from the book. I know I said that John Woodvine was the best Ralph Nickleby in my last post. This film easily has the highest number of the greatest character portrayals in any Nicholas Nickleby, starting with Christopher Plummer’s performance as Ralph. ![]() ![]() Not that there wasn’t plenty of gloom in the book or that there wasn’t comedy in the play. And while it’s obviously a less complete and comprehensive adaptation than the 1982 televised play, it captures much more of the book’s high spirits, which were somewhat drowned by that adaptation’s gloom and pretension. It doesn’t include nearly as many of the novel’s characters, but it arguably takes fewer liberties with the ones it does include and one of them is John Browdie (Kevin McKidd)! and with the plot. The 2002 Nicholas Nickleby movie, written and directed by Douglas McGrath, makes an interesting counterpoint to the 1947 one. ![]() |