![]() ![]() Nel Abbot is one such woman, and it’s her apparent suicide in the Drowning Pool that stirs up the community’s troubled history and kicks off the narrative of this novel. With Into the Water, Hawkins has crafted another captivating, attention-grabbing story populated by unreliable narrators blindly sharing their own questionable stories, so it’s a shame that it will invariably be compared to the debut that preceded it – and inevitably end up coming up short.įrom the very first page, where the scene depicts the chilling death of a girl named Libby, Into The Water isn’t shy about launching its readers into the deep end, setting up the idea of Beckford, the Drowning Pool and its “troublesome women” from the get go. ![]() Paula Hawkins’ Into the Water has the unfortunate luck of being the follow-up to one of the best-selling books of the last decade, so a lot of people will be reading it with a very critical eye wondering if The Girl on the Train was just a fluke. ![]()
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![]() The reader is often one step ahead of the narrator, and some readers may wish to steer clear due to scenes of abuse and torture. The Korean concept of han, as well as customs, language, and politics, are woven flawlessly into the narrative, which is firmly grounded in the novel’s historical basis: looming Catholic persecution, the Shinyu Bakhae of 1801. ![]() ![]() Hur builds suspense artfully, offering a noir-tinged atmosphere of late nights, mist-shrouded streets, and clandestine meetings. But things are not what they seem, and Seol’s own memories-of her father’s death her mother’s suicide and of her kind older brother, missing for 12 years-keep interfering with her duties. When the daughter of a high-ranking government official is found dead with her nose sliced off, Seol’s curiosity and impetuousness lead the enigmatic Inspector Han to recognize her sleuthing skills and promise post-investigation freedom if she cooperates. ![]() Debut author Hur’s gritty mystery, set in the Joseon dynasty of 1800, centers Seol, a 16-year-old indentured servant to the Hanyang police. ![]() ![]() ![]() Let’s just hope the soundtracks remain intact, and that developer Vicarious Visions can recapture the magic that so many of us felt when we first pushed off all those years ago. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 Release Date: SeptemPlatforms: PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Advance, iOS, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Xbox, Classic Mac OS For their next game, Neversoft tried to take everything that worked in THPS and make it slightly better while introducing some fun new features. Roll on the remastersĪ truly superb series, then, we’re eagerly awaiting Tony’s return in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 remastered this September. ![]() Still, it deserves a mention in our best Tony Hawk games list, even if it does reside at the very bottom. Tony Hawk is a Skateboarding Philanthropist The Tony Hawk Foundation, created in 2002, helps build skateparks in underprivileged communities in the United States and around the world. It was a rather vapid experience in hindsight, and missed a lot of the spirit that make Tony Hawk games stand out. The feature required players to move the analog sticks in the correct way to land a gnarly trick, and the idea was expanded upon and improved in games like Skate.ĭespite being rebuilt from the ground up, Tony Hawk's Project 8 is largely forgotten about. ![]() ![]() Tony Hawk's Project 8 might not have been a commercial success, but it's 'Nail-the-trick' mechanic was an interesting idea. The soundtrack for 2000’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 is a small coup, mixing mainstream punk, rock, and rap hits with stoner rock, underground hip-hop, rap-rock, and nu metal jams. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The spectral map Dickey creates is as broad and packed as his book’s title implies. To answer those questions, Dickey, a writer who has produced eerie studies of historical and anatomical oddities, turns his ever curious eye to the widespread phenomenon of hauntings - to the lure of ghostly places for visitors and the impact of these places on local communities. “How do we inhabit and move through spaces that we have deemed haunted?” “How do we deal with stories about the dead and their ghosts?” Dickey asks. Whether or not ghosts are real is beside the point, Colin Dickey tells us in the first lines of “Ghostland.” Rather, what compels him in this appealing book is the meaning of haunted places in contemporary American culture. GHOSTLAND An American History in Haunted Places By Colin Dickey 320 pp. ![]() ![]() ![]() He did leave behind his commonplace book - that pocket-size notebook in which Elizabethans scribbled what they heard, read and thought - but after his son bequeathed it to a friend, it disappeared. After friends died, Donne burned every letter they had sent to him. Much that might aid his biographer is lost. Lucy’s Day,” “The Sun Rising,” “Death Be Not Proud”), few of which were published in his lifetime, and are hard to date or link to his personal experience. ![]() His literary range is daunting too, including a heretical book on suicide, religious devotions, sermons, letters and roughly 200 poems, many of which rank among the finest in the language (“The Canonization,” “A Nocturnal Upon St. Before his death at age 58 or 59, Donne would witness or experience religious persecution, warfare, imprisonment, conversion, foreign travel, illness, loss and plague. To write about his tumultuous life demands grappling with the many dangers and uncertainties of Elizabethan times. SUPER-INFINITE: The Transformations of John Donne, by Katherine RundellĪ biographer of John Donne faces unusual hurdles. ![]() ![]() ![]() This was a really good read that forced me to remember what it felt like to be twenty one. New Blue (Blue Series #5) - Hayden & Adam True Blue (Blue Series #3) - Mira & Tylerīlue Streak: A Blue Series Novella (Blue Series #4) - Nessa & Zach ![]() After all that's crumpled, Jaeger's the one thing I can't stand to lose.Įach book in the series is a standalone and does not need to be read in order.ĭeep Blue (Blue Series #1)- Cali & Jaegerīlue Crush (Blue Series #2) - Gen & Lewis Nothing has gone right since I came home-except Jaeger. I'm getting my life together, slowly, but Jaeger's ex has speared her pointy heels into him, threatening our future. And then his ex-girlfriend returns to town and my claws come out. Our chemistry is off the charts, but I worry I have nothing to offer this guy as we move forward in the best relationship I've ever had. ![]() Jaeger is insanely hot, with Viking good looks the women in Lake Tahoe can't resist, yet he's chosen me, the girl with no job and no future. I should focus on getting my life back together, but all I can think about is him. I haven't seen him in years, and the way he looks at me now has heat spreading down my chest and farther south. ![]() Jaeger was my brother's best friend in high school. Until my boyfriend turns out to be a douche, I lose my job, and my life plan falls apart. On paper, my life is perfect: a sexy boyfriend, a fantastic summer job, and law school in the fall. Sometimes it takes meeting the right guy to realize you've been dating the wrong one. ![]() ![]() ![]() The series was originally intended to comprise twelve volumes, but it has proved so popular that it has now been extended to thirty-five. ![]() The birth of the MORLAND DYNASTY series enabled her to become a full-time writer inġ979. She wrote her first novel while at university and in 1972 won the Young Writers’ Award with THE WAITING GAME.Īfterwards she had a variety of jobs in the commercial world, beginning as sales manager for the Coca Cola Company in Edinburgh, and ending up as pensions officer for the BBC in London, while writing during the evenings and weekends. She was educated at Burlington School, a girls’ charity school founded in 1699, and at the University of Edinburgh and University College London, where she studied English, history and philosophy. ![]() Cynthia Harrod-Eagles was born in Shepherd’s Bush in London. ![]() ![]() And, one must consider that even if it was customary for men to take wives in first-century Jewish custom, Jesus was a radical character who didn’t always adhere to custom, anyway. Thus, Jesus having a wife might be entirely plausible - but, unless there’s some evidence of this (which the author, in an author’s note at the end of the book, admits might not be enough), we will never know for certain. ![]() Of course, the Bible says nothing on the matter, but it was customary at the time for men of about age 20 in Jesus’ time to take wives to secure their manhood and standing in Jewish tradition and culture. The reason he would have to make that pronouncement is because this is a book about Jesus’ wife. ![]() My pastor has even referenced it in not one, but at least two Sunday morning reflections that I’m aware of - though taking great pains to indicate that this is a work of fiction. This is the book everyone in my church is seemingly talking about. “The Book of Longings” Paperback Book Cover ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It was kind of like offering candy and then never giving me any! LOL. ![]() So maybe the author could consider that for her next series. not in all THREE books (I read the third one because it’s not on Audible yet). And my mind being the dirty place it is went right to the fact that there would eventually be a scene like that. I found myself getting pretty anxious listening to this one at work because the sex was soooo intense! Side note: At one point, Beck asks Riley during sex if she’s ever done anal (I wasn’t kidding when I said the sex is INTENSE!), and he kind of insinuates that he’s going to eventually do it with her. Not many books can get me this invested in the character but these did! If you’re into hot sex scenes, get it. This book made me sad, happy, and angry all at once. Absolutely in love with their story and their love. BUT! I’m in loooooove with Beck and “Butterfly”. In fact, the majority of the female characters are portrayed as helpless sacks made only to please the men. Second, if chauvinistic men are your kryptonite (meaning you can’t stand them), then this definitely is NOT for you! Most of the male characters in this series are pretty degrading towards the female characters. if bad language is something you don’t like, I wouldn’t recommend this book. I have to chat with them to do it! I’m THAT picky. I’ve exchanged and returned so many books at this point that Audible won’t even let me manually exchange my own books. I very rarely love an Audible book THIS much. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Myst: The Book of Atrus is a story that details the background behind the story of the CD-ROM, much like J.R.R. ![]() Doubtless the y realized this, and approached Wingrove as an expert novelist, to help them accomplish a seamless transition from computer game to novel. The fact that the Millers chose to write the book themselves rather than sharecrop it to a third party showed an extreme level of hubris. A novel based on the game was inevitable, given the rich source material. MYST is more than a game in another respect as well now, with the publication of Myst: The Book of Atrus written by the game’s authors, Rand and Robyn Miller, in collaboration with David Wingrove (author of the Chung Kuo series of science fiction novels). The game works, they say, because it is as rich in its complex storyline as it is in its state-of-the-art graphics. From people who have played it, I know that MYST is more than a game, it is an experience–an immersion into another world, where things are strange and wonderful. But I would have had to have been living in a fissure in the earth to be totally clueless about MYST, the phenomenally popular CD-ROM game that has become multimedia’s first bestseller and first classic. As Howard Cosell titled his autobiography, “I never played the game.” I don’t even have a CD-ROM drive yet. ![]() |