![]() ![]() Salvatore’s first published novel, The Crystal Shard from TSR in 1988, became the first volume of the acclaimed Icewind Dale Trilogy and introduced an enormously popular character, the dark elf Drizzt Do’Urden. His books have been translated into numerous foreign languages including German, Italian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Turkish, Croatian, Bulgarian, Yiddish, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Portuguese, Czech, and French. Salvatore’s original hardcover, The Two Swords, Book III of The Hunter’s Blade Trilogy (October 2004) debuted at # 1 on The Wall Street Journal best-seller list and at # 4 on The New York Times best-seller list. His books regularly appear on The New York Times best-seller lists and have sold more than 10,000,000 copies. Salvatore enjoys an ever-expanding and tremendously loyal following. ![]() As one of the fantasy genre’s most successful authors, R.A. ![]()
0 Comments
![]() It has shrewd characterizations, multiple layers, and long evocative descriptive passages – in other words, in terms of giant killer shark novels, it wastes a lot of time.īecause the important category when dealing with giant killer shark novels is that whole ‘giant killer shark’ part. Benchley’s novel is actually a very smart, very urbane cautionary tale about human predators, about the voracity at the heart of human concupiscence. ![]() If this is true for bathos, how much more true must it be for bathyspheres, and so we come to what is perhaps the central question of modern hermeneutics: can a giant killer shark novel be good?In unraveling the ichthyologic etiology of such a query, you’d expect the ur-text to be Peter Benchley’s 1975 novel Jaws, but that isn’t quite right. It was the perennially underrated John Arbuthnot, so willingly lampooned in The Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus, who put it best: “The taste of the bathos is implanted by nature itself in the soul of man till, perverted by custom or example, he is taught, or rather compelled, to relish the sublime.” Meg: Hell's Aquarium By Steve Alten Variance Publishing, 2009 ![]() ![]() ![]() What also compelled me to write this post is that, as beloved a thriller writer as author Riley Sager is, it seems everyone has a different favorite and least favorite, and strong opinions to go along with it! This is so fascinating to me. While they aren’t my favorite books ever, I just genuinely enjoyed the books by Riley Sager and became determined to read them all and post all the best Riley Sager books ranked with reviews. I often find them to be too predictable or the characters to be too sinister (and not multi-faceted).īut, there was something about the thrillers by author Riley Sager that was so readable, with such unique storylines and complex characters. ![]() Fans of thrillers: get all the Riley Sager Books ranked with reviews! I have read all of the published books by Riley Sager, so I can attest to what they are all about and exactly for whom the author Riley Sager books are best.Īfter I read my first of the books by Riley Sager, I was hooked! Despite being such an avid reader, I am VERY critical of thrillers. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In both cases, it’s hard to understand what the stakes are in the book because we’re hearing the backstories before the story itself.įrom there, Parasomnia makes a lot of bad decisions with its premise. From there, it skips to telling the almost-full life of a therapist working at Aux-Anges and her not-so-imaginary friend. It starts off slow and meandering, exploring the life of one of the main characters and her high-school boyfriend for a solid chapter, even taking a voyeuristic approach towards her first time having sex before it all goes wrong. ![]() Unfortunately, Parasomnia falls into a lot of traps even from the beginning. As somebody very interested in stories about mental illness, my interest was already piqued. The disorders in question are varied, from insomnia and sleepwalking to sleep-related eating disorders and setting fires while asleep. The premise of Parasomnia is this Aux-Anges is an institute specializing in sleep disorders, and the novel follows several of the patients and one of the psychiatrists as they navigate their internal struggles. However, in the case of Parasomnia, it’s a book that could so easily have been good with a bit more work, and that’s so much more frustrating than a book that was flawed from the start. I don’t do bad reviews often, largely as a matter of preference. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() She was so lost in the music, she seemed oblivious to me. Something seemed familiar about the girl, but I couldn’t pin-point what exactly. ![]() ![]() Heart-shaped lips, porcelain skin and fairylike features. Her black hair was piled on top of her head but a few curls framed her face. She appeared weightless and in a world of her own. Driven by curiosity, I pushed my hands into the gap and slid open the door, and I froze.Ī girl in a light-pink tutu was dancing to the music. I knew the cruelest men, and yet nothing could ever be crueler than fate itself.Ī figure moved behind the foggy glass. What if you find your soulmate at the wrong time? The smiles that he has only for me quiet the chaos in my head. My love for my family and my animals was all I needed. Protected mafia princess from the madmen of Las Vegas, she’s forbidden to me. By Fate I Conquer, an all-new explosive dark mafia standalone romance from USA Today bestselling author Cora Reilly is available now!ĭo you believe in love at first sight? In a love so strong and bright, it ignites you even in your darkest hours? Do you believe that somewhere in this world there’s someone who’s destined to be your other half? Your soulmate? ![]() ![]() Gift of Bridget Mahy and Penny Mahy, 2021. Scarf knitted by Bridget Mahy, New Zealand. Scarf with badges and charms attached, 1980–90s. Most of Mahy’s scarf badges testify to her life with books, but they also hint at other interests, including two fan badges for the World Wrestling Federation stars Ravishing Rick Rude and “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Not surprisingly, they celebrate the power of books.Ī Scholastic book badge simply states “Reading counts”, and other badges encourage people to “Be a read-a saurus”, “Make a book date” and “Buzz to your library” they announce that “Books are bewitching”, “take you higher” and that “Happiness is a good book”.Ī host of well-loved children’s characters also populate the scarf, from Lewis Carroll’s Alice and Beatrix Potter’s Mrs Tiggy-Winkle to Jill Marshall’s “sensational spylet” Jane Blonde, and the elusive smiling lion from Mahy’s own children’s classic A Lion in the Meadow. ![]() The scarf bears the many badges that Mahy picked up during her travels. ![]() Margaret Mahy (1936–2012), the celebrated author of books for children and young adults, wore this badge adorned scarf when she gave readings in schools and libraries. These excerpts are a few of our favourite, from the literary to the land march. Stephanie Gibson and Claire Regnault’s new book is a treasure trove of Aotearoa history, people and place, told through the medium of the badge. ![]() ![]() The thief is known (Minister D - ) and the method is known (substitution viewed by the victim, who dared not protest). In the first part, Monsieur G -, Prefect of Police in Paris, visits Dupin with a problem: A letter has been stolen and is being used to blackmail the person from whom it was stolen. ![]() ![]() "The Purloined Letter" emphasizes several devices from "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and adds several others. Finally, more than with most of his stories, this one is told with utmost economy. This is partially due to the fact that there are no gothic elements, such as the gruesome descriptions of dead bodies, as there was in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." But more important, this is the story that employs most effectively the principle of ratiocination this story brilliantly illustrates the concept of the intuitive intellect at work as it solves a problem logically. ![]() Of all of Poe's stories of ratiocination (or detective stories), "The Purloined Letter" is considered his finest. ![]() ![]() ![]() With every advancing epoch, Miocene to Pliocene to Pleistocene, twenty-four million to five million to nearly two million years ago, the fauna had tumbled by the score over a cliff of extinction. ![]() Martin began the weekend thumbing through the time line of mammalian evolution leading up to the Pleistocene. Martin was preparing a seminar on the biology of the Pleistocene, an epoch beginning 1.8 million years ago with the onset of its signature glaciers, and ending - as Martin was now reminded - with the sudden and sweeping disappearance of so many great animals. "One wintry weekend outside Montreal in 1956, a young postgraduate ecologist found himself hunkered inside against the cold, pondering death. With the arrival of man, the megafauna of North America - giant camels, beavers as big as bears, and the giant saber-tooth cat - disappeared: Today's selection - from Where The Wild Things Were by William Stolzenburg. ![]() ![]() ![]() and her family is caught up in some bad, bad business. I loved that whilst she had a disability, the book didn’t make a song and dance about it and she was definitely still ten times more badass than I would’ve been despite the obstacles in her way from her disability. This story follows a sassy, strong-willed girl called Harper who has Cerebral Palsy. ![]() SMITE ME, DISNEY, BUT I MUST SPEAK THE TRUTH. I would go as far as to say I preferred it to the original. If you somehow missed, let’s start with saying this is a bloody fantastic retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Coherent thoughts shall follow along shortly, right now I must go stare into a void and digest all that has just happened. Okay so I don’t know how to THINK right now – that plot twist at the end just took the rug out from under my feet! This book is amazing! I loved it! The diversity! The plot! The characters! AHHHH. ![]() Review on Goodreads HUGE thanks to Bloomsbury for sending me a copy of this in exchange for an honest review! A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer 5/5 STARS ![]() ![]() Instead, thanks to the mercy of a wealthy widow and the attention of her stable hand, Ned, Bill Furlong had a good life, even after his young mother died.īut Bill is feeling unrest. He knows all he cares for could be lost at any moment, knows that as the son of an unwed servant, he could have ended up in a very bad place. Bill Furlong, almost forty, a hard working coal merchant with a wife and five daughters, knows how good he has it. ![]() This novella takes place in cold and wintery 1986 Ireland. This book is a short read but will stay with you for so much longer. Like so many small towns, people are struggling to get by, and people are being driven from their homes, heart wrenched, into the cities to find decent jobs. It is set in Ireland where times are hard, economic depression is settling in. If you enjoy It’s A Wonderful Life or the story of The Good Samaritan, you will love this book. One day, near Christmas, he makes a delivery at convent when he discovers something that doesn’t sit quite right with him. ![]() Furlong is making ends meet though, delivering fuel in the form of coals and logs to the townspeople. The town has known hard times, factories are closing up, and people are being laid off. They have enough to eat and aren’t living on credit. He has a happy life with his wife and five daughters. ![]() Bill Furlong is living a quiet, unglamorous life in Ireland. ![]() |