Forest Child by Heather Day Gilbert7/2/2023 ![]() ![]() The fictional element in historical fiction about real-life people (which both these women, and a number of the other characters here, were) uses imagination to reconstruct the details history leaves out, and especially the inner personalities and motivations that history may record imperfectly or not at all. ![]() ![]() Where the first book focused on Gudrid, former pagan priestess (now a Christian) and healer, however, this one focuses on her half-sister-in-law by a previous marriage, Freydis, out-of-wedlock daughter of Eirik the Red. I would strongly advise reading the books in order they have many of the same characters, and it will help you as a reader to come to this book with the better and deeper understanding of the relationships, personalities and general situation that the first book will give you. the background information and many of the evaluative comments in that review would apply here as well, though IMO this book, if anything, is even better than the first. My five-star review of the earlier book is here. This is the long-awaited sequel to the author's God's Daughter, and brings her Saga of the Vikings of the New World to a conclusion. ![]()
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When Autumn Leaves by Amy S. Foster7/2/2023 ![]() ![]() Withdrawn and sometimes invisible (literally) to the town, she is overtaken by a spell at the annual winter solstice party and loses the ability to speak, from that point on singing everything she needs to say. ![]() When a sister in the ancient coven of Jaen comes to tell Autumn it’s time to leave her post, she’s given a list of Avening residents from which she must choose a coven of 13 and a leader. Though individual abilities are generally kept secret, and the town seems like any other, all that magic lends the air a certain electricity. Located on an island in the Pacific Northwest, Avening is one of those idyllic spots with cozy bookstores and cafes-and, in this case, a rather high proportion of residents with special gifts: astral projection, mind-reading, invisibility, spell-casting, that sort of thing. The precise significance of Autumn’s residence in the village of Avening isn’t clear until the end, but it’s evident from the beginning that she loves her quirky town (the novel’s most appealing element) and all its mysteries. Small-town witch looks for her replacement. ![]() Peter the great robert massie review7/2/2023 ![]() ![]() Let me set aside those worries by first giving you a glimpse into the historical context. What could an American historian possibly understand about a Russian king? Would it be yet another piece of Reagan-era Russophobia? Anti-communist propaganda? A diatribe on Russia's backwardness? A compelling case for capitalism? Most importantly: 800 pages? Really? I began the novel with a set of preconceived notions, or rather, worries. ![]() And with Peter the Great, he delivers a beautiful American tribute to a man with “American Dream” activism – a man who isn't an American. Put simply, the author is an American historian writing for an American audience. ![]() Palmer's A History of the Modern World into textbook retirement, Massie cannot escape the influences of his environment. Though Massie sidesteps the Russophobic tendencies that will soon send R.R. Penned by an American historian during the 1981 tensions of the misguided Cold War, it turns out to be an eloquent and erudite narrative of a dedicated leader who transformed a primitive realm. Massie's Peter the Great: His Life and World is an oddity. It took just the copyright page to discover that Robert K. ![]() Lunar chronicles book 47/2/2023 ![]() Our findings offer support for further investigation of the decadal-scale to centennial-scale climate response to volcanic eruptions. Five further eruptions, including one responsible for high sulfur deposition over Greenland circa 1182 ce, affected only the troposphere and had muted climatic consequences. By combining this new record with aerosol model simulations and tree-ring-based climate proxies, we refine the estimated dates of five notable eruptions and associate each with stratospheric aerosol veils. ![]() Here we shed new light on explosive volcanism during the HMP, drawing on analysis of contemporary reports of total lunar eclipses, from which we derive a time series of stratospheric turbidity. This particularly hinders investigation of the role of large, temporally clustered eruptions during the High Medieval Period (HMP, 1100–1300 ce), which have been implicated in the transition from the warm Medieval Climate Anomaly to the Little Ice Age 5. ![]() However, despite progress in ice-core dating, uncertainties remain in these key factors 4. ![]() ![]() Understanding the far-field societal impacts of eruption-forced climatic changes requires firm event chronologies and reliable estimates of both the burden and altitude (that is, tropospheric versus stratospheric) of volcanic sulfate aerosol 2, 3. Explosive volcanism is a key contributor to climate variability on interannual to centennial timescales 1. ![]() Book an elegant defense7/1/2023 ![]() ![]() For all its astonishing complexity, however, the immune system can be easily compromised by fatigue, stress, toxins, advanced age, and poor nutrition-hallmarks of modern life-and even by excessive hygiene. ![]() It has been honed by evolution over millennia to face an almost infinite array of threats. The immune system is our body's essential defense network, a guardian vigilantly fighting illness, healing wounds, maintaining order and balance, and keeping us alive. Interweaving cutting-edge science with the intimate stories of four individual patients, this epic, first-of-its-kind book "give lay readers a means of understanding what's known so far about the intricate biology of our immune systems" (The Week). The Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist "explicates for the lay reader the intricate biology of our immune system" (Jerome Groopman, MD, New York Review of Books)įrom New York Times science journalist Matt Richtel, An Elegant Defense is an acclaimed and definitive exploration of the immune system and the secrets of health. An Elegant Defense left me with sense of awe." -Bill Gates, Gates Notes Summer Reading List "Gives you all the context you need to understand the science of immunity.
Contact carl sagan sparknotes7/1/2023 ![]() The encrypted signal, when opened, contains plans for the manufacture of an enormous machine, apparently a space craft of some sort, which will presumably take a single human to a meeting with the alien intelligence on a planet circling Vega, the fifth brightest star in the night sky, about 25 light years away from Earth.Ī key element of the film involves Congressional hearings to determine who should be the astronaut aboard the ship. Hollywood treats movies like a polite dinner party: Don't bring up religion or politics. ![]() Perhaps that's because I've since become involved in so much discussion about Creationism, another topic that stands at the intersection of science, politics and faith. ![]() Yet reading my review I find the movie didn't seem as brave to me then as it does now. When the movie was released in July 1997 I had more or less the same beliefs I have now about the existence of God and the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe. They justify their politics with the catch-all motive of "national defense." Key roles are played by science advisors to the President, who see aliens, God and messages from space all in cynical political terms. In the film she forms a cautious relationship with Palmer Joss ( Matthew McConaughey), a believer in God who writes about science. ![]() Eleanor Arroway ( Jodie Foster), who is an atheist. Its heroine is a radio astronomer named Dr. Watching the film again after 14 years, I was startled by how bold it is. ![]() ![]() ![]()
Diana gabaldon voyager series7/1/2023 ![]() Diana has also authored short stories and novellas along with two volumes of The Outlandish Companion.Her Outlander series includes books such as Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager, Drums of Autumn, The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, An Echo in the Bone,Written in My Own Heart’s Blood and Go Tell the Bees that I’m Gone.Diana Gabaldon has published nine books in a historical fantasy series known as Outlander, to date.How many books has Diana Gabaldon written? Diana Gabaldon’s novels have been published in 27 countries and 24 languages.All of Diana Gabaldon’s books in the Outlander series have made it onto the New York Times best-sellers list.She has a higher net worth than actors Sam Heughan and Caitriona Bale, who play her series adapted novel characters, combined.Diana Gabaldon is said to currently have a net worth of $110 million as of March 2021. ![]() Her ninth novel has more than 4,000 ratings, and is currently ranked a 4.6 out of 5 on Goodreads and 4.7 stars out of 5 on Amazon.Her eagerly anticipated ninth novel of the series Go Tell the Bees that I’m Gone sold close to 183,000 copies within its first week after release.Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander eight-book series has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide as of 2021. ![]() Roy thomas x men7/1/2023 ![]() ![]() Their iconic run introduced the cosmic-powered Havok, the vampiric villain Sauron and the bizarre Mutates, while pairing the X-Men and Ka-Zar in a classic Savage Land battle against the X-Men's greatest foe - Magneto! Painstakingly restored, packed with bonus material and presented in oversized glory, every page is a testament to the greatest in comic book storytelling! Collecting X-MEN (1963) #56-57 (A STORIES), #58-63 and #65. Adams' lavish and dynamic visuals and Thomas' challenging and contemporary stories combined to create a book that throbbed with the pulse of the times. ![]() In 1969, with X-MEN on the verge of cancellation, the creative team of Roy Thomas and Neal Adams charted a bold new direction for Marvel's mutants…and the rest is history! Their epic evolution of the X-Men defines the team to this day. ![]() Books like the bear and the nightingale6/30/2023 ![]() ![]() Vasilisa must overcome the people she loves and use hazardous abilities that she has long kept hidden as danger looms over her in order to defend her family from an evil that seems to have emerged from her nurse’s scariest stories. While this is going on, Vasilisa’s stepmother becomes sterner and sterner in her efforts to prepare her disobedient stepdaughter for marriage or incarceration in a convent. ![]() ![]() Indeed, crops start to fail, woodland monsters get closer, and bad luck follows the village. ![]() The family agrees, but Vasilisa is terrified because she feels that more depends on their traditions than everyone is aware of. Vasilisa’s new stepmother, a fiercely devout city girl, prevents her family from worshipping the home spirits. Vasilisa’s father travels to Moscow in search of a new wife after her mother passes away. According to her nurse, wise Russians revere the spirits of the house, yard, and forest that guard their houses against evil and fear him. She adores the terrifying tale of Frost, the blue-eyed winter demon that arrives in the icy night to seize the souls of the unwary. Vasilisa doesn’t mind, though, because she loves spending the cold winter nights cuddling up next to her darling siblings and listening to their nurse tell fairy tales. The majority of the year is spent in winter at the border of the Russian wilderness when snowdrifts tower over buildings. ![]() |