![]() Of the two books ( Blackout and All Clear), I far preferred Blackout. More than anything, Willis’ books frustrate me: there is so much there, so many ideas that could progress in so many interesting ways, and yet she never quite elevates her material to where it needs to go. The books are competently if unexcitingly written with characters who tend towards the obnoxious (being all-knowing historians who like to frequently – far too frequently – reference their detailed knowledge of wartime England) but inoffensive, with plots that seem promising but which never deliver. If they were simply bad I think I would have an easier time reviewing them but there’s nothing glaringly awful in them. After years of hearing how great her books were and of being intrigued by her time-travelling historians I finally started reading them, beginning earlier this year with To Say Nothing of the Dog and continuing on earlier this month with Blackout and All Clear, her two-volume World War II saga published last year. ![]() It is my sad duty to inform everyone that I am officially not a Connie Willis fan, a revelation that is quite a disappointment to me. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Ellena looked left from every vantage the publicity image of a wispy blond girl floated spectrally over the round metallic glass Chance bottle. The car crossed an avenue, stopped at a light: Chance. It seemed as if every single one featured an ad for Chanel's latest feminine perfume, Chance. The Parisians walked around wearing black, smoking cigarettes, exhaling ashen fumes into the air, and throwing the butts and packets onto streets where Africans in cotton bleus de travail uniforms swept them into sewers.įrom his car, Ellena looked out at the bus stops. In the deep-cobalt summer sky, the cloud of aerosolized filth from the Paris traffic hovered in the blue air. You could look from the top of rue Menilmontant down over the Centre Georges Pompidou's industrial modernism all the way to the Eutelsat balloon floating over the Parc Andre Citroen. Paris was enjoying a spell of Los Angeles-like weather. He was on his way to Hermes to submit his first essais, his olfactory sketches, for an important scent he was creating. But he was just at the point of becoming particularly, and rather extraordinarily, visible to the world. Ellena was a famous ghost, a member of an elite group of perfumers who create fragrances sold under the names of designers and luxury houses while keeping assiduously to the shadows. On June 9, 2004, just before 5:00 p.m., Jean-Claude Ellena was being driven to a meeting at the offices of Parfums Hermes in Pantin, just outside the peripherique to the northeast of Paris. ![]() ![]() ![]() Charlie, an unmarried, pregnant college student is in a difficult situation of her own. Clair is desperate to find her French cousin Rose with whom she lost contact after the Nazis invaded France. As their lives become increasingly entwined, Eve finds herself in a dangerous situation. Unfortunately, the owner of the café, Rene Bordelon, a man vilified in the community as a collaborator, is not so easily fooled. She uses their miscalculation to her advantage. ![]() ![]() The fact that she stutters causes some to assume she is “simple” and to underestimate her intelligence. Eve listens to their conversations as she serves food and drink and goes mostly unnoticed in the guise of an unsophisticated country girl. Eve completes her training with Louise de Bettignies, whose code name is “Lili.” (Lili is based on the actual person who led the spy organization called the Alice Network.) Eve is hired to work in a café in Lille, a French town occupied by the Germans and frequented by German officers. Her ability to speak several languages - German in particular - catches the attention of Captain Cecil Cameron who recruits her to work as a spy. In 1915, Eve Gardiner longs to do her part for England during World War I. ![]() ![]() This book appeared on my Twittersphere sometime last year. Marinka sets out to change her destiny, but her house has other ideas. ![]() Marinka is destined to become the next Yaga, and follow in her grandmother’s footsteps. It is her job to guide spirits from the world of the living to the next work. Marinka dreams of a normal life, where she stays in one place long enough to make friends, but that is impossible. ( The House With Chicken Legs by Sophie Andersen. ![]() A lonely, bleak place at the edge of civilization. It might walk a hundred miles, or it might walk a thousand, but where it lands is always the same. Two or three times a year, without warning, it stands up in the middle of the night and walks away from where we have been living. ![]() ![]() This book will be accepted by most of the public who normally just believe nice stories rather than true stories. It's good that Bruce draws attention to the fact that Aboriginal people managed the land (not farmed) in a sustainable manner, and cared for the environment as opposed to the capitalist system which destroys the environment. He says fish traps are aquaculture which is just silly. His mention of stone houses is exaggerated, because the location he discusses (lake Condah) while certainly containing Aboriginal structure, also has the remains of European structures according to some archaeologists (eg. Read these primary sources and you get a different picture to the one Bruce paints. He also quotes from Mitchell, Sturt, and Dawson very selectively, leaving out all the parts that contradict his argument. For example Bruce puts a photo of a Meriam Island House (Torres Strait) in his section on ‘Arnhem Land Dome Houses'. ![]() The book is persuasive rather than informative, and at times inaccurate. ![]() ![]() Verity sounded older than she actually is. I think Camille is 19 and Verity is supposed to be like 5 or something, but their voices were the same. However, the youngest sister Verity spoke like Camille. ![]() ![]() I'm sure at the beginning of the book it said how old everyone is and I forgot. The only thing I was confused about was the sisters' ages. I would say this is a very loose retelling of the original 12 Dancing Princesses because all the recognizable components are there, but the story is entirely its own. I liked Fisher and Cassius's roles in the story, and I'm glad there wasn't a huge, dramatic love triangle because it would've detracted from the mystery and suspense of Plot A. I had been worried that some of the sisters would slip through the cracks and be underdeveloped compared to the leading handful but that wasn't the case at all. All the characters were fleshed out and had their own contributions to the story. The pacing was consistent and the plot relentlessly pushed forward. It's creepy and spooky and urgent all at once. The second thought I had was, "Good thing one my friend's cat's name is Legia or I would've been pronouncing it wrong the entire time." ![]() The first thought I had with this book was, "Oooh, creepy, dark retelling!" ![]() ![]() ![]() With so much of his work undone, John must find the strength within to start over, so that he can save the country and the people that he holds dear from even greater calamity. When another EMP is set off over the Eastern states, years of progress are put in peril. Five Years After - A John Matherson Novel ebook by William R. ![]() ![]() Suspecting assassination, John is pulled back into the fray as he joins the struggle to hold the tottering Republic together, while facing threats on multiple fronts. The John Matherson Series: (One Second After, One Year. The Republic of New America has all but collapsed into regional powers, and the world at large is struggling to remain stable as regional conflicts ravage the post EMP landscape. From the New York Times bestselling author of the One Second After series comes Five Years After, a near-future thriller where John Matherson must contend with new threats to the fragile civilization that he helped rebuild.įive years after The Final Day, John Matherson is teaching at Montreat, attempting lead a quiet life when he receives the news that President Bob Scales has mysteriously died. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Although his subjects range from the sex-advice industry to the way a supermax prison works, each piece wrestles with familiar themes of Franzen's writing: the erosion of civic life and private dignity, and the hidden persistence of loneliness, in postmodern, imperial America. This essay is reprinted for the first time in 'How to be Alone', alongside the personal essays and painstaking, often funny reportage that earned Franzen a wide readership before the success of 'The Corrections'. Nearly every in-depth review of it discussed what became known as 'The Harper's Essay,' Franzen's controversial 1996 look at the fate of the novel. Passionate, independent-minded nonfiction from the international bestselling author of 'The Corrections'.Jonathan Franzen's 'The Corrections' was the best-loved and most written-about novel of 2001. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In the East the Jewish fanatics were challenging the might of Rome and everywhere, even in the family of the Emperor, the Christians were exerting a passive but disturbing force. Now he engages in the subtlest and in many ways the most dangerous period of his career. ![]() Published more than 70 years ago, this First Edition is now long out of print and it is very rare, selling for more than $300, even for books lacking a dust jacket.From the dust jacket: "In Josephus and the Emperor, the young and ambitious emissary of Judaea to the court of Nero (in Josephus) and the militant writer who held the ear of Titus (in The Jew of Rome) has reached the fullness of years and wisdom. The book is in excellent condition, and the dust jacket has some fraying but it is attractive and it is protected in a clear brodart sleeve. This book is complete and unrestored and in excellent condition, retaining the original dust jacket. Rare.A solid and attractive very rare First Edition of this classic historical novel about the famous ancient Jewish historian Josephus. LION FEUCHTWANGER: JOSEPHUS & EMPEROR/JEWISH GERMAN/RARE 1942 1st EDITION, $300+JOSEPHUS AND THE EMPEROR. ![]() ![]() Burnett notes that the German term Verschwörungsmythos means "Conspiracy Myth", and has value as a descriptive label. Thom Burnett begins the encyclopedia by introducing the reader to the contents and concepts in the work. ![]() After his military service, he became a writer and pursued postgraduate education in Britain in conspiracy theories. The name Thom Burnett is a nom de plume for someone who first garnered security experience while a member of United Kingdom Special Forces. Contributors to the work include Thom Burnett, Nigel Cawthorne, Richard Emerson, Mick Farren, Alex Games, John Gill, Sandy Gort, Rod Green, Emma Hooley, Esther Selsdon, and Kenn Thomas.īurnett has written other works on international politics, including Who Really Won the Space Race?: Uncovering the Conspiracy That Kept America Second to the Russians (2005), and Who Really Runs the World?: The War between Globalization and Democracy (2007). Conspiracy Encyclopedia was published in 2005 by Chamberlain Bros., and in 2006 by Collins & Brown. ![]() |