![]() ![]() The Direction of the Wind is a novel that took me by surprise. Will she be able to find Nita? And if so, can Sophie rebuild a relationship with her? Review Why did Nita leave them? Desperate for answers, Sophie goes to Paris in search of her long-lost mother. But in 2019, shortly after her dad has passed away, she finds out that her mother actually ran away. Sophie Shah has grown up thinking her mother died in 1998. In 1998, she leaves her small family behind so she can start over in Paris, France. Her whole life has been laid out for her, but she’s ready to finally choose her own path. She has no agency, didn’t even get to choose her husband, and feels unable to fully love her daughter. ![]() However, she’s always dreamed of more and is dissatisfied with her life. Nita Shah is married and has a six-year-old daughter, Sophie she lives in relative luxury in Ahmedabad, India. ![]() Special thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book! Summary Following a mother and daughter traveling from India to France two decades apart, it’s a novel about women coming of age and discovering who they really are. I admit that I went into this book blind (something I’ve been doing more frequently lately), but I was instantly absorbed into this beautiful and impactful story. Following her first book, The Taste of Ginger, Mansi Shah is back with her second novel, The Direction of the Wind. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Her car was found abandoned on the side of the road, her luggage inside, as well as a winter coat it was assumed she would have been wearing due to the temperature outside. She was planning on going to Yorkshire for the weekend, but never arrived at her destination. Agatha Christie disappeared for eleven days in 1926. Christie is based on a real, widely publicized event. Add to that, we spend a lot of time in her husband Archie Christie’s point of view, and frankly that’s a place no one would want to be. ![]() Christie and it’s, “Maybe don’t fuck with your wife when she invents unsolveable ways to murder people for a living.” In a lot of ways this book is a historical Gone Girl, which normally would be my jam, but I found the suspense disrupted by the fact that this is based on a real event and I already knew what happened. Genre: Historical: European, Literary Fiction, Mystery/Thriller ![]() ![]() It might have had something to do with the crowds, the insistence of other people’s bodies, the way the birds circled overhead, then dive-bombed the tables to grab food or root around at their feet, as though even they were socializing. It had been a couple of years since he had gone to the lake with his friends, a period of time that embarrassed him because it seemed to demand an excuse and he did not have one. Wallace stood on an upper platform looking down into the scrum, trying to find his particular group of white people, thinking also that it was still possible to turn back, that he could go home and get on with his evening. Overhead, gulls drifted easy as anything. ![]() The air was heavy with their good times as the white people scattered across the tiered patios, pried their mouths apart, and beamed their laughter into each other’s faces. People coveted these last blustery days of summer before the weather turned cold and mercurial. ![]() It was a cool evening in late summer when Wallace, his father dead for several weeks, decided that he would meet his friends at the pier after all. ![]() ![]() The phenomenon began with the 1977 theatrical debut of Star Wars, later retitled A New Hope, and has expanded to include six additional major motion pictures ( The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and The Force Awakens), television programming, publishing, video games, and much more, with new films coming every year.Ĭreated by visionary writer/director George Lucas, Star Wars is an epic “space opera” and an ever-deepening, timeless, mythological tale of good versus evil, set in a galaxy far, far away. ![]() Star Wars has captivated millions worldwide for almost forty years. It includes epic scenes from A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens, and Rogue One. Meet Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Finn, Rey, Poe Dameron, and all the brave heroes from the epic Star Wars space saga! Featuring stunning retro stylized illustrations, this book is perfect for Star Wars-and Little Golden Book-fans of all ages. ![]() ![]() ![]() Meet all the brave heroes from the Star Wars saga in this Little Golden Book! ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() When her funding has been pulled, she reaches out for funding from another source. That is the elegant concept conceived by research scientist Helena Smith. The possibility of reseeding memories in the minds of people who can no longer hold their own. He hires a brilliant researcher and takes her to an isolated platform (lair) in the middle of the ocean. ![]() This is the elegant concept funded my enigmatic tech billionaire Marcus Slade. This is the elegant concept of the novel. A machine that affords the opportunity to relive moments of your life with perfect clarity. Here are 5 reasons why you should read it. Recursion is a reality-altering thriller, similar to Crouch’s earlier, also excellent, novel, Dark Matter ( which I reviewed here). If you read one book this year, make it Recursion by Blake Crouch. ![]() ![]() ![]() Three Bonus Deleted Passages from Steve Martin's Born Standing Up Illustrated throughout with black and white photographs collected by Martin, this book is instantly compelling visually and a spectacularly good read. ![]() Though Martin is reticent about his personal life, he is also stunningly deft, and manages to give readers a feeling of intimacy and candor. ![]() This book is a memoir, but it is also an illuminating guidebook to stand-up from one of our two or three greatest comedians. And he writes about how he figured out what worked on stage. He writes about fear, anxiety and loneliness. He writes about mentors, girlfriends, his complex relationship with his parents and sister, and about some of his great peers in comedy-Dan Ackroyd, Lorne Michaels, Carl Reiner, Johnny Carson. He writes about making the very tough decision to sacrifice everything not original in his act, and about lucking into a job writing for The Smothers Brothers Show. Obsession is a substitute for talent, he has said, and Steve Martin's focus and daring-his sheer tenacity-are truly stunning. ![]() By age 20, studying poetry and philosophy on the side, he was performing a dozen times a week, most often at the Disney rival, Knott's Berry Farm. In the decade that followed, he worked in Disney's magic shop, print shop, and theater, and developed his own magic/comedy act. At age 10, Steve Martin got a job selling guidebooks at the newly opened Disneyland. ![]() ![]() ![]() Each time, Goddard broke this feeling with a series of twists and revelations that nearly floored me on occasion, but I still feel this book could have done with a stricter editorial hand at the rudder. Why only three stars then? Well, as much as I enjoyed this book, it wasn't without flaws, the principle flaw being the pacing.Ībout three times during this book I found myself feeling that it was starting to drag. The story actually felt more realistic due to this blending of different genres and tones life doesn't abide by genre conventions after all. I don't want to say too much for fear of spoilers but I was really impressed by this. There are so many different elements of this book that you wouldn't normally find together in one novel. The thing I loved the most about this book is that Goddard doesn't let himself be constrained by genre or genre expectations. I've come across this kind of structure before and, when it's done well, it's a really entertaining way of unfolding and interweaving two related tales. ![]() The book is structured so that the present-day protagonist, a historian, is researching the story of the 'way back when' protagonist. ![]() This book tells two stories one set in the present day and another set about seventy five years earlier. This was my first Robert Goddard novel but it won't be my last. ![]() ![]() ![]() She starts to learn a special skill all her own, and discovers magical creatures exist (fairies, aliens, and magicians, to name a few) that the Bureau must protect from average people. ![]() Amari, as recommended by her brother, joins a summer camp at the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. Everything is going wrong and she just got expelled from school, but something exciting is about to happen. School Library Journal - Gr 3–7-Amari Peters is a young Black girl who believes her brother Quinton is alive, even if no one else does. ![]() Download a Teacher's Guide Video Preview: Accelerated Reader Information: Thirteen-year-old Amari, a poor Black girl from the projects, gets an invitation from her missing brother to join the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs and join in the fight against an evil magician. Amari and the night brothers (Supernatural investigations) ![]() ![]() "The kindest thing you could do for that one is fill his cup with the milk of the poppy. ![]() "The wretch is mad, and in pain, and no use to anyone, least of all himself," declared old Ser Harbert, the castellan of Storm's End in those years. ![]() The white raven screamed and went flapping away to perch on the iron railing of the rookery stairs. "The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord." He jerked his head with each word, the bells in his antlers sending up a clangor. " The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord," he sang, hopping from one foot to the other and back again. "Oh, clever clever clever fool." He began to sing. "Clever bird, clever man, clever clever fool," said Patchface, jangling. While Patchface makes many accurate predictions (the Red Wedding among them), the following line/lines has alway stood out (a little bit) to me, mainly with how often it is repeated: So while I was typing this up I came across something I found interesting. Which is fun to do, but has been done over and over again over the last 8+ years. ![]() This post started off as just another "lets talk about Patchface" and his origins/prophecies, etc. ![]() ![]() ![]() The story of Theranos may be the biggest case of corporate fraud since Enron. "A great and at times almost unbelievable story of scandalous fraud, surveillance, and legal intimidation at the highest levels of American corporate power. Bad Blood offers a sobering warning of where that type of thinking can lead." ![]() ![]() power brokers know next to nothing about science or technology but increasingly view Silicon Valley tech as a deus ex machina for some of the world's most complicated challenges. While Bad Blood is worth reading for its own merits-it's a stunning feat of journalism that reads like a thriller-it also says a lot about Washington's facile relationship with Silicon Valley. "The definitive account of Theranos's downfall, detailing its motley crew of executives, legal knife fights, dramatic PR stunts, and skullduggery. Roger Lowenstein, The New York Times Book Review Reads like a West Coast version of All the President's Men." Bethany McLean, bestselling coauthor of The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils Are Here No matter how bad you think the Theranos story was, you'll learn that the reality was actually far worse." ![]() "You will not want to put this riveting, masterfully reported book down. Bad Blood is wild, and more happens on one page than in many other entire books." -Margaret Lyons, The New York Times " Bad Blood is the real be-all end-all of Theranos information. ![]() |