![]() The strongest portions of The Guinevere Deception are the parts that White has reworked aspects of familiar medieval literature and lore and made them her own. ![]() ![]() They banished magic to make way for rules and laws. “Trees, magic, wilderness were the uncaring opposite of justice. This world is one that is both wondrous and terrifying, for while Camelot is currently peaceful, a much darker force lurks unseen and threatens to overturn the realm. This Guinevere is powerful young woman, determined to do whatever it takes to protect her new husband alive and the kingdom. But Guinevere is not who she seems: the real future queen is dead and this Guinevere is a changeling, raised by Merlin and tasked with keeping Arthur safe from magical threats. ![]() The story opens with Guinevere, betrothed to King Arthur, traveling to Camelot for the first time in her life. So here’s my spoiler-free review of The Guinevere Deception, out November 2019 by Delacorte Press. Seriously: my dog is even named Guinevere! My college minor is Medieval and Early Modern Studies! This book was made for me. As a fan of all things both from European medieval literature and Arthurian lore, a retelling of Guinevere was right up my alley. ![]() As soon as I saw the title of Kiersten White’s newest book I knew it was one I needed to read. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Where the sun is hot and the clothes are scarce, anything can happen.īFF K’s Review of Palm South University Season 3 Written in television drama form, each episode of this serial will pull you deeper and deeper into the world of PSU. Parties and sex are definitely key ingredients in the Palm South recipe, but what happens when family issues, secret lives, and unrequited love get tossed in the mix?įollow Cassie, Bear, Jess, Skyler, Erin, Ashlei, and Adam as they tackle college at a small, private beach town university. At a school where fraternities and sororities don’t exactly play by the rules, relationships are bound to be tested. The weather isn’t the only thing heating up in South Florida. ![]() Palm South University: Season 3 by Kandi Steiner ![]() ![]() Though Pickering and Sherman have boosted the sexual interplay between Rikki Wildside and Jack, most of it sounds like rote B-movie dialogue. With the exception of Automatic Jack (hypnotically played by Ted Koch), all of Gibson’s characters are at best two-dimensional. Next Theatre has compared Gibson to Jim Thompson and Dashiell Hammett Pickering and Sherman even quote Hammett. But though they’ve injected a good dose of much-needed wit into their version of Burning Chrome, Gibson’s 1981 tale of two cyberthieves, they’re unable to convert it into anything more than an occasionally diverting, highly atmospheric drama whose props and set attract far more attention than the shopworn plot. Unlike Anthony Burgess’s neologisms, which have a thematic purpose, Gibson’s talk often merely distracts from his derivative, somewhat soulless plots.Īdapters Steve Pickering and Charley Sherman have a soft spot for this sort of gizmo-laden hard-boiled fiction. But once you get past his jargon, what remains is a surprisingly pedestrian pulp fiction sensibility. Science fiction author and Wired magazine poster boy William Gibson (perhaps best known for Johnny Mnemonic and Neuromancer) wins points for prescience. ![]() Best of Chicago 2022: Sports & Recreationīurning Chrome, Next Theatre Company.Best of Chicago 2022: Music & Nightlife.Get your Best of Chicago tickets! Line-Up Announced > Close ![]() ![]() ![]() This book is everything I want in a fall read: warm, heartfelt, and chock-full of observations on the natural world. When circumstances force Odie, Albert, and two fellow orphans to escape, their getaway takes them on a grand adventure, crossing paths with strangers and witnessing the effects of the Great Depression. ![]() Odie spends his days doing school-enforced manual labor, playing his contraband harmonica-and landing in detention. The book begins with Odie, a young boy with a good heart but a penchant for getting in trouble, who suffers alongside his brother Albert at a cruel boarding school. It was with this in mind that I picked up This Tender Land, a nature-filled adventure story set in rural Minnesota. Give me a character canoeing down a river, or a vivid description of changing fall leaves, and I am, shall we say, a happy camper. As this is neither practical (I have no outdoorsy skills) nor feasible (the woods are very far away), I like turning to the next best thing: books set in the great outdoors. Because I live in a city that’s more concrete than grass, I sometimes go weeks without spending time in nature-which means I fantasize about tossing my phone down a subway grate and setting off into the woods a lot. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() (9-13)Ĭourage and Compassion: Ten Canadians Who Made a Difference ($29.95, paper $19.95) by Rona Arato profiles Canadian human rights heroes. Inuksuk Journey: An Artist at the Top of the World ($24.95) by Mary Wallace recounts the author's travels to the Arctic. by John Kicksee, looks back at key hockey moments. Inside Hockey: The Legends, Facts, and Feats That Made the Game ($24.95, paper $10.95) by Keltie Thomas, illus. (5-8)Īnimals at the Edge: Saving the World's Rarest Creatures ($19.95, paper $9.95) by Jonathan and Marilyn Baillie focuses on 11 endangered animals. Smart-opedia Junior: The Amazing Book About Everything ($24.95) covers such topics as the five senses, technology and inventions. Ruffen learns to swim so he can save a ship in distress. ![]() Ruffen: The Sea Serpent Who Couldn't Swim ($16.95) by Tor Age Bringsvaerd, illus. by Tina Soli, shows how silly people and animals look when they are mad. When Two Are Angry at Each Other ($14.95) by Tor Age Bringsvaerd, illus. ![]() A snake turns out to be an imaginative hose. Snake in the Grass ($16.95) by Hans Sande, illus. Gracie and Grandma use their imaginations while swimming. Gracie & Grandma Under Water ($14.95) by Iben Sandemose, illus. ![]() ![]() Not that he would be here to see it anyway, and if he was, he wouldn’t look at me. I already had several I’d only worn once, and at nineteen, I could definitely pick out my own clothes. I exhaled an aggravated sigh and powered down the dimly lit hallway, grumbling under my breath, “Thank you, Edward.” ![]() “Your dress is on your bed!” he called after me as I walked around the corner. ![]() Yeah, I highly doubted Delia Crist, my mother’s best friend and the matriarch of Thunder Bay, our small East Coast community, was spending her precious time looking for me herself. I turned and continued up the stairs, hearing the soft music coming from the party out on the terrace. “You can get back to your important duties now.” I broke out in a smile and leaned over the bannister, planting a quick kiss on his forehead. “Has she really?” I eyed him with mock astonishment. I shot up my eyebrows and immediately stopped, turning around to peer at him over the railing. ![]() Crist has been looking for you,” he pointed out. Out of the corner of my eye, I spied the butler rounding the corner, but I didn’t stop. Pushing up the sleeves of my lightweight sweater, I hurried through the front door of the Crist house and speed-walked across the foyer, heading straight for the stairs. ![]() There’d be no reason for him to show up at his brother’s farewell party, since they couldn’t stand each other, so… ![]() ![]() ![]() With the aid of these, plus their own knowledge, Watson and Crick discovered the structure of the molecule that genes are composed of-DNA, the secret of life. Franklin's unpublished data and crucial photograph of DNA had already been seen by her competitors at the Cambridge University lab. In March 1953, Maurice Wilkins of King's College, London, announced the departure of his obstructive colleague Rosalind Franklin to rival Cavendish Laboratory scientist Francis Crick. ![]() Strand - What is life? - Joining the circus - Such a funny lab - Undeclared race - Eureka and goodbye - Escaping notice - Acid next door - O my America - New friends, new enemies - Postponed departure - Private health, public health - Clarity and perfection - Epilogue life after death ![]() Once in Royal David's City - 'Alarmingly clever' - Once a Paulina - Never surrender - Holes in coal - Woman of the Left Bank - Seine v. ![]() ![]() ![]() The banks have fallen, the sun of the Union has been torn down, and in the darkness behind the scenes, the threads of the Weaver’s ruthless plan are slowly being drawn together… And in the bloody North, Rikke and her fragile Protectorate are running out of allies…while Black Calder gathers his forces and plots his vengeance. Orso will find that when the world is turned upside down, no one is lower than a monarch. With nothing left to lose, Citizen Brock is determined to become a new hero for the new age, while Citizeness Savine must turn her talents from profit to survival before she can claw her way to redemption. Now that belief will be tested in the crucible of revolution: The Breakers and Burners have seized the levers of power, the smoke of riots has replaced the smog of industry, and all must submit to the wisdom of crowds. Some say that to change the world you must first burn it down. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Soon, things take a turn toward the dark side. There is also a little head hopping, which while sometimes unsettling, contributes to the frantic tone and builds the humming anxiety that drives the characters. In the style of Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho, the brand names are intentionally dizzying in frequency, which serves to ground the reader in Amanda’s material and materialistic world. The opening of the novel is a little jarring. Is it sexist that Clay always drives, does she care? Do her kids fit in, are they going to be successful, is she successful, does she like her job as much as she is supposed to? The list goes on. She and Clay have the requisite two children, a boy and a girl, and Amanda worries about all the normal things a privileged white woman of our time worries about. Amanda and her family are on the way to their Airbnb in the wilds of Long Island. ![]() ![]() He’d been hounding me for a pick-up game for weeks, anything to get me out of my apartment and into the sun. ![]() Still no job? Keith passed the basketball across the court behind my building. Warning: This book contains strong language, sexually explicit situations, and may be considered offensive to some readers. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Note: This is a standalone release of a story that originally appeared in the Bump in the Night anthology. Warning: Violence, mpreg, and all manner of WTFery He will be returned, over and over, to the monster.īut maybe his future isn’t as bleak as it originally seemed. ![]() Unable to escape and terrified of the changes in his body, Danny’s alternatives are few. Assaulted by lusty tentacles that push his body-and his sanity-to the brink, Danny is then held captive by his best friend, betrayed for the sake of science. ![]() Nothing sinister could happen, not here.ĭanny was wrong. Who cares if local superstitions and old wives tales warn the wary to avoid the lake once summer nights turn chilly? The trails are still pretty, the wildlife just as plentiful, and the fall colors beautiful for the lens of Danny’s digital camera. ![]() When Danny needs a getaway, his best friend goads him into a week-long hiking trip. He didn't believe in the monster of the lake. ![]() |