![]() ![]() ![]() His public murals are visible across Glasgow, with further examples of his work on display in galleries from the V&A to the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. It was followed by more than 30 further books, all of which he designed and illustrated, ranging from novels, short story collections, plays, volumes of poetry, works of non-fiction and translations – most recently his interpretations of Dante’s Divine Trilogy. His highly-acclaimed first novel Lanark was published in 1981, winning both a Scottish Arts Council Book Award and the Scottish Book of the Year award. Ali Smith described him as ‘ an artist in every form. He was described by writer Will Self as ‘ a great writer, perhaps the greatest living in this archipelago today’. ![]() He worked as a part-time art teacher, muralist and theatrical scene painter before becoming a full-time painter, playwright and author. Alasdair Gray (1934-2019) was born in Riddrie, Glasgow, and trained as a painter at the Glasgow School of Art. ![]()
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![]() I had some suspicions about the culprit but it took me a long time to come to that conclusion because of the rapidly changing mindset of the narrator interspersed with the antagonist's thought which made it tough to connect the dots in a wonderful thriller-like way. ![]() I did decide to persist despite the subject because I again had read previous novels regarding this topic as I knew I would enjoy the read eventually and holy moly, this novel blew me out of the water. I can't read novels about ceramic dolls because they terrify me and you may not be able to read Little Secrets because it hits hard on parental suffering and the lengths they go to come to terms with the disappearance and heal, or not heal, from it. Be warned there are a lot of intense topics in this story and this is not a read for everyone. This was the first thriller where I found the subject matter unsettling, so unsettling that I almost stopped reading after the first two chapters despite having read many books with a similar premise so I don't know why this specific story hit me so hard, it just did. ![]() ![]() Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier is a messed up book. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() At age 3, just hours after the birth of the Kushners’ daughter, Aaron was diagnosed with a rare disease, progeria, in which the body ages rapidly. Rabbi Kushner wrote “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” (1981) after the death of his son, Aaron. One reviewer called his book “When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough” a “useful spiritual survival manual.” Several of Rabbi Kushner’s 14 books became best-sellers, resonating well beyond his Conservative Jewish congregation outside Boston and across religious boundaries in part because they had been inspired by his own experiences with grief, doubt and faith. ![]() His death, in hospice care, was confirmed by his daughter, Ariel Kushner Haber. Rabbi Harold Kushner, a practical public theologian whose best-selling books assured readers that bad things happen to good people because God is endowed with unlimited love and justice but exercises only finite power to prevent evil, died on Friday in Canton, Mass. ![]() ![]() ![]() So he too gets involved in the hunt for Johnny Bible, and as a matter of pride, wants to find him before the police do.ĭiscussion: Black and Blue won The Gold Dagger Award, given annually by the Crime Writers’ Association for best crime novel of the year. Nor does he like the renewed attention to his own case, having been successfully in hiding now for some time. But so does Bible John! In a nice bit of black humor, Bible John doesn’t appreciate the inferior knock-off tarnishing his reputation. Inspector Rebus wants desperately to find him. ![]() Now there is an imitator, called Johnny Bible. In the 1960’s, there was a serial killer in Scotland known as Bible John. ![]() Black and Blue is the eighth of the Inspector Rebus mystery/suspense series by Ian Rankin, and is considered to be a quintessential example of the “Tartan Noir” genre. ![]() ![]() Louie was a juvenile delinquent from the get-go, always stealing food from neighbors' houses and concocting homemade explosives. Zamperini's story, in a nutshell, is this: He was born in 1917, a son of working-class Italian immigrants who made a life for themselves in Torrance, Calif. The tale Zamperini has to tell, augmented by mountains of diaries, letters and official documents, is a stunner. He sure can and sure did - for seven years' worth of interviews with Hillenbrand. Seabiscuit, of course, was an almost impossible act to follow, but as Hillenbrand says in the acknowledgements to her new book, Unbroken, she knew she had found her next subject when she spoke to a then-octogenarian Louis Zamperini on the phone and the wisecracking spirit of that bygone age came through loud and clear: "I'll be an easier subject than Seabiscuit," Zamperini said, "because I can talk." It's also that Hillenbrand has a gift for recovering the spirit of mid-20th century America - its despair, sure, but also its humor and its graceful refusal to put on airs. ![]() It's not just that she has an affinity for singing the ballads of dark horses, who through tenacity, luck and a lot of heart turn themselves into folk legends. ![]() ![]() Laura Hillenbrand is shaping up to be the Woody Guthrie of contemporary narrative historians. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption ![]() ![]() ![]() Perhaps the perfect time to read it is now, in a global pandemic, when time feels stopped, present and past atrocities knit together on a single stitch. If it’s too quaint to be new, it’s too cruel to be old. there is something undeniably modern about Good Behaviour. Its satire a blade sharpened nearly to transparency, Good Behaviour was Keane at her keenest. ![]() A narrator in denial a style purged of description a plot never spelled out a love that dares not speak its name. Brock’s fate acquires a mythic significance, a prime example of bad behavior brutally punished. ![]() After all, she must know enough to know what she must not let herself know. Layering Aroon’s past and present points of view with those of characters who haven’t yet been introduced, Keane masterfully reveals the coexistence in Aroon of deep, instinctual knowledge and willful ignorance. To solve the whydunit of Good Behaviour, the reader must penetrate its narrator’s protective shell of denial, divining the truth through odd silences and peculiar lapses in the narrative point of view. ![]() ![]() It’s like I never saw anything at all before. “When I see her,” I said, “it’s like – I don’t know what it’s like. Very touching, I thought, and very sweetly innocent. This is how she describes her feelings about Kitty. Soon she becomes obsessed with her and willingly leaves her loving family to follow Kitty around and be her dresser, and soon her partner. Nancy realizes her sexual orientation when she first spots Kitty on stage. However, Tipping the Velvet is proudly lesbian. The original book is heterosexual for the most part, I assume. Now, I haven’t read the original Moll Flanders (a classic and steamy novel by Daniel Defoe that chronicles the sexy exploits of one Moll Flanders). It first attracted my attention when the book blurb described it as a Sapphic Moll Flanders. Tipping the Velvet is epic gay historical fiction. In time, Kitty breaks her heart, and Nan assumes the guise of butch roue to commence her own thrilling and varied sexual education – a sort of Moll Flanders in drag – finally finding friendship and true love in the most unexpected places. When Kitty is called up to London for an engagement on “Grease Paint Avenue,” Nan follows as her dresser and secret lover and, soon after, dons trousers herself and joins the act. ![]() This delicious, steamy debut novel chronicles the adventures of Nan King, who begins life as an oyster girl in the provincial seaside town of Whitstable and whose fortunes are forever changed when she falls in love with a cross-dressing music-hall singer named Miss Kitty Butler. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The result hits his fighting selfish children, 3 sons – Danny, Joe, and Thomas and 1 daughter – Jenny, with a shocking surprise. Or did he? It is very apparent from page 5 that he was murdered. That is until he was found drowned in the bay, somehow falling overboard off his boat. The father Joe was the patriarchal owner of the San Francisco Wolves NFL franchise and the San Francisco Tribune newspaper. “The House of Wolves” is the story of the dangerously disjointed, rich, and powerful Wolf family. Parker’s classic series Jesse Stone, Spenser (taking over from Ace Atkins), and Sunny Randall (handing off to Alison Gaylin). ![]() In this outing Patterson has teamed up for a second time with Mike Lupica, a veteran sports writer, novelist, and current caretaker of Robert B. I have really enjoyed some, liked some, and didn’t really care for others. Some might ask why and that’s another whole discussion best saved for another day. I read most of his books and have for several years. Let’s start this off with my usual upfront James Patterson disclosure. ![]() ![]() ![]() I have a weakness for closeted cops with honest hearts, and teachers who speak their minds, and I had fun writing four novels and three freebie short stories in that series. My first professionally published book, Life Lessons, came out from MLR Press in May 2011. ![]() ![]() Minnesota’s a kind, quiet (if sometimes chilly) place and it’s home.I’ve been writing far longer than I care to admit (*whispers – forty years*), mostly for my own entertainment, usually M/M romance (with added mystery, fantasy, historical, SciFi.) I also have a few Young Adult stories (some released under the pen name Kira Harp.)My husband finally convinced me that after all the years of writing for fun, I really should submit something, somewhere. “Kaje” is pronounced just like “cage” – it’s an old nickname, and my pronouns are she/her/hers.I was born in Montreal but I've lived for 30 years in Minnesota, where the two seasons are Snow-removal and Road-repair, where the mosquito is the state bird, and where winter can be breathtakingly beautiful. ![]() ![]() ![]() This novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.īook Synopsis An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside as life disintegrates outside. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur's chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. Jeevan Chaudhary, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. About the Book One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a production. ![]() |