The discussion will be moderated by EWU associate professor of journalism, Jamie Neely. Meghan Nuttall Sayres ( Love and Pomegranates: Artists and Wayfarers on Iran, 2013) is an author from Spokane, Washington, whose two novels set in Iran Anahita’s Woven Riddle (an American Library Association Top Ten Best Books and an Indie Next Choice 2007), and, Night Letter (nominated for ALA Best Fiction List 2014) have been translated into several European and Middle Eastern languages. Diana Darke ( My House in Damascus: An Inside View of the Syrian Revolution, US edition 2015) is a UK author who has also published travels books on Turkey, Syria, North Cyprus, and Oman. Reese Erlich ( Inside Syria, 2014, and Conversations With Terrorists, 2007) is a Peabody Award and Clarion Award winning journalist based in Oakland, CA, who has reported for the San Francisco Chronicle and NPR, among other news outlets. Join me and two other Western authors, who have journeyed multiple times to the Middle East, for a discussion about current events, culture, and the challenges and motivations behind their work. Writing the Middle East: Journalism, Creative Nonfiction, Memoir.
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So when she's quickly evicted from the trailer she and her mother shared, she calls her father he books her a ticket on the earliest possible flight to Houston. She's vowed never to become like her mother, and volleyball is her way out-all she needs is a place to stay for two months until her full ride to Penn State begins on Aug. She taught herself to use a stove at age 6 and did whatever was necessary throughout her life to make sure there was food on the table. All the child support money sent by her father has been spent on her mother’s addictions. A 19-year-old Kentucky girl-the product of a one-night stand-finds her addict mother dead and ends up spending the summer in Texas with her father and his family.Īfter a lifetime of active neglect from her mother, Beyah Grim comes home one day from her shift at McDonald’s to find her dead on the sofa, needle still in her arm. The conspiracies, the allusions, the tricks and references…nothing in this book is straightforward or as it seems. The first thing to be said about The Dragon Waiting is that it is a very complex book. If this weren’t enough, Ford has also added vampires and wizards into the mix, conjuring up a fantastic farrago like no other. Through the twists and turns of fate, these three find themselves embroiled in the world of intrigue surrounding England’s Wars of the Roses. We follow three central characters Hywel Peredur, a Welsh magician who just so happens to be the nephew of Owain Glyndwr Cynthia Ricci, doctor to Lorenzo de Medici and Dimitrios Ducas, a runaway Byzantine prince turned mercenary. Our story takes place at the tail end of the Middle Ages, and the weaves the complicated political threads of Plantagenet England, Renaissance Italy, and the Byzantine Empire into one thrilling narrative. Julian successfully manages to dislodge Christianity’s grip on the Western world, resulting in a medieval Europe that is far more religiously pluralistic than was our own. The Dragon Waiting is set in an alternate history where Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor of Rome, enjoyed a much longer reign than he did in our world. Martin’s The Armageddon Rag and Jack Vance’s Lyonesse. In 1984, it won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, beating – amongst others – George R.R. The Dragon Waiting is a 1983 historical fantasy novel by American author John M. But I picked the first book as a reread for this month because the final one, Mortal Heart, is due out November 4, the same day as Waistcoats & Weaponry. So confession time, I read the first two books in the LaFevers’s YA His Fair Assassin Trilogy: Grave Mercy and Dark Triumph some time ago. Close accepting friendship between girls and women, betrayal by adult role models. The writing: rich period color, first person perspective, strong voice, some graphic violence, modest sex scenes, excellent heroic counterparts, complex politics. “In truth, I have never flashed so much as an ankle before, but I am sorely vexed at being treated like a temptress when all I feel is bruised and broken.” ~ Robin LaFevers, Grave Mercy Each is then sent from the convent into the politics of late 1400s Brittany where they find self confidence through love, purpose, and place in society. The series premise: three girls from difference backgrounds are deemed daughters of death and taken in to a mysterious convent where they are trained as assassins, called death’s handmaidens. Three week after his wife of 36 years dies, Grandpa announces to his family that he’s going to marry the (much) younger Miss Love Simpson, who works in his shop. Interesting as Will is, the real main character here is his Grandpa Blakeslee. She based the story on her own parents and grandparents’ stories. It’s told from the viewpoint of 14-year-old Will Tweedy in the colorful Southern dialect which took Burns years to get just right. A real perfectionist, she wrote and rewrote and re-wrote, looking for the perfect words with an obsession for detail.Ĭold Sassy Tree is the story of a family living in a small Georgia town at the turn of the century–1906. People across the country loved the book, and though Burns tried to write its sequel, she died six years later with only the first 14 chapters written. Olive Ann Burns was 59 when she published her first and only book, Cold Sassy Tree, which became an instant classic in 1986. From the day James rescued a street cat abandoned in the hallway of his sheltered accommodation, they began a friendship which has transformed both their lives and, through the bestselling books A Street Cat Named Bob and The World According to Bob, touched millions around the world. Now a major motion picture starring Luke Treadaway and Bob himself, coming November 6. Originally published as A Gift from Bob, this festive standalone special sees the return of James and Bob, stars of the bestselling A Street Cat Named Bob, as they spend a cold and challenging December on the streets of London together in a new adventure. **NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE** A TRUE TAIL OF CHRISTMAS SPIRIT. She has thoughts wandering in her head that she doesn't tell others about. Why are you so sad and empty when you have a house with walls and a roof and people who love you?īiz says she's okay. She numbs the pain by talking to the ocean and the waves, looking at photographs and understanding the messages they carry. She has created a character who carries pain in her life and wonders what she did to deserve this, finding the clues and answers on her own, as her mental health is carried away by them. Helena Fox has created a powerful portrayal of mental illness and how it affects daily life even when that individual is not aware of it. But even then, reading this allowed me to think differently, and accept that everything will be okay, even if I don't believe it and even if no one else believes it. I feel like I have found a new favorite, but it is the type that can't be read again, as the anguish and pain experienced is not something I want to experience again. Reading this book made me feel like I was being pinned to a wall to witness the events the main character was feeling, seeing her struggle and not getting the answers she needed, as if reading about them was not enough. This is the type of book that gives you a tangible feeling of pain, making you feel empty like there's no more space left for you to process the emotions you are currently feeling. You can pull it out, hold it in your hand. The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. (lengthy author’s note with footnotes to sources) (Fiction. Fascinating setting as a metaphor for Moose’s own imprisonment and enabling some hysterically funny scenes, but a great read no matter where it takes place. Basing her story on the actual experience of those who supported the prison in the ’30s-when Al Capone was an inmate-Choldenko’s pacing is exquisite, balancing the tense family dynamics alongside the often-humorous and riveting school story of peer pressure and friendship. His mother focuses all of her attention on ways to cure the sister his dad works two jobs and meekly accepts the mother’s choices his fellow island-dwellers are a funny mix of oddball characters and good friends. He cares for his sister who is older, yet acts much younger due to her autism and he finds his life alternating between frustration and growth. Super-responsible Moose, big for 12, finds himself caught in the social interactions of this odd cut-off world. Moose’s world is turned upside down when his family moves to Alcatraz Island where his Dad has taken a job as a prison guard. But in order to be a proper pig, he's told he has to learn to make a proper mess. Mess-makers (and cleaner-uppers) will appreciate Little Oink, a neat little fellow who just wants to clean, clean, clean. Bedtime resistors will laugh along as Little Owl is denied his wish to go to bed at a reasonable hour, because little owls have to stay up late and play, and he's hooting mad about it!.Picky eaters will relate to the dilemma in Little Pea: If Little Pea doesn't eat all of his sweets, there will be no vegetables for dessert!.From the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling I Wish You More, a set of board books "that belongs on every infant and preschool-aged child's bookshelf." ( San Francisco Book Review).Įach book in this box set offers a hilarious and ironic take on classic parent predicaments: This was a funny, sweet, sad, touching, tender, romantic love story that had a very likeable H and H, a handful of other interesting and colorful characters, a pet Ermine, a dilapidated Castle and a couple of swindling Solicitors. I don't want to give any of the delicious, well-written, emotional and thoroughly enjoyable storyline away which would rob you of your enjoyment as the twists, surprises, character histories and their budding relationship slowly unfurls but the more Ranson pushed her out, the more Izzy dug her heels in determined to stay so somehow they had to agree to a compromise. Ranson, the handsome but scarred, Duke of Rothbury was dark, moody, formidable, not at all welcoming and knew nothing about the meeting. that is until she saw it and it's inhabitant. Then a letter came requesting she attend a meeting at Gostley Castle in Northumberland giving her hope that perhaps not everything was lost. When Isolde (Izzy) a plain 26 year old Spinster who had never even been kissed, found herself destitute after her famous Author of a Father died leaving all their wealth and her possessions to a heartless Cousin, she felt lost and alone. This is the first of Tessa Dare's new Castles Ever After series and what a joy it was to listen to. |