All the while she tries so hard to be "a good girl," saving herself for her true love, Jamie, while being tempted by many other handsome fellows along the way. In the course of the series, she transforms from a street urchin into a ship's boy in His Majesty's Navy, becomes an infamous pirate, a student at a prim New England girl's school, a tavern entertainer, a naval officer, a riverboat captain, master of disguise, a spy in Napoleon's army, a deep sea diver, and more. It's so hard to sum up Jacky's incredibly colorful personality. While these books are designed for young adults, they are equally entertaining for adult fans of historical fiction, as well as those who love a good adventure story with lots of bawdy humor! (but not too bawdy, this is YA after all) Book 8 of this series, The Wake of the Lorelei Lee, will be released this fall. I decided to take advantage of The Introverted Reader's weekly character connection to blog about one of my favorite characters from recent historical fiction for young readers: Jacky Faber, the heroine of L.
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Tackling big, contentious questions with a light touch, this moving production is full of humour and heart. There is only one logical solution: humanity must be destroyed. But once sentient, the robots become aware that they have unwittingly enabled a runaway cycle of overproduction, which is now wrecking the planet. They want nothing-until the idealistic Lady Helen visits their island factory and persuades one of the scientists to instil consciousness into them. Grown from human cells, these androids appear identical to humans-only stronger and cleverer. It is the year 2000, and an incredible new technology-the robot-has been invented, freeing human beings from the need to work. Set in Capek's 1920s version of the future, this radio reimagining blends music, comedy and drama to tell the story of a world dominated by mechanisation and the pursuit of profit. A musical reinvention of Karel Capek's darkly comic sci-fi masterpiece.įirst published in 1921, Karel Capek's ultra-prescient play R.U.R has become a classic of dystopian literature, giving us the word 'robot' and inspiring movies and TV series from Blade Runner to Westworld. I received your letter just a few days ago. The two men never met in person, but, thanks to Kappus, these letters to him were preserved, and help to illuminate Rilke’s own achievements in the art, as well as providing a source of inspiration and guidance to poets in general. These letters, dating from the early period of Rilke’s own poetic development, offered advice and insight to the younger man, while also revealing Rilke’s ideas and attitudes regarding creative poetic effort and life itself. A cadet at the Austrian military academy the lower school of which Rilke had attended in the 1890’s, the young man went on to pursue an extended military career, as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army, afterwards working as a journalist, editor, writer, and politician. Rilke’s letters to a young poet Franz Xaver Kappus, written between 19, were first published by Kappus in 1929. Letter IX: Furuborg, Jonsered in Sweden, November 4th 1904.Letter VIII: Borgeby Gård, Flädie, Sweden, August 12th 1904.Letter IV: Worpswede near Bremen, July 16th 1903.Letter III: Viareggio, near Pisa (Italy), April 23rd 1903.Letter II: Viareggio, near Pisa (Italy), April 5th 1903. This work may be freely reproduced, stored and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose. Kline © Copyright 2021, All Rights Reserved. ‘Monograph of the Royal Free City of Temesvár’ - Preyer, Johann N (1853), The British Library "Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr'd the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins." and we're off. Novels went on as long they liked.Įxuberantly upholding that tradition at the end of the 20th century, Thomas Pynchon's 'Mason & Dixon' begins with a sentence not of 140 characters but 120 words, and continues in the same vein for nearly 800 pages. But 18th-century texts did not confine themselves to 140 characters or fewer. In his current incarnation as a celebrated virtuoso of Twitter (commanding over 14,000 followers at the time of writing), Dr Samuel Johnson has cannily matched the struck poses, the snorted expostulations and the triumphant aphorisms of his century's discourse to the frame of the tweet. It's no surprise, then, that this author looms large in the minds of many. He tackles Big Existential Questions about revenge, liberty, the struggle between man and nature, and more. Verne packs a lot of serious business in between the squid fights and the trips to Atlantis-those wacky escapades that most people remember. This book is more than just a bunch of neat stories about yet-undeveloped technology, however (not that there's anything wrong with that). 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is no exception, as today's nuclear submarines can attest. Indeed, Verne earned a reputation for being the "Father of Science Fiction" because a lot of the stuff he laid out in his books came into existence after he wrote about it. Submarine technology was just starting to develop in 1868. We're going 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, on a submarine guided by a (slightly) mad genius known as Captain Nemo.īut wait, you say. He wanted to wow us with an adventure somewhere deep and mysterious. So Verne decided to take us out somewhere new.Īnd he didn't want to take us out to any average, second-date spot. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea IntroductionĪchin' for adventure? By 1868, Jules Verne had already offered us readers trips around the world in eighty days, excursions from the Earth to the Moon, and journeys into the center of our home planet. International History 1900-1945 (M Phil in International Relations)įorgotten Ally: China’s War with Japan, 1937-45 (US title)Ĭhina’s War with Japan, 1937-45: The Struggle for Survival (UK title).Modern Chinese politics and history (M Phil in Modern Chinese Studies).China in War and Revolution, 1890-1949 (Modern History).Cold War Cultures and Societies project (with Patrick Major, University of Warwick).The Making of Postwar order in Europe and East Asia: part of the Oxford-Princeton research collaboration (project leaders: Martin Conway, Jan Gross).Principal Investigator for “China's War with Japan”: interdisciplinary research project funded by a Leverhulme Research Leadership Award.Comparative Cold War social and cultural history.The Sino-Japanese War, 1931-1945, and its legacy.Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China Fellow of St Cross College Still, the crime she witnesses there is plenty bad.įlynne and Wilf are about to meet one another. He’s got Flynne taking over shifts, promised her the game’s not a shooter. Wilf, a high-powered publicist and celebrity-minder, fancies himself a romantic misfit, in a society where reaching into the past is just another hobby.īurton’s been moonlighting online, secretly working security in some game prototype, a virtual world that looks vaguely like London, but a lot weirder. Things are pretty good now, for the haves, and there aren’t many have-nots left. Wilf Netherton lives in London, seventy-some years later, on the far side of decades of slow-motion apocalypse. She made more as a combat scout in an online game, playing for a rich man, but she’s had to let the shooter games go. Flynne earns what she can by assembling product at the local 3D printshop. Her brother Burton lives on money from the Veterans Administration, for neurological damage suffered in the Marines’ elite Haptic Recon unit. The New York Times bestselling author of Neuromancer and Agency presents a fast-paced sci-fi thriller that takes a terrifying look into the future.įlynne Fisher lives down a country road, in a rural America where jobs are scarce, unless you count illegal drug manufacture, which she’s trying to avoid. Over time they lower their expectations, abandon their dreams, and allow their life to get small. Unaware that big success comes when we do a few things well, they get lost trying to do too much and in the end accomplish too little. Success starts to feel out of reach, so they settle for less. As a result, their calendars and to-do lists become overloaded and overwhelming. They think big success is time consuming and complicated.mastery takes time, it takes a commitment toĤ.but also doing it the best it can be done.It is the combination of not only doing the best.The Three Commitments to your ONE thing.Start with the big stuff and see where it. You first wake up and throughout the day. Build your daysĪround how it works and let it do its part to
In the land of Sempera, the rich control everything - even time. The first lines of the blurb had me really intrigued: I had a good feeling about this book, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just based on the cover and the fact there is a fellow Jules playing a very significant part in this tale. I sometimes find young adult fiction too shallow or angsty, and my ability to connect with fantasy really depends on how well developed the characters are or if there is a particularly interesting idea within the plot. I don't read a lot of fantasy or young adult fiction, as my love for it seems to be a bit hit and miss. If it hadn’t been for the alluring cover, I may not have even been tempted to read this book. This won Book of the Month on my blog for December 2017:įirstly, I think the cover is absolutely gorgeous. I spent a lot of money buying rare and costly wines. He thought he was an excellent judge of wine. Some men were afraid of him because he was so rich and powerful. He did not know it was the thought of his death that made me smile.Įveryone in our town respected Fortunato. When I smiled at him, he thought it was because we were friends. Deep in my heart I hated him, but I never said or did anything that showed him how I really felt. Fortunato married a rich and beautiful woman who gave him sons. But I promised myself that one day I would punish Fortunato for his insults to me. He hurt my feelings a thousand times during the years of my childhood. And he enjoyed making me look like a fool. We used to play together when we were children.įortunato was bigger, richer and more handsome than I was. Storyteller: Fortunato and I both were members of very old and important Italian families. Our story today is called "The Cask of Amontillado." It was written by Edgar Allan Poe. |