“Zeno Alexander's The Library of Ever reads like someone mixed Neil Gaiman with Chris Grabenstein, then threw in an extra dash of charm. “Unusually clever.” - Kirkus Reviews, starred review One of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of the Year To save the library, Lenora will have to test her limits and uncover secrets hidden among its shelves. She rockets to the stars, travels to a future filled with robots, and faces down a dark nothingness that wants to destroy all knowledge. And Lenora becomes its newly appointed Fourth Assistant Apprentice Librarian. Every book ever written, and every fact ever known, can be found within its walls. Mazelike and reality-bending, the library contains all the universe’s wisdom. Zeno Alexander spent years exploring the worlds libraries before settling down in his lavish underground. With her parents off traveling the globe, Lenora is bored, bored, bored-until she discovers a secret doorway into the ultimate library. Latest Title: Rebel in the Library of Ever. Named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews, The Library of Ever is an instant classic for middle grade readers and booklovers everywhere-an adventure across time and space, as a young girl becomes a warrior for the forces of knowledge.
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This book is written so that each chapter is a month from the perspective of a different woman in town. There are odd dialogues where it sounds like someone is making a joke, but it's not clear why it's funny or who said what. There are sentences where the meaning is unclear, so I have to read it multiple times to understand. The writing is somewhat stilted and awkward. Unfortunately, that is the part I was most looking forward to. So to go into this book thinking it is a mystery of any sort would be mistaken. It was mostly a bunch of hearsay on the part of gossipy townspeople and inaction/incompetence on the part of the police. Except what I got isn't what I expected.įirst, there was no investigation depicted in this book. The premise of this book is interesting enough: two young girls disappear from a Russian town, which sends the the townspeople reeling over the next few months as the investigation turns up nothing. Everything that others loved about this book are all the same reasons I don't. I think this is a case of mismatched expectations. But it pretty much disappointed me from beginning to end. I had high hopes going into Disappearing Earth as I had heard so many great things about it. This passage is typical: "Clearly the announcement of God's death was as world-shaking as it was false - trumpets blaring, news bellowed from the rooftops, drums thundering in an orgy of premature rejoicing. I've no reason to doubt that Jeremy Leggatt's translation from the French is apt and accurate, but almost every sentence contains dramatic flourishes, florid rhetoric, elaborate metaphors, exaggerations, hyperbole - eventually it becomes tedious. Surely the lesson is that the capacity for exploitation, violence and cruelty is buried deep within human nature, whatever religious or political system we employ. There have been empires with only rudimentary religion, such as the Mongols before they became Muslim. We have had anti-theist regimes that try to eliminate religion - Communist Russia or Cambodia under Pol Pot, for example. Atheist Manifesto by Michel Onfray - A strong case for removing all the remnants of Judeo-Christian ideology from our secular culture.Freedom from Religio. But what Onfray wilfully ignores is the double truth that this is not the only aspect of the religious record and that no atheist system has been better. No believer can deny that religion's record is often blood-stained and cruel. In an age when fundamentalism has become stronger than ever, this book will be an. Similarly, many of his condemnations are clearly justified. Author(s): Michel Onfray Philosophy, Politics & Current Affairs. I understand politicians have to be ruthless, and show a certain "low cunning" if they want to achieve anything in life, but the Johnson shown here takes ruthlessness and low cunning to a whole new level, and I find it hard to contrast that with what he would later achieve with the War on Poverty, and the Great Society. Where I got depressed by the book was in its' portrayal of Johnson. It looks at the Texas Johnson grew up in generally for example, and gives us considerable detail about the characters that inhabit Texas' political landscape at the time. If you're expecting it to be a straight biography of Lyndon Johnson's life and his family, you'd be right and wrong, for while the book looks at Johnson's life and family, it strays, interestingly, from what you'd expect from a typical biography. As I'm sure people know now, it has morphed into a (probable) 5 book series, though this book still covers Johnson's life up to his first electoral loss. When he started this book, Caro intended the series to be 3 books, Johnson from birth to his first electoral loss (this book), Johnson in the senate, and Johnson as president. This is an interesting, if depressing book, especially if you came into this series of books with a generally positive view of Lyndon Johnson. This is a set of the first 4 books in Robert Caro's 5 book (at least) biography of Lyndon Johnson: But wearing a mask is a sign that you care about people and your own health. Some hold them in their hands and some put them on a wrist and others wear them on their chins. Also, the way people use them is interesting. Masks have become so normal that people are using them as accessories. We had them on and took them off and then when there were too many people we put them back on again. Yesterday was wonderful and seeing all of the people I have known for so long in person was the best. But there is nothing like hugging your friend. I have learned to tutor online and to have meetings online and speak to friends on Facetime. So it's back to online everything again for awhile. We decided to move our theater tickets to another date, while they figure out how to combat this one. Today there is news that this variant is now in the United States. Then I went home and read about omicron, the new variant. We all had to show proof of vaccination before we could come. I saw all my friends and hugged them with and without a mask. This was the first one we have had in two years. Yesterday, I went to my Greenwich Pen Women Holiday luncheon. I spent months worrying and then got my shots and now my booster shot and thought I could go out again. Lately, my world has expanded and just as I feel I can go back to normal there is a new strain of Covid that is going to dampen my outlook and make me worry again. During this year my focus has been mainly my computer and my family. They don’t even realize how horrible they are. Yet, I can’t help but be fascinated by the careless cruelty this posse inflicts upon others-totally guilt-free. She will not deign to speak to underclassmen, she’s actively rude to a childhood admirer, she manipulates people into doing her favors, and she terrorizes a shy girl with depression. It’s because she and her friends reign through fear. Sam is one of the most popular girls at her school, but it’s not because she’s well-liked. Of course, it’s good I didn’t let my initial prejudices win out. Did I really want to spend hundreds of pages with the type of girl who’d humiliate another at a pool party (with feminine products, no less)? I thought the book should come with a junior high nightmare trigger warning. Samantha (Sam) is the preeminent mean girl of her high school. When I finally cracked it, I was further disheartened to find that I hated the main character. I put off reading Before I Fall, a young adult novel by Lauren Oliver, because I knew it was about a dead girl. On the other hand, the small decisions are very systematic. Who we marry may depend on who happens to be around at the right time of life. Which field we go into may depend on which high school teacher we happen to meet. The small choices probably tell us more about who we are. When he was asked why/how he had become a psychologist, Amos replied: "The big choices we make are practically random. The book contains many amazing quotes from Amos. He was very bright, which led to his colleagues coining an IQ test: "The faster you realized Tversky was smarter than you, the smarter you are." He got educated at US for graduate school in psychology. He was a gifted child and starred in academia, although through out his life he was always had doubts about his talents and was always unsure of himself.Īmos Tversky was born in Israel and served in the Israel army for many years. His family survived (except the father) through Nazi prosecution and World War 2, and were able immigrate to Israel in 1948. So I plan to read more of Michael Lewis's books: Flash Boys, The Big Short, Moneyball, The Blind Side, and Liar's Poker.ĭanny Kahneman had a very tough childhood. I wouldn't ever imagine social science and behavioral economics could be this exciting. From his pen, the academic collaboration story of two social scientists becomes a love story and a thriller. The book is by Michael Lewis, a truly great storyteller. I have recently read this 2017 book about the collaboration between two psychologists, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. In this second book “The Deceivers,” she’s determined to solve the mystery of their mother’s letter to them, written in code. Emma is ten, and she’s a genius at solving problems. The main characters are the children from two families, the Greystone children: Finn, the youngest of the family is only eight years old, but he’s brave and thoughtful. In the first book, “ The Strangers,” Haddix creates an alternate world with two families who are thrown into chaos when the worlds collide. You can’t write the ending, but there needs to be some kind of closure, and yet you have to make sure that the readers are involved enough to want to know what’s going to happen next. It’s tough to write a second book in a series that has more than two books. Margaret Peterson Haddix is truly the queen of series writing. Sometimes long-winded (seriously, very long), but the real highlight is that Robida illustrated it himself, so you get to see his fun futurism brought to life in a lively fashion on page after page. There are also air-wars, but they seem more exciting than frightening. There's sky pirates and telephonic courtship and attempts at a fun revolution, but Nihilist bombings destroyed Russia so utterly there's neither Nihilists nor Russians anymore, and Italy has become a theme park for American tourists. It's a mix of utopianism and satire and deadly warnings- some things are awesome, other things less so (emancipated women are so un-feminine they even have harsh names!), and other things are just supposed to be funny (the president is an automaton, which I feel like is the nineteenth-century equivalent of Futurama's disembodied heads). This is one of those futuristic novels that doesn't have a story per se, but is more an exploration/travelogue of a fantastic future. Passionate about many things-women, his family, books, science, architecture, gardens, friends, Monticello, and Paris-Jefferson loved America most, and he strove over and over again, despite fierce opposition, to realize his vision- the creation, survival, and success of popular government in America. Thomas Jefferson hated confrontation, and yet his understanding of power and of human nature enabled him to move men and to marshal ideas, to learn from his mistakes, and to prevail. Jefferson's genius was that he was both and could do both, often simultaneously. Thomas Jefferson- The Art of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era. Bloomberg Businessweek In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review. |