![]() Undoubtedly best known for his food material (“Jim Gaffigan wrote a book? Isn’t the Hot Pockets guy?” is the very first sentence of the book’s forward), Dad Is Fat instead draws from the reliable comedic well that is parenthood. Those things make him an anomaly in the comedy world, and so it’s not surprising that they serve as the inspiration for his new book, Dad is Fat. Even more amazing to many is his home life-a devoted churchgoer and father of five, he and his family live in a two-bedroom walkup in New York City’s East Village. His broad appeal and ability to do the same clean material in every type of room is widely admired. “If you’re a comedian, you should be able to perform in front of any kind of crowd, and the goal is to be someone like Jim Gaffigan who can do Eugene ’s show and he can do my show, but then he can also perform at Carnegie Hall or whatever, the Pepsi Thunderdome in Janesville, Wisconsin, and do as well in front of every kind of crowd,” Liam McEneaney told me last year. ![]() In comedy circles, Jim Gaffigan has almost a living-legend aura around him. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() Neruda’s far-reaching humanist act calls to mind Oskar Schindler, and is the little-known kernel of history at the heart of Isabel Allende’s 17th novel, “A Long Petal of the Sea.” Allende, we learn from her author’s note, first heard about Neruda’s “ship of hope” in her childhood, when it caught in her memory and remained there for 40 years. Though the larger world seemed as blind to Spain’s displaced population as they’d been to the war itself, the Chilean diplomat and poet Pablo Neruda lobbied to save over 2,000 of the refugees, as many as could fit on a nine-ton cargo ship called the Winnipeg, bound for political asylum. Many fled across the Pyrenees into France thinking they’d escaped the worst, only to find themselves behind barbed wire in concentration camps like Argèles-sur-Mer, “half-dead from cold and hunger.” In January of 1939, after three and a half years of devastating civil war, Francisco Franco defeated Spain’s Republican army at Barcelona, clinching a dictatorship that would last for nearly a half-century and displacing hundreds of thousands of soldiers, activists and Republican supporters. A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA By Isabel Allende ![]() ![]() ![]() Sophie is tasked with helping to train the magical creature so that the Alicorn can be revealed to the people of the lost cities as a sign of hope, and Sophie wants to believe that the recent drama and anguish is gone for good. And it helps that living at Havenfield means getting to spend time with rare, precious species-including the first female Alicorn, who shows herself to Sophie and trusts no one but her. Sophie befriends the mythical Alicorn and puts her mysterious powers to the test in this enchanting second book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. ![]() Sophie is settling in nicely to her new home and her new life in the world of the lost cities. Sophie befriends the mythical Alicorn and puts her mysterious powers to the test in this enchanting second book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. A California Young Reader Medal–winning series ![]() ![]() ![]() Each story shows an epiphany, or a life changing moment or illuminating moment, that changes their viewpoint. Joyce brings his characters to life using their emotions without actually using many physical descriptions. Although it is set in Ireland, the people are easy to relate to when placed in any middle-income neighborhood. In 1914 he was finally able to get it published.ĭubliners are written simply, with dialogue that is easy to follow. Luckily, James Joyce managed to save one copy that he tricked out of them. Even though he paid them, they still burned it. ![]() Another partially printed it, then refused to return his copy without first being paid. One agreed to publish it if she would remove the story, Two Gallants. James Joyce submitted the book eighteen times to fifteen different publishers. Getting the book published was a story into itself. ![]() ![]() Here’s a breakdown of 10 of Hans Christian Andersen’s most famous fairy tales. ![]() Indeed, tales such as The Snow Queen (1844) and The Little Match Girl (1845) feature characters who experience cruelty and suffer deeply, while The Ugly Duckling (1843) is thought to offer a rare insight into Andersen’s own difficult experiences as a child.Ĭelebrated in his lifetime, Andersen’s 156 stories across 9 volumes have been translated into more than 125 languages and continue to inspire ballets, plays and films. Though primarily marketed at children, Andersen’s stories commonly feature characters who present lessons of kindness and resilience for an older audience. Known for his fantastical fairy tales that feature ducklings, mermaids, emperors and queens, his stories also commonly explore universal themes such as poverty, charity and inequality. Prolific Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) is one of the most beloved children’s writers to have ever lived. ![]() ![]() ![]() She has held visiting positions at the University of Queensland (Australia), the University of Geneva (Switzerland), Capital Normal University of Beijing (China), the University of Newcastle (UK), the University of Venice at Ca' Foscari (Italy), and the Siena School for the Liberal Arts (Italy) as well as lectured at the University of Sydney (Australia), Macquarie University (Australia), the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), and the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa) and held a fellowship at Trinity College Dublin. ![]() It was at UM that she earned tenure (in 1981) and became a full professor (in 1984). She has since taught linguistics at Smith College, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Georgetown University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and Swarthmore College. in Romance Languages and Literatures in 1973, both from Harvard University, then did a postdoctoral year in Linguistics at MIT. She received her BA in mathematics in 1970 and her Ph.D. She has five children, seven grandchildren, and currently lives outside Philadelphia. For thirteen years she had a cat named Taxi, and liked to go outside and call, "Taxi!" to make the neighbors wonder. ![]() She loves to garden and bake bread, and even dreams of moving to the woods and becoming a naturalist.Īt various times her house and yard have been filled with dogs, cats, birds, and rabbits. ![]() Donna Jo Napoli is both a linguist and a writer of children's and YA fiction. ![]() ![]() ![]() Excellent general comments may also be found in Parker 1991. ![]() Critical attention has understandably focused most on the longer Homeric Hymns with extended narratives.Ĭoncise general overviews of the Homeric Hymns are provided by Faulkner 2011 and Clay 1997. There are two mid-length Hymns with narratives, seven to Dionysus (fifty-nine lines), and nineteen to Pan (forty-nine lines), but the rest of the poems in the corpus are short celebrations of divine powers consisting of between three and twenty-two lines. The first Hymn to Dionysus also contained an extended narrative of over 400 lines, but now survives only in fragments. Four of the Homeric Hymns (two to Demeter, three to Apollo, four to Hermes, and five to Aphrodite) contain developed narratives of episodes in the lives of the deities celebrated and stretch from 293 to 580 lines. The poems are, in fact, of varied date and provenance, although the majority are most probably products of the archaic period (7th to 6th centuries BCE). ![]() The Homeric Hymns are a collection of thirty-three hexameter hymns to Greek deities, so named because they were often in Antiquity attributed to Homer, the supposed composer of the Iliad and Odyssey. ![]() ![]() whatever difficulties one might have with the breathless narrative.are balanced by the short chapters and frequent chapter breaks. There is, however, plenty of suspense of the will-they-or-won’t-they type, and the character development that Kraus whittles out of the vignettes ultimately elevates the book above the street-level situations it describes in nuanced detail before the reader is aware of it. It’s extremely gritty, and while there isn’t really any sex or violence, there is some cringe-inducing and unblinking focus on bodily fluids and functions that you won’t want to encounter while drinking or eating. ![]() It is told in a stream-of-consciousness fashion, and the stream is polluted. ![]() For another, it is not a crime novel, as that term is normally used in the literary world. It is, for one, an original story, newly written and released, as opposed to the rare, out-of-print and/or long-lost novels that this venerable and indispensable imprint typically publishes. ![]() Blood Sugar is not your usual Hard Case Crime book. ![]() ![]() ![]() The book asks as many questions as it answers, and readers will leave the story with no doubt that we are in a new phase of existence as a species - and that there is no turning back. Ballard, Coupland explores the modern crises of time, human identity, society, religion, and the afterlife. Slowly, each reveals the truth about themselves while the world as they know it comes to an end. Five disparate people are trapped inside: Karen, a single mother waiting for her online date Rick, the down-on-his-luck airport lounge bartender Luke, a pastor on the run Rachel, a cool Hitchcock blonde incapable of true human contact and finally a mysterious voice known as Player One. Blurb: International bestselling author Douglas Coupland delivers a real-time, five-hour story set in an airport cocktail lounge during a global disaster. ![]() ![]() Harperteen Tash Hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee Literary nerd and. Not so much the pressure to deliver the best web series ever.Īnd when Unhappy Families is nominated for a Golden Tuba award, Tash’s cyber-flirtation with a fellow award nominee suddenly has the potential to become something IRL-if she can figure out how to tell said crush that she’s romantic asexual. A gentle and quiet novella about love, tea, and robots, The Cybernetic Tea Shop is sure to capture any nerdy ace’s heart. Tash is a fan of the 40,000 new subscribers, their gushing tweets, and flashy Tumblr gifs. Not so much the pressure to deliver the best web series ever. Her show is a modern adaptation of Anna Karenina-written by Tash’s literary love Count Lev Nikolayevich “Leo” Tolstoy. Tash is a fan of the 40,000 new subscribers, their gushing tweets, and flashy Tumblr gifs. ![]() ![]() From the author of Lucky Few comes a “refreshing” ( Booklist, starred review) teen novel about Internet fame, peer pressure, and remembering not to step on the little people on your way to the top!Īfter a shout-out from one of the internet’s superstar vloggers, Natasha “Tash” Zelenka suddenly finds herself and her obscure, amateur web series, Unhappy Families, thrust in the limelight: She’s gone viral. ![]() |