Gilman theorizes that the structure can enable travel from one plane or dimension to another. The dimensions of Gilman's attic room are unusual and seem to conform to a kind of unearthly geometry. Gilman discovers that, for the better part of two centuries, many of the attic's occupants have died prematurely. The house once harboured Keziah Mason, an accused witch who disappeared mysteriously from a Salem jail in 1692. Walter Gilman, a student of mathematics and folklore at Miskatonic University, rents an attic room in the "Witch House", a house in Arkham, Massachusetts that is rumored to be cursed. Written in January/February 1932, it was first published in the July 1933 issue of Weird Tales. Lovecraft, part of the Cthulhu Mythos cycle. "The Dreams in the Witch House" is a horror short story by American writer H.
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5/11/2023 0 Comments The good lord bird book summaryAs such, he regards it with no small degree of skepticism, not least of which because one of Brown’s outbursts gets the boy’s father killed. Henry has witnessed white anger before, but he hasn’t seen it deployed on his behalf. To a young black boy like Henry Shackleford (Joshua Caleb Johnson), Brown’s actions are baffling. Brown doesn’t want to negotiate, nor does he want to begin an incremental process toward change: Black people must be freed now, or else he’ll shoot-and often he does. The man’s fury is biblical in both a metaphorical and textual sense, dribbling spit down the hairs of his chin as he declares slavery an affront to God while fervently quoting the Bible. As abolitionist John Brown, a wild-eyed and scraggly bearded Ethan Hawke spends much of Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird-based on James McBride’s National Book Award-winning novel of the same name-shredding his throat as he bellows for the end of slavery. Whatever happened to their father's home? Why did he build it so weird? Why did Dad kidnap Ben's friends and tie them up? Why didn't he just kill them all and then kill Ben? How can Ben and Sheere have a mystical connection because they were twins separated at birth? So why did she build him up in Sheere's mind in the first place? But she knew his spirit was hunting his children to kill one of them. But Grandma was the one who, for her whole life, has been telling Sheere that her father is a good man. I liked Prince of Mist, but this book was not nearly as good (and I didn't think Prince of Mist was great).įor one thing, Grandma does not want anyone telling Sheere that her father was a bad man. 5/11/2023 0 Comments Firestarter by Stephen KingWhile this isn’t always a problem, Firestarter (2022) never makes a good enough case for this as it results in rushed and sloppy moments that completely disorientate the viewer. The 2022 remake is around twenty minutes shorter than the original and the first half of the remake happens in the first twenty minutes of the 1984 film. It is also important to note that not only is the film not a frame-by-frame remake, but a lot of the story beats are also different than the original film and not for the better. From mediocre writing and acting to bad and awkward editing choices to even having special effects that somehow look worse than the original movie, Firestarter (2022) is unfortunate from so many different angles. The decision to put the movie on Peacock simultaneously was absolutely the right move as this movie does not give the feeling that it is necessary to see on the big screen at all. When I was watching Firestarter (2022) I couldn’t believe this was a movie that was being put in theaters. This new Firestarter isn’t only a bad adaptation but is just an all-around bad movie. It’s sad to say but the 2022 version of Firestarter falls on the side of bad Stephen King adaptations. This then leads to the question, how does this movie hold up when looking at both the original film and other King adaptations? A new Stephen King book adaptation has now been released in both theaters and on Peacock, this time in the form of a remake of the 1984 film Firestarter. 5/11/2023 0 Comments Jane smiley trilogyWithin the confines of its third-person omniscient point-of-view, the novel shifts between the perspectives of each main character, especially the children. Aspects of the Great American Novel are certainly on display: immigrant roots, coming-of-age trajectories for individuals and the nation, and American dream scenarios of reinvention. Here’s an excerpt from my Shiny New Books review in early 2015: “Farming, unpredictable and frequently heartbreaking, is an appropriate framework for an all-American story. In chronological chapters, one per year from 1920 to the near future of 2019, Smiley follows an ordinary couple, their six children and several generations of their descendants as they navigate America’s social changes and re-evaluate their principles during decades of upheaval. Jane Smiley’s “The Last Hundred Years” trilogy is a saga prioritizing the experiences of the Langdons, an Iowa farming family, over the century beginning in 1920. In Foundation, Asimov has written a timely and timeless novel of the best-and worst-that lies in humanity, and the power of even a few courageous souls to shine a light in a universe of darkness. The Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov are among the most influential in the history of science fiction, celebrated for their unique blend of breathtaking action, daring ideas, and extensive worldbuilding. To preserve knowledge and save humankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire-both scientists and scholars-and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future-to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. In this first prequel of the Foundation book series, we are back in 12.
Somewhere along the way it got lost or sold or discarded but I have always kept an eye out for another copy so I could enjoy the story once again. I went off to college and left that book behind. That particular printing was under an alternate title, “The Synthetic Man,” and I have fond memories of reading that slim volume in a younger, simpler time for me. I remember picking up a copy of this book sometime in the mid-'80s, in a little section of paperbacks at one of the pawn shops near where I grew up in Texarkana, Texas. My room growing up was full of cheap paperbacks and sci-fi and fantasy magazines like “Analog” and “Galaxy.” My tastes have branched out over the years, but I always enjoy coming back to a good science-fiction or fantasy paperback, literary comfort food for my soul. Bradbury, Aldiss, Carter, Asimov, Moorcock, Blish….too many giants of the genre to mention wrote tales that staggered my young imagination. But it just seems like there was a certain extra gear of craftsmanship in the older novels and short stories. Oh, I like the modern stuff, too, don’t get me wrong. I’ll admit right off that one of my reading weaknesses is classic science fiction. With such admirable vulnerability, she writes about the confusion and embarrassment she experienced due to her diagnosis and her family processing her mental illness diagnoses. From her early childhood through adulthood, Bassey lived with havocs of emotional turmoil, cycling between a high level of euphoria and a lower level of deep depression, which are the symptoms of her bipolar disorder. The book was beautifully written and creatively assembled, and one would not have thought it was collections of essays accumulated into a book.īassey was born in Nigeria to Nigerian parents from Cross River State, and at the age of four, she relocated with her mother to join her father in Oklahoma. In the book, she explores her childhood experience in Nigeria, relocating to the US with her mother to join her father, her understanding of racial identity, to the reality of living with mental illness. With her unique storytelling talent, Bassey broke down the misrepresentation of mental illness and shared a beautiful story of a courageous woman. The story was remarkably raw and honest as her memory drifted between the truth and twisted memory. I’m Telling the Truth, but I’m Lying is a New York Times bestseller where Bassey transcribed her life story as a child growing up in Nigeria and America. Bassey was invited to the show to talk about her recently published book. “Truth and morning became light with time” African proverbĭuring the pandemic lockdown, I listened to one of my subscribed podcasts, Come Through with Rebecca Carrol, and Bassey Ikpi was a guest in one of her episodes. Peter receives his marching orders from a strange old professor who dwells on the Troublesome Lake, so named because all the hopeless messages in bottles thrown into all the world’s seas eventually drift upon its shores. He is soon joined by an absurd but loyal knight who, for reasons too complex to go into here, has been transformed into a part-horse, part-kitten. Seamus until one night he stole a precious box of enchanted eyeballs that transported him on a magical adventure. He spent the better part of his childhood committing burglaries for a cruel master named Mr. He was raised by a family of cats and later learned to pick pockets and nick vegetables from market stalls. As a baby, he was found floating in a basket on the seashore, along with a raven that had apparently pecked his eyes out. It features a war between apes and ravens, an endless desert littered with shipwrecks, an island where all the seas in the world meet, and a blind boy whose keen senses of hearing, smell, and touch make him the greatest thief in the world. It is a world full of such possibilities as winged zebras, talking fish, curses, transfigurations, disappearing islands, and clockwork weaponry. This triumphantly weird, whimsical story takes place in a world where certain children are brave, resourceful, clever, and wise, and most adults are pitiful, silly, and easily duped into serving as slaves of a fiendish villain. 5/10/2023 0 Comments Bella tuscany by frances mayesThe people who live in Cortona have given me this book all I had to do is write. All thanks to my family and to Ed's-Bramasole's portone always will swing open to greet you. Many friends were important to me while I was writing this book: Josephine Carson, Susan MacDonald and Cole Dalton, Ann and Walter Dellinger, Robin and John Heyeck, Kate Abbe, Rena Williams and Steve Harrison, Todd Alden, Toni Mirosevich and Shotsy Faust-you're welcome to pull up a chair at my table anytime. Working with William Shinker, Trigg Robinson, Kathy Spinelli, Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich, Pei Loi Koay, and the entire staff at Broadway Books has been a pleasure. Special thanks to Dave Barbor, my foreign rights agent, and Douglas Stewart, both of Curtis Brown Ltd. My great thanks to Peter Ginsberg, my agent, and Charles Conrad, my editor at Broadway Books. |