![]() ![]() ![]() Loosely based on the author’s own experiences as a young immigrant from Abu Dhabi, Lailah is thrilled to be fasting for the first time. It’s not merely about food and abstinence it’s a special month dedicated to a spiritual cleansing of the body, mind, and soul, and a concerted effort to become closer to God. Regardless of where I lived, in India or the United States, I was occasionally hesitant to explain the purpose of fasting because the full scope of Ramadan is not always understood or appreciated. They were always surprised and impressed that I would fast for a month without eating or drinking anything from before sunrise until sunset. ![]() I don’t remember how I felt, but I do relate with Lailah, the protagonist of Reem Faruqi’s first book, Lailah’s Lunchbox, about having to explain the religious practice to friends. I was perhaps nine or ten years old when I first began fasting for Ramadan. ![]()
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![]() ![]() We don’t get to Civil War, or Secret Invasion, or House of M without the trials faced here by the likes of Captain America, Iron Man and company. You’ll find plenty of detractors, but for my money the level of universe-coordination and sense that these comics are building to something HUGE are part of what makes 2000-era Marvel Comics so enjoyable.Īnd it all really starts here with Avengers Disassembled. ![]() ![]() No, more than anything Avengers Disassembled kicks off the event-centric Marvel of the 2000’s. It’s not just the action within the pages of Avengers Disassembled either, although there’s some good, even great drama here. With Avengers Disassembled? They really weren’t kidding. THIS COMIC WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!! It’s understandable as a sales pitch, but there are few instances where it’s actually true. The above, of course, rings true for just about every Marvel solicit ever. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Every technical detail in Nimitz Class has been authenticated by Admiral Sir John Woodward, the senior British task group commander in the Falklands War, to ensure that every naval maneuver, every harrowing plot twist could really happen. Will it strike again? Baldridge will not rest until he brings his brother’s killers to justice, and as one clue leads to another, the deadly chase is on. ![]() A rogue submarine armed with a nuclear torpedo is on the loose, no one knows who commands it, who is on board or how it managed to reach striking range of the Thomas Jefferson. Commander Bill Baldridge of Naval Intelligence, brother of one of the victims, begins to piece together reports that suggest something sinister lurks beneath the surface of this tragedy. history, and the shockwaves reverberate around the world. It is the greatest peacetime disaster in U.S. The nuclear powered Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier Thomas Jefferson, the most powerful warship in the world, home to a crew of 6,000 sailors and navy fliers, has been vaporized at sea in what appears to be a nuclear accident. ![]() ![]() ![]() Leila isn’t particularly likable and yet she is sympathetic because she's so unbelievably naïve and obtuse, in spite of her brains and computer expertise. It was disturbing and also believable because Leila is reclusive and chooses to spend most of her time online within social media and chat room sites rather than fostering friendships in the real world. I thoroughly enjoyed reading along as Leila meets Tess (through emails and Skype) and begins the process of taking over her personality once Tess has “checked out.” The book is a fascinating exploration of this main theme (assuming another identity) especially as it relates to social media and the internet. So, Adrian, a menacing but charismatic computer chat room founder, easily targets and then grooms Leila to impersonate a woman (Tess) online after she commits suicide…so that family and friends are unaware of her death. Her only intimate relationship was with her mother (with MS) and she has died as the novel begins. She has led a private existence with few (if any) close friends. Leila is extremely bright but a most unreliable narrator as she is sorely unperceptive and socially inept. I loved this creepy, compelling, atypical suspense novel! I was engrossed in the story from beginning to end. ![]() ![]() ![]() When asked simple questions about global trends-why the world's population is increasing how many young women go to school how many of us live in poverty-we systematically get the answers wrong. Melinda Gates Instant New York Times bestseller #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller FACTFULNESS: the stress-reducing habit of only having opinions for which there are strong supporting facts. Explains why progress is so often secret and silent and teaches readers how to see it clearly. Barack Obama One of the most important books I've ever read-an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world. A hopeful book about the potential for human progress when we work off facts rather than our inherent biases. The international best-selling phenomenon loved by BARACK OBAMA and BILL GATES is now available in a gift edition with the illustrations in color throughout. ![]() ![]() ![]() Previously, Nina served as Curator at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA, and was the Experience Development Specialist at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. Nina authors the Museum 2.0 blog, which also appears as a column in Museum magazine. She is an adjunct professor of social technology in the University of Washington Museology program. In addition to design work, Nina lectures and gives workshops on visitor participation. At the beginning of 2009, Simon began working on a book called The Participatory Museum. She consults with museums around the world to design exhibitions, programs, and online experiences that engage visitors as co-creators and community members, not just consumers. She is the principal of Museum 2.0, a design firm that works with museums, libraries, and cultural institutions worldwide to create dynamic, audience-driven exhibitions and educational programs. Nina Simon is well known to museum folks as the author of the blog Museum 2.0. Nina Simon is an independent experience designer with expertise in participatory design, gaming, and social technology. ![]() ![]() ![]() Toho Studios and Courtesy of Michael Vito ![]() The highest-grossing animated film in Japan (surpassing Studio Ghibli’s Oscar-winning Spirited Away), as well as the fourth-highest Japanese movie overall, Kimi no Na wa went on to huge success internationally, particularly in China, and in the process, brought fame to some places you wouldn’t expect to be tourist destinations. This was no ordinary bus stop, but the site of a scene in the 2016 animated movie Kimi no Na wa, released in English as Your Name. Why would someone trek to an abandoned bus stop in rural Japan? The better question is: Why would a dozen people do it? When Vito got there, he joined a small crowd of tourists at the mundane location. Instead, the bus stop was his destination. He wasn’t there to catch a bus - a good thing, seeing as the town shut down service the previous year. Here’s a typical vacation for Michael Vito, an American living in China: a flight from his home in Shanghai to Tokyo then a sequence of four trains to get to Hida, a small city in Gifu prefecture followed by a 10-minute walk to a bus stop. ![]() ![]() ![]() Fer must unlock the secrets about the parents she never knew and claim her true place before the worlds on both sides of the Way descend into endless winter. But a powerful huntress named the Mór rules here, and Fer can sense that the land is perilously out of balance. ![]() Fer feels an instant attachment to this realm, where magic is real and oaths forge bonds stronger than iron. He knows who Fer truly is, and incites her through the Way, a passage to a strange, dangerous land. Then she saves an injured creature-he looks like a boy, but he’s really something else. Not when the forest is calling to her, when the rush of wind through branches feels more real than school or the quiet farms near her house. ![]() With her boundless curiosity and wild spirit, Fer has always felt that she doesn’t belong. Winterling, by Sarah Prineas, was published in 2012 by Harper. ![]() ![]() ![]() I was reminded of the fabulous, late Maeve Binchy recently when replying to Sharon’s comment about Bill Bryson’s retirement. Just conscious I haven’t mentioned the novel since 13th June but it has not been forgotten!) Perhaps the Duchess will show her commitment to the romance genre and join the Romantic Novelists’ Association? And I might rub shoulder-pads with her at one of the legendary RNA parties! (I’ve never been to one, by the way but perhaps one day…) So why, I wonder, does her name not appear on the front cover? Seems a bit mean not to credit her on the front!Īpparently, the dynamic duo are all signed up to write a second novel for M&B. The Duchess was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s ‘ Front Row’ programme and when asked about the ‘writing process’ with her co-author, she admitted that, having left school at 16, she had a ‘vision’ for the book but is “very much a director rather than an actual scribe” – which leads me to believe that Ms Kaye probably wrote all most of it. In other news, the Olympics have started, of course – and almost finished – (and typically I’ve only got into them towards the end) and Sarah, Duchess of York, has launched her first adult novel, ‘Her Heart For a Compass’, published by Mills & Boon and written ‘in partnership’ with veteran Mills & Boon author, Marguerite Kaye. ![]() ![]() ![]() Theme 2: Loss. Throughout the story, all the characters have experienced some kind of death in their lives. As the story progresses, you learn Minoru and Tane were also in need of Yutaka. ![]() Our Dining Table is about Yutaka finding a new family in young man Minoru and his four-year-old brother, Tane. He lost his parents at a young age, and relatives took him in, but he was never fully accepted. Theme 1: Found Family. Yutaka is a young man who has a difficult relationship with his adoptive family. All that changes when he meets Minoru and Tane - two brothers, many years apart in age - who ask him to teach them how to make his delicious food! It’s not long before Yutaka finds himself falling hard for the meals they share together - and falling in love!” (from the back of the book) Intro: “Eating around other people is a struggle for salaryman Yutaka, despite his talent for cooking. Ages of the protagonsists are early 20’s, and may be more interesting to an older teen audience. Our Dining Table, Story & Art by Mita Ori, 180 pages, Seven Seas Entertainment, 2019Īge Recommendation: Older Teen. ![]() |