![]() Stumbling up the stone steps, he rattled the latches. ![]() What a bird, he whispered with a wicked grin.īut upon pivoting to confront the imposing main doors of the keep, he found his humor had quickly vanished. He shut the door to keep from pouncing back inside the carriage. Hurry back, Yer Grace.ĭamian could feel the swelling in his groin. With a bubbling laugh, she collapsed against the cushioned squab, hiking her skirt. ![]() Wait here, he gave the rough command to the driver, and then with a seductive growl, ordered the accommodating wench to do the same. ![]() A distant carriage fast approached, intruding upon the stillness, each squeak of the axle muffled by the fervid voices of the couple within.Ī black leather boot kicked open the carriage door and out stumbled an inebriated Damian Westmore, the Duke of Wembury, dubbed the Duke of Rogues by his peers. It was a quiet night, the earth sound asleep, lulled by a chorus of chirping crickets. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ‘The rise and fall of Maxmilian I, the doomed royal dupe, makes for a bleakly comic tale. ![]() The Last Emperor of Mexico is the vivid history of this barely known, barely believable episode - a bloody tragedy of operatic proportions, and a vital debacle, the effects of which would be felt into the twentieth century and beyond.Īvailable from Faber & Faber in the UK and Basic Books in the US. The ensuing saga would feature the great world leaders of the day, popes, bandits and queens intrigue, conspiracy and cut-throat statecraft, as Mexico became the pivotal battleground in the global balance of power, between Old Europe and the burgeoning force of the New World: American imperialism. This is history’s judgement on the events surrounding the ill-fated reign of Ferdinand Maximilian, the young archduke who in 1864 crossed the Atlantic to assume a faraway throne. ‘ A madness without parallel since Don Quixote,’ said a future French president. ![]() ‘One of the most monstrous enterprises in the annals of international history,’ said Karl Marx. The Last Emperor of Mexico tells the story of how Ferdinand Maximilian, a Habsburg archduke, once ruled Mexico in the mid-nineteenth century. ![]() ![]() ![]() Mirroring Thompson’s experience, Paul Kemp arrived at a newspaper that was like a sinking ship. (Despite rejection, the two remained lifelong friends.) Still desperate to get down to San Juan, Thompson accepted a more dubious position at El Sportivo, a fledgling English weekly about sports, and relocated in 1960. Thompson tried to get a job at The San Juan Star, but was rejected by the editor, William Kennedy, who went on to become a successful writer and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for his novel, Ironweed. ![]() Puerto Rico was like another West, where people dreamt of staking out a piece of paradise and getting rich. ![]() It was a certain kind of journalist that was drawn to this situation. The American journalists were there to report and, hopefully, to get caught in the currents. At the time, many Americans went to Puerto Rico in search of a piece of action in “America’s Caribbean.” The island was considered by tourism companies, developers and banks to be an undeveloped goldmine and suddenly, large sums of money were pouring in from all directions. ![]() Not published for another 30 years, the book chronicles the turbulent, alcohol-imbued times of Paul Kemp, a young American journalist working for a floundering English newspaper in San Juan. Thompson was 22 when he began work on The Rum Diary, a novel based on his own experiences working as a journalist in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1959. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Leeds finds himself in possession of an impossible photograph, showing a very famous scene from history, but in a different way–a way that, if it were true, could damage modern reality. Even more amusing is that the aspects know they aren’t real either, opening doors for odd, thought-provoking conversations between them and Leeds, their host.īut one crime arises which seems a little different from the rest. Each of them has a fluid and distinct personality and pattern of speech, delivered with such conviction that you forget they aren’t tangible characters in the story. The aspects interact with him, and one another, even possessing long-lasting histories together. Leeds knows these identities are not real, but they are so realistic to him that he decides it would be best to treat them just like he would any other person. All of Leeds’ various personae, or “aspects,” live with him in the mansion that he purchased off the rewards of a successful crime-solving lifestyle. ![]() Leeds has something almost like schizophrenia, if schizophrenia went Supersaiyan (to the layman, this means it became extremely superior). The plot itself, while hardly weak, paled in the shadow of the character of Leeds, the dominating interest and pull of the story. There are no (major) spoilers in this review. ![]() ![]() ![]() The coin seems to have a strange connection not only to Isaak's family, but to Mars' ancient past. Everything would have been fine if he hadn't found that ancient coin among his missing father's possessions. ![]() ![]() All Isaak wanted was to get through his senior year at the Academy in one piece. And to do that, she'll need the help of the mysterious alien boy named Isaak. But to build the device that can save her people, Nadin must first find the legendary city of Elytherios. When a strange boy from another world appears out of nowhere outside the citidome's glass walls, Nadin knows for sure that her plan will work. Nadin thinks she's found a way to save Iamos, but it will mean defying the planet's rulers, the geroi-and betraying the geroi could cost her everything. With only enough resources to support the population for one more year, time is running out. As its atmosphere drains away, her people are forced to live huddled in domed cities for protection. ![]() ![]() Barnes has brought a new level of precision to a popular slogan and has then set about defending it with all the familiar tools of contemporary analytic philosophy. "Elizabeth Barnes has written an interesting and important book about disability. "Elizabeth Barnes' new book offers a much-needed philosophical discussion of disability capitalizing on relevant research in bioethics, feminist philosophy and disability studies." - Elena Fell and Natalia Lukianova, The Philosophical Quarterly I would enthusiastically recommend this text to anyone interested in disability and philosophy, and especially to those new to philosophy." - Tessa-May Zirnsak, Metapsychology Online Reviews "I am happy to unequivocally say that this text makes a fascinating and groundbreaking contribution to feminist and disability philosophy. Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Global Public Health.The European Society of Cardiology Series. ![]() ![]() Oxford Commentaries on International Law. ![]() ![]() ![]() One of the most accomplished writers of the last 50 years, his awards include the 1989 Booker Prize for The Remains of the Day and a Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017. It hardly seems that Ishiguro needs help crafting indelibly memorable stories. Ishiguro appears Thu., April 15 in a virtual conversation with Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles and Circe, hosted by Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures. Because if I could figure this out, this would help me a lot.” I’ve been trying to figure out what is the magic formula, if there is one. “For a long time, I’ve been trying to crack this. “Sometimes books that you don’t even think are that good when you are reading them, they just stay with you for years and years,” Ishiguro says. Why do some books linger, he asks, and why do some, even if they are enjoyable, fade away? When told his latest novel, Klara and the Sun (Knopf), lingers long after its final pages, he wants to know why. Kazuo Ishiguro It’s a question that’s intrigued Kazuo Ishiguro since he started writing. ![]() ![]() ![]() I would say, though, that being Bruce Lee’s daughter and having people react to that piece of information in such overwhelming ways has made it a challenge to my own identity at times. ![]() ![]() ![]() After all, I’m not ashamed to be Bruce Lee’s daughter-I’m honored. If I skirted all the typical icebreaker questions such as “So what do you do?” and “And how did you get into that?” I started to feel not only like I was hiding, but actually lying through misdirection, and it didn’t feel good. But as I became an adult, I began to feel like I had a secret I was guarding, and the conversations became more difficult to avoid, especially after I started looking after my father’s legacy full-time. However, with most elementary school–age girls, that just meant a curious shrug of the shoulders before we put on our roller skates or rode our bikes. Of course, my friends would always find out eventually when they’d come over and see our family pictures on the walls. She said, “Let people get to know you for who you are without that information.” It was great advice, and for many years I skirted the issue in every conversation I could. When I was growing up, my mom used to tell my brother and me not to tell people that Bruce Lee was our dad. ![]() ![]() ![]() This certainly doesn’t mean that I’m quitting my day job, but it does give me a place to shed a little light on what it’s like to be a kid from Springfield, Virginia, walking through life while living out the crazy dreams I had as young musician. ![]() The joy that I have felt from chronicling these tales is not unlike listening back to a song that I’ve recorded and can’t wait to share with the world, or reading a primitive journal entry from a stained notebook, or even hearing my voice bounce between the Kiss posters on my wall as a child. Having entertained the idea for years, and even offered a few questionable opportunities (‘It’s a piece of cake! Just do four hours of interviews, find someone else to write it, put your face on the cover, and voila!’), I have decided to write these stories just as I have always done, in my own hand. ![]() ![]() With the help of her friends, Mildred sets out to prove that she is just as talented and capable as Ethel, and maybe even more so. In The Worst Witch Strikes Again, Mildred returns to school for her second year, only to find that her arch-nemesis Ethel has been made head girl. ![]() Along the way, she makes friends with the studious Maud Spellbody and the mischievous Enid Nightshade and clashes with her snobbish classmate Ethel Hallow. Despite her shortcomings, Mildred is determined to become a great witch and make her mark at Miss Cackle's Academy. In The Worst Witch, readers are introduced to Mildred Hubble, a clumsy and accident-prone young witch who is constantly getting into trouble at school. ![]() This box set includes all seven books in the series, from The Worst Witch to The Worst Witch and The Wishing Star. Written by British author Jill Murphy, the series follows the adventures of Mildred Hubble, a young witch at Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches. The Worst Witch is a classic children's book series that has captured the hearts of readers for generations. ![]() |