![]() ![]() A challenging read, but a strangely captivating one. Bernanos provides no easy or convenient answers and, for a Catholic novel which ends on a note of hope, it has more than its fair share of existentialist angst. It is also difficult because, as its title implies, it expresses its (not always obvious) theological/philosophical message through the medium of a fictional diary - which means long monologues and reminiscences of dialogues between the protagonist and fellow clerics and/or parishioners. ![]() ![]() First of all because it reflects the contradictions of its author - a devout Catholic who could be outspokenly critical of the Church, a reactionary monarchist with socialist ideals, a supporter of De Gaulle who became disillusioned with post-war France. A tale of a young, seemingly inept, parish priest in a remote French village, this is indeed a remarkable novel but not necessarily an enjoyable one. ![]() Bernanos is one of the greatest Catholic writers of the 20th Century and this book, winner of the 1936 Grand-Prix of the French Academy, is widely recognised as his masterpiece. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() Had he not felt such sympathy, he might not have held out, which shows that people can be prejudiced in their insistence on lack of prejudice too. Juror Eight’s insistence on the jury’s right and duty to investigate the evidence might seem at first like a rational, principled insistence on justice and due process, yet it is founded on his gut sympathy for the teenage defendant. To start with, each juror has a different take on his civic duty: some cherish it in the abstract as an American ideal, some are attached to it because of their personal experience of injustice, and many just want to come to a verdict so that they can get home fast. The men are anything but dispassionate when the deliberation process reveals their irrationalities and biases and makes them confront them. ![]() Instead, from its opening moments, it shows how both the juror’s motivations and their conceptions of justice are influenced, not entirely rationally or even consciously, by their personalities and experiences. A simple representation of the criminal justice system might be named Twelve Serious Men, and portray those men as diligently, rationally, and single-mindedly going through the evidence until they uncover the facts that reveal what actually happened between the son and his father on the night of the murder. Yet the play does not represent either the American criminal justice system or the abstract concept of justice as simple or clear. As a play portraying the deliberations of a jury in a murder trial, Twelve Angry Men is naturally concerned with the idea of justice. ![]() ![]() ![]() In the aftermath of his horrific injury, Sean spends a lot of time staring at hospital ceilings – face wrapped in bandages, ears ringing unbearably. Like Darnielle’s lyrics for his band the Mountain Goats, the prose is spare yet fervent, both distant and rawly exposed, making for an eerie, awkward and compelling novel that immediately demands a second read. Along the way it explores isolation, creativity and the permeable membrane between outer and inner worlds how childhood dreams and teenage obsessions colour the infinite expanses of the mind and how far we can share our interior journeys. ![]() John Darnielle’s elliptical debut novel, which was longlisted for a National book award in the US, circles around the question of what Sean knows, and what he is able or willing to tell us. ![]() And then of course the child asks why, and Sean has to say he doesn’t know. But when a five-year-old approaches him as he sits in the park, he finds himself explaining what happened. Most people can’t look at him, let alone ask about the “glistening folds and reconstructed arches” he is left with. ‘What did you do to your face?” Sean has led a solitary existence since the catastrophic incident half a lifetime ago, in a teenage bedroom in suburban California. ![]() ![]() One of the latter was "Nuggets," a magazine containing words of wisdom at funeral homes that comforted those who'd lost loved ones. He'd disliked his stint at an insurance agency, his wife said, and he spent time working for newspapers, including the Indianapolis Star, and other publications. He became close enough with some of his professors that Dark Rain said the couple visited them 30 to 40 years after he'd gone there. ![]() Writing helped, and he was encouraged to do that as a student at Butler University. Once Thom returned, he needed a way to process what he'd experienced, Dark Rain said. Living history: The history of James Thom's Owen County cabin The family later moved to Indianapolis, where he attended Arsenal Tech High School and then served in the U.S. James Thom was born May 28, 1933, in Gosport to medical doctors. ![]() ![]() "He treasured books only second to human beings," said Dark Rain Thom, his wife of almost 33 years. Thom won many honors, including induction as a member of the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame and was an Indiana Authors Awards Lifetime Achievement Honoree and National Winner.īut it was his humor, graciousness and easy connection with people that stuck with those who met him. ![]() ![]() ![]() The result is a tour de force - a book that raises countless questions about the nature of political and military power, about diplomacy and the nature of European civilization and about the legacy of the Empire, which has continued to haunt its offspring, from Imperial and Nazi Germany to the European Union. ![]() It is not a chronological history, but an attempt to convey to readers why it was so important and how it changed over its existence. In this strikingly ambitious book, Peter H. It was a great engine for inventions and ideas, it was the origin of many modern European states, from Germany to the Czech Republic, its relations with Italy, France and Poland dictated the course of countless wars - indeed European history as a whole makes no sense without it. Professor Wilson research interests are centred on the impact of war in European and World Development, as well as the history of the Holy Roman Empire. 'Hugely impressive.Wilson is an assured guide through the millennium-long labyrinth of papal-imperial relations' Literary Review A great, sprawling, ancient and unique entity, the Holy Roman Empire, from its founding by Charlemagne to its destruction by Napoleon a millennium later, formed the heart of Europe. ![]() Print The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe's History For concise treatment of these historiographical developments, see Wilson, Holy Roman Empire, 4-5. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() International in scope, covering countless countries, and handsomely illustrated (often with the original art), the 140 selections in The World Treasury of Children's Literature represent the finest traditional and modern favorites. Clifton Fadiman can remember to this day the wonder that he felt as a child when he opened a book and found "a surprise package stuffed with things I had no idea ever existed." Fadiman's lifelong love affair with books, which began at the age of four, is evident in this splendid anthology, which gives young children-and adults who can still summon up the child in themselves-a chance to explore the riches of books that will entertain, amuse, sadden, delight, mystify, and astonish. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Isenberg joins us to discuss her bestselling new book, "White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America." It is, as one critic for The Boston Globe has noted, "an eloquent synthesis of the country's history of class stratification, one that questions whether the United States is indeed a place where all are created equal. Harry Williams Professor of American History at LSU, writes regularly for, and was formerly on the History faculty here at The University of Tulsa. (Note: This program originally aired back in August.) On this edition of ST, we speak with the author and historian Nancy Isenberg, who is the T. ![]() ![]() ![]() Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review. We must accept that the creature known as Bigfoot walks among us–and that it is a beast of terrible strength and ferocity. ![]() Kate’s is a tale of unexpected strength and resilience, of humanity’s defiance in the face of a terrible predator’s gaze, and inevitably, of savagery and death.īecause if what Kate Holland saw in those days is real, then we must accept the impossible. In these pages, Max Brooks brings Kate’s extraordinary account to light for the first time, faithfully reproducing her words alongside his own extensive investigations into the massacre and the legendary beasts behind it. ![]() until now.īut the journals of resident Kate Holland, recovered from the town’s bloody wreckage, capture a tale too harrowing–and too earth-shattering in its implications–to be forgotten. Goodreads blurb: The #1 bestselling author of World War Z takes on the Bigfoot legend with a tale that blurs the lines between human and beast–and asks what we are capable of in the face of the unimaginable.Īs the ash and chaos from Mount Rainier’s eruption swirled and finally settled, the story of the Greenloop massacre has passed unnoticed, unexamined. ![]() ![]() ![]() Catlin and Florian, being trained killers, get this the most, like when Catlin casually shows Ari II how to break somebody's neck (with Florian risking his quite literal neck as the assistant) as a cute trick. ![]() Acting Your Intellectual Age: Notably averted, with incredibly gifted children using their gifts like, well, children, often to a truly disturbing degree.Justin half-sarcastically, half-nervously refers to this situation as "a Children's Crusade". A Child Shall Lead Them: By the end of Regenesis, Ari II has ended up as Acting Head of Reseune Security twice, and due to Catherine Lao's deathbed designation of her as Proxy, ends the book as Councilor of Information, although she makes Justin her Proxy as soon as possible. ![]() The novel chronicles the life of Ariane (Ari) Emory II and Justin Warrick, both clones (PR) of Specials, and Grant, an azi based on the genome of another Special and the companion and later lover of Justin. Engineered humans called 'azi' (an acronym of 'artificial zygote insemination') are enslaved and certain geniuses who are certified as "Specials" are essentially above law. Cyteen is the capital of Union, a interstellar society based on human cloning, genetic engineering and technologies in psychology that verge onto mind control. ![]() Cherryh set in the Alliance/Union universe. Cyteen is a 1988 science fiction novel by C. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() But just so we’re clear…you’re not going to shoot me again, are you? Thanks for coming to hang out with me today. Kimberly (getting comfortable in the creaky old desk chair): Hey, Noah. Here’s what he had to say about green vegetables, his Kung Fu movie addiction, and the very best way to get to his heart. So with that in mind, I “hung out” with Noah Blackwell, the hero from my new release, Love On The Line. I often joke that my head is one great big carnival of weird, and arguably, the best ride at the show comes from the characters I create. ![]() Without further ado, please enjoy the interview with hunky Noah and his creator Kimberly: We will also be giving away a free copy of Love on The Line to a random lucky commenter, so don’t forget to enter in the comments section of this blog post for your chance to win. Kimberly will be interviewing him and asking him some very specific questions to help us get to know him better. Also joining us is Noah, the ruff and gruff police detective in Love on The Line. I am pleased to welcome foodie romance author Kimberly Kincaid to the blog today as we celebrate her latest novella release Love on The Line. ![]() |