![]() “Ah, ye might need that someday,†he said in his sweet brogue. One year the multi-head screwdriver that I found in my stocking puzzled me. Over the years my darling husband’s creativity has blossomed. My brothers pulled him aside, showed him how to wrap presents, and ran through the basic contents of a Christmas stocking. When I married my tall, quiet Irish carpenter in 1991, he was surprised to learn that handing each other presents, on Christmas morning, wrapped only in the store bag simply would not do. We always had an Advent wreath to help us remember to focus on the true meaning of the season. My mother and I made cookies and candy during the weeks leading up to Christmas to the sounds of seasonal music on the stereo. ![]() We tucked packages wrapped with care and adorned with ribbons and bows safely under a Christmas tree that glittered with lights and an assortment of cherished decorations. ![]() ![]() I grew up in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC with rich family traditions. First let me say that the Advent and Christmas seasons are my favorite times of the year and have been from my earliest memory. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Working in print and webcomics, Emma has illustrated projects with her radiant sister, writer Kit Steinkellner, including the teen rom-com webcomic Aces and the Eisner-nominated superhero coming-of-age story Quince with Fanbase Press and is the creator of the comic diary Pow Slam Sparkle. ![]() She is a graduate of Stanford University's department of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, where she created, wrote, and illustrated her thesis It Gets Weird, a science fiction sex ed graphic novel for adolescent readers and where she proclaimed herself "one of Stanford's most elite goons". ![]() ![]() The Okay Witch tells the story of 13-year-old Moth Hush, who learns that magic is to be expected when you're a Hush in an adventure that spans centuries, generations, and even worlds as Moth unravels the complicated legacy of witches at the heart of her town, her family, and herself. She is the author and illustrator of the middle grade graphic novel The Okay Witch (Aladdin, Fall 2019). Emma Steinkellner is an illustrator, cartoonist, and writer based in Los Angeles, CA. ![]() ![]() ![]() My review of I Shall Wear Midnight was the first entry in this Pump Don’t Work blog on July 23, 2011, the first of posts that now number over 1,000. ![]() I’m partial of the Tiffany Aching books because they’re very good, as good as any “adult” Discworld book, and a couple have been particularly important for me. ![]() In fact, he would get pretty dark, maybe especially dark, in such books.įive of those six YA novels feature a born witch named Tiffany Aching who’s all of nine when, in The Wee Free Men (2003), she’s called upon to save her world from living nightmares and other bona fide monsters seeking to invade from really terrible place called Fantasyland. It’s not like he reverted to words of single syllables or to Mother Goose ideas when he was writing a book that publishers sold as a YA novel. I mean, I don’t understand why anyone would divide Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels into those for adults (35) and those for young adults (6). ![]() ![]() ![]() She was originally chosen as one of many concubines to the young Emperor Hsien Feng. This is a biographical novel based on the life of Empress Tzu Hsi (Sacred Mother), the most powerful figure in late 19th century China and the real power behind the throne during the reigns of two of the last three weak Emperors in China. Buck including rare images from the author's estate. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Pearl S. ![]() Much has been written about Tzu Hsi, but no other novel recreates her life-the extraordinary personality, together with the world of court intrigue and the period of national turmoil with which she dealt-as well as Imperial Woman. When the emperor dies, she finds herself in a role of supreme power, one she'll command for nearly fifty years. Already set apart on account of her beauty, she's determined to be the emperor's favorite, and devotes all of her talent and cunning to the task. Born from a humble background, Tzu Hsi falls in love with her cousin Jung Lu, a handsome guard-but while still a teenager she is selected, along with her sister and hundreds of other girls, for relocation to the Forbidden City. ![]() Buck brings to life the amazing story of Tzu Hsi, who rose from concubine status to become the working head of the Qing Dynasty. Buck's remarkable account of the life of Tzu Hsi, the magnetic and fierce-minded woman from humble origins who became China's last empress In Imperial Woman, Pearl S. ![]() ![]() ![]() Rapunzel (whose dimensions are those of a fashion model) wanders through the forest like Disney's Snow White, dressed in gauzy pink garments and surrounded by deer, birds, and rabbits. Romantics will thrill to the flowers woven through Rapunzel's blond tresses, the delicate greenery hanging from her aerie, and the intricate, silhouetted details of the fixtures in cutaway views of various dwellings. Including the scary part about the prince being blinded in his fall from the tower and the couple's tearful reunion: "Rapunzel was horrified to see how badly hurt he was and she wept to see his poor eyes." British illustrator Gibb's retro-style artwork observes sentimental convention, too. ![]() ![]() This retelling of the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale hews closely to the original. ![]() ![]() ![]() “when Atlantic Monthly published one of Thoreau’s essays, called “Walking.” At present, in this vicinity, the best part of the land is not private property the landscape is not owned, and the walker enjoys comparative freedom. Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail ![]() A few quaint persons-boys chiefly-ride bicycles.” “They pretend that they are rushed, very busy, very energetic the fact is, they are lazy. ![]() But real walking … is as extinct as the dodo.” “They say they haven’t time to walk-and wait fifteen minutes for a bus to carry them an eighth of a mile,” wrote Edmund Lester Pearson in 1925. “That is, they shuffle along on their own pins from the door to the street car or taxi-cab…. ![]() “Of course, people still walk,” wrote a journalist in Saturday Night magazine in 1912. Charles Dickens captured the ecstasy of near-madness and insomnia in the essay “Night Walks” and once said, “The sum of the whole is this: Walk and be happy Walk and be healthy.” Robert Louis Stevenson wrote of “the great fellowship of the Open Road” and the “brief but priceless meetings which only trampers know.” Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche said, “Only those thoughts that come by walking have any value.” More recently, writers who knew the benefits of striking out excoriated the apathetic public, over and over again, for its laziness. “William Wordsworth was said to have walked 180,000 miles in his lifetime. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The new edition was released by Gallery Books in July 2022. Her second poetry book, changing with the tides, is a #1 amazon bestseller, originally released in 2019. ![]() Her longest collection yet, the book uncovers how our past - past relationships, memories, and ourselves - can haunt us. Her third poetry book, girl made of glass, is releasing January 24 with Central Avenue Publishing. Connect with her on Instagram and TikTok Twitter and on her website Shelby Leigh is a mental health poet writing about self-love, insecurities, anxiety, relationships and more. In addition to writing, Shelby runs an online poetry community with workshops and edits poetry books. ![]() Shelby Leigh is a mental health poet writing about self-love, insecurities, anxiety, relationships and more. ![]() ![]() The less stressed you are, the more pleasant your dreams may be.While most people dream in color, some dreams are entirely in black and white.Most dreams are predominantly visual, meaning that images are at the forefront of dreams, rather than other senses like smell or touch.If you just went on a date, your dream might be full of romance, or on the flip side, heartbreak, if you’re having anxiety about dating someone new.Ī “standard” dream will vary depending on the individual, but below are some features of dreams: ![]() ![]() If you’ve got job stress, your dreams might take place at work or involve your co-workers. Dreams can also bring to light what we’re avoiding thinking about or our anxieties.Īccording to research, 65 percent of the elements of dreams are associated with your experiences while awake. There’s no way, you might be thinking, but that’s only because we forget more than 95 percent of all dreams.ĭreaming happens throughout the night, but our most vivid and often remembered dreams happen during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.Ī dream can be influenced by what we’re thinking about before we go to sleep, or what we’ve experienced in our waking day. According to the National Sleep Foundation, we typically dream about four to six times per night. ![]() ![]() ![]() What I mean is that The Argonauts disrupts not only our preconceptions but also Nelson’s, the bromides and easy binaries by which identity and commitment are so often defined. There you have it: a magnificent anti-memoir of the brain and of the heart, in which intellect and lust and love-the mind-body problem-become blurred and interwoven in the most vivid ways. Does it get any better? What’s your pleasure? you asked, then stuck around for an answer.” “You had Molloy by your bedside,” Nelson recalls, referring to Samuel Beckett’s 1951 novel, “and a stack of cocks in a shadowy unused shower stall. ![]() This is clear from the opening paragraph, which describes an early sexual encounter with the author’s partner, Harry Dodge. ![]() How to describe Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts? To a very real extent, it is a love story, if an unconventional one. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Tim Federle’s “hilarious and heartwarming debut novel” ( Publishers Weekly) is full of broken curfews, second chances, and the adventure of growing up-because sometimes you have to get four hundred miles from your backyard to finally feel at home. ![]() There’s an open casting call for E.T.: The Musical, and Nate knows this could be the difference between small-town blues and big-time stardom. (Heck, he’d settle for seeing a Broadway show.) But how is Nate supposed to make his dreams come true when he’s stuck in Jankburg, Pennsylvania, where no one (except his best pal Libby) appreciates a good show tune? With Libby’s help, Nate plans a daring overnight escape to New York. His whole life, he’s wanted to star in a Broadway show. Highly recommended.” -Lin-Manuel Miranda, star and creator of the musical, HamiltonĪ New York Times Notable Book of the YearĪ Publishers Weekly Best Book of the YearĪ small-town boy hops a bus to New York City to crash an audition for E.T.: The Musical in this winning middle grade novel that The New York Times called “inspired and inspiring.” “The Nate series by Tim Federle is a wonderful evocation of what it’s like to be a theater kid. ![]() |