![]() ![]() ![]() She also finds herself increasingly drawn to Mohan, an Indian man she meets while on assignment. While Meena’s fate hangs in the balance, Smita tries in every way she can to right the scales. As she follows the case of Meena-a Hindu woman attacked by members of her own village and her own family for marrying a Muslim man-Smita comes face to face with a society where tradition carries more weight than one’s own heart, and a story that threatens to unearth the painful secrets of Smita’s own past. Indian American journalist Smita has returned to India to cover a story, but reluctantly: long ago she and her family left the country with no intention of ever coming back. In this riveting and immersive novel, bestselling author Thrity Umrigar tells the story of two couples and the sometimes dangerous and heartbreaking challenges of love across a cultural divide. ![]() “In the way A Thousand Splendid Suns told of Afghanistan’s women, Thrity Umrigar tells a story of India with the intimacy of one who knows the many facets of a land both modern and ancient, awash in contradictions.” -Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours ![]()
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![]() We can all create it, and benefit from it, and it is more urgent than ever that we start now. And one thing is clear: real human connection is a medical necessity if we want to stay healthy, emotionally and physically. The solutions are deceptively simple and easily applicable - and the effects are transformative. Instead of coming together to take on the great challenges before us, we will further retreat to our cornersangry, sick, and alone. ![]() ![]() His search led him to talk to doctors, scientists, parents and community members around the world. In this ground-breaking book, he traces the roots of the problem, and shows how loneliness lies behind some of our greatest personal and social challenges, from anxiety and depression to addiction and violence. But what effect is it having on us, and how can we treat it - even at a distance? Murthy's prescient book reveals the importance of human connection, the hidden impact of loneliness on our health, and the social power of community.When Obama appointed him Surgeon General of the United States, Dr Vivek Murthy observed the growing health crisis of isolation first-hand. ![]() Pink, author of Drive'Fascinating, moving and essential reading' - Atul Gawande'This book is a gift for us all.' - Susan Cain, author, QuietThe world seems more connected than ever, and yet even before the world went into lockdown, loneliness was at epidemic levels. President Obama's and President Biden's appointment as US Surgeon General'The most important book you'll read this year' Daniel H. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The hippo swallows him, but instead of being digested, he's transported to a different world called Lyrian. While leaning over the hippo tank's guard rail, he falls in. ![]() Jason leads a relatively normal life until one day at the zoo, when he notices strange music coming from the mouth of a hippo. It is the first in the Beyonders trilogy.īeyonders follows the exploits of a slightly neglected, thirteen-year-old boy, Jason Walker. A World Without Heroes (Beyonders #1), Brandon Mullīeyonders: A World Without Heroes is a 2011 fantasy novel written by American author Brandon Mull. ![]() ![]() This was perhaps because as through her character the reader joins the search for answers into why the Villarca family is cursed with the ghost of Rawblood. I found Iris’ story the more interesting of two. ![]() The two stories are connected through Iris’ father and Charles’ friend Alonso Villarca, the Villarca’s ancestral mansion of Rawblood and the ghostly spectre that haunts the house and the family. ![]() One follows Charles, a doctor in the late 19 th Century while the other follows Iris, a teenager living in the early 20 th Century. The first two-thirds of Rawblood feature two separate narratives. The first chapter began strongly with a foreboding promise of destruction…that I waited and waited for. One by one, she had taken us all”, had me captivated and I was excited to begin reading. The words emblazed on the book’s cover: “She comes in the night. The blurb promised scenes of thriller and the gothic. ![]() Originally Published in 2016 by Weidenfeld & Nicolsonīefore I had even opened the book I was fascinated by the creeping black tree branches and murky blue background featured on the front and back cover. ![]() ![]() Most of the text contains cut-off due to tight bindingĪccess-restricted-item true Addeddate 18:07:03 Boxid IA40282209 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-219) and index As he concludes, the Southwest is still home to vibrant Native American communities who carry on many of the old traditions. For this revised edition, he discusses new research and its implications for our understanding of the prehistoric Southwest. Interweaving the latest archaeological evidence with early first-person accounts, Stephen Plog explains the rise and mysterious fall of Southwestern cultures. The high point of Southwestern civilization was reached with the emergence of cultures known as Anasazi, Hohokam, and Mogollon in the first millennium AD. The initial hunter-gatherer bands gradually adapted to become sedentary village groups. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Ten thousand years ago, humans first colonized this seemingly inhospitable landscape with its scorching hot deserts and upland areas that drop below freezing even during the early summer months. Here lie some of the monuments of America's prehistoric past, such as Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. Most people are familiar with the famous pre-Columbian civilizations of the Aztecs and Maya of Mexico, but few realize just how advanced were contemporary cultures in the American Southwest. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() We also talk all about her Matched to Perfection series, the latest of which is Their Perfect Melody–featuring a victim’s advocate heroine and a hero who’s a Spanish guitar playing Chicago PD officer. This is the first book Ive read by Priscilla Oliveras and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We’re joined this week by award winning romance author Priscilla Oliveras to chat about how she got her start in romance, her experiences as an RWA board member (and some of the challenges the organization faces), and how her characters become like family to her. ![]() ![]() ![]() The book is more subtle than that, a confrontation with how U.S. Its subtitle - “Being American in the World We’ve Made” - suggests that influence only runs one way, that Americans go galumphing about the world while everyone else sits passively awaiting their fate. The book begins with the admirably cosmopolitan premise that one might learn something about the United States by asking people elsewhere how things look from their point of view. The political disquisition wrestles with the future of American power around the world but also with what it means to be an American at home: How should liberals understand their country’s history at a time when the left “sees America as doomed to do no good in the world” and the right doubles down on an unthinking patriotism? These three approaches do not always work seamlessly together, but they reflect Rhodes’s varied identities: speechwriter, podcaster, national security expert, everyday dad troubled by the state of the world. The travel diary takes us to Hungary, Russia and China, where Rhodes interviews dissidents (including the recently jailed Alexei Navalny) in an effort to understand the ever-faster creep of authoritarianism around the world. The personal memoir describes Rhodes’s journey from his Upper East Side childhood to Obama’s speechwriting room - not far to go as a general matter, perhaps, but interesting in its specifics. Such questions are at the heart of Ben Rhodes’s “After the Fall,” a combination of personal memoir, travel diary and political disquisition. ![]() ![]() ![]() I've read my share of them, and the majority have been fairly horrible. ![]() ![]() Parallel universes are a tricky topic in fiction. As time runs out, Sasha finds herself torn between two worlds, two lives, and two young men vying for her love-one who knows her secret, and one who believes she's someone she's not. If Sasha succeeds in fooling everyone, she will be returned home if she fails, she'll be trapped in another girl's life forever. To prevent imminent war, Sasha must slip into the life of an alternate version of herself, a princess who has vanished on the eve of her arranged marriage. Sasha never believed such worlds were real-until now, when she finds herself thrust into one against her will. When she was young, she loved her grandfather's stories of parallel worlds, inhabited by girls who looked like her but led totally different lives. Sixteen-year-old Sasha Lawson has only ever known one small, ordinary life. Many worlds, many lives-infinite possibilities. Fans of Matched, Across the Universe, and The Hunger Games will love this captivating tale of rebellion and romance that spans parallel worlds. ![]() ![]() coupled with squabbling siblings, archery practice gone amiss, and ill-fated dives into the moat. Kidnapping, fighting, a ferocious dragon, loyal elves, and true love. Wait-a dragon? Not sure they can believe Meg’s tales, the kids return again and again to hear the evolving, fantastical story of their mother’s escapades (while putting their fussiest penmanship to work) and get caught up in a quest to reunite the onetime friends. ![]() Meg claims that she was a friend of their mother’s back when the two were kids-even before the dragon lived in the castle. But then they discover Meg, a cranky scribe who lives in the castle basement, leading a quirky group of artists in producing party invitations and other missives for the nobles above. ![]() Noble children Thomas and Emily have always known their mother to be sensible, the lady of the castle-if anything, a bit boring. Raise the drawbridge for a story-within-a-story melding classic fairy-tale trappings with contemporary, tongue-in-cheek wit, abundantly illustrated in black-and-white-a perfect family read. ![]() ![]() ![]() Gwaine wanted his warmth on his skin, but how could he compete when Lancelot was getting all of his attention? Merlin was a supernova, amazing and untamable. ![]() Merlin was Gwaine's world and Gwaine suffered when he noticed that he wasn't Merlin's. Yes, Gwaine was a nobleman and Lancelot wasn't.īut that means nothing compared to Merlin's soft smile, Merlin's attention, Merlin's kind words. Gwaine ground his teeth as he watched Merlin and Lancelot laugh. What did Lancelot have that Gwaine didn't? Why didn't Merlin's eyes sparkle when Gwaine smiled? Why did Merlin's eyes sparkle when he smiled? He searched for Merlin, usually by Arthur's side.Īnd frowned when he saw him with Lancelot.Īnd his gentle and kind soul only made Gwaine angrier. ![]() He was on his horse, riding under the sun and following Arthur. Gwaine realized it one day, he remembered it quite well. He was happy and satisfied with all the free adventures he had.Ī mutual exchange, maybe some deep conversations. Gwaine didn't want all the suspicions, the pain and the hate. So, where would be the point in trying to hold them against their will? If they didn't want to stay, nothing Gwaine did would hold them back. He wasn't possessive, not of people, at least. Of course, he was thoughtful and attentive. Gwaine never thought of himself as someone jealous. ![]() |