“It chronicles the work that was done largely by patients and activists who schooled themselves in science and then confronted this kind of lackadaisical research establishment, to help by joining in as partners identify, test and bring to market the medication that has made HIV largely a survivable and treatable condition.”ĭavid France is the author of Our Fathers, a book about the Catholic sexual abuse scandal, which Showtime adapted into a film. “ How to Survive a Plague is a witness account of the plague years of the AIDS epidemic, the years between 19 where there was no effective medical treatment for an HIV infection and death was almost certain. In an interview given for the awards ceremony, David France comments: He describes the founding of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and TAG (Treatment Action Group), the rise of an underground drug and the gripping – and often heartbreaking – march towards a lifesaving medical breakthrough. David France has been named the winner of the £30,000 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for How to Survive a Plague, published by Picador.ĭavid France, a chronicler of AIDS from the earliest days, uses his unparalleled access to the activist community to illuminate the lives of dozens of extraordinary characters.
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Look elsewhere if an epic hero’s journey tale is what you want. No one is saving the world as they know it, nor will anyone perish if Halla’s quest to have Silas’s will honored fails. Vernon also expands the boundaries of this world from what we saw in the also excellent Clocktaur duology.Ĭompared to those books, not much is at stake in Swordheart. The banter between the two would make any screwball comedy fan shiver with glee. The romance unfolds organically, rather than as an enforced meet-cute. Her touch feels light, but is a skilled breeziness that is surprisingly deep. While Sarkis and Halla are wonderfully drawn, fully fleshed-out characters, what makes the story really crackle is Vernon’s silliness and heart, both of which thrum just under the story. Halla is about to fling herself onto a sword in order to escape a forced marriage to the cousin when Sarkis appears. The financial support is exactly what Halla needs, but her aunt and cousin connive to keep it from her. Halla’s uncle Silas has just died and left her his worldly goods. This title is a witty romance between a very respectable widow, Halla, and Sarkis, a warrior trapped in an enchanted sword. Swordheart, which is set in her Clocktaur War world but has nearly nothing to do with the events of Clockwork Boys and The Wonder Engine, is most definitely a book for grown-ups. Kingfisher when the work is more suited to adults. Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Ursula Vernon, best known for her middle-grade Hamster Princess books, writes as T. The result is a visual feast, evocative and cinematic, rich with themes of loyalty and betrayal, hope and despair. He blends animal stories and high fantasy in an immersive illustration style that speaks of his background as a printmaking major, crafting a thoroughly and lovingly detailed mouse civilization. The animal-fantasy premise draws inevitable comparisons to Redwall and Watership Down, but Peterson’s main inspiration was the medieval role-playing games he fell in love with as a kid. I am one of those fans, and a recent rereading of the series gave me a new appreciation for the power and artistry at work here. The series has won four Eisners and hit the New York Times bestseller list, as well as garnering the greatest award of all: a cult following of loyal fans. Mouse Guard is a graphic novel series by David Peterson, published by Archaia comics. But who seeks out the safe ways from village to village? Who patrols the borders and defends the paths from savage beasts and the weasel armies? Blacksmiths, masons, healers, and craftsmice ply their trades in grand cities and small townships, from the libraries of Lockhaven to the homey inn in Barkstone. He also draws a contrast between communities and “networks,” with communities being healthy, and schools being examples of networks. It makes it clear to them that they cannot hide, because they are always supervised. It teaches them a kind of self-confidence that requires constant confirmation by experts (provisional self-esteem).ħ. It makes them intellectually dependent.Ħ. It teaches them to accept their class affiliation.ĥ. One sees and hears something, only to forget it again.Ģ. Apart from the tests and trials, this programming is similar to the television it fills almost all the “free” time of children. It presents an incoherent ensemble of information that the child needs to memorize to stay in school. This is the essence of John Taylor Gatto’s argument against the predominant form of modern schooling in the United States and around the world:ġ. He was named New York City Teacher of the Year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991. He was the kind of life-changing teacher that transforms the lives of his students and empower them to realize their creative potential (I recommend watching Dead Poet’s Society for a good example of the power of a life-changing teacher). Gatto was a revolutionary educator and the author of an excellent history of modern schooling called Weapons of Mass Instruction. I discovered John Taylor Gatto when I when I read the book Bomb The Suburbs as a teenager. They are free to love, to hate, to go to work, and do all the things that people do, except worry. They might have sexual relationships with one another, they might fall in and out of love with each other, they might have conflicts with each other, power struggles, or squabbles over resources. The characters in these TV shows, despite the derisive cackles of the maddening crowd that hangs in the luminiferous ether between them, do not have to worry. Bruno Littlemore just got better and better, carrying the reader to a symphonic conclusion.īut along the way, Hale takes on sitcoms, But, let's be honest: he didn't always know how to end them. Saramago rode great ideas to a Nobel (although he must have run out about the time he wrote The Double, stealing it from Dostoevsky and just removing the quotation marks and punctuation). (And yes, I'm talking about you, Kevin Brockmeier). So often, though, the author can't sustain it. I've read many books based on great ideas. Now, restart with a great idea: a chimpanzee who learns to speak, who evolves in starts and fits into Man. No, to start: That is the greatest cover for a book, ever. Hale, a literary Incubus, seduces with timelessly crafted sentences on every page. What a debut! He knows his Shakespeare and has captured his rhythm. Benjamin Hale is scary smart and as good a writer as it is legal to be. Murphy has normally traveled alone and unaided, without luxuries andĭepending on the hospitality of local people. In 2005 she visited Cuba with her daughter and three granddaughters. She later wrote about her solo trips through Romania, Africa, Laos, the states of the former Yugoslavia, and Siberia. Pakistan, South America, Madagascar and Cameroon. Murphy took a break from travel writing following the birth of herĭaughter, and then wrote about her travels with Rachel in India, She followed this by volunteering with Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal, and trekking with a mule through Ethiopia. Murphy is best known for her 1965 book Full Tilt: Ireland to India With a Bicycle, about an overland cycling trip through Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Dervla Murphy (born November 28, 1931, Ireland) is an Irish touring cyclist and author of adventure travel books for over 40 years. Rest assured, there will be a rant on that, with many words starting with F and ending in UCK, but for now, let's stick to the main issue at hand, which is to say, the problem with this book is the fact that it is a goddamned romance and nothing more, complete with much sighing, much longing, much "I CAN SEE HIS SOUL THOUGH HIS EYES" crap and a love triangle. Let's just overlook the fact that there are fucking rape farm/breeding houses for a moment, because there are bigger problems at play here. I am so fucking sick of heroines who spend their supposedly ass-kicking selves sobbing and crying and fucking feeeeeeeeeeling things and checking out her fellow half-naked soldiers wondering things like, my god, how did I not notice how fucking HOT his body looks when he's dripping with sweat! It's a fucking reverse harem! I am just so bloody tired of so-called bad-ass heroines who do fucking nothing to prove that they're capable. Blood flows overwhelmingly to the penis instead of the brain. John’s rugged good looks and chiseled body compel Jasira to reach out and touch him. Unable to resist the need to see him again, she enters the warrior’s room while he sleeps. Jasira Eversole is drawn to the powerfully built outlander sitting at the king’s table. He quickly learns the true meaning of nightmare when he discovers his soul mate is of “the mist.” To ease the terror he feels for his family, John seeks the identity of his secret admirer. Tormented by thoughts of his family being massacred or captured by the enemy, he focuses on returning to aid them until he experiences a mind-boggling kiss that can only come from the one he is meant to share his life with. He escapes the enemy’s invasion, only to find himself stranded on a distant planet called Surreal. Seacat John McCall labels the attack on the Sea-anan Empire as a nightmare. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. In Factfulness, Professor of International Health Hans Rosling - together with his two long-time collaborators Anna and Ola - offers a radical new explanation of why this happens, and reveals the ten instincts that distort our perspective. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently outguess journalists, Nobel laureates, and investment bankers. 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. 'One of the most important books I've ever read - an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world.' - Bill Gates Barbara Goldsmith draws on ten years of research and letters, diaries, newspaper clippings, and court transcripts to tell the story of a woman who embodied - and lived - the tumults that were shaping the America of her time. All of these people play major roles in this compelling book. The cast includes Victoria Woodhull, spiritual and financial advisor to Commodore Vanderbilt Tennessee Claflin, sister of Victoria Henry Ward Beecher, the great preacher of Brooklyn's Plymouth Church Lib Tilton, angelic, obedient wife of Theodore Tilton Elizabeth Cady Stanton Anna Dickinson, model for Verena Tarrant in Henry James's The Bostonians Horace Greeley, editor of the Tribune and Anthony Comstock, U.S. Goldsmith’s book is considerably more than a narrow biography of Woodhull she also includes a detailed history of the spiritualist and suffrage movements and attempts to re-create the politics. This is history at its most vivid, set amid the battle for woman suffrage, the Spiritualist movement that swept across the nation (10 million strong by midcentury) in the age of Radical Reconstruction following the Civil War, and the bitter fight that pitted black men against white women in the struggle to win the right to vote. |