![]() ![]() ![]() Jean Finnegan arrives in the Mallee in 1934, as part of the forces of progress, on a government train bringing “science” to the farmers, with the confident expectation of prosperity and progress to follow. Yet sparse doesn’t mean thin all of Australia’s 20th-century history is here – the struggle to find a workable relationship with an ancient continent, to come to terms with its place in Asia, two world wars, the Depression, stories that are indeed not just Australian, but universal. As a veteran of the Australian bush, I can confirm that no form of expression could be more apt words are mere occasional punctuation of a real bushies’ silence. ![]() ![]() “Spare”, “sparse”, “laconic” are the adjectives that might be applied to this account of one woman’s life in the Victoria Mallee, a wheat-growing region that suffered the same fate as the American dustbowl states. Such writers should be sentenced to read Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living, the Orange Prize-shortlisted first novel of the Australian Carrie Tiffany. Far too many writers with hopes of being labelled “literary” believe achieving that status requires them to pile in the adjectives and adverbs, to describe their hero’s every twitch and turn, the leaf of every tree she sits under, the state of every cloud above. ![]()
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![]() ![]() And in seeking to help Mawat reclaim his city, Eolo discovers that the Raven's Tower holds a secret. ![]() It is into this unrest that the warrior Eolo - aide to Mawat, the true Lease - arrives. And they have made their own alliances with other gods. The kingdom borders are tested by invaders who long for the prosperity that Vastai boasts. And under the Raven's watch, the city flourishes.īut the power of the Raven is weakening. His magic is sustained via the blood sacrifice that every Lease must offer. His will is enacted through the Raven's Lease, a human ruler chosen by the god himself. He watches over his territory from atop a tower in the powerful port of Vastai. "Absolutely wonderful.utterly brilliant." ( The New York Times Book Review)įor centuries, the kingdom of Iraden has been protected by the god known as the Raven. ![]() Gods meddle in the fates of men, men play with the fates of gods, and a pretender must be cast down from the throne in this breathtaking first fantasy novel from Ann Leckie, New York Times best-selling author and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Shortlisted for the 2020 World Fantasy Award ![]() ![]() ![]() The only other thing they have in common is that they are becoming vampires. All three girls are students at the prestigious Duchesne college, but have different backgrounds. ![]() The story is an intriguing mix of secrets and illusion wrapped up in glamorous privilege and exclusivity. The story is mainly told in the third person from the viewpoints of Schuyler Van Alen, an impoverished misfit with an old money ancestry, spoilt It-girl Mimi Force, and Mimi’s friend, fish out of water Texan transplant Bliss Llewellyn. In her Blue Bloods series, De la Cruz has combined the current paranormal romance trends of fallen angels with vampires and set them against the backdrop of New York glamour where she makes her living. Melissa de la Cruz is a very clever writer. Decadence has begun yet another series, and this month she reviews the first four books of the Blue Bloods series by Melissa de la Cruz.īlue Bloods Boxed Set (Books 1-3) by Melissa de la Cruz This month’s Mixed Bag has a slightly different format. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Prepare to fall in love with Flash: a quirky, unlikely hero with gigantic ears, a deafening bray, a personality as big as Texas, and a story you'll never forget. Flash is the true story of their adventures together in learning to love and trust breaking down whatever fences stood in their way and finding the strength, confidence, and faith to carry on. She brought Flash into her struggling family during their darkest hour-and he turned out to be the very thing they needed most. The local sheriff dismissed Flash as "worthless." But Rachel didn't believe that, and she couldn't turn him away. If there is ever a good time to discover a wounded, frightened, bedraggled donkey standing in your driveway, this wasn't it. Flash was in one of the authors earlier books, Flash: The Homeless Donkey that Taught Me about Life, Faith, and Second Chances. ![]() ![]() How would her family pay their bills? What would the future hold? If only God would somehow let them know that everything was going to be all right. O, I absolutely adore Flash The Donkey Makes New Friends And guess what Its based on a real stray donkey adopted by author and illustrator, Rachel Anne Ridge. She had been a successful artist, doing work she loved, but now she felt like a failure. The economy had crashed, taking her formerly thriving business along with it. Rachel Anne Ridge was at the end of her rope. The heartwarming tale of an irrepressible donkey who needed a home-and forever changed a family. ![]() ![]() Which can quite fairly be interpreted as a call for the gender identity equivalent of genocide. "The problem of transsexualism would best be served by morally mandating it out of existence.” Sandy Stone has responded in The Empire Strikes Back: A Post-Transsexual Manifesto. ![]() As a result, Sandy Stone and Olivia Records were deluged with hate mail and death threats. In Transsexual Empire, Janice Raymond includes sections that viciously attack Sandy Stone, a trans woman who had worked as a sound engineer for Olivia Records, and Christy Barsky. Her hate speech against trans people almost completely ignores the existence of transgender men, focusing her hate almost exclusively upon transgender women- just like most men who rail against trans people. ![]() “ ” All transsexuals rape women’s bodies by reducing the real female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves. ![]() ![]() Written in a chatty, wide-eyed American style that recalls in-flight magazines and travel features, it is low on heavyweight analysis but full of sensationalist interest, ranging well outside Egypt to include everything from Catholic saints to Lenin's mausoleum. Pringle opens her book with a conference of mummy enthusiasts in South America, using it to frame a fairly undemanding collection of journalistic pieces about preserved bodies of one kind and another. ![]() As a museum curator says in Heather Pringle's The Mummy Congress, "The first thing people ask us when they come in the doors is 'Where are the mummies?'" Our enduring fascination with the everlasting dead is a central part of these two books, which both feature totally obsessed experts and jostling museum crowds. The mummy has returned to the big screen this summer, but it feels like it's never been away. ![]() ![]() ![]() I was given the role (quite suitable now I think about it more) of Cassandra, the fortune-teller and daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. When I was 9 years old we did a play called Troy at my primary school. Troy is where my love of all things Greek mythology started. ![]() So, this book is based before, during and after the sacking of Troy. Need a bit more? Clytemnestra was the sister of Helen of Troy – the face that launched a thousand ships. That being said, I know that a lot of people loved it so I will post the link to my review below and let you make your own minds up.įor anyone who isn’t quite sure who Elektra is she is the youngest child of King Agamemnon of Mycenae and his wife Clytemnestra. I gave the book 2 stars on Goodreads and though that feels a little mean, I am going to stick by that because of issues I personally had with the story. In July of 2021, I reviewed Jennifer Saint’s first mythologically focused novel, Ariadne for my podcast, and though this genre remains one of my favourites the book was not what I had expected. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Though all can be read as a stand alone, there are Easter Eggs for those that read in order as books intersect. Can she fight her growing attraction for him? Does she want to? ** This is the LAST book in the Contemporary Mythos series. His emotions are the strongest she's ever felt-borderline overwhelming. Tensions flare as the two immediately butt heads, but there's something about Zane she can't put her finger on. So when she discovers Zane Vronti, one of New York's finest, has been brought in on her newest murder case, it's anything but good news. There's nothing Keira Bazin dislikes more than defense lawyers. Or does she? An empath criminal prosecutor. Too bad the one woman he has his sights on wants nothing to do with him. Zeus/Zane, King of the Greek gods, holds the world in his palm in both his mortal and godly form… until Hera leaves him, forcing him to uphold Gaea's clause: There must always be a Queen, or he loses his title and part of his power along with it. A god-king disguised as a criminal defense lawyer. ![]() ![]() ![]() The book is likely to stir a deeper interest in this path amidst the diversity of spiritual perspectives and alternatives available today. “Call of the Infinite is a concise and clear introduction to the major concepts of Shin Buddhism, a tradition that has received scant attention from those with a Western background. It also suggests why Shin Buddhism has so much to offer in fruitful dialogue and collaboration with its Christian brothers and sisters. ![]() Written by a Shin priest, it shows very well why this form of Buddhism-real Buddhism, a form of Buddhism very different from the many popular images of it current in the West-might appeal to modern seekers depressed and frustrated with the decadent and sterile world around them. This thoughtful short outline of its spirituality is distinguished by its clarity, enthusiasm, and indeed its high level of accuracy. From the beginning, Shin was a highly sophisticated lay form of Buddhism. Shin ('Pure Land') Buddhism manages to be, simultaneously, one of the most widely practiced forms of this tradition (the largest Buddhist school in Japan) and the least understood in the West. Synopsis: Buddhism is much more diverse and multifaceted than many people think. ![]() ![]() ![]() Can he convince Zane that he’s worth navigating a family of psychopaths and tolerating an almost too close for comfort twin? Or will Zane learn the hard way that the Mulvaney boys always get what they want? Always. Zane is suspicious of Asa’s motives and half-convinced he’s dead either way, but he won’t say no to a chance to peek behind the Mulvaney family curtains.Īs the two unravel a sinister plot, Asa’s obsession with Zane grows and Zane finds being Asa’s sole focus outweighs almost anything, maybe even his career-which is good for Asa because loving a Mulvaney is a full-time job. ![]() When Asa’s father asks him to look into it, he sees the perfect opportunity to exploit his little crime reporter and make him fall in line. When an invitation to a boring fundraiser lands him not beside Thomas, as he had hoped, but Asa Mulvaney, they share an intensely passionate encounter that leaves Zane trapped in a cage of his own making.Īt a nearby college, a cluster of suicides isn’t what it seems. ![]() Zane Scott is a small-time crime blogger, but he dreams of a byline in a major paper and his suspicions surrounding Thomas Mulvaney are about to make that dream a reality. So, when an experiment separates Asa and his brother, Asa is forced to navigate the world on his own for the first time in his life. ![]() In the Mulvaney family, murder is the family business and business is good. He and his twin brother live together, party together.kill together. Asa Mulvaney is half of a psychopathic whole. ![]() |