![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Except Vega is determined to get her old life back. To help her settle into her new life in Seattle, her parents send Vega off to summer camp to make new friends. Forced to leave her one and only best friend, Halley, behind, Vega is convinced she'll never make another friend again. When her parents decide it's time to pack up and leave her hometown of Portland, Oregon, behind for boring Seattle, Washington, Vega is more than upset-she's downright miserable. Vega's summer vacation is not going well. About the Book After moving to Seattle, Vega's dads send her to the very strange Camp Best Friend, where she discovers that one can make new friends without forgetting old ones.īook Synopsis From the creator of Fake Blood comes another exceptionally charming middle grade graphic novel about friendships both near and far, far away. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Never have I itched to run the way I have this weekend. To me, the fact that this book flew under my radar for so long is just another clue that I really wasn’t a runner. In short, I have not been able to put it down. On Thursday night I ran out to Barnes and Noble and picked up a copy to read on a trip to Florida this weekend. So after deciding to run a 50-miler, I figured it was time. ![]() Well, my argument has just become weaker.Īfter I mentioned barefoot running on this blog a few months ago, several people recommended that I read Born to Run. And if any of my recent success can be attributed to natural talent, then it sure took a lot of work to coax said talent out.Īs evidence to support the case that I Am Not (Really) a Runner, I cited the fact that I don’t read running books. At least, if I was, I have yet to discover my inborn love for running. ![]() ![]() ![]() I could hardly see him in the darkness, but knew he wore a leather jerkin and had a sword at his side. ![]() The ship’s master was called Ralla and he stood beside me with one hand on the steering oar. There were thirty-eight of us in that nameless boat which was a trading ship that worked the upper reaches of the Temes. We were hidden beneath the leafless, bending branches of three willow trees, held there against the current by a leather mooring rope tied to one of those branches. Our boat, which had no name, lay close to the Wessex bank. In summer those streams would be dry, but now they foamed down the long green hills and filled the river and flowed to the distant sea. The winterbournes were flowing from the chalk uplands of Wessex. The river was in spate as melted snow fed it from countless hills. We floated on the River Temes, and beyond the boat’s high bow I could see the stars reflected on the shimmering water. ![]() ![]() ![]() Their version in part draws on physicist Abraham Pais’s account of how Einstein got a Nobel Prize.Ĭlaiming Einstein received a prize for his theory of the photoelectric effect and attributing relativity’s absence simply to an unfortunate error in committee member Allvar Gullstrand’s evaluation, the Academy of Sciences’ narrative represents a misunderstanding and oversimplification of a much more complex and troubling history. The Academy of Sciences and related official Nobel sources have long represented this episode along a line that turns out to be incompatible with the historical record. Yet, as the 100th-anniversary of this prize approaches, some confusion remains as to what actually transpired and what it means. When changes in the statutes (1974) eventually gave researchers access to official archival materials 50 years and older, historical scholarship could begin challenging conjecture and myth. This decision prompted several decades of speculation, especially with respect to the reason for omitting Einstein’s theories of relativity. On 9 November 1922, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences voted to award Albert Einstein the previously reserved 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for “his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.” ![]() ![]() ![]() Unpublished works offer a glimpse of a writer struggling to be heard and find a place in a literary landscape largely indifferent to his plight. ![]() Letters of rejection and disappointment, intermingled with rare accolades and notes of acknowledgement mark the milestones of a career built on perseverance. A manuscript’s numerous editions, crossed out sections, and marginal notes of self-doubt and admonishment bespeak the thankless hours and exhausting labour spent revising, rewriting, and reshaping a work. In the wake of the writer’s absence, words become talismanic, echoing a past made present, and animating memories with the tenuous power of narrative. When a writer leaves us, we are left only with fragments to draw upon, pore over, and reassess to hold onto some aspect of his being. “Come to terms with me, I will not come to terms with you.” –Gladys Clarke’s mantra for her son, Austin, throughout his life ![]() ![]() Since the “excellent good friends” are employed to spy on the prince, they can only remain frustratingly in the dark as to his state of mind and intentions, thus questioning their own purpose - not just in Elsinore, but in life.Īs the pair mope, argue, play word games and toss coins to pass the time, their monotony is broken by The Player (David Haig) and his troupe, also bit players in Hamlet but with more import, rubbing salt in the wound of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s inconsequence. Rosencrantz (Radcliffe) and Guildenstern (Joshua McGuire) are the two minor characters from Hamlet who are brought center-stage, but consigned still to the margins of Shakespeare’s action as it now happens off stage. ![]() In essence, the play is pure Stoppard: a killer conceit, extrapolated through endlessly erudite and witty wordplay. When a character declares that “truth is only that which is taken to be true,” the sentiment could have been written today. ![]() ![]() The themes bubbling beneath Stoppard’s existential scenario - not least his reflections on life itself as acting, and on the elusive nature of truth - have great resonance in the age of Donald Trump, Brexit, fake news and a growing disconnect between politicians and what might be called their audience. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() "A worthy heir to the classic Frog And Toad or Elephant & Piggie early readers, these playful vignettes have a subversive sense of humor that never becomes mean-spirited." - NPR "A subtle lesson, couched in humor: We can be friends with people who aren't just like us." - The New York Times ⭐"Three stories well suited to both reading newcomers and not-yet-reading listeners."- The Horn Book, starred review ⭐"A winning choice as a confidence booster for children just learning to read."- School Library Journal, starred review □ The Horn Book Magazine Fanfare Best Book of the Year □ School Library Journal Best Book of the Year □ Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year □ Boston Globe Best Books of the Year □ New York Times Notable Children’s Book Praise for the first book in the series, Fox & Chick: The Party: The Sunrise - When Chick makes them miss the sunrise, they make the best of it and stay for the sunset.Chocolate Cake - Chick anxiously hopes there's a tasty treat in the mystery box.The Quiet Boat Ride - A leisurely sail turns stressful when Fox has to calm Chick's fears of pirates and sea monsters. ![]() ![]() Poignant and powerful, Without Merit explores the layers of lies that tie a family together and the power of love and truth. When her escape plan fails, Merit is forced to deal with the staggering consequences of telling the truth and losing the one boy she loves. Merit retreats deeper into herself, watching her family from the sidelines, when she learns a secret that no trophy in the world can fix.įed up with the lies, Merit decides to shatter the happy family illusion that she's never been a part of before leaving them behind for good. His wit and unapologetic idealism disarm and spark renewed life into her - until she discovers that he's completely unavailable. While browsing the local antiques shop for her next trophy, she finds Sagan. Merit Voss collects trophies she hasn't earned and secrets her family forces her to keep. The once cancer-stricken mother lives in the basement, the father is married to the mother's former nurse, the little half-brother isn't allowed to do or eat anything fun, and the eldest siblings are irritatingly perfect. They live in a repurposed church, newly baptized Dollar Voss. Sometimes the only thing it deserves is forgiveness.' From Colleen Hoover, the 1 New York Times bestselling author of It Ends With Us, comes a moving and haunting novel of family, love, and the power of the. ![]() ![]() 'Not every mistake deserves a consequence. 1 New York Times bestselling author of It Ends With Us and November 9 comes a moving and haunting novel of family, love, and the power of the truth. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It's not enough for her, he says she doesn't need the level of solitude that he does. ![]() Connors explains that he acts as a communication relay with crews on the ground throughout the forest who might not be able to talk directly to a dispatcher in case of a fire - and he keeps his eye out for those fires, of course.įor the six months of the year when he's working, Connors lives mostly on his own, but manages to see his wife, Martha, for about half of that time. "Living alone at 10,000 feet, miles from the nearest road, on the edge of a 200,000 acre wilderness area provides endless spectacles out my tower windows," he says.īut life in the lookout tower is more than a gorgeous parade of sunset colors. Philip Connors worked as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal before moving to Gila National Forest in New Mexico to become a fire-watcher. ![]() ![]() ![]() We've been reading all about the exploits of one Property Jones (which is such a durned cool name). That's the plot of Sylvia Bishop's superb "The Bookshop Girl" published by Scholastic (which nya, nya, nya you'll have to wait until 2nd March for! Rasp!) ![]() So imagine being found in one as a tiny orphan child. Just the smell of the place, the feeling you get when you meander in to browse the shelves, and (if you're anything like us) the happy joyous feeling of coming out with armfuls of books you've just bought because basically you just can't help yourself. I know, I know, this one isn't actually out until March.but our Chapter Book of the Week for 20th January 2016 is "The Bookshop Girl" by Sylvia Bishop. ![]() |