6/27/2023 0 Comments Factoring humanity![]() Stimulated by excitement over recombinant DNA and the first test-tube baby in 1978, the surge of interest in genetic transformations of the human explored genetic engineering rather than evolution as the source of the posthuman. The second phase got under way in the late-1970s and lasted up until just before the millennium. It consists of well-known books by most of the leading authors of the period: Clarke's Childhood's End, Sturgeon's More Than Human, Van Vogt's Slan, Heinlein's Beyond This Horizon and Methuselah's Children, and a number of lesser known texts. ![]() ![]() In this first phase the advent of the posthuman is brought on by eugenics or sudden mutations caused by fallout from nuclear war. The article traces two phases of SF about human species change, the first in the 1940s and early 1950s, the so called “golden age" of SF. ![]()
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![]() ![]() "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. The Slow Awakening is a powerful novel, originally published under the pseudonym of Catherine Marchant, and reflects vividly the violence and cruelty that a poverty-stricken girl might endure in that period. The two women entered into a secret bargain, an arrangement that was to change Kirsten’s fortune and place her in the middle of a bitter feud between two families. At the same time, Florence, mistress of the great house nearby, was told that her newborn son was dead. Rescued from the flood by the Flynn family, she gave birth to a child as the waters raged about her. Catherine Cookson 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,160 Paperback 13.8913.89 This item: The Slow Awakening 4.3 out of 5 stars 1,044 Paperback 6 offers from 6.60 Pure as the Lily Catherine Cookson 4.4 out of 5 stars 981 Hardcover 45 offers from 0.65 The Branded Man Catherine Cookson 4.4 out of 5 stars 764 Paperback 58 offers from 0. Somehow, Kirsten survived her terrible childhood – only to be sold, at the age of fourteen, to a traveling tinker – a vicious man who raped her and held her captive until the fateful day they were separated during a storm. The Slow Awakening is a powerful novel, originally published under the pseudonym of Catherine Marchant, and reflects vividly the violence and cruelty that a poverty-stricken girl might endure in that period. ![]() In the mid-1850s, life for an orphan was grim, as Kirsten MacGregor discovered when her parents died suddenly on a journey to Northumberland, leaving her penniless and alone in the hands of a cruel farmer. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Those events take up about sixty pages in the two hundred and thirty page length. But clearly there wasn’t enough material in the actual escape storyline to merit a whole book. Obviously coming into a book called ‘Escape from Alcatraz’, one expects that most – if not all – of it will be about those guys who actually escaped from Alcatraz and how they did it. ![]() Alcatraz hosts more than a million visitors each year. This story will appeal to Bay Area locals and tourists alike. Includes archival photos of the prison and prison life. The true-crime classic first published in 1963 is reissued in this special edition. Discover the intriguing and absorbing saga of Alcatraz, whose name is still synonymous with punitive isolation and deprivation, where Americas most violent and notorious prisoners resided in tortuous proximity to one of the worlds favorite cities. The chapters describing the daring escape attempts by Frank Morris and two accomplices from this inescapable prison became the basis for the 1979 Clint Eastwood movie. Campbell Bruce chronicles in spellbinding detail the Rocks transition from a Spanish fort to the maximum-security penitentiary that housed such infamous inmates as Robert Stroud, aka the Birdman of Alcatraz, and mobster Al Scarface Capone. In 1963, just weeks before the original publication of this book, the last prisoner was escorted off Devils Island and Alcatraz ceased to be a prison. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And she returns his feelings.ĭuring the decades that follow, Alda and Loretta encounter scandal, adventure, love, passion and loyalty. Although he’s 13 years older than her and married to someone else, Clark falls for our heroine. Then Loretta meets the biggest name in town, 34-year-old Clark Gable, on the set of The Call of the Wild. The innocent and pious Alda has her work cut out dealing with the scandal and adventure of Hollywood’s golden age. The former Sister Alda has been forced to leave her convent and made the long journey that led her to Loretta. They encounter the biggest stars of the day and have many thrilling adventures. This compelling novel follows the fortunes of ambitious young actress Loretta Young and her secretary Alda. Long-time friend My Weekly favourite Adriana Trigiani takes us back to the golden age of Hollywood with All The Stars In Heaven. Subscribe to our magazine for more great contentĪ great read set in 1930s Hollywood All the Stars in the Heavens By Adriana Trigiani Simon & Schuster PB £7.99 Reviewed by Sally Hampton ![]() 6/26/2023 0 Comments Lawrence alma![]() Aird's civil engineering business, John Aird & Co., was responsible for building the first Aswan Dam. The painting was commissioned by Sir John Aird, 1st Baronet for 5,000 guineas, plus expenses. The Finding of Moses had been a popular subject for paintings since the Renaissance, with a revival in the 19th century by Orientalist artists keen to add authentic archaeological decor to their depictions. It was sold to a private collector at auction in 2010 for nearly US$36 million. After appreciation of Victorian painting was renewed towards the end of the 20th century, it was described in an auction catalogue in 1995 as "the undisputed masterpiece of last decade, as well as a late (perhaps the final?) flowering of the nineteenth-century's love-affair with Egypt". It was one of his last major works before his death in 1912, but quickly fell out of favour according to rumour, it was sold in the 1950s for its frame. The Finding of Moses is a 1904 oil-on-canvas painting by the Anglo-Dutch artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema. ![]() 6/26/2023 0 Comments Plainsong kent haruf review![]() ![]() ![]() Haruf’s writing is so restrained and so precise in its characterisation of the town and the plains that they become luminous. ![]() Birth and death – human and animal – echo another across the pages. Two young brothers, Ike and Bobby Guthrie, lose a mother to depression and marital breakdown two old farmers Harold and Raymond McPheron gain a daughter of sorts young and pregnant, Victoria Roubideaux loses a mother but gains something else. Harmonies creep in whilst Haruf maintains the same prose voice. Haruf’s apparently simple set of interlocking stories of the residents of Holt, Colorado set up resonances and symmetries that manage to comprehend the whole of life. Here was this man Tom Guthrie in Holt standing at the back window in the kitchen of his house smoking cigarettes and looking out over the back lot where the sun was coming up. It is no accident this novel is a song that points to both the internal and the external, to the immediate and the transcendent, in the manner of the Colorado plains stretching into the distance. Plainsong – vocal music that expresses and explores desolation, joy, creation, and death as a form of celebration, memorial, and call to prayer and contemplation. Kent Haruf’s simple and unadorned epigraph announces the kind of book that one is about to read. Plainsong-the unisonous vocal music used in the Christian Church from the earliest times any simple and unadorned melody or air ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() But life is whole lot messier than the movies, especially when Bailey discovers that tricky fine line between hate, love, and whatever-it-is she’s starting to feel for Porter.Īnd as the summer months go by, Bailey must choose whether to cling to a dreamy online fantasy in Alex or take a risk on an imperfect reality with Porter. Or that she’s being heckled daily by the irritatingly hot museum security guard, Porter Roth-a.k.a. Or that she’s landed a job at the local tourist-trap museum. In this delightfully charming teen spin on You’ve Got Mail, the one guy Bailey Rydell can’t stand is actually the boy of her dreams-she just doesn’t know it yet.Ĭlassic movie buff Bailey “Mink” Rydell has spent months crushing on a witty film geek she only knows online by “Alex.” Two coasts separate the teens until Bailey moves in with her dad, who lives in the same California surfing town as her online crush.įaced with doubts (what if he’s a creep in real life-or worse?), Bailey doesn’t tell Alex she’s moved to his hometown. ![]() 6/25/2023 0 Comments Heart of Ashes by Paula Quinn![]() ![]() Aleysia d'Argentan will do anything to keep the hated Scots out of her castle and away from her villagers. even if it means tearing open his armored heart and stirring the ashes that remain. But when he raids a small castle in Northumberland, he faces his greatest opponent yet-a bold, beautiful Norman lass who will see him dead at any cost rather than give up her home. Now, as Robert the Bruce's most formidable, most lethal warrior, he wreaks havoc on his enemy, taking land by force and without mercy. They took everything from him without mercy and tossed him onto the battlefield, where the memory of love faded to dust and left nothing in its wake but violence. ![]() Cainnech (Cain) MacPherson's hatred for the English was born when he was a lad of seven, the day they raided his village and killed his family. ![]() ![]() Authors Include: Ashley Zakrzewski - USA Today BestSeller Amy Stephens – USA Today BestSeller J.F. Let’s Get Naughty is the perfect anthology for you to binge this holiday season. So come on over, grab a blanket, and get started on finding your next favorite author today. Each of the authors will have an unforgettable, steamy story. ![]() This collection will have it all: fake relationships, second chances, enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, workplace romance, age gap, CEO’s, bikers, and falling for the best friend’s brother. ![]() Cancel your plans and spend this holiday season with 35 romance authors who have teamed up to bring you a delicious holiday treat. A USA Today BestSelling Spicy Holiday Romance If you think it's too soon to get on Santa's naughty list.think again. ![]() 6/25/2023 0 Comments The seven dials mystery book![]() ![]() ![]() The area was described by Charles Dickens in 1835: By the 19th century, Seven Dials was among the most notorious slums in London, as part of the slum of St Giles. At one stage, each of the seven apex buildings facing the column housed a pub. This was not to be, and the status of the area gradually went down. Īfter the successful development of the Covent Garden Piazza area nearby, Neale hoped that Seven Dials would be popular with wealthy residents. ![]() This layout was chosen to produce triangular plots, in order to minimise the frontage of houses to be built on the site, as rentals were charged per foot of frontage rather than by the square footage of properties. The sundial column was built with only six faces, with the column itself acting as the gnomon of the seventh dial. ![]() His plan had six roads converging, although this number was later increased to seven. The original layout of the Seven Dials area was designed by Thomas Neale during the early 1690s. In the 17th century, a local estate known as Cock and Pye Fields belonged to the Worshipful Company of Mercers, which, to maximise its income in the burgeoning West End, allowed building licences on what until then was open farmland near the developing metropolitan area. In the middle ages, the area was owned by the monastic hospital of St Giles which specialised in treating lepers, but it was expropriated by Henry VIII in 1537 and later passed into private hands. Seven Dials around 1836: illustration by George Cruikshank in Dickens' Sketches by Boz. ![]() |