So I spoke with Robert Zaretsky, a philosopher and historian at the University of Houston, for Future Perfect’s new limited-series podcast, The Way Through, which is all about exploring the world’s greatest philosophical and spiritual traditions for guidance during these difficult times. I wrote about The Plague back in March, but I wanted to dive a little deeper into its meaning and significance. But the book is much more than a tale about disease it’s also an intensely layered meditation on the human condition and the obligations we all have to each other. It’s called The Plague and, on the surface, it’s a fairly straightforward story about a coastal Algerian town beset by a mysterious epidemic. A 1947 novel by the French philosopher Albert Camus has racked up sales since the Covid-19 pandemic engulfed our lives earlier this year.
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Beth lives in Southern California with her husband, two sons, and their dog where she is hard at work on her next novel. Somehow hairstylists and salons seem to find their way into her stories. She hasn't stopped writing since.įor a number of years, Beth made her living as a hairstylist and makeup artist and owned a salon. In middle school she discovered romance novels, which inspired her to write a spoof of soap operas for the school's newspaper. A storyteller since her playground days, Beth remembers her friends asking her to make up stories of how the person `died' in the slumber party game Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board, so it's little wonder she prefers writing stories in which people meet unfortunate ends. Best selling author Beth Yarnall writes mysteries, romantic suspense, and the occasional hilarious tweet. I think you’re exactly right-everyone knows the name, but very few people could tell you really in any detail what the war was that she was fighting in. Because I think everybody knows Joan’s name, but people are less familiar with that. Otherwise why are we looking at her in a field in Domrémy in the first place? But I wanted to see the world into which she erupted, as a different way of understanding how that happened. Because obviously, if you’re seeing it backward, there’s an inevitability to this iconic figure becoming something important. And to try to understand how it came about. But instead to tell the story of the war that had been raging in France for twenty years before she appeared in the historical record, if you like, and then to be able to see quite how shocking, quite how extraordinary her appearance was. Not with hindsight, not from the perspective of those trials at the end of her life and after the end of her life. The way I thought of it was telling the story forward, not backward. So in a sense, everything that we know from those sources is filled with hindsight of one kind or another and with-contamination is a dramatic word, but it’s all shaped by the judicial processes that the information emerges through. They found that without early and repeated exposure to peanuts, many of the kids’ immune systems never learned how to deal with them in a healthy way – leading to serious allergies down the line. In that 2015 study, researchers followed a group of children from infancy to the age of five. The key message here is: Young people need to face challenges in order to become strong. A 2015 study discovered that shielding children from peanuts may have actually been contributing to the surge in allergies. Seems like a good idea, right? Well, not exactly. Faced with the prospect of putting children’s health at risk, many schools decided to ban the foodstuff from lunchboxes altogether. Starting in the mid-nineties, America found itself facing a minor public health crisis, as the rate of peanut allergies in the population began to soar. When you were a kid, were you allowed to bring peanuts to school? If you live in the United States, your answer to that question probably depends on your age. He was to be known at Woodbine as the Harrises' orphaned grandson. Most important of all, four-year-old Toby was going there too. The Harrises, who had been in his employ for the past five years in various capacities, were going with him-the position of head gardener had fallen vacant and Harris was to fill it. His funds had been cut off, without warning and without explanation, at just a time when he was preparing to return home at last-home being Woodbine Park in Warwickshire, the house and estate where he had grown up and that had provided him with a comfortable income since his father's death fifteen years ago.Īnd he had not been going there alone. Sir Graham, her_second husband, was not delighted to see him, but he was fond of his wife so did not turn his stepson from his doors.Ĭlaverbrook House was where Duncan must go sooner rather than later, though. WHEN Duncan Pennethorne, Earl of Sheringford, returned to London after a five-year absence, he did not go immediately to Claverbrook House on Grosvenor Square, but instead took up a reluctant residence on Curzon Street with his mother, Lady Carling. That is until he learns of a mysterious man who harnesses the ability to animate nightmares into existence the very man who ruined his world. Convinced it’s just an anomaly, Weaver ignores it. In the midst of building a new life, Weaver discovers he can do something strange: cast dreams into reality. Haunted by memories of his massacred settlement, sixteen year old Weaver seeks cover in a hidden refuge among the remains of a ruined city once known as Toronto. This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!ĭREAM CASTER (Book One of the Dream Cycle) by NAJEEV RAJ NADARAJAH So why not stop by, leave a link to your own Mailbox Monday post, oh! and don’t forget to leave a comment for Lori, after all, we all like to receive them! And one day it brings him Jimmie.Ĭarrying a notebook that she’s unable to read and wearing a sparrow made out of bone around her neck – both talismans of her family’s past and the mother she’s lost – Jimmie strikes up an unlikely friendship with Subhi beyond the fence.Īs he reads aloud the tale of how Jimmie’s family came to be, both children discover the importance of their own stories in writing their futures. ‘…a special book’ – Morris Gleitzman, author of the acclaimed ONCE seriesīorn in a refugee camp, all Subhi knows of the world is that he’s at least 19 fence diamonds high, the nice Jackets never stay long, and at night he dreams that the sea finds its way to his tent, bringing with it unusual treasures. This novel reminds us all of the importance of freedom, hope, and the power of a story to speak for anyone who’s ever struggled to find a safe home. This is a beautiful, vivid and deeply moving story about a refugee boy who has spent his entire life living in a detention centre. A story recommended by our booksellers who describe it as evocative, moving, heartfelt and reminiscent of the award-winning novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, The Bone Sparrow is a beautiful and vivid reminder of innocent suffering, the importance of freedom and the triumph of hope. Perfect for fans of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS. Shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2017. I'm sure all of these changes in emotion help children stay gripped by this quirky little book. The story then becomes a bit of a roller-coaster, with Sophie alternately happy to get to know her new friend better, then terrified of being eaten by the other giants who most definitely aren't friendly, then charmed to learn about where dreams come from, then horrified to realise how many other children are being eaten by the giants every night. But things seem to improve for Sophie when she realises she has been kidnapped by the Big Friendly Giant, BFG, who does not eat children, or even grown-up ‘human beans’. Unfortunately, the giant also sees her and snatches her out the window and takes her back to Giant Country with him. She sees a strange figure walking up the street and realises it is a giant. Unable to sleep one night because of the light coming in through her window, she gets up to pull the curtains shut. This story starts off quite badly for eight-year-old Sophie. One size doesn’t fit all.”ĭuring the interview with Black Enterprise, Sandberg acknowledged that her original book left out women of color, but she still leaned into the same rhetoric of dumping the responsibility back onto Black women instead of calling out the systemic barriers that continue to hold Black women back. “Lean In didn’t talk about race and it was written from a white-privileged women’s perspective for predominantly other white women. “Lean In was well-intentioned and opened up the conversation, but, you cannot effectively talk about leaning in for Black or brown women without discussing the role that race plays and the barriers to even enter the room for a seat at the table,” said Harts. The strategy has been criticized by many thought leaders, including Michelle Obama who notably said, “that shit doesn’t work all the time.” And this quote from Mindy Harts, founder of The Memo sums up the basis of the criticism through a racialized lens: It was rooted in the fact that Sandberg’s Lean In advice has fallen flat for most women, and more specifically for Black women. Last week, Black Enterprise magazine published an interview with COO of Facebook and CEO of Lean In Sheryl Sandberg. A MAN NAMED DAVE: The gripping conclusion to this inspirational trilogy. THE LOST BOY: The harrowing but ultimately uplifting true story of Dave's journey through the foster-care system in search of a family who will love him. This is an inspirational look at the horrors of child abuse and the steadfast determination of one child to survive despite the odds. Throughout, Dave kept alive the dream of finding a family who would love and care for him. His bed was an old army cot in the basement and when he was allowed food it was scraps from the dogs' bowl. No longer considered a son, or a boy, but an 'it', Dave had to learn how to play these games in order to survive. A CHILD CALLED 'IT': Dave Pelzer's story is of a child beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games that left one of her three sons nearly dead. |