The pargiters6/25/2023 ![]() In a desperate bid, Lanigan gives complete control of the money to Eva, then turns himself over to the FBI. ![]() But Aricia had men track him down, ruthless men who will do whatever it takes, including torture, to reclaim the stolen fortune. Since then, Lanigan started a new life with new-found love Eva. Lanigan then devised a plan of his own, wherein he faked his death, stole $90 million from the secret off-shore accounts where the firm had been hiding the ill-gotten gains, and then fled to South America. The firm's senior partners didn't include Lanigan in the plan, in which they stood to make tens of millions of dollars. It's been four years since Patrick Lanigan, a junior partner in a law firm in Biloxi, Mississippi, learned of the scheme, masterminded by his firm's client, shipbuilding magnate Benny Aricia, to defraud the U.S. The Partner (1997) is a legal/thriller novel by American author John Grisham. ![]()
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Coddling of the american mind review6/25/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() The authors state, “We suggest that students were beginning to react to words, books, and visiting speakers with fear and anger because they had been taught to exaggerate danger, use dichotomous (or binary) thinking, amplify their first emotional responses, and engage in a number of other cognitive distortions” (10). The authors claim that much of what is happening in American society today, especially among iGens, is based on these three misconceptions: 1. Though they are sympathetic to these young people’s concerns, they reveal alarming data about what will happen to the nation should these trends continue. The authors see great danger in where the upcoming generations, particularly iGens, are headed. From trigger words to microaggressions to violent protests on college campuses, this book takes a fascinating look at some recent trends and offers an interesting discussion on what has led American society to this point. Jonathan Haidt is a psychologist who has written some perceptive books on American culture, including The Righteous Mind and The Happiness Hypothesis. Greg Lukianoff specializes in First Amendment issues in higher education. This book is disturbing, thought-provoking, and highly relevant. Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, The Coddling of the American Mind (New York: Penguin Press, 2018). ![]() ![]() ![]() In the decaying Land of Urth, the Inquisition is alive and well, but when Severian transgresses and allows his infatuation with a prisoner to cloud his sense of duty, he is expelled from the torturer’s guild. ![]() ![]() Severian would know: he’s both the consummate storyteller of his own life, (of which “The Shadow of the Torturer” is the first part) – AND an apprentice Seeker of Truth and Penitence (a.k.a. torturer/executioner). ![]() Maphead by ken jennings6/24/2023 ![]() ![]() It’s certainly for the intellectually inclined, but Jennings doesn’t bludgeon the reader with his intellect. This book may seem like it’s only for those geeky to an obsessive level, but it’s one intriguing work of geo-geekery. ![]() ![]() Besides learning about the million dollar outlays of rare map collectors and the intense rivalry of geocache hunters, Geography Bee contestants, and Traveler’s Century Club members (only those who’ve been to 100+ countries need apply), you’ll hear about a college professor who was fired for letting fly the fact that a majority of his incoming students hadn’t the vaguest idea of the whereabouts of metropoles like London or Chicago. In 12 chapters, Jennings not only reflects upon the many forms of map and geography fetish, he also presents insight on the opposite–the often dismaying and sometimes hilarious geographic illiteracy of college students and beauty queens. Maphead is about maps and the people who love them, and–in some cases–who build their lives around various forms of graphic depiction of our world. But Jennings isn’t just a fast-handed font of trivia, he writes nonfiction that is approachable, intriguing, and displays a good sense of humor. In a sad commentary TV’s popularity, you may only know Ken Jennings from his record winning streak on Jeopardy, and the books he’s written since then may have escaped your attention. Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings ![]() Pearl of china book6/24/2023 ![]() ![]() She marries Lossing Buck, who wants to enact Chinese agrarian reform, but the marriage sours by the time their mentally retarded daughter is born. ![]() Pearl attends college in America but longs to return to China. Willow’s character isn’t fleshed out her only purpose seems to be to provide a secondhand, sketchy account of Pearl’s life, some of it through dry letters. Min gives Willow the skeleton of a story: She is forced into marriage with an opium addict, escapes and becomes a newspaper editor in Nanking, marries a Communist Party member, is denounced and imprisoned, meets Nixon during his visit to Pearl’s childhood home in Chin-Kiang. But once the Boxer Rebellion rears its head and Pearl moves on to missionary school in Shanghai, the novel loses steam. The early scenes of their childhood, before history gets in the way, are filled with natural lyricism and engaging drama. As Pearl jokes, “My father is a nut and your father is a crook.” Soon Willow and Pearl become inseparable. Yee is a conniver, his motives both self-serving and earnest as he brings converts to zealous missionary Absalom Sydenstricker, Pearl’s father. Portrayed with intriguing moral ambiguity, Mr. She lives with her impoverished grandmother and father, a coolie and seasonal farmhand despite his education and literary aspirations. Narrator Willow Yee grows up in Chin-Kiang at the turn of the century. Min ( The Last Empress, 2007, etc.) offers an adoring fictional biography of Pearl S. ![]() ![]() ![]() It's the tale of a huge and passionate community of people: the connections they made, the experiences they shared, and the love they held for one another. ![]() World of Warcraft is more than ones and zeroes, more than lines of code, and so its history must be more than pushing buttons or slaying dragons. It is the definitive account of one of the world's biggest pop culture phenomena. Blood Plagues and Endless Raids: A Hundred Million Lives in the World of Warcraft. Blood Plagues and Endless Raids explores this wild, incredibly complex culture partly through the author's engaging personal story, from absolute neophyte to leader of North America's top Spanish-speaking guild, but also through the stories of other players and the game's developers. Palumbis selection of books & audiobooks on Scribd. WoW was the world's first mass virtualization: before Facebook or Twitter, millions of people established online identities and had to reckon with the consequences in their real lives. They built communities and rose to lead them. They developed new identities, swapping their workaday selves for warriors, mages, assassins, and healers. They worked, they fought, they triumphed, they held entire game servers hostage, they even married each other in real life. One hundred million people have played WoW in the twelve years since. ![]() In 2005, the video game World of Warcraft struck the cultural landscape with tidal force. ![]() Sarah miller marmee6/24/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() All of that is interrupted when Margaret receives a telegram from the War Department, summoning her to her husband’s bedside in Washington, D.C. Living by her watchwords, “Hope and keep busy,” she fills her days with humdrum charity work to keep her worries at bay. Yet even with all that weighs upon her, Margaret longs to do more-for the war effort, for the poor, for the cause of abolition, and most of all, for her daughters. Worst of all, Margaret harbors the secret that these financial hardships are largely her fault, thanks to a disastrous mistake made over a decade ago which wiped out her family’s fortune and snatched away her daughters’ chances for the education they deserve. Money is tight and every month, her husband sends less and less of his salary with no explanation. ![]() ![]() With her husband serving as an army chaplain, the comfort and security of Margaret’s four daughters-Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy-now rest on her shoulders alone. In 1861, war is raging in the South, but in Concord, Massachusetts, Margaret March has her own battles to fight. From the author of Caroline, a revealing retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved Little Women, from the perspective of Margaret “Marmee” March, about the larger real-world challenges behind the cozy domestic concerns cherished by generations of readers. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And just as soon as she stops getting into new trouble he can leave her alone and get back to his peaceful, solitary life.Īt least, that’s the plan until the trouble turns to real danger. But since Naomi’s life imploded right in front of him, the least he can do is help her out of her jam. ![]() There’s a reason Knox doesn’t do complications or high-maintenance women, especially not the romantic ones. Now she’s stuck in town with no car, no job, no plan, and no home with an 11-year-old going on thirty to take care of. After helping herself to Naomi’s car and cash, Tina leaves her with something unexpected. Too bad for Naomi her evil twin hasn’t changed at all. She was riding to the rescue of her estranged twin to Knockemout, Virginia, a rough-around-the-edges town where disputes are settled the old-fashioned way…with fists and beer. Naomi wasn’t just running away from her wedding. Knox doesn’t tolerate drama, even when it comes in the form of a stranded runaway bride. Unless you count his basset hound, Waylon. ![]() Bearded, bad-boy barber Knox prefers to live his life the way he takes his coffee: Alone. ![]() Brain on fire author6/23/2023 ![]() ![]() I didn’t remember my mom’s wavering voice as she spoke about my seizure or my dad breaking down as he read from his diaries about me. I remember the bright lights of the studio and stifling the urge to laugh when I heard my name on the prerecorded segment about “one woman’s month of madness.” There was the grainy hospital footage of a woman - of me, I remind myself - hallucinating, calling out for help: “I’m on the TV.” I remember a flash of self-conscious clarity when I noticed my failed attempt to curl my hair for the interview. Even today, looking back, I can still feel the prickly sensation akin to dread located in the pit of my stomach. It was January 2010, a few weeks before my 25th birthday. ![]() ![]() I appeared on TODAY 10 months after I learned how to speak again. ![]() Unwanted by Kristina Ohlsson6/23/2023 ![]() Agent: Niclas Salomonsson, Salomonsson Agency. ![]() 28, 2012 Ohlsson enters the crowded field of Swedish procedurals with the tale of a man bent on exacting a terrible revenge on errant mothers through their innocent children. ![]() Could these deaths be connected to the vicar’s murder? The many separate stories and viewpoints make for a sluggish start, but Ohlsson expertly pulls all the pieces together to ultimately form an intricate whole. UNWANTED by Kristina Ohlsson RELEASE DATE: Feb. Meanwhile, a hit-and-run accident turns into a homicide, and other bodies pile up. Unwanted Kindle Edition by Kristina Ohlsson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition 2,204 ratings Book 1 of 5: The Fredrika Bergman Series See all formats and editions Kindle 0.00 This title and over 1 million more available with Kindle Unlimited 9.99 to buy Audiobook 0. Bergman and her colleagues in the Stockholm police’s Criminal Investigation Division begin to doubt the murder-suicide theory, even though Ahlbin, a vocal supporter of immigrant rights, suffered from depression and was despondent over his older daughter’s recent death from a heroin overdose. ![]() Early in Ohlsson’s deftly plotted second Fredrika Bergman mystery (after 2012’s Unwanted), a Stockholm vicar and his cantor wife are found dead in their bedroom, an apparent murder-suicide, but no one close to the couple believes that Jakob Ahlbin would have shot his wife with a hunting pistol and then turned the gun on himself. ![]() |