![]() ![]() Sophie looks like she’s been “dragged through a hedge backwards” and her manners are hoydenish at best. One ill-chosen wish later, and she is a hundred years in the past, in 1860, before the War, when the plantation was at its peak of productivity and wealth. Sophie meets a strange creature on her rambles. With all this rattling around in her brain, and the ruins of a neglected plantation to explore, is it any wonder that her imagination turns to haints and other spooky weirdness? And can a reader doubt that such a girl would be just the type to be chosen for her own magical adventure? ![]() Sophie is understandably cross with her mom and with this situation, and spends the sticky-hot summer days wandering the grounds and bayou and getting lost in books (particularly her favorite childhood comfort reads like E Nesbit, and mysteries ranging from Nancy Drew to Ellery Queen). THE FREEDOM MAZE concerns a 13-year-old girl named Sophie, who has gone to stay with her aunt and grandmother in her family’s ancestral country home while her mom attends to the business of being a new divorcee in 1960’s New Orleans. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Type I behavior is the foundation of the new motivation system. This new motivation distinguishes two types of potential behavior (Pink names Type I and X, (I = Intrinsic/X = External)) where Type X is used for hierarchical tasks (step by step logical, non creative, tasks) and Type I should be used for heuristic and creative work (where the solutions are open-ended and require deeper levels of thought).pride in work, personal progress, self-direction) rewards over extrinsic (Ie. There is a new operating system for motivation emerging that more accurately represents the complex nature of human beings.The book itself could be at least a third shorter, it holds a lot of fluff and a lengthy appendix filled with chapters that probably could have remained as blog posts but I appreciate the information. This is a fantastic starter guide to a new and exciting style of motivation. ![]() By borrowing from a variety of research around motivation, it does feel like Pink has accomplished this. Daniel Pink sets out to create a new framework of organizational and personal motivation that reflects humanity better than the outdated and sometimes toxic incentive-based structure that precedes it. Personal Score: 6.7/10 Goodreads Score: 3.94/5 Drive The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us ![]() ![]() ![]() Imagine a world where Hitler and the Axis powers won the second world war–a world in which Aryan youth is exemplified and sought after by horrific medical and genetic experiments performed on human subjects. Stand alone or series: First book in a duology This deception becomes more difficult when Felix, Adele’s twin brother, and Luka, her former love interest, enter the race and watch Yael’s every move.īut as Yael grows closer to the other competitors, can she be as ruthless as she needs to be to avoid discovery and stay true to her mission?įrom the author of The Walled City comes a fast-paced and innovative novel that will leave you breathless. A survivor of painful human experimentation, Yael has the power to skinshift and must complete her mission by impersonating last year’s only female racer, Adele Wolfe. The resistance has given Yael one goal: Win the race and kill Hitler. ![]() ![]() Yael, a former death camp prisoner, has witnessed too much suffering, and the five wolves tattooed on her arm are a constant reminder of the loved ones she lost. The prize? An audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor’s ball in Tokyo. To commemorate their Great Victory, they host the Axis Tour: an annual motorcycle race across their combined continents. ![]() The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule. Genre: Alternate History, Speculative Fiction, Young Adult ![]() ![]() ![]() The sweetness of apples, for example, induced the early Americans to spread the species, giving the tree a whole new continent in which to blossom. ![]() For, just as we've benefited from these plants, the plants, in the grand co-evolutionary scheme that Pollan evokes so brilliantly, have done well by us. In telling the stories of four familiar plant species that are deeply woven into the fabric of our lives, Pollan illustrates how they evolved to satisfy humankinds's most basic yearnings - and by doing so made themselves indispensable. How could flowers, of all things, become such objects of desire that they can drive men to financial ruin? In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan argues that the answer lies at the heart of the intimately reciprocal relationship between people and plants. ![]() ![]() Three and a half centuries later, Amsterdam is once again the mecca for people who care passionately about one particular plant - thought this time the obsessions revolves around the intoxicating effects of marijuana rather than the visual beauty of the tulip. In 1637, one Dutchman paid as much for a single tulip bulb as the going price of a town house in Amsterdam. ![]() ![]() Though the overall tone is light and heartwarming, it also explores heavy topics like mental health, sexual harassment, and racism. In addition to the central romance, this book does a fantastic job portraying strong platonic friendships (between Sam and Fangli, and Fangli and Gracie). ![]() But as they get to know each other better, sparks begin to fly. While Sam is in on the deception, he thinks it’s a terrible idea, and clashes with Gracie immediately. ![]() The money is enough to make Gracie accept, but there’s just one problem-posing as Fangli means spending a lot of time with Fangli’s handsome co-star, Sam Yao. Things get weirder when Fangli herself approaches Gracie with an offer: she needs a break from the public eye, and wants to hire Gracie to impersonate her at events. On top of that, she’s being followed by paparazzi who have mistaken her for Chinese movie star Wei Fangli, who’s currently in Canada to perform in a play. She’s in desperate need of a new job so she can get her mother into a better nursing home. Loyalty cant wait to host Lily Chu and Shauna Robinson for The Stand-In This event will be held digitally via Crowdcast. At the beginning of The Stand-In (2022) by Lily Chu, Gracie Reed’s life is a mess. ![]() ![]() I thought, I don’t quite see how I could use Darwin, but isn’t he inspiring? I read a bit more, and then I discovered that one of his most famous notebooks had been stolen, and was still out there somewhere. I began thinking about it when I saw the huge traveling Darwin show that started at the Museum of Natural History. How did your interest in Charles Darwin inspire you to write The Danger Box? Your previous novels were history mysteries. Zoomy puts the journal, filled with notations about the Galapagos Islands, under his bed in his cardboard “danger box” eventually, he and a friend figure out that the notebook is a famous artifact. One day the boy’s alcoholic father drops off a pilfered container with a mysterious notebook inside. (Scholastic is printing 75,000 copies, which will add to the 2 million books in print for her previous three titles.) In this story, 12-year-old Zoomy lives with his grandparents in a tiny Michigan town. Six years ago, she started publishing bestselling mysteries: Chasing Vermeer, followed by The Wright 3 and The Calder Game. ![]() But she also loved spinning fictional tales based on intriguing historical figures. ![]() ![]() Daughter of the New Yorker ’s longtime jazz critic, she adored working with third and fourth graders at the University of Chicago Laboratory School. ![]() Like Percy Jackson author Rick Riordan, Blue Balliett has morphed from popular teacher to popular novelist. ![]() ![]() I do my best to keep this list continually updated and add, subtract and make changes as needed. I’ve added a Yelp link for each restaurant, so you can check out hours and customer reviews of the food. ![]() The list includes all of Los Angeles and Orange Counties, but also the Inland Empire in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. You will find classic steakhouses, Googie diners, pastrami delicatessens, walk-up hamburger stands and more. My criteria for the restaurants here is that they are at least 37 years old (1985) or older, although I have made a few exceptions, and that they are within about an hour’s drive from downtown L.A. I’m sure there are many holes in my research and would appreciate additions, updates and corrections in the comments section below. After a lot of detective work I’ve compiled this “Master List” and plan to update it regularly. I often search the internet for authentic old-school spots in neighborhoods I visit and finding them is not always easy. I pray that old places don’t renovate their mid-century or even mid-’70s decor. I’m a junkie for vintage architecture and old signs. ![]() I’m not as selective about a menu as I am about the ambiance, atmosphere and what I am experiencing. ![]() I’m a sucker for a joint with history, charm, character and stories. We are lucky in Los Angeles to have a lot of spectacular vintage restaurants, but we are still losing many every year to owners who retire, sell out for money or lose their long-held lease to nasty gentrification. ![]() ![]() ![]() But their adventure is only just beginning. As Jack and Early travel deeper into the mountains, they meet peculiar and dangerous characters, and they make some shocking discoveries. ![]() ![]() Jack, feeling lonely and out of place, connects with Early, and the two become friends.ĭuring a break from school, the boys set out for the Appalachian Trail on a quest for a great black bear. Early keeps to himself, reads the number pi as a story, and refuses to accept truths others take for granted. Certainly not Early Auden, the strangest of boys. When Jack Baker’s father sends him from his home in Kansas to attend a boys’ boarding school in Maine, Jack doesn’t know what to expect. “Reminiscent of Huckleberry Finn.” - The Wall Street Journalįrom the author of Newbery Medal winner Moon Over Manifest comes the odyssey-like adventure of two boys’ incredible quest on the Appalachian Trail. “Just the sort of book that saves lives by igniting a passion for reading.” -James Patterson ![]() ![]() ![]() 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. ![]() ![]() ![]() Reading The Kiss Curse will definitely have you in a magical mood. It’s a bit like You’ve Got Mail, if Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were sexy witches who consummate their attraction in the bed of a pickup truck. Sparks (and glitter) fly, family rivalries clash, and long-held grudges give way to flirtation and more. Then brooding, bearded Wells Penhallow-who Gwyn not-so-fondly remembers from their own days at Penhaven-sweeps into town and sets up a competing shop across the street. Gwyn Jones runs a beloved local shop, Something Wicked, selling magic-adjacent trinkets to the general public and unofficially mentors a handful of young witches from the local witch college, Penhaven. Readers of The Ex Hex will enjoy the deeper dive into the town’s rearranged power structure (and updates on Ex’s love story), but first-time Sterling readers won’t miss a beat. ![]() A breezy new read for Spooky Season from the author of The Ex Hex? Yes, please! Erin Sterling delivers another bewitching romance set in the delightful fictional hamlet of Graves Glen, Georgia-a kind of southern Salem where tourists gobble up magic-themed kitsch and real witches keep their powers on the down low. ![]() |