![]() ![]() “Well, Nicolay,” a weeping Lincoln said to one of his secretaries on the afternoon of the twentieth, “my boy is gone-he is actually gone.” Four days after that, Willie’s body lay in the Green Room, next door to where Lincoln’s and, eventually, Kennedy’s would lie. Signs of improvement several days later engendered only false hope. On the evening of February 5th, the Lincolns had shuttled between his upstairs sickbed and the East Room. The boy had been seriously ill, probably from typhoid fever, for more than two weeks. Amid a clamor of national pride, the President quietly observed, “I have just been watching your father and mother on television, and they seemed very happy.” A hundred years earlier, almost to the hour, the set of parents then occupying the White House, Abraham and Mary Lincoln, were being plunged into an extreme grief by the death of their third son, Willie, who was eleven years old. Kennedy was on the phone congratulating John Glenn, who had just completed three orbits of Earth. ![]() ![]() Another eerie conjunction belongs to February 20th, which delivered to the White House, on two occurrences a century apart, some of the keenest joy and deepest sorrow to enter the building.Īt 4:10 P. ![]() Seekers of Presidential frisson cherish the synchronous deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, on July 4, 1826, a temporal thrill doubled by the date’s being the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Saunders, in his début novel, boldly enters the psyche of our sixteenth President. ![]()
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![]() ![]() I was working on lynx, caribou and polar bears in the last year of my job. But all my life, I’ve seen the world in shapes and colors. Paul Nicklen: As a wildlife biologist with the government in the Northwest Territories in Yellowknife, I was doing very left-brained research. ![]() Outdoor Photographer: How did you evolve from a marine biologist into a conservation-focused photographer? His childhood experiences and field of study give him the ability to dive deeper-literally and figuratively-into his subjects. ![]() One can almost feel the bone-chilling efforts that the Vancouver Island-based Nicklen goes to in recording these magnificent yet unforgiving polar regions. The National Geographic photographer, filmmaker, marine biologist and conservationist’s latest book, Born To Ice, brings the top and bottom of the globe to living rooms and libraries around the world. A large but skinny polar bear navigates a fractured seascape in search of seals. ![]() ![]() Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until.? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it. ![]() Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. ![]() ![]() At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It is seven o’ clock and the household wakes up. The story begins with the house and ends with the house. ![]() But in later prints the year was changed to 2026. When he died on June 5 th 2012, the New York Times wrote, “The writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream.” The original story was written in 1950 and the story was happening in 1985. He was wrote screenplays and was consulted for some screenplays and television scripts. Ray Bradbury received many awards including the prestigious Pulitzer Citation in 2007. Many collections of stories were published in the 1950’s. The most famous novel was Fahrenheit 451 which was published on 1953. His works fell under the speculative fiction category. ![]() He wrote many genres and they were mystery fiction, horror, fantasy and science fiction. Ray Douglas Bradbury born on August 22 nd 1920 went on to become one of the most celebrated write in the 20 th and 21 st century. There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury: About the Playwright At the superficial level it is a science fiction but at a deeper level there is dark reality of the nuclear wars. This is enough to prove that there is something special about the story. There were many radio productions, comic book versions, LP record dramas, animation films, musicals and even a puppetry adaptation. Kind of science fiction and many adaptations came out from the year of its publication to as late as 2016. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() What makes them different, however, is their beautiful inner selves and incredible acts of kindness that make them shine and stand out. The everyday heroes do not own superpowers and burn down a monster in a blink of an eye in fact, they look and behave very much like the rest of the crowd. They came from our imaginations and do extraordinary things to save lives, however, most heroes do not look like that. ![]() Heroes can be the supernatural beings with inhuman superpowers and strengths who travels across the sky to fight their enemies. A hero should possess these values and act to positively influence the world with a heart of humbleness, not greed and desiring the prestigious reputation that comes along. Heroes are admired, loved, and even worshipped, but what really makes someone worthy of the title “hero”? It the willingness to give, and the determination to defend integrity. ![]() ![]() ![]() Among the many accounts are some truly fascinating stories. This book represents a compelling account of all sorts of disasters - volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, shipwrecks, and what I would call "evil-dictator-death", among many other categories. With this catalog of calamity, listeners will be engrossed, enlightened, and relieved to realize that despite all the disasters that have befallen humanity, we are still here. This volume offers a unique perspective on our modern fears by revealing how dangerous our world has always been-with examples such as: the Black Death that killed over seventy-five million people in the 1300s the 1883 volcanic eruption on Krakatoa the Irish Potato Famine the 1970 cyclone in Bangladesh and the long-ago volcano in Sumatra that may have wiped out as much as 99% of the world population. and even before.įrom ancient volcanoes and floods to epidemics of cholera and smallpox to Hitler's and Stalin's mass killings in the twentieth century, humanity’s continued existence has always seemed perilous. But such catastrophic events-as terrible and frightening as they are-have been happening for as long as mankind has walked the Earth. ![]() ![]() If you follow the news it can seem like injury, sickness, and death are now constant, inescapable occurrences that threaten us every second of every day. A comprehensive catalog of the most devastating and deadly events-natural or man-made-in human history. ![]() ![]() ![]() Gibbon employs historical determinism where he narrates the decline of Rome from a moral perspective where Rome's failure to follow natural law and natural rights was the antecedent conditions leading to the moral degeneration, economic collapse and ultimate fall of the Roman Empire in the West (Rome fell in 476 A.D.) and Eastern Empire (Constantinople fell in 1453). ![]() ![]() ![]() Published in six volumes, the books chronicle all of the historic epochs of the Roman Empire after death of the Philosopher-Emperor Marcus Aurelius, from just before 180 A.D. That seems to be, if you will, a natural law – that empires can grow to a certain place and then they implode.Įdward Gibbon's The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-89), is the singular literary triumph of the 18th century. History.is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortune of mankind.Ĭollapse has happened to every empire in human history. ![]() ![]() Would you listen to another book narrated by John Solo? I've listened to Sara York's A Southern Thing series and that was way better because the narrator for that series was excellent. ![]() If you’ve listened to books by Ethan Stone and Sara York before, how does this one compare?įirst experience with Ethan Stone so I can't compare it with anything else. He wasn't terrible, but there wasn't much differentiation between character voices. This was my first experience with John Solo and he does an okay job narrating, but he pronounces some words in a weird way. ![]() However, I'll make an exception for any audiobooks she releases if they're done by any one of my favorite narrators (Tristan James, Jason Frazier, Finn Sterling). ![]() I have Sara York's Southern Thing series which is worth listening to because it's narrated by Jason Frazier who does an amazing job and I have one of her short stories from the Campus Cravings anthology, but would I seek out other books intentionally? Probably not, because I have way too many things in my TBR pile and I haven't been completely wowed so far. ![]() Would you try another book from Ethan Stone and Sara York and/or John Solo? ![]() ![]() ![]() He’ll guarantee her spot as the next queen and be the champion her people need to remain safe. At first, the prince seems like the perfect solution to all her problems. To keep her secret and save her crown, Aurora’s mother arranges for her to marry a dark and brooding Stormling prince from another kingdom. But she’s yet to show any trace of the magic she’ll need to protect her people. She’s intelligent and brave and honorable. As the sole heir of Pavan, Aurora’s been groomed to be the perfect queen. ![]() Long ago, the ungifted pledged fealty and service to her family in exchange for safe haven, and a kingdom was carved out from the wildlands and sustained by magic capable of repelling the world’s deadliest foes. In a land ruled and shaped by violent magical storms, power lies with those who control them.Īurora Pavan comes from one of the oldest Stormling families in existence. ![]() ![]() What interested me most was the way children were living" (183). ![]() ![]() I saw and learned what the word region meant as I witnessed firsthand different ways of life unlike my own. Lenski wrote in her autobiography, "On my trips south I saw the real America for the first time. As a result, Lenski and her husband Arthur Covey traveled south each fall. Probably her most famous set is the following:īeginning with Bayou Suzette in 1943, Lois Lenski began writing a series of books which would become known as her "regional series." In the early 1940s Lenski, who suffered from periodic bouts of ill-health, was told by her doctor that she needed to spend the winter months in a warmer climate than her Connecticut home. Many of Lenski's books can be collated into 'series' - but since they don't have to be read in order, you may be better off just looking for more information here. ![]() |