![]() The Georgia native, a Democrat, was elected the 39th president in 1976, defeating Republican President Gerald Ford in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal. So, I’m going to live again after I die - Don’t know what form I’ll take, or anything.” Former President Jimmy Carter in Plains, Ga., on July 10, 2021. ![]() ![]() “I have, since that time, been absolutely confident that my Christian faith includes complete confidence in life after death. It didn’t really matter to me whether I died or lived," Carter said, according to CBS News. And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death. ![]() I didn’t ask God to let me live, but I just asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() Her varied background is put to good use in this book, as she combines excellent historical research with moving and personal interviews with each of the amazing women featured.ĭakinis in Tibetan Buddhism represent the female principle of enlightenment, and each of the women included in this book embodies this in her own unique way. She eventually earned her Phd in Asian Studies and is now a visiting scholar in Religious Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara. ![]() Haas is a journalist by training, who became a Buddhist practitioner herself after a visit to Bhutan. In Dakini Power: Twelve Extraordinary Women Shaping the Transmission of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, Michaela Haas profiles and interviews twelve leading contemporary women teachers within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() They chased me into a dark wood, their white robes and pale skin glowing ethereally in the night, yet all I could see were their bony fingers reaching for me, exploding with light. I dreamed of them again, those angels with unnatural wings and eyes that haunt me even now, in this waking world, where visions of the night should be forgotten. In a last ditch effort to protect them, Elizabeth runs away, unaware her fate rests with a Triune of angels who have come to judge her transgressions against others of their kind. Elizabeth and Lev believe the danger with the dark angels and the Dagger of Light are finally behind them, but with Elizabeth’s sacrifice comes a new more menacing threat as whatever power the dagger once possessed now possesses Elizabeth, endangering all those she loves most. ![]() ![]() And, once she goes to the royal court and the cast - and the intrigue - gets wider, I was hooked. Once she is among people again, the story definitely perked my interest more. I felt like the beginning when Evie is trying to learn persuasion from the other ogres and then travelling to the dragon's spires was very slow going. ![]() So this book is clearly not designed with me as a target audience. Evie has only a couple of months to convince someone to love her despite being an ogre (and the magic stops her or anyone else from saying she's really a human transformed) and for her to love that person back - or else she'll stay an ogre forever.To start with, I must admit that I'm not the hugest fantasy fan nor a big fairy tales fan. ![]() But she is confounded when a fairy appears and turns her into an ogre for rejecting the proposal. Evie is focused on being a healer and is surprised when her closest friend, affectionately known as Wormy, proposes marriage to her. ![]() ![]() She quickly discovers that inside their secret parties and mountains of attitude, hanging in their designer clothing packed closets the Billings Girls have skeletons. Reed uses every part of herself the good, the bad, the beautiful to get closer to the Billings Girls. ![]() Reed vows to do whatever it takes to be accepted into their inner circle. They hold all the power in a world where power is fleeting but means everything. They are the most beautiful, intelligent, and intensely confident girls on campus. She feels like she’s on the outside, looking in. Reed realizes that even though she has been accepted to Easton, Easton has not accepted her. ![]() ![]() But when she arrives on the beautiful, tradition steeped campus of Easton, everyone is just a bit more sophisticated, a bit more gorgeous, and a lot wealthier than she ever thought possible. And secrets so dark they’re almost invisibleįifteen year old Reed Brennan wins a scholarship to Easton Academy the golden ticket away from her pill popping mother and run of the mill suburban life. ![]() ![]() ![]() One of the unusual aspects of the novel is its inclusion of many maps and diagrams.Given Christopher’s aversion to being touched, can he experience his parents’ love for him, or can he only understand it as a fact, because they tell him they love him? Is there any evidence in the novel that he experiences a sense of attachment to other people?.And herein lies the brilliance of Mark Haddon’s choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotion. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, we are drawn into the workings of Christopher’s mind. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face-to-face with the dissolution of his parents’ marriage. ![]() Then, at fifteen, Christopher’s carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, for which he is initially blamed.Ĭhristopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional character, Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. Routine, order, and predictability shelter him from the messy wider world. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. ![]() ![]() In the oppressive city of Drinn, a trio of magical strangers offers a servant girl the chance of a new lifeDrinn is not a safe place to be a witch. ![]() ![]() Read more ISBNĭaughter of Witches (Trade Paperback / Paperback) Now, to save her family and her world, she will have to unlock a side of herself that she buried long ago. Kayl is sure that Corrana has come to take her back to the life she had renounced years before. Her name is Corrana, and by her silver brooch Kayl knows that she is a member of the order of Sisterhood of Stars, a coven of witches that Kayl left after a secret mission went horribly wrong. ![]() The three of them get by, living happily together as the years pass, but everything changes the day a sorceress asks for a room. ther until a summer illness took him away, leaving her alone with their two children. She opened it with her husband, and they managed it toge. For more than a decade, Kayl has run a modest country inn. Caught in Crystal (Trade Paperback / Paperback)Ī coven of witches reaches out to one of its former warriors in a "wonderful" Lyra novel "filled with incredible world-building and characters" (Open Book Society). ![]() ![]() Though Jay still believes in doing what's right, he is done fighting other people's battles. His latest case-representing Pleasantville in the wake of a chemical fire-is dragging on, shaking his confidence and raising doubts about him within this upwardly mobile black community on Houston's north side. That victory might have won the environmental lawyer fame, but thanks to a string of appeals, he hasn't seen a dime. LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILEY’S WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTIONįrom Attica Locke, a writer and producer of FOX’s Empire, this sophisticated thriller sees lawyer Jay Porter-hero of her bestseller Black Water Rising-return to fight one last case, only to become embroiled in a dangerous game of shadowy politics and a witness to how far those in power are willing to go to win.įifteen years after his career-defining case against Cole Oil, Jay Porter is broke and tired. ![]() ![]() Wall Street Journal BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR ![]() WINNER OF THE HARPER LEE PRIZE FOR LEGAL FICTION ![]() ![]() Let’s start by having you tell the readers a little about yourself? And not just where you’re from and what you like for breakfast, but what makes you tick (besides coffee)? As I wrote in my review, the book “is primarily three well-crafted, well-written short stories linked together by a mysterious narrating storyteller camped outside the great city of Celadon-home to things both beautiful and terrifying.” If you have not had the pleasure of reading this book yet, you should get over to Smashwords or Amazon and pick up a copy of it.Īnd now, ladies and gentlemen, I’m proud to present, Walter Shuler.ġ. ![]() Recently, I had the pleasure of reading his book, Celadonian Tales Vol: 1 Blood and Brass. My first interview is with the very talented Walter Shuler. ![]() Welcome Readers to a new addition of The Ink-Competent Writer Blog - Author Interviews. ![]() ![]() ![]() We’ve had a lot of success with that name.” It was the first television show I ever did, and Tom was a collaborator on that. I read his pieces over the course of the years, and I actually optioned a piece of his called ‘Annie, The Women in the Life of a Man’ as a 1970 TV project for Anne Bancroft. “He was a frequent contributor, and I was a subscriber. “I knew him from his work at The New Yorker,” Charnin told Playbill. It was his writing there that caught Charnin's attention, leading to his theatrical debut. Read: A DRINK WITH ANNIE CREATORS MARTIN CHARNIN, THOMAS MEEHAN, AND CHARLES STROUSEīorn August 14, 1929, Meehan attended Hamilton College before beginning his career as a writer with The New Yorker's “Talk of the Town” section. He is the only creative to have written the books for three shows that ran more than 2,000 performances on Broadway: the aforementioned Annie (2,377 performances), The Producers in 2001 alongside Mel Brooks (2,502 performances), and Hairspray in 2002, which he wrote with the late Mark O’Donnell (2,642 performances). ![]() The smash hit Annie, which ran for 2,377 performances, earned Meehan his first of three Tony Awards. Meehan was 47 when he made his Broadway debut, collaborating with Charnin and composer Charles Strouse on a stage musical adaptation of Harold Gray’s comic strip Little Orphan Annie. ![]() |