![]() They're dependent on where we find ourselves in time and regionally as well. "When it comes to describing sexuality, when it comes to describing gender and queerness, the ways that we talk about these things, the words that we use kind of change all of the time. Nguyen said that he wanted to explore the way language transforms and is significant in both everyday use and broader, big-picture cultural ways. ![]() "I do remember going to the library and trying to find language resources to be able to articulate the exact things that I wanted to tell my parents." ![]() When I was growing up, we didn't share a language or share a vocabulary to discuss these things," Nguyen said. "This was a struggle that I also had growing up, trying to articulate my sexuality to my parents. In the book he says he doesn't know the word in Vietnamese to even begin a conversation with his parents. Tiến is gay, and he is not able to come out to his family. ![]()
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![]() Our imaginations, while inflected with hope and a measure of fantasy, remain indelibly tempered by a linear progression rooted deeply in the reality of our present. Pose the same question in a country already beleaguered by war, genocide, and colonialism, and the imagined futures are very different. It also produces dystopias based on our worst fears: alien invasion and colonization erosion of freedom and privacy climate ruin. ![]() When posed in the West, the question produces imaginative elaborations on contemporary western opulence: cities in the sky colonies on Mars peaceful and adventurous intergalactic federations. Such is the premise of much science fiction, since the genre’s earliest days. What will your world look like in a hundred years? ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The constant threat of bombs by the Japanese and fear of encountering Japanese soldiers on the roads creates a great deal of tension.Ĭhang keeps the story moving with intrigue within the group and by inserting stories about the immortals. Lian’s mother is also supposed to be in Shanghai, so Lian desperately wants to find her. The students and professors hope to go to Shanghai and safety. They are helping the university professors save the Library of Legends, books about the ancient myths of China, by smuggling the books out of harm in the students’ backpacks. We focus on Hu Lian, the narrator, and her companions Liu Shaoming, called Shao, and his maidservant Sparrow. The Library of Legends opens in 1937 with a group of university students fleeing from Minghua University in Nanking as Japanese planes bomb the city. Change weaves the legends into her modern story seamlessly. The stories she learned as child are complete with encounters with dragons, ghosts, and immortals. Since Janie Chang grew up hearing old stories her family told of life in a Chinese village, she pulls those stories from the past to write mesmerizing fiction today. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() This, in concert with having different Doctors and companions from month to month, gave the line a very eclectic feel. Stories like The Holy Terror and Doctor Who and the Pirates were decidedly unlike anything the TV series had produced. Despite a strong streak of fan-pleasing traditionalism, the first few years of Big Finish stories were equally noteworthy for their willingness to push boundaries of form and content. With their monthly releases of audio-plays featuring past Doctors acting as an ongoing reminder of the period when fans were doing far more than the BBC to keep the series alive, it’s not surprising that they’re a significant part of this ongoing discussion.Īs such a consistent presence, Big Finish’s Doctor Who stories also reflect a demarcation between the “wilderness years” and the show’s return to the mainstream. As most fans know, Big Finish Productions emerged as one of the most prominent contributors to Doctor Who during that time. ![]() ![]() In recent years, these “wilderness years” have become an object of examination in a similar way to the show’s original run being put under the microscope in the 1990s. The time from 1990 to 2005 when its television parent was largely out of production is widely – and sensibly – regarded as a period of immense creativity for Doctor Who. ❉ The evolution of the most polarizing story that Big Finish has ever released. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() But if she’s finally got the guy, why can’t she stop thinking about the girl?Ĭool for the Summer is a story of self-discovery and new love. Lara has everything she ever wanted: a tight-knit group of friends, a job that borders on cool, and Chase, the boy of her literal dreams. A memory that becomes a confusing, disorienting present when Jasmine herself walks through the front doors of the school to see Lara and Chase chatting it up in front of the lockers. A memory of a confusing, romantic, strangely perfect summer spent with a girl named Jasmine. Maybe…flirting, even? No, wait, he’s definitely flirting, which is pretty much the sum of everything Lara’s wanted out of life.Įxcept she’s haunted by a memory. He’s tall, strong, sweet, a football star, and frankly, stupid hot. Lara’s had eyes for exactly one person throughout her three years of high school: Chase Harding. ![]() ![]() Polacco's gouache-and-pencil compositions deftly capture the emotional stages-frustration, pain, elation-of Trisha's journey. Young readers struggling with learning difficulties will identify with Trisha's situation and find reassurance in her success. Polacco's tale is all the more heartfelt because of its personal nature. She begins to blossom and develop all of her talents, including reading. She wanted so badly to learn to read, but letters just looked wiggly and. ![]() ![]() Falker, trigger a monumental turning point in Trisha's life. Patricia Polacco Trisha thought she was dumb. But finally the encouragement and efforts of a new fifth grade teacher, Mr. Trisha endures the cruel taunts of classmates who call her ""dumb,"" and falls behind in her studies. But when she looks at words and numbers, everything is a jumble. Young Trisha is eager to taste the ""sweetness of knowledge"" that her grandfather has always revered (here symbolized by drizzling honey onto a book and tasting it, which harkens back to Polacco's earlier The Bee Tree). ![]() Here Polacco shares her childhood triumph over dyslexia and discovery of reading in an inspiring if slightly formulaic story. ![]() Fans of Polacco's (Thundercake Pink and Say) work know well her talent for weaving her colorful family history throughout her picture books. ![]() ![]() As well as celebrating his new book, they reflect on McEwan’s career, from his early novels to his Booker Prize-winning Amsterdam, his number-one bestsellers such as Machines Like Me, and big screen adaptations including Atonement, Enduring Love, The Children Act and On Chesil Beach.ĭon’t miss your chance to hear from one of our foremost storytellers. ![]() McEwan appears in conversation with literary journalist Alex Clark. Can we take full charge of the course of our lives without damage to others? How do global events beyond our control shape our lives and our memories? What does parenthood, which McEwan describes as ‘that double helix of labour and love’, teach us about ourselves? And what can we really learn from the traumas of the past? His journey raises important questions for us all. Haunted by lost opportunities, he seeks solace through every possible means – music, literature, family, friends, sex, politics and love. ![]() ![]() McEwan’s protagonist, Roland, rides with the tide of history, but more often struggles against it. Spanning a 70-year period, Lessons starts as the Second World War is ending, taking in the Suez and Cuban Missile Crises, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and continuing right up to the current pandemic and climate change. ![]() ![]() ![]() He raised her without language or any other distractions from fighting and killing. She was raised to be an assassin by super bad guy Cain. Cassandra Cain is being trained by Batman and Oracle to be the new Batgirl. ![]() This run of Batgirl started out with a lot of promise. This run features the Cassandra Cain Batgirl, not to be confused with Stephanie Brown or Barbara Gordon. As is far too often the case an interesting character gets diluted to be just like every other character you see over and over again. I am disappointed in this run as a whole. First is the spoiler free review followed by the spoiler full review and summary. This review of Batgirl issues 1-37 by author Kelley Puckett, Illustrations Damion Scott has been adapted from two previous posts. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() It doesn’t make me too mad, but it made me disappointed. This was very much a character and interpersonal centred exploration hinging around FreeUK and their goals. While it was subversive to stay in the same town, the locations didn’t feel fresh or further explored. I wished there was more worldbuilding exploration like in the last book. Does she want to live in ignorance with the happy, normal life she was reprogrammed to have? Or has she the guts and the power to take down the government, whatever it takes? When Kyla finally has the faith to seek him out she must decide whether his instructions are faithful or not as more flashbacks contradict his words. And she has found an old mentor who has been hinting about it all this time and ushering her to join the freedom-fighting FreeUK. Kyla now knows about the other half of her, the one that wasn’t erased by the government. But I was thrilled to get into the sequel now that questions have been answered. Slated was one of my favourite books last year and high up there as one of my favourite sci fi stories of all time. ![]() ![]() In this entirely new book Ray Kurzweil brings a fresh perspective to advances in the singularity-assessing the progress of many of his predictions and examining the novel advancements that, in the near future, will bring a revolution in knowledge and an expansion of human potential. During the succeeding decade many of Kurzweil's predictions about technological advancements have been borne out, and their viability has become familiar to the public through such now commonplace concepts as AI, intelligent machines, and bioengineering. Since it was first published in 2005, Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near and its vision of the future have been influential in spawning a worldwide movement with millions of followers, hundreds of books, major films ( Her, Lucy, Ex Machina), and thousands of articles. The noted inventor and futurist's successor to his landmark book The Singularity Is Near explores how technology will refashion the human race in the decades to come ![]() |