That was actually kind of nice.Īs for the book that I decided to read, it was an old paperback detective novel that I purchased at Half-Price Books a few years ago. The snow outside was so bright that it actually generated enough light that I was able to read by it. Even though I had a flashlight with me, I quickly discovered that I didn’t need it. So, I decided to sit in bed and read a book. It was cold, I was shivering, and I couldn’t sleep. Because the power was down (not due to the rolling blackouts that had paralyzed the rest of the state but instead because some idiot drove into a substation) it was about 40 degrees inside of the house. Tuesday morning, around one a.m., the house was surrounded by six inches of snow. As you may have heard, we’ve had a bit of inclement weather down here in Texas.
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Caught between calorie minimums and fat ceilings, more sugar appeared to be the most affordable fix." "Specifically, they recommended a low-fat pudding that would add calories without adding fat. Stuck for a solution, the Education Department officials advised the food service director to boost the calorie content of the school's meals by offering more desserts. While the school food service director would have liked to offer additional fruit or vegetables to bring the meals up to the one-third of daily calories recommended for lunch, there was no money to buy produce and none available as a subsidized government surplus. One small example: The author visited a school system in Mississippi - the state with, as she points out - "the highest obesity rate and the second highest diabetes rate in the nation." While there she learned that reviewers from the state's Department of Education had found school meals lacking in sufficient calories. To read Poppendieck's meticulously recounted story, is to become acquainted with some almost unbelievable facts about what actually goes on in school cafeterias. Her first assignment: nail Joe Morelli, a former cop on the run from a murder charge. Out of work, Stephanie blackmails her bail bondsman cousin, Vinnie, into giving her a try as an ‘agent.’ She knows zilch about the job, but she figures her new pal, fearless bounty hunter Ranger, can teach her whatever it takes. Mom is a meddler, and eccentric Grandma Mazur is a few cans short of a case. Stephanie lives five miles from her parents, trying to sever the world’s longest umbilical cord. She’s from the ‘burg,’ a blue collar pocket of Trenton, New Jersey, where cars are American, windows are clean, and dinner is served at six. Here comes Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter with attitude. Witty, fresh, and full of surprises, One for the Money catapulted Janet Evanovich and her incomparable hero*ine Stephanie Plum into crime writing superstardom. From collecting novelty toys that would make any teacher cringe, to wearing jangly earrings, funky glasses and shoes covered with beads and sequins, Paula Danziger had a direct line into kids' hearts and funnybones. She knew how kids felt, what made them laugh, what they wore, collected, read, and played with. Known as a flamboyantly funny and deeply honest writer and speaker, Paula Danziger knew how to relate to young readers at their level. Among her titles are: the enormously popular Amber Brown books as well as Remember Me To Harold Square, The Divorce Express, and Can You Sue Your Parents For Malpractice?ĭanziger received numerous honors, including: Parent's Choice Awards, International Reading Association - Children's Book Council Awards, a IRA-CBC Children's Choice Award and many nominations for state reading and library association awards. She returned to teaching, but the success of her book encouraged her to become a full-time writer. She received her Masters Degree in reading and during that time she wrote her first bestselling novel, The Cat Ate My Gymsuit. Beginning her career as a teacher, Danziger taught at the junior high, high school, college levels. Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in New York, Paula Danziger knew since second grade that she wanted to be a writer. I was pretty sure he was undressing me in his head. I may have to rectify that later.” Trevor watched me with a heated gaze. “That tape was such a waste of those lips. “Ow!” I yelled as the tape ripped from my face. “I’m going to take this tape off baby, I’ll make it fast.” “Since when did Levi get a mate and what the hell is she doing this far from New Orleans?” My chest tightened. “One with that kind of ring?” Harriston challenged. “I admit she’s a looker, but I can get my own women.” The man I could only assume was Trevor approached me. Riley set me on my feet but with them tied together I swayed for a moment. “I think you’ll like this one.” Harriston moved aside and Riley stepped forward. “I told you I didn’t want anything from Dairy Queen.” “We brought you something, Trevor,” Harriston said blocking me from the man’s view. He explains how the theory of quantum gravity attempts to understand and give meaning to the resulting extreme landscape of this timeless world. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where at the most fundamental level time disappears. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it remains. Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to "flow"? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike.įor most readers this is unfamiliar terrain. The Order of Time is a dazzling book." - The Sunday Timesįrom the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Reality Is Not What It Seems, Helgoland, and Anaximander comes a concise, elegant exploration of time. Description One of TIME's Ten Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade “Roberts may have achieved her personal best in this tense Southern Gothic. Because Hope’s murderer is nearby as well. But she is willing to open her heart, just a little, and try.īut living so close to those unhappy memories will be more difficult and frightening than Tory could ever have expected. As she forges a new bond with Cade Lavelle - Hope’s older brother and the heir to the family fortune - she isn’t sure whether the tragic loss they share will unite them or drive them apart. Now, as she returns to Progress with plans to settle in and open a stylish home-design shop, Tory is determined to find a measure of peace and free herself from the haunting visions of the past. Then Hope was brutally murdered, and everything fell apart. Her one escape was her neighbor Hope, who lived in the big house just a short skip away, and whose friendship allowed Tory to be something she wasn’t allowed to be at home: a child. Tory Bodeen grew up in a run-down house where her father ruled with an iron fist and a leather belt - and where her dreams and talents had no room to flourish. #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts presents a novel of redemption and suspense, as a woman haunted by the unsolved murder of her childhood friend returns to her small South Carolina hometown. But I wanted to start the story at the very beginning, where all children start, in a place of pure self-love. HARRISON: For me, this story was really about the words we give and share with children, and I wanted to make a story that followed a child on a journey towards self-love. SUMMERS: Vashti, why did you want to begin this book when this little girl was so young, at this earliest stage of childhood? (Reading) Once there was a girl with a big laugh and a big heart and very big dreams. SUMMERS: I'm wondering if you could just read the sentence that opens this book for us. And can I ask, do you have a copy of your book with you? And when we first meet her, she's just a baby, and she's wearing this white onesie with the words dream big on it. VASHTI HARRISON: Thank you so much for having me. The book is "Big," and author-illustrator Vashti Harrison joins us now. Her arms are stretched high over her head as she holds up the words that make the title of this book, spelled out in oversized, imposing black letters. On the cover of Vashti Harrison's latest book, a young Black girl, her curly hair styled in two puffs, is wearing a beautiful pastel tutu and pink ballet slippers. They also contain explosives that will detonate if the wearer tries to remove it or if they are found inside of a forbidden zone. The students are fitted with thin, metal collars that are used as tracking devices. My favorite difference with Battle Royale is the collars. However, it could be anything from a fork to a machine gun. Each bag contains some sort of random weapon. Instead of HG free-for-all weapons and food in the cornucopia, BR hands out bags to each student as they leave. HG’s involving mostly strangers.īoth novels also provide weapons to the players, but they are distributed a little differently. I think it’s a little more chilling that ALL of these students actually know each other and grew up together vs. They pretend they’re taking them on a school trip then gas them on the bus. Battle Royale randomly picks a ninth grade class who has no idea they were chosen until they’re already there. However, The Hunger Games picks a boy and a girl from each district. They do share a lot of similarities, but enough differences to make them totally different novels.įor instance, both novels take groups of teens and pit them against each other to the death. I actually first picked up The Hunger Games the week it was released back in 2008 because I read that it was similar to Battle Royale. I know now it’s getting a little more press due to the The Hunger Games comparisons. It is known, however, that Maier took special pride in her working-class roots and, as someone who earned her keep as a domestic help, she shared a special empathy with many of her subjects. Maier has been likened to the top Street Photographers in the way her work explores the relationship between the image taker and their urban subject. The publication and exhibition of her work, very little of which was processed or printed in her own lifetime, has led to legal, academic and ethical questions about the posthumous exposure of an artistic vision that has seen her hold her own alongside the likes of Robert Frank, Diane Arbus and Garry Winogrand. She also produced a number of self-portraits (black-and-white and color) which have given the world a picture of an otherwise unknown, intensely private figure. Her earlier years remained faithful to a monochromatic documentary style but, she later adopted color which widened the scope of her oeuvre to allow for an element of symbolism. In her down time, however, Maier would explore urban locations where she found her subjects: the ordinary people living at the margins of society. A "difficult" woman with few (if any) close friends or lovers, she is often referred to as the Mary Poppins of Street Photography on account of the fact that she spent most of her career working as a nanny. Unknown in her own lifetime, Maier left behind a body of work that has seen her name take on near fabled status. |