![]() ![]() ![]() Taken as a whole their selection gives a good general impression of Al-Masʿūdī’s approach and the scope of his vision.įrom this we can gather that he seems to have travelled extensively in the Middle East, perhaps in the role of a merchant trader, along the coast of the Indian subcontinent and very possibly through the East Indies, past Indochina and up to Guangzhou or Canton (here called Khānfū). ![]() Though only a couple of these books have survived the intervening millennium enough remains for Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone to have chosen and translated several chapters from a multi-volume work entitled The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Precious Gems, plus a few from The Book of Admonition and Revision. The author addresses his readers’īorn in Baghdad at the tail end of the ninth century CE, Masʿūdī or Al-Masʿūdī was intensely curious about the world around him, becoming an indefatigable traveller, researching and interviewing informants before authoring several original works. The author of this book compares himself to a man who, having found pearls of every kind and every shade scattered here and there, gathers them into a necklace and makes them a precious piece of jewellery… ’80. Translated by Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone. ![]()
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![]() I've lost you by now, haven't I? Surely, the Addams Family is far from an obscure franchise, especially with a brand new animated film due out this month, but did you honestly know they had a cartoon series in the early 70's created by the famed Hanna-Barbera studio? Scooby-Doo might be the easiest franchise to pick for something Halloween themed without having to avoid taking screenshots of excessive gore, but this isn't just about Scooby-Doo, it's the episode of the New Scooby-Doo Movies featuring The Addams Family. OK, I may have covered an episode of the Simpsons' Treehouse of Horrors, and spent hours dissecting Jaws: The Revenge to the point I wanted to sit in a bathtub and rethink my life, but I generally go for something you might never think of.Įnter: Scooby-Doo. My goal is to try and avoid the easy stuff and dig out something obscure (see: Mad Monster Party or a random episode of Nickelodeon's Weinerville). Welcome to Halloween HAVOK 2019, where we dedicate several columns to "October" themed topics that can loosely tied together with Halloween due to their gothic nature. ![]() ![]() Career Īfter graduating in 1984, Coben worked in the travel industry, in a company owned by his grandfather. Coben was in his senior year at college when he realized he wanted to write. He studied political science at Amherst College, where he was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity, along with Dan Brown. ![]() ![]() Early life and education Ĭoben was born into a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, and was raised in Livingston, where he graduated from Livingston High School, with his childhood friend, future governor Chris Christie. His books have been translated into 43 languages and sold over 60 million copies. Among his novels are two series, each involving the same protagonist set in and around New York and New Jersey some characters appear in both.Ĭoben has won an Edgar Award, a Shamus Award, and an Anthony Award-the first author to receive all three. ![]() The plots of his novels often involve the resurfacing of unresolved or misinterpreted events in the past, murders, or fatal accidents and have multiple twists. Harlan Coben is an American writer of mystery novels and thrillers. ![]() ![]() ![]() Sincere and well-paced, with the backdrop of a tumultuous period in history, the story is not easily forgotten. Her writing has also been seen in Highlights for Children, as well as several literary publications. Her first prose novel, The Fortune of Carmen Navarro, based on the novella and opera Carmen, was published in 2011. ) novel a strong sense of setting and reflects the teenager's conflicting emotions about adulthood: “I had to decide/ to stay safe in the harbor, like my father,/ or to push out to sea, like Gramps.” Her observations also betray an engaging sense of humor (Denise, her older sister, “has no interest in anything/ she can't smoke, wear, or sing”). Ringside, 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial Pieces of Georgia and Kaleidoscope Eyes. ![]() Lyza's thoughtful narration in verse gives Bryant's ( Ringside 1925 ![]() Lyza and her best friends Carolann and Malcolm get to work locating-and then hiding-the treasure. When her mother walked out, “our family began to unravel/ like a tightly wound ball of string.” Then Lyza's grandfather dies, leaving her a box filled with cryptic maps and clues, which she learns relate to the pirate treasure of Capt. Growing up in New Jersey during the Vietnam War, 13-year-old Lyza has some battles of her own (“Whoever said 'the baby of the family/ gets all the sympathy'/ was clearly not ![]() ![]() ![]() Please note the image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item. Binding is so loose that the book will stay open to any given page. Award-winning and bestselling author Kenneth Oppel brings us back to a rich world of flight and fantasy in this breathtaking new sequel to Airborn and Skybreaker. For Matt, Kate, and the entire crew of the Starclimber, what began as an exciting race to the stars has now turned into a battle to save their lives. Despite this bombshell, Matt and Kate embark on their journey into space, but soon the ship is surrounded by strange and unsettling life-forms, and the crew is forced to combat devastating mechanical failure. Before they even set foot aboard the ship, catastrophe strikes: Kate announces she is engaged%u2014and not to Matt. ![]() "As high as I possibly can." Pilot-in-training Matt Cruse and Kate de Vries, expert on high-altitude life-forms, are invited aboard the Starclimber, a vessel that literally climbs its way into the cosmos. ![]() Cruse, how high would you like to fly?" A smile soared across my face. ![]() ![]() ![]() A charming and dangerous psychopath, Block worms his way into the Cotton family claiming that he dumped Miranda (when in fact it was she who tossed him out when she caught him reading her diaries) he immediately wins the trust of her flustered parents and does serious damage to her older sister, Kerry, and her mentally fragile younger brother, Troy. Then a short, nasty liaison with a man who calls himself Brendan Block rips her comfortable world apart. ![]() ![]() Miranda Cotton has an ideal life in London, doing work she loves (building and contracting she always seems to have a spot of paint in her hair), with no current love interest but lots of dating opportunities. ) is one of their most sustained and believable studies in terror against women. Nobody does the dark underside of sex in the city better than the British couple who write as Nicci French, and their latest (after 2003's Land of the Living A review with a blue-tinted title indicates a book of unusual commercial interest that hasn't received a starred or boxed review. A starred review indicates a book of outstanding quality. ![]() ![]() “I want to just peel you out of that thing and eat you like a banana.”īeckett’s heart banged to a stop at the frankness of Donovan’s desires. “You look fucking incredible.” His eyes finally returned to Beckett’s. “I just…wouldn’t have thought any guy would look good in Lycra, and yet-” His gaze travelled over Beckett in another exhaustive inspection. “Nah, I really shouldn’t say what I’m thinking.” He took a beat to respond then shook his head. He looked like he wanted to say more but didn’t. “Man…” he muttered, his gaze hot as he trailed off. ![]() “Hey,” Donovan said, turning, putting his beer down on the benchtop as he leaned his ass against it, smiling all big and sexy as his gaze took a slow and very thorough detour over Beckett’s body, which pushed it from strung tight to excruciatingly rigid. When he let himself into his apartment, Donovan was already there, stirring the chili he’d texted he was going to cook, dominating his kitchen, looking so fucking right and tasty enough to eat, and his need ballooned further. ![]() ![]() ![]() He made his creatures to desire relationship because he delights in relationship. The God of the Bible, however, is a personal being. We exchange the glory of the immortal God for a lesser more distant image of God that is uninvolved in the day to day and is unconcerned with relating personally to his beloved. We can so quickly find ourselves doing and doing for God without being with God. We can so easily find ourselves speaking about God more than we speak to God. ![]() With all the responsibilities, ministries, and business that can overwhelm the Christian life and really any life, there grows and increased dullness to the presence of a personal God. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee I long to be filled with longing I thirst to be made more thirsty still. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine ![]() ![]() ![]() Well, mainly because I wasn't quite sure of the point she was trying to make. It has taken me more than 24 hours to figure out how to write my Book Report on This Secret Thing: A Novel, by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen. ![]() Now, as they delve into Norah’s secrets, they must come to terms with secrets of their own-ones that still have the power to hurt or to heal. Scandal has brought each of them to a crossroads. And Nico, the detective who has doggedly pursued Norah Ramsey in hopes that she will lead him to his missing brother, is drawn further into these women’s lives while facing his own domestic disturbance. ![]() Down the street, Bess, once Norah’s best friend, desperately tries to hide secrets while Casey, Bess’s daughter, flees college after a traumatic event, only to find that home isn’t the safe haven she expected. Polly, long estranged from Norah, is running from her own troubles. She has no one to turn to until her grandmother Polly arrives. ![]() After her mother’s arrest, Norah’s teenage daughter, Violet, is devastated and alone. But Norah’s not the only one keeping secrets. Everyone in Raleigh, North Carolina, is talking about Norah Ramsey, the single mother accused of being a suburban madam. ![]() ![]() ![]() From her earliest years she'd been aware of them as "other," and years of observation had left her with a sound understanding of their features and foibles. She considered herself an expert in the art of assessing gentlemen. Angelica shook her head, and someone in the group to the side of which she stood reclaimed Henrietta's attention, leaving Angelica with her gaze locked on the most riveting man she'd ever beheld. Her ill-suppressed excitement drew a glance from her cousin, Henrietta, presently standing beside her. Irritated, with the musicians resting she'd worked her way around the room, moving from group to group, exchanging greetings and comments, smoothly shifting until she had him in her sights.Įyes wide, barely daring to believe, she whispered, "It's him!" ![]() She'd first felt his disconcerting gaze some thirty minutes before he'd watched her waltz, watched her laugh and chat with others, but no matter how discreetly she'd looked for him, he'd refused to show himself. God." Angelica Rosalind Cynster, standing to one side of Lady Cavendish's salon with the bulk of her ladyship's chattering guests at her back, stared at the long windows giving onto the unlit terrace and the dark gardens beyond, at the reflection of the gentleman who was staring at her from the opposite side of the room. ![]() |