I read TheShitWizard’s review and immediately bought this book, read it, and loved it. I am all about some adult-level fairy tales. This is right up my alley. Vasya is a wild child, the fifth in her family, in Northern Russia. She inherited her mother’s and grandmother’s second sight – the ability to see and interact with the invisible guardians, or chyerti. A battle is brewing, though, between the Bear and the Frost-Demon. Konstantin, a compelling and pious priest arrives in the village and introduces […]
Why are we born, if not to help each other?
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if […]
A Shattering and a Shame
“We cannot go abroad as Americans in the 21st century and not realize that the main thing that has been terrorizing us … is our own ignorance — our blindness and subsequent discovery of all the people on whom the empire-that-was-not-an-empire had been constructed without our attention or concern.” This book is well-planned and well-paced although it covers both the histories of America’s interventions in other countries ranging back 80+ years, and the author’s personal journey of awareness. It is deeply heartfelt without being egocentric. […]
Crazy, Rich, Crazy Rich
The Fug Girls made me read this. The photos of the premiers of Crazy Rich Asians were all just so glam. I obviously had to see the movie. I mean: But I can’t see the movie if I haven’t read the book. So I obviously had to read the book. By now you probably know the main plot: woman (Rachel) goes to Singapore to meet boyfriend’s (Nick) family. Turns out he’s rich like whoa. She is blindsided by the money, the lifestyle, and the […]