Hoang carefully avoids stereotypes and clichés: Stella never judges Michael for his profession, and he never judges her for her neuroatypicality. The two of them do a beautiful job of navigating their insecurities and fears, transforming their commercial relationship into something emotionally meaningful to them both. While Stella’s intentions toward Michael start out as purely sexual, his gentleness and compassion begin to nudge her in more romantic directions, and his sense of honor, along with her tendency toward obsession, soon complicate their tidy professional arrangement. Stella’s autism is presented as both a genuine challenge and a part of her that she knows how to use to her advantage, and Hoang gives her tremendous depth as a character, never reducing her to a walking diagnosis. Stella is great at her job creating predictive algorithms, but she’s not so great at relationships, which is why she decides to hire escort Michael. Hoang knocks it out of the park with this stellar debut about an autistic woman who takes a methodical approach to learning about sex and accidentally gets a lesson in love.
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He quits baseball, ghosts his girlfriend, and generally checks out of life as he’s known it. That’s why, when Kyle learns that his mother has been having an affair and his father has been living with the secret, his reality is altered. Here are 92 books to add to your TBR!įOR WHEN YOU’RE JUST NOT FEELING A SERIES From fantasy to sci-fi to contemporary to historical, this list has all the fantastic standalone books you need to read. So let’s jump on the standalone wagon and pick up a great new novel. Like, how do you even?Īnd let’s be real, sometimes you just don’t have the time to dedicate to an entire series. But it’s also amazing when an author creates and completes a whole story within a single book. Series are amazing: we know this and we love them. Today we’re rounding up some amazing standalone novels. One may be the loneliest number, but not when it comes to books! Well, unless you only have one book, in which case, it would probably be very lonely. Tanzanian scholar Karim F Hirji has described the work as, "no doubt the 20th century's most important and influential book on African history." Synopsis Rodney wrote the text during his time in Dar es Salaam, during the presidency of Julius Nyerere. This book, along with Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, is a popular example of 20th century books concerning African development and post-colonial theory.įirst published in London by Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications in 1972 (in partnership with Tanzanian Publishing House), the book shaped the study of Africa in many disciplines. every African has a responsibility to understand the system and work for its overthrow." Though, he did not intend "to remove the ultimate responsibility for development from the shoulders of Africans. Rodney argues that a combination of power politics and economic exploitation of Africa by Europeans led to the poor state of African political and economic development evident in the late 20th century. One of his main arguments throughout the book is that Africa developed Europe at the same rate that Europe underdeveloped Africa. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa is a 1972 book written by Walter Rodney that describes how Africa was deliberately exploited and underdeveloped by European colonial regimes. She loves stories, especially a good romance story, and believes in the happily ever after type of endings. She also likes to travel locally and abroad, but likes to come home as that is the best part for her of any trip that she takes. Melanie enjoys throwing big dinner parties for family and friends. But Melanie also has other things that she is good at and enjoys, from cooking and baking to trying out new recipes that other people can then enjoy. When it comes to anything technical or related to computers, she acknowledges that she has her challenges. The author will be the first to admit that she has a serious addiction to coffee. What matters most to the author is family and friends, and she tries to cherish every moment that she has with them. They live together in Ontario in a quiet area, enjoying a content and happy life along with Amber, their rescue cat. She is a best selling writer that has made it to the top seller’s lists of publications like USA Today and the New York Times. Melanie Moreland is a Canadian published author of fictional novels. In this article, the authors argue for a re-appraisal of the text as a feminist parody and as a highly intertextual postmodern work. Due to early reviews and the way it was marketed, it was labelled as 'dirty realism' or 'grunge'. The River Ophelia was a publishing sensation in Australia in the mid-90s as it describes sadistic and masochistic sex and domestic violence. It also looks forward to speculate how audiences may read the novel in 2018 and beyond, given that in October 2017 it was re-released in e-book format with a new Author's Note and Introduction (Ettler 2017a). This article, in the form of a conversation between novelist Justine Ettler and literary and cultural studies scholar Rebecca Johinke, looks back at the reception of the Australian novel The River Ophelia in 1995. But these don’t satisfy us for very long either.Ĭertainly we live in luxurious times and people from the past wouldn’t believe the conveniences that modern life provides. Although this belief comforted people, it proved completely wrong as each of these civilizations collapsed.Īnd if we’re not hiding behind religion or political ideology to avoid the pointlessness of our lives, we’re struggling to acquire external rewards like power, wealth or fame. Still, many people continue to follow religious ideologies because they’re more comfortable thinking of life as meaningful.Īlso, many empires and cultures led their citizens to believe they’d mastered their fates – for instance, the Romans at the height of their power and the Chinese before the Mongol invasion. While this approach seems to make sense, it can also lead to us abandoning our critical faculties.įor example, while organized religions like Christianity and Islam have provided us with rules to live by and given our lives meaning, our firsthand discovery of our predicament in the universe has shown the principles of religion to be wrong. To help us cope, most of us look for comfort in religion or we seek external rewards, like wealth or fame. And when we examine them closely, we notice that we’re unhappy and unfulfilled. When we view our lives from a distance, they seem insignificant. Forman won the 2009 NAIBA Book of the Year Awards and is a 2010 Indie Choice Honor Award winner for If I Stay. Feeling the agony of loss of those closest to her yet aware of the abounding love of those that remain, she must make the choice to hang on or let go. The novel follows Mia's experience as she lies in a coma fully aware of what is going on around her and everything her visitors say and do. Her most recent novel If I Stay is about a 17 year old girl who has been involved in a tragic car accident. In 2007 she published her first young adult novel Sisters in Sanity which she based on an article she had written for Seventeen. From her journeys, she garnered a wealth of experiences and information which later served as a basis for her first book a travelogue You Can't Get There From Here: A Year On The Fringes Of A Shrinking World. In 2002, she and her husband Nick took a trip around the world. Later she became a freelance journalist for publications like Details Magazine, Jane Magazine, Glamour Magazine, The Nation, Elle Magazine, and Cosmopolitan Magazine. Gayle Forman (born June 5, 1971) is an American writer who writes for young adults.įorman began her career writing for Seventeen Magazine in which most of her articles focused on young people and social concerns. Frustration in parts of the 16,634-strong crowd took over the general feeling of apprehension. Opponents Burton Albion were belligerent, making the first half a disjointed, scrappy affair with few chances. Nerves and excitement swirled around Home Park and Argyle’s pre-match anthem The Janner Song (‘Janner’ being slang for people from Plymouth) was sung with authority. When they missed out on the play-offs following a 5-0 home defeat to MK Dons on the final day, having been near the top for most of the season, some supporters wondered whether they would ever escape the toils of League One. Last season was a near miss at ascendency. It is well documented that Plymouth is the biggest city in England never to have a top-flight club, and their fortunes have been such that they have not even been in the second tier since 2010. □ Your gaffer, fans! #EFL | #SkyBetLeagueOne /SG9TfPBlsm “Believe me, this won’t happen again,” said then-manager John Sheridan.īut Saturday was their time in the sun - promotion gained to the Championship. That came two years later when the club came within a point of falling out of the Football League altogether. The club were hit with a 10-point deduction and the season ended in relegation. There was the painful administration of 2011, when the club was in such dire straits that manager Peter Reid sold his FA Cup runners-up medal to help raise funds and paid some of the staff’s fuel bills. As Koffi and Ekon enter the Greater Jungle, a world steeped in wild magic and untold dangers, the tentative alliance between them is tested to the extreme. But defeating the Shetani is something no one has yet achieved, though many have tried. Until a fire at the Night Zoo upends his certain future and, on the brink of his final rite of passage, Ekon is cast out - his reputation left in tatters.įor Koffi and Ekon, the outlook is bleak - unless they can capture the Shetani, the vicious monster that plagues their city, and recover their futures. Īs the son of a decorated hero, Ekon is all but destined to become an elite warrior. But when her loved ones' safety is threatened by the Zoo's cruel master, Koffi unleashes a power she doesn't fully understand. Indentured to the notorious Night Zoo, she cares for its fearsome and mythical creatures to pay off her family's debts and secure their freedom. Magic doesn't exist in the broken city of Lkossa anymore, especially for girls like sixteen-year-old Koffi. Fate binds two teenagers as they strike a dangerous alliance to hunt down the ancient creature terrorising their home. Maybe it was mentioned in Osgood’s other novel, but it wasn’t mentioned that Kiara was Korean (half Korean?) until the further half of the book. They were all diverse as well, despite that being quite subtle. I found myself cheering on the other characters in their romantic endeavors, and was completely invested in their development and journey. I also enjoyed all of the characters, especially the romances going on. The writing style was simple and to the point, but was still entertaining and added the right emotions into the right scenes. I felt comfortable with her style of writing, and fell into the groove of it extremely easily. Without putting much detail into it, Osgood easily crafts an atmosphere she obviously has experience with. One thing that immediately grabs your attention is the atmosphere. I would like to thank Michelle Osgood and Interlude Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Why this book?: I was approached because Ryn is nonbinary, and the author was looking for nonbinary reviewers. Suddenly, the four are ripped away when Jamie spots the tattoo of the fabled werewolf killers: the Huntsmen. While at a nightclub with her cousin Jamie and Deanna, Kiara watches as her ex-partner Ryn walks out on stage during a drag king show. |