5/26/2023 0 Comments Apj abdul kalam autobiography book![]() Some people stride towards whatever it is that they want in life others shuffle their feet & never get started because they do not know what they want-& do not know how to find it either. He says “ I never doubted that the prayers in the temple reached the same destination as the ones offered in our mosque.” This book teaches us that you have to dream before your dreams can come true.
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5/26/2023 0 Comments Terms of enlistment by marko kloos![]() ![]() ![]() Terms of Enlistment is by no means a perfect book but it was one I enjoyed immensely: a non blustery military sci fi that isn't in love with its tech, its military, or right wing politics. Revised edition: This edition of Terms of Enlistment includes editorial revisions. The debut novel from Marko Kloos, Terms of Enlistment is an addition to the great military sci-fi tradition of Robert Heinlein, Joe Haldeman, and John Scalzi. But as he starts a career of supposed privilege, he soon learns that the good food and decent health care come at a steep price.and that the settled galaxy holds far greater dangers than military bureaucrats or the gangs that rule the slums. With the colony lottery a pipe dream, Andrew chooses to enlist in the armed forces for a shot at real food, a retirement bonus, and maybe a ticket off Earth. For welfare rats like Andrew Grayson, there are only two ways out of the crime-ridden and filthy welfare tenements: You can hope to win the lottery and draw a ticket on a colony ship settling off-world.or you can join the service. The year is 2108, and the North American Commonwealth is bursting at the seams. His Frontlines series is a worthy successor to such classics as Starship Troopers, The Forever War, and We All Died at Breakaway Station. ![]() ![]() “There is nobody who does better than Marko Kloos. ![]() ![]() ![]() A half-billion years from now, and with the vagaries of plate tectonics, the place that was once Pittsburgh may again be in the tropics, or the arctic, or under the ocean. Eventually, everything loses its war of attrition with entropy: steel and concrete, glass and iron, all of the monuments of humanity. ![]() ![]() ‘To consider the landscapes that once existed is to feel the draw of a temporal wanderlust,’ writes the palaeontologist Thomas Halliday in Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth’s Extinct Worlds (2022), describing the past as not just ‘an endless expanse of unfathomable time, but … a series of worlds, simultaneously fabulous yet familiar.’ Some 270 million years ago, the spot where I’m now sitting would have sat next to the tropical shoals of a warm, globe-spanning, shallow ocean, populated by massive invertebrates and amphibians, the oxygen-rich air giving flight to dragonflies with the wingspans of birds and arachnids of nightmarish proportions. ![]() I’m writing in the dining room of my family’s home in Pittsburgh, a yellow-and-green craftsman house that’s a century old, not far from the confluence of the Ohio River in the Allegheny Mountains. ![]() ![]() ![]() Unfortunately, the Gaults concluded that she was dead rather than missing, and they became all the more determined to put Ireland behind them forever. Their nine-year-old daughter Lucy, however, refused to go, running away the night before they were scheduled to depart. Gault decided that enough was enough and made hasty plans to leave Ireland. After a group of insurrectionists attempted to set fire to their house one night, Captain and Mrs. During the uprisings that raged throughout the countryside in the years immediately following WWI, the Gaults (like most Protestant landlords) found themselves in real peril of their lives. ![]() But the Irish have long memories, and the fact that the Gaults originally came to the island as adventurers in the service of the British Crown set them apart from the natives well into the 20th century. ![]() The Gaults have lived in Ireland a long time-since the 16th century, at least, although they didn’t develop their estate at Lahardane until the 1700s. A moving tale of history gone wrong and tragedy redeemed, by renowned Irish novelist Trevor ( The Hill Bachelors, 2000, etc.). ![]() ![]() ![]() Two years have passed since his time with Yugo when Kuon is injured on a mission leaving him blind. With little regard for what his life has become, he enlists in the military where he quickly gains the reputation as a loose cannon. This is to say nothing of his issues regarding Yugo. So, Kuon goes back to his old life but is at a complete loss as to how to integrate himself back into it, how to simply reappear at work, how to explain everything, etc. In this installment, Yugo has set Kuon "free" as it sinks in that Kuon would rather take his own life than think about being with Yugo (regardless of their crazy relationship). ![]() Quite a few twists happen, but they are just the beginning. ![]() 4.5 stars - Thank goodness, this story picks up right where the previous one left off, and we don't have to wait very long to get the details of what actually happened. ![]() 5/26/2023 0 Comments Happiness like water![]() ![]() ![]() Happiness, Like Water introduces an astonishing talent, a young writer with a beautiful heart and a capacious imagination. These are startling, challenging stories filled with language to make your eyes pause and your throat catch. ![]() They fight their mothers and their husbands, their own shame and their own sexuality, the power of religion and the pull of love. I devoured these stories and immediately wanted more. ![]() 'Intricate, graceful prose propels Okparantas profoundly moving and illuminating book. Their world is marked by electricity outages, lush landscapes, folktales, littered roads, Land Rovers, buses that break down and never start up again. Happiness, Like Water introduces a true talent, a young writer with a beautiful heart and a capacious imagination. In Happiness, Like Water Chinelo Okparanta offers a portrait of Nigeria that is surprising, shocking, heartrending, loving. As Daniyal Mueenuddin brought us everyday Pakistan with In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, so Okparanta brings us life across social strata, dealing in every kind of change.Īmong her characters are a young woman faced with a dangerous decision to save her mother, children slick with oil from the river, a woman in love with another despite the penalties. ![]() ![]() ![]() He will discuss his exhaustively researched work The Company Quartet, a collection of four books - The Anarchy, White Mughals, Return of a King and The Last Mughal - that chronicle the rise and fall of the East India Company. “Sadly, that is the case,” says the author, who will soon be in Dubai for the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature 2023, from February 1 to 6. ![]() ![]() They mirror fears that India’s secular ethos is waning under Mr Modi and his government’s increasingly uncomfortable and hostile attitude towards its religious minority.ĭalrymple refuses to comment on the controversy surrounding the blanket ban on the documentary and the question of the Indian government stifling freedom of speech, but he says there definitely seems to be an “upswing in religious polarisation”. The remarks came days after the world’s largest democracy blocked a BBC documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in the state of Gujarat, of which he was then chief minister. ![]() 5/26/2023 0 Comments Hero at the fall![]() I talked and screamed out loud for this book, and when I didn’t like something I kept closing and opening the book again and again because I couldn’t cope and in no way was I ready to go on like it was nothing. When you think that nothing could go worse, you’ll be proven wrong many many times. This last book kept me on the edge of my sit from page 1 to the end. She’s basically the chosen one and I couldn’t be happier that she had such a role in the Rebellion. In this book she’s the main character through and through. I can’t believe how much Amani has grown as well. ![]() Not one time was I let down (except again when the author was so cruel with my precious characters *cries*). I’ll miss everybody so freaking much! I started reading this series in 2015 and I’ve loved it ever since. Now I probably really need to sit in a corner and cry of both sadness and joy. ![]() I’ve lost the ability to produce proper sentences. In my review I have spoilers under tags but not in comments as I can do nothing about those. Please don’t read the comments if you don’t want to be spoiled. If you’re considering picking this series up DO IT NOW. ![]() 5/25/2023 0 Comments Behind the sun deborah challinor![]() ![]() ![]() The path to true love is tortuous, involving rampaging Maori war parties, illicit sexual liaisons and incarceration in Sydney's Hyde Park Barracks, forgery, betrayal and death at sea. When she discovers he is also a gun runner, her loyalties are torn and her tempestuous nature leads to an estrangement. In desperation, her mother banishes Kitty to the colonies in disgrace, under the guardianship of her dour missionary uncle and his long-suffering wife.Īgainst the backdrop of the wild and unruly Bay of Islands in the period leading up to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, Kitty meets and falls in love with Ryan Farrell, a rude, aloof and atheistic ships captain. After Kitty is discovered in a compromising position with an unscrupulous adventurer, her reputation is left in shreds. When 18-year-old Kitty Carlisle's father dies unexpectedly in Norfolk in 1838, Kitty and her mother are left impoverished. ![]() ![]() ![]() It will be loved by girls everywhere, especially those aged 10+. Liv takes us on a journey through her life from Thirteen Weeks Before to Six Months After. ![]() Every character is essential to the story and I found it really difficult to put this book down. Product description Dandelion Clocks by Rebecca Westcott will be loved by fans of Jacqueline Wilson, Cathy Cassidy or Annabel Pitcher. The story starts just as Liv’s mum, Rachel, is diagnosed with a terminal illness.Īlthough the main part of the story is sad, this book is beautifully written - you will laugh and cry and then smile again as Liv, her brother, and her parents cope with her Mum’s illness.Ī really difficult topic that is dealt with in the story with sensitivity, love and humour. It is a lovely, touching story which is mainly about an unlikely friendship between a grumpy teenage girl and an elderly lady who is stuck in a home. Liv is about to experience the most traumatic 12 months of her life… My daughter (12) was given Rebecca Westcotts first book, Dandelion Clocks, as a prize from school and she loved it So we ordered this and she was not disappointed. But I feel like there's something she's not telling me. ![]() They're really funny - and actually sort of helpful. Mum's suddenly started giving me life's vital lessons: how to make Bolognese sauce, how to put on make-up, how to make rules my brother can cope with. What all these pictures have in common is they show how Mum lives every day - like it really, really matters. ![]() I gather up the first collection of photographs of my mum and flick through. ![]() |