In the course of 120 minutes, Howard went from a player known mainly by soccer fans to an American icon, loved by millions for his dependability, daring, and humility. His heroic performance in goal for the United States against Belgium, in which he saved an astonishing fifteen shots-the most for any goalkeeper in a World Cup game-made him a household name as well as a trending internet meme. After a successful seventeen-year professional soccer career, Howard became an overnight star during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Howard managed to keep his condition in check well enough to be drafted by Major League Soccer right out of high school. Howard opens up for the first time about how a hyperactive kid from New Jersey with Tourette Syndrome defied the odds to become one of the world's premier goalkeepers. "In this heartwarming and candid memoir, US national soccer team goalkeeper Tim Howard does something he would never do on a soccer field: he drops his guard. 271 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : 22 cm
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See there, that was as easy as connecting Kevin Bacon with Queen Elizabeth II-kind of. Paddy, or more specifically, Jane and Tom LeFroy, who was from Ireland of which Saint Patrick himself is the patron saint. And though a lesson on European Christendom is quite interesting and rather fitting for Saint Patrick’s Day, we’ll leave the long, tumultuous religious history of that great continent on the back of the hob for now and get back to Jane and St. Basically meaning that part of his lineage was French Protestants who left France due to Catholic persecution, fleeing to Ireland under English protection, most likely during the latter part of the 17th century. Actually, Tom was part Irish and part Huguenot. However, if you will humor me for a moment while supporting the “six degrees of separation” theory, then we can share some fun Austen facts in Irish fashion on this Saint Patrick’s Day.Īs many of you already know, reportedly our dear Miss Austen was once courted by an Irishman named Thomas LeFroy. Now, to answer the question: What do Saint Patrick and Jane Austen have in common? Well, probably not a whole lot. Top of the mornin’ to ye, fellow Austenites! And the happiest of Saint Patrick’s Day wishes! What do Saint Patrick and Jane Austen have in common? 6/10/2023 0 Comments The air awakensGet ready for an epic fantasy, filled with romance and adventure, in Air Awakens, the first book in a completed five book series. And with powerful forces lurking in the shadows, Vhalla's indecision could cost her more than she ever imagined. Now she must decide her future: Embrace her sorcery and leave the life she's known, or eradicate her magic and remain as she's always been. But after she unknowingly saves the life of one of the most powerful sorcerers of them all-the Crown Prince Aldrik-she finds herself enticed into his world. Vhalla has always been taught to fear the Tower of Sorcerers, a mysterious magic society, and has been happy in her quiet world of books. Air Awakens is a series of five Young Adult fantasy novels by Elise Kova, self-published by the author in 2015. The Solaris Empire is one conquest away from uniting the continent, and the rare elemental magic sleeping in seventeen-year-old library apprentice Vhalla Yarl could shift the tides of war. The Solaris Empire is one conquest away from uniting the continent. When he awakens her magic, there's no going back. A library apprentice, a sorcerer prince, and an unbreakable magic bond. 6/9/2023 0 Comments The killing moon novelAnd since the most powerful dreams are found at the moment of death, an important subset of these priests, the Gatherers (or, as Jemisin calls them, ninja priests), sneak into peoples homes under the cover of darkness to extract dreamblood from those who are deemed corrupt or too elderly to contribute to society, killing them in the process.īut what makes this interesting is that these ninja priests do not see themselves as assassins. These dreams are used by the Hetawa, priests of the dream goddess, as fuel for their healing magic. Every member of society is required to contribute to the system by making monthly payments of dreams. And the relations between the lighter-skinned people of Gujaareh and the darker-skinned people of Kisua from the south in no small way parallels the connections of old between Egypt and the Nubian Kingdom of Kush.Īnd the world itself is fascinating, with magic serving as the cultural and political building blocks of Gujaareh society. That much is clear even to the interested layman, with the desert setting, regular flooding cycles akin to those of the Nile River valley, the polytheistic society, and a Prince who serves as an intermediary between gods and men-not unlike the Pharaohs of old. The Killing Moon, the first book of Jemisin's Dreamblood Duology, takes place in the city-state of Gujaareh, a city based on ancient (New Kingdom era) Egypt. 6/9/2023 0 Comments Chapman's Homer by HomerMUCH have I travell'd in the realms of gold,Īnd many goodly states and kingdoms seen Be it looking at a poem, a story, a building, a landscape, or a person for the first time (or with fresh eyes), may we be with Keats' speaker like 'some watcher of the skies' discovering 'new planets', injecting vitality, excitement and a 'wild surmise' as we live our daily lives. I've chosen 'On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer', not because I know it was written in Keats House (I don't) but because, with things new or refurbished, we are once more able to put in a position of wide-eyed discovery. In honour of this reopening, I thought it only fitting to choose a Keats poem for this week's Featured Poem. ( View photographs of Keats' refurbished house here.) Keats House in Hampstead, where he wrote some of his best loved poems, has benefited from £424,000 Lottery grant, which sees the rooms he knew recreated. Last week, Keats's London home reopened after major refurbishment. The Secret River is rich and alive with metaphor: the coldness, hardness and immovability of stone and rock the dogs, everywhere dogs – a bitch lying down and letting her pups suck the life out of her, “the dark curl of dog turd”, “a pack of dogs snapping at a hen with chicks”, skinny dogs, dogs barking at a pitch that is “high and hysterical” like frantic, slobbering slave dogs in a bayou pursuit.īesides that, William Thornhill is not a character only of the past. I can taste the ash in Sarah’s damper, the rot in the salt pork and the bitterness of the black tea. When Thornhill sees a sack hanging heavy on the end of a rope from a tree on Smasher’s patch, I hear Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, “black bodies swinging in the southern breeze”. Grenville’s tense, sweeping story of Thornhill, his wife, Sarah, their grim, foul London lives, his transportation for the term of his natural life, the river, its characters – including the vile Smasher – the land on the river, and the psychopathic violence with which its Aboriginal owners are evicted, is shocking, riveting, vivid, sensory.Īs ticket-of-leave man Thornhill and Sarah carve out their place on a “mild-mannered point”, an image of Frederick McCubbin’s painting The Pioneer flashes to mind. The Secret River is rich and alive with metaphor: the coldness, hardness and immovability of stone and rock the dogs, everywhere dogs. Twain’s book is a perfect example of what’s now called the “transformational journey.” The best of the on-the-road books show inner growth on the part of the traveler. My very favorite choice from those old book club selections was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This painting of Huckleberry Finn and Jim was done by Norman Rockwell. I added “Lilliputian” and “Brobdingnagian” to my “See Spot run. With its outrageously imaginative plot, characters, and fabulous wood- engraved illustrations, Gulliver’s Travels was another favorite of those classics. I still have many of those book-club novels, like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with illustrations by Tenniel. The book plates came later, when I had learned to write my name in cursive. I was barely old enough to read when my mother signed me up for a book-of-the-month club of children’s classics. It tells the story of Odysseus’ harrowing ten-year journey, mostly by ship, to reach Ithaca after the Trojan War. Attributed to the Greek poet Homer, it was composed almost 3,000 years ago. Much has been written about journeys, starting with the epic poem, the Odyssey. The human itch to hit the road goes way back. 'Once in a while, I discover an author who changes everything. And she soon discovers it's not just History she's fighting. Mostly it’s about the adventures explosions dinosaurs conspir. The first book in the bestselling Chronicles of St Marys series which follows a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets as they hurtle their way around. The plot careens wildly around from place to place and event to event, and I just raced around with it. When Madeleine Maxwell is recruited by the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research, she discovers the historians there don't just study the past - they revisit it.īut one wrong move and History will fight back - to the death. Just One Damned Thing After Another was a wild roller coaster ride It’s a time travel tale, but doesn’t care to get hung up on the theory or mechanics of it. where would you go? What would you like to witness?' 'So tell me, Dr Maxwell, if the whole of History lay before you. Madeleine Max Maxwell is recruited to the St Marys Institute of Historical Research, a somewhat secretive organisation attached to the. Time Travel meets History in this explosive bestselling adventure series. If you love Jasper Fforde or Ben Aaronovitch, you won't be able to resist Jodi Taylor. The first book in the bestselling CHRONICLES OF ST MARY'S series which follows a group of tea-soaked disaster magnets as they hurtle their way around History. The first difference is incorporating the gods of the alien Shi’ar race, people with influence throughout a significant area of Marvel’s universe. Over the years Thor has probably fought an entire pantheon of mad gods, but Aaron differentiates this significantly. That, however, is just by means of an appetiser as the title story kicks in, and that’s a gem. It’s nice to have them codified after all these years. While that plot doesn’t come to a head, there is at least an introductory skirmish over the first two chapters, Thor part of a cabal featuring representatives of each of those nine worlds. More were signed up to his axis of evil in Lords of Midgard, and a further couple are added here. A slow release plot Jason Aaron’s run since Jane Foster’s adoption of Thor’s identity is the machinations of the Dark Elf Malekith, intending to conquer the nine worlds. 6/7/2023 0 Comments The sense of an ending reviewFusty curmudgeon Tony Webster ( Jim Broadbent) appears content to have traded his ambitions as a poet for a life spent tending a tiny vintage camera shop. That low-key treasure displayed Batra’s unique touch for the subtle sense of longing and mystery that can haunt men of a certain age, and proved to be an ideal precursor to the director’s first English-language film, “The Sense of an Ending,” a well-acted, if somewhat trickier dish to digest, focusing on a British divorcé’s futile search for closure to a long-ago relationship.Īs source material goes, “The Sense of an Ending” is rather more literary, adapted from Julian Barnes’ 2011 novel by playwright Nick Payne, and one can feel the ideas knocking about behind the deceptively simple-looking facades of its characters. A couple years back, festival audiences fell in love with Indian director Ritesh Batra’s genuine gem of a debut, “The Lunchbox,” in which an accountant on the brink of retirement exchanges intimate notes with the complete stranger who has been cooking for him each day. |