I Am The Male-Lead's Ex-Girlfriend - Chapter 4
I care about you
“Wherever I go, I always get the attention of the crowd for being the handsome lord of the tower. I’ve been really tired these days.”
He sighed deeply as if it was really tiring.
Unknowingly, his face became tired for a moment.
It was strange that even though his face looks tired, he is still attractive.
“Tomorrow, I’ll send a carriage to Marquis of Kernels. Take that and come to the tower.”
“Won’t you tell me the reason?”
“I’ll explain tomorrow when you visit the tower. You’re so curious, aren’t you?”
“Good. Then you’ll think about me until you reach the tower. Because you will be wondering about my intentions.”
Zion leaned his head close to me. Then, he spoke, making me feel his hot breath.
“That’s what I wanted.”
I had no idea why I got goosebumps suddenly. Ah, I think I was a little excited.
My carriage ran along the streets of the capital when it eventually entered a deserted forest path. Looking outside the carriage through the window, I saw the deep forest road.
Is pretending being lover in public enough compensation for the liquid substance that Zion worked hard for the past three years?
Why did Zion even drop the glass bottle of the precious liquid at my feet?
I felt a little odd to dismiss it as a coincidence.
Because Zion from the original story was a very thorough person. I could hardly understand it, but I didn’t think much of it. What’s important to me right now is not being labeled as an enemy of the tower.
Let’s not think deeply, it would only hurt my head.
The carriage, which was running along the forest road for some time, stopped. I wiped my forehead as I got off from the carriage.
It seems like it hasn’t been long since the sun has risen, but my forehead was sweating now. As I looked up at the sky of the summer day, the intense sunlight disturbed my vision.
Why do I feel hotter than yesterday?
At that moment, a hand shaded my green eyes from the sunlight.
“The sunlight was too harsh for a beautiful lady like you.”
I looked at Zion, who had suddenly arrived. Wearing a loose white shirt like yesterday, he came silently. Nevertheless, he still shines.
Like in a movie, his messy hair fluttered in the summer breeze. I am completely impressed.
What, he is very handsome today.
After Zion greeted, he motioned his hand, signaling me to follow him. As I followed him, I saw the tower ahead.
Although I imagined a tower, built with stone blocks, the actual appearance of the tower was a typical mansion. The tower seemed so colorless.
Upon entering the mansion, only a few people could be seen. Still, when they encountered us, they politely bowed their heads to Zion.
Whenever that happened, I remembered again that he is the lord of the tower.
While following him, I took the chance to ask.
“Zion, will I be helping you fix the glass bottle?”
He answered naturally.
“Erica. Don’t worry about it. I will not say anything about that. If you are good at pretending as my lover, I’ll handle things neatly. Trust me.”
There was a strong conviction in Zion’s words. Maybe that’s why I had to trust him.
“Yes, I believe in you.”
I took a small breath of relief. It was fortunate.
So, together, we climbed the stairs leading to the upper floor. Zion, who walked one step ahead of me, began to speak.
“Did you think about me yesterday?”
I answered roughly.
I was really curious why Zion asked me to pretend to be in a relationship with him.
But last night, when I returned to the Marquis and lay down in bed, I quickly fell into a deep sleep. It was because I was tired. Unfortunately, the last thing I thought right before I fell asleep was, ‘Leo cried.’
I thought of a man who shed tears because of our breakup. What kind of crying face does Leo’s look like?
As far as I know, Leo was gifted with an innocent face, and usually smiles languidly. So, I had no idea what his crying face would be.
It was something that is difficult to imagine. My thoughts were stopped when Zion spoke to me.
“Then, as promised, I’ll tell you my situation that you were curious about.”
“What I am trying to say is I was born so handsome. I am pretty good-looking, have a good personality, talented in magic, and have a good family. There’s no shortcoming. As a handsome man, I naturally got everyone’s attention ever since I was born. Until now, it was always like that.”
“Ugh. Totally conceited.”
At my words, Zion giggled.
“But it’s true.”
“So. My current problem that everyone is paying attention to…….Indeed, it’s about what kind of woman will Zion Leppe marry.”
Zion, who said so, stopped talking. From the expression of his face, he looked worried about something.
I repeated the words he said earlier. What kind of woman will Zione Leppe marry?
In the novel, Zion loved Yuliana, but his love ended up as one-sided. After the novel ended, did he meet another woman and marry her?
I glanced at Zion’s broad back who was ahead of me. Then I suddenly recalled the scene in the novel, in which Zion, who failed in love, cried in the dark.
Will you end up crying just like in the book?
Before we knew it, we walked side by side along the hallway. Every time we walked; the backs of our hands brushed against each other.
At that moment, I wondered how it would feel to hold hands with him. Then unexpectedly, Zion held my hand and intertwined with my fingers tightly.
Did he read my thoughts or what?
His hand was quite warm. It was an irresistible warmth. Perhaps that’s the reason why I couldn’t let go of his hand.
After some time, he stopped walking.
Zion stopped in front of a room. Despite reaching the room, he did not let go of my hand. He just pointed somewhere with his free hand.
His finger pointed to the door of the room in front of us. To be more precise, the gap between the small open doors.
I carefully lean my face through the gap of the door, and look from it. From the inside, I could see the back of a woman sitting on the sofa.
“Did you see the woman sitting on the sofa?”
“That woman is my stepmother. Although she came from a good family, her integrity is not as good as it is. Everyone in the society already knows that.”
I nodded my head.
Duke Grigor of Leppe, Zion’s father.
He is not a great man.
It was because of his habitual affair.
That was his story that I read in the novel. After peeking through the door, I looked up at his face, which was quite close.
“Do you feel sorry for me?”
I guess that was the look on my face.
Zion pressed down my head using his finger.
“Don’t bother. I’m fine.”
Zion’s face, saying it was okay, has the saddest face I’ve ever seen from him.
Stupid. Why are you saying it’s okay with a sad face?
It seemed that Zion didn’t want me to pity him.
Come to think of it, that’s the reason why Zion loved Yuliana, the heroine in the novel. It was because Yuliana did not sympathize with Zion.
And Zion fell for her for that.
On the outside, he looked more gorgeous than anyone else, but in reality, he has a bad family.
He was raised neglected. He grew up lonely and always wanted someone’s love.
Yuliana didn’t pity him. Yuliana was the only woman who saw Zion as himself. Therefore, it was only a matter of time before Zion fell in love with Yuliana.
“It wouldn’t know if I didn’t listen to it in the first place but I care about you.”
I confessed my honest feelings. Probably the opposite of Yuliana’s attitude.
I didn’t want to be like Yuliana who was loved by many men in the novel.
Even if I knew why Yuliana was loved by the male protagonists, I wanted to say my true feelings.
That was all.
“I’ve never seen anyone who says they’re alright with their own mouth.”
Looking at me, there was a small glint in Zion’s gold eyes but it soon disappeared.
He grinned a little and spoke clearly.
“Still, don’t worry.”
Then, Zion quickly changed the topic, trying to stop me from feeling more pity for him.
“Anyway, I’m being forced by my stepmother to marry.”
The flow of the conversation was about his marriage again.
“Is there a big reason?”
I naturally followed the flow. I didn’t want to uncover something that Zion didn’t want to talk about.
“Uh. Before I became the lord of the tower, I’m the eldest son of the Leppe family. It’s a justification that I should be the successor. Of course, it’s not that I won’t succeed. But I don’t want to get married right now.”
“Hm. So, you’re asking me to pretend to be your lover in front of your stepmother? So that she won’t urge you to get married anymore.”
He smiled slightly and nodded his head.
“That’s right. I sent a letter to my stepmother yesterday saying, ‘I already have someone I love, and I won’t marry someone you have chosen. If you don’t believe it, come to the tower today.’”
“After I sent it, she came right away. My stepmother is waiting for us.”
I answered coolly.
“Okay, leave it to me.”
Well, that’s a favor. When I shrugged my shoulders, Zion giggled.
“Erica, you don’t have to try so hard. I don’t like my stepmother either.”
I don’t care how she treats me. He assured me and completely opened the door which had been slightly open.
As we went into the room, we walked to the sofa where Zion’s stepmother was sitting. Soon after, I could see her face as she sat upright on the sofa.
She is a middle-aged woman who has no resemblance to Zion’s handsome face. She was Zion’s stepmother and the mistress of the Leppe family.
“Zion, you’re here?”
Mrs. Leppe’s voice was not very pleasant to talk to.
She called Zion’s name, but she was staring at me. Somehow, I felt like I was being criticized. With that, I smiled in a lovely manner and gave a pleasant atmosphere as she observed me.
If you want to see it, watch it as much as you want.
“Yes, mother. As I told you before, this is the woman I love. I want to marry her, so I don’t want you to force me to marry anymore.”
When Zion greeted her, he already mentioned the subject. He was pretty direct.
I still greeted Mrs. Leppe with a smiling face.
“Mrs. Leppe. It’s my first time meeting you. My name is Erica Kernels.”
I held the hem of my dress and bowed slightly. At my greeting, her eyes changed.
“Erica Kernels? No way, the evil woman, who changes men every three months… …. that lady is you?”
Did my rumors get into Mrs. Leppe’s ears? I guess I’m very famous.
With no sign of embarrassment, I answered confidently.
It was my choice and my way of doing things.
No matter what anyone says, even if Mrs. Leppe looks at me horribly, I did not regret what I had done so far. Not a bit.
What’s wrong with changing men every three months? It’s a once-in-a-lifetime anyway.
“Madam, is there a problem?”
I smiled even more.


Master Craftsmen Exhibition
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Maree and the Prince —Book Review
A newly published eBook—Maree and the Prince deals with the subject of faith while telling the tale of a roguish writer who is a Prince given to excessive drinking. The Prince and His friend pursue members of the oldest profession with a vengeance.
Maree is his involuntary secretary and driver. The Prince is possessed by an English ghost. The book also explores Christianity through a devout Maree.
The ghost leads us on a journey to London, a sea voyage, Karachi, Lahore, Umballa and Simla in the 19th century. The book also takes us into an unexplored chapter of British-Indian history—that of Lascars—native sailors who were the first Indian immigrants in England.
The book is a search for faith with the help of a saint and a faithful servant.
The eBook is available on Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, Google books. Flipkart.com.
You will find details about Hindu Festivals, Slokas, Prayers, Vegetarian cooking and much more useful information.
Musings on the past, present and future of English cricket
Health and Wellness, Indian thought and literature: Women Writings, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Yoga , poems
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داده های اولیه در رابطه بین حساسیت اضطراب و اختلال شخصیت مرزی: نقش اجتناب تجربی
|کد مقاله||سال انتشار||مقاله انگلیسی||ترجمه فارسی||تعداد کلمات|
|74802||2008||10 صفحه PDF||سفارش دهید||7978 کلمه|
Publisher : Elsevier - Science Direct (الزویر - ساینس دایرکت)
Journal : Journal of Psychiatric Research, Volume 42, Issue 7, June 2008, Pages 550–559
Although research on the temperamental vulnerabilities associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD) has focused primarily on the role of impulsive-aggression, affective instability, and emotional vulnerability, growing evidence suggests that anxiety sensitivity (AS) also may increase vulnerability for BPD. This study provides preliminary data on the relationship between AS and BPD, examining whether AS distinguishes outpatients with BPD from outpatients without a personality disorder (non-PD), and whether the relationship between AS and BPD is mediated by experiential avoidance (i.e., attempts to avoid unwanted internal experiences, such as anxiety). Findings indicate that BPD outpatients reported higher levels of AS than non-PD outpatients and AS reliably distinguished between these two groups. Furthermore, the relationship between AS and BPD was mediated by experiential avoidance. Finally, results indicate that AS (and experiential avoidance as a mediator) accounted for a significant amount of additional variance in BPD status above and beyond both negative affect and two well-established temperamental vulnerabilities for BPD (affect intensity/reactivity and impulsivity). Findings suggest the need to further explore the role of AS in the pathogenesis of BPD.


The old one walked to the door and opened it to another cold, rainy morning, at least today he did not feel like the gloomy weather outside, on the contrary, the old one felt quite good about himself and his spirit was soaring above the clouds.
Today the old one was to ride a Regional transit Authority bus to the Veterans Clinic. There he was to see them for his first health check-up in this new world.
He caught the RTA carriage at its stopping place, he climbed aboard and paid the fare and asked the driver to tell him when they reached 44th Street West. The driver shook his head, “sure will old man,” he said with a grin. Then the old one took a seat and waited. Down the street across the bridge, they traveled the carriage turned left, and then right stopping frequently to pick up and drop off the creatures who rode the carriage. The driver stomped on the brakes and pulled the carriage to a stop, he turned and signaled the old one that this was his stop. “Thanks a lot have a good day,” the old one said, stepping from the carriage to the ground.
In front of him was an imposing beige brick citadel, the sign out front identified this castle as the place the old one was going.
He walked to the door, pulled it open, and entered the clinic. A directory, of all those who inhabited the castle, and what floor they were on, as well as the room number hung on the wall He stopped and read aloud the names that were on the board. He was to go the second floor clinic. The old one pressed the button on the mechanical lift the two iron doors slid open and he stepped into the car and pushed another button. The doors closed and with a mechanical growl and a whine the car began to move upward until it reached its destination when the doors slid open, the old one marveled at this modern device. He followed the signs to the clinic.
He entered the clinic walked to the opening in the wall where a woman sat and he told her his name. She thumbed through a stack of papers and pulled a sheet from the stack she read it and very politely told the old one he was too early for his appointment. She told him he could wait or he could come back at the prescribed time. He asked her if there was a tavern close by. She told him there was a tavern not too far away it was just down the street on the corner.
The old one left the Clinic, he walked down to the corner, and sure enough under the purple awning was the door to the tavern. He entered and took a seat in a booth close to the door. A woman who; was short of stature, was small of breast, narrow of waist, and broad where a woman should be broad came down the aisle and began speaking. She asked if he would like some of this or that, these or those some of … he said he would like two cheeseburger sandwiches garnished with lettuce and tomato, and a very thin slice of onion and some fries. She smiled and thanked him, then turned and walked away. The old one watched the woman walk away; she wiggled where a woman should wiggle. Her pants, stretched tightly across her buttocks, accentuated her wiggle. Moreover, with each step she took, the faster the old ones heart- beat. It was magic to watch her walk.
The old one had not lusted about a woman in years but today he came close to lusting over this one, this woman mesmerized him. His thoughts turned to fancy, but were brought back to reality when a sweet syrupy voice asked if he needed anything else. He finished chewing his food, swallowed, and replied to the woman “I’m good, thank you,” and that was about all he could utter. She smiled, turned around, struck a pose accentuating her buttocks, before walking away or wiggling her way down the aisle. He shook his head and took another bite of his sandwich “Oh! What a good day this will be,” he thought to himself.
The old one finished his meal, paid the check, and left a generous if not absurd amount of money as a gratuity for the woman. She might have thought it was for her outstanding service, but the old one knew he had paid for the entertainment she had provided him.
She knew her wiggles equaled money, and today that was going to pay off nicely for her, she smiled and waved to him as he left the tavern.
The old one left the tavern, there was a spring in his step, and the rainy day did not matter anymore to him, because he had sunshine in his heart. He headed back to the castle and the clinic.
The old one checked into the clinic, they told him to have a seat; the doctor’s assistant would be with him shortly. He sat down, picked up a periodical, thumbed through the pages glancing at the different articles.
The doctor’s assistant a nurse was a rotund woman, younger than the old one and a lot prettier, she told him to come with her. She led him to a set of scales and asked him to step up on them so she could weigh him. He told her he was short and fat. She said that would not fit in the spaces she had to enter numbers into the chart. The old one complied and gave his height in numbers. Then she took his blood pressure and his temperature and with every test, she wrote her finding down in that chart. She asked him what medications he was taking. He pulled a tote sack off his shoulder and spilled the contents onto her desk he had small bottles and large ones, he had tiny boxes, leather pouches, linen bags, the names of each medicine was affixed to the containers with a small golden ribbons. She picked them up one at a time and read the labels then she carefully wrote in her charts the name of each medicine. When she had finished with him, she sent him down the hall to have blood let.
The vampiress set him down; she placed his arm on the chair’s arm the she took a needle and with the softest touch and the greatest precision sunk the needle into his arm piercing the vein, she connected small glass vials to the tube that connected the needle to his vein. His dark red blood slowly filled the vials. She took each vial, carefully wrote his name on it, and then placed them in a tray. The old one mused, they have machines that can do about anything now. Why not have machines to test blood? However, everyone knew that vampires could detect even the smallest minutest trace of anything in the blood and identify it with almost 100% accuracy. They were better than any machine could ever be. He left the room in a hurry he did not trust these creatures not even a little bit.
Then he walked into the doctor’s office she had him sit on a table, she listened to his lungs when he breathed and listened to his heart. She asked him questions about his health and the medicines he took while they were talking the old one placed his right hand on his chest and winced. The alchemist asked him what was wrong the old one told her he had had a chest pain but it was not bad enough to take a nitro tablet.
The doctor rushed to his side she listened to his heart again, she asked him how many nitro tablets he had taken in the last month he said about six or eight he did not remember exactly. “Oh no, no, no, no, that won’t do at all,” she said then added you are going to the hospital right now. She called her assistant and had her call for an ambulance carriage. The doctor waited with the old one, they talked more she made notes she held his hand and comforted him until the medical carriage arrived.
The two medical carriage attendants arrived, they asked questions. The Doctor answered the questions and gave them all the charts they had made. The medical carriage attendants asked him if he had any chest pain “no,” he said “I don’t have any pain,” and it seemed that every 2 minutes they asked the same question and each time his answer was the same.
The medical carriage raced through the streets, the old one rode in the back of the carriage, strapped to a gurney. The attendants wired the old one up to an electrical device, that in the event his heart was to stop beating, this device would shock his heart to make it beat again, a procedure surely not for the faint of heart.
The carriage swayed from side to side on the curves, nose-dived when the attendant who was driving applied the brakes and would rare up when he pushed down on the accelerator. The old one was not prone to motion sickness, but this time lying flat on his back, he was very close to becoming sick to his stomach, as he had ever been. The carriage nose-dived for the last time and then it stopped at the door to the hospital. The old one was glad the ambulance had stopped; he had, had as much as he could stand.
The rear doors flew open, and he was taken out and rushed into the trauma room where he was pushed up beside another gurney the attendants began to hustle about, ready to transfer him to another gurney. The old one sat up, looked at the two attendants. “I can walk,” the old one snarled. “Move!” he twisted his body around on the gurney then slid off onto the floor and stood up, he motioned for them to move the gurney. He took a few deep breaths to settle the nausea the walked the two steps to the trauma room bed. The old one sat on the bed looked at the two carriage attendants and said to them, “Gentleman thank you, for all your troubles and have a good day.”
The old one had not lain down before the hospital attendants flooded into his small cube. They hooked him up to a monitor and then they prodded, pulled, poked stuck, and interrogated him and they too asked him every few minutes if he had any chest pain, and each time they did he would give them the same answer no not at this time. However, as soon as I have some pain you will be the first to know.
The cardiologist who dealt with hearts and other ailments stopped by he read the charts he read the strip of paper that had come from the monitor. He listened to the old one’s heart and then told him he was admitting him to the hospital they needed to make further tests to find out what was wrong with him. “So hold tight,” he said, “We will get you up to your room as soon as possible.” The old one would never see that doctor again.
The ER admitted him; they took him to a place called PCU on the second floor. The room was nice enough it had a window with a very nice view across the roof of a brick wall, two chairs, and a bed. The bathroom was big enough it had a shower stall, a sink, and a shiny porcelain water closet all the amenities one could ask for or ever want.
The bed was a marvelous device; with the touch of a button you could raise it, lower it, raise the head, or lower the head, you could raise or lower the foot of the bed and you could do the same for the middle of the bed. This bed almost induced sleep, if not just aided it.
An orderly entered the room she took his vitals; temperature, blood pressure, his pulse, and then she scanned the bracelet they had attached to his wrist in the trauma room and then she left.
Another orderly came in this one gave him a bag lunch, a pitcher of water, a plastic jug to urinate in, then asked how he was doing and wanted to know if he had any chest pains. The old one just shook his head.
The nurse came in pulling her electronic computerized cart behind her. She scanned his bracelet with a greenish red pencil thin beam of light her computer bleeped and chirped then a drawer popped open, she pulled out a handful of small plastic bags, scanned them ripped them open and handed them to the old one along with a cup of water. “Take these,” she said. The old one took the pills without question. Then she too left dragging that beeping, chirping cart behind her
A man came in to the room and he introduced himself to the old one as Doctor S He shook the old one’s hand, and told him that they would find out what was wrong with him. They had to make some tests and get some history of his ailment. Then he left
Then the routine began. For the next six days at midnight, at five in the morning, then again at eight, ten o’clock, and let us not forget noontime, two, and six and the last time was around eight in the evening. Then on top of all those visits, and interruptions to his sleep. The doctors would stop in his room to check on him.
It seemed that a continuous line of people, who poked, who pulled, who stuck, who checked, who felt, whom asked questions, which fed him or gave him pills never seemed to stop. By the time, the old one had gotten to sleep someone wanting something from him or wanting to give him something, came in and woke him up. In addition, every day at the most inopportune times a technician would come in and change the round sticky pads they had glued to his chest for the electronic heart monitor he kept in his shirt pocket.
On the sixth day everything changed, they told him he was to have a test done; he could not eat or drink, so there he lay eating nothing, drinking nothing, but the smallest amount of juice, to swallow the pills they gave him.
It was about three in the afternoon, when they came to take him for his test the attendant unhooked him from his monitor. To the old one’s surprise, the attendant started the bed and with a small hand controller, and drove the bed around and through the hallways, in and out of the elevators to the operating room.
There in the operating room they transferred him onto the table of a great very imposing machine where he laid waiting for his test. The attendants started an IV, they gave him a sedative, and when the old one awoke he was back in his room he had no idea what they had done, beside him stood a very pretty nurse who told him not to move, not to sit up, just lie flat. He asked for some water, but the girl politely and sweetly said “No,” Then she added, “No water, no food for a while.” She would check the incision they had made in his groin for signs of bleeding, from the procedure they had performed on him.
It was about nine in the evening, when they allowed him to move about, and gave him a warmed over dinner and a snack. The old one went to sleep but this time he slept until eight the following morning.
On the seventh day, the castle rested, well for the old one it did. The doctor came in to the old one’s room and told what they did and what they found and the new medicines he was to take and for him to come back in a month for a check-up. The doctor said he would discharge the old one soon as soon as possible, so hold tight until they come to get you.
So the old one did just that, he sat patiently, quietly, alone, he watched all those who had regularly come in and checked on him, pass by his door on their way elsewhere. He waited in solitude, for a ride, to come and take him back to where he had begun his journey, the 2100.
He returned to the 2100 and as he entered the door, he realized that the only change that had occurred was time nothing else had changed the 2100 was the same his life was the same nothing had changed well maybe the additional medications he was supposed to take.


A perceptual framework for conservative treatment and rehabilitation of ankle sprains: An evidence-based paradigm shift
© by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, Inc. Lateral ankle sprains are the most common injuries sustained during physical activity. The epidemiologic trends associated with chronic ankle instability (CAI) suggest that current rehabilitation approaches may be inadequate. We sought to synthesize best-practices evidence for the rehabilitation of patients with acute ankle sprains and CAI through the integration of emerging paradigms in perception, the dynamics of skill acquisition, and the biopsychosocial model of function, disability, and health. From the best available evidence, 4 key factors emerged for effective treatment and rehabilitation strategies: pain reduction, external ankle support for up to 1 year, progressive return to motion, and coordination training. We combined these factors into a meta-theoretical framework that centers on the perceptual interdependence of the cellular, local, and global functioning levels by linking insights from the body-self neuromatrix, the dynamics of skill acquisition, and the biopsychosocial model. Based on the best-practice recommendations from systematic reviews, ankle-sprain rehabilitation represents a multidimensional phenomenon governed by perception. The impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions associated with CAI may be linked to perceptual-interdependence alterations. Pain and edema reduction, the use of external ankle support for up to 1 year, progressive return to motion, and coordination training foster enhanced perceptual interdependence from cells to society. Using the perceptual-interdependence framework for ankle-sprain rehabilitation, we offer new insights for charting the course of effective strategies for enhancing function, reducing disability, and preventing the long-term sequelae associated with CAI.
Journal of Athletic Training
McKeon, Patrick O. and Donovan, Luke, "A perceptual framework for conservative treatment and rehabilitation of ankle sprains: An evidence-based paradigm shift" (2019). Faculty Articles Indexed in Scopus. 249.


As is the case with most Chuck Palahniuk books, I simply don't know what to say about Rant. It's one of those books that leaves you breathless and energized, and because of its structure, it is both difficult to put down and easy to keep reading. It is relentlessly creative and twists and turns in surprising directions that leave you repeatedly rethinking Palahniuk's themes and ideas.
Book Review: Chuck Palahniuk's Rant
By Kim Hollis
April 27, 2007
Rant tells the story of a bizarre character named Rant Casey (aka Buster Casey, aka Buddy Casey). His tale is revealed in oral biography form, which means that it appears as a series of comments from people interviewed about Rant's life and times. For comparison purposes, it reads a lot like the Legs McNeil books Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk and The Other Hollywood (which is similarly an oral history of the porn industry). Each chapter has a theme, and various characters from different portions of Rant's life give their opinions and thoughts as they relate to the main character.
From the book's outset, everything about Rant appears to be unique. Born and raised in a small, rural town known as Middleton, Rant is a boy who embraces very different activities than typical kids his age. Where other boys are playing baseball and other normal sorts of things, Rant likes to achieve natural highs by sticking his arm in holes where he knows animals live. His goal? To be bitten. Ultimately, this habit leads to Rant having rabies, which becomes significant as he grows older and moves on to bigger and better things.
Weird things continue to happen around Rant. During his boyhood, his grandmother and great-grandmother both die in extremely strange ways. Girls from his school, who are inexplicably attracted to his strange ways, find themselves infected with rabies. And when he finally moves on to the big city, the world even begins to gradually change. Rant joins a group of people known as Party Crashers, whose main purpose is to participate in a game in which they drive around the city in ridiculously decorated cars as they attempt to ram and crash into each other.
As the different characters relate their experiences with Rant, it becomes apparent that many people believe he should be considered a serial killer. His rabies has had a profound effect on the population, as he seems to have intentionally infected people in some cases. At the very least, he is Patient Zero in a pandemic that has caused the nation to rethink laws and regulations.
Ultimately, even though it seems clear what the story is really about, it constantly evolves into something else. It may seem as though I have given away an awful lot of information in my brief synopsis above, but in fact I haven't even come close to scratching the surface. Rant's place in society is indeed crucial, but it happens in ways that are much more subtle and sublime.
Fans of Palahniuk should definitely be pleased with Rant. It is simultaneously funny, stomach turning, trippy and overwhelming. It seems quite simple on the surface, but as the pages unfold, more and more layers and complications are added that make the story a truly complex undertaking. Rant starts out feeling like a straightforward gothic novel, but ultimately veers into science fiction and horror (of a sort). It creates a culture that rivals Fight Club in its inventiveness, and has enough surprises to make Tyler Durden blush. Rant is a novel that people will be talking about for some time to come.
Chuck Palahniuk's Official Web site
Rant Official Web site
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THIS DVD ALTHOUGH THE DISC IS IN LIKE NEW CONDITION DVD SLIP MAY HAVE SOME WEAR AND TEAR.The Crow – Laurence Mason Angel David David Patrick
Info: A young rock musician who was brutally murdered a year earlier is resurrected as a vengeful superhero in this stylish noir thriller. Out to avenge his and his fiancee’s killings by destroying the city’s evil crime lord, the Crow becomes a ray of hope for the city while battling his own inner demons. Based on James O’Barr’s dark comic book series, this film features Brandon Lee’s final performance.
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We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.
O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!
“So in terms of what every man needs most crucially, all man’s power is powerless because at it’s roots, of course, the deepest longings of the human soul is the longing for God, and this no man has the power to satisfy”
God Understands Us
Knowing that God knows us through and through can be very troubling. Nevertheless, our friend David from the Psalms didn’t seem to mind. He even expresses joy and amazement knowing that God is so aware of him. We might think that David would feel this way because of his self confidence. This may be partly true because David was a man of great success, but he was also a man of tremendous failure, too. It’s more likely that David’s joy came from his belief that God had a loving and careful interest in him. The kind of love and care that didn’t depend on whether he was a success or a failure.
David’s experience reminds us that no amount of virtue, religious or otherwise, will make us immune to temptation, to sin or to failure. To his credit, David honestly faced his failures, and as he did so he experienced an expanding relationship with God. David didn’t run, hide, or make excuses. He didn’t pretend and he didn’t minimize his mistakes. He accepted the worst about himself and openly surrendered his shortcomings to God right along with his successes. David, as he admitted his problems, used his failures as a lens through which he could get a better view of God’s forgiveness. As he did this, his failures became building blocks of growth and maturity. Knowing that God was a gracious and forgiving God enabled David to repent and find ever greater joy and health in life. David knew that there are no sins that are too big for God to forgive. He also knew that God was not impressed with his success and that, as he responsibly faced his failures, God would not condemn him.
God knows us in an intimate way just like He knew David in an intimate way. Like it or not, we are all naked before Him. As we acknowledge this, God’s love and power will heal our addictions and save our lives. Just like He did for David, failures and all.
For you see, God understands when we feel conflicted. And, He knows that we live in a conflicted world, too. He is aware that we are not happy ourselves much of the time. Because He understands this, He never holds our struggles and conflicts against us.
He sees that our intentions are good for the most part. But He also sees that we run into problems when we try to control things that are beyond our ability to control. It hurts Him when He sees how we create problems for ourselves and other people because we don’t ask for his help. But then, with compassion, God knows that there is a reason for everything we do, a reason that that we usually don’t know. When our addictions corrupt our motives, he knows it. He also knows that our motives are purified as we get honest. Feeling what we feel, He never loses sight of the fact that we pay a price when we get honest. But, nevertheless, He is always urging us to move deeper into honesty because He knows that the price that we pay for dishonesty is far greater.
In Jesus, God assures us that there are no sins that He is not willing to forgive and that there are no addictions that cannot be healed. With this in mind He wants us to recognize in a deep way that the desire of our heart and the direction of our lives go hand in hand. He has created a world where we always have a choice in who we will become and what our lives will be like from here on out. So, He holds us responsible for our lives. For you see, it is the subtle and intimate decisions that we make that will most profoundly impact our character and our lives. No matter what other people may say, God never laughs at us when we tell Him our plans. He never laughs at us, at all, in any way. God takes us more seriously than that. After all, He died so that we can have this opportunity to live.
God will, maybe, laugh when He sees how we try to make Him fit into the image that we make for Him. But then again, maybe not. After all, He knows that He is God and that we are not. Having expressed his love through Jesus, and having provided help for our addictions through people, God holds us fully responsible for our lives no matter of what we say or think about Him. At the end of the day, He knows that we have no excuses.
God is the ultimate “more than.” He is, in every way and at all times, more than we are and more than everything else, too. Only He can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. With all of this in mind, it stands to reason that we will only know the intimate power of God once we have come to the end of our own resources and realize that we still need more. Having expressed himself in Christ, God is now willing to express himself in our lives as well. The only place for us to find life is in The Life of Christ, God. This Life of Jesus can never be contained in a history lesson or a theological discussion. He is more alive than that. He is to be lived in us! Jesus’ life is now our life. His God is our God. Our lives are His. And now, we exist for God.
Everything will make sense for us when we are willing to look through the lens of eternity. The recovery that God gives is not about rule-keeping, religious moralizing, or self-imposed corrections. It is really the love of God that is changing our hearts and as our hearts are changed, our minds will be changed, too. We are experiencing a complete change of personal allegiance, coming to prefer an intimate relationship with God above our addictions, above our lives, above everything.
Are you ready to say…
God, I surrender my will and my life to You today, this very moment, without reservation and with humble confidence, for You are my loving Father. Set me free from self-consciousness, from anxiety about tomorrow, and from the tyranny of the approval and disapproval of others, that I may find joy and delight simply and solely in pleasing you. May my inner freedom be a compelling sign of Your presence, Your peace, Your power, and your love. Let your plan for my life and the lives of all your children gracefully unfold one day at a time. I love You with all my heart, and I place all my confidence in You, for You are my Abba Father.
Attributed to Brennan Manning
Insights and Inspirations for Christian Twelve Step Recovery
By David Zailer and The Men and Women of Operation Integrity
Chapter Three Segment Six
Copyright David Zailer, 2008
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I’ll Take You There
Against a kaleidoscopic convergence of Hollywood iconography and one family’s shared secrets, I’ll Take You There tells a deeply affecting, generations-spanning story of one man’s life—and of the remarkable women who impacted it. Lamb’s stunning new novel stands as a testament to the power of family, the resilience of love, and the enduring magic of movies.
Metabook, the title’s original publisher, will release I’ll Take You There as a multimedia app for iPad and iPhone on November 20, 2016. In addition to the full text of the novel, the I’ll Take You There Metabook will include a full-cast audio dramatization of the book, an original soundtrack, short films, 360° galleries, shareable images and more. HarperCollins will release the novel in hardcover, eBook, audiobook, and large print editions on its Harper imprint on November 22, 2016, with an announced first printing of 250,000.
Follow this in the App Store to purchase the Metabook: https://appsto.re/us/ZK3 egb.i


Between Two Worlds by Tyler Henry – book review
New and upcoming medium Tyler Henry (or, is he there, already!)
Over the summer break, I recently read Tyler Henry’s book, Between Two Worlds: Lessons from the Other Side.
Tyler is a young and talented medium – only 21 – raised in Hanford, CA and now finding himself Hollywood’s go-to celebrity medium in LA.
His accuracy during readings and his ability to make sense of the way energy is received from those who have passed on is masterful.
For anyone wanting to learn how to connect with Loved Ones or simply to learn more about the phenomenon of mediumship, this book is a must.
Strangely (or not) I know Hanford since I spent a few years in Lemoore, CA, only 12 miles away and used to visit downtown Hanford mentioned in the book to go to post natal yoga classes.
Subjects covered in Between Two Worlds
As you might expect Tyler recounts his life story to date for context. At such a young age, he has already had a close brush with death. Like some mediums (myself included) his gift really started to grow when he lost a much-loved family member.
You can learn about how he decided to come out as a medium and his move to Hollywood.
I particularly like the ‘Signs from the Soul’ chapter, where Tyler digs deeper into the whys and wherefores of spirit communication and life lessons from his perspective.
Tyler writes extremely well and demonstrates a high level of spiritual wisdom. Here’s an excerpt from Chapter 5 – The Bigger Picture.
When most people think of having a “big ego”, they usually mean someone who is cocky, self-absorbed, or narcissistic. These definitions represent only a small sliver of how the ego influences the human experience. We are all running around with some mix of both positive and negative self-esteem, and the amount of each usually depends on our ever-changing circumstances. Between and among the two, the ego is found.
Our egos are our beliefs about ourselves. It’s an identity of our own creation and conditioning that doesn’t reflect who we truly are as souls. Yet, as human beings, our egos are developed from infancy and maintained throughout our lives. We think of our talents, abilities, and personalities as who we are, but these are all capabilities we have, not the defining features of our soul-selves.
To expand on this, I would add this quote from Edgar Cayce, one of the great Akashic Records readers of our time. It’s a quote I send to clients regularly with their homework.
You have inherited the most from yourself, not from your family! The family is only a river through which Soul flows.' Edgar CayceClick To Tweet
Both pieces of writing are great reminders of the eternal natures of our Souls, whether we are discovering ourselves through the collected patterns of ego in this lifetime, or rediscovering our eternal natures through reconnecting with the Soul and its unchanging power in our everyday lives.
Between Two Worlds, Tyler Henry
If you are looking for a new and fresh take on the practice of mediumship, check Tyler Henry out online and on Twitter at #Hollywoodmedium.
To dive a bit deeper and expand your own understanding of mediumship experiences, Between Two Worlds: Lessons from the Other Side is a useful and enlightening read.


I cannot be the only one excited that the end of this year is fucking nigh, right? From a global pandemic to natural disasters to civil unrest and police brutality, this year’s been difficult to say the least. I’m basically ready to kick 2020 to the curb, light it on fire, and arise from its ashes reborn tomorrow.
Due to my unannounced and unexpected hiatus (again), I haven’t been tagged this year for the End of the Year Book Tag by anyone…but I do what I want! This is one of my favorite posts to make every year, and honestly? I haven’t read in over 56 days and want to look back on when the reading slump wasn’t in my life.
Are there any books you started this year that you need to finish?
Lightbringer by Claire Legrand is the much-desired Empirium series finale, and I need to connect all the dots! This series is painful and confusing in the best of ways, but slump. Add on Goodreads
Queen of Volts by Amanda Foody is another series finale, and I’ll be honest… I’m still too traumatized by the events of King of Fools to read this one. But I need to see how it ends for some of my favorite characters! Add on Goodreads
Warmaidens by Kelly Coon is another series finale (I sense a theme here), this being the final installment in the Gravemaidens duology. I’ve been super excited to see how the story ends and watch Iltani go HAM, but… slump. Add on Goodreads
Do you have an autumnal book to transition into the end of the year?
Same answer as the previous two years: no.
Is there a new release you’re still waiting for?
2020 is basically over, so thankfully I have all this years’ releases I’ve been anticipating… I just need to be able to read them! But let’s not talk about the pile for 2021 anticipated books, shall we?
What are three books you want to read before the end of the year?
Other than my three current reads from the first question, not really. Honestly? I don’t see myself finishing anything new before the year ends, but I have decided to pick up the books below to see if any slay the slump.
Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed (re-read) I first read this book in 2013 during my Life and Meaning course at university and remember it fondly. Despite my negative opinion of Wild and her impact on thruhikers, she is an amazing writer and I think 2020 could use some Sugar. Add on Goodreads
The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh (re-read) Perhaps a re-read of a fantasy book I absolutely devoured last year will slay the slump? Add on Goodreads
The Damned by Renee Ahdieh I was so excited for this book to come out, but… 2020. So if The Beautiful sucks me in, I look forward to finally reading The Damned! Add on Goodreads
Is there a book you think could still shock you and become your favorite book of the year?
It is very possible, provided that I’m able to read anything! I have high hopes for all of the books on my TBR and expect them to wow me when I’m finally able to read them.
Have you already started making reading plans for 2021?
Hahaha, of course I am! My illness definitely impedes with my energy levels, so I am taking it one day at a time, but my reading goal for 2021 is 52 books and I intend on mood reading as much as possible! I plan on writing a post about my thought process regarding ARCs in 2021 sometime in January to dive into this a bit more.
Let’s go on another adventure together!


Torah, Deuteronomy 23:16 – 23:17: You shall not deliver a slave to his master if he seeks refuge with you from his master. [Rather,] he shall [be allowed to] reside among you, wherever he chooses within any of your cities, where it is good for him. You shall not oppress him.
If master wants to kill a slave or cause him some damage, you must hide him and then somehow return him to his master. It means that if some desire can’t succeed while undergoing correction, then there is a whole system of connections of several desires that together can make a correction.
Therefore, any desire that is part of another desire can always be corrected by this other desire. There is always a connection.
The interesting fact is that we never or in any way correct ourselves, but always correct our inclusion in others or inclusion of others in us. After all, I don’t even know who I am. I only know how I treat others and how others treat me in the relationship between us.
However, we know neither who “I” am nor who “another” is. Our “I” remains outside of us, whereas connections between us are revealed to us, and exactly in them we attain the Creator.
Question: When we speak about desire, do we mean the desire that is directed to the connection?
Answer: Of course, because brother, father, wife, children, slave, virgin, and so on are just different types of connections between us. The shattering is a destruction of these connections. For example, if we take shards of a pot, then they by themselves are whole, we just need to glue them together properly. It turns out that we are always brewing “the glue.”
There are desires that don’t have their own intention. They can be corrected only by joining them to other desires with intention.
A “master” is one who has big desires with correct intentions and who can attract other desires to himself and correct them with his intention. Let’s say you are a master relative to me. It means that you take some of my desires, we connect with each other, and I seemingly correct these desires by becoming included in you. In reality, you correct them with your intention, with your Masach (screen).
Therefore, when it is said that the master wants to kill his slave, it means that the Masach can’t correct him. Someone else has to do it. In other words, we always just correct others and not ourselves.
A person doesn’t know and will never know himself because this relates to the prerogative that is above the attainment of the Creator, to what is called Atzmuto. And we just correct the connections between us. As it is written, “Make your desire like his,” which means that I always correct others in myself.
Question: Do I become “Israel” when I begin to understand this and work on this?
Answer: Yes, this is a completely different level of attitude toward the world. The world becomes different. You have a different attitude to people, to yourself, and to your role. You look at everyone and understand what is happening to them, with whom it is worth meeting or not, and for what, how, if you are ready for this communion or not, and so on.
This presents a very interesting problem: who you are in contact with, in what way, and with those who you meet in life, should you distance yourself from them or can you get closer?
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/19/16


So, here on Nostalgia Thursday, how do I begin to talk about all the amazing poetry adventures and meetings and misadventures I've had in this old steel town over the years? I'll start with this one story, a favorite memory because of how joyfully absurd it was:
Story 1: In Which Li Young-Lee and his Mentor, Gerald Stern attend a party at the House of Poet Lynn Emanuel after a very touching joint reading at Carnegie Mellon University And Gerald Stern gets Soaked.
The reading that night, at Carnegie Mellon, was a memorable one. Li-Young Lee and his mentor, Gerald Stern, bantered back and forth, obviously happy to be sharing a stage, taking turns singing one another's praises. Lee read one of my favorite of his poems "From Blossoms," and Gerald Stern read, among others, his roadkill poem, which always shocked me (in the best possible way) with how it travels from something so grotesque to something so beautifully moving. I was sitting among poet friends. Li Young Lee seemed so happy, even humbled by reuniting with his old teacher from his years as a Pitt undergraduate student. We all applauded heartily at the reading's end.
I was wild about Li Young Lee's book Rose at the time--its lyricism and narratives that dove to such impossible depths. And how every poem, no matter what the subject matter, became infused with the intractable loss of his revered father
After the reading, Lynn invited friends and graduate students back to her home for wine, crackers and cheese, light refreshments. That evening, when I walked through Lynn's front door, Li Young Lee was standing smack in the middle of the hallway. In my excitement, I thrust my copy of Rose at him.
"Wonderful reading tonight! Would you mind signing my book?"
Li Young-Lee smiled, "What's your name?" He graciously thumbed to the title page of the book, looked down, did a double-take, looked at me hard, then peered at the page once more. Finally he locked eyes with me for a good minute, as if to ascertain how dangerous I really was and said,
"I already did sign your book." He glanced again at his inscription: "In 1992."
And in case I wasn't able to grasp my mistake, he added quietly,
"Five years ago."
My face was ablaze. Anyone else would have apologized, grabbed the book, scrambled quickly into the madding crowd and hid themselves there. For reasons I cannot explain, I decided to play it off:
"Sure, I know you did. Can you sign it again? "
Li Young-Lee cleared his throat, took a step back, then another, wielded the book between us like an accusatory finger. He debated for a minute, pushed his black hair out of his eyes. But finally, he did sign it again, writing "To Sharon: The second time sweeter." (Which was both a charming and a funny thing to write when he was looking at me like he was sure he'd met his poetry stalker.)
But, that wasn't the end of the odd and wonderful evening. And by the way, I love having a twice-signed copy of Rose and have often thought how fun it would be to continue to have him sign the same book over the course of years. Though, he might, after a while, hire a bodyguard or serve me with a restraining order and nobody wants that .... ;-)
Thirty minutes later, I was happily party-chattering, buzzed on my second glass of red wine. I moved into the kitchen looking for something to snack on. The kitchen was packed. Rising above all the noise was Lynn's wonderful rousing laugh. There was a line curving around the kitchen table. I got in line behind Gerald Stern. Li Young Lee got in line behind me. Gerald offered me a plate. Again, I thanked them both for such a wonderful reading. Behind us was the kitchen island and my friend G. was at the sink, trying to figure out how to turn on the very sleek and modern faucet. I was joking with her about it: "maybe it's voice activated?" Gerald was bent over, forking lox onto his plate. I put a few crackers and some slices of cheddar cheese on my own. Gerald bent over further, his glasses sliding down his nose, as he peered into the large bowl of indeterminate salad (?) in front of him. Just at that moment, poor G., still wrestling with the faucet, suddenly managed to not only turn the water on, but simultaneously to unscrew the entire faucet from the sink.
Water was everywhere at once. People shrieked, ran out of the way. A veritable geyser, two feet in the air fountained right behind Gerald Stern's back. The back of his rumpled tan suit jacket ran in rivers down the creases, turned dark brown. Water spilled onto his pants, his shoes. What amazed me, as the rains came pouring down, is that Stern continued to spoon a little bit of this and a little bit of that onto his plate. My long hair was dripping. G. stood behind the sink, horror-stricken, the silver faucet held out in her hand like the wrung neck of a swan. It all happened so fast. I looked from the oblivious Stern to the horrified G. and started to laugh. I laughed until tears came to my eyes, till my stomache started to ache. Water continued to spray down on all of us.
At that moment, Li Young-Lee sprang into action and pushed past me and my laughter, waving a fat wad of paper napkins in his hands. He patted his mentor's soaked back and baggy pants and dabbed with a napkin at the back of Stern's neck. Something about this surreal interchange (theater of the absurd!!) made me laugh even harder. Lee leveled me with a gaze:
"You could help!"
I grabbed some napkins and struggled to control myself. Then, I pat Gerald Stern with my handful of napkins right down his back. This sent me off into more laughter. My mind kept chanting, "you're patting Gerald Stern! you're patting Gerald Stern!"
All of this happened in a matter of minutes. I have no memory of who finally turned off the water or screwed the faucet back in place. I do know that G., after apologizing 1,000 times, quietly slunk out of the party, never to find this story amusing. I also know that when I looked over at Gerald Stern about 10 minutes later, he was happily sitting, in his shirtsleeves, finishing off his food. I don't know where his soggy jacket ended up. And as for Li Young Lee? Let's just say that for the rest of that evening, I gave him a very, very wide berth.
NOTE: I still love Li Young Lee's books. He's an incredible reader should you ever get a chance to hear him. I've taught Rose many, many times over the years at the University of Pittsburgh and was always happy to see students walk off newly engaged by his poems...
Here's his poem "From Blossoms"
From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.
From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.
O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.
There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.


This book ranks about mid point for content; at the top for the narrator! If anyone else had narrated this novel, it would have bombed.
The news reporter was the best. The author showed his strengths and weaknesses in every situation that was presented.
The narrator's voice and tone places the reader inside the characters and the story.
Yes, it was a little creepy at times.
George Guidall should get royalties also.
Not sure about listening to another From the author, wasn't for me. I do like the narrator that is why I chose the book.
Too hard to follow all the different characters.
Too much jumping around
My expectations may have been too high going into this novel. It's an entertaining book but I found it overly long, bordering on tedious at times, especially because in essence, it's a pulp novel filled with larger-than-life characters. The Alienist takes a bit too much too much time to get where it's going.That said, the historical setting is interesting and Carr practically makes turn-of-the-century New York into an additional character.
George Guidall's reading is superb, one of the best I've ever heard for an audiobook. He brings the characters to life, raises the tension in scenes where it's appropriate and overall, just does a fantastic job.
Searching and discovering books in the slimmest demographic: adult males.
The characters: you can't help but love each one, and Guidall nails his performance. I wish there more books in this series. character in this story,
A great mystery and engaging story that increases your vocabulary and keeps you page turning... What isn't there to love?
I read this book when it was first released. I enjoyed it then. Carr gives you a vivid look back into the New York of the distant past.
Mr. Guidall is a wonderful performer. I have listened to him read the Vince Flynn series. However,it drives me crazy that he does't pronounce his "th's"! At first I thought is was a character choice. It was not. It takes away from an otherwise excellent performance.
It's a tremendous book, read superbly. I can't drive and read a book at the same time, so this is much better.
He always brings characters to life, doing very good accents and is never monotone. He's my favorite narrator.
Tell us about yourself!
It took a while for me to get involved with the story but when I did it really took off and was worth sticking with it. Teddy Roosevelt enlists an Alienist to put together an unconventional team of investigators to solve a seemingly unsolvable series of horrible murders. Employing new techniques and approaches, the team puts together a profile of the killer and the hunt is on. From the glamorous side of NYC to the underbelly of the great city the team trudges through stories of past horrors contributing to todays gruesomeness.
George Guidall provides the listener with his standard excellent work. Providing an outstanding listen that is fast paced and quite enjoyable
One of the best historical mysteries I've found in a while. A rich period piece that explores some very dark social and psychological themes without being depressing. This is largely due to Mr. Carr's creation of a wholly likable ensemble of smart, witty, flawed sleuths that not only entertain but endear themselves to the listener. The brilliant but wounded Dr. Kreizler, the intemperate, dry-witted NY Times reporter John Schuyler Moore, the genteel, derringer-packing, aspiring woman-detective Sara Howard, and the comical bickering Detective Sergeants, the Isaacson brothers.
The world of 1890s New York City--from Delmonico's to Five Points--is brought vividly to life by Mr. Guidall's accomplished performance of The Alienist. A thoroughly enjoyable novel.


These kinds of books aren't what I usually read most of the time I only read books that are mystery of thriller and sometimes romance but from reading the preview it seems like a pretty interesting book. The book is about a girl Amanda who finds on her fifteenth birthday something in her mom bag and has enough so she wants to find out more about her mom. I think that Amanda is someone who needs to know what going on when it finally past her breaking point and her mom is someone who keeps a lot of secrets. I do like the characters and find them to be interesting. I also love her friends who seems to be super loyal and funny. There are many themes that I think that the book will explore such as racism. I want to find out more about Amanda family and think that this will be an amazing story. There a lot of diversity and lots of humor and loss. I will read this book in the future if I get the chance. Though this is not a genre I usually read.


The Emperor’s Edge
The Emperor’s Edge is a book that sneaks up on you. It begins with Amaranthe Lokdon, one of very few female enforcers working for the Emperor. She gets into trouble with her superior covering for her somewhat ne’er do well partner. We are expecting a swords and sorcery police procedural and from first looks a pretty good one. She comes to the notice of the Emperor, and the powers behind the young Emperor decide to set her up by sending her off to kill the most efficient assassin of their day. This is when the book really starts to get interesting and leaves the police procedural behind.
Amaranthe learns that it is no possible to be loyal to her Emperor and remain an enforcer. She puts together a very unlikely ragtag group of people, including the assassin she was sent to kill and set out to stop the people who threaten the Emperor and the country she serves.
The characters are well drawn, and what is more they learn and grow during the course of the book. The plot is suitably twisted and we get to enjoy her antics as she avoids people on all sides trying to kill her. This book looks to be the first of a series and I hope the following books live up to the standard Buroker has set with this first one.
The Map to Everywhere
Carrie Ryan & John Parke Davis
Little, Brown and Company
Nobody remembers Fin. Even if he is standing right in front of them. Friendships are very hard, but it makes thieving much simpler. Marril loves adventure, so she is horrified when she learns that her mother is sick and they’ve decided to live in one spot.
A slip of paper on an errant breeze brings the two together. Marril is the only person who remembers Fin, who struggles with the need for friendship. The unlikely pair sail the Pirate Stream with a cranky wizard and a young looking Captain looking for the pieces of the Map to Everywhere.
The Map to Everywhere is a delight. From the wonderfully almost gibberish names to the diverse and creative adventures to the blossoming friendship between Fin and Marril, the story carries us along. The plot is much more complex than I expected with some very neat twists and turns and a remarkably different way of looking at prophecy.
The book promises to be the first in a series and I’ll be looking out for the next one. I recommend this book to people of all ages who like great adventure stories.
The Earl of Brass
Fox Collie Publishing
We meet Eilan Sorrell as he goes down in an airship crash on the way home from the Negev. He loses an arm in the crash and very nearly his life. While the doctors are able to save him, he fears that he will have no purpose. He has refused to become a dilettante heir and has always worked on archeological digs. Eilan’s interests set him at political odds with most of his family.
Hadley is the name of the woman who crafts Eilan’s artificial arm. The arm is the last work of her brother George and she unreasonably dislikes Eilan for that reason. When she discovers her brother’s notes about how to make a functional artificial limb, Eilan is the best candidate for the job.
I like the book in spite of some technical issues. There is a bit of head hopping, but it isn’t severe enough to push me out of an engaging story. The author also tries a little too hard for my taste to say something with her book, but again, it stays in service to the story and thus forgivable. The characters of Eilan and Hadley are very well drawn, and even the bit parts stay away from predictable caricatures.
I recommend The Earl of Brass to lovers of steampunk and adventure stories.
The Silver Rings
Brattle Publishing Group
Twins Celia and Alice decide to escape their stepmother. They have very different ideas of where would be a good place to escape to with one preferring the city and the other the wilderness. Their very hands off fairy godmother suggests they split up and gives them each a silver ring to help them keep track of their sister. She also gives them lizard skins as disguises. The rings will turn red if one of the sisters is in trouble. It doesn’t take long and we are off on a romp.
The book is written very tongue and cheek so there is as much fun for the adult as for the younger reader. This is a great book for reading out loud, especially if one is prone to doing different voices while reading. The illustrations are fun and complement the story.
I like that sisters are so different in temperament, though they are identical twins. They are also independent and smart, dealing with life on their own terms. This book is fun and well written. It winks at a large number of fairy tales, some of them not terribly well known. Half of the fun is recognizing another story being hinted at.
I would recommend the book for people of all ages who like a good story .
The Garden Plot
Alibi – Random House
Pru is an English Gardener from Texas. She has given herself a year to find a full time position as a head gardener before she must return to Texas and pick up her old job and her old life. She is nearing the end of the year at the start of the book. (We are reminded of her situation through an assortment of delightful rejection letters.) While she is waiting for the head gardener position, she has been working as a contract gardener for a variety of people.
The Wilson’s hire her to fix up their back yard for them and in the process she finds some Roman mosaic. That is exciting enough, but the next day she discovers a body lying on the mosaic. The police come and particularly Detective Inspector Pearse.
The Garden Plot is part mystery, part romance and part whimsy and all thoroughly enjoyable. Pru is refreshing as a fifty something woman who has set herself a goal and is determined to achieve the goal by her standard. The D.I. Pearse is not over done. He is a police man through and through, but leavened with wit, compassion and an interest in badgers.
The other characters that wander through the story are written to be well rounded and interesting, and they populate the story to give it flavour and just the right amount of chaos.
I recommend The Garden Plot for mystery lovers and garden lovers alike.
Faelorehn – Book One of the Otherword Trilogy
Jenna Elizabeth Johnson
Meghan lives with her adoptive family in California and goes to a private high school with her best friends. She has to deal with the usual high school bullies, but other than that, her life is pretty good.
Well, except for the unexplained visions of things that don’t exist, and the recurring nightmare of being abandoned in L.A. as a toddler, and the fact that some of those things from her visions are showing up in reality with a desire to kill her.
Fortunately Cade also shows up and Meghan starts getting some answers to questions she’s asked all her life.
Faolorehn is a well written book and Meghan is an interesting character. My problem with the book is that it doesn’t really start until it is almost over. We spend the largest part of the book watching Meghan go through her almost normal life. I found it a long wait before the real action starts; unless one is really interested in high school drama and teen angst about not fitting in.
My guess is that the second book will move much quicker and pull us deeper into the story that book one mostly hints at. The good news is that if the technical parts of the writing stay at the same calibre, Book Two will be a very good book.
I don’t want to say not to read the book, but I can’t completely recommend it either. If you are patient and have a high tolerance for teen stuff, the pay off at the end and the hints of what is to come will be worth the effort of reading the book.
Away & Away Publishing
Discovering Aberration is the story of Freddy Fitzgerald and his friend Professor Thaddeus Lumpen as they follow a map that the Professor acquired. Unfortunately, he acquired it in a less than discrete manner from a crime boss who was known for leaving bodies full of screws as signs of his displeasure. They immediately plan for an excursion with the hope of getting away clean before the notorious John-Joseph Heller catches up to them.
Things never go quite as planned and before they are off, they are just one of a veritable fleet of adventurers and have been joined by a student who is as adept as she is pretty. They sail in a modern steam vessel toward the island and a discovery that they all hope will change their lives.
I very much enjoyed the story of Discovering Aberration. The characters that start as stock figures developed quirks very quickly and become engaging and sympathetic as they do. There are some rough spots where the author leaps forward and back and switches narrative devices, but it is worth the effort to follow along to the end of the book. Like the best tales of its kind, the story is larger than a simple expedition to gain fame and fortune and we are treated to an opportunity to consider human hubris without the moral being pushed down our throats.
I would recommend the book to any who enjoy steampunk and Victorian style adventure.
Indigenous Poetics in Canada
Editor Neal McLeod
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
I asked to read this book because I fell in love with the title. The idea of tasting a different way of understanding poetic language grabbed my attention. Looking at the table of contents is a little disconcerting with articles entitled Achimo, Edgework: Indigenous Poetics as Re-Placement, Writer-Reader Reciprocity and the Pursuit of Alliance through Indigenous Poetry. The book delighted me with accessible writing and engaging subjects. The heavy sounding titles are a cover for a range of fascinating discussions about language, place and culture. I googled and bookmarked more than one book from the tastes I was offered in the text.
The subject of the book is language, and the thesis is that indigenous poetics deserve to be recognized and discussed based on the texts rather than settler (white) understandings of poetry and form. Authors speak of the importance of place and story. Some use the imagery of pictographs as a way of showing the dimension of time in indigenous story and language. There are interviews with indigenous poets of a range of nations, and a smattering of stories to whet the appetite to hear more.
Along with the discussion of language and poetry, there is the inevitable political reality of colonialism and how to respond to it. The politics are not ignored, but they aren’t allowed to overwhelm the discussion. Rather they become another layer on the stories that are being told. It is important to note that the stories are not myth stories as we are used to reading and dissecting in English Literature courses. The stories are living stories of living nations. If we are ever going to learn to live as neighbours, we need to learn to hear these stories.
I highly recommend this book for any who love language or have in interest in indigenous culture.
James John Loftus
Celtic Blood is an independent novel by James John Loftus. It tells the story of Morgund MacAedh in thirteenth century Scotland. The book begins with Seward, a viking, being washed ashore and the only one to survive the wreck of the ship he was on. He is adopted by the MacAedh clan where he grows into a fearsome warrior. Politics in those times are much more direct and a band of men attack the leader of the people who took him in and kill him. Seward escapes and then is faced with the challenge of protecting Morgund who is the MacAedh heir.
I had a challenging time at the beginning of the book trying to decide if James’ style was brilliance or just a refusal to follow the bounds of the English language. While there are times that description spins into something that is more poetry than prose, the sad truth is that I found myself wanting to hear more about the parts that he skims over and less about the things he describes in detail. The time and setting are given their due, but even well into the book I didn’t know the characters as people.
I also found the panegyric description got in the way of me just following the plot. I love beautiful description as much as the next reader, but I also love knowing what is happening that the description is attached to. Between the sentence fragments and dizzyingly quick point of view shifts, I couldn’t follow the story.
As much as I wanted to love this book. I can’t recommend it.
Brindle and Glass Publishing
Swarm follows Sandy as she and her partner Marvin and their friend Thomson struggle to survive on an island. The novel weaves from past to future to show Sandy’s story. On the island a mysterious girl is taking food from their already meagre stores. Marvin has no sympathy for the girl. They don’t have enough for themselves. Yet, Sandy dreams of being a mother. She desires the opportunity to do impossible mother and daughter things in a world that no longer exists.
The bees, the swarm of the title inhabit both parts of the novel and are a symbolic link to both what has gone wrong with the world and the possibility of hope. Swarm explores and all too likely scenario of economic collapse that leaves the largest part of the population hopeless.
Swarm reminded me of Margaret Attwood’s work in which everything carries weight. The story is built on the warp and woof of time and meaning. We feel Sandy’s desires and sometimes get impatient with her refusal to anchor her life in what is real rather than hopes that seem little more than a will-o-the-wisp. Then we see Marvin’s harshness and the way he’s been reduced by their subsistence living to focus only on what will help them survive and we hope that Sandy might succeed.
Between Sandy and Marvin, there is Thomson, a dying father figure, the inspiration to Marvin’s violence who rejected violence and yet refuses to reject either Marvin or Sandy. He is the one who forces a recognition of the value of death and it is no accident that he is also the bee keeper of the book.
Swarm is a challenging and occasionally a difficult read, but all the more valuable for that. It points to our present reluctance as a society to change. We are moving toward the brink, and Sandy’s story could be anyone’s story in a few years. The book is about not just the choices of a few characters, but the choices we’ve made as a species. I highly recommend it.


New Publication Track for ISAF-ISIF-PFM 2023
Authors who presented work at this year’s ISAF-ISIF-PFM 2023 are invited to submit a letter (3 pages minimum, 4 pages maximum length) to OJ-UFFC. Submissions will go through a full peer review. Accepted letters based on work presented at ISAF and submitted before 17 September 2023 will be marked as “ISAF highlights” to comprise a special section if the number of published contributions is sufficient. Publishing in the Open Journal – UFFC will provide open access for your paper if it is accepted.
- Deadline: 17 September 2023 for letter to be marked as "ISAF highlights”
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During your submission, specify in your cover letter that you are submitting a manuscript based on a presentation in ISAF. The article processing charge for OJ-UFFC will be waived for manuscripts submitted until 31 December 2023. Manuscripts submitted to OJ-UFFC will enjoy the benefits of peer review to improve the quality of the publication and the authors will be able to list these publications under peer-reviewed publications.
Each manuscript must be unpublished and not be under consideration elsewhere. The submitted manuscript must be prepared for potential publication according to the OJ-UFFC guidelines. By submitting a manuscript, all authors confirm that the work is original. Figures, tables, and reported results are original contributions and accurately reflect the presented work at the conference. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to obtain consent from all co-authors and sponsors before submission.
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Their hands against a brother, long ago,
Archives for December 2019
Your theories are crazy
What are you lights all about?
So please read, comment, write for us — are you there?
And his illustrious career began,
Into this world so rankly overgrown
A place where creation occurs.
Of course, there are pitfalls upon this path.
Now Yakov on his journey of return
He came to a place of stones, just as night fell,


Love's Labours Won in Ruled BritanniaEditLove's Labours Won was a play written by William Shakespeare in 1597. Shortly after beginning the play, Shakespeare was contracted by Don Diego Flores de Valdes to write King Philip and then by William Cecil to write Boudicca. Between the two projects and his increasingly deepened involvement in Cecil's plot to overthrow Queen Isabella and King Albert, Shakespeare was only able to work on Love's Labours Won very slowly.
Shakespeare wrote the humourous secondary character Don Amadeo de Armado to conform with the English notion of a "comical Spaniard." He then realised that this might attract undue attention from the occupiers, so he changed the character to a Venetian named Signor Adriano di Armato.
Judging by the few details of the play given in the novel, it seems to be identical to the OTL Love's Labours Lost, with the only stated difference being Don Armado's nationality.


International trade of substances and objects which are not anymore, or never were, interesting for the owner, is a phenomenon which deserves scientific attention and critical analysis. Following an exhaustive research, Kamila Pope went beyond the mere legal approach in the framework of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, and has presented a multidisciplinary approach to the global problem of waste management. The visualising data methods included in the book enhance effective communication and contribute to a thorough understanding of the main central message of the book: the equity or inequity of international relations among world regions, as a consequence of waste management options.
Global Waste Management can help change the mindset of those who are concerned with the effects of current production and consumption patterns and waste management system between the so called Global North and Global South Regions. Kamila Pope's book provides clear insights on the best waste management options necessary to trigger a shift from a linear economy based on a throwaway society, towards a new circular economy paradigm, based on a frugal, responsible and more sustainable society.