thegoodfellas/blogset-br huggingface dataset:
o angelus, o orgao de tubo encena a Ave Maria enquanto devotos, ajoelhados, repetem o terco. Os postes se acendem lentamente, olhos que se abrem apos um longo sono, derramando sua luz amarelada sobre as palmeiras imperiais e da escadaria se tem a certeza de estar num portal de magia... Nao posso me demorar mais e desco, suavemente, os muitos degraus enquanto volto ao mundo real. Do lado esquerdo o acougue oferece alcatra a R$ 8,99 e o rapaz da pacoca apregoa dez unidades a um real. Caminho para a parada de onibus. Aqui as pessoas amontoam-se de pe, num esforco engracado para ver os letreiros. Na cidade da fila, os onibus nao esperam a sua vez ou seriam as pessoas aflitas demais para aguardar? Nao sei. O predio da Estadual se ergue imponente, mas deveria estar do outro lado da rua e nao aqui onde o mundo e real e palpavel. A Paulista se abre aos meus olhos com seus contrates entre o absolutamente novo e o completamente classico: a FIESP e a Casa das Rosas; industria e poesia, atual e antigo. Sao Paulo me recebe no Paraiso das suas construcoes dispares, na beleza de sua cosmocidade: o templo budista e o hotel Unique com sua forma de navio ancorado em plena Av. Brigadeiro Luiz Antonio; a Catedral Metropolitana Ortodoxa e o MASP, a imponencia dos tribunais e a simplicidade das pracas circundantes onde um sem numero de pessoas dos mais diversos credos e racas se misturam na azafama do dia-a-dia. Eu, provinciana da Capital Federal, sou um virus na corrente sanguinea da Cidade que nunca dorme. Sao Paulo me abraca e me recebe nos seus jardins das diversas pracas existentes. Jardins diferentes dos que conheco, mas igualmente belos. Tantos anos se passaram desde que pisei pela primeira vez na terra santa dos Baroes do Cafe e meus olhos de menina ainda sao os mesmos: plenos de uma admiracao que sempre se renova!
My say on books is that any book that makes you stop what you are doing to read and stays in your head until you are able to pick up that book again is good. Stories that stay in my head turn out to be my favorite ones. For some reason, until so far, all of Khaled Hosseini's books have had this effect of me: the story sticking to my head - sometimes even for days after I have closed its last page."Echoes in the Mountain" was no exception - I devoured it quickly and when all pages were read and finished, the content of these pages stayed in my mind as I tried to figure out the characters, plot, timing and up to the climax of the story.One of the things that made me love this story so much is where it happens: Afghanistan, Paris and the USA. Three totally different places but yet which the author is able to combine and intertwine so beautifully making it a captivating and heart rendering story. Lots of characters, life stories, contrasts, suffering and pain - the truth about life and how we live. Glad to say, once again, I was not disappointed. Book Review:An unforgettable novel about finding a lost piece of yourself in someone else.Khaled Hosseini, the #1 New York Timesbestselling author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has written a new novel about how we love, how we take care of one another, and how the choices we make resonate through generations. In this tale revolving around not just parents and children but brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which families nurture, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globefrom Kabul to Paris to San Francisco to the Greek island of Tinosthe story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page. I am no fan of cats and to be very honest I never liked them much. That is, until I met Kitty Kitty and Snow White - my adoptive mother's two cats. In these two cats I finally noticed how these furry little animals have a lot of personality, a will of their own and a canny intelligence to top it off.And that's the reason I understand the perfect relationship James has with his cat, Bob.James tells his story very simply - nothing elaborate, no fancy words - but behind his simple words is an amazing story - the kind of story that touches hearts and makes you a feel a bit warmer at the end of reading it. He also opens you to a wider reality of people who live on the streets, how they survive, what goes through their head and how they are able to make it day after day. James Bowen, a street musician on the
road of recovery from heroin finds a orange cat in front of his apartment one night. He took care of the cat's wounds, fed it and gave it a warm place to call his home. And that is the beginning of their story: a journey which both cat and its master head on in which they find adventure, danger, fun, the fight for a honest life, change and a forever friendship.Beautiful, beautiful story! It's really impressive to see what a little bit of love and companionship can do... Book DescriptionRelease Date: 13 Sep 2012When James Bowen found an injured, ginger street cat curled up in the hallway of his sheltered accommodation, he had no idea just how much his life was about to change. James was living hand to mouth on the streets of London and the last thing he needed was a pet.Yet James couldn't resist helping the strikingly intelligent tom cat, whom he quickly christened Bob. He slowly nursed Bob back to health and then sent the cat on his way, imagining he would never see him again. But Bob had other ideas.Soon the two were inseparable and their diverse, comic and occasionally dangerous adventures would transform both their lives, slowly healing the scars of each other's troubled pasts.A Street Cat Named Bob is a moving and uplifting story that will touch the heart of anyone who reads it.
Salman Rushdie - a highly intelligent man, talented writer and polemic character. A man who had his life hanging by a thread and yet was brave enough to pursue and fight for his liberty and most importantly, the freedom of speech. Nine years of hiding, four wives, two sons. Fatwa, a price over his head, bodyguards, media - the right of living as a normal man snatched from his hands in less than a second. And all only because of words. A book. Nothing more, nothing less. And yet it was more than enough to sentence him to a life of running, hiding and official government protection. Yes he was sentenced to death. By whom? The Fatwa. For what? Having written a novel called The Satanic Verses, which was accused of being against Islam, the Prophet and the Quran.And so after nine long suffering years Salman Rushdie is finally able to write his story and let the whole world know what it was to be in his skin. A long winded six-hundred page book which at times gets long and tiring but not tiring enough for you to put it down and totally let go of it. To the contrary - the book requires time to digest it, to think, deliberate and let his words sink. It's just too much information all at once. And slowly but surely the reader is able to understand, condone and relate to the writer and his desire to live and let his words live and echo without censure, bars or prohibition. Wikipedia on "Salman Rushdie":Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (Kashmiri: (Devanagari), (Nastaliq); /slmn rdi/;[3] born 19 June 1947[4]) is aBritish Indian novelist and essayist. His second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), won the Booker Prize in 1981. Much of his fiction is set on theIndian subcontinent. He is said to combine magical realism with historical fiction; his work is concerned with the many connections, disruptions and migrations between East and West.His fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was the centre of a major controversy, provoking protests from Muslims in several countries, some violent. Death threats were made against him, including a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, on 14 February 1989.Rushdie was appointed Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France in January 1999.[5] In June 2007, Queen Elizabeth II knighted himfor his services to literature.[6] In 2008, The Times ranked him thirteenth on its list of the fifty greatest British writers since 1945.[7]Since 2000, Rushdie has lived in the United States, where he has worked at Emory University and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2012, he published Joseph Anton: A Memoir, an account of his life in the wake of the controversy over The Satanic VersesEarly life and family backgroundThe son of Anis Ahmed Rushdie, a University of Cambridge-educated lawyer turned businessman, and Negin Bhatt, a teacher, Rushdie was born inBombay, India, into a Muslim family of Kashmiri descent.[1][8][9] Rushdie has three sisters.[10] He wrote in his 2012 memoir that his father adopted the
cameo in Talladega Nights: "They had this idea, just one shot in which three very, very unlikely people were seen as NASCAR drivers. And I think they approached Julian Schnabel,Lou Reed, and me. We were all supposed to be wearing the uniforms and the helmet, walking in slow motion with the heat haze." In the end their schedules didn't allow for it.[27]Rushdie is currently[when?] collaborating on the screenplay for the cinematic adaptation of his novel Midnight's Children with director Deepa Mehta. The film will be called Midnight's Children.[28][29]Seema Biswas, Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das,[30] and Irrfan Khan are confirmed as participating in the film.[31] Production began in September 2010;[32] the film will be released on 26 October 2012.[33]Rushdie announced in June 2011 that he had written the first draft of a script for a new television series for the US cable network Showtime, a project on which he will also serve as an executive producer. The new series, to be called The Next People, will be, according to Rushdie, "a sort of paranoid science-fiction series, people disappearing and being replaced by other people." The idea of a television series was suggested by his US agents, said Rushdie, who felt that television would allow him more creative control than feature film. The Next People is being made by the British film production company Working Title, the firm behind such projects as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Shaun of the Dead.[34]Rushdie is a member of the advisory board of The Lunchbox Fund,[35] a non-profit organisation which provides daily meals to students of township schools in Soweto of South Africa. He is also a member of the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America,[36] an advocacy group representing the interests of atheistic and humanistic Americans in Washington, D.C. In November 2010 he became a founding patron of Ralston College, a new liberal arts college that has adopted as its motto a Latin translation of a phrase ("free speech is life itself") from an address he gave at Columbia University in 1991 to mark the two-hundredth anniversary of the first amendment to the US Constitution.[37]He took on Facebook over the use of his name in 2011. He won. Rushdie had asked to use his middle name Salman, which he is most recognised by. He described his online identity crisis in a series of messages posted on Twitter, among them "Dear #Facebook, forcing me to change my FB name from Salman to Ahmed Rushdie is like forcing J. Edgar to become John Hoover" and "Or, if F. Scott Fitzgerald was on #Facebook, would they force him to be Francis Fitzgerald? What about F. Murray Abraham?" Messages such as these were then circulated online. Facebook eventually relented and allowed him to use the name by which he is universally known.[38][39]The Satanic Verses and the fatwaFurther information: The Satanic Verses controversyThe publication of The Satanic Verses in September 1988 caused immediate controversy in the Islamic world because of what was perceived as an irreverent depiction of the prophet Muhammad. The title refers to a disputed Muslim tradition that
is related in the book. According to this tradition, Muhammad (Mahound in the book) added verses (sura) to the Qur'an accepting three goddesses who used to be worshipped in Mecca as divine beings. According to the legend, Muhammad later revoked the verses, saying the devil tempted him to utter these lines to appease the Meccans (hence the "Satanic" verses). However, the narrator reveals to the reader that these disputed verses were actually from the mouth of the Archangel Gibreel. The book was banned in many countries with large Muslim communities. (12 total: India, Bangladesh, Sudan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Thailand, Tanzania, Indonesia, Singapore, Venezuela, and Pakistan.)On 14 February 1989, a fatwa requiring Rushdie's execution was proclaimed on Radio Tehran by Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran at the time, calling the book "blasphemous against Islam" (chapter IV of the book depicts the character of an Imam in exile who returns to incite revolt from the people of his country with no regard for their safety). A bounty was offered for Rushdie's death, and he was thus forced to live under police protection for several years. On 7 March 1989, the United Kingdom and Iran broke diplomatic relations over the Rushdie controversy.The publication of the book and the fatwa sparked violence around the world, with bookstores firebombed. Muslim communities in several nations in the West held public rallies, burning copies of the book. Several people associated with translating or publishing the book were attacked, seriously injured, and even killed.[note 1] Many more people died in riots in some countries. Despite the danger posed by the fatwa, Rushdie made a public appearance at London's Wembley Stadium on 11 August 1993 during a concert by U2. In 2010, U2 bassist Adam Clayton recalled that "[lead vocalist] Bono had been calling Salman Rushdie from the stage every night on the Zoo TV tour. When we played Wembley, Salman showed up in person and the stadium erupted. You [could] tell from [drummer] Larry Mullen, Jr.'s face that we weren't expecting it. Salman was a regular visitor after that. He had a backstage pass and he used it as often as possible. For a man who was supposed to be in hiding, it was remarkably easy to see him around the place."[40]On 24 September 1998, as a precondition to the restoration of diplomatic relations with Britain, the Iranian government, then headed by Mohammad Khatami, gave a public commitment that it would "neither support nor hinder assassination operations on Rushdie."[41][42]Hardliners in Iran have continued to reaffirm the death sentence.[43] In early 2005, Khomeini's fatwa was reaffirmed by Iran's current spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a message to Muslim pilgrims making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.[44] Additionally, the Revolutionary Guards declared that the death sentence on him is still valid.[45] Iran rejected requests to withdraw thefatwa on the basis that only the person who issued it may withdraw it,[44] and the person who issued it Ayatollah Khomeini has been dead since 1989.Rushdie has reported that he still receives a "sort of Valentine's card" from Iran each year
I write for a living, [laughs] and I have no other source of income, and I naively believe that stuff that I create belongs to me, and that if you want it you might have to give me some cash. [...] My view is I do this for a living. The thing wouldn't exist if I didn't make it and so it belongs to me and don't steal it. You know. It's my stuff.[72]When Amnesty International (AI) suspended human rights activist Gita Sahgal for saying to the press that she thought AI should distance itself from Moazzam Begg and his organisation, Rushdie said:Amnesty ... has done its reputation incalculable damage by allying itself with Moazzam Begg and his group Cageprisoners, and holding them up as human rights advocates. It looks very much as if Amnesty's leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy, and has lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. It has greatly compounded its error by suspending the redoubtable Gita Sahgal for the crime of going public with her concerns. Gita Sahgal is a woman of immense integrity and distinction.... It is people like Gita Sahgal who are the true voices of the human rights movement; Amnesty and Begg have revealed, by their statements and actions, that they deserve our contempt.[73]Rushdie is a supporter of gun control, blaming a shooting at a Colorado cinema in July 2012 on the American right to keep and bear arms.[74][75]Personal lifeRushdie has been married four times. He was married to his first wife Clarissa Luard from 1976 to 1987 and fathered a son, Zafar (born 1980). His second wife was the American novelist Marianne Wiggins; they were married in 1988 and divorced in 1993. His third wife, from 1997 to 2004, was Elizabeth West; they have a son, Milan (born 1999). In 2004, he married the Indian AmericanPadma Lakshmi, an actress, model, and host of the American reality-television show Top Chef. The marriage ended on 2 July 2007, with Lakshmi's indicating it was her desire to end it. In 2008, the Bollywood press romantically linked him to his friend, Indian model Riya Sen.[76] In response to the media speculation about their relationship, she simply stated: "I think when you are Salman Rushdie, you must get bored with people who always want to talk to you about literature."[77]In 1999, Rushdie had an operation to correct ptosis, a tendon condition that causes drooping eyelids and that, according to him, was making it increasingly difficult for him to open his eyes. "If I hadn't had an operation, in a couple of years from now I wouldn't have been able to open my eyes at all," he said.[78]Since 2000, Rushdie has "lived mostly near Union Square" in New York City.[79]
As everyone here must already know I am a big fan of Dan Brown and his many books. Not only are they full of adrenaline, action packed and have a great plot they also are very informative historically speaking. The characters in his book are usually uncommon people with interesting perspectives making it easy for the reader to interact mentally with each one of them.Now about Inferno what I loved most - even more than the characters, plot, historical information - was the detailed descriptions of the different European cities Dr. Landon finds himself in and all the exploring he does. Especially after having been in a few of these cities that are spread out in the story's pages that just made it all the more interesting for me.It was as if every time the author goes on to describe Venice's canals, gondolas, architecture, smells, sights and sounds I was transported back into my own memories of wanderlust - and believe it or not, I felt like as if I were in the middle of the story and not just a spectator viewing it from afar and unbeknownst to what is going all around me.Bravo once again to Dan Brown and his many successful books! Wikipedia on "Inferno":nferno is a 2013 mystery thriller novel by renowned American author Dan Brown and the fourth book in his Robert Langdon series, following Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol.[1] The book was released on May 14, 2013 by Doubleday.[2] It was number one on the New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover fiction and Combined Print & E-book fiction for the first eleven weeks of its release, and also remained on the list of E-book fiction for the first seventeen weeks of its release. PlotHarvard University professor Robert Langdon wakes up in a hospital with a head wound and no memory of the last few days. His last memory is walking on the Harvard campus, but he quickly realizes that he is now in Florence. Sienna Brooks, one of the doctors tending to him, tells him he suffered a concussion from being grazed by a bullet and had stumbled into the emergency ward. Suddenly, Vayentha, a female assassin who has been following Robert, breaks into the hospital, shoots the doctor in charge of Robert's care, and approaches Robert's room. Sienna grabs Robert and they flee to her apartment.After Sienna recounts the details of his admission to hospital, Robert finds a cylinder with a biohazard sign in his jacket and decides to call the U.S.consulate. He is told that they are searching for him and want his location. Per Sienna's guidance, Robert gives them a location across the street from Sienna's apartment to avoid getting Sienna more involved in his mysterious situation than she already is. Soon, Robert sees an armed Vayentha pull up to the location Robert gave the consulate. At this point Sienna and Robert believe the U.S. government wants to kill him.Robert decides to open the container and finds a small medieval bone cylinder fitted with a
hi-tech projector that displays a modified version ofBotticelli's Map of Hell. At the bottom of the illumination are the words "The truth can be glimpsed only through the eyes of death." Suddenly, soldiers raid Sienna's building; Sienna and Robert narrowly escape.Palazzo Vecchio of FlorenceRobert and Sienna head toward the Old City, believing the cylinder must have something to do with Dante. However, they find that Florentine police and Carabinieri officers have sealed the bridges and are searching for them. They run into a construction site near the Boboli Gardens where Robert illuminates the modified "Map of Hell" again, notices that individual letters, which collectively spell "CATROVACER," have been added to each of the ten layers of the Malebolge, and that the layers have been rearranged. Moving them back to the order in the original Botticelli "Map of Hell" yields the words "CERCA TROVA". Robert recognizes these are the same words on the painting The Battle of Marciano byVasari, located in the Palazzo Vecchio. Robert and Sienna manage to evade the soldiers and get into the Old City using the Vasari Corridor.Robert stands in front of The Battle of Marciano trying to figure out where to go next by connecting the "eyes of death" phrase in the modified "Map of Hell" with his location. A custodian sees Robert snooping around and gets the director of the museum in the Palazzo Vecchio, Marta Alvarez. Marta recognizes Robert, having met him and Ignazio Busoni, the director of Il Duomo, the previous night. She leads Robert and Sienna up a set of stairs by The Battle of Marciano, and Robert realizes the top of the stairs is on the same level as the words "cerca trova" in the The Battle of Marciano painting. Marta tells Robert that she showed them Dante'sdeath mask the previous night, which sits in a room down the hall from the Battle of Marciano painting. Robert realizes he is retracing his own steps from the previous night. Marta takes Robert and Sienna to the mask who find that it's gone. They look at security footage and see Robert himself and Ignazio stealing the mask. The museum guards turn on Robert and Sienna. At this moment, Marta calls Ignazio's office to question him but is greeted by his secretary, who informs Marta that Ignazio died of a heart attack the other night but left a message for Robert moments before he died. Ignazio's secretary asks to speak with Robert and plays to him Ignazio's message. In it Ignazio esoterically tells Robert where the mask is hidden, referring to "Paradise 25."Gates of Paradise atFlorence BaptisteryRobert and Sienna escape the guards, but the soldiers arrive. They cross the attic over the Apotheosis of Cosimo I, where Sienna pushes Vayentha to her death. Robert connects the phrase "Paradise 25" to the Florence Baptistry, where he and Sienna find the Dante mask along with a riddle from its current owner, a billionaire geneticist named Bertrand Zobrist. A man named Jonathan Ferris, with a large bruise on his chest which he hides from the two, claiming to be