![]() ![]() In my world of apps and software and social media, there were sights and sounds, but no smells, no tastes, no touch. These oenophiles living a life of sensory cultivation made me realise that I was living this life of sensory deprivation. At the time, I was working as the executive tech editor of the Huffington Post, which was a job that basically involved spending my time at screens writing about things that happened on screens. ![]() My wine adventure started when I stumbled upon this world of cork dorks-by which I mean the hyper-obsessed sommeliers who spend their vacation days at tasting competitions, who train their palates the way Olympians train their bodies, who divorce their spouses to spend more time studying grape flash cards. I had a hunch that there was a difference between bottled and boxed wine, but that was about it. I was in no way a wine connoisseur when I embarked on the journey that became Cork Dork. It started when I became aware of my own sensory deprivation. ![]() I’m interested to know how you got so fascinated by the senses of taste and smell, and also touch to some extent the senses that come to the fore when drinking wine. Foreign Policy & International Relations. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() Once the dust has proverbially settled in the first book, Grace begins evaluating their relationship on her own and figuring out what she wants and how Jaxon can fit into her life. I needed more oomph and substance in their relationship. What I loved: One of the things I did not particularly enjoy about the first book was the instalove/mating bond elements of her quick relationship with Jaxon. You know, just another few months at Katmere, the school for the paranormal. ![]() To make things even better, the Circle has arrived with a vengeance, and Grace's future and life is hanging in the balance. In the meantime, she just has to deal with his snarky and (unfortunately) cute self taking up all her time, while also balancing her schoolwork, learning about her new powers, emotionally healing after the things her classmates put her through, and spending time with her friends and boyfriend. Back in her life, she has feelings she cannot explain and is haunted by the boy who shares her body, Hudson, the psychopath and brother of her mate, Jaxon.Īlthough she is the only one who can see or hear him (except when he takes over her body), getting him out will be quite the process, but Grace is determined to do so. This second book picks up a few months after the first book with Grace coming back to her life without any memory of what happened over the past few months when she was stuck in stone. CRUSH is an intense and nail-biting sequel to CRAVE. ![]() ![]() In reality, getting 17 people to the top of Malaysia’s highest mountain and the highest point between the Himalayas and New Guinea, could prove to be a lot harder. ![]() ![]() In theory, the mission sounded simple: get the durian-loving monitor lizard (or at least – and I’m sorry to ruin the illusion so early here – someone dressed in a custom-made costume) to the summit of Mount Kinabalu. The second meeting with Monty was due for Monday, as a 17-strong team from the British High Commission (including me and a couple of other friends of the mission) set off to complete Mr Monty’s Mission. Needless to say, the second encounter with the furry green lizard was always going to be different. There was even a slice of cake from TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding. There were representatives from Hospis Malaysia, from the High Commission and from British and Malaysian sponsors and organisations. The star of Gail Featherstone’s children’s book, Mr Monty’s Treat, was at the project’s official launch at the residence of the British High Commissioner. ![]() I first met Mr Monty under very civilised circumstances. Of lost baggage, sunsets and carb-loading ![]() ![]() It was such an immediate hit, that barely a month after its debut, Dickens was embroiled in a legal fight against a publishing company that had printed pirated copies. Though he spent mere weeks writing it, Dickens' novella about the original Christmas grinch has been a holiday staple for nearly two centuries, giving rise to countless adaptations for stage and screen. "Marley was dead, to begin with." With those six words, Charles Dickens invited us into the world of A Christmas Carol, indelibly introducing us to Ebenezer Scrooge, the three ghosts of Christmas, Tiny Tim, and a full cast of memorable characters. Fezziwig’s Ball, Hand colored etching by John Leech from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, via Wikimedia Commons ![]() ![]() ![]() Plantinga makes a case that their arguments are not only inconclusive but that the supposed conflicts themselves are superficial, due to the methodological naturalism used by science. Plantinga examines where this conflict is supposed to exist - evolution, evolutionary psychology, analysis of scripture, scientific study of religion - as well as claims by Dan Dennett, Richard Dawkins, and Philip Kitcher that evolution and theistic belief cannot co-exist. His theme in this short book is that the conflict between science and theistic religion is actually superficial, and that at a deeper level they are in concord. Plantinga, as a top philosopher but also a proponent of the rationality of religious belief, has a unique contribution to make. ![]() The last twenty years has seen a cottage industry of books on this divide, but with little consensus emerging. ![]() This book is a long-awaited major statement by a pre-eminent analytic philosopher, Alvin Plantinga, on one of our biggest debates - the compatibility of science and religion. ![]() ![]() ![]() In the era before second-wave feminism, Lawrence’s Women in Love, with its balanced marital union, was an ideal for the Cambridge students whom Plath joined at Newnham. ![]() Clark detects the model for Plath’s vision in D H Lawrence, who imagined a sexual union as a semi-sacred transformation, unlike the casual affairs of Bloomsbury, who made friendship instead the be-all of human existence. This was a unique marriage to a fellow-poet who could tap into the lasting force of nature, and free her to gallop into “the red/ Eye, the cauldron of morning” – the fierce sun of all our days. She asked Hughes to marry her soon after their explosive meeting: a famously violent kiss, leaving tooth-marks on Ted’s cheek, at a Cambridge party in 1956. One achievement of Red Comet, Heather Clark’s terrific biography of Plath, is to document, without taking sides, her choice of Ted Hughes as a revolutionary who was true to his instincts. Plath tried to invent a way of life that would make it feasible for a woman, as well as a man, to have everything. It’s a question central to Sylvia Plath, a poet who meant to resolve this choice, at its toughest for a gifted woman growing up in Eisenhower’s ultra-conformist America of the 1950s. “Perfection of the life or of the work”: Yeats posed this dilemma. ![]() ![]() She can be reached at or on twitter at perfection unremarked: Fairy enchantment and human art in Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin and Kat Howard’s Roses and Rot She is a member of the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic, and a part of the organisational committee for Glasgow International Fantasy Conversations (GIFCon). ![]() She holds a BA in Theatre Studies from the National Kapodistrian University of Athens and an MLitt in Fantasy Literature from the University of Glasgow. Her other research interests include folk horror, fairy tales and ballads, and the works of authors and editors such as Terry Pratchett, Diana Wynne Jones, Terri Windling, and Helen Oyeyemi. Her research examines the lasting effect theatre has had in the birth and evolution of contemporary fantasy literature. ![]() Marita Arvaniti is a PhD student in the University of Glasgow. * Click on the arrows to expand author biographies and abstracts of papers.ġ. ![]() ![]() The final piece fell into place in the fall of 2017, as Anderson witnessed the rise of the #MeToo era and the toll that sexual assault took on so many lives. ![]() When I started opening up and showing them that I trusted them, they started opening up and showing me that they trusted me.’’ “I realized that they really wanted to know me, like what happened to me. “I finally realized that I should be listening to what they needed and then I let them ask me more questions,” she said. She expected the conversation, especially at schools, to revolve around “literary things and metaphors,” but quickly realized that “no kids wanted to hear about that.” The students she spoke to were more interested in the story, and any personal truth behind it. ![]() ![]() ![]() She was brutally honest, but I appreciated it. At first she was afraid to be honest, but we had a little chat about that. ![]() ![]() When I felt it was getting close, I asked my niece, an avid reader and university student to read and critique it. We changed the name of the book from ‘Crown of Denial’ to Natasha’s Dream, Diary, Hope and Legacy. Hubby and I discussed the story and decided to separate it into 4 smaller books. The editor/publisher emailed back 6 weeks later saying they weren’t interested in this story, not enough of a romance, but they liked my writing style, so keep them in mind for other manuscripts. I sent the first three chapters to 1 publisher. I allowed the story to develop and asked a few people read it, him included, poor guy. ![]() I wrote, pondered, rewrote and let my husband read it. I began writing the saga over 10 years ago. Well, to be honest it’s been more then a year. All four novels in the saga have now been released, and so I’ve invited author Heather Greenis back in order to find out how she went about writing a story of this length. You may remember I interviewed author Heather Greenis a while back about just after the release of the first novel in Natasha’s Saga. ![]() ![]() ![]() The reader only hears from Mr Nishino through the stories his lovers tell, never directly. The stories are not told in chronological order, but move from adulthood to high school and to his older age. The plot of The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino is simple – Mr Nishino’s lovers (all women) talk about their love affair with him. The Ten Loves of Mr Nishino is filled with that calmness, yet is rich in detail and atmosphere. It seems to be on the whole both calmer and stranger than fiction originally written in English and deal with people’s quirks more lovingly. Thanks Allen & Unwin for the copy.Īs many readers of my blog will know, I have a deep love and affection for Japanese fiction. ![]() Why I chose it: Japanese fiction is wonderful. The good: The different characters and their memories of Mr Nishino. But his greatest asset could be his downfall… In brief: Mr Nishino has a great capacity for love and women love him. ![]() |