![]() Solutions may come from unexpected places.Faster isn’t always the best way to prove yourself.Just because you’re on top now doesn’t mean you’ll be on top later. The little boy provided a solution that used the best qualities of Mike and Mary Ann in a new way. What if Mary Ann became the furnace for the new town hall and Mike became the janitor? So that’s just what they did. It took a little boy to think of the perfect transformational suggestion. They dug the basement in one day, but Mike forgot to leave a way out! Everyone in town had different ideas about how to handle this challenge. Mike made a deal with the leaders that if he couldn’t finish the job in one day, they didn’t have to pay him. They found their way to a job in a small town, digging the basement of the town hall. Mike loved Mary Ann and didn’t want to relegate her to the trash heap, like the other steam shovels. They were known far and wide as the fastest steam shovel team, building sky scrapers, airports and roads….until the gas and diesel shovels came along and made Mary Ann obsolete. ![]() Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel is about Mike and his steam shovel Mary Ann. ![]() ![]() Today’s book is Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton.Ĭould it be that the books I loved as a child foreshadowed my passion for transformation as an adult? I’m starting to believe that. This month, we are focusing on lessons from my favorite children’s books. ![]()
0 Comments
![]() My life is already sort of isolated from living on a farm. (Image credit: Awoiska van der Molen) Wallpaper*: How are you doing currently, at home in Hummelo? Speaking from home – an old farmhouse on an acre of land outside the village of Hummelo, in the eastern Netherlands, where he has lived with his wife Anja since 1982 – Oudolf shares his thoughts on how to transform a miniature plot, work for Vitra’s HQ (completed since our interview), and our future reliance on finding pleasure closer to home – and ultimately, in our gardens. Believing in plants as therapy, he completed the garden for Maggie’s Centre at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, which opened in 2019. He has designed gardens for Serpentine Galleries in London and Noma in Copenhagen, filled Hauser & Wirth’s Somerset garden with 57,000 plants, and created a private, perennial-packed rooftop in Manhattan. Rating the ‘architecture’ of a plant just as highly as its colourful bloom, his complex plantings are layered with a multitude of species – evoking a sense of spontaneity, although nothing is ever left to chance. ![]() His ability to create transportive private gardens extends into our bustling cities and his work can be enjoyed in many urban public spaces. Step into one of Piet Oudolf’s gardens and you will be transported into a dreamlike meadowscape. ![]() ![]() On the occasion of the exhibition, we showcase the new photographs and revisit a Wallpaper* interview with Oudolf from May 2020, when much of the world was in lockdown. ![]() ![]() ![]() Artisan, musician and writer, the witches of Eastwick are less committed to their craft-creative craft or witch craft, of which Lexa seems the most talented-as much as they're casting for their next male conquest. Set in the late 1960s-where there is no love lost between the author and those kids growing their hair long, protesting the war and listening to those damn Beatles records-the title characters are Alexandra Spofford, Jane Smart and Sukie Rougemont, divorcees or widows who've all shacked up with seemingly every able bodied man in Eastwick. Of the 1,000 approaches to that story, Updike's is so pontifical and pumped up with its own magnificence that it ceases to be ridiculous and just becomes unreadable. ![]() Published in 1984, this literature is set in a quaint Rhode Island town (described down to the flowers or carpeting) where three bewitching women (described down to their facial features and dialects) become involved with a brutish bachelor named Darryl Van Horne. My introduction to the fiction of John Updike is The Witches of Eastwick and based on 111 pages, it's going to take Elizabeth Montgomery wiggling her nose for me to pick up one of the author's books again. ![]() ![]() ![]() The real story is when we are trying to figure out why exactly the insurance company sends him to Greece and then gets caught between the Greek police, Nazis seeking gold, and the Mossad while lusting after the beautiful but shadowy Elli. The initial plot is that he is recognized by a dirty cop from an earlier book and is coerced into being an accomplice but avoids ending his story there and leads to a contact with an old acquaintance who connects him to an insurance company. At the beginning of the story he has escaped the Stasi, has a new identity, and is working with dead bodies in a Munich hospital. It is a great send off for our hero as he will be threatened by the Germans, Greeks, and Israelis while trying to solve multiple mysteries. ![]() The saddest part is that Philip sets the stage for another book where Bernie will work with the bandit queen of the Mossad but we know that we will never see it.Īs Metropolis is set in 1928, Greeks Bearing Gifts is really Bernie’s finale. ![]() ![]() Yes, we know publishing takes time but these are exquisitely plotted 400 plus pages (on our reader) with exemplary research and wonderful details Munich and Athens. It is amazing that Philip was able to create one published in 2018 and another published in 2019 ( Greeks and the finale, Metropolis) despite battling cancer and dying in 2018. We became aware that Philip Kerr died in 2018 so reading the penultimate Bernie Gunther book, Greeks Bearing Gifts is sweet sadness. ![]() ![]() ![]() Some days, I stand before our bookcases in the living room and think how it feels a lot like standing at the ocean, each book we've read together a seashell, a sand dollar, a starfish, a treasure from our history. Our togetherness is changing still she and I have only to wade through our collection of shared books to revisit the yesterdays of her childhood. ![]() We're always close, always connected, but the emotional and financial tethers of dependency loosen more each day. She's growing up, more adult than child, and the tidal patterns of our relationship seem to fluctuate between two states: shallow and surge. She's working, attending classes full-time, and living at home. MY 18-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER started college this fall. ![]() ![]() Let Alexia Bennett, the author of the Amazon book Seduction be your guide. I am I haven’t been bowling in a while, and the girls also being there will make it even more fun. Get the basics right and you'll get what you want in your love-life. A/N: Part Two ‘Alexia’s Property’ You and Alexia are walking down the street hand in hand towards the bowling center, where the team decided to spend an afternoon together. If you like life to be easy and as enjoyable as possible, choose a guide that's just that - easy and enjoyable.įlirting is not rocket-science. Alexia Bennett is the author of Flirting (3.62 avg rating, 13 ratings, 0 reviews, published 2013) and The Art of Seduction (3.50 avg rating, 2 ratings, 0. There are just a few simple rules when it comes to flirting. Alexia Bennett (Author of Flirting) Alexia Bennett is the author of Flirting (3.62 avg rating, 13 ratings, 0 reviews, published 2013) and The Art of Seduction (3.50 avg rating, 2 ratings, 0. Before you know it, you'll be enjoying your romantic relationships more and finding out what true temptation can really lead to. ![]() If you like the idea of gentle teasing and temptation then pick up a copy of this book - and keep it simple. ![]() ![]() Want to know how to really flirt to win? Looking to attract that special person into your life? Your arms? Your bedroom?ĪndThe keys to flirting are easy to understand and only slightly harder to master.įlirting does not have to be complicated, that is unless you need drama to spice up your love life. ![]() ![]() Wolfe is the type of guy who will go to a convention to give a speech on writing and publishing in the sci/fi genre, but not before asking if there are other published writers in the audience, and then inviting them to join him on stage. Near the end of Gene Wolfe’s 1980 novel The Shadow of the Torturer, the narrator, Severian, an exiled executioner, has what he thinks is a vision of a burning cathedral. Blending Fantasy and Sci-Fi in Gene Wolfe’s The Shadow of the Torturer Brian Evenson Tue 10:00am 8 comments 29 Favorites + I first encountered Gene Wolfe’s work when I was a. ![]() We are talking friendships that span decades here. Gene Wolfe - The Book of the New Sun comprising The Shadow of the Torturer, The Claw of the Conciliator, The Sword of the Lictor, and The Citadel of the. He will bowl you over with his talent and with the shocking realization that for all his accolades, he is a humorous and personable dude.Įach contributor in this volume starts out by telling the story of how they met Gene and his wife Rosemary, how they first encountered his writing, and the impact he had on that person’s career. How do you know if you’ve made it as a writer? When other writers line up around the block to talk about how much YOU inspired THEM. ![]() Shadows of the New Sun is an edited anthology chock full of well-established writers (most of whom have written scores of novels over the past several decades) who are also in awe of the great man. ![]() Apparently I am not the only person to feel this way. ![]() ![]() ![]() Only Maggie wants to avoid rumors from starting, and being involved with a guy like Wyatt will bring just that.Īnd Wyatt wants to avoid the drama and he comes to find out that being with Maggie, may result in exactly what he’s trying to stay away from. ![]() ![]() More luck comes his way and he crosses paths with Mercy’s real estate agent, Maggie and sparks immediately fly. He’s gets lucky when he walks into The Neighborhood Bar and becomes part of the family right away. Newly released from prison, Wyatt moves into his late grandfather’s home in the small town of Mercy to start his life over. I posted about the first 3 books in this series a bit ago, but the 4th book in The Neighborhood series by Tarrah Anders has released today! Your Neighborhood Convict is L I V E and my current read! ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() They told her daughter that she was dead Who is Jeena? Why does Mumtaz want Pushpa to sell Jeena to her? Jeena is Pushpa's daughter. What does this symbolize for her? The pencil symbolizes friendship, offers her hope, a sense of freedom, and reminds her of home How did Monica's family respond to her arrival? They think she is a disgrace and begged her not to come back. What are they? Hindi and English According to Shahanna, what will happen to Lakshmi if it is discovered that she can read and write? If they discover Lakshmi can read and write, they will put her back in the locked up room. ![]() Lakshmi learns that there are two languages spoken where she is. What does the "David Beckham" boy offer to do for Lakshmi? What is his name? He offers to teach Lakshmi how to say the words in the book she took from him. If they catch the girl, they beat her How does Lakshmi compare herself to a remote control? Like a remote control, Lakshmi pretends at night that what is going on to her is on the TV she is watching from afar, and that there is a button to press to make everything go quiet, and one that makes her disappear. Who are the Goondas? They are men who work fro Mumtaz and they hunt the girls who try to run away. ![]() ![]() ![]() After noticing that his equity trading at RBC Capital Markets had deteriorated into electronic smoke and mirrors that benefited those seeking to front run his clients, Katsuyama and his team created a work around. He recounts how Brad Katsuyama, a wholesome Canadian who traded stocks on Wall Street, discovered the rigging of equity trading in favour of electronic trading hedge funds. Lewis does not disappoint with Flash Boys. With all of Lewis’ books, one is often left wondering if his stories are fact or fiction. From the psychopathic bond-trading floor of Liar’s Poker to the Icelandic financial bubble of The Big Short, Lewis draws his readers deeply into his stories. ![]() One of the first financial books we reviewed on the Financial Pipeline during the 1999 dot.com craze was Lewis’ “ The New New Thing”, the story of Jim Clark (of Netscape fame) trying to digitize the delivery of U.S. ![]() He brings his financial stories to life, taking the drudgery out of understanding the financial markets. Michael Lewis is a wonderful raconteur and our favourite financial writer. ![]() |