A young flower hunter gets embroiled in the succession politics of the Sultanate when she must retrieve the rarest and most powerful magical flower after giving it to the wrong hands, in Rati Mehrotra’s Flower and Thorn.
A heartbreaking and emotional story of the toll that health crises can have on an entire family, The Weight We Carry reminds us of the fine line between reliance and independence, tending and mothering, and love and obligation.
Written with kaleidoscopic verve and delirious wit, Brooklyn Crime Novel is a breathtaking tour de force by a writer at the top of his powers. Jonathan Lethem, “one of America’s greatest storytellers” (Washington Post), has crafted an epic interrogation of how we fashion stories to contain the uncontainable: our remorse at the world we’ve made.
GORGEOUS, EVOCATIVE, SPOOKY as hell, Paul Jessup’s latest novel is infused with terror, yearning, and twisted love. Impeccable and poetic prose, powerful characterization, a haunting that lingers on. A MINUS
Check out this excerpt from the eight chapter of my novel, Below the Heavens - JiangXi.
I have the entirety of the novel published on Royal Road for free. I'm actively publishing the second novel of the series as well! You can find the link to both in my bio.
Today in Labor History October 9, 1936: A lettuce strike had recently ended in Salinas, California. However, when red flags went up throughout town, the authorities feared communist agitators had returned and removed the red flags, only to find out later that they were part of a traffic check being done by the state highway division.
The first effective organizing in the Salinas Valley began in 1933, with the mostly female lettuce trimmers demanding equal pay to the men. The Filipino field workers supported the women’s demands. In 1934, members of the Filipino Labor Union (FLU) struck the lettuce farms. So, the farmers brought in Mexican and Anglo scabs. They used vigilante mobs and the cops to violently attack the strikers and arrested their leaders. When the Filipino Labor Union and the Mexican Labor Union joined forces, a mob of vigilantes burned their labor camp down and drove 800 Filipinos out of the Salinas Valley at gunpoint. The 1934 strike ended soon after, with the growers recognizing the FLU and offering a small raise. This violence inspired John Steinbeck to write “In Dubious Battle” and “Grapes of Wrath,” for which he won both Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes.
Today in Labor History October 9, 1874: Mary Heaton Vorse was born. Vorse was a labor journalist who participated in and wrote eyewitness accounts of many of the significant labor battles of her day. In the 1910s, she was the founding editor of the “Masses,” as well as an activist in the suffrage and women’s peace movements. In 1912, she participated in and wrote about the Lawrence textile strike. She helped organize the Wobblies’ unemployment protest in New York, 1914, and was good friends with Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. In 1916, she reported on the IWW Mesabi Range strike. And in 1919, she worked as a publicist for the Great Steel Strike. She also wrote the novel, "Strike!" about the 1929 textile mill strike, in Gastonia, North Carolina, which was made into a film in 2007.
RICHARD OSMAN’S LATEST Thursday Murder Club adventure is his best one yet. Impeccably plotted, full of wit and fun, it’s also a marvelously observant portrayal of the power of love and friendship. A MINUS
Today in Labor History October 6, 1900: English anarchist author Ethel Mannin was born in London. Her memoir of the 1920s, Confessions and Impressions was one of the first Penguin paperbacks. Her 1944 book Bread and Roses: A Utopian Survey and Blue-Print has been described as "an ecological vision in opposition to the prevailing and destructive industrial organization of society." Mannin protested imperialism in Africa during the 1930s. She was also very active in anti-fascist movements, including the Women's World Committee Against War and Fascism, and she supported the military actions of the Spanish Republic.
Today in Labor History October 5, 1923: Swedish anarcho-syndicalist playwright & novelist Stig Dagerman was born. Over the course of 5 years, 1945–49, he wrote four successful novels, a collection of short stories, a book about postwar Germany, five plays, hundreds of poems and satirical verses, several essays and a large amount of journalism. He wrote the essay “Anarchism and Me” about his views on anarchism, and society, in post-World War 2 Europe. He killed himself in 1954, by running his car with the garage closed.
Today in Labor History October 2, 1968: The Tlatelolco Massacre occurred in Mexico City. 15,000 students were demonstrating at the Plaza of Three Cultures against the army’s occupation of the University. The army, with 5,000 soldiers and 200 tanks, ambushed the students, opened fire, and killed nearly 300. They also arrested thousands. This occurred ten days before the opening of the Olympics, the same Olympics where Tommy Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved-fists in a Black Power salute. The U.S. contributed to the massacre by providing the Mexican military with radios, weapons, ammunition and riot control training. Furthermore, the CIA provided the Mexican military with daily reports on student activities in the weeks leading up to the massacre.
Chilean film maker Alejandro Jodorosky portrayed the massacre in his film “The Holy Mountain” (1973). Chilean author Roberto Bolano referenced it in his 1999 novel, “The Savage Detectives.”
MYSTERIES IN A MAGICAL VILLAGE and a confusing love…quadrangle? pentangle? have a cheery spirit medium seeing double. Cozy paranormal mystery is loaded with charm. SOLID B
Today in Labor History September 30, 1912: The Lawrence, Massachusetts “Bread and Roses” textile strike was in full swing. On this date, 12,000 textile workers walked out of mills to protest the arrests of two leaders of the strike. Police clubbed strikers and arrested many, while the bosses fired 1,500. IWW co-founder Big Bill Haywood threatened another general strike to get the workers reinstated. Strike leaders Arturo Giovannitti and Joe Ettor were eventually acquitted 58 days later. During the strike, IWW organizers Bill Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn came up with the plan of sending hundreds of the strikers' hungry children to live with sympathetic families in New York, New Jersey, and Vermont, a move that drew widespread sympathy for the strikers. Nearly 300 workers were arrested during the strike; three were killed. After the strike was over, IWW co-founder and socialist candidate for president, Eugene Debs, said "The Victory at Lawrence was the most decisive and far-reaching ever won by organized labor."
Several novels have been written against the backdrop of this famous strike: The Cry of the Street (1913), by Mabel Farnum; Fighting for Bread and Roses (2005), by Lynn A. Coleman; Bread and Roses, Too (2006), by Katherine Paterson
Bless @internetarchive for saving the interesting website of the late #AnnSwinfen, to which she was adding until her sudden death in August 2018. Here's her introduction to #medieval#records & to the business of the #bookseller, supplying both affordable #textbooks to students & fine illustrated #manuscripts to wealthy patrons:
THE MAGIC OF MOVIES has a terrifying side in this expertly crafted horror thriller. Gorgeous, supple prose, memorable characters, and a vivid evocation of Mexico City in the 1990s add punch to the twisty plot. A MINUS
Check out this recent review of my novel, Below the Heavens - JiangXi.
I have the entirety of the novel published on Royal Road for free. I'm actively publishing the second novel of the series as well! You can find the link to both in my bio.
THE HAZARDS OF FINDING YOURSELF and creating a lifelong friendship in the midst of unrequited crushes, awkward love triangles, and the overall gloom of an economic recession. Witty, insightful, eloquently Irish coming-of-age novel. B PLUS
Today in Labor History September 26, 1874: Sociologist and photographer Lewis Hine is born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. In 1908, he became the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee and spent the next decade documenting exploited child labor to help the organization’s lobbying efforts to end child labor in American industry. The book cover for my novel, Anywhere But Schuylkill, is based pm a Hine photograph.
Today in Writing History September 25, 1897: William Faulkner, American writer and Nobel Prize laureate was born (d. 1962). He also won two Pulitzer Prizes for his fiction. His books, “The Sound and the Fury” (1929), “As I Lay Dying” (1930), “Light in August” (1932) and “Absalom Absalom!” (1936) are all on the Modern Library’s list of top 100 English-language novels of the 20th century.
Today in Writing History September 25, 1930: Shel Silverstein, American author, poet, illustrator, and songwriter was born (d. 1999). He is perhaps most remembered today for his amusing children’s poetry and fiction, like “The Giving Tree.” However, he also wrote many songs like "One's on the Way" and "Hey Loretta" (which were hits for Loretta Lynn), and "25 Minutes to Go," about a man on Death Row, and "A Boy Named Sue," both made famous by Johnny Cash. He also wrote "The Unicorn," which The Irish Rovers made famous. He also wrote many songs about drugs and sex, like “I Got Stoned and I Missed It,” “Quaaludes Again,” “Masochistic Baby,” and “Freakin’ at the Freaker’s Ball.”
HOMETOWN HAUNTINGS, BOTH of past relationships and in a newly purchased house, challenge a woman trying to come to terms with her past and future. Well-written, spicy romantic suspense. B PLUS