![]() ![]() The parrallel at 36☃0′, which originated in error as the border between Virginia and North Carolina spreads across many states as far west as the Texas panhandle because it become the barrier between slave & free states after the Missouri Compromise in 1820. Still the efforts of the government can be seen in the borders. That the rest of the states are not of equal size is due to a variety of factors: topographical borders that make more sense, confliciting land claims, land awarded to states for land lost to other states (seemingly an endless cycle), and sometimes just plain bad surveying that held up. The east coast states don’t count because they were laid out by kings and English charters. ![]() ![]() Some general observations show how the US government tried to create all states of equal size. How the States Got Their Shapes (2008) by Mark Stein is exactly what the title says it is: a state-by-state description of how the borders of the fifty states were laid out (even Hawaii, which is more complicated than it looks). ![]()
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![]() The Grief Recovery Handbook makes a point of saying that no one else can know exactly how you feel. They’re presuming that they can feel what the other person is feeling. That’s really what most people mean when they say that they have empathy for someone else. To understand affect is to understand how the other person feels. I understand the environment, the factors, and the connections to other people. ![]() When I’m understanding, I can mean that I understand, cognitively, what your world is like. ![]() The best definition of empathy that I’ve seen is “I understand this about you.” It’s a simple expression that equates empathy with understanding. Cognitive and AffectiveĪ good place to start is the fact that we use empathy to mean two relatively distinct things. In Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion, Bloom decomposes what we mean when we say “empathy” and suggests that we should focus on only the “good” parts of empathy while finding ways to side-step the problems. Who could be against empathy? Isn’t it a good thing? Don’t we need it to relate to one another? How could someone, Paul Bloom, write a whole book about why empathy is bad? The answer is a surprising journey into what we mean when we say “empathy” and the negative side of what is seen as a wholly good response. ![]() ![]() ![]() In 2018 she gained an agent and a UK book deal for Ace of Spades with Usborne Publishing. Àbíké-Íyímídé's debut novel, Ace of Spades, is a young adult thriller with themes of "homophobia in the black community, institutional racism and the diversity of thought among black people". She lived in Aberdeen, Scotland while studying English, Chinese and anthropology at the University of Aberdeen. Àbíké-Íyímídé was born and raised in Croydon in South London. Her debut novel, the young adult thriller Ace of Spades (2021), received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Youth/Teens in 2022, and reached the top ten on The New York Times Best Seller list.Īdditionally, Àbíké-Íyímídé has contributed writings to several publications, including The Bookseller, gal-dem, NME and Reader's Digest. Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé (born 13 October 1999) is a British and Nigerian novelist, short-story writer and columnist. ![]() ![]() ![]() Spectacular Spider-Man #242-245 Identity Crisis Honestly this shouldn’t have been undone even though JMS did good things with Aunt May. We don’t want to see Peter and Mary Jane have THIS rough of a time ALL the time now do we? The main reason I rank this lower is that even though JMD handles the darkness and dour tone really well it can be a bit suffocating, especially if you’ve been reading the run up until now. This has brilliant May and Vulture characterization and is in fact the best Vulture story ever. Spectacular Spider-Man #186-188 Funeral Arrangements No massive reviews just a few words of why I like any given story and why it places where it does. ![]() DeMatteis is my favourite Spider-Man writerīut I thought it would be fun to do a quick run down of my top 10 favorite JMD Spider-Man stories. ![]() ![]() ![]() For the dead are rising: soulless, unstoppable, and unspeakably hungry. But nothing can prepare them for what lies waiting aboard the Star Destroyer. The Purge s half-dozen survivors will do whatever it takes to stay alive. But when a boarding party from the Purge is sent to scavenge for parts, only half of them come back-bringing with them a horrific disease so lethal that within hours, nearly all aboard the Purge die in ways too hideous to imagine. ![]() This is the Star Wars of every horror fans dreams-gory, funny, and brimming with a blood-spattered cast of swashbucklers and space-zombies.-Seth Grahame-Smith, author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies When the Imperial prison barge Purge -temporary home to five hundred of the galaxys most ruthless killers, Rebels, scoundrels, and thieves-breaks down in a distant part of space, its only hope appears to lie with a Star Destroyer found drifting and seemingly abandoned. ![]() Book Synopsis The chilling tale of the undead in a galaxy far, far away. ![]() ![]() ![]() As told by Imperial Chronicler Lord Verniers, this terrible event is shrouded in many secrets and, some say, wrought by servants of the Dark. Songs of the Dark collects all four novellas from the world of Anthony Ryan’s internationally best-selling Raven’s Shadow trilogy.Ī Duel of Evils – Centuries before the rise of the Unified Realm, the final battle looms between the city-state of Kethia and the Volarian Empire. It’s a strange feeling when a whisper becomes a shout.” Order from the Subterranean Press website. There is a limit of one copy per person/household. ![]() Subterranean will start shipping in December so please get your order in early if you’d like to secure a copy. The wraparound dust jacket illustration is by long-time collaborator Kevin Zamir Goeke. This is a special limited edition signed hardcover collecting all the Raven’s Shadow novellas including a new introduction and black-and-white interior illustrations by yours truly (previews to come). ![]() I’m delighted to announce that Subterranean Press is now taking pre-orders for ‘Songs of the Dark – Short Fiction from the World of Raven’s Shadow’. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Purity tries harder than these books, and fails more miserably-though we’re told Pip, its heroine, is “like a bank too big in her mother’s economy to fail.” You can always count on Franzen to make a lame joke six years too late, just like a parent without self-awareness. The prose from the early chapters is less polished than Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and the sex is less sexy than Fifty Shades of Grey. In this way, Purity, whose author aspires to universality in a way only an author contemptuous and jealous of pulp can, is worse than lowbrow genre fiction. Even the very first line, spoken by one of Franzen’s “characters,” is unbelievable: “Oh pussycat, I’m so glad to hear your voice”-the voice that of no human who has ever walked this earth, except an inept and pretentious novelist. It is obvious from its first page that Purity is a worthless novel and its author, Jonathan Franzen, a worthless writer. ![]() ![]() ![]() I have read a lot more now and I think some of the list needs to be updated to include new London based favourites. I called it a bookish babble and i talked about all the Urban fantasies set in a fictionalised London that I loved. I am just back from a trip to London to see the Mousetrap (more on that later in the week) and it got me thinking about one of the very first posts I ever wrote on my blog. This weeks topic is Five Fictional Londons ![]() ![]() Therefore I am just doing my own thing and setting my own topics just so I can chat books with you. I also can’t find a topic list like you would have for the Six on Sunday meme. Threadneedle (Lux) - Global Focus Class AU (EUR Accumulation Shares) + Add to watchlist LU0061474960:USD Actions Price (USD) 95.95 Todays Change -0.040 / -0.04 1 Year change +8.70 Data delayed. It seems to crop up in many different style such as “Five for Friday”, “Five on Friday”, “FridayFive Challenge”. I can’t find who started the Friday Five book blog meme. ![]() ![]() ![]() But solving this untimely holiday death means delving into the cutthroat Christmas decorating wars among scheming neighbors with dirty secrets in their stocking. ![]() Other Stories "The Dangers of Candy Canes" by Laura Levine When a wealthy suburbanite takes a lethal tumble off his roof while installing a giant candy cane, the roofing contractor being held responsible for murder asks freelance writer Jaine Austen to investigate. ![]() But when a trail of candy canes leads to his corpse in a snow bank, Hannah must find Kris Kringle's killer. Wayne Bergstrom, owner of Bergstrom's Department Store, happily ho-ho-hos his way through the festivities in his Santa suit. Lake Eden's annual Christmas gala is upon her and eager children are waiting. Bakery owner Hannah Swensen feels a little stuffed in her elf costume-but it's too late to count calories. ![]() ![]() Hero was also tortured about his past and his ability to love and be loved. ![]() HEA - except Grandpa is going to die soon. Heroine finally breaks it off with him and quits her job. Hero moves him to a better nursing home and tries to help out the heroine, but he still won’t commit. ![]() To complicate matters the heroine’s grandfather has Alzheimer’s and the heroine is afraid he’s being abused at the nursing home. They begin a sexual relationship, but the hero is constantly pulling back and the heroine is constantly expecting rejection. ![]() He takes her virginity in his office and feels badly about it. The hero cruelly toys with her, but the sexual attraction is off the charts. But he is still as contemptuous when he is in the position to give her advertising company a contract with his company. This author must have been inspired by Penny Jordan because like all good PJ heroines, she is still a virgin at 25, having never forgotten the hero. She threw herself at him on her 16th birthday and he brutally rejected her. ![]() Hero was the bad boy who worked for her grandfather and she was the poor little rich girl who lusted after him. The tone of this one is bleak rather than angsty. ![]() |