![]() ![]() In 1993, Mike moved to Dark Horse comics and created Hellboy, a half-demon occult detective who may or may not be the Beast of the Apocalypse. In 1992, he drew the comic book adaptation of the film Bram Stoker's Dracula for Topps Comics. By the late 80s he had begun to develop his signature style (thin lines, clunky shapes and lots of black) and moved onto higher profile commercial projects like Cosmic Odyssey (1988) and Gotham by Gaslight (1989) for DC Comics, and the not-so-commercial Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (1990) for Marvel. ![]() In 1982, hoping to find a way to draw monsters for a living, he moved to New York City and began working for Marvel Comics, first as a (very terrible) inker and then as an artist on comics like Rocket Raccoon, Alpha Flight and The Hulk. His fascination with ghosts and monsters began at an early age (he doesn't remember why) and reading Dracula at age 13 introduced him to Victorian literature and folklore from which he has never recovered. Mike Mignola was born Septemin Berkeley, California and grew up in nearby Oakland. ![]()
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![]() ![]() The text is thus punctuated by women who are trapped in their houses constructed by patriarchy. Her situation is similar to Sally who “sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without his permission” (102). Rafaela, too, is an example of a woman confined within the house by her husband “because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at” (79). Her great grandmother, whom she was named after, was described as “a wild horse of a woman” who was relegated to looking “out the window her whole life, the way many women sit their sadness on an elbow” (11) after being forced into a marriage. Elsewhere, she recognizes the restrictive quality of the house. But outside they can’t be seen talking to girls” (8). Esperanza notes that “the boys and girls live in separate worlds… got plenty to say to me and Nenny inside the home. ![]() ![]() The exterior of the house is a reflection of the constraint that is present inside it. White with trees around it, a great big yard and grass growing without a fence” (4), yet the Corderos can only settle in a house on Mango Street that is “small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small” (4). The novel opens with a yearning that is reminiscent of the American dream, to acquire “a real house that would be ours for always…. ![]() ![]() ![]() Inheritance is a book about secrets-secrets within families, kept out of shame or self-protectiveness secrets we keep from one another in the name of love. She woke up one morning and her entire history-the life she had lived-crumbled beneath her. In the spring of 2016, through a genealogy website to which she had whimsically submitted her DNA for analysis, Dani Shapiro received the stunning news that her father was not her biological father. What makes us who we are? What combination of memory, history, biology, experience, and that ineffable thing called the soul defines us? Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and LoveĪ memoir about the staggering family secret uncovered by a genealogy test: an exploration of the urgent ethical questions surrounding fertility treatments and DNA testing, and a profound inquiry of paternity, identity, and love. ![]() ![]() ![]() The four teenagers become friends and Eve even begins to feel something more for Hugh. Eve begins to feel a bit better when she and Thomas meet Meggie and Hugh, a brother and sister around their age who are traveling home with their parents to America after a trip to Europe. Eve, on the other hand, is devastated to have left her home and friends behind, and is nervous about traveling on the Titanic - something about the ship just gives her a bad feeling. Thomas is excited for a new home, new life, and new friends. Thomas and Eve feel very differently about the move to America. ![]() Their younger sister, Beatrice, has weak lungs, and the doctor has said their only hope for her to get better is to move to a warmer climate. The family has left their home in Southampton, England to immigrate to America and settle in South Carolina. The story alternates between the third-person perspective of fifteen-year-old Thomas and the first person perspective of his slightly younger sister, Eve. This book tells the story of the Gilmores, a fictional middle class family traveling in second class on the maiden voyage of the Titanic in 1912. Forget Me Not by Sue Lawson (Published by Black Dog Books, March 1, 2012) ![]() ![]() Now this apparent carelessness of mine doesn't mean that I was totally indifferent to what happens in “The Thorn Birds.” In fact I often cared considerably. The page number cited for the event would almost always precede the actual page on which the event occurred. When I consulted several other important events in the three‐generation history of the Clearys - mostly these events are deaths, because the Clearys do a great deal of dying-I found the same pattern repeated. ![]() 485.” This was curious, because when I actually turned to the cited page it turned out that Dane had not actually drowned until page 487. ![]() ![]() Going over the notes I kept while reading “The Thorn Birds”-and there were many pages of them because an awful lot happens in Colleen McCullough's novel about 54 years in the life of an Australian, sheep‐farming family - I found that one entry wanted to check read “Dane drowns-P. ![]() ![]() ![]() In his new book, Nick takes a humorous, inspiring, and elucidating trip to America's trails, farms, and frontier to examine the people who inhabit the land, what that has meant to them and us, and to the land itself, both historically and currently. Nick Offerman has always felt a particular affection for the Land of the Free-not just for the people and their purported ideals but to the actual land itself: the bedrock, the topsoil, and everything in between that generates the health of your local watershed. ![]() A humorous and rousing set of literal and figurative sojourns as well as a mission statement about comprehending, protecting, and truly experiencing the outdoors, fueled by three journeys undertaken by actor, humorist, and New York Times bestselling author Nick Offerman ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() However, listeners are rewarded with the only possible reader: Cecil Baldwin, the voice of Night Vale Community Radio’s Cecil Palmer, and the primary narrator of the podcast. The two embark on a fumbling romance while attempting to avert an apocalypse.Īpparently, the book has illustrations, which you will obviously not get here. At the behest of her boss, Carlos, the scientist Nilanjana investigates a series of mysterious earthquakes in Night Vale, which brings her into the orbit of Darryl, an adherent of the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God. This is the second standalone novel associated with one of my favorite podcasts, Welcome to Night Vale, set in a strange desert town in which all conspiracies are true and anything can happen (and usually does). It Devours!: A Welcome to Night Vale Novel, Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor Cecil Baldwin, narrator ( HarperAudio 978-006247610-4, $39.99, CD, 9.5 hr., unabridged ) October 2017. ![]() ![]() ![]() Ioseb Djugashvili was born in 1878 in the small village of Gori, Georgia, a land between the Black and Caspian seas that had been conquered by the tsars earlier in the century. What caused Stalin to choose Marxism and social democracy over the other political and organizational alternatives that were becoming available to him as the nineteenth century drew to a close? Suny’s painstaking reconstruction of Stalin’s early years helps remove the sense that the young man’s choice was inevitable. His nonparty socialism proves to be a help, not a hindrance. ![]() Suny’s scholarship is under no such disabling handicap. That perspective stands in the way of an objective account of the intra-Russian Social Democratic controversies that consumed much of Stalin’s life as an underground revolutionary. Kotkin’s multivolume biography, Stalin, is an unrelieved jeremiad against socialism and Marxism. Suny’s intervention is on an altogether different plane when we compare it to Stephen Kotkin’s study of the same topic. ![]() ![]() It is a history of the workers’ movement and of social democracy in the tsarist empire, from the turn of the century down to and including the October Revolution, with special emphasis on the Caucasus. Ronald Suny’s scholarly study of Stalin’s life until October 1917 goes beyond biography. The work under review is in a league of its own. Review of Stalin: Passage to Revolution, by Ronald Grigor Suny (Princeton University Press, 2020). ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Listen to O’Hagan in this audio recording of his special live event in Charlotte Square gardens, where he was…ĭavid Millar (2016 Event) Those lucky enough to witness David Millar’s spellbinding Book Festival event in 2011 will recall the athlete’s forthright admissions about calorie counting, secret doping and quirky camaraderie on the pro cycling circuit. ![]() The author of more than 20 novels and plays, Mda is now resident in th…Īndrew O'Hagan (2010 event) August 2010 saw writer Andrew O’Hagan bring to the Book Festival an unforgettable tale of Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and a dog called Maf. Zakes Mda (2014 event) Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Zakes Mda is regarded as one of the most important novelists to have emerged on South Africa’s literary scene since the end of apartheid. Salman Rushdie (2013 event) In 1983, Salman Rushdie was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his novel Shame and named among Granta’s inuagural Best of Young British Novelists… Jen Hadfield Reading From My Vow Hear this talented young author read her new work From My Vow, part of our series of stories and podcasts on the theme of Elsewhere… This brilliantly accessible road movie of a novel arrives with Canongate’s typical panache, alongside a film adaptation of… ![]() James Kelman (2016 Event) With the publication of Dirt Road, Scotland’s only Booker Prize winner joins a Scottish publisher for the first time in decades. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() As a reader/viewer I love the feeling of when many disparate threads finally all tie together, so I was hoping to achieve that in my book.ĪO: There’s a particular tempo and rhythm to your distinctive page designs and panel structures in Twelve Percent Dread that reflects both some of the tech themes and the emotional tone of the book. ![]() In that regard what were the particular challenges in co-ordinating such an intricate web of interweaving plot threads in this book?ĮMILY MCGOVERN: All I can say is, it was really hard and caused me a lot of stress! I was inspired by the intricate plotting of shows like Arrested Development, and also of Alan Moore’s Watchmen and its Damon Lindelof show adaptation. We caught up with McGovern to chat about the tools of the form, creative process, and the challenges of bringing complex, interweaving plotlines to a satisfying conclusion…ĪNDY OLIVER: Twelve Percent Dread is very different in a number of ways to your previous offerings My Life as a Background Slytherin and Bloodlust & Bonnets. The book follows three lead characters out-of-work Katie who fears life is leaving her behind Katie’s ex-partner Nas who is worried their residency in the UK may be coming to an end and go-getter Emma, in a top level position at tech giant Arko. This summer, Dark Horse Comics released Emily McGovern’s Twelve Percent Dread, a graphic novel that combines explorations of complex social issues with the everyday lives of its ensemble cast. ![]() |