Miz Parker’s Quest to Read Every Book on the List "1,001 Books to Read Before You Die."
Stockett doesn’t simply put modern characters in old-fashioned clothing and call it historical fiction – the time period actually matters and is a character in the story. It shapes what the characters can do, what they cannot do, and what happens to them when they step outside the boundaries of what society considers acceptable.
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Evelyn does not have regrets. It’s against her nature to regret choices she has made, since every choice served her own self-interests. She openly admits that she would make many of the same choices again. I do not say this to say that Evelyn is incapable of reflection. She does reflect. She simply does not repent.
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Bryn Greenwood has written a story about profoundly damaged people trying to find something they desperately need: safety, connection, and the feeling of being seen. That does not make all of their choices acceptable. It does, however, make them painfully human.
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“I spread my arms out wide, gave a big twirl, then curtsied. I’d been working, lately, on being whimsical. From what I understood, this required saying things like whoopsie daisies, twirling around in prairie dresses, and throwing my head back and laughing hysterically at things that really weren’t that funny. “On behalf of the mountains and the chickens and cows and the kale and the kids,” I said grandly, “welcome to Yesteryear Ranch.””
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“Love, they say, enslaves and passion is a demon and many have been lost for love. I know this is true, but I know too that without love we grope in the tunnels of our lives and never see the sun.”
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Jacob demands an outrageous dowry – that all of the men of Shechem shall bear the mark of the tribe of Jacob, and be circumcised. Seeing how in love with Dinah his son is, the King agrees and the bargain is struck. The night after the mass circumcision, Dinah’s brothers sneak into the city. They are furious about the kidnapping and rape of their sister, and slaughter every man they can find while he sleeps.
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In 1979 San Francisco, the punk scene is burgeoning and Bennie, Scotty, Jocelyn, Rhea, and their friends are on the front lines. Bennie and Scotty are the leaders of the Flaming Dildos, a band hopeful of making it big amongst the likes of their local idols Flipper, The Nuns, and the Dead Kennedys.
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Sopeap Sin threatens the family, but when she glimpses Nisay’s book, she falls to her knees, greedily thumbing through it, and Sang Ly begins to suspect that Sopeap Sin can secretly read.
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Carl’s research reveals that the poem in question is actually a “culling song”, which has the magical power to kill anyone it is spoken aloud to. Half mad with grief over recognizing that he killed his family, Carl accidentally memorizes the culling song and becomes an unintentional serial killer.
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You come to understand that he has never traded love for any of the things he could have had for it – a wife, children, family, companionship, partnership. He has been offered everything, and has never taken anything if there was not love. Despite all of his faults and ridiculous shortcomings, he has a queer sort of integrity.
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Set in 17th century England during Oliver Cromwell and Charles I’s time, we are plunged into the world of Jordan and the murderous Dog-Woman; who is, in the author’s words, “perhaps the only woman in English fiction confident enough to use filth as a fashion accessory.”
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Grace can heal the flesh of others, but can she heal her own? Can she soothe the darkness which threatens to eat Marly from the inside out, or will it consume Grace with it?
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