What god hath wrought howe7/7/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() These innovations prompted the emergence of mass political parties and stimulated America's economic development from an overwhelmingly rural country to a diversified economy in which commerce and industry took their place alongside agriculture. Railroads, canals, newspapers, and the telegraph dramatically lowered travel times and spurred the spread of information. This narrative portrays revolutionary improvements in transportation and communications that accelerated the extension of the American empire. ![]() The author illuminates the period from the battle of New Orleans to the end of the Mexican-American War, an era when the United States expanded to the Pacific and won control over the richest part of the North American continent. Summary: As part of the Oxford History of the United States series, this volume is a portrait of an era that saw dramatic transformations in American life. ![]()
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Wellie wishers birthday party7/7/2023 ![]() You can never go wrong with a fancy initial and number to honor the birthday girl! I love love LOVED the signpost detail on the exterior of the playhouse, and adapted it in cookie form for Charlie's birthday. ![]() The set comes with adorable little felt mud pie ingredients (leaves, flowers, acorns, etc.), including a basket of sunflowers. ![]() I have a particular affection for making mud pies (as you may remember from the Mud Pie Bakery party), and I loved that the whole Wellie Wishers set has a mud pie/garden party inspiration. ![]() It's too darn cute not to recreate in cookie form! I knew I had to make a cookie that picked up on the details of the birdhouse/dormer on the Wellie Wishers playhouse. How amazingly adorable is that theme? What a fabulous inspiration point for making some sugar cookies for a new friend. She's throwing a birthday party for her neice, Charlie, who is turning four and is having an American Girl's Wellie Wishers themed birthday party. I love my far-flung blogger friends, but it's nice to meet someone in the area who gets my crazy predilections, too. ![]() I made a new friend this week! Her name is Alli from Partyography, and she's a fellow party blogger/kindred spirit, and she's LOCAL to me. ![]() Hearts of gold catrin collier7/6/2023 ![]() ![]() LINK TO TRAILER OF HEARTS OF GOLD COURTESY OF LEADING MAN JEREMY SHEFFIELD CLICK ON POSTER TO WATCH ON YOU TUBE. So when Bethan and Laura are smitten by two young doctors, can love really bridge the divide? Or is the pull of family too strong, the gulf too wide?Ĭ A clip from the BBC mini series of Hearts of Gold starring Kate Jarman, David Warner, and Judy Parfitt But working-class Pontypridd agrees on one thing – the “crache”, or gentry, who live in the big houses on the Common, may be just the other side of town, but they inhabit a different world. Bethan’s Communist miner father, rigidly Chapel mother, unruly brothers, dubiously honest aunt, and Laura’s vast Italian cafe-running family, cause as much concern as any difficult patient or strict ward sister. ![]() It’s difficult to say which presents more difficulties for her and fellow nurse Laura Ronconi – their gruelling work in the hospital, or the frictions and financial hardships at home. Trainee midwife Bethan Powell lives in the shadow of the workhouse during the Depression. Hearts of Gold – Book One in the Hearts of Gold series click on book jacket for Amazon page #ad ![]() Enchantment by Orson Scott Card7/6/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() What Chris didn’t know, is that if he had told me it also involved time travel and the Middle Ages (two of my other favourite things), I would have read the book the very next day. So I bothered Chris into giving me a list of good Card books that aren’t sci-fi, and when I read that Enchantment is retelling of Sleeping Beauty (one of my favourite fairy tales) and it’s got a big Eastern Europe influence (one of my favourite places), I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist. I bookmooched Enchantment awhile ago, because Orson Scott Card is one of Chris’favourite authors, and Chris has wonderful taste. So this review is probably different from what I would have written right after I finished, but sometimes it might be good for things to percolate for awhile! ![]() Whoops! (In my defense, I have another OUaT review waiting in the drafts folder until I get up the courage to disagree with most of the blogosphere.) And now I’m writing with the Bookworms Carnival in mind. ![]() And look: the challenge is over halfway over and this is my first review. I read this over a month ago, as my first Once Upon a Time Challenge read. ![]() Sas rogue heroes book7/6/2023 ![]() ![]() Paired with his constitutional opposite, the disciplined martinet Jock Lewes, Stirling assembled a revolutionary fighting force that would upend not just the balance of the war but the nature of combat itself. ![]() Where most of his colleagues looked at a battlefield map of World War II's African theater and saw a protracted struggle with Rommel's desert forces, Stirling saw an opportunity: Given a small number of elite, well-trained men, he could parachute behind enemy lines and sabotage their airplanes and war matériel. ![]() The incredible untold story of WWII's greatest secret fighting force, as told by our great modern master of wartime intrigue.īritain's Special Air Service - or SAS - was the brainchild of David Stirling, a young, gadabout aristocrat whose aimlessness in early life belied a remarkable strategic mind. ![]() The cloud cuckoo land7/6/2023 ![]() In the 15th century, an orphan named Anna lives inside the formidable walls of Constantinople. “If you’re looking for a superb novel, look no further.” -The Washington Postįrom the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of All the Light We Cannot See, comes the instant New York Times bestseller that is a “wildly inventive, a humane and uplifting book for adults that’s infused with the magic of childhood reading experiences” ( The New York Times Book Review).Īmong the most celebrated and beloved novels of recent times, Cloud Cuckoo Land is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope, and a book. ![]() On the New York Times bestseller list for over 20 weeks * A New York Times Notable Book * A National Book Award Finalist * Named a Best Book of the Year by Fresh Air, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Associated Press, and many more ![]() Caught on Camera by Meg Maguire7/5/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() In Anthony Swofford’s Gulf War memoir Jarhead, Swofford recalls joining fellow recruits in getting pumped up while watching Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket, two of the most famous films about the horrors of war. Every film about war ends up being pro-war.” The evidence often bears him out. For example, some films claim to be antiwar, but I don’t think I’ve really seen an antiwar film. ![]() Asked why there’s little killing in his films, Truffaut replied, “I find that violence is very ambiguous in movies. Speaking to Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune in 1973, Francois Truffaut made an observation that’s cast a shadow over war movies ever since, even those seemingly opposed to war. Photo-Illustration: Vulture and Courtesy of the Studios ![]() The woman in cabin 10 blurb7/5/2023 ![]() This book retells the story of Circe in a complex page-turner complete with family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss and celebration of female strength in a man’s world. This book has recently received recognition from The New York Times, Real Simple, O, The Oprah Magazine, People Magazine and more. Recommended by Kristen’s favorite blogger, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is cute, light-hearted and funny while exploring a difficult time in Lori’s professional and personal life. I f you’re seeking entertainment, a better understanding of human nature or the real story about icons in history, see our recommendation on what our associates are reading as we take advantage of this extra time at home. With an all-consuming good book to take your mind away from social media, streaming TV and stress baking, you may find reading as the perfect escape. ![]() After weeks of shelter-in-place, we recommend passing the time with a good book to help combat feelings of anxiousness, wanderlust or boredom. ![]() The Savior by Eugene Drucker7/5/2023 ![]() Keller plays his violin to a room full of prisoners in the most appalling surroundings. The Commandant wants to experiment - what happens when prisoners surrounded by abuse and death are offered hope? And is music, specifically Bach, that hope? Toward the end of World War II, German violinist Gottfried Keller is forced to play for a literally captive audience in an extermination camp. Discussions about The Savior are ongoing. Slipped Disc also hosts the Fortnightly Music Book Club. It's sort of a Real Housewives of Paris, London, Vienna, Rome and Dubuque. If you want to know who's been fired, who's getting a pricey divorce, who won this competition and who should have won that competition, then Slipped Disc is for you. ![]() Administered by British cultural pundit and bad boy Norman Lebrecht - a very witty and bright provocateur and a novelist himself - Slipped Disc bills itself as "the inside track on classical music and related cultures." ![]() I read about Drucker's novel over at Slipped Disc. This is certainly no Mozart in the Jungle sex with the maestro tome. And they've long had a home on Classical 101.īut I admit to being surprised to read that Drucker wrote a novel in 2007, The Savior. The Emersons have been established internationally for years. I knew of Eugene Drucker as a formidable violinist, and as a member of the acclaimed Emerson String Quartet. ![]() ![]() ![]() When her Great Nana Maggie shares the painful secret she harbored for almost a lifetime about the Titanic, the revelation gives Grace new direction-and leads her and Maggie to unexpected reunions with those they thought lost long ago. Adrift after the death of her father, Grace Butler struggles to decide what comes next. Waking up alone in a New York hospital, she vows never to speak of the terror and panic of that terrible night ever again. Read more disaster strikes, Maggie is one of the lucky few passengers in steerage who survives. Though her future lies in an unknown new place, her heart remains in Ireland with Seamus, the sweetheart she left behind. For seventeen-year-old Maggie Murphy, the journey is bittersweet. Hazel Gaynor is an award-winning, New York Times, USA Today, Globe and Mail, Irish Times and national bestselling author. Fourteen members of a small village set sail on RMS Titanic, hoping to find a better life in America. Inspired by true events, the New York Times bestselling novel The Girl Who Came Home is the poignant story of a group of Irish emigrants aboard RMS Titanic-a seamless blend of fact and fiction that explores the tragedy's impact and its lasting repercussions on survivors and their descendants. ![]() Includes bonus section with information about the author and the book. Description for The Girl Who Came Home: A Novel of the Titanic (P.S.) Paperback. ![]() |