![]() ![]() In particular, Walter Mondale, Al Gore, Dick Cheney, and Joe Biden have undertaken greater and more significant responsibilities. ![]() He explores how the roles and responsibilities were first subject to the whims of the presidents under whom they served, but came in time to be expanded by enlightened chief executives and the initiatives of the vice presidents themselves.Ĭonstitutionally assigned only to preside over the Senate as they stand by to fill a presidential vacancy, early vice presidents were left to languish in irrelevance and ineffectiveness only in recent decades have vice presidents received-or taken-more power. Acclaimed political journalist and author Jules Witcover chronicles each of the 47 vice presidents, including their personal biographies and their achievements-or lack thereof-during their vice presidential tenures. ![]() The American Vice Presidency is an all-inclusive examination of the vice presidency throughout American history. ![]()
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The birth of a child is seen in society as something transcendental, a way of establishing oneself as a member of a club that has bragging rights to its very existence: it is, perhaps, Eva thinks desperately, a way of escaping those endless barriers and manacles of daily life. The anguish she experienced at her tenth birthday party stemmed not from the fact that her mother didnt make an effort, but rather that she' did, and the result failed to transcend the puerile, the day to day.įor Eva, the decision to have a child emerges from an existential haze that is slowly descending on her to blinding effect. ![]() But yet, Eva has always wanted something more out of her life than what it has offered up to her from its platter of banality. Thanks for visiting!Įva Khatchadourian is ambivalent on the notion of children: she fears the curtailing of her life and career, and the mind-numbing spiral into a world of baby-talk and mushy foods. If you're new here, why not subscribe to our email updates or follow us on Facebook? You can also add us to your Google Reader. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The Black Cathedral winds up being an odd mix of character-/neighborhood-/nation-studies and suspense story, Gala dangling the mystery surrounding the collapse of both the Stuart family and the grand cathedral project but drawing that out over a very long time. ![]() Rimbaud, Villon, Ulrich von Hutten: the names circulate like so many romantic promises of escape in the face of Arturo Stuart’s mad authority. There is hardly a voice here that doesn’t at some point tell how literature became a guiding principle or practice, a consolation or a route out of Cienfuegos and its religiosity, its violence, its hatred of women. Surprisingly, the only thing Gala’s characters seem to have unalloyed trust in is writing itself. That the disappointment in a black president is most persuasively expressed by a black murderer-this is just one of the novel’s more devious turns. ![]() It’s no accident that key events.happen during the early years of the Obama administration: there’s a pervasive sense of dashed hopes, business as usual, faith ignored or betrayed. The Black Cathedralis finally not about larger ideas of redemption and the future at all, but about predictable paths of minor failure and major self-justification. Throughout, the supposedly minor characters are more lucidly drawn than the family at the novel’s heart. Gala’s novel travels about in time and space a little in the way the ghost does, dispersing anecdotes, regrets, and fragile hopes, never exactly settling into an agreed story. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Shocker! Johnny Depp is in 'Fantastic Beasts'īut analysts expect these Beasts to rise again, predicting a $75 million to $100 million haul in the film's first weekend. But if you have, you have a slightly different experience informed by that.” “You don’t have to have seen a Harry Potter film to enjoy this or read a Harry Potter book. ![]() With less source material to draw from, "you don’t have the security of books that have sold hundreds of millions of copies," allows David Heyman, who produced all eight Potter films, which have grossed more than $7.7 billion worldwide. "But with that comes a certain freedom because you don’t have to deal with people’s expectations."Īnd thanks to fresh faces and new creatures including a giant Thunderbird (named Frank) and a clingy, lock-picking tree-creature called a Bowtruckle, “it’s a world anyone can dive into," the producer says. The seed of Fantastic Beasts, as fans know, comes not from best-selling novels but from one of Harry Potter’s textbooks (which bears same title as the new film), published as a supplemental one-off by Scholastic in 2001. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() As he says, once you’re in the Life, you are always in the Life. ![]() This is also welcome, Cosby is well aware of the “one last job” trope and doesn’t begin with it, though we know that Bug will be stealing again soon. His wife knows his past, and he went clean after a big job years ago. Or to say it short: Bug Montage is a tough criminal at heart, who wrestles with his daily life as a rural county mechanic and a family man. Cosby, I was pleasantly surprised that it began with an illegal street race out in the empty highways that give the novel its inspired title, where we meet Beauregard “Bug” Montage, a skilled hot rodder both behind the wheel and under the hood, the son of a getaway driver and thief who is neither ashamed nor afraid to indulge in the profession of his birthright. ![]() So when I opened Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it gets a little tiresome to have a moral scorecard being checked off when writing what is supposed to be crime. Robin Hood thieves have taken hold, and often when I read fictional criminals, they are less like Richard Stark’s Parker and Wallace Stroby’s Crissa Stone and more like a shadowy justice department where the important thing is to steal only from cartoon villains and distribute most of the gains to their victims. Heist novels are a staple of the genre but often they are few and far between. ![]() ![]() ![]() What's right with it? You'll fall in love with the characters. If only there were more novelists like Rachel Joyce * Telegraph * She is to Perfect what Harold Fry was to : a fully rounded hero, someone to fall in love with and argue about, cherish and admonish, as though she were real. ![]() * Daily Express *ĭiana herself is faultless. An instant classic, Perfect confirms Rachel Joyce as a major new British literary voice. Not least a twist that few will see coming and will leave you reeling and a redemptive ending that is perhaps the sweeter given all the pain that goes before. This is a darker, more complex novel than Joyce's first but readers will find other points of comparison. Joyce's faith in the essential goodness of humanity and her observation of the comedy in the everyday shine through. readers who loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry will not be disappointed. subtle touches give the book an intense, slightly mesmeric feel. The power of Joyce's prose lies in small, astute observations. ![]() It is her clever did-I-read-that-right twist at the end that really got to me and had me scrabbling back through the chapters, open-mouthed. ![]() Its unputdownable factor lies in its exploration of so many multilayered emotions. Joyce executes this story with precision and flair. A near-flawless novel of emotional truth. ![]() ![]() The central character is Charlie Flag, a tough old rancher from a bygone era who refuses to take government aid to survive the drought. The 1950s drought is a major character asserting itself, maliciously and unceasingly, throughout the book. This is how Elmer Kelton’s superb Texas novel, “The Time It Never Rained,” begins. It always has.īut it didn’t and many a boy would become a man before the land became green again. No one expected another drought like that of ’33 and the really big dries, like 1928, came once in a lifetime. Men grumbled.īut you learn to live with dry spells if you live in west Texas. They watch the grass slowly lose its green, then curl up and fire up like dying corn stocks. ![]() They watched the rank weeds shrivel as the west winds relentlessly sought them out and smothered them with its hot breath. Ranchers watched waterholes recede into brown puddles of mud that their livestock wouldn’t touch. ![]() Just another dry spell, men said at first. A cancerous blight burning a scar on the land.” Here is the way one writer describe one of these twenty-year droughts: “It crept up out of Mexico touching first along the brackish Pecos River, and spreading then in all directions. ![]() The great Texas meteorologist Isaac Klein reportedly said back in the ’30s that Texas is a land of eternal drought, interrupted occasionally by biblical floods. ![]() ![]() ![]() “If Pitt and his crew can’t stop this one, what happens in Vegas will not stay in Vegas, but will take over the whole planet. Only there is far more to this particular case than meets the eye, and as Hunters fall prey to their worst nightmares, Owen Zastava Pitt and the staff of Monster Hunter International have to stop an ancient god from turning Sin City into a literal hell on earth. A not-so-friendly wager between the rival companies turns into a race to see who can bag the mysterious creature first. When hunters from around the world gather in Las Vegas for a conference, a creature left over from a World War Two weapons experiment wakes up and goes on a rampage across the desert. Monster Hunter International might be the premier monster eradication company in the business, but they’ve got competition. A conference in Vegas becomes a showdown between Owen Pitt and the staff of Monster Hunter International with an ancient god, one that could turn Sin City into a literal hell on earth. ![]() ![]() Book 4 in the New York Times Best Selling Monster Hunter series. ![]() ![]() ![]() The Chippendales have proven themselves an increasingly respectable team, they’re getting stronger as they got and I assume that many/most viewers are still rooting for them after the U-Turn. Ryan seemed to disagree, grumbling extensively about how the decision “speaks volumes about” The Chippendales. Hitting Ryan & Abbie with the U-Turn makes sense. The three frontrunners were solid and none of them would have been impacted by the U-Turn and what point would there be in getting Brent & Josh out? The Beekmans have had a rather remarkable streak of close shaves. ![]() That left poor Jaymes & James as the first time to actually reach the U-Turn, leading to a decision they agonized over for minutes before deciding that they needed the money and it was the smart thing to do. Vaugh was sooo steamy, I couldn't stop turning the pages and there's nothing better than a romance with a touch of suspense. ![]() Their Roman gamble paid off, as they made the tight connection without suspense, were the first team to get to Amsterdam and got to eat five herring apiece to complete a Fast-Forward and win the Leg, taking them back into first for the first time since the second Leg. Sold out From USA Today bestselling author Logan Chance comes a laugh-out-loud romantic comedy featuring a hot-as-heck hero, a sassy heroine who isnt afraid to fight for what she wants, and a ton of heated moments that will have you flipping through the pages. Never Kiss A Stranger Logan Chance 267 Kindle Edition 1 offer from 4.99 From the Publisher Editorial Reviews Review '5 Swoony Stars From beginning to end, I was captivated by this couple. The Twins even managed to escape the onus of laying Ryan & Abbie low, not that they would have shied from it. ![]() ![]() ![]() "A good example of a quest for girls who are seeking something light and fun. "Readers will delight in the twists the author makes to the familiar tales, seamlessly weaving them into the plot." - Kirkus Reviews on UNLOCKING THE SPELL This fractured fairy tale will be enjoyed by readers who like adventure with a touch of romance." - School Library Journal on THE WIDE-AWAKE PRINCESS "Annie is an enjoyable, independent, and undaunted character, who uses wits and skills rather than spells in her endeavors." - Booklist on THE WIDE-AWAKE PRINCESS ![]() |