6/10/2023 0 Comments If They Only Knew by Chyna![]() ![]() Chyna was found dead at her apartment in Redondo Beach, California on April 20th, 2016. She wrestled one last time in the TNA Sacrifice pay-per-view match in 2011, and then starred in a series of adult films. In 2004 she appeared in the VH1 reality series for former celebrities, The Surreal Life, and in 2007 she popped up to talk about her struggles with substance abuse in the reality show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. She didn't become a star, but stayed sporadically in the public eye. ![]() Chyna's career took a nosedive after she left the WWF in 2001, intent on becoming a star on her own. Her autobiography, If They Only Knew, made the New York Times best-seller list in 2001. She made a name for herself as a scowling and extra-buxom powerhouse, winning the nickname "The Ninth Wonder of the World." She upped her profile by appearing on cover of Playboy magazine in November of 2000. Chyna got her start in 1997 as a "valet" (or bodyguard) in the WWF, a scripted pro wrestling company, and then moved up to full wrassler status. ![]() She followed closely in the footsteps of Sable, another female World Wrestling Federation trailblazer. Name at birth: Joan Marie LaurerUnder the nom-de-grapple of Chyna, Joanie Laurer became a female star of professional wrestling at the end of the 1990s. ![]()
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6/10/2023 0 Comments Ninth ward by jewell parker rhodes![]() For her, numbers, colors, dreams, all had meaning. Grandmother, like Mama Ya-Ya, also believed in signs. She practiced her “rootwork” on us, kids, by insisting on our daily dose of cod liver oil and using herbs for healing burns, cuts, and colds. Grandmother, never finished elementary school, but she was a terrific storyteller and a gifted healer. ![]() She’d migrated North seeking a better life for her children but I always sensed that our urban ghetto didn’t compare to the beauty of the South. My Grandmother Ernestine who raised me was a southern girl. Can you talk a little about that connection? Your connection to the South seems to run deep. ![]() ![]() You’ve written other books that take place in New Orleans and write with such affection for the characters if the Ninth Ward. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. ![]() The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. The characters are so well drawn and the plot so well paced, I couldn't put it down.' - Daily Telegraph In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). It's rare that you get the opportunity to review a masterpiece, but To Paradise, definitively, is one. 'T hree stories far apart in space and time but each unique in their power to summon the joy and complexity of love, the pain of loss. From Hanya Yanagihara, author of the modern classic A Little Life, To Paradise is a bold, brilliant novel spanning three centuries and three different versions of the American experiment, about lovers, family, loss and the elusive promise of utopia. Signed first edition (First edition, first printing, signed by the author) The Number One Sunday Times Bestseller and one of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2022. ![]() ![]() ![]() Set in New York City and New Jersey in December of 1776, this sweet story imagines one fictional girl's part in supplying intelligence to General Washington leading up to his successful and vital strike across the Delaware. ![]() Through it all, she rises to each impossible challenge, uses her wits and will to find a way through, and learns life-changing lessons about herself along the way. Disguised as a boy, she embarks on an exciting journey fraught with unexpected trouble and danger. When 10-year-old Ellen Toliver's grandfather is injured, she's saddled with the daunting task of carrying a secret message for the Patriots. It's a perfect introduction to the Revolutionary War for young readers, and it clearly and accessibly portrays the events of the start of Washington's New York and New Jersey campaign in 1776. ![]() Toliver's Secret by Esther Wood Brady is a sweet, engaging, and lovely story, and it's a great example of quality historical fiction for children. ![]() 6/10/2023 0 Comments Pretzel margret rey![]() ![]() Among the meager possessions they brought with them was the illustrated manuscript of Curious George. Hans built two bicycles, and they fled Paris just a few hours before it fell. As Jews, the Reys decided to flee Paris before the Nazis seized the city. Their work was interrupted with the outbreak of World War II. The result, Rafi and the Nine Monkeys, is little remembered today, but one of its characters, an adorably impish monkey named Curious George, was such a success that the couple considered writing a book just about him. While in Paris, Hans's animal drawings came to the attention of French publisher, who commissioned him to write a children's book. ![]() They married in 1935 and moved to Paris, France that same year. While there, she met her future husband Hans (who was a salesman and also from Germany). Rey), the co-author and illustrator of children's books, best known for their Curious GeorgeĪlthough she was born in Germany, she fled to Brazil early in her life to escape Nazism. ![]() Margret Elizabeth Rey (– December 21, 1996), born Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein, was (with her husband H. ![]() 6/9/2023 0 Comments Sinner book simone![]() ![]() It tells the tale of man running from God (“the Lamb”) and begging for forgiveness on Judgment Day, but ultimately, man cannot escape his wrath. “Sinnerman” is a traditional African American spiritual inspired by the book of Exodus. Listen to the best of Nina Simone on Apple Music and Spotify. ![]() While much of Pastel Blues is sonically subdued, the album’s 10-minute grand finale “Sinnerman” demonstrates Nina Simone’s dynamic musical qualities on all fronts – from her love of instrumentation to her knack for combining artistry and awareness. In just nine songs, she showcases her unmatched ability to pair freedom with fearlessness through her undisputed emotional delivery, proving that her christening as the “High Priestess of Soul” is not just earned, but entirely befitting in more ways than one. Pastel Blues is Simone at her gutsiest she takes the bare bones of the blues and makes it undeniably Nina. The short-and-sweet record finds Simone addressing the harsh realities of life with her signature candidness, such as the pain of heartbreak (the piano-assisted “Ain’t No Use”), and the enduring issue of racism in America (the haunting “Strange Fruit”). Rooted in bluesy ballads with understated instrumentation, Nina Simone’s 1965 album Pastel Blues is a stark contrast from her uplifting, big band-oriented project I Put A Spell On You, released only four months before. ![]() 6/9/2023 0 Comments Sanderson alcatraz series![]() ![]() “A fascinating world full of engaging characters, talking dinosaurs, real and imagined danger, and evil librarians…. A fantasy adventure in the vein of Artemis Fowl and A Series of Unfortunate Events, the series is a perfect next read for fans of Eoin Colfer and Lemony Snicket. You can find him on his blog ( ) and on Twitter ( fast-paced and funny Evil Librarians series is available in deluxe hardcover editions, newly illustrated by Hayley Lazo. He lives in Utah, teaches writing at Brigham Young University, and is very active on social media. ![]() From bestselling author Brandon Sanderson comes the long-awaited fifth book in the hugely popular Evil Librarians series! Enter below for a chance to win one of three series sets of books and pins.īrandon Sanderson is the award-winning and bestselling author of The Rithmatist, Steelheart, and the Mistborn series. ![]() 6/9/2023 0 Comments Seveneves a novel![]() ![]() įive thousand years later, their progeny-seven distinct races now three billion strong-embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown. ![]() In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.īut the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain. What would happen if the world were ending?Ī catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting and thought-provoking science fiction epic-a grand story of annihilation and survival spanning five thousand years. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Agent: Eddie Schneider, JABberwocky Literary Agency. Although readers may not be surprised at the twists that arise, the near-constant action, Sanderson’s whiz-bang imaginings, and a fully realized sense of danger (the brutal opening scene alone will hook many) make this an absolute page-turner. Hooking up with a ragtag group of rebel Epic-killers, David and crew knock off Steelheart’s subordinates and lure him out. The several action scenes it revolves around are absolutely. David’s father was killed by a ruthless Epic named Steelheart, and David, now 18, has waited 10 years for revenge, certain that he holds the key to Steelheart’s weakness. In actual fact I found Steelheart’s first act rather lacking. ![]() However, you also get a haunting coming-of-age tale framed in a David-and-Goliath allegory about the destructive and corrupting nature of absolute. If you’re a teenage (or 44-year-old) boy looking for fast-paced, violent carnage and mayhem, this book delivers. Thus far, the Epics appear to be wholly corrupt, with villains rising up to subjugate humans and take over the world. What I got was a whole lot more satisfying. More than a decade ago, a mysterious event known as Calamity created Epics-powerful beings straight out of the comics, complete with both incredible abilities (invulnerability, illusion, transmutation) and silly weaknesses (smoke, UV light, being attacked by someone exactly 37 years old). On the heels of his YA debut, The Rithmatist, Sanderson opens another series for teens with an ultraviolent yet playful entry into the superhero genre. ![]() 6/8/2023 0 Comments Middle Earth by Henri Cole![]() ![]() ![]() Henri Cole’s poems in Pierce the Skin, the new selected volume published by Farrar Straus Giroux that spans six books and twenty-five years, achieve the same effect of fluidity, transience, and emblematic vulnerability as Bourgeois’ steel spider. ![]() Despite its solid construction, the lithe, angular design of the spider makes it seem precarious - more sinew than steel - and the title Maman, French for mother, reinforces this sense of vulnerability as terrifying as the giant spider may be, she is simply the model of a mother protecting her sac of marble eggs, hovering above horrified museum-goers. Artist Louise Bourgeois’ sculpture Maman is grotesque and elegant, vulnerable and out of place on its long uneven legs. A thirty-foot spider made of stainless steel perches outside of London’s Tate Modern Museum. ![]() |