5/31/2023 0 Comments Ursula k le guin tao te ching![]() ![]() Even some of his finest scholarly translators focus on positive ethical or political values in the text, as if those were what’s important in it. ![]() The temptation is to grasp at something tangible in the endlessly deceptive simplicity of the words. Note UKLG: Everything Lao Tzu says is elusive. The whole book is both an explanation and a demonstration of it. It’s not a statement susceptible to logical interpretation, or even to a syntactical translation into English but it’s a concept that transforms thought radically, that changes minds. Note UKLG: Over and over Lao Tzu says wei wu wei: Do not do. To let go of that belief is to find safety. To believe that our beliefs are permanent truths which encompass reality is a sad arrogance. Note UKLG: One of the things I read in this chapter is that values and beliefs are not only culturally constructed but also part of the interplay of yin and yang, the great reversals that maintain the living balance of the world. ![]() I think of it as the Aleph, in Borges’s story: if you can see it rightly, it contains everything. Note UKLG: A satisfactory translation of this chapter is, I believe, perfectly impossible. ![]()
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5/31/2023 0 Comments The beautiful ones novel![]() ![]() ![]() A decade ago Hector and Valerie fell in love only to be forced apart by circumstance, and with fame and fortune on his side Hector hopes to finally win her hand. ![]() There’s Hector Auvray, a charismatic entertainer who has dragged himself up from the gutter and made his fortune wowing audiences with his telekinetic prowess Valerie Beaulieu, a beautiful socialite locked in an unhappy marriage for the sake of her family and Antonina (Nina) Beaulieu, the young cousin of Valerie’s husband, who’s been sent to the city from her country home to make of her a lady, though her own telekinetic gifts are the least of her problems in this regard. The story begins in the city of Loisail during the Grand Season, with its glittering balls attended by the Beautiful Ones – the cream of society – and revolves around a trio of characters caught in a tangle of history, passion and deception. With the carefully observed characters and social customs of a novel of manners, set in a fictional world influenced by late-19th Century Europe and with a dash of telekinesis added in for a little bit of a fantasy edge, it’s a rich and characterful social drama, a slow-burn romantic love triangle, and a tale of conformity and conflict. First published in 2017, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s The Beautiful Ones is back in print in a lovely new 2021 edition from Jo Fletcher Books (or via Tor in the US), and deservedly so. ![]() 5/31/2023 0 Comments Hannah is my name by belle yang![]() ![]() Half of my class came running back inside, panicked, hysterical, in tears, saying that la migra was coming in helicopters to get them. ![]() As my students were playing outside during recess, a news helicopter began to circle above the playground. They knew their parents could be taken away or that they themselves could be forced to suddenly leave the familiarity of their homes and schools. While politicians made statements outside, it was my job inside to calm down a class of 1st graders who were all too aware of what an ICE raid meant. Soon, Mayor Ron Dellums and members of the Oakland police force were gathered outside, denouncing the fear tactics being used by ICE. ![]() Office staff and parent volunteers called each family at home, instructing them to send only documented friends or relatives to get their children at the end of the day. The campus went into a panic, terrified that the agents would apprehend parents on their way to pick their children up from school. Rumors began to fly early in the school day among students and teachers-ICE agents had been seen parked several blocks away from the school. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid. ![]() Nearly three years ago, the bilingual elementary school where I taught in East Oakland was subject to an attempted U.S. ![]() ![]() Her first publicly seen fiction was Jane Austen fan fiction written under the pen name Vangie. I would read through dinner, read through classes, read into the wee hours of the night, and, yes, I even read while walking!" ĭare works as a full-time author and currently resides in Southern California, USA with her husband, two children, and three cats. ![]() Whenever I felt lonely or uprooted, opening a familiar book gave me comfort. She says they became "my refuge, my entertainment, my source of information on all sorts of topics. Biography ĭuring childhood, her family moved often and books took on an important role for her. In 2012, she won the prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA award for Best Regency Historical Romance for her book A Night to Surrender. She has authored fifteen novels and novellas and created four different series. Tessa Dare is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling American historical romance novelist. ![]() RITA award – Best Regency Historical Romance ![]() |