![]() He traces the events that led to the Empire's division in 395 into western and eastern halves and describes how the Western Empire fell - the last emperor was toppled in a coup in 476 - while the eastern part lasted another 1000 years, evolving into the Byzantine Empire. His starting point is the death of the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius in AD 180 when the Roman Empire was at its height. However, a comforting suggestion from Goldsworthy's meticulously researched, complex and thought-provoking book is that, whatever its causes, the end of the Roman Empire was a long time coming. ![]() ![]() In How Rome Fell, Adrian Goldsworthy suggests this is because Rome's fate seems to carry a warning that "strength and success will always prove transitory in the end, and that civilisation will not automatically triumph".* In these present troubled times, thoughts of decline and fall strike an obvious chord, and, as Goldsworthy notes, the power now most often compared with Rome is the United States. Subsequent generations have been equally eager to seek analogies with their own times. Gibbon looked for messages in the Roman experience for late 18th century Britain, faced with the revolt of its American colonies. He blamed the Empire's "immoderate greatness", by which he meant that "the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight". ![]() Diana Preston examines what causes empires to collapse In his monumental History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon wrote that the reasons for Rome's debacle were "simple and obvious". ![]()
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![]() ![]() The freshman year starts as Bitty is in his dorm room, excited to be at college. ![]() Interspersed throughout Bitty’s narrative are short interjections (called “Hockey Shit”) from Holster and Ransom, who explain hockey terminology and culture to the nonprofessional reader. He also must make friends with his new teammates, Shitty (no one knows his real name) the duo Holster and Ransom Jack, the captain and son of a hockey legend, who has a lot to prove Lardo, the diminutive female team manager and Coach Hall. His hobbies include vlogging and baking pies, and although he played hockey in high school, he is terrified of getting checked. Bitty is a former competitive ice-skating junior champion from a small town in Georgia, who attends Samwell University in Massachusetts on an athletic scholarship. ![]() The webcomic runs for all four years of Bitty’s time at university the first volume contains the first half of the series (freshman and sophomore years), with the second volume* to cover the other half of the series (junior and senior years). Written and illustrated by Ngozi Ukazu, the coming-of-age story follows freshman Eric “Bitty” Bittle as he navigates the college hockey landscape and comes to terms with his identity as a young gay man. Check, Please: #Hockey (2018) is the first of two published volumes of a long-running sports webcomic by the same name that started in 2013. ![]() ![]() Tolkien's The Hobbit.īorn in Helsinki among Finland's Swedish-speaking minority, Jansson was brought up with a love for making art and stories in a supportive, artistic family. In this volume Paul Gravett examines Jansson's highly successful Moomin books, as well as her interpretations of classics such as Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Hunting of the Snark, and J. This book provides fresh insight into and a deep appreciation of the life and art of Tove Jansson (1914-2001), one of the most original, influential, and perennially enjoyed illustrators of the twentieth century. ![]() ![]() An insightful appreciation ofthe life and art of Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomin books, which are adored by children and adults across the globe. ![]() ![]() ![]() For film buffs, you may recognize this from the big screen adaptations of ‘Village of the Damned’ from 1960 and then again in 1995.īefore you throw this one out as another half-arsed remake/requel/sequel though, this TV adaptation is a very different beast altogether, despite sharing the same hallmarks that made those that have come before so enjoyable. ![]() Just to preface this review, there will be people who jump all over this series and immediately write it off, classing it as “woke”, pointing out that a multicultural cast changes the way these kids have been portrayed in the past. ![]() Gone are the similar-looking blonde-haired kids and similar looking facial expressions and instead, we’ve got ordinary kids and a much more grounded feel.īut is The Midwich Cuckoos worth watching despite those changes? Having watched all 7 episodes, I’d have to say it absolutely is. ![]() If you can go into this with a fresh mindset and see this as a completely different proposition to what we’ve seen before, then it’s far easier to slip into without harking back to what’s come before. Unlike the awful remake of The Stand, which took decent horror material and spun that into whatever the heck that disastrous series was, The Midwich Cuckoos actually feels pretty tonally satisfying without completely butchering the story along the way. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The power of language figures prominently, presenting the challenge of inference in the white space of the text as Helene waits breathlessly for her next letter to arrive. It is a story of beginnings and endings as represented by each letter, from date to signature. This story thematically touches on the ideas of lack and sufficiency, whether it be Helene's bibliomania (obsession for books) or a black-market trade of eggs for a pair of pantyhose in London. Democratic presidential nomination in 1960. 84, Charing Cross Road spans a twenty-year period, incidentally chronicling events abroad, such as Winston Churchill's 1951 election in London and the U.S. ![]() Her admiration for the professor fueled her pursuit of classic literature, resulting in the inquiries comprising this work. Professor "Q," as he is called, became the catalyst for Hanff's letter writing. The relationship began as Hanff delved into the work of a professor at Cambridge University. 84, Charing Cross Road, published in 1970, is constructed from a collection of correspondence between the author and a London bookseller, Frank Doel. ![]() ![]() This book review originally appeared in American Poets. Van Jordan writes, " Apocalyptic Swing plays a fugue of athleticism and sexuality while chronicling some of the most striking-and, in some cases, surprisingly forgotten-moments in our recent, incendiary history.Infused with the rhythms of the punching bag and the body, Apocalyptic Swing reads like necessary gospel." In the book, people face and dance through individual apocalypses daily. In Apocalyptic Swing, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, moves from life to life in poems that are at once personal and draw from a communal sense of history and. Yet, as the title implies, there is also the swing of music and celebration. ![]() ![]() ![]() Throughout the book, conflict is lyrically torqued to show the depth of feeling and thought it arouses. Boxing, a recurring theme in the book, becomes a fascinating intersection of the physical and the metaphysical, the literal fight and internal strivings. Gabrielle Calvocoressi is the author of The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart and Apocalyptic Swing, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. These poems are often set in the past but speak to the ever-present concerns of sexuality, faith, and violence. ![]() In Apocalyptic Swing, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, moves from life to life in poems that are at once personal and draw from a communal sense of history and popular culture. ![]() ![]() Indestructubles Little Golden Books Magic School Bus Magic Tree House Pete the Cat Step Into Reading Book The Hunger Games ![]()
![]() ![]() ![]() He created his own special forces - the Rough Riders - and stampeded with them into Cuba, storming up San Juan Hill and seizing everlasting glory. As historians put it, those able to purchase a substitute exercised “the right of the rich to hire the poor to do fighting and dying,” a practice that became a factor in the New York Draft Riots of 1863.Įven without a biographer’s knowledgeable insight, you don’t have to be Sigmund Freud to see why Mittie’s sickly, asthmatic son, Theodore, transformed his weak body into a muscular machine and charged into history, banging the drum for war in 1898. ![]() paid a substitute to serve for him during the Civil War.īrady provides no further information about this decision, which was not uncommon at the time but potentially subjected the Roosevelts to ridicule. So, to placate his wife, known to lock herself in a dark room for days, Theodore, Sr. Theodore’s mother, Mittie, to whom he referred as “an unreconstructed Southerner,” had insisted his father not enlist in the Union army and oppose her three brothers, fighting for the Confederacy. and dominated the lives of his four sons.īrady’s biography of Ted Jr., the first son of Theodore Roosevelt, offers only a few sentences about the cloud that hung over the patrician family. by Tim Brady, you understand why military service fired the passions of the 26th president of the U.S. After reading His Father’s Son: The Life of General Ted Roosevelt Jr. ![]() ![]() By accessing, viewing, and posting any content to any LightSail Education site on the internet, you accept, without limitation or qualification, the follow terms of use as well as the terms of use by the specific company that owns and operates the social media site (i.e. The purposes of our social media pages is to encourage and support parents and children in their pursuit of literacy along with a free exchange of ideas and commentary regarding the topics we choose to post, including print, video, and multimedia images. We would love for you to follow us on these platforms and join our ongoing discussion about literacy and lifelong learners, along with your experiences with LightSail.īy posting on any LightSail Education Social Media Page or associated page, you agree to these terms: ![]() ![]() LightSail Education has several active social media & other communities online including, but not limited to, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Blog pages. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() If true, this speaks volumes for the reach of Balkan Ghosts at the time.Ĭonsistent with the large number of countries that comprise the Balkans, the book does not solely focus on the former country of Yugoslavia and in fact only a quarter of the book is devoted to this previously political region. It was reported though, that both President and Mrs Clinton read a copy of Balkan Ghosts and the history of ethnic rivalry "encouraged the President's pessimism about the region, and - so it is said - was a factor in his decision not to launch an overt military response in support of the Bosnian Moslems". ![]() In doing so, he experiences once again, that history rhymes or, in this case, echoes of time's past.īeyond the events that lead to World War 1, Bosnia itself, however, features little in Kaplan's journey and book. ![]() Heavily influenced by Dame Rebecca's West's much lauded book Black Lamb and Grey Falcon which he carried with him everywhere in Yugoslavia, Kaplan is drawn to the region to investigate the nature of another looming cataclysm. ![]() |