He gives descriptions of landing at each of the ports up and down the California coast as they existed then. The provenance of this history is well supported by records showing the company of Sprague and James building and launching a ship named Pilgrim in 1825 in Medford, Massachusetts.ĭana arrived in Alta California when it was a province of Mexico, and no longer Spanish colonial Las Californias. They traded at the ports in San Diego Bay, San Pedro Bay, Santa Barbara Channel, Monterey Bay, and San Francisco Bay. Dana's ship was on a voyage to trade goods from the United States for the Mexican colonial Californian California missions' and ranchos' cow hides. He sails from Boston to South America and around Cape Horn to California. In the book, which takes place between 18, Dana gives a vivid account of "the life of a common sailor at sea as it really is". A film adaptation under the same name was released in 1946. Two Years Before the Mast is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage from Boston to California on a merchant ship starting in 1834.
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Juliana’s father is an Earl, but there’s no question of his not being allowed because he has no desire to be where Juliana is for most of the book. The man who ruined Juliana’s life (by marrying her sister, which is its own thing) is a Viscount. The plot of this book is entirely predictable, so let’s get down to brass tacks. Thirty unwanted younger sons of aristocratic families joined Draven’s suicide troop and 12 came home with emotional and physical scars (aside from the emotional scars they already have due to being unwanted by their families). The premise of the series is that there are 12 soldiers who went off to the Napoleonic wars and have a special bond because they managed to survive numerous suicide missions throughout the war. Maur, who has just a bundle of issues, which we will likely not discuss further because we have other smut that wants reading. In this second installment of the Survivors series we get to know Neil Wraxall, who was introduced as the strategic leader (Warrior being his annoying moniker) in book one, and Lady Juliana St. Plot: Ridiculous female has issues and no sense, needs rescue by emotionally scarred male Heat factor: Probably 10% of this book is sexĬharacter Chemistry: They really want to have sex with each other Carol joined me here on Being Anne in May last year (you’ll find the post here), and you might remember too that I featured her as one of authors behind Apricot Plots (you can read again here). This book is the sequel to The Purrfect Petsitter – that was one I just couldn’t fit in to my reading list, but I have noticed it’s out in paperback and audio on 6th August. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to join the tour, and to those lovely people at Ruby Fiction for providing me with an advance reading e-copy. It’s a real pleasure today to be joining the blog tour for Maybe Baby by Carol Thomas, and sharing my review. Published as an e-book by Ruby Fiction on 2nd April, the book is now available for kindle via Amazon in the UK and US, on all other major e-book platforms. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad. While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating. There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. It is a darling little story and if you haven’t read it before this holiday season is the perfect time! Read the story (full text) below, and scroll to the bottom for more info and to discuss with me in the comments! The Gift of the Magi by O. Illustrations here have been borrowed from Sonja Danowski. The couple is constrained by their meager budget, so each gives up something they treasure in order to afford a gift for the other. Henry that tells the tale of a young husband and wife who long to give each other meaningful Christmas presents. “ The Gift of the Magi” is a short story by O. This is my all-time favorite Christmas story, and I wanted to share it all with you all this holiday season. From finding a spouse to finding a parking spot, from organizing one's inbox to peering into the future, Algorithms to Live By transforms the wisdom of computer science into strategies for human living. They explain how to have better hunches and when to leave things to chance, how to deal with overwhelming choices and how best to connect with others. In a dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths show how algorithms developed for computers also untangle very human questions. And the solutions they've found have much to teach us. Computers, like us, confront limited space and time, so computer scientists have been grappling with similar problems for decades. What should we do, or leave undone, in a day or a lifetime? How much messiness should we accept? What balance of the new and familiar is the most fulfilling? These may seem like uniquely human quandaries, but they are not. An exploration of how computer algorithms can be applied to our everyday lives to solve common decision-making problems and illuminate the workings of the human mind. I never expected that the two of us, seemingly opposites from the outside, would grow so close. That was sort of how it all started with Rush.Īnd then little by little, some of the walls of this hardass man started to come down. Until one night when he demanded I get in his car so he could drive me home because he didn't want me walking in the dark. I should add-especially when the guy is your sexy, tattooed God of a boss.Įspecially when he not only owns your place of employment but inherited half of the town. A guy you can't have when you'll be leaving at the end of the season. How to screw up a great summer in the Hamptons:įall for the one guy with a dark leather jacket, scruff on his face, and intense eyes that doesn't fit in with the rest of the tony looking crowd. How to kick off a great summer in the Hamptons: From New York Times Bestselling authors Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward, comes the first book in a new, sexy duet. If you like spy books or movies and like a multi-layered plot with intriguing characters, then this book is for you.” “I LOVE the secondary characters of in the book, and this story has stuck with me a lot longer than some I read. I truly enjoyed the relationship between the two men and the believability of how Ashton emerged as a stronger man by novel’s end was flawless.” “… like any good mainstream historical, Tinnean is able to construct the world during that time period effortlessly. “I loved the men’s cutesy cards and unique holidays… I liked that both men have very different backgrounds… I liked the secondary characters… A little more tension and heat, and this would have been a nearly perfect story.” “There is so much I loved about this book, it was written really well, the characters were brilliant, the storyline was sweet and romantic and Ben and Jason were ssssssooooooo wonderful.” It’s well written, Ben and Jason’s personalities are nicely developed, and the plot progresses at a believable pace.” “… despite being a feel good holiday release, the story isn’t too sweet. There are some sections, perhaps six or seven in total, where Waldie succeeds in grasping the spirit of the suburb by relating little stories about his neighbours. I also suspect Waldie of having written Lakewood's wikipedia page, which, like his book, consists almost entirely out of numerical facts. section 221 and Lakewood 'a $250,000,000 planned community' (91) rather than a city. If I were to believe Waldie, California history is indeed 'mostly about building materials', cf. To be honest, I do not want to read about the size of a house, park, monument and/or shopping centre five pages in a row, nor am I particularly interested in the building costs of all those things. However, he devotes large parts of the book to the history of Lakewood's construction, including more numbers than narratives. Waldie prides himself on 'telling stories', the stories of the suburb he lives in. If I understand the idea of this book correctly ‒ an exploration of how the place one lives in shapes one's life ‒ there definitely is something wrong in its execution. Waldie's prose is as unimaginative as the grid of the city he writes about. Holy or not, I definitely cursed this book to hell. That got me wanting to read this so much and I was really getting hot for the main characters even just after reading the blurb. I’m not a fan of wrestling but put in a book and gay themed? Oh man. I admit that what really caught my attention about this book is that it’s about wrestling. Until then, he doesn’t need anything to get in the way of his big plans, and that includes the adorable little wrestler who’s got him all tied up in knots. There will be plenty of time for a social life after graduation. Never mind that he’s gay and wishing he didn’t have to hide it. Life has never been sweeter or more predictable. Now he’s a favorite for the national championship in his weight class. What he doesn’t count on is losing his mind over the gorgeous, golden-eyed wrestling captain who needs to keep their attraction a secret at all costs.Īfter earning a full-ride wrestling scholarship and getting accepted into an elite sports medicine program, Beck thinks he’s got it made. He’s sick to death of being used by closeted football players who are too afraid to admit they like guys. BLURB: On his first day of college, all Jeremy Miller can think about is getting away from his hellish home life, making the wrestling team, and finally getting a real boyfriend. In an era of endless possibility, he finds himself able to pursue his own private obsession with beauty-a prize as compelling to him as power and riches to his friends. It is the summer of 1983, and twenty-year-old Nick Guest has moved into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the Feddens: conservative Member of Parliament Gerald, his wealthy wife Rachel, and their two children, Toby-whom Nick had idolized at Oxford-and Catherine, highly critical of her family's assumptions and ambitions, who becomes both a friend to Nick and his uneasy responsibility.Īs the boom years of the mid-eighties unfold, Nick, an innocent in matters of politics and money, becomes caught up in the Feddens' world-its grand parties, its surprising alliances, its parade of monsters both comic and menacing. |