Author: rrn69

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Terry falls for “Pixie Pamela”

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Pamela Pixie Colman Smith is young woman of stark contradictions:  plucky yet naïve, artistically gifted despite lacking classical training, fascinated by the esoteric but skeptical of the world around me. After the deaths fo her beloved mother and her troubled but well-intentioned father, Pixie finds herself in the complex, political world of fin-de-siécle art, trying to get her stunning work seen and to forge a name and a path for herself in life. Across Jamaica, Devon, London and Brooklyn, Pixie is a novel of epic proportions, a tale of the twists and turns, séances and secrets, successes and devastation, of one … Continue reading Terry falls for “Pixie Pamela”

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Economic downturns testing

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Tyler Beck Goodspeed, a top economist, analyses economic contradictions over the last four centuries, explains why recessions start, how long they last, and how to avoid them in the first place. Do recessions end on their own, or do they require external intervention? Does a recession in one country mean the rest of the world will follow?  Are we in recession now? Contrary to popular perception, recessions are not the inevitable bust that follows an unsustainable boom, and they do not operate like wildfires that clear out economic deadwood. Recessions are caused by adverse shocks like war and energy price … Continue reading Economic downturns testing

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Hunting the Hunted

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A Rebel and a Traitor is the story of a rogue consul, Sir Roger Casement, a decorated diplomat who turned his back on the British empire and instead joined the rising Irish cause and sought to forge a new nation in the middle of a war- and the mercurial spy chief who sought to destroy him by any means. The manhunt for Casement led by intelligence officer Reginald Blinker Hall, the legendary British spy chief who pioneered codebreaking early mass surveillance and media manipulation. As he did for the critically acclaimed Killing Thatcher, master storyteller Rory Carroll has scanned diaries, … Continue reading Hunting the Hunted

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Five repressed women humiliated by men, discover new paths

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Women Without Men, by Shahrnush Parsipur, now 80, we follow the lives of five women against the background of revolution and coups as they find their way to a garden, drawing on recent Iranian history and transcendent elements of Islamic mysticism, Parsipur’s unforgettable novel sees women escaping strict confines of family and society. Five repressed women abandoned or humiliated by men, discover new, sometimes surreal paths for themselves. As societal expectations and the fear of spinsterhood weigh on, Iran tried and failed to silence Women Without Men ( Zanan bedun-e Mardan in Persian) exposed the brutality of Iranian regime and … Continue reading Five repressed women humiliated by men, discover new paths

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Story of a courageous woman who broke her silence and survived

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The sexual assault that stunned the world. A courageous woman’s rallying call for shame to change sides. For the very first time Giséle Pelicot tells her story. In 2024, Giséle Pelicot waiver her right to anonymity in her legal fight against her ex-husband and the fifty men- accused of sexually assaulting her, a courageous decision that inspired millions of people around the world. Only four years prior, Giséle has made the shattering discovery that her partner, Dominique Pelicot, had been secretly drugging and raping her, and inviting strangers to also abuse her in their home for nearly a decade. “Shame … Continue reading Story of a courageous woman who broke her silence and survived

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Bureaucratic expediency

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Elimination of an entire fiercest warriors framed as the inevitable outcome of bureaucratic expediency. Now I Surrender is a woman’s desperate flight from an Apache raid unfolds into a sweeping tale of the Mexico-US border wars. Written with a cast of characters both historical and purely fictional, is the story of how the West was “won.” In the contested borderlands between Mexico and the United States, a woman flees into the desert after a devastating raid on her dead husband’s ranch. A lieutenant colonel in service to the fledgling Republic, sent in pursuit of cattle rustlers, discovers he’s on the … Continue reading Bureaucratic expediency

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One Battle After Another wins six Oscars 

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The 98th Academy Awards held on March 15, 2026,  One Battle After Another won six Oscars, hosted by Conan O’Brien. Paul Thomas Anderson’s film also took best director, best picture and best supporting actor for Sean Penn. Michael B. Jordan won best actor for “Sinners” and Irish actress, Jessie Buckley was named best actress for her performance of a mother shattered by grief in “Hamnet.” Anderson’s adapted screenplay, giving the 55-year-old auteur three statuettes to take home after 28 years of nominations with no wins. One Battle After Another also won Oscar for casting and editing. Ryan Coogler won the original screenplay … Continue reading One Battle After Another wins six Oscars 

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Antonelli wins Chinese Grand Prix

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19-year-old Kimi Antonelli wins his first Formula 1 victory for Mercedes  and the second youngest Grand Prix winner in history, after leading team-mate George Russell who came second in the Chinese Grand Prix. Mclaren failed to start. Antonelli’s controlled drive after briefly losing the lead at the start to Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari. Only Max Verstappen, who won for the first time aged 18 at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, has taken the chequered flag in F1 at a younger age than Antonelli. Russell’s second place ensures he keep the championship lead, by four points from Antonelli. Behind them Hamilton and Ferrari … Continue reading Antonelli wins Chinese Grand Prix

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Baltic crusades adapted by Nazi expansionism

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Crusading armies unleashed a relentless holy war against the last Pagan societies in northern Europe, particularly in the Baltic Sea region between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. Led by Catholic rulers, churchmen, and most importantly of all, the warrior monks of the Teutonic Order, they sought to expand Christendom through conquest and conversion. In the process they forged a new world with a profound legacy that resogates into the present. Aleksander Pulskowski, professor of medieval archaeology at the UK’s university of Reading, explores how the construction of castles and towns, and the introduction of new languages, technology, monetary economies, and … Continue reading Baltic crusades adapted by Nazi expansionism

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Inflation, growth, unemployment, balanced budgets are weaponized to enforce market dependency

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Amid financial crisis, pandemic and war, Capitalism seems invincible. Professor of Economics at the University of Tulsa, Clara E Mattei illustrates its fragility and restores hope that everything could be different Yanis Varoufakis. Economics is sold as pure and apolitical: scientific, neutral, exact. This book reveals the true role: to convince us there’s no alternative to capitalism. Mattei rips the mask off our economic system, and unpacks key concepts like growth, inflation, unemployment and balanced budgets to show how they’re weaponized to enforce market dependence, not freedom, stripping us of the power to shape the democratic decisions that govern our … Continue reading Inflation, growth, unemployment, balanced budgets are weaponized to enforce market dependency