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    Piano...

    Piano...

    Music and Education

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    Welcome to Piano... a FREE interactive piano with animated songs. Tap to play 50 songs with...

    Mirrorwriting by Jamie Woon

    Mirrorwriting by Jamie Woon

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    Album

    As the stately pace of Mirrorwriting attests, Jamie Woon is not one to rush. And when the four years...

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Windswept & Interesting
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
143 of 230
Book
Windswept and Interesting
By Billy Connolly
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In his first full-length autobiography, comedy legend and national treasure Billy Connolly reveals the truth behind his windswept and interesting life.

Born in a tenement flat in Glasgow in 1942, orphaned by the age of 4, and a survivor of appalling abuse at the hands of his own family, Billy's life is a remarkable story of success against all the odds.

Billy found his escape first as an apprentice welder in the shipyards of the River Clyde. Later he became a folk musician - a 'rambling man' - with a genuine talent for playing the banjo. But it was his ability to spin stories, tell jokes and hold an audience in the palm of his hand that truly set him apart.

As a young comedian Billy broke all the rules. He was fearless and outspoken - willing to call out hypocrisy wherever he saw it. But his stand-up was full of warmth, humility and silliness too. His startling, hairy 'glam-rock' stage appearance - wearing leotards, scissor suits and banana boots - only added to his appeal.

It was an appearance on Michael Parkinson's chat show in 1975 - and one outrageous story in particular - that catapulted Billy from cult hero to national star. TV shows, documentaries, international fame and award-winning Hollywood movies followed. Billy's pitch-perfect stand-up comedy kept coming too - for over 50 years, in fact - until a double diagnosis of cancer and Parkinson's Disease brought his remarkable live performances to an end. Since then he has continued making TV shows, creating extraordinary drawings... and writing.

I grew up watching Billy my dad absolutely loved him. The only swearing we were allowed to watch. I have always loved him the one comedian that I took from my childhood and kept watching. I discovered so much in this book that I never knew and you have to admire him. He went through so much but never seems bitter, he never really flaunts his fame in this book and plays a lot down. Such an amazing insight into his life and a really good read.
  
The Silver Ones (The Silver Series, #1)
The Silver Ones (The Silver Series, #1)
Charlotte Mallory | 2022 | Paranormal, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
A very different shifter story that stands out from the crowd.
THE SILVER ONES is the first book in The Silver Series and we learn about a world inhabited by shifters, hunters, vampires, witches, and the 'normal' folk. Except something has happened recently that means some of the normals have turned into Silvers. They have silver hair and their eyes changed colour. This marks them out from the crowd but no one knows why.

In Rem's village, the witches control everything. No one is taught how to read and write in case it gives them too many ideas. She is one of the newly changed Silvers and doesn't know what to do. The plans that were made were too late as Rem and her brother, Oliver, were kidnapped by shifters, and Rem was cursed by an Elder Witch. How will she protect her brother and break this curse?

I loved this story! It's a long one so I was able to fully immerse myself in it. I loved how the different factions were described, especially the shifters. I love that Finnish is their native language and the difficulties Rem has trying to learn it. As someone learning German, it was brilliant to read that she translated everything in her head first, instead of just being able to speak fluently within a couple of days!

Hold onto your hats though because it is Intrigue Central. There are so many twists and turns to hold your interest. Some are obvious, some are not; all are fantastic.

It is a slow burn for the majority of the story, with a steamy scene near the end. The connection between Ronan and Rem leaps off the pages though and I can't wait to see where their story takes them next.

A very different shifter story that stands out from the crowd. Highly recommended by me.

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
  
Strange Little Birds by Garbage
Strange Little Birds by Garbage
2016 | Alternative
5.7 (3 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"With some of the other songs here I said ‘I wish I’d written that song’, but I did write this one. I figured I had to at least put in one song I wrote, so if nothing else it’s a guilty pleasure. “‘Even Though Our Love Is Doomed’ had a long birth on Strange Little Birds and it’s an important song to me. I came up with the title when I was driving. I called Shirley and said ‘I have this title’ and she loved it. I said I’d work on it but all I had was the idea for the chorus and for the longest time it just sat around. I made all these different demos of it, an alternative-rock one, a clubby techno one, another sounded kind of hip-hop and a folk version and I hated all of them. Shirley asked what happened to it and I told her I hadn’t found anything that fitted what I’d heard in my head, so she said I should just bring in a simple demo to hear. I got home that night and panicked, because all I had was the chorus, I figured I had to put an arrangement together, even if it was just a temporary holding pattern. I picked up a bass and played the riff at the start and for some reason I wrote all the lyrics, they just came out in five minutes. The lyrics work on a bunch of levels. It refers to our band, the things that we have to work through, trying to survive and understand what’s going on, and it works for me in terms of my personal relationships with people where there’s been difficult times. That’s really what the song is about, trying to realise that it’s worth fighting through difficult times if something’s worth holding on to. It’s a really personal song to me. I liked the sonic template of it and that was a big inspiration for Strange Little Birds. We wanted to make more of a cinematic, atmospheric sounding record and less of a rock record. I liked the way the sound of the music and Shirley’s voice worked together. The song is important to me in that sense and the lyrics mean a lot to me, they’re about people I know, our band and myself."

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