
Tasting Wine and Cheese: An Insider's Guide to Mastering the Principles of Pairing
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Broaden your palate and enhance your appreciation for gourmet flavor combinations withTasting Wine...

Hazel (1853 KP) rated Trying to Float: Coming of Age in the Chelsea Hotel in Books
Dec 17, 2018
Written about a young girl by a young girl, <i>Trying To Float</i> is the amusing, witty story of Nicolaia Rips’ life thus far. About to graduate from LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts in New York City, Nicolaia talks the reader through her life from birth, through preschool and elementary school, before coming to rest at the end of her middle school experiences.
As the strap line <i>Coming of Age in the Chelsea Hotel</i> indicates, Nicolaia has lived in the Chelsea Hotel in New York for her entire life. Her unconventional father and travel obsessed mother decided to settle there after the birth of their only child, resulting in an unusual upbringing surrounded by avant-garde writers, artists and musicians, as well as the plethora of drug addicts, alcoholics and eccentrics.
Although Nicolaia’s lifestyle caused her to be the worldliest wise of five year olds, she was completely alien to the knowledge of friendships, hard work and the generally accepted behaviour of children. This resulted in numerous, often awkward, situations throughout her schooling which, although must have been soul destroying at the time, Nicolaia writes in a highly amusing tone.
<i>Trying to Float</i> reminded me of a television programme aired on the BBC last year: <i>The Kennedys</i> – a story of the daughter of highly peculiar and embarrassing parents, who was constantly surrounded by a mass of oddball characters. I could not help but see similarities even though there is absolutely no correlation between the two stories.
While Nicolaia has based this book on a journal she kept during her childhood, there are many scenes that have been warped by exaggeration and imagination to add comedic effect. Due to this, her original writing has been worked over so much in order for it to flow like a story, that it is more fiction than biographical.
It is not completely clear who the target audience is. Naturally a story about a child’s experiences at school would relate more to young adults, however the coarse language used by the inhabitants of the hotel make it more appropriate for adults. Whatever your age and background, you are likely to relate to something in this gem of a book. Nicolaia makes light of her experiences, but deep down it is a very heart-wrenching story.

Adonis to Zorro: Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion
Andrew Delahunty and Sheila Dignen
Book
Allusions form a colourful extension to the English language, drawing on our collective knowledge of...

Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated Grave Mercy in Books
Jan 6, 2021
I'd had this on my "to read" shelf on here for a while and then removed it, thinking that since I very rarely read historical books that I might not enjoy it after all.
What a load of rubbish that was!
The synopsis made me think it would be like the <i>Throne of Glass</i> series and in a way it was; assassin, a bit of romance, but it was also not. This was based on true events and there was a lot of different things happening in relation to the duchy.
I have to admit that the first 10-15% was a bit hard for me to get into. There wasn't too much detail about her time at the abbey and as much as I was interested in what she was learning there that bit started to bore me after a while.
It was only with the arrival of Duval and the sparks they ignited that I really started to get into this. I could tell straight away that something was going to happen there and since I'm a romance reader I was happy that there was the possibility of romance. It was nice reading the slow progression of their relationship as it changed.
As for everyone else; Anne, Isabeau, Beast etc. I grew to really like them. They all added great things to the story.
In relationship to Beast, I would really like to know what happened to him, and I'm hoping I will find the answers to that in the next book in the series.
If you like stories of assassins and romance then you'll more than likely like this.

Transformational Growth
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Prepare for future uncertainty with a research-backed recipe for success Transformational Growth...

Karina Longworth recommended Kitty Foyle (1940) in Movies (curated)
Breast Imaging Companion
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A pragmatic, common sense approach to the detection, evaluation and management of breast diseases...

Politics: Between the Extremes
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"Compelling". (Ian McEwan). "Engrossing". (Alan Johnson). "Essential". (Robert Peston). "Important"....

Evaluating Derivatives: Principles and Techniques of Algorithmic Differentiation
Andreas Griewank and Andrea Walther
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Algorithmic, or automatic, differentiation (AD) is a growing area of theoretical research and...

Gun Trader's Guide to Rifles: A Comprehensive, Fully Illustrated Reference for Modern Rifles with Current Market Values
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Gun Trader's Guide is the bestselling collectible firearms reference, having sold over two million...