Svetlana's Reads and Views

    Title of the book: The why is everything; a story of football, rivalry, and revolution  Author: Michael Silver Publisher: W.W. Norton Publishing Date: 2024  ISBN: 9781324093602 Summary: The story of the brilliant, hypercompetitive young coaches who threw out decades of received wisdom to fundamentally remake America’s most popular sport. The why is everything. That’s the ethos of Kyle Shanahan, son of a coaching legend and now the leading figure in a revolution that is sweeping the league. Shanahan and the branches of his coaching “tree”—including Sean McVay, Mike McDaniel, Raheem Morris, and Matt LaFleur—came up in a martial sport where coaches and players did things a certain way for the simple reason that coaches and players had always done them that way. In the early 2010s, while working for the Washington Redskins, Shanahan and the others began to ask why, and in the process threw out decades of accumulated tradition in favor of unorthodox—and wild...

      Name of Book: A tide of black steel Author: Anthony Ryan ISBN:  9780316574587 Publisher: Orbit Part of a Series: Age of Wrath  Type of book: Fantasy, NORSE, spinoff/ sequel, 20 or 30 years after Covenant of Steel, Ascarlia, powers, conquer, politics, intrigues, magic, gladiator, slavery, seeds of colonialism   Year it was published: 2024  Summary: From the international bestselling author Anthony Ryan comes the spectacular first novel in a new epic new fantasy trilogy inspired by Norse mythology. A new age has dawned. An age of blood and steel. An age of wrath. The land of Ascarlia, a fabled realm of bloodied steel and epic sagas, has been ruled by the Sister Queens for centuries. No one has dared question their rule. Until now. Whispers speak of longships of mysterious tattooed warriors, sailing under the banners of a murderous cult of oath-breakers long thought extinct. A tide of black steel that threatens to vanquish all in its path. Ther...

      Name of Book: Warriors of god  Author:  Andrzej Sapkowski (trans David French)  ISBN: 9780316423717 Publisher: Orbit  Part of a Series: Hussite Trilogy (sequel to The Tower of Fools, prequel to Light Perpetual)  Type of book: Poland, historical fiction 1427-1429, some fantasy, Hussite wars, battles, endless Latin, romance, damsels in distress, spying, loyalty, revenge, determination  Year it was published: 2004 (2021)  Summary: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Reynevan—scoundrel, magician, possibly a fool—travels into the depths of war as he attempts to navigate the religious fervors of the fifteenth century. When the Hussite leaders entrust Reynevan with a dangerous secret mission, he is forced to come out of hiding in Bohemia and depart for Silesia. At the same time, he strives to avenge the death of his brother and discover the whereabouts of his beloved. Once again pursued by multiple enemies, he...

    Title of the book: Sunrise; Radiant Stories Author: Erika Kobayashi (Trans Brian Bergstrom) Publisher: Astra House Publishing Date: 2023  ISBN:  9781662601170 Summary: "A knockout." — Publishers Weekly (Starred review) "A remarkable collection." —Kirkus Reviews A collection of contemplative, lyrical stories examining the visible and invisible consequences of atomic power on Japanese society Sunrise is a collection of interconnected stories continuing Erika Kobayashi’s examination of the effects of nuclear power on generations of women. Connecting changes to everyday life to the development of the atomic bomb, Sunrise shows us how the discovery of radioactive power has shaped our history and continues to shape our future. In the opening, eponymous story “Sunrise,” Yoko, born exactly two years and one day after Nagasaki was decimated, mirrors her life to the development of nuclear power in Japan. In “Precious Stones,” four daughters take their elderly mother to th...

      Name of Book: Deceit Author: Yuri Felsen (Bryan Karetnyk)  ISBN:  9781662601965 Publisher: Astra House  Type of book: France, Russian emigre, obsession, 1920s, love, work, classicism, novels, life, futility, broken relationships, broken marriage, crushes   Year it was published: 1930 (2023)  Summary: Deceit is the first major work by Yuri Felsen, referred to by his contemporaries as ‘the Russian Proust’, a significant writer who died in the gas chambers in Auschwitz, and whose legacy and archive was destroyed by the Nazis. Written in the form of a diary, the novel recounts the unnamed narrator’s complex and emotionally fraught relationship with his love interest and sometime muse. While the plot itself is relatively simple, the real revelation in Felsen’s writing is its supreme originality of language and psychological introspection. Quite unlike any other writer in the Russian canon, Felsen evokes in rich, poetic, idiosyncratic prose n...