Death Deserved is the first instalment in the international bestselling award-winning Blix and Ramm novels penned by two crime fiction giants Jørn Lier Horst (The Katharina Code, When It Grows Dark, Ordeal in William Wisting series) and Thomas Enger (Cursed in Henning Juul series). When Nullpunkt (original title) hit the Norwegian market, the readers could not get enough of the unique concept, hard-boiled action, darkness of emotions and the well-rounded characters. Add to this mix a search for a serial killer with a flair for a drama and desire for attention in the public eye, and you have a book that captures your imagination, keeps you on the edge of the seat and makes you keep looking behind your back, and yet wanting more of the dark thrills.
Of course, you cannot have a superb novel travelling across the languages without an excellent translator who honed her literary craft over the years when working on some impressive writing. Anne Bruce translated works by Anne Holt, Heine Bakkeid, Wencke Mühleisen, Merethe Lindstrømand Lier Horst himself. Her sense of individual styles and intuitive approach to the language ensure that the narration flows without any interruptions.
In this new book the authors poured their creativity into a story about fame and its consequences, and obsession that often follows a change of someone’s status in the society. A story that is as contemporary as the rapidly changing Norwegian society, and played out in various media.
First Sonja Nordstrøm, a former long-distance runner and an outspoken personality, failed to show up at the launch of her controversial autobiography Always Number One. When a celebrity blogger Emma Ramm found about this unusual event, unusual for someone seeking being present in the spotlight, she visited Sonja’s home and discovered signs of a struggle inside, together with a big with the number ‘one’ pinned to the TV. Both concerned about the possible abduction and excited about a sensational news scoop, she manages to persuade her boss to let her delve into a new type of journalism: crime reporting. Emma feels she can offer something more than just an extensive, yet not particularly ground-breaking knowledge of famous people, and it becomes clear that she is capable of writing brilliant material on the spot and of unearthing connections that might help in the search for the killer. But I am running ahead…
Her main contact is the police officer Alexander Blix, in charge of the investigation, and although very competent and experienced, he is still deeply affected by the aftermath of a hostage situation nineteen years earlier. He killed a father of a five-year-old girl and his career took a different turn compared to that of his colleague who was with him at the time. Gard Fosse easily climbed the managerial ladder within the police force while Blix continued to overlook some procedures to establish himself as the determined man in the field. As Blix navigates the working life and also becomes a mentor to a new recruit Sofia Kovic, he again does something quite unprofessional, as for certain unexplained reason he feels compelled to share bits of information with Emma, an outsider to the real police work. Complexity of the circumstances in which they both find themselves sends the whole process into dramatic pursuit to save lives.
With the main protagonists so conflicted and the murderer setting up own rules as to who dies and who is spared, which are very complicated yet logical to a unquestionably sick mind, Death Deserved moves at the neck-breaking speed as more people are discovered missing or dead, and the tension and fear expand in equal measures. Woven into the blend of red herrings and real threats are the quests of Blix’s daughter Iselin competing on the Worthy Winner TV programme. I recommend that you get into the spectre of the celebrity culture and the criminal vultures in a new reality created by Lier Horst and Enger.
Travelling via books is one of life’s pleasures. Discovering new places is inspirational. Reading about locations that you might have visited is even more exciting. I was attracted by a brief write-up on the cover of Marit Reiersgaard’s The Girl with no Heart / Jenta uten hjerte, published originally in 2014 by Gyldendal, and nominated for the prestigious Riverton Prize, a literary award given annually to the best Norwegian crime story. I was interested in both the premise of the novel and the references to Tranby, a small town located east of Oslo. I am aware of the area yet I was not familiar with the Obelisk and its origins but now had a chance to find out more. Here in the novel the monument features both as a crime scene and a symbol of past and modern morality, touching on the conscience of people who have lived with various secrets in their lives, and made choices according to what influenced them most or had power over their emotions.
The story begins with two separate crimes happening in close distance one winter morning. A body of a fifteen-year-old murdered Idunn Olsen has been found in the snow near the large obelisk outside the quarry in Lier. Idunn was returning from a party where something has gone wrong as police received calls from people complaining about disturbances. Afterwards the young people who had attended the party were strangely reluctant to answer any questions and as the interviews brought little useful information the search for the killer does not seem to progress much. Close by another death was reported, of an elderly woman who was discovered in a house burned to the ground. There might have been connection between two crimes due to an unexpected appearance of a local man Agnar Eriksen who had spent time in prison for an attempted murder of his mother but now on his way to freedom.
Relationship between the main detectives Verner Jacobsen and Bitte Røed evolves as the story progresses, and it is fascinating to watch how they both deal with personal and family issues, and even the ‘office politics’. Nuanced and delicately balancing on the line of attraction and respect for each other, their rapport shines light on insights into wounded souls. Verner’s anxiety after having just lost his only son Victor to cancer has huge impact on his professional approach to interviewing a young suspect Fredrik Paulsen, and then Marte Skage, a girl deeply traumatised by continuous bullying. Not only Verner is affected by the recent events but also feels troubled by not really knowing Victor properly. A theft of a hearse with the coffin on the day of the funeral shifted his personal grief into the realms of challenging police work. On the other hand, Bitte’s different attitude and a fledgling romance with Marte’s father Kristian, a journalist and a second person of interest, places her in a difficult and ultimately dangerous situation.
With genuine compassion the author deals with disturbing subjects of long-lasting effects of bullying and of abuse with sensitivity and understanding, not shying from some upsetting aspects which give enough context to internal turmoil experienced by those mostly affected. Cruelty seems to know no bounds, especially when it is hidden under the surface of politeness, ordinary activities, or fear of being exposed. Desperate acts of self-harm remain concealed beneath and trigger emotional blackmail. Close connections within the small community add interest and drama to the portrayal of various people who know or are aware of one another, and so the shocking finale would no doubt disturb many moral compasses.
Paul Norlen’s translation suits the flow of the initial measured tempo and reflections on the widely understood meaning of life, until the pressure of the investigation grows and intensified emotions are getting closer to exploding. Reiersgaard’s elegant confident style comes across very well, with some phrases describing the mood instantly: ‘He knew that he had winter in his face and heavy bags under his eyes.’
The landscape plays an important role and Reiersgaard expertly maintains tension by describing the neighbourhood that she knows so well. The town of Tranby or the police station in nearby Drammen does not feature strongly in the Norwegian crime fiction that has been translated into English. Karin Fossum’s series about Inspector Konrad Sejer is set in the neighbourhoods around Oslo and in Drammen though I do not think that name is explicitly mentioned. As Marit Reiersgaard puts this place firmly on the map of crime-worthy locations in the contemporary literature, I would strongly recommend that you get to know the girl with no heart here and the other girls that become a focus of intriguing mysteries.
Synopsis: No man, woman or child may defy the gods. When Thor and Loki seek refuge in the home of mortals, the youngest son fails to heed a warning from the gods. As atonement for the family’s sins, the gods take the two youngest children under their wing and embark on an epic adventure from Midgard to Valhalla that will see them stare down ruthless giants, barbaric gods and the dreaded wolf Fenrir.
Brand new Valhalla is directed by Fenar Ahmad, a Danish filmmaker of Iraqi origin, known for the excellent Darkland, a movie about a successful doctor who loses his little brother in a gang-related assault and then gives up his privileged life to become a masked warrior and avenge his brother’s death. In that role was Dar Salim, a familiar face to the fans of Borgen, The Bridge and Dicte: Crime Reporter. Here Ahmad moves from the modern-day issues happening in Denmark and takes on a classic Norse myth of Thor, the God of Thunder.
Two siblings Røskva, played by the incredible young actress Cecilia Loffredo, and her brother Tjalfe (Saxo Moltke-Leth) are taken by two gods Thor and Loki to Valhalla. The youngers know their fate as slaves is sealed but they do not expect how terribly they will be treated during the treacherous travel and when they finally arrive. Tjalfe feels unhappy and struggles silently, doing some pretty disgusting chores, yet he believes that the opportunity to serve gods comes once in a lifetime and only to the chosen few. Although loving her brother to the end of the world and back, literally, Røskva refuses to accept such bad treatment especially as the deities seem to have lost their godly respectable demeanour and engage in pointless name calling, drinking games and general boring unproductive time-wasting. Instead their conduct should be the guidance for the mortals and counterbalance for the Giants, the merciless barbarians, and that is exactly what the girl wants. So she finds her inner strength and challenges the powerful yet resigned Odin, and earns respect of Thor who reluctantly begins to admire her. Roland Møller’s thunderous personality as reckless Thor and his hammer-wielding abilities are to die for, and he becomes a fairly sensible god at the end of the emotional journey. Inspired by the Viking queen-in-the-making, the Valhalla goddesses, mostly silent, also spring into action to defend their empire together with two young mortals and against terrifying giants and the legendary Fenrir.
The intense and dangerous moments and the battle scenes, the visuals of darkness and otherworldly forces create a great atmosphere where you can lose yourself and experience a new brutal reality, based on the ancient rules and whims of supernatural powers. It is a very enjoyable fantasy as the story dips into the wealth of the Norse myths, with quite amazing special effects conveying the mood of fear and despair, and occasional wonder. The film is shot in Danish which adds to the mystery but of course English subtitles make the tale understandable. Just some advice before you venture into Valhalla: dancing with weirdly attractive Death is never a good idea, and watch out for the enormous majestic wolf, and the fish soup. The first one might scare you to untimely death but the second will definitely kill you.
‘I don’t have to try. It comes naturally,’ Gunna told him. ‘Especially when people are economical with the truth.
Quentin Bates’ latest novel Cold Malice focuses on two strands: suicide of an enigmatic artist Áskell Hafberg, and the apparent drowning of his wife Birna five years earlier, and the under-the-radar return to Iceland of Ingvar Sturlaugsson, a man considered dead after the Thai tsunami of 2004. Reykjavík detective Gunnhildur ‘Gunna’ Gísladóttir is big on compassion and even bigger on justice. She is of the same school of investigation as Arnaldur Indriðason’s Inspector Erlendur, and will turn every stone until she finds an answer or two to a case that bothers her.
Bates’ convincing plots, precise building up of the tension and effortless narration are mixed with dry sense of humour and in-depth knowledge of Iceland. His novels have contemporary feel with elements of history and understanding of the ways the society works. He has honed his style over the years, thanks to his vast experience as a writer, journalist, and co-founder of IcelandNoir crime fiction festival. As a translator he enabled the Icelandic authors such as Gudlaugur Arason, Indriði G. Thorsteinsson, Sigurjón Magnússon, Ragnar Jónasson and Lilja Sigurðardóttir to enter the worldwide English-speaking market.
I am absolutely delighted to share Lilja Sigurðardóttir’s reflections on Quentin Bates:
‘Quentin doesn’t eat the seared sheep´s head. In fact he makes a funny face while he watches his wife and myself gobble down this local delicacy with a nice helping of mashed potatoes and green beans. And that funny face reminds me that he isn’t an Icelander. In other situations I tend to forget because he is Icelandic in most other ways. That said, many Icelanders don´t eat the seared sheep´s head, especially not the younger ones that grew up with the options of eating food that is actually nice.
My books are translated into many languages so I know translators. I have worked with so many of them but Quentin is not your usual translator. He has never studied translation or Icelandic but relies solely on his natural talent, of which he has plenty. And because he is a writer himself, he knows his crime fiction in and out so his translations benefit from that. Because translating is not only about knowing a language and then re-writing a text into your own language, it is about culture. And that´s why I tend to forget that Quentin isn’t Icelandic. Because he not only knows the culture, he has lived it. Being a fisherman on the turbulent seas around Iceland, having family here, eating (some of) the strange food for years on end has shaped his character into being so much like these few strange people that inhabit this island.
There is a saying in Iceland: Glöggt er gests augað (sharp is the guest´s eye) that means that guests sometimes see things that locals are not noticing anymore or take for granted. And that is the thing that makes Quentin so special: he is a local Icelander but at the same time he is also still a guest with a sharp eye that takes in things that an Icelander normally wouldn’t.
In his books about Gunna (detective Gunnhildur Gísladóttir) Quentin is at his best both as a local Icelander but also a sharp-eyed guest. Icelanders read those books and feel they are written by a local but English speakers would also find enough explanation of cultural and natural phenomena to enjoy the “Icelandicness” of the story. I always look very much forward to a new book from Quentin and I won´t be able to wait until Cold Malice is published in Icelandic, I will have to read it first in English as soon as it´s out. Gunna is one of my favourite crime fiction characters and nobody that gets to know her will regret it.’
You can read further thoughts on Cold Malice via the following links:
It is no secret that Newcastle Noir festival began as a love letter to Iceland. In May 2014 Jacky Collins aka Dr Noir chatted about books with Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Ragnar Jónasson and Quentin Bates whose combined experience in writing, translating and co-founding the IcelandNoir festival sown the seeds for a bigger future event. No photographic evidence from me. I have joined as a volunteer the following year. The appetite for the writing from the cold climate was growing as were the ambitions of the festival organisers.
Disclaimer: some introductory wording about the authors comes from the relevant festival programmes 2015 – 2019 and might seem out of date yet I wanted to bring back some memories. Over the years the circle of authors and their works expanded and so did the knowledge about their worlds. Now in spring of 2020 no introductions are needed.
In 2015 Iceland was represented again by Ragnar Jónasson and Quentin Bates (author and translator from Icelandic) at the Crime in Translation panel. Sweden and Finland joined.
Cilla and Rolf Börjlind are Sweden’s most praised script writers of crime and thrillers, and also bestselling authors (Spring Tide and Third Voice). They have written 26 Martin Beck scripts for film and television, and most recently the scripts for Arne Dahl’s A-group series. In 2004 and 2009 Swedish television showed their long crime series The Grave and The Murders.
Finland in a form of Kati Hiekkapelto shook us. The bestselling author, punk singer, performance artist and, formerly special-needs teacher, living on the island of Hailuto in northern Finland, has taught immigrants and lived in the Hungarian region of Serbia which inspired her crime novel The Hummingbird. The sequel The Defenceless was translated into English by David Hackston.
Norway arrived in 2016. Gunnar Staalesen was born in Bergen in 1947 and is the author of over 20 titles, which have been published in 24 countries and sold over four million copies. Twelve film adaptations of his Varg Veum crime novels have appeared since 2007, starring the popular Norwegian actor Trond Epsen Seim.
That year Iceland brought incredible talent of four Ice Queens:
Sólveig Pálsdóttir, lives in Reykjavík, and is the author of three best-selling crime novels: the first two The Actor and The Righteous have been translated into German. The third Spotless was published in Iceland last spring.
Lilja Sigurðardóttir is an Icelandic crime-writer and playwright. Her first novel Steps was published in 2009 and later translated into German. Her second novel Forgiveness was published a year later, and the latest Trapped was out in October 2015.
Jónína Leósdóttir played a key role in establishing The Icelandic Women’s Literary Prize, and is the author of a dozen plays, ten novels, two biographies and numerous articles. She writes both for adults and teenagers. Among the awards she has received for her work is the poetry award Ljóđstafur Jóns úr Vör, the IBBY Iceland Award for her novels for teenagers, and playwriting competition prizes.
Yrsa Sigurðardóttir is the bestselling and award-winning Icelandic crime author of the Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series as well as several stand-alone thrillers. She made her crime fiction debut in 2005 with Last Rituals, the first instalment in the Thóra series. The latest book to be published in the UK is The Undesired, preceded by the Award-winning Silence Of The Sea and Someone To WatchOver Me, chosen by the Sunday Times as the best crime novel published in the UK in 2013.
Finland was represented by Kati Hiekkapelto again, and by Antti Tuomainen, the award-winning author of five novels. He has been called ‘The King of Helsinki Noir’ by the Finnish press. In 2011 his third novel The Healer was awarded the Clue Award for Best Finnish Crime Novel and has subsequently been published in 27 countries. His fourth novel Dark asMy Heart has been voted the best crime novel of the past decade by the readers of a Finnish crime fiction magazine.
Sweden returned in 2017 withstars. Camilla Grebe has written four crime novels with her sister Asa Traff, featuring psychologist Siri Bergman. The first two were nominated for Swedish Crime Novel of the Year. Camilla has also written the popular Moscow Noir trilogy with Paul Leander-Engstrom. Last year she published her first novel as a solo author, the psychological thriller The Ice Beneath Her. Duo Jerker Eriksson and Håkan Axlander Sundquist write under the pseudonym Erik Axl Sund. Their trilogy The Crow Girl made the New York Post’s Best Summer Reads list in 2016 and was The Observer’s Thriller of the Month. They’ve been working on the second in their Melancholia series, the first being Glass Bodies.
The honorary Swede Johana Gustawsson, the co-author of a bestseller On se retrouvera published in France. Her first solo novel Block 46 introduced criminal profiler Emily Roy and French true-crime writer Alexis Castells and was due to be published in May 2017.
Norway introduced two legends.
Kjell Ola Dahl is an acclaimed Norwegian author, one of he first in the Nordic Noir genre. His debut novel was published in 1993 and he has now written eleven books, mostly crime with a psychological interest. By that year four of his novels have been translated into English. Thomas Enger made his debut with the crime novel Burned in 2009, which became an international sensation before publication. It was the first of five books featuring journalist Henning Juul which delves into the depths of Oslo’s underbelly.
Also, Denmark appeared on the horizon with Greenland in the background thanks to Nina von Staffeldt. Her debut novel Frozen Evidence published in 2016 was awarded Best Danish debut crime novel 2016 by the Danish Crime Academy. The sequel novel was planned for publication in 2017.
Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden were back in 2018, with Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Quentin Bates, Antti Tuomainen, Thomas Enger, Kjell Ola Dahl and Johana Gustawsson respectively, before the final Nordic explosion the following year.
In 2019 the festival was held at the new venue, with more exciting latest voices from Sweden, Denmark and Iceland.
Another honorary Swede Will Dean, author of Dark Pines and Red Snow, studied Law at LSE, and worked many varied jobs in London, before settling in rural Sweden with his wife. He built a wooden house in a boggy forest clearing, where he compulsively reads and writes.
Christoffer Petersen writes crime books and thrillers set in Greenland. His main protagonists include retired Greenlandic Police Constable David Maratse, Commissioner Petra Piitalaat Jensen, and the first female sledge patroller Fenna Brongaard. Christoffer lives in Denmark and has spent 7 years in Greenland, including a year teaching at Greenland’s Police Academy.
Óskar Guðmundsson’s debut novel Hilma was chosen as the best criminal novel published 2015, received the Icelandic crime fiction award The Blood Drop, and was Iceland´s contribution to the Glass Key, the Nordic Crime Fiction Award in 2017. The Icelandic production company Sagafilm has secured the rights to adapt it for television.
The class of 2020 should have included new personalities appearing together with Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Johana Gustawsson, Thomas Enger and Kjell Ola Dahl. Due to the global pandemic the festival has been postponed. However, the literary life continues behind the scenes and online, including this #blogtour and via electronic and paper books. Norwegian Marit Reiersgård recently spoke online of the fine Easter tradition in her country, tradition that involves hiding away in a cabin and reading crime fiction. The Girl with noHeart is her only novel translated into English so far. Sif Sigmarsdóttir, writer and journalist from Iceland, living in London, is the author of a feminist Nordic noir thriller for young adults called The Sharp Edge of a Snowflake. Eva Björg Ægisdóttir‘s debut novel The Creak on the Stairs won the Blackbird Award, a crime-writing prize hosted by prolific well-known Icelandic authors Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and Ragnar Jónasson, and it is out now.
To temporarily and mentally move away from the current global situation I reached for a book that has been published in February 2016, four years ago by Quercus.
On a warm autumn afternoon, Tivoli Gardens – Denmark’s largest amusement park – is devastated by a terrorist attack. 1,241 people are killed. The unknown bomber is blown to bits; the security forces have no leads.
It left the country in total shock. One year later those behind the massacre are still at large. Detective Lene Jensen, dealing with personal tragedy, becomes entangled in the web of secrets threatening the national security.
Retribution is set a year after the most horrendous atrocity in Copenhagen. One September day a lone bomber blew himself and more than thousand people in popular Tivoli Gardens, Denmark’s largest amusement park. The devastation shook the entire nation to its core and shocked the police who have no leads whatsoever. Nobody claimed responsibility. Frustration and anger are the main feelings in the overtired police force who don’t rule out another devastating attack but seem powerless to prevent it.
Superintendent Lene Jensen, forty-five-year old, burnt-out and surviving on a cocktail of alcohol and sleeping pills, is dealing with the effects of personal tragedy. To compensate for not spotting signs shown by a suicidal member of her family, she volunteered at the helpline to support others where she became close in a way with a young Muslim woman. Their formal telephone-only relationship took a different dimension when she received a call from terrified Ain, begging for help as she was being followed. Reluctantly Lene agreed to meet Ain at the neutral train station but by the time she had arrived there the woman was dead. Shaken by this turn of events Lene started own investigation into this death, and her initial findings suggested that Ain was unknowingly part of a secret service research project, under the patronage of the charismatic and extremely well-connected consultant psychiatrist Irene Adler. As Lene digs deeper, she’s silenced by her bosses. Even her allies are convinced that her actions pose a serious threat to national security. When the fanatical Kim Thomsen from the Danish Security and Intelligence Service appears amidst these tense circumstances, Lene realises that the truth might be the most dangerous thing to uncover. Thomsen seems unhinged but protected by his superiors. Michael Sander, elusive secretive ‘security consultant’ becomes Lene’s only friend.
The subject of terrorism affecting Denmark has been explored in TV series and in books, yet this is the most terrifying vision yet. The orthopaedic surgeon by day, Steffen Jacobsen can definitely write! He puts an alternative perspective as he tries to get into the terrorists’ heads and understand reasons for the growing numbers of suicide bombers wanting to destabilise the West. He also creates strong interesting and believable female characters: Lene’s powerful brilliant boss Charlotte Falste; the psychiatrist Irene Adler, and also Nazeera, the Arab woman whose intelligence, strength and skills are sought by various adversaries. In a context of the bigger-picture investigation and personal power-play all women are memorable and credible. However, my sympathy lies with Lene who will not stop: a good cop and a decent human being, reminding me of another fictional Danish heroine who first graced the TV screens before appearing in the books: Sara Lund with her uncompromising determination, bordering on obsession to uncover the truth. Inspector Malin Fors created by Mons Kallentoff is in the same league where dedication to the job borders on self-destruction.
This fast-paced unstoppable thriller, translated by Charlotte Barslund, never lets you pause to take in all that’s happening. Excellent novel, considering the fairly recent terrorism-filled atmosphere in Europe where only the best eagle-eyed security consultants, analysts and spies could untangle the webs of connections. To be honest this is a terrifying prospect; however, an engaging gripping story. Highly recommended for the fans of Norwegian Jo Nesbø, and fellow Dane Jussi-Adler Olsen, and anyone who enjoys the edge-of the-seat suspense.
Noir is a word that certainly appeals to us. Add an adjective or a location and hey presto! a new universe of literary possibilities opens. But what do we know about a mysteriously called BalkaNoir? Is the World Book Day a good reason to venture into the unknown?
Some lucky English readers had a chance to sample BalkaNoir at NewcastleNoir crime fiction festival in 2019 when three Romanian authors Anamaria Ionescu, Teodora Matei and Bogdan Hrib shared their enthusiasm, creativity and books. Their writing is original and brings a new interesting perspective to the European table.
Anamaria Ionescu, a journalist and a writer, has been working for the Romanian Broadcasting Company for over twenty years. She had her literary debut in 2008 in the literary section of a national publication with a short story called Travelling Family. In 2014 she published the first novel of her Sergiu Manta mystery and thriller series Code Name: Arkon. The series keeps track of an IT specialist also a biker and a rocker, whose destiny pushes him into being an assassin.
Zodiac, the second novel in the Sergiu Manta series, was out in 2016:
When investigator Sergiu Manta is handed the investigation into a series of bizarre murders, he has no idea what he’s getting involved in as he has to work with regular detective Marius Stanescu who has his own suspicions about the biker he has been told to work with, and wants to get to the truth. The twists and turns of the story take both men from the city of Bucharest to the mountains of rural Romania, and back.
Teodora Matei is the deputy chief editor of the online magazine Gazeta SF. Her debut novel in print was The Butterfly Man (cyberpunk-crime, 2015), the first volume of the trilogy with the same name, written together with Lucian-Dragoș Bogdan, a Romanian SF/ romance/ thriller author.
The discovery of a woman close to death in a city basement sends Bucharest police officers Anton Iordan and Sorin Matache on a complex chase through the city as they seek to identify the victim. As they try to track down the would-be murderer, they find a macabre trail of missing women, and realise that this isn’t the first time the killer has struck. Iordan and Matache hit one dead end after another, until they decide they would have to take a chance that could prove deadly.
Stylistically the novels differ: Zodiac is pacey, impatient, international, with a touch of a Bond fantasy. Living Candles is much more low-key, quieter, understated. And dangerous. Both books, however, are strongly anchored within the recent history of Romania which demonstrates itself in the social attitudes and past perceptions of women. Female characters seem to be in the background of the society, essential yet not recognised for their own abilities. There’s a hint of fury in a female assassin and eagerness of a young pathologist to make a mark in a man’s world. Nevertheless, machismo rules on most of the fronts. Anamaria Ionescu and Teodora Matei observe what happens around them, and are fully aware of all changes.
Bogdan Hrib’s varied career encompassed the professions of photographer, journalist, lecturer and book publisher as a co-founder of Tritonic Publishing Phillips. He has been instrumental in bringing other Romanian crime writers into English publication. He also contributed short stories to and edited several crime fiction collective books such as: Noir de Bucuresti, GastroNOIR (including contributions from Teodora Matei as well) and Noir de Timisoara.
His debut as a crime fiction writer came in 2007 with Filiera greceasca / The GreekConnection:
A Greek holiday abruptly interrupted by the murder of a Russian girl. The primary suspect is a Romanian man, and when journalist Stelian Munteanu happens to be nearest person to the crime scene, he soon gets pulled into the sordid tale where nothing is what it seems. A pursuit from Greece to Rome, Bucharest, Vienna and finally across France, Munteanu finds himself entering the dark world of diamond smuggling and stolen furs, where a mysterious ex-KGB agent knows it all.
And the Nordic connection?
Bogdan Hrib said that BalkaNoir couldn’t be more different than NordicNoir regarding the social context as Romania is still trying to come to terms with massive changes of moving from capitalism to totalitarian state and back to capitalism. It is all about survival and adjusting to the new reality. Yet Romanian Noir looks up to Nordic Noir. But even if the concept of the crime fiction is different to what we’ve become familiar with coming from Nordic and Scandinavian countries, the essence of the writing is the same: good gripping narrations, interesting characters, search for answers.
I feel that this is a beginning of something much bigger and BalkaNoir (or RomanianNoir?) is just about to conquer the world.
Harry Hole wakes up with blood on his hands and no memory of what has happened the night before. Soon he has to deal with the most personal case yet to catch the killer who has completely destroyed his life.
If you are familiar The Thirst / Tørst you will know that Harry Hole didn’t have an easy time (my review via Crime Review is here). Hence the consequences of different events following the vampirist case in the previous novel The Thirst reverberate through Knife. One of them is that Harry Hole had killed Valentin Gjesrsten who unknown to him was Svein Finne’s son and so revenge seems to be a strong motive here.
The rapist and murderer Svein Finne, called Fiancé, made his victims pregnant and killed them when they didn’t give birth to his child. Harry was a young detective and worked tirelessly to put him behind the bars. He succeeded. But that was ages ago and now the most infamous serial killer is free, and hungry to pick up where he had left. His methods haven’t changed and are still horrendous. Women of Oslo aren’t safe. The first victim is a lonely teacher Dagny, too scared to report rape to the police, especially as Finne imposes his own rules, plus has an uncanny ability to know all about women he targets.
I have read nearly all of the Harry Hole books and thought that the maverick brilliant damaged detective had to deal with enough trauma that his creator Jo Nesbø had thrown at him over the years. Being the alcoholic serial-killers-catcher, fighting personal demons, losing the plot on professional level, always going against the grain… I didn’t expect that he could cope with any more pain. However, again he has no choice but to follow his notorious gut feeling and face his darkest most personal case yet. Back in his own flat, drinking himself stupid, suspended from work and desperately missing his wife Rakel who had thrown him out about three months earlier. When he wakes up with blood on his hands and no memory of what has happened the night before it means that things can only go downhill. The memory lapses are nothing new yet in this particular situation even he is shocked and overwhelmed by the complete amnesia. Soon he needs to handle the most devastating murder, shattering his life into millions of hurting pieces, and destroying future of Oleg, Rakel’s son who came to treat him as his own father. Confrontation with Finne is on the cards.
Jo Nesbø writes like a rock star that he is, creating a dangerous world, populated by fully shaped psychologically believable characters, and confident to push his hero deeper into the crisis that would have killed any normal human being. Harry, deeply flawed and existing on the cocktail of strong alcohol and savage emotions, still attracts female adulation and touches of respect from those who understand how he operates, what triggers his methods, how he will walk through fire and water to find the murderer. Even if he becomes the suspect of the murder. And yet, I wanted so much for him to survive, to find the killer, to find a tiny bit of peace and some justice.
Knife is brutal, raw and nerve wrecking. It focuses on manipulation and the outrageous choices that people have to make. It has everything you would want from a thriller so confidently penned by the best-selling author. Dubious moral choices. Weak leaders and hypocritical lawyers. Domestic dramas and power fights. Different type of violence, less graphic but equally shocking, Quite phenomenal considering this is Harry’s twelve outing, intense, both fast paced and occasionally full of slow-motion melancholy. Neil Smith translated this Norse tragedy in four acts superbly.
Hardback was published by Harvill Secker in July 2019, and paperback was out last month.
‘Sadie had stepped out of her comfort zone but it was cold out there so she went back in.’
Shelley Day’s debut novel The Confession of Stella Moon published in 2014 took on challenging subject. A killer released from prison had returned home to a decaying, deserted boarding house choked with weeds and foreboding. Memories of strange rituals, gruesome secrets and shame hang heavy in the air, exerting a brooding power over young Stella Moon. She was eager to restart her life but first had to confront the ghosts of her macabre family history and her own shocking crime. All seemed ambiguous as guilt, paranoia and manipulation spun a tangled web of truth and lies. Stella Moon was certain of only one thing: that she had killed her own mother.
The psychological aspects and darkness of mind weave their way into the collection of short stories aptly titled What Are You Like where Stella appears again. But is she the same person? The interlinked vivid tales are akin to tiny gems, all individually polished and shiny and separate in their own right yet fitting perfectly together, creating an unusual exploration of themes close to anyone’s heart: love, loss, family, friendship. As the author continues to travel through time, social attitudes and own reflections on life and world, various voices enter and add to the intricate unforgettable portraits of situations and emotions. Such as the complex relationship between two ‘chalk and cheese’ sisters Sadie and Cara and that incomprehensive untamed monster of depression that engulfs one of them:
‘I used to wonder whether blood actually was thicker than water. Because when you think of it, families are where shit happens. I mean that seriously, you’ve more likely to be murdered by in your family than in some dark alleyway, more likely to be killed by a rello than by a deranged stranger. I mean blood can literally be blood.’
Deftly rendered thoughts and images bring a strong sense of various Norwegian and North England’s locations, detailed depictions of distinctive areas, and the dialects representative of social groups. Imaginative miniature visual masterpieces surprise with metaphors: ‘And once again the bag is packed; there, on the floor, it gapes its wound, its innards spilling out. Or vulval, it’s private parts exposed to my current indecision.’
Some of the stories set in Norway show deep passion for the generosity and inspiration of the landscape, changing seasons and the enteral power of nature. My favourite tale must be Svarverkjær which is a delicate yet compelling stunning love story between a small wooden house named Svarverkjær and the Elk; story about passage of time, of natural cycles of nature; of care and understanding how humans, animals and objects fit within the specific environment. It is touching and moving and so sensitively drawn you can sense the sunshine, hear the rain on the decrepit roof, tremble in the freezing cold, and taste the memories of summer just as the Elk eats the fallen apples and the old house worries about the huge majestic animal losing its status in the ancient forest. Pure poetry!
From her prose you can glean the way Shelley Day feels about the eternal want for learning from the greats and their mastery of words, her passion for language and its mysteries. To slightly paraphrase her own writing: ‘You always like to re-read on holiday because a different time a different place makes the words entirely new’, this collection will be calling you back.
The famous Swedish scientist Professor Balder contacts the crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, dedicated to exposing corruption and abuse, but within hours he is murdered and Blomkvist finds himself in the centre of the police investigation. The genius hacker Lisbeth Salander is hot on the trail of the cyber criminals who threatened Balder.
As I am musing over a completely different book which focuses on Stieg Larsson and his lost files relating to the assassination of the Swedish prime minister Olof Palme (review of Jan Stocklassa’s The Man Who Played With Fireto follow) my thoughts go back to reading the first of a ‘new’ Millennium novels written by someone other than the original creator of the now legendary Lisbeth Slander fighting right-wing villains.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked Hornets’ Nest were reissued by MacLehose Press in June 2015, ahead of publishing Lagercrantz’s book in August the same year.
Following overexcited publicity, rumours and secrecy surrounding translation and publication of The Girl In TheSpider’s Web I was hoping that aside from creating the outrage that David Lagercrantz took on the iconic modern-day super-heroine, that the novel will live up to the expectations of Lisbeth Salander’s fans. And thanks Odin (Norse mythology), it’s a good story. In fact, it’s really great, especially if you don’t compare it with Larsson’s legacy which is in a different world / era – which I won’t.
The premise is relatively modest. A renowned Swedish scientist Professor Frans Balder returned from America to his homeland. Living like a recluse, he has recently started caring for his autistic eight-year-old son August and recognises that the boy is a savant, with extraordinary mathematical and artistic skills. Balder fears for his life, after his computers have been hacked by a dangerous group called Spiders, headed by Thanos (supervillain of Marvel Comics origin), yet he refused protection offered by the secret police Säpo. One night he deletes years of his Artificial Intelligence research and contacts the uncompromising investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist who is currently stuck in a professional rut. A couple of hours later the professor is murdered.
Blomkvist also finds out that a genius female hacker has been in touch with Balder, aside from breaking into the most secure computer systems of the American National Security Agency. That could only be ‘Wasp’ (comic book superhero): Lisbeth Salander. She is following her own agenda, tracking her vicious powerful twin sister. Salander’s character seems to take the centre stage, and she is as Larsson’s original creation as I can remember. At first Blomkvist appears more as her sidekick – though those roles evolve naturally as the investigation into the murder progresses. Full of contradictions, Salander is the fighter for justice: especially for the abused women and children. She’s ruthless and merciless yet compassionate, breaking every possible rule, and I want her to succeed. And so does Blomkvist.
The first half of the book concentrated on laying the foundations and delivering a sophisticated tractate on the AI concept, explaining the most intricate details of the cyber world/ underworld security, and painting a political and business backdrop for the troubled Millennium magazine. And then suddenly it takes off! I couldn’t read fast enough from the point when Blomkvist realises that the exquisite yet unsettling drawings found at the murder scene are in fact drawn by August, a witness to his father’s murder. It was like a slow climb up the ski slope in preparation for the longest ever ski flying in the air where you cannot get out for the fear of missing out while being targeted by the cyber and real criminals at the same time. Lagercrantz’s brilliant craftsmanship is visible in characterisation and plotting narrative of the novel, translated masterfully by George Goulding who not only conveyed the atmosphere of this thriller but also managed to make the mind-boggling (for me) issues of cyber espionage and the mathematical algorithms understandable. The Girl in the Spider’s Web, fast and pacey, violent and intelligent, is a worthy successor to the original trilogy.


With artworks and/or presentations by Aslı Çavuşoğlu, Marika Kuźmicz, Małgorzata Ludwisiak, Anna Molska, Daniel Muzyczuk, Karol Radziszewski, Janek Simon
A two-day programme consisting of film screenings, talks and presentations introducing the work of seven artists and curators from Poland and Turkey working with historical material. Set at the former Porthos hat shop ―a disused commercial establishment at the heart of Marszałkowska Street, a primary thoroughfare of post-War Socialist Warsaw― the programme intends to problematize the matter of “display” in our current interest in history.
There is a thin line between the fetishisation of history and the dialectical logics of its representation. Many contemporary art projects today seek to find the origins of our present moment in the unexpected appearance of a relevant past. The display of historical material then becomes an extension of the work, an artistic method, not merely a record of the past. So, the question is twofold: First of all, to what extent can these two disciplines, art and history, become integrated? And, what are the methods employed by contemporary art projects to display historical material, and what purpose do they hope to serve?
This program was conceived as a result of Nazlı Gürlek's residency at A-I-R Laboratory in 2013 within the framework of Re-Directing: East project.
Sarkis and "When Attitudes Become Form" is the e-publication of an oral history project. It presents a compilation of three interviews conducted with Sarkis at his studio in Villejuif, Paris on three separate occasions in January 2011 and December 2012. The text is accompanied by photographs from the personal archive of the artist. Taking as its starting point the 1969 exhibition entitled When Attitudes Become Form, the publication creates a critically and intellectually fertile ground where Sarkis' thought processes of the 1960s can be understood as part of the relationship between art and transformed production and exhibition contexts, within the dynamics of interpersonal relationships and the international art system.
E-pub and pdf version can be downloaded here: SALT ONLINE
June 25-September 25, 2013
May 19-25, 2013
In collaboration with Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) Derry~Londonderry
Residency: July 3-Aug 3, 2013
Conversation with Iz Oztat: July 3, 2013


It has been a tradition where I note down the books that I have read during the year. I decided to make it public last year and decided to continue this year. The books (and podcasts) that I listen are how I would like to measure progress in the learning department. Here is a rundown of books that I listened on Audible.
This year’s highlight was I decided to double down on a set of books focused on how I could tackle obesity and help reverse my wife’s diabetes. So I went down the rabbit hole after reading “Why we get fat” by Gary Taubes and watched 10s of videos on Youtube. Also, I read books on reversing Diabetes, and my learnings from the books and videos are summarized here “Why would we all get Diabetes?“. These are the 4 books on health and food that I listened to this year.
- Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It by Gary Taubes
- The Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally
- (if you do not have Diabetes, then you can read) The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss, this is the version of the Diabetes code aimed at Obesity
- Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes: The Scientifically Proven System for Reversing Diabetes Without Drugs
If one were to ask me one book to read to get the basics right, it would be “The Obesity Code” , I would also recommend the Youtube channels of Pradeep Jamna Das, Dr. Eric Berg, and Dr. Sten Ekberg. They have great videos to get specific insights on various aspects of food and health.
Other books this year
The other books that I listened to this year are given below, I have listed them in the order of learnings for me.
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel: If there is a book that I recommend everyone read, it is this masterpiece. I always thought I knew a lot about finance and stocks, but the 19 stories in this book blew away that misconception. Highly recommended for everyone who wants to handle personal finance, even pros will learn a lot from this book.
Talks On Gita by Vinoba Bhave: As someone who has never completed the reading of Bhagavad Gita despite many attempts, I was blown away by the simplicity of the language used by Vinoba Bhave. The book is a translation of Vinobha’s talks in Marathi on Gita during his time in jail. I discovered this gem from “One Percent Podcast featuring Manish Chokhani.” Highly recommended read. It is a small book costing Rs 49!
Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl – Finally finished this masterpiece of a book, this was a book given to me by my father around 15 years back, but somehow, I never finished the book. But then, when I discovered the Audible version of this book, I decided to complete this book. It is a must-listen book; I will listen to this again next year!
On Writing Well by William Zinsser – I got to this masterpiece quite late, wondering how I missed reading this book for so long. The audio version of the book is just 2 hours but carries a wealth of insight on writing. Highly recommend this book for anyone over 12 years of age; it does not matter if one wants to become a writer it will help improve writing in every aspect of your life. The book has many gems; a few of them are.
- Writing is thinking on paper; A clear piece of writing reflects the clarity of the person’s thought.
- There is only one person for whom you write, that is you. This is so insightful!
- Writing shows your personality, never imimitate anyone’s style and making it dishonest; readers see through it. If you like someone’s writing style, you like their personality.
Blitz Scaling by Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh – After hearing about the audacious plans of Ola Electric, a friend recommended that I read this book to understand what Ola Electric is planning to achieve. It is a good book on scaling your business lightning fast by using large amounts of capital from VCs. The execution and speed are your primary differentiation in the markets.
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely – A masterpiece on consumer psychology, this is a must-read for anyone in marketing. It has good insights that have changed my ideas on many topics this year.
Breath by James Nester is a fascinating treatise on the art of breathing; it provides a scientific explanation of how chanting a hymn or mantra helps in improving one’s health. In addition, it explains why breathing techniques like SudarshanKriya work.
Anything You Want 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Entrepreneur by Derek Sivers. I keep revisiting every time I think about entrepreneurship, a concise book with 40 different stories that provide great motivation on being an entrepreneur.
The Courage To Be Disliked: by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga – It is a book about a conversation between a student and a philosopher who teaches the Adlerian school of psychology. The format used is pretty interesting as it explores the school of Adlerian psychology engagingly.


Overcoming Anxiety (Part VI)
Scripture: Matthew 6:25–6:34
I. What is the Subject Dealt With?
II. What is the Connection With What Preceded?
III. What is the Manner in Which Our Lord Deals With the Subject?
IV. What is the Difference Between Worry & Legitimate Concern?
V. What Are the Reasons for Sinful Anxiety?
1. Reason #1: Failure to Recognize the Value of Life & the Body
2. Reason #2: Failure to Recognize the Futility of Sinful Anxiety, v.27
3. Reason #3: Failure to Believe God vv.30-32
VI. What is the Remedy for Sinful Anxiety? v.33
1. The Precept Announced
2. The Promise Attached
3. The Principle Amplified


135177 - History of Osaka University, Spring Term, 2010
History of Osaka University
Institute for Higher Education Research and Practice
Course Structure: 1 time a week, 90 min.
* Omnibus lecture by professors from a variety of faculties
How much knowledge do you have about Osaka University, where you are studying?
Let us learn about the persons who greatly contributed to the development of our university, and let us know the excellent features and the spirits of establishment of it.


Reprinted from “the newspaper” (www.thenewspaper.ca), University of Toronto’s Independent Weekly, June 2008
Harper’s Hollow Apology
By Lee Maracle
On June 11, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered the long overdue apology for the forced removal of the First Nations children from their families to attend residential school. Harper apologized on behalf of those who didn’t survive, and Jack Layton, leader of the NDP party addressed those who did not attend, those who committed suicide, and those who died from the effects of the residential schools. They also announced a two-billion-dollar fund in reparations. I imagine that they all thought this would want us to forgive the government, run from our reserves, blend in with the rest of Canada and “let the healing begin” as one friend of mine put it.
This apology does not come after any kind of settlement or reconciliation between the First Nations who have a number of issues all waiting to be settled. Not the least of which is that Canada acquired half a continent that once belonged to us without our consent. What is clear after reading the Union of B. C. Indian Chiefs, Stolen Lands, Broken Promises, and Dr. Roland Chrisjohn’s, The Circle Game, is that the Residential school system was part and parcel of a colonial regime, bent on not just “killing the Indians,” but also stealing the land.
Along with the removal of children came death by numerous epidemics, such as smallpox, to which the First Nations were often refused vaccination, sometimes at gunpoint. Another blow came in the form of the steady appropriation of land, prohibition from participating in the economic and commercial life of Canada. The destruction of the economic means of survival, which included hunting restrictions. Prohibition from voting, and from entering the work force, paved a way for the disenfranchisement of Indians. To put salt on the wound they even prohibited singing and dancing – none of which fit into this apology. Reverend Kevin Annett refers to the history of residential schools as part of a genocide plan. Dr. Roland Chrisjohn alludes to residential school history as part of the colonization of the First Nation’s people. In that case, this apology rings hollow and false. Until, colonialism ends and our access to the wealth of the country is restored on terms to which all First Nation’s people can agree, there is little to forgive.
Lee Maracle BIO:
Lee Maracle is the author of a number of critically acclaimed winning literary works including:Sojourner’s and Sundogs, Ravensong, Bobbi Lee, Daughters Are Forever, Will’s Garden, Bent Box, I Am Woman, and First Wives’ Club: Salish Style, and is co-editor of a number of anthologies including the award winning My Home As I Remember, Telling It: Women and Language Across Culture. She is a member of the Sto:Loh Nation and has served as the Distinguished Visiting Professor at both University of Toronto and Western Washington University. In 2009, Ms. Maracle received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the St. Thomas University. Her upcoming work, Memory Serves: and other words will be published by Coromont Book sin 2013.


Flim Flam James Randi Pdf Freel
Flim-Flam by James Randi, 9780879751982, available at Book Depository with free delivery worldwide.. Flim-Flam! Psychics: ESP ... Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps. WANT A NOOK ... Publisher: James Randi Educational Foundation ... Put this on your ebook shelf next to Demon Haunted World.. ... Books Online Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions James Randi $14 - http://www.ebooknetworking.net/books_detail-0879751983.html.. Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions is a 1980 book by magician and skeptic James Randi about paranormal, occult, and pseudoscience.... He is also the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation . He began his ... From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ... 2012, Penn stated that Flim-Flam! was an early influence on him, and said "If not for Randi there would not be Penn & Teller as we are today. ... Archived from the original (PDF) on April 19, 2013.. Flim Flam James Randi Pdf 25 -> DOWNLOAD (Mirror #1) ... Look up flim-flam in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Flim-flam may refer to:.... Flim-Flam! ... Read it online for free! or download a free PDF copy after registering ... Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural : James Randi's Decidedly Skeptical Definitions of Alternate Realities by James Randi; Quantum Leaps in.... James The Amazing Randi is a world-renowned magician, skeptic and ... of many books, including The Truth About Uri Geller, Flim-Flam! and.... Free Download: Flim-Flam: The Truth about Unicorns, Parapsychology and Other Delusions. Product Description James Randi is internationally known as a.... Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions book by James Randi pdf, Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions free pdf online, Flim-Flam!. Flim-Flam Flummery: A Skeptical Look at James Randi. Years ago, when I ... So you'll need RealPlayer (a free download at www.real.com). The film has been.... Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions. Home Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions ... Author: James Randi...
Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions by James Randi James Randi, ... Flim-Flam! ... Flim-Flam! ... Free 2-day shipping on qualified orders over $35.. Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, And Other Delusions - James Randi - Free ebook download as ePub (.epub), PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read book.... Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions eBook: Randi, James, Asimov, ... Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE ... and the history of magic, and has published many books including Flim-Flam!, The.... Flim-Flam! Randi explores and exposes what he believes to be the outrageous deception that has been promoted widely in the media. Unafraid to call researchers.... James Randi is internationally known as a magician and escape artist. ... To ask other readers questions about Flim-Flam!, please sign up. ... Shelves: skepticism, non-fiction, ebook, kindle-drm ... purveyors of woo like David Wolfe, Deepak Chopra and the Food Babe feel free to send me a message or just leave a comment.. Morals, Books To Read, Kindle, Christ, Ebooks, Pdf, Reading,. Expand. Saved from ... Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions James Randi 0879751983 9780879751982 James Randi is. Open ... James Randi - Flim-Flam!: Psychics.... Get Free Flim Flam James Randi. Flim Flam James ... Free PDF ebooks (user's guide, manuals, sheets) about Flim flam james randi pdf free ready for download.. James Randi (born August 7, 1928) (stage name The Amazing Randi) is a stage ... Randi began his career as a magician, but then became a debunker of the paranormal. ... (later renamed The Truth About Uri Geller ISBN 0-87975-199-1); Flim-Flam! ... Create a book Download as PDF Printable version...
Romeo Juliet Tamil Movie Download Tamilrockersgolkesl
Wondershare Filmora 220.127.116.11 Crack With Key [Working]
gustavo escobar etica pdf download
Maria Jimenez Donde Mas Duele Canta Por Sabina Descargar
download tamil dubbed the Dear Dad movie
Toilet - Ek Prem Katha in hindi download hd
B.A. Pass - 2 telugu movie download 720p hd
Aliona Rudaia Set 139 - 30 Pics
BlazingTools.Perfect.Keylogger.Remote.Edition.v1.93.Incl.Keygen Full Version
Khatta Meetha Full Movie In Hindi Torrent 720p


Boost Installation Instructions for Visual Studio 2015
The instructions mainly follow the Boost's official guide for Windows. The current version of Boost (as of Jan 22, 17) is 1.63.0.
1. Get Boost
- Download the copy of Boost for Windows platform via http://www.boost.org/users/history/version_1_63_0.html. Either .7z or .zip is fine.
- Extract the archive file to your directory of choice. For this example I chose to extract to "C:/boost_1_63_0". In the folder you will see plenty of files including "bootstrap.bat".
2. Run bootstrap.bat
- Click the Windows button and search for "Visual Studio 2015" folder.
- Start Visual Studio's command prompt. Now it depends on which OS version you have. For this example, since my OS is 64-bit Windows, the command prompt I need to run is "VS2015 x64 Native Tools Command Prompt". If your OS is 32-bit Windows, then "VS2015 x86 Native Tools Command Prompt".
IMPORTANT: need to run the command prompt as administrator.
- Change directory to the Boost folder using command "cd". For this example "cd C:\boost_1_63_0", then run "bootstrap".
3. Build Boost using b2
Under the previous command prompt, run a command "b2 install". The default installation directory is C:\Boost.
Remark: If you want to choose the directory of your choice, run "b2 install --prefix=PREFIX" where PREFIX indicates the path you want to install the Boost. For example, " b2 install --prefix="C:\MyBoost64\" ". For this example I use the default command.
(Note that it might takes a while for this step)
Now you have successfully installed the Boost!
Under the Boost folder you will see two subfolders namely "include" and "lib".
The final step is to include the Boost library in Visual Studio's C++ project.
4. Include Boost library in Visual Studio's C++ Project
Open a C++ project, choose "Project > Properties". Now, you need to add two things, the include path and the library path for Boost.
- Add "BOOSTPATH\include\boost-1_63" to "C/C++ > Additional Include Directories"
- Add "BOOSTPATH\lib" to "Linker > Additional Library Directories"


Buckby Library & Hub is a community run Charity established to provide services and activities to the Northamptonshire village of Long Buckby and its surrounding villages.
for the last minute cancellation of our film on 23rd April 2024. Please pop into the Library from Friday 26th April where we can swap your ticket for our May film One Life or issue a refund if you prefer. PLEASE ensure you bring your ticket for Past Lives with you to enable an exchange. Thank you for your understanding.
West Northants Library Service has new and free online language resources to support language learning. You can now access the ‘Transparent Language Online’ website for free with your library card via the PN’s machines or from your home. It can be accessed under the language drop down via this link HERE. The site provides an effective and engaging experience for language learners looking to build their vocabulary, practice their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, and maintain what they learn. There are courses and supplemental resources in 110+ languages, including English for speakers of over 30 languages.
We are partnering with The Long Buckby Practice who are supporting patients. Do you need some help from your surgery? Want to know more about online services? Do you look after someone and want advice? Need help with a social problem or your wellbeing?
The next session is Tuesday 30th April, 3pm to 4pm.
The snvb (originally known as South Northants Volunteer Bureau) welfare van is coming to our car park on Wednesday 1st May, from 10am to 3pm.
The Welfare Project is focused on supporting people from the rural areas of West Northamptonshire to access welfare and social care help and advice. This service also provides an opportunity to explore cheaper energy tariffs and discuss energy saving tips. Read More for further information.


Y1 celebrate the 1940s
As you will have heard, Pipworth turned 90 years old this term, and to celebrate, each year group was assigned a different decade from Pipworth's history. Have a look at what Y1 did to celebrate the 1940s.
The robot and the bluebird
Our class text this term is by the author David Lucas - The Robot and the Bluebird. This beautiful picture book tells the tale of a lonely robot whose broken heart is fixed with the help of a little bluebird.
Cannon Hall farm trip
We have recently been on a trip to Cannon Hall farm. Have a look at our video below:


Over its long history, the SDSU MFA Musical Theatre Program has amassed an extensive collection of librettos, manuscripts, vocal scores, vocal selection books, composer songbooks, song sheets and anthologies, reference books, audio and video recordings, programs, playbills, posters, clipping files and memorabilia, much of which is unpublished, out-of-print, or unavailable elsewhere. These collections are housed in our Musical Theatre Archive, the only university archive/study facility of its kind on the West Coast.
SDSU’s Musical Theatre Archive is a multi-use space for our graduate students: a library/computer, lab/office, and lounge area where they can read, study, write papers, digitize materials, create cutting-edge audio-visual presentations, and relax between classes and rehearsals. Through its archive and collections, course work, productions, special projects and community events, the SDSU MFA Musical Theatre Program plays a vital role in training the next generation of musical-theatre artists and educators; cultivating knowledgeable, enthusiastic audiences; and ensuring the future of this important, unique American art form.
The SDSU MFA Musical Theatre Archive was established in 2005 by Dr. Rick Simas and made possible by generous donations from Dr. Carey Wall.


Susan Starling Towles (collected), 1861-1954
Nails, circa 1817
Henderson County Historical Society Collection, JJA.1938.121.1-5
These are hand-forged iron nails taken from the ruins of John James Audubon’s mill in Henderson, Kentucky. The nails were most likely created during the construction of a grist and saw mill owned by Audubon & Bakewell between 1816 and 1817. Henderson librarian Susan Starling Towles (1861-1954) acquired the nails in this collection after the building burned on March 18, 1913. The Henderson County Historical Society later donated the nails to the Audubon Museum in 1938.
Where can you view these objects? As of the writing of this post, the nails are located in Gallery A at the Audubon Museum.
Questions? Contact museum curator Heidi Taylor-Caudill at 502-782-9716 or firstname.lastname@example.org.


Do you have old books in your shelf that are getting eaten away by moths? Are you worried you will lose your books collection? Do you know you can digitize them and save them for ever? Do you know what is digitization? Are you a publisher and missing out on sales because you cannot print them in small quantities? Do you want to re-explore your market for old published materials? Do you want to archive all your old publishings from Microfiche, films to digitial text on the same format and font as your old publications?
- We provide End to End solution for digitization. We not only digitize your contents, but also edit and format the contents to the the same format - including page to page, para to para equivalent of the original book making it easier for researchers on quoting the publication date, page no and para no details.
- We optionally create fonts if standard font of your format is not available. This will ensure that you never lose your original printed media's look and feel.
- We ensure that all decorations of your printed media along with any photography, drawings and arts will be captured to ensure nothing is lost in digitization.
- We provide all texts in Unicode format, completely searchable and editable.
- We provide texts converted to various format including Kindle & e-pub format for immediate sale in virtual media - Kindle books and Apple / nook books. We can provide document in PDF for manuals, Freelance or Publisher for publication or just plain Word format for editing.
- We host our own in-house application for digitization requirement. What this means to you is less manual entry and less labour and time. The cost benefits are passed on to you.
- If you are a library or if you have a very good collection of old books, worried about scanners that will spoil the fragile pages - worry not! We bring our scanners to your place and will scan it for you. Our top of the range portable scanners are high resoultion, fast, accurate and open type which do not require your book to be folded or subjected to any stress.
- We can provide digitization of any size document you have. Be it A0 - newspaper size or A6 pocket-size book. We can digitize them with our scanners.
- With us handling your digitization needs, the next thing you will have to look for is recovering the cost of digitization. We can help you here as well.
- We can create formats for you and help you host your books for sale in virtual media, with leading publishers like Kindle, Google, Apple etc., We can help you set up stores for you there with or without encryption.
- If you prefer, we can set up an e-business website for you to host your virtual and printed media on your website or create one for you.
- If you want us to handle the sale of your books, we can publish the books at our site and can optionally handle printed media logistics as well. Our costs are very low and in most cases you will only end up paying a small commission for what you sell!
- Options are endless. Talk to us. Call us. Your initial consultations are always free!
Benefits of Digitization
Be it you are a professional publisher or a librarian or an individual book collector, digitization offers great benefits
- Obvious benefit is storage. Large volumes of books can be stored in small inexpensive memory cards or on web based clouds for infinite time.
- By skilfully digitizing the document media, you can preserve the exact format, look and feel of the printed media. This will ensure that you can always take a printed copy at any point and will still have the same replica of original printed media albeit new print
- No special environmental requirement for preservation of the book. You can have multiple backups. Not to worry about books getting damaged by moths, floods or natural calamity.
- Last but not least - availability of the books to future generations in the same original format, with the same font, images, photography and decorations that was originally published!


Monday, September 13, 2010
Mothers Love - a beautiful poem
Her love is like an island
In life's ocean, vast and wide
A peaceful, quiet shelter
From the wind, the rain, the tide.
'Tis bound on the North by Hope,
By Patience on the West,
By tender Counsel on the South
And on the East by Rest.
Above it like a beacon light
Shine Faith, and Truth, and Prayer;
And thro' the changing scenes of life
I find a haven there.
I used this poem for part of a photo book I made of my mother. When I read it I feel grateful for a wonderful Mother and I feel great sense of purpose as a mother to my own children.


There is a newer version of ArmadilloArmadillo is an open-source C++ linear algebra library (matrix maths) aiming towards a good balance between speed and ease of use. Integer, floating point and complex numbers are supported, as well as a subset of trigonometric and statistics functions.
Accessing Armadillo 9.900.2-foss-2019b
To load the module for Armadillo 9.900.2-foss-2019b please use this command on the BEAR systems (BlueBEAR, BEARCloud VMs, and CaStLeS VMs):
module load Armadillo/9.900.2-foss-2019b
BEAR Apps Version
For more information visit the Armadillo website.
This version of Armadillo has a direct dependency on: arpack-ng/3.7.0-foss-2019b Boost/1.71.0-gompi-2019b foss/2019b
These versions of Armadillo are available on the BEAR systems (BlueBEAR, BEARCloud VMs, and CaStLeS VMs). These will be retained in accordance with our Applications Support and Retention Policy.
|Version||BEAR Apps Version|
Last modified on 20th August 2020


Long before we could reach out and touch someone sad via phone, email, or texts, there was the letter.
While it’s easy to think of letters as mainly sources of cherry correspondence, they also have been a common method to send messages of consolation, long before you could go the store and select the perfect Hallmark card to share sympathies at a tough time.
The sender can use all the pages they want to share sympathy, any memories of the deceased, and any particular experiences and personal insights with death and grieving.
Death is something that we’ve experienced for thousands of years, but our understanding of it continues to evolve. For instance, our current culture generally understands the five stages of grief we all go through in difficult times. (Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). But these clearly defined stages are actually fairly new, coming into popular consciousness in the early 1970s.
This means our collective history of grief in letters of note is going to include all sorts of varied discussions and opinions about the meaning of grief and the meaning of life. Trying to seek answers in these emotionally challenging situations has even led to several letters back and forth on this topic. The letters may have even served a therapeutic purpose as well, and helped people deal with their personal grief by putting their thoughts and feelings into words.
Certainly everyone expressed opinions about grief in different ways, and historic figures and prominent authors and thinkers from their respective time periods are able to provide interesting observations about life and their culture from their writings. Their letters of note may sometimes need a little context to better understand the topic (was the writer talking about grief over a child, spouse, or parent, or grief in general?) but they are always poignant.
Two examples of letters of note dealing with grief include:
- Abraham Lincoln – Scholars are still finding interesting insight from the writings of the 16th president of the United States. He regularly communicated with all sorts of people, from generals during the Civil War in the 1860s to his friends and family. He also had his share of tragedy, including his mother’s death when he was a child to losing two sons when he was in office. He was president during a difficult time in the country, but there were other incidents which he discussed in his writing. One of his letters was to Fanny McCullough, the daughter of Lincoln’s longtime friend William McCullough after his death in 1862. He shared his memories of William and started by saying that death does come for all of us eventually, but it still hurts. He did his best to offer comfort, promising her she’d feel better in the future.
- Johannes Brahms – Brahms was known for his music, but he also had a surprising amount of insight in the human condition. Two of his friends were Clara and Robert Schumann. Clara was an accomplished pianist and Robert was a composer who also served as a mentor to Johannes. When Robert had a mental breakdown and died in an institution, Johannes regularly wrote to Clara. He emphasized the importance of staying strong and the good things that await her after an appropriate period of bereavement. In his letters of note, he also encouraged her to be aware that going through such a difficult time now will make future good times more enjoyable and pleasant.


RubyThe N+1 Dilemma - Bullet or Prosopite?
Recently, we started profiling some parts of our application, to identify bottlenecks and hot paths. One of the culprits was, as you must have already guessed, N+1 queries.
What are N+1 Queries?
N+1 queries occur when a query is executed for each of the results of a previous query. This means that, if a query is made (1 query) and the result of that query contains N items, and we proceed to make a query for each of those items, we eventually end up making N+1 queries. This is a common problem found in frameworks utilizing ORM (Object-Relational Mapping), eg. Ruby on Rails. With an ORM, we interact directly with an object and its data in the same language an app is written, as opposed to via raw sql queries; this gives rise to the possibility of making more queries than needed to fetch the same data that could have been retrieved when executing the primary SQL query.
Shooting Down N+1s with Bullet, or not?
One of the most common gems in the Ruby community to help detect N+1s is the Bullet gem. The Bullet gem not only detects them but also suggests how to eliminate them using eager loading. It is also able to provide information about positions where eager loading is used but unnecessary.
A quick example of how Bullet works is shown below.
Fetch all books in a database and print their corresponding library name (a library has many books).
Visiting this route causes Bullet to output the following:
This happens because the below queries took place:
As seen above, we make 1 query to fetch all the books in the database, and then for every book fetched, we proceed to ask the database for the library of that book. This is way too many trips to the database if you ask me; however, Bullet suggests a fix for this and that would be updating the index method to the following:
This fixes the issue and only the following queries are run:
Easy-peasy right? Well, before you celebrate, take a look at something interesting we found:
In the Library and Book model:
On visiting this route, at this point, the following SQL queries are performed:
As seen above, for each of the libraries that were returned from the first query, we make a corresponding query. That’s an N+1 right there, but Bullet does not complain because it does not detect it. On realizing this, we decided to search for an alternative that could detect cases like this, cause it was obvious that our N+1 bullets were missing their targets.
Prosopite - The “bullet” that doesn’t miss?
Prosopite is a ruby gem that seeks to auto-detect Rails N+1 queries. In the owner’s own words, “The need for prosopite emerged after dealing with various false positives/negatives using the bullet gem”. As seen previously, we encountered a false negative - the indication that you have no N+1s, when in reality you do. On the installation of this gem, we encounter the following error:
Prosopite is able to detect and inform us of this N+1. However, prosopite does not suggest how this can be fixed, like in the case of the bullet gem. It does not tell you where to add “include” statements, hence, the onus is on you to figure it out. This should not be a hard task as the stack trace is available to figure out where the N+1 occurred.
Below is the result from one of the points in our application (non-production environment with way less data) where an N+1 was fixed after detection by prosopite:
The time spent executing SQL as seen above was reduced by two-thirds and this, of course, translates into lesser queries for same amount of data and happier databases. With several developers working on different parts of an application and lacking the full knowledge about the other domains, there is a likelihood that N+1s would be introduced, many times, unknowingly. It is therefore very important to have a tool that identifies these and identifies them correctly.
In my opinion, trading the suggestion of how to fix an N+1 is nothing compared to knowing that it does exist. With a proper understanding of what N+1s are and how they come about, fixing them should not be impossible. Sometimes, we might have to rethink the logic leading to the queries or carry out some checks in memory as opposed to several database calls; whatever method is chosen is highly dependent on the situation at hand. The most important thing is that we are able to identify them and fix them in a performant manner.


Welcome to This Present Darkness WikiEdit
The Darkness series, written by Frank Peretti, consists of two books: This Present Darkness and its sequel, Piercing the Darkness. This Present Darkness Wiki gives information on everything in that series from humans to angels to demons.
The Darkness SeriesEdit
The Darkness Series follows the unseen battle between angels and demons through the eyes of both the angels and the humans they unfalteringly protect.
The first novel, This Present Darkness, follows Hank Busche and Marshall Hogan of the little town of Ashton through an incredible journey. Tal, Guilo, and the rest of the angelic warriors work behind the scenes to save the little town of Ashton from Rafar and the demonic forces set on destroying it.
The second book, Piercing the Darkness, brings back old characters and introduces a few new ones. Sally Beth Roe is on the run after an assassin makes an atempt on her life, completely unaware of the demonic forces that are on her tail. Meanwhile, Tom Harris has his children forcibly taken from him for preforming an exorcism on a child he (correctly) suspected was demon-possessed.


Thornton reviews the book Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures, and Innovations, by Mary Beard. New York: Liverwright, 2013, 320 pp., $28.95 hardbound.
by Bruce S. Thornton // NAS
This piece originally appeared in the Fall 2014 issue of Academic Questions (Volume 27, Number 3).
Once the heart of liberal education, the study of Greek and Latin languages and literatures has unfortunately been reduced to a prestige discipline found mainly in elite universities rich enough to afford the luxury of a classics program. The once universal high school experience of memorizing Latin declensions and reading some Caesar is nearly extinct compared to sixty years ago. These days most people get their knowledge of antiquity from lurid cable television series like Spartacus, or historically dubious movies like Gladiator and the more recent Pompeii. The foundational ideas, ideals, literature, art, and philosophy of the West are increasingly becoming historical curiosities that like Egyptian mummies or Viking long ships are artifacts, detached from the society and the minds of citizens who continue to live off a cultural capital the nature and origins of which they know nothing.
Those expecting an argument in favor of reviving the study of the classics from Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures, and Innovations, Mary Beard’s new collection of book reviews, will find misleading the dust jacket claim that the book shows why the classical tradition “still matters.” In this collection, Beard, a professor of classics at Cambridge University and a regular on British television, is more concerned with the intramural professional disagreements and conflicting interpretations of ancient literature and culture unlikely to be of interest to a larger audience. Very few, if any, of these essays cover the ancient “monuments of unageing intellect,” or the classical “things of beauty” that have delighted and instructed the West for 2700 years. Thus these reviews will “matter” mostly to the few hundred thousand academics and other cultural elites who subscribe to the New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, and the Times Literary Supplement—the publications in which these reviews first appeared, and which have little influence on those outside the parochial Lilliputs of academe.


Process Managers Guide: A Manual for Practical Process Improvement Program Practitioners, Instructors, and Coaches
by R. Edward Zunich
As the title of this book implies, Process Managers Guide: A Manual for Practical Process Improvement Program Practitioners, Instructors, and Coachesis designed to serve as a pragmatical manual for Practical Process Improvement (PPI) consultants, instructors, and other practitioners in the field of Business Process Improvement (BPI). The book itself provides a succinct overview of PPI theories and concepts, but primarily includes tools and resources for instructor-led seminars and recommended readings, making this an ideal read for beginning practitioners as well as those seeking new sources of knowledge.
The Three Questions & The Eight Step Method
Arguably, Zunich presents some of the most simple yet powerful tools for PPI in the first chapter of the book. With frequent references to the work of Dr. Walter Shewhart, deemed “the father of modern quality control,” and his protege, Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Zunich challenges the reader to answer three questions to reach an operational definition of continuous improvement efforts:
- What do you want to accomplish?
- How will we accomplish it?
- How will we know when we have accomplished it?
Further extending Dr. Deming’s work on the “Plan-Do-Study-Act” (PDSA) model of problem solving, Zunich proposes an expanded eight step method for achieving process improvement:
Step 1: Mission Statement
This step takes shape based on responses to the three questions listed previously. Without these three points (i.e. a vision statement, a statement of methods and values, and a system of metrics, respectively), improvement efforts may not be successful.
Step 2: Current Processes
This step focuses on gathering data and examining the present state of processes. Basically, “Where are we today?”
Step 3: Simplify Process
Readers should look for often obvious “quick fixes” to eliminate waste and problems in current processes.
Step 4: Analyze the Data
Zunich provides some helpful strategies and recommended diagnostic and analytical tools for using collected data. He cautions the reader to be mindful of how data is collected: changing the method can change the data.
Step 5: Find Solution
Throughout the text, Zunich emphasizes the importance of developing data-driven solutions over opinion-based methods, such as brainstorming.
Step 6: Test Solution
This step calls for the use of the previously noted PDSA model to arrive at a practical process solution.
Step 7: Standardize Solution
Clearly defining, implementing, and monitoring new processes created efficient and sustainable improvements.
Step 8: Future Plans
Project teams – not standing committees– explore future recommendations for process improvement.
Practical Managers Guide: Instructor Resources & Seminar Guides
Staying true to its intended purpose and audience, over three-quarters of the book is devoted to teaching the theories, concepts, and models presented in the first few chapters. Approaches to adult learning theory and effective knowledge transfer are sprinkled throughout early chapters with instructional principles relevant for any training event. The easy to follow instructor notes list key concept takeaways and discussion topics to guide a process improvement training seminar. Provided exercises and scenarios help create a well-rounded instructional guide designed to maximize learning effectiveness.
The Process Managers Guide approaches BPI from a very logical and practical perspective, borrowing from the works of several well respected experts in the process improvement field. While not specifically addressed, the reader may see similarities to methodologies of Six Sigma and Lean, but presented in a simplified, more realistic way. Zunich’s suggested reading list offers a variety of selected titles to provided more depth to the PPI discussion and specific concepts.
Reflection Questions: What are some of the most effective instructional strategies you’ve personally used or encountered when it comes to business process improvement? Are there any tools, resources, websites, videos, etc. that are your “go to” source of information on BPI?
Challenge the Way You Think About Work
Zunich, R.E. (2012). Process Managers Guide: A Manual for Practical Process Improvement Program Practitioners, Instructors, and Coaches. Hendersonville, NC: Summit Marketing Group.


In a world where acquiring a unique technological system often requires the unconventional path of death and reincarnation, Aron Michael’s story stands out as an extraordinary exception. As a promising student on the verge of graduation, Aron’s life took an unexpected turn when he was abruptly expelled from his university under dubious circumstances. The cruel twist of fate left him not only without a degree but burdened with overwhelming student debt, a debt he had no means to repay.
However, Aron’s life was about to undergo a remarkable transformation. One fateful day, an enigmatic system revealed itself to him, identifying as the [Advanced Tech System]. Unlike those who typically obtain such systems after reincarnation, Aron’s journey to greatness would begin without the necessity of death.
This unique twist of fate marked the commencement of Aron’s extraordinary odyssey, where he would evolve from an ordinary individual into the mastermind behind the world’s most influential and innovative corporation. With unwavering determination, Aron sought to challenge the odds and harness the potential of his newfound technological companion to not only conquer his student debt but also to achieve unprecedented success.
The story is all-in-one Aron’s remarkable ascent from the depths of an average existence to becoming the visionary leader behind a global technological empire. Unveil the untold secrets, challenges and achievements that will define Aron’s extraordinary journey to greatness, all due to the Advanced Tech System.


Introduction to Consulting Forestry
Louise A. Murgia, editor
If you've ever been interested in working in the field of consulting forestry but didn't know where to start, let Introduction to Consulting Forestry be your guide.
Aimed at those new to consulting forestry, this handbook explores issues such as starting a consulting business, managing daily business operations, marketing and communications, professional ethics, and other topics important to this field.
Introduction to Consulting Forestry brings together experts from a diversity of backgrounds including consulting forestry, environmental law, marketing and communications, insurance, and business operations, all sharing their real-world experience on issues facing consulting foresters: handling immigrant workers, timberland appraisals, timber harvest and sale, forest stewardship planning, conservation easements, carbon markets, taxation, and more.
Introduction to Consulting Forestry compiles all the practical information needed to start and thrive in a career in consulting forestry, as well as providing quick reference guides for timber cruising, sampling, and growth projections.
Get your copy today and create the foundation for your success as a consulting forester.


The z2@base Distribution
The z2@base distribution is the most basic z2 distribution that is available from the web site. It consists of the z2 core with some pre-integrated capabilities and third-party frameworks - most notably the Jetty Web Container.
There are several ways to get started and learn. If you are using the GIT source control tool, you may start directly from http://www.gitorious.org/z2_base (also note the Wiki at http://www.gitorious.org/z2_base/pages/Home).
For more details, run the tutorial trail starting at Check It Out.
To learn about the ideas behind it and what is possible visit the documentation.
This distribution has the core Subversion URL:
(user z2_base, password z2_base)
It is hosted and developed at
The z2@base distribution is what the introductory documentation in Check It Out.
An overview over the lincenses pertaining to the included third-party libraries is accessible here:
You can access its Javadoc documentation at


"In establishing the Abbey
, I wished to have a group of trusted and experienced
teachers and friends to whom I could ask questions and advice. In this way, Sravasti
Abbey's advisory board came into existence in 2003."
Venerable Thubten Chodron
Khensur Jampa Tegchog
Born in 1930, Khensur Jampa Tegchog became
a monk at the age of eight. He studied the major Buddhist treatises at Sera-je Monastic
University in Tibet for fourteen years before fleeing in 1959 following the abortive
uprising of the Tibetans against the Chinese communist occupation of their country.
After staying in the refugee camp at Buxa, India, he went to Varanasi where he obtained
his Acharya (Master) Degree and taught for seven years. He then began teaching in
the West—three years in England and ten years at Nalanda Monastery in France.
In 1993, His Holiness the Dalai Lama appointed him abbot of Sera-je Monastic University
in India, a position he held for six years. As a respected former abbot (Khensur),
he continues to teach at Sera-je. His book, Transforming the Heart: The Buddhist
Way to Joy and Courage, is a commentary on “The Thirty-seven Practices of Bodhisattvas”
and describes the Bodhisattvas path.
Geshe Sonam Rinchen
Library of Tibetan Works and Archives
Born in Eastern Tibet, Geshe Sonam Rinchen began his religious studies at age 12 at Dargye monastery, the largest local monastery in Kham Dhargye. He pursued his studies there for the next seven years and completed the basic studies in logic.
At 19, he made a two and a half month journey on foot to Central Tibet to enter Sera Monastery, where he continued his studies until 1959, when he fled to India as a refugee. In India he completed his studies for the degree of Geshe Lharampa, which he received in 1980.
He also holds an Acharya degree from the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Saranath, Varanasi. He has taught classes at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives since 1978 and has also taught in Japan, Australia, Great Britain, Ireland and Switzerland. Several books of his teachings have been published and are available from Snow Lion Publications.
Geshe Kalsang Damdul
After his escape from Tibet, Ven. Geshe
Kalsang Damdul studied at the Central School for Tibetans in Mussoorie, India. In
1973 he continued his education at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala
where he studied all the major Buddhist texts. He received his Master of Prajnaparamita
(Perfection of Wisdom Sutra) degree and was also awarded the Master of Madhyamika
Since 1987, Geshe-la has served as Assistant Director for the Institute of Buddhist
Dialectics under the direct administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. In 1995,
he received his geshe degree from Drepung Loseling Monastery in South India. Spiritual
advisor of the Northwest Tibetan Cultural Association and resident teacher at the
Shakyamuni Tibetan Buddhist Center in Portland OR, he has also taught at Portland State
University as a visiting Tibetan scholar.
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery
Born in Britain, Ven. Tenzin Palmo met her
teacher, the eighth Khamtrul Rinpoche, in India in 1964. She was one of the first
Westerners ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. After studying with her teacher for
six years, she went to a small monastery in Lahaul, India, where she practiced more
intensely. Seeking better conditions for meditation, she lived in a cave in the
mountains in Lahaul for twelve years, after which, in 1988, she went to Italy.
She has taught Dharma internationally and is the founder of Dongyu Gatsel Ling Nunnery
in Tashi Jong, India, where she now lives. Her life is the subject of the book Cave
in the Snow.
Bhikshuni Jendy Shi
Chi Yuan Temple
Born in Taiwan, Ven. Jendy was ordained as a bhikshuni
in 1983 at Hsiang Kuang Temple. In 1987 she went to the USA where she received her
Ph.D. in Education at the University of Washington. She translated for Ven. Bhikshuni
Wu Yin at the program, Life as a Western Buddhist Nun, and also translated Ven.
Wu Yin's book, Choosing Simplicity: A Commentary on the Bhikshuni Pratimoksha. Ven.
Jendy teaches at Chi Yuan Temple, the American Evergreen Buddhist Association, in
French by birth, Ajahn Sundara ordained in the Theravada tradition as an eight-precept
nun at Chithurst Monastery in U.K. in 1979. In 1983 she received the ten-precept
ordination as a siladhara. Having lived at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in U.K.
and Abhayagiri Monastery in CA, she now travels and teaches internationally.
About the Abbey


We are a boutique literary agency, offering a unique full circle approach to literary representation. Our diverse experience in book publishing includes editorial, marketing, publicity, legal and rights, which we use to help build authors one step at a time. We work with both veteran and debut writers and artists and our team has a knack for finding and developing new and diverse talent. Our titles have received awards and honors from the American Library Association, National Book Critics' Circle, Children's Book Council, Society of Children's Books Writers & Illustrators, National Council of Teachers of English, International Reading Association, Pura Belpre Award and Honors, Americas Book Award, and Charlotte Zolotow Award. Our authors have been featured on National Public Radio, Good Morning America, Martha Stewart Living, Design*Sponge, Ohdeedoh, Working Mother magazine, Parents magazine, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and other national media.
Full Circle Literary works with a variety of creative prescriptive and narrative nonfiction books, literary fiction for adults and teens, as well as middle grade and children's picture books. Our underlying policy is that we only sign work we are as enthusiastic about as you are. We'll support you through the publication process... full circle.
Tito Puente: Mambo King written by Monica Brown, illustrated by Rafael Lopez chosen as a 2014 ALA Notable Book and a Pura Belpre Honor for Illustration by the American Library Association.
Tim Z Hernadez's Mañana Means Heaven was named a Best Book of 2013 by Salon.com and Public Radio International.
George Ancona's It's Our Garden has been chosen as the recipient of the 2014 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books!
Listen to author Monica Brown's interview with Arun Rath on NPR's All Things Considered.


As of January 1, 2008 Viola Public Library District went online with the card catalog. Search the library's online catalog at RSACAT. You can check to see if we own the title or request to borrow it from another library. Remember to choose Viola Public Library District as your pick-up place.
While logged in to the database, you can renew your materials, look to see what fines you have, check the status of materials being lent from other libraries and more.
If you don't have your login information, stop by the library or call us at 596-2620.
eBook and eAudio Book Subscription Database
The library has a free subscription to the Alliance Digital Media Library database provided by Overdrive. Hundreds of titles for your Kindle, Nook, eReader, PC, iPad, MP3, or laptop. Viola Public Library District library card and PIN required.
To browse available titles, go to http://alliance.lib.overdrive.com. Two items may be checked out at one time.
Need help with your computer or device?
Check out the following help sheets: