Memories of Ash picks up about a year after the conclusion of Intisar Khanani’s Sunbolt. Hitomi, now using the name Hikaru, has been under the tutelage of Brigit Stormwind, learning to perform healing magic and attempting to regain her lost memories. This interlude comes to an end with the visit from representatives of the High Council of Mages. Stormwind has been called to the council to answer charges of treason. Hitomi must emerge from hiding to confront her enemy Arch Mage Blackflame in order to save her […]
Muslims! They’re just like us!
…anyone who says love is all that matters hasn’t quite grown up. Sofia Khan is a lot of things: a fair-to-middling book publicist, a hijabi, a second-generation Londoner, and a modern girl. She is not a romantic, and she most definitely does not need a man, especially her former fiancé who expected her to move in with his family following the wedding. An off-hand joke during a meeting leads to a book deal: Sofia has been contracted to write a book dating as a modern Muslim girl. Writing […]
All others pay retail
Ikechukwu Uzondu is a Nigerian immigrant struggling to make ends meet in New York City. He graduated cum laude from Amherst in economics, but xenophobic/provincial attitudes about his accent have kept him from finding a high-powered money job in Manhattan. Instead, he’s driving a cab and ducking increasingly desperate emails from his sister about their mother’s financial straits. But Ike–pronounced EE-kay, not “eye-k”–has a plan. He’s heard of a gallery in New York that sells diety paraphernalia. He’ll run home to Nigeria, grab the local […]
Is gaslighting less expensive than electric lighting?
Chloe is bad at dating. No, really. You think, “well, a lot of folks are bad at dating”. I assure you, Chloe is fantastically bad. She tells knock knock jokes when she gets nervous, which you want to excuse because she’s a second grade teacher, but mostly, you want to pat her on the back and suggest that she try movie dates rather than coffee dates. Boyd, in the way of romance heroes, is amused by how awkward Chloe is because Chloe is also quite hot (yet unaware of this, […]
Look, ten thousand hours is a lot of hours. A lot.
In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell used Anders Ericsson’s research (with Ralf Krampe and Clemens Tesch-Römer) as the basis for the “ten thousand hour rule”. By this rule, it takes some ten thousand hours of practice to master a practice/field. With Peak, Ericsson vigorously defends his work against this mischaracterization. Ericsson carefully dismantles the notion that time or talent are all it takes to make it to the top of the game, be the game chess, memory competitions, running, writing, tennis, or pretty much any endeavor. Ericsson […]
Oh, look, another douchebag hero. Quelle surprise!
Guinevere Poe is living her best life. She’s a successful artist whose pieces sell for millions and engaged to a very hot, very rich man. Eli Davenport is also living his best life. He’s a top neurosurgeon and about to marry a very hot, very rich doctor. It all starts going wrong when Guinevere’s fiance runs off with Eli’s bride-to-be. During the ceremony. Awkward.