![]() ![]() A common refrain: “ It was like magic.”ĬhatGPT is free, for now. Twitter users (in a brief respite from talking about Elon Musk) are sharing delightful examples of genuinely clever writing. Professors are warning that this will be the end of the college essay. It’s not the first AI chatbot, and it certainly won’t be the last, but its intuitive user interface and overall effectiveness leave the collective impression that the future is arriving. That sense of wonderment accelerated last month with the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Some of it was weird, some was trite, and some was shockingly good. Overnight, people started sharing AI artwork they had generated for free by simply typing a prompt into a text box. It began with the AI image generators DALL-E 2, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion. After years of seemingly false promises, AI got startlingly good in 2022. ![]() The one exception this year has been in the field of generative AI. The expected revolutions-the metaverse, blockchain, self-driving cars-have plodded along, always with promises that the real transformation is just a few years away. Each new tablet and smartphone is only a modest improvement over its predecessor. ![]() Clarke once remarked, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” That ambient sense of magic has been missing from the past decade of internet history. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Letters From Father Christmas is the collection of letters Tolkien wrote for his own children from none other than Father Christmas himself, detailing his life in the North Pole with his elves, his friend North Polar Bear and their adventures. In honor of the festivities, the tradition, the anticipation millions of children will be feeling today, I thought we’d celebrate with letters from Santa-or as close as we can get, which happens to be the workings of J.R.R. Letters to Santa were sent out weeks ago to ensure they’d make it to the North Pole in time for the big man’s big night- tonight. ![]() Stockings have been hung and the halls decked for some time now. On this, the 24th of December, Christmas is so very nearly here. Published on the 100th anniversary of the first letter Tolkien sent to his firstborn, John, in 1920, this handsome hardcover will also include an introduction from granddaughter Baillie Tolkien, who reflects on the centenary anniversary of the letters, as well as a personal note by J.R.R. ![]() created for his children for the first time in one book along with other archival elements. For fans of Tolkien and lovers of Christmas holidays, Letters from Father Christmas is a gorgeous, festive gift featuring all of the letters that J.R.R. ![]() ![]() His nonfiction books have covered a wide array of topics, from Anne Frank to Elvis Presley. His historical fiction includes titles in the Dear America, My Name is America, and Royal Diaries series, many of which have been named NCSS/CBC Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People. “I was a serious reader from an early age and when I attended Boston University in 1968 Barry Denenberg is the critically acclaimed author of non-fiction and historical fiction. After the publication of An American Hero: The True Story of Charles Lindburgh, Denenberg was interviewed for various documentaries including ABC’s “The Century.” Denenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York and lived in Long Island, Binghamton, New York, and Palisades Park, New Jersey. ![]() Barry Denenberg is the critically acclaimed author of non-fiction and historical fiction. ![]() ![]() ![]() Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond (Crown: $28) The author of “Evicted” looks at poverty from a fresh perspective.Ĥ. The Wager by David Grann (Doubleday: $30) The story of the shipwreck of an 18th-century British warship and a mutiny among the survivors.ģ. The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (Penguin: $32) The music producer’s guidance on how to be a creative person.Ģ. This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs (Little, Brown: $29) A one-hit wonder hopes for a comeback in a novel by a singer from the pop group the Bangles. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Hanover Square: $20) A Tokyo cafe gives customers the chance to travel back in time.ġ0. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco: $30) A giant Pacific octopus bonds with a widowed worker at a Washington State aquarium and tries to help her solve the mystery of her long-missing son.ĩ. ![]() Ryan Stradal (Pamela Dorman: $28) A novel set in the world of Minnesota restaurants.Ĩ. ![]() Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. ![]() ![]() Not as a policemen on the beat, but as one of life’s rejects. Thorne is perfectly placed to find out, and is seconded to the streets. Were these men just random alcoholics, junkies and jetsam? Or were they targeted for a reason? Three men, sleeping rough on streets paved with anything but gold, have been found murdered – each victim kicked to death with a £20 note pinned to their chest. For an ambitious detective – especially one without so much as a window box – it’s a fairly dire situation.īut not as dire as the situation for London’s homeless. Depressed by the recent loss of his father and berated for seriously overstepping the mark on his last case, he’s been encouraged to take ‘gardening’ leave. To friends and enemies alike, it looks as though Tom Thorne’s career is on the skids. ![]() ![]() ![]() The title of Minneapolis anthropologist Solveig Brown’s book “All on One Plate” refers to its subject: the overwhelming expectations that are heaped upon 21st-century American mothers. A monumental book that can be read in a single sitting.īy Solveig Brown. The novel’s respectful, concise accounting of its key moments illuminates its beauty and meaning, and reminds us that each life, no matter how long or brief, is a whole and rounded story, worthy of our attention and respect. Like most lives, Egger’s brings joy, despair, love, loss, success and failure. His life, which plays out in the shadow of great mountains, horrific human history and remarkable technological change, is utterly ordinary, and when he dies, few notice, much less mourn - but because of how reverently his story is rendered, readers will find him unforgettable. ![]() It tracks, from childhood to death, one Andreas Egger, a humble, impoverished, oft abused, barely literate laborer who, except for a harrowing stint as a German soldier and POW during World War II, is rooted for nearly eight decades in a remote mountain town. The story’s power lies in its raw simplicity. This sparse, beautiful novel by Berlin author and actor Robert Seethaler was a bestseller in Germany when it was released in 2014, and the love is likely to spread with this month’s release of Charlotte Collins’ lovely English translation. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 151 pages, $23.) By Robert Seethaler, translated from the German by Charlotte Collins. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() They each commend each other’s strength and declare themselves friends.īecause of a dream he has that Enkidu interprets, Gilgamesh realizes that he has not yet made a name for himself. They wrestle, but Gilgamesh beats Enkidu. ![]() Afterwards, when Enkidu returns to the hills where he lives, the animals run away from him.Įnkidu eventually travels to Uruk and blocks Gilgamesh’s way while walking in the city. The trapper then brings a temple prostitute, Shamhat, to Enkidu, and she seduces him. Both the trapper’s father and Gilgamesh tell him that when Enkidu sleeps with a woman, the animals he lives with will reject him. The trapper describes Enkidu as the strongest man in the world. Enkidu lives in nature, in harmony with the wild animals.Įventually a trapper discovers that Enkidu has been destroying his traps. Aruru forms Enkidu out of water and clay, out in the wilderness. The gods hear these complaints, and the god Aruru creates Enkidu, a man as strong as Gilgamesh. Though Gilgamesh is known to be stronger than any other man, the people of Uruk complain that he abuses his power. The story begins in Uruk, a city in Ancient Sumer (Mesopotamia) where Gilgamesh rules as king. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Maple Street’s Queen Bee, Rhea Schroeder-a lonely professor repressing a dark past-initially welcomed Gertie, but relations plummeted during one summer evening, when the new best friends shared too much, too soon. They don’t fit with the way Maple Street sees itself. Mom Gertie’s got a thick Brooklyn accent, with high heels and tube tops to match. Dad Arlo’s a gruff has-been rock star with track marks. When the Wilde family arrive, they trigger their neighbors’ worst fears. Welcome to Maple Street, a picture-perfect slice of suburban Long Island, its residents bound by their children, their work, and their illusion of safety in a rapidly changing world.īut menace skulks among this exclusive enclave. Celeste Ng and Liane Moriarty’s enthralling dissection of suburbia meets Shirley Jackson’s creeping dread in this “ wickedly funny, unnerving puzzle box of a novel” (Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will) about the downward spiral of a Long Island community after a tragedy exposes its residents’ depths of deception. ![]() ![]() ![]() When I got to the last page, I flipped back to the first. ![]() Needless to say, Cas and Anna are my new favorite twosome. “It's the old boy meets girl story, if the boy is a wry, self-destructive ghost-hunter bent on avenging his father and the girl is a homicidal ghost trapped in a house full of everyone she's ever murdered. ![]() Blake's smooth combination of gore and romance should have little problem attracting the Twilight crowd.” - Booklist on Anna Dressed in Blood Once he’s done cleaning her up, he takes his cloak and wraps it around her. There’s blood on Anna’s dress, but it’s a dark dress and so it’s not as noticable as the blood on her hands and face. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses. He’s not sure how safe it will be to return, but someone has to. Spellbinding and romantic.” -Cassandra Clare, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Mortal Instruments series on Anna Dressed in Blood Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. “ Anna Dressed in Blood is a dark and intricate tale, with a hero who kills the dead but is half in love with death himself. We demand sequels.” - Kirkus Reviews, starred review on Anna Dressed in Blood “Abundantly original, marvelously inventive and enormous fun, this can stand alongside the best horror fiction out there. This captivating story pulls no punches, making for a breathless read that lingers in the imagination long after the last page is turned.” - NPR on Anna Dressed in Blood “At once as eerie and terrible as it is sad and romantic, Anna Dressed in Blood is not your normal ghost story. ![]() ![]() ![]() The effort to honor Nelson was widespread. What had been etched into the collective history of the region was that, at the time of his death, in 1860, Nelson had “left his entire fortune … to Santa Cruz School District No.1.” ![]() ![]() His life story, as was then known, was a small, torn, and incomplete patchwork of legend and folklore that had never been fully flushed out in the decades since he died. In the late 1970s, a small group of African-American community leaders and activists began pushing for the renaming of the Laurel Community Center, at the corner of Laurel and Center streets, in honor of the slave-mistakenly referred to as “Louden” Nelson-whose enduring legacy in Santa Cruz County history dates back to before the Civil War. ![]() |