#gordon macdonald

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[lonesomedreamereccentriclover]

Happy Birthday Holly Hunter!

[moviesandmania]

BRAIN DAMAGE Reviews of Frank Henenlotter's satrirical horror

‘It’s a headache from Hell!’ Brain Damage is a 1988 American comedy horror film written and directed by Frank Henenlotter (Bad Biology; Frankenhooker; Basket Case and sequels). The movie stars Rick Hearst (The Vampire Diaries; Warlock III), Gordon MacDonald and Jennifer Lowry. TV horror host John Zacherley provided the voice of creature “Elmer/Aylmer”. Street Trash (1987) director Jim Muro…

[whibleysims]

"Thank you all for joining us on this esteemed day, especially considering the recent weather."

"It is my great pleasure to announce the official opening of Whibley's first ever hospital and urgent care centre," Mayor Diane Green-MacDonald said proudly. She waited for applause but the small crowd of attendees left her in an awkward pause instead.

"With this new facility," she continued, "we will finally be able to provide Whibley residents, as well as neighbouring cities, a level of high medical care that was otherwise sorely lacking in our community. Dr. Irene Hill will run as chief medical officer interim while we recruit more healthcare professionals in the area."

"I will now take questions and pictures."

[aleckacktually]

The (Disputable) Macdonald Hall Timeline:

since the dawn of time, fans of this niche canadian book series have been plagued by Gordon Korman’s insistence on making the boys time at school timeless, and by proxy, providing no clear passage of time. at all.

wikipedia helpfully provides the only indication of age is “too young to shave” but technically, this isn’t true. in that same book (This Can’t Be Happening) Boots indeed recalls “his Grade 8 field trip” which would imply they are in grade 9.

this is literally impossible.

i was personally driven insane by this notion.

so, i decided to make an obviously entirely factual timeline for all 7 books in the franchise (and graduation for fun because they don’t mention it in book 7, which means it’s not their last year yet) based on comments made throughout the story.

the START dates for the books are all absolutely accurate, but the length is a little fishy (pardon the pun) because unfortunately they almost never confirm how long it’s been since the start of the book by the end.

the holiday dates are based off of the modern toronto school calendar as well as me asking people i know who went to school in canada in the early 80s so while they may not be EXACT, they’re as close as we’re gonna get.

so without further ado, bruno and boots antics now helpfully provided with dates:

feel free to send an ask if you want to see any of my evidence for the start of books that AREN’T right after summer or the length of certain stories cause i’d be happy to tell you!

and yes i did use apple calendar for this, i think it makes me look even more insane and that’s pretty funny

[kwebtv]

Series Premiere

Lock-Up - Stakeout - Syndicated - September 26, 1959

Crime Drama

Running Time: 30 minutes

Written by Gene L. Coon

Produced by Henry S. Kesler

Directed by Henry S. Kesler

Stars:

Macdonald Carey as Herbert L. Maris

John Doucette as Lt. John Weston

Leo Gordon as Ed Sparks

Peggy Knudsen as Margie Cleaver

Jack Hogan as Robert Arnold

Neil Grant as Harold Stern

George Russo as George Gault (as John Duke)

Charles Davis as Thompson

Byron Morrow as Detective at 2nd Desk

Chuck Webster as Detective at 1st Desk

Joel Riordan as Fake Golfer

Victor Tayback as Mr. Malloy

Hal Auerbach as Hal Hoover

Walter Stocker as Second Cop

Peter Dane as

Diane DeLaire as Mrs. Bacon

Rosemary Day as Woman at 2nd Desk

[letterboxd-loggd]

The Working Man (1933) John G. Adolfi

October 29th 2024

[carsini-wineries]

Dear Gordon Jackson,

Happy Birthday!!

Today is Gordon Jackson's 1 century birthday so I created music video. His gentleness and Dignity was special, and I also like his sacred voice...!

I've been so into him since I watched "The Great Escape." I really like Mac and Roger and I started checking their other plays daily.

Again, Happy Birthday and Thank him for his unforgettable works.

"The Great Escape"(1966)/ "The Foreman Went to France"(1942)/"Nine Men"(1943)/"Millions Like Us"(1943)/"Stop Press Girl"(1949)/"The Night of the Generals"(1967)/"Upstairs, Downstairs"(1971-1975)/"The Professionals"(1977-1983)

[shelley-sackett]

SpeakEasy’s “Pru Payne” Is A Must See for Fans of Fabulous Theater

Karen MacDonald and Gordon Clapp in SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of Pru Payne.Photo: Nile Scott Studios By Shelley A. Sackett Karen MacDonald, recently introduced as “the empress of Boston,” adds another gem to her tiara with her portrayal of Prudence Payne, a Dorothy Parker-esque reviewer whose sharp wit, acid tongue and encyclopedic familiarity with minutiae of all things cultural…

[metamatar]

When Lieutenant-General Robert Baden-Powell launched the Boy Scout movement in 1908, he needed a hero his boys would respect. [...]

Civilization sapped a man's strength: as Baden-Powell put it some years later, 'with its town life, buses, hot-and-cold water laid on, everything done for you,' it tended 'to make men soft and feckless ... God made men to be men. The middle class had to lead the way, and take a lesson from the Empire. The colonists risking their lives in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or Africa had strength and initiative; in contrast to the bored or indifferent or pleasure-seeking islanders, they were real men. [...]

The frontier myth supported the frontiersman as a cult figure, it used 'primitive' races such as the 'Red' Indian and the Zulu as examples of martial virility, and, in Baden-Powell at Mafeking, it made the imperial scout a national hero. The outward symbols of the frontiersman - his cowboy hat, his flannel shirt and neckerchief, and perhaps most oddly, his short trousers (as used by Baden-Powell in India and on the South African veld) - dramatized through the Boy Scout movement the call to a revitalized manhood. [...]

The social ideas that informed and inspired the youth movements can be simplified, but they were by no means simple; Scouting cannot be understood without some summary of its historical background. Both it and the other youth movements reflected and were a response to several quite different influences: popular imperialism, social Darwinism, the crisis of masculinity and the search for 'national efficiency,' social concerns about poverty and slum conditions, new theories of education, and the value of fresh air. [...]

For Baden-Powell, the Matabele campaign [a region in what is now known as Zimbabwe] was a succession of hot days and cool nights on the high veld, scouting the Ndebele, tracking their spoor, spying on their positions, escaping their ambushes, killing them in their caves.

In the Matopos hills Baden-Powell learned the necessity of studying his enemy, using the landscape, and the importance of camouflage. Scouting was thus a science, no longer an inbred sense peculiar to the native. [...] Baden-Powell discovered that though the Ndebele were clever in many little ways, they rarely took the trouble to cover their own spoor, and they were useless in the dark. The civilized scout could answer intuition with logic, and meet nature with science.

[Sons of the Empire, The Frontier and the Boy Scout Movement, 1890-1918. Robert H. MacDonald]

While girls wanted to join the Scouts, Baden-Powell rejected this idea, fearing girls’ femininizing influence on boys and that girls would turn into tomboys. He instead advocated for the development of a separate organization, the Girl Guides, to provide girls with distinctive training that centered around their future roles as wives and mothers. [Elizabeth Dillenburg]

[Girl Scouts USA was founded by] Juliette Gordon Low in 1912, a year after she had met Robert Baden-Powell [...] Low was the granddaughter of Juliette Magill Kinzie and John Harris Kinzie, and her maternal grandparents were one of the earliest settlers of Chicago. Juliette Kinzie wrote about her experiences in the Northwest Territory (now the state of Wisconsin) in her book Wau-Bun: The Early Day. Low incorporated some of her grandmother's experiences on the frontier into the traditions of Girl Scouts. [Wikipedia]

Militarism, racist pedagogy, and colonialist violence, some of the strongest threads that wove together Baden-Powell’s two lives, were also at the heart of the genocidal education projects developed by settler states during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In Canada, these included the federally funded and church-run Indian Residential Schools, where Scout and Guide groups were thought to provide Indigenous students with an important training in appropriate gender roles and physical discipline.[...] While in Toronto, Baden-Powell also gave an invited speech at the Imperial Education Conference, where he proudly claimed that the Guides and Scouts had been “found particularly useful in the schools for Red Indian children, just as [they] had also proved useful in a like manner on the West Coast of Africa and in Baghdad.” [..]

At the same time, Scouting and Guiding were – and in some contexts, remain – proponents of what historian Philip Deloria calls the modern practice of “playing Indian” – appropriating and mimicking so-called uncivilized and pre-historic Indigenous cultural practices with the aim of strengthening modern white bodies and spirits. [...]

Having non-Indigenous Scouts and Guides don “Indian dress,” participate in “pow wows,” and perform “Indian dances,” then, was an especially complicated proposition in settler states like Canada – places where imaginary Indians and assimilatory government policies collided with Indigenous nations whose members, contrary to contemporary expectations, were stubbornly refusing to die out. [Kristine Alexander and Mary Jane Logan McCallum]

[blogquantumreality]

I had the privilege of being able to see all of them on Netflix and marvelling at how perfect the adaptations were to the 2010s and 2020s. Hopefully one day there'll be more :)

the 3 tv movies were perfect. I wish they had made more.

[francesderwent]

My 25 Most Reread Books

an updated list with correct answers

Queen’s Thief series, Megan Whalen Turner. (started reading it. had a breakdown. been rereading it non-stop ever since) guessed by @contagiousgrace

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. (infinitely rereadable blueprint for life love and everything) guessed by @contagiousgrace

Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. (phonetically spelled accents are your friend) guessed by @contagiousgrace

Two Princesses of Bamarre, by Gail Carson Levine. (sisterful) guessed by @scrunchie-face

Sorcery and Cecelia, by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (epistolary) guessed by @lovesodeepandwideandwell

The Hero and the Crown, by Robin McKinley. (here there be dragons) guessed by @cakeyouareoh and @drharleyquinn-medicinewoman

The Black Stallion, by Walter Farley. (the entirety of my horse girl phase) guessed by @iamfitzwilliamdarcy

The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale. (fairy tale retelling) guessed by @contagiousgrace

Alanna: The First Adventure & the Tortall series, by Tamora Pierce. (second wave feminism fantasy) guessed by @cakeyouareoh

Discworld series, by Terry Pratchett. (sprawling) guessed by @sparrowposting

The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien. (the road to hell is paved with my good intentions to reread the sequels) guessed by Maria @itspileofgoodthings

Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card. (only sci-fi on the list) guessed by @cakeyouareoh

The Raven Cycle, by Maggie Stiefvater. (infects you with an unkillable parasite which requires rereading once a year) guessed by @leyezahmae

Folk of the Air trilogy, by Holly Black. (it’s trash but it’s pure fairy story) guessed by @iamfitzwilliamdarcy

Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, by Jessica Day George. (fairy tale retelling) guessed by @imissthembutitwasntadisaster

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott (more sisterful) guessed by @scrunchie-face

Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke (oh no we’ve been captured…again) guessed by a lot of people!

The BFG, by Roald Dahl. (personal favorite from classic children’s author) guessed by @iamfitzwilliamdarcy

Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik. (fairy tale retelling) guessed by @sparrowposting

Flip, by David Lubar. (technically might be sci fi actually. aliens and history and high school) guessed by @recalcitrantlycaffeinated

Macdonald Hall series by Gordon Korman. (Canadian pranks) guessed by @cakeyouareoh

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle (shit is this sci fi too damn it) guessed by @tapferhills

Warrior Heir & Wizard Heir, by Cinda Williams Chima. (everyone knows there are three types of boy: fighty magic and slut) guessed by @iamfitzwilliamdarcy and @lovesodeepandwideandwell

The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins. (recently re-obsessed) guessed by @contagiousgrace

The Penderwicks series, by Jeanne Birdsall (even more sisterful) guessed by @casa-anachar and @peregreen

[the-overanalyzer]

Two fixations for the price of one!

(Don't ask how long I spent editing that Azrael jpeg)

Batwoman art from Detective Comics Rebirth, by Andy Macdonald

Catwoman art from Catwoman v3, by Adam Hughes

Jim Gordon art from Batman Eternal, by Jason Fabok

Alfred Pennyworth art from Batman vs Robin, by Mahmud Asrar

Bluebird art from Batman Eternal, by Alvaro Martinez

Talia al Ghul art from DCeased: Hope At World's End, by Marco Fallia

Azrael art from Batman & Robin Eternal, by Roge Antonio

Wayne family art from Batman: Year One, by David Mazzuccelli

Text from The Locked Tomb, by Tamsyn Muir

[dwellordream]

Best Reads of 2024

this year i read 300 books. which i think is impressive but not as impressive as it sounds bc many of these books were very short, easy reads meant to be like, stuff you read at the airport or sitting by the pool on vacation. so it's not like i was tackling the harvard classics. i also read extremely fast; it only takes me about an hour to do 300 pages unless it's a super dense complex text. that said, here is a list of all the books i read this year that i would rate 4 stars or higher, separated by genre: Fantasy/Magical Realism: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett Highfire by Eoin Colfer Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin Gifts by Ursula K. Le Guin The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi Chlorine by Jade Song The Passion by Jeanette Winterson The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter Realistic Fiction: We Are Not Like Them by Christine Pride & Jo Piazza Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent Only Child by Rhiannon Navin Movie Star by Lizzie Pepper Prima Facie by Suzie Miller Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg Piglet by Lottie Hazell The List by Yomi Adegoke A Winter's Rime by Carol Dunbar The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas

Mystery/Thriller: Queenpin by Megan Abbott Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley The Guest by Emma Cline Advika and the Hollywood Wives by Kirthana Ramisetti Kala by Colin Walsh Descent by Tim Johnston Wahala by Nikki May When We Were Bright and Beautiful by Jillian Medoff We Could Be Beautiful by Swan Huntley Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll Nothing Can Hurt You by Nicola Maye Goldberg Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon The Lagos Wife by Vanessa Walters Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage Cape Fear by John D. MacDonald Sea Wife by Amity Gaige Last Seen Wearing by Hilary Waugh The Black Cabinet by Patricia Wentworth Historical Fiction: Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning All You Have to Do is Call by Kerri Maher Cruel Beautiful World by Caroline Leavitt Payback by Mary Gordon A Dangerous Business by Jane Smiley The Affairs of the Falcons by Melissa Rivero Longbourn by Jo Baker The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson Go to Hell Ole Miss by Jeff Barry The Divorcees by Rowan Beaird Consequences by Penelope Lively Iron Curtain: A Love Story by Vesna Goldsworthy Homestead by Melinda Moustakis Not Our Kind by Kitty Zeldis Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell Teddy by Emily Dunlay Science Fiction: Prophet Song by Paul Lynch Aesthetica by Allie Rowbottom Fever by Deon Meyer The Salt Line by Holly Goddard Jones Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins A Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet Briefly Very Beautiful by Roz Dineen

Romance: Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess Adelaide by Genevieve Wheeler Meant to Be Mine by Hannah Orenstein When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson American Royalty by Tracey Livesay The One by Julie Argy The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin Queen of Urban Prophecy by Aya de Léon That Dangerous Energy by Aya de Léon The Dove in the Belly by Jim Grimsley Fatima Tate Takes the Cake by Khadija VanBrakle Faro’s Daughter by Georgette Heyer Horror: Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka Cujo by Stephen King Night Watching by Tracy Sierra The Garden by Clare Beams The House of Ashes by Stuart Neville The Suicide Motor Club by Christopher Buehlman True Crime: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote Columbine by Dave Cullen Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou While Idaho Slept: The Hunt for Answers in the Murders of Four College Students by J. Reuben Appelman The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age by Michael Wolraich Fatal Vision by Joe McGinniss Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope

History: Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era by Laurence Leamer The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel The Burning Blue: The Untold Story of Christa McAuliffe and Nasa’s Challenger Disaster by Kevin Cook The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House by Sally Bedell Smith As Long as We Both Shall Love: The White Wedding in Postwar America by Karen M. Dunak Babysitter: An American History by Miriam Forman-Brunell Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin All She Lost: The Explosion in Lebanon, the Collapse of a Nation and the Women who Survive by Dalal Mawad Psychology: Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker The Anxious Generation: How The Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction by David Sheff Misdiagnosed: One Woman’s Tour of -And Escape From- Healthcareland by Jody Berger Stolen Child: A Mother’s Journey to Rescue Her Son from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder by Laurie Gough Zig-Zag Boy: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood by Tanya Frank I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy Us, After: A Memoir of Love and Suicide by Rachel Zimmerman Everything Is Fine: A Memoir by Vince Granata Juliet the Maniac by Juliet Escoria

Memoir: Upstairs At The White House by J.B. West A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold Goodbye, Sweet Girl: A Story of Domestic Violence and Survival by Kelly Sundberg This Boy We Made: A Memoir of Motherhood, Genetics, and Facing the Unknown by Taylor Harris I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell Fragile Beginnings: Discoveries and Triumphs in the Newborn ICU by Adam Wolfberg The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike’s Elite Running Team by Kara Goucher and Mary Pilon Remedies for Sorrow: An Extraordinary Child, a Secret Kept from Pregnant Women, and a Mother’s Pursuit of the Truth by Megan Nix Brazen: My Unorthodox Journey from Long Sleeves to Lingerie by Julia Haart Minding the Manor: The Memoir of a 1930s English Kitchen Maid by Mollie Moran Love in the Blitz: The War Letters of Eileen Alexander to Gershon Ellenbogan by Eileen Alexander Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story by Lis Smith The Apology by Eve Ensler Wild Game: My Mother, Her Secret, and Me by Adrienne Brodeur One Way Back: A Memoir by Christine Blasey Ford Biography: The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty by Susan Page Untold Power: The Fascinating Rise and Complex Legacy of First Lady Edith Wilson by Rebecca Boggs Roberts King: A Life by Jonathan Eig Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams by Louisa Thomas American Girls: One Woman’s Journey into the Islamic State and Her Sister’s Fight to Bring Her Home by Jessica Roy Susan, Linda, Nina, and Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli

Gender: Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement by Andi Zeisler All the Rage: Mothers, Fathers, and the Myth of Equal Partnership by Darcy Lockman Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks Enslaved Women in America: From Colonial Times to Emancipation by Emily West You’ll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other Than Love by Marcia A. Zug The Red Menace: How Lipstick Changed the Face of American History by Ilise S. Carter Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America by Lillian Faderman

[scotianostra]

On October 26th 1911 the Gaelic poet, Sorley MacLean, was born on the island of Raasay.

Sorley (Somhairle MacGill-Eain)was brought up within a family and community immersed in Gaelic language and culture, particularly song. Sorley studied English at Edinburgh University from 1929, taking a first class honours degree and there encountering and finding an affinity with the work of Hugh MacDiarmid, Ezra Pound, and other Modernist poets. Despite this influence, he eventually adopted Gaelic as the medium most appropriate for his poetry. However, it should be noted that MacLean translated much of his own work into English, opening it up to a wider public than the speakers of the Gaelic language.

During the Spanish Civil War, MacLean was torn between family commitments and his desire to fight on behalf of the International Brigades, illustrating his left-wing - even Marxist - political stance. He eventually resigned himself to remaining on Skye. He fought in North Africa during World War Two, before taking up a career in teaching, holding posts on Mull, in Edinburgh and finally as Head Teacher at Plockton High School.

It is often said that what Hugh MacDiarmid did for the Scots language, Sorley MacLean did for Gaelic, sparking a Gaelic renaissance in Scottish literature in line with the earlier ‘Scottish Renaissance’, as evinced in the work of George Campbell Hay, Derick Thomson and Iain Crichton Smith. He was instrumental in preserving and promoting the teaching of Gaelic in Scottish schools. Through the diverse subject matter of his poetry, he demonstrates the capacity of the Gaelic language to express themes from the personal to the political and philosophical.

MacLean’s work was virtually unknown outside Gaelic-speaking circles until the 1970s, when Gordon Wright published Four Points of a Saltire - poems from George Campbell Hay, Stuart MacGregor, William Neill and Sorley MacLean. He also then appeared at the Cambridge Poetry Festival, establishing his fame in England, as well as Scotland and Ireland, where he had become something of a cult figure thanks to a fan base including fellow poet Seamus Heaney. A bilingual Selected Poems of 1977 secured a broader readership and a new generation began to appreciate his work.

Latterly, he wrote and published little, showing his concern with quality and authenticity over quantity. Never a full-time writer, he was also a scholar of the Highlands with a vast knowledge of genealogy, and an avid follower of shinty. Amongst other awards and honours, he received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1990. He passed on in 1996 at the age of 85, and was survived by his wife and two daughters.

I have posted many times about Sorley, and probably overused Martyn Bennet’s Hallaig, but if you haven’t heard it, please go to Youtube and search for it, you won’t regret it.

The Two MacDonalds Sorley MacLean

You big strong warrior, you hero among heroes, you shut the gate of Hougomont. You shut the gate and behind it your brother did the spoiling. He cleared tenants in Glengarry – the few of them left – and he cleared tenants about Kinloch Nevis, and he cleared tenants in Knoydart. He was no better than the laird of Dunvegan. He spoiled Clan Donald.

What did you do then, you big strong hero? I bet you shut no gate in the face of your bitch of a brother.

There was in your time another hero of Clan Donald, the hero of Wagram, Leipsig, Hanau. I have not heard that he cleared one family by the Meuse or by any other river, that he did any spoiling of French or of MacDonalds.

What a pity that he did not come over with Bonaparte! He would not clear tenants for the sake of the gilded sheep, nor would he put a disease in the great valour of Clan Donald. What a pity that he was not Duke of the Land of the Barley And Prince of Caledonia!

What a pity that he did not come over with Bonaparte twenty years before he did, not to listen to flannel from the creeper Walter nor to gather dust from the old ruin but to put the new vigour in the remnant of his kinsmen!

What a pity that he did not come to succour his kinsmen!

Dá Dhómhnallach Somhairle MacGill-Eain

‘Na do ghaisgeach mór láidir; ‘Nad churaidh miosg nan curaidhean, Dhùin thu geata Hougomont. Dhùin thu ‘n geata ‘s air a chùlaibh Rinn do bhráthair an spùilleadh. Thog e tuath an Gleann Garadh – Am beagan a bh’air fhágail dhiubh – Is thog e tuath mu Cheann Loch Nibheis Is thog e tuath an Cnóideart. Cha b’fhearr e na Fear Dhùn-Bheagain: Rinn e milleadh air Cloinn Domhnaill.

De rinn thusa ‘n uair sin, A churaidh mhóir láidir? Fiach na dhùin thu aon gheata An aodann do ghalla bráthair?

Bha ann ri d’linn-sa fear eile, Curaidh eile de Chloinn Dhómhnaill, Curaidh Bhágram, Leipsich, Hanau. Cha chuala mi gun do thog esan Aon teaghlach mun Mheuse No mu abhainn eile. Cha d’rinn esan milleadh Air Frangaich no air Dómhnallaich.

Nach bochd nach táinig esan Le Bonaparte a nall. Cha thogadh esan tuath Air sgáth nan caorach óraidh, ‘S cha mhó chuireadh esan gaiseadh Ann an gaisge mhóir Chloinn Dómhnaill. Nach bochd nach rodh esan ‘Na dhiuc air tir an Eórna Is ‘na phrionns air Albainn.

Nach bochd nach táinig esan Le Bonaparte a nall Fichead bliadhna mun táinig, Cha b’ann a dh’èisteachd sodail O’n t-sliomaire sin Bhátar No a chruinneachadh na h-ùrach As an t-seann láraich, Ach a chur an spionnaidh ùrair Ann am fuidheall a cháirdean.

Nach bochd nach táinig esan Gu cobhair air a cháirdean.

[book--brackets]

Summaries under the cut

Opal Plumstead by Jacqueline Wilson

Opal Plumstead might be plain, but she has always been fiercely intelligent. Yet her scholarship and dreams of university are snatched away when her father is sent to prison, and fourteen-year-old Opal must start work at the Fairy Glen sweet factory to support her family. She struggles to get along with her other workers, who think she’s snobby and stuck up. But Opal idolises Mrs Roberts, the factory’s beautiful, dignified owner. The best thing about Mrs Roberts? She’s a suffragette! Opal’s world is opened to Mrs Pankhurst, and the fight to give women the right to vote. And when Opal meets Morgan, Mrs Roberts’ handsome son, and heir to Fairy Glen- she believes she’s found her soulmate. But the First World War is about to begin, and will change Opal's life for ever.

The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge

On an island of sandy beaches, dense jungles, and slumbering volcanoes, colonists seek to apply archaic laws to a new land, bounty hunters stalk the living for the ashes of their funerary pyres, and a smiling tribe is despised by all as traitorous murderers. It is here, in the midst of ancient tensions and new calamity, that two sisters are caught in a deadly web of deceits.

Arilou is proclaimed a beautiful prophetess one of the island's precious oracles: a Lost. Hathin, her junior, is her nearly invisible attendant. But neither Arilou nor Hathin is exactly what she seems, and they live a lie that is carefully constructed and jealously guarded.

When the sisters are unknowingly drawn into a sinister, island-wide conspiracy, quiet, unobtrusive Hathin must journey beyond all she has ever known of her world and of herself in a desperate attempt to save them both. As the stakes mount and falsehoods unravel, she discovers that the only thing more dangerous than the secret she hides is the truth she must uncover.

The Ballad of Lucy Whipple by Karen Cushman

California doesn't suit Lucy Whipple—not the name, not the place. But moving out West to Lucky Diggins, California, was her mama's dream-come-true. And now her brother, Butte, and sisters, Prairie and Sierra, seem to be Westerners at heart, too. For Lucy, Lucky Diggins is hardly a town at all—just a bunch of ramshackle tents and tobacco-spitting miners. Even the gold her mama claimed was just lying around in the fields isn't panning out. Worst of all, there's no lending library! Dag diggety! So Lucy vows to be plain miserable until she can hightail it back East where she belongs. But Lucy California Morning Whipple may be in for a surprise--because home is a lot closer than she thinks...

Mister Max by Cynthia Voigt

Max Starling's theatrical father likes to say that at twelve a boy is independent. He also likes to boast (about his acting skills, his wife's acting skills, a fortune only his family knows is metaphorical), but more than anything he likes to have adventures. Max Starling's equally theatrical mother is not a boaster but she enjoys a good adventure as much as her husband. When these two disappear, what can sort-of-theatrical Max and his not-at-all theatrical grandmother do? They have to wait to find out something, anything, and to worry, and, in Max's case, to figure out how to earn a living at the same time as he maintains his independence.

MacDonald Hall by Gordon Korman

Bruno and Boots are always in trouble. So the Headmaster, aka "The Fish" decides it would be best to separate them. Bruno must now room with ghoulish Elmer Dimsdale, plus his plants, goldfish, and ants. And Boots is stuck with nerdy, preppy, paranoid George Wexford-Smyth III.

Of course, this means war. Because Bruno and Boots are determined to get their old room back, no matter what it takes.

And the skunk is only the beginning....

The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull

What if there were a place where you could get magical candy? Moon rocks that made you feel weightless. Jawbreakers that made you unbreakable. Or candy that gave animals temporary human intelligence and communication skills. (Imagine what your pet would say!) Four young friends, Nate, Summer, Trevor, and Pigeon, are befriended by Belinda White, the owner of a new candy shop on Main Street. However, the gray-haired, grandmotherly Mrs. White is not an ordinary candy maker. Her confections have magical side effects. Purposefully, she invites the kids on a special mission to retrieve a hidden talisman under Mt. Diablo Elementary School. However, Mrs. White is not the only magician in town in search of the ancient artifact rumored to be a fountain of youth. She is aware that Mr. Stott, the not-so-ordinary ice cream truck driver, has a few tricks of his own.

Beacon Street Girls by Annie Bryant

Charlotte Ramsey is the new girl again. After causing the biggest cafeteria blunder in history, Charlotte's assigned lunch partners-the very stylish Katani, irrepressible Avery, and super-friendly Maeve-can't wait to dump her. Can it get any worse? Absolutely! Nobody is talking, and Katani wants out of the group. What a mess! Can the girls become true friends or will they remain worst enemies forever?

Rose by Holly Webb

The grand residence of the famous alchemist, Mr Fountain, is a world away from the dark orphanage Rose has left behind. For the house is positively overflowing with sparkling magic—she can feel it. And it’s not long before Rose realises that maybe, just maybe, she has a little bit of magic in her, too. . . .

A Traveler in Time by Alison Uttley

This unusual novel is set in rural Derbyshire in the old manor house, Thackers, where the Babington family and their servant, Cicely Taberner, lived when Elizabeth I was Queen of England. The descendants of the Taberners have farmed the land through the centuries, and to the Taberners of the present day comes Penelope, their great-niece, a sensitive, imaginative girl, who is aware of other layers of time. With her awakened vision she sees people of the past move in their daily tasks among those of the present, and behind the contented life of the household of Cicely and Barnabas Taberner she finds the old tragedy of Anthony Babington and his plot to save Mary, Queen of Scots, being re-enacted. The farm kitchen where Penelope sits with her great-aunt and great-uncle is the home of those others who once lived there. Their desires and fears, their courage and strength enter the girl's mind; their voices float up from the garden and she is caught up into their life. Time is annihilated, and she lives in the closing years of the sixteenth century remembering little of her modern life, until she returns from her traveling in time bearing the anxieties and dreams of the other world. The life of two widely separated times in history - the Elizabethan and the present - goes on simultaneously, each invisible to the other. And only Penelope can pierce the veil, sharing the tumultuous experiences of the Babington family three hundred years ago.

The Deptford Mice by Robin Jarvis

 In the sewers of Deptford, there lurks a dark presence that fills the tunnels with fear. The rats worship it in the blackness and name it "Jupiter, Lord of All." Into this twilight realm wanders a small and frightened mouse-the unwitting trigger of a chain of events that hurtles the Deptford mice into a world of heroic adventure and terror.