If you currently do not have a hoodie with headphones, this article will help in their decision to get one. Hoodies are the headset with headphones built machine washable and works with any MP3 device like the iPod.
The following are the advantages and disadvantages that can help you decide if you should get your own headphones hoodie today!
Pros
* You never have to worry about cables headphones are all tangled up
* Convenience on the go or when you're in a hurry
* The headset is water resistant so you can just pull your hoodie in the wash
* They are very affordable considering it usually costs about $ 20 - $ 50
* Built-in headphones are usually better than other bags headphones
* Never had to worry about forgetting your headphones when you leave the house again
* It is useful if you play sports like running or biking
* Comes with a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack that works with any MP3 device like a pair of headphones
* Not having to worry about the wires in the way when things are done
* A wide range of leading brands hoodies, which also means that come in a variety of colors and designs
Thursday, October 27, 2011
How to select the best natural hair wigs
Today it is possible to buy real hair wigs in the house. With the help of modern technology, you can now buy almost anything online. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection. By determining what their preferences wig, you can easily see the type of wig you want. However, if you are still undecided or confused as to what type of wig you should choose, here you will learn what different types of wigs are available in the market. In addition, also be able to find out what best wig in this article.
The first thing you should think about is that if you should choose a real or artificial wig. Like most products, both of them have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Let's start with real wigs. These hair extensions are ideal for use anytime and anywhere you want. What is the reason behind this? It is because no matter what kind of condition are these wigs can bear. This is how durable they are. In addition, they are also very long lasting. Despite all these benefits, there is a problem and it is its price. Some say they are too expensive and detrimental to the budget. In addition, these wigs also need proper maintenance and care at all times.
The first thing you should think about is that if you should choose a real or artificial wig. Like most products, both of them have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Let's start with real wigs. These hair extensions are ideal for use anytime and anywhere you want. What is the reason behind this? It is because no matter what kind of condition are these wigs can bear. This is how durable they are. In addition, they are also very long lasting. Despite all these benefits, there is a problem and it is its price. Some say they are too expensive and detrimental to the budget. In addition, these wigs also need proper maintenance and care at all times.
What lace wig products worth buying?
Due to the global financial crisis we are experiencing, it can sometimes be difficult to determine which products are worth buying and what not. However, if you already have a lace wig in his possession, proper maintenance is needed to make the product last longer. The problem here is that there are several products out there that are mass produced, but they are insignificant when it comes to keeping wigs. Due to this reason, you should know that these products are really worth buying or not.
To know what products to buy for your wig, here are some helpful suggestions. If you are the type of person who wants to keep his long hair but want to change your hair style from time to time, it's a good idea for you to buy a front bow. This article is not difficult to install. What is good about this is that it can be used for as long as you want. It is also easy to remove and clean and you can do this even if you are in her hair.
Another lace wig is a must have guard hair or scalp. The main function of this product is to protect your skin when applying the glue on the area along the hairline. Many women have had bad experiences, because they are not using this product. If you do not want to be like them, make sure you have one. A cleaner Lace is also considered as an important element in maintaining your wig. This cleaner removes the sticker is on your wig. It nourishes the hair. In applying this to your wig, which can be kept clean and in good condition.
Last but not least is the adhesive remover.
To know what products to buy for your wig, here are some helpful suggestions. If you are the type of person who wants to keep his long hair but want to change your hair style from time to time, it's a good idea for you to buy a front bow. This article is not difficult to install. What is good about this is that it can be used for as long as you want. It is also easy to remove and clean and you can do this even if you are in her hair.
Another lace wig is a must have guard hair or scalp. The main function of this product is to protect your skin when applying the glue on the area along the hairline. Many women have had bad experiences, because they are not using this product. If you do not want to be like them, make sure you have one. A cleaner Lace is also considered as an important element in maintaining your wig. This cleaner removes the sticker is on your wig. It nourishes the hair. In applying this to your wig, which can be kept clean and in good condition.
Last but not least is the adhesive remover.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
"1Q84" by Haruki Murakami (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)
Haruki Murakami at Wikipedia
Order 1Q84 HERE
Watch Clips Related to 1Q84 at NYT
Watch The English language book trailer for 1Q84
INTRODUCTION: "The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo. A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.
As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.
A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s—1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet."
While I have owned pretty much all the major works of the famous contemporary Japanese author Haruki Murakami for some time now, I have to confess I only browsed several of them along the years, always with an "I plan to read them some day" thought. So when I read about 1Q84 and the considerable hype surrounding it, I thought, well I will take a look and maybe get it for later, but to my considerable surprise, once I opened the book I just could not put it down until I absolutely had to. Some 900+ pages later I have to say that for once hype (masterpiece, Nobel book, genius, etc) is utterly warranted.
1Q84 has been translated by Jay Rubin (books 1 and 2) and Philip Gabriel (book 3).
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: I will talk here about 1Q84 from a sff reader's perspective, while if you want a more "mainstream" discussion, you can check this NYT article. I am making this distinction because when reading 1Q84 I was struck by how much some elements mentioned in the above article - and in a few other similar places - as strange or outlandish seemed to me just regular sffnal stuff, as did a lot of the plot twists and turns, all quite typical of the better secondary world fantasies or space operas out there.
Conversely, 1Q84 brings a very adult attitude to its main characters, attitude which is most of the time missing from sff which either shies away from the topic or goes to the other extreme essentially for shock's value.
The content of 1Q84 is well summarized in the blurb above, so I will refer to it when discussing the structure and highlights next. The novel is divided into three books that each cover three months from 1984 starting in April, when Aomame starts her adventure in the parallel universe with two moons, magic and "the little people" that she calls 1Q84.
In the other thread, former "boy wonder" Tengo, now living an obscure but fulfilling life as a math teacher at an elite school and aspiring novelist, is so compelled by the fantasy story in a manuscript written by a 17 year old girl, that he accepts a dodgy proposition from his editor, which starts his adventure as the "fantasy story" soon starts looking like it could be real...
The first two books were published simultaneously in Japan and alternate chapters from Aomame and Tengo, each with a subheading that is both appropriate and subtle. These two books are very tightly woven and they twist, turn, amplify and scale down the story perfectly, while ending in a way that would have been maddening were not the third book available immediately.
The last book that is both a prologue and an epilogue, introduces a third viewpoint which at first seems out of place, but it soon integrates well with Tengo and Aomame's. This third pov is crucial to the structure of this part as it provides both the back story and most of the narrative tension, while Tengo and Aomame take a detour so to speak.
As noted above, while the story twists and turns a lot, the experienced sff reader will most likely figure it out well ahead of time with motifs like the destined ones, parallel universes and portals, magical links and prophecies, though here all happens in Tokyo 1984, so we have the mundane world of subways, cars, bars, news, a secretive cult etc. And it works perfectly, while the magic is slowly introduced, first in the "fantasy novel" of Fuka Eri that Tengo ghost rewrites into a masterpiece - though in a nice touch that should resonate, it is snubbed by the main Japanese literary prize as bestselling and genre - and later in revelation after revelation.
Another thing I really appreciated about 1Q84 was that it kept away from the pitfalls of solipsism. Parallel universes, portals and the existence of those special few who know/use them always invite this immediate breaking of the suspension of disbelief by un-substantiating the "real world" but the author is clearly aware of this and discusses it quite a few times:
"Komatsu considered this for a long time, wrinkles forming on either side of his nose. Finally he sighed and glanced around. “What a strange world. With each passing day, it’s getting harder to know how much is just hypothetical and how much is real. Tell me, Tengo, as a novelist, what is your definition of reality?”
“When you prick a person with a needle, red blood comes out—that’s the real world,” Tengo replied."
The novel also keeps things ambiguous enough to allow us to speculate, while the ending adds one extra twist which for once I did not quite see and which deepened my appreciation of Haruki Murakami's genius.
1Q84 contains so much that even enumerating things that are of note in the book would take quite a lot of space and while I think that the novel is one than can be read many times and still fully enjoyed, I will mention only the "levitating clock" that startled quite a few early (mainstream readers) as it marked in a way the clear dividing line where the novel fully moves into the sff-nal space so no one can deny it is a work of speculative fiction anymore, two moons or not...
Overall 1Q84 (A++) is simply the best novel released in 2011 so far.
Order 1Q84 HERE
Watch Clips Related to 1Q84 at NYT
Watch The English language book trailer for 1Q84
INTRODUCTION: "The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo. A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.’ A world that bears a question.” Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.
As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.
A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s—1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet."
While I have owned pretty much all the major works of the famous contemporary Japanese author Haruki Murakami for some time now, I have to confess I only browsed several of them along the years, always with an "I plan to read them some day" thought. So when I read about 1Q84 and the considerable hype surrounding it, I thought, well I will take a look and maybe get it for later, but to my considerable surprise, once I opened the book I just could not put it down until I absolutely had to. Some 900+ pages later I have to say that for once hype (masterpiece, Nobel book, genius, etc) is utterly warranted.
1Q84 has been translated by Jay Rubin (books 1 and 2) and Philip Gabriel (book 3).
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: I will talk here about 1Q84 from a sff reader's perspective, while if you want a more "mainstream" discussion, you can check this NYT article. I am making this distinction because when reading 1Q84 I was struck by how much some elements mentioned in the above article - and in a few other similar places - as strange or outlandish seemed to me just regular sffnal stuff, as did a lot of the plot twists and turns, all quite typical of the better secondary world fantasies or space operas out there.
Conversely, 1Q84 brings a very adult attitude to its main characters, attitude which is most of the time missing from sff which either shies away from the topic or goes to the other extreme essentially for shock's value.
The content of 1Q84 is well summarized in the blurb above, so I will refer to it when discussing the structure and highlights next. The novel is divided into three books that each cover three months from 1984 starting in April, when Aomame starts her adventure in the parallel universe with two moons, magic and "the little people" that she calls 1Q84.
In the other thread, former "boy wonder" Tengo, now living an obscure but fulfilling life as a math teacher at an elite school and aspiring novelist, is so compelled by the fantasy story in a manuscript written by a 17 year old girl, that he accepts a dodgy proposition from his editor, which starts his adventure as the "fantasy story" soon starts looking like it could be real...
The first two books were published simultaneously in Japan and alternate chapters from Aomame and Tengo, each with a subheading that is both appropriate and subtle. These two books are very tightly woven and they twist, turn, amplify and scale down the story perfectly, while ending in a way that would have been maddening were not the third book available immediately.
The last book that is both a prologue and an epilogue, introduces a third viewpoint which at first seems out of place, but it soon integrates well with Tengo and Aomame's. This third pov is crucial to the structure of this part as it provides both the back story and most of the narrative tension, while Tengo and Aomame take a detour so to speak.
As noted above, while the story twists and turns a lot, the experienced sff reader will most likely figure it out well ahead of time with motifs like the destined ones, parallel universes and portals, magical links and prophecies, though here all happens in Tokyo 1984, so we have the mundane world of subways, cars, bars, news, a secretive cult etc. And it works perfectly, while the magic is slowly introduced, first in the "fantasy novel" of Fuka Eri that Tengo ghost rewrites into a masterpiece - though in a nice touch that should resonate, it is snubbed by the main Japanese literary prize as bestselling and genre - and later in revelation after revelation.
Another thing I really appreciated about 1Q84 was that it kept away from the pitfalls of solipsism. Parallel universes, portals and the existence of those special few who know/use them always invite this immediate breaking of the suspension of disbelief by un-substantiating the "real world" but the author is clearly aware of this and discusses it quite a few times:
"Komatsu considered this for a long time, wrinkles forming on either side of his nose. Finally he sighed and glanced around. “What a strange world. With each passing day, it’s getting harder to know how much is just hypothetical and how much is real. Tell me, Tengo, as a novelist, what is your definition of reality?”
“When you prick a person with a needle, red blood comes out—that’s the real world,” Tengo replied."
The novel also keeps things ambiguous enough to allow us to speculate, while the ending adds one extra twist which for once I did not quite see and which deepened my appreciation of Haruki Murakami's genius.
1Q84 contains so much that even enumerating things that are of note in the book would take quite a lot of space and while I think that the novel is one than can be read many times and still fully enjoyed, I will mention only the "levitating clock" that startled quite a few early (mainstream readers) as it marked in a way the clear dividing line where the novel fully moves into the sff-nal space so no one can deny it is a work of speculative fiction anymore, two moons or not...
Overall 1Q84 (A++) is simply the best novel released in 2011 so far.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
"The Hour of Dust and Ashes" by Kelly Gay (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)
AUTHOR INFORMATION: Kelly Gay is the author of the Charlie Madigan series. She also writes under the name of Kelly Keaton for her Young Adult series Gods & Monsters. She has held many previous jobs in construction, waitressing, Film theatre, Horse farms etc. before turning a new leaf as a writer. She is also a 2010 double RITA finalist, a three-time RWA Golden Heart finalist, and a recipient of an NC Arts Council Fellowship grant in Literature. She has also considerable experience as a screenwriter winning several final place slots in screenwriting contests such as the Austin Film Festival, Red Inkworks, Hollywood Symposium, Disney Fellowship, etc. She resides in North Carolina with her family.
OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS: To save her sister, she must stop a silent killer. . . .
Protecting Atlanta from the off-world criminals of Underground is tough enough, but now Detective Charlie Madigan and her siren partner, Hank, learn that the addicts of the offworld drug ash have begun taking their own lives. Ash makes humans the perfect vessels for possession, and something or someone is leading them to their deaths. Charlie is desperate to save her addicted sister, Bryn, from a similar fate.
As New Year’s Eve approaches, Charlie makes a deadly bargain with an ancient race of beings and embarks on a dangerous journey into hellish Charbydon with Hank and the Revenant Rex to save Bryn and make it back before time runs out. Only, for one of them, coming home means facing a fate worse than death. . . .
FORMAT/INFO: The Hour of Dust and Ashes is 324 pages long divided over twenty-two numbered chapters. Also included is page # 621 from the Officers Off-World manual (14th Edition). Narration is entirely in the first-person, via the protagonist Charlie Madigan. The Hour of Dust and Ashes is the third volume in the Charlie Madigan series. At this point it’s unadvisable to start reading from this volume as the plot builds up from events occurring in the previous books.
August 30, 2011 marked the North American Paperback publication of The Hour of Dust and Ashes via Pocket. Cover art is provided by Chris McGrath.
ANALYSIS: The Charlie Madigan series was one which was introduced to me by my friend Bastard, he had praised it in regards to its procedural qualities and dark nature of the stories. So this year before the third book was about to be released, I bought the first two to see what the fuss was about. The two books The Better Part of Darkness and The Darkest Edge of Dawn were surprisingly dark and well written stories. I’ll be describing the world situation briefly before starting the review, however be warned since this is the third book, there will be mild spoilers for the first two books as certain plot points of this book directly reference the past events.
The world in this series is one wherein twin worlds of Elysia and Charybdon have been discovered besides our world more than thirteen years ago. Since then there’s been a steady influx of visitors from these alien worlds to ours. However the reverse is almost strictly controlled. Since the events of the past few weeks Atlanta has changed in many more ways than possibly imaginable, it has now gained a new climate courtesy the climatic events of the first book. Charlie and Hank have become their own team within the ATF and now operate under a specific party. They are trying to find out the trail of the banned drug “Ash” and it leads to the Charbdonian underworld however before they can go there they also have to deal with the events of the previous books, namely the Jinn who have been selling the drug and their overlord Grigori Tennin. Despite their previous battles with him, he still survives and is actively trying to further his agenda in finding out what Charlie, Hank & the rest recovered at the bottom of the lake in the climax of the second book.
In the previous two book reviews I had noted that the series does not lack in action and intrigue but even so the action sequences in this volume are completely amped up and the story opens with a mystery which soon goes on to encompass the previous book’s plot arcs. This was a rather strong move on the author’s part as it keeps up the continuity of the story and also is inline with the timeline of the story wherein only a few weeks have passed. The urgency and determination felt by the characters really comes to the fore.
I’ve had some previous reservations about the main character which I’ve noted in my previous book reviews. However there’s some drastic character development in this one as previously I felt Charlie’s character was a bit abrasive and annoying however in this book she been learning vital lessons in humility, patience and understanding. This was a great way to increase her vulnerability as well as showcasing tremendous character growth. All my previous notions about the character were slowly reversed and this book triumphs because of that. Not to focus only on Charlie but there are strong revelations and developments in relation to the other main characters (Hank, Rex, Bryn, etc.) all of which propel the story forward and give the reader an inkling of what the next book is going to be about.
The biggest plus point in this book is the aforementioned trip to the otherworld of Charybdon, there have been certain revelations about the Ash victims in regards to their addiction which plays an important role in the events of this book. There’s also the personal chemistry between the two primary characters Charlie and Hank, and in this book things come to fruition as events have been building between them since the past novels. There’s some huge potential information revealed about Hank which totally changes the current equation and informs the reader about a certain other realm. I believe this book is a lot about resolutions to character arcs which had started from the first book. Readers who have been anticipating certain events will get their wishes fulfilled and get to see terrific scenes as well.
I couldn’t find any negatives to say about this book as my perceived notions about the main character were reversed. The issues I had about the alien worlds were also addressed in this book and lastly it seems the author is leading up to a terrific finale with next year’s book. All in all this is the best book (for me) in the Charlie Madigan series.
CONCLUSION: A dark and violent story, The Hour of Dust and Ashes does what the series has been promising so far. It gives the reader an excellent story with twists, an ending which will leave the reader hungering for the next volume and with the amount of revelations loaded, it will completely blow the socks of most fans of the series. Kelly Gay has to be lauded for giving the readers a different type of read via her books in this semi-jaded sub genre.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)