This book is a glimpse into my on-going flirtation with Dame Literature … and the rare occasion when … she winked back. Regarding the poems, some of them arose in response to the morning wishes received as “forwards” via WhatsApp by people who could be considered as the modern roosters – summoning the sun over the horizon every day; others arose out of a deeply emotional response to situations like the present on-going pandemic. And then there are others. The short-stories are based on happenings as I grew more and more aware of the world around me, and as I wandered through swamps of dog-eared files, never ceasing to wonder at the infinite variety of human feelings, deviousness – and resilience. Altogether, they reflect an attitude towards life: some guiding philosophy, some amount of humour, and … love.
Think a newspaper can’t be responsible for mass murder? Think again. As flagship of the American news media, the New York Times is the world’s most powerful news outlet. With thousands of reporters covering events from all corners of the globe, the Times has the power to influence wars, foment revolution, shape economies and change the very nature of our culture. It doesn’t just cover the news: it creates it. The Gray Lady Winked pulls back the curtain on this illustrious institution to reveal a quintessentially human organization where ideology, ego, power and politics compete with the more humble need to present the facts. In its 10 gripping chapters, The Gray Lady Winked offers readers an eye-opening, often shocking, look at the New York Times’s greatest journalistic failures, so devastating they changed the course of history. How its World War II Berlin bureau chief, a known Nazi collaborator, skewed coverage in favor of the Third Reich for over a decade. Its notorious coverup of the Ukraine Famine, a genocide committed by Stalin, showing that it was the newspaper's owners who directed the coverup in order to advance their own financial and ideological interests. The “1619 Project," a cynical, ideologically driven attempt to revise American history by rooting the nation's birth in slavery instead of liberty. The result is an essential look at the tangled relationship between media, power and politics in a post-truth world told with novelistic flair to reveal a uniquely powerful institution’s tortured relationship with the truth. Most importantly of all, The Gray Lady Winked presents a cautionary tale that shows what happens when the guardians of the truth abandon that sacred value in favor of self-interest and ideology—and what this means for our future as much as for our past.
Mel By: Daniella Castro It is not James’s year. His girlfriend broke up with him and cleaned out his apartment. His family is the epitome of happiness. With an empty apartment awaiting him, he is looking at days of sadness and loneliness. But when James sees his crazy neighbor locked out of her apartment, he has no idea his life is about to change forever. One simple request turns his life upside down, and he’ll realize that growing up has its own set of challenges.
Megan Harrison has already been burned once by billionaire Max Pierce. Burned badly. He was her first true love, and she'd given him everything she had to offer. She'd thought he loved her too - that is, until he ended their relationship by leaving her a casual note "wishing her well." Now, after three years of licking her wounds, Megan finds herself unavoidably thrown into daily contact with Max when he enters into her professional life. But this time, things are different. No longer a naIve university student who believes in true love, Megan is in the driver's seat. Despite Max's protestations that leaving her was a mistake and that he is a changed man, Megan knows better. Max might seem to have everything else - power, success, looks - but he can't have her. No matter how much he says he loves her, no matter how much he is there for her, she can't let history repeat itself. Or can she?
