The Book of Dreams

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Although it's not outright said, the names and places in this story gave me strong Russian vibes, so I presume it's set somewhere around there, but placing a date is a little harder. It's a fantasy world, that could be our own.

While visiting his father at the hospital, Samuel wanders up to another floor and meets Maddie, a twelve-year-old girl who is in a vegetative state with no underlying medical cause. Something is preventing her from waking, a trauma that is so deeply seated within her. Samuel is drawn to Maddy on a number of levels and she is the first person he has encountered that he can’t read. Over time, he continues to visit her and becomes devoted to being there for her, trying to reach her so that she might break through whatever barrier is holding her captive. This is where Samuel really tugged at my heartstrings, the way in which he tried to make moments special for Maddy. It didn’t make any sense, their connection, yet it was beautiful and meaningful and showed the depths of Samuel’s character to perfection. The Book of Dreams covers some pretty grim themes, but it does so with a sensitivity and beauty that is striking. It’s such an absorbing novel, dealing with consciousness on a whole other level. While Henri lies in a coma, Samuel is able to ‘read’ Henri, and despite their being no response that can be detected by the medical team, or even through the use of an MRI, Samuel knows that his father is still alive, that he’s in there, just waiting out of reach. While Henri is in his coma, we see his life lived out in dreams, alternate existences, and there are also times when Henri seems able to reach out to his loved ones through his, and their dreams, in a kind of alternate consciousness connection. It’s very different, and some people may not feel entirely comfortable with the themes that are played out, but I found it fascinating and inspirational. I also found it very uplifting, which may seem strange given that this is largely a novel about mortality. Peter Reich is the son of Wilhelm Reich, one of the most brilliant and controversial thinkers of the twentieth century. He began as a student of Sigmund Freud, but, whereas Freud believed that sexual repression was necessary to provide the structure and driving force for civilisation, Reich believed that it was at the very heart, not only of many psychological and physical ailments, but that it is part of a destructive tendency in human behaviour which at times expresses itself through the murder of the healthiest individuals - e.g. Jesus and Giordano Bruno - and a willingness to surrender one's freedom to the most neurotic - e.g. Hitler or Stalin. Later, through his study of the storing of repressed emotions in the musculature and the energy flows which occur during orgasm, Reich claimed to have discovered a form of cosmic life energy which he called "orgone". He built boxes which he called "orgone accumulators" which he claimed were helpful in the physical and psychological healing of patients who sat in them. He also built other devices, such as "cloud-busters", which were supposed to direct orgone into clouds and make it rain. Apparently independent research has provided some support for his claims about the accumulators, and there is anecdotal evidence for the efficacy of the cloud-busters, such as Peter Reich's childhood memories recorded in this book. But, not surprisingly, many claimed that Reich had gone insane. Along the way we meet a host of characters - at both ends of the spectrum. Malstain is a shadowy villain, orchestrating terrible deeds for his own selfish reasons. Opposing him are a motley crew, and not all are guaranteed to do the right thing when asked. Das ist die Magie der Literatur. Wir lesen eine Geschichte, und danach ist etwas anders. Was, das wissen wir nicht, oder warum, durch welchen Satz, das wissen wir auch nicht. Und dennoch hat sich die Welt verwandelt und wird nie mehr dieselbe sein wie vorher. Manchmal merken wir es erst Jahre später, dass ein Buch der Riss in unsere Realität war, durch den wir, nichtsahnend, entkommen sind aus Kleinheit und Mutlosigkeit.“

The Book of Dreams

After fleeing the Nazi regime to Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, Reich eventually settled down in the United States, where he began on a series of inventions and theories which made his colleagues question his sanity. Here he invented the "Orgone Energy Accumulator", or the "the Accumulator" for short. The Accumulator was a wooden box just big enough for an adult to climb in. Reich believed that the Accumulator had the ability to charge up the human body with life, and could therefore treat cancer and a host of other ailments. This is a superbly written book that I highly recommend for children who are not put off by a little darkness in the stories they read. Sam, Henri’s son, is a gifted thirteen-year-old, and he sits by Henri every day at the hospital. It’s there that Eddie Tomlin arrives, a woman who has loved Henri for many years. Also at the hospital is Madelyn, a twelve-year-old who is also in a coma. She has survived an accident that killed every member of her family.

In November 2011, Nina George established the “JA zum Urheberrecht” (YES on Author’s Rights) initiative, which supports the rights of authors, artists and entertainers and is dedicated to resolving issues within the literary community as well as establishing fair and practical rights-license models for the web-distribution. 14 writers’ associations and 27 publishing partners have since joined the JA…-Initiative. George supports the “Initiative Urheberrecht” (Author’s Rights Initiative— www.urheber.info) as well as the “gib 8 aufs Wort”-campaign of the VG Wort.

Wilhelm Reich studied under Sigmund Freud, who he later parted ways with due to a disagreement in their approaches to sexuality. While Freud viewed sexuality as something to be controlled and repressed, Reich viewed sexuality as something to be practiced freely, even coining the phrase "the sexual revolution". NINA GEORGE is the author of the bestselling international phenomenon, The Little Paris Bookshop, which has been translated into more than 28 languages, The Little Breton Bistro and numerous other books that have been published around the world. She also works as a journalist and an advocate for writer and women’s rights. She lives with her husband in Berlin and Brittany, France. The mix of characters here provides such wonderful possibilities. From the evil tyrant president who hates children and has turned a country into a wasteland, from the brave, smart, adorable kids like Rachel and Robert on a mission to save their father and the whole country, to a whole heap of side-characters that either made me giggle, or want to hug the book.

Tourism is strictly controlled, restricted to special areas. The rest of Bethune is the domain of local flora and fauna, nature red in tooth and claw where man is returned to his original stature of prey instead of conqueror. Rachel wiped her eyes and said she would. She looked out across the darkness. It was endless and unknowable. Lo que más me ha gustado ha sido la historia… ES QUE ES ALUCINANTE. Cada vez que acabas un capítulo te dan ganas de leer otro porque acaba con el inicio de otra movida más chunga todavía. Lo que más me ha gustado son sus aventuras tipo que flipo con que una niña de 12 años viaje sola a otro país que está en otro continente solo porque le han dado una notita. (No es spoiler, es el primer capítulo) We are getting real close to a homecoming, but before that we have one more Demon Prince to catch. The one who stands brooding at the immensity of sparkling worlds that form the Spread of humans to the far corners of the galaxy is named Kirth Gersen, sole survivor of a massacre engineered by five master criminals. Gersen has dedicated his life to revenge for his kin and he proceeded to destroy the Demon Princes in spectacular fashion in the first four books in the series. Only one evil overlord is left, the one reputed to be the most devious, the most secretive, the most unpredictable. As if sensing what she was thinking, the little man stood beside her at the rail and spoke quietly.Gersen obtains a photo of a group of seven men that was sent anonymously to his Cosmopolis Magazine company. A note was written on it says "HA Treesong is here". They do not know who sent it, who else is in the photo or where it was taken. Gersen decides to publish the photo in a free inaugural periodical called Extant that he creates. He includes it as part of a contest that offers a reward to the person who can identify the most people in the photograph. He hopes to at least narrow down which man in the photo might be Treesong.

Sie ist Mitglied im Syndikat, den Mörderischen Schwestern sowie des Verbands deutscher Schriftsteller. Excuse me. I couldn’t help noticing you are alone. Please, my dear girl, you have no reason to fear.” This gave me all the vibes of Inkheart, and Northern Lights, while reminding me that these days, it's quite unusual for characters to die in middle grade books. Seeing characters killed off and tortured added to the stakes of this adventure story, I just found the middle quite slow. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrateded.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.

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The ordinary man, during a day’s time, may be obliged to act by the terms of a half dozen different moralities. Some of these acts, appropriate at one moment, may the next moment be considered obscene or opprobrious in terms of another morality. Her brother, Robert, was also provided with chapters set from his perspective. This was necessary as they remained apart for much of the book but his actions were still important ones. He was initially involved in more scheming and so I enjoyed learning about the plans for Malstain's demise from him. Ashley Brown, ed. (1990). "Space Cowboy". The Marshall Cavendish Illustrated History of Popular Music. Vol.11 (Referenceed.). Marshall Cavendish. p.1227. ISBN 1-85435-026-9. Nina George, the author of The Little Paris Bookshop and The Little French Bistro, completes her trio of books on being and not being with The Book of Dreams. These books have great personal meaning to the author as she works through anticipated fear of a life without her father, the grief that comes with his sudden death, and coming to terms with living her own life afterward. The Book of Dreams is about the thin line between life and death, of how keeping a person alive is often more for ourselves than the actual person. It's a book about love—both its presence and its absence—and how both can consume you. But more than that, this is a book about relationships, about finding the courage to act, to say the things you've always wanted, to never let regret occupy your mind.