April 26, 2026

IF YOU MISSED IT:  Witch’s Daughter (Empires of Magic Book 2)

Some letters come from the living. Some come from the dead. This one comes with a formula that turns a rowboat into a miracle.

Seventeen-year-old Lord Michael Ainsling — youngest brother of the Duke of Darkwater, builder of mechanical marvels, survivor of fairyland — receives a letter from a man sixteen years dead. The inventor Tristram Blakley has not perished; he has been imprisoned by his own genius and begs the one mind in all of Avalon brilliant enough to understand his work to set him free. All Michael has to do is find seven missing brothers first and walk a magical path..

Fifteen-year-old Albinia Blakley has spent her whole life under her mother’s iron thumb — and her mother is a witch. The day Al finally escapes down a rope of knotted sheets, she lands in a world she doesn’t recognize, with no money, no magic kit, and no idea that the stranger who catches her is about to become her greatest ally.

Together, a girl with more secrets than she knows and a boy who builds machines that try to murder him must outwit a sorceress, navigate the treacherous courts of Fairyland, and unravel an enchantment years in the making — before a family is lost for good.

Witch’s Daughter is a gaslamp fantasy brimming with wit, warmth, and wonder, for readers who love their magic wrapped in velvet and their adventures served with morning tea.

Posted at 4:00 am by Sarah Hoyt

April 25, 2026

ROGER KIMBALL ON TONIGHT’S ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT:

Donald and Melania Trump entered the hall at 8:16 to cheers and applause. “Hail to the Chief” was followed by presentation of the colors and the National Anthem. We had a brief introduction from Weijia Jiang, this year’s president of the White House Correspondents Association, followed by dinner.

Two questions hovered in the background. One, how would President Trump treat the press? And two, would he, as had many presidents in the past at this event, treat the audience to a little self-deprecating humor? “Donald Trump” and “self-deprecation” are not words you often hear together, but who knows? The President is also a master communicator who reads his audience well.

We never found out. At about 8:35, four loud noises were heard from the back of the room. They were shots. . . .

“The First Amendment,” “Free Speech,” “A Free Media” are different ways of enunciating what the dinner is supposed to be all about. Not much mention, if any, will be given to the clamp down on free speech under the Biden administration or the liberating revolution sparked by Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and his campaign to restore speech to the platform and hence to the wider media environment.

Donald Trump has probably given the media more access to his thoughts than any president in history. At least part of many of his Cabinet meetings are open to the media and he seldom boards or exits a plane without stopping to answer questions. If he thinks a question is stupid or ill-informed, he will say so. Fake news he treats as fake news. The media hates that, of course, but has anyone ever treated them more like adults?

Well, but they’re not. They’re middle school Mean Girls with a megaphone.

Posted at 11:25 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THE LEFT’S ASSASSINATION CULTURE HAS MAINSTREAM ENABLERS WHO SHOULD BE HELD STRICTLY ACCOUNTABLE:

UPDATE (From Ed):

Posted at 10:29 pm by Glenn Reynolds

OPEN THREAD: Make it special.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

SO MUCH POLITICAL VIOLENCE FROM THE LEFT: Shots Fired at Correspondents Dinner, Shooter Neutralized, Trump Evacuated. “The shooter who fired off multiple rounds at the White House correspondents’ dinner Saturday evening is reportedly dead, and Secret Service agents successfully took President Donald Trump off the stage to safety. Fox News announced around 9 p.m. EDT that Trump was going to return, and the dinner could go on as planned. . . . The mainstream media have, of course, been encouraging violent hatred against President Trump for years with their extreme rhetoric framing him as worse than Hitler and the KKK. Perhaps they will be less extreme in their language now that they themselves faced such a potentially deadly situation.” Don’t count on it.

UPDATE:

Related:

UPDATE:

MORE: White House Correspondents’ Dinner gunman ‘assembled long weapon in unsecured room’ before firing near ballroom, volunteer reveals.

Posted at 9:17 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THIS IS CNN:

Posted at 8:48 pm by Ed Driscoll

#RULEOFLAW:

Posted at 7:52 pm by Glenn Reynolds

HISTORY:

Posted at 7:36 pm by Glenn Reynolds