en-US Tue, 03 Dec 2024 10:52:29 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 62052321 A virtuosic mashup of Philip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler by way of Marvel—the story of a detective investigating the murder of a Titan, one of society's most powerful, medically-enhanced elites.

"Cross-genre brilliance from the superbly talented Nick Harkaway." —William Gibson, New York Times best-selling author of Agency.

Cal Sounder is a detective working for the police on certain very sensitive cases. So when he's called in to investigate a homicide at a local apartment, he's surprised by the routineness of it all. But when he arrives on scene, Cal soon learns that the victim—Roddy Tebbit, an otherwise milquetoast techie—is well over seven feet tall. And although he doesn't look a day over thirty, he is ninety-one years old. Tebbit is a Titan—one of this dystopian, near-future society's genetically altered elites. And this case is definitely Cal's thing.

There are only a few thousand Titans worldwide, thanks to Stefan Tonfamecasca's discovery of the controversial T7 genetic therapy, which elevated his family to godlike status. T7 turns average humans into near-immortal distortions of themselves—with immense physical proportions to match their ostentatious, unreachable lifestyles. A dead Titan is big news . . . a murdered Titan is unimaginable. But these modified magnates are Cal's specialty. In fact, his own ex-girlfriend, Athena, is a Titan. And not just any—she is Stefan's daughter, heir to the massive Tonfamecasca empire.

As the murder investigation intensifies, Cal begins to unravel the complicated threads of what should have been a straightforward case, and it becomes clear he's on the trail of a crime whose roots run deep into the dark heart of the world.]]> 236 Nick Harkaway 0593535367 Renato 5 3.90 2023
author: Nick Harkaway
name: Renato
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 57222665
Brendan has always lived a careful, constrained life. A salesman who never liked the work, he's a man who has stayed in his marriage and his faith because it was what was expected of him. But now, having lost his job after corporate downsizing and on the cusp of sixty, he finds himself scrambling to somehow stay afloat in the only Los Angeles work on offer to a man his age - driving for Uber.

When one of his rides, a retired professor named Elise, asks to be dropped off outside an abortion clinic where she now volunteers, Brendan finds himself literally driving right into the virulent epicentre of one of the major issues of our time, engulfing his life in the process.

A novel of high suspense and considerable moral complexity, Afraid of the Light is a tough, affecting social thriller that speaks volumes about the corrosive divisions of our troubled times.]]> 332 Douglas Kennedy Renato 0 currently-reading 3.77
author: Douglas Kennedy
name: Renato
average rating: 3.77
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/14
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 571283
Margaret Larkin has been robbed of her innocence -- and her life. Her killer is rich and powerful, beyond the grasp of earthly law.

Now, in the murky depths of the local river, a shifting, almost human shape slowly takes form. Night after night it will pursue the murderer. It will watch him from the trees. And in the chill waters of the river, it will claim him in the ultimate embrace.

The cold moon rises, the awful squishing sounds begin...]]> 292 Michael McDowell 0380486601 Renato 2 Worst, the "horror" moments, while well described, are fairly repetitive, and the "shock" ending is almost amateurish.
On the positive side, the places, life and people of a small south-east city are fleshed, detailed, and, from an outsider point of view, seem realistic
The narrator is excellent, and has a pleasant voice and rhythm.]]> 3.96 1980
author: Michael McDowell
name: Renato
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1980
rating: 2
read at: 2024/02/07
date added: 2024/02/07
shelves:
review:
The story is nothing new. A crime, a haunting, a revenge from beyond. A classic context is not bad per se, but no new angle is brought to it.
Worst, the "horror" moments, while well described, are fairly repetitive, and the "shock" ending is almost amateurish.
On the positive side, the places, life and people of a small south-east city are fleshed, detailed, and, from an outsider point of view, seem realistic
The narrator is excellent, and has a pleasant voice and rhythm.
]]> 50891839
Or can you? With Dr. Seligman’s help, our narrator will find out.

In a monologue that is both deliciously dark and subversively funny, she takes us on a wide-ranging journey from Hitler-centered sexual fantasies and overbearing mothers to the medicinal properties of squirrel tails and the notion that anatomical changes can serve as historical reparation. The Appointment is an audacious debut novel by an explosive new international literary voice, challenging all of our notions of what is fluid and what is fixed, and the myriad ways we seek to make peace with others and ourselves in the 21st century.]]> 144 Katharina Volckmer 1982150173 Renato 1 The author is described as an "explosive new international literary voice". I must confess I had not heard about Katharina Volckmer before reading "the appointment". Put this on my lack of literary culture but also partly on a fairly short list of published books, which shows that the author might be more new than international. As for being explosive, from the presentation, I was expecting something "furious, comic, transgressive, whip-smart...". To keep up with the detonation metaphors, I would say that the shell missed me by a... certain distance. Without spoiling (although you will know the end very quickly), the novel is written in the form of a patient addressing, in her mind, a doctor during a medical procedure. It felt to me like the mental monolog of someone depressed, angry, resentful towards the male population, self-pitying, self-loathing, obsessed with male genitalia, to list only what struck me the most. The author is German, and the doctor is (presented as) Jewish. This has a meaning in the context of the book but why remind the name of the doctor dozens of times in such a short text?
The book is narrated by the author. I am not a fan of this, but I suppose this is a selling argument and, in this case, the narration "music" was spot on in sync with the contents. In any case, being able to read out loud reasonably well does not make one a narrator for audiobooks. Leave the narration to the professionals, they do it much (MUCH) better than the authors.
Fun Fact: the Italian title of the book is "A Jewish d*ck"
]]> 3.53 2020
author: Katharina Volckmer
name: Renato
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2020
rating: 1
read at: 2024/02/05
date added: 2024/02/05
shelves:
review:
This novel is short. This is not a problem per se, but 96 pages is (are?) still unusually short.
The author is described as an "explosive new international literary voice". I must confess I had not heard about Katharina Volckmer before reading "the appointment". Put this on my lack of literary culture but also partly on a fairly short list of published books, which shows that the author might be more new than international. As for being explosive, from the presentation, I was expecting something "furious, comic, transgressive, whip-smart...". To keep up with the detonation metaphors, I would say that the shell missed me by a... certain distance. Without spoiling (although you will know the end very quickly), the novel is written in the form of a patient addressing, in her mind, a doctor during a medical procedure. It felt to me like the mental monolog of someone depressed, angry, resentful towards the male population, self-pitying, self-loathing, obsessed with male genitalia, to list only what struck me the most. The author is German, and the doctor is (presented as) Jewish. This has a meaning in the context of the book but why remind the name of the doctor dozens of times in such a short text?
The book is narrated by the author. I am not a fan of this, but I suppose this is a selling argument and, in this case, the narration "music" was spot on in sync with the contents. In any case, being able to read out loud reasonably well does not make one a narrator for audiobooks. Leave the narration to the professionals, they do it much (MUCH) better than the authors.
Fun Fact: the Italian title of the book is "A Jewish d*ck"

]]> 61812308 The acclaimed New York Times bestselling writer returns with a masterpiece to rival Mystic River —an all-consuming tale of revenge, family love, festering hate, and insidious power, set against one of the most tumultuous episodes in Boston’s history.

In the summer of 1974 a heatwave blankets Boston and Mary Pat Fennessy is trying to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors. Mary Pat has lived her entire life in the housing projects of “Southie,� the Irish American enclave that stubbornly adheres to old tradition and stands proudly apart.

One night Mary Pat’s teenage daughter Jules stays out late and doesn’t come home. That same evening, a young Black man is found dead, struck by a subway train under mysterious circumstances. The two events seem unconnected. But Mary Pat, propelled by a desperate search for her missing daughter, begins turning over stones best left untouched—asking questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob, and the men who work for him, men who don’t take kindly to any threat to their business.

Set against the hot, tumultuous months when the city’s desegregation of its public schools exploded in violence, Small Mercies is a superb thriller, a brutal depiction of criminality and power, and an unflinching portrait of the dark heart of American racism. It is a mesmerizing and wrenching work that only Dennis Lehane could write.]]> 303 Dennis Lehane 0062129481 Renato 4 4.22 2023
author: Dennis Lehane
name: Renato
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:

]]> 58638139 But a Black man with cops at the door knows to be afraid.

Ike is devastated to learn his son Isiah has been murdered, along with Isiah's white husband, Derek. Though he never fully accepted his son, Ike is broken by his death.

Derek's father Buddy Lee was as ashamed of Derek being gay as Derek was of his father's criminal past. But Buddy Lee - with seedy contacts deep in the underworld - needs to know who killed his only child.

Desperate to do better by them in death than they did in life, two hardened ex-cons must confront their own prejudices about their sons - and each other - as they rain down vengeance upon those who hurt their boys.]]> 319 S.A. Cosby 1472286529 Renato 4 4.00 2021
author: S.A. Cosby
name: Renato
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:

]]> 19260715 390 Robert Charles Wilson 0575117494 Renato 2 3.97 2003
author: Robert Charles Wilson
name: Renato
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2003
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:

]]> 29980267
La prison brise les hommes, mais la cage excite les bĂŞtes.]]> 248 David Goudreault 2760411869 Renato 0 4.18 2016
author: David Goudreault
name: Renato
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2023/07/31
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:

]]> 19440405 339 Robert Charles Wilson 0575117435 Renato 3 4.46 1991
author: Robert Charles Wilson
name: Renato
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/07/31
shelves:
review:

]]> 54493401
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?]]> 476 Andy Weir 0593135202 Renato 4 I loved the narration by Ray Porter.
I was pleasantly suprised by, and enjoyed very much, the humour.
I enjoyed enough the "teaching" parts but I can understand that it grates some reader's nerves. If you don't like them, stop reading immediately (the book, not this review).
It feels a lot like the Martian (saw the movie, did not read the book).
Like way too often, aliens are just humans that look different. Rocky takes away the Oscar in that category.
Taumoeba should be called Astrophagephage.
I hope they make a movie out of it, with Lakeith Stanfield playing the main character (No reason, I just find him cool).
I look forward to reading Artemis.
]]> 4.49 2021
author: Andy Weir
name: Renato
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/06/27
shelves:
review:
Just thoughts and feelings, totally subjective:
I loved the narration by Ray Porter.
I was pleasantly suprised by, and enjoyed very much, the humour.
I enjoyed enough the "teaching" parts but I can understand that it grates some reader's nerves. If you don't like them, stop reading immediately (the book, not this review).
It feels a lot like the Martian (saw the movie, did not read the book).
Like way too often, aliens are just humans that look different. Rocky takes away the Oscar in that category.
Taumoeba should be called Astrophagephage.
I hope they make a movie out of it, with Lakeith Stanfield playing the main character (No reason, I just find him cool).
I look forward to reading Artemis.

]]> 53359447 Annihilation, a brilliant speculative thriller of dark conspiracy, endangered species, and the possible end of all things.

Security consultant “Jane Smith� receives an envelope with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and clues leading her to a taxidermied salamander. Silvina, the dead woman who left the note, is a reputed ecoterrorist and the daughter of an Argentine industrialist. By taking the hummingbird from the storage unit, Jane sets in motion a series of events that quickly spin beyond her control.

Soon, Jane and her family are in danger, with few allies to help her make sense of the true scope of the peril. Is the only way to safety to follow in Silvina’s footsteps? Is it too late to stop? As she desperately seeks answers about why Silvina contacted her, time is running out—for her and possibly for the world.

Hummingbird Salamander is Jeff VanderMeer at his brilliant, cinematic best, wrapping profound questions about climate change, identity, and the world we live in into a tightly plotted thriller full of unexpected twists and elaborate conspiracy.]]> 351 Jeff VanderMeer 0374173540 Renato 1 3.23 2021
author: Jeff VanderMeer
name: Renato
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2021
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2021/06/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 1525997
After hearing damning testimony, magistrate Woodward sentences the accused witch to death by burning. Desperate to exonerate the woman he has come to love, Matthew begins his own investigation among the townspeople. Piecing together the truth, he has no choice but to vanquish a force more malevolent than witchcraft in order to save his beloved Rachel and free Fount Royal from the menace claiming innocent lives.]]> 792 Robert McCammon 1416552502 Renato 1 Matthew Corbett, the protagonist grated my nerves. I found him an arrogant little Mr Know-it-all, always contradicting, “yes,butting� everyone, including his mentor, completely self-centered on his “quest for truth�, damning more than one innocent (Smith, Woodward) to reach his goal. The more I read the more I wanted to slap some education and respect in the little snot.
Rachel, the woman accused of witchcraft is a sorry compilation of clichés. Proud, strong, beautiful, with amber eyes, and a dark cascade of hair…etc� There is really nothing to say about such a cardboard character.
I thought the plot was very “Agatha Christie� like. This is a matter of taste but I never cared much for such naïve whodunit that always ends with the protagonist gathering everyone and explaining (for about 100 pages) that Colonel Mustard did it in the smoking room with the candlestick. And this is exactly what happened here. At an earlier moment in the book, Corbett even says “I know the whole truth, but I can’t tell you because…� and here came some laughable explanation that really meant “I will tell you in about 200 pages�.
The most difficult for me was the gross-out factor. Detailed descriptions of body odors, of intimate body odors, puss, “thick puss� (I quote), drool, “a cup of cold drool� (quote), boils, blisters, urine, finding disgusting things in food, …etc� Is there a purpose to smearing every other page with this?
Not being a native speaker, I enjoyed the paced narration of the Audible narrator, Edoardo Ballerini. I also found his command of different voices remarkable. But this is about the only positive thing I can say about this book.]]> 4.13 2002
author: Robert McCammon
name: Renato
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2002
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2021/04/05
shelves:
review:
I found it much much too long, with a piling up of useless details and even full scenes, digressions, which brought nothing to the story. I mean how many times do we need to read that a character is using the chamber pot? As I went on, I Audible-skipped more and more.
Matthew Corbett, the protagonist grated my nerves. I found him an arrogant little Mr Know-it-all, always contradicting, “yes,butting� everyone, including his mentor, completely self-centered on his “quest for truth�, damning more than one innocent (Smith, Woodward) to reach his goal. The more I read the more I wanted to slap some education and respect in the little snot.
Rachel, the woman accused of witchcraft is a sorry compilation of clichés. Proud, strong, beautiful, with amber eyes, and a dark cascade of hair…etc� There is really nothing to say about such a cardboard character.
I thought the plot was very “Agatha Christie� like. This is a matter of taste but I never cared much for such naïve whodunit that always ends with the protagonist gathering everyone and explaining (for about 100 pages) that Colonel Mustard did it in the smoking room with the candlestick. And this is exactly what happened here. At an earlier moment in the book, Corbett even says “I know the whole truth, but I can’t tell you because…� and here came some laughable explanation that really meant “I will tell you in about 200 pages�.
The most difficult for me was the gross-out factor. Detailed descriptions of body odors, of intimate body odors, puss, “thick puss� (I quote), drool, “a cup of cold drool� (quote), boils, blisters, urine, finding disgusting things in food, …etc� Is there a purpose to smearing every other page with this?
Not being a native speaker, I enjoyed the paced narration of the Audible narrator, Edoardo Ballerini. I also found his command of different voices remarkable. But this is about the only positive thing I can say about this book.
]]> 14201
Proceeding to London, he raises a beautiful woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French. Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician: the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange.

Young, handsome and daring, Strange is the very antithesis of Norrell. So begins a dangerous battle between these two great men which overwhelms that between England and France. And their own obsessions and secret dabblings with the dark arts are going to cause more trouble than they can imagine.]]> 1006 Susanna Clarke Renato 5 3.84 2004
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Renato
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2020/11/03
date added: 2020/11/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 43719523
Rooted in the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is as much an intimate family story as a global dystopian narrative. It burns fearlessly toward revolution and has quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black American experience.

Ella and Kev are both shockingly human and immeasurably powerful. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by racism. Their futures might alter the world.]]> 167 Tochi Onyebuchi 1250214769 Renato 0 3.72 2020
author: Tochi Onyebuchi
name: Renato
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/03/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 25387351 344 John Grisham 0385539436 Renato 2 3.67 2015
author: John Grisham
name: Renato
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2020/02/22
date added: 2020/02/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 36236125
Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from being a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing your past and making up something better, and that salvation hides in the last place you'll ever want to look.

The narrator must exact revenge upon Evie, her best friend and fellow model; kidnap Manus, her two-timing ex-boyfriend; and hit the road with Brandy in search of a brand-new past, present and future.]]> 304 Chuck Palahniuk 0393355950 Renato 4 4.02 1999
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Renato
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/01/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 34091380 405 Michael Connelly 0316225983 Renato 2 3.95 2017
author: Michael Connelly
name: Renato
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2019/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 943402
But the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door—a girl who has never seen a Rubik's Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There is something wrong with her, though, something odd. And she only comes out at night....]]> 513 John Ajvide Lindqvist 1847241697 Renato 2 4.08 2004
author: John Ajvide Lindqvist
name: Renato
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2019/12/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 6 734 J.K. Rowling 0439139597 Renato 5 4.56 2000
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Renato
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2019/08/01
date added: 2019/12/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 15881
And strike it does. For in Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor and a spirit who haunts the girls� bathroom. But then the real trouble begins � someone is turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects� Harry Potter himself!]]> 352 J.K. Rowling Renato 5 4.42 1998
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Renato
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2019/07/01
date added: 2019/12/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 5 435 J.K. Rowling 043965548X Renato 5 4.57 1999
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Renato
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2019/07/01
date added: 2019/12/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 3 309 J.K. Rowling 0439554934 Renato 4 4.47 1997
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Renato
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2019/07/01
date added: 2019/12/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 2213661
There are dangers and adventures for Bod in the graveyard: the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer; a gravestone entrance to a desert that leads to the city of ghouls; friendship with a witch, and so much more.

But it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks, for it is there that the man Jack lives and he has already killed Bod's family.

A deliciously dark masterwork by bestselling author Neil Gaiman, with illustrations by award-winning Dave McKean.]]> 312 Neil Gaiman 0060530928 Renato 3 4.15 2008
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Renato
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2019/09/11
date added: 2019/12/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 41022133 ´ˇĚýNew York Times #1 Bestseller
A New York Times and Washington Post notable book, and one of the Financial Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Slate, Mother Jones, The Daily Beast, and BookPage's best books of the year

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage is the long-awaited new novel—a book that sold more than a million copies the first week it went on sale in Japan—from the award-winning, internationally best-selling author Haruki Murakami.

Here he gives us the remarkable story of Tsukuru Tazaki, a young man haunted by a great loss; of dreams and nightmares that have unintended consequences for the world around us; and of a journey into the past that is necessary to mend the present. It is a story of love, friendship, and heartbreak for the ages.]]> 308 Haruki Murakami 0385352115 Renato 4 3.93 2013
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Renato
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2019/10/30
date added: 2019/12/19
shelves:
review:
Bittersweet, soothing, slow, contemplative, heart-rending at times, excellent narrator (Michael Fenton Stevens)
]]> 2819368
The eleven stories in Pump Six represent the best Paolo's work, including the Hugo nominee "Yellow Card Man," the nebula and Hugo nominated story "The People of Sand and Slag," and the Sturgeon Award-winning story "The Calorie Man."]]> 239 Paolo Bacigalupi 159780133X Renato 4 - Fascination for violence, that is often described in extended and very graphic scenes
- Misoginy: the female characters are : raped, mutilated, humiliated, inferior, sex toys, aggressive, stupid, muscular but threatening, background shadows, or simply non-existent. As a male reader, I find this unpleasant. I can't quite imagine how it must feel to a female reader.]]> 4.04 2008
author: Paolo Bacigalupi
name: Renato
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2019/11/06
date added: 2019/12/19
shelves:
review:
2 things I did not like, and that I found in other books by the author:
- Fascination for violence, that is often described in extended and very graphic scenes
- Misoginy: the female characters are : raped, mutilated, humiliated, inferior, sex toys, aggressive, stupid, muscular but threatening, background shadows, or simply non-existent. As a male reader, I find this unpleasant. I can't quite imagine how it must feel to a female reader.
]]> 18630 293 Iain M. Banks 0061053562 Renato 3 4.28 1988
author: Iain M. Banks
name: Renato
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1988
rating: 3
read at: 2019/11/11
date added: 2019/12/19
shelves:
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]]> 12007
The woman known as Diziet Sma had plucked him from obscurity and pushed him towards his present eminence, but despite all their dealings she did not know him as well as she thought.

The drone known as Skaffen-Amtiskaw knew both of these people. It had once saved the woman's life by massacring her attackers in a particularly bloody manner. It believed the man to be a burnt-out case. But not even its machine intelligence could see the horrors in his past.

In this brilliant, multilayered book, Iain Banks explores once again the universe of the Culture, which he has previously visited in Consider Phlebas and The Player of Games. Ferociously intelligent, both witty and horrific, Use of Weapons leaves no doubt that Banks is now the outstanding writer of science fiction in Britain.]]> 411 Iain M. Banks 185723135X Renato 1 4.18 1990
author: Iain M. Banks
name: Renato
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1990
rating: 1
read at: 2019/11/16
date added: 2019/12/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 41160292
In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom," the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.

Including stories being published for the first time as well as some of his rare and classic uncollected work, Exhalation is Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic—revelatory.]]> 368 Ted Chiang Renato 1 4.27 2019
author: Ted Chiang
name: Renato
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at: 2019/11/18
date added: 2019/12/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 43798285
In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don’t, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute.

As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute is Stephen King's gut-wrenchingly dramatic story of good versus evil in a world where the good guys don't always win.
--front flap]]> 561 Stephen King Renato 4 4.17 2019
author: Stephen King
name: Renato
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/11/28
date added: 2019/12/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 12014 313 Iain Banks 0349105715 Renato 2 3.92 1993
author: Iain Banks
name: Renato
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1993
rating: 2
read at: 2019/12/05
date added: 2019/12/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 13573236
Judge Raymond Fawcett just became number five.

His body was found in the small basement of a lakeside cabin he had built himself and frequently used on weekends. When he did not show up for a trial on Monday morning, his law clerks panicked, called the FBI, and in due course the agents found the crime scene. There was no forced entry, no struggle, just two dead bodies - Judge Fawcett and his young secretary.

I did not know Judge Fawcett, but I know who killed him, and why.

I am a lawyer, and I am in prison.

It's a long story.

©2012 Belfry Holdings Inc (P)2012 Random House Audio Inc]]> 340 John Grisham 0385535144 Renato 0 3.77 2012
author: John Grisham
name: Renato
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2019/12/10
date added: 2019/12/19
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]]> 41021732 "I’ve suffered for my art, now it’s your turn."

So begins the tale of Ted Wallace, unaffectionately known as the Hippopotamus. Failed poet, failed theater critic, failed father and husband, Ted is a shameless womanizer, drinks too much, and is at odds in his cranky but maddeningly logical way with most of modern life.
Fired from his newspaper, Ted seeks a few months� repose and free liquor at Swafford Hall, the country mansion of his old friend Michael Logan. This world of boozy dinners, hunting parties, and furtive liaisons has recently been turned on its head by miracles, healings, and phenomena beyond Ted’s comprehension.

As the mysteries deepen, The Hippopotamus builds into “a deliciously wicked and amusing little fable� (The New York Times).

From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 418 Stephen Fry 1616954744 Renato 2 3.63 1994
author: Stephen Fry
name: Renato
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1994
rating: 2
read at: 2019/12/18
date added: 2019/12/19
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]]> 3398430
The world of 2060 is divided into three spheres of influence, each fighting with the others over the resources of fallen nations and an environment degraded almost to the point of no return. There is the Dispensation, centered in Los Angeles, where entertainment and capitalism have fused with the highest of high-tech. There is the Acquis, a Green-centered collective that uses invasive neurological technology to create a networked utopia. And there is China, the sole surviving nation-state, a dinosaur that has prospered only by pitilessly pruning its own population. Products of this monstrous world, the daughters of a monstrous mother, and–according to some–monsters themselves, are the the four surviving female clones of a mad Balkan genius and wanted war criminal now ensconced, safely beyond extradition, on an orbiting space station. Radmila is a Dispensation star determined to forget her past by building a glittering, impregnable future. Vera is an Acquis functionary dedicated to reclaiming their home, the Croatian island of Mljet, from catastrophic pollution. Sonja is a medical specialist in China renowned for selflessly risking herself to help others. And Biserka is a one-woman terrorist network. The four “sisters� are united only by their hatred for their “mother”–and for one another.

When evidence surfaces of a coming environmental cataclysm, the Dispensation sends its greatest statesman–or salesman–John Montgomery Montalban, husband of Radmila, and lover of Vera and Sonja, to gather the Caryatids together in an audacious plan to save the world.]]> 304 Bruce Sterling 0345460626 Renato 1 Also, the main characters are sisters and they hate each other (this is explained early in the book), but the reason of this hate was not clear, at least to me.
So I gave up.
I compare this with William Gibson and notably Count Zero, where the descriptions of the future are also great but only used as a support for a nail-biting arc.]]> 3.29 2009
author: Bruce Sterling
name: Renato
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2009
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2019/10/27
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I did not finish the book. I stopped around 2/3 (audio). There was not enough dramatic arc to keep me interested. There are a lot of descriptions of the future world (some of them, like augmented reality, have aged badly) which can be interesting for a while, but not much "happened".
Also, the main characters are sisters and they hate each other (this is explained early in the book), but the reason of this hate was not clear, at least to me.
So I gave up.
I compare this with William Gibson and notably Count Zero, where the descriptions of the future are also great but only used as a support for a nail-biting arc.
]]> 41021698 Stephen Fry's breathtakingly outrageous debut novel is by turns eccentric, shocking, brilliantly comic and achingly romantic.

Adrian Healey loves to lie. He does it all the time. Every minute, every moment. And worse, he does it wonderfully, imaginatively, brilliantly. He lies to buck the system, to express his contempt for convention, but mostly because he just plain likes to. It’s fun; it’s high camp. He invents a lost pornographic novel by Charles Dickens, and for himself a career as a Piccadilly rent boy hireable by the hour. But Adrian’s lies eventually bring realworld danger, as he finds himself caught up in the machinations of a shadowy network that puts his own life at risk. A dazzling, outrageous first novel that has delighted liars everywhere.


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 404 Stephen Fry 1569478090 Renato 1 3.63 1991
author: Stephen Fry
name: Renato
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1991
rating: 1
read at: 2019/10/25
date added: 2019/10/25
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]]> 12067
People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it’s only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. This time though, the armies of Good and Evil really do appear to be massing. The four Bikers of the Apocalypse are hitting the road. But both the angels and demons � well, one fast-living demon and a somewhat fussy angel � would quite like the Rapture not to happen.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist…]]> 491 Terry Pratchett Renato 1 4.27 1990
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Renato
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1990
rating: 1
read at: 2019/10/15
date added: 2019/10/15
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]]> 18490 This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780141439471

'Now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart ...'

Obsessed with creating life itself, Victor Frankenstein plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, which he shocks into life with electricity. But his botched creature, rejected by Frankenstein and denied human companionship, sets out to destroy his maker and all that he holds dear. Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley near Byron's villa on Lake Geneva. It would become the world's most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity.

Based on the third edition of 1831, this volume contains all the revisions Mary Shelley made to her story, as well as her 1831 introduction and Percy Bysshe Shelley's preface to the first edition. This revised edition includes as appendices a select collation of the texts of 1818 and 1831 together with 'A Fragment' by Lord Byron and Dr John Polidori's 'The Vampyre: A Tale'.]]> 288 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Renato 1 3.77 1818
author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: Renato
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1818
rating: 1
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date added: 2019/10/14
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]]> 13480192
As a police launch speeds across Miami's Biscayne Bay - with officer Nestor Camacho on board - Tom Wolfe is off and running. Into the feverous landscape of the city, he introduces the Cuban mayor, the black police chief, a wanna-go-muckraking young journalist and his Yale-marinated editor; an Anglo sex-addiction psychiatrist and his Latina nurse by day, loin lock by night - until lately, the love of Nestor's life; a refined, and oh-so-light-skinned young woman from Haiti and her Creole-spouting, black-gang-banger-stylin' little brother; a billionaire porn addict, crack dealers in the 'hoods, "de-skilled" conceptual artists at the Miami Art Basel Fair, "spectators" at the annual Biscayne Bay regatta looking only for that night's orgy, yenta-heavy ex-New Yorkers at an "Active Adult" condo, and a nest of shady Russians.]]> 704 Tom Wolfe 0316036315 Renato 1 3.26 2012
author: Tom Wolfe
name: Renato
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2012
rating: 1
read at: 2019/10/14
date added: 2019/10/14
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]]> 21337 498 Dean Koontz 141591561X Renato 2 4.04 2005
author: Dean Koontz
name: Renato
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2019/10/01
date added: 2019/10/01
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]]> 2
Harry has had enough. He is beginning to think he must do something, anything, to change his situation, when the summer holidays come to an end in a very dramatic fashion. What Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his world upside down...]]> 912 J.K. Rowling Renato 5 4.50 2003
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Renato
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2003
rating: 5
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]]> 29056083
It was always difficult being Harry Potter, and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and a father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son, Albus, must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" is the complete and official playscript of the original, award-winning West End production. This updated edition includes the final dialogue and stage directions, a conversation piece between director John Tiffany and playwright Jack Thorne, the Potter family tree, and a timeline of events in the wizarding world leading up to "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."]]> 343 J.K. Rowling 0540027340 Renato 1 3.42 2016
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Renato
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2016
rating: 1
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]]> 1 652 J.K. Rowling Renato 5 4.57 2005
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Renato
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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]]> 136251
In this final, seventh installment of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling unveils in spectacular fashion the answers to the many questions that have been so eagerly awaited.]]> 759 J.K. Rowling Renato 5 4.61 2007
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Renato
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2007
rating: 5
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]]> 10592
Make a date with terror and live the nightmare that is...Carrie
--back cover]]> 272 Stephen King 1416524304 Renato 4 4.00 1974
author: Stephen King
name: Renato
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1974
rating: 4
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]]> 16130549 WHSmith Collector's Edition

Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special 12-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.

On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless - mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky 12-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the "steam" that children with the "shining" produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father's legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant "shining" power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes "Doctor Sleep."

Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan's own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra's soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted fans of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.]]> 531 Stephen King 1476727651 Renato 5 4.11 2013
author: Stephen King
name: Renato
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2013
rating: 5
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]]> 10614 #1, #2, #3, #4

Paul Sheldon. He's a bestselling novelist who has finally met his biggest fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes and she is more than a rabid reader - she is Paul's nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. But she is also his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house.]]> 370 Stephen King 0450417395 Renato 3 4.22 1987
author: Stephen King
name: Renato
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1987
rating: 3
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]]> 43615
He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland pursues The Man in Black, encounters an alluring woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the Kid from Earth called Jake. Both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, The Gunslinger leaves readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter.]]> 231 Stephen King 1501143514 Renato 3 3.95 1982
author: Stephen King
name: Renato
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1982
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2019/09/11
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]]> 23807
Dr. Lecter is a former psychiatrist with a grisly history, unusual tastes, and an intense curiosity about the darker corners of the mind. His intimate understanding of the killer and of Clarice herself form the core of "The Silence of the Lambs"—an ingenious, masterfully written book and an unforgettable classic of suspense fiction.]]> 421 Thomas Harris Renato 2 4.25 1988
author: Thomas Harris
name: Renato
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1988
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2019/09/11
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]]> 9014 370 Richard Bachman 0451196716 Renato 4 4.11 1978
author: Richard Bachman
name: Renato
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1978
rating: 4
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date added: 2019/09/11
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]]> 149267 For hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its original version and wanted more, this new edition is Stephen King's gift. And those who are listening to The Stand for the first time will discover a triumphant and eerily plausible work of the imagination that takes on the issues that will determine our survival.]]> 1152 Stephen King Renato 2 4.35 1978
author: Stephen King
name: Renato
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1978
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2019/09/11
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]]> 830502
It’s a small city, a place as hauntingly familiar as your own hometown. Only in Derry the haunting is real ...

They were seven teenagers when they first stumbled upon the horror. Now they are grown-up men and women who have gone out into the big world to gain success and happiness. But none of them can withstand the force that has drawn them back to Derry to face the nightmare without an end, and the evil without a name.]]> 1184 Stephen King 0450411435 Renato 5 4.28 1986
author: Stephen King
name: Renato
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1986
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/09/11
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]]> 11588 497 Stephen King 0450040186 Renato 5 4.28 1977
author: Stephen King
name: Renato
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1977
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/09/11
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]]> 22323 Johnny Mnemonic to the technofetishist blues of Burning Chrome.

Johnny Mnemonic (1981)
The Gernsback Continuum (1981)
Fragments of a Hologram Rose (1977)
The Belonging Kind (1981) with John Shirley
Hinterlands (1981)

Red Star, Winter Orbit (1983) with Bruce Sterling
New Rose Hotel (1984)
The Winter Market (1985)
Dogfight (1985) with Michael Swanwick
Burning Chrome (1982)]]> 226 William Gibson 0060539828 Renato 5 4.07 1986
author: William Gibson
name: Renato
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1986
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/09/11
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]]> 154091 Neuromancer, has written his most brilliant and thrilling work to date... The Mona Lisa Overdrive. Enter Gibson's unique world - lyric and mechanical, erotic and violent, sobering and exciting - where multinational corporations and high tech outlaws vie for power, traveling into the computer-generated universe known as cyberspace. Into this world comes Mona, a young girl with a murky past and an uncertain future whose life is on a collision course with internationally famous Sense/Net star Angie Mitchell. Since childhood, Angie has been able to tap into cyberspace without a computer. Now, from inside cyberspace, a kidnapping plot is masterminded by a phantom entity who has plans for Mona, Angie, and all humanity, plans that cannot be controlled... or even known. And behind the intrigue lurks the shadowy Yakuza, the powerful Japanese underworld, whose leaders ruthlessly manipulate people and events to suit their own purposes... or so they think.

]]> 308 William Gibson 0553281747 Renato 4 4.01 1988
author: William Gibson
name: Renato
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1988
rating: 4
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date added: 2019/09/11
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]]> 888628
Case was the sharpest data thief in the Matrix, until an ex-employer crippled his nervous system. Now a new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run against an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a mirror-eyed girl street-samurai riding shotgun, he's ready for the silicon-quick, bleakly prophetic adventure that upped the ante on an entire genre of fiction.]]> 278 William Gibson Renato 5 4.01 1984
author: William Gibson
name: Renato
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1984
rating: 5
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]]> 22200
A corporate mercenary wakes in a reconstructed body, a beautiful woman by his side. Then Hosaka Corporation reactivates him, for a mission more dangerous than the one he’s recovering to get a defecting chief of R&D—and the biochip he’s perfected—out intact. But this proves to be of supreme interest to certain other parties—some of whom aren’t remotely human....]]> 308 William Gibson Renato 5 4.03 1986
author: William Gibson
name: Renato
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1986
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/09/11
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]]> 2666 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780553381344.

The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1987 satirical novel by Tom Wolfe. The story is a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City, and centers on three main characters: WASP bond trader Sherman McCoy, Jewish assistant district attorney Larry Kramer, and British expatriate journalist Peter Fallow.

The novel was originally conceived as a serial in the style of Charles Dickens' writings: It ran in 27 installments in Rolling Stone starting in 1984. Wolfe heavily revised it before it was published in book form. The novel was a bestseller and a phenomenal success, even in comparison with Wolfe's other books. It has often been called the quintessential novel of the 1980s.]]> 690 Tom Wolfe Renato 5 3.89 1987
author: Tom Wolfe
name: Renato
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1987
rating: 5
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]]> 86172
Meanwhile, Conrad Hensley, idealistic young father of two, is laid off from his job at the Croker Global Foods warehouse near Oakland and finds himself spiraling into the lower depths of the American legal system.

And back in Atlanta, when star Georgia Tech running back Fareek “the Canon� Fanon, a homegrown product of the city’s slums, is accused of date-raping the daughter of a pillar of the white establishment, upscale black lawyer Roger White II is asked to represent Fanon and help keep the city’s delicate racial balance from blowing sky-high.

Networks of illegal Asian immigrants crisscrossing the continent, daily life behind bars, shady real estate syndicates � Wolfe shows us contemporary America with all the verve, wit, and insight that have made him our most admired novelist. Charlie Croker’s deliverance from his tribulations provides an unforgettable denouement to the most widely awaited, hilarious and telling novel America has seen in ages � Tom Wolfe’s most outstanding achievement to date.]]> 704 Tom Wolfe 0553381334 Renato 4 3.86 1998
author: Tom Wolfe
name: Renato
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1998
rating: 4
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date added: 2019/09/11
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]]>