Stephanie's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 12 Jan 2025 19:51:49 -0800 60 Stephanie's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg War Horse 5414394 I want you to do yourself proud, Joey. You go and drive those Germans back where they've come from, and then come home to me.

At the outbreak of World War one, Joey, young Albert's beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. Caught up in enemy fire, fate takes Joey on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in no man's land. But Albert cannot forget Joey and, still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a treacherous mission to find him and bring him home.

Nick Stafford's adaptation for the stage of the celebrated novel by the Children's Laureate (2003-05) Michael Morpurgo leads us on a gripping journey through history. War Horse premiered at the National Theatre, London, in October 2007.]]>
98 Nick Stafford 0571240151 Stephanie 2 plays 4.25 War Horse
author: Nick Stafford
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2010/09/01
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: plays
review:

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<![CDATA[The Atheist's Bible: An Illustrious Collection of Irreverent Thoughts]]> 19320501 "All thinking men are atheists," Ernest Hemingway famously wrote. True? Here are quips, quotes, and questions from a distinguished assortment of geniuses and jokers, giving readers a chance to decide for themselves....

When I think of all the harm [the bible] has done, I despair of ever writing anything to equal it.
Oscar Wilde

SAINT, n. A dead sinner revised and edited.
Ambrose Bierce

There ain't no answer. There ain't going to be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer.
Gertrude Stein

Do not let yourself be deceived: great intellects are skeptical.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Susan Ertz

God is love, but get it in writing.
Gypsy Rose Lee

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
George Bernard Shaw

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210 Joan Konner 0061842109 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.89 2007 The Atheist's Bible: An Illustrious Collection of Irreverent Thoughts
author: Joan Konner
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Start Your Own Event Planning Business: Your Step-By-Step Guide to Success (StartUp Series)]]> 12007304 224 Cheryl Kimball 159918415X Stephanie 4 general-nf 3.60 Start Your Own Event Planning Business: Your Step-By-Step Guide to Success (StartUp Series)
author: Cheryl Kimball
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.60
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2012/01/01
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: general-nf
review:
I don't know how good the book would be considered for someone who's a seasoned professional in this field, but I think it does a good job covering the bases for someone who doesn't know much about the business. Good to read to get an idea of what to expect if you're thinking about becoming a (successful) event planner.
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<![CDATA[Everyman and Other Miracle and Morality Plays]]> 449173 96 Unknown 0486287262 Stephanie 2 plays 3.29 1485 Everyman and Other Miracle and Morality Plays
author: Unknown
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.29
book published: 1485
rating: 2
read at: 2009/09/01
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: plays
review:

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<![CDATA[The Gayer-Anderson Cat (Object in Focus)]]> 2320666 64 Neal Spencer 0714119733 Stephanie 4 general-nf 4.38 2007 The Gayer-Anderson Cat (Object in Focus)
author: Neal Spencer
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/01/25
shelves: general-nf
review:

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<![CDATA[Me Before You (Me Before You, #1)]]> 15507958 Discover the love story that captured over 20 million hearts in Me Before You, After You, and Still Me.

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

A Love Story for this generation and perfect for fans of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common—a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?]]>
369 Jojo Moyes Stephanie 4 romance-chiclit 4.24 2012 Me Before You (Me Before You, #1)
author: Jojo Moyes
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2017/11/02
shelves: romance-chiclit
review:

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<![CDATA[The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well]]> 30045683 Hygge has been described as everything from "cosines of the soul" to "the pursuit of everyday pleasures". The Little Book of Hygge is the book we all need right now, and is guaranteed to bring warmth and comfort to you and your loved ones this winter.

Hooga? Hhyooguh? Heurgh? It is not really important how you choose to pronounce 'hygge'. What is important is that you feel it. Whether you're cuddled up on a sofa with a loved one, or sharing comfort food with your closest friends, hygge is about creating an atmosphere where you can let your guard down.]]>
289 Meik Wiking 0241283914 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.76 2016 The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well
author: Meik Wiking
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/11/02
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Broken Toys: Submissives With Mental Illness and Neurological Dysfunction]]> 26153611 258 Raven Kaldera Stephanie 5 general-nf 4.02 2014 Broken Toys: Submissives With Mental Illness and Neurological Dysfunction
author: Raven Kaldera
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/07/18
shelves: general-nf
review:

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<![CDATA[More Than Two: A Practical Guide to Ethical Polyamory]]> 21955937 A modern topology of nonmonogamy’s many possibilities―and consequences.

“Can you love more than one person?” A lot of conversations about nonmonogamy start this way. When we discuss “opening” relationships, contemplate whether we want to be exclusive with our partners, or introduce multiple partners to friends and family, we are asking the people in our lives, and ourselves, to contend with this question.

The answer is obvious, and misleading. The love one feels in their heart and the love one expresses through daily acts of care and affection are both “love” in the true sense, but they have different requirements, present different options and produce different outcomes.

More Than Two can’t promise outcomes, but it is a guide to the paths―from anchor or nesting partnerships to relationship anarchy―possible within nonmonogamy. This long-awaited second edition bridges emerging theories on attachment and relationship diversity with authors Eve Rickert and Andrea Zanin’s insight and experience. The arcs of nonmonogamous partnerships bend towards complexity, introspection and compromise―or at least they can, if we work at it.]]>
480 Eve Rickert 0991399706 Stephanie 5 general-nf 4.22 2014 More Than Two: A Practical Guide to Ethical Polyamory
author: Eve Rickert
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/07/18
shelves: general-nf
review:

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<![CDATA[What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: A Short Guide to Making Over Your Mornings--and Life]]> 18634501 But according to time management expert Laura Vanderkam, mornings hold the key to taking control of our schedules. If we use them wisely, we can build habits that will allow us to lead happier, more productive lives.
Drawing on real-life anecdotes and scientific research that shows why the early hours of the day are so important, Vanderkam reveals how successful people use mornings to help them accomplish things that are often impossible to take care of later in the day. While many of us are still in bed, these folks are scoring daily victories to improve their health, careers, and personal lives without sacrificing their sanity. For instance, former PepsiCo chairman and CEO Steve Reinemund would rise at 5:00 a.m., run four miles, pray, and eat breakfast with his family before heading to work to run a Fortune 500 company.
"What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast" is a fun, practical guide that will inspire you to rethink your morning routine and jump-start your life before the day has even begun.]]>
181 Laura Vanderkam 1591845769 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.41 2012 What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: A Short Guide to Making Over Your Mornings--and Life
author: Laura Vanderkam
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/12/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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Divergent (Divergent, #1) 8306857 In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

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487 Veronica Roth 0062024027 Stephanie 0 to-read 4.28 2011 Divergent (Divergent, #1)
author: Veronica Roth
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/05/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened]]> 17571007
So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:

Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*

*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!]]>
385 Allie Brosh 1451666187 Stephanie 4 memoir-biography, humor 4.25 2013 Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
author: Allie Brosh
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/13
shelves: memoir-biography, humor
review:

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<![CDATA[Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)]]> 7260188 My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.]]>
390 Suzanne Collins 0439023513 Stephanie 5 young-adult, 2015faves 4.10 2010 Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2015/06/01
date added: 2015/12/06
shelves: young-adult, 2015faves
review:

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Love Style Life 25241664 ?
Garance Doré, the voice and vision behind her eponymous blog, has captivated millions of readers worldwide with her fresh and appealing approach to style through storytelling. This gorgeously illustrated book takes readers on a unique narrative journey that blends Garance’s inimitable photography and illustrations with the candid, hard-won wisdom drawn from her life and her travels. Infused with her Left Bank sensibility, the eclecticism of her adopted city of New York, and the wild, passionate spirit of her native Corsica, Love Style Life is a backstage pass behind fashion’s frontlines, peppered with French-girl-next-door wit and advice on everything from mixing J.Crew with Chanel, to falling in love, to pursuing a life and career that is the perfect reflection of you.
?
Praise for Garance Doré and Love Style Life
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“罢丑别 most elegant, funny, truthful book on style, love and life. Garance is an original with the cutest French accent.” —Jenna Lyons, president and creative director, J.Crew
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“This charming book by fashion blogger Doré is part memoir and part style guide, gathered together in a chic, Gallic-inflected package.” — Publishers Weekly

“One of blogdom’s most compelling storytellers.” — The New York Times
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“Doré’s mix of portrait photography, illustrations, collages, and stream-of-consciousness writing . . . has given the fashion world en masse a girl crush.” — Interview
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“Garance Doré embodies effortless French style.” — Martha Stewart Living]]>
272 Garance Doré 0812996372 Stephanie 5 general-nf, 2015faves 3.81 2015 Love Style Life
author: Garance Doré
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/12/06
shelves: general-nf, 2015faves
review:

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The Fault in Our Stars 11870085
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.]]>
313 John Green Stephanie 4 young-adult 4.13 2012 The Fault in Our Stars
author: John Green
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/11/28
shelves: young-adult
review:

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Defending Jacob 11367726
Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student.]]>
421 William Landay 0385344228 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.99 2012 Defending Jacob
author: William Landay
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/07/13
shelves: to-read
review:

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Attack on Titan, Vol. 1 13154150
For the past century, what's left of mankind has hidden in a giant, three-walled city, trapped in fear of the bizarre, giant humanoids known as the Titans. Little is known about where they came from or why they are bent on consuming humankind, but the sudden appearance of an enormous Titan is about to change everything...]]>
193 Hajime Isayama 1612620248 Stephanie 0 to-read 4.48 2010 Attack on Titan, Vol. 1
author: Hajime Isayama
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/07/13
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths]]> 9754534
我们的大脑是信念引擎。从透过感官流入的感官数据,大脑会自然地寻找和发现模式,然后為这些模式赋予主体性、注入意义。

一旦这些模式形成了信念,大脑便开始寻找支持这些信念的证据,如此加速巩固信念的过程,这个过程周而復始地进入信念确认的正回馈循环;而我们的大脑用以巩固信念的认知工具,数量非常眾多。

本书以五个部分,说明我们何以相信奇怪的事物,更相信任何事物;书中从怀疑论角度切入,从政治、经济、宗教领域,到阴谋论、超自然现象,以及人类為何相信不明飞行物、相信外星人绑架、相信超自然事物、相信读心术等等,為什麼人们总相信自己是对的,别人都是错的。

透过对这些现象的分析,谢尔默期许,能為长期相信某个观点或信仰的人带来不同的思辨角度。也强调了我们之所以需要科学,就是因為科学是有史以来确定信念是否符合现实的最佳工具。闭闭>
400 Michael Shermer 0805091254 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.92 2011 The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths
author: Michael Shermer
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/03/16
shelves: to-read
review:

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Roomies 17573559
When East Coast native Elizabeth receives her freshman year roommate assignment, she shoots off an e-mail to coordinate the basics: television, microwave, mini-fridge. That first note to San Franciscan Lauren sparks a series of e-mails that alters the landscape of each girl's summer—and raises questions about how two girls who are so different will ever share a dorm room.

As the countdown to college begins, life at home becomes increasingly complex. With family relationships and childhood friendships strained by change, it suddenly seems that the only people Elizabeth and Lauren can rely on are the complicated new boys in their lives . . . and each other. Even though they've never met.]]>
279 Sara Zarr 0316217492 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.61 2013 Roomies
author: Sara Zarr
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Mad About the Boy (Bridget Jones, #3)]]> 17262155 Catorze anos após o último livro, Bridget Jones: No limite da raz?o, nossa heroína retoma seu diário abandonado e mostra que continua a mesma, e ainda mais viva - e ativa - do que nunca. O tempo se encarregou de trazer à sua vida outros dramas e dilemas, mas n?o levou embora seu jeito estabanado e a personalidade luminosa sem a qual ela n?o poderia enfrentar os momentos comoventes que a aguardam. Além de n?o descuidar da balan?a e manter-se longe dos cigarros, agora ela também precisa se preocupar com sites de relacionamentos, o número de seguidores no Twitter e os perigos de trocar mensagens de texto depois de algumas ta?as de vinho.
Ainda às voltas com os amores, Bridget trope?a em novas confus?es e tenta em v?o se esquivar das gafes que ajudaram a consagrá-la como uma das personagens mais divertidas da literatura feminina contempor?nea, enquanto figuras antigas e recentes desfilam por sua vida - sobretudo um garoto misterioso que vem para balan?ar seriamente suas certezas.
Bridget Jones: Louca pelo garoto traz um desfecho inesperado para a história que já conhecemos, sem deixar de abrir portas a outras aventuras. Leitura obrigatória para qualquer mulher de hoje, o romance é um retrato fiel e bem-humorado das tribula??es ao mesmo tempo trágicas e risíveis que comp?em nosso dia a dia.]]>
400 Helen Fielding 0345807952 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.35 2013 Mad About the Boy (Bridget Jones, #3)
author: Helen Fielding
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/12/31
shelves: to-read
review:

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Fortunately, the Milk 17349203
"Hullo," I said to myself. "That's not something you see every day. And then something odd happened."

Find out just how odd things get in this hilarious New York Times bestselling story of time travel and breakfast cereal, expertly told by Newbery Medalist and bestselling author Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Skottie Young.]]>
128 Neil Gaiman 0062224077 Stephanie 0 to-read 4.04 2013 Fortunately, the Milk
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Death of Bees 15818333 Swamplandia! and The Secret Life of Bees—in which two young sisters attempt to hold the world at bay after the mysterious death of their parents.

Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved.

Marnie and her little sister Nelly are on their own now. Only they know what happened to their parents, Izzy and Gene, and they aren’t telling. While life in Glasgow’s Hazlehurst housing estate isn’t grand, they do have each other. Besides, it’s only one year until Marnie will be considered an adult and can legally take care of them both.

As the new year comes and goes, Lennie, the old man next door, realizes that his young neighbors are alone and need his help. Or does he need theirs? But he’s not the only one who suspects something isn’t right. Soon, the sisters’ friends, their other neighbors, the authorities, and even Gene’s nosy drug dealer begin to ask questions. As one lie leads to another, dark secrets about the girls’ family surface, creating complications that threaten to tear them apart.

Written with fierce sympathy and beautiful precision, told in alternating voices, The Death of Bees is an enchanting, grimly comic tale of three lost souls who, unable to answer for themselves, can answer only for each other.]]>
312 Lisa O'Donnell 0062209841 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.80 2012 The Death of Bees
author: Lisa O'Donnell
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

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Paper Towns 2914097 Who is the real Margo?

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends, and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew...]]>
305 John Green 0525478183 Stephanie 5 young-adult 4.00 2008 Paper Towns
author: John Green
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/10/29
shelves: young-adult
review:

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The Great Gatsby 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author’s own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]>
180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 Stephanie 5 2013faves, generalfiction 3.93 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/10/07
shelves: 2013faves, generalfiction
review:

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Dad Is Fat 16085474 Jim Gaffigan never imagined he would have his own kids.

Though he grew up in a large Irish-Catholic family, Jim was satisfied with the nomadic, nocturnal life of a standup comedian, and was content to be "that weird uncle who lives in an apartment by himself in New York that everyone in the family speculates about." But all that changed when he married and found out his wife, Jeannie "is someone who gets pregnant looking at babies."

Five kids later, the comedian whose riffs on everything from Hot Pockets to Jesus have scored millions of hits on YouTube, started to tweet about the mistakes and victories of his life as a dad. Those tweets struck such a chord that he soon passed the million followers mark. But it turns out 140 characters are not enough to express all the joys and horrors of life with five kids, so hes' now sharing it all in Dad Is Fat.

From new parents to empty nesters to Jim's twenty-something fans, everyone will recognize their own families in these hilarious takes on everything from cousins ("celebrities for little kids") to growing up in a big family ("I always assumed my father had six children so he could have a sufficient lawn crew") to changing diapers in the middle of the night ("like The Hurt Locker but much more dangerous") to bedtime (aka "Negotiating with Terrorists").

Dad is Fat is sharply observed, explosively funny, and a cry for help from a man who has realized he and his wife are outnumbered in their own home.]]>
275 Jim Gaffigan 038534905X Stephanie 3 humor, memoir-biography 3.75 2013 Dad Is Fat
author: Jim Gaffigan
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2013/10/07
shelves: humor, memoir-biography
review:

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<![CDATA[Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]>
391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 Stephanie 5 young-adult 4.34 2009 Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/10/02
shelves: young-adult
review:

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Mortality 13529055 Hitch-22, Christopher Hitchens was stricken in his New York hotel room with excruciating pain in his chest and thorax. As he would later write in the first of a series of award-winning columns for "Vanity Fair," he suddenly found himself being deported "from the country of the well across the stark frontier that marks off the land of malady." Over the next eighteen months, until his death in Houston on December 15, 2011, he wrote constantly and brilliantly on politics and culture, astonishing readers with his capacity for superior work even in extremis.

Throughout the course of his ordeal battling esophageal cancer, Hitchens adamantly and bravely refused the solace of religion, preferring to confront death with both eyes open. In this account of his affliction, he describes the torments of illness, discusses its taboos, and explores how disease transforms experience and changes our relationship to the world around us. By turns personal and philosophical, Hitchens embraces the full panoply of human emotions as cancer invades his body and compels him to grapple with the enigma of mortality.]]>
104 Christopher Hitchens 1455502758 Stephanie 5 general-nf, memoir-biography 4.09 2012 Mortality
author: Christopher Hitchens
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/09/21
shelves: general-nf, memoir-biography
review:

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<![CDATA[Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Aristotle and Dante, #1)]]> 12000020
But against all odds, when Ari and Dante meet, they develop a special bond that will teach them the most important truths of their lives, and help define the people they want to be. But there are big hurdles in their way, and only by believing in each other—and the power of their friendship—can Ari and Dante emerge stronger on the other side.]]>
390 Benjamin Alire Sáenz 1442408928 Stephanie 4 young-adult 4.29 2012 Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Aristotle and Dante, #1)
author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/09/21
shelves: young-adult
review:

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<![CDATA[The Ocean at the End of the Lane]]> 15783514
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.]]>
181 Neil Gaiman 0062255657 Stephanie 0 to-read 4.00 2013 The Ocean at the End of the Lane
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/09/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong - and What You Really Need to Know]]> 16158576 What to Expect When You're Expecting meets Freakonomics: an award-winning economist disproves standard recommendations?about pregnancy to empower women while they're expecting.

Pregnancy—unquestionably one of the most pro?found, meaningful experiences of adulthood—can reduce otherwise intelligent women to, well, babies. Pregnant women are told to avoid cold cuts, sushi, alcohol, and coffee without ever being told why these are forbidden. Rules for prenatal testing are similarly unexplained. Moms-to-be desperately want a resource that empowers them to make their own right choices.

When award-winning economist Emily Oster was a mom-to-be herself, she evaluated the data behind the accepted rules of pregnancy and discovered that most are often misguided and some are just flat-out wrong. Debunking myths and explaining everything from the real effects of caffeine to the surprising dangers of gardening, Expecting Better is the book for every pregnant woman who wants to enjoy a healthy and relaxed pregnancy.]]>
336 Emily Oster 1594204756 Stephanie 0 to-read 4.28 2013 Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong - and What You Really Need to Know
author: Emily Oster
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/20
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Thomas Jefferson: Author of America]]> 43370
Conflicted by power, Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and acted as Minister to France yet yearned for a quieter career in the Virginia legislature. Predicting that slavery would shape the future of America's development, this professed proponent of emancipation elided the issue in the Declaration and continued to own human property. An eloquent writer, he was an awkward public speaker; a reluctant candidate, he left an indelible presidential legacy.

Jefferson's statesmanship enabled him to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase with France, doubling the size of the nation, and he authorized the Lewis and Clark expedition, opening up the American frontier for exploration and settlement. Hitchens also analyzes Jefferson's handling of the Barbary War, a lesser-known chapter of his political career, when his attempt to end the kidnapping and bribery of Americans by the Barbary states, and the subsequent war with Tripoli, led to the building of the U.S. navy and the fortification of America's reputation regarding national defense.

In the background of this sophisticated analysis is a large historical drama: the fledgling nation's struggle for independence, formed in the crucible of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, and, in its shadow, the deformation of that struggle in the excesses of the French Revolution. This artful portrait of a formative figure and a turbulent era poses a challenge to anyone interested in American history -- or in the ambiguities of human nature.]]>
188 Christopher Hitchens 0060598964 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.92 2005 Thomas Jefferson: Author of America
author: Christopher Hitchens
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/06/29
shelves: to-read
review:

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Crusher (Crusher, #1) 15722179 Trawling the sordid, brutal London underworld for answers, Finn exposes dark family secrets and faces danger at every turn. But he's about to learn that it's the people you trust who can hit you the hardest...

"'A fast-paced thriller with real heart’
Simon Kernick]]>
384 Niall Leonard 085753209X Stephanie 0 to-read 3.41 2012 Crusher (Crusher, #1)
author: Niall Leonard
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/06/21
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Lullaby of Polish Girls 15981706
Anna's family emigrate to the U.S. in the 1980s when she is just a girl. They are granted political asylum because of her father's role in the Solidarity movement that brings an end to the Communist regime. Anna never quite feels like she belongs until the summer she is 12, when she returns to Kielce, Poland, to visit her grandmother. She develops an intense friendship with two local girls-brash and beautiful Justyna and desperate, awkward Bronka. Despite the very different paths their lives take, they maintain their connection. Over a decade later, a scandalous murder leads them back to the place where their unlikely friendship began.

Dominczyk's assured narrative flashes from the wild teenage summers of their past to the years of self-discovery in New York, and Europe. The Lullaby of Polish Girls captures the passion and drama of youthful friendship, the immigrant's yearning to fit in, and the exquisite and wistful transformation of young women coming of age.]]>
240 Dagmara Dominczyk 0812993551 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.38 2013 The Lullaby of Polish Girls
author: Dagmara Dominczyk
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

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Reasons to Be Happy 17265154 Reasons to Be Happy is the companion piece to Neil LaBute's widely praised, 2009 Tony-nominated reasons to be pretty. Reasons to Be Happy features the same four characters--Greg, Steph, Carly, and Kent--picking up their lives three years later, but in different romantic pairings as they each search desperately for that elusive object of desire: happiness.? New York City's MCC Theater will produce the world premiere in May 2013.]]> 112 Neil LaBute 1468307215 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.33 2013 Reasons to Be Happy
author: Neil LaBute
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/05/05
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, #1)]]> 13538873
Clay Jannon tells how serendipity, sheer curiosity, and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey has sent him from Web Drone to night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. After just a few days on the job, Clay realizes just how curious this store is.

A few customers come in repeatedly without buying anything. Instead they “check out” obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. All runs according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes.

He embarks on a complex analysis of the customers’ behavior and ropes in friends to help. Once they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, it turns out the secrets extend far outside the walls of the bookstore. A quest to New York City dips in a world conspiracy for eternal life. The current of romance pulls Clay onward.]]>
288 Robin Sloan 0374214913 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.71 2012 Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, #1)
author: Robin Sloan
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/04/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[How to Be a Gentleman: A Contemporary Guide to Common Courtesy]]> 207500 150 John Bridges 1558535969 Stephanie 3 general-nf 3.73 1998 How to Be a Gentleman: A Contemporary Guide to Common Courtesy
author: John Bridges
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 2013/03/01
date added: 2013/03/31
shelves: general-nf
review:
wasn't fantastic, wasn't too bad. learned some neat things I probably should have already known lol.
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The Dinner 15797938
Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act - an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. When the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple shows just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, The Dinner is an internationally bestselling phenomenon that will leave you breathless.]]>
292 Herman Koch 0770437850 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.18 2009 The Dinner
author: Herman Koch
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/03/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us]]> 15797397
In Salt Sugar Fat, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss shows how this happened. Featuring examples from some of the most recognizable (and profitable) companies and brands of the last half century--including Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lunchables, Kellogg, Nestlé, Oreos, Cargill, Capri Sun, and many more--

Moss’s explosive, empowering narrative is grounded in meticulous, often eye-opening research. He goes inside the labs where food scientists use cutting-edge technology to calculate the "bliss point" of sugary beverages or enhance the "mouth feel" of fat by manipulating its chemical structure. He unearths marketing techniques taken straight from tobacco company playbooks to redirect concerns about the health risks of products. He talks to concerned executives who explain that they could never produce truly healthy alternatives to their products even if serious regulation became a reality.

Simply put: the industry itself would cease to exist without salt, sugar, and fat.]]>
480 Michael Moss 1400069807 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.99 2013 Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
author: Michael Moss
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character]]> 13435889
The story we usually tell about childhood and success is the one about intelligence: Success comes to those who score highest on tests, from preschool admissions to SATs.

But in "How Children Succeed," Paul Tough argues for a very different understanding of what makes a successful child. Drawing on groundbreaking research in neuroscience, economics, and psychology, Tough shows that the qualities that matter most have less to do with IQ and more to do with character: skills like grit, curiosity, conscientiousness, and optimism.

"How Children Succeed" introduces us to a new generation of scientists and educators who are radically changing our understanding of how children develop character, how they learn to think, and how they overcome adversity. It tells the personal stories of young people struggling to stay on the right side of the line between success and failure. And it argues for a new way of thinking about how best to steer an individual child – or a whole generation of children – toward a successful future.

This provocative and profoundly hopeful book will not only inspire and engage readers; it will also change our understanding of childhood itself.]]>
231 Paul Tough 0547564651 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.87 2012 How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
author: Paul Tough
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Someday's Dreamers: Spellbound, Vol. 01]]> 711169 192 Kumichi Yoshizuki 1598166425 Stephanie 3 graphicnovels 3.68 2004 Someday's Dreamers: Spellbound, Vol. 01
author: Kumichi Yoshizuki
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2009/03/09
date added: 2013/03/13
shelves: graphicnovels
review:
not too much substance imo, but this might appeal to a reader who's into magic/romance/fluff stuff. I do very much like the cover art though, and the art inside is kind of appealing.
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How to Cook Up a Disaster 16061110 The guests are due to arrive any minute for her great-grandfather's 100th birthday party.
And she hasn't a clue how to cook a turkey.
Why did the man of her dreams have to show up on her doorstep now?
Sadie Dawson is overwhelmed--and that's putting it lightly--but with the help of her two best friends she just might pull it off and land Mr. Right too.

***A novelette of approximately 11,000 words or 44 pages***]]>
44 Rachel Elizabeth Cole Stephanie 0 to-read 3.80 2012 How to Cook Up a Disaster
author: Rachel Elizabeth Cole
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/03/11
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus]]> 3937565 207 Christopher Marlowe 0416296602 Stephanie 5 plays 4.50 1588 The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus
author: Christopher Marlowe
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1588
rating: 5
read at: 2006/01/01
date added: 2013/02/19
shelves: plays
review:

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Man’s Search for Meaning 4069 Man's Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.]]> 165 Viktor E. Frankl 080701429X Stephanie 0 to-read 4.38 1946 Man’s Search for Meaning
author: Viktor E. Frankl
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1946
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/08
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Round House 13602426 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

One of the most revered novelists of our time - a brilliant chronicler of Native-American life - Louise Erdrich returns to the territory of her bestselling, Pulitzer Prize finalist The Plague of Doves with The Round House, transporting readers to the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. It is an exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family.

Riveting and suspenseful, arguably the most accessible novel to date from the creator of Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, and The Bingo Palace, Erdrich’s The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece of literary fiction - at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a tender, moving novel of family, history, and culture.]]>
323 Louise Erdrich 0062065246 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.96 2012 The Round House
author: Louise Erdrich
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

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Angels in America 72003 304 Tony Kushner 1559362316 Stephanie 4 plays, plays-queertheatre 4.27 1995 Angels in America
author: Tony Kushner
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2008/01/01
date added: 2013/01/03
shelves: plays, plays-queertheatre
review:

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Where'd You Go, Bernadette 12611253
When her daughter Bee claims a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for perfect grades, Bernadette, a fiercely intelligent shut-in, throws herself into preparations for the trip. But worn down by years of trying to live the Seattle life she never wanted, Ms. Fox is on the brink of a meltdown. And after a school fundraiser goes disastrously awry at her hands, she disappears, leaving her family to pick up the pieces--which is exactly what Bee does, weaving together an elaborate web of emails, invoices, and school memos that reveals a secret past Bernadette has been hiding for decades. Where'd You Go Bernadette is an ingenious and unabashedly entertaining novel about a family coming to terms with who they are and the power of a daughter's love for her mother.]]>
324 Maria Semple 0297867288 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.91 2012 Where'd You Go, Bernadette
author: Maria Semple
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

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Every Day (Every Day, #1) 13262783 Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.
There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone A wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.]]>
322 David Levithan 0307931889 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.91 2012 Every Day (Every Day, #1)
author: David Levithan
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/12/15
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters]]> 11699323
Things start out great - her arch-nemesis has moved across the country, giving Kelsey the perfect opportunity to stand out on the soccer team and finally catch the eye of her long-time crush. But soon enough, an evil junior’s thirst for revenge, a mysterious photographer, and a series of other catastrophes make it clear that just because KELSEY has a plan for greatness… it doesn’t mean the rest of the world is in on it.

Kelsey’s hilarious commentary throughout her disastrous freshman year will have you laughing out loud—while being thankful that 测辞耻’谤别 not in her shoes, of course…]]>
282 Meredith Zeitlin 0399254234 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.83 2012 Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters
author: Meredith Zeitlin
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/06/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion]]> 54170 304 Dale McGowan 0814474268 Stephanie 5
Overall, I find it a very insightful, intelligent read. I will definitely be buying it soon.]]>
4.07 2007 Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion
author: Dale McGowan
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2008/08/01
date added: 2012/05/13
shelves: general-nf, kids-interest, 2008faves
review:
Honestly, I can't say how glad I am that a book like this exists. It's the only book I've seen of its kind, and I don't know how they could have possibly written it better. The book accomplishes what it sets out to do very well in my opinion. Even from a non-parenting point, I can say I would be excited for my parents to read this book, at least so they can get a better idea of where I'm coming from in my beliefs. As explained in the introduction, this book contains a wide range of ideas and opinions about non-belief and how to incorporate that into a home, ranging from the opinions of Richard Dawkins to Unitarian Reverend Dr. Roberta Nelson; it's nice to have something like that to reference to when nonreligious people are typically described as "militant".

Overall, I find it a very insightful, intelligent read. I will definitely be buying it soon.
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<![CDATA[The Perks of Being a Wallflower]]> 22628 offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see
what it looks like from the dance floor.

This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in contemporary fiction: The Perks of Being A WALLFLOWER

This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that the perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.

Through Charlie, Stephen Chbosky has created a deeply affecting coming-of-age story, a powerful novel that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller coaster days known as growing up.

(back cover)]]>
213 Stephen Chbosky Stephanie 5 young-adult 4.24 1999 The Perks of Being a Wallflower
author: Stephen Chbosky
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at: 2008/07/19
date added: 2012/05/13
shelves: young-adult
review:
may very well be one of my new favorites.
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<![CDATA[The Color of Heaven (Color Trilogy, #3)]]> 6478558
As Ehwa grew from a girl to a young woman in The Color of Earth and The Color of Water, she began to understand and experience love and relationships, with her mother as a model and confidante. Now, in the heartwarming conclusion to this lyrically written and delicately drawn trilogy, Ehwa's true love comes at last, and as her mother looks on, she takes the final steps towards becoming an adult.

In the tradition of My Antonia and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, from the pen of the renowned Korean manhwa creator Kim Dong Hwa, comes a girl's coming of age story, set in the vibrant pastoral landscape of Korea.]]>
320 Kim Dong Hwa 1596434600 Stephanie 5 3.77 2003 The Color of Heaven (Color Trilogy, #3)
author: Kim Dong Hwa
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2011/01/01
date added: 2012/05/13
shelves: graphicnovels, memoir-biography
review:

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<![CDATA[Voice-Over Voice Actor: What It's Like Behind the Mic]]> 6908675 256 Yuri Lowenthal 0984074007 Stephanie 5 movies-acting, 2011faves 4.36 2010 Voice-Over Voice Actor: What It's Like Behind the Mic
author: Yuri Lowenthal
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2011/01/01
date added: 2012/05/13
shelves: movies-acting, 2011faves
review:

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1776 1067 386 David McCullough 0743226720 Stephanie 5 general-nf, 2012faves 4.10 2005 1776
author: David McCullough
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2012/05/01
date added: 2012/05/13
shelves: general-nf, 2012faves
review:

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<![CDATA[All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps]]> 12851028
In stories that carry us from the excitement and anticipation of courtship to the deep connection of lifelong commitment, we discover that love is found in the most unexpected of places—a New York tollbooth, a military base in Iraq, an airport lounge—and learn that the course it takes is as unpredictable as life itself. As the storytellers in this book start careers, build homes, and raise families, we witness the life-affirming joy of partnership, the comfort of shared sorrows, and profound gratitude in the face of loss.

These stories are also testament to the heart’s remarkable endurance. In ALL THERE IS we encounter love that survives discrimination, illness, poverty, distance—even death. In the courage of people’s passion we are reminded of the strength and resilience of the human spirit. This powerful collection bares witness to real love, in its many varied forms, enriching our understanding of that most magical feeling.]]>
176 Dave Isay 1594203210 Stephanie 0 to-read 4.02 2012 All There Is: Love Stories from StoryCorps
author: Dave Isay
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/04/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Lilith's Brood (Xenogenesis, #1-3)]]> 60926 746 Octavia E. Butler 0446676101 Stephanie 4 sci-fi 4.35 1987 Lilith's Brood (Xenogenesis, #1-3)
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2012/04/01
date added: 2012/04/11
shelves: sci-fi
review:

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Paper Covers Rock 9369717 ?
A William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist
A Booklist Editors’ Choice
A Horn Book Fanfare
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Flying Start Author
A Booklist Top 10 First Novel for Youth
An ABC Top 10 New Voices Selection
?
* “罢丑别 poignant first-person narration is a deftly woven mixture of confessional entries, class assignments, poems, and letters. . . . [A] tense dictation of secrets, lies, manipulation, and the ambiguity of honor.” —The Horn Book Magazine, Starred
?
* "In the tradition of John Knowles’s A Separate Peace. . . . A powerful, ambitious debut.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred
?
* "Those who are looking for something to ponder will enjoy this compelling read.” —School Library Journal
, Starred
?
* “This novel introduces Hubbard as a bright light to watch on the YA literary scene.” —Booklist, Starred]]>
192 Jenny Hubbard 0385740557 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.38 2011 Paper Covers Rock
author: Jenny Hubbard
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

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A Monster Calls 8621462
At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting - he's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It's ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth.

From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd - whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself - Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.]]>
226 Patrick Ness 1406311529 Stephanie 4 young-adult 4.35 2011 A Monster Calls
author: Patrick Ness
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2012/03/01
date added: 2012/03/21
shelves: young-adult
review:

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<![CDATA[Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me]]> 9902804
"My tendency to make up stories and lie compulsively for the sake of my own amusement takes up a good portion of my day and provides me with a peace of mind not easily attainable in this economic climate." -- Chelsea Handler, from Chapter 10 of Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang

It's no Chelsea Handler loves to smoke out "dumbassness," the condition people suffer from that allows them to fall prey to her brand of complete and utter nonsense. Friends, family, co-workers--they've all been tricked by Chelsea into believing stories of total foolishness and into behaving like total fools. Luckily, they've lived to tell the tales and, for the very first time, write about them.]]>
8 Chelsea Handler 1609411153 Stephanie 3 humor 3.76 2011 Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me
author: Chelsea Handler
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2012/03/01
date added: 2012/03/21
shelves: humor
review:

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Wit 171201 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, and the Oppenheimer Award

Margaret Edson’s powerfully imagined Pulitzer Prize–winning play examines what makes life worth living through her exploration of one of existence’s unifying experiences—mortality—while she also probes the vital importance of human relationships.

What we as her audience take away from this remarkable drama is a keener sense that, while death is real and unavoidable, our lives are ours to cherish or throw away—a lesson that can be both uplifting and redemptive. As the playwright herself puts it, “罢丑别 play is not about doctors or even about cancer. It’s about kindness, but it shows arrogance. It’s about compassion, but it shows insensitivity.”

In Wit, Edson delves into timeless questions with no final answers: How should we live our lives knowing that we will die? Is the way we live our lives and interact with others more important than what we achieve materially, professionally, or intellectually?

How does language figure into our lives? Can science and art help us conquer death, or our fear of it? What will seem most important to each of us about life as that life comes to an end?

The immediacy of the presentation, and the clarity and elegance of Edson’s writing, make this sophisticated, multilayered play accessible to almost any interested reader.

As the play begins, Vivian Bearing, a renowned professor of English who has spent years studying and teaching the intricate, difficult Holy Sonnets of the seventeenth-century poet John Donne, is diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. Confident of her ability to stay in control of events, she brings to her illness the same intensely rational and painstakingly methodical approach that has guided her stellar academic career.

But as her disease and its excruciatingly painful treatment inexorably progress, she begins to question the single-minded values and standards that have always directed her, finally coming to understand the aspects of life that make it truly worth living.
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85 Margaret Edson 0571198775 Stephanie 4 plays 4.14 1995 Wit
author: Margaret Edson
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2012/03/01
date added: 2012/03/21
shelves: plays
review:

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When She Woke 11045709 When She Woke is a fable about a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of a not-too-distant future, who embarks on a path of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she once held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes faith.

Bellwether Prize Winner Hillary Jordan's provocative new novel is the fiercely imagined story of a woman struggling to navigate an America of a not-too-distant future, where the line between church and state has been eradicated and convicted felons are no longer imprisoned and rehabilitated but chromed -- their skin color is genetically altered to match the class of their crime -- and then released back into the population to survive as best they can. Hannah is a Red; her crime is murder.]]>
344 Hillary Jordan 1565126297 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.67 2011 When She Woke
author: Hillary Jordan
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[American Gods (American Gods, #1)]]> 4407
Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.

Scary, gripping and deeply unsettling, American Gods takes a long, hard look into the soul of America. You'll be surprised by what - and who - it finds there...

This is the author's preferred text, never before published in the UK, and is about 12,000 words longer than the previous UK edition.

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635 Neil Gaiman Stephanie 4 generalfiction 4.10 2001 American Gods (American Gods, #1)
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2012/02/01
date added: 2012/02/17
shelves: generalfiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)]]> 9969571 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

IN THE YEAR 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.

But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.]]>
480 Ernest Cline 030788743X Stephanie 5 2011faves, young-adult 4.21 2011 Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)
author: Ernest Cline
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2011/12/01
date added: 2011/12/22
shelves: 2011faves, young-adult
review:

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<![CDATA[For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage]]> 7641444 Groundbreaking scientific news about marriage. And, surprise: It's good news.

We've all heard the statistic: Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. It's enough to make many couples give up when the going gets rough, thinking that's what everybody else does. But what if it weren't true? What if, in fact, it's not only possible but often easier than you think to save a seemingly troubled relationship? These are the questions Tara Parker-Pope asked herself after her own divorce. An New York Times investigative journalist on the health and wellness beat, she turned to some of the top biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and other scientists for the facts about marriage and divorce.

Those facts were more positive and provocative than she'd ever expected, and For Better offers page after page of astonishing, eye-opening good news. Parker-Pope presents the science behind why some marriages work and others don't; the biology behind why some spouses cheat and others remain faithful; the best diagnostic tools created by the most cutting-edge psychologists to assess the probability of success in getting married, staying married, or remarrying. There are questionnaires to uncover potentially damaging hidden attitudes toward spouses. There are tools to show the impact of routine, fresh activity and how small adjustments can make a huge difference.

For Better is the definitive guide to the most profound relationship of our lives.]]>
356 Tara Parker-Pope 0525951385 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.49 2009 For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage
author: Tara Parker-Pope
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/12/07
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Keeper of Lost Causes (Department Q, #1)]]> 10822858
But she isn’t dead … yet.

Darkly humorous, propulsive, and atmospheric, The Keeper of Lost Causes introduces American readers to the mega-bestselling series fast becoming an international sensation.]]>
400 Jussi Adler-Olsen 0525952489 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.98 2007 The Keeper of Lost Causes (Department Q, #1)
author: Jussi Adler-Olsen
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/12/06
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)]]> 10335308
Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you've come to the right book, mostly!

In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door - not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.]]>
222 Mindy Kaling 0307886263 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.86 2011 Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
author: Mindy Kaling
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/12/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking, #3)]]> 9450082 602 Patrick Ness Stephanie 0 to-read 4.14 2010 Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking, #3)
author: Patrick Ness
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/11/17
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, #2)]]> 9475894
Fleeing before a relentless army, Todd has carried a desperately wounded Viola right into the hands of their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss. Immediately separated from Viola and imprisoned, Todd is forced to learn the ways of the Mayor's new order. But what secrets are hiding just outside of town? And where is Viola? Is she even still alive? And who are the mysterious Answer? And then, one day, the bombs begin to explode...

"The Ask and the Answer" is a tense, shocking and deeply moving novel of resistance under the most extreme pressure. This is the second title in the "Chaos Walking" trilogy.]]>
530 Patrick Ness Stephanie 0 to-read 4.07 2009 The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, #2)
author: Patrick Ness
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/11/17
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The New World (Chaos Walking, #1.5)]]> 9412471 25 Patrick Ness 0763656496 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.89 2010 The New World (Chaos Walking, #1.5)
author: Patrick Ness
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/11/17
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1)]]> 2118745
But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?]]>
479 Patrick Ness 1406310255 Stephanie 4 young-adult 3.95 2008 The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, #1)
author: Patrick Ness
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2011/11/01
date added: 2011/11/17
shelves: young-adult
review:

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Ash (Ash, #1) 8202129 Cinderella retold

In the wake of her father's death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.

The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King's Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash's capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief.]]>
266 Malinda Lo Stephanie 0 to-read 3.77 2009 Ash (Ash, #1)
author: Malinda Lo
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/11/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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Bad Science 3272165
We are obsessed with our health. And yet—from the media's "world-expert microbiologist" with a mail-order Ph.D. in his garden shed laboratory, via multiple health scares and miracle cures, to the million-pound trial that Durham Council now denies ever existed—we are constantly bombarded with inaccurate, contradictory and sometimes even misleading information. Until now.

Ben Goldacre masterfully dismantles the dodgy science behind some of the great drug trials, court cases and missed opportunities of our time, but he also goes further: out of the bullshit, he shows us the fascinating story of how we know what we know, and gives us the tools to uncover bad science for ourselves.]]>
338 Ben Goldacre 0007240198 Stephanie 0 to-read 4.05 2008 Bad Science
author: Ben Goldacre
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/11/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Flesh & Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy]]> 9414509
But the story of the fire is not the story of one accidental moment in time.? It is a story of immigration and hard work to make it in a new country, as Italians and Jews and others traveled to America to find a better life.? It is the story of poor working conditions and greedy bosses, as garment workers discovered the endless sacrifices required to make ends meet.? It is the story of unimaginable, but avoidable, disaster.? And it the story of the unquenchable pride and activism of fearless immigrants and women who stood up to business, got America on their side, and finally changed working conditions for our entire nation, initiating radical new laws we take for granted today.

With Flesh and Blood So Cheap, Albert Marrin has crafted a gripping, nuanced, and poignant account of one of America's defining tragedies.]]>
182 Albert Marrin 037596889X Stephanie 0 to-read 3.76 2011 Flesh & Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy
author: Albert Marrin
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/11/08
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books]]> 7603 Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi's living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.

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356 Azar Nafisi 081297106X Stephanie 4 memoir-biography, general-nf 3.64 2003 Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
author: Azar Nafisi
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2011/10/01
date added: 2011/10/28
shelves: memoir-biography, general-nf
review:

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The Help 4667024
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women, mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends, view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.


Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here]]>
464 Kathryn Stockett 0399155341 Stephanie 5 historicalfiction, 2011faves 4.46 2009 The Help
author: Kathryn Stockett
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2011/10/01
date added: 2011/10/27
shelves: historicalfiction, 2011faves
review:

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Flip 8714383 272 Martyn Bedford 0385739907 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.54 2010 Flip
author: Martyn Bedford
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/10/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Night Circus 9361589
But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.]]>
506 Erin Morgenstern Stephanie 0 to-read 4.00 2011 The Night Circus
author: Erin Morgenstern
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/10/14
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Women Who Make the World Worse: and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports]]> 498411 A top conservative writer explores the feminist assault on our families, schools, workplaces, and military

As a woman, Kate O’Beirne can say things a male commentator could never get away with. In her long-awaited first book, she takes on America’s leading feminists—including Hillary Clinton, Gloria Steinem, Eleanor Smeal, Maureen Dowd, Kate Michelman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and even Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw. She confronts them with hard evidence of how women like them have done more harm than good over the last four decades.

O’Beirne is all for women’s equality and celebrates the unprecedented opportunities they enjoy today. But she faults those feminists who believe that a hostile patriarchy reigns and that women remain its helpless victims. Their agenda is not profemale; it’s merely antimale.

Women Who Make the World Worse shows how their destructive handiwork can be felt in every corner of American life, including:
? fractured families and dispensable dads
? offices and schools that have become battlegrounds in the gender wars
? military units that put lives at risk to promote social engineering

This book takes on some very powerful women and challenges beliefs that have become feminist orthodoxy, starting with the myth that men are the enemy of women’s progress. O’Beirne marshals her allies, prepares for a good fight, and never loses her sense of humor. This is a provocative book that will appeal to anyone, male or female, who wants some old-fashioned common sense about relations between the sexes.

“We depend on manly characteristics to keep us safe. Every single one of the dead firemen heroes on 9/11 were men. This was one group where liberals didn’t ask why there wasn’t a more pleasing gender balance, because the Upper West Side is not fireproof. What happens in combat in some distant field is abstract to liberals, but they can understand the need to have strong, brave men in their fire department.” —Kate O’Beirne

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256 Kate O'Beirne 1595230092 Stephanie 1 general-nf, ugh
I ended up being only a little entertained and extremely agitated at how poorly this author makes her arguments and offends her readers by expecting them to accept her "facts" when they're so full of fallacies and missing information that it would take another 200-page book to cite and explain them all.

To start with, I'd say at least half of the statistics and information she uses is from no later than the 70's, and she tries to use said statistics under contemporary circumstances. She then gives examples in parts of her book that completely contradict her claim of how feminism is harmful and unnecessary (if you're curious, a pretty good one is on page 95). Her lists of what "destructive" actions feminists have done are pointless, since most people would just look through said lists and think, "Hmm, I don't think I've EVER thought awareness of domestic violence was a problem...actually, how are any of these things bad again?" She makes statements that she claims are facts but in actuality are just opinions that are skewed with half-truths and faulty cause-and-effect logic. The only way anyone could appreciate this book is if they already agreed with her views in the first place, because she doesn't do a good job proving her case otherwise.

I'd say that out of the entire book, if you're looking for logical, sound arguments that are worth considering for the other side's point of view, maybe twelve pages are worth reading. And I don't mean entire pages; more like two or three sentences per page, or something close to that sort.]]>
3.18 2005 Women Who Make the World Worse: and How Their Radical Feminist Assault Is Ruining Our Schools, Families, Military, and Sports
author: Kate O'Beirne
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2005
rating: 1
read at: 2008/06/01
date added: 2011/10/05
shelves: general-nf, ugh
review:
I saw this book and thought I could potentially accomplish one of two things by making myself read it all the way through: either give an honest shot at hearing what someone on the other end of the argument has to say about the issue, or potentially entertain myself if the book was bad enough.

I ended up being only a little entertained and extremely agitated at how poorly this author makes her arguments and offends her readers by expecting them to accept her "facts" when they're so full of fallacies and missing information that it would take another 200-page book to cite and explain them all.

To start with, I'd say at least half of the statistics and information she uses is from no later than the 70's, and she tries to use said statistics under contemporary circumstances. She then gives examples in parts of her book that completely contradict her claim of how feminism is harmful and unnecessary (if you're curious, a pretty good one is on page 95). Her lists of what "destructive" actions feminists have done are pointless, since most people would just look through said lists and think, "Hmm, I don't think I've EVER thought awareness of domestic violence was a problem...actually, how are any of these things bad again?" She makes statements that she claims are facts but in actuality are just opinions that are skewed with half-truths and faulty cause-and-effect logic. The only way anyone could appreciate this book is if they already agreed with her views in the first place, because she doesn't do a good job proving her case otherwise.

I'd say that out of the entire book, if you're looking for logical, sound arguments that are worth considering for the other side's point of view, maybe twelve pages are worth reading. And I don't mean entire pages; more like two or three sentences per page, or something close to that sort.
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Please Look After Mom 8574333 Please Look After Mom is a stunning, deeply moving story of a family's search for their missing mother - and their discovery of the desires, heartaches and secrets they never realized she harbored within.

When sixty-nine year old So-nyo is separated from her husband among the crowds of the Seoul subway station, and vanishes, their children are consumed with loud recriminations, and are awash in sorrow and guilt. As they argue over the "Missing" flyers they are posting throughout the city - how large of a reward to offer, the best way to phrase the text - they realize that none of them have a recent photograph of Mom. Soon a larger question emerges: do they really know the woman they called Mom?

Told by the alternating voices of Mom's daughter, son, her husband and, in the shattering conclusion, by Mom herself, the novel pieces together, Rashomon-style, a life that appears ordinary but is anything but.

This is a mystery of one mother that reveals itself to be the mystery of all our mothers: about her triumphs and disappointments and about who she is on her own terms, separate from who she is to her family. If you have ever been a daughter, a son, a husband or a mother, Please Look After Mom is a revelation - one that will bring tears to your eyes.]]>
237 Kyung-Sook Shin 0307593916 Stephanie 5 3.89 2008 Please Look After Mom
author: Kyung-Sook Shin
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2011/10/01
date added: 2011/10/05
shelves: generalfiction, 2011faves, books2buy
review:

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<![CDATA[Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints]]> 11489698
Despite considerable press coverage and a lengthy trial, the full story has remained largely untold. Only one man can reveal the whole, astounding truth: Sam Brower, the private investigator who devoted years of his life to breaking open the secret practices of the FLDS and bringing Warren Jeffs and his inner circle to justice. In Prophet's Prey, Brower implicates Jeffs in his own words, bringing to light the contents of Jeffs's personal priesthood journal, discovered in a hidden underground vault, and revealing to readers the shocking inside world of FLDS members, whose trust he earned and who showed him the staggering truth of their lives.

Prophet's Prey offers the gripping, behind-the-scenes account of a bizarre world from the only man who knows the full story.]]>
336 Sam Brower 160819275X Stephanie 0 to-read 3.95 2011 Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints
author: Sam Brower
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/09/28
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Dexter Is Delicious (Dexter, #5)]]> 7469133 The newest novel in the New York Times bestselling series that inspired Showtime's #1 hit, Dexter. Jeff Lindsay now delivers his most macabre, witty, and purely entertaining new adventure for America's dark defender.

Dexter Morgan's happy homicidal life is undergoing some major changes. He's always live by a single golden rule - he kills only people who deserve it. But the Miami blood-spatter analyst has recently become a daddy - to an eight-pound curiosity named Lily Anne - and strangely, Dex's dark urges seem to have left him. Is he ready to become an overprotective father? To pick up soft teddy bears instead of his trusty knife, duct tape, and fishing wire? What's a serial killer to do?


Then Dexter is summoned to investigate the disappearance of an eighteen-year-old girl who seems to have been abducted by a bizarre group...who just may be vampires...and - possibly - cannibals. Nothing like the familiar hum of his day job to get Dexter's creative dark juices flowing again. Assisting his bull-in-a-china-shop detective sister, Deborah, Dex wades into an investigation that gets more disturbing by the moment. And to compound the complication of Dexter's ever-more-complicated life, a person from his past suddenly reappears...moving dangerously close to his home turf and threatening to destroy the one thing tat has maintained Dexter's pretend human cover and kept him out of the electric chair: his new family.


From an uncharacteristically racy encounter in the Florida Everglades to the most bizarre fringe nightclub in the anything-goes Miami scene, Dexter Is Delicious is an ingenious journey through the dark recesses of Dexter's lovably cold soul. Jeff Lindsay is once again at the top of his game, with this new novel that will thrill fans of his bestselling series.]]>
350 Jeff Lindsay 0385532350 Stephanie 3 mystery 3.81 2010 Dexter Is Delicious (Dexter, #5)
author: Jeff Lindsay
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/09/01
date added: 2011/09/12
shelves: mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1)]]> 2429135
An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.]]>
480 Stieg Larsson 0670069019 Stephanie 4 mystery 4.17 2005 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1)
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2011/09/01
date added: 2011/09/06
shelves: mystery
review:

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<![CDATA[Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex]]> 2082136 Mary Roach, "The funniest science writer in the country" (Burkhard Bilger of The New Yorker), devoted the past two years to stepping behind those doors. Can a person think herself to orgasm? Can a dead man get an erection? Is vaginal orgasm a myth? Why doesn't Viagra help women - or, for that matter, pandas? In Bonk, Roach shows us how and why sexual arousal and orgasm - two of the most complex, delightful, and amazing scientific phenomena on earth - can be so hard to achieve and what science is doing to slowly make the bedroom a more satisfying place.]]> 319 Mary Roach 0393064646 Stephanie 0 general-nf, to-read 3.83 2008 Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
author: Mary Roach
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/08/03
shelves: general-nf, to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Outliers: The Story of Success]]> 3228917 Learn what sets high achievers apart — from Bill Gates to the Beatles — in this #1 bestseller from "a singular talent" (New York Times Book Review).

In this stunning book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"—the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?

His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.]]>
309 Malcolm Gladwell 0316017922 Stephanie 5 general-nf, 2011faves 4.19 2008 Outliers: The Story of Success
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2011/08/01
date added: 2011/08/03
shelves: general-nf, 2011faves
review:

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<![CDATA[The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye]]> 138398 The world we knew is gone.

How many hours are in a day when you don't spend half of them watching television? When is the last time any of us really worked to get something we wanted? How long has it been since any of us really needed something that we wanted?

The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe, causing the dead to rise and feed on the living.

In a matter of months society has crumbled: no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV. In a world ruled by the dead, the survivors are forced to finally start living.

Rick Grimes finds himself one of the few survivors in this terrifying future. A couple months ago he was a small town cop who had never fired a shot and only ever saw one dead body. Separated from his family, he must now sort through all the death and confusion to try and find his wife and son.

Edition MSRP: $9?? US (ISBN 978-1-58240-672-5)
Printed in USA]]>
144 Robert Kirkman 1582406723 Stephanie 0 to-read 4.27 2004 The Walking Dead, Vol. 1: Days Gone Bye
author: Robert Kirkman
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/07/29
shelves: to-read
review:

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Saving Ceecee Honeycutt 6972228 467 Beth Hoffman 1410422755 Stephanie 0 to-read 3.88 2010 Saving Ceecee Honeycutt
author: Beth Hoffman
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/07/29
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[William & Catherine: Their Romance and Royal Wedding in Photographs]]> 10285461 ?
Through more than two hundred spectacular photographs (including 80 pages of their wedding alone), William & Catherine recounts the couple's wildly different childhoods, their romance and engagement, the events leading up to the wedding, and the grand affair itself--watched by over?two billion worldwide. Here are the massive crowds lining the parade route, the sparkling celebrities at Westminster Abbey, the bride's spectacular gown, “罢丑别 Kisses” on Buckingham Palace's balcony, and the worldwide celebrations. Also included is a brief pictorial history of British royal weddings from Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1840 to Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1981.
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Including a brief history of British royal weddings, fascinating detailed captions, and a foreword by renowned royal watcher Robert Jobson, author of William & Kate, The Love Story and royal correspondent for four major British newspapers, this book magnificently illustrates the pomp, the pageantry, the history and enchantment of the romance that charmed the world.]]>
224 David Elliot Cohen 1402788169 Stephanie 4 general-nf 4.14 2011 William & Catherine: Their Romance and Royal Wedding in Photographs
author: David Elliot Cohen
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2011/07/01
date added: 2011/07/22
shelves: general-nf
review:

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Alcestis 1494 142 Euripides 0195061667 Stephanie 4 plays 3.85 -438 Alcestis
author: Euripides
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.85
book published: -438
rating: 4
read at: 2010/09/01
date added: 2011/07/21
shelves: plays
review:

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<![CDATA[The Girl's Guide to Homelessness]]> 10182027
And then the Great Recession hit. Karp, like millions of others, lost her job. In the six months between the day she was laid off and the day she was forced out onto the street, Karp scrambled for temp work and filed hundreds of job applications, only to find all doors closed. When she inherited a thirty-foot travel trailer after her father's suicide, Karp parked it in a Walmart parking lot and began to blog about her search for work and a way back.]]>
352 Brianna Karp 0373892357 Stephanie 2 memoir-biography 3.20 2011 The Girl's Guide to Homelessness
author: Brianna Karp
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2011/07/01
date added: 2011/07/17
shelves: memoir-biography
review:
I was interested in the premise of the book going off of the title and an interview that I'd read from her online. However, this book is primarily just a memoir of her failed relationships to other people - not always necessarily her fault, but off-topic from what I was expecting to read. The only reason I'm not giving it a 1-star rating is because of the fraction of her book that she spends actually talking about being homeless and the culture she experienced being homeless herself. All the same, I almost put the book down fifty pages in because I couldn't stand the writing style. And by the end of the book, the writer became very unlikable for me. The none-too-subtle mantra of "I've been screwed over so much in my life by *gives list*, but I'll survive, somehow..." got really old about half-way into the book, and it only got worse from there.
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Sh*t My Dad Says 8049414 "That woman was sexy. . . . Out of your league? Son, let women figure out why they won't screw you. Don't do it for them."

"Do people your age know how to comb their hair? It looks like two squirrels crawled on their heads and started fucking."

"The worst thing you can be is a liar. . . . Okay, fine, yes, the worst thing you can be is a Nazi, but then number two is liar. Nazi one, liar two."More than a million people now follow Mr. Halpern's philosophical musings on Twitter, and in this book, his son weaves a brilliantly funny, touching coming-of-age memoir around the best of his quotes. An all-American story that unfolds on the Little League field, in Denny's, during excruciating family road trips, and, most frequently, in the Halperns' kitchen over bowls of Grape-Nuts, Sh*t My Dad Says is a chaotic, hilarious, true portrait of a father-son relationship from a major new comic voice.]]>
176 Justin Halpern 0062002945 Stephanie 4 humor, memoir-biography 3.90 2010 Sh*t My Dad Says
author: Justin Halpern
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2010/07/01
date added: 2011/07/12
shelves: humor, memoir-biography
review:

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<![CDATA[Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman]]> 7057039 Breakfast at Tiffany's, Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. reveals little-known facts about the cinema classic: Truman Capote desperately wanted Marilyn Monroe for the leading role; director Blake Edwards filmed multiple endings; Hepburn herself felt very conflicted about balancing the roles of mother and movie star. With a colorful cast of characters including Truman Capote, Edith Head, Givenchy, "Moon River" composer Henry Mancini, and, of course, Hepburn herself, Wasson immerses us in the America of the late fifties before Woodstock and birth control, when a not-so-virginal girl by the name of Holly Golightly raised eyebrows across the country, changing fashion, film, and sex for good. Indeed, cultural touchstones like Sex and the City owe a debt of gratitude to Breakfast at Tiffany's.

In this meticulously researched gem of a book, Wasson delivers us from the penthouses of the Upper East Side to the pools of Beverly Hills, presenting Breakfast at Tiffany's as we have never seen it before—through the eyes of those who made it. Written with delicious prose and considerable wit, Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. shines new light on a beloved film and its incomparable star.]]>
231 Sam Wasson 0061774154 Stephanie 5 movies-acting, general-nf 3.69 2010 Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman
author: Sam Wasson
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2011/07/01
date added: 2011/07/08
shelves: movies-acting, general-nf
review:

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<![CDATA[Oh No She Didn't: The Top 100 Style Mistakes Women Make and How to Avoid Them]]> 7775627 Muffin tops. Scrunchies. Suntan hose. Slut shoes. Visible panty line.

Who hasn’t had the unfortunate experience of witnessing—or (gasp!) actually wearing—one of these fashion disasters?

The atrocities Clinton Kelly has seen—it’s a surprise he hasn’t gouged out his own eyes. Mom jeans? Fancy fingernails? Tracksuits? In the same straight-talking style that has made TLC’s What Not to Wear a smash hit for eight seasons, the cheeky media personality and author of Freakin’ Fabulous shows women how to outfit themselves with confidence and style as he pokes fun at fashion "don’ts." From the most obvious faux pas (Texas tuxedos) to borderline offenses (peekaboo boobies), Clinton offers detailed and entertaining critiques of our top one hundred sartorial slip-ups. He turns his keen eye to wardrobe, color, cut, cleanliness, hairstyle, accessories, and even posture. And because he loves you, he presents easy alternatives and practical suggestions for creating fabulous outfits that will make you forget you ever wore socks with clogs.

Clinton also explains how to use trends to your advantage at any age, from deciding which ones work for you to understanding how to wear them to keep your look relevant. Because if 测辞耻’谤别 not comfortable in the sequined mini, everyone around you will know it.

A delightful mix of hilarious dish and expert fashion advice, Oh No She Didn’t will turn anyone from fashion victim to fashionista in no time.

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202 Clinton Kelly 1439163162 Stephanie 5 general-nf
the only thing I didn't agree with in the list was his view on french manicures, but he can suck it on that one.]]>
3.50 2009 Oh No She Didn't: The Top 100 Style Mistakes Women Make and How to Avoid Them
author: Clinton Kelly
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2011/06/01
date added: 2011/06/23
shelves: general-nf
review:
I <3 Clinton (awesome clothing troubleshooter from "What Not to Wear"), and this book is good for what it is - a quick list and description of certain clothing and dressing characteristics to avoid, and how to fix them if/when you notice them. he's pretty snarky, as he is on the TV show, but he's also very funny, so it made for an entertaining read.

the only thing I didn't agree with in the list was his view on french manicures, but he can suck it on that one.
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<![CDATA[So Now You're a Zombie: A Handbook for the Newly Undead]]> 8107421 you.) But most of all, you must constantly find and ingest human brains. Braaaains!!!

??????????? What’s a zombie to do?

??????????? Thankfully, zombiologist John Austin details everything you need to know, as a newly undead soul, to hunt, fight, and feed on the living. As the first handbook written specifically for the undead, So Now You’re a Zombie explains how you ended up in this predicament, the stages of zombification, and what you need to survive in this zombiphobic world. Dozens of helpful diagrams outline attack strategies, such as the Ghoul Reach, the Flanking Zack, the Bite Hold, and the Aerial Fall, to secure your human prey. You’ll even learn how to successfully extract the living from boarded up farmhouses and broken down vehicles.

??????????? This handbook also explores the upside of being a zombie. Gone are the burdens of employment, taxes, social networks, even basic hygiene, allowing you to focus on simple necessities in “life”: the juicy gray matter found in the skulls of the living.]]>
145 John Austin 1569763429 Stephanie 2 horror, humor 3.56 2010 So Now You're a Zombie: A Handbook for the Newly Undead
author: John Austin
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2011/06/01
date added: 2011/06/16
shelves: horror, humor
review:

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<![CDATA[Great Grilled Cheese: 50 Innovative Recipes for Stovetop, Grill, and Sandwich Maker]]> 841700 Werlin discusses techniques, nonstick versus cast-iron pan, whether to cover during cooking, how to use the ultrapopular panini machine. Maren Caruso's tantalizing photographs perfectly convey the appeal of creamy melted cheese pressed between two slices of crisp, buttery bread. For cheese aficionados, parents whose kids insist on grilled cheese at every meal, and the kid in all of us who craves comfort food, "Great Grilled Cheese will satisfy everyone's cheese dreams.]]> 136 Laura Werlin 1584793384 Stephanie 4 cooking-drinks 3.68 2004 Great Grilled Cheese: 50 Innovative Recipes for Stovetop, Grill, and Sandwich Maker
author: Laura Werlin
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2011/06/01
date added: 2011/06/16
shelves: cooking-drinks
review:
fun specialty cookbook. as a long-time lover of grilled cheese, I had to at least skim through it to see what ideas it had to offer. the recipes range from the basic American cheese version to sandwiches with three different cheeses and every other food under the sun squeezed in for good measure. includes an introduction with tips on how to make a good basic grilled cheese, and a grilled cheese dessert section at the end. great for someone who loves to cook and wants some creative alternatives for a lunch/dinner staple.
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<![CDATA[Whiter Shades of Pale: The Stuff White People Like, Coast to Coast, from Seattle's Sweaters to Maine's Microbrews]]> 8562524 ?
If you thought you had white people pegged as Oscar-party-throwing, Prius-driving, Sunday New York Times –reading, self-satisfied latte lovers—you were right. But if you thought diversity was just for other races, then hang on to your eco-friendly tote bags. Veteran white person Christian Lander is back with fascinating new information and advice on dealing with the Caucasian population.

Sure, their indie-band T-shirts, trendy politics, vegan diets, and pop-culture references make them all seem the same. But a closer look reveals that from Austin to Australia, from L.A. to the U.K., indigenous white people are as different from one another as 1 percent rBGH-free milk is different from 2 percent. Where do skinny jeans and bulky sweaters rule? Where is down-market beer the nectar of the hip? If you want to know the places cute girls with bangs and cool guys with beards roam and emo musicians and unpaid interns call home, you’d better switch off the Adult Swim reruns, put down that copy of The Onion, pick up this book, and prepare to see the white.]]>
232 Christian Lander 0812982061 Stephanie 5 humor 3.71 2010 Whiter Shades of Pale: The Stuff White People Like, Coast to Coast, from Seattle's Sweaters to Maine's Microbrews
author: Christian Lander
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2011/06/01
date added: 2011/06/15
shelves: humor
review:

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Token 2660576 All she wants is a token of his affection.

It's 1987 and fifteen-year-old Shira Spektor lives with her father in a funky apartment building on Miami's South Beach. More comfortable wearing retro '40s clothing than the current fashions, Shira doesn't belong--which is why her best friend is a bawdy, brassy eighty-year-old, and Shira herself has never even been kissed properly.

It would have helped to have a mother to turn to for advice, but Shira and her dad have been doing all right on their own since she was three.

And then her father falls in love with his secretary, and suddenly Shira isn't his special girl anymore.

Bruised by her father's constant criticism and the barbed attention from the popular girls at school, Shira finds comfort in a dangerous new hobby--shoplifting. But when she gets caught by a dark-eyed, streetwise boy from Spain, Shira discovers an unexpected friend and ally.

And then friendship grows into something more thrilling...and less safe.]]>
150 Alisa Kwitney 1401215386 Stephanie 5 graphicnovels 3.42 2008 Token
author: Alisa Kwitney
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2011/06/01
date added: 2011/06/08
shelves: graphicnovels
review:

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The Tattoo Chronicles 8042588
When Kat does a tattoo, she writes an entry about it in her journal, reflecting not only on the significance of the tattoo for the person who is receiving it but also on how the experience of creating this tattoo affects her personally.

In these diary entries—some poignant, some hilarious, some confessional—Kat lays it on the line about how doing these tattoos influences her life and art. Here are the highs and the lows, the good, the bad, and the ugly—including her feelings about her fame, family, love life, friends, and fans.

Visually stunning, this graphically compelling diary is jam-packed with tons of Kat's images, from sketches of her tattoos to the finished works, and candid shots of her unusual personal collections—all photographed by Kat herself. Fans will love reading about her array of clients from all walks of life, including Mot?rhead's Lemmy Kilmister, Dave Navarro, and members of Metallica, Green Day, Kings of Leon, and the Eagles. Throughout The Tattoo Chronicles are captivating, color photographs of Kat that were taken specifically for the book, published here for the first time.

Here she is: the real Kat Von D: unscripted and uncensored!]]>
239 Kat Von D. 0061953369 Stephanie 4 memoir-biography 3.92 2010 The Tattoo Chronicles
author: Kat Von D.
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2011/06/01
date added: 2011/06/08
shelves: memoir-biography
review:

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The Nest Newlywed Handbook 160986
For many couples the challenges of planning their nuptials are a piece of (wedding) cake compared to what comes How do we merge our finances—or do we? Do we need to spend every free minute together? And how do we decide where to spend our first Thanksgiving?

Online wedding community The Knot was fielding so many questions like these from their newly married members that they were inspired to create an entirely new site—The Nest—dedicated to the unique issues that face people in the first few years of marriage. A 24/7 virtual married-best-friend-who’s-been-there-before, the site and its thousands of just-married members dish out advice on everything from how to get your permanent roommate to pick up his or her dirty socks, to how to inspect a property when 测辞耻’谤别 buying your first home, to foolproof guidelines for entertaining the in-laws. Unlike single friends (who don’t have the experience to give tried and true advice) or Mom (who has lots of experience but tends to give too much advice), Nesties share their experiences with no strings attached—and free of the worries that come with real-world friendship.

Now the editors of The Nest have brought together the very best of this hard-won knowledge, plus their own astute insights into the early years of marriage, to create a unique resource for navigating the sometimes bumpy road of marriage. Touching on everything from money to sex and starting a family, they go where no etiquette book or self-help manual has gone before, providing real-life solutions for the myriad problems even the happiest couple can encounter when two become one.

Get tips and tricks
? Merging your money (or not)
? Building the family fortune
? Loving your in-laws
? Buying your first home
? Decorating as a duo
? Divvying up the chores
? Keeping the flame alive
? Fighting nicely
? Talking about kids
? Maintaining your single friends
? Hosting during the holidays
? Figuring out the future

This book is filled with advice, detailed to-dos, checklists, quizzes, and worksheets that are sure to spark conversations, fix problems, and get your new life together on track and off to a good start.]]>
304 Carley Roney 0307340228 Stephanie 4 general-nf 3.49 2006 The Nest Newlywed Handbook
author: Carley Roney
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2011/06/01
date added: 2011/06/08
shelves: general-nf
review:

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<![CDATA[The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A PostSecret Book]]> 13943 144 Frank Warren 0061198757 Stephanie 4 general-nf 4.37 2007 The Secret Lives of Men and Women: A PostSecret Book
author: Frank Warren
name: Stephanie
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2011/06/01
date added: 2011/06/06
shelves: general-nf
review:

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The Sunflower 7308224 "Seek not your destiny, for it is seeking you."

In the wake of personal tragedy, two people meet on a humanitarian mission in Peru. Christine is a shy, unadventurous woman whose fiancé broke off the engagement only a week before the wedding, and Paul is a former emergency room doctor whose glamorous lifestyle, stellar reputation, and beautiful fiancée are cruelly snatched from him one fateful, snowy Christmas Eve. Deep in the Amazon jungle, against a backdrop of poverty and heartbreak, they must confront their deepest fears and, together, learn to trust and love again.

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334 Richard Paul Evans 0641934793 Stephanie 1 ugh 3.68 2005 The Sunflower
author: Richard Paul Evans
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2005
rating: 1
read at: 2010/02/01
date added: 2011/05/11
shelves: ugh
review:

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<![CDATA[Scenes from an Impending Marriage]]> 9306087

MAKING LIGHT OF NUPTIAL NARCISSM

At the behest of his soon-to-be wife, Adrian Tomine set out to create a wedding favor for their guests that would be funnier and more personal than the typical chocolate bars and picture frames. What started out as a simple illustrated card soon grew into a full-fledged comic book: a collection of short strips chronicling the often absurd process of getting married. A loose, cartoony departure from Tomine’s previous work, Scenes from an Impending Marriage is a sweet-natured, laugh out-loud skewering of the modern marriage process, including hiring a DJ, location scouting, trips to the salon, suit fittings, dance lessons, registering for gifts, and managing familial demands. The most personal and autobiographical work of Tomine’s career, Scenes from an Impending Marriage is a charming, delightful token of love.
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54 Adrian Tomine 1770460349 Stephanie 4 graphicnovels needs to be longer! 3.63 2011 Scenes from an Impending Marriage
author: Adrian Tomine
name: Stephanie
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2011/03/01
date added: 2011/03/10
shelves: graphicnovels
review:
needs to be longer!
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