Scarlett's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 24 Apr 2025 07:34:20 -0700 60 Scarlett's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker]]> 214986203 From a neurologist and award-winning author of The Sleeping Beauties, a meticulous and compassionate exploration of how our culture of medical diagnosis can harm, rather than help, patients

I'm a neurologist. Diagnosis is my bread and butter. So why then would I, an experienced medical doctor, be very careful about which diagnosis I would pursue for myself or would be willing to accept if foisted upon me?

We live in an age of diagnosis. The advance of sophisticated genetic sequencing techniques means that we may all soon be screened for potential abnormalities. The internet provides a vast array of information that helps us speculate about our symptoms. Conditions like ADHD and Autism are on the rapid rise, while other new categories like Long Covid are driven by patients themselves.

When we are suffering, it feels natural to seek a diagnosis. We want a clear label, understanding, and, of course, treatment. But is diagnosis an unqualified good thing? Could it sometimes even make us worse instead of better?

Through the moving stories of real people, neurologist Suzanne O'Sullivan explores the complex world of modern diagnosis, comparing the impact of a medical label to the pain of not knowing. With scientific authority and compassionate storytelling, she opens up new possibilities for how we might approach our health and our suffering.]]> 320 Suzanne O'Sullivan 0593852915 Scarlett 0 to-read 4.06 2025 The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker
author: Suzanne O'Sullivan
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Satori In Paris 247998 109 Jack Kerouac 0586091181 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.31 1966 Satori In Paris
author: Jack Kerouac
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.31
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ladies' Paradise (Les Rougon-Macquart #11)]]> 28413 The Ladies Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames) recounts the rise of the modern department store in late nineteenth-century Paris. The store is a symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, and of the bourgeois family: it is emblematic of changes in consumer culture, and the changes in sexual attitudes and class relations taking place at the end of the century. This new translation of the eleventh novel in Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle captures the spirit of one of his greatest works.]]> 438 Émile Zola 0192836021 Scarlett 0 currently-reading 4.01 1883 The Ladies' Paradise (Les Rougon-Macquart #11)
author: Émile Zola
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1883
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Hope: The Autobiography 220114692
“Hope vividly recreates the colorful world where the young Jorge Mario Bergoglio grew up.”—The New York Times

Hope is the first autobiography in history ever to be published by a Pope. Written over six years, this complete autobiography starts in the early years of the twentieth century, with Pope Francis’s Italian roots and his ancestors� courageous migration to Latin America, continuing through his childhood, the enthusiasms and preoccupations of his youth, his vocation, adult life, and the whole of his papacy up to the present day.

In recounting his memories with intimate narrative force (not forgetting his own personal passions), Pope Francis deals unsparingly with some of the crucial moments of his papacy and writes candidly, fearlessly, and prophetically about some of the most important and controversial questions of our present times: war and peace (including the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East), migration, environmental crisis, social policy, the position of women, sexuality, technological developments, the future of the Church and of religion in general.

Hope includes a wealth of revelations, anecdotes, and illuminating thoughts. It is a thrilling and very human memoir, moving and sometimes funny, which represents the “story of a life� and, at the same time, a touching moral and spiritual testament that will fascinate readers throughout the world and will be Pope Francis’s legacy of hope for future generations.

The book is enhanced by remarkable photographs, including private and unpublished material made personally available by Pope Francis himself.]]> 320 Pope Francis 0593978773 Scarlett 0 currently-reading 4.31 2025 Hope: The Autobiography
author: Pope Francis
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/23
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Lord of the Flies 7624 182 William Golding 0140283331 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.70 1954 Lord of the Flies
author: William Golding
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1954
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Grapes of Wrath 18114322
First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.]]> 496 John Steinbeck 067001690X Scarlett 0 to-read 4.06 1939 The Grapes of Wrath
author: John Steinbeck
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1939
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Art of Travel 23422 where we ought to travel, but only Alain de Botton will tell us how and why. With the same intelligence and insouciant charm he brought to How Proust Can Save Your Life, de Botton considers the pleasures of anticipation; the allure of the exotic, and the value of noticing everything from a seascape in Barbados to the takeoffs at Heathrow.

Even as de Botton takes the reader along on his own peregrinations, he also cites such distinguished fellow-travelers as Baudelaire, Wordsworth, Van Gogh, the biologist Alexander von Humboldt, and the 18th-century eccentric Xavier de Maistre, who catalogued the wonders of his bedroom. The Art of Travel is a wise and utterly original book. Don’t leave home without it.]]> 272 Alain de Botton 0375725342 Scarlett 0 currently-reading 3.83 2002 The Art of Travel
author: Alain de Botton
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals]]> 60080 120 Immanuel Kant 0521626951 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.85 1785 Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
author: Immanuel Kant
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1785
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Course of Love 144102987 The Course of Love is a novel that explores what happens after the birth of love, what it takes to maintain love, and what happens to our original ideals under the pressures of an average existence. With philosophical insight and psychological acumen, Alain de Botton shows that our Romantic dreams may do us a grave disservice -- and explores what the alternatives might be. The conclusion, as the characters gradually discover, is that love is not "an enthusiasm," but rather a "skill" that must be slowly and often painfully learnt.
     This is a Romantic novel in the true sense, one interested in exploring how love can survive and thrive in the long term.]]> Alain de Botton Scarlett 0 3.82 2016 The Course of Love
author: Alain de Botton
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves:
review:

]]> The Fire Next Time 464260 The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin’s early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two “letters,� written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as “sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle…all presented in searing, brilliant prose,� The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of our literature.]]> 106 James Baldwin 067974472X Scarlett 0 to-read 4.55 1963 The Fire Next Time
author: James Baldwin
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.55
book published: 1963
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Frankenstein 12974171
Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale, conceived after a nightmare in 1816 when she was only eighteen, became a modern myth. It is a disturbing and dramatic exploration of birth and death, creation and destruction, and one of the most iconic horror stories of all time.]]> 269 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 0141198966 Scarlett 4 3.89 1818 Frankenstein
author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1818
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/02/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Big Sur 50140
"Big Sur's humane, precise account of the extraordinary ravages of alcohol delirium tremens on Kerouac, a superior novelist who had strength to complete his poetic narrative, a task few scribes so afflicted have accomplished—others crack up. Here we meet San Francisco's poets & recognize hero Dean Moriarty ten years after On the Road. Jack Kerouac was a 'writer,' as his great peer W.S. Burroughs says, and here at the peak of his suffering humorous genius he wrote through his misery to end with 'Sea,' a brilliant poem appended, on the hallucinatory Sounds of the Pacific Ocean at Big Sur."—Allen Ginsberg 10/10/91 N.Y.C.]]> 256 Jack Kerouac 0140168125 Scarlett 5
Most gritty, genuinely upsetting account of alcoholism I've ever read and Kerouac's slow descent into paranoia and madness was frankly quite a tough read (especially knowing this was ultimately the cause of his death).

The portrayal of existential anxiety is so well-done that it almost felt like a horror book. And the illustration of the cyclical nature of the effects of alcoholism is SO profound and because this is all real and this is how he died, throughout I genuinely got a horrible feeling of knowing that all his existentialism was for good reason; he really was dying.

Addictive. I remember reading On The Road in the January of 2022 and adoring it, I'm not sure why I never picked up another Kerouac since. I love the beat generation and America and am especially going through a bit of 1960s moment currently anyway so it was a perfect post-Camus read.

I only wish that I had read the books in order. I was unaware that they were written to be read in order, "like Proust" as he says.

One last thing: Kerouac (or at least Kerouac in this book but also I think from what I remember in OTR) has SO much love to give; to his friends, his family, his cat, Earth. He's full of love and it is really such a huge tragedy that he was the victim of such a malicious disease (alcoholism) and I wish I could wave my magic wand and make no one on this planet experience that. ]]> 3.85 1962 Big Sur
author: Jack Kerouac
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1962
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
shelves:
review:
Phenomenal. Absolutely loved it. Certainly an immediate ajout to my top favourites.

Most gritty, genuinely upsetting account of alcoholism I've ever read and Kerouac's slow descent into paranoia and madness was frankly quite a tough read (especially knowing this was ultimately the cause of his death).

The portrayal of existential anxiety is so well-done that it almost felt like a horror book. And the illustration of the cyclical nature of the effects of alcoholism is SO profound and because this is all real and this is how he died, throughout I genuinely got a horrible feeling of knowing that all his existentialism was for good reason; he really was dying.

Addictive. I remember reading On The Road in the January of 2022 and adoring it, I'm not sure why I never picked up another Kerouac since. I love the beat generation and America and am especially going through a bit of 1960s moment currently anyway so it was a perfect post-Camus read.

I only wish that I had read the books in order. I was unaware that they were written to be read in order, "like Proust" as he says.

One last thing: Kerouac (or at least Kerouac in this book but also I think from what I remember in OTR) has SO much love to give; to his friends, his family, his cat, Earth. He's full of love and it is really such a huge tragedy that he was the victim of such a malicious disease (alcoholism) and I wish I could wave my magic wand and make no one on this planet experience that.
]]> <![CDATA[How to Get Married: The School of Life]]> 39941747
Many couples today feel uncomfortable with the rituals traditionally associated with getting married. The old ceremonies can feel too overtly religious and out of step with the complexities of contemporary relationships. In response to this dilemma, The School of Life has rethought the ideal wedding day and redesigned the entire process from scratch.

The book begins by proposing new methods of psychological preparation, providing practical advice on how to prepare not only for the day of the wedding, but for the long marriage that follows. Also included is a practical and thoughtfully redesigned wedding ceremony, covering everything from picking a venue to writing vows and selecting readings.

With their trademark wisdom and warmth, The School of Life presents a bold rethinking of one of humankind's most important and popular rituals.]]> 132 Alain de Botton 1999747119 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.35 2023 How to Get Married: The School of Life
author: Alain de Botton
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> On Seeing and Noticing 292583 56 Alain de Botton 0141023074 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.74 2005 On Seeing and Noticing
author: Alain de Botton
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Consolations of Philosophy]]> 23419 The Consolations of Philosophy takes the discipline of logic and the mind back to its roots. Drawing inspiration from six of the finest minds in history - Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche - he addresses lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety and conformity. De Botton's book led one critic to call philosophy 'the new rock and roll'.]]> 265 Alain de Botton Scarlett 0 to-read 4.04 2000 The Consolations of Philosophy
author: Alain de Botton
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> On Love 23426
The narrator is smitten by Chloe on a Paris-London flight, and by the time they've reached the luggage carousel, he knows he is in love. He loves her chestnut hair and pale nape and watery green eyes, the way she drives a car and eats Chinese food, the gap that makes her teeth Kantian and not Platonic, her views on Heidegger's Being and Time - although he hates her taste in shoes.
On Love plots the course of their affair from the initial delirium of infatuation to the depths of suicidal despair, through the (Groucho) "Marxist" stage of coming to terms with being loved by the unattainable beloved, through a fit of anhedonia, defined in medical texts as a disease resulting from the terror brought on by the threat of utter happiness, and finally through the nausea induced and terrorist tactics employed when the beloved begins, inexplicably, to drift away.

Alain de Botton is simultaneously hilarious and intellectually astute, shifting with ease among such seminal romantic texts as The Divine Comedy, Madame Bovary, and The Bleeding Heart, a self-help book for those who love too much. He is schematically flawless, funny, funky, and totally engaging.
Filled with profound observations and useful diagrams, On Love displays and examines for all of us the pain and exhilaration of love, asking, "Can we not be forgiven if we believe ourselves fated to stumble one day upon the man or woman of our dreams? Can we not be excused a certain superstitious faith in a creature who will prove the solution to our relentless yearnings?"]]> 194 Alain de Botton 0802142400 Scarlett 0 3.99 1993 On Love
author: Alain de Botton
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves:
review:

]]> The Picture of Dorian Gray 5297
In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind.]]> 272 Oscar Wilde Scarlett 5 4.13 1890 The Picture of Dorian Gray
author: Oscar Wilde
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1890
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves:
review:

]]> Society and Solitude 2671377 320 Ralph Waldo Emerson 1596052740 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.90 2001 Society and Solitude
author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Nature 3420140 Book by Emerson, Ralph Waldo 160 Ralph Waldo Emerson 0807015563 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.79 1836 Nature
author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1836
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Leaves of Grass 27494 624 Walt Whitman Scarlett 0 to-read 4.12 1855 Leaves of Grass
author: Walt Whitman
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1855
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Self-Reliance and Other Essays (Dover Thrift Editions: Philosophy)]]> 123845 Essays, First Series (1841) and Essays, Second Series (1844), offer a representative sampling of his views outlining that moral idealism as well as a hint of the later skepticism that colored his thought. In addition to the celebrated title essay, the others included here are "History," "Friendship," "The Over-Soul," "The Poet," and "Experience," plus the well-known and frequently read Harvard Divinity School Address.]]> 117 Ralph Waldo Emerson 0486277909 Scarlett 0 to-read 4.13 1844 Self-Reliance and Other Essays (Dover Thrift Editions: Philosophy)
author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1844
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Streetcar Named Desire 12220 Death of a Salesman and The Crucible), and Williams� essay “The World I Live In.�

It is a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared�57 years after its Broadway premiere, Tennessee Williams� A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those plays. The story famously recounts how the faded and promiscuous Blanche DuBois is pushed over the edge by her sexy and brutal brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Streetcar launched the careers of Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden, and solidified the position of Tennessee Williams as one of the most important young playwrights of his generation, as well as that of Elia Kazan as the greatest American stage director of the �40s and �50s.]]> 107 Tennessee Williams 0822210894 Scarlett 5 3.98 1947 A Streetcar Named Desire
author: Tennessee Williams
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1947
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves:
review:

]]> Native Son 15622 Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic.

Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.]]> 504 Richard Wright Scarlett 5 4.03 1940 Native Son
author: Richard Wright
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1940
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves:
review:

]]> The Plague 11989
It tells the story from the point of view of a narrator of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. The narrator remains unknown until the start of the last chapter, chapter 5 of part 5. The novel presents a snapshot of life in Oran as seen through the author's distinctive absurdist point of view.

The book tells a gripping tale of human unrelieved horror, of survival and resilience, and of the ways in which humankind confronts death, The Plague is at once a masterfully crafted novel, eloquently understated and epic in scope, and a parable of ageless moral resonance, profoundly relevant to our times. In Oran, a coastal town in North Africa, the plague begins as a series of portents, unheeded by the people. It gradually becomes an omnipresent reality, obliterating all traces of the past and driving its victims to almost unearthly extremes of suffering, madness, and compassion.

The Plague is considered an existentialist classic despite Camus' objection to the label. The novel stresses the powerlessness of the individual characters to affect their destinies. The narrative tone is similar to Kafka's, especially in The Trial, whose individual sentences potentially have multiple meanings; the material often pointedly resonating as stark allegory of phenomenal consciousness and the human condition.]]> 308 Albert Camus Scarlett 4 4.05 1947 The Plague
author: Albert Camus
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1947
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves:
review:
Thoroughly enjoyed. Quite hefty at times, but I really loved the fact that each character seemed to embody different philosophies and values, meaning we got an entire microcosm of experiences of an endemic. I feel some chapters had a tendency to be slightly claggy, and generally speaking parts 3 and 4 were overly longwinded. Nonetheless, I shed a tear or few at the end. We finished the pandemic and seemed never really to think about it again. (Well I did at least). And reading this book, especially the end, brought all those feelings back.
]]> All About Love: New Visions 17607 All About Love offers radical new ways to think about love by showing its interconnectedness in our private and public lives. In eleven concise chapters, hooks explains how our everyday notions of what it means to give and receive love often fail us, and how these ideals are established in early childhood. She offers a rethinking of self-love (without narcissism) that will bring peace and compassion to our personal and professional lives, and asserts the place of love to end struggles between individuals, in communities, and among societies. Moving from the cultural to the intimate, hooks notes the ties between love and loss and challenges the prevailing notion that romantic love is the most important love of all.

Visionary and original, hooks shows how love heals the wounds we bear as individuals and as a nation, for it is the cornerstone of compassion and forgiveness and holds the power to overcome shame.

For readers who have found ongoing delight and wisdom in bell hooks's life and work, and for those who are just now discovering her, All About Love is essential reading and a brilliant book that will change how we think about love, our culture-and one another.]]> 240 bell hooks 0688168442 Scarlett 0 to-read 4.06 1999 All About Love: New Visions
author: bell hooks
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Belly of Paris (Les Rougon-Macquart, #3)]]> 92965 660 Émile Zola 1933382724 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.94 1873 The Belly of Paris (Les Rougon-Macquart, #3)
author: Émile Zola
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1873
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Freedom 7905092
But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz—outré rocker and Walter's college best friend and rival—still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become "a very different kind of neighbor," an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street's attentive eyes?

In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom's characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.
(jacket)]]> 562 Jonathan Franzen 0374158460 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.78 2010 Freedom
author: Jonathan Franzen
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Single Man 16842 186 Christopher Isherwood 0816638624 Scarlett 0 to-read 4.08 1964 A Single Man
author: Christopher Isherwood
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Death of a Salesman 12898 'For a salesman, there is no rock bottom to life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine.'

Willy Loman has been a salesman for 34 years. At 60, he is cast aside, his usefulness now exhausted. With no future to dream about he must face the crushing disappointments of his past. He takes one final brave action, but is he heroic at last?, or a self-deluding fool?]]> 144 Arthur Miller 0435233076 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.57 1949 Death of a Salesman
author: Arthur Miller
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Norwegian Wood 11297
A magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.]]> 296 Haruki Murakami 0375704027 Scarlett 0 to-read 4.01 1987 Norwegian Wood
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Houris 210042656
Aube est une jeune Algérienne qui doit se souvenir de la guerre d’indépendance, qu’elle n’a pas vécue, et oublier la guerre civile des années 1990, qu’elle a elle-même traversée. Sa tragédie est marquée sur son corps : une cicatrice au cou et des cordes vocales détruites. Muette, elle rêve de retrouver sa voix.
Son histoire, elle ne peut la raconter qu’� la fille qu’elle porte dans son ventre. Mais a-t-elle le droit de garder cette enfant ? Peut-on donner la vie quand on vous l’a presque arrachée ? Dans un pays qui a voté des lois pour punir quiconque évoque la guerre civile, Aube décide de se rendre dans son village natal, où tout a débuté, et où les morts lui répondront peut-être.]]> 416 Kamel Daoud 2072999995 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.53 2024 Houris
author: Kamel Daoud
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Tales of the City (Tales of the City #1)]]> 16255 371 Armistead Maupin 0552998761 Scarlett 0 to-read 4.02 1978 Tales of the City (Tales of the City #1)
author: Armistead Maupin
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1978
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Goodbye to Berlin 760702
In linked short stories, he says goodbye to Sally Bowles, to Fraulein Schroeder, to pranksters, perverts, political manipulators; to the very, very guilty and to the dwindling band of innocents. It is goodbye to a Berlin wild, wicked, breathtaking, decadent beyond belief and already -- in the years between the wars -- welcoming death in through the door, though more with a wink than a whimper.

~from the back cover]]> 208 Christopher Isherwood 0586047956 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.95 1939 Goodbye to Berlin
author: Christopher Isherwood
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1939
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hotel World 123036 Hotel World, set in the luxurious anonymity of the Global Hotel, in an unnamed northern English city. The disembodied yet interconnected characters include Sara, a 19-year-old chambermaid who has recently died at the hotel; her bereaved sister, Clare, who visits the scene of Sara's death; Penny, an advertising copywriter who is staying in the room opposite; Lise, the Global's depressed receptionist; and the homeless Else who begs on the street outside. Smith's ambitious prose explores all facets of language and its uses. Sara takes us through the moment of her exit from the world and beyond; in her desperate, fading grip on words and senses she gropes to impart the meaning of her death in what she terms "the lift for dishes"--then comes a flash of clarity: "That's the name for it, the name for it; that's it; dumb waiter dumb waiter dumb waiter." Blended with hers are other voices: Penny's bland journalese and Else's obsession with metaphysical poetry.

Hotel World is not an easy read: disturbing and witty by turns, with its stream-of-consciousness narrators reminiscent of Virgina Woolf's The Waves, its deceptively rambling language is underpinned by a formal construction. Exploring the "big themes" of love, death and millennial capitalism, it takes as its starting point Muriel Spark's Momento Mori ("Remember you must die") and counteracts this axiom with a resolute "Remember you must live". Ali Smith's novel is a daring, compelling, and frankly spooky read. --Catherine Taylor

]]> 238 Ali Smith 0140296794 Scarlett 1
I actually loved the premise of the story : 5 characters all linked to one hotel/ one death. The first narrative was interesting. Unfortunately, Ali Smith's writing style, which started off only mildly irritating, became insupportable; nothing was relevant, no information given was interesting, and the constant interruptions from the subconscious were not complex, just perturbing.

I tend not to like novels which dispense too much energy attempting to be linguistically complex or original rather than adding depth and real complexities to character or stories. Seems to me Ali Smith had a great idea and blew it by trying too hard to be a postmodern Virginia Woolf.

Sorry Ali.

]]> 3.60 2001 Hotel World
author: Ali Smith
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2001
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
shelves:
review:
Huge miss. Really quite unbearable. Read 4/5 of the narratives and decided that life's too short and chucked it straight back onto the pile for the charity shop that I found it in.

I actually loved the premise of the story : 5 characters all linked to one hotel/ one death. The first narrative was interesting. Unfortunately, Ali Smith's writing style, which started off only mildly irritating, became insupportable; nothing was relevant, no information given was interesting, and the constant interruptions from the subconscious were not complex, just perturbing.

I tend not to like novels which dispense too much energy attempting to be linguistically complex or original rather than adding depth and real complexities to character or stories. Seems to me Ali Smith had a great idea and blew it by trying too hard to be a postmodern Virginia Woolf.

Sorry Ali.


]]> The House of Doors 65215270
The year is 1921. Lesley Hamlyn and her husband, Robert, a lawyer and war veteran, are living at Cassowary House on the Straits Settlement of Penang. When “Willie� Somerset Maugham, a famed writer and old friend of Robert's, arrives for an extended visit with his secretary Gerald, the pair threatens a rift that could alter more lives than one.

Maugham, one of the great novelists of his day, is beleaguered: Having long hidden his homosexuality, his unhappy and expensive marriage of convenience becomes unbearable after he loses his savings-and the freedom to travel with Gerald. His career deflating, his health failing, Maugham arrives at Cassowary House in desperate need of a subject for his next book. Lesley, too, is enduring a marriage more duplicitous than it first appears. Maugham suspects an affair, and, learning of Lesley's past connection to the Chinese revolutionary, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, decides to probe deeper. But as their friendship grows and Lesley confides in him about life in the Straits, Maugham discovers a far more surprising tale than he imagined, one that involves not only war and scandal but the trial of an Englishwoman charged with murder. It is, to Maugham, a story worthy of fiction.

A mesmerizingly beautiful novel based on real events, The House of Doors traces the fault lines of race, gender, sexuality, and power under empire, and dives deep into the complicated nature of love and friendship in its shadow.]]> 306 Tan Twan Eng 1639731938 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.98 2023 The House of Doors
author: Tan Twan Eng
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> American Psycho 28676 American Psycho is a bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognize but do not wish to confront.]]> 399 Bret Easton Ellis 0679735771 Scarlett 4 3.82 1991 American Psycho
author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Shuggie Bain 52741293 Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher's policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city's notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings.

Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie's guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good--her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamourous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor. But under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink, and she drains away the lion's share of each week's benefits--all the family has to live on--on cans of extra-strong lager hidden in handbags and poured into tea mugs.

Agnes's older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to care for her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. Shuggie is meanwhile struggling to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that he is "no right," a boy with a secret that all but him can see. Agnes is supportive of her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her--even her beloved Shuggie.

A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction. Recalling the work of Edouard Louis, Alan Hollinghurst, Frank McCourt, and Hanya Yanagihara, it is a blistering debut by a brilliant novelist who has a powerful and important story to tell.]]> 430 Douglas Stuart 0802148042 Scarlett 0 to-read 4.29 2020 Shuggie Bain
author: Douglas Stuart
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Pot Luck 114916 degeneracy. This new translation captures the robustness of Zola's language and restores the omissions of earlier abridged versions.]]> 416 Émile Zola 0192831798 Scarlett 5 3.97 1882 Pot Luck
author: Émile Zola
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1882
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/12
date added: 2024/12/12
shelves:
review:
I absolutely adored that. First Zola & certainly didn't disappoint !
]]> Roadside Picnic 331256
First published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years.]]> 145 Arkady Strugatsky 0575070536 Scarlett 0 to-read 4.16 1972 Roadside Picnic
author: Arkady Strugatsky
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1972
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> On Anarchism 22558046
On Anarchism sheds a much needed light on the foundations of Chomsky's thought, specifically his constant questioning of the legitimacy of entrenched power. The book gathers his essays and interviews to provide a short, accessible introduction to his distinctively optimistic brand of anarchism. Refuting the notion of anarchism as a fixed idea, and disputing the traditional fault lines between anarchism and socialism, this is a book sure to challenge, provoke and inspire. Profoundly relevant to our times, it is a touchstone for political activists and anyone interested in deepening their understanding of anarchism, or of Chomsky's thought.

'Arguably the most important intellectual alive' New York Times

Noam Chomsky is the author of numerous bestselling and influential political books, including Hegemony or Survival, Failed States, Interventions, What We Say Goes, Hopes and Prospects, Gaza in Crisis, Making the Future and Occupy.

Nathan Schneider is the author of Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse and God in Proof: The Story of a Search from the Ancients to the Internet.]]> 192 Noam Chomsky 0241969603 Scarlett 4 3.66 2005 On Anarchism
author: Noam Chomsky
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/31
date added: 2024/10/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Extracts From: The Second Sex 23346892 Vintage classic feminist texts in short form

When this book was first published in 1949 it was to outrage and scandal. Never before had the case for female liberty been so forcefully and successfully argued. De Beauvoir’s belief that â€One is not born, but rather becomes, a womanâ€� switched on light bulbs in the heads of a generation of women and began a fight for greater equality and economic independence. These pages contain the key passages of the book that changed perceptions of women forever.]]> 120 Simone de Beauvoir 1784870382 Scarlett 4 4.15 Extracts From: The Second Sex
author: Simone de Beauvoir
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Regards croisés sur la Bretagne et le Pays de Galles]]> 91401739 0 Anne Hellegouarc'h-Bryce Scarlett 0 0.0 Regards croisés sur la Bretagne et le Pays de Galles
author: Anne Hellegouarc'h-Bryce
name: Scarlett
average rating: 0.0
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/17
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Small Island 44001
Told in these four voices, Small Island is a courageous novel of tender emotion and sparkling wit, of crossings taken and passages lost, of shattering compassion and of reckless optimism in the face of insurmountable barriers---in short, an encapsulation of the immigrant's life.
]]> 441 Andrea Levy 0312424671 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.99 2004 Small Island
author: Andrea Levy
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Corrections 3805 After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson's disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives. The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself, despite clear signs to the contrary, that he is not clinically depressed. The middle child, Chip, has lost his seemingly secure academic job and is failing spectacularly at his new line of work. And Denise, the youngest, has escaped a disastrous marriage only to pour her youth and beauty down the drain of an affair with a married man - or so her mother fears. Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to, Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.
Stretching from the Midwest at midcentury to the Wall Street and Eastern Europe of today, "The Corrections" brings an old-fashioned world of civic virtue and sexual inhibitions into violent collision with the era of home surveillance, hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental healthcare, and globalised greed. Richly realistic, darkly hilarious, deeply humane, it confirms Jonathan Franzen as one of our most brilliant interpreters of American society and the American soul.]]> 653 Jonathan Franzen 1841156736 Scarlett 5
As can be extrapolated from my consistent ramblings throughout, the characters were so enjoyably and stressfully complex that you can't help but to dislike them all whilst simultaneously feeling dreadfully sorry for them. I think if Succession was a book it would probably be written like this.

I also thoroughly enjoyed how much my opinions changed of each one of them. I do remember liking Chip's bit at the beginning and by the end I couldn't give a rat's arse. I felt incredibly, horrifically sorry for Gary during his bit but eventually found him to a pedantic little shit. I felt I resonated the most with Denise. And finally, my hatred for Alfred turned into a genuine sadness for his condition, and Enid probably turned out to be the character I most rooted for.

All in all, genuinely brilliant. Can tell this will be a favourite for a long time.

(Also what a feat ! 653 pages in 3 weeks !)]]> 3.83 2001 The Corrections
author: Jonathan Franzen
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/10
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves:
review:
I know it's really unimaginative, but I couldn't fault that. I couldn't fault it.

As can be extrapolated from my consistent ramblings throughout, the characters were so enjoyably and stressfully complex that you can't help but to dislike them all whilst simultaneously feeling dreadfully sorry for them. I think if Succession was a book it would probably be written like this.

I also thoroughly enjoyed how much my opinions changed of each one of them. I do remember liking Chip's bit at the beginning and by the end I couldn't give a rat's arse. I felt incredibly, horrifically sorry for Gary during his bit but eventually found him to a pedantic little shit. I felt I resonated the most with Denise. And finally, my hatred for Alfred turned into a genuine sadness for his condition, and Enid probably turned out to be the character I most rooted for.

All in all, genuinely brilliant. Can tell this will be a favourite for a long time.

(Also what a feat ! 653 pages in 3 weeks !)
]]> <![CDATA[Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction]]> 1396892
Beginning with an overview of the central issues of documentary filmmaking--its definitions and purposes, its forms and founders--Aufderheide focuses on several of its key subgenres, including public affairs films, government propaganda (particularly the works produced during World War II), historical documentaries, and nature films. Her thematic approach allows readers to enter the subject matter through the kinds of films that first attracted them to documentaries, and it permits her to make connections between eras, as well as revealing the ongoing nature of documentary's core controversies involving objectivity, advocacy, and bias. Interwoven throughout are discussions of the ethical and practical considerations that arise with every aspect of documentary production. A particularly useful feature of the book is an appended list of "100 great documentaries" that anyone with a serious interest in the genre should see.

Drawing on the author's four decades of experience as a film scholar and critic, this book is the perfect introduction not just for teachers and students but also for all thoughtful filmgoers and for those who aspire to make documentaries themselves.

About the Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.]]> 176 Patricia Aufderheide 0195182707 Scarlett 3 Could've been shorter tho x 3.43 2007 Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction
author: Patricia Aufderheide
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
shelves:
review:
Could've been shorter tho x
]]> <![CDATA[How Proust Can Change Your Life]]> 139555506 215 Alain de Botton Scarlett 5 3.71 1998 How Proust Can Change Your Life
author: Alain de Botton
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/05/23
shelves:
review:
One of my favourite books to date. Though that's because I am a confirmed ADB stan. This inspired me to read Proust of course, which I've been doing on and off since September.
]]> <![CDATA[Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison]]> 50183695 352 Michel Foucault 0241386012 Scarlett 0 to-read 4.04 1975 Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
author: Michel Foucault
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fixing France: How to Repair a Broken Republic]]> 75593819
France, the romanticized, revolutionary land with an enlightened historical mission—Liberty, Equality, Fraternity for all—is failing its own citizens and its admirers around the world. How did the country get here, and what can be done about it?

In  Fixing France , Nabila Ramdani assesses the fault lines in her struggling nation with unflinching clarity and originality. 

The makeshift Fifth Republic, which emerged from the cataclysmic Algerian War of Independence, has produced extremism. Constitutional reform is urgently an all-powerful monarchical president displays little interest in democracy, while a mainstream far-right party founded by Nazi collaborators threatens to deliver a head of state. 

Segregated suburbs, institutionalized rioting, economic injustice, a monolithic education system, the debasement of women, deep-seated racial and religious discrimination, paramilitary policing, terrorism, and a duplicitous foreign policy all fuel the growing crisis.

Ramdani’s critique is stark but provides real the broken French Republic can and must be fixed. ]]> 352 Nabila Ramdani 1541703251 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.45 Fixing France: How to Repair a Broken Republic
author: Nabila Ramdani
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.45
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Scarlett 0 to-read 4.28 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Old Man and the Sea 2165 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

This short novel, already a modern classic, is the superbly told, tragic story of a Cuban fisherman in the Gulf Stream and the giant Marlin he kills and loses—specifically referred to in the citation accompanying the author's Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.]]> 96 Ernest Hemingway 0684830493 Scarlett 4 3.81 1952 The Old Man and the Sea
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/02/09
shelves:
review:

]]> A Moveable Feast 4631 192 Ernest Hemingway Scarlett 5 I'm sure that is a very subjective thing to say, but it was flawless.

I read The Sun Also Rises perhaps three or four years ago and adored it (so much so that when one asks what is your favourite book? It is on the list...) but for some reason, never really picked up Hemingway since. I remember also reading The Old Man & the Sea when I was about 14 or 15 and in high school, and I liked that too, though wasn't as taken...

I'm sure, of course, that living in Paris myself played a big role in how much I loved it. It is not that if you do not know Paris that you would not enjoy it, and indeed there are many differences between Paris in the 1920s and Paris in the 2020s - but I feel as though I really did get a special bonus feeling from knowing exactly where he was situated, what boulevards and cafes, and the magic of Paris (to him, and to I - that is sitting outside in a terrasse, sipping a coffee and writing, during the daytime) was intimately shared between reader and writer.

What a time to be alive! The Fitzgeralds (alcoholics and also pretentious, snobbish arses); Ezra Pound (sounds like a loyal darling, and I always did like his work!); Sylvia Beach (also a kind soul, from what I gather) & Gertrude Stein (bit of a biting).

What. A. Time! ]]> 4.04 1964 A Moveable Feast
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1964
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/09
date added: 2024/02/09
shelves:
review:
This book - and indeed what I would say generally of Hemingway's writing - is, to me, utterly flawless.
I'm sure that is a very subjective thing to say, but it was flawless.

I read The Sun Also Rises perhaps three or four years ago and adored it (so much so that when one asks what is your favourite book? It is on the list...) but for some reason, never really picked up Hemingway since. I remember also reading The Old Man & the Sea when I was about 14 or 15 and in high school, and I liked that too, though wasn't as taken...

I'm sure, of course, that living in Paris myself played a big role in how much I loved it. It is not that if you do not know Paris that you would not enjoy it, and indeed there are many differences between Paris in the 1920s and Paris in the 2020s - but I feel as though I really did get a special bonus feeling from knowing exactly where he was situated, what boulevards and cafes, and the magic of Paris (to him, and to I - that is sitting outside in a terrasse, sipping a coffee and writing, during the daytime) was intimately shared between reader and writer.

What a time to be alive! The Fitzgeralds (alcoholics and also pretentious, snobbish arses); Ezra Pound (sounds like a loyal darling, and I always did like his work!); Sylvia Beach (also a kind soul, from what I gather) & Gertrude Stein (bit of a biting).

What. A. Time!
]]> <![CDATA[The School of Life: An Emotional Education]]> 43264830 Discover everything you were never taught at school about how to lead a better life...

Introduced and edited by the bestselling author of The Consolations of Philosophy, The Art of Travel and The Course of Love

We spend years in school learning facts and figures but the one thing we're never taught is how to live a fulfilled life. That's why we need The School of Life - a real organisation founded ten years ago by writer and philosopher Alain de Botton. The School of Life has one simple aim: to equip people with the tools to survive and thrive in the modern world. And the most important of these tools is emotional intelligence.

This book brings together ten years of essential and transformative research on emotional intelligence, with practical topics including:

- how to understand yourself
- how to master the dilemmas of relationships
- how to become more effective at work
- how to endure failure
- how to grow more serene and resilient

The School of Life is nothing short of a crash course in emotional maturity. With all the trademark wit and elegance of Alain de Botton's other writings, and rooted in practical, achievable advice, it show us a path to the better lives we all want and deserve.]]> 310 Alain de Botton 0241382327 Scarlett 5 4.23 2019 The School of Life: An Emotional Education
author: Alain de Botton
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/28
date added: 2024/01/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change]]> 36072 372 Stephen R. Covey 0743269519 Scarlett 0 4.16 1989 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
author: Stephen R. Covey
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/25
date added: 2024/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nana (Les Rougon-Macquart, #9)]]> 1367033
Grâce à elle, c’est tout un monde que le romancier parvient à évoquer, toute une époque et tout un style de vie.

Ce neuvième volume des Rougon-Macquart est une satire cinglante des hautes sphères perverties par une fête qui ruine le peuple et détruit les valeurs.]]> 508 Émile Zola 2253003654 Scarlett 0 to-read 3.81 1880 Nana (Les Rougon-Macquart, #9)
author: Émile Zola
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1880
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Bell Jar 6514 294 Sylvia Plath 0571268862 Scarlett 3 4.05 1963 The Bell Jar
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1963
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/12/14
shelves:
review:
Well, I was definitively captivated by plot & this was a real page turner. Unfortunately I found the writing style unauthentically and mechanically simile and metaphor heavy which is why I've marked 3. A book which definitely was unique in its time but in 2023 I would say was not impressive. But entertaining regardless. Which is exactly what I needed.
]]> The Lamplighter 6323155 96 Jackie Kay 1852248041 Scarlett 1
Hope Jackie Kay doesn’t see this x



]]> 4.21 2008 The Lamplighter
author: Jackie Kay
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2023/04/10
shelves:
review:
Christ. Sorry. Don’t mean to be harsh, but I utterly despised that. That was like Rupi Kaur but in theatre form, which absolutely no one on the planet wants.

Hope Jackie Kay doesn’t see this x




]]> Cambridge 961655 Cambridge, one of England's most highly acclaimed young novelists tells their stories with an uncanny authenticity of voice and juxtaposes them to devastating effect. As a suspenseful and inescapably damning portrait of the schizophrenia of slavery, Caryl Phillips's book belongs to the company of Beloved and The Confessions of Nat Turner.]]> 192 Caryl Phillips 0679736891 Scarlett 4
It was written well and intriguing, though I wouldn’t say I was particularly invested nor deeply drawn in.

Also, I must have underlined about 10 typos! Who edited my copy�? ]]> 3.34 1992 Cambridge
author: Caryl Phillips
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.34
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/09
date added: 2023/03/09
shelves:
review:
Tells the story of a middle-class, white woman who goes to visit Daddy’s slave plantation. Interesting narrative structure, as we get to hear her perspective, the perspective of Cambridge - a slave educated in England - and then official reports, all based on the murder of Mr Brown, who is the plantation manager.

It was written well and intriguing, though I wouldn’t say I was particularly invested nor deeply drawn in.

Also, I must have underlined about 10 typos! Who edited my copy�?
]]> The Course of Love 27845690
The long-awaited and beguiling second novel from Alain de Botton that tracks the beautifully complicated arc of a romantic partnership, from the internationally bestselling author of How Proust Can Change Your Life. De Botton's essay "Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person" (The New York Times, May 28, 2016), which draws from The Course of Love, was the #1 most emailed article for days.

We all know the headiness and excitement of the early days of love. But what comes after? In Edinburgh, a couple, Rabih and Kirsten, fall in love. They get married, they have children—but no long-term relationship is as simple as "happily ever after." The Course of Love is a novel that explores what happens after the birth of love, what it takes to maintain love, and what happens to our original ideals under the pressures of an average existence. You experience, along with Rabih and Kirsten, the first flush of infatuation, the effortlessness of falling into romantic love, and the course of life thereafter. Interwoven with their story and its challenges is an overlay of philosophy—an annotation and a guide to what we are reading.

This is a Romantic novel in the true sense, one interested in exploring how love can survive and thrive in the long term. The result is a sensory experience—fictional, philosophical, psychological—that urges us to identify deeply with these characters and to reflect on his and her own experiences in love. Fresh, visceral, and utterly compelling, The Course of Love is a provocative and life-affirming novel for everyone who believes in love.]]> 240 Alain de Botton 0241145473 Scarlett 5
I stan this man, but for good reason. Very wise indeed.

And don’t anyone steal my idea - you saw it on here first - but I am absolutely desperate to make this into an adorable art house indy Cannes / Sundance film festival-type film.
]]> 4.01 2016 The Course of Love
author: Alain de Botton
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2022/10/24
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:
I take anything Ally de B says as gospel anyway, but this book was really, genuinely influential on the way I perceive, live, work out, and explore, my relationship, and myself within my relationship.

I stan this man, but for good reason. Very wise indeed.

And don’t anyone steal my idea - you saw it on here first - but I am absolutely desperate to make this into an adorable art house indy Cannes / Sundance film festival-type film.

]]> Wide Sargasso Sea 25622780 Wide Sargasso Sea, a masterpiece of modern fiction, was Jean Rhys’s return to the literary center stage. She had a startling early career and was known for her extraordinary prose and haunting women characters. With Wide Sargasso Sea, her last and best-selling novel, she ingeniously brings into light one of fiction’s most fascinating characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. This mesmerizing work introduces us to Antoinette Cosway, a sensual and protected young woman who is sold into marriage to the prideful Mr. Rochester. Rhys portrays Cosway amidst a society so driven by hatred, so skewed in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind.

A new introduction by the award-winning Edwidge Danticat, author most recently of Claire of the Sea Light, expresses the enduring importance of this work. Drawing on her own Caribbean background, she illuminates the setting’s impact on Rhys and her astonishing work.]]> 176 Jean Rhys 0393352560 Scarlett 0 3.63 1966 Wide Sargasso Sea
author: Jean Rhys
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Girl, Woman, Other 41081373
Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives and struggles of twelve very different characters. Mostly women, black and British, they tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.

Joyfully polyphonic and vibrantly contemporary, this is a gloriously new kind of history, a novel of our times: celebratory, ever-dynamic and utterly irresistible.]]> 453 Bernardine Evaristo 0241364906 Scarlett 0 4.27 2019 Girl, Woman, Other
author: Bernardine Evaristo
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]> 2956 327 Mark Twain 0142437174 Scarlett 0 3.82 1884 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
author: Mark Twain
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1884
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> The Sun Also Rises 3876 The Sun Also Rises (Fiesta) is one of Ernest Hemingway's masterpieces and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway's most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. It is an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions. First published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises helped to establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.]]> 189 Ernest Hemingway Scarlett 0 3.81 1926 The Sun Also Rises
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1926
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Philosophy in 40 ideas: From Aristotle to Zhong: Lessons for Life]]> 55230353
Essential thoughts about love, work, anxiety, self-knowledge and happiness are examined, highlighted and inspiringly presented here so they can work their consoling effect where it is most needed.]]> 88 The School of Life 1912891474 Scarlett 0 3.98 Philosophy in 40 ideas: From Aristotle to Zhong: Lessons for Life
author: The School of Life
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.98
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Mrs. Dalloway 14942 194 Virginia Woolf 0151009988 Scarlett 0 3.80 1925 Mrs. Dalloway
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1925
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Plays Pleasant 7716 Arms and the Man is a burlesque of Victorian attitudes to heroism, war and empire. In the contrast between Bluntschli, the mercenary soldier, and the brave leader, Sergius, the true nature of valour is revealed. Shaw mocks deluded idealism in Candida, when a young poet becomes infatuated with the wife of a Socialist preacher. The Man of Destiny is a witty war of words between Napoleon and a â€strange ladyâ€�, while in the exuberant farce You Never Can Tell a divided family is reunited by chance. Although Shaw intended Plays Pleasant to be gentler comedies than those in their companion volume, Plays Unpleasant, their prophetic satire is sharp and provocative.]]> 336 George Bernard Shaw 0140437940 Scarlett 0 3.91 1898 Plays Pleasant
author: George Bernard Shaw
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1898
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Psychopathology of Everyday Life]]> 132449
This edition supersedes the Brill translation first published in 1914 and reprinted nineteen times. It was commissioned for the Standard Edition of Freud's works published by the Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis. The Brill translation had "modified and substituted some of the author's cases by examples comprehensible to the English-speaking reader." This new version is an exact rendering of the German text, with explanations where linguistic differences occur. It incorporates new material added by Freud to the later German editions and is almost half as long gain as the former English version.]]> 116 Sigmund Freud 1420924915 Scarlett 0 3.87 1901 The Psychopathology of Everyday Life
author: Sigmund Freud
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1901
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Much Ado About Nothing 12957 Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare includes two quite different stories of romantic love. Hero and Claudio fall in love almost at first sight, but an outsider, Don John, strikes out at their happiness. Beatrice and Benedick are kept apart by pride and mutual antagonism until others decide to play Cupid.]]> 249 William Shakespeare Scarlett 0 4.06 1598 Much Ado About Nothing
author: William Shakespeare
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1598
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> A Raisin in the Sun 5517 A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959.

Indeed Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America--and changed American theater forever.  The play's title comes from a line in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry up/like a raisin in the sun."

"The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun," said The New York Times.  "It is as if history is conspiring to make the play a classic."  This Modern Library edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry's landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff.]]> 162 Lorraine Hansberry 0375508333 Scarlett 0 3.84 1959 A Raisin in the Sun
author: Lorraine Hansberry
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1959
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Oedipus Rex (The Theban Plays, #1)]]> 1554
Sophocles' Oedipus Rex has never been surpassed for the raw and terrible power with which its hero struggles to answer the eternal question, "Who am I?" The play, a story of a king who acting entirely in ignorance kills his father and marries his mother, unfolds with shattering power; we are helplessly carried along with Oedipus towards the final, horrific truth.

To make Oedipus more accessible for the modern reader, our Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Classics includes a glossary of the more difficult words, as well as convenient sidebar notes to enlighten the reader on aspects that may be confusing or overlooked. We hope that the reader may, through this edition, more fully enjoy the beauty of the verse, the wisdom of the insights, and the impact of the drama.]]> 75 Sophocles 1580495931 Scarlett 0 3.73 -429 Oedipus Rex (The Theban Plays, #1)
author: Sophocles
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.73
book published: -429
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Normal People 41057294
A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years in college, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. Then, as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.

Sally Rooney brings her brilliant psychological acuity and perfectly spare prose to a story that explores the subtleties of class, the electricity of first love, and the complex entanglements of family and friendship.]]> 273 Sally Rooney 1984822179 Scarlett 0 3.81 2018 Normal People
author: Sally Rooney
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[What a Time to Be Alone: The Slumflower's Guide to Why You Are Already Enough]]> 38744579
In What A Time To Be Alone, The Slumflower will be your life guru, confidante and best friend. She'll show you that being alone is not just okay: it's just about the best freaking thing that's ever happened to you. As she says, 'You're bad as hell and you were made with intention.' It's about time you realised.

Peppered with insightful Igbo proverbs from Chidera's Nigerian mother and full of her own original artwork, What A Time To Be Alone will help you navigate the modern world. We can all decide our own fates and Chidera shows us how, using a three-part approach filled with sass, wisdom and charm.


Learn how to celebrate YOU - decide your self-worth, take time to heal and empower yourself in this messy world.

Don't worry about THEM - avoid other people's demons and realize that everyone is protecting themselves from something - no matter how aggressive their method.

Feel the togetherness in US - sustain and grow healthy relationships and avoid toxicity in your friendships.

Own your story. Create your own narrative. Read this book. #WATTBA]]> 192 Chidera Eggerue 1787132110 Scarlett 0 3.73 2018 What a Time to Be Alone: The Slumflower's Guide to Why You Are Already Enough
author: Chidera Eggerue
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass]]> 36529
An astonishing orator and a skillful writer, Douglass became a newspaper editor, a political activist, and an eloquent spokesperson for the civil rights of African Americans. He lived through the Civil War, the end of slavery, and the beginning of segregation. He was celebrated internationally as the leading black intellectual of his day, and his story still resonates in ours.]]> 158 Frederick Douglass 1580495761 Scarlett 0 4.08 1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
author: Frederick Douglass
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1845
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> How to Think More About Sex 13696016 144 Alain de Botton 1447202279 Scarlett 4 3.45 2012 How to Think More About Sex
author: Alain de Botton
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2022/02/17
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Oxford Book of American Short Stories]]> 131147 In The Oxford Book of American Short Stories , Joyce Carol Oates offers a sweeping survey of American short fiction, in a collection of fifty-six tales that combines classic works with many "different, unexpected" gems, and that invites readers to explore a wealth of important pieces by women and minority writers. Some selections simply can't be improved on, Oates admits, and she happily includes such time-honored works as Irving's "Rip Van Winkle," Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," and Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place." But alongside these classics, Oates introduces such little-known stories as Mark Twain's "Cannibalism in the Cars," a story that reveals a darker side to his humor ("That morning we had Morgan of Alabama for breakfast. He was one of the finest men I ever sat down to...a perfect gentleman, and singularly juicy"). From Melville come the juxtaposed tales "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids," of which Oates says, "Only Melville could have fashioned out of 'real' events...such harrowing and dreamlike allegorical fiction." From Flannery O'Connor we find "A Late Encounter With the Enemy," and from John Cheever, "The Death of Justina," one of Cheever's own favorites, though rarely anthologized. The reader will also delight in the range of authors found here, from Charles W. Chesnutt, Jean Toomer, and Sarah Orne Jewett, to William Carlos Williams, Kate Chopin, and Zora Neale Hurston. Contemporary artists abound, including Bharati Mukherjee and Amy Tan, Alice Adams and David Leavitt, Bobbie Ann Mason and Tim O'Brien, Louise Erdrich and John Edgar Wideman. Oates provides fascinating introductions to each writer, blending biographical information with her own trenchant observations about their work, plus a long introductory essay, in which she offers the fruit of years of reflection on a genre in which she herself is a master.
This then is a book of surprises, a fascinating portrait of American short fiction, as filtered through the sensibility of a major modern writer.]]> 784 Joyce Carol Oates 0195092627 Scarlett 0 4.15 1992 The Oxford Book of American Short Stories
author: Joyce Carol Oates
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings]]> 391729
-The Tell-Tale Heart
-The Black Cat
-The Cask of Amontillado
-The Fall of the House of Usher
-The Masque of the Red Death
-The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
-Ligeia
-The Murders in the Rue Morgue
-The Purloined Letter
-A Descent into the Maelstrom
-The Pit and the Pendulum
-Ms. Found in a Bottle
-The Premature Burial
-William Wilson
-Eleonara
-Silence-A Fable
-The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym

Here too is a major selection of what Poe characterized as the passion of his life, his poems:

-Stanzas
-Romance
-To Helen
-Israfel
-The City in the Sea
-The Sleeper
-The Valley of Unrest
-Lenore
-The Raven
-A Valentine
-Ulanume-A Ballad
-For Annie
-Annabel Lee
-The Bells
-Alone]]> 448 Edgar Allan Poe 0553212281 Scarlett 0 4.19 1843 The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1843
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> The Contingency Plan 6454953 160 Steve Waters 1848420528 Scarlett 0 3.05 2009 The Contingency Plan
author: Steve Waters
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.05
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Enron 7169488
One of the most infamous scandals in financial history becomes a theatrical epic. At once a case study and an allegory, the play charts the notorious rise and fall of Enron and its founding partners Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, who became 'the most vilified figure from the financial scandal of the century.'


Mixing classical tragedy with savage comedy, Enron follows a group of flawed men and women in a narrative of greed and loss which reviews the tumultuous 1990s and casts a new light on the financial turmoil in which the world finds itself in 2009.


The play is Lucy Prebble's first work for the stage since her debut work The Sugar Syndrome, winner of the George Devine and Critic's Circle Awards for Most Promising New Playwright. Produced by Headlong, Enron premiered at Chichester's Minerva Theatre on 11 July 2009 and opened at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September, before transferring to London's West End Jan - May 2010 and to Broadway April 2010.]]> 128 Lucy Prebble 140812467X Scarlett 0 3.74 2009 Enron
author: Lucy Prebble
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> This House (Modern Plays) 17856904 This country doesn't need a constitution, never has, never will. We have History as our guide. In tough times, the British do what we have always done. We muddle through.

This House is a timely and relevant political comedy, exploring Westminster and the 1974 hung parliament.

In the run-up to the General Election pressure mounts as squabbling whips attempt to attract key regional votes. As it becomes clear the results will be closely balanced, the play tracks the formation, perils and consequences of a coalition government, including the compromises, conflicts and power games all in the interest of gaining control of Parliament.

With well-paced, witty and waspish dialogue, This House playfully explores the childish digs and chauvinistic attitudes that riddle political life. Award-winning playwright James Graham combines comedy with comment in this portrayal of the strain between the thinking individual, the pressure to toe the part line and the end goal of winning government.]]> 136 James Graham 1472507029 Scarlett 0 4.09 2012 This House (Modern Plays)
author: James Graham
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Power of Yes: A Dramatist Seeks to Understand the Financial Crisis]]> 6908963 96 David Hare 0571254683 Scarlett 0 3.30 2009 The Power of Yes: A Dramatist Seeks to Understand the Financial Crisis
author: David Hare
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Stuff Happens 422945 "Stuff happens . . . And it's untidy, and freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things."

Such was Donald Rumsfeld's response on April 11, 2003, following the infamous looting and pillaging of Baghdad. In David Hare's powerful new play chronicling the extraordinary process leading to the American invasion of Iraq, this statement provides entrée into the melee of diplomacy, political power, and terrorist vendetta still making headlines around the world. Using direct quotes meticulously culled from interviews and public appearances, combined with the playwright's nuanced reimagining of what went on behind closed doors, Hare has fashioned a historical narrative and human drama that presents the Iraqi conflict in all of its
haphazard notoriety. Stuff Happens uses a uniquely evenhanded approach to a deeply contested invasion--seen from the perspective of international leaders and journalists, as well as Iraqi refugees--and raises a series of provocative questions regarding the most heartfelt and manipulative machinations of domestic and international politik.]]> 128 David Hare 057122606X Scarlett 0 3.74 2005 Stuff Happens
author: David Hare
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Black Watch 2655489 Black Watch reveals what it means to be part of the legendary Scottish regiment, what it means to be part of the war on terror, and what it means to make the journey home.

This book contains Gregory Burke's award-winning script, with production notes by the director John Tiffany and colour photographs that capture the powerful and inventive use of movement in this urgent piece of theatre.

The National Theatre of Scotland's production of Black Watch opened at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006, where it won a Herald Angel, a Scotsman Fringe First, the Critics' Circle Award and the South Bank Show Award for Theatre. During a world tour it won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play.

Celebrated for its bravery and clannish loyalty the Black Watch has been in the vanguard of countless British military expeditions from Waterloo and the Somme to Kosovo. Its last great challenge before enforced amalgamation was relieving American forces at Camp Dogwood in Iraq during 2004 ...BLACK WATCH is a timely and vital theatrical investigation based on interviews with former soldiers from this legendary Scottish regiment who served in Iraq.]]> 144 Gregory Burke 0571238173 Scarlett 0 3.72 2006 Black Watch
author: Gregory Burke
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> Xenophobe's Guide to Welsh 186040 87 John Winterson Richards 1902825462 Scarlett 3 3.20 1993 Xenophobe's Guide to Welsh
author: John Winterson Richards
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.20
book published: 1993
rating: 3
read at: 2022/02/16
date added: 2022/02/16
shelves:
review:

]]> One Hundred Years of Solitude 320 417 Gabriel García Márquez Scarlett 5 4.10 1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1967
rating: 5
read at: 2022/02/16
date added: 2022/02/16
shelves:
review:
WHOOO WHEEE fucking phenomenal loved loved loved it !! What an ending too. I had goosebumps errywhere.
]]> On the Road 70401 307 Jack Kerouac 0140042598 Scarlett 5 3.63 1957 On the Road
author: Jack Kerouac
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1957
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/27
date added: 2022/02/16
shelves:
review:

]]> The Beautiful and Damned 4708 The Beautiful and the Damned followed Fitzgerald's impeccable debut, This Side of Paradise, thus securing his place in the tradition of great American novelists. Embellished with the author's lyrical prose, here is the story of Harvard-educated, aspiring aesthete Anthony Patch and his beautiful wife, Gloria. As they await the inheritance of his grandfather's fortune, their reckless marriage sways under the influence of alcohol and avarice. A devastating look at the nouveau riche, and the New York nightlife, as well as the ruinous effects of wild ambition, The Beautiful and the Damned achieved stature as one of Fitzgerald's most accomplished novels. Its distinction as a classic endures to this day. Pocket Book's Enriched Classics present the great works of world literature enhanced for the contemporary reader. Special features include critical perspectives, suggestions for further read, and a unique visual essay composed of period photographs that help bring every word to life.]]> 422 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743451503 Scarlett 5 3.74 1922 The Beautiful and Damned
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1922
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/13
date added: 2022/01/13
shelves:
review:

]]> Their Eyes Were Watching God 37415 238 Zora Neale Hurston 0061120065 Scarlett 0 3.98 1937 Their Eyes Were Watching God
author: Zora Neale Hurston
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1937
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/05/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Quicksand 78257
Quicksand , Nella Larsen's powerful first novel, has intriguing autobiographical parallels and at the same time invokes the international dimension of African American culture of the 1920s. It also evocatively portrays the racial and gender restrictions that can mark a life.]]> 192 Nella Larsen 0141181273 Scarlett 0 3.71 1928 Quicksand
author: Nella Larsen
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1928
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/05/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Selected Poems 65335
The poems Hughes wrote celebrated the experience of invisible men and women: of slaves who "rushed the boots of Washington"; of musicians on Lenox Avenue; of the poor and the lovesick; of losers in "the raffle of night." They conveyed that experience in a voice that blended the spoken with the sung, that turned poetic lines into the phrases of jazz and blues, and that ripped through the curtain separating high from popular culture. They spanned the range from the lyric to the polemic, ringing out "wonder and pain and terror—and the marrow of the bone of life."

The collection includes "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "The Weary Blues," "Still Here," "Song for a Dark Girl," "Montage of a Dream Deferred," and "Refugee in America."  It gives us a poet of extraordinary range, directness, and stylistic virtuosity.]]> 297 Langston Hughes 067972818X Scarlett 0 4.32 1959 Selected Poems
author: Langston Hughes
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1959
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/15
shelves:
review:

]]> The Souls of Black Folk 318742 Publication of The Souls of Black Folk was a dramatic event that helped to polarize black leaders into two groups: the more conservative followers of Washington and the more radical supporters of aggressive protest. Its influence cannot be overstated. It is essential reading for everyone interested in African-American history and the struggle for civil rights in America.]]> 288 W.E.B. Du Bois Scarlett 4 4.30 1903 The Souls of Black Folk
author: W.E.B. Du Bois
name: Scarlett
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1903
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/02/18
shelves:
review:

]]> Nightwood 53101
The outsized characters who inhabit this world are some of the most memorable in all of fiction—there is Guido Volkbein, the Wandering Jew and son of a self-proclaimed baron; Robin Vote, the American expatriate who marries him and then engages in a series of affairs, first with Nora Flood and then with Jenny Petherbridge, driving all of her lovers to distraction with her passion for wandering alone in the night; and there is Dr. Matthew-Mighty-Grain-of-Salt-Dante-O'Connor, a transvestite and ostensible gynecologist, whose digressive speeches brim with fury, keen insights, and surprising allusions.

Barnes' depiction of these characters and their relationships (Nora says, "A man is another person—a woman is yourself, caught as you turn in panic; on her mouth you kiss your own") has made the novel a landmark of feminist and lesbian literature. Most striking of all is Barnes' unparalleled stylistic innovation, which led T. S. Eliot to proclaim the book "so good a novel that only sensibilities trained on poetry can wholly appreciate it."

Now with a new preface by Jeanette Winterson, Nightwood still crackles with the same electric charge it had on its first publication in 1936.]]> 182 Djuna Barnes 0811216713 Scarlett 5 3.66 1936 Nightwood
author: Djuna Barnes
name: Scarlett
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1936
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/01
date added: 2021/02/02
shelves:
review:

]]>