en-US Sun, 29 Sep 2024 23:37:34 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 856165 128 Dennis Cooper 0802132898 Chris 3 3.67 1991
author: Dennis Cooper
name: Chris
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1991
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/09/29
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]]> 1286453
A dark and compelling novel of addiction, obsession, love, and family from the acclaimed author ofĚýMysterious Skin

The body of a teenage boy is discovered in a Kansas field. The murder haunts Donna—a recent widow battling cancer—calling forth troubling details from long-suppressed memories of her past. Hoping to discover more about "disappeared" people, she turns to her son, Scott, who is fighting demons of his own. Addicted to methamphetamines and sleeping pills, Scott is barely holding on—though the chance to help his mother in her strange and desperate search holds out a slim promise of some small salvation.

But what he finds is a boy named Otis handcuffed in a secret basement room, and the questions that arise seem too disturbing even to contemplate. With his mother's health rapidly deteriorating, Scott must surrender to his own obsession, and unravel Otis's unsettling connections to other missing teens . . . and, ultimately, to himself.]]> 293 Scott Heim 0061468975 Chris 2 3.59 2008
author: Scott Heim
name: Chris
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at: 2016/03/03
date added: 2016/03/03
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]]> 9920
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

Five years, four months and twenty-nine days later, on April 14, 1965, Richard Eugene Hickock, aged thirty-three, and Perry Edward Smith, aged thirty-six, were hanged for the crime on a gallows in a warehouse at the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas.

In Cold Blood is the story of the lives and deaths of these six people. It has already been hailed as a masterpiece.]]> 343 Truman Capote 0375507906 Chris 4 4.16 1966
author: Truman Capote
name: Chris
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1966
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/05/10
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]]> 415230 The New Yorker as one of the "20 Best American Fiction Writers Under 40," a hilarious, inventive, unforgettable collection of stories.

His remarkable first collection of stories was hailed by The New York Times as "the debut of an exciting new voice in fiction." Garrison Keillor called him wildly funny, pure, generous--all that a great humorist should be." With this new collection, George Saunders takes us even further into the shocking, uproarious and oddly familiar landscape of his imagination.

The stories in Pastoralia are set in a slightly skewed version of America, where elements of contemporary life have been merged, twisted, and amplified, casting their absurdity-and our humanity-in a startling new light. Whether he writes a gothic morality tale in which a male exotic dancer is haunted by his maiden aunt from beyond the grave, or about a self-help guru who tells his followers his mission is to discover who's been "crapping in your oatmeal," Saunders's stories are both indelibly strange and vividly real.

George Saunders has been identified as a writer in the tradition of Mark Twain, Thomas Pynchon, and Kurt Vonnegut--"a savage satirist with a sentimental streak," said The New York Times. In this new collection, Saunders brings greater wisdom and maturity to the worldview he established with CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, leaving no doubt about his place as the brilliant successor to these writers.


Pastoralia --
Winky --
Sea oak --
The end of FIRPO in the world --
The barber's unhappiness --
The falls]]> 188 George Saunders 1573221619 Chris 5 3.99 2000
author: George Saunders
name: Chris
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2000
rating: 5
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date added: 2013/12/16
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]]> 1007826 Paris Shortlist 2007 guide selects the very best of Paris s sightseeing, restaurants, shopping, nightlife and entertainment, with Time Out s trademark expertise. And because it s annual, it also takes you straight to the latest venues, tips you off to the news and fashion and gives you the dates that matter. This mini guide includes important openings, suggested itineraries for days out, our shortlist of top picks and tips and gives a full calendar of events from September 2006 - December 2007 to ensure you really have a great time in Paris. Whether you re visiting for the first time in your life or just the first time since 2006, you ll find the Time Out Paris Shortlist 2007 contains everything you need to know, in a handy small and easy-to-use format.]]> 200 Time Out Guides 1904978762 Chris 3 4.25 2006
author: Time Out Guides
name: Chris
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2007/12/08
date added: 2012/06/17
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]]> 12232938
So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her -- her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.]]> 372 Alice Sebold 0316166685 Chris 2 3.87 2002
author: Alice Sebold
name: Chris
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2011/08/09
shelves:
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]]> 32370 293 Augusten Burroughs 0312423799 Chris 5 4.02 2003
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: Chris
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2003/01/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
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I've read this book three times, and I'm sure I'll eventually read it a fourth. It's definitely his best work so far. Touching, funny, sad, and reassuring.
]]> 58173 324 T.J. Parsell 0786717939 Chris 3 3.95 2006
author: T.J. Parsell
name: Chris
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2007/05/01
date added: 2009/12/16
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I read this pretty quickly and it held my interest, but it's badly edited and at times poorly written. The author also tends to romanticize his time in prison as if it were a trip to summer camp.
]]> 607639
The Khao San Road, Bangkok -- first stop for the hordes of rootless young Westerners traveling in Southeast Asia. On Richard's first night there, in a low-budget guest house, a fellow traveller slashes his wrists, bequeathing to Richard a meticulously drawn map to "the Beach."

The Beach, as Richard has come to learn, is the subject of a legend among young travellers in Asia: a lagoon hidden from the sea, with white sand and coral gardens, freshwater falls surrounded by jungle, plants untouched for a thousand years. There, it is rumoured, a carefully selected international few have settled in a communal Eden.

Haunted by the figure of Mr. Duck -- the name by which the Thai police have identified the dead man -- and his own obsession with Vietnam movies, Richard sets off with a young French couple to an island hidden away in an archipelago forbidden to tourists. They discover the Beach, and it is as beautiful and idyllic as it is reputed to be. Yet over time it becomes clear that Beach culture, as Richard calls it, has troubling, even deadly, undercurrents.

Spellbinding and hallucinogenic, The Beach by Alex Garland -- both a national bestseller and his debut -- is a highly accomplished and suspenseful novel that fixates on a generation in their twenties, who, burdened with the legacy of the preceding generation and saturated by popular culture, long for an unruined landscape, but find it difficult to experience the world first hand.]]> 436 Alex Garland 1573226521 Chris 5 3.97 1996
author: Alex Garland
name: Chris
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 1998/01/01
date added: 2009/12/16
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Forget the awful film version, this book is riveting entertainment.
]]> 4138 Naked, Sedaris turns the mania for memoir on its proverbial ear, mining the exceedingly rich terrain of his life, his family, and his unique worldview—a sensibility at once take-no-prisoners sharp and deeply charitable. A tart-tongued mother does dead-on imitations of her young son's nervous tics, to the great amusement of his teachers; a stint of Kerouackian wandering is undertaken (of course!) with a quadriplegic companion; a family gathers for a wedding in the face of imminent death. Through it all is Sedaris's unmistakable voice, without doubt one of the freshest in American writing.]]> 304 David Sedaris Chris 5 4.10 1997
author: David Sedaris
name: Chris
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 1998/01/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
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This was my introduction to Sedaris.
]]> 235662 The Mayor of Castro Street is Shilts's acclaimed story of Harvey Milk, the man whose personal life, public career, and tragic assassination mirrored the dramatic and unprecedented emergence of the gay community in America during the 1970s. His is a story of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassination in City Hall and massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.
]]> 380 Randy Shilts 0312019009 Chris 5 4.10 1982
author: Randy Shilts
name: Chris
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1982
rating: 5
read at: 2008/09/03
date added: 2008/09/03
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]]> 347143
That was all Ruth had said. Even now, when she’d had months to come to terms with the fallout from this remark, she still marveled at the power of those four words, which she’d uttered without premeditation and without any sense of treading on forbidden ground. (p. 11)

Thanks to an off-hand remark made during a class discussion of oral sex, sex-ed teacher Ruth Ramsey finds herself a target of the Christian evangelicals who are increasingly influencing the schoolboard of suburban Stonewood Heights. Forced to attend remedial sessions with a smug “Virginity Consultant,� Ruth is isolated and alone, caught in the polarized red-versus-blue landscape of present-day American suburbia. It’s like “living in a horror movie,� she thinks, � The Invasion of the Body Snatchers , or something. You never knew who they were going to get to next.� Divorced and sharing custody of her daughters with her ex, and sometimes attempting a futile date, Ruth spends many a lonely weekend wondering how her bleak existence came to be.

Then one morning at her daughter’s soccer game, Ruth meets Tim Mason, a cute forty-something volunteer coach. Ruth feels an instant attraction to Tim, but when he draws the girls together for a spontaneous prayer circle after the game, she angrily yanks her daughter away from the proceedings, placing herself once again in the sights of the evangelicals.

But Ruth has another unexpected she can’t seem to get a handle on Tim, her supposed adversary, who keeps appearing at her front door. A recovering addict whose bottoming-out cost him his home and his marriage, Tim found his way to the Tabernacle of the Gospel Truth through the intervention of Pastor Dennis, the charismatic preacher who put Tim’s shattered life back together in an approximation of happiness. Thanks to Pastor Dennis, Tim is now married to Carrie, a fellow Tabernacler who is attractive and attentive, if robotic. He plays guitar at the weekly prayer sessions in a sanitized reenactment of his days in a Grateful Dead cover band. He holds a respectable if unfulfilling job as a loan officer, well aware of the irony of the post for a man with his history. He is grateful for the help he has received from his church community and Pastor Dennis. But he can’t shake the yearning for something more, and a nagging attraction to that troublesome sex-ed teacher....

With The Abstinence Teacher , Tom Perrotta wades into the murky waters of contemporary American suburbia, fully deploying his proven gift for describing the panic lurking beneath its seemingly placid surface. Already widely known to book and movie audiences for his scathing satire mixed with remarkable compassion in works including Election and Little Children (both adapted for film, Little Children garnering Perrotta an Oscar nomination), this novel once again proves, as declared by the Los Angeles Times , “Perrotta’s balance of humor and pathos has no equal.”]]> 368 Tom Perrotta 0307356361 Chris 3 3.25 2007
author: Tom Perrotta
name: Chris
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2007
rating: 3
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date added: 2008/06/17
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]]> 1806786 258 Chip Kidd 0743255240 Chris 3 3.57 2008
author: Chip Kidd
name: Chris
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2008/03/01
date added: 2008/03/23
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]]> 28746 In Persuasion Nation are easily his best work yet. "The Red Bow," about a town consumed by pet-killing hysteria, won a 2004 National Magazine Award and "Bohemians," the story of two supposed Eastern European widows trying to fit in in suburban USA, is included in The Best American Short Stories 2005. His new book includes both unpublished work, and stories that first appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, and Esquire. The stories in this volume work together as a whole whose impact far exceeds the simple sum of its parts. Fans of Saunders know and love him for his sharp and hilarious satirical eye. But In Persuasion Nation also includes more personal and poignant pieces that reveal a new kind of emotional conviction in Saunders's writing.

Saunders's work in the last six years has come to be recognized as one of the strongest—and most consoling—cries in the wilderness of the millennium's political and cultural malaise. In Persuasion Nation's sophistication and populism should establish Saunders once and for all as this generation's literary voice of wisdom and humor in a time when we need it most.]]> 228 George Saunders 159448242X Chris 4 4.11 2006
author: George Saunders
name: Chris
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2008/02/01
date added: 2008/02/21
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Not every story worked for me, but the ones that did are totally bizarre and incredibly hilarious.
]]> 109395 Faggots has been in print since its original publication in 1978 and has become one of the best-selling novels about gay life ever written. The book is a fierce satire of the gay ghetto and a touching story of one man's desperate search for love there, and reading it today is a fascinating look at how much, and how little, has changed.]]> 363 Larry Kramer 0802136915 Chris 4 3.64 1978
author: Larry Kramer
name: Chris
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1978
rating: 4
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date added: 2007/08/24
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]]> 28212 By the time Rock Hudson's death in 1985 alerted all America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation, killing thousands of people and emerging as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century. America faced a troubling question: What happened? How was this epidemic allowed to spread so far before it was taken seriously? In answering these questions, Shilts weaves the disparate threads into a coherent story, pinning down every evasion and contradiction at the highest levels of the medical, political, and media establishments.

Shilts shows that the epidemic spread wildly because the federal government put budget ahead of the nation's welfare; health authorities placed political expediency before the public health; and scientists were often more concerned with international prestige than saving lives. Against this backdrop, Shilts tells the heroic stories of individuals in science and politics, public health and the gay community, who struggled to alert the nation to the enormity of the danger it faced. And the Band Played On is both a tribute to these heroic people and a stinging indictment of the institutions that failed the nation so badly.
]]> 660 Randy Shilts 0312241356 Chris 5 4.36 1987
author: Randy Shilts
name: Chris
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at: 2007/07/01
date added: 2007/07/30
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An amazing work of historical journalism.
]]> 836268
It begins with a Tang Instant-Breakfast Drink television

"Yes, you, Augusten. You were great. We want you." I can now trace my manic adult tendencies to this moment. It was the first time I felt deeply thrilled about something just a fraction of an instant after being completely crushed. I believe those three words "We want you" were enough to cause my brain to rewire itself, and from then on, I would require more than other people.... - from Magical Thinking 's "Commercial Break"

A contest of wills with a deranged cleaning lady. The execution of a rodent carried out with military precision and utter horror. Telemarketing revenge. A different kind of "roof work." Dating an undertaker who shows up in a minivan. This is the fabric of Augusten Burroughs's a collection of true stories that are universal in their appeal yet unabashedly intimate, stories that shine a flashlight into both dark and hilarious places. With Magical Thinking , Augusten Burroughs goes where other memoirists fear to tread.]]> 268 Augusten Burroughs 0312315945 Chris 3 3.85 2004
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2004
rating: 3
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date added: 2007/06/27
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]]> 100915
Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At first her brothers and sister don't believe her when she tells of her visit to the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund, then Peter and Susan step through the wardrobe themselves. In Narnia they find a country buried under the evil enchantment of the White Witch. When they meet the Lion Aslan, they realize they've been called to a great adventure and bravely join the battle to free Narnia from the Witch's sinister spell.]]> 206 C.S. Lewis Chris 5 4.24 1950
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Chris
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1950
rating: 5
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 106373 192 Alex Garland 0571223109 Chris 2 3.40 2004
author: Alex Garland
name: Chris
average rating: 3.40
book published: 2004
rating: 2
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 243257 273 Alex Garland 1573221090 Chris 3 3.24
author: Alex Garland
name: Chris
average rating: 3.24
book published:
rating: 3
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]]> 18131
It was a dark and stormy night.

Out of this wild night, a strange visitor comes to the Murry house and beckons Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe on a most dangerous and extraordinary adventure—one that will threaten their lives and our universe.

A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L'Engle's classic Time Quintet.]]> 211 Madeleine L'Engle 0440498058 Chris 4 4.04 1962
author: Madeleine L'Engle
name: Chris
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1962
rating: 4
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]]> 2137 A Home at the End of the World masterfully depicts the charged, fragile relationships of urban life today.]]> 342 Michael Cunningham 0312424086 Chris 4 3.93 1990
author: Michael Cunningham
name: Chris
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1990
rating: 4
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 394964
"Deliciously funny...absurd and exuberant, wild and uproarious...a brilliantly vivid reading experience."Ěýâ€� TheĚýNew York Times Book Review

"Touching as well as hilariously lewd.... Roth is vibrantly talented. " —New York Review of Books

Portnoy's Complaint n. [after Alexander Portnoy (1933- )] A disorder in which strongly-felt ethical and altruistic impulses are perpetually warring with extreme sexual longings, often of a perverse nature. Spielvogel 'Acts of exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, auto-eroticism and oral coitus are plentiful; as a consequence of the patient's "morality," however, neither fantasy nor act issues in genuine sexual gratification, but rather in overriding feelings of shame and the dread of retribution, particularly in the form of castration.' (Spielvogel, O. "The Puzzled Penis," Internationale Zeitschrift fĂĽr Psychoanalyse, Vol. XXIV, p. 909.) It is believed by Spielvogel that many of the symptoms can be traced to the bonds obtaining in the mother-child relationship.]]> 274 Philip Roth 0679756450 Chris 4 3.69 1969
author: Philip Roth
name: Chris
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1969
rating: 4
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]]> 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 Chris 1 3.82 1991
author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: Chris
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1991
rating: 1
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 9912 From the bestselling author of American Psycho comes this satirical black comedy about the death of romance.

Set at an affluent liberal arts college during the height of the Reagan eighties, The Rules of Attraction follows a handful of rowdy, spoiled, sexually promiscuous students with no plans for the future—or even the present. Three of them—Sean, Paul, and Lauren—become involved in a love triangle of sorts within a sequence of drug runs, "Dressed to Get Screwed" parties, and "End of the World" parties.

As Bret Easton Ellis trains his incisive gaze on the kids at the self-consciously bohemian Camden College, treating their sexual posturing and agonies with a mixture of acrid hilarity and compassion, he exposes the moral vacuum at the center of their lives.]]> 283 Bret Easton Ellis 067978148X Chris 2 3.74 1987
author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: Chris
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1987
rating: 2
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]]> 4953 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read for decades to come.]]> 530 Dave Eggers 0375725784 Chris 2 3.70 2000
author: Dave Eggers
name: Chris
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2000
rating: 2
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]]> 28756 288 Chip Kidd 0060507403 Chris 5 3.75 2001
author: Chip Kidd
name: Chris
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2001
rating: 5
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 103362 The 15th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style has been superseded by the 17th edition.

In the 1890s, a proofreader at the University of Chicago Press prepared a single sheet of typographic fundamentals intended as a guide for the University community. That sheet grew into a pamphlet, and the pamphlet grew into a book—the first edition of the Manual of Style, published in 1906. Now in its fifteenth edition, The Chicago Manual of Style—the essential reference for authors, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers in any field—is more comprehensive and easier to use than ever before.

Those who work with words know how dramatically publishing has changed in the past decade, with technology now informing and influencing every stage of the writing and publishing process. In creating the fifteenth edition of the Manual, Chicago's renowned editorial staff drew on direct experience of these changes, as well as on the recommendations of the Manual's first advisory board, composed of a distinguished group of scholars, authors, and professionals from a wide range of publishing and business environments.

Every aspect of coverage has been examined and brought up to date—from publishing formats to editorial style and method, from documentation of electronic sources to book design and production, and everything in between. In addition to books, the Manual now also treats journals and electronic publications. All chapters are written for the electronic age, with advice on how to prepare and edit manuscripts online, handle copyright and permissions issues raised by technology, use new methods of preparing mathematical copy, and cite electronic and online sources.

A new chapter covers American English grammar and usage, outlining the grammatical structure of English, showing how to put words and phrases together to achieve clarity, and identifying common errors. The two chapters on documentation have been reorganized and updated: the first now describes the two main systems preferred by Chicago, and the second discusses specific elements and subject matter, with examples of both systems. Coverage of design and manufacturing has been streamlined to reflect what writers and editors need to know about current procedures. And, to make it easier to search for information, each numbered paragraph throughout the Manual is now introduced by a descriptive heading.

Clear, concise, and replete with commonsense advice, The Chicago Manual of Style, fifteenth edition, offers the wisdom of a hundred years of editorial practice while including a wealth of new topics and updated perspectives. For anyone who works with words, whether on a page or computer screen, this continues to be the one reference book you simply must have.

What's new in the Fifteenth Edition:

* Updated material throughout to reflect current style, technology, and professional practice

* Scope expanded to include journals and electronic publications

* Comprehensive new chapter on American English grammar and usage by Bryan A. Garner (author of A Dictionary of Modern American Usage)

* Updated and rewritten chapter on preparing mathematical copy

* Reorganized and updated chapters on documentation, including guidance on citing electronic sources

* Streamlined coverage of current design and production processes, with a glossary of key terms

* Descriptive headings on all numbered paragraphs for ease of reference

* New diagrams of the editing and production processes for both books and journals, keyed to chapter discussions

* New, expanded Web site with special tools and features for Manual users at .]]> 956 University of Chicago Press 0226104036 Chris 5 4.23 1906
author: University of Chicago Press
name: Chris
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1906
rating: 5
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]]> 105290 416 Rupert Everett 0446579637 Chris 2 3.48 2006
author: Rupert Everett
name: Chris
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2006
rating: 2
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 4143 National Enquirer, Sedaris’s collection of essays is a rollicking tour through the national Zeitgeist: a do-it-yourself suburban dad saves money by performing home surgery; a man who is loved too much flees the heavyweight champion of the world; a teenage suicide tries to incite a lynch mob at her funeral; a bitter Santa abuses the elves.

David Sedaris made his debut on NPR’s Morning Edition with “SantaLand Diaries�, recounting his strange-but-true experiences as an elf at Macy’s, and soon became one of the show’s most popular commentators. With a perfect eye and a voice infused with as much empathy as wit, Sedaris writes stories and essays that target the soulful ridiculousness of our behavior. Barrel Fever is like a blind date with modern life, and anything can happen.

Parade --
Music for lovers --
The last you'll hear from me --
My manuscript --
Firestone --
We get along --
Glen's homophobia newsletter vol. 3, no. 2 --
Don's story --
Season's greeting to our friends and family!!! --
Jamboree --
After Malison --
Barrel fever --
Diary of a smoker --
Giantess --
The curly kind --
SantaLand diaries]]> 196 David Sedaris 0316779423 Chris 5 3.80 1994
author: David Sedaris
name: Chris
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1994
rating: 5
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 4136 Us and Them); the difficulties of explaining the Easter Bunny to the French (Jesus Shaves); what to do when you've been locked out in a snowstorm (Let It Snow); the puzzling Christmas traditions of other nations (Six to Eight Black Men); what Halloween at the medical examiner's looks like (The Monster Mash); and a barnyard secret Santa scheme gone awry (Cow and Turkey).]]> 176 David Sedaris 0316191299 Chris 4 3.92 1997
author: David Sedaris
name: Chris
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1997
rating: 4
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]]> 10176 --davidsedarisbooks.com]]> 257 David Sedaris 0965904830 Chris 4 4.12 2004
author: David Sedaris
name: Chris
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2004
rating: 4
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 4137 272 David Sedaris 0349113912 Chris 5 4.01 2000
author: David Sedaris
name: Chris
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2000
rating: 5
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]]> 79790 304 Augusten Burroughs 0312315953 Chris 3 3.96 2004
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2004
rating: 3
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 25657 Sellevision explores greed, obsession and third tier celebrity, in the world of a fictional home shopping network.

Welcome to the troubled world of Sellevision, America's premier retail broadcasting network. When Max Andrews, the much-loved and handsome (lonely and gay) host of "Slumber Sunday Sundown" accidentally exposes himself in front of twenty million kids and their parents during a "Toys for Tots" segment, Sellevision faces its first big scandal. As Max fails to find a job in television, another host, the popular and perky Peggy Jean Smythe is receiving sinister emails about her appearance from a stalker. Popping pills and drinking heavily, she fails to notice that her husband is spending a lot of time with the very young babysitter who lives next door. Then there's Leigh, whose affair with Sellevision boss Howard Toast is going nowhere, until she exposes him on air; and Bebe, Sellevision's star host, who finds Mr. Right through the Internet--if she can just stop her shopping addiction from taking over.]]> 229 Augusten Burroughs 0312422288 Chris 4 3.59 2000
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2000
rating: 4
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 61115 National Bestseller
Ěý
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Running with Scissors comes Augusten Burroughs's most provocative collection of true stories yet. From nicotine gum addiction to lesbian personal ads to incontinent dogs, Possible Side Effects mines Burroughs's life in a series of uproariously funny essays. These are stories that are uniquely Augusten, with all the over-the-top hilarity of Running with Scissors, the erudition of Dry, and the breadth of Magical Thinking. A collection that is universal in its appeal and unabashedly intimate, Possible Side Effects continues to explore that which is most personal, mirthful, disturbing, and cherished, with unmatched audacity. A cautionary tale in essay form. Be forewarned--hilarious, troubling, and shocking results might occur.]]> 291 Augusten Burroughs 031242681X Chris 3 3.99 2006
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 3
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 242006 336 Augusten Burroughs 031242227X Chris 4 3.77 2002
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: Chris
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2002
rating: 4
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 109713 City of Night, was first published in 1963, it became a national bestseller and ushered in a new era of gay fiction. Bold and inventive in his account of the urban underworld of male prostitution, Rechy is equally unflinching in his portrayal of one hustling "Youngman" and his restless search for self-knowledge. As the narrator careens from El Paso to Times Square, from Pershing Square to the French Quarter, we get an unforgettable look at a neon-lit life on the edge. Said James Baldwin of the author, "Rechy is the most arresting young writer I've read in a very long time. His tone rings absolutely true, is absolutely his own; and he has the kind of discipline which allows him a rare and beautiful reckless."]]> 400 John Rechy 0802130836 Chris 3 3.94 1963
author: John Rechy
name: Chris
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1963
rating: 3
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]]> 109520 New York Times bestselling, darkly funny memoir of a young New Yorker's daring dual life—advertising art director by day, glitter-dripping drag queen and nightclub beauty-pageant hopeful by night—was a smash literary debut for Josh Kilmer-Purcell, now known for his popular Planet Green television series The Fabulous Beekman Boys. His story begins here—before the homemade goat milk soaps and hand-gathered honeys, before his memoir of the city mouse’s move to the country, The Bucolic Plague—i˛Ô I Am Not Myself These Days, Ěýwith “plenty of dishy anecdotes and moments of tragi-camp delightâ€� (WashingtonPost).]]> 305 Josh Kilmer-Purcell 0060817321 Chris 1 3.95 2006
author: Josh Kilmer-Purcell
name: Chris
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2006
rating: 1
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 1202
These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much heralded scholar who studies the stuff and riddles of everyday life -- from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing -- and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. He usually begins with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.

Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives -- how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of ... well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.

What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and -- if the right questions are asked -- is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Steven Levitt, through devilishly clever and clear-eyed thinking, shows how to see through all the clutter.

Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
(front flap)]]> 268 Steven D. Levitt 0061234001 Chris 2 4.01 2005
author: Steven D. Levitt
name: Chris
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2005
rating: 2
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]]> 281221
A searing memoir of masculinity, violence, and brotherhood, Goat provides an unprecedented window into the emotional landscape of young men and introduces a writer of uncommon grace and power.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 224 Brad Land 0812969685 Chris 4 3.13 2004
author: Brad Land
name: Chris
average rating: 3.13
book published: 2004
rating: 4
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]]> 166104
"Mine is a story of an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered...."

Meet Dolores Price. She's thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly up.

In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years. At once a fragile girl and a hard-edged cynic, so tough to love yet so inimitably lovable, Dolores is as poignantly real as our own imperfections. She's Come Undone includes a you will never forget Dolores Price.]]> 465 Wally Lamb 0671003755 Chris 4 3.86 1992
author: Wally Lamb
name: Chris
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1992
rating: 4
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]]> 28747 179 George Saunders 0099595818 Chris 5 4.25 1996
author: George Saunders
name: Chris
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1996
rating: 5
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 1095912 272 Ron Nyswaner 1555838898 Chris 5 3.78 2004
author: Ron Nyswaner
name: Chris
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2004
rating: 5
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date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 24384 Mario is elated to find Chester. He begs his parents to let him keep the shiny insect in the newsstand, assuring his bug-fearing mother that crickets are harmless, maybe even good luck. What ensues is an altogether captivating spin on the city mouse/country mouse story, as Chester adjusts to the bustle of the big city. Despite the cricket's comfortable matchbox bed (with Kleenex sheets); the fancy, seven-tiered pagoda cricket cage from Sai Fong's novelty shop; tasty mulberry leaves; the jolly company of Tucker Mouse and Harry Cat; and even his new-found fame as "the most famous musician in New York City," Chester begins to miss his peaceful life in the Connecticut countryside. The Cricket in Times Square--a Newbery Honor Book in 1961--is charmingly illustrated by the well-loved Garth Williams, and the tiniest details of this elegantly spun, vividly told, surprisingly suspenseful tale will stick with children for years and years. Make sure this classic sits on the shelf of your favorite child, right next to The Wind in the Willows. (Ages 9 to 12)

]]> 134 George Selden 0440228891 Chris 5 4.03 1960
author: George Selden
name: Chris
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1960
rating: 5
read at: 1976/01/01
date added: 2007/06/14
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]]> 678040 In this fiercely funny, razor-sharp satire of our media-saturated culture, the sovereign nation of Las Vegas is host to Bear v. Shark II. After a disappointing loss in the first computer-generated match-up, the bear is out for blood. With an essay entitled "Bear v. A Reason to Live," young Curtis Norman wins a national contest and four tickets to the sold-out event. As the Normans head cross-country in their SUV, they encounter a dizzying barrage of voices weighing in on the upcoming spectacle -- everyone from the Freudians, theologians, pundits, and self-published authors on the radio to the bear and shark fanatics, cultists, and resisters at pit stops along the way. Overwhelmed by factoids and ten-second debates, Mr. Norman grows ambivalent about the impending event and the family with whom he can't seem to connect. Still, the Normans push on to Vegas, toward an apocalyptic, surprisingly emotional ending.]]> 256 Chris Bachelder 0743219473 Chris 4 Bizarre and hysterical. 3.48 2001
author: Chris Bachelder
name: Chris
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2002/01/01
date added: 2007/06/14
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Bizarre and hysterical.
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