Dave's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 21 Apr 2025 19:29:26 -0700 60 Dave's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Pi The Guerilla Diaries by Darren Aronofsky]]> 215579788 324 Darren Aronofsky 1960078070 Dave 0 to-read 4.62 Pi The Guerilla Diaries by Darren Aronofsky
author: Darren Aronofsky
name: Dave
average rating: 4.62
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]]> <![CDATA[Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV]]> 203020280 Cue The Sun! explores the morally charged, funny, and sometimes tragic consequences of the hunt for something real inside something fake.

Nussbaum traces four paths of reality innovation—game shows, prank shows, soap operas, and clip shows—that united in the Survivor format, sparking a tumultuous Hollywood gold-rush. Along the way, we meet tricksters and innovators—from the icy Allen Funt to the shambolic Chuck Barris; Cops auteur John Langley; Bachelor mastermind Mike Fleiss; and Jon Murray, the visionary behind The Real World—along with dozens of crew members and ordinary people whose lives became fodder for the reality revolution. We learn about the tools of the trade—like Candid Camera’s brilliant “reveal� and the notorious Frankenbite, a deceptive editor’s best friend—and the moral outrage that reality shows provoked. But Cue The Sun! also celebrates what made the genre so powerful: a jolt of authentic emotion.

Through broad-ranging reporting, Nussbaum examines seven tumultuous decades, exploring the celebreality boom, reality TV as a strike-breaker, the queer roots of Bravo, and the dark truth behind The Apprentice. A shrewd observer who cares about television, she is the ideal voice for the first substantive cultural history of the genre that has, for better or worse, made America what it is today.]]> 464 Emily Nussbaum 0525508996 Dave 0 to-read 3.94 2024 Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV
author: Emily Nussbaum
name: Dave
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Terrence Malick and the Examined Life]]> 197239520
Utilizing newly available archival sources to offer original interpretations of his canonical films, Martin Woessner illuminates Malick’s early education in philosophy at Harvard and Oxford as well as his cinematic apprenticeship at the American Film Institute to show how a young student searching for personal meaning became a famous director of Hollywood films. Woessner’s book presents a rich, interdisciplinary exploration of the many texts, thinkers, and traditions that made this transformation possible―from the novels of Hamlin Garland, James Jones, and Walker Percy to the philosophies of Stanley Cavell, Martin Heidegger, and Søren Kierkegaard to road movies, Hollywood Westerns, and the comedies of Jean Renoir. Situating Malick’s filmmaking within recent intellectual and cultural history, Woessner highlights its lasting contributions to both American cinema and the life of the mind.

Terrence Malick and the Examined Life suggests it is time for philosophy to be viewed not merely as an academic subject, overseen by experts, but also as a way of life, open to each and every moviegoer.]]> 416 Martin Woessner 1512825603 Dave 0 to-read 4.08 Terrence Malick and the Examined Life
author: Martin Woessner
name: Dave
average rating: 4.08
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]]> <![CDATA[Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema]]> 98651789
In 1971, two films grabbed the movie business, shook it up, and launched a genre that would help define the decade. Melvin Van Peebles’s Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song , an independently produced film about a male sex worker who beats up cops and gets away, and Gordon Parks’s Shaft , a studio-financed film with a killer soundtrack, were huge hits, making millions of dollars. Sweetback upended cultural expectations by having its Black rebel win in the end, and Shaft saved MGM from bankruptcy. Not for the last time did Hollywood discover that Black people went to movies too. The Blaxploitation era was born.

Written by film critic Odie Henderson, Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras is a spirited history of a genre and the movies that he grew up watching, which he loves without irony (but with plenty of self-awareness and humor). Blaxploitation was a major trend, but it was never simple. The films mixed self-empowerment with exploitation, base stereotypes with essential representation that spoke to the lives and fantasies of Black viewers. The time is right for a reappraisal, understanding these films in the context of the time, and exploring their lasting influence.]]> 304 Odie Henderson 1419758411 Dave 0 to-read 3.92 2024 Black Caesars and Foxy Cleopatras: A History of Blaxploitation Cinema
author: Odie Henderson
name: Dave
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic]]> 128713508 400 Daniel de Visé 0802160980 Dave 0 to-read 4.17 2024 The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic
author: Daniel de Visé
name: Dave
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?]]> 133938338
From its debut in 1962, Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was a wild success and a cultural lightning rod. The play transpires over one long, boozy night, laying bare the lies, compromises, and scalding love that have sustained a middle-aged couple through decades of marriage. It scandalized critics but magnetized audiences. Across 644 sold-out Broadway performances, the drama demolished the wall between what could and couldn’t be said on the American stage and marked a definitive end to the I Love Lucy 1950s.

Then, Hollywood took a colossal gamble on Albee’s sophisticated play―and won. Costarring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, the sensational 1966 film minted first-time director Mike Nichols as industry royalty and won five Oscars. How this scorching play became a movie classic―surviving censorship attempts, its creators� inexperience, and its stars� own tumultuous marriage―is one of the most riveting stories in all of cinema.

Now, acclaimed author Philip Gefter tells that story in full for the first time, tracing Woolf from its hushed origins in Greenwich Village’s bohemian enclave, through its tormented production process, to its explosion onto screens across America and a permanent place in the canon of cinematic marriages. This deliciously entertaining book explores how two couples―one fictional, one all too real―forced a nation to confront its most deeply held myths about relationships, sex, family, and, against all odds, love.]]> 368 Philip Gefter 1635579627 Dave 0 to-read 4.00 Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
author: Philip Gefter
name: Dave
average rating: 4.00
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]]> Kubrick: An Odyssey 179922986
The enigmatic and elusive filmmaker Stanley Kubrick has not been treated to a full-length biography in over twenty years.

Stanley An Odyssey fills that gap. This definitive book is based on access to the latest research, especially Kubrick's archive at the University of the Arts, London, as well as other private papers plus new interviews with family members and those who worked with him. It offers comprehensive and in-depth coverage of Kubrick’s personal, private, public, and working life. Stanley An Odyssey investigates not only the making of Kubrick's films, but also about those he wanted (but failed) to make like Burning Secret , Napoleon , Aryan Papers , and A.I.

Revealingly, this immersive biography will puncture the controversial myths about the reclusive filmmaker who created some of the most important works of art of the twentieth century]]> 656 Robert P. Kolker 1639366245 Dave 0 to-read 4.19 2023 Kubrick: An Odyssey
author: Robert P. Kolker
name: Dave
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Desperately Seeking Something: A Memoir About Movies, Mothers, and Material Girls]]> 195790532 The funny and insightful first-person story of the trailblazing movie director of the 80s and 90s whose fearless punk drama, “Smithereens� became the first American indie film to compete at Cannes, and smash hit "Desperately Seeking Susan" led to a four-decade career in film. Starting out in the mid-70s, a time when few women were directing movies, Susan was determined to become a filmmaker. She longed to tell stories about the unrepresented characters she wanted to see on unconventional women in unusual circumstances, needing to express themselves and maintain their autonomy. Her genre-blending films reflect a passion for classic Hollywood storytelling, mixed with a playful New Wave spirit, informed by her years living in downtown NYC. Seidelman continued to shape American pop culture well into the nineties, directing the pilot of the iconic TV series “Sex And The City,� focusing her sharp lens on the changing place of women in American society and helping to fundamentally reshape our self-image in ways that are still felt today.BOOK in the safe cocoon of 1960s suburbia, Susan Seidelman wasn’t a misfit, an oddball, or an outlier. She was a “good-girl� with a little bit of “bad� hidden inside. A restless teenager, she dreamed of escape and reinvention, a theme that would play out in her films as well as in her own life. Because she loved stories, a high school guidance counselor suggested she become a librarian, but she had her sights set further afield. In 1973, she left the Philly suburbs, enrolled at NYU’s burgeoning graduate film school and moved to NYC’s Lower East Side. There, she found herself in the right place at the right time. New York City was falling apart, but out of that chaos came a burst of creative energy whose effects are still felt in American pop culture today. Downtown became a vibrant playground where film, music, performance and graffiti art cross-pollinated and where Seidelman chronicled the lives of the colorful misfits, oddballs, dreamers and schemers she met there.It’s all in DESPERATELY SEEKING SOMETHING. Seidelman not only has a keen perspective on the times she’s lived through -- from her Twiggy-obsessed girlhood, through the Women’s Lib movement of the early 70s, the punk scene of the late 70s, Madonna-mania of the 80s, to the dot-com “greed is good� 90s, and beyond--she tells great stories.]]> 368 Susan Seidelman 1250328217 Dave 0 to-read 3.97 Desperately Seeking Something: A Memoir About Movies, Mothers, and Material Girls
author: Susan Seidelman
name: Dave
average rating: 3.97
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]]> <![CDATA[The World Is Yours: The Story of Scarface]]> 64073632 The behind-the-scenes story of the iconic filmĚýScarface, featuring new interviews with the cast and crew.

An unflinching confrontation of humanity’s dark side, Brian De Palma’s crime drama film Scarface gave rise to a cultural revolution upon its release in 1983. Its impact was unprecedented, making globe-spanning waves as a defining portrait of the gritty Miami street life. From Al Pacino’s masterful characterization of Tony Montana to the iconic “Say hello to my little friend,� Scarface maintains its reputation as an unwavering game changer in cult classic cinema.

With brand-new interviews and untold stories of the film’s production, longtime film critic Glenn KennyĚýtakes us on an unparalleled journey through the making of American depictions of crime.ĚýThe World Is YoursĚýhighlights the influential characters and themes within Scarface, reflecting on how its storied legacy played such a major role in American culture.]]> 320 Glenn Kenny 1335449620 Dave 4 film 3.39 2024 The World Is Yours: The Story of Scarface
author: Glenn Kenny
name: Dave
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2024
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/04/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Clown in a Cornfield (Clown in a Cornfield, #1)]]> 49046268
Quinn and her father moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs to find a fresh start. But ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half. On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can.

Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.]]> 346 Adam Cesare 0062854593 Dave 0 currently-reading 3.73 2020 Clown in a Cornfield (Clown in a Cornfield, #1)
author: Adam Cesare
name: Dave
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> On Becoming a Novelist 32532 On Becoming a Novelist contains the wisdom accumulated during John Gardner's distinguished twenty-year career as a fiction writer and creative writing teacher. With elegance, humor, and sophistication, Gardner describes the life of a working novelist; warns what needs to be guarded against, both from within the writer and from without; and predicts what the writer can reasonably expect and what, in general, he or she cannot. "For a certain kind of person," Gardner writes, "nothing is more joyful or satisfying than the life of a novelist." But no other vocation, he is quick to add, is so fraught with professional and spiritual difficulties. Whether discussing the supposed value of writer's workshops, explaining the role of the novelist's agent and editor, or railing against the seductive fruits of literary elitism, On Becoming a Novelist is an indispensable, life-affirming handbook for anyone authentically called to the profession. "A miraculously detailed account of the creative process."—Anne Tyler, Baltimore Sun]]> 150 John Gardner 0393320030 Dave 4 4.10 1983 On Becoming a Novelist
author: John Gardner
name: Dave
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1983
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Indigo Room (The Shivers Collection, #2)]]> 229214157 New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones.

When the lights go out and the slideshow begins, middle manager Jennifer has a disturbing a headless colleague right across the boardroom table. Is it a trick of the light, or a vision of the future? She tries to brush it off and salvage the afternoon—but when her ex unexpectedly drops off her son at the office after school, suddenly her whole world takes an alarming turn.

Stephen Graham Jones’s The Indigo Room is part of The Shivers, a collection of haunting stories that reveal the otherworldly terrors all around us. Once you know, there’s no going back. Read or listen to each story in one unsettling sitting.]]> 36 Stephen Graham Jones 1662532180 Dave 2 3.01 2025 The Indigo Room (The Shivers Collection, #2)
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Dave
average rating: 3.01
book published: 2025
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
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]]> Jackknife 229214151 New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill.

Dennis awakens something evil when he removes a decades-old jackknife from the trunk of a gnarled old sycamore. Once pinned in place—now thoughtlessly freed—the tree returns to its roots. An act of vigilante justice took place under its boughs long ago. But its taste for blood has only grown stronger�

Joe Hill’s Jackknife is part of The Shivers, a collection of haunting stories that reveal the otherworldly terrors all around us. Once you know, there’s no going back. Read or listen to each story in one unsettling sitting.]]> 46 Joe Hill 166253213X Dave 4 horror 3.67 2025 Jackknife
author: Joe Hill
name: Dave
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: horror
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]]> Middle of the Night 11080152 120 Paddy Chayevsky Dave 3 theater 3.67 1959 Middle of the Night
author: Paddy Chayevsky
name: Dave
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1959
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/08
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: theater
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]]> <![CDATA[Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need]]> 49464 195 Blake Snyder 1932907009 Dave 3 film 4.00 2005 Save the Cat: The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need
author: Blake Snyder
name: Dave
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/10
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: film
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]]> The Real Frank Zappa Book 39671 352 Frank Zappa 0330316257 Dave 4 biography 4.14 1989 The Real Frank Zappa Book
author: Frank Zappa
name: Dave
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/20
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: biography
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The De Palma Decade: Redefining Cinema with Doubles, Voyeurs, and Psychic Teens]]> 204593688 JourneyĚýwith award-winning documentarian and author Laurent Bouzereau through acclaimed director Brian De Palma’s renowned—and controversial—horror and thriller films that redefined cinema in the 1970s and early 80s with new interviews and fresh takes. Ěý Among a crop of fresh filmmakers including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola in the 70s, Brian De Palma—a director from Philadelphia with a few small comedies under his belt—charted a cinematic path unlike any of his peers. ĚýAt times he was unfairly dismissed as a Hitchcock copycat; other times he was misunderstood for his peculiar mix of sexuality, humor, music, and violence. But, over the course of ten years, he created a new cinematic language, melding his signature themes with specific filmmaking techniques that are now synonymous with his name. Ěý Drawing from his lifelong love of De Palma, years of research, and new interviews, acclaimed documentarian Laurent Bouzereau explores the seven films that came to define The De Palma Decade—Sisters, Phantom of the Paradise, Obsession, Carrie, The Fury, Dressed to Kill, and Blow Out. He combines film analysis, detailed history of the filmsâ€� productions, and interviews with De Palma himself, his casts, and collaborators to present the definitive record on this unrivaled period of cinematic creativity and the emergence of an auteur who would continue to influence filmmaking in the decades that followed. Ěý]]> 320 Laurent Bouzereau 0762485574 Dave 4 film 3.60 The De Palma Decade: Redefining Cinema with Doubles, Voyeurs, and Psychic Teens
author: Laurent Bouzereau
name: Dave
average rating: 3.60
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rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: film
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]]> <![CDATA[The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story]]> 62047954 400 Sam Wasson 006303784X Dave 5 film, biography 3.74 2023 The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story
author: Sam Wasson
name: Dave
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: film, biography
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]]> The Directors: Take One 4455669 384 Robert J. Emery 1581152183 Dave 3 film 3.74 2000 The Directors: Take One
author: Robert J. Emery
name: Dave
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: film
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]]> <![CDATA[The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage]]> 62192505
“This book takes you so close to the action that you can smell the sweat, cigar smoke, and bad cologne that brought these movies to life.”—Paul Scheer

The Last Action Heroes opens in May 1990 in Cannes, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone waltzing together, cheered on by a crowd of famous faces. After years of bitter combat—Stallone once threw a bowl of flowers at Schwarzenegger’s head, and the body count in Schwarzenegger’s Commando was increased so the film would “have a bigger dick than Rambo ”—the world’s biggest action stars have at last made peace.

In this wildly entertaining account of the golden age of the action movie, Nick de Semlyen charts Stallone and Schwarzenegger’s carnage-packed journey from enmity to friendship against the backdrop of Reagan’s America and the Cold War. He also reveals fascinating untold stories of the colorful characters who ascended in their high-kickers Chuck Norris and Jackie Chan, glowering tough guys Dolph Lundgren and Steven Seagal, and quipping troublemakers Jean-Claude Van Damme and Bruce Willis. But as time rolled on, the era of the invincible action hero who used muscle, martial arts, or the perfect weapon to save the day began to fade. When Jurassic Park trounced Schwarzenegger’s Last Action Hero in 1993, the glory days of these macho men—and the vision of masculinity they celebrated—were officially over.

Drawing on candid interviews with the action stars themselves, plus their collaborators, friends, and foes, The Last Action Heroes is a no-holds-barred account of a period in Hollywood history when there were no limits to the heights of fame these men achieved, or to the mayhem they wrought, on-screen and off.]]> 352 Nick de Semlyen 059323880X Dave 4 film 4.10 2023 The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage
author: Nick de Semlyen
name: Dave
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: film
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]]> <![CDATA[Bad Day for the Leopard Man (Sailor & Lula, #6)]]> 36259997 Barry Gifford Dave 3 barry-gifford 3.65 Bad Day for the Leopard Man (Sailor & Lula, #6)
author: Barry Gifford
name: Dave
average rating: 3.65
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/04/15
shelves: barry-gifford
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]]> <![CDATA[The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock]]> 849896
Now Alfred Hitchcock, the intensely private and often bizarre creator of these masterpieces, is fully revealed. Donald Spoto traces the roots of Hitchcock's obsessions - with murder, food, and idealized love - to the childhood that made them all but inevitable. He explores Hitchcock's marriage to a gifted co-worker, his crude and often practical jokes, and his many fantasy romances, culminating in a dangerous obsession with a beautiful young blond actress.

Most of all, Spoto recreates with compelling immediacy the amazing technical expertise and awesome perfectionism that made Hitchcock one of the world's most famous and revered filmmakers.

Based on impeccable research, on interviews with Hitchcock's writers, actors and longtime associates, and on recently discovered information from studio archives, "The Dark Side of Genius" is truly the definitive biography of Alfred Hitchcock.]]> 667 Donald Spoto 034531462X Dave 5 biography, film 3.66 1983 The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock
author: Donald Spoto
name: Dave
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1983
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
shelves: biography, film
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Imagination of the Heart: Book Seven of the Story of Sailor and Lula (The Story of Sailor and Lula, 7)]]> 5667718 Like a contemporary book of Revelations, dutifully recorded by Lula as a dialogue between self and soul, it becomes a bittersweet, often dangerous journey into the imagination of the heart, and what may lie beyond.
Also included in this edition is "The Truth is in the Work," a conversation between Barry Gifford and Noel King which delves into a range of topics, from Gifford’s early publishing experiences to his film projects and to professional sports.]]> 176 Barry Gifford 158322873X Dave 3 barry-gifford 3.80 2009 The Imagination of the Heart: Book Seven of the Story of Sailor and Lula (The Story of Sailor and Lula, 7)
author: Barry Gifford
name: Dave
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: barry-gifford
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]]> <![CDATA[The Creative Act: A Way of Being]]> 60965426 From the legendary music producer, a master at helping people connect with the wellsprings of their creativity, comes a beautifully crafted book many years in the making that offers that same deep wisdom to all of us.

"A gorgeous and inspiring work of art on creation, creativity, the work of the artist. It will gladden the hearts of writers and artists everywhere, and get them working again with a new sense of meaning and direction. A stunning accomplishment." --Anne Lamott

"I set out to write a book about what to do to make a great work of art. Instead, it revealed itself to be a book on how to be." --Rick Rubin

Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn't, he has learned that being an artist isn't about your specific output, it's about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone's life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.

The Creative Act is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime's work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments--and lifetimes--of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.]]> 406 Rick Rubin 0593652886 Dave 4 4.00 2023 The Creative Act: A Way of Being
author: Rick Rubin
name: Dave
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
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]]> The Slob 55989293
All is going well until she arrives at the steps of a house she wished she never had. The steps of an evil that brings back the ghastly memories she so desperately tried to wash away.

Nothing will prepare you for the nastiness, disorder and uncleansable horror brought forth by... The Slob.]]> 146 Aron Beauregard Dave 0 to-read 3.31 2019 The Slob
author: Aron Beauregard
name: Dave
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> Committed Writings 50165173
Albert Camus (1913-1960) is unsurpassed among writers for a body of work that animates the wonder and absurdity of existence. Committed Writings brings together, for the first time, thematically-linked essays from across Camus's writing career that reflect the scope of his political thought. This pivotal collection embodies Camus's radical and unwavering commitment to upholding human rights, resisting fascism, and creating art in the service of justice.]]> 160 Albert Camus 0525567194 Dave 5 4.17 Committed Writings
author: Albert Camus
name: Dave
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder]]> 199344846
On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black—black clothes, black mask—rushed down the aisle toward him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it’s you. Here you are.

What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond. Now, for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, Rushdie relives the traumatic events of that day and its aftermath, as well as his journey toward physical recovery and the healing that was made possible by the love and support of his wife, Eliza, his family, his army of doctors and physical therapists, and his community of readers worldwide.

Knife is Rushdie at the peak of his powers, writing with urgency, with gravity, with unflinching honesty. It is also a deeply moving reminder of literature’s capacity to make sense of the unthinkable, an intimate and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art—and finding the strength to stand up again.]]> 209 Salman Rushdie 0593730240 Dave 4 3.99 2024 Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder
author: Salman Rushdie
name: Dave
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
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]]> Personal Writings 50165174
Albert Camus (1913-1960) is unsurpassed among writers for a body of work that animates the wonder and absurdity of existence. Personal Writings brings together, for the first time, thematically-linked essays from across Camus's writing career that reflect the scope and depth of his interior life. Grappling with an indifferent mother and an impoverished childhood in Algeria, an ever-present sense of exile, and an ongoing search for equilibrium, Camus's personal essays shed new light on the emotional and experiential foundations of his philosophical thought and humanize his most celebrated works.]]> 224 Albert Camus 0525567216 Dave 0 to-read 4.18 Personal Writings
author: Albert Camus
name: Dave
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Jersey Devil 6423940 121 James F. McCloy Dave 0 3.52 1976 The Jersey Devil
author: James F. McCloy
name: Dave
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1976
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
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]]> Stern 272311 192 Bruce Jay Friedman 0802137504 Dave 0 to-read 3.71 1962 Stern
author: Bruce Jay Friedman
name: Dave
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pandemic! COVID-19 Shakes the World]]> 52667524
We live in a moment when the greatest act of love is to stay distant from the object of your affection. When governments renowned for ruthless cuts in public spending can suddenly conjure up trillions. When toilet paper becomes a commodity as precious as diamonds. And when, according to Žižek, a new form of communism may be the only way of averting a descent into global barbarism.

Written with his customary brio and love of analogies in popular culture (Quentin Tarantino and H.G. Wells sit next to Hegel and Marx in these pages), Žižek provides a concise and provocative snapshot of the crisis as it widens, engulfing us all.


“Žižek leaves no social or cultural phenomenon untheorized, and is master of the counterintuitive observation.� �The New Yorker

“The most dangerous philosopher in the West.� —Adam Kirsch, The New Republic]]> 120 Slavoj Žižek 1682193012 Dave 0 3.46 2020 Pandemic! COVID-19 Shakes the World
author: Slavoj Žižek
name: Dave
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Pandemic! 2: Chronicles of a Time Lost]]> 55846148
In this exhilarating sequel to his acclaimed Pandemic!: COVID-19 Shakes the World, Žižek delves into some of the more surprising dimensions of lockdowns, quarantines, and social distancing—and the increasingly unruly opposition to them by “response fatigued� publics around the planet.

Here, Žižek examines the ripple effects on the food supply of harvest failures caused by labor shortages and the hyper-exploitation of the global class of care workers, without whose labor daily life would be impossible. Through such examples he pinpoints the inability of contemporary capitalism to effectively safeguard the public in times of crisis.

Writing with characteristic daring and zeal, Žižek ranges across critical theory, pop-culture, and psychoanalysis to reveal the troubling dynamics of knowledge and power emerging in these viral times.]]> 202 Slavoj Žižek 1682194094 Dave 0 3.60 2020 Pandemic! 2: Chronicles of a Time Lost
author: Slavoj Žižek
name: Dave
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/17
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]]> Survivor 36236123 Fight Club comes this wickedly incisive second novel, a mesmerizing, unnerving, and hilarious vision of cult and post-cult life.

Tender Branson—last surviving member of the so-called Creedish Death Cult—is dictating his life story into the flight recorder of Flight 2039, cruising on autopilot at 39,000 feet somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. He is all alone in the airplane, which will crash shortly into the vast Australian outback. Before it does, he will unfold the tale of his journey from an obedient Creedish child and humble domestic servant to an ultra-buffed, steroid- and collagen-packed media messiah, author of a best-selling autobiography, Saved from Salvation, and the even better selling Book of Very Common Prayer (The Prayer to Delay Orgasm, The Prayer to Prevent Hair Loss, The Prayer to Silence Car Alarms). He'll reveal the truth of his tortured romance with the elusive and prescient Fertility Hollis, share his insight that "the only difference between suicide and martyrdom is press coverage," and deny responsibility for the Tender Branson Sensitive Materials Sanitary Landfill, a 20,000-acre repository for the nation's outdated pornography. Among other matters both bizarre and trenchant.

Not since Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night and Jerzy Kosinski's Being There has there been as dark and telling a satire on the wages of fame and the bedrock lunacy of the modern world. Unpredictable, compelling, and unforgettable, Survivor is Chuck Palahniuk at his deadpan peak; and it cements his place as one of the most original writers in fiction today.]]> 304 Chuck Palahniuk 0393355934 Dave 4 3.93 1999 Survivor
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Dave
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius]]> 195790922
"A deeply researched, psychologically astute new biography of May by Carrie Courogen...The book is written with a brash literary verve that feels authentic to its subject, and it does justice both to May’s mighty artistry and to the complex fabric of her life, linking them persuasively while resisting facile correlations between her personal concerns and her blazing inspirations." � Richard Brody, The New Yorker

"Casual, sympathetic and compulsively readable." � The New York Times Book Review

"A minor miracle...a fascinating, three-dimensional portrait of a brilliant, complicated artist" � The Los Angeles Times

Miss May Does Not Exist , by Carrie Courogen is the riveting biography of comedian, director, actor and writer Elaine May, one of America’s greatest comic geniuses. May began her career as one-half of the legendary comedy team known as Nichols and May, the duo that revolutionized the comedy sketch.

After performing their Broadway smash An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Elaine set out on her own. She toiled unsuccessfully on Broadway for a while, but then headed to Hollywood where she became the director of A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, Mikey and Nicky, and the legendary Ishtar. She was hired as a script doctor on countless films like Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Tootsie, and The Birdcage. In 2019, she returned to Broadway where she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in The Waverly Gallery. Besides her considerable talent, May is well known for her reclusiveness. On one of the albums she made with Mike Nichols, her bio is “Miss May does not exist.� Until now.

Carrie Courogen has uncovered the Elaine May who does exist. Conducting countless interviews, she has filled in the blanks May has forcibly kept blank for years, creating a fascinating portrait of the way women were mistreated and held back in Hollywood. Miss May Does Not Exist is a remarkable love story about a prickly genius who was never easy to work with, not always easy to love and frequently often punished for those things, despite revolutionizing the way we think about comedy, acting, and what a film or play can be.]]> 400 Carrie Courogen 1250279224 Dave 0 to-read 3.81 2024 Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius
author: Carrie Courogen
name: Dave
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[When the Women Come Out to Dance]]> 531818
In this first collection of short pieces, including two novella-length works, since his western anthology Tonto Woman, Leonard demonstrates the superb characterization, dead-on dialogue, vivid atmosphere, and driving plotting that have made him a household name.

Sparks
Hanging out at the Buena Vista
Chickasaw Charlie Hoke
When the women come out to dance
Fire in the hole
Karen makes out
Hurrah to Capt. Early
The Tonto woman
Tenkiller]]> 228 Elmore Leonard 0060083972 Dave 4 short-stories, elmore-leonard 3.77 2001 When the Women Come Out to Dance
author: Elmore Leonard
name: Dave
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2013/01/30
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves: short-stories, elmore-leonard
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe]]> 24611567 Two terrifying classics by “the best kept secret in contemporary horror fiction� (The Washington Post)
Ěý
Thomas Ligotti’s debut collection, Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and his second,ĚýGrimscribe, permanently inscribed a new name in the pantheon of horror fiction.ĚýInfluenced by the strange terrors of Lovecraft and Poe and by the brutal absurdity of Kafka, Ligotti eschews cheap, gory thrills for his own brand of horror, which shocks at the deepest, existential, levels.

Ligotti’s stories take on decaying cities and lurid dreamscapes in a style ranging from rich, ornamental prose to cold, clinical detachment. His raw and experimental work lays bare the unimportance of our world and the sickening madness of the human condition. Like the greatest writers of cosmic horror, Ligotti bends reality until it cracks, opening fissures through which he invites us to gaze on the unsettling darkness of the abyss below.

For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500Ěýtitles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theĚýseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-dateĚýtranslations by award-winning translators.]]> 448 Thomas Ligotti 0143107763 Dave 0 currently-reading, horror 3.98 2015 Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe
author: Thomas Ligotti
name: Dave
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves: currently-reading, horror
review:

]]> Demon Copperhead 60194162 "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]> 560 Barbara Kingsolver 0063251922 Dave 5 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Dave
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
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]]> The Running Man 11607
Ben Richards is out of work and out of luck. His eighteen-month-old daughter is sick, and neither Ben nor his wife can afford to take her to a doctor. For a man from the poor side of town with no cash and no hope, there's only one thing to do: become a contestant on one of the Network's Games, shows where you can win more money than you've ever dreamed of—or die trying. Now Ben's going prime-time on the Network's highest-rated viewer participation show. And he's about to become a prey for the masses...]]> 317 Richard Bachman 0451197968 Dave 4 3.90 1982 The Running Man
author: Richard Bachman
name: Dave
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/27
date added: 2025/01/27
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]]> Queer 23942 160 William S. Burroughs 0330300164 Dave 3 3.56 1985 Queer
author: William S. Burroughs
name: Dave
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves:
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]]> Elektra Lives Again 59971 80 Frank Miller 0785108904 Dave 3 comics 3.76 Elektra Lives Again
author: Frank Miller
name: Dave
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves: comics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Earthbound (Richard Matheson Series Book 5)]]> 12973962 224 Richard Matheson 079531566X Dave 2 3.33 1982 Earthbound (Richard Matheson Series Book 5)
author: Richard Matheson
name: Dave
average rating: 3.33
book published: 1982
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves:
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]]> Mosquitoes 417783 304 William Faulkner 0871401673 Dave 3 3.13 1927 Mosquitoes
author: William Faulkner
name: Dave
average rating: 3.13
book published: 1927
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Joke's Over: Ralph Steadman on Hunter S. Thompson]]> 26109 associate of the Hell's Angels, one Hunter S. Thompson. Their working relationship resulted in the now-legendary Gonzo Journalism. The Joke's Over tells of a remarkable collaboration that documented the turbulent years of the civil rights movement, the Nixon years, Watergate, and the many bizarre and great events that shaped the second half of the twentieth century. When Thompson committed suicide in 2005, it was the end of a unique friendship filled with both betrayal and under­standing.

A rollicking, no-holds-barred memoir, The Joke's Over is the definitive inside story of the Gonzo years.]]> 396 Ralph Steadman 0151012822 Dave 4 3.90 2006 The Joke's Over: Ralph Steadman on Hunter S. Thompson
author: Ralph Steadman
name: Dave
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/05
date added: 2025/01/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies]]> 681868
bell hooks comes to film as a cultural critic, fascinated by the issues movies raise--the ways cinema depicts race, sex, and class. Reel To Real collects hooks' classic essays on films such as Paris Is Burning or the infamous "Whose Pussy Is It" essay about Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It , as well as newer work on Pulp Fiction, Crooklyn and Waiting To Exhale . hooks also examines the world of independent cinema. Conversations with filmmakers Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, and Arthur Jaffa are linked with critical essays, including a piece on Larry Clark's Kids , to show that cinema can function subversively as well as maintain the status quo.]]> 256 bell hooks 0415918243 Dave 4 4.14 1996 Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies
author: bell hooks
name: Dave
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
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]]> A Walk on the Wild Side 350870 A Walk on the Wild Side found a place in the imagination of all the generations that have followed since. As Algren admitted, it wasn't written until long after it had been walked... I found my way to the streets on the other side of the Southern Pacific station, where the big jukes were singing something called "Walking the Wild Side of Life." I've stayed pretty much on that side of the curb ever since".

Perhaps his own words describe the book best: The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives. Why men who have suffered at the hands of other men are the natural believers in humanity, while those whose part has been simply to acquire, to take all and give nothing, are the most contemptuous of mankind.

Cover Photograph: Jason Fulford]]> 346 Nelson Algren 0374525323 Dave 3 3.95 1956 A Walk on the Wild Side
author: Nelson Algren
name: Dave
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1956
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
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]]> The Soul of the Indian 231900 The Soul of the Indian, Eastman brings to life the rich spirituality and morality of the Native Americans as they existed before contact with missionaries and other whites. This is a rare firsthand expression of native religion, without the filters imposed by translators or anthropologists. Rather than a scientific treatise, Eastman has written a book, "as true as I can make it to my childhood teaching and ancestral ideals, but from the human, not the ethnological standpoint." His discussions of the forms of ceremonial and symbolic worship, the unwritten scriptures, and the spirit world emphasize the universal quality and personal appeal of Native American religion.

Excerpt:
Thus spoke the great Seneca ora tor, Red Jacket, in his superb reply to Missionary Cram more than a century ago, and I have often heard the same thought expressed by my countrymen.]]> 64 Charles Alexander Eastman 0486430898 Dave 4 4.11 1911 The Soul of the Indian
author: Charles Alexander Eastman
name: Dave
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1911
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
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]]> <![CDATA[It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the Politics of Extremism]]> 13622997 225 Thomas E. Mann 0465031331 Dave 4 3.87 2012 It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the Politics of Extremism
author: Thomas E. Mann
name: Dave
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
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]]> Gun, With Occasional Music 16718
Metcalf has been shadowing Celeste, the wife of an affluent doctor. Perhaps he's falling a little in love with her at the same time. When the doctor turns up dead, our amiable investigator finds himself caught in a crossfire between the boys from the Inquisitor's Office and gangsters who operate out of the back room of a bar called the Fickle Muse.

Mixing elements of sci-fi, noir, and mystery, this clever first novel from the author of Motherless Brooklyn is a wry, funny, and satiric look at all that the future may hold.]]> 271 Jonathan Lethem 0156028972 Dave 2 3.77 1994 Gun, With Occasional Music
author: Jonathan Lethem
name: Dave
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1994
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
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]]> Secret Santa 53869658
Out of work for months, Lussi Meyer is desperate to work anywhere in publishing. Prestigious Blackwood-Patterson isn’t the perfect fit, but a bizarre set of circumstances leads to her hire and a firm mandate: Lussi must find the next horror superstar to compete with Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Peter Straub. It’s the �80s, after all, and horror is the hottest genre.

But as soon as she arrives, Lussi finds herself the target of her co-workers' mean-spirited pranks. The hazing reaches its peak during the company’s annual Secret Santa gift exchange, when Lussi receives a demonic-looking object that she recognizes but doesn't understand. Suddenly, her coworkers begin falling victim to a series of horrific accidents akin to a George Romero movie, and Lussi suspects that her gift is involved. With the help of her former author, the flamboyant Fabien Nightingale, Lussi must track down her anonymous Secret Santa and figure out the true meaning of the cursed object in her possession before it destroys the company—and her soul.]]> 220 Andrew Shaffer 1683692055 Dave 3 horror, humor 3.43 2020 Secret Santa
author: Andrew Shaffer
name: Dave
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves: horror, humor
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and the Gospel of Wealth (Signet Classics)]]> 41506
His good friend Mark Twain dubbed him “St. Andrew.� British Prime Minister William Gladstone called him an “example� for the wealthy. Such terms seldom apply to multimillionaires. But Andrew Carnegie was no run-of-the-mill steel magnate. At age 13 and full of dreams, he sailed from his native Dunfermline, Scotland, to America. The story of his success begins with a $1.20-a-week job at a bobbin factory. By the end of his life, he had amassed an unprecedented fortune—and given away more than 90 percent of it for the good of mankind.
Ěý
Here, for the first time in one volume, are two impressive works by Andrew Carnegie his autobiography and “The Gospel of Wealth,� a groundbreaking manifesto on the duty of the wealthy to give back to society all of their fortunes. And he practiced what he preached, erecting 1,600 libraries across the country, founding Carnegie Mellon University, building Carnegie Hall, and performing countless other acts of philanthropy because, as Carnegie wrote, “The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.�
Ěý
With an Introduction by Gordon Hutner]]> 336 Andrew Carnegie 0451530381 Dave 3 3.88 2006 The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and the Gospel of Wealth (Signet Classics)
author: Andrew Carnegie
name: Dave
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
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]]> The Last Dream 203384642 A wildly inventive story collection from legendary film director Pedro AlmodĂłvar

The Last Dream brings together for the first time twelve unpublished stories from AlmodĂłvar’s personal archive, written between the late sixties and the present day. Both a tantalising glimpse into AlmodĂłvar’s creative mind and a masterclass in how to tell a story, this intimate and mischievous collection reflects AlmodĂłvar’s obsessions and many of the themes of his cinematic work, spanning genres from autofiction to comedy, parody, pastiche and gothic. The title story, â€The Last Dreamâ€�, is a beautiful chronicle of the death of AlmodĂłvar’s mother, and other stories a love story between Jesus and Barabbas; a cult film director out in search of painkillers on a bank holiday weekend; the primary version of the film Bad Education; and a gothic tale of a repentant vampire among monks.

In his introduction, AlmodĂłvar â€I’ve been asked to write my autobiography more than once, and I’ve always refused; it’s also been suggested that I let someone else write my biography, but I have always felt somewhat resistant to the idea of a book entirely about me as an individual. I’ve never kept a diary, and whenever I’ve tried, I’ve never made it to page two; in a sense, then, this book represents something of a paradox. It might be best described as a fragmentary autobiography, incomplete and a little cryptic.â€�

A celebration of the relationship between life and art, fiction and reality from an artist unafraid to write about our most intimate moments, these stories explore desire, mortality, loneliness and the pain and glory of artistic creation, laced with playful humour and a deep love of literature and culture.

Translated by Frank Wynne]]> 221 Pedro AlmodĂłvar 1529918642 Dave 0 to-read 3.56 2023 The Last Dream
author: Pedro AlmodĂłvar
name: Dave
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> I Was a Teenage Slasher 199798522
It’s the summer before senior year for best friends Tolly Driver and Amber Dennison. They’re not in the marching band, they’re not in the FFA � they don’t really count. Amber’s the only Native student in town, and Tolly’s only on the radar due to his father’s recent death.

This is all about to change.

Bodies are going to be dropping fast in this small West Texas town. For a few unbearably hot days that will resonate through the decades and even get made into a TV movie, Tolly and Amber will be famous. Notorious even. Finally, everyone will know their names.

This is Stephen Graham Jones x-raying the slasher genre, interrogating its motivations over the shoulder and in the voice of the killer itself � from a town he did some growing up in, in a year he was also seventeen.

The kills will be poignant, the jokes will hurt, and the violence will be endearing. Everything’s turned around for Tolly, for Amber � for all of Lamesa, Texas.

Be happy you weren’t there.

Be happy you’re only reading about it.]]> 373 Stephen Graham Jones 1668022249 Dave 0 to-read 3.54 2024 I Was a Teenage Slasher
author: Stephen Graham Jones
name: Dave
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering]]> 216857785
Why is Miami…Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena.

Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world’s most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell’s most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It’s time we took tipping points seriously.]]> 352 Malcolm Gladwell 0316575801 Dave 0 to-read 4.03 2024 Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: Dave
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> You Like It Darker 201242757 From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary new collection of twelve short stories, many never-before-published, and some of his best EVER.

“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,� writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel “the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,� and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.

“Two Talented Bastids� explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,� a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny’s most catastrophically. In “Rattlesnakes,� a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance—with major strings attached. In “The Dreamers,� a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. “The Answer Man� asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.

King’s ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace remains unsurpassed. Each of these stories holds its own thrills, joys, and mysteries; each feels iconic. You like it darker? You got it.]]> 512 Stephen King 1668037718 Dave 0 to-read 4.16 2024 You Like It Darker
author: Stephen King
name: Dave
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness]]> 171681821
A must-read for all parents: the generation-defining investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media, and big tech—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

“With tenacity and candor, Haidt lays out the consequences that have come with allowing kids to drift further into the virtual world . . . While also offering suggestions and solutions that could help protect a new generation of kids.� —Shannon Carlin, ,i>TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood� began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood� in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood� has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems� that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.

Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.]]> 400 Jonathan Haidt 0593655036 Dave 0 to-read 4.36 2024 The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness
author: Jonathan Haidt
name: Dave
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore]]> 201751300 An affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life, from department stores to indies, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest community destinations

Bookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store, shaping readers and writers, and influencing our tastes, thoughts, and politics. They nurture local communities while creating new ones of their own. Bookshops are powerful spaces, but they are also endangered ones. In The Bookshop, we see those stakes: what has been, and what might be lost.

Evan Friss’s history of the bookshop draws on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters, and interviews with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many. The story begins with Benjamin Franklin’s first bookstore in Philadelphia and takes us to a range of booksellers including The Strand, Chicago’s Marshall Field & Company, Gotham Book Mart, specialty stores like Oscar Wilde and Drum and Spear, sidewalk sellers of used books, Barnes & Noble, Amazon Books, and Parnassus. The Bookshop is also a history of the leading figures in American bookselling, often impassioned eccentrics, and a history of how books have been marketed and sold over more than two centuries—including, for example, a 3,000-pound elephant who appeared to sign books at Marshall Field’s in 1944.

The Bookshop is a love letter to bookstores, a charming chronicle for anyone who cherishes these sanctuaries of literature, and essential reading to understand how these vital institutions have shaped American life—and why we still need them.]]> 416 Evan Friss 0593299922 Dave 0 to-read 3.92 2024 The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore
author: Evan Friss
name: Dave
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/29
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]]> Summer on Wheels 433631 163 Gary Soto 0590483366 Dave 0 to-read 3.81 1995 Summer on Wheels
author: Gary Soto
name: Dave
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Theory of the Leisure Class]]> 164019 The Theory of the Leisure Class is in the tradition of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan, yet it provides a surprisingly contemporary look at American economics and society.

Establishing such terms as "conspicuous consumption" and "pecuniary emulation," Veblen's most famous work has become an archetype not only of economic theory, but of historical and sociological thought as well. As sociologist Alan Wolfe writes in his Introduction, Veblen "skillfully . . . wrote a book that will be read so long as the rich are different from the rest of us; which, if the future is anything like the past, they always will be."]]> 320 Thorstein Veblen 0375757872 Dave 0 to-read 3.90 1899 The Theory of the Leisure Class
author: Thorstein Veblen
name: Dave
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1899
rating: 0
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]]> Voodoo Heart: Stories 422448
Dark, funny, powerful, this debut collection underscores the remarkable gifts of a fiercely original young writer.]]> 288 Scott Snyder 0385338422 Dave 0 to-read 4.07 2006 Voodoo Heart: Stories
author: Scott Snyder
name: Dave
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/18
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]]> Mexican Gothic 48717236
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.

And NoemĂ­, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.]]> 302 Silvia Moreno-Garcia 1529402662 Dave 3 3.72 2020 Mexican Gothic
author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
name: Dave
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2021/01/16
date added: 2024/12/18
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]]> The Puppet Masters 7171856
Except that two agents of the most secret intelligence agency in the U.S. government were on the scene and disappeared without reporting back. Then four more follow up agents also disappeared. So the head of the agency and his two top agents went in and managed to get out with their discovery: an invasion is underway by slug-like aliens who can touch a human and completely control his or her mind. What the humans know, they know. What the slugs want, no matter what, the human will do. And most of Iowa is already under their control.

Sam Cavanaugh was one of the agents who discovered the truth. Unfortunately, that was just before he was taken over by one of the aliens and began working for the invaders, with no will of his own. And he has just learned that a high official in the Treasury Department is now under control of the aliens. Since the Treasury Department includes the Secret Service, which safeguards the President of the United States, control of the entire nation is near at hand.]]> 416 Robert A. Heinlein 143913376X Dave 2 3.89 1951 The Puppet Masters
author: Robert A. Heinlein
name: Dave
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1951
rating: 2
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date added: 2024/12/14
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]]> Miami Blues (Hoke Moseley #1) 216
Chronically depressed, constantly strapped for money, always willing to bend the rules a bit, Hoke Moseley is hardly what you think of as the perfect cop, but he is one of the the greatest detective creations of all time.]]> 191 Charles Willeford 1400032466 Dave 4 hardboiled, crime 3.92 1984 Miami Blues (Hoke Moseley #1)
author: Charles Willeford
name: Dave
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1984
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves: hardboiled, crime
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]]> The Plot Against Hip Hop 12348032 -- Kirkus Reviews "This hard-boiled tale is jazzed up with authentic street slang and name-dropping (Biggie, Mary J. Blige, Lil Wayne, and Chuck D)...George's tightly packaged mystery pivots on a believable conspiracy...and his street cred shines in his descriptions of Harlem and Brownsville's mean streets."
-- Library Journal "George is a well-known, respected hip-hop chronicler...Now he adds crime fiction to his resume with a carefully plotted crime novel peopled by believable characters and real-life hip-hop personalities."
-- Booklist "George's prose sparkles with an effortless humanity, bringing his characters to life in a way that seems true and beautiful. The story--and the conspiracy behind it--is one we all need to hear as consumers and creators in the post-hardcore hip-hop world."
-- Shelf Awareness "Part procedural murder mystery, part conspiracy-theory manifesto, Nelson George's The Plot Against Hip Hop reads like the PTSD fever dream of a renegade who's done several tours of duty in the trenches...Plot's combination of record-biz knowledge and ghetto fabulosity could have been written only by venerable music journalist Nelson George, who knows his hip-hop history...The writing is as New York as 'Empire State of Mind,' and D is a detective compelling enough to anchor a series."
-- Time Out New York "A breakbeat detective story...George invents as much as he curates, as outlandish conspiracy theories clash with real-life figures. But what makes the book such a fascinating read is its simultaneous strict adherence to hip-hop's archetypes and tropes while candidly acknowledging the absurdity of the music's current big-business era. There's a late-capitalism logic at work here. If this book had been written in the early '90s, it would have been about the insurgent artistry of hip-hop musicians and the social-justice strides the genre was effecting. Today, it's a procedural about the death of principles."
-- Time Out Chicago "Like good hip hop, there is social commentary and a blurring of the lines between great storytelling and all-to-real happenings. The Plot Against Hip Hop reads almost like Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice , but in the world of rap music. Brilliant prose, vast conspiracy, (at times) borderline trippy narrative. If you love crime fiction and you love hip hop, this book is a must read."
-- BookRiot " The Plot Against Hip Hop is a quick-moving murder mystery that educates its audience on Hip Hop's pioneer generation along the way...it is a nostalgic look at a magical and manic moment in time."
-- New York Journal of Books "George very masterfully has created a novel that informs as well as entertains."
-- Huffington Post The Plot Against Hip Hop is a noir novel set in the world of hip hop culture. The stabbing murder of esteemed music critic Dwayne Robinson in a Soho office building is dismissed by the NYPD as a gang initiation. But his old friend, bodyguard and security expert D Hunter, suspects there are larger forces at work. D Hunter's investigation into his mentor's murder leads into a parallel history of hip hop, a place where renegade government agents, behind-the-scenes power brokers, and paranoid journalists know a truth that only a few hardcore fans suspect. This rewrite of hip hop history mixes real-life figures with characters pulled from the culture's hidden world, including Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Russell Simmons.]]> 220 Nelson George 1617750247 Dave 3 3.26 2011 The Plot Against Hip Hop
author: Nelson George
name: Dave
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2011
rating: 3
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]]> The Painted Word 2671 112 Tom Wolfe 0553380656 Dave 3 3.83 1975 The Painted Word
author: Tom Wolfe
name: Dave
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1975
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/11/30
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]]> Here Is New York 10814 56 E.B. White 1892145022 Dave 3 4.29 1948 Here Is New York
author: E.B. White
name: Dave
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1948
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/11/30
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]]> Thus Spoke Zarathustra 51893 Thus Spoke Zarathustra is translated from the German by R.J. Hollingdale in Penguin Classics.

Nietzsche was one of the most revolutionary and subversive thinkers in Western philosophy, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra remains his most famous and influential work. It describes how the ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra descends from his solitude in the mountains to tell the world that God is dead and that the Superman, the human embodiment of divinity, is his successor. Nietzsche's utterance 'God is dead', his insistence that the meaning of life is to be found in purely human terms, and his doctrine of the Superman and the will to power were all later seized upon and unrecognisably twisted by, among others, Nazi intellectuals. With blazing intensity and poetic brilliance, Nietzsche argues that the meaning of existence is not to be found in religious pieties or meek submission to authority, but in an all-powerful life passionate, chaotic and free.]]> 327 Friedrich Nietzsche Dave 0 4.10 1883 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
author: Friedrich Nietzsche
name: Dave
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1883
rating: 0
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]]> Malcolm and Me 52485069
Malcolm X was one of the most influential human rights activists in history and his views on race, religion, and fighting back changed America and the world. Reed gives us a clear-eyed view of what the man was really like—beyond the headlines and the myth-making. Malcolm and Me is a personal look at the development of an artist and a testament to how chance encounters we have in our youth can transform who we are and the world we live in.]]> 2 Ishmael Reed Dave 3 3.13 2020 Malcolm and Me
author: Ishmael Reed
name: Dave
average rating: 3.13
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
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]]> <![CDATA[More Notes of a Dirty Old Man: The Uncollected Columns]]> 10984643 More Notes of a Dirty Old Man: The Uncollected Columns gathers many of these fugitive pieces, unseen in decades, into a single volume. Filled with his usual obsessions—sex, booze, gambling�More Notes features Bukowski's offbeat insights into politics and literature, his tortured relationships with women, and his lurid escapades on the poetry circuit. Highlighting his versatility, the book ranges from thinly veiled autobiography to fictional tales of dysfunctional suburbanites, disgraced politicians, and down-and-out sports promoters, climaxing with a long, hilarious adventure among French filmmakers, "My Friend, The Gambler," based on his experiences making the movie Barfly. From his days at the post office through his later fame, More Notes follows the entire arc of Bukowski's career, making it a valuable addition to his oeuvre.]]> 248 Charles Bukowski 0872865436 Dave 3 4.05 2011 More Notes of a Dirty Old Man: The Uncollected Columns
author: Charles Bukowski
name: Dave
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2011
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/11/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Who Censored Roger Rabbit? (Roger Rabbit, #1)]]> 765430
That's what Eddie Valiant wants to know. He's the toughest private eye in Los Angeles, and he'll handle anything—if you're human. If you're a Toon, that's another story.

Eddie doesn't like Toons—those cartoon characters who live side-by-side with humans. Not the way they look, and especially not the way they talk: word-filled balloons come out of their mouths and then disintegrate, leaving dust all over his rug.

Eddie will work for a Toon if his cash supply is low enough. So he reluctantly agrees when Roger Rabbit, a Toon who plays straight man (or should that be straight rabbit) in the Baby Herman cartoon series, asks him to find out who's been trying—unsuccessfully—to buy his contract from the DeGreasy Brothers syndicate.

Then Rocco DeGreasy is murdered—and Roger is the prime suspect! The rabbit is also, as Eddie soon discovers, very, very dead.

Who censored Roger Rabbit? And who shot Rocco DeGreasy? Was it Roger, or was it Rocco's hot-cha-cha girlfriend, Jessica Rabbit? Why had Jessica—a pretty steamy number for a Toon—ever married a dopey bunny in the first place? And why does everybody want Roger's battered old teakettle?

As Eddie combs L.A. from the executive suites of the DeGreasy Brothers to Sid Sleaze's porno comic studio, he uncovers art thefts, blackmail plots... and the cagiest killer he's ever faced.

In Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, author Gary K. Wolf has created a wonderfully skewed—and totally believable—world compounded of equal parts Raymond Chandler, Lewis Carroll, and Warner Brothers. This riotously surreal spoof of the hard-boiled detective novel is packed with action and laughs. From first page to last, Who Censored Roger Rabbit? is shear delight.

Celebrated author Gary K. Wolf's cult classic and highly praised novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? is the basis for the blockbuster Walt Disney/Steven Spielberg Academy Award–winning film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.]]> 218 Gary K. Wolf 0345303253 Dave 4 3.68 1981 Who Censored Roger Rabbit? (Roger Rabbit, #1)
author: Gary K. Wolf
name: Dave
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1981
rating: 4
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]]> Bream Gives Me Hiccups 24886634
Taking its title from a group of stories that begin the book, Bream Gives Me Hiccups moves from contemporary L.A. to the dorm rooms of an American college to ancient Pompeii, throwing the reader into a universe of social misfits, reimagined scenes from history, and ridiculous overreactions. In one piece, a tense email exchange between a young man and his girlfriend is taken over by his sister, who is obsessed with the Bosnian genocide (The situation reminds me of a little historical blip called the Karadordevo agreement); in another, a college freshman forced to live with a roommate is stunned when one of her ramen packets goes missing (she didn't have "one" of my ramens. She had a chicken ramen); in another piece, Alexander Graham Bell has teething problems with his invention (I've been calling Mabel all day, she doesn't pick up! Yes, of course I dialed the right number - 2!).

United by Eisenberg's gift for humor and character, and grouped into chapters that open with illustrations by award-winning cartoonist Jean Jullien, the witty pieces collected in Bream Gives Me Hiccups explore the various insanities of the modern world, and mark the arrival of a fantastically funny, self-ironic, and original voice.]]> 273 Jesse Eisenberg 0802124046 Dave 4 3.49 Bream Gives Me Hiccups
author: Jesse Eisenberg
name: Dave
average rating: 3.49
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rating: 4
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]]> A Happy Death 15682 A Happy Death is a fascinating first sketch for The Outsider, but it can also be seen as a candid self-portrait, drawing on Camus's memories of his youth, travels, and early relationships. It is infused with lyrical descriptions of the sun-drenched Algiers of his childhood - the place where, eventually, Mersault is able to find peace and die 'without anger, without hatred, without regret'.]]> 144 Albert Camus Dave 3 3.89 1971 A Happy Death
author: Albert Camus
name: Dave
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1971
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/11/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Westies: Inside New York's Irish Mob]]> 158121 Librarian's note: There is an Alternate Cover Edition for this edition of this book here.

Even among the Mob, the Westies were feared. Out of a partnership between two sadistic thugs, James Coonan and Mickey Featherstone, the gang rose out of the inferno of Hell's Kitchen, a decaying tenderloin slice of New York City's West Side. They became the most notorious gang in the history of organized crime, excelling in extortion, numbers running, loansharking, and drug peddling. Upping the ante on depravity, their specialty was execution by dismemberment. Though never numbering more than a dozen members, their reign lasted for almost twenty years-until their own violent natures got the best of them, precipitating a downfall that would become as infamous as their notorious ascension into the annals of crime.
]]> 416 T.J. English 0312924291 Dave 4 4.00 1990 The Westies: Inside New York's Irish Mob
author: T.J. English
name: Dave
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1990
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Boob Jubilee: The Cultural Politics of the New Economy]]> 336602 404 Thomas Frank 0393324303 Dave 0 to-read 3.89 2003 Boob Jubilee: The Cultural Politics of the New Economy
author: Thomas Frank
name: Dave
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Commodify Your Dissent: Salvos from The Baffler]]> 200732 288 Thomas Frank 0393316734 Dave 0 to-read 4.09 1997 Commodify Your Dissent: Salvos from The Baffler
author: Thomas Frank
name: Dave
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism]]> 174711
"[Thomas Frank is] perhaps the most provocative young cultural critic of the moment."—Gerald Marzorati, New York Times Book Review

"An indispensable survival guide for any modern consumer."� Publishers Weekly , starred review

"Frank makes an ironclad case not only that the advertising industry cunningly turned the countercultural rhetoric of revolution into a rallying cry to buy more stuff, but that the process itself actually predated any actual counterculture to exploit."—Geoff Pevere, Toronto Globe and Mail

" The Conquest of Cool helps us understand why, throughout the last third of the twentieth century, Americans have increasingly confused gentility with conformity, irony with protest, and an extended middle finger with a populist manifesto. . . . His voice is an exciting addition to the soporific public discourse of the late twentieth century."—T. J. Jackson Lears, In These Times

"An invaluable argument for anyone who has ever scoffed at hand-me-down counterculture from the '60s. A spirited and exhaustive analysis of the era's advertising."—Brad Wieners, Wired Magazine

"Tom Frank is . . . not only old-fashioned, he's anti-fashion, with a place in his heart for that ultimate social faux pas, leftist politics."—Roger Trilling, Details]]> 322 Thomas Frank 0226260127 Dave 0 to-read 3.85 1997 The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism
author: Thomas Frank
name: Dave
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right]]> 10183670 What's the Matter with Kansas?, comes this insightful and sardonic look at why the worst economy since the 1930s has brought about the revival of conservatism.

Economic catastrophe usually brings social protest and demands for financial reform—or at least it was commonly assumed that it would. But when Thomas Frank set out in 2009 to look for expressions of American discontent, all he found were loud demands that the economic system be made even harsher on the recession's victims and that society's traditional winners receive even grander prizes. The American Right, which had seemed moribund after the election of 2008, had been reinvigorated by the arrival of hard times. The Tea Party movement demanded not that we question the failed system but that we reaffirm our commitment to it as Republicans in Congress took the opportunity to dismantle what they could of the remaining liberal state and Glenn Beck demonstrated the commercial potential of fueling the national angst, while each promoted the libertarian/Randian economics which arch Randian, Alan Greenspan, had already admitted produced exactly the opposite results than those expected.

In Pity the Billionaire, Frank, the chronicler of American paradox, examines the peculiar mechanism by which dire economic circumstances have delivered the current set of seemingly unexpected political results. Using firsthand reporting, a deep knowledge of the American Right, and a wicked sense of humor, he gives us a diagnosis of the cultural malady that has transformed collapse into profit, reconceived the Founding Fathers as heroes from an Ayn Rand novel, and enlisted the powerless in a fan club for the prosperous.]]> 225 Thomas Frank 0805093699 Dave 0 to-read 3.79 2012 Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right
author: Thomas Frank
name: Dave
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them]]> 114819 Give your story a solid foundation - a plot that engages readers from start to finish!

The best stories linger in the hearts and minds of readers for decades. These tales gain their power through plots that connect with the audience on both an emotional and intellectual level.

Inside, Ronald B. Tobias details these 20 time-tested plots. Each is discussed and analyzed, illustrating how a successful plot integrates all the elements of a story. Tobias then shows you how to use these plots effectively in your own work.

Tobias then goes to the next level, showing you how to choose and develop plot in fiction. He shows you how to craft plot for any subject matter, so that you develop your work evenly and effectively. As a result, your fiction will be more cohesive and convincing, making your story unforgettable for readers everywhere.

]]> 240 Ronald B. Tobias 1582972397 Dave 0 to-read 3.77 1993 20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them
author: Ronald B. Tobias
name: Dave
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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]]> Green Shadows, White Whale 2402 256 Ray Bradbury 0380789663 Dave 4 3.81 1992 Green Shadows, White Whale
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Dave
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/29
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]]> Pet Sematary 832795
Can Stephen King scare even himself?

Has the author of Carrie, The Shining, Cujo, and Christine ever conceived a story so horrifying that he was for a time unwilling to finish writing it? Yes. This is it.

Set in a small town in Maine to which a young doctor, Louis Creed, and his family have moved from Chicago, Pet Sematary begins with a visit to a graveyard where generations of children have buried their beloved pets. But behind the "pet sematary," there is another burial ground, one that lures people to it with seductive promises . . . and ungodly temptations.

As the story unfolds, so does a nightmare of the supernatural, one so relentless you won't want . . . at moments . . . to continue reading . . . but will be unable to stop.

You do it because it gets hold of you, says the nice old man with the secret. You make up reasons . . . they seem like good reasons . . . but mostly you do it because once you've been up there, it's your place, and you belong to it . . .up in the Pet Sematary--and beyond.]]> 374 Stephen King 0385182449 Dave 0 to-read 4.15 1983 Pet Sematary
author: Stephen King
name: Dave
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1983
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir]]> 203708995 400 Griffin Dunne 0593652827 Dave 0 to-read 4.01 2024 The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir
author: Griffin Dunne
name: Dave
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/28
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]]> The Red Badge of Courage 35220 Enriched Classics offer readers accessible editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and commentary. Each book includes educational tools alongside the text, enabling students and readers alike to gain a deeper and more developed understanding of the writer and their work.

Henry Fleming has joined the Union army because of his romantic ideas of military life, but soon finds himself in the middle of a battle against a regiment of Confederate soldiers. Terrified, Henry deserts his comrades. Upon returning to his regiment, he struggles with his shame as he tries to redeem himself and prove his courage.

The Red Badge of Courage is Stephen Crane’s second book, notable for its realism and the fact that Crane had never personally experienced battle. Crane drew heavy inspiration from Century Magazine, a periodical known for its articles about the American Civil War. However, he criticized the articles for their lack of emotional depth and decided to write a war novel of his own. The manuscript was first serialized in December 1894 by The Philadelphia Press and quickly won Crane international acclaim before he died in June 1900 at the age of 28.]]> 149 Stephen Crane 1580495869 Dave 3 3.28 1895 The Red Badge of Courage
author: Stephen Crane
name: Dave
average rating: 3.28
book published: 1895
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/10/25
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]]> <![CDATA[2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America]]> 9875493
June 12, 2030 started out like any other day in memory—and by then, memories were long.Ěý Since cancer had been cured fifteen years before, America’s population was aging rapidly.Ěý That sounds like good news, but consider this: millions of baby boomers, with a big natural predator picked off, were sucking dry benefits and resources that were never meant to hold them into their eighties and beyond.Ěý Young people around the country simmered with resentment toward “the oldsâ€� and anger at the treadmill they could never get off of just to maintain their parentsâ€� entitlement programs.

But on that June 12th, everything changed: a massive earthquake devastated Los Angeles, and the government, always teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, was unable to respond.Ěý

The fallout from the earthquake sets in motion a sweeping novel of ideas that pits national hope for the future against assurances from the past and is peopled by a memorable cast of refugees and billionaires, presidents and revolutionaries, all struggling to find their way.Ěý In 2030, the author’s all-too-believable imagining of where today’s challenges could lead us tomorrow makes gripping and thought-provoking reading.]]> 375 Albert Brooks 0312583729 Dave 4 humor 3.46 2011 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America
author: Albert Brooks
name: Dave
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/25
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves: humor
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]]> <![CDATA[Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West]]> 76401 The New York Times called "Original, remarkable, and finally heartbreaking...Impossible to put down."

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a year after its initial publication, it has sold almost four million copies and has been translated into seventeen languages. For this elegant thirtieth-anniversary edition—published in both hardcover and paperback—Brown has contributed an incisive new preface.

Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows the great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was really won.]]> 509 Dee Brown 0805066691 Dave 4 4.24 1970 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
author: Dee Brown
name: Dave
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/17
date added: 2024/10/17
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]]> <![CDATA[Long Story Short: The Only Storytelling Guide You'll Ever Need]]> 25241947 320 Margot Leitman 1632170272 Dave 0 3.76 2015 Long Story Short: The Only Storytelling Guide You'll Ever Need
author: Margot Leitman
name: Dave
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/16
date added: 2024/10/16
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]]> <![CDATA[All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers]]> 54827 All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers is one of Larry McMurtry's most vital and entertaining novels.
Danny Deck is on the verge of success as an author when he flees Houston and hurtles unexpectedly into the hearts of three women: a girlfriend who makes him happy but who won't stay, a neighbor as generous as she is lusty, and his pal Emma Horton. It's a wild ride toward literary fame and an uncharted country...beyond everyone he deeply loves. All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers is a wonderful display of Larry McMurtry's unique gift: his ability to re-create the subtle textures of feelings, the claims of passing time and familiar place, and the rich interlocking swirl of people's lives.]]> 304 Larry McMurtry 0684853825 Dave 3 3.87 1972 All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers
author: Larry McMurtry
name: Dave
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1972
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
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]]> <![CDATA[I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories from a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies]]> 23848070 In 1969 Illeana Douglas' parents saw the film Easy Rider and were transformed. Taking Dennis Hopper's words, "That's what it's all about man" to heart, they abandoned their comfortable upper middle class life and gave Illeana a childhood filled with hippies, goats, free spirits, and free love. Illeana writes, "Since it was all out of my control, I began to think of my life as a movie, with a Dennis Hopper-like father at the center of it." I Blame Dennis Hopper is a testament to the power of art and the tenacity of passion. It is a rollicking, funny, at times tender exploration of the way movies can change our lives. With crackling humor and a full heart, Douglas describes how a good Liza Minnelli impression helped her land her first gig and how Rudy Valley taught her the meaning of being a show biz trouper. From her first experience being on set with her grandfather and mentor-two-time Academy Award-winning actor Melvyn Douglas-to the moment she was discovered by Martin Scorsese for her blood-curdling scream and cast in her first film, to starring in movies alongside Robert DeNiro, Nicole Kidman, and Ethan Hawke, to becoming an award winning writer, director and producer in her own right, I Blame Dennis Hopper is an irresistible love letter to movies and filmmaking. Writing from the perspective of the ultimate show business fan, Douglas packs each page with hilarious anecdotes, bizarre coincidences, and fateful meetings that seem, well, right out of a plot of a movie. I Blame Dennis Hopper is the story of one woman's experience in show business, but it is also a genuine reminder of why we all love the for the glitz, the glamor, the sweat, passion, humor, and escape they offer us all.]]> 293 Illeana Douglas 1250052912 Dave 3 3.90 2015 I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories from a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies
author: Illeana Douglas
name: Dave
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/08
date added: 2024/10/08
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]]> 'Salem's Lot 367638 ...and the awful, heavy silence of terrifying images grotesquely dancing in and out of the shadows
...and stark white faces, huge empty eyes and long gnarled hands that reached out with lustful insistence
...and the paralyzing fear of a diabolical corruption and a hideous peril more dreadful than death

But no one living in 'Salem's Lot dared talk about the high, sweet, evil laughter of a child...
and the sucking sounds...]]> 427 Stephen King 0451165888 Dave 4 horror 4.01 1975 'Salem's Lot
author: Stephen King
name: Dave
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1975
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/27
date added: 2024/09/27
shelves: horror
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]]> Nightmares and Dreamscapes 10370093
INTRODUCTION (1)
DOLAN'S CADILLAC (9)
THE END OF THE WHOLE MESS (57)
SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN (81)
THE NIGHT FLIER (93)
POPSY (126)
IT GROWS ON YOU (139)
CHATTERY TEETH (155)
DEDICATION (186)
THE MOVING FINGER (226)
SNEAKERS (259)
YOU KNOW THEY GOT A HELL OF A BAND (284)
HOME DELIVERY (324)
RAINY SEASON (351)
MY PRETTY PONY (372)
SORRY, RIGHT NUMBER (396)
THE TEN O'CLOCK PEOPLE (427)
CROUCH END (476)
THE HOUSE ON MAPLE STREET (504)
THE FIFTH QUARTER (537)
THE DOCTOR'S CASE (551)
UMNEY'S LAST CASE (582)
HEAD DOWN (627)
BROOKLYN AUGUST (673)
NOTES (675)
THE BEGGAR AND THE DIAMOND (689)]]> 692 Stephen King 0451180232 Dave 0 to-read 3.63 1993 Nightmares and Dreamscapes
author: Stephen King
name: Dave
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Battle Mask (The Executioner, #3)]]> 23880792 The Executioner, a lone-wolf vigilante "who would make Jack Reacher think twice," takes his war on the mob to a new level (Empireonline.com).

Once a Vietnam military hero, crack sniper Mack Bolan is now a vigilante, driven by the death of his Massachusetts family to exact vengeance on the mob. Waging war on the West Coast, the Executioner amassed a ten-man army as backup. Seven are now dead. Two are in jail. Only Bolan remains. With a bounty on his head, and every cop in Los Angeles on his tail, Bolan decides to erase his greatest his face.

Under the knife of a former army surgeon, Bolan is transformed. With trademark cunning, he infiltrates the Sicilian syndicate that butchered his friends. In cozying up to the boss's daughter, Bolan's plan of revenge has never been so intimate. The Executioner may have a new look, but he's got the same attitude. Soon his fury is going explode, and strike terror in the very heart of the Mafiosi.

In writing his iconic Executioner series, Don Pendleton turned his lone-wolf vigilante into a bestselling phenomenon and "spawned a genre" that still influences artists today (The New York Times). Gerry Conway, cocreator of the Marvel Comics avenger, The Punisher, cited the novels as "my inspiration . . . [the] modern equivalent of the pulps." More than two hundred million copies of the Executioner books have been sold--and a major motion picture based on this classic action series is now in development.

Battle Mask is the 3rd book in the Executioner series, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.]]> 202 Don Pendleton 1497687330 Dave 0 4.02 1970 Battle Mask (The Executioner, #3)
author: Don Pendleton
name: Dave
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1970
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
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]]> Johnny Got His Gun 51606
This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome... but so is war.

Winner of the National Book Award.]]> 309 Dalton Trumbo 0806512814 Dave 5 4.19 1939 Johnny Got His Gun
author: Dalton Trumbo
name: Dave
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1939
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/10
date added: 2024/09/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store]]> 65678550
Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, which served the neighborhood's quirky collection of blacks and European immigrants, helped by her husband, Moshe, a Romanian-born theater owner who integrated the town's first dance hall. When the state came looking for a deaf black child, claiming that the boy needed to be institutionalized, Chicken Hill's residents—roused by Chona's kindess and the courage of a local black worker named Nate Timblin—banded together to keep the boy safe.

As the novel unfolds, it becomes clear how much the people of Chicken Hill have to struggle to survive at the margins of white Christian America and how damaging bigotry, hypocrisy, and deceit can be to a community. When the truth is revealed about the skeleton, the boy, and the part the town’s establishment played in both, McBride shows that it is love and community—heaven and earth—that ultimately sustain us.]]> 385 James McBride 0593422945 Dave 5 3.83 2023 The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
author: James McBride
name: Dave
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/06
date added: 2024/09/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Ethics: A Very Short Introduction]]> 678049
About the Series: 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.
]]> 152 Simon Blackburn 0192804421 Dave 0 3.36 2009 Ethics: A Very Short Introduction
author: Simon Blackburn
name: Dave
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/19
date added: 2024/08/19
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]]> Microserfs 2748
Funny, illuminating and ultimately touching, Microserfs is the story of one generation's very strange and claustrophobic coming of age.]]> 371 Douglas Coupland 0060987049 Dave 3 3.89 1995 Microserfs
author: Douglas Coupland
name: Dave
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1995
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/18
date added: 2024/08/18
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]]> Drinking Coffee Elsewhere 529172 Chosen by John Updike as a Today Show Book Club Pick. Already an award-winning writer, ZZ Packer now shares with us her debut, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. Her impressive range and talent are abundantly evident: Packer dazzles with her command of language, surprising and delighting us with unexpected turns and indelible images, as she takes us into the lives of characters on the periphery, unsure of where they belong. We meet a Brownie troop of black girls who are confronted with a troop of white girls; a young man who goes with his father to the Million Man March and must decides where his allegiance lies; an international group of drifters in Japan, who are starving, unable to find work; a girl in a Baltimore ghetto who has dreams of the larger world she has seen only on the screens in the television store nearby, where the Lithuanian shopkeeper holds out hope for attaining his own American Dream.

With penetrating insight that belies her youth—she was only nineteen years old when Seventeen magazine printed her first published story—ZZ Packer helps us see the world with a clearer vision. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is a striking performance—fresh, versatile, and captivating. It introduces us to an arresting and unforgettable new voice.

Brownies --
Every tongue shall confess --
Our Lady of Peace --
The ant of the self --
Drinking coffee elsewhere --
Speaking in tongues --
Geese --
Doris is coming]]> 265 ZZ Packer 1573223786 Dave 0 to-read 3.88 2004 Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
author: ZZ Packer
name: Dave
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Directors: Take Three 4131435 The Directors, Take Three offers dozens of masterful insights on the craft of directing from such renowned filmmakers as Robert Altman, Wes Craven, Alan Parker, Tim Burton, Steven Spielberg, and Barry Levinson. Here are details of their experiences making a variety of classic films from Nashville to Nightmare on Elm Street, Rain Man to Raging Bull, and Pee Wee's Big Adventure to Schindler's List. You'll discover directors' earliest reactions to scripts for films that became classics; how legendary scenes were staged and shot; behind-the-scenes stories of the unknown actors who landed major roles and went on to become superstars; the underdog films that confounded expectations; directors' unique approaches to their art; and much, much more. This magnificent series also includes each director's filmography, complete listings of major awards, and cast credits for every film discussed. A fabulous source of insights, anecdotes, and industry secrets for film buffs everywhere!]]> 256 Robert J. Emery 1581152450 Dave 0 3.50 2003 The Directors: Take Three
author: Robert J. Emery
name: Dave
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/11
date added: 2024/08/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Improv Nation: How We Made a Great American Art]]> 33596295 From the best-selling author of Fosse, a sweeping yet intimate—and often hilarious—history of a uniquely American art form that has never been more popular.

At the height of the McCarthy era, an experimental theater troupe set up shop in a bar near the University of Chicago. Via word-of-mouth, astonished crowds packed the ad-hoc venue to see its unscripted, interactive, consciousness-raising style. From this unlikely seed grew the Second City, the massively influential comedy theater troupe, and its offshoots—the Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade, SNL, and a slew of others.Ěý Ěý
Sam Wasson charts the meteoric rise of improv in this richly reported, scene-driven narrative that, like its subject, moves fast and digs deep. He shows us the chance meeting at a train station between Mike Nichols and Elaine May. We hang out at the after-hours bar Dan Aykroyd opened so that friends like John Belushi, Bill Murray, and Gilda Radner would always have a home. We go behind the scenes of landmark entertainments from The Graduate to Caddyshack, The Forty-Year Old Virgin to The Colbert Report. Along the way, we commune with a host of pioneers—Mike Nichols and Harold Ramis, Dustin Hoffman, Chevy Chase, Steve Carell, Amy Poehler, Alan Arkin, Tina Fey, Judd Apatow, and many more. With signature verve and nuance, Wasson shows why improv deserves to be considered the great American art form of the last half-century—and the most influential one today.Ěý Ěý
Ěý]]> 464 Sam Wasson 0544557204 Dave 5 3.93 2017 Improv Nation: How We Made a Great American Art
author: Sam Wasson
name: Dave
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/08
date added: 2024/08/08
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]]> The Doors of Perception 3188964 The Doors of Perception is a philosophical essay, released as a book, by Aldous Huxley. First published in 1954, it details his experiences when taking mescaline.

The book takes the form of Huxley's recollection of a mescaline trip that took place over the course of an afternoon in May 1953. The book takes its title from a phrase in William Blake's 1793 poem 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'.

Huxley recalls the insights he experienced, which range from the "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision". He also incorporates later reflections on the experience and its meaning for art and religion.]]> 208 Aldous Huxley Dave 3 3.91 1956 The Doors of Perception
author: Aldous Huxley
name: Dave
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1956
rating: 3
read at: 2020/08/26
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Gotham Central, Vol. 1: In the Line of Duty]]> 106042
Living in the shadows of the Dark Knight makes the detectives of Gotham's police force determined to prove that have what it takes to enforce the law in a city rife with criminals... with or without Batman's help.

Meet Commissioner Akins and his Major Crimes Unit commander Maggie Sawter (fresh from Metropolis). Keeping the streets safe are detectives Renee Montoya, Crispis Allen and others newly introduced to readers. The race is on to stop Mister Freeze while solving a crime before the Caped Crusader intervenes.

Collects issues #1-5.]]> 128 Greg Rucka 1401201997 Dave 3 comics 4.19 2004 Gotham Central, Vol. 1: In the Line of Duty
author: Greg Rucka
name: Dave
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2013/11/14
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: comics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Confessions of a Puppetmaster: A Hollywood Memoir of Ghouls, Guts, and Gonzo Filmmaking]]> 57094317 275 Charles Band 0063087340 Dave 4 film, biography 4.17 2021 Confessions of a Puppetmaster: A Hollywood Memoir of Ghouls, Guts, and Gonzo Filmmaking
author: Charles Band
name: Dave
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/26
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: film, biography
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Country Lawyer and Other Stories for the Screen (Center for the Study of Southern Culture Series)]]> 635231 101 William Faulkner 0878053085 Dave 1 2.79 1987 Country Lawyer and Other Stories for the Screen (Center for the Study of Southern Culture Series)
author: William Faulkner
name: Dave
average rating: 2.79
book published: 1987
rating: 1
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves:
review:

]]>