Tom's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 31 Jul 2023 09:36:00 -0700 60 Tom's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Is 5 633618 128 E.E. Cummings 0871401649 Tom 0 4.22 1970 Is 5
author: E.E. Cummings
name: Tom
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1970
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Letters From The Earth: Uncensored Writings By Mark Twain]]> 1065377 303 Mark Twain 0060921056 Tom 4 4.10 1962 Letters From The Earth: Uncensored Writings By Mark Twain
author: Mark Twain
name: Tom
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1962
rating: 4
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date added: 2018/08/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Road Not Taken: A Selection of Robert Frost's Poems]]> 863529 Robert Frost 0805005293 Tom 4 4.08 1916 The Road Not Taken: A Selection of Robert Frost's Poems
author: Robert Frost
name: Tom
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1916
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/08/16
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]]> Jane Eyre 11020 Jane Eyre...is a book after our own hearts." So wrote the influential literary critic of Charlotte Brontë's day. George Henry Lewes.

Immediately recognized as a masterpiece when it was first published in 1847, Jane Eyre is an extraordinary coming-of-age story featuring one of the most independent and strong-willed female protagonists in all of literature.

Poor and plain, Jane Eyre begins life as a lonely orphan in the household of her hateful aunt. Despite the oppression she endures at home, and the later at a harsh boarding school, Jane manages to emerge with her spirit and integrity unbroken. She becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she finds herself falling in love with her employer, the dark, impassioned Mr. Rochester. But an explosive secret tears apart their relationship, forcing Jane to face poverty and isolation once again before finally finding happiness.

Jane Eyre - one of the great early master-works penned by a woman - is not simply for women, but appeals to the humanity in all of us. As Charolette herself wrote to William Smith Williams, "I am neither a man nor a woman but an author."

One of the world's most beloved novels, Jane Eyre is a startlingly modern blend of passion, mystery, romance, and suspense.]]> 551 Charlotte Brontë 1593081634 Tom 5 4.24 1847 Jane Eyre
author: Charlotte Brontë
name: Tom
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1847
rating: 5
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date added: 2014/08/07
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]]> One Hundred Years of Solitude 320 417 Gabriel García Márquez Tom 0 to-read 4.10 1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Tom
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1967
rating: 0
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date added: 2011/08/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Tales, Poems, and Other Writings (Modern Library Classics)]]> 46329
Containing many writings available nowhere else, and edited by leading Melville scholar John Bryant, Tales, Poems, and Other Writings includes a comprehensive introductory essay and extensive, in many cases groundbreaking, editorial commentary. It opens a window onto Melville’s writing process–he was a ceaseless reviser and experimenter–and reveals his career-long evolution as a writer as well as the full breadth of his literary achievement. And it marks a new stage in our ability to appreciate not only the work of one of our greatest writers, but the immense dedication that lay behind it.

John Bryant is a professor of English at Hofstra University. He has published five books and numerous articles on Melville, and is the editor of the Penguin Classics edition of Typee and the Modern Library edition of The Confidence-Man. He has been the general editor of the Melville Society, one of the oldest and largest single-author societies in America, since 1990.


From the Hardcover edition.

Starting out. Fragments from a writing desk, No. 2 ; Versions of Typee: Typee, chapter 14 --
The art of telling the truth. Letters ; Hawthorne and his mosses --
Tales and sketches. Bartleby, the scrivener ; Cock-a-doodle-doo! ; From The encantadas: The Chola widow ; The two temples ; The paradise of bachelors and the Tartarus of maids ; The bell-tower ; Benito Cereno ; The 'gees ; I and my chimney ; The piazza --
Statues in Rome and poems by Herman Melville. Statues in Rome ; Poems by Herman Melville --
From Battle-pieces. Supplement --
From Clarel: a poem and pilgrimage in the Holy Land --
Prose & poem: John Marr, and others. From John Marr and other sailors with some sea-pieces ; From The Burgundy club ; Rammon and "The enviable isles" ; Under the rose --
Billy Budd. Billy Budd, sailor: an inside narrative ; Versions of Billy: the ur-Billy Budd ; Versions of "art" --
From Weeds and wildings, chiefly: with a rose or two. Rip van Winkle's lilac ; Nine Rose poems.]]> 688 Herman Melville 0375757120 Tom 5 4.16 Tales, Poems, and Other Writings (Modern Library Classics)
author: Herman Melville
name: Tom
average rating: 4.16
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rating: 5
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date added: 2010/08/29
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]]> Free-Range Chickens 2714071 Ant Farm, Simon Rich found humor in some of life's most desperate situations.


In the nostalgic opening chapter, Rich recalls his fear of the Tooth Fairy (Is there a face fairy?) and his initial reaction to the "Got-your-nose" game ("Please just kill me. Better to die than to live the rest of my life as a monster"). He goes on to present Count Dracula's desperate Match dot com profile ("I am normal human looking for human woman to come to castle. I am normal, regular human"). Later, he gets inside the heads of two firehouse Dalmatians who can't understand their masters' compulsion to drive off to horrible fires every day.

And in the final chapter, he tackles some of life's biggest questions: Does God really have a plan for us? Yes, it turns out. Now if only He could remember what it was. . . .]]> 144 Simon Rich 1400065895 Tom 4 3.81 2008 Free-Range Chickens
author: Simon Rich
name: Tom
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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date added: 2009/02/17
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]]> The Green Mile 11566
There are more wonders in heaven and hell than anyone at Cold Mountain can imagine and one of those wonders might just have stepped in amongst them.]]> 592 Stephen King 0451933028 Tom 5
A bit of a throwback to the glory days of pulp-fiction publishing, each installment hit the bookstore shelves a few weeks apart. Maddeningly fun tease. Great story too.]]> 4.48 1996 The Green Mile
author: Stephen King
name: Tom
average rating: 4.48
book published: 1996
rating: 5
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date added: 2008/07/31
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Loved it, loved the initial marketing too.

A bit of a throwback to the glory days of pulp-fiction publishing, each installment hit the bookstore shelves a few weeks apart. Maddeningly fun tease. Great story too.
]]> It 18342
The adults, knowing better, knew nothing. Time passed and the children grew up, moved away. The horror of It was deep-buried, wrapped in forgetfulness. Until the grown-up children were called back, once more to confront It as It stirred and coiled in the sullen depths of their memories, reaching up again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality.]]> 1090 Stephen King 0451169514 Tom 4 4.11 1986 It
author: Stephen King
name: Tom
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1986
rating: 4
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]]> Gargantua and Pantagruel 18266 Pantagruel, a tale of comic chivalry, satirizes lawyers, theologians and academic buffoons, while Gargantua mocks rash generals, idiotic monarchs and uncouth professors. It champions freedom and laughs at a dirty young giant before he turns into a splendid prince. Sequels lead into more complex and daring laughter and high mythology, often at the expense of Panurge � the mad, word-spinning companion of Pantagruel (who becomes a giant in wisdom, a Renaissance Socrates).

M.A. Screech's translation captures Rabelais' ingenious wordplay and mastery of language. The introduction explores his individuality while comparing him to Shakespeare, and presents each book to open up the new horizons of Renaissance Europe. This edition also includes a chronology and notes.]]> 1041 François Rabelais 0140445501 Tom 5 3.66 1532 Gargantua and Pantagruel
author: François Rabelais
name: Tom
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1532
rating: 5
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OK, I'm biased. Originally translated from its native French into English by an old family member.
]]> <![CDATA[The Works of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty, Knight]]> 398357 419 Thomas Urquhart 0404529895 Tom 0 to-read 5.00 1834 The Works of Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty, Knight
author: Thomas Urquhart
name: Tom
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1834
rating: 0
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date added: 2008/07/31
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]]> The Jewel 398361 252 0707303273 Tom 0 to-read 5.00 1652 The Jewel
author: R. J. Urquhart, Thomas; Jack, R. D. S.; Lyall
name: Tom
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1652
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #4)]]> 8698
"HE LOST ALL FAITH IN THE STRAIGHTFORWARD OPERATION OF CAUSE AND EFFECT THE DAY HE GOT UP INTENDING TO CATCH UP WITH SOME READING AND ENDED UP ON A PREHISTORIC EARTH WITH A MAN FROM BETELGEUSE AND A SPACESHIP-LOAD OF ALIEN TELEPHONE SANITISERS...".

Left at the end of LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING with the address for God's Final Message To His Creation, Arthur Dent let this crucial information slip his mind. He tries everything to jog his memory - meditation, mind-reading, hitting himself about the head with blunt objects. But none of it works. Of course, as everyone knows, the answer lies in making life flash before your eyes...
Source: douglasadams.com]]> 167 Douglas Adams 0330491237 Tom 4 4.09 1984 So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #4)
author: Douglas Adams
name: Tom
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1984
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/07/31
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]]> <![CDATA[Life, the Universe and Everything (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #3)]]> 8694
“Wild satire . . . The feckless protagonist, Arthur Dent, is reminiscent of Vonnegut heroes.”� Chicago Tribune

The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads—so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals stand between the killer robots of Krikkit and their goal of total annihilation.

They are Arthur Dent, a mild-mannered space and time traveler who tries to learn how to fly by throwing himself at the ground and missing; Ford Prefect, his best friend, who decides to go insane to see if he likes it; Slartibartfast, the indomitable vice president of the Campaign for Real Time, who travels in a ship powered by irrational behavior; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-president of the galaxy; and Trillian, the sexy space cadet who is torn between a persistent Thunder God and a very depressed Beeblebrox.

How will it all end? Will it end? Only this stalwart crew knows as they try to avert “universal� Armageddon and save life as we know it—and don’t know it!

“Adams is one of those rare an author who, one senses, has as much fun writing as one has reading.”� Arizona Daily Star]]> 224 Douglas Adams 0345418905 Tom 4 4.20 1982 Life, the Universe and Everything (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #3)
author: Douglas Adams
name: Tom
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1982
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #2)]]> 8695 alternate edition for ISBN 0345418921/9780345418920

Facing annihilation at the hands of the warlike Vogons is a curious time to have a cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his curious comrades in arms as they hurtle through space powered by pure improbability - and desperately in search of a place to eat. Among Arthur's motley shipmates are Ford Prefect, a long-time friend and contributor to the The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the three-armed, two-headed ex-president of the galaxy; Tricia McMilan, a fellow Earth refuge who's gone native (her name is Trillian now); and Marvin, who suffers nothing and no one gladly.

Source: douglasadams.com]]> 250 Douglas Adams Tom 4 4.22 1980 The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #2)
author: Douglas Adams
name: Tom
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1980
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)]]> 11
Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don't forget to bring a towel!]]> 216 Douglas Adams Tom 4 4.21 1979 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)
author: Douglas Adams
name: Tom
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1979
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/07/31
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]]> <![CDATA[The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity]]> 28134 The Eden Express describes from the inside Mark Vonnegut's experience in the late '60s and early '70s—a recent college grad; in love; living communally on a farm, with a famous and doting father, cherished dog, and prized jalopy—and then the nervous breakdowns in all their slow-motion intimacy, the taste of mortality and opportunity for humor they provided, and the grim despair they afforded as well.

That he emerged to write this funny and true book and then moved on to find the meaningful life that for a while had seemed beyond reach is what ultimately happens in The Eden Express. But the real story here is that throughout his harrowing experience his sense of humor let him see the humanity of what he was going through, and his gift of language let him describe it in such a moving way that others could begin to imagine both its utter ordinariness as well as the madness we all share.]]> 304 Mark Vonnegut 1583225439 Tom 4 3.87 1975 The Eden Express: A Memoir of Insanity
author: Mark Vonnegut
name: Tom
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1975
rating: 4
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]]> Breakfast of Champions 4980 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

In Breakfast of Champions, one of Kurt Vonnegut’s most beloved characters, the aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. What follows is murderously funny satire, as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us how to see the truth.]]> 303 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 0385334206 Tom 4 4.08 1973 Breakfast of Champions
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Tom
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1973
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/07/31
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]]> The Great Divorce 17267 160 C.S. Lewis 0006280560 Tom 4 4.27 1946 The Great Divorce
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Tom
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1946
rating: 4
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]]> Till We Have Faces 17343
Set against the backdrop of Glome, a barbaric, pre-Christian world, the struggles between sacred and profane love are illuminated as Orual learns that we cannot understand the intent of the gods "till we have faces" and sincerity in our souls and selves.]]> 313 C.S. Lewis Tom 4 4.19 1956 Till We Have Faces
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Tom
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1956
rating: 4
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]]> Go Tell It on the Mountain 17143 Go Tell It On The Mountain, first published in 1953, is Baldwin's first major work, a semi-autobiographical novel that has established itself as an American classic. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves.]]> 256 James Baldwin 0141185910 Tom 4 4.06 1953 Go Tell It on the Mountain
author: James Baldwin
name: Tom
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1953
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/07/31
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]]> <![CDATA[The Trouser Press Record Guide: The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Music]]> 899268
1st Ed. (1983) published as The Trouser Press Guide to New Wave Records.
2nd Ed. (1985) published as The New Trouser Press Record Guide.
3rd Ed. (1989) published as The New Trouser Press Record Guide (Revised Edition).
4th Ed. (1991) published as The Trouser Press Record Guide: The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Music.
5th Ed. (1997) published as The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock.

"The Trouser Press Record Guide" has been hailed by music fans and the record industry as "the bible" of nonmainstream rock, stretching across the stylistic boundaries of punk, grunge, indie-pop, techno, noise, avant-garde and ska into hip-hop, new country, metal, roots rocks, folk, modern dance and world music.

All new and bigger than ever, "The Trouser Press Record Guide to '90's Rock" definitively covers 2,300 of this decade's most innovative and influential artists, reviewing 8,500 records -- insanely obscure and familiar alike -- from all over the world. Each insightful entry contains pungent critical analysis, biographical information and a complete album disography.

Selected praise for "The Trouser Press Record Guide to '90's Rock"

"My trustworthy fact checker, be-all-and-end-all arguement settler and the last word on modern rock. I don't go on the air without it." -- Gary Cee, WLIR-FM

"Still the most comprehensive guide through the labryrinth of indie and alternative rock. WHen you need a refresher course on all of Steve Albini's bands, or if you just want to know what Boy George did after Cultrue Club, this is the book to grab." -- David Browne, "Entertainment Weekly"]]> 763 Ira A. Robbins 0020363613 Tom 4 4.34 1983 The Trouser Press Record Guide: The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Music
author: Ira A. Robbins
name: Tom
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1983
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/07/31
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The funnest way to discover music without headphones.
]]> The Shining (The Shining, #1) 11588 497 Stephen King 0450040186 Tom 4 4.28 1977 The Shining (The Shining, #1)
author: Stephen King
name: Tom
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1977
rating: 4
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date added: 2008/07/31
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]]> To Kill a Mockingbird 2657 "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.]]> 323 Harper Lee 0060935464 Tom 5 currently-reading 4.25 1960 To Kill a Mockingbird
author: Harper Lee
name: Tom
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1960
rating: 5
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date added: 2008/07/31
shelves: currently-reading
review:
Love the movie too, but this book to me is the best American novel of the twentieth century. The process and method of story-telling, the intent to illustrate the ideal of what justice can be, with a localized context, is especially resonant in today's political environment.
]]> <![CDATA[Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings]]> 37813 321 Mark Twain 0060518650 Tom 5 4.22 1962 Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings
author: Mark Twain
name: Tom
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1962
rating: 5
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date added: 2008/07/31
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Irreverent (Twain, irreverent? Shocking!) reflections of social and Christian toe picks. He reportedly made his published swear not to print these during his lifetime, perhaps because of a potential backlash by more autocratic thinkers. For the rest of us, proof that humor can be God's gift.
]]> Where the Red Fern Grows 10365 Billy, Old Dan, and Little Ann—a boy and his two dogs...

A loving threesome, they ranged the dark hills and river bottoms of Cherokee County. Old Dan had the brawn, Little Ann had the brains—and Billy had the will to train them to be the finest hunting team in the valley. Glory and victory were coming to them, but sadness waited too. And close by was the strange and wonderful power that's only found...

Where the Red Fern Grows—An exciting tale of love and adventure you'll never forget.

(from the back cover)]]> 272 Wilson Rawls 0375806814 Tom 3 4.11 1961 Where the Red Fern Grows
author: Wilson Rawls
name: Tom
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1961
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius]]> 4953 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read for decades to come.]]> 530 Dave Eggers 0375725784 Tom 0 to-read 3.70 2000 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
author: Dave Eggers
name: Tom
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2008/07/30
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]]> The Alchemist 865 197 Paulo Coelho 0061122416 Tom 0 to-read 3.85 1988 The Alchemist
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Tom
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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date added: 2008/07/30
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]]> Slaughterhouse-Five 4981 Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.�

An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it.

Fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut's portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties.]]> 275 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Tom 0 4.10 1969 Slaughterhouse-Five
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Tom
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1969
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]> 2956 327 Mark Twain 0142437174 Tom 0 3.82 1884 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
author: Mark Twain
name: Tom
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1884
rating: 0
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]]> Animal Farm 7613
The book tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, however, the rebellion is betrayed, and the farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon.

One night, all the animals at Mr. Jones' Manor Farm assemble in a barn to hear old Major, a pig, describe a dream he had about a world where all animals live free from the tyranny of their human masters. Old Major dies soon after the meeting, but the animals � inspired by his philosophy of Animalism � plot a rebellion against Jones.

Two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, prove themselves important figures and planners of this dangerous enterprise. When Jones forgets to feed the animals, the revolution occurs, and Jones and his men are chased off the farm. Manor Farm is renamed Animal Farm, and the Seven Commandments of Animalism are painted on the barn wall...]]> 129 George Orwell Tom 0 3.90 1945 Animal Farm
author: George Orwell
name: Tom
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1945
rating: 0
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]]> The Great Gatsby 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

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

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]> 180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 Tom 3 3.93 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Tom
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 3
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]]> The Catcher in the Rye 5107 It's Christmas time and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school...

Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters—shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, its mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning.

The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic in coming-of-age literature- an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind.

J.D. Salinger's (1919�2010) classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and in the 1950's and 60's it was the novel that every teenage boy wants to read.]]> 277 J.D. Salinger 0316769177 Tom 0 3.81 1951 The Catcher in the Rye
author: J.D. Salinger
name: Tom
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1951
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Paying for Your Childs College Education: The Guide That Makes This Impossible Dream Come True]]> 2452706 162 Walter Updegrave 0446671657 Tom 0 to-read 0.0 1996 Paying for Your Childs College Education: The Guide That Makes This Impossible Dream Come True
author: Walter Updegrave
name: Tom
average rating: 0.0
book published: 1996
rating: 0
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date added: 2008/07/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat]]> 2437578 It could be said that all of us are a little alien―our bodies' carbon atoms first shot forth from supernovas billions of years ago and far, far away. Carbon has always been the ubiquitous architect and chemical scaffolding of life and civilization; indeed, all living things draw carbon from their environments to stay alive, and the great cycle by which carbon moves through organisms, ground, water, and atmosphere has long been a kind of global respiration system that helps keep Earth in balance. And yet, when we hear the word today, it is more often than not in a crisis carbon dioxide emissions have sped up the carbon cycle; chlorofluorocarbons are destroying the ozone layer and warming the planet; the volatile Middle East explodes atop its stores of volatile hydrocarbons; carbohydrates threaten obesity and diabetes.
In The Carbon Age , Eric Roston evokes this essential element, its journey illuminating history from the Big Bang to modern civilization. Charting the science of carbon―how it was formed, how it came to Earth and built up―he chronicles the often surprising ways mankind has used it over centuries, and the growing catastrophe of the industrial era, leading us to now attempt to wrestle the Earth's geochemical cycle back from the brink. Blending the latest science with original reporting, Roston makes us aware, as never before, of the seminal impact carbon has, and has had, on our lives.]]> 320 Eric Roston 0802715575 Tom 0 to-read 3.72 2008 The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat
author: Eric Roston
name: Tom
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2008/07/30
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]]> A Prayer for Owen Meany 4473 637 John Irving 0552135399 Tom 4 4.24 1989 A Prayer for Owen Meany
author: John Irving
name: Tom
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1989
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present]]> 2767 Zinn portrays a side of American history that can largely be seen as the exploitation and manipulation of the majority by rigged systems that hugely favor a small aggregate of elite rulers from across the orthodox political parties.
A People's History has been assigned as reading in many high schools and colleges across the United States. It has also resulted in a change in the focus of historical work, which now includes stories that previously were ignored

Library Journal calls Howard Zinn’s book “a brilliant and moving history of the American people from the point of view of those…whose plight has been largely omitted from most histories.”]]> 729 Howard Zinn 0060838655 Tom 5 4.07 1980 A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present
author: Howard Zinn
name: Tom
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1980
rating: 5
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]]> Cavett 611898 The Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson on NBC. DVDs available of selected Cavett shows from the late '60s and early '70s are time capsules of the arts, entertainment and politics of the era. Before that, Cavett was a writer for The Tonight Show and a stand-up comic. This 1974 book of self-reflections takes both the form of an interview (conducted by long-time friend and colleague, Christoper Porterfield) and biographical narratives written by Porterfield with Cavett's input. Nothing is sacred in Cavett; the talk ranges boldly and freely, as talk between friends often does, from the silly to the satirical and from the serious to the scatological.]]> 373 Dick Cavett 0151161305 Tom 3 3.88 1974 Cavett
author: Dick Cavett
name: Tom
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1974
rating: 3
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]]> The Cask of Amontillado 261240
It is set in a nameless Italian city in an unspecified year (possibly during the eighteenth century) and concerns the revenge taken by the narrator on a friend who he claims has insulted him. Like several of Poe's stories, and in keeping with the 19th-century fascination with the subject, the narrative revolves around the possibility of a person being buried alive or enclosed in a small space with not possibility of escape (aka immurement).

Librarian's note: this entry relates to the story "The Cask of Amontillado." Collections of short stories by the author can be found elsewhere on Ĺ·±¦ÓéŔÖ.]]> 24 Edgar Allan Poe 1594561869 Tom 4 4.09 1846 The Cask of Amontillado
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Tom
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1846
rating: 4
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Also one of my favorite songs performed by Alan Parsons Project (on an album based on Poe's work), perhaps my introduction to my affection for the 'sweet melodies with blood-stained lyrics' paradigm... works by Elvis Costello, Belle and Sebastian, Knife In The Water (and others) would later surface as favorites in the music library.
]]> <![CDATA[The Complete Stories and Poems]]> 23919 821 Edgar Allan Poe 0385074077 Tom 5 4.39 1849 The Complete Stories and Poems
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Tom
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1849
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales]]> 407429 A revisionist storyteller provides his mad, hilarious versions of children's favorite tales in this unique and riotous collection.

A long time ago, people used to tell magical stories of wonder and enchantment. Those stories were called Fairy Tales.

Those stories are not in this book. The stories in this book are Fairly Stupid Tales.

I mean, what else would you call a story like "Goldilocks and the Three Elephants"? This girl walking through the woods smells Peanut Porridge Cooking. She decides to break into the Elephants' house, eat the porridge, sit in the chairs, and sleep in the beds. But when she gets in the house she can't climb up on Baby Elephant's chair because it's much too big. And she can't climb on Papa Elephant's chair because it's much much too big. So she goes home. The End.

And if you don't think that's fairly stupid, you should read "Little Red Riding Shorts" or maybe "The Stinky Cheese Man."

In fact, you should definitely go read the stories now, because the rest of this description just kind of goes on and on and doesn't really say anything. I stuck it here so it would fill up the page and make it look like I really knew what I was talking about. So stop now. I mean it. Quit reading this. Open the book. If you read this last sentence, it won't tell you anything.

Signed,
Jack (Narrator)
Up the Hill
Fairy Tale Forest
1992

Story List:
- Chicken Licken
- The Princess and the Bowling Ball
- The Really Ugly Duckling
- The Other Frog Prince
- Little Red Running Shorts
- Jack's Bean Problem (including Giant Story / Jack's Story)
- Cinderummpelstiltskin (Or The Girl Who Really Blew It)
- The Tortoise and the Hair
- The Stinky Cheese Man

SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: It has been determined that these tales are fairly stupid and probably dangerous to your health.

Edition MSRP: $17âąâą US (ISBN 0-670-84487-X)]]> 52 Jon Scieszka 067084487X Tom 5 4.20 1992 The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales
author: Jon Scieszka
name: Tom
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1992
rating: 5
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Even the dust cover is funny, including my favorite published rant about an ISBN.
]]> Green Eggs and Ham 23772
Originally created by Dr. Seuss, Beginner Books encourage children to read all by themselves, with simple words and illustrations that give clues to their meaning.]]> 64 Dr. Seuss 0394800168 Tom 4 4.31 1960 Green Eggs and Ham
author: Dr. Seuss
name: Tom
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1960
rating: 4
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Attempting to read this aloud using my best Jessie Jackson voice usually results in a spectacular failure; however, the Reverend's own reading (and self parody) remains one of my favorite SNL moments.
]]> The Seven Chinese Brothers 816735 40 Margaret Mahy 0590420577 Tom 4 4.18 1990 The Seven Chinese Brothers
author: Margaret Mahy
name: Tom
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1990
rating: 4
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I try to read all the books referenced in R.E.M. lyrics.
]]> Tales of Ordinary Madness 38503 Exceptional stories that came pounding out of Bukowski's violent and depraved life. Horrible and holy, you cannot read them and ever come away the same again.

With Bukowski, the votes are still coming in. There seems to be no middle ground—people seem either to love him or hate him. Tales of his own life and doings are as wild and weird as the very stories he writes. In a sense, Bukowski was a legend in his time: a madman, a recluse, a lover; tender, vicious; never the same.

From prostitutes to classical music, Bukowski ingeniously mixes high and low culture in his "tales of ordinary madness." These stories are humorous and haunting, angry yet tender portrayals of life in the underbelly of Los Angeles.]]> 238 Charles Bukowski 0872861554 Tom 4 4.01 1983 Tales of Ordinary Madness
author: Charles Bukowski
name: Tom
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1983
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Death of Media: And the Fight to Save Democracy (Melville Manifestos)]]> 151635 150 Danny Schechter 0976658364 Tom 4 4.21 2005 The Death of Media: And the Fight to Save Democracy (Melville Manifestos)
author: Danny Schechter
name: Tom
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2005
rating: 4
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]]> The Giving Tree 370493
So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.

Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk...and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave.

This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein has created a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another's capacity to love in return.]]> 64 Shel Silverstein 0060256656 Tom 5 4.38 1964 The Giving Tree
author: Shel Silverstein
name: Tom
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1964
rating: 5
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]]> Candide 19380 Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a witty, bantering tale, this eighteenth-century classic is actually a savage, satiric thrust at the philosophical optimism that proclaims that all disaster and human suffering is part of a benevolent cosmic plan. Fast, funny, often outrageous, the French philosopher's immortal narrative takes Candide around the world to discover that � contrary to the teachings of his distinguished tutor Dr. Pangloss � all is not always for the best. Alive with wit, brilliance, and graceful storytelling, Candide has become Voltaire's most celebrated work.]]> 129 Voltaire 0486266893 Tom 4 3.76 1759 Candide
author: Voltaire
name: Tom
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1759
rating: 4
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]]> Les Misérables 24280 1463 Victor Hugo 0451525264 Tom 4 4.19 1862 Les Misérables
author: Victor Hugo
name: Tom
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1862
rating: 4
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]]> On Religion 2391750
Mark Twain talks about his personal views on religion, the Bible and God, in these five writings.

Table of

Publisher’s Preface; What Is Man? And Other Essays Of Mark Twain; What Is Man?; The Death Of Jean; The Turning-point Of My Life; How To Make History Dates Stick; The Memorable Assassination; A Scrap Of Curious History; Switzerland, The Cradle Of Liberty; At The Shrine Of St. Wagner; William Dean Howells; English As She Is Taught; A Simplified Alphabet; As Concerns Interpreting The Deity; Concerning Tobacco; The Bee; Taming The Bicycle; Is Shakespeare Dead?; The War Prayer; Thou Shalt Not Kill; The Fly; Letters From The Earth

About the

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, Esoteric and Mythology.

Forgotten Books is about sharing information, not about making money. All books are priced at wholesale prices. We are also the only publisher we know of to print in large sans-serif font, which is proven to make the text easier to read and put less strain on your eyes.]]> 435 Mark Twain 1605060364 Tom 5 4.20 1963 On Religion
author: Mark Twain
name: Tom
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1963
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson]]> 716872 Introduction by Mary Oliver
Commentary by Henry James, Robert Frost, Matthew Arnold, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Henry David Thoreau
Ěý
The definitive collection of Emerson’s major speeches, essays, and poetry, The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson chronicles the life’s work of a true “American Scholar.� As one of the architects of the transcendentalist movement, Emerson embraced a philosophy that championed the individual, emphasized independent thought, and prized “the splendid labyrinth of one’s own perceptions.� More than any writer of his time, he forged a style distinct from his European predecessors and embodied and defined what it meant to be an American. Matthew Arnold called Emerson’s essays “the most important work done in prose.�
Ěý
INCLUDES A MODERN LIBRARY READING GROUP GUIDE]]> 880 Ralph Waldo Emerson 0679783229 Tom 5 currently-reading 4.37 1983 The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson
author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
name: Tom
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1983
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism]]> 45324 Race Matters, philosopher Cornel West burst onto the national scene with his searing analysis of the scars of racism in American democracy. In Democracy Matters, West returns to the analysis of the arrested development of democracy, both in America and in the crisis-ridden Middle East.

In a strikingly original diagnosis, he argues that if America is to become a better steward of democratization around the world, we must first wake up to the long history of imperialist corruption that has plagued our own democracy. Both our failure to foster peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the crisis of Islamist anti-Americanism stem largely from hypocrisies in our dealings with the world.

Racism and imperial expansionism have gone hand in hand in our country's inexorable drive toward hegemony, and our current militarism is only the latest expression of that drive. Even as we are shocked by Islamic fundamentalism, our own brand of fundamentalism, which West dubs Constantinian Christianity, has joined forces with imperialist corporate and political elites in an unholy alliance, and four decades after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., insidious racism still inflicts debilitating psychic pain on so many of our citizens.

But there is a deep democratic tradition in America of impassioned commitment to the fight against imperialist corruptions---the last great expression of which was the civil rights movement led by Dr. King---and West brings forth the powerful voices of that great democratizing tradition in a brilliant and deeply moving call for the revival of our better democratic nature. His impassioned and provocative argument for the revitalization of America's democracy will reshape the terms of the raging national debate about America's role in today's troubled world.]]> 218 Cornel West 0143035835 Tom 4 currently-reading 3.99 2004 Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism
author: Cornel West
name: Tom
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2004
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis]]> 9346
As a believing Christian, Carter takes on issues that are under fierce debate -- women's rights, terrorism, homosexuality, civil liberties, abortion, the death penalty, science and religion, environmental degradation, nuclear arsenals, preemptive war, and America's global image.]]> 224 Jimmy Carter 0743285018 Tom 4 3.90 2005 Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis
author: Jimmy Carter
name: Tom
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2005
rating: 4
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]]> Good As Any: Stories 2142163 275 Timothy A. Westmoreland 0151008523 Tom 5 3.88 2002 Good As Any: Stories
author: Timothy A. Westmoreland
name: Tom
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2002
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Raymond Chandler: Later Novels and Other Writings]]> 2045
Written during the war, The Lady in the Lake (1943) takes Philip Marlowe out of the seamy L.A. streets to the deceptive tranquility of the surrounding mountains, as the search for a businessman’s missing wife expands into an elegy of loneliness and loss. The darker tone typical of Chandler’s later fiction is evident in The Little Sister (1949), in which an ambitious starlet, a blackmailer, and a seemingly naïve young woman from Manhattan, Kansas, are the key players in a plot that provides fuel for a bitter indictment of Hollywood and Chandler’s most savage portrayal of his adopted city.

The Long Goodbye (1953), his most ambitious and self-revealing novel, uncovers a more anguished resonance in the Marlowe character, in a plot that hinges on the betrayal of friendship and the compromises of middle age. Playback (1958), written originally as a screenplay, is Chandler’s seventh and last novel.

A special feature of this volume is Chandler’s long-unavailable screenplay for the film noir classic, Double Indemnity (1944), adapted from James M. Cain’s novel. Written with director Billy Wilder, it is one of the best screenplays in American cinema, masterful in construction and dialogue. Supplementing the volume, and providing a more personal glimpse of Chandler’s personality, is a selection of letters and essays—including “The Simple Art of Murder,� in which Chandler muses on his pulp roots and on the special qualities of his hero and style.]]> 1076 Raymond Chandler 1883011086 Tom 5 4.48 1995 Raymond Chandler: Later Novels and Other Writings
author: Raymond Chandler
name: Tom
average rating: 4.48
book published: 1995
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Raymond Chandler: Stories and Early Novels]]> 2046 Library of America series in a comprehensive two-volume set displaying all the facets of his brilliant talent.

In his first novel, The Big Sleep (1939), the classic private eye finds his full-fledged form as Philip Marlowe: at once tough, independent, brash, disillusioned, and sensitive—and man of weary honor threading his way (in Chandler’s phrase) “down these mean streets� among blackmailers, pornographers, and murderers for hire.

In Farewell, My Lovely (1940), Chandler’s personal favorite among his novels, Marlowe’s search for a missing woman leads him from shanties and honky-tonks to the highest reaches of power, encountering an array of richly drawn characters. The High Window (1942), about a rare coin that becomes a catalyst by which a hushed-up crime comes back to haunt a wealthy family, is partly a humorous burlesque of pulp fiction. All three novels show Chandler at a peak of verbal inventiveness and storytelling drive

Stories and Early Novels also includes every classic noir story from the 1930s that Chandler did not later incorporate into a novel—thirteen in all, among them such classics as “Red Wind,� “Finger Man,� The King in Yellow," and “Trouble Is My Business.� Drawn from the pages of Black Mask and Dime Detective, these stories show how Chandler adapted the violent conventions of the pulp magazine—with their brisk exposition and rapid-fire dialogue—to his own emerging vision of 20th-century America.]]> 1199 Raymond Chandler 1883011078 Tom 5 4.51 1933 Raymond Chandler: Stories and Early Novels
author: Raymond Chandler
name: Tom
average rating: 4.51
book published: 1933
rating: 5
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]]> Rickles' Book: A Memoir 740132 256 Don Rickles 0743293053 Tom 3 3.82 2007 Rickles' Book: A Memoir
author: Don Rickles
name: Tom
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2007
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right]]> 23577 People), has been studying the rhetoric of the Right. He has listened to their cries of slander, bias, and even treason. He has examined the Bush administration's policies of squandering our surplus, ravaging the environment, and alienating the rest of the world. He's even watched Fox News. A lot.

And, in this fair and balanced report, Al bravely and candidly exposes them all for what they are: liars. Lying, lying liars. Al destroys the liberal media bias myth by doing what his targets seem incapable of: getting his facts straight. Using the Right's own words against them, he takes on the pundits, the politicians, and the issues, in the most talked about book of the year.

Timely, provocative, unfailingly honest, and always funny, Lies sticks it to the most right-wing administration in memory, and to the right-wing media hacks who do its bidding.

]]> 421 Al Franken 0452285216 Tom 4 3.82 2003 Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right
author: Al Franken
name: Tom
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2003
rating: 4
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]]> Jitterbug Perfume 8682 Jitterbug Perfume is an epic, which is to say, it begins in the forests of ancient Bohemia and doesn't conclude until nine o'clock tonight [Paris time]. It is a saga, as well. A saga must have a hero, and the hero of this one is a janitor with a missing bottle. The bottle is blue, very, very old, and embossed with the image of a goat-horned god. If the liquid in the bottle is actually is the secret essence of the universe, as some folks seem to think, it had better be discovered soon because it is leaking and there is only a drop or two left.]]> 342 Tom Robbins 1842430351 Tom 4 4.24 1984 Jitterbug Perfume
author: Tom Robbins
name: Tom
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1984
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Complete Short Prose, 1929-1989]]> 12284 297 Samuel Beckett 0802134904 Tom 4 4.27 1995 The Complete Short Prose, 1929-1989
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Tom
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1995
rating: 4
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]]> Jonathan Livingston Seagull 71728
Jonathan Livingston Seagull is no ordinary bird. He believes it is every gull's right to fly, to reach the ultimate freedom of challenge and discovery, finding his greatest reward in teaching younger gulls the joy of flight and the power of dreams. The special 20th anniversary release of this spiritual classic!]]> 112 Richard Bach 0743278909 Tom 4 3.87 1970 Jonathan Livingston Seagull
author: Richard Bach
name: Tom
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1970
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Setting Free the Bears (Ballantine Reader's Circle)]]> 4658 304 John Irving 0345417984 Tom 4 3.33 1968 Setting Free the Bears (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
author: John Irving
name: Tom
average rating: 3.33
book published: 1968
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Lyre of Orpheus (Cornish Trilogy, #3)]]> 76897 Lyre of Orpheus.

There is an important decision to be made. The Cornish Foundation is thriving under the directorship of Arthur Cornish when Arthur and his beguiling wife, Maria Theotoky, decide to undertake a project worthy of Francis Cornish -- connoisseur, collector, and notable eccentric -- whose vast fortune endows the Foundation. The grumpy, grimy, extraordinarily talented music student Hulda Schnakenburg is commissioned to complete E. T .A. Hoffmann's unfinished opera Arthur of Britain, or The Magnanimous Cuckold; and the scholarly priest Simon Darcourt finds himself charged with writing the libretto.

Complications both practical and emotional arise: the gypsy in Maria's blood rises with a vengeance; Darcourt stoops to petty crime; and various others indulge in perjury, blackmail, and other unsavory pursuits. Hoffmann's dictum, "the lyre of Orpheus opens the door of the underworld," seems to be all too true -- especially when the long-hidden secrets of Francis Cornish himself are finally revealed.

Baroque and deliciously funny, this third book in The Cornish Trilogy shows Robertson Davies at his very considerable best.

"Robertson Davies is the sort of novelist readers can hardly wait to tell their friends about." -- The Washington Post Book World]]> 472 Robertson Davies 067082416X Tom 4 4.13 1988 The Lyre of Orpheus (Cornish Trilogy, #3)
author: Robertson Davies
name: Tom
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1988
rating: 4
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]]> Still Life with Woodpecker 9566 277 Tom Robbins 184243022X Tom 4 4.05 1980 Still Life with Woodpecker
author: Tom Robbins
name: Tom
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1980
rating: 4
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]]> A Room with a View 3087
Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her, until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. Her eyes are opened by the unconventional characters she meets at the Pension Bertolini: flamboyant romantic novelist Eleanor Lavish, the Cockney Signora, curious Mr Emerson and, most of all, his passionate son George.

Lucy finds herself torn between the intensity of life in Italy and the repressed morals of Edwardian England, personified in her terminally dull fiancé Cecil Vyse. Will she ever learn to follow her own heart?]]> 119 E.M. Forster 1420925431 Tom 5 3.92 1908 A Room with a View
author: E.M. Forster
name: Tom
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1908
rating: 5
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]]> Critical Path 190038
Critical Path is Fuller's master work--the summing up of a lifetime's thought and concern--as urgent and relevant as it was upon its first publication in 1981. Critical Path details how humanity found itself in its current situation--at the limits of the planet's natural resources and facing political, economic, environmental, and ethical crises.

The crowning achievement of an extraordinary career, Critical Path offers the reader the excitement of understanding the essential dilemmas of our time and how responsible citizens can rise to meet this ultimate challenge to our future.]]> 471 R. Buckminster Fuller 0312174918 Tom 5 4.23 1981 Critical Path
author: R. Buckminster Fuller
name: Tom
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1981
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[War Journal: My Five Years In Iraq]]> 3236297 400 Richard Engel 1416563040 Tom 0 currently-reading 4.22 2008 War Journal: My Five Years In Iraq
author: Richard Engel
name: Tom
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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]]> Romeo and Juliet 18135 Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a violent world, in which two young people fall in love. It is not simply that their families disapprove; the Montagues and the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud.

In this death-filled setting, the movement from love at first sight to the lovers� final union in death seems almost inevitable. And yet, this play set in an extraordinary world has become the quintessential story of young love. In part because of its exquisite language, it is easy to respond as if it were about all young lovers.]]> 281 William Shakespeare 0743477111 Tom 4 3.74 1597 Romeo and Juliet
author: William Shakespeare
name: Tom
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1597
rating: 4
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]]> Brave New World 5129 Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine� (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New Worldd likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites.

"Aldous Huxley is the greatest 20th century writer in English." —Chicago Tribune]]> 268 Aldous Huxley 0060929871 Tom 4 3.99 1932 Brave New World
author: Aldous Huxley
name: Tom
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1932
rating: 4
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]]> Of Mice and Men 890 “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.�

They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.

A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.]]> 107 John Steinbeck 0142000671 Tom 5 3.88 1937 Of Mice and Men
author: John Steinbeck
name: Tom
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 5
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]]> 1984 5470 328 George Orwell Tom 5 4.15 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: Tom
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1949
rating: 5
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date added: 2008/07/29
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]]> Where the Sidewalk Ends 30119 Come in... for where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein's world begins.

Shel Silverstein, theĚýNew York Times bestselling author of The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, and Every Thing On It, has created a poetry collection that is outrageously funny and deeply profound.

You'll meet a boy who turns into a TV set, and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow and plant diamond gardens, a place where shoes fly, sisters are auctioned off, and crocodiles go to the dentist.

Shel Silverstein's masterful collection of poems and drawings stretches the bounds of imagination and will be cherished by readers of all ages.]]> 176 Shel Silverstein 0060513039 Tom 5 4.34 1974 Where the Sidewalk Ends
author: Shel Silverstein
name: Tom
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1974
rating: 5
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date added: 2008/07/29
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