Lance's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 03 Feb 2025 16:44:55 -0800 60 Lance's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories]]> 2282 162 Truman Capote 067960085X Lance 3 3.87 1958 Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories
author: Truman Capote
name: Lance
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1958
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves:
review:

]]> Naked Lunch 563798 Naked Lunch is the unnerving tale of a monumental descent into the hellish world of a narcotics addict as he travels from New York to Tangiers, then into Interzone, a nightmarish modern urban wasteland in which the forces of good and evil vie for control of the individual and all of humanity. By mixing the fantastic and the realistic with his own unmistakable vision and voice, Burroughs has created a unique masterpiece that is a classic of twentieth-century fiction.]]> 232 William S. Burroughs Lance 5 3.28 1959 Naked Lunch
author: William S. Burroughs
name: Lance
average rating: 3.28
book published: 1959
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/01/31
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]]> The Shipping News 7354
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
(back cover)]]> 337 Annie Proulx 0743225422 Lance 4 3.88 1993 The Shipping News
author: Annie Proulx
name: Lance
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1993
rating: 4
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date added: 2023/08/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America]]> 259028 447 Erik Larson 0375725601 Lance 4 3.97 2003 The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
author: Erik Larson
name: Lance
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/03/09
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]]> The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 93261 108 Washington Irving 0809594080 Lance 4 3.71 1820 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
author: Washington Irving
name: Lance
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1820
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/04/07
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]]> Beasts of No Nation 411478 142 Uzodinma Iweala 006079867X Lance 4 faves
just wow.

brilliant debut.

took a bit of time (40 pages or so) to pick up the cadence and dialect of the narrator...but once I did I was blown away by the story.]]> 3.70 2005 Beasts of No Nation
author: Uzodinma Iweala
name: Lance
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/03/15
shelves: faves
review:
wow.

just wow.

brilliant debut.

took a bit of time (40 pages or so) to pick up the cadence and dialect of the narrator...but once I did I was blown away by the story.
]]> One Hundred Years of Solitude 320 417 Gabriel García Márquez Lance 5 4.10 1967 One Hundred Years of Solitude
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Lance
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1967
rating: 5
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date added: 2011/08/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever: Stories]]> 6932986 185 Justin Taylor 0061881813 Lance 4 3.36 2010 Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever: Stories
author: Justin Taylor
name: Lance
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2010
rating: 4
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date added: 2011/08/15
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]]> Whisky Galore 655425
Morale is at rock bottom. George Campbell needs a wee dram to give him the courage to stand up to his mother and marry Catriona. The priest, the doctor and, of course, the landlord at the inn are all having a very thin time of it. There's no conversation, no jollity, no fun - until a shipwreck off the coast brings a piece of extraordinary good fortune ...

'Whisky Galore' was made into a glorious film in 1949 and has remained a classic comic novel ever since.]]> 304 Compton Mackenzie 0099453541 Lance 4 3.77 1947 Whisky Galore
author: Compton Mackenzie
name: Lance
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1947
rating: 4
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date added: 2011/08/15
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]]> The Mysteries of Pittsburgh 16697
Chabon masterfully renders the funny, tender, and captivating first-person narrative of Art Bechstein, whose confusion and heartache echo the tones of literary forebears like The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield and The Great Gatsby’s Nick Carraway.

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh incontrovertibly established Chabon as a powerful force in contemporary fiction, even before his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay set the literary world spinning. An unforgettable story of coming of age in America, it is also an essential milestone in the movement of American fiction, from a novelist who has become one of the most important and enduring voices of this generation.]]> 320 Michael Chabon 0060790598 Lance 4 3.65 1988 The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
author: Michael Chabon
name: Lance
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1988
rating: 4
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date added: 2011/08/15
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]]> Faraway Places 78268 Faraway Places won widespread praise for its vivid narrative and incantatory style, and Spanbauer displays singular skill in inhabiting the mind of a troubled adolescent boy.]]> 124 Tom Spanbauer 0060975520 Lance 4 3.91 1988 Faraway Places
author: Tom Spanbauer
name: Lance
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 2011/08/15
date added: 2011/08/15
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]]> Hotel de Dream 5040297 228 Edmund White 0747592799 Lance 4 3.37 2007 Hotel de Dream
author: Edmund White
name: Lance
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2011/08/15
date added: 2011/08/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Proust in the Power of Photography]]> 175971
Drawing on his own experience as a photographer and author, ï discovers a neglected aspect of Proust's interests, offering us a fascinating study of the role of photography both in Proust's oeuvre and in early-twentieth-century culture. ï shows us how Proust was excessively interested in possessing portraits of his acquaintances and how the process by which he remembered and wrote was quite similar to the ways in which photographs register and reveal life's images. This book-beautifully translated by Richard Howard-features previously obscure photographs from ï's High Society series and offers a rare glimpse into two of France's most fascinating artistic minds.]]> 140 ï 0226071448 Lance 5 essentialsinlanceland 4.10 2001 Proust in the Power of Photography
author: ï
name: Lance
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2011/08/15
date added: 2011/08/15
shelves: essentialsinlanceland
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir]]> 94945 Jack Kerouac. Allen Ginsberg. William S. Burroughs. LeRoi Jones. Theirs are the names primarily associated with the Beat Generation. But what about Joyce Johnson (nee Glassman), Edie Parker, Elise Cowen, Diane Di Prima, and dozens of others? These female friends and lovers of the famous iconoclasts are now beginning to be recognized for their own roles in forging the Beat movement and for their daring attempts to live as freely as did the men in their circle a decade before Women's Liberation.Twenty-one-year-old Joyce Johnson, an aspiring novelist and a secretary at a New York literary agency, fell in love with Jack Kerouac on a blind date arranged by Allen Ginsberg nine months before the publication of On the Road made Kerouac an instant celebrity. While Kerouac traveled to Tangiers, San Francisco, and Mexico City, Johnson roamed the streets of the East Village, where she found herself in the midst of the cultural revolution the Beats had created. Minor Characters portrays the turbulent years of her relationship with Kerouac with extraordinary wit and love and a cool, critical eye, introducing the reader to a lesser known but purely original American voice: her own.]]> 304 Joyce Johnson Lance 4 4.07 1983 Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir
author: Joyce Johnson
name: Lance
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at: 2011/08/15
date added: 2011/08/15
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]]> The Burning Library 157504 Edmund White 0330338838 Lance 3 4.00 1994 The Burning Library
author: Edmund White
name: Lance
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2011/04/30
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]]> The Burning Library 813146 416 Edmund White 0679754741 Lance 4 3.72 1994 The Burning Library
author: Edmund White
name: Lance
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1994
rating: 4
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date added: 2011/04/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Beautiful Room Is Empty (The Edmund Trilogy, #2)]]> 109726 The Beautiful Room is Empty conflates the acts of coming out and coming of age.
]]> 240 Edmund White 0679755403 Lance 4 3.93 1988 The Beautiful Room Is Empty (The Edmund Trilogy, #2)
author: Edmund White
name: Lance
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/04/30
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV]]> 164732 886 0890420629 Lance 4
just for fun you can spend an evening sipping merlot and "finding" your friends]]> 3.90 1996 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV
author: American Psychiatric Association
name: Lance
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/12/31
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review:
very handy.

just for fun you can spend an evening sipping merlot and "finding" your friends
]]> <![CDATA[How Proust Can Change Your Life]]> 23420 In Search of Lost Time (while bedridden, no less), Alain de Botton has the answer. For, in this stylish, erudite and frequently hilarious book, de Botton dips deeply into Proust’s life and work—his fiction, letter, and conversations—and distills from them that rare self-help manual: one that is actually helpful.

Here, tendered in prose almost as luminous as it’s subject’s, is advice on cultivating friendships, suffering successfully, recognizing love and understanding why you should never sleep with someone on the first date. And here, too, is a generously perceptive literary biography that suggests that the master is as relevant today as he was in fin de siècle Paris. At once slyly ironic and genuinely wise, How Proust Can Change Your Life is an unqualified delight.]]> 208 Alain de Botton 0679779159 Lance 5 3.78 1998 How Proust Can Change Your Life
author: Alain de Botton
name: Lance
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1998
rating: 5
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date added: 2010/09/25
shelves:
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]]> Up From the Blue 7907787
Tillie Harris's life is in disarray—her husband is away on business, the boxes in her new home aren't unpacked, and the telephone isn't even connected yet. Though she's not due for another month, sudden labor pains force Tillie to reach out to her estranged father for help, a choice that means facing the painful memories she's been running from since she was a little girl.

An extraordinary debut from a talented new voice, Up from the Blue untangles the year in Tillie's life that changed everything: 1975, the year her mother disappeared.]]> 336 Susan Henderson 0061984035 Lance 5 3.77 2010 Up From the Blue
author: Susan Henderson
name: Lance
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/08/21
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]]> Last Night in Montreal 6105964 Last Night in Montreal is a story of love, amnesia, compulsive travel, the depths and the limits of family bonds, and the nature of obsession. In this extraordinary debut, Emily St. John Mandel casts a powerful spell that captures the reader in a gritty, youthful world -- charged with an atmosphere of mystery, promise and foreboding -- where small revelations continuously change our understanding of the truth and lead to desperate consequences. Mandel's characters will resonate with you long after the final page is turned.

Lilia Albert has been leaving people behind her entire life. She spends her childhood and adolescence traveling constantly and changing identities. In adulthood, she finds it impossible to stop. Haunted by an inability to remember her early childhood, she moves restlessly from city to city, abandoning lovers along the way, possibly still followed by a private detective who has pursued her for years. Then her latest lover follows her from New York to Montreal, determined to learn her secrets and make sure she's safe.

A taut yet lyrical tale of loss and love, of sacrifice and abandonment, and of finding a way home, Last Night in Montreal is a dazzling read, filled with rich characters and shocking twists. It marks the beginning of a wonderful career.]]> 247 Emily St. John Mandel 1932961682 Lance 4 wow. just...wow. 3.60 2009 Last Night in Montreal
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Lance
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2010/05/29
date added: 2010/05/30
shelves:
review:
wow. just...wow.
]]> Lean on Pete 6713642
In Vlautin's third novel, Lean on Pete, he reveals the lives and choices of American youth like Charley Thompson who were failed by those meant to protect them and who were never allowed the chance to just be a kid.]]> 304 Willy Vlautin 0061456535 Lance 0 to-read 4.07 2010 Lean on Pete
author: Willy Vlautin
name: Lance
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/03/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> Just Kids 341879 Just Kids, Patti Smith's first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-before-seen glimpse of her remarkable relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the epochal days of New York City and the Chelsea Hotel in the late sixties and seventies. An honest and moving story of youth and friendship, Smith brings the same unique, lyrical quality to Just Kids as she has to the rest of her formidable body of work--from her influential 1975 album Horses to her visual art and poetry.]]> 304 Patti Smith Lance 0 4.19 2010 Just Kids
author: Patti Smith
name: Lance
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2010/02/17
date added: 2010/02/17
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]]> The Line of Beauty 139087
As the boom years of the eighties unfold, Nick, an innocent in the world of politics and money, finds his life altered by the rising fortunes of this glamorous family. His two vividly contrasting love affairs, one with a young black clerk and one with a Lebanese millionaire, dramatize the dangers and rewards of his own private pursuit of beauty, a pursuit as compelling to Nick as the desire for power and riches among his friends.

Richly textured, emotionally charged, disarmingly comic, this U.K. bestseller is a major work by one of our finest writers.]]> 438 Alan Hollinghurst 0739464469 Lance 0 to-read 3.76 2004 The Line of Beauty
author: Alan Hollinghurst
name: Lance
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Death of Bunny Munro 6389257 288 Nick Cave 1847673767 Lance 0 to-read 3.46 2009 The Death of Bunny Munro
author: Nick Cave
name: Lance
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2010/01/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> 86'd (Bruno Dante, #4) 6413376 In Los Angeles, struggling telemarketer-writer and part-time drunk Bruno Dante is jobless again. The publication of his book of short stories has been put off indefinitely. Searching the want ads for a gig, he finds a chauffeur job. When Bruno calls the number in the ad, he discovers the boss is his former Manhattan employer David Koffman, who is opening a West Coast branch of his thriving limo service. Koffman hires Bruno as resident manager of Dav-Ko Hollywood under one condition: he must remain sober. But instant business success triggers an abrupt booze-and-blackout-soaked downward spiral for Bruno, forcing him to confront his own madness as he struggles to keep his old familiar demons from getting the best of him yet again.

]]> 304 Dan Fante 0061779229 Lance 0 to-read 3.80 2009 86'd (Bruno Dante, #4)
author: Dan Fante
name: Lance
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2010/01/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> A Single Man 16842 186 Christopher Isherwood 0816638624 Lance 5
5 stars. easily.

I'm gonna think this one over a few days and swing back through to tell you why it's essential later.

read it. now.]]> 4.08 1964 A Single Man
author: Christopher Isherwood
name: Lance
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1964
rating: 5
read at: 2010/01/02
date added: 2010/01/02
shelves:
review:
a brilliant book I'm almost ashamed to say I'm just now reading.

5 stars. easily.

I'm gonna think this one over a few days and swing back through to tell you why it's essential later.

read it. now.
]]> Scorch Atlas 6260741 152 Blake Butler 0977199282 Lance 0 to-read 3.64 2009 Scorch Atlas
author: Blake Butler
name: Lance
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet]]> 6065179 Discover The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet for iPad.


A brilliant, boundary-leaping debut novel tracing twelve-year-old genius map maker T.S. Spivet's attempts to understand the ways of the world

When twelve-year-old genius cartographer T.S. Spivet receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as normal-if you consider mapping family dinner table conversation normal-is interrupted and a wild cross-country adventure begins, taking T.S. from his family ranch just north of Divide, Montana, to the museum's hallowed halls.

T.S. sets out alone, leaving before dawn with a plan to hop a freight train and hobo east. Once aboard, his adventures step into high gear and he meticulously maps, charts, and illustrates his exploits, documenting mythical wormholes in the Midwest, the urban phenomenon of "rims," and the pleasures of McDonald's, among other things. We come to see the world through T.S.'s eyes and in his thorough investigation of the outside world he also reveals himself.

As he travels away from the ranch and his family we learn how the journey also brings him closer to home. A secret family history found within his luggage tells the story of T.S.'s ancestors and their long-ago passage west, offering profound insight into the family he left behind and his role within it. As T.S. reads he discovers the sometimes shadowy boundary between fact and fiction and realizes that, for all his analytical rigor, the world around him is a mystery.

All that he has learned is tested when he arrives at the capital to claim his prize and is welcomed into science's inner circle. For all its shine, fame seems more highly valued than ideas in this new world and friends are hard to find.

T.S.'s trip begins at the Copper Top Ranch and the last known place he stands is Washington, D.C., but his journey's movement is far harder to track: How do you map the delicate lessons learned about family and self? How do you depict how it feels to first venture out on your own? Is there a definitive way to communicate the ebbs and tides of heartbreak, loss, loneliness, love? These are the questions that strike at the core of this very special debut.

Now a major motion picture directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Kyle Catlett and Helena Bonham Carter.]]> 375 Reif Larsen 1594202176 Lance 0 to-read 3.90 2009 The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet
author: Reif Larsen
name: Lance
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2009/12/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Book of Disquiet 45974 The Book of Disquiet, an astonishing work that, in George Steiner's words, "gives to Lisbon the haunting spell of Joyce's Dublin or Kafka's Prague." Published for the first time some fifty years after his death, this unique collection of short, aphoristic paragraphs comprises the "autobiography" of Bernardo Soares, one of Pessoa's alternate selves. Part intimate diary, part prose poetry, part descriptive narrative, captivatingly translated by Richard Zenith, The Book of Disquiet is one of the greatest works of the twentieth century.]]> 544 Fernando Pessoa 0141183047 Lance 0 to-read 4.46 1982 The Book of Disquiet
author: Fernando Pessoa
name: Lance
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/12/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> Dead Boys: Stories 1507537

Set in a Los Angeles depicted with aching clarity, Lange's stories are gritty, and his characters often less than perfect. Beneath their macho bravado, however, they are full of heart and heartbreak.]]> 256 Richard Lange 0316017361 Lance 0 3.98 2007 Dead Boys: Stories
author: Richard Lange
name: Lance
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at: 2009/12/26
date added: 2009/12/26
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]]> <![CDATA[The Customer is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles]]> 3267288
The Customer Is Always Wrong is a tragicomic and all-too revealing collection of essays by writers who have done their time behind the counter and lived to tell their tales. Jim DeRogatis, author of Let It Blurt, for example, describes hanging out with Al himself at Al Rocky’s Music Store, while Colson Whitehead explains how three summers at a Long Island ice cream store gave him a lifelong aversion to all things dessert-like. This book not only shines a light on the absurdities of retail culture but finds the delight in it as well.]]> 172 Jeff Martin 193336890X Lance 0 to-read 3.05 2008 The Customer is Always Wrong: The Retail Chronicles
author: Jeff Martin
name: Lance
average rating: 3.05
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/12/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> Misfits and Other Heroes 5043419 Misfits and Other Heroes is the literary equivalent of Todd Browning’s classic film Freaks, which is—in this achingly dull age of worthy fictions—a wonderful and daring thing to be.� —Pinckney Benedict

“This is no ordinary collection. In Misfits and Other Heroes Burns writes of disproportion, excess, reinvention, and lack as a means of magnifying outward physical irregularities to better reveal the inner irregularities of her characters. Burns is unafraid to explore the dark territory of human heart where love and hate are twins for desire and dread. The many brilliant moments of character, language, and startling observations indicate Burns is a keen observer of the wretched and wonderful human creature. In Burns� capable hands the grotesque becomes achingly familiar: the misfits she writes about are us.� —Gina Oschner

"Suzanne Burns is the ringleader of a magical, quixotic, flea circus of words. Magisterial, she sings. I love this collection-its sadness and wonder, its acrobatics, its nerve." —Kate Bernheimer, editor of Fairy Tale Review

“Who would have thought that Oregon's misfits could be as deluded and cruel as Flannery O'Connor's Southerners and even more bizarre?" —Tom Whalen, author of Dolls: Prose Poems

Suzanne Burns' Misfits and Other Heroes is a wickedly insightful, brilliantly constructed collection of 14 stories which are at once fearless and full of hope. In tales of the familiar turned on their heads, Burns introduces us to lovers and travelers, dreamers and daredevils, a man the size of a drinking straw and a magician with a masochistic streak. Acts of murder and mayhem run alongside a middle-aged woman dreaming of a different life. In each tale Burns consistently hits the perfect chord. The stories do not just present the strange but uses the bizarre to accent what is human in all of us.

Mixing the best of Palahniuk with the keen clever humor of Aimee Bender, Burns is a writer of unique wit and wisdom. Misfits and Other Heroes is a debut not to be missed.

Suzanne Burns has previously published two collections of poetry, Blight from Archer Books and The Flesh Procession from Bleak House Books. Her writing has been nominated for four Pushcart Prizes and she is the recipient of two poetry fellowships. She is a freelance editor who is currently working on a new novel.
]]> 212 Suzanne Burns 0981589960 Lance 0 to-read 4.08 2009 Misfits and Other Heroes
author: Suzanne Burns
name: Lance
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/12/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Brassai: The Eye of Paris 1056740 367 Anne Wilkes Tucker 0890900868 Lance 5 essentialsinlanceland 4.47 1999 Brassai: The Eye of Paris
author: Anne Wilkes Tucker
name: Lance
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves: essentialsinlanceland
review:
in daydreams, my minds-eye, everything in my core...soul...memories...whatever you call it when a vision touches you and makes you feel comfort; this is home.
]]> Anthem 667 Anthem is Ayn Rand's classic tale of a dystopian future of the great "We"—a world that deprives individuals of a name or independence—that anticipates her later masterpieces, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

They existed only to serve the state. They were conceived in controlled Palaces of Mating. They died in the Home of the Useless. From cradle to grave, the crowd was one—the great WE.

In all that was left of humanity, there was only one man who dared to think, seek, and love. He lived in the dark ages of the future. In a loveless world, he dared to love the woman of his choice. In an age that had lost all trace of science and civilization, he had the courage to seek and find knowledge. But these were not the crimes for which he would be hunted. He was marked for death because he had committed the unpardonable sin: He had stood forth from the mindless human herd. He was a man alone. He had rediscovered the lost and holy word—I.

"I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals, and I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up to these possibilities."
 —Ayn Rand]]> 105 Ayn Rand 0452281253 Lance 5 core
essential Rand-ian philosophy.]]> 3.59 1938 Anthem
author: Ayn Rand
name: Lance
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1938
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves: core
review:
clean, tight, no ego.

essential Rand-ian philosophy.
]]> Walden : An Annotated Edition 116022 338 Henry David Thoreau 0395720427 Lance 4 4.05 1854 Walden : An Annotated Edition
author: Henry David Thoreau
name: Lance
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1854
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
considering that my life mantra is "go confidently in the direction of your dreams", Thoreau is a natural choice for me... some days I think good old HDT had the right idea getting away from it all.
]]> <![CDATA[Resident Alien: The New York Diaries]]> 947390 Quentin Crisp 1555834663 Lance 4
lovely gentleman, impeccable style and nice dry humour.]]> 4.15 1997 Resident Alien: The New York Diaries
author: Quentin Crisp
name: Lance
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
met Q at a reading in Chicago years ago.

lovely gentleman, impeccable style and nice dry humour.
]]> 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 Lance 5 essentialsinlanceland
the book that brought the first profound emotional experience to reading for me, I sat on a red vinyl mat in a grammar school classroom and cried...

the beginning of the other kids thinking I was a bit odd and a lifetime road of finding a way to write from that beautiful, clear, true and emotional place.

an essential book!]]> 4.38 1964 The Giving Tree
author: Shel Silverstein
name: Lance
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1964
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves: essentialsinlanceland
review:
this is the book that made me fall in love with books.

the book that brought the first profound emotional experience to reading for me, I sat on a red vinyl mat in a grammar school classroom and cried...

the beginning of the other kids thinking I was a bit odd and a lifetime road of finding a way to write from that beautiful, clear, true and emotional place.

an essential book!
]]> Written on the Body 15054 Written on the Body is a secret code only visible in certain lights: the accumulation of a lifetime gather there. In places the palimpsest is so heavily worked that the letters feel like braille. I like to keep my body rolled away from prying eyes, never unfold too much, tell the whole story. I didn't know that Louise would have reading hands. She has translated me into her own book.]]> 190 Jeanette Winterson 0679744479 Lance 5 essentialsinlanceland the greatest love story
mesmerizing and shape changing.
a literary idol.]]> 4.11 1992 Written on the Body
author: Jeanette Winterson
name: Lance
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves: essentialsinlanceland
review:
the best storytelling
the greatest love story
mesmerizing and shape changing.
a literary idol.
]]> <![CDATA[Love Is Hard Work: Memorias de Loisaida/Poems]]> 784967
In the centerpiece of the book, the poet offers a searing, unsentimental look at himself and his life.]]> 160 Miguel Algarín 0684825171 Lance 5 essentialsinlanceland
heartfelt, fearless and loving.]]> 3.93 1997 Love Is Hard Work: Memorias de Loisaida/Poems
author: Miguel Algarín
name: Lance
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves: essentialsinlanceland
review:
one of the most beautiful books of poetry, on my desktop at all times.

heartfelt, fearless and loving.
]]> The Species Crown 1063964 252 Curtis Smith 0979304903 Lance 4
keeping a smile on my face.]]> 4.81 2007 The Species Crown
author: Curtis Smith
name: Lance
average rating: 4.81
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
good short story collection.

keeping a smile on my face.
]]> The Year of Magical Thinking 7815
From one of America's iconic writers, a stunning book of electric honesty and passion. Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience: a portrait of a marriage–and a life, in good times and bad–that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child.

Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill with what seemed at first flu, then pneumonia, then complete septic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later–the night before New Year's Eve–the Dunnes were just sitting down to dinner after visiting the hospital when John Gregory Dunne suffered a massive and fatal coronary. In a second, this close, symbiotic partnership of forty years was over. Four weeks later, their daughter pulled through. Two months after that, arriving at LAX, she collapsed and underwent six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center to relieve a massive hematoma.

This powerful book is Didion's attempt to make sense of the "weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness . . . about marriage and children and memory . . . about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself."]]> 227 Joan Didion 1400078431 Lance 5 essentialsinlanceland
the bravery of this work, and the ease with which she moves from one page of science and fact to raw emotions and experience is amazing on so many levels....discipline, craft, courage.

I hope I'm even half the writer she is.]]> 3.94 2005 The Year of Magical Thinking
author: Joan Didion
name: Lance
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves: essentialsinlanceland
review:
Didion is a titan!

the bravery of this work, and the ease with which she moves from one page of science and fact to raw emotions and experience is amazing on so many levels....discipline, craft, courage.

I hope I'm even half the writer she is.
]]> <![CDATA[The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again)]]> 31818 A loosely formed autobiography by Andy Warhol, told with his trademark blend of irony and detachment

In The Philosophy of Andy Warhol—which, with the subtitle "(From A to B and Back Again)," is less a memoir than a collection of riffs and reflections—he talks about love, sex, food, beauty, fame, work, money, and success; about New York, America, and his childhood in McKeesport, Pennsylvania; about his good times and bad in New York, the explosion of his career in the sixties, and his life among celebrities.]]> 272 Andy Warhol 0156717204 Lance 5 essentialsinlanceland
in lanceland this has been: bible, self-help, inspiration, fieldguide, confessional, instruction manual...and may have actually saved my life.]]> 3.84 1975 The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again)
author: Andy Warhol
name: Lance
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1975
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves: essentialsinlanceland
review:
did you really think this one wouldn't make my list?

in lanceland this has been: bible, self-help, inspiration, fieldguide, confessional, instruction manual...and may have actually saved my life.
]]> <![CDATA[A Home at the End of the World]]> 386242
There's Jonathan, lonely, introspective, and unsure of himself; and Bobby, hip, dark, and inarticulate. In New York after college, Bobby moves in with Jonathan and his roommate, Clare, a veteran of the city's erotic wars. Bobby and Clare fall in love, scuttling the plans of Jonathan, who is gay, to father Clare's child. Then, when Clare and Bobby have a baby, the three move to a small house upstate to raise "their" child together and, with an odd friend, Alice, create a new kind of family.

A Home at the End of the World masterfully depicts the charged, fragile relationships of urban life today.]]> 343 Michael Cunningham 0312202318 Lance 4 faves
it also makes me not so alone.

feeling soul bonded to a character is magical when you find it.]]> 3.86 1990 A Home at the End of the World
author: Michael Cunningham
name: Lance
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves: faves
review:
this book makes me swoon.

it also makes me not so alone.

feeling soul bonded to a character is magical when you find it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things]]> 51744
These are the stories of a young boy on the run, away from his past, hellbent towards an unknown future. Connected, they form a sometimes harrowing, sometimes bleakly funny, and often tender portrait of a complicated life. Like a modern-day Voltaire, LeRoy bounces his characters from adventure to adventure, each of them unyielding in the belief that the best of all possible worlds lies just around the next corner. Fresh, raw, and absolutely unforgettable, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things has further established the acclaimed author of Sarah as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary fiction.]]> 247 J.T. LeRoy 1582342113 Lance 5 faves 3.68 2001 The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things
author: J.T. LeRoy
name: Lance
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves: faves
review:
I really don't care who or what wrote this. It's groundbreaking writing. Experiences that are so foreign to me and desperation that turns your stomach. Interactions, exchanges and cruelty that beg you to put in down and look away. But you just can't, the voice is captivating, you're disgusted but you have to read on. Visceral. Disturbing. Rather well written, doubly so when you consider the authorship.
]]> Edinburgh 272433 212 Alexander Chee 0312305036 Lance 5 essentialsinlanceland beautiful, brave and fearless storytelling.
a book that I adamantly demand is in the collections of all my friends.

a vividly rendered and heartbreaking tale that is a certain must read, you'll thank me for the recommendation...it will change the way you read books...you'll come to expect a bit more after this.

reading again, loving the flow and everything that this book evokes...]]> 4.13 2001 Edinburgh
author: Alexander Chee
name: Lance
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves: essentialsinlanceland
review:
a book by a person I admire and respect above all others.
beautiful, brave and fearless storytelling.
a book that I adamantly demand is in the collections of all my friends.

a vividly rendered and heartbreaking tale that is a certain must read, you'll thank me for the recommendation...it will change the way you read books...you'll come to expect a bit more after this.

reading again, loving the flow and everything that this book evokes...
]]> 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 Lance 5
perfectly captures era and character.

I read this often to remind myself what zone to work towards.]]> 3.93 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Lance
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
the greatest novel ever written.

perfectly captures era and character.

I read this often to remind myself what zone to work towards.
]]> Pop Salvation 6425408 242 Lance Reynald 0061672971 Lance 0 just finishing up the tour. 3.65 2009 Pop Salvation
author: Lance Reynald
name: Lance
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/12/08
shelves:
review:
just finishing up the tour.
]]> The Soul Thief 1428572

From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 224 Charles Baxter 0375422528 Lance 0 to-read 2.92 2007 The Soul Thief
author: Charles Baxter
name: Lance
average rating: 2.92
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/12/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> In the Wake 398326
In the Wake is the story of Arvid's first steps toward resuming that life, of his gradual confrontation with everything he lost and ultimately with his own role in the disaster that killed his family.

Told with the insight and moral force of his countryman Knut Hamsun, In the Wake is the American debut of a treasured European writer.]]> 230 Per Petterson 0312427042 Lance 0 to-read 3.69 2000 In the Wake
author: Per Petterson
name: Lance
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/12/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Out Stealing Horses 398323
Trond’s friend Jon often appeared at his doorstep with an adventure in mind for the two of them. But this morning would turn out to be different. What began as a joy ride on “borrowed� horses ends with Jon falling into a strange trance of grief. Trond soon learns what befell Jon earlier that day—an incident that marks the beginning of a series of vital losses for both boys.

Set in the easternmost region of Norway, Out Stealing Horses begins with an ending. Sixty-seven-year-old Trond has settled into a rustic cabin in an isolated area to live the rest of his life with a quiet deliberation. A meeting with his only neighbor, however, forces him to reflect on that fateful summer.]]> 258 Per Petterson Lance 0 to-read 3.79 2003 Out Stealing Horses
author: Per Petterson
name: Lance
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/12/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas]]> 6548291
You better not cry --
And two eyes made out of coal --
Claus and effect --
Ask again later --
Why do you reward me thus --
The best and only everything --
Silent night]]> 206 Augusten Burroughs 0312341911 Lance 0 to-read 3.70 2009 You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: Lance
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/11/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Feast of Love 119290 The Feast of Love is a sumptuous work of fiction about the thing that most distracts and delights us. In a re-imagined A Midsummer Night's Dream, men and women speak of and desire their ideal mates; parents seek out their lost children; adult children try to come to terms with their own parents and, in some cases, find new ones.

In vignettes both comic and sexy, the owner of a coffee shop recalls the day his first wife seemed to achieve a moment of simple perfection, while she remembers the women's softball game during which she was stricken by the beauty of the shortstop. A young couple spends hours at the coffee shop fueling the idea of their fierce love. A professor of philosophy, stopping by for a cup of coffee, makes a valiant attempt to explain what he knows to be the inexplicable workings of the human heart Their voices resonate with each other—disparate people joined by the meanderings of love—and come together in a tapestry that depicts the most irresistible arena of life.]]> 308 Charles Baxter 037570910X Lance 0 to-read 3.71 2000 The Feast of Love
author: Charles Baxter
name: Lance
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/11/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[boring boring boring boring boring boring boring]]> 2625827 A mysterious gray book drives Ollister and Adelaide’s twisted po-mo relationship. When it goes missing, they go nuts: he plots revenge against art patriarch The Platypus while she obsesses over their anti-love affair. Meanwhile, the other art school scenesters experiment with bad drugs, bad sex, and bad ideas. When a punk named Punk shows up with a potent sex drug, the whole wild crowd gets caught up in the gravitational pull of The Platypus� sinister White Ball, where a confused art terrorism cell threatens a ludicrous and hilarious implosion. With an unerring, unflinching eye for satire, Zach Plague’s brilliant hybrid of image and text lampoons the art world and those boring enough to fall into its traps. Featuring dynamic graphic text on every page, boring boring boring boring boring boring boring is an intrigue of mundane proportion.]]> 288 Zach Plague Lance 0 to-read 3.63 2008 boring boring boring boring boring boring boring
author: Zach Plague
name: Lance
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/10/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Love Begins in Winter: Five Stories (P.S.)]]> 5966608
Love begins in winter --
Tiger, tiger --
The Missing statues --
The Coming and going of strangers --
The City of windy trees]]> 256 Simon Van Booy 0061661473 Lance 5 essentialsinlanceland it has become my constant companion on my book tour.

everything about it reminds me why I love writing so much.

Love Begins in Winter Stories (P.S.) by Simon Van Booy

heartbreaking, tender and brilliant.

no other book or writer could carry a higher recommendation from me.]]> 4.09 2009 Love Begins in Winter: Five Stories (P.S.)
author: Simon Van Booy
name: Lance
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2009/09/01
date added: 2009/10/28
shelves: essentialsinlanceland
review:
I am so in love with this book.
it has become my constant companion on my book tour.

everything about it reminds me why I love writing so much.

Love Begins in Winter Stories (P.S.) by Simon Van Booy

heartbreaking, tender and brilliant.

no other book or writer could carry a higher recommendation from me.
]]> <![CDATA[Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School]]> 1051091 240 C.J. Pascoe 0520252306 Lance 0 to-read 3.84 2007 Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School
author: C.J. Pascoe
name: Lance
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Nobody Passes 138215 Nobody Passes is a collection of essays that confronts and challenges the very notion of belonging. By examining the perilous intersections of identity, categorization, and community, contributors challenge societal mores and countercultural norms. Nobody Passes explores and critiques the various systems of power seen (or not seen) in the act of “passing.� In a pass-fail situation, standards for acceptance may vary, but somebody always gets trampled on. This anthology seeks to eliminate the pressure to pass and thereby unearth the delicious and devastating opportunities for transformation that might create.

Mattilda, aka Matt Bernstein Sycamore, has a history of editing anthologies based on brazen nonconformity and gender defiance. Mattilda sets out to ask the question, “What lies are people forced to tell in order to gain acceptance as 'real'.� The answers are as varied as the life experiences of the writers who tackle this urgent and essential topic.]]> 354 Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore 1580051847 Lance 4 4.00 2006 Nobody Passes
author: Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
name: Lance
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/07/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Where I Was From 423
Combining history and reportage, memoir and literary criticism, Where I Was From explores California’s romances with land and water; its unacknowledged debts to railroads, aerospace, and big government; the disjunction between its code of individualism and its fetish for prisons. Whether she is writing about her pioneer ancestors or privileged sexual predators, robber barons or writers (not excluding herself), Didion is an unparalleled observer, and her book is at once intellectually provocative and deeply personal.]]> 240 Joan Didion Lance 5 3.87 2003 Where I Was From
author: Joan Didion
name: Lance
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/07/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Slouching Towards Bethlehem 424 The first nonfiction work by one of the most distinctive prose stylists of our era, Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem remains, decades after its first publication, the essential portrait of America—particularly California—in the sixties.

It focuses on such subjects as John Wayne and Howard Hughes, growing up a girl in California, ruminating on the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room, and, especially, the essence of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, the heart of the counterculture.

It contains Didion's famous essay, "Goodbye to All That".]]> 238 Joan Didion Lance 5 4.20 1968 Slouching Towards Bethlehem
author: Joan Didion
name: Lance
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1968
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/07/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Working for the Man: Inspiring and Subversive Projects for Residents of Cubicle Land]]> 945766
For anyone frustrated with the soul-killing monotony of a nine-to-five job, this quirky collection helps beat the office blues, inspire creativity in seemingly dead-end situations, and preserve a bit of integrity in a conformist corporate culture. Learn how

- Survive long, boring meetings with breath-holding contests
- Plot out a "sick day" calendar to maximize time off
- Write your novel on company time
- Create the most pro-worker cubicle to instill a false sense of your total commitment
- Anonymously send your boss a Happy Secretary's Day bouquet]]> 256 Jeffrey Yamaguchi 0399533710 Lance 3 3.68 2007 Working for the Man: Inspiring and Subversive Projects for Residents of Cubicle Land
author: Jeffrey Yamaguchi
name: Lance
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2009/07/09
date added: 2009/07/09
shelves:
review:

]]> When We Get There 781811 272 Shauna Seliy 1596913509 Lance 4 3.61 2008 When We Get There
author: Shauna Seliy
name: Lance
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2009/07/09
date added: 2009/07/09
shelves:
review:

]]> The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle 11275
In a Tokyo suburb a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat. Soon he finds himself looking for his wife as well in a netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of Tokyo. As these searches intersect, Okada encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists: a psychic prostitute; a malevolent yet mediagenic politician; a cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old-girl; and an aging war veteran who has been permanently changed by the hideous things he witnessed during Japan's forgotten campaign in Manchuria.

Gripping, prophetic, suffused with comedy and menace, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a tour de force equal in scope to the masterpieces of Mishima and Pynchon.]]> 607 Haruki Murakami 0965341984 Lance 0 to-read 4.16 1994 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Lance
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2007/12/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Applicant (Real World) 1419379 A priceless time bomb of pop culture, this serves as a compelling and secret look into an impossibly lost era. The author found discarded, confidential, PhD applicant files for the biology department at an Ivy League university from 1965 to 1975 as he was rooting through the recycling bin for magazines. Photographs of the prospective students were stapled to many of the documents and this book collects these photos and pairs them with accompanying comments from employers and professors. The results are absurdist, confusing, often hilarious, and disturbing. They provide unique insight into outdated, 1970s social attitudes and ephemera yet much of the book’s appeal is found in what the book fails to say: the blank and despondent stares of its subjects, the outdated fashions and hairstyles, and its understated text.

]]> 48 Jesse Reklaw 0977055760 Lance 5 essentialsinlanceland, faves genius. 4.19 2006 Applicant (Real World)
author: Jesse Reklaw
name: Lance
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/12/28
shelves: essentialsinlanceland, faves
review:
genius.
]]> Suite Française 43944 The first two stories of a masterwork once thought lost, written by a pre-WWII bestselling author who was deported to Auschwitz and died before her work could be completed.

By the early l940s, when Ukrainian-born Irène Némirovsky began working on what would become Suite Française—the first two parts of a planned five-part novel—she was already a highly successful writer living in Paris. But she was also a Jew, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz: a month later she was dead at the age of thirty-nine. Two years earlier, living in a small village in central France—where she, her husband, and their two small daughters had fled in a vain attempt to elude the Nazis—she'd begun her novel, a luminous portrayal of a human drama in which she herself would become a victim. When she was arrested, she had completed two parts of the epic, the handwritten manuscripts of which were hidden in a suitcase that her daughters would take with them into hiding and eventually into freedom. Sixty-four years later, at long last, we can read Némirovsky's literary masterpiece

The first part, "A Storm in June," opens in the chaos of the massive 1940 exodus from Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion during which several families and individuals are thrown together under circumstances beyond their control. They share nothing but the harsh demands of survival—some trying to maintain lives of privilege, others struggling simply to preserve their lives—but soon, all together, they will be forced to face the awful exigencies of physical and emotional displacement, and the annihilation of the world they know. In the second part, "Dolce," we enter the increasingly complex life of a German-occupied provincial village. Coexisting uneasily with the soldiers billeted among them, the villagers—from aristocrats to shopkeepers to peasants—cope as best they can. Some choose resistance, others collaboration, and as their community is transformed by these acts, the lives of these these men and women reveal nothing less than the very essence of humanity.

Suite Française is a singularly piercing evocation—at once subtle and severe, deeply compassionate, and fiercely ironic—of life and death in occupied France, and a brilliant, profoundly moving work of art.]]> 431 Irène Némirovsky 1400096278 Lance 4 3.83 2004 Suite Française
author: Irène Némirovsky
name: Lance
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> The Road 350540 The searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son’s fight to survive.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,� are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.]]> 287 Cormac McCarthy 0307387895 Lance 4 3.99 2006 The Road
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Lance
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Famous Fathers and Other Stories]]> 1185451
Wavering between fidelity and freedom, the women in this sparkling debut collection deal with emotional damage and unhealed heartbreak by plunging into unusual, often bizarre, relationships.

In Pia Z. Ehrhardt’s stories, adultery and impropriety become disquietingly mundane. Mothers expect daughters to be complicit in their love affairs, children seek shelter in families that aren’t their own, fathers court their daughters, a couple enters into a marriage that lasts thirty days a year, and a young girl takes to the road with the simple guy who bags groceries at Piggly Wiggly while her mother imagines her safely at school.

Beautifully restrained and shot through with tenderness, Famous Fathers and Other Stories establishes Ehrhardt as both a leading practitioner of the short story and an empathetic interpreter of the lives of wounded people who–instead of asking for what they want–take what is offered.]]> 200 Pia Z. Ehrhardt 1596922125 Lance 4 4.12 2007 Famous Fathers and Other Stories
author: Pia Z. Ehrhardt
name: Lance
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Shopgirl 10873
With more than 340,000 copies in print, Steve Martin's Shopgirl has landed on bestseller lists nationwide including: New York Times, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times.

Filled with the kind of witty, discerning observations that have brought Steve Martin incredible critical success, this story of modern day love and romance is a work of disarming tenderness.]]> 130 Steve Martin 0786891076 Lance 3 3.42 2000 Shopgirl
author: Steve Martin
name: Lance
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction]]> 426
Slouching Towards Bethlehem captures the counterculture of the sixties, its mood and lifestyle, as symbolized by California, Joan Baez, Haight-Ashbury. The White Album covers the revolutionary politics and the “contemporary wasteland� of the late sixties and early seventies, in pieces on the Manson family, the Black Panthers, and Hollywood. Salvador is a riveting look at the social and political landscape of civil war. Miami exposes the secret role this largely Latin city played in the Cold War, from the Bay of Pigs through Watergate. In After Henry Didion reports on the Reagans, Patty Hearst, and the Central Park jogger case. The eight essays in Political Fictions–on censorship in the media, Gingrich, Clinton, Starr, and “compassionate conservatism,� among others–show us how we got to the political scene of today. And in Where I Was From Didion shows that California was never the land of the golden dream.]]> 1122 Joan Didion 0307264874 Lance 5 4.49 2006 We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction
author: Joan Didion
name: Lance
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> The Things They Carried 133518
The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three.

Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.]]> 246 Tim O'Brien 0767902890 Lance 5 essentialsinlanceland 4.14 1990 The Things They Carried
author: Tim O'Brien
name: Lance
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/12/28
shelves: essentialsinlanceland
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sons and Other Flammable Objects]]> 734474 416 Porochista Khakpour 0802118534 Lance 5 3.58 2007 Sons and Other Flammable Objects
author: Porochista Khakpour
name: Lance
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao]]> 297673
Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.]]> 335 Junot Díaz 1594489580 Lance 5 3.89 2007 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
author: Junot Díaz
name: Lance
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> The Arrival 920607
Shaun Tan evokes universal aspects of an immigrant's experience through a singular work of the imagination. He does so using brilliantly clear and mesmerizing images. Because the main character can't communicate in words, the book forgoes them too. But while the reader experiences the main character's isolation, he also shares his ultimate joy.]]> 132 Shaun Tan Lance 5 essentialsinlanceland, faves beautiful.
filling.
tearjerking.
longingly essential.

just own this one, what is accomplished without a single word was a wakeup call to what we can do with craft.
]]> 4.33 2007 The Arrival
author: Shaun Tan
name: Lance
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/12/28
shelves: essentialsinlanceland, faves
review:
brilliant.
beautiful.
filling.
tearjerking.
longingly essential.

just own this one, what is accomplished without a single word was a wakeup call to what we can do with craft.

]]> <![CDATA[The Dead Guy Interviews: Conversations with 45 of the Most Accomplished, Notorious, and Deceased Personalities in History]]> 1219197 304 Michael A. Stusser 0143112279 Lance 4 3.41 2007 The Dead Guy Interviews: Conversations with 45 of the Most Accomplished, Notorious, and Deceased Personalities in History
author: Michael A. Stusser
name: Lance
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2007
rating: 4
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date added: 2007/12/28
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]]> Breakfast on Pluto 138967 224 Patrick McCabe 006112186X Lance 4 faves 3.37 1998 Breakfast on Pluto
author: Patrick McCabe
name: Lance
average rating: 3.37
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/12/28
shelves: faves
review:

]]> Clown Girl 22286 297 Monica Drake 0976631156 Lance 5 faves 3.49 2006 Clown Girl
author: Monica Drake
name: Lance
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/12/28
shelves: faves
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil]]> 386187
The story is peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman's Card Club; the turbulent young redneck gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the "soul of pampered self-absorption"; the uproarious black drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young blacks dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else.]]> 386 John Berendt 0679751521 Lance 4 3.91 1994 Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
author: John Berendt
name: Lance
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/08/10
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]]> Jesus� Son 608287 Jesus' Son, the first collection of stories by Denis Johnson, presents a unique, hallucinatory vision of contemporary American life unmatched in power and immediacy and marks a new level of achievement for this acclaimed writer. In their intensity of perception, their neon-lit evocation of a strange world brought uncomfortably close to our own, the stories in Jesus' Son offer a disturbing yet eerily beautiful portrayal of American loneliness and hope.

Contains:
Car Crash While Hitchhiking
Two Men
Out on Bail
Dundun
Work
Emergency
Dirty Wedding
The Other Man
Happy Hour
Steady Hands at Seattle General
Beverly Home']]> 160 Denis Johnson 0060975776 Lance 5 faves 4.16 1992 Jesus’ Son
author: Denis Johnson
name: Lance
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/08/04
shelves: faves
review:

]]> Orlando 18839 Orlando 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth's England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost. At the midpoint of the novel, Orlando, now an ambassador in Constantinople, awakes to find that he is now a woman, and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, a year consonant with full suffrage for women. Orlando, now a wife and mother, stands poised at the brink of a future that holds new hope and promise for women.]]> 336 Virginia Woolf 0141184272 Lance 4 core captivated by the notion of ... too difficult to explain what I'm trying to find here...]]> 3.88 1928 Orlando
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Lance
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1928
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/08/04
shelves: core
review:
kinda stuck on an idea, giving this one another look.
captivated by the notion of ... too difficult to explain what I'm trying to find here...
]]> Dancer from the Dance 232431 Dancer from the Dance is truthful, provocative, outrageous fiction told in a voice as close to laughter as to tears.]]> 250 Andrew Holleran 0060937068 Lance 3 3.99 1978 Dancer from the Dance
author: Andrew Holleran
name: Lance
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1978
rating: 3
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date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure]]> 19484 176 Paul Auster 0312422326 Lance 4 3.71 1996 Hand to Mouth: A Chronicle of Early Failure
author: Paul Auster
name: Lance
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Exorcist (The Exorcist, #1)]]> 179780 385 William Peter Blatty Lance 3 4.20 1971 The Exorcist (The Exorcist, #1)
author: William Peter Blatty
name: Lance
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1971
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> Less Than Zero 9915
Clay comes home for Christmas vacation from his Eastern college and re-enters a landscape of limitless privilege and absolute moral entropy, where everyone drives Porches, dines at Spago, and snorts mountains of cocaine. He tries to renew feelings for his girlfriend, Blair, and for his best friend from high school, Julian, who is careering into hustling and heroin. Clay's holiday turns into a dizzying spiral of desperation that takes him through the relentless parties in glitzy mansions, seedy bars, and underground rock clubs, and into the seamy world of L.A. after dark.]]> 208 Bret Easton Ellis Lance 4 3.62 1985 Less Than Zero
author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: Lance
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1985
rating: 4
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date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?]]> 14940 272 Edward Albee 0451218590 Lance 5 4.07 1962 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
author: Edward Albee
name: Lance
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1962
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Magical Thinking: True Stories]]> 79790 304 Augusten Burroughs 0312315953 Lance 4 3.96 2004 Magical Thinking: True Stories
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: Lance
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> Dry 32370 293 Augusten Burroughs 0312423799 Lance 3 4.02 2003 Dry
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: Lance
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> Possible Side Effects 61115 National Bestseller

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Running with Scissors comes Augusten Burroughs's most provocative collection of true stories yet. From nicotine gum addiction to lesbian personal ads to incontinent dogs, Possible Side Effects mines Burroughs's life in a series of uproariously funny essays. These are stories that are uniquely Augusten, with all the over-the-top hilarity of Running with Scissors, the erudition of Dry, and the breadth of Magical Thinking. A collection that is universal in its appeal and unabashedly intimate, Possible Side Effects continues to explore that which is most personal, mirthful, disturbing, and cherished, with unmatched audacity. A cautionary tale in essay form. Be forewarned--hilarious, troubling, and shocking results might occur.]]> 291 Augusten Burroughs 031242681X Lance 3 3.99 2006 Possible Side Effects
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: Lance
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 3
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date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> Side Effects 529701 A humor classic by one of the funniest writers today, SIDE EFFECTS is a treat for all those who know his work and those just discovering how gifted he is. Included here are such classics as REMEMBERING NEEDLEMAN, THE KUGELMASS EPISODE, a new story called CONFESSIONS OF A BUGLAR, and more.

]]> 213 Woody Allen 0345343352 Lance 4 3.94 1980 Side Effects
author: Woody Allen
name: Lance
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1980
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> Holidays on Ice 4136 Us and Them); the difficulties of explaining the Easter Bunny to the French (Jesus Shaves); what to do when you've been locked out in a snowstorm (Let It Snow); the puzzling Christmas traditions of other nations (Six to Eight Black Men); what Halloween at the medical examiner's looks like (The Monster Mash); and a barnyard secret Santa scheme gone awry (Cow and Turkey).]]> 176 David Sedaris 0316191299 Lance 5 3.92 1997 Holidays on Ice
author: David Sedaris
name: Lance
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/07/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary]]> 25019 The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.]]> 242 Simon Winchester 0060839783 Lance 3 3.84 1998 The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
author: Simon Winchester
name: Lance
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/07/28
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs]]> 125507 You thought you knew the story of the “The Three Little Pigs”� You thought wrong.

In this hysterical and clever fracture fairy tale picture book that twists point of view and perspective, young readers will finally hear the other side of the story of “The Three Little Pigs.”]]> 32 Jon Scieszka 0140544518 Lance 3 4.32 1989 The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs
author: Jon Scieszka
name: Lance
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1989
rating: 3
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date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> Junky 23940 Naked Lunch, an unknown William S. Burroughs wrote Junky, his first novel. It is a candid eye-witness account of times and places that are now long gone, an unvarnished field report from the American post-war underground. Unafraid to portray himself in 1953 as a confirmed member of two socially-despised under classes (a narcotics addict and a homosexual), Burroughs was writing as a trained anthropologist when he unapologetically described a way of life - in New York, New Orleans, and Mexico City - that by the 1940's was already demonized by the artificial anti-drug hysteria of an opportunistic bureaucracy and a cynical, prostrate media. For this fiftieth-anniversary edition, eminent Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris has painstakingly recreated the author's original text, word by word, from archival typescripts and places the book's contents against a lively historical background in a comprehensive introduction. Here as well, for the first time, are Burroughs' own unpublished introduction and an entire omitted chapter, along with many "lost" passages, as well as auxiliary texts by Allen Ginsberg and others.]]> 166 William S. Burroughs 0142003166 Lance 4 3.87 1953 Junky
author: William S. Burroughs
name: Lance
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1953
rating: 4
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date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> Collected Poems, 1947-1980 563782 864 Allen Ginsberg 0060914947 Lance 5 4.18 1984 Collected Poems, 1947-1980
author: Allen Ginsberg
name: Lance
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1984
rating: 5
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date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> Treasure Island 240025 Treasure Islandhas enthralled (and caused slight seasickness) for decades. The names Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins are destined to remain pieces of folklore for as long as children want to read Robert Louis Stevenson's most famous book. With it's dastardly plot and motley crew of rogues and villains, it seems unlikely that children will ever say no to this timeless classic. --Naomi Gesinger]]> 206 Robert Louis Stevenson 0451527046 Lance 4 3.67 1882 Treasure Island
author: Robert Louis Stevenson
name: Lance
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1882
rating: 4
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date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> Where the Wild Things Are 19542 48 Maurice Sendak 0060254920 Lance 4 4.51 1963 Where the Wild Things Are
author: Maurice Sendak
name: Lance
average rating: 4.51
book published: 1963
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/07/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend: The Classic Training Manual for Dog Owners (Revised & Updated Edition)]]> 50441
The Monks of New Skete have achieved international renown as breeders of German shepherds and as outstanding trainers of dogs of all breeds. Their unique approach to canine training, developed and refined over three decades, is based on the philosophy that "understanding is the key to communication, compassion, and communion" with your dog. The importance of honest and effective communication with your dog is underscored throughout this guide, especially in the practical training exercises: a detailed, comprehensive, fully illustrated obedience course through which the monks lead you (and your dog) step-by-step. How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend covers virtually every aspect of living with and caring for your dog, including: Selecting a dog (what breed? male? female? puppy or older dog?) to fit your lifestyle Where to get - and where not to get - a dog Reading a pedigree Training your dog or puppy - when, where, and how The proper use of praise and discipline Feeding, grooming, and ensuring your dog's physical fitness Recognizing and correcting canine behavioral problems The particular challenges of raising a dog where you live - in the city, country, or suburb The proper techniques for complete care of your pet at every stage of his or her life In this new edition, How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend has been expanded to encompass the latest equipment (e.g., retractable leashes, "invisible" fences); new trends in training and care (doggy day care, professional dog walkers, etc.); and dozens of new anecdotes and case studies, drawn from the monks' own experience, that bring to life the essential training concepts.

In its scope, its clarity, and its authority, How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend remains unrivaled as a basic training guide for dog owners. Like no other book, this guide can help you understand and appreciate your dog's nature as well as his or her distinct personality - and in so doing, it can significantly enrich the life you share with your dog.]]> 336 Monks of New Skete 0316610003 Lance 4 3.95 1978 How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend: The Classic Training Manual for Dog Owners (Revised & Updated Edition)
author: Monks of New Skete
name: Lance
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1978
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/07/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats]]> 402128
Enjoy the show!

With all your favourite cats, starring ...
Macavity, the Mystery Cat
Mr Mistofelees, the Original Conjuring Cat
Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer
and many more!]]> 56 T.S. Eliot 0151686564 Lance 3 4.07 1939 Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
author: T.S. Eliot
name: Lance
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1939
rating: 3
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date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> <![CDATA[What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question]]> 163365
In What Should I Do with My Life ? Po Bronson tells the inspirational true stories of people who have found the most meaningful answers to that great question. With humor, empathy, and insight, Bronson writes of remarkable individuals—from young to old, from those just starting out to those in a second career—who have overcome fear and confusion to find a larger truth about their lives and, in doing so, have been transformed by the experience.

What Should I Do with My Life? struck a powerful, resonant chord on publication, causing a multitude of people to rethink their vocations and priorities and start on the path to finding their true place in the world. For this edition, Bronson has added nine new profiles, to further reflect the range and diversity of those who broke away from the chorus to learn the sound of their own voice.]]> 436 Po Bronson 0345485920 Lance 3 3.68 2002 What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question
author: Po Bronson
name: Lance
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2002
rating: 3
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date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> Lynch on Lynch 80195 David Lynch erupted onto the cinema landscape in 1977 with Eraserhead, establishing himself as one of the most original and imaginative directors at work in contemporary cinema. Over the course of his career, he has remained true to a vision of the innocent lost in darkness and confusion, balancing hallucination and surrealism with a sense of Americana that is as pure and simple as his compelling storylines. In this volume, Lynch speaks openly about his films as well as about his lifelong commitment to painting, his work in photography, his television projects, and his musical collaborations with Angelo Badalamenti.
]]> 336 David Lynch 0571220185 Lance 3 4.27 1997 Lynch on Lynch
author: David Lynch
name: Lance
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1997
rating: 3
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date added: 2007/07/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories]]> 519112 Tim Burton has become known for his unique visual brilliance � witty and macabre at once. Now he gives birth to a cast of gruesomely sympathetic children � misunderstood outcasts who struggle to find love and belonging in their cruel, cruel worlds. His lovingly lurid illustrations evoke both the sweetness and the tragedy of these dark yet simple beings � hopeful, hapless heroes who appeal to the ugly outsider in all of us, and let us laugh at a world we have long left behind (mostly anyway).

Stick boy and match girl in love --
Robot boy --
Staring girl --
The boy with nails in his eyes --
The girl with many eyes --
Stain boy --
The melancholy death of oyster boy --
Voodoo girl --
Stain boy's special Christmas --
The girl who turned into a bed --
Roy, the toxic boy --
James --
Stick boy's festive season --
Brie boy --
Mummy boy --
Junk girl --
The pin cushion queen --
Melonhead --
Sue --
Jimmy, the hideous penguin boy --
Char boy --
Anchor baby --
Oyster boy steps out]]> 115 Tim Burton 0688156819 Lance 3 4.16 1997 The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories
author: Tim Burton
name: Lance
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1997
rating: 3
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date added: 2007/07/28
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review:

]]> L'Arbre généreux 30138 L'Arbre généreux est l'histoire "d'un arbre qui aimait un petit garçon". Le petit garçon devient jeune homme, le jeune homme un adulte, l'adulte un vieillard. À chaque étape de son existence, l'homme trouve auprès de l'arbre le réconfort nécessaire lui permettant de poursuivre sa quête sur le chemin de la vie.

L'illustration pleine page monochrome joue de la disproportion de l'arbre et de l'enfant. Le trait discret de Silverstein, auteur et illustrateur américain, peut rappeler celui d'un Sempé ou d'un Piem. Quelques traits de plume suffisent à faire surgir sur la page l'intensité de la relation d'intimité entre le jeune garçon et l'arbre. Dans ce face-à-face, l'arbre est rendu aussi expressif que l'enfant. De fait, le lien qui unit l'enfant à l'arbre est profond, c'est-à-dire que cet attachement n'est pas seulement sensible, il est aussi le lieu d'une interrogation sur notre sort car l'arbre ne peut donner à l'homme que ce qu'il a. En retour, ce qui fait la grandeur de l'homme, c'est précisément la prise de conscience de cette richesse. Une très beau conte d'essence philosophique pour tous les publics. À partir de 5 ans. --Denis Gombert

]]> 62 Shel Silverstein 2211094155 Lance 5 4.34 1964 L'Arbre généreux
author: Shel Silverstein
name: Lance
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1964
rating: 5
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date added: 2007/07/25
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review:

]]>