Brook 's bookshelf: read en-US Wed, 27 Nov 2024 04:54:24 -0800 60 Brook 's bookshelf: read 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Plot (The Book Series, #1)]]> 55315487 Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Plot is a psychologically suspenseful novel about a story too good not to steal, and the writer who steals it.

Jacob Finch Bonner was once a promising young novelist with a respectably published first book. Today, he’s teaching in a third-rate MFA program and struggling to maintain what’s left of his self-respect; he hasn’t written—let alone published—anything decent in years. When Evan Parker, his most arrogant student, announces he doesn’t need Jake’s help because the plot of his book in progress is a sure thing, Jake is prepared to dismiss the boast as typical amateur narcissism. But then . . . he hears the plot.

Jake returns to the downward trajectory of his own career and braces himself for the supernova publication of Evan Parker’s first novel: but it never comes. When he discovers that his former student has died, presumably without ever completing his book, Jake does what any self-respecting writer would do with a story like that—a story that absolutely needs to be told.

In a few short years, all of Evan Parker’s predictions have come true, but Jake is the author enjoying the wave. He is wealthy, famous, praised and read all over the world. But at the height of his glorious new life, an e-mail arrives, the first salvo in a terrifying, anonymous campaign: You are a thief, it says.

As Jake struggles to understand his antagonist and hide the truth from his readers and his publishers, he begins to learn more about his late student, and what he discovers both amazes and terrifies him. Who was Evan Parker, and how did he get the idea for his “sure thing� of a novel? What is the real story behind the plot, and who stole it from whom?]]>
320 Jean Hanff Korelitz 125079076X Brook 2
]]>
3.75 2021 The Plot (The Book Series, #1)
author: Jean Hanff Korelitz
name: Brook
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2021
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/27
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves:
review:
For a book based around the shocking twist that makes people audibly gasp the actual twist in this book can be seen coming a mile away without any of the satisfaction of feeling you have managed to work something out.


]]>
<![CDATA[His Last Bow (Sherlock Holmes, #8)]]> 754713 242 Arthur Conan Doyle 0755334434 Brook 5 4.26 1917 His Last Bow (Sherlock Holmes, #8)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Brook
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1917
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Walk the Wire (Amos Decker, #6)]]> 52838845 Amos Decker -- the FBI consultant with a perfect memory -- returns to solve a gruesome murder in a booming North Dakota oil town in the newest thriller in David Baldacci's #1 New York Times bestselling Memory Man series.

When Amos Decker and his FBI colleague Alex Jamison are called to London, North Dakota, they instantly sense that the thriving fracking town is ripe for trouble. The promise of a second gold rush has attracted an onslaught of newcomers all hoping for a windfall, and the community is growing faster than houses can be built. The sudden boom has also brought a slew of problems with it, including drugs, property crimes, prostitution -- and now murder.

Decker and Jamison are ordered to investigate the death of a young woman named Irene Cramer, whose body was expertly autopsied and then dumped in the open -- which is only the beginning of the oddities surrounding the case. As Decker and Jamison dig into Irene's life, they are shocked to discover that the woman who walked the streets by night as a prostitute was a teacher for a local religious sect by day -- a sect operating on land once owned by a mysterious government facility that looms over the entire community.

London is a town replete with ruthless business owners, shady government officials, and religious outsiders, all determined to keep their secrets from coming out. When other murders occur, Decker will need all of his extraordinary memory and detective skills, and the assistance of a surprising ally, to root out a killer and the forces behind Cramer's death. . . before the boom town explodes.]]>
432 David Baldacci Brook 2

]]>
4.17 2020 Walk the Wire (Amos Decker, #6)
author: David Baldacci
name: Brook
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2020
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2020/08/27
shelves:
review:
This series gets progressively worse the more Baldacci moves away from what made the books interesting, the protagonist's synesthesia and eidetic memory have now been replaced with shark-jumping action scenes that seem like the author is begging for someone to pick up the movie option and call in Michael Bay.



]]>
<![CDATA[Foxglove Summer (Rivers of London, #5)]]> 20499240
Travelling west with Beverley Brook, Peter soon finds himself caught up in a deep mystery and having to tackle local cops and local gods. And what's more all the shops are closed by 4pm ...]]>
377 Ben Aaronovitch 0575132507 Brook 1 4.16 2014 Foxglove Summer (Rivers of London, #5)
author: Ben Aaronovitch
name: Brook
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2014
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2014/12/27
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)]]> 1 652 J.K. Rowling Brook 5 favorites 4.57 2005 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Brook
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/04/30
shelves: favorites
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #9)]]> 162823 'When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'

In this, the final collection of Sherlock Holmes adventures, the intrepid detective and his faithful companion Dr Watson examine and solve twelve cases that puzzle clients, baffle the police and provide readers with the thrill of the chase.

These mysteries - involving an illustrious client and a Sussex vampire; the problems of Thor Bridge and of the Lions Mane; a creeping man and the three-gabled house - all test the bravery of Dr Watson and the brilliant mind of Mr Sherlock Homes, the greatest detective we have ever known.

Contains 12 stories published 1921�1927.
* "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" (1921)
* "The Problem of Thor Bridge" (1922)
* "The Adventure of the Creeping Man" (1923)
* "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire" (1924)
* "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" (1924)
* "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client" (1924)
* "The Adventure of the Three Gables" (1926)
* "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier" (1926)
* "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane" (1926)
* "The Adventure of the Retired Colourman" (1926)
* "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger" (1927)
* "The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place" (1927)]]>
303 Arthur Conan Doyle 1904633684 Brook 5 4.15 1927 The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #9)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Brook
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1927
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/10/25
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Leopard (Harry Hole, #8) 9639166
YOU ARE ALLOWING THIS KILLING TO GO ON.

The crime scenes offer no clues, the media is reaching fever pitch, and the police are running out of options.

IT'S TIME THIS WAS STOPPED...

There is only one man who can help them catch the killer. But Inspector Harry Hole doesn't want to be found.

...BECAUSE I HAVE APPOINTED THE NEXT VICTIM.]]>
740 Jo Nesbø 0099548976 Brook 4 4.05 2009 The Leopard (Harry Hole, #8)
author: Jo Nesbø
name: Brook
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/09/17
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Valley of Fear (Sherlock Holmes, #7)]]> 736131 Duration: 6 hr., 25 min.]]> 7 Arthur Conan Doyle 9626344245 Brook 5 4.00 1914 The Valley of Fear (Sherlock Holmes, #7)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Brook
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1914
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/03/22
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Twelve (The Passage, #2) 13281368 The Passage, Justin Cronin constructed an unforgettable world transformed by a government experiment gone horribly wrong. Now the scope widens and the intensity deepens as the epic story surges forward with The Twelve.

In the present day, as the man-made apocalypse unfolds, three strangers navigate the chaos. Lila, a doctor and an expectant mother, is so shattered by the spread of violence and infection that she continues to plan for her child’s arrival even as society dissolves around her. Kittridge, known to the world as “Last Stand in Denver,� has been forced to flee his stronghold and is now on the road, dodging the infected, armed but alone and well aware that a tank of gas will get him only so far. April is a teenager fighting to guide her little brother safely through a landscape of death and ruin. These three will learn that they have not been fully abandoned—and that in connection lies hope, even on the darkest of nights.

One hundred years in the future, Amy and the others fight on for humankind’s salvation...unaware that the rules have changed. The enemy has evolved, and a dark new order has arisen with a vision of the future infinitely more horrifying than man’s extinction. If the Twelve are to fall, one of those united to vanquish them will have to pay the ultimate price.]]>
592 Justin Cronin 0345504984 Brook 4 4.00 2012 The Twelve (The Passage, #2)
author: Justin Cronin
name: Brook
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2013/01/12
date added: 2013/01/12
shelves:
review:

]]>
A Country Doctor's Notebook 897363
With the ink still wet on his diploma, the twenty-five-year-old Dr. Mikhail Bulgakov was flung into the depths of freezing rural Russia which, in 1916-17, was still largely unaffected by such novelties as the motor car, the telephone or electric light. How his alter-ego copes (or fails to cope) with the new and often appalling responsibilities of a lone doctor in a vast country practice � on the eve of Revolution � is described in Bulgakov's delightful blend of candid realism and imaginative exuberance.]]>
158 Mikhail Bulgakov 1860461654 Brook 4 4.35 1925 A Country Doctor's Notebook
author: Mikhail Bulgakov
name: Brook
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1925
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/01/12
shelves:
review:

]]>
Heart of a Dog 113205 123 Mikhail Bulgakov 0802150594 Brook 5 4.15 1925 Heart of a Dog
author: Mikhail Bulgakov
name: Brook
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1925
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/01/12
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Master and Margarita 117833 The first complete, annotated English Translation of Mikhail Bulgakov's comic masterpiece.

An audacious revision of the stories of Faust and Pontius Pilate, The Master and Margarita is recognized as one of the essential classics of modern Russian literature. The novel's vision of Soviet life in the 1930s is so ferociously accurate that it could not be published during its author's lifetime and appeared only in a censored edition in the 1960s. Its truths are so enduring that its language has become part of the common Russian speech.

One hot spring, the devil arrives in Moscow, accompanied by a retinue that includes a beautiful naked witch and an immense talking black cat with a fondness for chess and vodka. The visitors quickly wreak havoc in a city that refuses to believe in either God or Satan. But they also bring peace to two unhappy Muscovites: one is the Master, a writer pilloried for daring to write a novel about Christ and Pontius Pilate; the other is Margarita, who loves the Master so deeply that she is willing literally to go to hell for him. What ensues is a novel of inexhaustible energy, humor, and philosophical depth, a work whose nuances emerge for the first time in Diana Burgin's and Katherine Tiernan O'Connor's splendid English version.]]>
372 Mikhail Bulgakov 0679760806 Brook 4 4.31 1967 The Master and Margarita
author: Mikhail Bulgakov
name: Brook
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1967
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/01/12
shelves:
review:

]]>
Subway Art 157630 104 Martha Cooper 0805006788 Brook 5 favorites
Like many, this was my introduction into Graffiti, and containing work by the true golden age pioneers the now aged content still holds up to any of today's graffiti books. ]]>
4.17 1984 Subway Art
author: Martha Cooper
name: Brook
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves: favorites
review:
Among my most prize possessions is a signed copy by 'SEEN'.

Like many, this was my introduction into Graffiti, and containing work by the true golden age pioneers the now aged content still holds up to any of today's graffiti books.
]]>
My Man Jeeves (Jeeves, #1) 200572 My Man Jeeves is sure to please anyone with a taste for pithy buffoonery, moronic misunderstandings, gaffes, and aristocratic slapstick.

Contents:
"Leave It to Jeeves"
"Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest"
"Jeeves and the Hard-boiled Egg"
"Absent Treatment"
"Helping Freddie"
"Rallying Round Old George"
"Doing Clarence a Bit of Good"
"The Aunt and the Sluggard"

Of the eight stories in the collection, half feature the popular characters Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, while the others concern Reggie Pepper, an early prototype for Bertie Wooster.

Revised versions of all the Jeeves stories in this collection were later published in the 1925 short story collection Carry On, Jeeves. One of the Reggie Pepper stories in this collection was later rewritten as a Jeeves story, which was also included in Carry On, Jeeves.]]>
256 P.G. Wodehouse 1585678759 Brook 5 favorites 4.07 1919 My Man Jeeves (Jeeves, #1)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1919
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves: favorites
review:

]]>
The Stranger 49552 The Stranger has long been considered a classic of twentieth-century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its "100 Books of the Century" list. Through this story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."]]> 123 Albert Camus Brook 5 favorites 4.04 1942 The Stranger
author: Albert Camus
name: Brook
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1942
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves: favorites
review:

]]>
The Hippopotamus 317456 The Hippopotamus builds into “a deliciously wicked and amusing little fable� (The New York Times).]]> 368 Stephen Fry 0099457032 Brook 5 favorites 3.72 1994 The Hippopotamus
author: Stephen Fry
name: Brook
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1994
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves: favorites
review:

]]>
The Count of Monte Cristo 7126 The epic tale of wrongful imprisonment, adventure and revenge, in its definitive translation

Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to use the treasure to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas� epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s.

Translated with an Introduction by Robin Buss

An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here]]>
1276 Alexandre Dumas 0140449264 Brook 5 favorites 4.29 1846 The Count of Monte Cristo
author: Alexandre Dumas
name: Brook
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1846
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves: favorites
review:

]]>
The Very Hungry Caterpillar 4948
One sunny Sunday, the caterpillar was hatched out of a tiny egg. He was very hungry. On Monday, he ate through one apple; on Tuesday, he ate through three plums--and still he was hungry. When full at last, he made a cocoon around himself and went to sleep, to wake up a few weeks later wonderfully transformed into a butterfly!

The brilliantly innovative Eric Carle has dramatized the story of one of Nature's commonest yet loveliest marvels, the metamorphosis of the butterfly. This audiobook will delight as well as instruct the very youngest listener.]]>
26 Eric Carle 0241003008 Brook 5 favorites 4.34 1969 The Very Hungry Caterpillar
author: Eric Carle
name: Brook
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1969
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves: favorites
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Art in Theory, 1900�2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas]]> 48697
New edition of this popular anthology of twentieth-century art-theoretical texts. Now updated to include the results of new research, together with significant contributions from the 1990s. Includes writings by critics, philosophers, politicians and literary figures. The editors provide contextual introductions to 340 texts. Complements Art in Theory, 1648�1815 and Art in Theory, 1815�1900 to create a complete survey of the theories underpinning the development of art in the modern period.]]>
1288 Charles Harrison 0631227083 Brook 5 favorites 3.97 2002 Art in Theory, 1900–2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas
author: Charles Harrison
name: Brook
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves: favorites
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Fresh Cream: Contemporary Art in Culture]]> 455424
Pursuing the theme of its predecessor, with 10 new world-class contemporary curators each choosing ten emerging artists, the book presents in its entirety the works of 100 artists and an up-to-the-minute global overview of the contemporary art world, not only for now but also for the future. These artists have risen to intense international acclaim since the 1990s or, in the opinion of the curators who have selected them, are about to emerge internationally in the near future.

Fresh Cream contains the enormous breadth of ideas and forms that exist in contemporary art. The artists' spreads are arranged in an A-Z order, featuring numerous examples of each artist's work alongside a concise text from the selecting curator and vital biographical information about the artist.

A conversation between the 10 curators and the commissioning editor gives a penetrative insight into their selections and of the key issues in contemporary art. The cultural context in which the artists work - from philosophy to fiction - is presented through recent texts from 10 contemporary writers, one selected by each curator. Itself embodying the creative originality and innovation of its content, Fresh Cream is packaged in an incredible, inflated, clear plastic pillow.]]>
656 Phaidon Press 0714839248 Brook 5 favorites 3.77 2000 Fresh Cream: Contemporary Art in Culture
author: Phaidon Press
name: Brook
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves: favorites
review:

]]>
A World History of Art 14923388 996 Hugh Honour 1856695794 Brook 5 4.50 1982 A World History of Art
author: Hugh Honour
name: Brook
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1982
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
The 20th Century Art Book 257257 512 Phaidon Press 0714847984 Brook 4 4.00 1996 The 20th Century Art Book
author: Phaidon Press
name: Brook
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Virgin Suicides 10956 250 Jeffrey Eugenides 0747560595 Brook 5 3.81 1993 The Virgin Suicides
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Brook
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
An Inspector Calls 900682 Excellent Book 117 J.B. Priestley 3150092183 Brook 5 3.82 1945 An Inspector Calls
author: J.B. Priestley
name: Brook
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1945
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)]]> 13496
Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, A Game of Thrones tells a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; a child is lost in the twilight between life and death; and a determined woman undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear. Amid plots and counter-plots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, allies and enemies, the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance, as each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.]]>
835 George R.R. Martin 0553588486 Brook 4 4.44 1996 A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Brook
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Fountainhead 2122
This modern classic is the story of intransigent young architect Howard Roark, whose integrity was as unyielding as granite...of Dominique Francon, the exquisitely beautiful woman who loved Roark passionately, but married his worst enemy...and of the fanatic denunciation unleashed by an enraged society against a great creator. As fresh today as it was then, Rand’s provocative novel presents one of the most challenging ideas in all of fiction—that man’s ego is the fountainhead of human progress...

“A writer of great power. She has a subtle and ingenious mind and the capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly...This is the only novel of ideas written by an American woman that I can recall.”—The New York Times]]>
704 Ayn Rand Brook 2 3.87 1943 The Fountainhead
author: Ayn Rand
name: Brook
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1943
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
On the Road 70401 307 Jack Kerouac 0140042598 Brook 2 3.63 1957 On the Road
author: Jack Kerouac
name: Brook
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1957
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
Atlas Shrugged 662 This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators?

Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies, but against those who needed him most, and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world’s motor � and the motive power of every man? You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the characters in this story.

Tremendous in its scope, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human life � from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy � to the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction � to the philosopher who becomes a pirate � to the composer who gives up his career on the night of his triumph � to the woman who runs a transcontinental railroad � to the lowest track worker in her Terminal tunnels.

You must be prepared, when you read this novel, to check every premise at the root of your convictions.

This is a mystery story, not about the murder � and rebirth � of man’s spirit. It is a philosophical revolution, told in the form of an action thriller of violent events, a ruthlessly brilliant plot structure and an irresistible suspense. Do you say this is impossible? Well, that is the first of your premises to check.]]>
1168 Ayn Rand 0452011876 Brook 1 3.67 1957 Atlas Shrugged
author: Ayn Rand
name: Brook
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1957
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest]]> 332613 9780451163967

Tyrannical Nurse Ratched rules her ward in an Oregon State mental hospital with a strict and unbending routine, unopposed by her patients, who remain cowed by mind-numbing medication and the threat of electric shock therapy. But her regime is disrupted by the arrival of McMurphy � the swaggering, fun-loving trickster with a devilish grin who resolves to oppose her rules on behalf of his fellow inmates. His struggle is seen through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a seemingly mute half-Indian patient who understands McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the powers that keep them imprisoned. Ken Kesey's extraordinary first novel is an exuberant, ribald and devastatingly honest portrayal of the boundaries between sanity and madness.]]>
325 Ken Kesey Brook 4 4.20 1962 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
author: Ken Kesey
name: Brook
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
Lolita 7604 Librarian's note: Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780141182537.

Humbert Humbert - scholar, aesthete and romantic - has fallen completely and utterly in love with Dolores Haze, his landlady's gum-snapping, silky skinned twelve-year-old daughter. Reluctantly agreeing to marry Mrs Haze just to be close to Lolita, Humbert suffers greatly in the pursuit of romance; but when Lo herself starts looking for attention elsewhere, he will carry her off on a desperate cross-country misadventure, all in the name of Love. Hilarious, flamboyant, heart-breaking and full of ingenious word play, Lolita is an immaculate, unforgettable masterpiece of obsession, delusion and lust.]]>
368 Vladimir Nabokov 0679723161 Brook 4 3.87 1955 Lolita
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Brook
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1955
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
Catch-22 168668
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.]]>
453 Joseph Heller 0684833395 Brook 4 3.99 1961 Catch-22
author: Joseph Heller
name: Brook
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1961
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
Lord of the Flies 7624 182 William Golding 0140283331 Brook 4 3.70 1954 Lord of the Flies
author: William Golding
name: Brook
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1954
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
Animal Farm 7613
When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.]]>
129 George Orwell Brook 5 3.90 1945 Animal Farm
author: George Orwell
name: Brook
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1945
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Lord of the Rings 33 One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins.

From Sauron's fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion.

When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom.

The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider.]]>
1216 J.R.R. Tolkien 0618640150 Brook 4 4.52 1954 The Lord of the Rings
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Brook
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1954
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
1984 5470 328 George Orwell Brook 4 4.15 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: Brook
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1949
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)]]> 100915
Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At first her brothers and sister don't believe her when she tells of her visit to the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund, then Peter and Susan step through the wardrobe themselves. In Narnia they find a country buried under the evil enchantment of the White Witch. When they meet the Lion Aslan, they realize they've been called to a great adventure and bravely join the battle to free Narnia from the Witch's sinister spell.]]>
206 C.S. Lewis Brook 3 4.24 1950 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Brook
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1950
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Hobbit, or There and Back Again]]> 5907 Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in 1937. Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent. The text in this 372-page paperback edition is based on that first published in Great Britain by Collins Modern Classics (1998), and includes a note on the text by Douglas A. Anderson (2001).]]> 366 J.R.R. Tolkien Brook 5 4.29 1937 The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Brook
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1937
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream]]> 7745 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.]]> 204 Hunter S. Thompson 0679785892 Brook 5 4.08 1971 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
author: Hunter S. Thompson
name: Brook
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1971
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
High Fidelity 285092
Rob does. He keeps a list, in fact. But Laura isn't on it—even though she's just become his latest ex. He's got his life back, you see. He can just do what he wants when he wants: like listen to whatever music he likes, look up the girls that are on his list, and generally behaves as if Laura never mattered. But Rob finds he can't move on. He's stuck in a really deep groove—and it's called Laura. Soon, Rob's asking himself some big questions: about love, about life—and about why we choose to share ours with the people we do.]]>
323 Nick Hornby 1573225517 Brook 5 3.92 1995 High Fidelity
author: Nick Hornby
name: Brook
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Millennium, #3)]]> 6892870
Lisbeth Salander - the heart of Larsson's two previous novels - lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She's fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she'll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders. With the help of her friend, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, she will not only have to prove her innocence, but also identify and denounce those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her own, she will plot revenge - against the man who tried to kill her, and the corrupt government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life.

Once upon a time, she was a victim. Now Salander is fighting back.

~from the jacket]]>
566 Stieg Larsson 030726999X Brook 4 4.23 2007 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (Millennium, #3)
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Brook
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millennium #2)]]> 5060378 Millenium publisher Mikael Blomkvist has made his reputation exposing corrupt establishment figures. So when a young journalist approaches him with an investigation into sex trafficking, Blomkvist cannot resist waging war on the powerful figures who control this lucrative industry.

The Murder
When a young couple is found dead in their Stockholm apartment, it's a straightforward job for Inspector Bublanski and his team. The killer left the weapon at the scene - and the fingerprints on the gun point in only one direction.

The Girl Who Played with Fire
Ex-security analyst Lisbeth Salander is wanted for murder. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behaviour makes her an official danger to society - but no-one can find her. The only way Salander can be reached is by computer. But she can break into almost any network she chooses...]]>
503 Stieg Larsson 0307269981 Brook 4 4.25 2006 The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millennium #2)
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Brook
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1)]]> 2429135
An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.]]>
480 Stieg Larsson 0670069019 Brook 4 4.17 2005 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1)
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Brook
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Fall (The Strain #2) 6723348
Ignited by the Master’s horrific plan, a war erupts between Old and New World vampires, each vying for total control. Caught between these warring forces, humans—powerless and vulnerable—are no longer the consumers, but the consumed.

Though Eph understands the vampiric plague better than anyone, even he cannot protect those he loves from the invading evil. His ex-wife, Kelly, has been turned by the Master, and now she stalks the city, in the darkness, looking for her chance to reclaim Zack, Eph’s young son.

With the future of the world in the balance, Eph and his courageous team, guided by the brilliant former professor and Holocaust survivor Abraham Setrakian and exterminator Vasiliy Fet, must combat a terror whose ultimate plan is more terrible than anyone first imagined—a fate worse than annihilation.]]>
308 Guillermo del Toro 0061558222 Brook 3 3.81 2010 The Fall (The Strain #2)
author: Guillermo del Toro
name: Brook
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Strain (The Strain #1) 6065215
In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows something is happening. And he knows the time has come, that a war is brewing.

So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city - a city that includes his wife and son - before it is too late.]]>
403 Guillermo del Toro 0061558230 Brook 3 3.81 2009 The Strain (The Strain #1)
author: Guillermo del Toro
name: Brook
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Night Eternal (The Strain #3)]]> 6945530
Now, at this critical hour, there is evidence of a traitor in their midst. . . And only one man holds the answer to the Master's demise, but is he one who can be trusted with the fate of the world? And who among them will pay the ultimate sacrifice—so that others may be saved?]]>
371 Guillermo del Toro 0061558265 Brook 4 3.69 2011 The Night Eternal (The Strain #3)
author: Guillermo del Toro
name: Brook
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Stephen Fry's Incomplete & Utter History of Classical Music]]> 66861 320 Stephen Fry 0330438565 Brook 3 3.71 2004 Stephen Fry's Incomplete & Utter History of Classical Music
author: Stephen Fry
name: Brook
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within]]> 66856 I have a dark and dreadful secret. I write poetry... I believe poetry is a primal impulse within all of us. I believe we are all capable of it and furthermore that a small, often ignored corner of us positively yearns to try it.
—Stephen Fry, The Ode Less Travelled

Stephen Fry believes that if one can speak and read English, one can write poetry. Many of us have never been taught to read or write poetry and think of it as a mysterious and intimidating form. Or, if we have been taught, we remember uncomfortable silence when an English teacher invited the class to "respond" to a poem. In The Ode Less Travelled, Fry sets out to correct this problem by giving aspiring poets the tools and confidence they need to write poetry for pleasure.

Fry is a wonderfully engaging teacher and writer of poetry himself, and he explains the various elements of poetry in simple terms, without condescension. His enjoyable exercises and witty insights introduce the concepts of Metre, Rhyme, Form, Diction, and Poetics. Aspiring poets will learn to write a sonnet, on ode, a villanelle, a ballad, and a haiku, among others. Along the way, he introduces us to poets we've heard of, but never read. The Ode Less Travelled is a lively celebration of poetry that makes even the most reluctant reader want to pick up a pencil and give it a try. BACKCOVER: Advanced Praise:
“Delightfully erudite, charming and soundly pedagogical guide to poetic form� Fry has created an invaluable and highly enjoyable reference book.�
�Publishers Weekly

“A smart, sane and entertaining return to the basics� If you like Fry’s comic manner� this book has a lot of charm� People entirely fresh to the subject could do worse than stick with his cheerful leadership.�
�The Telegraph (UK)

“…intelligent and informative, a worthy enterprise well executed.�
�Observer (UK)

"If you learn how to write a sonnet, and Fry shows you how, you may or may not make a poem. But you will unlock the stored wisdom of the form itself."
—Grey Gowrie, The Spectator (UK)

“…intelligent and informative, a worthy enterprise well executed.�
�Observer (UK)

]]>
384 Stephen Fry 1592402488 Brook 3 4.05 2005 The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within
author: Stephen Fry
name: Brook
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Revenge (aka The Stars� Tennis Balls)]]> 66855 The Duchess of Malfi --by John Webster

Everything about Stephen Fry's new novel, including the title, will be a surprise, perhaps even a shock. The only thing that can be guaranteed is that it will be his next earth-movingly funny bestseller. And we are still pretty confidently saying it will not be about earthworm migration patterns in East Devon.

This is the story of Ned Maddenstone, a nice young man who is about to find out just what hell it is to be one of the stars' tennis balls.  For Ned, 1978 seems a blissful year: handsome, popular, responsible and a fine cricketer, life is progressing smoothly for him, if not effortlessly. When he meets Portia Fendeman his personal jigsaw appears complete. What if her left-wing parents despise his Tory MP father? Doesn't that just make them star-crossed lovers? And surely, in the end, won't the Fendemans be won over by their happiness?  But, of course, one person's happiness is another's jealous spite. And spite is about to change Ned's life forever.  A promise made to a dying teacher and a vile trick played by fellow pupils rocket Ned from cricket captain to solitary confinement, from head boy to political prisoner. Twenty years later, Ned returns to London a very different man from the boy seized outside a Knightsbridge language college.  A man implacably focused on revenge. Revenge is a dish he plans to savour and serve to those who conspired against him, and to those who forgot him.]]>
320 Stephen Fry 0812968190 Brook 5 3.86 2000 Revenge (aka The Stars’ Tennis Balls)
author: Stephen Fry
name: Brook
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
Making History 317457 575 Stephen Fry 0099457067 Brook 4 3.95 1996 Making History
author: Stephen Fry
name: Brook
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Liar 248322
Adrian Healey is magnificently unprepared for the long littleness of life; unprepared too for the afternoon in Salzburg when he will witness the savage murder of a Hungarian violinist; unprepared to learn about the Mendax device; unprepared for more murders and wholly unprepared for the truth.

The Liar is a thrilling, sophisticated and laugh out loud hilarious novel from a brilliantly talented writer.]]>
390 Stephen Fry 0099457059 Brook 5 3.68 1991 The Liar
author: Stephen Fry
name: Brook
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1991
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Moab Is My Washpot (Memoir, #1)]]> 66857 ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý
Fry has already given readers a taste of his tumultuous adolescence in his autobiographical first novel, The Liar , and now he reveals the equally tumultuous life that inspired it. Sent to boarding school at the age of seven, he survived beatings, misery, love affairs, carnal violation, expulsion, attempted suicide, criminal conviction and imprisonment to emerge, at the age of eighteen, ready to start over in a world in which he had always felt a stranger. One of very few Cambridge University graduates to have been imprisoned prior to his freshman year, Fry is a brilliantly idiosyncratic character who continues to attract controversy, empathy and real devotion.]]>
366 Stephen Fry 1569472025 Brook 5 3.96 1997 Moab Is My Washpot (Memoir, #1)
author: Stephen Fry
name: Brook
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
Paperweight 317459 Listener and the Daily Telegraph.]]> 480 Stephen Fry 0099457024 Brook 5 3.77 1992 Paperweight
author: Stephen Fry
name: Brook
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Scandal in Bohemia (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, #1)]]> 1848444 This is an adaptation, containing 6 stories; for the original story, see A Scandal in Bohemia

A Scandal in Bohemia is collection of six short stories featuring the great detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr Watson. From shopkeepers to kings, everyone wants the help of Sherlock Holmes, but can he solve these mysteries?]]>
85 Ronald Holt 0582416396 Brook 5 4.24 1891 A Scandal in Bohemia (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, #1)
author: Ronald Holt
name: Brook
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1891
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Sign of Four (Sherlock Holmes, #2)]]> 608474
For Mary Marston has received several large pearls - one a year for the last six years - and now a mystery letter telling her she is a wronged woman. If she would seek justice she is to meet her unknown benefactor, bringing with her two companions.

But unbeknownst to them all, others stalk London's fog-enshrouded streets: a one-legged ruffian with revenge on his mind - and his companion, who places no value on human life...]]>
129 Arthur Conan Doyle Brook 5 3.91 1890 The Sign of Four (Sherlock Holmes, #2)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Brook
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1890
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Return of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #6)]]> 194366 455 Arthur Conan Doyle 0192123173 Brook 5 4.29 1905 The Return of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #6)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Brook
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1905
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes, #5)]]> 8921 256 Arthur Conan Doyle Brook 5 4.16 1902 The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sherlock Holmes, #5)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Brook
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1902
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #4)]]> 194373 Silver Blaze
The Cardboard Box
The Yellow Face
The Stockbroker's Clerk
The 'Gloria Scott'
The Musgrave Ritual
The Reigate Squire
The Crooked Man
The Resident Patient
The Greek Interpreter
The Naval Treaty
The Final Problem]]>
378 Arthur Conan Doyle 0192123092 Brook 5 4.31 1893 The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #4)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Brook
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1893
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes, #1)]]> 102868
But it's not long before Sherlock Holmes, with Watson in tow, is working with Scotland Yard investigating the murder of two Americans whose deaths have some mysterious connection to sinister groups gathering power in both Britain and America.

Here's where it all began. 'A Study in Scarlet.' Meet Sherlock Holmes, one of the world's leading consulting detectives - fictional of course!]]>
123 Arthur Conan Doyle 1420925539 Brook 5 4.16 1887 A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes, #1)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Brook
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1887
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #3)]]> 3590 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is the series of short stories that made the fortunes of the Strand magazine, in which they were first published, and won immense popularity for Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. The detective is at the height of his powers and the volume is full of famous cases, including 'The Red-Headed League', 'The Blue Carbuncle', and 'The Speckled Band'.
The editor of this volume, Richard Lancelyn Green is editor of The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes and The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. With John Michael Gibson, he compiled the Soho Series Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle.
1. A Scandal In Bohemia
2. The Red-Headed League
3. A Case Of Identity
4. The Boscombe Valley Mystery
5. The Five Orange Pips
6. The Man With The Twisted Lip
7. The Adventure Of The Blue Carbuncle
8. The Adventure Of The Speckled Band
9. The Adventure Of The Engineer's Thumb
10. The Adventure Of The Noble Bachelor
11. The Adventure Of The Beryl Coronet
12. The Adventure Of The Copper Beaches]]>
389 Arthur Conan Doyle Brook 5 4.32 1892 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #3)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: Brook
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1892
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Whose Body? (Lord Peter Wimsey, #1)]]> 192893 212 Dorothy L. Sayers 0061043575 Brook 4 3.87 1923 Whose Body?  (Lord Peter Wimsey, #1)
author: Dorothy L. Sayers
name: Brook
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1923
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Wind from Nowhere 262359 192 J.G. Ballard 014002591X Brook 3 3.27 1962 The Wind from Nowhere
author: J.G. Ballard
name: Brook
average rating: 3.27
book published: 1962
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
Crash 70241 Crash explores the disturbing potentialities of contemporary society's increasing dependence on technology as intermediary in human relations.]]> 224 J.G. Ballard 0312420331 Brook 4 3.62 1973 Crash
author: J.G. Ballard
name: Brook
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Unbearable Lightness of Being]]> 9717 The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. This magnificent novel juxtaposes geographically distant places, brilliant and playful reflections, and a variety of styles, to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world’s truly great writers.]]> 314 Milan Kundera 0571224385 Brook 5 4.12 1984 The Unbearable Lightness of Being
author: Milan Kundera
name: Brook
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
Exile and the Kingdom 76826
The six works featured in this volume are:

"The Adulterous Woman" ("La Femme adultère")
"The Renegade or a Confused Spirit" ("Le Renégat ou un esprit confus")
"The Silent Men" ("Les Muets")
"The Guest" ("L'HĂ´te")
"Jonas or the Artist at Work" ("Jonas ou l’artiste au travail")
"The Growing Stone" ("La Pierre qui pousse")]]>
213 Albert Camus 067973385X Brook 4 3.90 1950 Exile and the Kingdom
author: Albert Camus
name: Brook
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1950
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

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

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

The Plague is considered an existentialist classic despite Camus' objection to the label. The novel stresses the powerlessness of the individual characters to affect their destinies. The narrative tone is similar to Kafka's, especially in The Trial, whose individual sentences potentially have multiple meanings; the material often pointedly resonating as stark allegory of phenomenal consciousness and the human condition.]]>
308 Albert Camus Brook 4 4.05 1947 The Plague
author: Albert Camus
name: Brook
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1947
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
Cancer Ward 1058472 Cancer Ward is both a deeply compassionate study of people facing terminal illness and a brilliant dissection of the “cancerous� Soviet police state.]]> 616 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 0440010098 Brook 4 4.32 1967 Cancer Ward
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: Brook
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1967
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Love Among the Chickens (Ukridge, #1)]]> 624929
Written when he was 25, Love Among the Chickens launched P.G. Wodehouse's career as a novelist and introduced the world to Ukridge, one of his most extraordinary inventions. Robert McCrum's introduction shows how this fascinating early book holds within it so many of the themes which Wodehouse was to make his own. This edition uses Wodehouse's 1920 revised edition of the 1906 original.]]>
153 P.G. Wodehouse 0141187042 Brook 5 3.79 1906 Love Among the Chickens (Ukridge, #1)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1906
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
Ring for Jeeves (Jeeves, #10) 18029 240 P.G. Wodehouse 1585675245 Brook 5 4.01 1953 Ring for Jeeves (Jeeves, #10)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1953
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Psmith in the City (Psmith, #2)]]> 149812 Book #2 from the series: Psmith

Psmith in the City is a comedic novel by P.G. Wodehouse, first published in 1910 as a serial and later as a book in 1912.

The story follows the misadventures of the charismatic and confident Ronald Psmith (the "P" is silent) as he begins a career in the world of finance at the New Asiatic Bank. Through Psmith's witty repartee and unconventional approach to work and life, the narrative explores the challenges and humorous situations he encounters in the corporate world. Set against the backdrop of early 20th-century London, the novel captures the bustling atmosphere of the city and the idiosyncrasies of its inhabitants.

With its engaging plot, memorable characters, and lively narrative, Psmith in the City embodies Wodehouse's signature humor and wit, offering readers a delightful and entertaining portrayal of corporate life and the complexities of human relationships.]]>
168 P.G. Wodehouse 1426449925 Brook 5 4.05 1910 Psmith in the City (Psmith, #2)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1910
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves, #12)]]> 16377
Jeeves is infallible. Jeeves is indispensable. Unfortunately, in How Right You Are, Jeeves, he is also in absentia. In this wonderful slice of Woosterian mayhem, Bertie has sent that prince among gentlemen's gentlemen off on his annual vacation. Soon, drowning dachshunds, broken engagements, and inextricable complications lead to the only possible conclusion: "We must put our trust in a higher power. Go and fetch Jeeves!"]]>
206 P.G. Wodehouse 0743203593 Brook 5 4.12 1960 How Right You Are, Jeeves (Jeeves, #12)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1960
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Aunts Aren't Gentlemen (Jeeves, #15)]]> 720987
When the doctor advises Bertie to live the quiet life, he and Jeeves head for the pure air and peace of Maiden Eggesford. However, they hadn't reckoned on Bertie's irrepressible but decidedly scheming Aunt Dahlia, around whom an imbroglio of impressive proportions develops involving The Cat Which Kept Popping Up When Least Expected. As Bertie observes, whatever aunts are, they are not gentlemen.]]>
167 P.G. Wodehouse 0140041923 Brook 5 4.21 1974 Aunts Aren't Gentlemen (Jeeves, #15)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Mating Season (Jeeves, #9)]]> 16390 272 P.G. Wodehouse 1585672319 Brook 5 4.19 1949 The Mating Season (Jeeves, #9)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1949
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Jeeves, #11)]]> 16375 Milady's Boudoir, her cook Anatole, the Drones Club Darts match and Mr and Mrs L.G. Trotter from Liverpool, and you have all the ingredients for a classic Wodehouse farce.]]> 231 P.G. Wodehouse 1585672297 Brook 5 4.24 1954 Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit (Jeeves, #11)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1954
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Life With Jeeves (Jeeves, #6, 2, & 4)]]> 16379

Enter Jeeves, the source of all solace. Jeeves of the infinite sagacity. Jeeves, that noiseless provider of deliverance from the hangover, a bird of the ripest intellect, calm and wise enough to rescue Bertie and his pals from the most fearful scrapes. Jeeves, that subtle master of prudence, good taste and ineffable composure. Where would that chump Bertie be without him?

This omnibus edition will delight newcomers to Wodehouse as well as those already familiar with his sunny universe and his sparkling prose. It contains Right Ho, Jeeves; The Inimitable Jeeves; and Very Good, Jeeves.

]]>
557 P.G. Wodehouse 0140059024 Brook 5 4.40 1983 Life With Jeeves (Jeeves, #6, 2, & 4)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1983
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Leave It to Psmith (Psmith, #4 ; Blandings Castle, #2)]]> 16415
A debonair young Englishman, Psmith ("the p is silent, as in phthisis, psychic, and ptarmigan") has quit the fish business, "even though there is money in fish," and decided to support himself by doing anything that he is hired to do by anyone. Wandering in and out of romantic, suspenseful, and invariably hilarious situations, Psmith is in the great Wodehouse tradition.]]>
328 P.G. Wodehouse 1400079608 Brook 5 4.28 1923 Leave It to Psmith (Psmith, #4 ; Blandings Castle, #2)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1923
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Jeeves in the Morning (Jeeves, #8)]]> 60507 Jeeves in the Morning reflects the glories and absurdities of a vanished era as Jeeves and Bertie frolic through a series of outrageous and nightmarish doings.]]> 256 P.G. Wodehouse 0060972823 Brook 5 4.37 1947 Jeeves in the Morning (Jeeves, #8)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1947
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (Jeeves, #13)]]> 12550 211 P.G. Wodehouse 184159105X Brook 5 4.23 1963 Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (Jeeves, #13)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1963
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Very Good, Jeeves! (Jeeves, #4)]]> 16382 304 P.G. Wodehouse 1585677469 Brook 5 4.36 1930 Very Good, Jeeves! (Jeeves, #4)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1930
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Thank You, Jeeves (Jeeves, #5)]]> 16392 263 P.G. Wodehouse 1585674346 Brook 5 4.27 1933 Thank You, Jeeves (Jeeves, #5)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1933
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Inimitable Jeeves (Jeeves, #2)]]> 16396 240 P.G. Wodehouse 0140284125 Brook 5 4.25 1923 The Inimitable Jeeves (Jeeves, #2)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1923
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
Carry On, Jeeves (Jeeves, #3) 16387 273 P.G. Wodehouse 1585673927 Brook 5 4.26 1925 Carry On, Jeeves (Jeeves, #3)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1925
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
Right Ho, Jeeves (Jeeves, #6) 18035 224 P.G. Wodehouse 140690483X Brook 5 4.31 1934 Right Ho, Jeeves (Jeeves, #6)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1934
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Code of the Woosters (Jeeves, #7)]]> 105986 286 P.G. Wodehouse 1841591009 Brook 5 4.37 1938 The Code of the Woosters (Jeeves, #7)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Brook
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1938
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Passage (The Passage, #1) 6690798 THIRTY-TWO MINUTES FOR ONE WORLD TO DIE, ANOTHER TO BE BORN.

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he's done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. Wolgast is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors, but for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—toward the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

With The Passage, award-winning author Justin Cronin has written both a relentlessly suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger. Its inventive storytelling, masterly prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction.]]>
784 Justin Cronin 0345504968 Brook 4 4.04 2010 The Passage (The Passage, #1)
author: Justin Cronin
name: Brook
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
Phantom (Harry Hole, #9) 13256064 Following from Jo Nesbø's electrifying international best-sellers The Snowman and The Leopard, now comes Phantom, which plunges the brilliant, deeply troubled, now former police officer Harry Hole into a full-tilt investigation on which his own tenuous future will come to depend.

When Harry left Oslo again for Hong Kong—fleeing the traumas of life as a cop—he thought he was there for good. But then the unthinkable happened. The son of the woman he loved, lost, and still loves is arrested for murder: Oleg, the boy Harry helped raise but couldn't help deserting when he fled. Harry has come back to prove that Oleg is not a killer. Barred from rejoining the police force, he sets out on a solitary, increasingly dangerous investigation that takes him deep into the world of the most virulent drug to ever hit the streets of Oslo (and the careers of some of the city's highest officials), and into the maze of his own past, where he will find the wrenching truth that finally matters to Oleg, and to himself.]]>
378 Jo Nesbø 0307960471 Brook 5 4.11 2011 Phantom (Harry Hole, #9)
author: Jo Nesbø
name: Brook
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
Headhunters 11777020 265 Jo Nesbø 0307948684 Brook 5 3.81 2008 Headhunters
author: Jo Nesbø
name: Brook
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
Nemesis (Harry Hole, #4) 3522419
A man is caught on CCTV, shooting dead a cashier at a bank. Detective Harry Hole begins his investigation, but after dinner with an old flame wakes up with no memory of the past 12 hours. Then the girl is found dead in mysterious circumstances and he begins to receive threatening emails: is someone trying to frame him for her death?

As Harry fights to clear his name, the bank robberies continue with unparalleled savagery...]]>
480 Jo Nesbø 0061655503 Brook 4 3.98 2002 Nemesis (Harry Hole, #4)
author: Jo Nesbø
name: Brook
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Devil's Star (Harry Hole, #5)]]> 498389
Detective Harry Hole is assigned to the case with his long-time adversary Tom Waaler and initially wants no part in it. But Harry is already on notice to quit the force and is left with little alternative but to drag himself out of his alcoholic stupor and get to work.

A wave of similar murders is on the horizon. An emerging pattern suggests that Oslo has a serial killer on its hands, and the five-pointed devil's star is key to solving the riddle.]]>
528 Jo Nesbø 0099478536 Brook 4 4.05 2003 The Devil's Star (Harry Hole, #5)
author: Jo Nesbø
name: Brook
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Redbreast (Harry Hole, #3)]]> 465226 The Redbreast is a fabulous introduction to Nesbø’s tough-as-nails series protagonist, Oslo police detective Harry Hole. A brilliant and epic novel, breathtaking in its scope and design—winner of The Glass Key for best Nordic crime novel and selected as the best Norwegian crime novel ever written by members of Norway’s book clubs�The Redbreast is a chilling tale of murder and betrayal that ranges from the battlefields of World War Two to the streets of modern-day Oslo. Follow Hole as he races to stop a killer and disarm a ticking time-bomb from his nation’s shadowy past. Vogue magazine says that “nobody can delve into the dark, twisted mind of a murderer better than a Scandinavian thriller writer”…and nobody does it better than Jo Nesbø! James Patterson fans should also take note.
]]>
519 Jo Nesbø 184343217X Brook 5 3.94 2000 The Redbreast (Harry Hole, #3)
author: Jo Nesbø
name: Brook
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Snowman (Harry Hole, #7) 9572203 383 Jo Nesbø 0307595862 Brook 5 4.02 2007 The Snowman (Harry Hole, #7)
author: Jo Nesbø
name: Brook
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)]]> 2
Harry has had enough. He is beginning to think he must do something, anything, to change his situation, when the summer holidays come to an end in a very dramatic fashion. What Harry is about to discover in his new year at Hogwarts will turn his world upside down...]]>
912 J.K. Rowling Brook 5 4.50 2003 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Brook
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)]]> 15881
And strike it does. For in Harry’s second year at Hogwarts, fresh torments and horrors arise, including an outrageously stuck-up new professor and a spirit who haunts the girls� bathroom. But then the real trouble begins � someone is turning Hogwarts students to stone. Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects� Harry Potter himself!]]>
352 J.K. Rowling Brook 5 4.42 1998 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Brook
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)]]> 6 734 J.K. Rowling 0439139597 Brook 5 4.56 2000 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Brook
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)]]> 136251
In this final, seventh installment of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling unveils in spectacular fashion the answers to the many questions that have been so eagerly awaited.]]>
759 J.K. Rowling Brook 5 4.61 2007 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Brook
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)]]> 5 435 J.K. Rowling 043965548X Brook 5 4.57 1999 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Brook
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)]]> 3 309 J.K. Rowling 0439554934 Brook 5 4.47 1997 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Brook
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves:
review:

]]>