Martin's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 04 May 2025 16:59:45 -0700 60 Martin's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Book of Records 218569917
Lina and her father have arrived at an enclave called The Sea, a staging-post between migrations, with only a few possessions. In this mysterious and shape-shifting place, a building made of time, pasts and futures collide. Lina befriends her neighbors: Bento, a Jewish scholar in seventeenth-century Amsterdam; Blucher, a philosopher in 1930s Germany fleeing Nazi persecution; and Jupiter, a poet of Tang Dynasty China. Under the tutelage of these great thinkers, Lina equips herself to face her ailing father’s troubling admissions about his role in their family’s tragic past. Lina’s encounters with her intellectual and personal forebearers force her to reckon with difficult questions of guilt, responsibility, and the possibility of redemption.

Profound, exquisitely written and with extraordinary subtlety of thought, The Book of Records explores the role of fate in history, the migratory nature of humanity, our search for home, and the place of faith and humanity in our world.]]> 368 Madeleine Thien 1324078650 Martin 0 currently-reading, literature 3.82 2025 The Book of Records
author: Madeleine Thien
name: Martin
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/04
shelves: currently-reading, literature
review:

]]> Powerless 215500738 PREORDER SPECIAL. PRICES CHANGES TO $9.99 ON RELEASE.When does silent compliance with an oppressive regime become unbearable? For Charlie Simpkins, the manager of a small vegetable shop in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, part of the West Coast People’s Democratic Republic, the breaking point comes when he is asked to display a meaningless propaganda poster in his shop window.

It is a seemingly insignificant act in a lifetime of obedience. But Charlie just can’t bring himself to doing it. This minor act of defiance, however, show too much independent thinking on Charlie’s part, setting off a chain of escalating consequences for Charlie and his wife and two children.

Powerless is a haunting dystopian tale of how even the smallest act of defiance can spiral into disaster in a society that demands total conformity. It serves as a chilling reminder of how easily standing up for one’s principles can lead to crushing consequences, erringly echoing the challenges we face today for speaking our truth, even in societies that claim to uphold freedom.

The novel is inspired by the historical model of Alexander Dubcek's "socialism with a human face" in 1968 Czechoslovakia, though a few echoes of Ukraine as well. It poignantly illustrates Charlie's increasing disillusionment and the toll that living under such a regime takes on him and his loved ones. In his search for like-minded individuals who share his dissatisfaction, Charlie's actions become more deliberate and dangerous, symbolizing the quiet acts of defiance that signify hope and resistance in a world where the powerful seek to crush any form of dissent.]]> 290 Harry Turtledove 1647101492 Martin 4 4.75 Powerless
author: Harry Turtledove
name: Martin
average rating: 4.75
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/05/03
date added: 2025/05/03
shelves: american-west, science-fiction, alternative-history
review:

]]> The Mouthless Dead 210445360 A powerful and gripping crime novel based on the Wallace Murder, a national cause célèbre of the 1930s and still unsolved today, by the author of Curtain Call and Our Friends in Berlin

One night in 1931 William Wallace was handed a phone message at his chess club from a Mr Qualtrough, asking him to meet at an address to discuss some work. Wallace caught a tram from the home he shared with his wife, Julia, to the address which turned out, after Wallace had consulted passers-by and even a policeman, to not exist.

On returning home two hours later he found his wife lying murdered in the parlour. The elaborate nature of his alibi pointed to Wallace as the culprit. He was arrested and tried, found guilty of murder and sentenced to hang, but the next month the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned the verdict and he walked free.

Fifteen years on, the inspector who worked the case is considering it once more. Speculation continues to be rife over the true killer's identity. James Agate in his diary called it 'the perfect murder', Raymond Chandler said 'The case is unbeatable. It will always be unbeatable'. And on a cruise in 1947, new information is about to come to light.]]> 251 Anthony Quinn 0349146918 Martin 3 mystery 4.08 The Mouthless Dead
author: Anthony Quinn
name: Martin
average rating: 4.08
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/04/27
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> The Alien Years 390359
The Entities have arrived on Earth, fifteen feet tall with impenetrable defenses and inscrutable motives. As conquerors, they have no demands, no explanations, simply harsh consequences should they be challenged. Releasing a plague and plunging the world into a new Dark Age, the Entities seem unbeatable. But, one family at least—the Carmichael clan led by Colonel Anson Carmichael—will never give up the resistance.

THE ALIEN YEARS is an epic story told over multiple generations by master of thoughtful science fiction Robert Silverberg. Can ideas of freedom survive in the face of an overwhelmingly powerful enemy?]]> 488 Robert Silverberg 006105111X Martin 0 to-read 3.48 1995 The Alien Years
author: Robert Silverberg
name: Martin
average rating: 3.48
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> King Sorrow 223420465
Trapped and desperate, Arthur turns to his closest friends for comfort and help. Together they dream up a wild, fantastical scheme to free Arthur from the cruel trap in which he finds himself. Wealthy, irrepressible Colin Wren suggests using the unnerving Crane journal (bound in the skin of its author) to summon a dragon to do their bidding. The others—brave, beautiful Alison Shiner; the battling twins Donna and Donovan McBride; and brainy, bold Gwen—don’t hesitate to join Colin in an effort to smash reality and bring a creature of the impossible into our world.

But there’s nothing simple about dealing with dragons, and their pact to save Arthur becomes a terrifying bargain in which the six must choose a new sacrifice for King Sorrow every year—or become his next meal.]]> 896 Joe Hill 0062200607 Martin 5 fantasy 4.53 2025 King Sorrow
author: Joe Hill
name: Martin
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves: fantasy
review:
I think it’s the best thing that Joe Hill has written. And what a dragon.
]]> <![CDATA[Allies at War: The instant Sunday Times bestseller about the Politics of Defeating Hitler]]> 216767711
By the end of 1941, after the German invasion of Russia and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Grand Alliance was in place. But the ‘Big Three� � Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin � were uneasy bedfellows and their partnership was soon plagued by mistrust, rivalry and deceit. Conflicts opened not just over strategy but over the post-war order � the extent of the United States� global influence, the fate of Britain’s empire, and whether the Soviet Union would extend its territorial ambitions to eastern Europe. The seeds of the Cold War were sown while the bloody battles in Europe and the Pacific still raged.

Winning the War is a fast-paced landmark history that focuses less on military events than on the politics and diplomacy that made military victory possible. Drawing on many new sources, Tim Bouverie tells the dramatic story through the eyes and voices of the key players � politicians and diplomats, journalists and spies. And while the ‘Big Three� naturally take centre stage, we also meet the Free French, Chinese nationalists and Yugoslav partisans. Ambitious, compelling and controversial, Winning the War offers a fresh perspective on the Second World War.]]> 480 Tim Bouverie 1529926599 Martin 0 to-read 5.00 2025 Allies at War: The instant Sunday Times bestseller about the Politics of Defeating Hitler
author: Tim Bouverie
name: Martin
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Big Fight: Muhammad Ali v Al 'Blue' Lewis]]> 16028540
Twenty-four hours after arriving in Dublin, Muhammad Ali rang his publicist Harold Conrad. “Hey, Hal?� said Ali, “where are all the niggers in this country?� “Ali,� replied Conrad, “there aren’t any.�

On July 19, 1972, it took Muhammad Ali eleven rounds to defeat Al “Blue� Lewis at Croke Park, Dublin. A mere footnote in the larger Ali story, this fight against a game ex-convict from Detroit marked the culmination of an extraordinary week in Ireland’s sporting and cultural history. From the moment the world’s most charismatic athlete touched down at Dublin Airport and announced his maternal great-grandfather Abe Grady had emigrated from County Clare more than a century before, the country was in his thrall and -- being Ali -- he loved it. It was an extraordinary week. Ali was both charming and charmed by those who came to pay homage -- among them civil rights campaigner Bernadette Devlin, Oscar-winning director John Huston, actor Peter O’Toole and an old lady who invited him in for a cup of tea.]]> 180 Dave Hannigan Martin 0 to-read 3.71 2002 The Big Fight: Muhammad Ali v Al 'Blue' Lewis
author: Dave Hannigan
name: Martin
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> One Man in his Time 210409435 0 N.M. Borodin 1782279954 Martin 0 to-read 3.50 One Man in his Time
author: N.M. Borodin
name: Martin
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mendoza in Hollywood (The Company, #3)]]> 514439 352 Kage Baker 0765315300 Martin 3 science-fiction, time-travel 3.86 2000 Mendoza in Hollywood (The Company, #3)
author: Kage Baker
name: Martin
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: science-fiction, time-travel
review:

]]> Sky Coyote (The Company, #2) 270492 292 Kage Baker 0380731800 Martin 3 science-fiction, time-travel 3.82 1999 Sky Coyote (The Company, #2)
author: Kage Baker
name: Martin
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: science-fiction, time-travel
review:

]]> Time Travel: Recent Trips 21813339 384 Paula Guran 1607014343 Martin 3 science-fiction, time-travel 3.34 2014 Time Travel: Recent Trips
author: Paula Guran
name: Martin
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: science-fiction, time-travel
review:

]]> The Impossible Thing 214339571 From the exceptionally original mind of CWA Gold Dagger Award winner and Booker longlisted author Belinda Bauer comes this sweeping tale of obsession, greed, ambition, and a crime that has remained unsolved for a hundred years.

How do you find something that doesn’t exist?

1926. On the cliffs of Yorkshire, men are lowered on ropes to steal the eggs of the sea birds who nest there. The most beautiful are sold for large sums. A small girl—penniless and neglected by her family—retrieves one such treasure. Its discovery will forever alter the course of her life.

A century later. In a remote cottage in Wales, Patrick Fort finds his friend, Nick, and his mother tied up and robbed. The only thing missing: a carved case containing an incredible scarlet egg. Doggedly attempting to retrieve it, Patrick and Nick discover the cruel world of egg trafficking, and soon find themselves on the trail of a priceless collection of eggs lost to history. Until now.

A taut, wonderfully imagined novel brimming with skullduggery at every turn, The Impossible Thing is a blazing testament to Belinda Bauer’s status as one of our greatest living crime writers.]]> 336 Belinda Bauer 0802164412 Martin 3 great-britain, mystery 4.12 The Impossible Thing
author: Belinda Bauer
name: Martin
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/28
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: great-britain, mystery
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stomp Off, Let's Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong]]> 209818989 The revelatory origin story of one of America's most beloved musicians, Louis Armstrong

How did Louis Armstrong become Louis Armstrong?

In Stomp Off, Let's Go, author and Armstrong expert Ricky Riccardi tells the enthralling story of the iconic trumpeter's meteoric rise to fame. Beginning with Armstrong's youth in New Orleans, Riccardi transports readers through Armstrong's musical and personal development, including his initial trip to Chicago to join Joe "King" Oliver's band, his first to New York to meet Fletcher Henderson, and his eventual return to Chicago, where he changed the course of music with the Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings.

While this period of Armstrong's life is perhaps more familiar than others, Riccardi enriches extant narratives with recently unearthed archival materials, including a rare draft of pianist, composer, and Armstrong's second wife Lillian "Lil" Hardin Armstrong's autobiography. Riccardi similarly tackles the perceived notion of Armstrong as a "sell-out" during his later years, highlighting the many ways in which Armstrong's musical style and personal values in fact remained steady throughout his career. By foregrounding the voices of Armstrong and his contemporaries, Stomp Off, Let's Go offers a more intimate exploration of Armstrong's personal and professional relationships, in turn providing essential insights into how Armstrong evolved into one of America's most beloved icons.]]> 488 Ricky Riccardi 0197614485 Martin 0 4.50 Stomp Off, Let's Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong
author: Ricky Riccardi
name: Martin
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/28
shelves: currently-reading, biography, jazz
review:

]]> The Crows of Pearblossom 97674 Written in 1944 by Aldous Huxley as a Christmas gift for his niece, The Crows of Pearblossom tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Crow, who live in a cottonwood tree. The hungry Rattlesnake that lives at the bottom of the tree has a nasty habit of stealing Mrs. Crow's eggs before they can hatch, so Mr. Crow and his wise friend, Old Man Owl, devise a sneaky plan to trick him.

This funny story of cleverness triumphing over greed, similar in tone and wit to the work of A. A. Milne, shows a new side of a great writer.

]]> 32 Aldous Huxley 0891901671 Martin 5 graphic-novel 3.72 1944 The Crows of Pearblossom
author: Aldous Huxley
name: Martin
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1944
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/03/27
shelves: graphic-novel
review:

]]> Katabasis 210223811 Two graduate students must set aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul, perhaps at the cost of their own.

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality—her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world—that is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands, and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams. Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the same conclusion.]]> 400 R.F. Kuang Martin 5 fantasy, literature 4.03 2025 Katabasis
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Martin
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/15
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: fantasy, literature
review:
Easily the best book yet by RF Kuang. I plan on rereading it soon, this was so incredible. I don’t often loose sleep to books these days, but I did for this:
]]> <![CDATA[The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance That Won the War]]> 203578717 From internationally bestselling historian Giles Milton comes the remarkable true story of the motley group of Allied men and women who worked to manage Stalin’s mercurial, explosive approach to diplomacy during four turbulent years of World War II.

In the summer of 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, shattering what Stalin had considered an ironclad partnership. There were real fears that Stalin’s forces would be defeated or that the Soviet leader would once again strike a deal with Hitler. Either eventuality would spell catastrophe for both Britain and the United States.

Enter W. Averell Harriman: a railroad magnate and, at the start of the war, the fourth-richest man in America. At Roosevelt’s behest he traveled to Britain to serve as a liaison between the president and Churchill and to spearhead what became known as the Harriman Mission. Together with his fashionable young daughter Kathy, an unforgettable cast of British diplomats, and Churchill himself, he would eventually manage to wrangle Stalin into the partnership the Allies needed to defeat Hitler.

Based on unpublished diaries, letters, and secret reports, The Stalin Affair reveals troves of new material about the path to Allied victory, full of vivid scenes between celebrated and infamous World War II figures.

Includes eight-page, color photograph insert.]]> 336 Giles Milton 1250247586 Martin 3 4.25 2024 The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance That Won the War
author: Giles Milton
name: Martin
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/11
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: history, ussr-russia-eastern-europe
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Town Without Time: Gay Talese's New York]]> 200827059 From legendary journalist Gay Talese, a collection of his greatest reporting on New York City.

“Along with Joan Didion, Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe and others, Mr. Talese has been acclaimed as a virtuoso of the novelistic New Journalism.� �Wall Street Journal

“They fly in quietly—unnoticed, like the cats, the ants, the doorman with three bullets in his head, and most of the other offbeat wonders in this town without time.� —from “New York Is a City of Things Unnoticed,� Talese’s first Esquire story, 1960

For over six decades, Gay Talese has told New York stories. They are the stories of daring bridge builders, disappearing gangsters, intrepid Vogue editors, unassuming doormen who’ve seen too much. They are set in the star-studded salons of George Plimpton’s apartment, in the tense newsroom of a still burgeoning New York Times, in an electric studio session with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga recording their debut.

With the wit, elegance, and depth of insight that has long characterized his work, Talese’s New York reporting showcases a master of the form at his finest, making intelligible the city’s vibrant beating pulse, capturing the charming, the eccentric, and the overlooked. Whether prowling the night streets to discover the social hierarchy of alley cats, or uncovering the triumph and terror of building the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, or plunging into the hidden, sordid world of a recently blown-up apartment building, Talese excavates the city around him with a reporter’s eye and an artist’s flair, crafting delightful, profound, indelible portraits of the people who live there. Spanning the 1950s to today, the fourteen pieces in this collection are a time capsule of what New York once was and still is—Talese proves time and time again that, even as the city changes, his view of it remains as timeless as ever.]]> 432 Gay Talese 0063392186 Martin 0 to-read 3.80 A Town Without Time: Gay Talese's New York
author: Gay Talese
name: Martin
average rating: 3.80
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]> 520938
In this sequel Huck and Jim are a little older and a good deal wiser than they were originally. It is refreshing to see them holding their own in a world of grown-up nonsense and bullying, and it is especially gratifying to follow Jim as he slowly and painfully creates a newer, freer self.]]> 470 Greg Matthews 0451131886 Martin 4 american-west, literature 3.95 1983 The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
author: Greg Matthews
name: Martin
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1983
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: american-west, literature
review:

]]> After Things Fell Apart 1866974
Out of this chaotic background Ron Goulart has produced a swift-moving, witty and constantly delightful novel, a story of a future odyssey through:

*The Nixon Institute, where aging former rock stars reminisce about the days when they still had hair;

*the wide-open sin-town of San Rafael, run by the Amateur Mafia (no Italians allowed);

*Vienna West, a detailed replica of Sigmund Freud's 19th Century city where psychiatric patients live and abreact together;

*the Monterey Mechanical Jazz Festival, featuring the music of pinball machines, jack hammers and Laundromat washers...

All this plus a dozen or two of the oddest characters you're ever likely to meet.]]> 189 Ron Goulart 0425076474 Martin 0 to-read 2.99 1970 After Things Fell Apart
author: Ron Goulart
name: Martin
average rating: 2.99
book published: 1970
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Capricorn One 1310225
But behind the scenes, two and a half hours before lift-off, a strange and terrifying drama was being played out. A NASA director was warning the three astronauts that their spacecraft was faulty. He told them they must fake the trip via computer magic. This way they could convince the President the mission had succeeded. Failure would mean the end of the space program.

Nothing would stop these madmen. Not the truth. Not reality. Especially not the astronauts, who become unwilling conspirators. For them, a special fate had been arranged...]]> 189 Ron Goulart 0449140245 Martin 3 science-fiction 3.26 1978 Capricorn One
author: Ron Goulart
name: Martin
average rating: 3.26
book published: 1978
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: science-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Of Tangible Ghosts (Ghost, #1)]]> 185223 384 L.E. Modesitt Jr. 0812548221 Martin 0 to-read 3.72 1994 Of Tangible Ghosts (Ghost, #1)
author: L.E. Modesitt Jr.
name: Martin
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America]]> 214152292 As relevant as it is comprehensive, Red Scare tells the story of McCarthyism and the Red Scare—based in part on newly declassified sources—by an award-winning writer of history and New York Times reporter.

The film Oppenheimer has awakened interest in this vital period of American history. Now, for the first time in a generation, Red Scare presents a narrative history of the anti-Communist witch hunt that gripped America in the decade following World War II. The cultural phenomenon, most often referred to as McCarthyism, was an outgrowth of the conflict between social conservatives and New Deal progressives, coupled with the terrifying onset of the Cold War. This defining moment in American history, unlike any that preceded it, was marked by an unprecedented degree of political hysteria. Drawing upon newly declassified documents, journalist Clay Risen recounts how politicians like Joseph McCarthy, with the help of an extended network of other government officials and organizations, systematically ruined thousands of lives in their deluded pursuit of alleged Communist conspiracies.

Beginning with the origins of the era after WWI through to its conclusion in 1957, Risen brings to life the politics, patriotism, opportunism, courage, and delirium of those years through the lives and experiences of a cast of towering historical figures, including President Eisenhower, Roy Cohn, Paul Robeson, Robert Oppenheimer, Helen Gahagan Douglas, Richard Nixon, and many more individuals known and unknown. Red Scare takes us beyond the familiar story of McCarthyism and the Hollywood blacklists to a fuller understanding of what the country went through at a time of moral questioning and perceived threat from the left, and what we were capable of doing to each other as a result.

An urgent, accessible, and important history, Red Scare reveals an all-too-familiar pattern of illiberal conspiracy-mongering and political and cultural backlash that speaks directly to the antagonism and divisiveness of our contemporary moment.]]> 480 Clay Risen 1982141808 Martin 4 history 4.34 Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America
author: Clay Risen
name: Martin
average rating: 4.34
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
shelves: history
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bukowski, A Life: The Centennial Edition]]> 51168339
Neeli Cherkovski began a deep friendship with Bukowski in the 1960s while guzzling beer at wrestling matches or during quieter evenings discussing life and literature in Bukowski’s East Hollywood apartment. Over the decades, those hundreds of conversations took shape as this biography―now with a new preface, “This Thing Upon Me Is Not Reflections on the Centennial of Charles Bukowski.�

Bukowski, author of Ham on Rye , Post Office , and other bestselling novels, short stories, and poetry collections only ever wanted to be a writer. Maybe that’s why Bukowski’s voice is so real and immediate that readers felt included in a conversation. “In his written work, he’s a hero, a fall guy, a comic character, a womanizing lush, a wise old dog,� biographer Neeli Cherkovski writes. “His readers do more than glimpse his many-sidedness. For some, it’s a deep experience. They feel as if his writing opens places inside of themselves they might never have seen otherwise. Often a reader comes away feeling heroic, because the poet has shown them that their ordinary lives are imbued with drama.�

Full of anecdotes, wisdom, humor, and insight, this is an essential companion to the work of a great American writer. Long-time Bukowski fans will come away with fresh insights while readers new to his work will find this an exhilarating introduction. “In his death, I hear him clearly,� Cherkovski writes. “His voice comes to me resonant, full of unforced authority, a message of endurance, self-reliance, and honesty of expression. At the same time, he is also saying, ‘Poetry is a dirty dishrag. Keep laughing at yourself on the way out the door.� ”]]> 376 Neeli Cherkovski 157423241X Martin 3 biography, poetry 3.82 1991 Bukowski, A Life: The Centennial Edition
author: Neeli Cherkovski
name: Martin
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: biography, poetry
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mordew (Cities of the Weft, #1)]]> 53438794
In the slums of the sea-battered city a young boy called Nathan Treeves lives with his parents, eking out a meagre existence by picking treasures from the Living Mud and the half-formed, short-lived creatures it spawns. Until one day his desperate mother sells him to the mysterious Master of Mordew.

The Master derives his magical power from feeding on the corpse of God. But Nathan, despite his fear and lowly station, has his own strength � and it is greater than the Master has ever known. Great enough to destroy everything the Master has built. If only Nathan can discover how to use it.

So it is that the Master begins to scheme against him � and Nathan has to fight his way through the betrayals, secrets, and vendettas of the city where God was murdered, and darkness reigns�

� WELCOME TO MORDEW � THE FIRST IN A MONUMENTAL NEW TRILOGY FROM THE WELLCOME BOOK PRIZE-SHORTLISTED AUTHOR, ALEX PHEBY]]> 617 Alex Pheby 1913111024 Martin 0 to-read 3.57 2020 Mordew (Cities of the Weft, #1)
author: Alex Pheby
name: Martin
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Last English King 677842
Three years later, Walt, King Harold's only surviving bodyguard, is still emotionally and physically scarred by the loss of his king and his country. Wandering through Asia Minor, headed vaguely for the Holy Land, he meets Quint, a renegade monk with a healthy line of skepticism and a hearty appetite for knowledge. It is he who persuades Walt, little by little, to tell his extraordinary story.

And so begins a roller-coaster ride into an era of enduring fascination. Weaving fiction round fact, Julian Rathbone brings to vibrant, exciting, and often amusing life the shadowy figures and events that preceded the Norman Conquest. We see Edward, confessing far more than he ever did in the history books. We meet the warring nobles of Mercia and Wessex; Harold and his unruly clan; Canute's descendants with their delusions of grandeur; predatory men, pushy women, subdued Scots , and wily Welsh. And we meet William of Normandy, a psychotic thug with interesting plans for the "racial sanitation" of the Euroskepics across the water.

Peppered with discussions on philosophy. dentistry, democracy, devils, alcohol, illusions, and hygiene, The Last English King raises issues, both daring and delightful, that question the nature of history itself. Where are the lines between fact, interpretation, and re-creation? Did the French really stop for a two-hour lunch during the Battle of Hastings?]]> 400 Julian Rathbone 0312242131 Martin 0 to-read 3.78 1997 The Last English King
author: Julian Rathbone
name: Martin
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Fourth Consort 211003694 A new standalone sci-fi novel from Edward Ashton, author of Mickey7 (the inspiration for the major motion picture Mickey 17).

Dalton Greaves is a hero. He’s one of humankind’s first representatives to Unity, a pan-species confederation working to bring all sentient life into a single benevolent brotherhood.

That’s what they told him, anyway. The only actual members of Unity that he’s ever met are Boreau, a giant snail who seems more interested in plunder than spreading love and harmony, and Boreau’s human sidekick, Neera, who Dalton strongly suspects roped him into this gig so that she wouldn’t become the next one of Boreau’s crew to get eaten by locals while prospecting.

Funny thing, though—turns out there actually is a benevolent confederation out there, working for the good of all life. They call themselves the Assembly, and they really don’t like Unity. More to the point, they really, really don’t like Unity’s new human minions.

When an encounter between Boreau’s scout ship and an Assembly cruiser over a newly discovered world ends badly for both parties, Dalton finds himself marooned, caught between a stickman, one of the Assembly’s nightmarish shock troops, the planet’s natives, who aren’t winning any congeniality prizes themselves, and Neera, who might actually be the most dangerous of the three. To survive, he’ll need to navigate palace intrigue, alien morality, and a proposal that he literally cannot refuse, all while making sure Neera doesn’t come to the conclusion that he’s worth more to her dead than alive.

Part first contact story, part dark comedy, and part bizarre love triangle, The Fourth Consort asks an important how far would you go to survive? And more importantly, how many drinks would you need to go there?]]> 288 Edward Ashton 1250286336 Martin 3 science-fiction 3.92 2025 The Fourth Consort
author: Edward Ashton
name: Martin
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves: science-fiction
review:

]]> Mysterium 116417 309 Robert Charles Wilson 0553569538 Martin 3 science-fiction 3.57 1994 Mysterium
author: Robert Charles Wilson
name: Martin
average rating: 3.57
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: science-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bewitched Bourgeois: Fifty Stories]]> 223727391
Dino Buzzati was a prolific writer of stories, publishing several hundred over the course of forty years. Many of them are fantastic—reminiscent of Kafka and Poe in their mixture of horror and absurdity, and at the same time anticipating the alternate realities of The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror in their chilling commentary on the barbarities, catastrophes, and fanaticisms of the twentieth century.

In The Bewitched Bourgeois, Lawrence Venuti has put together an anthology that showcases Buzzati’s short fiction from his earliest stories to the ones he wrote in the last months of his life. Some appear in English for the first time, while others are reappearing in Venuti’s crisp new versions, such as the much-anthologized “Seven Floors,� an absurdist tale of a patient fatally caught in hospital bureaucracy; “Panic at La Scala,� in which the Milanese bourgeoisie, fearing a left-wing revolution, find themselves imprisoned in the opera house; and “Appointment with Einstein,� where the physicist, stopping at a filling station in Princeton, New Jersey, encounters a gas station attendant who turns out to be the Angel of Death.]]> 344 Dino Buzzati 1681378671 Martin 0 to-read 4.19 1958 The Bewitched Bourgeois: Fifty Stories
author: Dino Buzzati
name: Martin
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1958
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World]]> 201730880 'A brilliant, scholarly, sharp and witty account of our weird eternal obsession with the end times... So enjoyable, that I didn't want it to end - the world, or the book.� � Adam Rutherford, author of A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

'Everything Must Go will make you happy to be alive and reading � until the lights go out . . . Brilliant' � The Spectator

A riveting and brilliantly original exploration of our fantasies of the end of the world, from Mary Shelley's The Last Man to Marvel's Age of Ultron, by the Baillie Gifford and Orwell prize-shortlisted writer and co-host of the podcast 'Origin Story'.

For two millennia, Christians have looked forward to the end, haunted by the apocalyptic visions of the Biblical books of Daniel and Revelation. But for two centuries or more, these dark fantasies have given way to secular stories of how the world, our planet, or our species (or all of the above) might come to an end.

Dorian Lynskey's fascinating book explores the endings that we have read, listened to or watched over the last two dozen decades, whether they be by the death and destruction of a nuclear holocaust or collision with a meteor or comet, devastating epidemic or takeover by robots or computers.

The result is nothing less than a cultural history of the modern world, weaving together politics, history, science, high and popular culture in a book that is uniquely original, grippingly readable and deeply illuminating about both us and our times.

'I was blown away by this book... Lynskey is one of the best non-fiction writers around.' � Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland

'Impossibly epic, brain-expanding, life-affirming and profound. You’ll never see humanity the same way again.' � Ian Dunt, author of How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't]]> 509 Dorian Lynskey 1529095964 Martin 4 history, literary-criticism 4.04 2025 Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World
author: Dorian Lynskey
name: Martin
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: history, literary-criticism
review:

]]> Fever Beach 217245548 Another instant classic from Carl Hiaasen—laugh-out-loud funny, tackling the current chaotic and polarized American culture (following in the path of Squeeze Me), with two wonderful new Hiaasen heroes

“The afternoon of September first, dishwater-gray and rainy, a man named Dale Figgo picked up a hitchhiker on Gus Grissom Boulevard in Tangelo Falls, Florida. The hitchhiker, who reminded Figgo of Danny DeVito, asked for a lift to the interstate. Figgo said he’d take him there after finishing an errand.�

Thus begins Fever Beach, with an errand that leads—in pure Hiaasen-style—into the depths of Florida at its most a sun-soaked bastion of right-wing extremism, white power, greed, and corruption. Figgo, it turns out, is the only hate-monger ever to be kicked out of the Proud Boys for being too dumb and incompetent. On January 6, 2021 he thought he was defacing a statue of Ulysses S. Grant, but he wound up spreading feces all over a statue of James Zacharia George, a Civil War Confederate war leader.

Figgo's already messy life is about to get more complicated, thanks to two formidable adversaries. Viva Morales is a newly transplanted Floridian, a clever woman recently taken to the cleaners by her ex-husband, now working at the Mink Foundation, a supposedly philanthropical organization, and renting a room in Figgo’s apartment because there’s no place else she can afford. Twilly Spree has an anger management problem, especially when it comes to those who deface the environment, and way too many inherited millions of dollars. He's living alone a year after his dog died, two years after he sank a city councilman’s party barge, and three years after his divorce.

Viva and Twilly are plunged into a mystery—involving dark money and darker motives—they are determined to solve, and become entangled in a world populated by some of Hiaasen’s most outrageous Claude and Eletra Mink—billionaire philanthropists with way too much plastic surgery and a secret right-wing agenda—and Congressman Clure Boyette—who dreams of being Florida’s (and maybe America’s) most important politician. The only things standing in his way are his love for hookers and young girls, and his total lack of intelligence. We meet Noel Kristianson—a Scandinavian agnostic injured when Figgo thinks he’s aJewish threat to humanity and runs him over with his car; Jonus Onus—Figgo’s partner in white power idiocy; and many, many more. Hiaasen ties them all together and delivers them to their appropriate fates, in his wildest and most entertaining novel to date.]]> 384 Carl Hiaasen 0593320948 Martin 4 humor, mystery 3.98 2025 Fever Beach
author: Carl Hiaasen
name: Martin
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: humor, mystery
review:

]]> The House on Vesper Sands 53492673

On the case is Inspector Cutter, a detective as sharp and committed to his work as he is wryly hilarious. Gideon Bliss, a Cambridge dropout in love with one of the missing girls, stumbles into a role as Cutter’s sidekick. And clever young journalist Octavia Hillingdon sees the case as a chance to tell a story that matters—despite her employer’s preference that she stick to a women’s society column. As Inspector Cutter peels back the mystery layer by layer, he leads them all, at last, to the secrets that lie hidden at the house on Vesper Sands.


By turns smart, surprising, and impossible to put down, The House on Vesper Sands offers a glimpse into the strange undertow of late nineteenth-century London and the secrets we all hold inside us.]]> 408 Paraic O'Donnell 1951142241 Martin 3 london, mystery 3.34 2018 The House on Vesper Sands
author: Paraic O'Donnell
name: Martin
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/01/20
shelves: london, mystery
review:

]]> Adventures of a Suburban Boy 733005
With a vividly depicted supporting cast that includes Sean Connery, Richard Burton, Burt Reynolds, and Cher, among others, this entertaining and witty tour through the life, times, and works of one of the cinema's great practitioners is not only essential for anyone seeking a fuller understanding of Boorman's incredible body of work, but is also indispensable resource for anyone who is fascinated by film's impact on our lives.]]> 320 John Boorman 0571211542 Martin 0 to-read 4.08 2003 Adventures of a Suburban Boy
author: John Boorman
name: Martin
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The End of the World as We Know It: Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand]]> 220912893 The Stand has been considered Stephen King's seminal masterpiece of apocalyptic fiction. It has sold millions of copies and has been adapted twice for television. Generations of writers have been impacted by its dark yet ultimately hopeful vision of the end and new beginning of civilisation, and its stunning array of characters.

Now for the first time, Stephen King has fully authorised a return to the harrowing world of The Stand through this original short story anthology, as presented by award-winning authors and editors Christopher Golden and Brian Keene. Bringing together some of today's greatest and most visionary writers, The End of the World As We Know It features unforgettable, all-new stories set during and after (and some perhaps long after) the events of The Stand—brilliant, terrifying, and painfully human tales that will resonate with readers everywhere as an essential companion to the classic, bestselling novel.

Featuring an introduction by Stephen King, a foreword by Christopher Golden and afterword by Brian Keene. Contributors include Wayne Brady and Maurice Broaddus, Poppy Z. Brite, Somer Canon, C. Robert Cargill, Nat Cassidy, V. Castro, Richard Chizmar, S. A. Cosby, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, Meg Gardiner, Gabino Iglesias, Jonathan Janz, Alma Katsu, Caroline Kepnes, Michael Koryta, Sarah Langan, Joe R. Lansdale, Tim Lebbon, Josh Malerman, Ronald Malfi, Usman T. Malik, Premee Mohamed, Cynthia Pelayo, Hailey Piper, David J. Schow, Alex Segura, Bryan Smith, Paul Tremblay, Catherynne M. Valente, Bev Vincent, Catriona Ward, Chuck Wendig, Wrath James White and Rio Youers.]]> Christopher Golden Martin 0 to-read 0.0 2025 The End of the World as We Know It: Tales of Stephen King’s The Stand
author: Christopher Golden
name: Martin
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Starter Villain 61885029
Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyperintelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.]]> 264 John Scalzi 0765389223 Martin 4 science-fiction 4.09 2023 Starter Villain
author: John Scalzi
name: Martin
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves: science-fiction
review:

]]> Vine Street 58588833 SERGEANT LEON GEATS' PATCH.

A snarling, skull-cracking misanthrope, Geats marshals the grimy rabble according to his own elastic moral code.

The narrow alleys are brimming with jazz bars, bookies, blackshirts, ponces and tarts so when a body is found above the Windmill Club, detectives are content to dismiss the case as just another young woman who topped herself early.

But Geats - a good man prepared to be a bad one if it keeps the worst of them at bay - knows the dark seams of the city.

Working with his former partner, mercenary Flying Squad sergeant Mark Cassar, Geats obsessively dedicates himself to finding a warped killer - a decision that will reverberate for a lifetime and transform both men in ways they could never expect.]]> 592 Dominic Nolan Martin 5 literature, london, mystery 4.31 Vine Street
author: Dominic Nolan
name: Martin
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/03
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: literature, london, mystery
review:
An excellent read from start to finish. A great London book, great historical crime novel. Why is this not available in US stores is beyond me.
]]> <![CDATA[Sceptred Isle: A new history of the fourteenth century]]> 220460855 A sparkling popular history'
Dan Jones

'Helen Carr is one of the most talented and compelling historians of her generation'
Sathnam Sanghera

THE TIMES BOOKS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2025

The death of Edward I in 1307 marked the beginning of a period of intense turmoil and change in England. The fourteenth century ushered in the beginning of the bloody Hundred Years� War with France, an epic conflict with Scotland that would last into the sixteenth century, famine in Northern Europe and the largest human catastrophe in known history, the Black Death.

Through the epic drama of regicide, war, the prolonged spectre of bubonic plague, religious antagonism, revolt and the end of a royal dynasty, this book tells the story of the fourteenth century via the lives of Edward II, Edward III and Richard II � three very different monarchs, each with their own egos and ambitions, each with their own ideas about England and what it meant to wield power.

Alongside the lives of the last Plantagenets, it also uncovers lesser-known voices and untold stories to give a new portrait of a fractured monarchy, the birth of the struggle between Europeanism and nationalism, social rebellion and a global pandemic.

Sceptred Isle is a thrilling narrative account of a century of revolution, shifting power and great change � social, political and cultural � shedding new light on a pivotal period of English history and the people who lived it.]]> 367 Helen Carr 152915166X Martin 0 to-read 4.50 Sceptred Isle: A new history of the fourteenth century
author: Helen Carr
name: Martin
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bad Penny Blues 7360022
Police Constable Pete Bradley has one year in the force and dreams of moving up the ladder. He's assigned as an aid to CID and working a routine nightshift with his partner when they stumble across a young woman's body. She was working as a prostitute when she was strangled, her body dumped by a riverbank. His search for her killer brings him deep into Soho's underbelly.

Meanwhile Stella, a young fashion designer with a promising career ahead of her, is woken by terrifying nightmares that echo the last hours of the dead women.

1960s London explodes in all its ferocious colour, with fascists and Teds, migrants and hippies living in close proximity. Bad Penny Blues is a tender paean to the city, a novel with a twisted mystery at its heart.]]> 448 Cathi Unsworth 1846686784 Martin 0 to-read 3.70 2009 Bad Penny Blues
author: Cathi Unsworth
name: Martin
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Bent 51134934 I was ten years old.

Bent is the explosive story of the rise and fall of SAS commando, and notorious Detective Sergeant, Harold 'Tanky' Challenor.

During the Second World War, Challenor was parachuted behind enemy lines into Italy and France, performing remarkable feats of bravery.

In the grimy underbelly of 1960s Soho, he was a ferocious and controversial presence, mediating between factions of club owners and racketeers, and cultivating informers.

But just how far will he go to break the protection gang that has a grip on his manor?

It can be a fine line that divides hero and villain.]]> 202 Joe Thomas 1911350730 Martin 0 to-read 3.63 Bent
author: Joe Thomas
name: Martin
average rating: 3.63
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> When We Were Real 214565598 From multiple award-winning author Daryl Gregory comes a madcap adventure following two friends on a cross-country bus tour through the mind-boggling glitches in their simulated world as they grapple with love, family, secrets, and the very nature of reality in a simulation.

JP and Dulin have been the best of friends for decades. When JP finds out his cancer has aggressively returned, Dulin decides it’s the perfect time for one last a week-long bus tour of North America’s Impossibles, the physics-defying glitches and geographic miracles that started cropping up seven years earlier—right after the Announcement that revealed our world to be merely a digital simulacrum. The outing, courtesy of Canterbury Trails Tours, promises the trip of a (not completely real) lifetime in a (not completely deluxe) coach.

Their fellow passengers are 21st-century pilgrims, each of them on the tour for their own reasons. There’s a nun hunting for an absent God, a pregnant influencer determined to make her child too famous to be deleted, a crew of horny octogenarians living each day like it’s their last, and a professor on the run from leather-clad sociopaths who take The Matrix as scripture. Each stop on this trip is stranger than the last—a Tunnel outside of time, a zero gravity Geyser, the compound of motivational-speaking avatar—with everyone barreling toward the tour’s iconic final stop Ghost City, where unbeknownst to our travelers the answer to who is running the simulation may await.

When We Were Real is a tour-de-force and exploration of what really matters, even in an artificial world.]]> 464 Daryl Gregory 1668060043 Martin 0 to-read 4.13 2025 When We Were Real
author: Daryl Gregory
name: Martin
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Forge of God (Forge of God, #1)]]> 64732 474 Greg Bear 0765301075 Martin 0 to-read 3.86 1987 The Forge of God (Forge of God, #1)
author: Greg Bear
name: Martin
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Weaveworld 2767171
Originally published in 1987, Weaveworld is Clive Barker’s second novel, which gathered astounding acclaim and became an instant classic. As an incredible book of visions and horrors, it is a prime example of Barker’s ability to merge the terrifying and the miraculous.]]> 721 Clive Barker 1554680921 Martin 0 to-read 3.91 1987 Weaveworld
author: Clive Barker
name: Martin
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London]]> 25893854
“Cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night,� wrote the poet Rupert Brooke. Before the age of electricity, the nighttime city was a very different place to the one we know today � home to the lost, the vagrant and the noctambulant. Matthew Beaumont recounts an alternative history of London by focusing on those of its denizens who surface on the streets when the sun’s down. If nightwalking is a matter of “going astray� in the streets of the metropolis after dark, then nightwalkers represent some of the most suggestive and revealing guides to the neglected and forgotten aspects of the city.

In this brilliant work of literary investigation, Beaumont shines a light on the shadowy perambulations of poets, novelists and Chaucer and Shakespeare; William Blake and his ecstatic peregrinations and the feverish ramblings of opium addict Thomas De Quincey; and, among the lamp-lit literary throng, the supreme nightwalker Charles Dickens. We discover how the nocturnal city has inspired some and served as a balm or narcotic to others. In each case, the city is revealed as a place divided between work and pleasure, the affluent and the indigent, where the entitled and the desperate jostle in the streets.

With a foreword and afterword by Will Self, Nightwalkin g is a fascinating literary exploration of the writers who traverse the city at night and the people they meet.]]> 506 Matthew Beaumont 1784783781 Martin 5 history, london 3.70 2015 Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London
author: Matthew Beaumont
name: Martin
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: history, london
review:

]]> Guns of Brixton 18160925
From the pen of Paul D Brazill comes a whole host of larger-than-life characters, a sharp plot and the kind of humour you wouldn't let your granny read...but don't just take our word for it :-]]> Paul D. Brazill Martin 0 to-read 4.40 2013 Guns of Brixton
author: Paul D. Brazill
name: Martin
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Jackboot Britain 22093713
From captured British troops held as Prisoners of War, to Major Jochen Wolf and the conflicted, and conflicting SS men in whose care they are placed; to auxiliary partisans in the underground British resistance, anti-fascist veterans of the Spanish Civil War; to a young, female Jewish teacher in Leeds and her clever, quirky male friend; a London shopgirl and an unwilling German soldier drafted to the Wehrmacht; Bill Wilson, a monosyllabic alcoholic in a Bloomsbury pub; a humanist-libertarian journalist; four young conscripts to the German occupation force; a disabled cockney street kid; the men of the SS Einsatzgruppen (action groups), whose 'police' work in occupied countries was a euphemism for murder and suppression; to the SS leaders themselves and their machinations for power, including "The Blond Beast", one of the 20th century's most notorious villains in Reinhard Heydrich himself...

The tapestry of their lives is woven through the powerful tale of a dystopian world that could have been...

Jackboot Britain depicts the grim realities of a Nazi Britain and Hitler's Europe through the lives and deaths, triumphs, setbacks and tragedies of a diverse range of characters, all of whom are caught up in the carnage and chaos of war.]]> 672 Daniel S. William Fletcher 1500556270 Martin 0 to-read 3.70 2014 Jackboot Britain
author: Daniel S. William Fletcher
name: Martin
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Slammerkin 44543 410 Emma Donoghue 0156007479 Martin 4 literature, london 3.73 2001 Slammerkin
author: Emma Donoghue
name: Martin
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: literature, london
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Crimson Petal and the White]]> 40200 922 Michel Faber 1841954314 Martin 4 literature, london 3.88 2002 The Crimson Petal and the White
author: Michel Faber
name: Martin
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: literature, london
review:

]]> Jazz Is 309341 288 Nat Hentoff 0879100036 Martin 3 jazz 4.24 1976 Jazz Is
author: Nat Hentoff
name: Martin
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1976
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: jazz
review:

]]> <![CDATA[West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945-1960]]> 177542 448 Ted Gioia 0520217292 Martin 4 jazz 4.09 1992 West Coast Jazz: Modern Jazz in California, 1945-1960
author: Ted Gioia
name: Martin
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: jazz
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Monk!: Thelonious, Pannonica, and the Friendship Behind a Musical Revolution]]> 37534380 "Read this invigorating graphic narrative, then—quickly, before the spell breaks!�play one of Monk's records." —Saul Williams

She is Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter, a free-spirited baroness of the Rothschild family. He is Thelonious Sphere Monk, a musical genius fighting against the whims of his troubled mind. Their enduring friendship begins in 1954 and ends only with Monk’s death in 1982.

Set against the backdrop of New York during the heyday of jazz, Monk! explores the rare alchemy between two brilliant beings separated by an ocean of social status, race, and culture, but united by an infinite love of music. This breathtaking graphic novel by Youssef Daoudi beautifully captures the life of the “the high priest of bop� in spontaneous, evocative pen and ink that seems to make visible jazz itself.]]> 352 Youssef Daoudi 1626724342 Martin 3 graphic-novel, jazz 4.09 Monk!: Thelonious, Pannonica, and the Friendship Behind a Musical Revolution
author: Youssef Daoudi
name: Martin
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: graphic-novel, jazz
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century]]> 418496 theory about the way art is born, exploited, celebrated, and sidelined to the museum.
A radiant compendium by America's leading music critic, Weather Bird offers an unforgettable look at the modern jazz scene.]]> 632 Gary Giddins 0195304497 Martin 3 jazz 4.00 2004 Weather Bird: Jazz at the Dawn of Its Second Century
author: Gary Giddins
name: Martin
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: jazz
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Visions of Jazz: The First Century]]> 346206 influences as no other book has done.]]> 704 Gary Giddins 0195132416 Martin 3 jazz 4.19 1998 Visions of Jazz: The First Century
author: Gary Giddins
name: Martin
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: jazz
review:

]]> Juice 207627291
Two fugitives, a man and a child, drive all night across a stony desert. As dawn breaks, they roll into an abandoned mine site. From the vehicle they survey a forsaken place � middens of twisted iron, rusty wire, piles of sun-baked trash. They’re exhausted, traumatised, desperate now. But as a refuge, this is the most promising place they’ve seen. The child peers at the field of desolation. The man thinks to himself, this could work.

Problem is, they’re not alone.

So begins a searing, propulsive journey through a life whose central challenge is not simply a matter of survival, but of how to maintain human decency as everyone around you falls ever further into barbarism.]]> 529 Tim Winton 1035050838 Martin 4 science-fiction 3.94 2024 Juice
author: Tim Winton
name: Martin
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/25
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves: science-fiction
review:

]]> Reliquary (Pendergast, #2) 39030 464 Douglas Preston 0765354950 Martin 2 mystery 4.03 1997 Reliquary (Pendergast, #2)
author: Douglas Preston
name: Martin
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1997
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> May We Be Forgiven 16061734
Harold Silver has spent a lifetime watching his younger brother, George, a taller, smarter, and more successful high-flying TV executive, acquire a covetable wife, two kids, and a beautiful home in the suburbs of New York City. But Harry, a historian and Nixon scholar, also knows George has a murderous temper, and when George loses control the result is an act of violence so shocking that both brothers are hurled into entirely new lives in which they both must seek absolution.

Harry finds himself suddenly playing parent to his brother’s two adolescent children, tumbling down the rabbit hole of Internet sex, dealing with aging parents who move through time like travelers on a fantastic voyage. As Harry builds a twenty-first-century family created by choice rather than biology, we become all the more aware of the ways in which our history, both personal and political, can become our destiny and either compel us to repeat our errors or be the catalyst for change.

May We Be Forgiven is an unnerving, funny tale of unexpected intimacies and of how one deeply fractured family might begin to put itself back together.]]> 480 A.M. Homes 0670025488 Martin 0 to-read 3.67 2012 May We Be Forgiven
author: A.M. Homes
name: Martin
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Glorious Heresies 24515225
Biting, moving and darkly funny, The Glorious Heresies explores salvation, shame and the legacy of Ireland's twentieth-century attitudes to sex and family.]]> 384 Lisa McInerney 1444798855 Martin 0 to-read 3.76 2015 The Glorious Heresies
author: Lisa McInerney
name: Martin
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Enigma Girl 212650709 A masterclass in espionage thriller fiction from the heir to John le Carre for fans of Mick Herron, Charles Cumming and David McCloskey. Meet disgraced MI5 agent Slim Parsons, a character who - like Lisbeth Salander - will sear your soul

Slim Parsons is all but burned.

Her last deep cover job for MI5 ended with a life-and-death struggle on a private jet that caused her to go on the run from both the deadly target and her angry bosses in the Security Service. They say that violence comes too easily to her; that she's bordering on delinquent and unsuitable for the roll of an MI5 operative.

Yet she is recalled and asked to infiltrate a news website that's causing alarm in the highest circles. It is staffed by a group descended from wartime codebreakers operating from an unassuming office block near Bletchley Park. Operation Linesman looks like a come down, the curtain on a brilliant career in the shadows. However, she accepts the assignment on condition that the Security Service searches for her missing brother.

Linesman turns out to be anything but simple. Her personal loss, her previous deep cover role, and a threat to MI5 itself from her original target come together in a three-way collision.

And all the while she is watched by someone even deeper in the shadows than she is.]]> 448 Henry Porter 0802164439 Martin 0 to-read 3.91 The Enigma Girl
author: Henry Porter
name: Martin
average rating: 3.91
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966-1996 and the Search for Peace]]> 314386
An authoritative observer of the nationalist cause with strong political contacts on both sides of the border, Coogan sets the historical context for the resurgence of centuries-old tensions that led to the civil protest and pogroms of 1969. He examines the reasons for -- and the snowballing reactions to -- the introduction of British forces to the streets of Derry and Belfast. Photos bring the events and personalities sharply into focus as he insightfully probes the spread of IRA violence to key locations in Britain, and the responses of the British government, its troops, and various Union organizations.

In this new edition, Coogan discusses the continuing argument over weapons, the resumed IRA bombings in February 1996, and the significance of recent elections. Having gained the confidence of the combatants, he presents exclusive interviews and examines the prospects for peace.

"Coogan fills this book with quotes, personal reportage, and wry wit.... This title should be part of any history or current events collection". -- Library Journal Starred Review]]> 491 Tim Pat Coogan 1570981442 Martin 5 ireland 3.97 1995 The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966-1996 and the Search for Peace
author: Tim Pat Coogan
name: Martin
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves: ireland
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty]]> 182867362
Just as their investigations were unfolding, the brutal double murder of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh rocketed Alex Murdaugh onto the international stage. From the newsroom to the courtroom, Blood on Their Hands is a propulsive true crime saga, an empathetic work of investigative journalism, and an excoriation of the “good old boy� systems that enabled a network of criminals.]]> 272 Mandy Matney 006326921X Martin 3 journalism 3.65 2023 Blood on Their Hands: Murder, Corruption, and the Fall of the Murdaugh Dynasty
author: Mandy Matney
name: Martin
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: journalism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, #1)]]> 61294937 Shannon Chakraborty, the bestselling author of The City of Brass, spins a new trilogy of magic and mayhem on the high seas in this tale of pirates and sorcerers, forbidden artifacts and ancient mysteries, in one woman’s determined quest to seize a final chance at glory—and write her own legend.

Amina al-Sirafi should be content. After a storied and scandalous career as one of the Indian Ocean’s most notorious pirates, she’s survived backstabbing rogues, vengeful merchant princes, several husbands, and one actual demon to retire peacefully with her family to a life of piety, motherhood, and absolutely nothing that hints of the supernatural.

But when she’s tracked down by the obscenely wealthy mother of a former crewman, she’s offered a job no bandit could refuse: retrieve her comrade’s kidnapped daughter for a kingly sum. The chance to have one last adventure with her crew, do right by an old friend, and win a fortune that will secure her family’s future forever? It seems like such an obvious choice that it must be God’s will.

Yet the deeper Amina dives, the more it becomes alarmingly clear there’s more to this job, and the girl’s disappearance, than she was led to believe. For there’s always risk in wanting to become a legend, to seize one last chance at glory, to savor just a bit more power…and the price might be your very soul.]]> 483 Shannon Chakraborty Martin 4 fantasy 4.25 2023 The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi (Amina al-Sirafi, #1)
author: Shannon Chakraborty
name: Martin
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> The Lady of the Mine 204474409
Acclaimed Russian author Sergei Lebedev portrays a ghostly realm riven by lust and fear just as the Kremlin invades the same part of Ukraine occupied by the Wehrmacht in World War Two. Then corpses rain from the sky when a jetliner is shot down overhead, scattering luxury goods along with the mortal remains. Eerie coincidences and gruesome discoveries fill this riveting exploration of an uncanny place where the geography exudes violence, and where the sins of the past are never all that far in the past. Lebedev, who has won international praise for his soul-searching prose and unflinching examination of history’s evils, shines light on the faultline where Nazism met Soviet communism, evolving into the new fascism of today’s Russia.]]> 240 Sergei Lebedev 1954404301 Martin 4 2.10 2025 The Lady of the Mine
author: Sergei Lebedev
name: Martin
average rating: 2.10
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/11/04
shelves: literature, ussr-russia-eastern-europe
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne]]> 215366230 When a drug kingpin discovers his numbers are down in the upper northeast, he sends a malevolent force, known only as "The Man," to investigate. At the same time, Babs's youngest daughter, Sis, has gone missing, which doesn't seem like a coincidence. In twenty-four hours Sis will be found dead, and the whole town will seek shelter from Babs’s wrath.]]> 361 Ron Currie 0593851676 Martin 4 literature 4.17 The Savage, Noble Death of Babs Dionne
author: Ron Currie
name: Martin
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/25
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves: literature
review:

]]> Alien Clay 195443798
On the distant world of Kiln lie the ruins of an alien civilization. It’s the greatest discovery in humanity’s spacefaring history � yet who were its builders and where did they go?

Professor Arton Daghdev had always wanted to study alien life up close. Then his wishes become a reality in the worst way. His political activism sees him exiled from Earth to Kiln’s extrasolar labour camp. There, he’s condemned to work under an alien sky until he dies.

Kiln boasts a ravenous, chaotic ecosystem like nothing seen on Earth. The monstrous alien life interacts in surprising, sometimes shocking ways with the human body, so Arton will risk death on a daily basis. However, the camp’s oppressive regime might just kill him first. If Arton can somehow escape both fates, the world of Kiln holds a wondrous, terrible secret. It will redefine life and intelligence as he knows it, and might just set him free . . .]]> 396 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1035013770 Martin 3 science-fiction 3.98 2024 Alien Clay
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Martin
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/23
date added: 2024/10/23
shelves: science-fiction
review:

]]> Brothers 206728658 In this intimate and open account—nothing like any rock-and-roll memoir you’ve ever read—Alex Van Halen shares his personal story of family, friendship, music and brotherly love in a remarkable tribute to his beloved brother and band mate.

Told with acclaimed New Yorker writer Ariel Levy Brothers is seventy-year-old drummer Alex Van Halen’s love letter to his younger brother, Edward, (Maybe “Ed,� but never “Eddie�), written while still mourning his untimely death.

In his rough yet sweet voice, Alex recounts the brothers� childhood, first in the Netherlands and then in working class Pasadena, California, with an itinerant musician father and a very proper Indonesian-born mother—the kind of mom who admonished her boys to “always wear a suit� no matter how famous they became—a woman who was both proud and practical, nonchalant about taking a doggie bag from a star-studded dinner. He also shares tales of musical politics, infighting, and plenty of bad-boy behavior. But mostly his is a story of brotherhood, music, and enduring love.

"I was with him from day one,� Alex writes. “We shared the experience of coming to this country and figuring out how to fit in. We shared a record player, an 800 square foot house, a mom and dad, and a work ethic. Later, we shared the back of a tour bus, alcoholism, the experience of becoming famous, of becoming fathers and uncles, and of spending more hours in the studio than I’ve spent doing anything else in this life. We shared a depth of understanding that most people can only hope to achieve in a lifetime."

There has never been an accurate account of them or the band, and Alex wants to set the record straight on Edward’s life and death.

Brothers includes never-before-seen photos from the author’s private archives.]]> 240 Alex Van Halen 0063265729 Martin 4 autobiography, biography 4.06 2024 Brothers
author: Alex Van Halen
name: Martin
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves: autobiography, biography
review:

]]> Blood Brothers 625848
Derek Waites was once an outlaw computer hacker, the infamous Captain Africa. Now he designs computer games. Someone has just tried to kidnap his son, while his daughter cried a strange warning and burst into flames.

The two men can have nothing in common-Tucker is a white man from the suburbs, Waites is a black street-hustler trying to go straight. But they are brothers in the same cause. If Tucker and Waites can resolve their differences long enough to work together, they can defeat an ancient evil. Between them they have the skills and the knowledge to break an ancient cycle of supernatural predation, and save the lives of a generation of children.]]> 416 Steven Barnes 0812548078 Martin 3 3.80 Blood Brothers
author: Steven Barnes
name: Martin
average rating: 3.80
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2019/06/03
date added: 2024/10/16
shelves: american-west, science-fiction
review:

]]> You Like It Darker 201242757 From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary new collection of twelve short stories, many never-before-published, and some of his best EVER.

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

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

King’s ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace remains unsurpassed. Each of these stories holds its own thrills, joys, and mysteries; each feels iconic. You like it darker? You got it.]]> 512 Stephen King 1668037718 Martin 3 fantasy 4.16 2024 You Like It Darker
author: Stephen King
name: Martin
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/10/12
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Masquerades of Spring (Rivers of London #0.2)]]> 202969855
Meet Augustus Berrycloth-Young - fop, flaneur, and Englishman abroad - as he chronicles the Jazz Age from his perch atop the city that never sleeps.

That is, until his old friend Thomas Nightingale arrives, pursuing a rather mysterious affair concerning an old saxophone - which will take Gussie from his warm bed, to the cold shores of Long Island, and down to the jazz clubs where music, magic, and madness haunt the shadows...]]> 165 Ben Aaronovitch 147322442X Martin 4 fantasy, jazz, london 4.15 2024 The Masquerades of Spring (Rivers of London #0.2)
author: Ben Aaronovitch
name: Martin
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: fantasy, jazz, london
review:
Very enjoyable. I hope we see more of this storyline
]]> <![CDATA[Jump: A Sam McGowan Adventure (Sam McGowan Adventures Book 1)]]> 52370171 293 Tim Maleeny 1615951199 Martin 2 american-west, mystery 4.06 2008 Jump: A Sam McGowan Adventure (Sam McGowan Adventures Book 1)
author: Tim Maleeny
name: Martin
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: american-west, mystery
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)]]> 39873472
Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation.

A fascinating space opera debut novel, Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire is an interstellar mystery adventure.]]> 472 Arkady Martine 1250186455 Martin 3 science-fiction 4.27 2019 A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1)
author: Arkady Martine
name: Martin
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/06
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: science-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness]]> 29451835 “A valuable reexamination� (Booklist, starred review) of the event that changed twentieth-century America—Pearl Harbor—based on years of research and new information uncovered by a New York Times bestselling author.The America we live in today was born, not on July 4, 1776, but on December 7, 1941, when an armada of 354 Japanese warplanes supported by aircraft carriers, destroyers, and midget submarines suddenly and savagely attacked the United States, killing 2,403 men—and forced America’s entry into World War II. Pearl From Infamy to Greatness follows the sailors, soldiers, pilots, diplomats, admirals, generals, emperor, and president as they engineer, fight, and react to this stunningly dramatic moment in world history. Beginning in 1914, bestselling author Craig Nelson maps the road to war, when Franklin D. Roosevelt, then the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, attended the laying of the keel of the USS Arizona at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Writing with vivid intimacy, Nelson traces Japan’s leaders as they lurch into ultranationalist fascism, which culminates in their scheme to terrify America with one of the boldest attacks ever waged. Within seconds, the country would never be the same. Backed by a research team’s five years of work, as well as Nelson’s thorough re-examination of the original evidence assembled by federal investigators, this page-turning and definitive work “weaves archival research, interviews, and personal experiences from both sides into a blow-by-blow narrative of destruction liberally sprinkled with individual heroism, bizarre escapes, and equally bizarre tragedies� (Kirkus Reviews). Nelson delivers all the terror, chaos, violence, tragedy, and heroism of the attack in stunning detail, and offers surprising conclusions about the tragedy’s unforeseen and resonant consequences that linger even today.]]> 545 Craig Nelson 1451660510 Martin 5 history 4.20 2016 Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness
author: Craig Nelson
name: Martin
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2016/07/23
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves: history
review:

]]> Hench (Hench, #1) 51200401 A smart, imaginative, and evocative novel of love, betrayal, revenge, and redemption, told with razor-sharp wit and affection, in which a young woman discovers the greatest superpower—for good or ill—is a properly executed spreadsheet.

Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. Working for a monster lurking beneath the surface of the world isn’t glamorous. But is it really worse than working for an oil conglomerate or an insurance company? In this economy?

As a temp, she’s just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called “hero� leaves her badly injured. And, to her horror, compared to the other bodies strewn about, she’s the lucky one.

So, of course, then she gets laid off.

With no money and no mobility, with only her anger and internet research acumen, she discovers her suffering at the hands of a hero is far from unique. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks.

Because the key to everything is data: knowing how to collate it, how to manipulate it, and how to weaponize it. By tallying up the human cost these caped forces of nature wreak upon the world, she discovers that the line between good and evil is mostly marketing. And with social media and viral videos, she can control that appearance.

It’s not too long before she’s employed once more, this time by one of the worst villains on earth. As she becomes an increasingly valuable lieutenant, she might just save the world.

A sharp, witty, modern debut, Hench explores the individual cost of justice through a fascinating mix of Millennial office politics, heroism measured through data science, body horror, and a profound misunderstanding of quantum mechanics.

]]> 400 Natalie Zina Walschots Martin 4 science-fiction 4.21 2020 Hench (Hench, #1)
author: Natalie Zina Walschots
name: Martin
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves: science-fiction
review:
Wonderfully delightfully subversive. Takes the whole super hero genre and turns it over to see what falls out. Recommended
]]> <![CDATA[The Great Defiance: How the World Took on the British Empire]]> 62084695
In this book, David Veevers looks beyond the myths of triumph and into the realities of British misadventures in the early days of Empire, meeting the extraordinary people across the world who were the real forces to be reckoned with. From the Emperors who determined the expansion of the English East India Company, to the West African kings who resisted English entreaties and set the terms of the lucrative slave trade, to the Paramount Chiefs in America who fought to expunge European forces from their homelands, The Great Defiance retells the story of early Empire from the perspective of the Indigenous and non-European people who held the fate of the British in their hands.]]> 0 David Veevers 1529109957 Martin 0 to-read 3.71 2023 The Great Defiance: How the World Took on the British Empire
author: David Veevers
name: Martin
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty]]> 210454076 Power, privilege, and blood—this is the definitive and thrilling true story of Alex Murdaugh’s violent downfall, from a veteran Wall Street Journal reporter who has become an authority on the case.

Alex Murdaugh was a benevolent dictator—the president of the South Carolina trial lawyers� association, a political boss, a part-time prosecutor, and a partner in his family’s law firm. He was always ready with a favor, a drink, and an invitation to Moselle, his family’s 1,700-acre hunting estate. The Murdaugh name ignited respect—and fear—for a hundred miles.

When he murdered his wife, Maggie, and son Paul at Moselle on a dark summer night, the fragile façade of Alex’s world could no longer hold. His forefathers had covered up a midnight suicide at a remote railroad crossing, a bootlegging ring run from a courthouse, and the attempted murder of a pregnant lover. Alex, too, almost walked away from his unspeakable crimes with his reputation intact, but his downfall was secured by a twist of fate, some stray mistakes, and a fateful decision by an old friend who’d finally seen enough.

Why would a man who had everything kill his wife and grown son? To unwind the roots of Alex’s ruin, award-winning journalist Valerie Bauerlein reported not just from the courthouse every day but also along the backroads and through the tidal marshes of South Carolina’s Lowcountry. When the jurors made their pilgrimage to the crime scene, trying to envision Maggie and Paul’s last moments, she walked right behind them, sensing the ghosts that haunt the Murdaughs� now-shattered legacy.

Through masterful research and cinematic writing, The Devil at His Elbow is a transporting journey through Alex’s life, the night of the murders, and the investigation that culminated in a trial that held tens of millions spellbound. With her stunning insights and fearless instinct for the truth, Bauerlein uncovers layers of the Murdaugh murder case that have not been told.]]> 480 Valerie Bauerlein 059350058X Martin 4 journalism 4.46 2024 The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty
author: Valerie Bauerlein
name: Martin
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/23
shelves: journalism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mercy of Gods (The Captive’s War #1)]]> 201930181
Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team. Then the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them. They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure.

Only Dafyd and a handful of his companions see past the Darwinian contest to the deeper game that they must play to learning to understand � and manipulate � the Carryx themselves. With a noble but suicidal human rebellion on one hand and strange and murderous enemies on the other, the team pays a terrible price to become the trusted servants of their new rulers. Dafyd Alkhor is a simple man swept up in events that are beyond his control and more vast than his imagination. He will become the champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people. This is where his story begins.]]> 422 James S.A. Corey 031652557X Martin 4 science-fiction 4.11 2024 The Mercy of Gods (The Captive’s War #1)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Martin
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/16
shelves: science-fiction
review:

]]> The Cracked Mirror 197023868 THIS IS NOT THAT CRIME NOVEL

You know Johnny Hawke. Hard-bitten LAPD homicide detective. Always in trouble with his captain, always losing partners, but always battling for the truth, whatever it takes.

You know Penny Coyne. The little old lady who has solved multiple murders in her otherwise sleepy village, despite bumbling local police. A razor-sharp mind in a Sunday best hat.

Against all the odds, against the usual story, their worlds are about to collide. It starts with a dead writer and a mysterious wedding invitation. It will end with a rabbit hole that goes so deep, Johnny and Penny might just come to question not just whodunnit, but whether they want to know the answer.

A cross-genre hybrid of Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly, The Cracked Mirror is the most imaginative and entertaining crime novel of the year, a genre-splicing rollercoaster with a poignantly emotional heart.]]> 480 Chris Brookmyre 0349145792 Martin 3 mystery 3.93 The Cracked Mirror
author: Chris Brookmyre
name: Martin
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/08
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Around the World in Eighty Days]]> 54479 252 Jules Verne 014044906X Martin 4 literature, translation 3.95 1872 Around the World in Eighty Days
author: Jules Verne
name: Martin
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1872
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: literature, translation
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Murder in the Queen's Armes (Gideon Oliver, #3)]]> 91852 256 Aaron Elkins 0425206386 Martin 3 mystery 3.85 1985 Murder in the Queen's Armes (Gideon Oliver, #3)
author: Aaron Elkins
name: Martin
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: mystery
review:

]]> The Fortress 36344640
Jonathon has offered himself as a supplicant in The Fortress after his pregnant wife Adalia discovered the ugly sexual violence pervading his top-tier firm. She has agreed to continue their fractured relationship on the condition he enter The Fortress for one year.

Jonathon is utterly unprepared for what will happen to him over the course of the year � not only to his body, but his mind and his heart.

This absorbing, confronting and moving novel asks questions about consent, power, love and fulfilment. It asks what it takes for a man to change, and whether change is possible without a radical reversal of the conditions that seem normal.]]> 288 S.A. Jones 1760407941 Martin 3 literature 3.45 The Fortress
author: S.A. Jones
name: Martin
average rating: 3.45
book published:
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: literature
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Things I Didn’t Know My Father Knew: The Best Short Stories of Peter Crowther]]> 61478842 All We Know of Heaven : A small boy finds the answer to his and his father's dilemma in the legend of King Arthur and his mystical sword, Excalibur.
Tomorrow Eyes : A Runyonesque gambler discovers the strangest set of dice you ever saw being rolled on a cloth.
Some Burial Place, Vast and Dry : The lonely survivor of a long-ago space mission receives a visit from a hauntingly familiar UFO.
The Musician of Bremen, GA : Cal Williston, who can play the best version of 'Moonlight In Vermont' since Chet Baker teamed up with Gerry Mulligan.
Boxing Day : A small-town crook about to fall under the spell of London rediscovers his wife.
Keepsakes : PI. Koko Tate pays his mom a visit on Mother’s Day.
Too Short A Death : A modern-day poet meets the long-deceased Weldon Kees's greatest literary creation.
Eater : The cops at an off-the-beaten-track late-night precinct house have got more than they bargained for in one of the cells.
Sitting Pretty : An armchair fashioned out of the wood from the original cross provides a comfort of sorts down the ages.
Dark Times : Two old men tamper with the dark arts and open a gateway that threatens the destructions of the world.
Jewels in the Dust : A couple jaded with their life together are visited by their collective histories.
And, in Songs of Leaving , the imminent impact of a county-sized piece of space debris brings to the remnants of humanity a multitude of old friends to witness the fall of mankind.]]> 506 Peter Crowther 158767792X Martin 4 3.33 Things I Didn’t Know My Father Knew: The Best Short Stories of Peter Crowther
author: Peter Crowther
name: Martin
average rating: 3.33
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/05
date added: 2024/08/05
shelves:
review:

]]> The Last Dangerous Visions 51017212 An anthology more than half a century in the making, The Last Dangerous Visions is the third and final installment of the legendary science fiction anthology series.

In 1973, celebrated writer and editor Harlan Ellison announced the third and final volume of his unprecedented anthology series, which began with Dangerous Visions and continued with Again Dangerous Visions. But for reasons undisclosed, The Last Dangerous Visions was never completed.

Now, six years after Ellison's passing, science fiction's most famous unpublished book is here. And with it, the heartbreaking true story of the troubled genius behind it.

Provocative and controversial, socially conscious and politically charged, wildly imaginative yet deeply grounded, the thirty-two never-before published stories, essays, and poems in The Last Dangerous Visions stand as a testament to Ellison's lifelong pursuit of art, representing voices both well-known and entirely new, including David Brin, Max Brooks, Cory Doctorow, Dan Simmons, AE van Vogt, Edward Bryant, and Robert Sheckley, among others.

With an introduction and exegesis by J. Michael Straczynski, and a story introduction by Ellison himself, The Last Dangerous Visions is an extraordinary addition to an incredible literary legacy.]]> 350 Harlan Ellison Martin 4 science-fiction 4.27 2024 The Last Dangerous Visions
author: Harlan Ellison
name: Martin
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: science-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One Hundred Famous Views of Edo]]> 8007019 272 Hiroshige Utagawa 3836521202 Martin 5 art, taschen 4.71 1856 One Hundred Famous Views of Edo
author: Hiroshige Utagawa
name: Martin
average rating: 4.71
book published: 1856
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: art, taschen
review:

]]> An Astronomer in Love 99968558
In 1760, astronomer Guillaume le Gentil sets out on a quest through the oceans of India to document the transit of Venus. The weather is turbulent, the seas are rough, but his determination will conquer all.

In 2012, divorced estate agent Xavier Lemercier discovers Guillaume’s telescope in one of his properties. While looking out across the city, the telescope falls upon the window of an intriguing woman with what appears to be a zebra in her apartment.

Then the woman walks through the doors of Xavier’s office a few days later, and his life changes for evermore . . .

Part swashbuckling adventure on the high seas and part modern-day love story set in the heart of Paris, An Astronomer in Love is a time-travelling tale of adventure, destiny and the power of love.]]> 218 Antoine Laurain 1913547469 Martin 5 literature My favorite French writer 4.13 2022 An Astronomer in Love
author: Antoine Laurain
name: Martin
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: literature
review:
My favorite French writer
]]> The President's Hat 17594390
Daniel’s thrill at being in such close proximity to the most powerful man in the land persists even after the presidential party has gone, which is when he discovers that Mitterrand’s black felt hat has been left behind.

After a few moments� soul-searching, Daniel decides to keep the hat as a souvenir of an extraordinary evening. It’s a perfect fit, and as he leaves the restaurant Daniel begins to feel somehow � different.]]> 208 Antoine Laurain 1908313471 Martin 5 literature, translation 3.96 2012 The President's Hat
author: Antoine Laurain
name: Martin
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/11
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves: literature, translation
review:
Absolutely charming. A perfect novel if you need some cheering up.
]]> Zuleikha 36295979
As she gradually settles into a routine, Zuleikha starts to get to know her companions. The eclectic group includes a rather dotty doctor, an artist who paints on the sly, and Ignatov, Zuleikha’s husband’s killer. Together, the group starts to build a new life, one that is far removed from those they left behind.
Guzel Yakhina’s smooth prose describes Zuleikha’s adjustment to a new reality and her discovery of a new form of happiness, and covers a range of cultural, ethnic, religious and socio-political issues. This outstanding debut novel from an exciting new talent has been showered with prizes and is capturing the hearts of readers all over the world.]]> 448 Guzel Yakhina 1786073498 Martin 0 to-read 4.02 2015 Zuleikha
author: Guzel Yakhina
name: Martin
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Beatlebone 27844247 A searing, surreal novel that blends fantasy and reality—and Beatles fandom—from one of literature’s most striking contemporary voices, author of the international sensation City of Bohane It is 1978, and John Lennon has escaped New York City to try to find the island off the west coast of Ireland he bought eleven years prior. Leaving behind domesticity, his approaching forties, his inability to create, and his memories of his parents, he sets off to calm his unquiet soul in the comfortable silence of isolation. But when he puts himself in the hands of a shape-shifting driver full of Irish charm and dark whimsy, what ensues can only be termed a magical mystery tour. Beatlebone is a tour de force of language and literary imagination that marries the most improbable elements to the most striking effect. It isa book that only Kevin Barry would attempt, letalone succeed in pulling off—a Hibernian high wire act of courage, nerve, and great beauty.]]> 284 Kevin Barry 0385540302 Martin 5 ireland, literature 3.58 2015 Beatlebone
author: Kevin Barry
name: Martin
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves: ireland, literature
review:
Brilliant. A rewarding struggle to finish it. Unlike anything else Kevin Barry has written which I appreciate.
]]> Airside 85053859 During a time of personal crisis, she declares she is going to take a vacation in England, to explore the possibilities of working in London, before returning to the USA.

She never returned to the USA. She never even left the airport. At least � no-one saw her leave.

Years later, a young film student finds himself digging deeper into her disappearance. Where did she go? Was she really dead? Who was the mysterious man who sat beside her on the flight across from New York?]]> 297 Christopher Priest 1399608835 Martin 2 science-fiction 3.08 2023 Airside
author: Christopher Priest
name: Martin
average rating: 3.08
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/21
date added: 2024/07/21
shelves: science-fiction
review:

]]> Beautyland 127282939 From the acclaimed author of Parakeet, Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a wise, tender novel about a woman who doesn't feel at home on Earth.

At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings.

For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?

Marie-Helene Bertino’s Beautyland is a novel of startling originality about the fragility and resilience of life on our Earth and in our universe. It is a remarkable evocation of the feeling of being in exile at home, and it introduces a gentle, unforgettable alien for our times.]]> 327 Marie-Helene Bertino 0374109281 Martin 0 to-read 4.08 2024 Beautyland
author: Marie-Helene Bertino
name: Martin
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> What Mad Universe 439226 205 Fredric Brown 155310336X Martin 0 to-read 3.98 1949 What Mad Universe
author: Fredric Brown
name: Martin
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1949
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Putin and the Return of History: How the Kremlin Rekindled the Cold War]]> 127282446
Putin is a paradox. In the early years of his presidency, he appeared to commit himself to friendship with the West, suggesting that Russia could join the European Union or even NATO. He said he supported free-market democracy and civil rights. But the Putin of those years is unrecognisable today. The Putin of the 2020s is an autocratic nationalist, dedicated to repression at home and anti-Western militarism abroad. So, what happened? Was he lying when he proclaimed his support for freedom, democracy and friendship with the West? Or, was he sincere? Did he change his views at some stage between then and now? And if that is the case, what happened to change him?

Putin and the Return of History examines these questions in the context of Russia's thousand-year past, tracing the forces and the myths that have shaped Putin's politics of the enduring terror of encirclement by outsiders, the subjugation of the individual to the cause of the state, the collectivist values that allow the sacrifice of human lives in battle, the willingness to lie and deceive, the co-opting of religion and the belief in Great Russia's mission to change the world.]]> 368 Martin Sixsmith 1399409867 Martin 4 4.16 Putin and the Return of History: How the Kremlin Rekindled the Cold War
author: Martin Sixsmith
name: Martin
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/16
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves: history, ussr-russia-eastern-europe
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Nansen Factor: Refugee Stories]]> 205180864 A bold debut collection of stories that follow the lives of those displaced by the Bolshevik Revolution and their descendants, shining a light on the lasting impact of displacement and the resiliency of the human spirit.

Norwegian diplomat Fridtjof Nansen created a passport for stateless persons used by refugees as a valid travel document from 1922-1937. The world is all too aware of what has happened to Russia in the century since then—Lenin, Stalin, and now Putin with his iron-fist policies and invasion of Ukraine. But what about the aristocrats whose ancestors governed Russia before Communism? How did they fare in displacement? Civil War, Red Terror, and Bolshevik rule caused over one million to flee Russia. Written by the daughter of one such émigré,The Nansen Factortraces the lives of these refugees and their descendants across a century of upheaval and displacement. From the turmoil of the Bolshevik Revolution to the echoes of the past in modern-day America, these interconnected tales vividly portray the resilience of individuals uprooted by history at a moment when migrants are once again on the move in search of refuge, highlighting how the pain of losing one’s homeland may fade, but the injury to the psyche is slow to heal.

“The stories in this impressive collection beautifully express the enrichment and estrangement of displaced lives. With a single phrase or tiny detail, Grabbe accurately captures an entire soul and the fractured, complicated state of living between worlds. A bold and engrossing debut with unforgettable characters.� Marjan Kamali, author of The Stationery Shop and Tiger Women of Tehran]]> 172 Alexandra Grabbe Martin 0 to-read 4.40 The Nansen Factor: Refugee Stories
author: Alexandra Grabbe
name: Martin
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/31
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation]]> 202102082 A magnificent history of the 1925 Scopes trial and how the teaching of evolution in public schools exposed profound divisions in America about morals, freedom, censorship, religion, and the meaning of democracy that still resonate todayIn 1925, hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the “trial of the century,� where a young schoolteacher named John T. Scopes was charged with teaching evolution to his biology class. Darwin’s theory that species evolved over time through natural selection (misunderstood to suggest that humans descended from monkeys) was viewed as a threat to the nation. Two legendary attorneys, Clarence Darrow for the defense and William Jennings Bryan for the prosecution, drew massive crowds in a trial that quickly became a circus-like media sensation—but it was much more than that. Darrow was arguing that people should be free to worship, or not to worship, and be free to learn, particularly about science, while Bryan declared that evolution undermined the literal truth of the Bible and created a society without morals, meaning, or hope.Prize-winning historian Brenda Wineapple brings to vivid life the entirety of this dramatic and colorful period that exposed foundational divisions across race, region, and religion. Bryan, three times the Democratic nominee for President, had been Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State, and his populism and political ambitions, vividly chronicled in this book, culminated in Dayton. Darrow was the celebrated and successful advocate of labor and a fervent believer in civil rights, as protected by the Constitution. Along with the newly-formed ACLU, he defended Scopes, declaring, “No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry, and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.”In Keeping the Faith, Brenda Wineapple illuminates this electrifying, pivotal legal showdown, which at its heart was a struggle over the fundamental values that define America, and in doing so calls attention to a crisis almost a century ago that continues to reverberate in the present.]]> 544 Brenda Wineapple 0593229924 Martin 3 history 4.22 2024 Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation
author: Brenda Wineapple
name: Martin
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/11
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves: history
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Skies of Thunder: The Deadly World War II Mission Over the Roof of the World]]> 196848579
In April 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army steamrolled through Burma, capturing the only ground route from India to China. Supplies to this critical zone would now have to come from India by air—meaning across the Himalayas, on the most hazardous air route in the world. SKIES OF THUNDER is a story of an epic human endeavor, in which Allied troops faced the monumental challenge of operating from airfields hacked from the jungle, and took on “the Hump,� the fearsome mountain barrier that defined the air route. They flew fickle, untested aircraft through monsoons and enemy fire, with inaccurate maps and only primitive navigation technology. The result was a litany of both deadly crashes and astonishing feats of survival. The most chaotic of all the war’s arenas, the China-Burma-India theater was further confused by the conflicting political interests of Roosevelt, Churchill and their demanding, nominal ally, Chiang Kai-shek.

Caroline Alexander, who wrote the defining books on Shackleton’s Endurance and Bligh's Bounty, is brilliant at probing what it takes to survive extreme circumstances. She has unearthed obscure memoirs and long-ignored records to give us the pilots� and soldiers� eye views of flying and combat, as well as honest portraits of commanders like the celebrated “Vinegar Joe� Stillwell and Claire Lee Chennault. She assesses the real contributions of units like the Flying Tigers, Merrill’s Marauders, and the British Chindits, who pioneered new and unconventional forms of warfare. Decisions in this theater exposed the fault-lines between the Allies—America and Britain, Britain and India, and ultimately and most fatefully between America and China, as FDR pressed to help the Chinese nationalists in order to forge a bond with China after the war.
A masterpiece of modern war history.]]> 496 Caroline Alexander 1984879235 Martin 4 history 3.77 Skies of Thunder: The Deadly World War II Mission Over the Roof of the World
author: Caroline Alexander
name: Martin
average rating: 3.77
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/05/06
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves: history
review:

]]> Polostan (Bomb Light, #1) 209200369 Polostan follows the early life of the enigmatic Dawn Rae Bjornberg. Born in the American West to a clan of cowboy anarchists, Dawn is raised in Leningrad after the Russian Revolution by her Russian father, a party line Leninist who re-christens her Aurora. She spends her early years in Russia but then grows up as a teenager in Montana, before being drawn into gunrunning and revolution in the streets of Washington, D.C., during the depths of the Great Depression. When a surprising revelation about her past puts her in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities, Dawn returns to Russia, where she is groomed as a spy by the organization that later becomes the KGB.]]> 310 Neal Stephenson 0008262616 Martin 4 4.12 2024 Polostan (Bomb Light, #1)
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Martin
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/27
date added: 2024/04/27
shelves:
review:
An interesting beginning to what promises to be an excellent series. I especially enjoyed the fact that the USSR was not sugar coated or romanticized.
]]> The Heart in Winter 199795387 Award-winning writer Kevin Barry’s first novel set in America, a savagely funny and achingly romantic tale of young lovers on the lam in 1890s Montana.

October 1891. A hard winter approaches across the Rocky Mountains. The city of Butte, Montana is rich on copper mines and rampant with vice and debauchery among a hard-living crowd of immigrant Irish workers. Here we find Tom Rourke, a young poet and ballad-maker of the town, but also a doper, a drinker, and a fearsome degenerate. Just as he feels his life is heading nowhere fast, Polly Gillespie arrives in town as the new bride of the extremely devout mine captain Long Anthony Harrington. A thunderbolt love affair takes spark between Tom and Polly and they strike out west on a stolen horse, moving through the badlands of Montana and Idaho, and briefly an idyll of wild romance perfects itself. But a posse of deranged Cornish gunmen are soon in hot pursuit and closing in fast. With everything to lose and the safety and anonymity of San Francisco still a distant speck on their horizon, the choices they make will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

In this love story for the ages—lyrical, profane and propulsive—Kevin Barry has once again demonstrated himself to be a master stylist, an unrivalled humourist, and a true poet of the human heart.]]> 256 Kevin Barry 0385550596 Martin 5 american-west, literature Kevin Barry has caught a vision of the old west, and transformed it into literature of the highest order. Highest possible recommendation.]]> 3.80 2024 The Heart in Winter
author: Kevin Barry
name: Martin
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/21
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves: american-west, literature
review:
The Heart in winter reads like a river-sometimes slow and meandering, other times swift, and breaking over the rocks. And always beautiful scenery. All the time I was absolutely engrossed in this story of mad love.
Kevin Barry has caught a vision of the old west, and transformed it into literature of the highest order. Highest possible recommendation.
]]> <![CDATA[The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars, and Marilyn]]> 195820754
During the height of Hollywood’s golden age, one man lorded over the city’s lurid underbelly of forbidden sin and celebrity scandal like no Fred Otash. An ex-Marine turned L.A.P.D. vice cop, Otash became the most sought-after private detective and fixer to the stars by specializing in the dark arts that would soon dominate the entertainment industry.

Otash was notorious for bugging the homes, offices, and playpens of movie stars, kingmakers, and powerful politicians, employing then state-of-the-art methods of electronic surveillance and wiretapping for a who’s who list of clients for whom he’d do “anything short of murder.� He lied to federal authorities to protect Frank Sinatra from criminal liability; recorded Rock Hudson’s coming out confession to his estranged wife; moved in with Judy Garland to help her get sober; taped President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s tragic love affairs with the greatest sex symbol of all time, and he listened to Marilyn Monroe die.

Based on Otash’s never-before-seen investigative files and personal archives, THE FIXER takes readers inside the sensational and nefarious world of the man whose art imitating life inspired the private eye characters portrayed by Jack Nicholson in Chinatown and Russell Crowe in LA Confidential.]]> 336 Josh Young 1538751429 Martin 1 biography 3.68 2024 The Fixer: Moguls, Mobsters, Movie Stars, and Marilyn
author: Josh Young
name: Martin
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2024/04/21
shelves: biography
review:

]]> Moonbound 195790867 Robin Sloan expands the Penumbraverse to new reaches of time and space in a rollicking far-future adventure.

In Moonbound, Robin Sloan has written a novel with the full scope and ambitious imagination of the very books that lit the engines of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore: an epic quest as only Sloan could conceive it, mixing science fiction, fantasy, good old-fashioned literary storytelling, and unrivaled enthusiasm for what’s next.

It is thirteen thousand years from now . . . A lot has happened, and yet a lot is still very familiar. Ariel is a boy in a small town under a wizard’s rule. Like many adventurers before him, Ariel is called to explore a world full of unimaginable glories and unknown enemies, a mission to save the world, a girl. Here, as they say, be dragons. But none of this happens before Ariel comes across an artifact from an earlier civilization, a sentient, record-keeping artificial intelligence that carries with it the perspective of the whole of human history―and becomes both Ariel’s greatest ally and the narrator of our story.

Moonbound is an adventure into the richest depths of Story itself. It is a deeply satisfying epic of ancient scale, blasted through the imaginative prism one of our most forward-thinking writers. And this is only the beginning.]]> 432 Robin Sloan 0374610606 Martin 3 fantasy 3.97 2024 Moonbound
author: Robin Sloan
name: Martin
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/04/13
shelves: fantasy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power]]> 199032056 603 Sergey Radchenko Martin 5 4.53 2024 To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power
author: Sergey Radchenko
name: Martin
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/08
date added: 2024/04/08
shelves: history, ussr-russia-eastern-europe
review:
Meticulously researched, scrupulously even handed, one of the best history books I’ve read recently.
]]> Conquest 62358270
When Frank disappears, Rachel is forced to seek help in the form of Robin, a private detective who left the police force for reasons she will not reveal. Like Frank, Robin is obsessed with the music of Bach. Like Frank, she has unexplained connections with the criminal underworld of southeast London.

An obscure science fiction story from the 1950s appears to offer clues to Frank's secret agenda, but not to where he is. As Robin and Rachel draw closer in their search for the truth, they are forced to ask themselves if Frank's obsession with an alien war, against all logic, might have a basis in fact.

Nina Allan's new novel is a work of the greatest imaginative power, an investigation of the human need to make connections, to find causes and effects, however fantastic. Conquest is the story of a disappearance, and of the mystery that follows.]]> 320 Nina Allan 1529420806 Martin 2 science-fiction 3.52 2023 Conquest
author: Nina Allan
name: Martin
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/04/03
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves: science-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Apollo Remastered: The Ultimate Photographic Record]]> 58545451
In Houston, Texas, there is a frozen vault that preserves the original NASA photographic film of the Apollo missions. For half a century, almost every image of the Moon landings publicly available was produced from a lower-quality copy of these frozen originals. Over the last few years, NASA image restorer Andy Saunders has been working hard. Taking newly available digital scans and applying pain-staking care and cutting-edge enhancement techniques, he has created the highest quality Apollo photographs ever produced. Never-before-seen spacewalks and crystal-clear portraits of astronauts in their spacecraft, along with startling new visions of the Earth and the Moon, offer astounding new insight into one of our greatest endeavors.

This is the definitive record of all Apollo missions and a mesmerizing, high-definition journey into the unknown.
]]> 432 Andy Saunders 0762480246 Martin 5 history, photography, science 4.90 Apollo Remastered: The Ultimate Photographic Record
author: Andy Saunders
name: Martin
average rating: 4.90
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/03/30
shelves: history, photography, science
review:
Absolutely incredible photographs. The pictures are immaculate. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the Apollo program.
]]> <![CDATA[San Diego Lightfoot Sue and Other Stories]]> 942617
A Hollywood policeman sacrifices a strange and beautiful young man for his own dark needs but finds himself the victim.

Horror comes to a sheltered mountain village - but from within, in the form of its own savage children who attack and devour in swarms.

The last people on Earth are mature at 5, bear children at 8, and are usually dead by 30.

These and other haunting visions come from the imagination of John W Campbell Award winner Tom Reamy. A transplanted Texan who lived in Kansas City (and later Independence, Missouri) before his premature death in November, 1977, Tom sent the science fiction and fantasy world reeling with such tales as "Twilla", "Under the Hollywood Sign", "Beyond the Cleft", "Dinosaurs", and the unforgettable Nebula Award-winning "San Diego Lightfoot Sue."

He was a writer with an extraordinary understanding of the dark things that walk in daytime as well as the light that shines despite deepening shadows. Whether he was writing about a young man's coming of age or life at the end of the world, he brought not only a sense of realism to his stories but a transcendent beauty and sensitivity. Within these pages you will find terror and love, desire and innocence, dreams and death, as only Tom Reamy could present them.]]> 304 Tom Reamy 0441749569 Martin 0 to-read 4.02 1975 San Diego Lightfoot Sue and Other Stories
author: Tom Reamy
name: Martin
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Novelty: Four Stories 209493 227 John Crowley 0385263473 Martin 0 to-read 3.98 1989 Novelty: Four Stories
author: John Crowley
name: Martin
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>