Reagan's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 03 May 2025 11:16:53 -0700 60 Reagan's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Medieval Christianity: A New History]]> 21945058 An expansive guide to the medieval world, with new attention to women, ordinary parishioners, attitudes toward Jews and Muslims, and more

For many, the medieval world seems dark and foreign—an often brutal and seemingly irrational time of superstition, miracles, and strange relics. The aggressive pursuit of heretics and attempts to control the “Holy Land� might come to mind. Yet the medieval world produced much that is part of our world today, including universities, the passion for Roman architecture and the development of the gothic style, pilgrimage, the emergence of capitalism, and female saints.

This new narrative history of medieval Christianity, spanning the period 500 to 1500 CE, attempts to integrate what is familiar to readers with new themes and narratives. Elements of novelty in the book include a steady focus on the role of women in Christianity; the relationships among Christians, Jews, and Muslims; the experience of ordinary parishioners; the adventure of asceticism, devotion, and worship; and instruction through drama, architecture, and art. Madigan expertly integrates these areas of focus with more traditional themes, such as the evolution and decline of papal power; the nature and repression of heresy; sanctity and pilgrimage; the conciliar movement; and the break between the old Western church and its reformers.

Illustrated with more than forty photographs of physical remains, this book promises to become an essential guide to a historical era of profound influence.]]>
512 Kevin J. Madigan 0300158726 Reagan 0 3.92 2015 Medieval Christianity: A New History
author: Kevin J. Madigan
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2015
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<![CDATA[The Hitler Youth: How Germany Indoctrinated a New Generation]]> 216588747
Featuring contemporary photographs, The Hitler Youth tells the story of the origins of the movement in more innocent aims, and how its aims morphed over time to become a powerful way to disseminate Nazi ideas to an undiscerning audience.]]>
271 Julian Flanders 1398841900 Reagan 0 to-read 3.72 The Hitler Youth: How Germany Indoctrinated a New Generation
author: Julian Flanders
name: Reagan
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<![CDATA[Chivalry and Courtesy: Medieval Manners for a Modern World]]> 96178174
Author Daniele Cybulskie explores the world of medieval etiquette, encompassing table manners and interpersonal relationships as well as running a household and ruling a kingdom. With wit and insight, Cybulskie draws on a wide variety of primary sources, from handbooks for young knights to romantic poems. Though we may no longer need best practices for things like dueling or ordering about our servants, the principles of generosity, kindness, and respect still apply today. After all, it’s a good reminder to “not talk when you have food in your mouth� and “anything you say should be entertaining, polite, and sophisticated.�

Illustrated with original drawings by Anna Lobanova as well as eighty medieval artworks, Chivalry and Courtesy is full of good advice for everyone, whether you are a peasant or a knight, a student or a CEO, a king or a queen.]]>
176 Danièle Cybulskie 0789214695 Reagan 0 to-read 4.13 Chivalry and Courtesy: Medieval Manners for a Modern World
author: Danièle Cybulskie
name: Reagan
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<![CDATA[Summa Theologiae: A Concise Translation]]> 6120731 640 Thomas Aquinas 0413356302 Reagan 0 0.0 1274 Summa Theologiae: A Concise Translation
author: Thomas Aquinas
name: Reagan
average rating: 0.0
book published: 1274
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The Wars for Asia, 1911-1949 15868343 487 S.C.M. Paine 1107020697 Reagan 0 to-read 4.38 2012 The Wars for Asia, 1911-1949
author: S.C.M. Paine
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2012
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<![CDATA[The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War]]> 30423569 218 S.C.M. Paine 1107676169 Reagan 0 to-read 4.09 The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War
author: S.C.M. Paine
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.09
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<![CDATA[Eugene Oneguine (Eugine Onegin): A Romance of Russian Life in Verse]]> 43738036 182 Alexander Pushkin 1794488847 Reagan 0 to-read 4.10 1833 Eugene Oneguine (Eugine Onegin): A Romance of Russian Life in Verse
author: Alexander Pushkin
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1833
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Prairie Edge 195668137 The Giller Prize-longlisted author of Avenue of Champions returns with a frenetic, propulsive crime thriller that doubles as a sharp critique of modern activism and challenges readers to consider what "Land Back" might really look like.


Meet Isidore “Ezzy� Desjarlais and Grey Ginther: two distant Métis cousins making the most of Grey’s uncle’s old trailer, passing their days playing endless games of cribbage and cracking cans of cheap beer in between. Grey, once a passionate advocate for change, has been hardened and turned cynical by an activist culture she thinks has turned performative and lazy. One night, though, she has a revelation, and enlists Ezzy, who is hopelessly devoted to her but eager to avoid the authorities after a life in and out of the group home system and jail, for a bold yet dangerous political mission: capture a herd of bison from a national park and set them free in downtown Edmonton, disrupting the churn of settler routine. But as Grey becomes increasingly single-minded in her newfound calling, their act of protest puts the pair and those close to them in peril, with devastating and sometimes fatal consequences.

For readers drawn to the electric storytelling of Morgan Talty and the taut register of Stephen Graham Jones, Conor Kerr’s Prairie Edge is at once a gripping, darkly funny caper and a raw reckoning with the wounds that persist across generations.]]>
224 Conor Kerr 0771003587 Reagan 2 textbooks 4.04 2024 Prairie Edge
author: Conor Kerr
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 2
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date added: 2025/04/06
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<![CDATA[In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made]]> 173258 Ring around the rosies,
A pocketful of posies,
Ashes, ashes,
We all fall down.


�"Ring Around the Rosies," a children's rhyme about the Black Death

The Black Death was the fourteenth century's equivalent of a nuclear war. It wiped out one-third of Europe's population, taking some 20 million lives. And yet, most of what we know about it is wrong. The details of the Plague etched in the minds of terrified schoolchildren—the hideous black welts, the high fever, and the awful end by respiratory failure—are more or less accurate. But what the Plague really was and how it made history remain shrouded in a haze of myths.

Now, Norman Cantor, the premier historian of the Middle Ages, draws together the most recent scientific discoveries and groundbreaking historical research to pierce the mist and tell the story of the Black Death as a gripping, intimate narrative.]]>
245 Norman F. Cantor 0060014342 Reagan 3 history 3.42 2001 In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made
author: Norman F. Cantor
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2001
rating: 3
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War and Peace 656
War and Peace broadly focuses on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the most well-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves his family behind to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman who intrigues both men.

As Napoleon’s army invades, Tolstoy brilliantly follows characters from diverse backgrounds—peasants and nobility, civilians and soldiers—as they struggle with the problems unique to their era, their history, and their culture. And as the novel progresses, these characters transcend their specificity, becoming some of the most moving—and human—figures in world literature.


Tolstoy gave his personal approval to this translation, published here in a new single volume edition, which includes an introduction by Henry Gifford, and Tolstoy's important essay `Some Words about War and Peace'.]]>
1392 Leo Tolstoy 0192833987 Reagan 0 classics, currently-reading 4.14 1869 War and Peace
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1869
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Post-Truth?: Facts and Faithfulness (Currents in Reformational Thought)]]> 61346953 Post-Truth? Facts and Faithfulness, Jeffrey Dudiak explores the fissures and fractures that vex our so-called “post-truth� era, searching for a deeper, dare we say truer, understanding of the cultural forces that have led North American society to become so polarized. Eschewing the kind of easy responses that trade pluralistic solidarity for tribalistic certainty, Dudiak diagnoses a deeper breakdown in social trust as the underlying issue that has everyone today scurrying for comforting, ideological cover. In this context, Dudiak reminds the reader that truth is more, and runs deeper, than simple correspondence to the facts.]]> 75 Jeffrey Dudiak 1666706485 Reagan 5 philosophy, textbooks 3.92 Post-Truth?: Facts and Faithfulness (Currents in Reformational Thought)
author: Jeffrey Dudiak
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.92
book published:
rating: 5
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The Alexiad 485025 560 Anna Comnena 0140442154 Reagan 5 favorites, history 4.07 1148 The Alexiad
author: Anna Comnena
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1148
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/23
date added: 2025/02/23
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<![CDATA[NRSV, Catholic Bible: Holy Bible]]> 52379061
This beautiful, large print edition of the Catholic Bible invites you to read Scripture daily and hear the voice of Jesus. With a special typeface designed exclusively for the NRSV, theĚýCatholic Bible, Large Print Standard EditionĚýis one of the most readable editions of the Catholic Scriptures available—perfect for all who desire to spend time in the Word of God.

About the NRSV: Renowned for its balance of scholarship and readability, the NRSV is a trustworthy translation appropriate for personal spiritual formation and in the academy. This Catholic Edition of the NRSV bears the imprimatur of the Roman Catholic Church and is approved for private use and study for the Catholic faithful.

Features include:


Complete Catholic Bible, including the Deuterocanonical books, with the official imprimatur of the Roman Catholic Church
Translators� notes and cross-references showing connections within Scripture
Durable Smyth-sewn binding lays flat in your hand or onĚýyour desk
Full-color maps
Exceptionally readable 10½-point type size in theĚýexclusive NRSV Comfort Print®Ěýtypeface
* Angelus, St. Peter’s Square, April 6, 2014 © Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used by permission.]]>
1472 Thomas Nelson Publishers 0785230432 Reagan 5 christianity, favorites 5.00 NRSV, Catholic Bible: Holy Bible
author: Thomas Nelson Publishers
name: Reagan
average rating: 5.00
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rating: 5
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<![CDATA[Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World]]> 825231
Fighting his way to power on the remote steppes of Mongolia, Genghis Khan developed revolutionary military strategies and weaponry that emphasized rapid attack and siege warfare, which he then brilliantly used to overwhelm opposing armies in Asia, break the back of the Islamic world, and render the armored knights of Europe obsolete. Under Genghis Khan, the Mongol army never numbered more than 100,000 warriors, yet it subjugated more lands and people in twenty-five years than the Romans conquered in four hundred. With an empire that stretched from Siberia to India, from Vietnam to Hungary, and from Korea to the Balkans, the Mongols dramatically redrew the map of the globe, connecting disparate kingdoms into a new world order.

But contrary to popular wisdom, Weatherford reveals that the Mongols were not just masters of conquest, but possessed a genius for progressive and benevolent rule. On every level and from any perspective, the scale and scope
of Genghis Khan’s accomplishments challenge the limits of imagination. Genghis Khan was an innovative leader, the first ruler in many conquered countries to put the power of law above his own power, encourage religious freedom, create public schools, grant diplomatic immunity, abolish torture, and institute free trade. The trade routes he created became lucrative pathways for commerce, but also for ideas, technologies, and expertise that transformed the way people lived. The Mongols introduced the first international paper currency and postal system and developed and spread revolutionary technologies like printing, the cannon, compass, and abacus. They took local foods and products like lemons, carrots, noodles, tea, rugs, playing cards, and pants and turned them into staples of life around the world. The Mongols were the architects of a new way of life at a pivotal time in history.

In Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World , Jack Weatherford resurrects the true history of Genghis Khan, from the story of his relentless rise through Mongol tribal culture to the waging of his devastatingly successful wars and the explosion of civilization that the Mongol Empire unleashed. This dazzling work of revisionist history doesn’t just paint an unprecedented portrait of a great leader and his legacy, but challenges us to reconsider how the modern world was made.]]>
312 Jack Weatherford 0609610627 Reagan 4 history 4.07 2004 Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
author: Jack Weatherford
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2004
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[The Real Middle-Earth: Magic and Mystery in the Dark Ages]]> 67982 354 Brian Bates 0330491709 Reagan 0 to-read 3.90 2002 The Real Middle-Earth: Magic and Mystery in the Dark Ages
author: Brian Bates
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/17
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<![CDATA[The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (3-Volume Set)]]> 1475625 The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium is a three-volume, comprehensive dictionary of Byzantine civilization. The first resource of its kind in the field, it features over 5,000 entries written by an international group of eminent Byzantinists covering all aspects of life in the Byzantine world. According to Alexander Kazhdan, editor-in-chief of the Dictionary "Entries on patriarchy and emperors will coexist with entries on surgery and musical instruments. An entry on the cultivation of grain will not only be connected to entries on agriculture and its economics but on diet, the baking of bread, and the role of bread in this changing society."
Major entries treat such topics as agriculture, art, literature, and politics, while shorter entries examine topics that relate to Byzantium such as the history of Kiev and personalities of ancient and biblical history. Each article is followed by a bibliography, and numerous maps, tables, architectural designs, and genealogies reinforce and clarify the text.
The new Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium will be the standard research tool and reference work for Byzantinists from graduate students to advanced scholars, and an essential resource for college and school libraries. It will also be an invaluable guide for classicists, Western medievalists, Islamicists, Slavicists, art historians, religious historians, and scholars of archaeology.
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2366 A.P. Kazhdan 0195046528 Reagan 0 to-read 4.33 1991 The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (3-Volume Set)
author: A.P. Kazhdan
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1991
rating: 0
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Mossflower (Redwall, #2) 201341 373 Brian Jacques Reagan 4 4.12 1988 Mossflower (Redwall, #2)
author: Brian Jacques
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1988
rating: 4
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Redwall (Redwall, #1) 7996 A quest to recover a legendary lost weapon by bumbling young apprentice monk, mouse Matthias.

Redwall Abbey, tranquil home to a community of peace-loving mice, is threatened by Cluny the Scourge savage bilge rat warlord and his battle-hardened horde. But the Redwall mice and their loyal woodland friends combine their courage and strength.]]>
352 Brian Jacques 1862301387 Reagan 4 4.14 1986 Redwall (Redwall, #1)
author: Brian Jacques
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1986
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[Napoleon on Napoleon: An Autobiography of the Emperor]]> 3059227 288 Napoléon Bonaparte 0304344559 Reagan 0 to-read 3.88 1823 Napoleon on Napoleon: An Autobiography of the Emperor
author: Napoléon Bonaparte
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1823
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/05
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<![CDATA[All About History Book of Christianity]]> 145877333 0 All About History Magazine Reagan 5 history, magazines 4.50 All About History Book of Christianity
author: All About History Magazine
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.50
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rating: 5
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date added: 2025/01/05
shelves: history, magazines
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<![CDATA[Waterloo: The Greatest Battle in History]]> 115393737 0 Unknown Author 1910415286 Reagan 5 history, magazines 5.00 Waterloo: The Greatest Battle in History
author: Unknown Author
name: Reagan
average rating: 5.00
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<![CDATA[History of War Book of the Cold War]]> 50126203 0 B . 3653218357 Reagan 4 history, magazines 4.00 History of War Book of the Cold War
author: B .
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<![CDATA[All About History: Byzantine Empire: Uncover a Roman Civilisation Built on Religion But Torn Apart by War]]> 61632491 254 All About History Magazine Reagan 5 history, magazines 4.00 All About History: Byzantine Empire: Uncover a Roman Civilisation Built on Religion But Torn Apart by War
author: All About History Magazine
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.00
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<![CDATA[1066 and the Battle of Hastings]]> 69388712 429 All About History Magazine Reagan 5 history, magazines 5.00 1066 and the Battle of Hastings
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name: Reagan
average rating: 5.00
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Mein Kampf 6562917 722 Adolf Hitler Reagan 0 3.04 Mein Kampf
author: Adolf Hitler
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.04
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<![CDATA[Upholding Indigenous Economic Relationships: Nehiyawak Narratives]]> 60557177
What is the relationship between economic progress in the land now called Canada and the exploitation of Indigenous peoples? And what gifts embedded within Indigenous world views speak to miyo-pimâtisiwin , the good life, and specifically to good economic relations? Upholding Indigenous Economic Relationships draws on the knowledge systems of the nehiyawak (Plains Cree) to argue that economic exploitation was the initial and most enduring relationship between newcomers and Indigenous peoples and that Indigenous economic relationships are connections to the land, water, and other human and nonhuman beings form us as individuals and as peoples. This groundbreaking study employs previously overlooked Indigenous economic theories and relationships and provides contemporary examples of nehiyawak renewing these relationships in resurgent ways. Upholding Indigenous Economic Relationships offers tools that enable us to reimagine how we can aspire to the good life with all our relations.]]>
232 Shalene Jobin 0774865105 Reagan 2 economics, textbooks 4.29 Upholding Indigenous Economic Relationships: Nehiyawak Narratives
author: Shalene Jobin
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/17
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves: economics, textbooks
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<![CDATA[The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story]]> 339360
The Drama of Scripture is an introduction to the basic story line and theology of the Bible. In considering the biblical story, the authors emphasize the unity of the whole, viewing the Bible as a drama in six acts--creation, sin, Israel, Christ, church, and new creation. Two overarching themes tie the biblical story together--covenant in the Old Testament and kingdom in the New Testament. Throughout, the authors suggest, God is revealed through the story and calls us to participate in his drama.]]>
256 Craig G. Bartholomew 0801027462 Reagan 5 christianity, textbooks 4.14 2004 The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story
author: Craig G. Bartholomew
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/11
date added: 2024/12/11
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The Coming Race 1014436 148 Edward Bulwer-Lytton 143461672X Reagan 4 classics 3.19 1871 The Coming Race
author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.19
book published: 1871
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves: classics
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<![CDATA[Political Science Is for Everybody: An Introduction to Political Science]]> 57456333 450 Amy L. Atchison 1487532539 Reagan 1 textbooks, politics 3.00 Political Science Is for Everybody: An Introduction to Political Science
author: Amy L. Atchison
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.00
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rating: 1
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date added: 2024/12/10
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<![CDATA[Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They Were and How They Shaped the Church]]> 9681416 176 Michael A.G. Azad Haykin 143351043X Reagan 5 christianity 4.16 2011 Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They Were and How They Shaped the Church
author: Michael A.G. Azad Haykin
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2011
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/12/10
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Marika 727270 153 Andrea Cheng 0439556961 Reagan 3 historical-fiction, holocaust 3.74 2002 Marika
author: Andrea Cheng
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2002
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/12/06
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<![CDATA[Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver]]> 34272476
“No matter where one starts reading, Devotions offers much to love, from Oliver's exuberant dog poems to selections from the Pulitzer Prize-winning American Primitive, and Dream Work, one of her exceptional collections. Perhaps more important, the luminous writing provides respite from our crazy world and demonstrates how mindfulness can define and transform a life, moment by moment, poem by poem.� —The Washington Post

“It’s as if the poet herself has sidled beside the reader and pointed us to the poems she considers most worthy of deep consideration.� —Chicago Tribune

Throughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver has touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all living things. Identified as "far and away, this country's best selling poet" by Dwight Garner, she now returns with a stunning and definitive collection of her writing from the last fifty years.

Carefully curated, these 200 plus poems feature Oliver's work from her very first book of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems, published in 1963 at the age of 28, through her most recent collection, Felicity, published in 2015. This timeless volume, arranged by Oliver herself, showcases the beloved poet at her edifying best. Within these pages, she provides us with an extraordinary and invaluable collection of her passionate, perceptive, and much-treasured observations of the natural world.]]>
456 Mary Oliver 0399563245 Reagan 0 to-read 4.58 2017 Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
author: Mary Oliver
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average rating: 4.58
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<![CDATA[Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again]]> 36576151
Evans knows firsthand how a relationship with the Bible can be as real and as complicated as a relationship with a family member or close friend. In Inspired, Evans explores contradictions and questions from her own experiences with the Bible,

If the Bible was supposed to explain the mysteries of life, why does it leave the reader with so many questions?What does it mean to be chosen by God?To what degree did the Holy Spirit guide the preservation of these narratives, and is there something sacred to be uncovered beneath all these human fingerprints?If the Bible has given voice to the oppressed, why is it also used as justification by their oppressors?Drawing on the best in biblical scholarship and using her well-honed literary expertise, Evans examines some of our favorite Bible stories and possible interpretations, retelling them through memoir, original poetry, short stories, and even a short screenplay.

Undaunted by the Bible's most difficult passages and unafraid to ask the hard questions, Evans wrestles through the process of doubting, imagining, and debating the mysteries surrounding Scripture. Discover alongside Evans that the Bible is not a static text, but a living, breathing, captivating, and confounding book that can equip us and inspire us to join God's loving and redemptive work in the world.]]>
236 Rachel Held Evans 0718022319 Reagan 1 christianity, textbooks 4.37 2018 Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again
author: Rachel Held Evans
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2018
rating: 1
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/11/17
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<![CDATA[The Fall of Egypt and the Rise of Rome: A History of the Ptolemies]]> 210129441
The Ptolemaic era, Egypt's last and one of its longest dynasties, was in many ways a gilded age. Its early rulers restored and even expanded Egyptian power. Over a span of 300 years the period was witness to intellectual enlightenment, imaginative state-building, and some of the most memorable characters in ancient history, including Alexander the Great and Cleopatra VII.

But these Macedonian Greek pharaohs embarked on ruinous warfare, faced rebellion, and descended into murderous family feuds. Increasingly reliant on the dizzying rise of Roman power, Ptolemaic Egypt was finally annexed by Augustus in 30 BCE. How did such an ancient civilization come to this?

Exploring the lives of the Ptolemaic pharaohs, de la Bédoyère reveals the jealousy, greed, and murderous ambition in their Egypt and the legendary city of Alexandria, their capital. This is a lively, accessible account of Ancient Egypt's last days―and of the new power rising in its place.]]>
384 Guy de la Bédoyère 0300275528 Reagan 0 to-read 3.63 2024 The Fall of Egypt and the Rise of Rome: A History of the Ptolemies
author: Guy de la Bédoyère
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2024
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<![CDATA[The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution]]> 9704856
Francis Fukuyama, author of the bestselling The End of History and the Last ManĚýand one of our mostĚýimportant political thinkers,Ěýprovides a sweeping account of how today’s basic political institutions developed. The first of a major two-volume work, The OriginsĚýof Political OrderĚýbegins with politics among our primate ancestors and follows the story through the emergence of tribal societies, the growth of the first modern state in China, the beginning ofĚýthe rule of law in India and the Middle East, and the development of political accountability in Europe up until the eve of the French Revolution.

Drawing on a vast body of knowledge—history, evolutionary biology, archaeology, and economics—Fukuyama has produced a brilliant, provocative work that offers fresh insights on the origins of democratic societies and raises essential questions about the nature of politics and its discontents.]]>
585 Francis Fukuyama 0374227349 Reagan 0 to-read 4.17 2011 The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution
author: Francis Fukuyama
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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Cuba: An American History 55710558 Winner of The L. A. Times Book Prize (2021) in History

�“Full of…lively insights and lucid prose� (The Wall Street Journal) an epic, sweeping history of Cuba and its complex ties to the United States—from before the arrival of Columbus to the present day—written by one of the world’s leading historians of Cuba.

In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, where a momentous revolution had taken power three years earlier. For more than half a century, the stand-off continued—through the tenure of ten American presidents and the fifty-year rule of Fidel Castro. His death in 2016, and the retirement of his brother and successor Raúl Castro in 2021, have spurred questions about the country’s future. Meanwhile, politics in Washington—Barack Obama’s opening to the island, Donald Trump’s reversal of that policy, and the election of Joe Biden—have made the relationship between the two nations a subject of debate once more.

Now, award-winning historian Ada Ferrer delivers an “important� (The Guardian) and moving chronicle that demands a new reckoning with both the island’s past and its relationship with the United States. Spanning more than five centuries, Cuba: An American History provides us with a front-row seat as we witness the evolution of the modern nation, with its dramatic record of conquest and colonization, of slavery and freedom, of independence and revolutions made and unmade.

Along the way, Ferrer explores the sometimes surprising, often troubled intimacy between the two countries, documenting not only the influence of the United States on Cuba but also the many ways the island has been a recurring presence in US affairs. This is a story that will give Americans unexpected insights into the history of their own nation and, in so doing, help them imagine a new relationship with Cuba; “readers will close [this] fascinating book with a sense of hope� (The Economist).

Filled with rousing stories and characters, and drawing on more than thirty years of research in Cuba, Spain, and the United States—as well as the author’s own extensive travel to the island over the same period—this is a stunning and monumental account like no other.]]>
560 Ada Ferrer 1501154559 Reagan 0 to-read 4.45 2021 Cuba: An American History
author: Ada Ferrer
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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When Breath Becomes Air 25899336
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a naĂŻve medical student "possessed," as he wrote, "by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life" into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. "I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything," he wrote. "Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: 'I can't go on. I'll go on.'" When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.]]>
208 Paul Kalanithi 0812988418 Reagan 5 textbooks Beautiful book 4.41 2016 When Breath Becomes Air
author: Paul Kalanithi
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/28
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves: textbooks
review:
Beautiful book
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The Mystical Presence 261936 244 John Williamson Nevin 1579103480 Reagan 0 to-read 4.53 1846 The Mystical Presence
author: John Williamson Nevin
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.53
book published: 1846
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/17
shelves: to-read
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The art of war 5882944 431 Andrew Roberts 1847242596 Reagan 5 history, favorites 3.88 2008 The art of war
author: Andrew Roberts
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/27
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves: history, favorites
review:

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<![CDATA[SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome]]> 25013067 Ancient Rome was an imposing city even by modern standards, a sprawling imperial metropolis of more than a million inhabitants, a "mixture of luxury and filth, liberty and exploitation, civic pride and murderous civil war" that served as the seat of power for an empire that spanned from Spain to Syria. Yet how did all this emerge from what was once an insignificant village in central Italy? In S.P.Q.R., world-renowned classicist Mary Beard narrates the unprecedented rise of a civilization that even two thousand years later still shapes many of our most fundamental assumptions about power, citizenship, responsibility, political violence, empire, luxury, and beauty. From the foundational myth of Romulus and Remus to 212 ce―nearly a thousand years later―when the emperor Caracalla gave Roman citizenship to every free inhabitant of the empire, S.P.Q.R. (the abbreviation of "The Senate and People of Rome") examines not just how we think of ancient Rome but challenges the comfortable historical perspectives that have existed for centuries by exploring how the Romans thought of themselves: how they challenged the idea of imperial rule, how they responded to terrorism and revolution, and how they invented a new idea of citizenship and nation. Opening the book in 63 BCE with the famous clash between the populist aristocrat Catiline and Cicero, the renowned politician and orator, Beard animates this “terrorist conspiracy,� which was aimed at the very heart of the Republic, demonstrating how this singular event would presage the struggle between democracy and autocracy that would come to define much of Rome’s subsequent history. Illustrating how a classical democracy yielded to a self-confident and self-critical empire, S.P.Q.R. reintroduces us, though in a wholly different way, to famous and familiar characters―Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Augustus, and Nero, among others―while expanding the historical aperture to include those overlooked in traditional histories: the women, the slaves and ex-slaves, conspirators, and those on the losing side of Rome’s glorious conquests. Like the best detectives, Beard sifts fact from fiction, myth and propaganda from historical record, refusing either simple admiration or blanket condemnation. Far from being frozen in marble, Roman history, she shows, is constantly being revised and rewritten as our knowledge expands. Indeed, our perceptions of ancient Rome have changed dramatically over the last fifty years, and S.P.Q.R., with its nuanced attention to class inequality, democratic struggles, and the lives of entire groups of people omitted from the historical narrative for centuries, promises to shape our view of Roman history for decades to come.

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606 Mary Beard 0871404230 Reagan 5 history, favorites 4.08 2015 SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
author: Mary Beard
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/15
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves: history, favorites
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<![CDATA[Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors]]> 52041424 The definitive biography of the father and son who reshaped the ancient world


Alexander the Great's conquests staggered the world. He led his army across thousands of miles, overthrowing the greatest empires of his time and building a new one in their place. He claimed to be the son of a god, but he was actually the son of Philip II of Macedon.


Philip inherited a minor kingdom that was on the verge of dismemberment, but despite his youth and inexperience, he made Macedonia dominant throughout Greece. It was Philip who created the armies that Alexander led into war against Persia. In Philip and Alexander, classical historian Adrian Goldsworthy shows that without the work and influence of his father, Alexander could not have achieved so much. This is the groundbreaking biography of two men who together conquered the world.]]>
608 Adrian Goldsworthy 154164669X Reagan 5 history, favorites 4.38 2020 Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors
author: Adrian Goldsworthy
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/28
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves: history, favorites
review:
If you read one book on Alexander the Great and his father, let this be it. Goldsworthy did a great job going into detail on the conquests of Alexander and does it in a way that keeps one's attention. This had me very entertained!
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Constantine the Emperor 13689926
Beginning with his first biographer Eusebius, Constantine's image has been subject to distortion. More recent revisions include John Carroll's view of him as the intellectual ancestor of the Holocaust (Constantine's Sword) and Dan Brown's presentation of him as the man who oversaw the reshaping of Christian history (The Da Vinci Code). In Constantine the Emperor, David Potter confronts each of these skewed and partial accounts to provide the most comprehensive, authoritative, and readable account of Constantine's extraordinary life.
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368 David Stone Potter 0199755868 Reagan 5 history, favorites 3.51 2012 Constantine the Emperor
author: David Stone Potter
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/07
date added: 2024/10/17
shelves: history, favorites
review:
Great book on my favourite Roman emperor
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<![CDATA[Night of the Assassins: The Untold Story of Hitler's Plot to Kill FDR, Churchill, and Stalin]]> 50175295 The New York Times bestselling author returns with a tale as riveting and suspenseful as any the true story of the Nazi plot to kill the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and the U.S.S.R. during World War II.

The to kill the three most important and heavily guarded men in the world.
The a specially trained team headed by the killer known as The Most Dangerous Man in Europe.
The nothing less than the future of the Western world. The year is 1943 and the three Allied leaders—Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin—are meeting for the first time at a top-secret conference in Tehran. But the Nazis have learned about the meeting and Hitler sees it as his last chance to turn the tide. Although the war is undoubtedly lost, the Germans believe that perhaps a new set of Allied leaders might be willing to make a more reasonable peace in its aftermath. And so a plan is devised—code name Operation Long Jump—to assassinate FDR, Churchill, and Stalin. Immediately, a highly trained, hand-picked team of Nazi commandos is assembled, trained, armed with special weapons, and parachuted into Iran. They have six days to complete the daring assignment before the statesmen will return home. With no margin for error and little time to spare, Mike Reilly, the head of FDR’s Secret Service detail—a man from a Montana silver mining town who describes himself as “an Irish cop with more muscle than brains”—must overcome his suspicions and instincts to work with a Soviet agent from the NKVD (the precursor to the KGB) to save the three most powerful men in the world. Filled with eight pages of black-and-white photographs, Night of the Assassins is a suspenseful true-life tale about an impossible mission, a ticking clock, and one man who stepped up to the challenge and prevented a world catastrophe.]]>
384 Howard Blum 0062872893 Reagan 5 history, favorites 3.94 2020 Night of the Assassins: The Untold Story of Hitler's Plot to Kill FDR, Churchill, and Stalin
author: Howard Blum
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/10/17
shelves: history, favorites
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<![CDATA[The Gulag Archipelago 1918�1956 (Abridged)]]> 70561 The Gulag Archipelago 1918�1956—a grisly indictment of a regime, fashioned here into a veritable literary miracle—has now been updated with a new introduction that includes the fall of the Soviet Union and Solzhenitsyn's move back to Russia.]]> 512 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 0060007761 Reagan 5 history, favorites 4.31 1973 The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 (Abridged)
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1973
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/10/17
shelves: history, favorites
review:

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<![CDATA[After Such Knowledge: Memory, History, and the Legacy of the Holocaust]]> 409167 320 Eva Hoffman 1586480464 Reagan 5 history, holocaust 4.01 2004 After Such Knowledge: Memory, History, and the Legacy of the Holocaust
author: Eva Hoffman
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2004
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/10/02
shelves: history, holocaust
review:

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<![CDATA[The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo: Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain, Volume II (In Two Volumes, #2)]]> 12321195 464 Bernal DĂ­az del Castillo Reagan 0 to-read 4.33 1977 The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo: Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain, Volume II (In Two Volumes, #2)
author: Bernal DĂ­az del Castillo
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1977
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/23
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<![CDATA[The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo: Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain, Vol. I (In Two Volumes, #1)]]> 10974683 422 Bernal DĂ­az del Castillo Reagan 0 to-read 4.29 2013 The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo: Written by Himself Containing a True and Full Account of the Discovery and Conquest of Mexico and New Spain, Vol. I (In Two Volumes, #1)
author: Bernal DĂ­az del Castillo
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/23
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Currency of Politics: The Political Theory of Money from Aristotle to Keynes]]> 58933308
In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, critical attention has shifted from the economy to the most fundamental feature of all market economies―money. Yet despite the centrality of political struggles over money, it remains difficult to articulate its democratic possibilities and limits. The Currency of Politics takes readers from ancient Greece to today to provide an intellectual history of money, drawing on the insights of key political philosophers to show how money is not just a medium of exchange but also a central institution of political rule.

Money appears to be beyond the reach of democratic politics, but this appearance―like so much about money―is deceptive. Even when the politics of money is impossible to ignore, its proper democratic role can be difficult to discern. Stefan Eich examines six crucial episodes of monetary crisis, recovering the neglected political theories of money in the thought of such figures as Aristotle, John Locke, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes. He shows how these layers of crisis have come to define the way we look at money, and argues that informed public debate about money requires a better appreciation of the diverse political struggles over its meaning.

Recovering foundational ideas at the intersection of monetary rule and democratic politics, The Currency of Politics explains why only through greater awareness of the historical limits of monetary politics can we begin to articulate more democratic conceptions of money.]]>
344 Stefan Eich 0691191077 Reagan 4 economics, politics 4.07 The Currency of Politics: The Political Theory of Money from Aristotle to Keynes
author: Stefan Eich
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.07
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/22
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves: economics, politics
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<![CDATA[Four Views on Eternal Security]]> 568112 304 J. Matthew Pinson 0310234395 Reagan 3 3.51 2002 Four Views on Eternal Security
author: J. Matthew Pinson
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2002
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/07
date added: 2024/09/07
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<![CDATA[Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors: Faith, Power, and Violence in the Age of Crusade and Jihad]]> 18490732
In Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors, the award-winning scholar Brian Catlos puts us on the ground in the Mediterranean world of 1050â€�1200. We experience the sights andĚýsounds of the region just as enlightened Islamic empires and primitive Christendom began to contest it. We learn about the siege tactics, theological disputes, and poetry of this enthralling time. And we see thatĚýpeople of different faithsĚýcoexisted far more frequently than we are commonly told.

Catlos’s meticulous reconstruction of the era allows him to stunningly overturn our most basic assumption about it: that it was defined by religious extremism. He brings to light many figures who were accepted as rulers by their ostensible foes. Samuel B. Naghrilla, a self-proclaimed Jewish messiah, became the force behind Muslim Granada. Bahram Pahlavuni, an Armenian Christian, wielded power in an Islamic caliphate. And Philip of Mahdia, a Muslim eunuch, rose to admiral in the service of Roger II, the Christian “King of Africa.�

What their lives reveal is that, then as now, politics were driven by a mix of self-interest, personality, and ideology. Catlos draws a similar lesson from his stirring chapters on the early Crusades, arguing that the notions of crusade and jihad were not causes of war but justifications. He imparts aĚýcrucialĚýinsight: the violence of the past cannot be blamed primarily on religion.]]>
416 Brian Catlos 0809058375 Reagan 4 history 3.81 2014 Infidel Kings and Unholy Warriors: Faith, Power, and Violence in the Age of Crusade and Jihad
author: Brian Catlos
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/07
date added: 2024/09/07
shelves: history
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<![CDATA[The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories]]> 99300
Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a naĂŻve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories.

These charming tales are not only highly readable and full of humor and invention, but also offer ample food for thought about the social, economic, and personal relationship of men and women � and how they might be improved.

Collects:
—The Yellow Wallpaper
—Three Thanksgivings
—The Cottagette
—TłÜ°ů˛Ô±đ»ĺ
—Making a Change
—If I Were a Man
—Mr. Peebles' Heart]]>
129 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0486298574 Reagan 2 classics 4.05 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1892
rating: 2
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date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: classics
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<![CDATA[Around the World in Eighty Days]]> 54479 252 Jules Verne 014044906X Reagan 4 classics 3.95 1872 Around the World in Eighty Days
author: Jules Verne
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1872
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: classics
review:

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<![CDATA[The Italian Executioners: The Genocide of the Jews of Italy]]> 39204068 A gripping revisionist history that shows how ordinary Italians played a central role in the genocide of Italian Jews during the Second World War

In this gripping revisionist history of Italy's role in the Holocaust, Simon Levis Sullam presents an unforgettable account of how ordinary Italians actively participated in the deportation of Italy's Jews between 1943 and 1945, when Mussolini's collaborationist republic was under German occupation. While most historians have long described Italians as relatively protective of Jews during this time, The Italian Executioners tells a very different story, recounting in vivid detail the shocking events of a period in which Italians set in motion almost half the arrests that sent their Jewish compatriots to Auschwitz.

This brief, beautifully written narrative shines a harsh spotlight on those who turned on their Jewish fellow citizens. These collaborators ranged from petty informers to Fascist intellectuals--and their motives ran from greed to ideology. Drawing insights from Holocaust and genocide studies and combining a historian's rigor with a novelist's gift for scene-setting, Levis Sullam takes us into Italian cities large and small, from Florence and Venice to Brescia, showing how events played out in each. Re-creating betrayals and arrests, he draws indelible portraits of victims and perpetrators alike.

Along the way, Levis Sullam dismantles the seductive popular myth of italiani brava gente--the "good Italians" who sheltered their Jewish compatriots from harm. The result is an essential correction to a widespread misconception of the Holocaust in Italy. In collaboration with the Nazis, and with different degrees and forms of involvement, the Italians were guilty of genocide.]]>
208 Simon Levis Sullam 0691179050 Reagan 0 to-read 3.77 2015 The Italian Executioners: The Genocide of the Jews of Italy
author: Simon Levis Sullam
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Art of Resistance: My Four Years in the French Underground]]> 36204081
In 1937, as the Nazis gained control and anti-Semitism spread in the Free City of Danzig, a majority German city on the Baltic Sea, sixteen-year-old Justus Rosenberg was sent to Paris to finish his education in safety. Three years later, France fell to the Germans. Alone and in danger, penniless, and cut off from contact with his family in Poland, Justus fled south. A chance meeting led him to Varian Fry, an American journalist in Marseille helping thousands of men and women, including many artists and intellectuals—among them Hannah Arendt, Marc Chagall, Andre Breton, and Max Ernst—escape the Nazis.

With his German background, understanding of French cultural, and fluency in several languages, including English, Justus became an invaluable member of Fry’s refugee network as a spy and scout. The spry blond who looked even younger than his age flourished in the underground, handling counterfeit documents, secret passwords, black market currency, surveying escape routes, and dealing with avaricious gangsters. But when Fry was eventually forced to leave France, Gussie, as he was affectionately known, could not get out. For the next four years, Justus relied on his wits and skills to escape captivity, survive several close calls with death, and continue his fight against the Nazis, working with the French Resistance and later, becoming attached with the United States Army. At the war’s end, Justus emigrated to America, and built a new life.

Justus� story is a powerful saga of bravery, daring, adventure, and survival with the soul of a spy thriller. Reflecting on his past, Justus sees his life as a confluence of circumstances. As he writes, “I survived the war through a rare combination of good fortune, resourcefulness, optimism, and, most important, the kindness of many good people.”]]>
304 Justus Rosenberg 0062742191 Reagan 0 to-read 4.10 2020 The Art of Resistance: My Four Years in the French Underground
author: Justus Rosenberg
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/31
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<![CDATA[The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe]]> 57355365 A lively and magisterial popular history that refutes common misperceptions of the European Middle Ages, showing the beauty and communion that flourished alongside the dark brutality—a brilliant reflection of humanity itself.

The word “medievalâ€� conjures images of the “Dark Ages”—centuries of ignorance, superstition, stasis, savagery, and poor hygiene. But the myth of darkness obscures the truth; this was a remarkable period in human history. The Bright Ages recasts the European Middle Ages for what it was, capturing this 1,000-year era in all its complexity and fundamental humanity, bringing to light both its beauty and its horrors.Ěý

The Bright Ages takes us through ten centuries and crisscrosses Europe and the Mediterranean, Asia and Africa, revisiting familiar people and events with new light cast upon them. We look with fresh eyes on the Fall of Rome, Charlemagne, the Vikings, the Crusades, and the Black Death, but also to the multi-religious experience of Iberia, the rise of Byzantium, and the genius of Hildegard and the power of queens. We begin under a blanket of golden stars constructed by an empress with Germanic, Roman, Spanish, Byzantine, and Christian bloodlines and end nearly 1,000 years later with the poet Dante—inspired by that same twinkling celestial canopy—writing an epic saga of heaven and hell that endures as a masterpiece of literature today.ĚýĚý

The Bright Ages reminds us just how permeable our manmade borders have always been and of what possible worlds the past has always made available to us. The Middle Ages may have been a world “lit only by fireâ€� but it was one whose torches illuminated the magnificent rose windows of cathedrals, even as they stoked the pyres of accused heretics.ĚýĚý

The Bright Ages is illustrated throughout with high-resolution images.Ěý]]>
307 Matthew Gabriele 0062980890 Reagan 0 to-read 3.58 2021 The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe
author: Matthew Gabriele
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Spain: The Centre of the World 1519-1682]]> 22929512 587 Robert Goodwin 1620403609 Reagan 0 to-read 3.58 2015 Spain: The Centre of the World 1519-1682
author: Robert Goodwin
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/31
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921]]> 59915480 An epic new account of the conflict that reshaped Eastern Europe and set the stage for the rest of the twentieth century.

Between 1917 and 1921 a devastating struggle took place in Russia following the collapse of the Tsarist empire. The doomed White alliance of moderate socialists and reactionary monarchists stood little chance against Trotsky’s Red Army and the single-minded Communist dictatorship under Lenin. In the savage civil war that followed, terror begat terror, which in turn led to ever greater cruelty with man’s inhumanity to man, woman and child. The struggle became a world war by proxy as Churchill deployed weaponry and troops from the British empire, while contingents from the United States, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, and Czechoslovakia played rival parts.

Using the most up to date scholarship and archival research, Antony Beevor assembles the complete picture in a gripping narrative that conveys the conflict through the eyes of everyone from the worker on the streets of Petrograd to the cavalry officer on the battlefield and the doctor in an improvised hospital.]]>
608 Antony Beevor 1474610145 Reagan 0 to-read 3.86 2022 Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921
author: Antony Beevor
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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Poland: A History 6404895 448 Adam Zamoyski 0007282753 Reagan 0 to-read 4.01 2009 Poland: A History
author: Adam Zamoyski
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities, and Earthquake Machines]]> 124081037
In a series of fast-paced essays, Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities, and Earthquake Machines answers 40 questions that ancient historian Garrett Ryan has been asked in the classroom and through his popular YouTube channel ToldinStone. As in Dr. Ryan's previous book - Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants - the emphasis is on the fascinating details of daily life in the classical world.
Discover the answers

Did the ancient Greeks and Romans have tattoos? Did they practice Buddhism? Did they know when the Pyramids were built?

Did a tsunami inspire the Story of Atlantis? How deadly was the eruption that destroyed Pompeii?

What was it like to live through the fall of the Roman Empire?

Why are ancient cities buried? What happened to the treasures of the Roman emperors? How much was lost when the Library of Alexandria burned?]]>
245 Garrett Ryan 1633888932 Reagan 0 to-read 4.00 Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities, and Earthquake Machines
author: Garrett Ryan
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.00
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<![CDATA[Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001]]> 71984 Ghost Wars is the most accurate and revealing account yet of the CIA's secret involvement in al-Qaeda's evolution. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.

Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll has spent years reporting from the Middle East, accessed previously classified government files and interviewed senior US officials and foreign spymasters. Here he gives the full inside story of the CIA's covert funding of an Islamic jihad against Soviet forces in Afghanistan, explores how this sowed the seeds of Bin Laden's rise, traces how he built his global network and brings to life the dramatic battles within the US government over national security. Above all, he lays bare American intelligence's continual failure to grasp the rising threat of terrorism in the years leading to 9/11 - and its devastating consequences.]]>
712 Steve Coll 0143034669 Reagan 0 to-read 4.31 2004 Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
author: Steve Coll
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Vimy: The Battle and the Legend]]> 30555607 A bold new telling of the defining battle of the Great War, and how it came to signify and solidify Canada's national identity

Why does Vimy matter? How did a four-day battle at the midpoint of the Great War, a clash that had little strategic impact on the larger Allied war effort, become elevated to a national symbol of Canadian identity?

Tim Cook, Canada's foremost military historian and a Charles Taylor Prize winner, examines the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the way the memory of it has evolved over 100 years. The operation that began April 9, 1917, was the first time the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together. More than 10,000 Canadian soldiers were killed or injured over four days--twice the casualty rate of the Dieppe Raid in August 1942.

The Corps' victory solidified its reputation among allies and opponents as an elite fighting force. In the wars' aftermath, Vimy was chosen as the site for the country's strikingly beautiful monument to mark Canadian sacrifice and service. Over time, the legend of Vimy took on new meaning, with some calling it the "birth of the nation."

The remarkable story of Vimy is a layered skein of facts, myths, wishful thinking, and conflicting narratives. Award-winning writer Tim Cook explores why the battle continues to resonate with Canadians a century later. He has uncovered fresh material and photographs from official archives and private collections across Canada and from around the world.

On the 100th anniversary of the event, and as Canada celebrates 150 years as a country, Vimy is a fitting tribute to those who fought the country's defining battle. It is also a stirring account of Canadian identity and memory, told by a masterful storyteller.]]>
488 Tim Cook 0735233160 Reagan 0 to-read 4.19 2017 Vimy: The Battle and the Legend
author: Tim Cook
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<![CDATA[The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: The Epic Siege at the Heart of WWII's Greatest Battle]]> 60105372
Within this deadly struggle Soviet war correspondents such as Vasily Grossman lauded the fight for a key strategic building in the heart of the city, 'Pavlov's House', situated right on the frontline, codenamed: 'The Lighthouse'. Standing a few hundred metres from the river the legend grew of a small garrison of Russia guardsmen holding out against overwhelming odds right up until the battle had been won.

In this riveting narrative, unearthing new German and Russian testimonies from those who fought there, The Lighthouse of Stalingrad sheds new light on this iconic conflict that established Soviet dominance in the East and thus guaranteed the Third Reich's defeat in the ruins of Berlin two years later.]]>
352 Iain MacGregor 1472135210 Reagan 0 to-read 3.75 2022 The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: The Epic Siege at the Heart of WWII's Greatest Battle
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<![CDATA[The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World]]> 60194141 In a book that is part thrilling adventure, part exploration of some of the darkest secrets of the Holocaust, award-winning journalist and best-selling novelist Jonathan Freedland uncovers the extraordinary story of the first Jew to break out of Auschwitz, a man who was determined to warn the world—and pass on a truth too few were willing to hear.

In April 1944, Rudolf Vrba became the first Jew to break out of Auschwitz—one of only four who ever pulled off that near-impossible feat. He did it to reveal the truth of the death camp to the world—and to warn the last Jews of Europe what fate awaited them at the end of the railway line. Against all odds, he and his fellow escapee, Fred Wetzler, climbed mountains, crossed rivers and narrowly missed German bullets until they had smuggled out the first full account of Auschwitz the world had ever seen—a forensically detailed report that would eventually reach Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and the Pope.

And yet too few heeded the warning that Vrba—then just nineteen years old—had risked everything to deliver. Some could not believe it. Others thought it easier to keep quiet. Vrba helped save 200,000 Jewish lives—but he never stopped believing it could have been so many more.

This is the story of a brilliant yet troubled man—a gifted “escape artist� who even as a teenager understand that the difference between truth and lies can be the difference between life and death, a man who deserves to take his place alongside Anne Frank, Oskar Schindler and Primo Levi as one of the handful of individuals whose stories define our understanding of the Holocaust.]]>
416 Jonathan Freedland 0063112337 Reagan 0 to-read 4.34 2022 The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World
author: Jonathan Freedland
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Waterloo 4125712 Book by Christopher Hibbert 280 Christopher Hibbert 1853266876 Reagan 0 to-read 3.53 1960 Waterloo
author: Christopher Hibbert
name: Reagan
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<![CDATA[Genghis Khan: The Man Who Conquered the World]]> 26889453
Genghis Khan was by far the greatest conqueror the world has ever known, whose empire stretched from the Pacific Ocean to central Europe, including all of China, the Middle East and Russia. So how did an illiterate nomad rise to such colossal power, eclipsing Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Napoleon? Credited by some with paving the way for the Renaissance, condemned by others for being the most heinous murderer in history, who was Genghis Khan?

His actual name was Temujin, and the story of his success is that of the Mongol a loose collection of fractious tribes who tended livestock, considered bathing taboo and possessed an unparallelled genius for horseback warfare. United under Genghis, a strategist of astonishing cunning and versatility, they could dominate any sedentary society they chose.

Combining fast-paced accounts of battles with rich cultural background and the latest scholarship, Frank McLynn brings vividly to life the strange world of the Mongols, describes Temujin's rise from boyhood outcast to become Genghis Khan, and provides the most accurate and absorbing account yet of one of the most powerful men ever to have lived.]]>
688 Frank McLynn 1784703508 Reagan 0 to-read 3.87 2015 Genghis Khan: The Man Who Conquered the World
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<![CDATA[The Red Hotel: Moscow 1941, the Metropol Hotel, and the Untold Story of Stalin's Propaganda War]]> 62918254 The untold history of Moscow's Metropol hotel—a fervent spot of intrigue, secrets, and the center of Stalin's nefarious propaganda during WWII.

In 1941, when German armies were marching towards Moscow, Lenin’s body was moved from his tomb on Red Square and taken to Siberia. By1945, a victorious Stalin had turned a poor country into a victorious superpower. Over the course of those four years, Stalin, at Churchill's insistence, accepted an Anglo-American press corps in Moscow to cover the Eastern Front. To turn these reporters into Kremlin mouthpieces, Stalin imposed the most draconian controls � unbending censorship, no visits to the battlefront, and a ban on contact with ordinary citizens.

The Red Hotel explores this gilded cage of the Metropol Hotel. They enjoyed lavish supplies of caviar and had their choice of young women to employ as translators and share their beds. On the surface, this regime served Stalin his plans to control Eastern Europe as a Sovietised â€outer empireâ€� were never reported and the most outrageous Soviet lies went unchallenged.

But beneath the surface, the Metropol was roiling with intrigue. While some of the translators turned journalists into robotic conveyors of Kremlin propaganda, others were secret dissidents who whispered to reporters the reality of Soviet life and were punished with sentences in the Gulag. Using British archives and Soviet sources, the unique role of the women of the Metropol, both as consummate propagandists and secret dissenters, is told for the first time.

At the end of the war when Lenin returned to Red Square, the reporters went home, but the memory of Stalin’s ruthless control of the wartime narrative lived on in the Kremlin. From the weaponization of disinformation to the falsification of history, from the moving of borders to the neutralization of independent states, the story of the Metropol mirrors the struggles of our own modern era.]]>
352 Alan Philps 1639364285 Reagan 0 to-read 3.60 The Red Hotel: Moscow 1941, the Metropol Hotel, and the Untold Story of Stalin's Propaganda War
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The Greeks: A Global History 57007971 A sweeping history of the Greeks, from the Bronze Age to todayĚýĚý

More than two thousand years ago, the GreekĚýcity-states,Ěýled byĚýAthens and Sparta,Ěýlaid the foundation forĚýmuch ofĚýmodern science, the arts,Ěýpolitics, and law.ĚýBut the influence of the Greeks did not endĚýwith the rise and fall of this classical civilization.ĚýAs historian Roderick BeatonĚýillustrates,Ěýover three millenniaĚýGreek speakersĚýproduced a series of civilizationsĚýthatĚýwere rooted inĚýsoutheastern Europe butĚýagain and again ranged widely across the globe.ĚýĚý
Ěý
InĚýTheĚýGreeks, Beaton tracesĚýthis historyĚýfrom theĚýBronze Age MycenaeansĚýwho builtĚýpowerfulĚýfortresses at homeĚýand strongĚýtrade routes abroad, toĚýtheĚýdramaticĚýEurasian conquests ofĚýAlexander the Great, to the pious Byzantines whoĚýsought to export Christianity worldwide, to today’s Greek diaspora, which flourishes on fiveĚýcontinents. The product ofĚýdecades of research, this isĚýthe story of the GreeksĚýand their global impactĚýtold asĚýnever before. Ěý]]>
608 Roderick Beaton 1541618297 Reagan 0 to-read 4.12 2021 The Greeks: A Global History
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<![CDATA[Laughter in Ancient Rome: On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up (Volume 71) (Sather Classical Lectures)]]> 18668319
Laughter in Ancient Rome explores one of the most intriguing, but also trickiest, of historical subjects. Drawing on a wide range of Roman writing―from essays on rhetoric to a surviving Roman joke book―Mary Beard tracks down the giggles, smirks, and guffaws of the ancient Romans themselves. From ancient “monkey businessâ€� to the role of a chuckle in a culture of tyranny, she explores Roman humor from the hilarious, to the momentous, to the surprising.Ěý But she also reflects on even bigger historical questions. What kind of history of laughter can we possibly tell? Can we ever really “getâ€� the Romansâ€� jokes?]]>
336 Mary Beard 0520277163 Reagan 0 to-read 3.51 2014 Laughter in Ancient Rome: On Joking, Tickling, and Cracking Up (Volume 71) (Sather Classical Lectures)
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average rating: 3.51
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<![CDATA[Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern]]> 57423872 From the bestselling author of SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, the fascinating story of how images of Roman autocrats have influenced art, culture, and the representation of power for more than 2,000 years

What does the face of power look like? Who gets commemorated in art and why? And how do we react to statues of politicians we deplore? In this book--against a background of today's "sculpture wars"--Mary Beard tells the story of how for more than two millennia portraits of the rich, powerful, and famous in the western world have been shaped by the image of Roman emperors, especially the "twelve Caesars," from the ruthless Julius Caesar to the fly-torturing Domitian. Twelve Caesars asks why these murderous autocrats have loomed so large in art from antiquity and the Renaissance to today, when hapless leaders are still caricatured as Neros fiddling while Rome burns.

Beginning with the importance of imperial portraits in Roman politics, this richly illustrated book offers a tour through 2,000 years of art and cultural history, presenting a fresh look at works by artists from Memling and Mantegna to the nineteenth-century African American sculptor Edmonia Lewis, as well as by generations of now-forgotten weavers, cabinetmakers, silversmiths, printers, and ceramicists. Rather than a story of a simple repetition of stable, blandly conservative images of imperial men and women, Twelve Caesars is an unexpected tale of changing identities, clueless or deliberate misidentifications, fakes, and often ambivalent representations of authority.

From Beard's reconstruction of Titian's extraordinary lost Room of the Emperors to her reinterpretation of Henry VIII's famous Caesarian tapestries, Twelve Caesars includes some fascinating detective work and offers a gripping story of some of the most challenging and disturbing portraits of power ever created.

Published in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC]]>
392 Mary Beard 0691222363 Reagan 0 to-read 3.67 2021 Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern
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<![CDATA[The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land]]> 7282903 784 Thomas Asbridge 0060787287 Reagan 0 to-read 4.23 2010 The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land
author: Thomas Asbridge
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.23
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The Last Days of the Incas 354038 522 Kim MacQuarrie 074326049X Reagan 0 to-read 4.18 2007 The Last Days of the Incas
author: Kim MacQuarrie
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.18
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The Age of the Vikings 21981623
The Vikings maintain their grip on our imagination, but their image is too often distorted by myth. It is true that they pillaged, looted, and enslaved. But they also settled peacefully and traveled far from their homelands in swift and sturdy ships to explore. The Age of the Vikings tells the full story of this exciting period in history. Drawing on a wealth of written, visual, and archaeological evidence, Anders Winroth captures the innovation and pure daring of the Vikings without glossing over their destructive heritage. He not only explains the Viking attacks, but also looks at Viking endeavors in commerce, politics, discovery, and colonization, and reveals how Viking arts, literature, and religious thought evolved in ways unequaled in the rest of Europe. The Age of the Vikings sheds new light on the complex society, culture, and legacy of these legendary seafarers.]]>
320 Anders Winroth 0691149852 Reagan 0 to-read 3.72 2014 The Age of the Vikings
author: Anders Winroth
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.72
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<![CDATA[The Young Alexander: The Making of Alexander the Great]]> 52094963 This is an astonishing new account of Alexander the Great � one of the most important figures of the ancient world, whose earlier years have until now been a mystery.

Alexander the Great’s story often reads like fiction: son to a snake-loving mother and a battle-scarred father; tutored by Aristotle; a youth from the periphery of the Greek world who took part in his first campaign aged sixteen, becoming king of Macedon at twenty and king of Asia by twenty-five; leading his armies into battle like a Homeric figure.

Each generation has peered through the frosted glass of history and come to their own conclusion about Alexander, be it enlightened ruler, military genius, megalomaniac, drunkard or despot. Yet the first two decades of his life have until now been a mystery � a matter of legend and myth. This extraordinary history draws on new discoveries in archaeology to tell the early story of Alexander and his rise � including detail on the tempestuous relationship between Alexander’s parents, Philip and the Molossian princess Olympias, his education by Aristotle and the strict military training which would serve him so well in later years. And more than ever, it emerges, the story of Alexander’s reign confronts us with difficult questions that are still relevant today � of the relationship between East and West, the legacy of colonialism and the impacts of authoritarian rule.

Drawing together startling modern archaeological discoveries, this book brings Alexander’s ancient world back into focus. With each fragment of this shattered past, excavated by shovel, pick and trowel, a new history is being written. The forgotten story of young Alexander is being unearthed.]]>
336 Alex Rowson 0008284393 Reagan 0 to-read 4.03 2022 The Young Alexander: The Making of Alexander the Great
author: Alex Rowson
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.03
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<![CDATA[The Origins of Totalitarianism]]> 396931 Hannah Arendt's definitive work on totalitarianism and an essential component of any study of twentieth-century political history

The Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe in the 1800s and continues with an examination of European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I. Arendt explores the institutions and operations of totalitarian movements, focusing on the two genuine forms of totalitarian government in our time—Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia—which she adroitly recognizes were two sides of the same coin, rather than opposing philosophies of Right and Left. From this vantage point, she discusses the evolution of classes into masses, the role of propaganda in dealing with the nontotalitarian world, the use of terror, and the nature of isolation and loneliness as preconditions for total domination.]]>
527 Hannah Arendt Reagan 0 to-read 4.30 1951 The Origins of Totalitarianism
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<![CDATA[Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome]]> 60406066 A striking, nuanced biography of Nero--the controversial populist ruler and last of the Caesars--and a fascinating, street-level portrait of ancient Rome itself, from an acclaimed biographer and historian.

The Roman emperor Nero has long been the very image of a bad ruler--cruel, vain, and incompetent. He committed incest with his mother, who had schemed and killed to place him on the throne, and later murdered her. He supposedly set fire to Rome and thrummed his lyre as it burned. Afterward he cleared the charred ruins of the city center and, in their place, built a vast palace. Historians of his day despised him, and it's their recollections that have been passed down through the ages.

But, in all of the horror, there is a mystery. For a long time after his deposition and suicide, anonymous hands laid flowers on his grave. The monster was loved. In this nuanced biography, Anthony Everitt, the celebrated biographer of classical Greece and Rome, reveals the contradictions inherent in the reign of Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus and offers a reappraisal of his life. Everitt also brings ancient Rome to life, showing the crowded streets that made the city prone to fires, political intrigues that could turn deadly in an instant, and vast building projects that continuously remade the Roman landscape. In this teeming and politically unstable world, Nero did terrible things, but the larger empire was also well managed under his rule. He presided over a diplomatic triumph with the rival Parthian empire, and Everitt teams up with investigative journalist Roddy Ashworth to tell the epic story of Rome’s conquest of Britain and British queen Boudica’s doomed revolt against Nero’s legions. Nero was also a champion of arts and culture whose own great love was music, and he won the loyalty of the lower classes with great spectacles. In many ways he was ahead of his time, particularly in the way he looked to Greece and the eastern half of the empire as crucial to Rome's future. Nero had a vision for Rome, but, wracked by insecurity and guilt-ridden over assassinations he ordered, perhaps he never really had the stomach to rule it.

This is the bloodstained story of one of Rome's most notorious emperors. Nero's rule has become a byword for cruelty, decadence, and despotism, but in Everitt's hands, his life is a cautionary tale about the mettle it takes to rule.]]>
448 Anthony Everitt 059313320X Reagan 0 to-read 3.91 2022 Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome
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The Monk 93157 'He now saw himself stained with the most loathed and monstrous sins, the object of universal execration ... doomed to perish in tortures the most severe'

Shocking, erotic and violent, The Monk is the story of Ambrosio, torn between his spiritual vows and the temptations of physical pleasure. His internal battle leads to sexual obsession, rape and murder, yet this book also contains knowing parody of its own excesses as well as social comedy. Written by Matthew Lewis when he was only nineteen, it was a ground-breaking novel in the Gothic Horror genre and spawned hundreds of imitators, drawn in by its mixture of bloodshed, sex and scandal.]]>
431 Matthew Gregory Lewis 0140436030 Reagan 0 to-read 3.83 1796 The Monk
author: Matthew Gregory Lewis
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.83
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<![CDATA[King Arthur and His Knights: Selected Tales]]> 93276 272 Thomas Malory 0195019059 Reagan 0 to-read 4.12 1860 King Arthur and His Knights: Selected Tales
author: Thomas Malory
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1860
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The Doctrine of Fascism 1184142 “Democracy is a kingless regime infested by many kings who are sometimes more exclusive, tyrannical and destructive than one, even if he be a tyrant.�

'The Doctrine of Fascism' (Originally known as 'La dottrina del fascismo') is an essay written by Giovanni Gentile, with credit given to Benito Mussolini as a co-author. It was first published in the Enciclopedia Italiana of 1932, as the first section of a lengthy entry on "Fascismo" (Fascism). The entire entry on Fascism spans pages 847-884 of the Enciclopedia Italiana, and includes numerous photographs and graphic images.

Today, it is considered the most complete articulation of Mussolini's political views. A key concept of the Mussolini essay was that fascism was a rejection of previous models: "Granted that the 19th century was the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the 20th century must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy. Political doctrines pass; nations remain. We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right', a Fascist century. If the 19th century was the century of the individual, we are free to believe that this is the 'collective' century, and therefore the century of the State."

Regardless of one's political inclinations, this essay is of great curiosity to any reader with intellectual interests, and a must-read for those who seek to buttress or demolish its unwavering premises.]]>
72 Benito Mussolini 0865274630 Reagan 0 to-read 3.10 1932 The Doctrine of Fascism
author: Benito Mussolini
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.10
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Dinosaur Friendship 61980095 144 James Stewart 000857894X Reagan 4 4.43 Dinosaur Friendship
author: James Stewart
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.43
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Dinosaur Philosophy 60094739 144 James Stewart 000853084X Reagan 5 philosophy 4.46 2022 Dinosaur Philosophy
author: James Stewart
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 5
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The Merchant of Venice 24128 249 William Shakespeare 0743477561 Reagan 3 classics 3.77 1596 The Merchant of Venice
author: William Shakespeare
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1596
rating: 3
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<![CDATA[King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa]]> 40961621 King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust. Adam Hochschild brings this largely untold story alive with the wit and skill of a Barbara Tuchman. Like her, he knows that history often provides a far richer cast of characters than any novelist could invent. Chief among them is Edmund Morel, a young British shipping agent who went on to lead the international crusade against Leopold. Another hero of this tale, the Irish patriot Roger Casement, ended his life on a London gallows. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked much to bring evidence of the Congo atrocities to the outside world. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young Congo River steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming above them all, the duplicitous billionaire King Leopold II. With great power and compassion, King Leopold's Ghost will brand the tragedy of the Congo--too long forgotten--onto the conscience of the West]]> 442 Adam Hochschild Reagan 0 to-read 4.16 1998 King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
author: Adam Hochschild
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1998
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<![CDATA[False Prophets and Preachers: Henry Gresbeck's Account of the Anabaptist Kingdom of MĂĽnster]]> 29279582
Before now, Gresbeck's account was only available in a heavily edited German copy adapted from inferior manuscripts. Christopher S. Mackay, who previously produced the only modern translation of the main Latin account of these events, has adhered closely to Gresbeck's own words to produce the first complete and accurate English translation of this important primary source.]]>
400 Christopher S. Mackay 1612481418 Reagan 0 to-read 4.29 1534 False Prophets and Preachers: Henry Gresbeck's Account of the Anabaptist Kingdom of MĂĽnster
author: Christopher S. Mackay
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1534
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<![CDATA[Christian Theology: An Introduction]]> 23003 534 Alister E. McGrath 1405153601 Reagan 0 to-read 4.05 1991 Christian Theology: An Introduction
author: Alister E. McGrath
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1991
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<![CDATA[Catechism of the Catholic Church: Complete and Updated]]> 110795
Here it is - the first new Catechism of the Catholic Church in more than 400 years, a complete summary of what Catholics around the world commonly believe.Ěý

The Catechism draws on the Bible, the Mass, the Sacraments, Church tradition and teaching, and the lives of saints. It comes with a complete index, footnotes and cross-references for a fuller understanding of every subject. The word catechism means "instruction" - this book will serve as the standard for all future catechisms.

Using the tradition of explaining what the Church believes (the Creed), what she celebrates (the Sacraments), what she lives (the Commandments), and what she prays (the Lord's Prayer), the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers challenges for believers and answers for all those interested in learning about the mystery of the Catholic faith.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is a positive, coherent and contemporary map for our spiritual journey toward transformation.]]>
846 Catholic Church 0385479670 Reagan 0 to-read 4.47 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church: Complete and Updated
author: Catholic Church
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1992
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<![CDATA[The Queen of Spades and Other Stories]]> 97381 The Queen of Spades has long been acknowledged as one of the world's greatest short stories, in which Pushkin explores the nature of obsession. The Tales of Belkin are witty parodies of sentimentalism, while Peter the Great's Blackamoor is an early experiment with recreating the past. The Captain's Daughter is a novel-length masterpiece which combines historical fiction in the manner of Sir Walter Scott with the devices of the Russian fairy-tale. The Introduction provides close readings of the stories and places them in their European literary context.]]> 336 Alexander Pushkin 0192839543 Reagan 0 to-read 4.16 1841 The Queen of Spades and Other Stories
author: Alexander Pushkin
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1841
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<![CDATA[Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine]]> 11096385 784 Gregg R. Allison 0310230136 Reagan 5 christianity 4.24 2011 Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine
author: Gregg R. Allison
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2011
rating: 5
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The Gambler 12857 The Gambler, Dostoevsky reaches the heights of drama with this stunning psychological portrait.]]> 188 Fyodor Dostoevsky Reagan 4 classics 3.95 1866 The Gambler
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Reagan
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1866
rating: 4
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<![CDATA[Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization]]> 6415185
For far too many otherwise historically savvy people today, the story of the Byzantine civilization is something of a void. Yet for more than a millennium, Byzantium reigned as the glittering seat of Christian civilization. When Europe fell into the Dark Ages, Byzantium held fast against Muslim expansion, keeping Christianity alive. When literacy all but vanished in the West, Byzantium made primary education available to both sexes. Students debated the merits of Plato and Aristotle and commonly committed the entirety of Homer’s Iliad to memory. Streams of wealth flowed into Constantinople, making possible unprecedented wonders of art and architecture, from fabulous jeweled mosaics and other iconography to the great church known as the Hagia Sophia that was a vision of heaven on earth. The dome of the Great Palace stood nearly two hundred feet high and stretched over four acres, and the city’s population was more than twenty times that of London’s.

From Constantine, who founded his eponymous city in the year 330, to Constantine XI, who valiantly fought the empire’s final battle more than a thousand years later, the emperors who ruled Byzantium enacted a saga of political intrigue and conquest as astonishing as anything in recorded history. Lost to the West is replete with stories of assassination, mass mutilation and execution, sexual scheming, ruthless grasping for power, and clashing armies that soaked battlefields with the blood of slain warriors numbering in the tens of thousands.

Still, it was Byzantium that preserved for us today the great gifts of the classical world. Of the 55,000 ancient Greek texts in existence today, some 40,000 were transmitted to us by Byzantine scribes. And it was the Byzantine Empire that shielded Western Europe from invasion until it was ready to take its own place at the center of the world stage. Filled with unforgettable stories of emperors, generals, and religious patriarchs, as well as fascinating glimpses into the life of the ordinary citizen, Lost to the West reveals how much we owe to this empire that was the equal of any in its achievements, appetites, and enduring legacy.]]>
352 Lars Brownworth 0307407950 Reagan 5 history 4.07 2009 Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization
author: Lars Brownworth
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: history
review:

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<![CDATA[The Tattooist of Auschwitz (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #1)]]> 38359036 °ŐäłŮ´Ç·Éľ±±đ°ů±đ°ů (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Imprisoned for more than two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.

One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.

A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov's experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.]]>
272 Heather Morris 006287067X Reagan 5 4.32 2018 The Tattooist of Auschwitz (The Tattooist of Auschwitz, #1)
author: Heather Morris
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/08/05
shelves: favorites, historical-fiction, holocaust
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The Screwtape letters 162656847 2nd Paperback Edition. 0 C.S. Lewis Reagan 5 christianity 5.00 1942 The Screwtape letters
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Reagan
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1942
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/05
date added: 2024/08/05
shelves: christianity
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The Case for Grace for Kids 24423998 In The Case for Grace for Kids, Lee Strobel, along with Jesse Florea, presents the concept of grace in a way kids eight to twelve relate to. Sharing stories of people who have been changed by God’s love and forgiveness, learning to forgive those who have hurt them, as well as forgive themselves. Lee also shares never-before-seen stories from his own journey from atheism to Christianity, and how God’s redeeming love personally affected him. Throughout the book, readers will see how God’s grace can change their lives and relationships today.

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166 Lee Strobel 0310736587 Reagan 4 christianity 4.56 2015 The Case for Grace for Kids
author: Lee Strobel
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/08/05
shelves: christianity
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<![CDATA[The Case for Christ for Kids Curriculum]]> 18285037
In these six lessons children will learn answers to these and other pressing questions in kid-friendly language that will help them grow in their faith.

Packed full of well-researched, reliable, and fun investigations of some of the biggest questions kids have, The Case for Christ for Kids Curriculum brings Jesus to life by addressing the existence, miracles, ministry, and resurrection of Christ.

This DVD-ROM makes your children’s ministry planning simple and includes everything you need for a successful Sunday school, children’s church, or VBS program:


A checklist to help leaders organize each week’s study
Lesson Plans
Parent Pages
Promotional materials
AND a VBS expansion kit to help leaders teach The Case for Christ Children’s Curriculum as a Vacation Bible School or Backyard Bible Club program
The six sessions include:


The Case of the Baby Messiah
The Case of the Voice from Heaven
Eyewitnesses to the Messiah
The Case of the Wedding Crisis
The Case of the Living Water
The Case of the Risen Messiah]]>
Lee Strobel 0310681189 Reagan 4 christianity 4.11 The Case for Christ for Kids Curriculum
author: Lee Strobel
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/08/05
shelves: christianity
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Pearl Harbor 1105096 320 Randall Wallace 0141005149 Reagan 5 historical-fiction 4.07 2001 Pearl Harbor
author: Randall Wallace
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2001
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/08/05
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Apologetics Study Bible for Students]]> 7652684 Apologetics Study Bible that has sold 115,000+ copies, the Apologetics Study Bible for Students will anchor younger Christians in the truths of Scripture by equipping them with thoughtful and practical responses for whenever the core issues of their faith and life are challenged.Multiple research studies have shown that spiritual focus often weakens among teenagers as they head into the attention-dividing realm of young adulthood. Up to 66% of them leave church altogether. The Apologetics Study Bible for Students works against that trend by helping this audience begin to better articulate its beliefs. In addition to the complete HCSB text and dozens of articles collected from today’s most popular youth leaders, including general editor Sean McDowell, this new study Bible also includes:� Two-color design-intensive layout on every page for the visual generation� Sixty “Twisted Scriptures� explanations� Fifty “Bones & Dirt� entries (archaeology meets apologetics)� Fifty “Notable Quotes”� Twenty-five “Tactics� against common anti-Christian arguments� Twenty “Personal Stories� of how God has worked in real lives� Twenty “Top Five� lists to help remember key apologetics topics]]> 1440 Anonymous 1586404954 Reagan 5 christianity 4.75 2010 Apologetics Study Bible for Students
author: Anonymous
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/08/05
shelves: christianity
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<![CDATA[Holy Bible: New International Version]]> 280111 Special This red-letter edition eBook has been optimized for reading on color screens, but will still function effectively on other devices. The Bible is the bestselling book in history, and the New International Version (NIV) Bible is the bestselling version year after year. This bestselling modern-English Bible has sold more than 450 million copies since its first full publication in 1978. It is also the bestselling modern-English Bible eBook, and it’s designed for an intuitive user experience. The font is crisp and clear, and readability is great on both E-Ink® screens and color screens. With quick page turns and a numbered footnoting system that allows you to easily jump from Bible text to footnote and back again, this NIV eBook is faster and more robust than ever before. And with a “How to Use This Bible� page included, navigating the Bible has never been easier. Read the Bible on your device just as if you were reading a physical book. NIV ©2011 The New International Version (NIV) translation of the Bible is the world’s most popular modern English Bible � easy to understand, yet rich with the detail found in the original languages.

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1213 Anonymous 0310902711 Reagan 5 christianity 4.61 Holy Bible: New International Version
author: Anonymous
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.61
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/08/05
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Jesus-Centered Bible NLT 25778761
Encounter Jesus in a Fresh Way Throughout the Entire Bible
Ěý
Blue lettering highlights more than 600 passages in the Old Testament pointing to Jesus—references and promises that show God’s love story for your life.
Ěý
You’ll see where Jesus appears, cover-to-cover, in every book of the Bible. Distinctive blue lettering helps you quickly and easily discover what’s most important in the Bible: Jesus.
Ěý
Build your understanding—and your faith in Jesus—with these unique features:
Ěý
Jesus Answers Life’s Biggest Questions segments focus on Jesus� answers to our most common uncertainties and concerns.

Jesus in Every Book introductions to Old and New Testament books, written by prominent Christian leaders, show how each book in the Bible points straight to Jesus.

�Get to Know Jesus� one-chapter-a-day Bible-reading plan helps you spend time with Jesus every day.
Ěý
Reframing Jesus Break-Outs place blue-letter references in a larger cultural context, giving you aha insights into the people, places, and social forces that framed Jesus� ministry.
Ěý
Jesus Questions draw you closer to Jesus as you ponder the purpose of his words and actions. And these provocative questions are great discussion starters for small groups, family devotions, outreach—anywhere you want to launch a compelling conversation about Jesus.Ěý

Jesus� spoken words and references to Jesus are highlighted with red letters in the New Testament.

Names of Jesus are highlighted throughout the New Testament, giving insights into Jesus by examining how writers of the Bible referred to Jesus.

Additional features include:
� Easy-to-read New Living Translation
� Hardcover format
� Lay-flat binding for easy use
� 9-point text size
� Dictionary/concordance

See Jesus� powerful story unfold throughout the entire Bible.
Ěý]]>
1440 Anonymous 1470734044 Reagan 5 christianity 4.78 2015 Jesus-Centered Bible NLT
author: Anonymous
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.78
book published: 2015
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/08/05
shelves: christianity
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The Picture Bible 269602 800 Iva Hoth 0781430550 Reagan 5 christianity 4.55 1920 The Picture Bible
author: Iva Hoth
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.55
book published: 1920
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/08/05
shelves: christianity
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<![CDATA[The Action Bible: God's Redemptive Story]]> 9305960 The Action Bible presents 215 fast-paced narratives in chronological order, making it easier to follow the Bible’s historical flow—and reinforcing the build-up to its thrilling climax.ĚýThe stories in The Action Bible communicate clearly and forcefully to contemporary readers. This compelling blend of clear writing plus dramatic images offers an appeal that crosses all age boundaries.ĚýBrazilian artist Sergio Cariello has created attention-holding illustrations marked by rich coloring, dramatic shading and lighting, bold and energetic designs, and emotionally charged figures.ĚýLet this epic rendition draw you into all the excitement of the world’s most awesome story.]]> 752 David C. Cook 0781444993 Reagan 5 christianity 4.57 2010 The Action Bible: God's Redemptive Story
author: David C. Cook
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/08/05
shelves: christianity
review:

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The Pilgrim's Progress 29797 Along a road filled with monsters and spiritual terrors, Christian confronts such emblematic characters as Worldly Wiseman, Giant Despair, Talkative, Ignorance, and the demons of the Valley of the Shadow of Death. But he is also joined by Hopeful and Faithful.
An enormously influential 17th-century classic, universally known for its simplicity, vigor, and beauty of language, The Pilgrim's Progress remains one of the most widely read books in the English language.]]>
324 John Bunyan Reagan 0 to-read 4.05 1678 The Pilgrim's Progress
author: John Bunyan
name: Reagan
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1678
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/04
shelves: to-read
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