en-US Sat, 12 Oct 2024 12:21:36 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 217472124 196 Irene fantopoulos Irene 4 to-read 4.50
author: Irene fantopoulos
name: Irene
average rating: 4.50
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]]> 217440933 261 Irene fantopoulos Irene 5 5.00
author: Irene fantopoulos
name: Irene
average rating: 5.00
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rating: 5
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]]> 15786792 809 Edward Rutherfurd 0385535309 Irene 0 to-read 3.98 2013
author: Edward Rutherfurd
name: Irene
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/25
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]]> 63253349
After two failed attempts to escape, Gabriel drugs and then sets his father on fire; he vows to find his Mother and exact his revenge on her. He rescues injured animals and tries to save them, while at the same time practicing his suturing skills. He is saddened when he can’t save the animals. Gabriel becomes a paramedic like his father and wants to prove that he would be a better paramedic than his father ever was. An incident at work triggers a psychotic break and he embarks on a killing spree.

Meanwhile, investigators, Melissa Hargrove and RJ Otombo, staff sergeants with the fictional Toronto City Police Force, investigate the murders. The investigators are haunted by their own traumas. RJ is obsessed with bringing to justice the person who abducted and murdered his eight-year-old son, Ryan,18 years earlier. There’s tension in his marriage. The return of Melissa’s ex-boyfriend, Nicolas Brinkton, seems opportune. She can’t forget or forgive him for killing her parents 10 years earlier while driving under the influence of alcohol.

As the investigation unfolds and possible suspects emerge, clues and messages bearing the symbol of the evil eye become part of the killer’s motive. The twists and turns of the case take Melissa and RJ down unimaginable paths.]]> 239 Irene fantopoulos Irene 5 currently-reading 4.33
author: Irene fantopoulos
name: Irene
average rating: 4.33
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rating: 5
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date added: 2022/12/26
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]]> 60374849
London, 1933

At first glance, Austrian opera singer Elsa Mayer-Braun has little in common with the young English typist she encounters on tour. Yet she and Hattie Featherstone forge an instant connection—and strike a dangerous alliance. Using their friendship as a cover, they form a secret society with a daring to rescue as many Jews as possible from Nazi persecution.

Though the war’s outbreak threatens Elsa and Hattie’s network, their efforts attract the covert attention of the British government, offering more opportunities to thwart the Germans. But Elsa’s growing fame as Hitler’s favorite opera singer, coupled with her secret Jewish ancestry, make her both a weapon and a target—until her future, too, hangs in the balance.

From the glamorous stages of Covent Garden and Salzburg to the horrors of Bergen-Belsen, two ordinary women swept up by the tide of war discover an extraordinary friendship—and the courage to save countless lives.]]> 368 Renee Ryan 1335427562 Irene 0 to-read 3.95 2022
author: Renee Ryan
name: Irene
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/07
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]]> 59808186
A wealthy family shrouded in scandal; a detective tasked with solving an impossible cold case; and a woman with a dark past collide in Hannah Morrissey's stunning new Black Harbor mystery, The Widowmaker.

Ever since business mogul Clive Reynolds disappeared twenty years ago, the name "Reynolds" has become synonymous with "murder" and "mystery." And now, lured by a cryptic note, down-on-her-luck photographer Morgan Mori returns home to Black Harbor and into the web of their family secrets and double lives. The same night she photographs the Reynolds holiday get-together, Morgan becomes witness to a homicide of a cop that triggers the discovery of a long-buried clue.

This could finally be the thing to crack open the chilling cold case, and Investigator Ryan Hudson has a chance to prove himself as lead detective. If only he could stop letting his need to solve his partner's recent murder distract him. But as Morgan exposes her own dark demons, could her sordid history be the key to unlocking more than one mystery?]]> 304 Hannah Morrissey 1250795974 Irene 0 to-read 3.63 2022
author: Hannah Morrissey
name: Irene
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/07
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]]> 61126612
Two people meet in the Art Institute by chance. Prior to their encounter, he is a doctoral student who manages his destructive thoughts with compulsive calculations about time travel; she is a bipolar counterfeit artist, undergoing court-ordered psychotherapy. By the end of the story, these things will still be true. But this is not a story about endings.

For Regan, people are predictable and tedious, including and perhaps especially herself. She copes with the dreariness of existence by living impulsively, imagining a new, alternate timeline being created in the wake of every rash decision.

To Aldo, the world feels disturbingly chaotic. He gets through his days by erecting a wall of routine: a backbeat of rules and formulas that keep him going. Without them, the entire framework of his existence would collapse.

For Regan and Aldo, life has been a matter of resigning themselves to the blueprints of inevitability—until the two meet. Could six conversations with a stranger be the variable that shakes up the entire simulation?

From Olivie Blake, the New York Times bestselling author of The Atlas Six, comes an intimate and contemporary study of time, space, and the nature of love. Alone with You in the Ether explores what it means to be unwell, and how to face the fractures of yourself and still love as if you're not broken.]]> 288 Olivie Blake 1250888166 Irene 0 to-read 3.69 2020
author: Olivie Blake
name: Irene
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/07
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]]> 17652831 312 William H. Coles 0996190309 Irene 0 to-read 3.64
author: William H. Coles
name: Irene
average rating: 3.64
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/12/21
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]]> 17684326 449 Robert Galbraith 1408703998 Irene 0 to-read 3.88 2013
author: Robert Galbraith
name: Irene
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/03/26
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]]> 2475251
One day a shell lands in a bread line and kills twenty-two people as the cellist watches from a window in his flat. He vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinoni’s Adagio once a day for each of the twenty-two victims. The Adagio had been re-created from a fragment after the only extant score was firebombed in the Dresden Music Library, but the fact that it had been rebuilt by a different composer into something new and worthwhile gives the cellist hope.

Meanwhile, Kenan steels himself for his weekly walk through the dangerous streets to collect water for his family on the other side of town, and Dragan, a man Kenan doesn’t know, tries to make his way towards the source of the free meal he knows is waiting. Both men are almost paralyzed with fear, uncertain when the next shot will land on the bridges or streets they must cross, unwilling to talk to their old friends of what life was once like before divisions were unleashed on their city. Then there is “Arrow,� the pseudonymous name of a gifted female sniper, who is asked to protect the cellist from a hidden shooter who is out to kill him as he plays his memorial to the victims.

In this beautiful and unforgettable novel, Steven Galloway has taken an extraordinary, imaginative leap to create a story that speaks powerfully to the dignity and generosity of the human spirit under extraordinary duress.]]> 235 Steven Galloway 1594489866 Irene 0 to-read 3.99 2008
author: Steven Galloway
name: Irene
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/11/07
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]]> 17910591
1) Emerge or cause to emerge from sleep 2) Ritual for the dead 3) Consequence or aftermath.
   Hettie, a dance instructress at the Hammersmith Palais, lives at home with her mother and her brother, withdrawn and lost after his return from the trenches. One night, she meets a wealthy, educated man and has reason to think he is as smitten with her as she is with him. Still, there is something distracted about him, something she cannot reach... Evelyn works at the Pensions Exchange through which thousands of wounded and shellshocked come, seeking their country's support. Embittered by her own loss, more and more estranged from her well-to-do parents, she looks for solace in her adored brother who has not been the same since he returned from the front... Ada is beset by visions of her son on every street, convinced he is still alive. Helpless, her loving husband of 25 years has withdrawn from her. Then one day a young man appears at her door with notions to peddle, like hundreds of out of work veterans. But when he utters the name of her son she is jolted to the core...
ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý The lives of these three women are braided together, their stories gathering tremendous power as the ties that bind them become clear, and the body of the unknown soldier moves closer and closer to its final resting place.]]> 304 Anna Hope 0771039662 Irene 0 to-read 3.67 2014
author: Anna Hope
name: Irene
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/11/07
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]]> 3247564
In 2001, Wayson Choy suffered a combined asthma-heart attack. As he lay in his hospital bed, slipping in and out of consciousness, his days punctuated by the beeps of the machines that were keeping him alive, Choy heard the voices of his ancestors warning him that without a wife, he would one day die alone. And yet through his ordeal Choy was never alone; men and women, young and old, from all cultures and ethnicities, stayed by Choy’s side until he was well. When his heart failed him a second time, four years later, it was the strength of his bonds with these people, forged through countless acts of kindness, that pulled Choy back to his life.

Not Yet is a passionate, sensitive, and beautiful exploration of the importance of family, which in Choy’s case is constituted not through blood but through love. It is also a quiet manifesto for embracing life, not blind to our mortality, but knowing how lucky we are for each day that comes.]]> 208 Wayson Choy 0385663102 Irene 0 to-read 3.76 2009
author: Wayson Choy
name: Irene
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/11/02
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]]> 614168 â€Äⲹł¦±ô±đ˛ą˛Ô'˛ő

Winner of the 2005 Trillium Book Award, finalist for the 2004 Giller Prize, and long-listed for the 2006 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, All That Matters is the eagerly anticipated sequel to Wayson Choy's award-winning first novel, The Jade Peony.

Kiam-Kim is three years old when he arrives by ship at Gold Mountain with his father and his grandmother, Poh-Poh. From his earliest years, Kiam-Kim is deeply conscious of his responsibility to maintain the family's honor and to set an example for his younger siblings. However, his life is increasingly complicated by his burgeoning awareness of the world outside Vancouver's Chinatown. Choy once again accomplishes the extraordinary: blending a haunting evocation of tenacious, ancient traditions with a precise, funny, and very modern coming-of-age story.]]> 432 Wayson Choy 1590512154 Irene 0 to-read 3.91 2004
author: Wayson Choy
name: Irene
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/11/02
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]]> 614169
Three weeks before his 57th birthday, Choy discovered that he had been adopted. This astonishing revelation inspires the beautifully-wrought, sensitively told Paper Shadows , the story of a Chinatown past both lost and found. From his early life amid the ghosts of old Chinatown, to his discovery, years later, of deeply held family secrets that crossed the ocean from mainland China to Gold Mountain, this engrossing, multi-layered self-portrait is "a childhood memoir of crystalline clarity" ( The Boston Globe ) that will speak directly and arrestingly to all students of Chinese immigrant history.]]> 352 Wayson Choy 0312284152 Irene 0 to-read 3.81 1999
author: Wayson Choy
name: Irene
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/11/02
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]]> 17349250 The New York Times bestselling author of Labor Day and The Good Daughters returns with a warm and haunting novel of sisterhood, adolescence, sacrifice, and suspense

It's the summer of 1979, and a dry, hot, northern California school vacation stretches ahead for Rachel and her younger sister Patty-the daughters of a larger-than-life, irresistibly handsome and chronically unfaithful detective father who loves to make women happy, and the mother whose heart he broke.

Left to their own devices, the inseparable sisters spend their days studying record jackets, concocting elaborate fantasies about the life of the mysterious neighbor who moves in down the street, and playing dangerous games on the mountain that rises up behind their house.

When young women start showing up dead on the mountain, the girls' father is charged with finding the man responsible, known as The Sunset Strangler. Seeing her father's life slowly unravel when he fails to stop the murders, Rachel embarks on her most dangerous game yet: setting herself up as bait to catch the killer, with consequences that will destroy her father's career and alter the lives of everyone she loves.

It is not until thirty years later that Rachel, who has never given up hope of vindicating her father, finally smokes out the killer, bringing her back to the territory of her childhood, and uncovering a long-buried family secret.

As with her novel Labor Day, Maynard's newest work is part thriller, part love story. Loosely inspired by the Trailside Killer case that terrorized Marin County in the late seventies, her tale delves deep into the alternately thrilling and terrifying landscape of a young girl's first explorations of adult sexuality and the loss of innocence, the bond between sisters - and into a daughter's tender but damaged relationship with her father, and what it is to finally trust a man.]]> 320 Joyce Maynard 0062257390 Irene 0 to-read 3.58 2013
author: Joyce Maynard
name: Irene
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/11/02
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]]> 259562 � The Boston Book Review

Chinatown, Vancouver, in the late 1930s and '40s provides the backdrop for this poignant first novel, told through the vivid reminiscences of the three younger children of an immigrant Chinese family. The siblings grapple with their individual identities in a changing world, wresting autonomy from the strictures of history, family, and poverty. Sister Jook-Liang dreams of becoming Shirley Temple and escaping the rigid, old ways of China. Adopted Second Brother Jung-Sum, struggling with his sexuality and the trauma of his childhood in China, finds his way through boxing. Third Brother Sekky, who never feels comfortable with the multitude of Chinese dialects swirling around him, becomes obsessed with war games, and learns a devastating lesson about what war really means when his 17-year-old babysitter dates a Japanese man.

Mingling with life in Canada and the horror of war are the magic, ghosts, and family secrets of Poh-Poh, or Grandmother, who is the heart and pillar of the family. Side by side, her three grandchildren survive hardships and heartbreaks with grit and humor. Like the jade peony of the title, Choy's storytelling is at once delicate, powerful, and lovely.

The Jade Peony was selected by the Literary Review of Canada as one of the "100 Most Important Books in Canadian History" in 2005. It was also an American Library Association Notable Book of the Year in 1998, and was winner of the 1995 Trillium Award (shared with Margaret Atwood).]]> 288 Wayson Choy 1590512162 Irene 0 to-read 3.74 1995
author: Wayson Choy
name: Irene
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/11/02
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]]> 4912857
The whole of Barcelona stretched out at my feet and I wanted to believe that when I opened those windows � my new windows � each evening its streets would whisper stories to me, secrets in my ear, that I could catch on paper and narrate to whomever cared to listen�

In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martin, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city’s underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner.

Like a slow poison, the history of the place seeps into his bones as he struggles with an impossible love. Close to despair, David receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike anything that has ever existed � a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, and perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home.

Once again, Zafon takes us into a dark, gothic universe first seen in The Shadow of the Wind and creates a breathtaking adventure of intrigue, romance, and tragedy. Through a dizzyingly constructed labyrinth of secrets, the magic of books, passion, and friendship blend into a masterful story.
(jacket)]]> 531 Carlos Ruiz ZafĂłn 0385528701 Irene 0 currently-reading 3.94 2008
author: Carlos Ruiz ZafĂłn
name: Irene
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/11/02
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]]> 15796700 477 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Irene 4 4.32 2013
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Irene
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2013/11/02
date added: 2013/11/02
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]]> 13330444
From his experiences as a naval officer in battles off Okinawa during World War II, Philip Bowman returns to America and finds a position as a book editor. It was a time when publishing was still a private affair - a scattered family of small houses here and in Europe - a time of gatherings in fabled apartments, parties into the night. It is a world in which to immerse himself, a world of intimate connections and surprising triumphs. But the deal that Philip cannot seem to close is love: one marriage goes bad; another fails to happen; and, finally, he meets a woman who enthralls, then betrays him, setting him on a course he could never have imagined for himself.

Written with Salter's signature economy of prose, All That Is fiercely, fluidly explores a life unfolding in a world on the brink of change: a dazzling, sometimes devastating labyrinth of love and ambition, of the small shocks and grand pleasures of being alive.]]> 290 James Salter 1400043131 Irene 0 currently-reading 3.36 2013
author: James Salter
name: Irene
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/10/25
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 23468 Newsweek), here is Anna Deavere Smith's brass tacks advice to aspiring artists of all stripes. In vividly anecdotal letters to the young BZ, she addresses the full spectrum of issues that people starting out will face: from questions of confidence, discipline, and self-esteem, to fame, failure, and fear, to staying healthy, presenting yourself effectively, building a diverse social and professional network, and using your art to promote social change. At once inspiring and no-nonsense, Letters to a Young Artist will challenge you, motivate you, and set you on a course to pursue your art without compromise.]]> 240 Anna Deavere Smith 1400032385 Irene 0 to-read 4.03 2006
author: Anna Deavere Smith
name: Irene
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/10/11
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]]> 5886881
Since then, she has been drifting. But when she is contacted by a group who are convinced of Ben's innocence, Libby starts to ask questions she never dared to before. Was the voice she heard her brother's? Ben was a misfit in their small town, but was he capable of murder? Are there secrets to uncover at the family farm or is Libby deluding herself because she wants her brother back?

She begins to realise that everyone in her family had something to hide that day... especially Ben. Now, twenty-four years later, the truth is going to be even harder to find.

Who did massacre the Day family?]]> 424 Gillian Flynn 0307341569 Irene 0 to-read 3.95 2009
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Irene
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/10/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> 16158563
Hay-on-Wye, 1995. Peter Byerly isn't sure what drew him into this particular bookshop. Nine months earlier, the death of his beloved wife, Amanda, had left him shattered. The young antiquarian bookseller relocated from North Carolina to the English countryside, hoping to rediscover the joy he once took in collecting and restoring rare books. But upon opening an eighteenth-century study of Shakespeare forgeries, Peter is shocked when a portrait of Amanda tumbles out of its pages. Of course, it isn't really her. The watercolor is clearly Victorian. Yet the resemblance is uncanny, and Peter becomes obsessed with learning the picture's origins.

As he follows the trail back first to the Victorian era and then to Shakespeare's time, Peter communes with Amanda's spirit, learns the truth about his own past, and discovers a book that might definitively prove Shakespeare was, indeed, the author of all his plays.]]> 352 Charlie Lovett 0670026476 Irene 0 to-read 3.73 2013
author: Charlie Lovett
name: Irene
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/10/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> 14282
The runaway of the title story is a young woman who, though she thinks she wants to, is incapable of leaving her husband. In "Passion," a country girl emerging into the larger world via a job in a resort hotel discovers in a single moment of stunning insight the limits and lies of that mysterious emotion. Three stories are about a woman named Juliet–in the first, she escapes from teaching at a girls� school into a wild and irresistible love match; in the second she returns with her child to the home of her parents, whose life and marriage she finally begins to examine; and in the last, her child, caught, she mistakenly thinks, in the grip of a religious cult, vanishes into an unexplained and profound silence. In the final story, "Powers," a young woman with the ability to read the future sets off a chain of events that involves her husband-to-be and a friend in a lifelong pursuit of what such a gift really means, and who really has it.

Throughout this compelling collection, Alice Munro’s understanding of the people about whom she writes makes them as vivid as our own neighbors. Here are the infinite betrayals and surprises of love–between men and women, between friends, between parents and children–that are the stuff of all our lives. It is Alice Munro’s special gift to make these stories as vivid and real as our own.
(front flap)

Runaway -- Chance -- Soon -- Silence -- Passion -- Trespasses -- Tricks -- Powers.]]> 352 Alice Munro 140004281X Irene 0 to-read 3.97 2004
author: Alice Munro
name: Irene
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/10/11
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]]> 17332207
Our first glimpse of Marie is as a child: a girl in glasses waiting on a Brooklyn stoop for her beloved father to come home from work. A seemingly innocuous encounter with a young woman named Pegeen sets the bittersweet tone of this remarkable novel. Pegeen describes herself as an "amadan," a fool; indeed, soon after her chat with Marie, Pegeen tumbles down her own basement stairs. The magic of McDermott's novel lies in how it reveals us all as fools for this or that, in one way or another.

Marie's first heartbreak and her eventual marriage; her brother's brief stint as a Catholic priest, subsequent loss of faith, and eventual breakdown; the Second World War; her parents' deaths; the births and lives of Marie's children; the changing world of her Irish-American enclave in Brooklyn - McDermott sketches all of it with sympathy and insight. This is a novel that speaks of life as it is daily lived; a crowning achievement by one of the finest American writers at work today.

Membership]]> 232 Alice McDermott 0374281092 Irene 0 to-read 3.77 2013
author: Alice McDermott
name: Irene
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/10/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> 6416690
Clara Marsh is an undertaker who doesn’t believe in God. She spends her solitary life among the dead, preparing their last baths and bidding them farewell with a bouquet from her own garden. Her carefully structured life shifts when she discovers a neglected little girl, Trecie, playing in the funeral parlor, desperate for a friend.

It changes even more when Detective Mike Sullivan starts questioning her again about a body she prepared three years ago, an unidentified girl found murdered in a nearby strip of woods. Unclaimed by family, the community christened her Precious Doe. When Clara and Mike learn Trecie may be involved with the same people who killed Precious Doe, Clara must choose between the stead-fast existence of loneliness and the perils of binding one’s life to another.]]> 272 Amy MacKinnon 0307409201 Irene 0 to-read 3.71 2008
author: Amy MacKinnon
name: Irene
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/10/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> 16171291
Todd Gilbert and Jodie Brett are in a bad place in their relationship. They've been together for twenty-eight years, and with no children to worry about there has been little to disrupt their affluent Chicago lifestyle. But there has also been little to hold it together, and beneath the surface lie ever-widening cracks. HE is a committed cheater. SHE lives and breathes denial. HE exists in dual worlds. SHE likes to settle scores. HE decides to play for keeps. SHE has nothing left to lose. When it becomes clear that their precarious world could disintegrate at any moment, Jodie knows she stands to lose everything. It's only now she will discover just how much she's truly capable of...]]> 326 A.S.A. Harrison 0143123238 Irene 3 3.24 2013
author: A.S.A. Harrison
name: Irene
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2013/10/09
date added: 2013/10/09
shelves:
review:
If I wanted a lesson in psychology 101, I would have gone back to school. The premise has potential, but it's mired in the didactic telling of the story. Let the reader interpret the psychological states of its characters, don't tell us about it by invoking an interpretation of Freud, Adler and Yung to demonstrate. Let the reader figure it out. The end should have been at least 50 pages earlier. No need to tie everything in a bow. Disappointing. This is really a 2.5 star, but can't do that.
]]> 19063 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

(Note: this title was not published as YA fiction)]]> 592 Markus Zusak Irene 0 currently-reading 4.38 2005
author: Markus Zusak
name: Irene
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/10/08
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 66559
Sent to investigate the disappearance of two little girls, Camille finds herself reluctantly installed in the family mansion, reacquainting herself with her distant mother and a precocious thirteen-year-old half-sister she barely knows. Haunted by a family tragedy, troubled by the disquieting grip her young sister has on the town, Camille struggles with a familiar need to be accepted.

But as clues turn into dead ends, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims and realises: she will have to unravel the puzzle of her own past if she's to survive this homecoming.]]> 254 Gillian Flynn 0307341542 Irene 4 3.89 2006
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Irene
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2013/09/28
date added: 2013/09/29
shelves:
review:
Fast-paced but disturbing story from the writer of Gone Girl. The kind of book that makes you want to look away because of its intimacy, not necessarily sexual. Great story and I highly recommend it.
]]> 15797938
Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act - an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. When the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple shows just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, The Dinner is an internationally bestselling phenomenon that will leave you breathless.]]> 292 Herman Koch 0770437850 Irene 4 3.18 2009
author: Herman Koch
name: Irene
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2013/09/20
date added: 2013/09/20
shelves:
review:
Great read! Nothing like Gone Girl, except perhaps in the pace. What would you do under the same circumstances? An interesting and controversial moral dilemma.
]]> 4667024
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women, mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends, view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.


Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here]]> 464 Kathryn Stockett 0399155341 Irene 5 Loved it! 4.46 2009
author: Kathryn Stockett
name: Irene
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2012/01/01
date added: 2013/09/18
shelves:
review:
Loved it!
]]> 6837103
Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. Lavinia finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds. When she is forced to make a choice, loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare, and lives are put at risk.]]> 369 Kathleen Grissom 1439153663 Irene 5 4.21 2010
author: Kathleen Grissom
name: Irene
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/09/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 13538873
Clay Jannon tells how serendipity, sheer curiosity, and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey has sent him from Web Drone to night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. After just a few days on the job, Clay realizes just how curious this store is.

A few customers come in repeatedly without buying anything. Instead they “check out� obscure volumes from strange corners of the store. All runs according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with the gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes.

He embarks on a complex analysis of the customers� behavior and ropes in friends to help. Once they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, it turns out the secrets extend far outside the walls of the bookstore. A quest to New York City dips in a world conspiracy for eternal life. The current of romance pulls Clay onward.]]> 288 Robin Sloan 0374214913 Irene 2 3.71 2012
author: Robin Sloan
name: Irene
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2013/09/09
date added: 2013/09/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 18325898
The video goes viral, and Marty and Bill - or at least, their accidental alter egos, Nothing Man and the Purple Zero-become instant celebrities. Is this a fleeting moment of celebrity? Or are the trio living up to a destiny foretold by a dying principal who reminded them that "Some have greatness thrust upon them"?

In Nothing Man and the Purple Zero, award-winning author Richard Scarsbrook brings us more hilarious adventures from Faireville High School.]]> 214 Richard Scarsbrook 1770863117 Irene 0 to-read 4.07 2013
author: Richard Scarsbrook
name: Irene
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/09/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17883958
It was the summer that saw the birth of talking pictures, the invention of television, the peak of Al Capone’s reign of terror, the horrifying bombing of a school in Michigan by a madman, the ill-conceived decision that led the Great Depression, the thrillingly improbable return to greatness of a wheezing, over-the-hill baseball player named Babe Ruth and an almost impossible amount more.

In this hugely entertaining book, Bill Bryson spins a story of brawling adventure, reckless optimism and delirious energy. With the trademark brio, wit and authority that have made him our favorite writer of narrative non-fiction, he rolls out an unforgettable cast of vivid and eccentric personalities to bring to life a forgotten summer when America came of age, took centre stage and changed the world forever.]]> 528 Bill Bryson 0385661657 Irene 0 to-read 3.94 2013
author: Bill Bryson
name: Irene
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/09/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 8442457 What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?]]> 399 Gillian Flynn Irene 4
Having aired out the negative, Gone Girl was well-written, the imagery pops and the characters leap out in technicolor.]]> 3.93 2012
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Irene
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2013/08/29
date added: 2013/08/29
shelves:
review:
After an exhilarating, unstoppable, page-turning pace, the ending is anti-climactic. Weak at best. Yes, the two deserve each other, but like a tire, the tale deflates. While I'm not into Hollywood bows that wrap themselves around an explained and palatable end, I'm not left wondering: what's next? I frankly don't care about the future of these two narcissistic, egomaniacal, sociopathic, nut jobs. I hope there's no sequel or trilogy in the making!

Having aired out the negative, Gone Girl was well-written, the imagery pops and the characters leap out in technicolor.
]]> 5942 here.

With his first novel since the internationally acclaimed The English Patient, Booker Prize-winning author Michael Ondaatje gives us a work displaying all the richness of imagery and language and the piercing emotional truth that we have come to know as the hallmarks of his writing.

Anil’s Ghost transports us to Sri Lanka, a country steeped in centuries of tradition, now forced into the late twentieth century by the ravages of civil war. Into this maelstrom steps Anil Tissera, a young woman born in Sri Lanka, educated in England and America, who returns to her homeland as a forensic anthropologist sent by an international human rights group to discover the source of the organized campaigns of murder engulfing the island. What follows is a story about love, about family, about identity, about the unknown enemy, about the quest to unlock the hidden past–a story propelled by a riveting mystery. Unfolding against the deeply evocative background of Sri Lanka’s landscape and ancient civilization, Anil’s Ghost is a literary spellbinder–Michael Ondaatje’s most powerful novel yet.]]> 311 Michael Ondaatje 0375724370 Irene 4
Anil’s Ghost allows the reader to delve into the lives of the characters with razor-sharp precision. The story moves us from past to present and from character to character with unfaltering precision. It is a beautiful and gripping story of the dark times of Sri-Lanka’s civil war. With each page, we excavate not only the horrors of war, but also the mind of the forensic anthropologist, Anil Tessira.

Anil’s Ghost is a journey of horror, self-doubt, fear and the ultimate coming to terms with the losses in the lives of the characters. It is a dark tale that leaves the reader wondering how war, as the extremest form of human cruelty, can be so readily accepted in today’s world.]]> 3.58 2000
author: Michael Ondaatje
name: Irene
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/08/26
shelves:
review:
There is nothing more satisfying than a tale well-told. Ondaatje's narrative voice is poetic and haunting as the search for the truth through science unfolds. I particularly enjoyed the non-linear structure (suggesting that life is a series of lobs tossed at us from many directions). The concoction of flashback and in-the moment story-telling is tightly woven, each word measured and deliberate.

Anil’s Ghost allows the reader to delve into the lives of the characters with razor-sharp precision. The story moves us from past to present and from character to character with unfaltering precision. It is a beautiful and gripping story of the dark times of Sri-Lanka’s civil war. With each page, we excavate not only the horrors of war, but also the mind of the forensic anthropologist, Anil Tessira.

Anil’s Ghost is a journey of horror, self-doubt, fear and the ultimate coming to terms with the losses in the lives of the characters. It is a dark tale that leaves the reader wondering how war, as the extremest form of human cruelty, can be so readily accepted in today’s world.
]]> 16130559
Tempe must also examine a bundle of Peruvian dog mummies confiscated by U.S. Customs. A Desert Storm veteran named Dominick Rockett stands accused of smuggling the objects into the country. Could there be some connection between the trafficking of antiquities and the trafficking of humans?

As the complications pile on, Tempe must also grapple with personal turmoil. Her daughter, Katy, grieving the death of her boyfriend in Afghanistan, impulsively enlists in the army. Meanwhile, Katy’s father, Pete, is growing frustrated by Tempe’s reluctance to finalize their divorce. As pressure mounts from all corners, Tempe soon finds herself at the center of a conspiracy that extends all the way from South America to Afghanistan and right to the center of Charlotte.]]> 324 Kathy Reichs 1439102457 Irene 0 to-read 3.84 2013
author: Kathy Reichs
name: Irene
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17262264
Growing up in Calcutta, born just fifteen months apart, Subhash and Udayan Mitra are inseparable brothers, one often mistaken for the other. But they are also opposites, with gravely different futures ahead of them. It is the 1960s, and Udayan--charismatic and impulsive--finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty: he will give everything, risk all, for what he believes. Subhash, the dutiful son, does not share his brother's political passion; he leaves home to pursue a life of scientific research in a quiet, coastal corner of America.

But when Subhash learns what happened to his brother in the lowland outside their family's home, he comes back to India, hoping to pick up the pieces of a shattered family, and to heal the wounds Udayan left behind--including those seared in the heart of his brother's wife.

Suspenseful, sweeping, piercingly intimate, The Lowland expands the range of one of our most dazzling storytellers, seamlessly interweaving the historical and the personal across generations and geographies. This masterly novel of fate and will, exile and return, is a tour de force and an instant classic.]]> 352 Jhumpa Lahiri 067697936X Irene 0 to-read 3.92 2013
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: Irene
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17675199 117 Rodrigo de Souza LeĂŁo 1908276207 Irene 3 3.57 2008
author: Rodrigo de Souza LeĂŁo
name: Irene
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2013/08/24
date added: 2013/08/24
shelves:
review:
Hard to get through, but it's an interesting, perhaps autobiographical, portrayal of a man's battle with severe mental illness. There are many ethno-cultural specific references which while informative, were disruptive and distracting. I found myself flipping back and forth between the endnotes and the story to learn about a Brazilian neighborhood or phrase.
]]> 17707582 Sister Mother Husband Dog, Delia Ephron brings her trademark wit and effervescent prose to a series of autobiographical essays about life, love, sisterhood, movies, and family. In “Losing Nora,� she deftly captures the rivalry, mutual respect, and intimacy that made up her relationship with her older sister and frequent writing companion. “Blame It on the Movies� is Ephron’s wry and romantic essay about surviving her disastrous twenties, becoming a writer, and finding a storybook ending. “Bakeries� is both a lighthearted tour through her favorite downtown patisseries and a thoughtful, deeply felt reflection on the dilemma of having it all. From keen observations on modern living, the joy of girlfriends, and best-friendship, to a consideration of the magical madness and miracle of dogs, to haunting recollections of life with her famed screenwriter mother and growing up the child of alcoholics, Ephron’s eloquent style and voice illuminate every page of this superb and singular work.]]> 240 Delia Ephron 0399166556 Irene 0 to-read 3.71 2013
author: Delia Ephron
name: Irene
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 14929224
On Ichmad’s twelfth birthday, that fear becomes reality. With his father imprisoned, his family’s home and possessions confiscated, and his siblings quickly succumbing to hatred in the face of conflict, Ichmad begins an inspiring journey using his intellect to save his poor and dying family. In doing so he reclaims a love for others that was lost through a childhood rife with violence, and discovers a new hope for the future.]]> 348 Michelle Cohen Corasanti 1859643299 Irene 0 to-read 4.14 2012
author: Michelle Cohen Corasanti
name: Irene
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 3205621 358 Andrew Barger 1589611047 Irene 0 to-read 3.68 2003
author: Andrew Barger
name: Irene
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17843465
Sprung from the variously lush, rugged, and frozen emotional landscapes of the north country, this luminous collection of stories captures the progress of a diverse ensemble of souls as they struggle to uncover themselves and negotiate a meaningful communion, of any kind, with the world around them. A brilliant but troubled Bangladeshi physics student searches for balance, acceptance, and his own extraordinary destiny after his father disappears. When a Halloween blizzard immobilizes Minneapolis, a young woman is forced to confront the snow-bound nature of her own relationships and emotions. During an excursion to an idyllic swimming hole hidden in the Black Hills, two old friends unexpectedly compete for the affections of an irresistible, though married, Lakota woman. Like a mythical expedition to reach the horizon or the quest to distill truth from the beauty around us, the revelation confirmed by these imaginative stories - elegant, sometimes jarring, always wonderfully absurd - is that the very act of reaching is itself a form of touch.

“The quiet plains of the North Country serve as a perfect backdrop for Parsons� moving debut, a collection of short stories whose characters often live deeply solitary, if not always lonely, lives.�

-- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Eloquently written and replete with a continual stream of un-hackneyed twists and turns, Parsons� collection is superbly crafted. Engaging, riveting, and at times, mind-boggling, The Sense of Touch is earmarked to become a literary classic.�

-- San Francisco Book Review (five-star review)

"Parsons has made himself a man to watch in the literary world. Each of these stories is as thrilling as the next."

-- Portland Book Review (five-star review)

"Each story is honed with purpose and infused with subtle energies. He creates delicate lines between the frigid cosmos and the warmth that can be generated among people. Parsons' writing has a strong pulse. This debut assortment heralds his promising career." -- The US Review of Books (Top-Rated Recommended Review)]]> 251 Ron Parsons 0988383772 Irene 0 to-read 4.18 2013
author: Ron Parsons
name: Irene
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 13599544 299 Danusha V. Goska 1846949866 Irene 0 to-read 4.02 2012
author: Danusha V. Goska
name: Irene
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17572866
Who Asked You? casts an intimate look at the burdens and blessings of family and speaks to trusting your own judgment even when others don’t agree. McMillan’s signature voice and unforgettable characters bring universal issues to brilliant, vivid life]]> 383 Terry McMillan 0670785695 Irene 0 to-read 3.96 2013
author: Terry McMillan
name: Irene
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 15792512 Midwife of Venice.
ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý The Imperial Harem, Constantinople, 1579
Hannah and Isaac Levi, Venetians in exile, have set up a new life for themselves in Constantinople. Isaac runs a newly established business in the growing silk trade, while Hannah, the best midwife in all of Constantinople, plies her trade within the opulent palace of Sultan Murat III, tending to the thousand women of his lively and infamous harem. But one night, when Hannah is unexpectedly summoned to the palace, she's confronted with Zofia, a poor Jewish peasant girl who has been abducted and sold into the sultan's harem. The sultan favours her as his next conquest and wants her to produce his heir, but the girl just wants to return to her home and the only life she has ever known. What will Hannah do? Will she risk her life and livelihood to protect this young girl, or will she retain her high esteem in the eye of the sultan?
     An adventurous, opulent and deliciously exciting read, peopled with fascinating, unforgettable characters (a court eunuch; the calculating sultan's mother-in-law; the beguiling harem ladies; and a very mysterious young beauty from Venice who shows up on Hannah's doorstep causing much havoc), this novel is sure to please fans of The Midwife of Venice and extend Roberta's reputation as one of Canada's most loved historical fiction authors]]> 320 Roberta Rich 0385676662 Irene 0 to-read 3.64 2012
author: Roberta Rich
name: Irene
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6076387
As the United States begins gearing up for war in the Middle East, twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin, the Midwestern daughter of a gentleman hill farmer—his “Keltjin potatoes� are justifiably famous—has come to a university town as a college student, her brain on fire with Chaucer, Sylvia Plath, Simone de Beauvoir.

Between semesters, she takes a job as a part-time nanny.

The family she works for seems both mysterious and glamorous to her, and although Tassie had once found children boring, she comes to care for, and to protect, their newly adopted little girl as her own.

As the year unfolds and she is drawn deeper into each of these lives, her own life back home becomes ever more alien to her: her parents are frailer; her brother, aimless and lost in high school, contemplates joining the military. Tassie finds herself becoming more and more the stranger she felt herself to be, and as life and love unravel dramatically, even shockingly, she is forever changed.]]> 322 Lorrie Moore 0375409289 Irene 0 currently-reading 3.18 2009
author: Lorrie Moore
name: Irene
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 16144885
In college, Pia Santore had dreamed of going to New York and taking the Big Apple by storm with her younger sister Erica. Instead, Pia has arrived in Astoria, Queens, with a prestigious journalism internship at a celebrity magazine…and without Erica. Though the neighborhood has an abundance of appeal—including the delectable confections sold at her Aunt Antoniella’s bakery—the pain of losing Erica a few years ago still feels fresh.

Pia’s arrival coincides with an unexpected sighting. Italian movie icon Francesca Donata is rumored to be staying nearby, every bit as voluptuous and divaesque as in her heyday. With the help of a handsome local artist with ties to Francesca’s family, Pia convinces the legend to grant her a series of interviews—even traveling to her house in Rome. In the eternal city, Pia begins to unearth the truth behind the star’s fabled romances and tangled past. And here too, where beauty and history mingle in every breathtaking view, and hope shimmers in the Trevi fountain and on the Spanish Steps, Pia gradually learns how to love and when to let go. For when in Rome, you may find your carrisima—your dearest one—and you may even find yourself…]]> 464 Rosanna Chiofalo 0758275048 Irene 0 to-read 3.49 2013
author: Rosanna Chiofalo
name: Irene
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17571727
Jayne Anne Phillips’s debut collection, Black Tickets, galvanized critics and readers when it was published in 1979 and announced her as one of the great new voices of her generation. Her four novels, prizewinners and reader favorites, have secured her place as one of America’s most celebrated storytellers.

In Quiet Dell, Phillips re-imagines a gruesome crime in a tiny West Virginia community not far from where she grew up.

In Chicago in 1931, Asta Eicher, mother of three, is lonely and despairing, pressed for money after the sudden death of her husband. She begins to receive seductive letters from a chivalrous, elegant man named Harry Powers, who promises to cherish and protect her, ultimately to marry her and to care for her and her children. Weeks later, the family are dead.

Emily Thornhill, one of the few women in the Chicago press, covers the case and becomes deeply invested in understanding what happened to this beautiful family, particularly to the youngest child, Annabel, an enchanting girl with a precocious imagination and sense of magic. Bold and intrepid, Emily allies herself with the Chicago banker who funds the investigation and who is wracked by guilt for not saving Asta. Driven by secrets of their own, the heroic characters in this magnificent tale will stop at nothing to ensure that Powers is convicted.

A mesmerizing retelling of a harrowing crime, Quiet Dell is a tour de force of obsession and imagination.]]> 464 Jayne Anne Phillips 1439172536 Irene 4
The narrative pitch and the vernacular accurately portray the era, although at times there were anachronisms and turns of phrase that depict a later time.

For those who seek love in today’s world through internet dating, social sites and the like, it is a cautionary tale of not all is always as it seems.

The story is mostly told in the past, but in the beginning the point of view and the flitting from past to present tense is confusing and misleading. I understand its use later with Annabel, but certainly not in the first fifty pages, which in my view are the weakest in the novel.

While I would have liked to give this novel a three and a half, I gave it a four. I am sensitive that this is a galley version and that it will likely undergo a final edit, but there were instances where there were errors (either typographical or grammatical) as well as some inconsistencies. For example on pages 30-32, the kitchen scene lacks continuity. Similarly, the dog story is contradictory. While the dog remains with the main character in the novel; in a caption on page 315 the dog went to another owner. While not a significant aspect of the story, it’s just one of those inconsistencies that bothered me.

I would recommend it.]]> 3.27 2013
author: Jayne Anne Phillips
name: Irene
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2013/08/11
date added: 2013/08/11
shelves:
review:
I just finished reading a pre-release copy of Quiet Dell and found the story compelling and, at times, hard to put down. The story is based on a true case and is perhaps one of the earliest American tales of a serial killer in the 1920s and early thirties. The story is mostly well-told and is gripping in its use of fact and fiction. The story reels you in as perhaps Harry Powers may have lured his victims. However, at times it moves slowly. I wanted the author to speed it up. Too many details lost me at times. I think perhaps it’s about 100 pages too long. The initiating action in the story took too long. I almost stopped reading, but I always give books a chance by reading to page 100, unless it’s horrible and then I stop. Plus, I got it for free, so I felt I owed it to the publishers and the author to continue. If you like historical fiction it’s a “good read� and I’m glad I persevered.

The narrative pitch and the vernacular accurately portray the era, although at times there were anachronisms and turns of phrase that depict a later time.

For those who seek love in today’s world through internet dating, social sites and the like, it is a cautionary tale of not all is always as it seems.

The story is mostly told in the past, but in the beginning the point of view and the flitting from past to present tense is confusing and misleading. I understand its use later with Annabel, but certainly not in the first fifty pages, which in my view are the weakest in the novel.

While I would have liked to give this novel a three and a half, I gave it a four. I am sensitive that this is a galley version and that it will likely undergo a final edit, but there were instances where there were errors (either typographical or grammatical) as well as some inconsistencies. For example on pages 30-32, the kitchen scene lacks continuity. Similarly, the dog story is contradictory. While the dog remains with the main character in the novel; in a caption on page 315 the dog went to another owner. While not a significant aspect of the story, it’s just one of those inconsistencies that bothered me.

I would recommend it.
]]> 16280977 416 Julie Cantrell 0781404258 Irene 0 to-read 4.17 2013
author: Julie Cantrell
name: Irene
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17212683 Listening to Yankle telling his take on events, we understand the bitter rivalry between him and his brother. We become intimately engaged with every detail of the plot, and every shade of emotion in these flawed, yet fascinating characters. He yearns to become his father’s favorite son, seeing only one way open to him, to get that which he wants: deceit
“What if my father would touch me,� asks Yankle. In planning his deception, it is not love for his father, nor respect for his age that drives his hesitation—rather, it is the fear to be found out.
And so—covering his arm with the hide of a kid, pretending to be that which he is not—he is now ready for the last moment he is going to have with his father.]]> 57 Uvi Poznansky Irene 0 to-read 3.88
author: Uvi Poznansky
name: Irene
average rating: 3.88
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 8597942 382 Mary Alice Monroe 1439170614 Irene 0 to-read 3.85 2011
author: Mary Alice Monroe
name: Irene
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 16287787
After a hideous car wreck, Lucas wakes from a coma to find that his world is gutted. Not only is his beloved twin sister, Silver, gone forever, but Lucas is broken in body and spirit. He will never be a college athlete, and is robbed of what he now realizes was the most important bond of his life. Although they weren't identical twins, Lucas and Silver shared a bond so fierce it defied reason, and was nearly supernatural.

After her death, that bond seems to endure when Lucas sees Silver everywhere he turns. Either he's crazy, or Silver is trying to tell him something about the California gang initiation they stumbled into that cost Silver her life. Lucas is bent on revenge, turning on Raymond, Silver's former boyfriend; the one Lucas never wanted her to date. He forms a posse of vigilantes to take out the gangsters responsible for Silver's death, but he risks not only his own life, but the love of the new girl on his block, who knows more about Lucas and Silver than can be accounted for by mere chance.]]> 304 Erin Richards 1440562350 Irene 0 to-read 3.53 2013
author: Erin Richards
name: Irene
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 15797397
In Salt Sugar Fat, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Michael Moss shows how this happened. Featuring examples from some of the most recognizable (and profitable) companies and brands of the last half century--including Kraft, Coca-Cola, Lunchables, Kellogg, Nestlé, Oreos, Cargill, Capri Sun, and many more--

Moss’s explosive, empowering narrative is grounded in meticulous, often eye-opening research. He goes inside the labs where food scientists use cutting-edge technology to calculate the "bliss point" of sugary beverages or enhance the "mouth feel" of fat by manipulating its chemical structure. He unearths marketing techniques taken straight from tobacco company playbooks to redirect concerns about the health risks of products. He talks to concerned executives who explain that they could never produce truly healthy alternatives to their products even if serious regulation became a reality.

Simply put: the industry itself would cease to exist without salt, sugar, and fat.]]> 480 Michael Moss 1400069807 Irene 0 to-read 3.99 2013
author: Michael Moss
name: Irene
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17318771 176 Kathy Hester 1592335632 Irene 0 to-read 3.65 2013
author: Kathy Hester
name: Irene
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17673707 32 Jason Erik Lundberg 9810755503 Irene 0 to-read 4.47 2013
author: Jason Erik Lundberg
name: Irene
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 16130652
When Briony McAllister takes a trip to visit her mother, Valerie, she uncovers a letter from her long-lost grandmother, bringing to light a nearly unforgivable act her mother has kept secret for decades. Having always believed that her grandparents didn’t want to see her, she finds that the opposite is true: her grandmother had been seeking her out all along, and it was her own mother who willfully kept them apart.

Devastated that her past has come back to haunt her, Valerie realizes that her daughter’s anger might cause their troubled family history to repeat itself in a new generation. Rich with emotion and featuring magnificent descriptions of Ireland, With All My Love deftly weaves the stories of the past and present to take us into the heart of a family at war. As the truth is revealed, so too are the complex yet enduring bonds between mothers and daughters.]]> 464 Patricia Scanlan 1476704511 Irene 0 to-read 3.81 2013
author: Patricia Scanlan
name: Irene
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 16059536 304 Brian Latell 1137278412 Irene 0 to-read 3.79 2012
author: Brian Latell
name: Irene
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/07/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 17841547
Now, eight years later, Kristina meets attorney Gideon “Duck� Ducker, “the single homeliest man she had ever laid eyes on.� But she instantly bonds with the warm, self-effacing lawyer. Kristina takes a paralegal job at Duck’s law firm, where the two are thrown into the most tumultuous and fascinating case of their lives. Everything is coming together nicely for Kristina. Only one thing prevents her from becoming the confident, fulfilled woman she longs to be: the swelling burden of guilt and shame over her past. But is it too late to redeem herself?

Alternately touching, humorous and heart wrenching, Hillari’s Head is about family, intimacy, resilience and, ultimately, acceptance. With its intriguing characters and elements of comedy and tragedy, Hillari's Head will appeal to fans of Nora Ephron (Heartburn) and John Irving (A Prayer For Owen Meany).

More details at author website: ]]> 283 Tim Stutler Irene 0 to-read 4.36 2013
author: Tim Stutler
name: Irene
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 16129330 252 Julie Trimingham 1849822387 Irene 0 to-read 3.70 2013
author: Julie Trimingham
name: Irene
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/07/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> 11623
A major literary event--the complete, uncensored journals of Sylvia Plath, published in their entirety for the first time.

Sylvia Plath's journals were originally published in 1982 in a heavily abridged version authorized by Plath's husband, Ted Hughes. This new edition is an exact and complete transcription of the diaries Plath kept during the last twelve years of her life. Sixty percent of the book is material that has never before been made public, more fully revealing the intensity of the poet's personal and literary struggles, and providing fresh insight into both her frequent desperation and the bravery with which she faced down her demons. The complete Journals of Sylvia Plath is essential reading for all who have been moved and fascinated by Plath's life and work.]]> 732 Sylvia Plath 0385720254 Irene 3 4.27 2000
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Irene
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2013/07/24
date added: 2013/07/24
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]]> 16006199 170 Carolynn Amara Irene 0 to-read 4.29 2012
author: Carolynn Amara
name: Irene
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 7067336 304 Josh Kilmer-Purcell 006133698X Irene 0 to-read 4.06 2011
author: Josh Kilmer-Purcell
name: Irene
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6493208
Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored� ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia � a land of wooden quarters for enslaved people, faith healings, and voodoo � to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality� until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family � past and present � is inextricably connected to the history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?

Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.]]> 370 Rebecca Skloot 1400052173 Irene 0 to-read 4.12 2010
author: Rebecca Skloot
name: Irene
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> 17412743
A woman, an Empress of immense wealth who was largely a prisoner within the compound walls of her palaces, a mother, a ruthless enemy, and a brilliant Chang makes a compelling case that Cixi was one of the most formidable and enlightened rulers of any nation. Cixi led an intense and singular life. Chosen at the age of 12 to be a concubine by the Emperor Xianfeng, she gave birth to his only male heir who at four was designated Emperor when his father died in 1861. In a brilliant move, the young woman enlisted the help of the Emperor's widow and the two women orchestrated a coup that ousted the regents and made Cixi sole Regent. Untrained and untaught, the two studied history and politics together, ruling the huge nation from behind a curtain. When her boy died, Cixi designated a young nephew as Emperor, continuing her reign till her death in 1908. Chang gives us a complex, riveting portrait of Cixi through a reign as long as that of her fellow Empress, Victoria, whom she longed to her ruthlessness in fighting off rivals; her curiosity to learn; her reliance on Westerners who she placed in key positions; and her sensitivity and desire to preserve the distinctiveness of China's past while overturning traditions (she, as Chang reveals--not Mao, as he claimed--banned footbinding) and exposing its culture to western ideas and technology.]]> 448 Jung Chang 0307357546 Irene 0 to-read 3.70 2013
author: Jung Chang
name: Irene
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 14062576 296 Tad Crawford 1611457025 Irene 0 to-read 3.60 2012
author: Tad Crawford
name: Irene
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17792005 464 Mary-Rose MacColl 0143188003 Irene 0 to-read 3.79 2012
author: Mary-Rose MacColl
name: Irene
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17169033 237 Keith Jacobsen 0857280066 Irene 0 to-read 3.89 2011
author: Keith Jacobsen
name: Irene
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 13366259
"The war tried to kill us in the spring," begins this breathtaking account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger.

Bound together since basic training when their tough-as-nails Sergeant ordered Bartle to watch over Murphy, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes impossible actions.

With profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on mothers and families at home, The Yellow Birds a groundbreaking novel about the costs of war that is destined to become a classic.]]> 226 Kevin Powers 0316219363 Irene 3 stopped-reading
I'm not into stories about war unless the story arc is truly riveting, so I didn't finish the book. Maybe I'm not part of the target audience (since most of the critics listed in the back jacket of the book are men), but I gave it a chance. I began to doze off. Not much could jolt me out of my reverie. I couldn't focus. It's not only that the first hundred pages are mostly tell with no show. It's also about the dense narrative that periodically (and not frequently) goes into dialogue. The action is masked by metaphors as if Kevin Powers pulled them out of his roster to fill up the pages. I would have given this story a 2.5 but I couldn't. So a three is stretching it.]]> 3.74 2012
author: Kevin Powers
name: Irene
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2013/07/22
date added: 2013/07/22
shelves: stopped-reading
review:
I should have gone with my first instinct about war stories, unless of course they are written by Hemingway. The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers is no exception. Although the synopsis speaks to a friendship, I can't see it through the protracted narrative.

I'm not into stories about war unless the story arc is truly riveting, so I didn't finish the book. Maybe I'm not part of the target audience (since most of the critics listed in the back jacket of the book are men), but I gave it a chance. I began to doze off. Not much could jolt me out of my reverie. I couldn't focus. It's not only that the first hundred pages are mostly tell with no show. It's also about the dense narrative that periodically (and not frequently) goes into dialogue. The action is masked by metaphors as if Kevin Powers pulled them out of his roster to fill up the pages. I would have given this story a 2.5 but I couldn't. So a three is stretching it.
]]> 80616 The Thin Man is a murder mystery that doubles as a sophisticated comedy of manners.]]> 201 Dashiell Hammett 0679722637 Irene 0 to-read 3.92 1934
author: Dashiell Hammett
name: Irene
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1934
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 59219
You are about to take a journey... a terrifying trip across America where young Jack Sawyer is searching for the Talisman, the only thing that can save his dying mother. His quest takes him into the menacing Territories where violence, surprise and the titanic struggle between good and evil reach across a mythic landscape... a journey into the dark heart of horror.]]> 656 Stephen King 0375507779 Irene 5 4.13 1984
author: Stephen King
name: Irene
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/07/20
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]]> 42603 John Howard Griffin decided to cross the color line. Using medication that darkened his skin to deep brown, he exchanged his privileged life as a Southern white man for the disenfranchised world of an unemployed black man. His audacious, still chillingly relevant eyewitness history is a work about race and humanity-that in this new millennium still has something important to say to every American.]]> 208 John Howard Griffin 0451208641 Irene 5 4.10 1961
author: John Howard Griffin
name: Irene
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1961
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/07/20
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]]> 10583
Rambling, old, unsmart and comfortable. A place where the family could settle; the children grow and play and explore. The rolling hills and meadows of Maine seemed a world away from the fume-choked dangers of Chicago.

Only the occasional big truck out on the two-lane highway, grinding up through the gears, hammering down the long gradients, growled out an intrusive note of threat.

But behind the house and away from the road: that was safe. Just a carefully clear path up into the woods where generations of local children have processed with the solemn innocence of the young, taking with them their dear departed pets for burial.

A sad place maybe, but safe. Surely a safe place. Not a place to seep into your dreams, to wake you, sweating with fear and foreboding...]]> 576 Stephen King 1416524347 Irene 5 3.90 1983
author: Stephen King
name: Irene
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1983
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/07/20
shelves:
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]]> 159178 812 John Jakes 0451200810 Irene 5 4.20 1982
author: John Jakes
name: Irene
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1982
rating: 5
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date added: 2013/07/20
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]]> 10592
Make a date with terror and live the nightmare that is...Carrie
--back cover]]> 272 Stephen King 1416524304 Irene 5 4.00 1974
author: Stephen King
name: Irene
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1974
rating: 5
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date added: 2013/07/20
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]]> 24337
Gail Carson Levine's examination of traditional female roles in fairy tales takes some satisfying twists and deviations from the original. Ella is bound by obedience against her will, and takes matters in her own hands with ambition and verve. Her relationship with the prince is balanced and based on humor and mutual respect; in fact, it is she who ultimately rescues him. Ella Enchanted has won many well-deserved awards, including a Newbery Honor.]]> 240 Gail Carson Levine 0590920685 Irene 0 to-read 4.01 1997
author: Gail Carson Levine
name: Irene
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/07/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 3388 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is set in the early days of the second world war, before Benito Mussolini invaded Greece. Dr Iannis practices medicine on the island of Cephalonia, accompanied by his daughter, Pelagia, to whom he imparts much of his healing art. Even when the Italians do invade, life isn’t so bad—at first anyway. The officer in command of the Italian garrison is the cultured Captain Antonio Corelli, who responds to a Nazi greeting of “Heil Hitler� with his own “Heil Puccini�, and whose most precious possession is his mandolin. It isn't long before Corelli and Pelagia are involved in a heated affair--despite her engagement to a young fisherman, Mandras, who has gone off to join Greek partisans. Love is complicated enough in wartime, even when the lovers are on the same side. And for Corelli and Pelagia, it becomes increasingly difficult to negotiate the minefield of allegiances, both personal and political, as all around them atrocities mount, former friends become enemies and the ugliness of war infects everyone it touches.

British author Louis de Bernières is well known for his forays into magical realism in such novels as The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman. Here he keeps it to a minimum, though certainly the secondary characters with whom he populates his island—the drunken priest, the strongman, the fisherman who swims with dolphins—would be at home in any of his wildly imaginative Latin American fictions. Instead, de Bernières seems interested in dissecting the nature of history as he tells his ever-darkening tale from many different perspectives. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin works on many levels, as a love story, a war story and a deconstruction of just what determines the facts that make it into the history books.]]> 437 Louis de Bernières 067976397X Irene 4 3.97 1994
author: Louis de Bernières
name: Irene
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1994
rating: 4
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date added: 2013/07/20
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]]> 19302 160 Astrid Lindgren 0142402494 Irene 4 4.15 1945
author: Astrid Lindgren
name: Irene
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1945
rating: 4
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date added: 2013/07/20
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]]> 10614 #1, #2, #3, #4

Paul Sheldon. He's a bestselling novelist who has finally met his biggest fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes and she is more than a rabid reader - she is Paul's nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. But she is also his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house.]]> 370 Stephen King 0450417395 Irene 5 4.22 1987
author: Stephen King
name: Irene
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1987
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/07/20
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review:

]]> 56034 470 John Fowles 0099478331 Irene 4 3.88 1969
author: John Fowles
name: Irene
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1969
rating: 4
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date added: 2013/07/20
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]]> 227443 a. lose 7 pounds
b. stop smoking
c. develop Inner Poise

"129 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds in the middle of the night? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier? Repulsive, horrifying notion), alcohol units 4 (excellent), cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow), number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but nevertheless useless)..."

"Bridget Jones' Diary" is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of Bridget's permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement � a year in which she resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult - and learn to program the VCR.

Over the course of the year, Bridget loses a total of 72 pounds but gains a total of 74. She remains, however, optimistic. Through it all, Bridget will have you helpless with laughter, and � like millions of readers the world round � you'll find yourself shouting, "Bridget Jones is me!"]]> 288 Helen Fielding 014028009X Irene 4 3.81 1996
author: Helen Fielding
name: Irene
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1996
rating: 4
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]]> 50833 449 Jacqueline Susann 0739418378 Irene 5 3.66 1966
author: Jacqueline Susann
name: Irene
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1966
rating: 5
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date added: 2013/07/20
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]]> 251688 Holly Golightly knows that nothing bad can ever happen to you at Tiffany's.

In this seductive, wistful masterpiece, Capote created a woman whose name has entered the American idiom and whose style is a part of the literary landscape—her poignancy, wit, and naïveté continue to charm.

It's New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's... And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveler, a tease. She is irrepressibly 'top banana in the shock department', and one of the shining flowers of American fiction.

Also included are three of Capote's best-known stories:
� House of Flowers - Ottilie is entranced by a beautiful young man, and leaves her life and friends to live with him and his old grandmother, who seems to hate her.
� A Diamond Guitar - Hear the story of the prized possession of a younger prison inmate, a rhinestone-studded guitar.
� A Christmas Memory - A poignant tale of two innocents—a small boy and the old woman who is his best friend—whose sweetness contains a hard, sharp kernel of truth.]]> 142 Truman Capote Irene 4 3.88 1958
author: Truman Capote
name: Irene
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1958
rating: 4
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date added: 2013/07/20
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]]> 37732
But none of them can believe Margaret doesn’t have religion, and that she isn’t going to the Y or the Jewish Community Center. What they don’t know is Margaret has her own very special relationship with God. She can talk to God about everything—family, friends, even Moose Freed, her secret crush.

Margaret is funny and real, and her thoughts and feelings are oh-so-relatable—you’ll feel like she’s talking right to you, sharing her secrets with a friend.]]> 149 Judy Blume 0689841582 Irene 3 3.93 1970
author: Judy Blume
name: Irene
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1970
rating: 3
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date added: 2013/07/20
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]]> 32071 "She was a brazen hussy."

"She wasn't. And she was pretty, wasn't she?"

"I didn't look ... And tell your girls, my son, that when they're running after you, they're not to come and ask your mother for you - tell them that - brazen baggages you meet at dancing classes"

The marriage of Gertrude and Walter Morel has become a battleground. Repelled by her uneducated and sometimes violent husband, delicate Gertrude devotes her life to her children, especially to her sons, William and Paul - determined they will not follow their father into working down the coal mines. But conflict is evitable when Paul seeks to escape his mother's suffocating grasp through relationships with women his own age. Set in Lawrence's native Nottinghamshire, Sons and Lovers is a highly autobiographical and compelling portrayal of childhood, adolescence and the clash of generations.]]> 654 D.H. Lawrence Irene 5 3.65 1913
author: D.H. Lawrence
name: Irene
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1913
rating: 5
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date added: 2013/07/20
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]]> 5308
A story of classic simplicity, based on a Mexican folk tale, The Pearl explores the secrets of man’s nature, greed, the darkest depths of evil, and the luminous possibilities of love.]]> 96 John Steinbeck 0142000698 Irene 3 3.52 1947
author: John Steinbeck
name: Irene
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1947
rating: 3
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]]> 39662
A “hypnotic� (The New York Times Book Review) collection of four novellas—including the inspirations behind the films Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption—from Stephen King, bound together by the changing of seasons, each taking on the theme of a journey with strikingly different tones and characters.

This gripping collection begins with “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,� in which an unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge—the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award-nominee The Shawshank Redemption.

Next is “Apt Pupil,� the inspiration for the film of the same name about top high school student Todd Bowden and his obsession with the dark and deadly past of an older man in town.

In “The Body,� four rambunctious young boys plunge through the façade of a small town and come face-to-face with life, death, and intimations of their own mortality. This novella became the movie Stand By Me.

Finally, a disgraced woman is determined to triumph over death in “The Breathing Method.�

“The wondrous readability of his work, as well as the instant sense of communication with his characters, are what make Stephen King the consummate storyteller that he is,� hailed the Houston Chronicle about Different Seasons.]]> 560 Stephen King 0751514624 Irene 0 to-read 4.42 1982
author: Stephen King
name: Irene
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1982
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/07/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 41804
I, ROBOT

They mustn't harm a human being, they must obey human orders, and they must protect their own existence...but only so long as that doesn't violate rules one and two. With these Three Laws of Robotics, humanity embarked on perhaps its greatest adventure: the invention of the first positronic man. It was a bold new era of evolution that would open up enormous possibilities—and unforeseen risks. For the scientists who invented the earliest robots weren't content that their creations should ' remain programmed helpers, companions, and semisentient worker-machines. And soon the robots themselves; aware of their own intelligence, power, and humanity, aren't either.

As humans and robots struggle to survive together—and sometimes against each other—on earth and in space, the future of both hangs in the balance. Human men and women confront robots gone mad, telepathic robots, robot politicians, and vast robotic intelligences that may already secretly control the world. And both are asking the same questions: What is human? And is humanity obsolete?

In l, Robot Isaac Asimov changes forever our perception of robots, and human beings and updates the timeless myth of man's dream to play god. with all its rewards—and terrors.
--front flap]]> 224 Isaac Asimov 0553803700 Irene 5 4.22 1950
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Irene
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1950
rating: 5
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]]> 46799
Read her diary.

Enter her world.

You will never forget her.

]]> 213 Beatrice Sparks 1416914633 Irene 4 3.75 1971
author: Beatrice Sparks
name: Irene
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1971
rating: 4
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]]> 233093 Have a ball with Dr. Seuss and the Cat in the Hat in this classic picture book...but don't forget to clean up your mess!

Then he said That is that.
And then he was gone
With a tip of his hat.

A dreary day turns into a wild romp when this beloved story introduces readers to the Cat in the Hat and his troublemaking friends, Thing 1 and Thing 2 � And don't forget Fish! A favorite among kids, parents and teachers, this story uses simple words and basic rhyme to encourage and delight beginning readers.

Originally created by Dr. Seuss himself, Beginner Books are fun, funny, and easy to read. These unjacketed hardcover early readers encourage children to read all on their own, using simple words and illustrations. Smaller than the classic large format Seuss picture books like The Lorax and Oh, The Places You'll Go!, these portable packages are perfect for practicing readers ages 3-7, and lucky parents too!]]> 61 Dr. Seuss 039480001X Irene 5 4.19 1957
author: Dr. Seuss
name: Irene
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1957
rating: 5
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]]> 92517
The Glass Menagerie (in the reading text the author preferred) is now available only in its New Directions Paperbook edition. A new introduction by the editor of The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, Robert Bray, reappraises the play more than half a century after it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. This edition of The Glass Menagerie also includes Williams's essay on the impact of sudden fame on a struggling writer, "The Catastrophe of Success," as well as a short section of Williams's own "Production Notes."
(back cover)]]> 104 Tennessee Williams 0811214044 Irene 5 3.73 1945
author: Tennessee Williams
name: Irene
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1945
rating: 5
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]]> 18545 Hamlet told from the worm's-eye view of two minor characters, bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, reality and illusion mix, and where fate leads heroes to a tragic but inevitable end.]]> 126 Tom Stoppard 0802132758 Irene 5 4.05 1967
author: Tom Stoppard
name: Irene
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1967
rating: 5
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]]> 32542 This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780385338608

Before The Firm and The Pelican Brief made him a superstar, John Grisham wrote this riveting story of retribution and justice. In this searing courtroom drama, best-selling author John Grisham probes the savage depths of racial violence, as he delivers a compelling tale of uncertain justice in a small southern town, Clanton, Mississippi.

The life of a ten-year-old girl is shattered by two drunken and remorseless young men. The mostly white town reacts with shock and horror at the inhuman crime. That is, until her black father acquires an assault rifle and takes matters into his hands.

For ten days, as burning crosses and the crack of sniper fire spread through the streets of Clanton, the nation sits spellbound as young defense attorney Jake Brigance struggles to save his client's life, and then his own.]]> 738 John Grisham Irene 5 4.11 1989
author: John Grisham
name: Irene
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/07/20
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]]> 16304 322 Agatha Christie 0425200450 Irene 5 4.16 1934
author: Agatha Christie
name: Irene
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1934
rating: 5
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date added: 2013/07/20
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]]> 15931
Set amid the austere beauty of coastal North Carolina in 1946, The Notebook begins with the story of Noah Calhoun, a rural Southerner returned home from World War II. Noah, thirty-one, is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories...until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again.

Allie Nelson, twenty-nine, is now engaged to another man, but realizes that the original passion she felt for Noah has not dimmed with the passage of time. Still, the obstacles that once ended their previous relationship remain, and the gulf between their worlds is too vast to ignore. With her impending marriage only weeks away, Allie is forced to confront her hopes and dreams for the future, a future that only she can shape.

Like a puzzle within a puzzle, the story of Noah and Allie is just the beginning. As it unfolds, their tale miraculously becomes something different, with much higher stakes. The result is a deeply moving portrait of love itself, the tender moments and the fundamental changes that affect us all. Shining with a beauty that is rarely found in current literature, The Notebook establishes Nicholas Sparks as a classic storyteller with a unique insight into the only emotion that really matters.

"I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough."

And so begins one of the most poignant and compelling love stories you will ever read...The Notebook]]> 214 Nicholas Sparks 0553816713 Irene 4 4.07 1996
author: Nicholas Sparks
name: Irene
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1996
rating: 4
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]]> 18342
The adults, knowing better, knew nothing. Time passed and the children grew up, moved away. The horror of It was deep-buried, wrapped in forgetfulness. Until the grown-up children were called back, once more to confront It as It stirred and coiled in the sullen depths of their memories, reaching up again to make their past nightmares a terrible present reality.]]> 1090 Stephen King 0451169514 Irene 5 4.11 1986
author: Stephen King
name: Irene
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1986
rating: 5
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]]> 12220 Death of a Salesman and The Crucible), and Williams� essay “The World I Live In.�

It is a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared�57 years after its Broadway premiere, Tennessee Williams� A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those plays. The story famously recounts how the faded and promiscuous Blanche DuBois is pushed over the edge by her sexy and brutal brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Streetcar launched the careers of Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden, and solidified the position of Tennessee Williams as one of the most important young playwrights of his generation, as well as that of Elia Kazan as the greatest American stage director of the �40s and �50s.]]> 107 Tennessee Williams 0822210894 Irene 4 3.98 1947
author: Tennessee Williams
name: Irene
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1947
rating: 4
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]]> 11588 497 Stephen King 0450040186 Irene 5 4.28 1977
author: Stephen King
name: Irene
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1977
rating: 5
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]]> 30
In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins is whisked away from his comfortable, unambitious life in Hobbiton by the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves. He finds himself caught up in a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon.

The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo Baggins and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the dwarf; Legolas the elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider. J.R.R. Tolkien's three volume masterpiece is at once a classic myth and a modern fairy tale—a story of high and heroic adventure set in the unforgettable landscape of Middle-earth]]> 1728 J.R.R. Tolkien 0345538374 Irene 4 4.61 1954
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Irene
average rating: 4.61
book published: 1954
rating: 4
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]]> 960
A devastating new weapon of destruction.
When world-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol -- seared into the chest of a murdered physicist -- he discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati...the most powerful underground organization ever to walk the earth. The Illuminati has now surfaced to carry out the final phase of its legendary vendetta against its most hated enemy -- the Catholic Church.

Langdon's worst fears are confirmed on the eve of the Vatican's holy conclave, when a messenger of the Illuminati announces they have hidden an unstoppable time bomb at the very heart of Vatican City. With the countdown under way, Langdon jets to Rome to join forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to assist the Vatican in a desperate bid for survival.
Embarking on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome toward the long-forgotten Illuminati lair...a clandestine location that contains the only hope for Vatican salvation.

An explosive international thriller, Angels & Demons careens from enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war.]]> 736 Dan Brown 1416524797 Irene 4 3.95 2000
author: Dan Brown
name: Irene
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2000
rating: 4
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