Lea's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 07 Apr 2025 02:20:50 -0700 60 Lea's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum]]> 44024253
Wie fĂŒhlt es sich an, tagtĂ€glich als „Bedrohungâ€� wahrgenommen zu werden? Wie viel Vertrauen besteht nach dem NSU-Skandal noch in die Sicherheitsbehörden? Was bedeutet es, sich bei jeder Krise im Namen des gesamten Heimatlandes oder der Religionszugehörigkeit der Eltern rechtfertigen zu mĂŒssen? Und wie wirkt sich Rassismus auf die SexualitĂ€t aus?

Dieses Buch ist ein Manifest gegen Heimat â€� einem völkisch verklĂ€rten Konzept, gegen dessen Normalisierung sich 13 Autor_innen wehren. Zum einjĂ€hrigen Bestehen des sogenannten „Heimatministeriumsâ€� sammeln Fatma Aydemir und Hengameh Yaghoobifarah schonungslose Perspektiven von Denker_innen, die Rassismus und Antisemitismus erfahren. In persönlichen Essays geben sie Einblick in ihren Alltag und halten Deutschland den Spiegel vor: einem Land, das sich als vorbildliche Demokratie begreift und gleichzeitig einen Teil seiner Mitglieder als »anders« markiert, kaum schĂŒtzt oder wertschĂ€tzt.
Ìę

Mit BeitrÀgen von Sasha Marianna Salzmann, Sharon Dodua Otoo, Max Czollek, Mithu Sanyal, Olga Grjasnowa uvm.

]]> 202 Fatma Aydemir 3961010366 Lea 2
Ich bin mir nicht ganz sicher, an wen sich dieses Buch richtet, denn es ist defintiv zu wenig tiefgrĂŒndig, wenn man sich schon mal irgendwie mit den Theman Diskrimierung oder verschiedenen Kulturen in Deutschland beschĂ€ftigt hat (oder auch... einfach nicht erst seit gestern irgendwie links ist?). Gleichzeitig arbeitet das Buch fast nirgends argumentativ, versucht also niemanden zu ĂŒberzeugen, der nicht eh abgeholt ist. Mich lĂ€sst das Buch ĂŒber große Strecken einfach kalt/es hat mich oft gelangweilt. 2-3 bessere Essays reißen das Ruder da nicht um. Aber die anderen sind nicht mal schlecht, einfach nur irgendwie etwas blah. Typ deutsches Kulturressort.

Das letzte Essay fiel vom Ton sehr raus, denn es hatte einen leichten positiven Ton, einen kÀmpferischen und mutmachenden. Irgendwie ja sehr passend: Gibt es was Deutscheres, als sich zu beschweren, ohne Ideen, wie es besser laufen könnte?]]> 4.51 2019 Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum
author: Fatma Aydemir
name: Lea
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: germany, non-fiction, read-in-german, race-racism, 2025
review:
Dass das Buch fĂŒnf Jahre alt ist, merkt man ihm an. In Zeiten des AFD-Hochs wirken die BeitrĂ€ge und die Art, wie Themen besprochen wurden, sehr realitĂ€tsfern. Das kann man einem damals aktuellen Buch natĂŒrlich nicht vorwerfen. Stattdessen also: die meisten BeitrĂ€ge waren ziemlich nichtssagend, schlecht strukturiert, und eher typ "wĂŒtend aus dem NĂ€hkĂ€stchen erzĂ€hlen". Das darf man natĂŒrlich, aber ich muss es nicht interessant oder inspirierend finden.

Ich bin mir nicht ganz sicher, an wen sich dieses Buch richtet, denn es ist defintiv zu wenig tiefgrĂŒndig, wenn man sich schon mal irgendwie mit den Theman Diskrimierung oder verschiedenen Kulturen in Deutschland beschĂ€ftigt hat (oder auch... einfach nicht erst seit gestern irgendwie links ist?). Gleichzeitig arbeitet das Buch fast nirgends argumentativ, versucht also niemanden zu ĂŒberzeugen, der nicht eh abgeholt ist. Mich lĂ€sst das Buch ĂŒber große Strecken einfach kalt/es hat mich oft gelangweilt. 2-3 bessere Essays reißen das Ruder da nicht um. Aber die anderen sind nicht mal schlecht, einfach nur irgendwie etwas blah. Typ deutsches Kulturressort.

Das letzte Essay fiel vom Ton sehr raus, denn es hatte einen leichten positiven Ton, einen kÀmpferischen und mutmachenden. Irgendwie ja sehr passend: Gibt es was Deutscheres, als sich zu beschweren, ohne Ideen, wie es besser laufen könnte?
]]> <![CDATA[Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist]]> 214151728 With unprecedented access and unsparing analysis, this is the definitive investigation into Spotify, weaving interviews with incisive cultural criticism, and illuminating how streaming has reshaped music for listeners and artists alike.

Flush with testimony from over a hundred industry insiders, former Spotify employees, and musicians, Mood Machine takes us into the inner workings of the highly consolidated modern music business and how it has become personalized, playlisted, autoplayed, and algorithmic.

With an expert’s eye, music journalist Liz Pelly reveals how Spotify’s two-sided marketplace—the listeners who pay with their dollars and data, and the musicians who provide the material powering it all—has changed music media forever. She also explores how musicians and listeners are coming together to fight this era of musical individualism and advocate for artistsâ€� futures.

Amazon Unbound and Weapons of Math Destruction for the music industry, Mood Machine is a timely and unputdownable exploration of a company that has become synonymous with music.]]> 288 Liz Pelly 1668083507 Lea 4 3.97 2025 Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist
author: Liz Pelly
name: Lea
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves: 2025, music, non-fiction, read-in-english
review:
A good reminder that all my negative feelings towards spotify when it started becoming big were completely justified. Some of the negative reviews of this book mention that it is quite repetitive. I didn't think so, but it is quite thorough in showing different angles to show "this isn't good for music, for bands, for actual music fans". Food for thought.
]]> In Custody 36004 204 Anita Desai 0140238131 Lea 0 sub2025, currently-reading 3.38 1984 In Custody
author: Anita Desai
name: Lea
average rating: 3.38
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/06
shelves: sub2025, currently-reading
review:

]]> The Children of Men 35718747
Under the despotic rule of Xan Lyppiat, the Warden of England, the old are despairing and the young cruel. Theo Faren, a cousin of the Warden, lives a solitary life in this ominous atmosphere. That is, until a chance encounter with a young woman leads him into contact with a group of dissenters. Suddenly his life is changed irrevocably as he faces agonising choices which could affect the future of mankind.]]> 342 P.D. James 0571342213 Lea 2 3.61 1992 The Children of Men
author: P.D. James
name: Lea
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1992
rating: 2
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: 2025, read-in-english, science-fiction, england, dystopia
review:
A little slow and dry and only mildy entertaining or thought-provoking. Despite the interesting premise and a lot of action in the second part of the novel, I found a lot of it quite a slog to get through. It's not unusual for science fiction novels to have cookie cutter characterisation, but it doesn't make it less irritating.
]]> <![CDATA[Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman]]> 203579088 A memoir of the author's journey from an office job to restoring a cabin in the Pacific Northwest, based on his wildly popular Outside Magazine piece.


Wit’s End isn’t just a state of mind. It’s the name of a gravel road, the address of a run-down off-the-grid cabin, 120 shabby square feet of fixer-upper Patrick Hutchison purchased on a whim in the mossy woods of the Cascade Mountains in Washington state.


To say Hutchison didn’t know what he was getting into is no more an exaggeration than to say he’s a man with nearly zero carpentry skills. Well, used to be. You can learn a lot over six years or renovations.


CABIN is the story of those renovations, but it's also a love story; of a place, of possibilities, and of the process of renovation, of seeing what could be instead of what is. It is a book for those who know what it’s like to bite off more than you can chew, or who desperately wish to.

]]> 304 Patrick Hutchison 1250285704 Lea 0 to-read 4.05 2024 Cabin: Off the Grid Adventures with a Clueless Craftsman
author: Patrick Hutchison
name: Lea
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Spell 30104 The Spell details the restlessness of every human heart.]]> 272 Alan Hollinghurst 0140286373 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025, myshortlist 3.55 1998 The Spell
author: Alan Hollinghurst
name: Lea
average rating: 3.55
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: to-read, sub2025, myshortlist
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Two Trees Make a Forest: Travels Among Taiwan's Mountains & Coasts in Search of My Family's Past]]> 45755339 Combining an immersive exploration of nature with captivatingly beautiful prose, Jessica J. Lee embarks on a journey to discover her family's forgotten history and to connect with the island they once called home

Taiwan is an island of extremes: towering mountains, lush forests, and barren escarpment. Between shifting tectonic plates and a history rife with tension, the geographical and political landscape is forever evolving. After unearthing a hidden memoir of her grandfather's life, Jessica J. Lee seeks to piece together the fragments of her family's history as they moved from China to Taiwan, and then on to Canada. But as she navigates the tumultuous terrain of Taiwan, Lee finds herself having to traverse fissures in language, memory, and history, as she searches for the pieces of her family left behind.

Interlacing a personal narrative with Taiwan's history and terrain, Two Trees Make a Forest is an intimate examination of the human relationship with geography and nature, and offers an exploration of one woman's search for history and belonging amidst an ever-shifting landscape.]]> 304 Jessica J. Lee 0735239576 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025, myshortlist 3.39 2020 Two Trees Make a Forest: Travels Among Taiwan's Mountains & Coasts in Search of My Family's Past
author: Jessica J. Lee
name: Lea
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: to-read, sub2025, myshortlist
review:

]]> The Machine Stops 9243302 "You talk as if a god had made the Machine," cried the other. "I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that."

E.M. Forster is best known for his exquisite novels, but these two affecting short stories brilliantly combine the fantastical with the allegorical. In 'The Machine Stops', humanity has isolated itself beneath the ground, enmeshed in automated comforts, and in 'The Celestial Omnibus' a young boy takes a trip his parents believe impossible.

This book contains The Machine Stops and A Celestial Omnibus.]]> 96 E.M. Forster 0141195983 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025, myshortlist 4.00 1909 The Machine Stops
author: E.M. Forster
name: Lea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1909
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: to-read, sub2025, myshortlist
review:

]]> Der spazierende Mann 6346017 Der Autor und Zeichner lĂ€sst seinen Protagonisten schlichtweg spazieren gehen. Ein lĂ€ndlich geprĂ€gter Vorort einer japanischen Großstadt bildet das Ă€ußere Szenario der achtzehn Episoden. Nach innen zĂ€hlen rein die stillen Beobachtungen der Natur, der Mitmenschen, des eigenen Verhaltens âˆ� eine Sammlung ganz alltĂ€glicher Szenen, die in ihrer Schlichtheit verzaubern. Nicht umsonst ist dieses Buch das wohl bekannteste Werk des mehrfach preisgekrönten Autoren Taniguchi, dem europĂ€ischsten unter den japanischen Comiczeichnern. Die deutsche Ausgabe enthĂ€lt ein exklusives Vorwort des renommierten FAZ-Comic-Kritikers Andreas Platthaus.]]> 168 Jirƍ Taniguchi 3551778795 Lea 3 4.01 1990 Der spazierende Mann
author: Jirƍ Taniguchi
name: Lea
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: graphic-novel-comic, to-read, sub2025, myshortlist
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction]]> 452152 131 David DeGrazia 0192853600 Lea 4 3.64 2002 Animal Rights: A Very Short Introduction
author: David DeGrazia
name: Lea
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves: read-in-english, philosophy, non-fiction, veganism-animal-rights
review:
Good philosophical introduction to Animal Rights. I can see how people not used to analytical philosophy might find it too dry, but if you're looking for solid arguments and contextualisation this is a good start.
]]> <![CDATA[The Strange Crime of John Boulnois]]> 10562173 58 G.K. Chesterton 0141195908 Lea 3 3.31 2011 The Strange Crime of John Boulnois
author: G.K. Chesterton
name: Lea
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/25
date added: 2025/03/25
shelves: 2025, crime-thriller, read-in-english, shortstories
review:
Two short "Father Brown" stories that are quite quaint and a little dusty, but charming and mostly entertaining.
]]> <![CDATA[Dem Tod entgegen Zwei ErzÀhlungen]]> 25189349 173 Amos Oz 3518408216 Lea 3
"Late Love" - a story about Shraga Unger, an old Russian emigrant who travels from kibbutz to kibbutz lecturing for the Cultural Bureau and feels his irrelevance in every bone - was the more powerful story. It felt like something that would stick with me. Time will tell. ]]> 3.00 1971 Dem Tod entgegen Zwei ErzÀhlungen
author: Amos Oz
name: Lea
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1971
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/24
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: read-in-german, israel, shortstories, 2025, jewish
review:
This collection of two short stories/novellas from 1971 is a quick and interesting read, but I found the second, "Crusade" a little hard to follow and had to start rereading it after a few pages. I realized I hadn't really taken much of it in. In the end I wasn't sure if struggeling through paid off.

"Late Love" - a story about Shraga Unger, an old Russian emigrant who travels from kibbutz to kibbutz lecturing for the Cultural Bureau and feels his irrelevance in every bone - was the more powerful story. It felt like something that would stick with me. Time will tell.
]]> <![CDATA[Featherhood: A Memoir of Two Fathers and a Magpie]]> 54304290 ​In this moving, critically acclaimed memoir, a young man saves a baby magpie as his estranged father is dying, only to find that caring for the mischievous bird saves him.

One spring day, a baby magpie falls out of its nest and into Charlie Gilmour’s hands. Magpies, he soon discovers, are as clever and mischievous as monkeys. They are also notorious thieves, and this one quickly steals his heart. By the time the creature develops shiny black feathers that inspire the name Benzene, Charlie and the bird have forged an unbreakable bond.

While caring for Benzene, Charlie learns his biological father, an eccentric British poet named Heathcote Williams who vanished when Charlie was six months old, is ill. As he grapples with Heathcote’s abandonment, Charlie comes across one of his poems, in which Heathcote describes how an impish young jackdaw fell from its nest and captured his affection. Over time, Benzene helps Charlie unravel his fears about repeating the past—and embrace the role of father himself.

A bird falls, a father dies, a child is born. Featherhood is the unforgettable story of a love affair between a man and a bird. It is also a beautiful and affecting memoir about childhood and parenthood, captivity and freedom, grief and love.]]> 295 Charlie Gilmour 1501198505 Lea 4 4.07 2020 Featherhood: A Memoir of Two Fathers and a Magpie
author: Charlie Gilmour
name: Lea
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/24
shelves: read-in-english, non-fiction, travel-outdoors-nature, veganism-animal-rights, 2025
review:
A really absorbing coming of age memoir about a painful relationship (and lack thereof) with Gilmour's father and in turn becoming a "father" to a young magpie and nurturing the bird to adulthood. Since I breezed through it, I felt it could have been even a little more detailed - on all things really, memoir and bird raising.
]]> Die Freimaurer 4169760 144 Helmut Reinalter 3406447333 Lea 0 sub2025, currently-reading 3.15 2000 Die Freimaurer
author: Helmut Reinalter
name: Lea
average rating: 3.15
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves: sub2025, currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Die drei ???: Erbe des Drachen]]> 71503314 208 André Marx 3440175839 Lea 3 3.91 2022 Die drei ???: Erbe des Drachen
author: André Marx
name: Lea
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves: read-in-german, drei-fragezeichen, 2025
review:
Ich mag das Drama zwischen den dreien und auch zwischen Peter und seinem Vater. Der Fall ist nett, aber nicht super spannend.
]]> <![CDATA[‎Die drei ??? und die Gesetzlosen]]> 61544070 160 Kari Erlhoff 3440174433 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.92 2022 ‎Die drei ??? und die Gesetzlosen
author: Kari Erlhoff
name: Lea
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> Study for Obedience 123636870
A young woman moves from the place of her birth to the remote northern country of her forebears to be housekeeper to her brother, whose wife has recently left him.Ìę

Soon after her arrival, a series of inexplicable events occurs - collective bovine hysteria; the demise of a ewe and her nearly born lamb; a local dog's phantom pregnancy; a potato blight. She notices that the local suspicion about incomers in general seems to be directed with some intensity at her and she senses a mounting threat that lies 'just beyond the garden gate.' And as she feels the hostility growing, pressing at the edges of her brother's property, she fears that, should the rumblings in the town gather themselves into a more defined shape, who knows what might happen, what one might be capable of doing.

With a sharp, lyrical voice, Sarah Bernstein powerfully explores questions of complicity and power, displacement and inheritance. Study for Obedience is a finely tuned, unsettling novel that confirms Bernstein as one of the most exciting voices of her generation.]]> 192 Sarah Bernstein 1039009069 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.02 2023 Study for Obedience
author: Sarah Bernstein
name: Lea
average rating: 3.02
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> The Sparsholt Affair 35427341 From the internationally acclaimed winner of the Man Booker Prize, a sweeping new novel that explores richly complex relationships between fathers and sons as it spans seven transformative decades in England, from the 1940s through the present

In the fall of 1940, with the world at war, a young man arrives at Oxford to study engineering, though his sights are already set on joining the Royal Air Force as a pilot. Handsome, charismatic, a powerful athlete and oarsman, David Sparsholt seems at first unaware of the effect he has on others--especially on the lonely and romantic Evert Dax, son of a celebrated novelist, himself also destined to become a writer. While the Blitz rages in London, Oxford exists at a strange remove from the action: a place of transience and uncertainty, the fears and rigors of the blackout both encouraging and concealing unexpected liaisons. Between these two young men of very different backgrounds an unusual friendship develops, one whose consequences will unfold over the many years that follow.

Alan Hollinghurst's masterly new novel evokes the intimate lives of three generations of Sparsholts in a sequence of vividly rendered episodes: a childhood holiday in Cornwall; eccentric social gatherings at the Dax family home; the adventures of David's son Johnny, in pursuit of love and a career as a painter in 1970s London. Changes in taste, morality, and private life are explored in a group portrait of friends brought together by art, literature, and love. Champions of the Modern live to see modernity itself becoming history, while more personal, life-changing crises and scandals--including that which gives this novel its title--recede into the past, leaving their ambiguous traces. And as gay men and women live in increasing freedom and openness, and the gay scene evolves into new forms and possibilities, The Sparsholt Affair becomes a meditation on human transience, even as it expresses the countervailing longing for permanence and continuity.

Witty, tender, epic in scope yet rich in observation, The Sparsholt Affair is a dazzling new work of fiction by a writer justly hailed by the Wall Street Journal as "one of the best novelists at work today."]]> 454 Alan Hollinghurst 1447208218 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.50 2017 The Sparsholt Affair
author: Alan Hollinghurst
name: Lea
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> The Folding Star 30105
While in England an old lover dies of AIDS, in the small Flemish town Edward meets a series of peculiar characters: Cherif, a Moroccan born in Paris who frequents the local gay bar; the eccentric Matt, who sells pornographic material and used underwear, and Paul Echevin, father of another of his students and director of the local museum, who introduces him to the devious world of Edgard Orst, a symbolist painter who died during the Nazi occupation, who lived a rapt passion for a famous actress and painted striking triptychs.

And like a triptych this novel is structured in which Hollinghurst demonstrates his talent to mix the refined and the sordid, and to delve into the ins and outs of desire and passions, masterfully combining tragedy and humor.

The Folding Star was a finalist and, according to many critics, a "moral winner" of the Booker Prize, which was ultimately not awarded for the explicitness of some scenes that apparently scandalized the jury. Double desire.]]> 432 Alan Hollinghurst 1596910038 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.71 1994 The Folding Star
author: Alan Hollinghurst
name: Lea
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> The Stranger's Child 7552716
In the late summer of 1913, George Sawle brings his Cambridge schoolmate - a handsome, aristocratic young poet named Cecil Valance - to his family's modest home outside London for the weekend. George is enthralled by Cecil, and soon his sixteen-year-old sister, Daphne, is equally besotted by him and the stories he tells about Corley Court, the country estate he is heir to. But what Cecil writes in Daphne's autograph album will change their and their families' lives forever: a poem that, after Cecil is killed in the Great War and his reputation burnished, will become a touchstone for a generation, a work recited by every schoolchild in England. Over time, a tragic love story is spun, even as other secrets lie buried - until, decades later, an ambitious biographer threatens to unearth them.

Rich with Hollinghurst's signature gifts - haunting sensuality, delicious wit and exquisite lyricism - The Stranger's Child is a tour de force: a masterly novel about the lingering power of desire, how the heart creates its own history, and how legends are made.]]> 564 Alan Hollinghurst 0330483242 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.35 2011 The Stranger's Child
author: Alan Hollinghurst
name: Lea
average rating: 3.35
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/15
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> Hunchback 214993573 ‘Without mud, the lotus could not survive.â€�

Born with a congenital muscle disorder, Shaka Isawa has severe spine curvature and uses an electric wheelchair and ventilator. Within the limits of her care home, her life is lived she studies, she tweets indignantly, she posts outrageous stories on an erotica website. One day, a new male carer reveals he has read it all � the sex, the provocation, the dirt. Her response? An indecent proposal�

Written by the first disabled author to win Japan’s most prestigious literary award and acclaimed instantly as one of the most important Japanese novels of the 21st century, Hunchback is an extraordinary, thrilling glimpse into the desire and darkness of a woman placed at humanity’s edge.]]> 112 Saou Ichikawa 1405967137 Lea 0 to-read 3.47 2023 Hunchback
author: Saou Ichikawa
name: Lea
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Crime and Punishment 7144 671 Fyodor Dostoevsky Lea 2 4.26 1866 Crime and Punishment
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Lea
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1866
rating: 2
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/11
shelves: 2025, read-in-english, russia, classics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Gebrauchsanweisung fĂŒr Tokio und Japan]]> 55293669 240 Andreas Neuenkirchen Lea 3 3.82 2009 Gebrauchsanweisung fĂŒr Tokio und Japan
author: Andreas Neuenkirchen
name: Lea
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2023/09/03
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves: 2023, non-fiction, travel-outdoors-nature, read-in-german
review:
Nett, kurzweilig und manchmal amĂŒsant, aber die Infos kamen mir teilweise etwas zu kurz.
]]> Playground 205478762 The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.

They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away.

Set in the world’s largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.]]> 381 Richard Powers 1324086033 Lea 4 2025, usa, read-in-english 4.16 2024 Playground
author: Richard Powers
name: Lea
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/07
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves: 2025, usa, read-in-english
review:
It beats you over the head with its messages, but the book is very well-written and engaging. I don't know if it says more about me or the novel that I didn't understand the ending, until I read some discussions about. And now, I'm unsure if I find the ending clever or if I find it a little gimmicky, possibly both. In some ways, "Playground" is overcomplex (purposefully so) and in other undercomplex (messaging, possibly also purposefully so), but the writing itself is great either way. I'm definitely curious to read other Powers novels now.
]]> <![CDATA[Justus Jonas: Eine Interpretation (German Edition)]]> 223453346 Christopher Tauber 3440511073 Lea 3
Allerdings: Komplett konnte mich das Buch leider nicht ĂŒberzeugen. Ich verstehe warum das Buch in den 60ern/70ern spielt, aber dadurch wirkt es schon sehr weit weg vom Justus Jonas, wie ich ihn mir vorstelle. Es wirkt dann fast schon wie eine AU Fan Fiction, selbst wenn die ??? natĂŒrlich in den 60ern entstanden sind. Ich hatte gehofft, dass es ein Prequel der "Rocky Beach" Graphic Novel sei oder so kurze Szenen aus Justus' Leben. Stattdessen ist es vor allem ein sehr wirrer und immer ĂŒberladenderer Fall in den 70ern - inklusive Drogen, Kindesmissbrauch, Mord, Mobbing, Inzest. Die Ebene in den 90ern habe ich nicht wirklich begriffen. Warum haben sich die ??? auseinander gelebt, warum haben sie schon nichts mehr miteinander zu tun, als sie alle 19 sind? Warum sind Peter und Bob am Ende wieder befreundet aber nennen sich beim Nachnamen? Wie kommt es dass Justus plötzlich mit Ruth zusammen ist? Was ist mit dem anderen MĂ€dchen passiert? Irritierenderweise werden keine Fragen beantwortet, sondern das Buch endet mit: Fortsetzung folgt.

Ich wollte dieses Buch lieben, aber leider hat es ganz schön viele SchwĂ€chen und wirkt viel zu ĂŒberladen. Dabei steckt da so viel Potential drin. Das hĂ€tte ich besser gekonnt... ]]> 3.46 Justus Jonas: Eine Interpretation (German Edition)
author: Christopher Tauber
name: Lea
average rating: 3.46
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/06
date added: 2025/03/06
shelves: 2025, drei-fragezeichen, graphic-novel-comic, read-in-german
review:
Das Gute zuerst: Sehr schön & stimmungsvoll gezeichnet. Ich mochte die AtmosphĂ€re und wie Justus als Kind dargestellt wird sehr. Die Noir Krimi Elemente & die Hollywood-Szenen mochte ich auch. Ich find auch den dĂŒsteren Ton und die drei Fragezeichen mit einer Erwachsenen-Zielgruppe immer noch sehr zu begrĂŒĂŸen.

Allerdings: Komplett konnte mich das Buch leider nicht ĂŒberzeugen. Ich verstehe warum das Buch in den 60ern/70ern spielt, aber dadurch wirkt es schon sehr weit weg vom Justus Jonas, wie ich ihn mir vorstelle. Es wirkt dann fast schon wie eine AU Fan Fiction, selbst wenn die ??? natĂŒrlich in den 60ern entstanden sind. Ich hatte gehofft, dass es ein Prequel der "Rocky Beach" Graphic Novel sei oder so kurze Szenen aus Justus' Leben. Stattdessen ist es vor allem ein sehr wirrer und immer ĂŒberladenderer Fall in den 70ern - inklusive Drogen, Kindesmissbrauch, Mord, Mobbing, Inzest. Die Ebene in den 90ern habe ich nicht wirklich begriffen. Warum haben sich die ??? auseinander gelebt, warum haben sie schon nichts mehr miteinander zu tun, als sie alle 19 sind? Warum sind Peter und Bob am Ende wieder befreundet aber nennen sich beim Nachnamen? Wie kommt es dass Justus plötzlich mit Ruth zusammen ist? Was ist mit dem anderen MĂ€dchen passiert? Irritierenderweise werden keine Fragen beantwortet, sondern das Buch endet mit: Fortsetzung folgt.

Ich wollte dieses Buch lieben, aber leider hat es ganz schön viele SchwĂ€chen und wirkt viel zu ĂŒberladen. Dabei steckt da so viel Potential drin. Das hĂ€tte ich besser gekonnt...
]]> The Promise 54633172 The Promise , winner of the 2021 Booker Prize, charts the crash and burn of a white South African family, living on a farm outside Pretoria. The Swarts are gathering for Ma's funeral. The younger generation, Anton and Amor, detest everything the family stand for -- not least the failed promise to the Black woman who has worked for them her whole life. After years of service, Salome was promised her own house, her own land... yet somehow, as each decade passes, that promise remains unfulfilled.

The narrator's eye shifts and blinks: moving fluidly between characters, flying into their dreams; deliciously lethal in its observation. And as the country moves from old deep divisions to its new so-called fairer society, the lost promise of more than just one family hovers behind the novel's title.

In this story of a diminished family, sharp and tender emotional truths hit home. Confident, deft and quietly powerful, The Promise is literary fiction at its finest.]]> 293 Damon Galgut 1784744069 Lea 4 3.81 2021 The Promise
author: Damon Galgut
name: Lea
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/10
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves: 2023, africa, read-in-english, booker-prize
review:
A well-written, entertaining family epos set in South Africa through the Apartheid years and beyond, about a white farmer family. I read it in one sitting. The writing and set-up was quite conventional and classical - centered around the deaths and burials in the family and important historical events in the history of South Africa. I don't think this is a masterpiece, I was left feeling a little hollow, but it's worth the read and gripping.
]]> Orbital 212343501 135 Samantha Harvey Lea 2 3.66 2023 Orbital
author: Samantha Harvey
name: Lea
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: 2025, england, read-in-english, science-fiction, booker-prize
review:
A dissappointing read. I love space and literary writing, and was so looking forward to this! And it does have some nice sentences here and there, but overall I found it rather boring, pretentious and irritating. A lot of adjectives, a lot of internal description. I don't need much story or plot at all - but then I want something else, great characters or profound observations or... something besides poetic sentences. I thought all the characters internal monologues sounded the same. How likely is it that each and every one of these astronauts is such a musing philosopher? I liked the bits when the characters think of people they left behind or when there's dialogue, but it was far in between.
]]> The Line of Beauty 139087
As the boom years of the eighties unfold, Nick, an innocent in the world of politics and money, finds his life altered by the rising fortunes of this glamorous family. His two vividly contrasting love affairs, one with a young black clerk and one with a Lebanese millionaire, dramatize the dangers and rewards of his own private pursuit of beauty, a pursuit as compelling to Nick as the desire for power and riches among his friends.

Richly textured, emotionally charged, disarmingly comic, this U.K. bestseller is a major work by one of our finest writers.]]> 438 Alan Hollinghurst 0739464469 Lea 4
Overall, a deserved Booker Prize winner. I'm really looking forward to reading other Hollinghurst novels. ]]> 3.76 2004 The Line of Beauty
author: Alan Hollinghurst
name: Lea
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves: read-in-english, england, 2025, lgbt, booker-prize
review:
A really well-written book set in the 1980s in England. A young gay man from the middle-class starts living with his posh friend's family, partly taking care of said friend's mentally unstable sister and befriending her as well. There's a lot of scheming politics, as the friend's father is a Conservative MP, desperate to have Thatcher at one of his parties. Our main character meanwhile, is always in persuit of beauty, in men, in sex, in literature and art. The book is immersive, with clever dialogue, sharp characters, never boring. It was a little hard to root for any of the characters, because most of them are so shallow and irritating, only interesting in sex, power and drugs. Also, there are time jumps, that work well for the story structure, but less so to get close to any of the other characters.

Overall, a deserved Booker Prize winner. I'm really looking forward to reading other Hollinghurst novels.
]]> McSweeney's #30 4532345 200 Dave Eggers 1934781223 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025, myshortlist 3.81 2009 McSweeney's #30
author: Dave Eggers
name: Lea
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read, sub2025, myshortlist
review:

]]> Surferboy 26813171
"As SURFERBOY takes us on a ride up and down the waves, we experience both the ups and downs of the surfing life, with the author making short work of that romanticized image of good vibrations and beach babes. Yet nevertheless, by book's end, we still have a wistful yearning for it all."-- literaturkritik.de

"Perhaps the saying is true--that happiness makes you stupid. Maybe surfers are so happy that they should only start writing about surfing after they've stopped. Kevin McAleer, who grew up in California, has given us an autobiographical novel well worth reading."-- Mare

"Kevin McAleer has written the first pure surf novel--the portrait of a subculture with roots in Hawaii, its boom during the 1960s, through to the 1970s and Surf Punks and New Wavers and the scene's utter commercialization."-- GEO

"SURFERBOY is one of those novels where after just two sentences you're so deep into it that you'd swear you've got sand in your undies."-- Radio Fritz

"SURFERBOY is a cleverly arranged bildungsroman and the story of a subculture's decline and fall."-- Berliner Tagesspiegel]]> Kevin McAleer 3866482221 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025, myshortlist 3.33 2007 Surferboy
author: Kevin McAleer
name: Lea
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves: to-read, sub2025, myshortlist
review:

]]> The Science of Storytelling 43183121
There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story â€� from Joseph Campbell’s well-worn theories about myth and archetype to recent attempts to crack the ‘Bestseller Codeâ€�. But few have used a scientific approach. This is curious, for if we are to truly understand storytelling in its grandest sense, we must first come to understand the ultimate storyteller â€� the human brain.

In this scalpel-sharp, thought-provoking book, Will Storr demonstrates how master storytellers manipulate and compel us, leading us on a journey from the Hebrew scriptures to Mr Men, from Booker Prize-winning literature to box set TV. Applying dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to the foundations of our myths and archetypes, he shows how we can use these tools to tell better stories � and make sense of our chaotic modern world.]]> 144 Will Storr Lea 2 4.01 2019 The Science of Storytelling
author: Will Storr
name: Lea
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2025/02/24
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves: 2025, read-in-english, non-fiction, literature-and-creative-writing
review:
Light on facts, and heavy on claims. A lot of stuff you'll have heard before about creative writing and some pop psychology. Storr cites Jordan Peterson and makes a wild claim about what Hitler's last word were supposed to be - I'd take anything else he says with a grain of salt.
]]> <![CDATA[Die drei ??? und der schreiende Zug (drei Fragezeichen): Das verschollene Manuskript - Nostalgie-Edition (German Edition)]]> 205646291 169 M.V. Carey 3440508803 Lea 3 4.15 Die drei ??? und der schreiende Zug (drei Fragezeichen): Das verschollene Manuskript - Nostalgie-Edition (German Edition)
author: M.V. Carey
name: Lea
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/31
date added: 2025/02/24
shelves: 2024, drei-fragezeichen, read-in-german
review:
Schön, dass das verschollen geglaubte Manuskript aufgetaucht und zumindest auf Deutsch veröffentlicht wurde. Ich mag M.V. Carey FĂ€lle eigentlich sehr gerne und auch hier fand ich den Fall, gerade ab der zweiten HĂ€lfte, wirklich nett. Trotzdem wirkte das Ganze manchmal etwas verstaubt - ich hatte das GefĂŒhl ein Buch zu lesen, das noch Ă€lter war, als aus den 80ern und kann den amerikanischen Verlag sogar etwas verstehen, dass sie nicht das GefĂŒhl hatten, dass das Buch noch zeitgemĂ€ĂŸ war. Auch weil die Jungs wirklich sehr jung rĂŒberkommen.
]]> <![CDATA[Parfit: A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality]]> 61388047
Derek Parfit (1942�2017) is the most famous philosopher most people have never heard of. Widely regarded as one of the greatest moral thinkers of the past hundred years, Parfit was anything but a public intellectual. Yet his ideas have shaped the way philosophers think about things that affect us equality, altruism, what we owe to future generations, and even what it means to be a person. In Parfit , David Edmonds presents the first biography of an intriguing, obsessive, and eccentric genius.

Believing that we should be less concerned with ourselves and more with the common good, Parfit dedicated himself to the pursuit of philosophical progress to an extraordinary degree. He always wore gray trousers and a white shirt so as not to lose precious time picking out clothes, he varied his diet as little as possible, and he had only one serious non-philosophical taking photos of Oxford, Venice, and St. Petersburg. In the latter half of his life, he single-mindedly devoted himself to a desperate attempt to rescue secular morality―morality without God―by arguing that it has an objective, rational basis. For Parfit, the stakes could scarcely have been higher. If he couldn’t demonstrate that there are objective facts about right and wrong, he believed, his life was futile and all our lives were meaningless.

Connecting Parfit’s work and life and offering a clear introduction to his profound and challenging ideas, Parfit is a powerful portrait of an extraordinary thinker who continues to have a remarkable influence on the world of ideas.]]> 408 David Edmonds 0691225230 Lea 0 currently-reading 4.24 2024 Parfit: A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality
author: David Edmonds
name: Lea
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Stone Yard Devotional 168632462 A deeply moving novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be 'good', from the award-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend.

A woman abandons her city life and marriage to return to the place of her childhood, holing up in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Monaro. She does not believe in God, doesn't know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive life almost by accident.

As she gradually adjusts to the rhythms of monastic life, she finds herself turning again and again to thoughts of her mother, whose early death she can't forget. Disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signaling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who left the community decades before to minister to deprived women in Thailand - then disappeared, presumed murdered. Finally, a troubling visitor to the monastery pulls the narrator further back into her past.

With each of these disturbing arrivals, the woman faces some deep questions. Can a person be truly good? What is forgiveness? Is loss of hope a moral failure? And can the business of grief ever really be finished? A meditative and deeply moving novel from one of Australia's most acclaimed and best loved writers.

"Wood joins the ranks of writers such as Nora Ephron, Penelope Lively and Elizabeth Strout." THE GUARDIAN UK]]> 320 Charlotte Wood Lea 0 to-read 3.73 2023 Stone Yard Devotional
author: Charlotte Wood
name: Lea
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)]]> 136251
In this final, seventh installment of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling unveils in spectacular fashion the answers to the many questions that have been so eagerly awaited.]]> 759 J.K. Rowling Lea 4
I decided to reread the whole series last month for a number of reasons, and I was honestly surprised by how much I still loved them and how well they've held up.]]> 4.61 2007 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Lea
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves: read-in-english, 2022, 2014, 2025
review:
The epilogue wasn't as horrendous as I'd remembered, but I still wish it wasn't there. The dying-but-then-not-really-dying is also rather cheap, but makes for entertaining reading. I strongly disliked this book when it came out and was very disappointed in it. Now, re-reading it for the 3.(?) time, I still think it drags a little in the middle, but it's overall a satisfying ending to a great book series.

I decided to reread the whole series last month for a number of reasons, and I was honestly surprised by how much I still loved them and how well they've held up.
]]> None of This Is Serious 59085460
At a party, what was already unstable completely falls apart and Sophie finds herself obsessively scrolling social media, waiting for something (anything) to happen.

None of This Is Serious is about the uncertainty and absurdity of being alive today. It's about balancing the real world with the online, and the vulnerabilities in yourself, your relationships, your body. At its heart, this is a novel about the friendships strong enough to withstand anything.]]> 304 Catherine Prasifka Lea 1
I found this book in a bookshop with a "from Ireland & just like Sally Rooney" tag on it and thought "I doubt it, but why not". The author is, indeed, from Ireland. And she is "like" Sally Rooney in the sense that they are sisters in law.

]]> 3.07 2022 None of This Is Serious
author: Catherine Prasifka
name: Lea
average rating: 3.07
book published: 2022
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/12
date added: 2025/02/12
shelves: 2025, ireland, read-in-english
review:
The literary equivalent of reading one boring long twitter feed in 2020. Very online, very boring, very tryhard. The characters are insufferable, the story thin, the writing lacklustre.

I found this book in a bookshop with a "from Ireland & just like Sally Rooney" tag on it and thought "I doubt it, but why not". The author is, indeed, from Ireland. And she is "like" Sally Rooney in the sense that they are sisters in law.


]]> <![CDATA[Migration: 22 populÀre Mythen und was wirklich hinter ihnen steckt]]> 201516753 Migratie-expert Hein de Haas vertelt het ware verhaal over migratie en de effecten ervan.

Al jaren zorgt het debat over migratie voor verdeeldheid binnen de wereldpolitiek en inmiddels lijkt de kloof groter dan ooit. De media tonen bijna wekelijks beelden van gevaarlijke overtochten op de Middellandse Zee en politici beloven de toestroom van migranten en asielzoekers in te perken. Anderen beweren dat we immigranten juist hard nodig hebben om groei en innovatie te stimuleren. Maar wat zijn de feiten achter de krantenkoppen, de beweringen van politici en de beslissingen die zij nemen?

Op basis van 30 jaar onderzoek maakt hoogleraar Sociologie Hein de Haas korte metten met 22 hardnekkige linkse én rechtse migratiemythen, voorziet hij de lezer van essentiële kennis en confronteert ons met ontnuchterende lessen over migratie. Hoe migratie echt werkt is een inspirerend, onthullend en onmisbaar boek dat onze kijk op de wereld compleet zal veranderen.

Hein de Haas is socioloog, geograaf en een internationaal toonaangevend migratieonderzoeker. Tussen 2006 en 2015 was hij onderzoeker aan en mededirecteur van het International Migration Institute (IMI) aan de Universiteit van Oxford. Momenteel is hij hoogleraar Sociologie aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam, van waaruit hij leiding blijft geven aan het IMI. Daarnaast is hij buitengewoon hoogleraar Migratie en Ontwikkeling aan de Universiteit Maastricht.]]> 512 Hein de Haas 3103975341 Lea 4
One part I found irritating was that the author will say something like "oh, yeah, this isn't a problem because it solves itself within 2-3 generations after migration first occurs". Well, that's interesting and important, for sure, but also a little dismissive because that is a long and relevant timeline for the people within these generations. The author definitely tends too zoom out a little too much at times. Still, overall I really enjoyed the book and if you consider it as an intruction to the topic, I think it does well.]]> 4.43 2023 Migration: 22 populÀre Mythen und was wirklich hinter ihnen steckt
author: Hein de Haas
name: Lea
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/10
date added: 2025/02/10
shelves: 2025, non-fiction, read-in-german, politics
review:
Easy to read, informative and fascinating. I've had a few moments reading this book where my world view was shaken a little, because the facts appear to be so far away from what is generally assumed about migration. On the negative side: since this book is written in a myth-busting style, it is a little repetitive. I feel the structure could be more elegent. I also thought while some things were repeated a lot, other things would have done well with some more background and were too quickly explained away. There were even some parts that I found contradictory, probably because the reality was a little more complex than this sort of pop science book allows, and I felt there is some cherry-picking going on.

One part I found irritating was that the author will say something like "oh, yeah, this isn't a problem because it solves itself within 2-3 generations after migration first occurs". Well, that's interesting and important, for sure, but also a little dismissive because that is a long and relevant timeline for the people within these generations. The author definitely tends too zoom out a little too much at times. Still, overall I really enjoyed the book and if you consider it as an intruction to the topic, I think it does well.
]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)]]> 1 652 J.K. Rowling Lea 4 4.57 2005 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Lea
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/03
date added: 2025/02/03
shelves: read-in-english, 2022, 2014, 2025
review:

]]> The Amateurs 6328366
Far away from the world of golf handicaps, down in the murky depths of Ardgirvan's criminal underclass, Gary's hapless brother Lee is stumbling from one botched drug deal to another, his orbit drawing terrifyingly close to local crime overlord Ranta Campbell.

Then Gary gets smashed on the head by a golf ball and knocked into a coma. He wakes to find that the neurological trauma he's suffered has resulted in some pretty radical side effects - among them an absolutely perfect golf swing. He wins his local club championship. He breaks the course record. He qualifies for the Open...

Meanwhile Pauline and Masterson have hit upon a plan to help him avoid a ruinously expensive divorce. It's the kind of plan that ends with a funeral. Their stories converge as the two brothers stumble into uncharted territory - Lee towards murder and Gary teeing it up with his golfing hero, Calvin Linklater, the world number one, in the Open Championship...

The Amateurs is a hilarious examination of family and sport, of the ties that bind and how trying to put a little white ball in a hole can literally drive some men insane.]]> 376 John Niven 0434017981 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025, myshortlist 4.09 2009 The Amateurs
author: John Niven
name: Lea
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: to-read, sub2025, myshortlist
review:

]]> Barndommens mĂ„ne (Gobi, #1) 8570788 Norwegian 214 Tor Åge BringsvĂŠrd 8205164630 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025, myshortlist 4.00 1985 Barndommens mĂ„ne (Gobi, #1)
author: Tor Åge Bringsvérd
name: Lea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: to-read, sub2025, myshortlist
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)]]> 444327
]]> 766 J.K. Rowling 0747551006 Lea 4 4.49 2003 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Lea
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves: 2018, 2022, read-in-english, 2025
review:
This used to be my favourite in the series and I'd fight people about it too, but now reading all the books in a row so quickly, I think I actually prefered the 4th in terms of pacing. What remains is that I enjoy how human Harry becomes in this novel. He's angry, he's making mistakes and keeping secrets, he's being a real traumatized teenage boy who's thrown into a situation that is way above his paygrade. While this book can be a little long at times, I also like getting to know more about other characters. Neville, Sirius, Snape... Of course the Harry Potter series is more about story than it is about characterisation, but since I'm big on introspective novels, this one comes closest.
]]> Gauner in Rocky Beach 221921497 64 Ulf Blanck Lea 2 3.81 Gauner in Rocky Beach
author: Ulf Blanck
name: Lea
average rating: 3.81
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/30
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: 2025, drei-fragezeichen, read-in-german
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans (Pelican Books)]]> 50374022
A leading computer scientist brings human sense to the AI bubble

No recent scientific enterprise has been so alluring, terrifying and filled with extravagant promise and frustrating setbacks as artificial intelligence. Writing with clarity and passion, leading AI researcher Melanie Mitchell offers a captivating account of modern-day artificial intelligence.

Flavoured with personal stories and a twist of humour, Artificial Intelligence illuminates the workings of machines that mimic human learning, perception, language, creativity and common sense. Weaving together advances in AI with cognitive science and philosophy, Mitchell probes the extent to which today's 'smart' machines can actually think or understand, and whether AI even requires such elusive human qualities at all.

Artificial A Guide for Thinking Humans provides readers with an accessible and clear-eyed view of the AI landscape, what the field has actually accomplished, how much further it has to go and what it means for all of our futures.]]> 419 Melanie Mitchell 0241404835 Lea 0 currently-reading 4.49 2019 Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans (Pelican Books)
author: Melanie Mitchell
name: Lea
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Die drei ??? und der BĂ€renkopf]]> 222102246 Bedrohlich thront der BĂ€renkopf ĂŒber dem einsamen See, an dem die drei ??? ihr Wochenende verbringen: Der rote Felsen birgt ein dunkles Geheimnis.

Vor vielen Jahren wurde dort nach Quecksilber gesucht. Der Erste Detektiv ist neugierig und will mehr ĂŒber die stillgelegte Mine erfahren. Angeblich sollen die Seelen der verstorbenen Minenarbeiter um den See herum spuken. Als Peter das hört, möchte er am liebsten direkt umkehren. Doch eine Furcht einflĂ¶ĂŸende Gestalt versperrt ihnen den Weg. In der verlassenen Gegend geht es nicht mit rechten Dingen zu - ein neuer Fall fĂŒr Justus, Peter und Bob!]]> 64 Andreas Ruch Lea 2
Dieser Kurzfall ist langweilig, vorhersehbar, holzschnitthaft geschrieben und ist sowohl als Fall als auch menschlich nicht interessant. Teilweise las es sich wie von ChatGPT geschrieben. Am Schlimmsten fand ich aber wie extrem viel Infodumping man in so ein kurzes Buch packen kann. Keiner der Jungs klang wie er selbst, sondern sehr hölzern - und ich meine nicht nur "Justus redet hochtrabend", das wÀr ja okay. Bei ein oder zwei Szenen kam dann kurz ??? Feeling auf, deshalb der zweite Stern. Aber wirklich kein gutes Buch. ]]> 3.39 Die drei ??? und der BÀrenkopf
author: Andreas Ruch
name: Lea
average rating: 3.39
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/27
shelves: 2025, drei-fragezeichen, read-in-german
review:
Vielleicht hat mir das Buch besonders schlecht gefallen, weil ich gerade noch um Marx trauer und jetzt fast keine guten ??? Autoren mehr da sind. Wirklich das Ende einer Ära. Wie viele neue FĂ€lle ich jetzt noch lesen werde, stehen echt in den Sternen.

Dieser Kurzfall ist langweilig, vorhersehbar, holzschnitthaft geschrieben und ist sowohl als Fall als auch menschlich nicht interessant. Teilweise las es sich wie von ChatGPT geschrieben. Am Schlimmsten fand ich aber wie extrem viel Infodumping man in so ein kurzes Buch packen kann. Keiner der Jungs klang wie er selbst, sondern sehr hölzern - und ich meine nicht nur "Justus redet hochtrabend", das wÀr ja okay. Bei ein oder zwei Szenen kam dann kurz ??? Feeling auf, deshalb der zweite Stern. Aber wirklich kein gutes Buch.
]]> Headshot 174156218 An electrifying debut novel from an “unusually gifted writerâ€� (Lorrie Moore) about the radical intimacy of physical competition

An unexpected tragedy at a community pool. A family’s unrelenting expectation of victory. The desire to gain or lose control; to make time speed up or stop; to be frighteningly, undeniably good at something. Each of the eight teenage girl boxers in this blistering debut novel has her own reasons for the sacrifices she has made to come to Reno, Nevada, to compete to be named the best in the country. Through a series of face-offs that are raw, ecstatic, and punctuated by flashes of humor and tenderness, prizewinning writer Rita Bullwinkel animates the competitorsâ€� pasts and futures as they summon the emotion, imagination, and force of will required to win.

Frenetic, surprising, and strikingly original, Headshot is a portrait of the desire, envy, perfectionism, madness, and sheer physical pleasure that motivates young women to fight—even, and perhaps especially, when no one else is watching.]]> 224 Rita Bullwinkel 0593654102 Lea 2 usa, read-in-english, 2025 3.49 2024 Headshot
author: Rita Bullwinkel
name: Lea
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves: usa, read-in-english, 2025
review:
An interesting premise - the lives of eight young female boxers at a two-day boxing tournament in Reno, each fight is a chapter. At first, I found the mix of boxing and introspective descriptions of the girls' thoughts and lives (including a view into their futures) captivating, but by the third chapter or so it got a little samey. All the girls seemed to have the same voice and there weren't any stakes - it felt like a collection of rather repetitive short stories, less a novel. Even though it's a short book, reading it felt like work.
]]> <![CDATA[Mitternacht in Tschernobyl: Die geheime Geschichte der grĂ¶ĂŸten Atomkatastrophe aller Zeiten]]> 49022949
Seither gehört Tschernobyl zu den kollektiven AlbtrĂ€umen der Welt: eine gefĂ€hrliche Technologie, die aus den Rudern lĂ€uft, die ökologische Zerbrechlichkeit und ein ebenso verlogener wie unachtsamer Staat, der nicht nur seine eigenen BĂŒrger, sondern die gesamte Menschheit gefĂ€hrdet.

Wie und warum es zu der Katastrophe kam, war lange unklar. Adam Higginbotham hat zahllose Interviews mit Augenzeugen gefĂŒhrt, Archive durchforstet, bislang nicht veröffentlichte Briefe und Dokumente gesichtet. So bringt er Licht in die Geschichte, die bislang im Sumpf von Propaganda, Geheimhaltung und Fehlinformationen verborgen lag. ErschĂŒtternd, packend: »Wie ein Thriller.« Luke Harding]]> 640 Adam Higginbotham 3100025385 Lea 0 to-read 4.70 2019 Mitternacht in Tschernobyl: Die geheime Geschichte der grĂ¶ĂŸten Atomkatastrophe aller Zeiten
author: Adam Higginbotham
name: Lea
average rating: 4.70
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Salambo 221599 416 Gustave Flaubert 3492230172 Lea 0 currently-reading 3.67 1862 Salambo
author: Gustave Flaubert
name: Lea
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1862
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Mens vs. natuur 25154755
Dit zijn de personages die Cooks verhalen bevolken. Dit is de wereld die zij schetst in haar bundel, waarin onder de alledaagse werkelijkheid de donkere, verslindende kracht van de natuur schuilgaat.]]> 258 Diane Cook Lea 2 enjoyed reading this book for the most part. ]]> 3.78 2014 Mens vs. natuur
author: Diane Cook
name: Lea
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/14
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: 2025, usa, read-in-dutch, shortstories, fantasy, science-fiction, dystopia
review:
A very uneven dystopian short story collection. There were some memorable images, but overall too many bizarre stories that felt bizarre for the sake of it, that stayed vague and merely uncomfortable. Cook is clearly a talented author but I can't say I enjoyed reading this book for the most part.
]]> Intermezzo 208931300 An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family—but especially love—from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney.

Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.

Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties—successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women—his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.

Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.

For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude—a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.]]> 454 Sally Rooney 0374602638 Lea 4
On the other hand: I was sucked into this book and felt for the brothers. I breezed through the book in one day. I don't mind the 'lack of plot' because I'm all for books that are primarely character and relationship-driven. Some of Rooney's themes are very repetitive and somehow I doubt she'll reach the heights of "Normal People" ever again - or surprise the readers with a completely different type of novel. But she is undoubtedly a great writer, and I'm sure she has tons of other books in her that will entertain, irritate and touch me.]]> 3.88 2024 Intermezzo
author: Sally Rooney
name: Lea
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves: 2025, ireland, read-in-english
review:
After I was a little dissapointed by "Beautiful World, Where Are You", Rooney's latest book is a somewhat-return to form. I didn't mind the stream of conciousness -style or the fact that both main characters, the brothers at the core of the novel, are hard to root for and like at times. What I did mind: some of this felt very constructed and artificial. The women they meet and how formulaic they are. The way the love triangle is "solved" so neatly. Some of the more dreadful sex scenes. Some overwritten dialogue that runs in circles. The way mathemetical logic and chess is dealt with so inauthentically. Sometimes it feels like someone trying to merge YA/Fan fiction style with literary ambitions.

On the other hand: I was sucked into this book and felt for the brothers. I breezed through the book in one day. I don't mind the 'lack of plot' because I'm all for books that are primarely character and relationship-driven. Some of Rooney's themes are very repetitive and somehow I doubt she'll reach the heights of "Normal People" ever again - or surprise the readers with a completely different type of novel. But she is undoubtedly a great writer, and I'm sure she has tons of other books in her that will entertain, irritate and touch me.
]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)]]> 6 734 J.K. Rowling 0439139597 Lea 4 4.56 2000 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Lea
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/10
date added: 2025/01/10
shelves: read-in-english, 2022, 2014, 2025
review:
This is were it starts getting really good.
]]> <![CDATA[Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass]]> 43554866 The highly anticipated spoken word poetry collection from Lana Del Rey, Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass

â€�'Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass' is the title poem of the book and the first poem I wrote of many. Some of which came to me in their entirety, which I dictated and then typed out, and some that I worked laboriously picking apart each word to make the perfect poem. They are eclectic and honest and not trying to be anything other than what they are and for that reason I’m proud of them, especially because the spirit in which they were written was very authentic.â€� (Lana Del Rey)

Lana Del Rey brings her breathtaking poetry to life in an unprecedented audiobook. In this stunning spoken word performance, Lana Del Rey reads 14 poems from her debut book Violet Bent Backwards over the Grass accompanied by music from Grammy Award-winning musician Jack Antonoff. Lana’s debut book solidifies her further as “the essential writer of her timesâ€� (The Atlantic). This audiobook features Lana reading select poems from the book, including "LA Who Am I to Love You?", "The Land of 1,000 Fires", "Past the Bushes Cypress Thriving", "Never to Heaven", "Tessa DiPietro", "Happy", and several others. The result is an extraordinary poetic landscape that reflects the unguarded spirit of its creator.]]> 1 Lana Del Rey Lea 0 sub2025 4.03 2020 Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass
author: Lana Del Rey
name: Lea
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: sub2025
review:

]]> Bird by Bird 12543 A newer edition of this title can be found here.

"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said. 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"

With this basic instruction always in mind, Anne Lamott returns to offer us a new gift: a step-by-step guide on how to write and on how to manage the writer's life. From "Getting Started,' with "Short Assignments," through "Shitty First Drafts," "Character," "Plot," "Dialogue." all the way from "False Starts" to "How Do You Know When You're Done?" Lamott encourages, instructs, and inspires. She discusses "Writers Block," "Writing Groups," and "Publication." Bracingly honest, she is also one of the funniest people alive.

If you have ever wondered what it takes to be a writer, what it means to be a writer, what the contents of your school lunches said about what your parents were really like, this book is for you. From faith, love, and grace to pain, jealousy, and fear, Lamott insists that you keep your eyes open, and then shows you how to survive. And always, from the life of the artist she turns to the art of life.

]]> 238 Anne Lamott Lea 0 to-read, to-buy, sub2025 4.24 1994 Bird by Bird
author: Anne Lamott
name: Lea
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, to-buy, sub2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[FRAUEN LITERATUR: Abgewertet, vergessen, wiederentdeckt]]> 58403473
Sollte das Geschlecht des Schreibenden eine Rolle spielen bei der LektĂŒreauswahl? NatĂŒrlich nicht, wĂŒrden wohl die meisten sagen. Und doch werden literarische Werke von Frauen seltener verlegt, besprochen und mit Preisen versehen. Das muss ein Ende haben. Nicole Seifert liefert das Buch zur Debatte - klug, fundiert und inspirierend.

Banal, kitschig, trivial - drei Adjektive, mit denen das literarische Schaffen von Frauen seit Jahrhunderten abgewertet wird. WĂ€hrend Autoren tausende von Seiten mit Alltagsbeschreibungen fĂŒllen und dafĂŒr gefeiert werden, wird Schriftstellerinnen, die Ähnliches unternehmen, Befindlichkeitsprosa vorgeworfen. Nicole Seifert ist angetreten, die frauenfeindlichen Strukturen im Literaturbetrieb aufzuzeigen. Denn von vielen von Frauen verfassten BĂŒchern hören wir erst gar nicht, weil Zeitungs-, Radio- und Fernsehredaktionen und noch davor Buchverlage eine entsprechende Vorauswahl treffen. Vom Deutschunterricht bis zum Germanistikstudium ist der Autorinnenanteil noch immer verschwindend gering, und so lernen wir von Anfang an: Was literarisch wertvoll ist, stammt von MĂ€nnern. Nachdem Nicole Seifert drei Jahre lang ausschließlich Literatur von Frauen - Klassiker wie Zeitgenössisches, Bekanntes wie Unbekannteres - gelesen hat, ist klar: Die vielbeschworene »QualitĂ€t« ist nicht das Problem. Im Gegenteil: Wir verpassen das Beste, wenn wir in unseren BĂŒcherregalen nicht endlich eine Frauenquote einfĂŒhren.]]> 224 Nicole Seifert 3462002368 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.63 2021 FRAUEN LITERATUR: Abgewertet, vergessen, wiederentdeckt
author: Nicole Seifert
name: Lea
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush]]> 61922002
Featuring details from the author's one-to-one conversations with Kate, as well as vignettes of her key songs, albums, videos and concerts, this artful, candid and often brutally funny portrait introduces the reader to the refreshingly real Kate Bush.

Along the way, the narrative also includes vivid reconstructions of transformative moments in her career and insights from the friends and collaborators closest to Kate, including her photographer brother John Carder Bush and fellow artists David Gilmour, John Lydon and Youth.]]> 343 Tom Doyle 178870780X Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.08 2022 Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush
author: Tom Doyle
name: Lea
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Phaedrus, #1)]]> 629 Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an examination of how we live, a meditation on how to live better set around the narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest, undertaken by a father & his young son.]]> 540 Robert M. Pirsig 0060589469 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.78 1974 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Phaedrus, #1)
author: Robert M. Pirsig
name: Lea
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[New Ways to Kill Your Mother: Writers and Their Families]]> 13227440 Ìę
In pieces that range from the importance of aunts (and the death of parents) in the English nineteenth-century novel to the relationship between fathers and sons in the writing of James Baldwin and Barack Obama, Colm TĂłibĂ­n illuminates not only the intimate connections between writers and their families but also, with wit and rare tenderness, articulates the great joy of reading their work. In the piece on the Notebooks of Tennessee Williams , TĂłibĂ­n reveals an artist "alone and deeply fearful and unusually selfish" and one profoundly tormented by his sister's mental illness. Through the relationship between W.B. Yeats and his father, or Thomas Mann and his children, or J.M. Synge and his mother, TĂłibĂ­n examines a world of family relations, richly comic or savage in its implications. In Roddy Doyle's writing on his parents we see an Ireland reinvented. From the dreams and nightmares of John Cheever's journals TĂłibĂ­n makes flesh this darkly comic misanthrope and his relationship to his wife and his children.The majority of these pieces were previously published in the Londron Review of Books , the New York Review Review of Books , and the Dublin Review . Three of the thirteen pieces have never appeared before.]]> 352 Colm TĂłibĂ­n 0771084374 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.48 2012 New Ways to Kill Your Mother: Writers and Their Families
author: Colm TĂłibĂ­n
name: Lea
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music]]> 57648017
Having entertained the idea for years, and even offered a few questionable opportunities ("It's a piece of cake! Just do 4 hours of interviews, find someone else to write it, put your face on the cover, and voila!") I have decided to write these stories just as I have always done, in my own hand. The joy that I have felt from chronicling these tales is not unlike listening back to a song that I've recorded and can't wait to share with the world, or reading a primitive journal entry from a stained notebook, or even hearing my voice bounce between the Kiss posters on my wall as a child.

This certainly doesn't mean that I'm quitting my day job, but it does give me a place to shed a little light on what it's like to be a kid from Springfield, Virginia, walking through life while living out the crazy dreams I had as young musician. From hitting the road with Scream at 18 years old, to my time in Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, jamming with Iggy Pop or playing at the Academy Awards or dancing with AC/DC and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, drumming for Tom Petty or meeting Sir Paul McCartney at Royal Albert Hall, bedtime stories with Joan Jett or a chance meeting with Little Richard, to flying halfway around the world for one epic night with my daughters
the list goes on. I look forward to focusing the lens through which I see these memories a little sharper for you with much excitement.]]> 384 Dave Grohl 0063076098 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.45 2021 The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music
author: Dave Grohl
name: Lea
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Schecks Kanon - Die 100 wichtigsten Werke der Weltliteratur]]> 51527727 Rare Book 480 Denis Scheck Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.97 Schecks Kanon - Die 100 wichtigsten Werke der Weltliteratur
author: Denis Scheck
name: Lea
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> Metallica: This Monster Lives 152919 Berlinger's book about the experience reveals the stories behind the documentary Some Kind of Monster, capturing the energy, uncertainty, and ultimate triumph of both the filming and Metallica's bid for survival. It weaves the on-screen stories together with what happened off-screen, revealing intimate details of the band's struggle amid personnel changes, addiction, and controversy. In part because Berlinger was one of the only witnesses to the intensive group-therapy sessions and numerous band meetings, his account of his experience filming the band is the most honest and deeply probing book about Metallica---or any rock band---ever written.
This is the book both Metallica and film fans have dreamed of---a stark and honest look at one of rock's most important bands through the eyes of one of the most provocative documentary filmmakers working today.]]> 336 Joe Berlinger 0312333129 Lea 0 currently-reading, sub2025 3.85 2004 Metallica: This Monster Lives
author: Joe Berlinger
name: Lea
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: currently-reading, sub2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How to Speak Whale: The Power and Wonder of Listening to Animals]]> 60021469
A New Yorker Best Book of 2022Ìę

“When a whale is in the water, it is like an you only see a fraction of it and have no conception of its size.â€�
Ìę
On September 12, 2015, Tom Mustill was paddling in a two-person kayak with a friend just off the coast of California. It was cold, but idyllic—until a humpback whale breached, landing on top of them, releasing the energy equivalent of forty hand grenades. He was certain he was about to die, but they both survived, miraculously unscathed. In the interviews that followed the incident, Mustill was left with one What could this astonishing encounter teach us?
Ìę
Drawing from his experience as a naturalist and wildlife filmmaker, Mustill started investigating human–whale interactions around the world when he met two tech entrepreneurs who wanted to use artificial intelligence (AI)—originally designed to translate human languages—to discover patterns in the conversations of animals and decode them. As he embarked on a journey into animal eavesdropping technologies, where big data meets big beasts, Mustill discovered that there is a revolution taking place in biology, as the technologies developed to explore our own languages are turned to nature.
Ìę
From seventeenth-century Dutch inventors, to the whaling industry of the nineteenth century, to the cutting edge of Silicon Valley, How to Speak Whale examines how scientists and start-ups around the world are decoding animal communications. Whales, with their giant mammalian brains, virtuoso voices, and long, highly social lives, offer one of the most realistic opportunities for this to happen. But what would the consequences of such human animal interaction be?

We’re about to find out.]]> 304 Tom Mustill 1538739119 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.30 2022 How to Speak Whale: The Power and Wonder of Listening to Animals
author: Tom Mustill
name: Lea
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Pursuit of Perfect: How to Stop Chasing Perfection and Start Living a Richer, Happier Life]]> 4462310 “This fine book shimmers with a rare brand of good sense that is embedded in scientific knowledge about how to increase happiness. It is easy to see how this is the backbone of the most popular course at Harvard today.â€�
-Martin E. P. Seligman, author of Authentic Happiness]]> 246 Tal Ben-Shahar 0071608826 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.02 2009 The Pursuit of Perfect: How to Stop Chasing Perfection and Start Living a Richer, Happier Life
author: Tal Ben-Shahar
name: Lea
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Und an den RĂ€ndern nagt das Meer: Sieben Monate auf der Vogelinsel Trischen]]> 57637574 224 Anne de Walmont 3957284317 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.95 Und an den RĂ€ndern nagt das Meer: Sieben Monate auf der Vogelinsel Trischen
author: Anne de Walmont
name: Lea
average rating: 3.95
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> Led Zeppelin: The Biography 57341456 From the author of the definitive New York Times bestselling history of the Beatles comes the authoritative account of the group many call the greatest rock band of all time, arguably the most successful, and certainly one of the most notorious

Rock star. Whatever that term means to you, chances are it owes a debt to Led Zeppelin. No one before or since has lived the dream quite like Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham. In Led Zeppelin, Bob Spitz takes their full measure, separating the myth from the reality with his trademark connoisseurship and storytelling flair.

From the opening notes of their first album, the band announced itself as something different, a collision of grand artistic ambition and brute primal force, of English folk music and African American blues. That record sold over 10 million copies, and it was just the beginning; Led Zeppelin's albums have sold over 300 million certified copies worldwide, and the dust has never settled.

The band is notoriously guarded, and previous books provided more heat than light. But Spitz's authority is undeniable and irresistible. His feel for the atmosphere, the context--the music, the business, the recording studios, the touring life, the whole ecosystem of popular music--is unparalleled. His account of the melding of Page and Jones, the virtuosic London sophisticates, with Plant and Bonham, the wild men from the Midlands, in a scene dominated by the Beatles and the Stones but changing fast, is in itself a revelation. Spitz takes the music seriously and brings the band's artistic journey to full and vivid life.

The music, however, is only part of the legend: Led Zeppelin is also the story of how the sixties became the seventies, of how playing clubs became playing stadiums, of how innocence became decadence. Led Zeppelin wasn't the first rock band to let loose on the road, but as with everything else, they took it to an entirely new level. Not all the legends are true, but in Spitz's careful accounting, what is true is astonishing and sometimes disturbing.

Led Zeppelin gave no quarter, and neither has Bob Spitz. Led Zeppelin is the full and honest reckoning the band has long awaited, and richly deserves.]]> 688 Bob Spitz 0399562427 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.03 2021 Led Zeppelin: The Biography
author: Bob Spitz
name: Lea
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Der Unterschied: Was wir von Primaten ĂŒber Gender lernen können (German Edition)]]> 61985630 Different the scientific, evolutionary basis for gender differences in humans, drawing on his decades of experience working with our closest ape relatives: chimpanzees and bonobos. De Waal illuminates their behavioral and biological differences, and compares and contrasts them with human behavior: male domination and territoriality in chimpanzees and the female-led pacific society of bonobos.


In his classic conversational style and a narrative rich in anecdotes and wry observations, de Waal tackles topics including gender identity, sexuality, gender-based violence, same-sex rivalry, homosexuality, friendship, and nurturance. He reveals how evolutionary biology can inform a more nuanced—and equitable—cultural understanding of gender. Ultimately, he argues, our two nearest primate relatives are equally close to us, and equally relevant. Considering all available evidence, we can learn much about ourselves and embrace our similarities as well as our differences.]]> 481 Frans de Waal Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.22 2022 Der Unterschied: Was wir von Primaten ĂŒber Gender lernen können (German Edition)
author: Frans de Waal
name: Lea
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Your Favorite Band is Killing Me]]> 26245024
Beatles vs. Stones. Biggie vs. Tupac. Kanye vs. Taylor. Who do you choose? And what does that say about you? Actually -- what do these endlessly argued-about pop music rivalries say about us?

Music opinions bring out passionate debate in people, and Steven Hyden knows that firsthand. Each chapter in Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me focuses on a pop music rivalry, from the classic to the very recent, and draws connections to the larger forces surrounding the pairing.

Through Jimi Hendrix vs. Eric Clapton, Hyden explores burning out and fading away, while his take on Miley vs. Sinead gives readers a glimpse into the perennial battle between old and young. Funny and accessible, Hyden's writing combines cultural criticism, personal anecdotes, and music history -- and just may prompt you to give your least favorite band another chance.]]> 304 Steven Hyden 0316259152 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.79 2016 Your Favorite Band is Killing Me
author: Steven Hyden
name: Lea
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Secret History of the IRA: Gerry Adams and the Thirty Year War]]> 114076 600 Ed Moloney 014101041X Lea 0 sub2025, to-read 3.98 2002 A Secret History of the IRA: Gerry Adams and the Thirty Year War
author: Ed Moloney
name: Lea
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: sub2025, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You]]> 2330343 200 Marcus Chown 057123545X Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.00 2005 Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You
author: Marcus Chown
name: Lea
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves: to-read, sub2025
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Die Kunst des klaren Denkens - 52 Denkfehler, die Sie besser anderen ĂŒberlassen]]> 13021074 - warum wir unser eigenes Wissen systematisch ĂŒberschĂ€tzen (und andere fĂŒr dĂŒmmer halten, als sie sind),
- warum etwas nicht deshalb richtiger wird, weil Millionen von Menschen es fĂŒr richtig halten,
- warum wir Theorien nachhÀngen, selbst wenn sie nachweislich falsch sind.
Rolf Dobellis Texte sind nicht nur inhaltlich ausgesprochen bereichernd, sie sind ein echtes LesevergnĂŒgen.]]> 245 Rolf Dobelli 3446426825 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.82 2011 Die Kunst des klaren Denkens - 52 Denkfehler, die Sie besser anderen ĂŒberlassen
author: Rolf Dobelli
name: Lea
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2011
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]]> <![CDATA[Remain in Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina]]> 51178011
Warm and candid, funny and heartfelt, Remain in Love charts the rise of a band that began as a dream and culminated with their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and reveals the once-in-a-lifetime love story and creative partnership between Chris and Tina, one of the greatest rhythm sections of all time.]]> 384 Chris Frantz 1250209226 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.47 2020 Remain in Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina
author: Chris Frantz
name: Lea
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Birth School Metallica Death, Volume 1: The Biography]]> 17290774 Billboard charts. But Metallica’s story, epic in scope, is a tale about much more than sales figures and critical acclaim, and their journey from scuzzy Los Angeles garages to the world’s most storied stadiums has been dramatic and painful, their gigantic successes often shot through with tension, tragedy, loss, and controversy.

Birth School Metallica Death is the definitive story of the most significant rock band since Led Zeppelin. Volume 1 covers the band’s formation up to their breakthrough eponymous fifth album, aka “The Black Album.â€� The intense and sometimes fraught relationship between aloof-yet-simmering singer, chief lyricist, and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield and the outspoken and ambitious drummer Lars Ulrich is the saga’s emotional core. Their earliest years saw the release of three unimpeachable classicsâ€�Kill ’Em All, Ride the Lightning, and Master of Puppets—genre-defining masterpieces that took hard rock to a new level, both artistically and commercially. During these tumultuous times, the band persevered through line-up changes when guitarist Dave Mustaine was replaced by Kirk Hammet, and their bass player, the beloved Cliff Burton, was tragically killed in a bus crash while on tour in Europe.

But it was the breakthrough of 
And Justice for All that rent the fabric of the mainstream, hitting the top of the charts without benefit of radio airplay or the then-crucial presence on MTV. And finally in 1991, with the release of their fifth studio album, nicknamed “The Black Album,â€� Metallica hit the next level—five hit singles including their best-known songs “Enter Sandmanâ€� and “Nothing Else Matters”—and their first album atop the Billboard charts.

In Birth School Metallica Death, veteran music journalists and Metallica confidants Paul Brannigan and Ian Winwood detail this meteoric rise to international fame in an epic saga of family, community, self-belief, the pursuit of dreams, and music that rocks. Told through first-hand interviews with the band and those closest to them, the story of Metallica’s rise to the mainstream has never been so vividly documented.
]]> 392 Paul Brannigan 0306821869 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.96 2013 Birth School Metallica Death, Volume 1: The Biography
author: Paul Brannigan
name: Lea
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Piper at the Gates of Dawn]]> 302581
EXCERPT
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is a wondrous creation often seen through the distorted view of later events. These things have served to overshadow the achievement of The Pink Floyd on their debut album: an outstanding group performance; a milestone in record production; and something made in much happier circumstances than I had expected to find...This is not another book about "mad Syd". This, instead, is a celebration of a moment when everything seemed possible, when creative worlds and forces converged, when an album spoke with an entirely new voice. "Such music I never dreamed of," as Rat said to Mole.]]> 132 John Eric Cavanagh 0826414974 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.49 2003 The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
author: John Eric Cavanagh
name: Lea
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Anger is an Energy: My Life Uncensored]]> 22911580
With his next band, Public Image Ltd (PiL) Lydon expressed an equally urgent impulse in his make-up - the constant need to reinvent himself, to keep moving. From their beginnings in 1978 he set the groundbreaking template for a band that continues to challenge and thrive in the 2010s. He also found time for making innovative new dance records with the likes of Afrika Baambaata and Leftfield.

Following the release of a solo record in 1997, John took a sabbatical from his music career into other media, most memorably his own Rotten TV show for VH1 and as the most outrageous contestant ever on I'm a Celebrity�. Get Me Out of Here! He then fronted the Megabugs series and one-off nature documentaries and even turned his hand to a series of much loved TV advertisements for Country Life butter.

Lydon has remained a compelling and dynamic figure - both as a musician, and, thanks to his outspoken, controversial, yet always heartfelt and honest statements, as a cultural commentator.

The book a fresh and mature look back on a life full of incident from his beginnings as a sickly child of immigrant Irish parents who grew up in post-war London, to his present status as a vibrant, alternative national hero.]]> 519 John Lydon 1471137198 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.72 2014 Anger is an Energy: My Life Uncensored
author: John Lydon
name: Lea
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2014
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]]> <![CDATA[Pink Floyd - Alle Songs: Die Geschichten hinter den Tracks]]> 57673798
Bombastische BĂŒhnenshows, epische Hits, sozialkritische Songtexte â€� Pink Floyd ist zu Recht eine der erfolgreichsten und einflussreichsten Rockbands aller Zeiten. Ihr unverwechselbarer, experimenteller Stil war geprĂ€gt von Psychedelic und Progressive Rock, Blues und Jazz, aber auch klassischer Musik, und machte Alben wie »Dark Side of the Moon« und »The Wall« zu Welterfolgen, die bis heute gefeiert werden. M der ganz individuellen vuellen Gestaltung ihrer Platten und nicht zuletzt den gigantisch-aufwendigen Liveshows »Pink Floyd â€� Alle Songs« blickt auf jede Studioaufnahme zurĂŒck und liefert Fakten, Storys und Insiderwissen rund um die britische Kultband. Album fĂŒr Album, Song fĂŒr Song zeichnen die Autoren die Erfolgsgeschichte der Rocklegenden nach und kommen so der Faszination Pink Floyd auf die Spur.

â€� Aus der beliebten Reihe »Alle Songs«: die Pink-Floyd-Diskografie erstmals im handlichen Paperback
â€� Alle Alben und Songs von Pink Floyd chronologisch sortiert in einem Band: inklusive dem 2014 veröffentlichten Album »The Endless River«
� Mit Hintergrundinfos zu jedem Song und spannenden Geschichten aus dem Leben der Pink-Floyd-Mitglieder


Die vollstÀndige Diskografie einer der erfolgreichsten Bands aller Zeiten

Echte Pink-Floyd-Fans kommen an diesem Werk nicht vorbei: Die Musikjournalisten und -historiker Jean-Michel Guesdon und Philippe Margotin analysieren jeden Song auf den 14 Pink-Floyd-Alben von »The Piper at the Gates of Dawn« 1967 bis zum 2014 veröffentlichten »The Endless River«. Hintergrundinfos ĂŒber die Entstehung der Lieder und Texte werden ergĂ€nzt um Details zu Besetzung, Aufnahmeort und verwendeten Instrumenten sowie interessanten Anekdoten aus dem Studio. Liebevoll gestaltet mit zahlreichen Fotos der Band ist dieses Kompendium ein monumentales Werk fĂŒr Kenner und Neugierige.

Tauchen Sie ein in diesen besonderen Kosmos und reisen Sie mit den besten Pink-Floyd-Songs im Ohr durch die Geschichte der Rockmusik!]]> 592 Jean-Michel Guesdon 3667120192 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 5.00 2017 Pink Floyd - Alle Songs: Die Geschichten hinter den Tracks
author: Jean-Michel Guesdon
name: Lea
average rating: 5.00
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]]> <![CDATA[Rip it Up and Start Again. Post-punk 1978-1984]]> 272642 RIP IT UP AND START AGAIN is a celebration of what happened next.

Post-punk bands like PiL, Joy Division, Talking Heads, The Fall and The Human League dedicated themselves to fulfilling punk's unfinished musical revolution. The post-punk groups were fervent modernists; whether experimenting with electronics and machine rhythm or adapting ideas from dub reggae and disco, they were totally confident they could invent a whole new future for music.]]> 752 Simon Reynolds 0571215696 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.06 2005 Rip it Up and Start Again. Post-punk 1978-1984
author: Simon Reynolds
name: Lea
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2005
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]]> <![CDATA[Classical Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum (Theoretical Minimum, #1)]]> 21103421 A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2013

A world-class physicist and a citizen scientist combine forces to teach Physics 101—the DIY way

The Theoretical Minimum is a book for anyone who has ever regretted not taking physics in college—or who simply wants to know how to think like a physicist. In this unconventional introduction, physicist Leonard Susskind and hacker-scientist George Hrabovsky offer a first course in physics and associated math for the ardent amateur. Unlike most popular physics books—which give readers a taste of what physicists know but shy away from equations or math—Susskind and Hrabovsky actually teach the skills you need to do physics, beginning with classical mechanics, yourself. Based on Susskind's enormously popular Stanford University-based (and YouTube-featured) continuing-education course, the authors cover the minimum—the theoretical minimum of the title—that readers need to master to study more advanced topics.

An alternative to the conventional go-to-college method, The Theoretical Minimum provides a tool kit for amateur scientists to learn physics at their own pace.
]]> 238 Leonard Susskind 0141976225 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.16 2013 Classical Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum (Theoretical Minimum, #1)
author: Leonard Susskind
name: Lea
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2013
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]]> Quantenphysik fĂŒr Dummies 17076724 316 Steven Holzner 3527708715 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 5.00 2009 Quantenphysik fĂŒr Dummies
author: Steven Holzner
name: Lea
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2009
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]]> <![CDATA[Basin and Range (Annals of the Former World, 1)]]> 19894 Basin and Range is a book of journeys through ancient terrains, always in juxtaposition with travels in the modern world—a history of vanished landscapes, enhanced by the histories of people who bring them to light. The title refers to the physiographic province of the United States that reaches from eastern Utah to eastern California, a silent world of austere beauty, of hundreds of discrete high mountain ranges that are green with junipers and often white with snow. The terrain becomes the setting for a lyrical evocation of the science of geology, with important digressions into the plate-tectonics revolution and the history of the geologic time scale.
]]> 240 John McPhee 0374516901 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.19 1981 Basin and Range (Annals of the Former World, 1)
author: John McPhee
name: Lea
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1981
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Gotta Get Theroux This: My Life and Strange Times in Television]]> 52211699
In Gotta Get Theroux This, Louis takes the reader on a joyous journey through his life and unexpectedly successful career. Nervously accepting the BBC's offer of his own series, he went on to create an award-winning documentary style that has seen him immersed in worlds as diverse as racist US militias and secretive pro-wrestlers, the violent gangs of Johannesburg and extreme drinkers in London.

Arguably his biggest challenge was corralling celebrities in his When Louis Met series, with Jimmy Savile proving most elusive. Blindsided when the revelations about Savile came to light, Louis was to reflect again on the nature of evil he had spent decades uncovering.

Filled with wry observation, larger-than-life characters, and self-deprecating humour, this is Louis at his insightful and honest best.]]> 416 Louis Theroux 1509880364 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.82 2019 Gotta Get Theroux This: My Life and Strange Times in Television
author: Louis Theroux
name: Lea
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend]]> 13543168
The names of Arthur, Merlin, Lancelot, Guinevere, Galahad, the sword of Excalibur, and the court of Camelot are as recognizable as any from the world of myth. Although many versions exist of the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, 'Le Morte d'Arthur' by Sir Thomas Malory endures as the most moving and richly inventive.

In this abridged retelling the inimitable Peter Ackroyd transforms Malory's fifteenth-century work into a dramatic modern story, vividly bringing to life a world of courage and chivalry, magic, and majesty. The golden age of Camelot, the perilous search for the Holy Grail, the love of Guinevere and Lancelot, and the treachery of Arthur's son Mordred are all rendered into contemporary prose with Ackroyd's characteristic charm and panache. Just as he did with his fresh new version of Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales', Ackroyd now brings one of the cornerstones of English literature to a whole new audience.]]> 336 Peter Ackroyd 0143106953 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.33 The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend
author: Peter Ackroyd
name: Lea
average rating: 3.33
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]]> The Paper Palace 55994372
Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn't forever changed the course of their lives.

As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity. Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593329825.]]> 400 Miranda Cowley Heller Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.73 2021 The Paper Palace
author: Miranda Cowley Heller
name: Lea
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2021
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]]> Heart of Darkness 4900
A reflection on corruptive European colonialism and a journey into the nightmare psyche of one of the corrupted, Heart of Darkness is considered one of the most influential works ever written.]]> 188 Joseph Conrad 1892295490 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.43 1899 Heart of Darkness
author: Joseph Conrad
name: Lea
average rating: 3.43
book published: 1899
rating: 0
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]]> Closer 563730 131 Dennis Cooper 080213212X Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.65 1989 Closer
author: Dennis Cooper
name: Lea
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1989
rating: 0
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]]> ruh 198804633 Cemal watet immer tiefer in dunklen GewĂ€ssern, die ihn zunehmend auch im Wachzustand umgeben. In Georg hat er, nach seiner Exfrau GĂŒl, zum ersten Mal einen Partner gefunden, der ihn in seinem Innersten erreicht. Doch Cemal bleibt verschlossen und somit ewiger Zuschauer seiner eigenen Geschichte â€� dabei muss er endlich lernen, auf sein Innerstes zu hören, um diese Geschichte selbst zu bestimmen.

Ein sprachlich beeindruckender Roman, der sanfte ErschĂŒtterung hinterlĂ€sst und eine wichtige ErzĂ€hlung aus der RealitĂ€t unserer Gesellschaft. Ein Roman wie eine Familienfotografie.]]> 273 ƞehnaz Dost 3753001015 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.41 ruh
author: ƞehnaz Dost
name: Lea
average rating: 3.41
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]]> A Taste of Honey 460858 96 Shelagh Delaney 0802131859 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.63 1956 A Taste of Honey
author: Shelagh Delaney
name: Lea
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1956
rating: 0
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]]> Kleiner Mann, was nun? 1490737 311 Hans Fallada 3499100010 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.93 1932 Kleiner Mann, was nun?
author: Hans Fallada
name: Lea
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1932
rating: 0
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]]> Tracks (Love Medicine. #3) 78887 /book/show/2...

Set earliest in time within the cycle of her prizewinning and bestselling books, Love Medicine and The Beet Queen, Tracks takes readers to North Dakota at a time when Indian tribes were struggling to keep what little remained of their land. Features many familiar characters.]]> 226 Louise Erdrich 0060972459 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.95 1988 Tracks (Love Medicine. #3)
author: Louise Erdrich
name: Lea
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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]]> The Night Watchman 43721059
Thomas Wazhashk is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant, the first factory located near the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural North Dakota. He is also a Chippewa Council member who is trying to understand the consequences of a new “emancipationâ€� bill on its way to the floor of the United States Congress. It is 1953 and he and the other council members know the bill isn’t about freedom; Congress is fed up with Indians. The bill is a “terminationâ€� that threatens the rights of Native Americans to their land and their very identity. How can the government abandon treaties made in good faith with Native Americans “for as long as the grasses shall grow, and the rivers runâ€�?

Since graduating high school, Pixie Paranteau has insisted that everyone call her Patrice. Unlike most of the girls on the reservation, Patrice, the class valedictorian, has no desire to wear herself down with a husband and kids. She makes jewel bearings at the plant, a job that barely pays her enough to support her mother and brother. Patrice’s shameful alcoholic father returns home sporadically to terrorize his wife and children and bully her for money. But Patrice needs every penny to follow her beloved older sister, Vera, who moved to the big city of Minneapolis. Vera may have disappeared; she hasn’t been in touch in months, and is rumored to have had a baby. Determined to find Vera and her child, Patrice makes a fateful trip to Minnesota that introduces her to unexpected forms of exploitation and violence, and endangers her life.

Thomas and Patrice live in this impoverished reservation community along with young Chippewa boxer Wood Mountain and his mother Juggie Blue, her niece and Patrice’s best friend Valentine, and Stack Barnes, the white high school math teacher and boxing coach who is hopelessly in love with Patrice.

In the Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich creates a fictional world populated with memorable characters who are forced to grapple with the worst and best impulses of human nature. Illuminating the loves and lives, the desires and ambitions of these characters with compassion, wit, and intelligence, The Night Watchman is a majestic work of fiction from this revered cultural treasure.]]> 464 Louise Erdrich 0062671200 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.05 2020 The Night Watchman
author: Louise Erdrich
name: Lea
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2020
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]]> The Hollow Land 22514286 160 Jane Gardam 1609452461 Lea 0 sub2025, to-read 4.04 1981 The Hollow Land
author: Jane Gardam
name: Lea
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1981
rating: 0
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]]> Orbital 123136728 207 Samantha Harvey 0802161545 Lea 0 sub2025 3.56 2023 Orbital
author: Samantha Harvey
name: Lea
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> The Well of Loneliness 129223
Stephen is an ideal child of aristocratic parents—a fencer, a horse rider and a keen scholar. Stephen grows to be a war hero, a bestselling writer and a loyal, protective lover. But Stephen is a woman, and her lovers are women. As her ambitions drive her, and society confines her, Stephen is forced into desperate actions.

The Well of Loneliness was banned for obscenity when published in 1928. It became an international bestseller, and for decades was the single most famous lesbian novel. It has influenced how love between women is understood, for the twentieth century and beyond.]]> 448 Radclyffe Hall Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.74 1928 The Well of Loneliness
author: Radclyffe Hall
name: Lea
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1928
rating: 0
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]]> The Swimming-Pool Library 30106 352 Alan Hollinghurst 0679722564 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.77 1988 The Swimming-Pool Library
author: Alan Hollinghurst
name: Lea
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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]]> The Outsiders 231804 The Outsiders is about two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy. The novel tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider. According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social") has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers--until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser.

Librarian note: This record is for one of the three editions published with different covers and with ISBN 0-140-38572-X / 978-0-14-038572-4. The records are for the 1988 cover (this record), the 1995 cover, and the 2008 cover which is also the current in-print cover.]]> 208 S.E. Hinton 0670532576 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.13 1967 The Outsiders
author: S.E. Hinton
name: Lea
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1967
rating: 0
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]]> Close Quarters 1046506
In the stripped-down, unsullied patois of an ordinary soldier, draftee Philip Dosier tells the story of his war. Straight from high school, too young to vote or buy himself a drink, he enters a world of mud and heat, blood and body counts, ambushes and firefights. It is here that he embarks on the brutal downward path to wisdom that awaits every soldier. In the tradition of Naked and the Dead and The Thin Red Line , Close Quarters is the harrowing story of how a decent kid from Chicago endures an extraordinary trial-- and returns profoundly altered to a world on the threshold of change.]]> 368 Larry Heinemann 1400076846 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.84 1974 Close Quarters
author: Larry Heinemann
name: Lea
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1974
rating: 0
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]]> Moabit (Gereon Rath, #0.5) 36367864
Wen fasziniert sie nicht? Charly Ritter, die große Liebe von Kriminalkommissar Gereon Rath, die ihren eigenen Kopf hat, so charmant wie neugierig ist und ein Geheimnis in sich zu tragen scheint.

In Moabit lernen wir Charly kennen, als sie noch Lotte heißt und bei ihren Eltern wohnt, in einer Beamtenwohnung am ZellengefĂ€ngnis Moabit. Gerade hat sie das Abitur im Kleistlyzeum geschafft, und dies, obwohl sie aus einfachen VerhĂ€ltnissen stammt. Ihre frisch errungene Freiheit genießt Lotte vor allem nachts, bei heimlichen Eskapaden mit ihrer Freundin Greta durch die Tanzlokale Berlins. TagsĂŒber lernt sie Schreibmaschine und Stenografie, denn eins ist klar: Ihr Studium wird sie sich selbst finanzieren mĂŒssen.

Charlottes Vater ist GefĂ€ngniswĂ€rter â€� ein einfacher, ehrlicher Mann. Doch seine AnsprĂŒche an seinen Augenstern Lotte in puncto Bildung, Ehre und Anstand sind hoch. Und Lotte ist ein Vaterkind. Kein Wunder, dass es nicht spurlos an ihr vorĂŒbergeht, als ihr Vater eines Tages in ein brutales Attentat im Moabiter GefĂ€ngnis verwickelt wird. Ein Vorfall, der Charlottes weiteres Leben prĂ€gt und der aus Lotte letzten Endes Charly macht.

Kat Menschik entwirft dazu so kongenial das verruchte Berlin der 20er-Jahre in seiner dĂŒster-rauen Schönheit, dass man selbst noch den Geruch und die GerĂ€usche von damals wahrzunehmen meint.]]> 88 Volker Kutscher 3869711558 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.92 2017 Moabit (Gereon Rath, #0.5)
author: Volker Kutscher
name: Lea
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> Telex aus Kuba 33838881 Verwickelt in ihn sind, mit oft dubiosen Interessen, auch ein französischer Agent mit SS-Vergangenheit, eine kubanische TÀnzerin mit erotischem Hang zur Macht, zahlreiche karrierebewusste SaubermÀnner und ihre dekadenten Gattinnen, DschungelkÀmpfer und schmutzige GeschÀftemacher.

Rachel Kushner hat einen tropisch glitzernden historischen Moment des 20. Jahrhunderts mit großer Raffinesse so verdichtet, dass er die Ereignisse wie durch ein Brennglas zeigt. Man liest mit allen Sinnen, sieht, schmeckt, fĂŒhlt mit den Figuren und ĂŒberlĂ€sst sich Kushners herausragender erzĂ€hlerischer Kraft.]]> 464 Rachel Kushner 3498034464 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.58 2008 Telex aus Kuba
author: Rachel Kushner
name: Lea
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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]]> Flammenwerfer 23899916 560 Rachel Kushner 3498034197 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.59 2013 Flammenwerfer
author: Rachel Kushner
name: Lea
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]> The Poisonwood Bible 7244 The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.]]> 546 Barbara Kingsolver 0060786507 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.10 1998 The Poisonwood Bible
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Lea
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1998
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]]> Das Summen unter der Haut 188078599 Hamburg, 1977. Julle ist vierzehn Jahre alt. Kurz vor den Sommerferien bekommt er einen neuen MitschĂŒler, Axel. Sofort ist Julle verliebt. Dass er schwul ist, weiß keiner. Bis auf seine Schwester und seine Mutter vielleicht, MĂŒtter sollen so etwas ahnen. Julle zĂ€hlt die Stunden, die er Axel kennt, und freundet sich mit ihm an. Zusammen gehen sie ins Freibad, fĂŒttern Axels Kaninchen und entdecken eine versteckte, halb abgebrannte HĂŒtte im Wald. Als sie deren Geheimnis beinahe gelĂŒftet haben, ist Axel plötzlich verschwunden â€� und Julle ahnt, dass nach diesem Sommer nichts mehr so sein wird wie davor.
Mit viel Fantasie, EinfĂŒhlungsvermögen und Witz erzĂ€hlt Stephan Lohse von zwei Jungen und den Dingen im Leben, die alles bedeuten. Das Summen unter der Haut ist ein Roman ĂŒber Liebe und Freundschaft, ĂŒber das Aufwachsen in den siebziger Jahren â€� einer Vergangenheit, wie sie vielleicht nie war, aber hĂ€tte sein sollen. Und ĂŒber einen aufregenden Sommer, der alles verĂ€ndert.]]> 176 Stephan Lohse 3458643893 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 3.64 2023 Das Summen unter der Haut
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name: Lea
average rating: 3.64
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]]> <![CDATA[The 2020 Commission Report On The North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against The United States: A Speculative Novel]]> 38640728
“I couldn’t put the book down, reading most of it in the course of one increasingly intenseÌęevening. If fear of nuclear war is going to keep you up at night, at least it can be a page-turner.â€� â€� New Scientist

America lost 1.4 million citizens in the North Korean attacks of March 2020. This is the final, authorized report of the government commission charged with investigating the calamity.

“The skies over the Korean Peninsula on March 21, 2020, were clear and blue.”ÌęSo begins this sobering report on the findings of the Commission on the Nuclear Attacks against the United States, established by law by Congress and President Donald J. Trump to investigate the horrific events of the next three days. An independent, bipartisan panel led by nuclear expert Jeffrey Lewis, the commission was charged with finding and reporting the relevant facts, investigating how the nuclear war began, and determining whether our government was adequately prepared for combating a nuclear adversary and safeguarding U.S. citizens. Did President Trump and his advisers understand North Korean views about nuclear weapons? Did they appreciate the dangers of provoking the country’s ruler with social media posts and military exercises? Did the tragic milestones of that fateful month—North Korea's accidental shoot-down of Air Busan flight 411, the retaliatory strike by South Korea, and the tweet that triggered vastly more carnage—inevitably lead to war? Or did America’s leaders have the opportunity to avert the greatest calamity in the history of our nation?

Answering these questions will not bring back the lives lost in March 2020. It will not rebuild New York, Washington, or the other cities reduced to rubble. But at the very least, it might prevent a tragedy of this magnitude from occurring again. It is this hope, more than any other, that inspired The 2020 Commission Report .]]> 304 Jeffrey Lewis 1328573915 Lea 0 to-read, sub2025 4.15 2018 The 2020 Commission Report On The North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against The United States: A Speculative Novel
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name: Lea
average rating: 4.15
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]]> Notice 430590
A sadist takes her home to replay family dramas with his beautiful wife, and she becomes hopelessly drawn into their dangerous web, and eventually, ends up in more trouble than she ever bargained for. Arrested and confined to a psych ward, a therapist is assigned to help her. But instead of treatment, they develop a sexual relationship, bringing her both confusion and revelation.

Heather Lewis is the author of two other novels, House Rules and Second Suspect. In 2002, she took her own life at the age of 40.]]> 217 Heather Lewis 1852424567 Lea 0 sub2025 3.29 2004 Notice
author: Heather Lewis
name: Lea
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2004
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