Tim's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 25 Apr 2024 17:18:12 -0700 60 Tim's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Firm 38508 496 John Grisham Tim 4 3.64 1991 The Firm
author: John Grisham
name: Tim
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1991
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/04/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Шестото клеймо (Робърт Лангдън, #1)]]> 2993425 528 Dan Brown 9545854227 Tim 3 4.39 2000 Шестото клеймо (Робърт Лангдън, #1)
author: Dan Brown
name: Tim
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/04/15
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]]> <![CDATA[The Shadow Rising (The Wheel of Time, #4)]]> 54754452
The seals of Shayol Ghul are weak now, and the Dark One reaches out. The Shadow is rising to cover humankind.

In Tar Valon, Min sees portents of hideous doom. Will the White Tower itself be broken?

In the Two Rivers, the Whitecloaks ride in pursuit of a man with golden eyes, and in pursuit of the Dragon Reborn.

In Cantorin, among the Sea Folk, High Lady Suroth plans the return of the Seanchan armies to the mainland.

In the Stone of Tear, the Lord Dragon considers his next move. It will be something no one expects, not the Black Ajah, not Tairen nobles, not Aes Sedai, not Egwene or Elayne or Nynaeve.

Against the Shadow rising stands the Dragon Reborn...]]> 1051 Robert Jordan Tim 0 4.51 1992 The Shadow Rising (The Wheel of Time, #4)
author: Robert Jordan
name: Tim
average rating: 4.51
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at: 2022/07/19
date added: 2022/07/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Dragon Reborn (The Wheel of Time, #3)]]> 53377082
Able to touch the One Power, but unable to control it, and with no one to teach him how--for no man has done it in three thousand years--Rand al'Thor knows only that he must face the Dark One. But how?

Winter has stopped the war-almost-yet men are dying, calling out for the Dragon. But where is he?

Perrin Aybara is in pursuit with Moiraine Sedai, her Warder Lan, and the Loial the Ogier. Bedeviled by dreams, Perrin is grappling with another deadly problem--how is her to escape the loss of his own humanity.

Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve are approaching Tar Valon, where Mat will be healed--if he lives until they arrive. But who will tell the Amyrlin their news--that the Black Ajah, long thought only a hideous rumor, is all too real? They cannot know that in Tar Valon far worse awaits...

Ahead, for all of them, in the Heart of the Stone, lies the next great test of the Dragon reborn....]]> 673 Robert Jordan Tim 0 4.51 1991 The Dragon Reborn (The Wheel of Time, #3)
author: Robert Jordan
name: Tim
average rating: 4.51
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at: 2022/07/07
date added: 2022/07/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Great Hunt (The Wheel of Time, #2)]]> 54221922
For centuries, gleemen have told the tales of The Great Hunt of the Horn. So many tales about each of th Hunters, and so many Hunters to tell of...Now the Horn itself is found: the Horn of Valere long thought only legend, the Horn which will raise the dead heroes of the ages. And it is stolen.]]> 658 Robert Jordan Tim 0 currently-reading 4.53 1990 The Great Hunt (The Wheel of Time, #2)
author: Robert Jordan
name: Tim
average rating: 4.53
book published: 1990
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/03/31
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Artemis 59911060
Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent.

Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself—and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.]]> 335 Andy Weir Tim 0 3.94 2017 Artemis
author: Andy Weir
name: Tim
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2022/01/30
date added: 2022/01/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Off to Be the Wizard (Magic 2.0, #1)]]> 18616975
What could possibly go wrong?

An American hacker in King Arthur’s court, Martin must now train to become a full-fledged master of his powers, discover the truth behind the ancient wizard Merlin� and not, y’know, die or anything.]]> 373 Scott Meyer 1612184715 Tim 0 to-read 4.00 2013 Off to Be the Wizard (Magic 2.0, #1)
author: Scott Meyer
name: Tim
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 14891 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.]]> 496 Betty Smith 0061120073 Tim 5 4.29 1943 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
author: Betty Smith
name: Tim
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1943
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/02/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked]]> 30962055
In this revolutionary book, Adam Alter, a professor of psychology and marketing at NYU, tracks the rise of behavioral addiction, and explains why so many of today's products are irresistible. Though these miraculous products melt the miles that separate people across the globe, their extraordinary and sometimes damaging magnetism is no accident. The companies that design these products tweak them over time until they become almost impossible to resist.

By reverse engineering behavioral addiction, Alter explains how we can harness addictive products for the good—to improve how we communicate with each other, spend and save our money, and set boundaries between work and play—and how we can mitigate their most damaging effects on our well-being, and the health and happiness of our children.]]> 368 Adam Alter 1594206643 Tim 0 to-read 3.83 2017 Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked
author: Adam Alter
name: Tim
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/08/17
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]]> Compete to Create 54596831 Michael Gervais Tim 0 to-read 4.23 Compete to Create
author: Michael Gervais
name: Tim
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)]]> 68428 What if the whole world were a dead, blasted wasteland?

Mistborn
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Then Kelsier reveals his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets. She will have to learn trust if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

Brandon Sanderson, fantasy's newest master tale-spinner and author of the acclaimed debut Elantris, dares to turn a genre on its head by asking a simple question: What if the prophesied hero failed to defeat the Dark Lord? The answer will be found in the Mistborn Trilogy, a saga of surprises that begins with the book in your hands. Fantasy will never be the same again.]]> 541 Brandon Sanderson Tim 0 to-read 4.48 2006 Mistborn: The Final Empire (Mistborn, #1)
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Tim
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/20
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]]> Declare 190554 608 Tim Powers 0380798360 Tim 0 to-read 4.03 2000 Declare
author: Tim Powers
name: Tim
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1)]]> 2113260
Eddie Russett is an above-average Red who dreams of moving up the ladder. Until he is sent to the Outer Fringes where he meets Jane - a lowly Grey with an uncontrollable temper and a desire to see him killed.

For Eddie, it's love at first sight. But his infatuation will lead him to discover that all is not as it seems in a world where everything that looks black and white is really shades of grey...]]> 400 Jasper Fforde 0670019631 Tim 0 to-read 4.15 2009 Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1)
author: Jasper Fforde
name: Tim
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ocean at the End of the Lane]]> 15783514
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.]]> 181 Neil Gaiman 0062255657 Tim 0 to-read 4.00 2013 The Ocean at the End of the Lane
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Tim
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/20
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]]> <![CDATA[The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea]]> 21878184
The Myth of Race traces the origins of modern racist ideology to the Spanish Inquisition, revealing how sixteenth-century theories of racial degeneration became a crucial justification for Western imperialism and slavery. In the nineteenth century, these theories fused with Darwinism to produce the highly influential and pernicious eugenics movement. Believing that traits from cranial shape to raw intelligence were immutable, eugenicists developed hierarchies that classified certain races, especially fair-skinned “Aryans,� as superior to others. These ideologues proposed programs of intelligence testing, selective breeding, and human sterilization―policies that fed straight into Nazi genocide. Sussman examines how opponents of eugenics, guided by the German-American anthropologist Franz Boas’s new, scientifically supported concept of culture, exposed fallacies in racist thinking. Although eugenics is now widely discredited, some groups and individuals today claim a new scientific basis for old racist assumptions. Pondering the continuing influence of racist research and thought, despite all evidence to the contrary, Sussman explains why―when it comes to race―too many people still mistake bigotry for science.]]> 384 Robert Wald Sussman 0674417313 Tim 0 to-read 4.06 2014 The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea
author: Robert Wald Sussman
name: Tim
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/06/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Attitude: Develop a Winning Mindset on and off the Court]]> 33930158 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER �From the coach of the 2016 and 2018 NCAA Tournament–winningVillanova University men’s basketball team comes a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a champion, along with lessons from his coaching career and the story of his personal road to success.NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BLOOMBERG When Kris Jenkins sank a three-pointer at the buzzer to win the 2016 NCAA Tournament, it was a victory not just for a team and its coach but for an entire program. In his twentieth season with the Villanova program, including a five-year stint as an assistant to Coach Rollie Massimino, Coach Jay Wright had achieved his lifelong dream—and witnessed the culmination of a decades-long effort to build a culture of winning around a set of core values. In Attitude, Coach Wright shares some of the leadership secrets that have enabled Villanova, a private university with an undergraduate enrollment of less than 6,500, to thrive in the hypercompetitive world of college athletics. As he recounts the story of the 2015�16 Wildcats, Coach Wright offers anecdotes from his own journey up the ladder of success, with lessons learned on the Little League playing fields of his youth and wisdom passed down from his coaches and mentors. Each step of Villanova’sjourney to a national championship incorporates a signature term torn from Coach Wright’s own motivational playbook. Here are key principles that aspiring leaders can apply, not only on the basketball court but in the boardroom, the classroom, and the living room. From learning to accept your role to remembering to honor those who came before us, Jay Wright’s core values provide a positive blueprint for transformational team building based on the idea that anyone—from the head coach to the last player on the bench—can be a leader when the moment demands it. The product of a lifetime’s worth of championship-level preparation, Attitude is perfect for anyone looking to build a team, achieve a goal, or nurture their own winning culture.Praise for Attitude“Jay Wright’s Attitude is filled with wonderful anecdotes, life lessons, and that which we all wisdom.�—Phil Knight, co-founder and chairman emeritus, Nike “In 2015�16, Villanova displayed the best attributes of a champion by playing hard, smart, and together. Jay Wright instilled those traits in his team, and in Attitude he shares the universal leadership lessons that helped it succeed.�—Mike Krzyzewski, head coach, Duke University basketball]]> 275 Jay Wright 0399180869 Tim 5 4.20 Attitude: Develop a Winning Mindset on and off the Court
author: Jay Wright
name: Tim
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/05/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)]]> 119322
Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want--but what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.]]> 399 Philip Pullman 0679879242 Tim 4 4.02 1995 The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Tim
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/15
date added: 2020/01/15
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]]> Fractured (Will Trent, #2) 2199587
When the local police make a misjudgement which not only threatens the investigation but places a young girl's life in danger, the case is handed over to Special Agent Will Trent of the Criminal Apprehension Team - paired with detective Faith Mitchell, a woman who resents him from their first meeting.

But in the relentless heat of a Georgia summer, Will and Faith realise that they must work together to find the brutal killer who has targeted one of Atlanta's wealthiest, most privileged communities - before it's too late...]]> 388 Karin Slaughter 0385341954 Tim 0 to-read 4.14 2008 Fractured (Will Trent, #2)
author: Karin Slaughter
name: Tim
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/12/16
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]]> Triptych (Will Trent, #1) 21717
But another player has entered the game: a loser ex-con who has stumbled upon the killer's trail in the most coincidental of ways—someone who may be the key to breaking the case wide open...]]> 393 Karin Slaughter Tim 3 4.11 2006 Triptych (Will Trent, #1)
author: Karin Slaughter
name: Tim
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2006
rating: 3
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date added: 2019/12/16
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]]> Little Fires Everywhere 34273236
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned � from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren � an enigmatic artist and single mother � who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother–daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town � and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .]]> 338 Celeste Ng 0735224293 Tim 2 4.05 2017 Little Fires Everywhere
author: Celeste Ng
name: Tim
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 2
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date added: 2019/12/11
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]]> <![CDATA[The Last Mrs. Parrish (Mrs. Parrish, #1)]]> 34043643
To everyone in the exclusive town of Bishops Harbor, Connecticut, Daphne—a socialite and philanthropist—and her real-estate mogul husband, Jackson, are a couple straight out of a fairy tale.

Amber’s envy could eat her alive . . . if she didn't have a plan. Amber uses Daphne’s compassion and caring to insinuate herself into the family’s life—the first step in a meticulous scheme to undermine her. Before long, Amber is Daphne’s closest confidante, traveling to Europe with the Parrishes and their lovely young daughters, and growing closer to Jackson. But a skeleton from her past may undermine everything that Amber has worked towards, and if it is discovered, her well-laid plan may fall to pieces.

With shocking turns and dark secrets that will keep you guessing until the very end, The Last Mrs. Parrish is a fresh, juicy, and utterly addictive thriller from a diabolically imaginative talent.]]> 560 Liv Constantine 0062688162 Tim 2 3.93 2017 The Last Mrs. Parrish (Mrs. Parrish, #1)
author: Liv Constantine
name: Tim
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2017
rating: 2
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date added: 2019/12/11
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]]> Red Storm Rising 318525 With that shrill cry, three Muslim terrorists blow up a key Soviet oil complex, creating a critical oil shortage that threatens the stability of the USSR.

To offer the effects of this disaster, members of the Politburo and the KGB devise a brilliant plan of diplomatic trickery - a sequence of events designed to pit the NATO allies against each other - a distraction calculated to enable the Soviets to seize all the oil in the Persian Gulf.

But as this spellbinding story of international intrigue and global politics nears its climax, the Soviets are faced with another prospect, one they hadn't planned on: a full-scale conflict in which nobody can win.

]]> Tom Clancy 0394298667 Tim 0 currently-reading 4.20 1986 Red Storm Rising
author: Tom Clancy
name: Tim
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1986
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/12/05
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3)]]> 18122
But how can he go looking for Lord Asriel when Lyra is gone? Only with her help can he fathom the myriad plots and intrigues that beset him.

The two great powers of the many worlds are lining up for war, and Will must find Lyra, for together they are on their way to battle, an inevitable journey that will even take them to the world of the dead...]]> 465 Philip Pullman 0440238153 Tim 0 to-read 4.11 2000 The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Tim
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/12/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)]]> 41637836
The alethiometer answered: He is a murderer.

When she saw the answer, she relaxed at once.

Lyra finds herself in a shimmering, haunted otherworld � Cittàgazze, where soul-eating Spectres stalk the streets and wingbeats of distant angels sound against the sky.

But she is not without allies: twelve-year-old Will Parry, fleeing for his life after taking another's, has also stumbled into this strange new realm.

On a perilous journey from world to world, Lyra and Will uncover a deadly secret: an object of extraordinary and devastating power.

And with every step, they move closer to an even greater threat � and the shattering truth of their own destiny.]]> 370 Philip Pullman Tim 0 to-read 4.23 1997 The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Tim
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/12/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2)]]> 1215032 There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.�

My name is Kvothe.
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
You may have heard of me.

So begins the tale of a hero told from his own point of view � a story unequaled in fantasy literature. Now in The Wise Man's Fear, an escalating rivalry with a powerful member of the nobility forces Kvothe to leave the University and seek his fortune abroad. Adrift, penniless, and alone, he travels to Vintas, where he quickly becomes entangled in the politics of courtly society. While attempting to curry favor with a powerful noble, Kvothe uncovers an assassination attempt, comes into conflict with a rival arcanist, and leads a group of mercenaries into the wild, in an attempt to solve the mystery of who (or what) is waylaying travelers on the King's Road.

All the while, Kvothe searches for answers, attempting to uncover the truth about the mysterious Amyr, the Chandrian, and the death of his parents. Along the way, Kvothe is put on trial by the legendary Adem mercenaries, is forced to reclaim the honor of the Edema Ruh, and travels into the Fae realm. There he meets Felurian, the faerie woman no man can resist, and who no man has ever survived ... until Kvothe.

In The Wise Man's Fear, Kvothe takes his first steps on the path of the hero and learns how difficult life can be when a man becomes a legend in his own time.

]]> 994 Patrick Rothfuss 0756404738 Tim 4 4.55 2011 The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2)
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Tim
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/05
date added: 2019/12/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Slow Regard of Silent Things (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2.5)]]> 21535271
Her name is Auri, and she is full of mysteries.

The Slow Regard of Silent Things is a brief, bittersweet glimpse of Auri’s life, a small adventure all her own. At once joyous and haunting, this story offers a chance to see the world through Auri’s eyes. And it gives the reader a chance to learn things that only Auri knows...

In this book, Patrick Rothfuss brings us into the world of one of The Kingkiller Chronicle’s most enigmatic characters. Full of secrets and mysteries, The Slow Regard of Silent Things is the story of a broken girl trying to live in a broken world.


AUTHOR’S FOREWORD

You might not want to buy this book.

I know, that’s not the sort of thing an author is supposed to say. The marketing people aren’t going to like this. My editor is going to have a fit. But I’d rather be honest with you right out of the gate.

First, if you haven’t read my other books, you don’t want to start here.

My first two books are The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear. If you’re curious to try my writing, start there. They’re the best introduction to my world. This book deals with Auri, one of the characters from that series. Without the context of those books, you’re probably going to feel pretty lost.

Second, even if you have read my other books, I think it’s only fair to warn you that this is a bit of a strange story. I don’t go in for spoilers, but suffice to say that this one is ... different. It doesn’t do a lot of the things a classic story is supposed to do. And if you’re looking for a continuation of Kvothe’s storyline, you’re not going to find it here.

On the other hand, if you’d like to learn more about Auri, this story has a lot to offer. If you love words and mysteries and secrets. If you’re curious about the Underthing and alchemy. If you want to know more about the hidden turnings of my world...

Well, then this book might be for you.

]]> 159 Patrick Rothfuss 0756410436 Tim 2 3.88 2014 The Slow Regard of Silent Things (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #2.5)
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Tim
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2014
rating: 2
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date added: 2019/12/05
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]]> <![CDATA[This Book Is Full of Spiders (John Dies at the End, #2)]]> 12924261
WARNING:

You may have a huge, invisible spider living in your skull. THIS IS NOT A METAPHOR.

You will dismiss this as ridiculous fear-mongering. Dismissing things as ridiculous fear-mongering is, in fact, the first symptom of parasitic spider infection -- the creature secretes a chemical into the brain to stimulate skepticism, in order to prevent you from seeking a cure. That's just as well, since the "cure" involves learning what a chainsaw tastes like.

You can't feel the spider, because it controls your nerve endings. You can't see it, because it decides what you see. You won't even feel it when it breeds. And it will breed. So what happens when your family, friends and neighbors get mind-controlling skull spiders? We're all about to find out.

Just stay calm, and remember that telling you about the spider situation is not the same as having caused it. I'm just the messenger. Even if I did sort of cause it.

Either way, I won't hold it against you if you're upset. I know that's just the spider talking.]]> 406 David Wong 0312546343 Tim 4 4.25 2012 This Book Is Full of Spiders (John Dies at the End, #2)
author: David Wong
name: Tim
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2012
rating: 4
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date added: 2019/12/05
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]]> The Water Knife 23209924
When rumours of a game-changing water source surface, Las Vegas dispatches elite water knife Angel Velasquez to Phoenix to investigate. There, he discovers hardened journalist Lucy Monroe, who holds the secret to the water source Angel seeks. But Angel isn't the only one hunting for water, Lucy is no pushover, and the death of a despised water knife is a small price to pay in return for the life-giving flow of a river.]]> 371 Paolo Bacigalupi 0385352875 Tim 2 3.81 2015 The Water Knife
author: Paolo Bacigalupi
name: Tim
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2019/12/05
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]]> Those Who Wish Me Dead 18587089
When fourteen-year-old Jace Wilson witnesses a brutal murder, he's plunged into a new life, issued a false identity and hidden in a wilderness skills program for troubled teens. The plan is to get Jace off the grid while police find the two killers. The result is the start of a nightmare.

The killers, known as the Blackwell Brothers, are slaughtering anyone who gets in their way in a methodical quest to reach him. Now all that remains between them and the boy are Ethan and Allison Serbin, who run the wilderness survival program; Hannah Faber, who occupies a lonely fire lookout tower; and endless miles of desolate Montana mountains.

The clock is ticking, the mountains are burning, and those who wish Jace Wilson dead are no longer far behind.]]> 388 Michael Koryta 0316122556 Tim 2 3.95 2014 Those Who Wish Me Dead
author: Michael Koryta
name: Tim
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2019/12/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Stories of Your Life and Others]]> 223380 ]]> 281 Ted Chiang 0330426648 Tim 4 4.28 2002 Stories of Your Life and Others
author: Ted Chiang
name: Tim
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2019/12/05
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]]> <![CDATA[What the Hell Did I Just Read (John Dies at the End, #3)]]> 33574090
Dave, John and Amy recount what seems like a fairly straightforward tale of a shape-shifting creature from another dimension that is stealing children and brainwashing their parents, but it eventually becomes clear that someone is lying, and that someone is the narrators.

The novel you're reading is a cover-up, and the "true" story reveals itself in the cracks of their hilariously convoluted, and sometimes contradictory, narrative.]]> 375 David Wong 1250040205 Tim 4 4.15 2017 What the Hell Did I Just Read (John Dies at the End, #3)
author: David Wong
name: Tim
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2017
rating: 4
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date added: 2019/12/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Doors of Stone (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #3)]]> 21032488 896 Patrick Rothfuss 0575081449 Tim 0 to-read 3.51 The Doors of Stone (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #3)
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Tim
average rating: 3.51
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/10/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)]]> 186074
The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.]]> 662 Patrick Rothfuss 075640407X Tim 5 4.52 2007 The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Tim
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2007
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/10/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits (Zoey Ashe, #1)]]> 20501606 Nightmarish villains with superhuman enhancements.

An all-seeing social network that tracks your every move.

Mysterious, smooth-talking power players who lurk behind the scenes.

A young woman from the trailer park.

And her very smelly cat.

Together, they will decide the future of mankind.

Get ready for a world in which anyone can have the powers of a god or the fame of a pop star, in which human achievement soars to new heights while its depravity plunges to the blackest depths. A world in which at least one cat smells like a seafood shop's dumpster on a hot summer day.

This is the world in which Zoey Ashe finds herself, navigating a futuristic city in which one can find elements of the fantastic, nightmarish and ridiculous on any street corner. Her only trusted advisor is the aforementioned cat, but even in the future, cats cannot give advice. At least not any that you'd want to follow.

Will Zoey figure it all out in time? Or maybe the better question is, will you? After all, the future is coming sooner than you think.]]> 384 David Wong 1250040191 Tim 0 to-read 3.95 2015 Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits (Zoey Ashe, #1)
author: David Wong
name: Tim
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/08/15
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]]> The River 40216324 The story of two college friends on a wilderness canoe trip—of a friendship tested by fire, white water, and violence

Wynn and Jack have been best friends since freshman orientation, bonded by their shared love of mountains, books, and fishing. Wynn is a gentle giant, a Vermont kid never happier than when his feet are in the water. Jack is more rugged, raised on a ranch in Colorado where sleeping under the stars and cooking on a fire came as naturally to him as breathing.

When they decide to canoe the Maskwa River in northern Canada, they anticipate long days of leisurely paddling and picking blueberries, and nights of stargazing and reading paperback Westerns. But a wildfire making its way across the forest adds unexpected urgency to the journey.

When they hear a man and woman arguing on the fog-shrouded riverbank and decide to warn them about the fire, their search for the pair turns up nothing and no one. But: The next day a man appears on the river, paddling alone. Is this the man they heard? And, if he is, where is the woman?]]> 253 Peter Heller 0525521879 Tim 0 to-read 3.78 2019 The River
author: Peter Heller
name: Tim
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/08/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao]]> 297673
Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.]]> 335 Junot Díaz 1594489580 Tim 4 3.89 2007 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
author: Junot Díaz
name: Tim
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2007
rating: 4
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date added: 2019/08/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Winter World (The Long Winter #1)]]> 43510351
In orbit, a group of scientists are running the Winter Experiments, a last-ditch attempt to understand why the planet is cooling. None of the climate models they build make sense. But then they discover an anomaly, an unexplained variation in solar radiation... and something else. Close to the burning edge of the sun, they catch a fleeting glimpse of something that shouldn't be there...

Suddenly humanity must face the possibility it is not alone in the universe. And the terrifying possibility that whatever is out there may be trying to exterminate us.]]> 418 A.G. Riddle Tim 3 3.94 2019 Winter World (The Long Winter #1)
author: A.G. Riddle
name: Tim
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 3
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date added: 2019/08/14
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]]> The Shack 1812457
In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!]]> 248 William Paul Young 0964729237 Tim 2 3.73 2007 The Shack
author: William Paul Young
name: Tim
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2007
rating: 2
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date added: 2019/08/14
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]]> <![CDATA[John Dies at the End (John Dies at the End, #1)]]> 1857440 STOP. You should not have touched this flyer with your bare hands. NO, don't put it down. It's too late. They're watching you. My name is David Wong. My best friend is John. Those names are fake. You might want to change yours. You may not want to know about the things you'll read on these pages, about the sauce, about Korrok, about the invasion, and the future. But it's too late. You touched the book. You're in the game. You're under the eye. The only defense is knowledge. You need to read this book, to the end. Even the part with the bratwurst. Why? You just have to trust me.

The important thing is this: The drug is called Soy Sauce and it gives users a window into another dimension. John and I never had the chance to say no. You still do. I'm sorry to have involved you in this, I really am. But as you read about these terrible events and the very dark epoch the world is about to enter as a result, it is crucial you keep one thing in mind: None of this was my fault. ]]> 362 David Wong 0978970764 Tim 4 3.89 2007 John Dies at the End (John Dies at the End, #1)
author: David Wong
name: Tim
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2007
rating: 4
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date added: 2019/08/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Fourth Dimension: A Guided Tour of the Higher Universes]]> 274064 The Fourth Dimension is this handy paperback. The result is a fantastic, enlightening, and mind-expanding reading experience. In text, pictures, and puzzles, master science and science fiction writer Rudy Rucker immerses his readers in an amazing exploration of a mysterious realm � a realm once seen only by mystics, physicists, and mathematicians. More accessible than Gödel, Escher, Bach and more playful than The Tao of Physics, Rucker's The Fourth Dimension is the most engaging tour of other dimensions since Flatland.

David Povilaitis' 200 drawings illustrate Rucker's heady insights while dozens of puzzles and problems make the book a delight to the eye and mind. As Eileen Pollack has written in her rave review, The Fourth Dimension is "magical ... Its effects persist beyond its covers." That's because, like everything else in the fourth dimension, this is more than a book, it is a mental spaceship capable of grand tours of universes far beyond our own.]]> 228 Rudy Rucker 0395393884 Tim 0 to-read 4.22 1984 The Fourth Dimension: A Guided Tour of the Higher Universes
author: Rudy Rucker
name: Tim
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/08/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension (Dover Books on Mathematics)]]> 274063 Finding a perfect analogy in the situation of the geometrical characters in Flatland, Professor Rucker continues the adventures of the two-dimensional world visited by a three-dimensional being to explain our three-dimensional world in terms of the fourth dimension. Following this adventure into the fourth dimension, the author discusses non-Euclidean geometry, curved space, time as a higher dimension, special relativity, time travel, and the shape of space-time. The mathematics is sound throughout, but the casual reader may skip those few sections that seem too purely mathematical and still follow the line of argument. Readable and interesting in itself, the annotated bibliography is a valuable guide to further study.
Professor Rucker teaches mathematics at the State University of New York in Geneseo. Students and laymen will find his discussion to be unusually stimulating. Experienced mathematicians and physicists will find a great deal of original material here and many unexpected novelties. Annotated bibliography. 44 problems.]]> 160 Rudolf Rucker 0486234002 Tim 0 to-read 4.23 1977 Geometry, Relativity and the Fourth Dimension (Dover Books on Mathematics)
author: Rudolf Rucker
name: Tim
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1977
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/08/08
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]]> <![CDATA[Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind]]> 23692271 512 Yuval Noah Harari Tim 0 to-read 4.34 2011 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Tim
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/08/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen]]> 6289283 Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? In search of an answer, Christopher McDougall sets off to find a tribe of the world’s greatest distance runners and learn their secrets, and in the process shows us that everything we thought we knew about running is wrong.

Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence. With the help of Caballo Blanco, a mysterious loner who lives among the tribe, the author was able not only to uncover the secrets of the Tarahumara but also to find his own inner ultra-athlete, as he trained for the challenge of a lifetime: a fifty-mile race through the heart of Tarahumara country pitting the tribe against an odd band of Americans, including a star ultramarathoner, a beautiful young surfer, and a barefoot wonder.

With a sharp wit and wild exuberance, McDougall takes us from the high-tech science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultrarunners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to the climactic race in the Copper Canyons. Born to Run is that rare book that will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that the secret to happiness is right at your feet, and that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.]]> 287 Christopher McDougall Tim 4 4.29 2009 Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
author: Christopher McDougall
name: Tim
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2009
rating: 4
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date added: 2019/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1)]]> 51964
The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce-- and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So: we fight. To defend Earth, and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding.

Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity's resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don't want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You'll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You'll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you'll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets.

John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine--and what he will become is far stranger.]]> 318 John Scalzi 0765348276 Tim 3 4.22 2005 Old Man's War (Old Man's War, #1)
author: John Scalzi
name: Tim
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2005
rating: 3
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date added: 2019/08/07
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]]> The Stand 149267 For hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its original version and wanted more, this new edition is Stephen King's gift. And those who are listening to The Stand for the first time will discover a triumphant and eerily plausible work of the imagination that takes on the issues that will determine our survival.]]> 1152 Stephen King Tim 0 to-read 4.35 1978 The Stand
author: Stephen King
name: Tim
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1978
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/06/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Woman in Cabin 10 (Lo Blacklock, #1)]]> 28187230 341 Ruth Ware 1501132938 Tim 3 3.73 2016 The Woman in Cabin 10 (Lo Blacklock, #1)
author: Ruth Ware
name: Tim
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2016
rating: 3
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date added: 2019/06/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)]]> 21611 278 Joe Haldeman Tim 4 4.14 1974 The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)
author: Joe Haldeman
name: Tim
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1974
rating: 4
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date added: 2019/06/14
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]]> The Grownup 26025580
“The Grownup,� originally appeared as “What Do You Do?� in George R. R. Martin’s Rogues anthology.]]> 64 Gillian Flynn 0804188971 Tim 3 3.55 2014 The Grownup
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Tim
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2014
rating: 3
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date added: 2019/06/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Pandemic (The Extinction Files, #1)]]> 34811896 Around the world, a deadly outbreak spreads.

The CDC and WHO race to stop it, but they soon learn that this pandemic hides a dark secret. It may be the start of a scientific experiment that could alter the human race forever--and reveal a shocking truth about our future.

A hundred miles north of Alaska, a US Coast Guard vessel discovers a sunken submarine at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. It has no national identification and doesn’t match the records of any known vessel. Deep within, researchers find evidence of a scientific experiment that will rewrite our basic understanding of the human race.

In Atlanta, Dr. Peyton Shaw is awakened by the phone call she has dreaded for years. As the CDC’s leading epidemiologist, she’s among the first responders to outbreaks around the world. It’s a lonely and dangerous job, but it’s her life—and she’s good at it. This time, she may have met her match.

In Kenya, an Ebola-like pathogen has infected two Americans. One lies at death’s door. With the clock ticking, Peyton assembles her team and joins personnel from the Kenyan Ministry of Health and the WHO. What they find in the remote village is beyond their worst fears. As she traces the origin of the pathogen, Peyton begins to believe that there is more to this outbreak—that it may be merely the opening act in a conspiracy with far reaching consequences.

In Berlin, Desmond Hughes awakens in a hotel room with no memory of how he got there or who he is. On the floor, he finds a dead security guard from an international pharmaceutical company. His only clue leads him to Peyton Shaw—a woman who seems to know him, but refuses to tell him how. With the police searching the city for him, Desmond desperately tries to piece together what happened to him. To his shock and horror, he learns that he may be involved in causing the outbreak—and could hold the only key to stopping it.

As the pathogen spreads around the world, Peyton and Desmond race to unravel the conspiracy behind the pandemic—and uncover secrets some want to keep buried. With time running out, they face an unimaginable decision.]]> 722 A.G. Riddle 1940026121 Tim 0 to-read 4.08 2017 Pandemic (The Extinction Files, #1)
author: A.G. Riddle
name: Tim
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/06/14
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]]> Hamlet 1432 This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN13:9780743477123, Hamlet.

Hamlet is the story of the Prince of Denmark who learns of the death of his father at the hands of his uncle, Claudius. Claudius murders Hamlet's father, his own brother, to take the throne of Denmark and to marry Hamlet's widowed mother. Hamlet is sunk into a state of great despair as a result of discovering the murder of his father and the infidelity of his mother. Hamlet is torn between his great sadness and his desire for the revenge of his father's murder.

Each Folger edition includes:

- Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play
- Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play
- Scene-by-scene plot summaries
- A key to famous lines and phrases
- An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language
- An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play
- Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books]]> 342 William Shakespeare Tim 3 4.05 1601 Hamlet
author: William Shakespeare
name: Tim
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1601
rating: 3
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date added: 2019/04/14
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]]> The Martian 31686251
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Source: andyweirauthor.com]]> 387 Andy Weir Tim 4 4.52 2011 The Martian
author: Andy Weir
name: Tim
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2019/01/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)]]> 20603758 A world at stake.
A quest for the ultimate prize.
Are you ready?
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.]]> 386 Ernest Cline Tim 5 4.38 2011 Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)
author: Ernest Cline
name: Tim
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2011
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/01/17
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]]> The Debunking Handbook 13138326 9 John Cook 0646568124 Tim 0 to-read 3.87 2011 The Debunking Handbook
author: John Cook
name: Tim
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/06/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[An Introduction to Formal Logic]]> 2003208 364 Peter Smith 0521008042 Tim 0 to-read 3.93 2003 An Introduction to Formal Logic
author: Peter Smith
name: Tim
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/06/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief]]> 35506 294 Francis S. Collins 0743286391 Tim 0 to-read 3.83 2006 The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief
author: Francis S. Collins
name: Tim
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/06/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It]]> 30112 Someday soon, you might wake up to the call to prayer from a muezzin. Europeans already are. And liberals will still tell you that "diversity is our strength"--while Talibanic enforcers cruise Greenwich Village burning books and barber shops, the Supreme Court decides sharia law doesn't violate the "separation of church and state," and the Hollywood Left decides to give up on gay rights in favor of the much safer charms of polygamy. If you think this can't happen, you haven't been paying attention, as the hilarious, provocative, and brilliant Mark Steyn--the most popular conservative columnist in the English-speaking world--shows to devastating effect. The future, as Steyn shows, belongs to the fecund and the confident. And the Islamists are both, while the West is looking ever more like the ruins of a civilization. But America can survive, prosper, and defend its freedom only if it continues to believe in itself, in the sturdier virtues of self-reliance (not government), in the centrality of family, and in the conviction that our country really is the world's last best hope. Mark Steyn's America Alone is laugh-out-loud funny--but it will also change the way you look at the world.
]]> 214 Mark Steyn 0895260786 Tim 3 4.11 2006 America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It
author: Mark Steyn
name: Tim
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2010/05/06
date added: 2018/02/24
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]]> A Man Called Ove 18774964
Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents' association to their very foundations.]]> 337 Fredrik Backman 1476738017 Tim 4 4.35 2012 A Man Called Ove
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Tim
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
rating: 4
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date added: 2018/02/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Conned Again, Watson! Cautionary Tales of Logic, Math, and Probability]]> 1130873 304 Colin Bruce 0738205893 Tim 3 3.87 2000 Conned Again, Watson! Cautionary Tales of Logic, Math, and Probability
author: Colin Bruce
name: Tim
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2000
rating: 3
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date added: 2017/12/23
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]]> Live by Night (Coughlin, #2) 13083008
Boston, 1926. The '20s are roaring. Liquor is flowing, bullets are flying, and one man sets out to make his mark on the world.

Prohibition has given rise to an endless network of underground distilleries, speakeasies, gangsters, and corrupt cops. Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a prominent Boston police captain, has long since turned his back on his strict and proper upbringing. Now having graduated from a childhood of petty theft to a career in the pay of the city's most fearsome mobsters, Joe enjoys the spoils, thrills, and notoriety of being an outlaw.

But life on the dark side carries a heavy price. In a time when ruthless men of ambition, armed with cash, illegal booze, and guns, battle for control, no one - neither family nor friend, enemy nor lover - can be trusted. Beyond money and power, even the threat of prison, one fate seems most likely for men like Joe: an early death. But until that day, he and his friends are determined to live life to the hilt.

Joe embarks on a dizzying journey up the ladder of organized crime that takes him from the flash of Jazz Age Boston to the sensual shimmer of Tampa's Latin Quarter to the sizzling streets of Cuba. Live by Night is a riveting epic layered with a diverse cast of loyal friends and callous enemies, tough rumrunners and sultry femmes fatales, Bible-quoting evangelists and cruel Klansmen, all battling for survival and their piece of the American dream. At once a sweeping love story and a compelling saga of revenge, it is a spellbinding tour de force of betrayal and redemption, music and murder, that brings fully to life a bygone era when sin was cause for celebration and vice was a national virtue.]]> 402 Dennis Lehane 0060004878 Tim 4 3.87 2012 Live by Night (Coughlin, #2)
author: Dennis Lehane
name: Tim
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2012
rating: 4
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date added: 2017/12/23
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]]> <![CDATA[In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex]]> 17780
In the Heart of the Sea brings to new life the incredible story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex - an event as mythic in its own century as the Titanic disaster in ours, and the inspiration for the climax of Moby-Dick. In a harrowing page-turner, Nathaniel Philbrick restores this epic story to its rightful place in American history.

In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.

Philbrick interweaves his account of this extraordinary ordeal of ordinary men with a wealth of whale lore and with a brilliantly detailed portrait of the lost, unique community of Nantucket whalers. Impeccably researched and beautifully told, the book delivers the ultimate portrait of man against nature, drawing on a remarkable range of archival and modern sources, including a long-lost account by the ship's cabin boy.

At once a literary companion and a page-turner that speaks to the same issues of class, race, and man's relationship to nature that permeate the works of Melville, In the Heart of the Sea will endure as a vital work of American history.]]> 302 Nathaniel Philbrick 0141001828 Tim 3 4.16 2000 In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
author: Nathaniel Philbrick
name: Tim
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2000
rating: 3
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date added: 2017/12/23
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]]> Dark Matter 27833670 A mindbending, relentlessly surprising thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy.

Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie—when his reality shatters.

"Are you happy with your life?"

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend."

In this world he's woken up to, Jason's life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that's the dream?

And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could've imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human--a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we'll go to claim the lives we dream of.]]> 342 Blake Crouch 1101904224 Tim 3 4.13 2016 Dark Matter
author: Blake Crouch
name: Tim
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2017/12/23
shelves:
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]]> Dragon Teeth 31287693
The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still populate America's western territories, even as lawless gold-rush towns begin to mark the landscape. Against this backdrop two palaeontologists pillage the Wild West for dinosaur fossils while deceiving and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars.

Into this treacherous territory plunges William Johnson, a Yale student with more privilege than sense. Determined to win a bet against his archrival, William has joined world-renowned palaeontologist Othniel Charles Marsh on his latest expedition. But Marsh becomes convinced that William is spying for his nemesis, Edwin Drinker Cope, and abandons him in Cheyenne, Wyoming, a locus of crime and vice.

Soon William joins forces with Cope and stumbles upon a discovery of historic proportions. The struggle to protect this extraordinary treasure, however, will test William's newfound resilience and pit him against some of the West's most dangerous and notorious characters....

©2017 Michael Crichton (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers Limited]]> 295 Michael Crichton 0008173060 Tim 3 3.79 2017 Dragon Teeth
author: Michael Crichton
name: Tim
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2017/12/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Caught Stealing (Hank Thompson, #1)]]> 21278
It begins when Hank’s neighbor, Russ, has to leave town in a rush and hands over Bud in a carrier. But it isn’t until two Russians in tracksuits drag Hank over the bar at the joint where he works and beat him to a pulp that he starts to get the idea: Someone wants something from him. He just doesn’t know what it is, where it is, or how to make them understand he doesn’t have it.

Within twenty-four hours Hank is running over rooftops, swinging his old aluminum bat for the sweet spot of a guy’s head, playing hide and seek with the NYPD, riding the subway with a dead man at his side, and counting a whole lot of cash on a concrete floor.

All because of two cowboys, two Russian mafia men, and some of the weirdest goons ever assembled in one place. All because of Bud. All because once, in another life, in another world, the only thing Hank wanted was to take third base—without getting caught.]]> 240 Charlie Huston 0345464788 Tim 0 to-read 4.05 2004 Caught Stealing (Hank Thompson, #1)
author: Charlie Huston
name: Tim
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)]]> 8855321
Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for—and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations—and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.]]> 592 James S.A. Corey 1841499889 Tim 0 to-read 4.30 2011 Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Tim
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/09/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> Hild (The Hild Sequence, #1) 17332243
Hild is the king’s youngest niece. She has the powerful curiosity of a bright child, a will of adamant, and a way of seeing the world—of studying nature, of matching cause with effect, of observing human nature and predicting what will happen next—that can seem uncanny, even supernatural, to those around her. She establishes herself as the king’s seer. And she is indispensable—until she should ever lead the king astray. The stakes are life and death: for Hild, her family, her loved ones, and the increasing numbers who seek the protection of the strange girl who can read the world and see the future.

Hild is a young woman at the heart of the violence, subtlety, and mysticism of the early medieval age—all of it brilliantly and accurately evoked by Nicola Griffith’s luminous prose. Recalling such feats of historical fiction as Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter, Hild brings a beautiful, brutal world—and one of its most fascinating, pivotal figures, the girl who would become St. Hilda of Whitby—to vivid, absorbing life.]]> 546 Nicola Griffith 0374280878 Tim 0 to-read 3.80 2013 Hild (The Hild Sequence, #1)
author: Nicola Griffith
name: Tim
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/08/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Bonfire of the Vanities 2666 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780553381344.

The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1987 satirical novel by Tom Wolfe. The story is a drama about ambition, racism, social class, politics, and greed in 1980s New York City, and centers on three main characters: WASP bond trader Sherman McCoy, Jewish assistant district attorney Larry Kramer, and British expatriate journalist Peter Fallow.

The novel was originally conceived as a serial in the style of Charles Dickens' writings: It ran in 27 installments in Rolling Stone starting in 1984. Wolfe heavily revised it before it was published in book form. The novel was a bestseller and a phenomenal success, even in comparison with Wolfe's other books. It has often been called the quintessential novel of the 1980s.]]> 690 Tom Wolfe Tim 3 3.89 1987 The Bonfire of the Vanities
author: Tom Wolfe
name: Tim
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2017/08/09
shelves:
review:

]]> Stardust 16793 Alternate cover edition can be found here

Young Tristran Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of beautiful Victoria—even fetch her the star they watch fall from the night sky. But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall that gives their tiny village its name. Beyond that old stone wall, Tristran learns, lies Faerie—where nothing not even a fallen star, is what he imagined.]]> 248 Neil Gaiman 0061142026 Tim 4 4.11 1999 Stardust
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Tim
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2017/08/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened]]> 17571564
Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*

*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!]]> 371 Allie Brosh 1451666179 Tim 0 to-read 4.16 2013 Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened
author: Allie Brosh
name: Tim
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/08/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> R is for Rocket 886229
He can make you see things that have never been seen by human eyes.... feel things that no flesh-and-blood creature has ever felt. He can create visions so compelling that they literally seem to dance before your eyes. He can push you back to the beginnings of time and then suddenly, without warning, thrust you forward t the outmost limits of the future. He can make you so much a part of his strange worlds that you literally scream to get out.

Seventeen breathtaking stories by the master of the weird and wonderful, including the space-age classic, FROST AND FIRE.]]> 184 Ray Bradbury 055325040X Tim 0 to-read 4.13 1962 R is for Rocket
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Tim
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/08/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Circle (The Circle, #1) 18302455 alternate cover for ISBN 9780385351393

When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users� personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency.

As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO.

Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public.

What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.]]> 493 Dave Eggers Tim 1
This is one of those books that for whatever reason is bad in a way that makes you angry. I suspect it's because it consistently insults your intelligence by assuming you are dumb enough to find its "scary premise" even the least bit realistic. You find yourself thinking 1,000 times "No one would ever do that," or "No one would ever say that," and with each instance that thought becomes more and more frustrating until it becomes anger. ]]> 3.41 2013 The Circle (The Circle, #1)
author: Dave Eggers
name: Tim
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2013
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2017/07/25
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The main character is a selfish brat, the world wide buy in to all of the privacy invasion is silly and unrealistic, and the whole thing is written like a bad self help book on the values of sharing. Every time a new concept is introduced by the powers that be with flawed, flimsy logic, they ask a newb "wouldn't this make everything better?" And the newb goes "Yea! It totally would! That makes so much sense!" It's so dumb.

This is one of those books that for whatever reason is bad in a way that makes you angry. I suspect it's because it consistently insults your intelligence by assuming you are dumb enough to find its "scary premise" even the least bit realistic. You find yourself thinking 1,000 times "No one would ever do that," or "No one would ever say that," and with each instance that thought becomes more and more frustrating until it becomes anger.
]]> Exodus 42697 Exodus is an international publishing phenomenon--the towering novel of the twentieth century's most dramatic geopolitical event. Leon Uris magnificently portrays the birth of a new nation in the midst of enemies--the beginning of an earthshaking struggle for power. Here is the tale that swept the world with its fury: the story of an American nurse, an Israeli freedom fighter caught up in a glorious, heartbreaking, triumphant era.]]> 599 Leon Uris 0553258478 Tim 0 to-read 4.34 1960 Exodus
author: Leon Uris
name: Tim
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1960
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/07/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Tim 0 to-read 4.28 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Tim
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century]]> 33353952 New York Times-bestselling author and cultural critic Chuck Klosterman compiles and contextualizes the best of his articles and essays from the past decade.

Chuck Klosterman has created an incomparable body of work in books, magazines, newspapers, and on the Web. His writing spans the realms of culture and sports, while also addressing interpersonal issues, social quandaries, and ethical boundaries. Klosterman has written nine previous books, helped found and establish Grantland, served as the New York Times Magazine Ethicist, worked on film and television productions, and contributed profiles and essays to outlets such as GQ, Esquire, Billboard, The A.V. Club, and The Guardian.

Chuck Klosterman's tenth book (aka Chuck Klosterman X) collects his most intriguing of those pieces, accompanied by fresh introductions and new footnotes throughout. Klosterman presents many of the articles in their original form, featuring previously unpublished passages and digressions. Subjects include Breaking Bad, Lou Reed, zombies, KISS, Jimmy Page, Stephen Malkmus, steroids, Mountain Dew, Chinese Democracy, The Beatles, Jonathan Franzen, Taylor Swift, Tim Tebow, Kobe Bryant, Usain Bolt, Eddie Van Halen, Charlie Brown, the Cleveland Browns, and many more cultural figures and pop phenomena. This is a tour of the past decade from one of the sharpest and most prolific observers of our unusual times.]]> 11 Chuck Klosterman 0735285470 Tim 0 to-read 3.90 2017 Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century
author: Chuck Klosterman
name: Tim
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/06/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> Neverwhere (London Below, #1) 14497
"Neverwhere" is the London of the people who have fallen between the cracks.

Strange destinies lie in wait in London below - a world that seems eerily familiar. But a world that is utterly bizarre, peopled by unearthly characters such as the Angel called Islington, the girl named Door, and the Earl who holds Court on a tube train.

Now a single act of kindness has catapulted young businessman Richard Mayhew out of his safe and predictable life - and into the realms of "Neverwhere." Richard is about to find out more than he ever wanted to know about this other London. Which is a pity. Because Richard just wants to go home...]]> 370 Neil Gaiman 0060557818 Tim 4 4.17 1996 Neverwhere (London Below, #1)
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Tim
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2017/05/29
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]]> The North Water 25666046 1859. A man joins a whaling ship bound for the Arctic Circle. Having left the British Army with his reputation in tatters, Patrick Sumner has little option but to accept the position of ship's surgeon on this ill-fated voyage. But when, deep into the journey, a cabin boy is discovered brutally killed, Sumner finds himself forced to act. Soon he will face an evil even greater than he had encountered at the siege of Delhi, in the shape of Henry Drax: harpooner, murderer, monster . . .]]> 255 Ian McGuire 1627795944 Tim 3 3.93 2016 The North Water
author: Ian McGuire
name: Tim
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2017/05/19
date added: 2017/05/19
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]]> Pines (Wayward Pines, #1) 15096164
WHY CAN'T HE MAKE CONTACT WITH HIS FAMILY IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD? WHY DOESN'T ANYONE BELIEVE HE IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS? AND WHAT'S THE PURPOSE OF THE ELECTRIFIED FENCES ENCIRCLING THE TOWN? ARE THEY KEEPING THE RESIDENTS IN? OR SOMETHING ELSE OUT?

Each step toward the truth takes Ethan further from the world he knows, until he must face a horrifying fact—he may never get out of Wayward Pines alive.....]]> 307 Blake Crouch 1612183956 Tim 0 to-read 3.94 2012 Pines (Wayward Pines, #1)
author: Blake Crouch
name: Tim
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/04/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Complete Persepolis 991197
Persepolis is the story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming—both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.

Edgy, searingly observant, and candid, often heartbreaking but threaded throughout with raw humor and hard-earned wisdom�Persepolis is a stunning work from one of the most highly regarded, singularly talented graphic artists at work today.]]> 341 Marjane Satrapi 0375714839 Tim 0 to-read 4.38 2007 The Complete Persepolis
author: Marjane Satrapi
name: Tim
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/04/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> Man’s Search for Meaning 4069 Man's Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.]]> 165 Viktor E. Frankl 080701429X Tim 5 4.39 1946 Man’s Search for Meaning
author: Viktor E. Frankl
name: Tim
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1946
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/04/04
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom]]> 6596 The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love. The Four Agreements are: Be Impeccable With Your Word, Don't Take Anything Personally, Don't Make Assumptions, Always Do Your Best.]]> 152 Miguel Ruiz 1878424505 Tim 0 to-read 4.20 1997 The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
author: Miguel Ruiz
name: Tim
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/04/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1)]]> 13569581 “The Sixth Order wields the sword of justice and smites the enemies of the Faith and the Realm.�

Vaelin Al Sorna was only a child of ten when his father left him at the iron gate of the Sixth Order. The Brothers of the Sixth Order are devoted to battle, and Vaelin will be trained and hardened to the austere, celibate, and dangerous life of a Warrior of the Faith. He has no family now save the Order.

Vaelin’s father was Battle Lord to King Janus, ruler of the unified realm. Vaelin’s rage at being deprived of his birthright and dropped at the doorstep of the Sixth Order like a foundling knows no bounds. He cherishes the memory of his mother, and what he will come to learn of her at the Order will confound him. His father, too, has motives that Vaelin will come to understand. But one truth overpowers all the rest: Vaelin Al Sorna is destined for a future he has yet to comprehend. A future that will alter not only the realm, but the world.]]> 591 Anthony Ryan 1466085665 Tim 0 to-read 4.42 2011 Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1)
author: Anthony Ryan
name: Tim
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/03/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Stories, #1)]]> 68527
The story is seen through the eyes of Uhtred, a dispossessed nobleman, who is captured as a child by the Danes and then raised by them so that, by the time the Northmen begin their assault on Wessex (Alfred’s kingdom and the last territory in English hands) Uhtred almost thinks of himself as a Dane. He certainly has no love for Alfred, whom he considers a pious weakling and no match for Viking savagery, yet when Alfred unexpectedly defeats the Danes and the Danes themselves turn on Uhtred, he is finally forced to choose sides. By now he is a young man, in love, trained to fight and ready to take his place in the dreaded shield wall. Above all, though, he wishes to recover his father’s land, the enchanting fort of Bebbanburg by the wild northern sea.

This thrilling adventure—based on existing records of Bernard Cornwell’s ancestors—depicts a time when law and order were ripped violently apart by a pagan assault on Christian England, an assault that came very close to destroying England.]]> 333 Bernard Cornwell 0060887184 Tim 3 4.27 2004 The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Stories, #1)
author: Bernard Cornwell
name: Tim
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2017/03/25
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]]> <![CDATA[At Play in the Fields of the Lord]]> 769729 373 Peter Matthiessen 0679737413 Tim 0 to-read 4.03 1965 At Play in the Fields of the Lord
author: Peter Matthiessen
name: Tim
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1965
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/02/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> Machine Man 6634696 185 Max Barry Tim 2 3.71 2008 Machine Man
author: Max Barry
name: Tim
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2017/01/26
shelves:
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]]> Jennifer Government 33356 335 Max Barry 0349117624 Tim 2 3.68 2002 Jennifer Government
author: Max Barry
name: Tim
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2017/01/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking]]> 18693884 The Freakonomics of math�a math-world superstar unveils the hidden beauty and logic of the world and puts its power in our hands

The math we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned. In How Not to Be Wrong, Jordan Ellenberg shows us how terribly limiting this view is: Math isn’t confined to abstract incidents that never occur in real life, but rather touches everything we do—the whole world is shot through with it.

Math allows us to see the hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of our world. It’s a science of not being wrong, hammered out by centuries of hard work and argument. Armed with the tools of mathematics, we can see through to the true meaning of information we take for granted: How early should you get to the airport? What does “public opinion� really represent? Why do tall parents have shorter children? Who really won Florida in 2000? And how likely are you, really, to develop cancer?

How Not to Be Wrong presents the surprising revelations behind all of these questions and many more, using the mathematician’s method of analyzing life and exposing the hard-won insights of the academic community to the layman—minus the jargon. Ellenberg chases mathematical threads through a vast range of time and space, from the everyday to the cosmic, encountering, among other things, baseball, Reaganomics, daring lottery schemes, Voltaire, the replicability crisis in psychology, Italian Renaissance painting, artificial languages, the development of non-Euclidean geometry, the coming obesity apocalypse, Antonin Scalia’s views on crime and punishment, the psychology of slime molds, what Facebook can and can’t figure out about you, and the existence of God.

Ellenberg pulls from history as well as from the latest theoretical developments to provide those not trained in math with the knowledge they need. Math, as Ellenberg says, is “an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense, vastly multiplying its reach and strength.� With the tools of mathematics in hand, you can understand the world in a deeper, more meaningful way. How Not to Be Wrong will show you how.]]> 480 Jordan Ellenberg 1594205221 Tim 0 currently-reading 3.95 2014 How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking
author: Jordan Ellenberg
name: Tim
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/01/17
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Lexicon 17410555
Whip-smart orphan Emily Ruff is making a living running a three-card Monte game on the streets of San Francisco when she attracts the attention of the organization’s recruiters. She is flown across the country for the school’s strange and rigorous entrance exams, where, once admitted, she will be taught the fundamentals of persuasion by Brontë, Eliot, and Lowell—who have adopted the names of famous poets to conceal their true identities. For in the organization, nothing is more dangerous than revealing who you are: Poets must never expose their feelings lest they be manipulated. Emily becomes the school’s most talented prodigy until she makes a catastrophic mistake: She falls in love.

Meanwhile, a seemingly innocent man named Wil Jamieson is brutally ambushed by two strange men in an airport bathroom. Although he has no recollection of anything they claim he’s done, it turns out Wil is the key to a secret war between rival factions of poets and is quickly caught in their increasingly deadly crossfire. Pursued relentlessly by people with powers he can barely comprehend and protected by the very man who first attacked him, Wil discovers that everything he thought he knew about his past was fiction. In order to survive, must journey to the toxically decimated tow nof Broken Hill, Australia, to discover who he is and why an entire town was blown off the map.

As the two narratives converge, the shocking work of the poets is fully revealed, the body count rises, and the world crashes toward a Tower of Babel event which would leave all language meaningless. Max Barry’s most spellbinding and ambitious novel yet, Lexicon is a brilliant thriller that explores language, power, identity, and our capacity to love—whatever the cost.]]> 400 Max Barry Tim 4 4.04 2013 Lexicon
author: Max Barry
name: Tim
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2013
rating: 4
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date added: 2017/01/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Atlantis Plague (The Origin Mystery, #2)]]> 31294120 The Atlantis Plague is the second book in The Origin Mystery, the blockbuster trilogy that has sold over two million copies in the US, has been translated into eighteen languages, and is in development to be a major motion picture.
__________________________________________________________________

A PANDEMIC 70,000 YEARS IN THE MAKING...
WILL CHANGE HUMANITY...
FOREVER.
__________________________________________________________________

In Marbella, Spain, Dr. Kate Warner awakens to a horrifying reality: the human race stands on the brink of extinction. A pandemic unlike any before it has swept the globe. Nearly a billion people are dead--and those the Atlantis Plague doesn't kill, it transforms at the genetic level. A few rapidly evolve. The remainder devolve.

As the world slips into chaos, radical solutions emerge. Industrialized nations offer a miracle drug, Orchid, which they mass produce and distribute to refugee camps around the world. But Orchid is merely a way to buy time. It treats the symptoms of the plague but never cures the disease.

Immari International offers a different approach: do nothing. Let the plague run its course. The Immari envision a world populated by the genetically superior survivors--a new human race, ready to fulfill its destiny.

With control of the world population hanging in the balance, the Orchid Alliance and the Immari descend into open warfare. Now humanity's last hope is to find a cure, and Kate alone holds the key to unraveling the mystery surrounding the Atlantis Plague. The answer may lie in understanding pivotal events in human history--events when the human genome mysteriously changed. Kate's journey takes her across the barren wastelands of Europe and northern Africa, but it's her research into the past that takes her where she never expected to go. She soon discovers that the history of human evolution is not what it seems--and setting it right may require a sacrifice she never imagined.
__________________________________________________________________

"The human race must remain as one. All other roads lead to ruin."
- The Orchid Alliance

"Evolution is inevitable. Only fools fight fate."
- Immari International
]]> 544 A.G. Riddle 1940026024 Tim 4 4.15 2013 The Atlantis Plague (The Origin Mystery, #2)
author: A.G. Riddle
name: Tim
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/11/12
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]]> <![CDATA[A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form]]> 6232657 140 Paul Lockhart 1934137170 Tim 0 to-read 4.18 2009 A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form
author: Paul Lockhart
name: Tim
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/10/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Hike 27833803 From the author of The Postmortal, a fantasy saga unlike any you’ve read before, weaving elements of folk tale and video game into a riveting, unforgettable adventure of what a man will endure to return to his family

When Ben, a suburban family man, takes a business trip to rural Pennsylvania, he decides to spend the afternoon before his dinner meeting on a short hike. Once he sets out into the woods behind his hotel, he quickly comes to realize that the path he has chosen cannot be given up easily. With no choice but to move forward, Ben finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a world of man-eating giants, bizarre demons, and colossal insects.

On a quest of epic, life-or-death proportions, Ben finds help comes in some of the most unexpected forms, including a profane crustacean and a variety of magical objects, tools, and potions. Desperate to return to his family, Ben is determined to track down the “Producer,� the creator of the world in which he is being held hostage and the only one who can free him from the path.

At once bitingly funny and emotionally absorbing, Magary’s novel is a remarkably unique addition to the contemporary fantasy genre, one that draws as easily from the world of classic folk tales as it does from video games. In The Hike, Magary takes readers on a daring odyssey away from our day-to-day grind and transports them into an enthralling world propelled by heart, imagination, and survival.]]> 278 Drew Magary 0399563857 Tim 5 3.96 2016 The Hike
author: Drew Magary
name: Tim
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2016
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/10/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before]]> 273520
Herself a member of Generation Me, Dr. Twenge uses findings from the largest intergenerational research study ever conducted -- with data from 1.3 million respondents spanning six decades—to reveal how profoundly different today's young adults are. Here are the often shocking truths about this generation, including dramatic differences in sexual behavior, as well as controversial predictions about what the future holds for them and society as a whole. Her often humorous, eyebrow-raising stories about real people vividly bring to life the hopes and dreams, disappointments and challenges of Generation Me.

GenMe has created a profound shift in the American character, changing what it means to be an individual in today's society. The collision of this generation's entitled self-focus and today's competitive marketplace will create one of the most daunting challenges of the new century. Engaging, controversial, prescriptive, funny, "Generation Me" will give Boomers new insight into their offspring, and help those in their teens, 20s, and 30s finally make sense of themselves and their goals and find their road to happiness.]]> 304 Jean M. Twenge 0743276981 Tim 4 3.56 2006 Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before
author: Jean M. Twenge
name: Tim
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2006
rating: 4
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date added: 2016/10/11
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]]> <![CDATA[There's No I in Office: 4293 Meaningless Phrases to Keep Your Coworkers Smiling While Avoiding Actual Conversation]]> 6332210 “This is the Michael Jordan of books.� —Adam Carolla

“Completely and totally unwittingly, Paul Koehorst and Jacob Lentz have written perhaps the most important new business book since Who Moved My Cheese?� —Jim Cramer, Mad Money with Jim Cramer

Like ’em, hate ’em or simply too busy to deal with ’em, you’re going to end up face to face with ’em in the elevator, at the water cooler and around every cubicle: friendly, talkative coworkers. Ignore them and they’ll think you’re conceited and make your job miserable. Talk to them and you’ll waste valuable time or even worse—end up in a burdensome friendship.

The ultimate business book parody, There’s No I in Office provides a solution to this conundrum of office politics so brilliant that it’s just stupid enough to actually work. Packed with meaningless things to say in any work situation, these 4293 clever little phrases will amuse your coworkers without starting a real conversation. It’s your ticket to becoming a beloved stranger to everyone in the office.
]]> 377 Jacob Lentz 1569757011 Tim 5 3.70 2009 There's No I in Office: 4293 Meaningless Phrases to Keep Your Coworkers Smiling While Avoiding Actual Conversation
author: Jacob Lentz
name: Tim
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2009
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/10/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Hollow City (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, # 2)]]> 18001867
This second novel begins in 1940, immediately after the first book ended. Having escaped Miss Peregrine’s island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. Along the way, they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals, and other unexpected surprises.

Complete with dozens of newly discovered (and thoroughly mesmerizing) vintage photographs, this new adventure will delight readers of all ages.]]> 402 Ransom Riggs Tim 2 4.23 2014 Hollow City (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, # 2)
author: Ransom Riggs
name: Tim
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2014
rating: 2
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]]> Armada 25016389 From the author of Ready Player One, a rollicking alien invasion thriller that embraces and subverts science-fiction conventions as only Ernest Cline could.Zack Lightman has never much cared for reality. He vastly prefers the countless science-fiction movies, books, and videogames he's spent his life consuming. And too often, he catches himself wishing that some fantastic, impossible, world-altering event could arrive to whisk him off on a grand spacefaring adventure. So when he sees the flying saucer, he's sure his years of escapism have finally tipped over into madness. Especially because the alien ship he's staring at is straight out of his favorite videogame, a flight simulator callled Armada--in which gamers just happen to be protecting Earth from alien invaders. As impossible as it seems, what Zack's seeing is all too real. And it's just the first in a blur of revlations that will force him to question everything he thought he knew about Earth's history, its future, even his own life--and to play the hero for real, with humanity's life in the balance. But even through the terror and exhilaration, he can't help Doesn't something about this scenario feel a little bit like...well...fiction? At once reinventing and paying homage to science-fiction classics as only Ernest Cline can, Armada is a rollicking, surprising thriller, a coming-of-age adventure, and an alien invasion tale like nothing you've ever read before.]]> 368 Ernest Cline Tim 3 3.72 2015 Armada
author: Ernest Cline
name: Tim
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2015
rating: 3
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]]> The Girl on the Train 22754100 326 Paula Hawkins Tim 4 4.07 2015 The Girl on the Train
author: Paula Hawkins
name: Tim
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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]]> The Given Day (Coughlin #1) 2830067 New York Times best-selling author Dennis Lehane's long-awaited eighth novel unflinchingly captures the political and social unrest of a nation caught at the crossroads between past and future.

The Given Day tells the story of two families—one black, one white—swept up in a maelstrom of revolutionaries and anarchists, immigrants and ward bosses, Brahmins and ordinary citizens, all engaged in a battle for survival and power.

Beat cop Danny Coughlin, the son of one of the city's most beloved and powerful police captains, joins a burgeoning union movement and the hunt for violent radicals.

Luther Laurence, on the run after a deadly confrontation with a crime boss in Tulsa, works for the Coughlin family and tries desperately to find his way home to his pregnant wife.

Here, too, are some of the most influential figures of the era—Babe Ruth; Eugene O'Neill; leftist activist Jack Reed; NAACP founder W. E. B. DuBois; Mitchell Palmer, Woodrow Wilson's ruthless Red-chasing attorney general; cunning Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge; and an ambitious young Department of Justice lawyer named John Hoover.

Coursing through some of the pivotal events of the time—including the Spanish Influenza pandemic—and culminating in the Boston Police Strike of 1919, The Given Day explores the crippling violence and irrepressible exuberance of a country at war with, and in the thrall of, itself. As Danny, Luther, and those around them struggle to define themselves in increasingly turbulent times, they gradually find family in one another and, together, ride a rising storm of hardship, deprivation, and hope that will change all their lives.]]> 704 Dennis Lehane 0688163181 Tim 4 4.04 2008 The Given Day (Coughlin #1)
author: Dennis Lehane
name: Tim
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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]]> Sharp Objects 66559
Sent to investigate the disappearance of two little girls, Camille finds herself reluctantly installed in the family mansion, reacquainting herself with her distant mother and a precocious thirteen-year-old half-sister she barely knows. Haunted by a family tragedy, troubled by the disquieting grip her young sister has on the town, Camille struggles with a familiar need to be accepted.

But as clues turn into dead ends, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims and realises: she will have to unravel the puzzle of her own past if she's to survive this homecoming.]]> 254 Gillian Flynn 0307341542 Tim 4 3.89 2006 Sharp Objects
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Tim
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2006
rating: 4
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date added: 2016/10/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West]]> 394535 Blood Meridian is an epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the Wild West. Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into a nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.]]> 351 Cormac McCarthy Tim 4 4.18 1985 Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Tim
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1985
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)]]> 43615
He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland pursues The Man in Black, encounters an alluring woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the Kid from Earth called Jake. Both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, The Gunslinger leaves readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter.]]> 231 Stephen King 1501143514 Tim 3 3.95 1982 The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)
author: Stephen King
name: Tim
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1982
rating: 3
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]]> And the Mountains Echoed 16115612 404 Khaled Hosseini 159463176X Tim 4 4.06 2012 And the Mountains Echoed
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Tim
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 4
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]]> Have Space Suit—Will Travel 20417 276 Robert A. Heinlein 1416505490 Tim 3 3.92 1958 Have Space Suit—Will Travel
author: Robert A. Heinlein
name: Tim
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1958
rating: 3
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date added: 2016/10/11
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]]>