en-US Thu, 28 Apr 2022 15:46:12 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 44382 279 Milan Kundera 0060927518 Adrian 4 4.10 1993
author: Milan Kundera
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/04/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 28715 Blood Meridian is an epic tale of the violence and corruption that attended America’s westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the “Wild West.� Its wounded hero, the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennessean, must confront the extraordinary brutality of the Glanton gang, a murderous cadre on an official mission to scalp Indians. Seeming to preside over this nightmarish world is the diabolical Judge Holden, one of the most unforgettable characters in American fiction.

Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, Blood Meridian represents a genius vision of the historical West, one whose stature has only grown in the twenty-five years since its publication.]]> 351 Cormac McCarthy 0679641041 Adrian 3 4.25 1985
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at: 2006/11/01
date added: 2020/11/13
shelves:
review:
A savage story of the "Real" West, told through the eyes of a nameless Kid. The endless spaces and open skies of the American Southwest and the Mexican border country are the backdrop for a stomach-churning bloodbath. The Kid is a member of a gang of mercenaries hired to harvest the scalps of the local "Indian" tribes. The combination of the lack of social structures to impose control and the sense of freedom given by the almost people less landscape produces massacre after massacre of the Indians that the gang does encounter. The mercenaries are there to civilize the indigenous people, their brand of education leads to self-destruction and the death of almost everyone involved in the original mission. In many ways, it is a story about the dangers of hubris and arrogance and the price that eventually has to be paid for overreaching oneself.
]]> 327742 70th Anniversary Edition with a New Foreword by Sunday Times Bestselling Author Simon Sebag Montefiore

'A classic' Observer | 'A legend' Washington Post | 'The best book you will read this year' Colonel Tim Collins

Posted to Moscow as a young diplomat before the Second World War, Fitzroy Maclean travelled widely, with or without permission, in some of the wildest and remotest parts of the Soviet Union, then virtually closed to foreigners. In 1942 he fought as a founder member of the SAS in North Africa. There Maclean specialised in hair-raising commando raids behind enemy lines, including the daring and outrageous kidnapping of the German Consul in Axis-controlled Iraq. In 1943 he parachuted into German-occupied Yugoslavia as Winston Churchill's personal representative to Josip Broz Tito and remained there until 1945, all enemy attempts to capture him proving unsuccessful.

Eastern Approaches is Maclean's classic, gripping account of the sybaritic delights of diplomatic life, the thrill of remote travel in the then-forbidden zones of Central Asia, and the violence and adventure of world-changing tours in North Africa and Yugoslavia. Maclean is the original British action hero and this is blistering reading.

'This book literally changed my life' Simon Sebag Montefiore

'A man of daring character' Winston Churchill

'An absorbing mixture of military adventure, political judgement, urbane wit, cool humour and surprising incident' Financial Times

'One of the bravest men in the British army, and one of the funniest' Ben Macintyre

'Entertaining, important, the model for James Bond' New York Times]]> 576 Fitzroy Maclean 0140132716 Adrian 4 After he left the U.S.S.R., he volunteered for the British Army and was sent to North Africa. He became a part of the S.A.S. and went on missions all over North Africa, Iraq and Iran. He subsequently became head of the Allied Mission to Yugoslavia and a friend of Tito.
It is a remarkable adventure story and not at all in the same vein as the idiotic History Channel style World War II books that have swamped America in the last few years. If you want an intelligent, keenly observed, insider's account of a massively important era in modern history, and a thrilling story, read this book.
]]> 4.44 1949
author: Fitzroy Maclean
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1949
rating: 4
read at: 2007/01/01
date added: 2014/07/31
shelves:
review:
A book that tells a very interesting story of a remarkable man. Fitzroy MacLean was a British Foreign Service worker in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, and his book offers a very detailed and well-written account of a bizarre and scary place. He refused to allow the tight control that outsiders were subject to stop him from exploring Southern Russia and Central Asia, places where life had barely changed since the Late Middle Ages.
After he left the U.S.S.R., he volunteered for the British Army and was sent to North Africa. He became a part of the S.A.S. and went on missions all over North Africa, Iraq and Iran. He subsequently became head of the Allied Mission to Yugoslavia and a friend of Tito.
It is a remarkable adventure story and not at all in the same vein as the idiotic History Channel style World War II books that have swamped America in the last few years. If you want an intelligent, keenly observed, insider's account of a massively important era in modern history, and a thrilling story, read this book.

]]> 90411 253 Arturo PĂ©rez-Reverte 0452287111 Adrian 2 3.77 1996
author: Arturo PĂ©rez-Reverte
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1996
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2012/01/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 823827
A thrilling murder mystery, Mv Name is Red is also a stunning meditation on love, artistic devotion and the tensions between East and West
--back cover]]> 508 Orhan Pamuk 0571212247 Adrian 5 3.66 1998
author: Orhan Pamuk
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/11/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 76507 The Emigrants appears simply to document the lives of four Jewish émigrés in the twentieth century. But gradually, as Sebald's precise, almost dreamlike prose begins to draw their stories, the four narrations merge into one overwhelming evocation of exile and loss.

Written with a bone-dry sense of humour and a fascination with the oddness of existence The Emigrants is highly original in its heady mix of fact, memory and fiction and photographs.]]> 237 W.G. Sebald 0099448882 Adrian 5 4.20 1992
author: W.G. Sebald
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/10/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 434903 The Rings of Saturn � with its curious archive of photographs � records a walking tour along the east coast of England. A few of the things which cross the path and mind of its narrator (who both is and is not Sebald) are lonely eccentrics, Sir Thomas Browne's skull, a matchstick model of the Temple of Jerusalem, recession-hit seaside towns, wooded hills, Joseph Conrad, Rembrandt's "Anatomy Lesson," the natural history of the herring, the massive bombings of WWII, the dowager empress Tzu Hsi, and the silk industry in Norwich.]]> 296 W.G. Sebald 0811214133 Adrian 5 This book deals with a walking tour that the narrator (Sebald) makes around Norfolk and Suffolk on the North Sea coast of England. This area of England had its peak of importance many hundreds of years ago when the wool trade with the Continent was the main source of revenue for the country and Norfolk ports were the richest and busiest in England. The area has experienced a long slow decline since the Middle Ages and Sebald describes it as an unreal place, fallen out of step with the rest of the world and as being almost removed from Time. His journey around the coast is a description of human history and the impossibility of really knowing our world and and how our lives and death fit into it.
It's very hard to do justice to the character of his writing and of the way that his books take over your mind when you are reading them. I hope I don't sound completely ridiculous with this review. But this book is fantastic and compelling and completely necessary, pretty much an essential book.
]]> 4.26 1995
author: W.G. Sebald
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2008/06/01
date added: 2011/10/05
shelves:
review:
Sebald has become something of an obsession. His books take a hold of you in a way that can't be properly explained. They catch you off guard and it's impossible to not be fascinated by the way that he writes and by the topics that he decides to focus on.
This book deals with a walking tour that the narrator (Sebald) makes around Norfolk and Suffolk on the North Sea coast of England. This area of England had its peak of importance many hundreds of years ago when the wool trade with the Continent was the main source of revenue for the country and Norfolk ports were the richest and busiest in England. The area has experienced a long slow decline since the Middle Ages and Sebald describes it as an unreal place, fallen out of step with the rest of the world and as being almost removed from Time. His journey around the coast is a description of human history and the impossibility of really knowing our world and and how our lives and death fit into it.
It's very hard to do justice to the character of his writing and of the way that his books take over your mind when you are reading them. I hope I don't sound completely ridiculous with this review. But this book is fantastic and compelling and completely necessary, pretty much an essential book.

]]> 3263899
This memoir, acknowledged as a masterpiece, grew out of two great loves � for Woodbrook and for Phoebe, his pupil. In it he builds up a delicate, lyrical picture of a gentle pre-war society, of Irish history and troubled Anglo-Irish relations, and of a delightful family. Above all, his story reverberates with the enchantment of falling in love and with the desolation of bereavement.]]> 332 David Thomson 009935991X Adrian 5 ireland The book is a beautiful rendering of a fading civilization, a documentation of the last vestiges of late medieval Irish society that had managed to hang on in the isolated and impoverished West of Ireland. As the book progresses the reader becomes more and more attached to the Kirkwoods and the inevitably tragic ending of the story is no less bitter because the reader can see it coming.
Woodbrook is a graceful elegy for a family and the way of life they represented and I heartily recommend it.
]]> 3.91 1974
author: David Thomson
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at: 2007/01/01
date added: 2011/07/15
shelves: ireland
review:
This book brings together many strands of writing: memoir, history, folklore, social and political analysis. Above all, it is a love story; love for a place and for a family. David Thomson went to rural Roscommon in the West of Ireland to act as a tutor to a family of Anglo-Irish aristocrats. The Kirkwood family had been in Ireland for centuries but a combination of frivolity, irresponsibility and bad luck had caused their fortune to dwindle and for them to fall on hard times. Thomson tells the historical story of the Kirkwood family and how they fit into the larger movements of Anglo-Irish history. He also tells, in affectionate detail, the story of the Kirkwoods that he knew personally; especially moving is his depiction of Phoebe Kirkwood. His love for Phoebe forms the emotional core of the book and in many ways Woodbrook was written as homage to her.
The book is a beautiful rendering of a fading civilization, a documentation of the last vestiges of late medieval Irish society that had managed to hang on in the isolated and impoverished West of Ireland. As the book progresses the reader becomes more and more attached to the Kirkwoods and the inevitably tragic ending of the story is no less bitter because the reader can see it coming.
Woodbrook is a graceful elegy for a family and the way of life they represented and I heartily recommend it.

]]> 28637
Kundera's discussion of his own work includes his views on the role of historical events in fiction, the meaning of action, and the creation of character in the post-psychological novel.]]> 170 Milan Kundera 0060093749 Adrian 4 4.00 1986
author: Milan Kundera
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1986
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/03/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 1111 The Power Broker tells the hidden story behind the shaping (and mis-shaping) of twentieth-century New York (city and state) and makes public what few have known: that Robert Moses was, for almost half a century, the single most powerful man of our time in New York, the shaper not only of the city's politics but of its physical structure and the problems of urban decline that plague us today.

In revealing how Moses did it--how he developed his public authorities into a political machine that was virtually a fourth branch of government, one that could bring to their knees Governors and Mayors (from La Guardia to Lindsay) by mobilizing banks, contractors, labor unions, insurance firms, even the press and the Church, into an irresistible economic force--Robert Caro reveals how power works in all the cities of the United States. Moses built an empire and lived like an emperor. He personally conceived and completed public works costing 27 billion dollars--the greatest builder America (and probably the world) has ever known. Without ever having been elected to office, he dominated the men who were--even his most bitter enemy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, could not control him--until he finally encountered, in Nelson Rockefeller, the only man whose power (and ruthlessness in wielding it) equalled his own.]]> 1246 Robert A. Caro 0394720245 Adrian 5 urbanecology 4.51 1974
author: Robert A. Caro
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.51
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at: 2002/07/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves: urbanecology
review:
Brilliant, completely engrossing account of Moses but also of New York. The book is as much a history of 20th Century New York and all that was beautiful and tragic about it as much as as the story of the megalomaniacal genius who almost destroyed the city to satisfy his "edifice complex." The book is amazingly detailed, but don't be put off by the length, it's a worthy investment.
]]> 7859 464 Mike Davis 1859843824 Adrian 3 4.20 2000
author: Mike Davis
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
A massively informed but quite boring book about an aspect of colonial history that has received little attention. The author documents how changing weather patterns combined with human incompetence, racism and indifference lead to the deaths of millions of people. The book drags quite a lot in those sections where the author goes into the technical details of how El Nino works and how it created famine conditions. The story of the famines and the suffering they engendered are horrifying and heartbreaking and the book is a grim account of the destruction wrought by imperial folly and triumph of profits over people.
]]> 12147 476 Richard Adams Adrian 4 4.17 1972
author: Richard Adams
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1972
rating: 4
read at: 2005/10/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
A savage view of the animal world that is hidden by the charms of bucolic Berkshire. The violence and aggression of the competing rabbits can come as a shock if you are used to images of cute bunnies chewing contentedly on lettuce leaves. A Darwinian struggles wrapped in an absorbing and emotionally rending tale.
]]> 94797 Ěý
Ghosts of Spain is the fascinating result of that journey. In elegant and passionate prose, Tremlett unveils the tinderbox of disagreements that mark the country today. DelvingĚý into such emotional questions as who caused the Civil War, why Basque terrorists kill, why Catalans hate Madrid, and whether the Islamist bombers who killed 190 people in 2004 dreamed of a return to Spain’s Moorish past, Tremlett finds the ghosts of the past everywhere. At the same time, he offers trenchant observations on more quotidian aspects of Spanish life today: the reasons, for example, Spaniards dislike authority figures, but are cowed by a doctor’s white coat, and how women have embraced feminism without men noticing.
Ěý
Drawing on the author’s twenty years of experience living in Spain, Ghosts of Spain is a revelatory book about one of Europe’s most exciting countries.]]> 400 Giles Tremlett 0802715745 Adrian 4 It is especially informative about the transition between Francoism and the democracy that took root after. Spaniards entered into an almost unconscious pact of forgetting, they collectively refused to talk about the past so as to make sure that the rancor and bitterness that characterized the 1936-1939 Civil War would not surface again. This however, led to a lack of accountability and a lack of closure for those who suffered under the Fascist regime. This silence still drives the politics of 21st century Spain and this book is an interesting exploration of that dynamic.
]]> 3.90 2006
author: Giles Tremlett
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2007/03/01
date added: 2009/12/16
shelves:
review:
Very readable, concise account of modern Spanish history. The author travels around Spain to different places of varying historical import and analyzes the changes and local histories as a way of commenting on the broader trajectory of modern Spain.
It is especially informative about the transition between Francoism and the democracy that took root after. Spaniards entered into an almost unconscious pact of forgetting, they collectively refused to talk about the past so as to make sure that the rancor and bitterness that characterized the 1936-1939 Civil War would not surface again. This however, led to a lack of accountability and a lack of closure for those who suffered under the Fascist regime. This silence still drives the politics of 21st century Spain and this book is an interesting exploration of that dynamic.

]]> 4952 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, What Is the What is the epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children —the so-called Lost Boys—was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom. When he finally is resettled in the United States, he finds a life full of promise, but also heartache and myriad new challenges. Moving, suspenseful, and unexpectedly funny, What Is the What is an astonishing novel that illuminates the lives of millions through one extraordinary man.
-back cover]]> 475 Dave Eggers 1932416641 Adrian 4 4.14 2006
author: Dave Eggers
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2009/07/01
date added: 2009/10/06
shelves:
review:
As someone who works in the field of refugee resettlement, this book about the tribulations of a Sudanese boy and his eventual resettlement in the United States was bound to be an affecting experience. Achak Deng is a remarkable survivor and his story is both moving and horrifying. My only problem is with the way that Dave Eggers' voice as the "ghostwriter" sometimes overwhelms Ackak's telling of his own story. But overall a good book about an often forgotten part of the world.
]]> 308059 354 Eric J. Hobsbawm 0679772545 Adrian 3 4.27 1975
author: Eric J. Hobsbawm
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1975
rating: 3
read at: 2009/06/01
date added: 2009/10/06
shelves:
review:
There can be great pleasure derived from an old style history book such as this. The author has a certain period of time that he wants to analyze and he gives a very readable overview. The author has his agenda and bias, left-wing but not militantly so, but in an era of increasing, sometimes absurd specialization in the field of history, it's nice to have the big picture sometimes.
]]> 166433 615 Nicholas Ostler 0060935723 Adrian 4 4.08 2005
author: Nicholas Ostler
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2009/05/01
date added: 2009/10/06
shelves:
review:
For anyone interested in the development of the world's major language systems this book will be very rewarding. The author details the rise and development of major languages such as Persian, Arabic, Chinese, English, Sanskrit and shows their evolution over time. The author also does of good job of showing how the the language of a people provides the framework and the limitations for the culture and thought of the various people studied.
]]> 91360
Is your investment in that new Internet stock a sign of stock market savvy or an act of peculiarly American speculative folly? How has the psychology of investing changed—and not changed—over the last five hundred years?

In Devil Take the Hindmost , Edward ChancellorĚýtraces the origins of the speculative spirit back to ancient Rome and chronicles its revival in the modern world: from the tulip scandal of 1630s Holland, toĚý“stockjobbing”Ěýin London's Exchange Alley, to the infamous South Sea Bubble of 1720, which prompted Sir Isaac Newton to comment, “I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.â€�

Here are brokers underwriting risks that included highway robbery and the “assurance of female chastity�; credit notes and lottery tickets circulating as money; wise and unwise investors from Alexander Pope and Benjamin Disraeli to Ivan Boesky and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

From the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties, from the nineteenth century railway mania to the crash of 1929, from junk bonds and the Japanese bubble economy to the day-traders of the Information Era, Devil Take the Hindmost tells a fascinating story of human dreams and folly through the ages.]]> 400 Edward Chancellor 0452281806 Adrian 4 3.98 1996
author: Edward Chancellor
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2009/03/01
date added: 2009/10/06
shelves:
review:
This book details various financial disasters brought about by the human propensity to think "This time it's different!" Since the formation of modern capitalist economies starting in the Netherlands in the 1600s we've experienced a series of spectacular economic crashes brought about by hubris, greed and stupidity. It's hard to tell whether what is happening to our economy today is tragedy or farce when it is simply the latest in a long line of examples of how humans never learn their lesson.
]]> 822438
The renowned novelist Carlos Fuentes has crafted a unique history of the social, political, and economic forces that created the remarkable culture which stretches from the mysterious cave drawings at Altamira to the explosive graffiti on the walls of East Los Angeles.

“A bittersweet celebration of the hybrid culture of Spain in the New World…Drawing expertly on five centuries of the cultural history of Europe and the Americas, Fuentes seeks to capture the spirit of the new, vibrant, and enduring civilization [in the New World] that began in Spain."� Los Angeles Times]]> 400 Carlos Fuentes 0395924995 Adrian 4 4.03 1992
author: Carlos Fuentes
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2009/05/01
date added: 2009/10/06
shelves:
review:
Very interesting overview of (mostly) Mexican history since the time of Cortes. The book examines the impact on the indigenous Indian culture of Mexico ways of being and thinking imported from Spain and traces how the modern day country of Mexico precariously balances between those two inheritances.
]]> 599106
In these pages, Robert Hughes scrolls through Barcelona's often violent history; tells the stories of its kings, poets, magnates, and revolutionaries; and ushers readers through municipal landmarks that range from Antoni Gaudi's sublimely surreal cathedral to a postmodern restaurant with a glass-walled urinal. The result is a work filled with the attributes of Barcelona proportion, humor, andĚý seny —the Catalan word for triumphant common sense.]]> 592 Robert Hughes 0679743839 Adrian 5 3.87 1992
author: Robert Hughes
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/10/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 14257
Meanwhile, an aboriginal in Tasmania named Peevay recounts his people’s struggles against the invading British, a story that begins in 1824, moves into the present with approach of the English passengers in 1857, and extends into the future in 1870. These characters and many others come together in a storm of voices that vividly bring a past age to life.]]> 446 Matthew Kneale 038549744X Adrian 5 4.08 2000
author: Matthew Kneale
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2009/10/06
shelves:
review:
This is an extremely funny and gripping book. The story is told from multiple perspectives and all overlap to give a very diverting overview of the early history of Tasmania and the political, social, and scientific underpinnings of early 19th century European colonialism. The book's characters are wonderfully drawn, the sailors from the Isle of Man are some of the funniest I've seen in fiction. Highly recommended.
]]> 175675 Ragtime changed our very concept of what a novel could be. An extraordinary tapestry, Ragtime captures the spirit of America in the era between the turn of the century & the First World War. The story opens in 1906 in New Rochelle, NY, at the home of an affluent American family. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside their house. Almost magically, the line between fantasy & historical fact, between real & imaginary characters, disappears. Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud & Emiliano Zapata slip in & out of the tale, crossing paths with Doctorow's imagined family & other fictional characters, including an immigrant peddler & a ragtime musician from Harlem whose insistence on a point of justice drives him to revolutionary violence.]]> 320 E.L. Doctorow 0812978188 Adrian 4 3.88 1975
author: E.L. Doctorow
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1975
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/10/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 3344411 543 Hans Fallada 1933633638 Adrian 4 4.22 1947
author: Hans Fallada
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1947
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/10/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 11690
Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy–or–hĂĽłúĂĽ˛Ôâ€�that all Istanbullus share: the sadness that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire.

With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and painters–both Turkish and foreign–who would shape his consciousness of his city.

Like Joyce’s Dublin and Borges� Buenos Aires, Pamuk’s Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.]]> 356 Orhan Pamuk 1400033888 Adrian 4 3.82 2003
author: Orhan Pamuk
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/10/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 2459785
Twenty years later, the found boy, Rob Ryan, is a detective on the Dublin Murder Squad and keeps his past a secret. But when a 12-year-old girl is found murdered in the same woods, he and Detective Cassie Maddox (his partner and closest friend) find themselves investigating a case chillingly similar to the previous unsolved mystery. Now, with only snippets of long-buried memories to guide him, Ryan has the chance to uncover both the mystery of the case before him and that of his own shadowy past.

A gorgeously written novel that marks the debut of an astonishing new voice in psychological suspense.]]> 448 Tana French Adrian 2 3.83 2007
author: Tana French
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2009/10/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 14491 490 Mark Mazower 0375727388 Adrian 4 4.29 2004
author: Mark Mazower
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2009/10/06
date added: 2009/10/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 88442 Austerlitz, the internationally acclaimed masterpiece by “one of the most gripping writers imaginable� (The New York Review of Books), is the story of a man’s search for the answer to his life’s central riddle. A small child when he comes to England on a Kindertransport in the summer of 1939, one Jacques Austerlitz is told nothing of his real family by the Welsh Methodist minister and his wife who raise him. When he is a much older man, the fleeting memories return to him, and obeying an instinct he only dimly understands, he follows their trail back to the world he left behind a half century before. There, faced with the void at the heart of twentieth-century Europe, he struggles to rescue his heritage from oblivion.]]> 415 W.G. Sebald 0140297995 Adrian 5 3.97 2001
author: W.G. Sebald
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2008/12/03
date added: 2008/12/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 6969 The newest edition is here. Another alternate cover can be found here.

Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen's most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoilt, vain and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village and plays matchmaker with devastating effect.]]> 474 Jane Austen 0141439580 Adrian 3 4.05 1815
author: Jane Austen
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1815
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/11/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 869436
Stern brings to life the five Germanys he has experienced: Weimar, the Third Reich, postwar West and East Germanys, and the unified country after 1990. Through his engagement with the nation from which he and his family fled, he shows that the tumultuous history of Germany, alternately the strength and the scourge of Europe, offers political lessons for citizens everywhere—especially those facing or escaping from tyranny. In this wise, tough-minded, and subtle book, Stern, himself a passionately engaged citizen, looks beyond Germany to issues of political responsibility that concern everyone. Five Germanys I Have Known vindicates his belief that, at its best, history is our most dramatic introduction to a moral civic life.]]> 576 Fritz Stern 0374530866 Adrian 4 3.96 2006
author: Fritz Stern
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/11/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 11486
Then her husband's lover, a flamboyant blues singer, barreled into her world and gave Celie the courage to ask for more - to laugh, to play, and finally - to love.]]> 295 Alice Walker Adrian 3 4.22 1982
author: Alice Walker
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1982
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/11/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 839103 216 Sylvia Plath 0553278355 Adrian 2 4.01 1963
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1963
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2008/11/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 46429 A Coffin for Dimitrios remains Eric Ambler's most widely acclaimed novel.]]> 304 Eric Ambler 0375726713 Adrian 4 3.93 1939
author: Eric Ambler
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1939
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/07/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 161712 473 Jason Elliot 0312288468 Adrian 5 4.05 1999
author: Jason Elliot
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1999
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2008/07/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 6867
On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses the flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant. But Briony’s incomplete grasp of adult motives and her precocious imagination bring about a crime that will change all their lives, a crime whose repercussions Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century.]]> 351 Ian McEwan 038572179X Adrian 5 3.94 2001
author: Ian McEwan
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2008/05/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 189572 448 Peter Linebaugh 0807050075 Adrian 5 4.13 2000
author: Peter Linebaugh
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2008/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 230733 Straw Dogs is a work of philosophy, which sets out to challenge our most cherished assumptions about what it means to be human. From Plato to Christianity, from the Enlightenment to Nietzsche, the Western tradition has been based on arrogant and erroneous beliefs about human beings and their place in the world. Philosophies such as liberalism and Marxism think of humankind as a species whose destiny is to transcend natural limits and conquer the Earth. Even in the present day, despite Darwin's discoveries, nearly all schools of thought take as their starting point the belief that humans are radically different from other animals. John Gray argues that this humanist belief is an illusion. The aim of Straw Dogs is to explore how the world and human life look once humanism has been finally abandoned.
Straw Dogs explores philosophical issues such as the nature of the self, free will, morality, progress and the value of truth. Drawing his inspiration from art, poetry, and the frontiers of science as well as philosophy itself, John Gray presents a post-humanist view of the world and of human life. Straw Dogs is an exhilarating, sometimes disturbing book that leads the reader to question their deepest beliefs.]]> 246 John Gray 1862075964 Adrian 5 3.95 2002
author: John Gray
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2006/01/01
date added: 2008/03/06
shelves:
review:
A savage kick in the face of a book, a white hot iron poked into your brain by someone who is not interested in appealing to any of our notions about Western culture or civilization. Or at least that's what it felt like to me when I first read it. The premise of the book is simple. Human life has no over arching purpose, no meaning, no happy ending and no salvation. Gray spends his time trying to prove this point and to liberate the reader from the anxieties that hoping and wanting for more out of life than is possible causes. It's not a book to take lightly, but it's also not simply designed to make you depressed. If anything, it's uplifting and freeing. Life is really what you make of it and its meaning is yours to create.
]]> 722231 272 John Gray 1565845927 Adrian 4 The purpose of the book is to examine how the economies of these countries actually work, not how their policies fit into theoretical models of economic behavior. The U.S./British model comes off looking very inadequate by comparison, not so much because of its ineffectiveness as a wealth or productivity increasing mode of organization, but because of the parallels with religion that Free Market Economies show. Gray is highly critical of Free Market Capitalism because of its fundamental irrationality. Our economy is based on the belief that markets work better than any other system, on faith that the market can solve any problem, improve any inefficiency. Other methods of economic organization are dismissed in the US because they pose a challenge to orthodoxy, to religion, not only to our elite classes.
The biggest problem with the book in my mind is that it is rapidly becoming out of date. The world economy has changed so much since the book was first published and a comprehensively updated edition would be very welcome.
]]> 3.90 1998
author: John Gray
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2005/07/01
date added: 2008/03/06
shelves:
review:
This book examines different modes of economic organization around the world. The social or even socialist capitalism of the E.U., the gangster capitalism of Russia, the state driven economy of China and the consensus based capitalism of Japan are compared with the Free Market Fundamentalism of the U.S. and Britain.
The purpose of the book is to examine how the economies of these countries actually work, not how their policies fit into theoretical models of economic behavior. The U.S./British model comes off looking very inadequate by comparison, not so much because of its ineffectiveness as a wealth or productivity increasing mode of organization, but because of the parallels with religion that Free Market Economies show. Gray is highly critical of Free Market Capitalism because of its fundamental irrationality. Our economy is based on the belief that markets work better than any other system, on faith that the market can solve any problem, improve any inefficiency. Other methods of economic organization are dismissed in the US because they pose a challenge to orthodoxy, to religion, not only to our elite classes.
The biggest problem with the book in my mind is that it is rapidly becoming out of date. The world economy has changed so much since the book was first published and a comprehensively updated edition would be very welcome.

]]> 124548
In this “excellent short introduction to modern thought� (The Guardian), first published in 2003, Gray warns that the United States, once a champion of revolutionary economic and social change, must now understand its new foes. He also confronts some of the faults he perceives in Western ideology: the faith that global development will eradicate war and hunger, trust in technology to address the coming catastrophe of population explosion, and the belief that democracy is an infallible institution that can serve as political panacea for all.]]> 145 John Gray 1565849876 Adrian 3 3.74 2003
author: John Gray
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/03/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 3876 The Sun Also Rises (Fiesta) is one of Ernest Hemingway's masterpieces and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style. A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway's most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. It is an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions. First published in 1926, The Sun Also Rises helped to establish Hemingway as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.]]> 189 Ernest Hemingway Adrian 3 3.81 1926
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1926
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/01/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 52036 152 Hermann Hesse Adrian 3 4.07 1922
author: Hermann Hesse
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1922
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2008/01/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 1105956
Saviano tells of huge cargoes of Chinese goods that are shipped to Naples and then quickly distributed unchecked across Europe. He investigates the Camorra's control of thousands of Chinese factories contracted to manufacture fashion goods, legally and illegally, for distribution around the world, and relates the chilling details of how the abusive handling of toxic waste is causing devastating pollution not only for Naples but also China and Somalia. In pursuit of his subject, Saviano worked as an assistant at a Chinese textile manufacturer, a waiter at a Camorra wedding, and on a construction site. A native of the region, he recalls seeing his first murder at the age of fourteen, and how his own father, a doctor, suffered a brutal beating for trying to aid an eighteen-year-old victim who had been left for dead in the street.

Gomorrah is a bold and important work of investigative writing that holds global significance, one heroic young man's impassioned story of a place under the rule of a murderous organization.]]> 320 Roberto Saviano 0374165270 Adrian 4 3.80 2006
author: Roberto Saviano
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/01/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 654444

"Riveting...a well-paced and highly informative account stocked with well-drawn characters."--Philadelphia Inquirer


"Masterful...[Stille] delivers a stiletto-sharp portrait of the bloodthirsty Sicilian mafia."--Business Week]]> 480 Alexander Stille 0679768637 Adrian 4 4.27 1995
author: Alexander Stille
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/01/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 18749 A masterly, haunting new novel from a writer heralded by The Washington Post Book World as “the 21st-century daughter of Chinua Achebe,� Half of a Yellow Sun re-creates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria in the 1960s, and the chilling violence that followed.

With astonishing empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor’s beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another.

Epic, ambitious, and triumphantly realized, Half of a Yellow Sun is a remarkable novel about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race—and the ways in which love can complicate them all. Adichie brilliantly evokes the promise and the devastating disappointments that marked this time and place, bringing us one of the most powerful, dramatic, and intensely emotional pictures of modern Africa that we have ever had.]]> 435 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 1400044162 Adrian 4 4.34 2006
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2008/01/01
date added: 2008/01/29
shelves:
review:
Engrossing read, with a lot of wonderful characters, the jumps in time and space can be a little confusing at times, since it's hard to judge at what point the story is taking off from. I think it would help to know a little bit about Nigerian history before you read it; but a person with little to no knowledge of the Biafran Civil War, a person like myself; won't have any trouble with it. A great book that illuminates a forgotten chapter of a troubled country's history.
]]> 33293 Naked Economics makes up for all of those Econ 101 lectures you slept through (or avoided) in college, demystifying key concepts, laying bare the truths behind the numbers, and answering those questions you have always been too embarrassed to ask. For all the discussion of Alan Greenspan in the media, does anyone know what the Fed actually does? And what about those blackouts in California? Were they a conspiracy on the part of the power companies? Economics is life. There's no way to understand the important issues without it. Now, with Charles Wheelan's breezy tour, there's no reason to fear this highly relevant subject. With the commonsensical examples and brilliantly acerbic commentary we've come to associate with The Economist, Wheelan brings economics to life. Amazingly, he does so with nary a chart, graph, or mathematical equation in sight—certainly a feat to be witnessed firsthand.


Economics is a crucial subject. There's no way to understand the important issues without it. Now, with Charles Wheelan's breezy tour, there's also no reason to fear it.]]> 260 Charles Wheelan 0393324869 Adrian 2 ]]> 3.96 2002
author: Charles Wheelan
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at: 2008/01/01
date added: 2008/01/28
shelves:
review:
Great primer on the often dull world of economics. No charts, calculus, or arcane math, lots of good examples of problems and issues that we all are affected by but don't have much understanding of. Things like the Fed, interest rates, trade balances, taxes, etc are covered and made easy to process. My biggest problem is the lack of discussion of things like outsourcing, debt, and currency issues and how they are actually affecting our economy. I'd like to see a book that is not so theoretical or hush hush about these kinds of issues. Aside from that, a good book that will leave you a little smarter then when you began.

]]> 860183
In addition to its entertainment value, The Road to Oxiana also serves as a rare account of the architectural treasures of a region now inaccessible to most Western travellers. When Paul Fussell "rediscovered" The Road to Oxiana in his recent book Abroad, he whetted the appetite of a whole new generation of readers. In his new introduction, written especially for this volume, Fussell writes: "Reading the book is like stumbling into a modern museum of literary kinds presided over by a benign if eccentric curator. Here armchair travellers will find newspaper clippings, public signs and notices, official forms, letters, diary entries, essays on current politics, lyric passages, historical and archaeological dissertations, brief travel narratives (usually of comic-awful delays and disasters), and--the triumph of the book--at least twenty superb comic dialogues, some of them virtually playlets, complete with stage directions and musical scoring."]]> 292 Robert Byron 0195030672 Adrian 3 3.92 1937
author: Robert Byron
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1937
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/12/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 733927 352 Joseph O'Neill 186207478X Adrian 5 3.97 2001
author: Joseph O'Neill
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/12/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 70420
New to this edition : This revised edition, newly updated to consider the banking crisis and economic turbulence of the last four years, is essential for anyone who has wondered why the gap between rich and poor nations is so great, or why they can't seem to find a decent second-hand car, or how to outwit Starbucks. Senior columnist for the Financial Times Tim Harford brings his experience and insight as he ranges from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States to reveal how supermarkets, airlines, and coffee chains--to name just a few--are vacuuming money from our wallets. Harford punctures the myths surrounding some of today's biggest controversies, including the high cost of health-care; he reveals why certain environmental laws can put a smile on a landlord's face; and he explains why some industries can have high profits for innocent reasons, while in other industries something sinister is going on.

Covering an array of economic concepts including scarce resources, market power, efficiency, price gouging, market failure, inside information, and game theory, Harford sheds light on how these forces shape our day-to-day lives, often without our knowing it. Showing us the world through the eyes of an economist, Tim Harford reveals that everyday events are intricate games of negotiations, contests of strength, and battles of wits. Written with a light touch and sly wit, The Undercover Economist turns "the dismal science" into a true delight.]]> 288 Tim Harford 0195189779 Adrian 2 3.81 2005
author: Tim Harford
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2007/12/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 11741 Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, their eccentric and remote aunt. The family house is in the small Far West town of Fingerbone set on a glacial lake, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck, and their mother drove off a cliff to her death. It is a town "chastened by an outsized landscape and extravagant weather, and chastened again by an awareness that the whole of human history had occurred elsewhere." Ruth and Lucille's struggle toward adulthood beautifully illuminates the price of loss and survival, and the dangerous and deep undertow of transience.]]> 219 Marilynne Robinson 0312424094 Adrian 3 3.82 1980
author: Marilynne Robinson
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1980
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/12/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 381960
George Saunders's first foray into nonfiction is composed of essays on literature, travel, and politics. At the core of this unique collection are Saunders's travel essays based on his trips to seek out the mysteries of the "Buddha Boy" of Nepal; to attempt to indulge in the extravagant pleasures of Dubai; and to join the exploits of the minutemen at the Mexican border. Saunders expertly navigates the works of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, and Esther Forbes, and leads the reader across the rocky political landscape of modern America. Emblazoned with his trademark wit and singular vision, Saunders's endeavor into the art of the essay is testament to his exceptional range and ability as a writer and thinker.]]> 257 George Saunders 159448256X Adrian 3 3.99 2007
author: George Saunders
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2007/10/01
date added: 2007/11/09
shelves:
review:
I liked the thrust of these essays, the "point" if you will. I think the author is a very incisive thinker at has a great talent for pointing out the ridiculous and the absurd aspects of our conventional wisdom and our daily lives. My biggest quibble with the author is the style he uses in many of his essays. I am not a fan of the overly self aware, ironic to the point of annoyance, striving for the New Yorker or McSweeney's style of that many modern American authors go for. This is not a criticism of the content of any of the essays, all of which I think are very intelligent, simply the boring writing style th author chooses.
]]> 716421 346 Donald J. Olsen 0300042124 Adrian 3 urbanecology 3.70 1986
author: Donald J. Olsen
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1986
rating: 3
read at: 2007/10/01
date added: 2007/11/06
shelves: urbanecology
review:

]]> 304209 184 John McGahern 0571195261 Adrian 4 ireland 3.96 1990
author: John McGahern
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/11/06
shelves: ireland
review:

]]> 79930
It is a village flirting with the more sophisticated trappings of modernity but steeped in the traditions of its unforgettable inhabitants and their lives. There are the Ruttledges, who came from London in search of a different life on the edge of the village lake; John Quinn, who will stop at nothing to ensure a flow of women through his life; Jimmy Joe McKiernan, head of the local IRA as well as town auctioneer and undertaker; the gentle Jamesie and his wife, Mary, who have never left the lake and who know about everything that ever stirred or moved there; Patrick Ryan, the builder who never quite finishes what he starts; Bill Evans, the farmhand whose orphaned childhood was marked with state-sanctioned cruelties and whose adulthood is marked by the scars; and the wealthiest man in town, known as the Shah.

A year in the lives of these and other characters unfolds through the richly observed rituals of work and play, of religious observance and annual festivals, and the details of the changing seasons, of the cycles of birth and death. With deceptive simplicity and eloquence, the author reveals the fundamental workings of human nature as it encounters the extraordinary trials and pleasures, terrors and beauty, of ordinary life.

By the Lake is John McGahern’s most ambitious, generous, and superbly realized novel yet.

(above copied from amazon.com)]]> 304 John McGahern 0571212212 Adrian 5 ireland The book moves slowly, building the lives of the characters through small details and moments of conversation. The aim of the novel, to me, is to talk about what constitutes happiness and a well lived life. Since the vast majority of us will never be remembered by history, will never be regarded as "Great Men" or "Great Women" it is necessary to find meaning and fulfillment in the smaller, more local moments we have experienced.
The book leaves a dull ache of regret, an almost nauseating feeling brought on by the realization that so much of life consists of unreflected on and unappreciated moments. Moments that are routine, repeated and can be viewed as boring. Most of our lives go by us in this fog. We're condemned to live without real awareness, every moment can only be fully realized after it has passed. The book builds to a single, completely devastating moment, one that forces our attention on how important the throwaway moments are. They are all we have and the book, if nothing else aims to have us treasure them.
The title refers to the idea that if we are resurrected from the dead we should be buried with our heads to the west so that when we rise we will be facing the rising sun. The book looks for a less literal resurrection. A finding of new life, worth and happiness in the ordinary lives that most of us are condemned to live. ]]> 4.09 2001
author: John McGahern
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2007/10/01
date added: 2007/11/06
shelves: ireland
review:
This book is a deceptive book, it is quiet and understated but almost heartbreaking in its depiction of the beauty of ordinary life. The book concerns the lives and thoughts of a group of people who live around a lake in the rural West of Ireland.
The book moves slowly, building the lives of the characters through small details and moments of conversation. The aim of the novel, to me, is to talk about what constitutes happiness and a well lived life. Since the vast majority of us will never be remembered by history, will never be regarded as "Great Men" or "Great Women" it is necessary to find meaning and fulfillment in the smaller, more local moments we have experienced.
The book leaves a dull ache of regret, an almost nauseating feeling brought on by the realization that so much of life consists of unreflected on and unappreciated moments. Moments that are routine, repeated and can be viewed as boring. Most of our lives go by us in this fog. We're condemned to live without real awareness, every moment can only be fully realized after it has passed. The book builds to a single, completely devastating moment, one that forces our attention on how important the throwaway moments are. They are all we have and the book, if nothing else aims to have us treasure them.
The title refers to the idea that if we are resurrected from the dead we should be buried with our heads to the west so that when we rise we will be facing the rising sun. The book looks for a less literal resurrection. A finding of new life, worth and happiness in the ordinary lives that most of us are condemned to live.
]]> 2767 Zinn portrays a side of American history that can largely be seen as the exploitation and manipulation of the majority by rigged systems that hugely favor a small aggregate of elite rulers from across the orthodox political parties.
A People's History has been assigned as reading in many high schools and colleges across the United States. It has also resulted in a change in the focus of historical work, which now includes stories that previously were ignored

Library Journal calls Howard Zinn’s book “a brilliant and moving history of the American people from the point of view of those…whose plight has been largely omitted from most histories.”]]> 729 Howard Zinn 0060838655 Adrian 3 4.07 1980
author: Howard Zinn
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1980
rating: 3
read at: 2001/02/01
date added: 2007/11/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 76401 The New York Times called "Original, remarkable, and finally heartbreaking...Impossible to put down."

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a year after its initial publication, it has sold almost four million copies and has been translated into seventeen languages. For this elegant thirtieth-anniversary edition—published in both hardcover and paperback—Brown has contributed an incisive new preface.

Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows the great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was really won.]]> 509 Dee Brown 0805066691 Adrian 5 4.24 1970
author: Dee Brown
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1970
rating: 5
read at: 2007/07/01
date added: 2007/10/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 1202
These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much heralded scholar who studies the stuff and riddles of everyday life -- from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing -- and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. He usually begins with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.

Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives -- how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of ... well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.

What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and -- if the right questions are asked -- is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Steven Levitt, through devilishly clever and clear-eyed thinking, shows how to see through all the clutter.

Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
(front flap)]]> 268 Steven D. Levitt 0061234001 Adrian 2 4.01 2005
author: Steven D. Levitt
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2005
rating: 2
read at: 2007/09/01
date added: 2007/10/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 485621
Never before have the complexities and dramas of urban preservation been as keenly documented as in Preserving the World’s Great Cities. In researching this important work, Anthony Tung traveled throughout the world to visit remarkable buildings and districts in China, Italy, Greece, the U.S., Japan, and elsewhere. Everywhere he found both the devastating legacy of war, economics, and indifference and the accomplishments of people who have worked and sometimes risked their lives to preserve and renew the most meaningful urban expressions of the human spirit.

From Singapore’s blind rush to become the most modern city of the East to Warsaw’s poignant and heroic effort to resurrect itself from the Nazis� systematic campaign of physical and cultural obliteration, from New York and Rome to Kyoto and Cairo, we see the city as an expression of the best and worst within us. This is essential reading for fans of Jane Jacobs and Witold Rybczynski and everyone who is concerned about urban preservation.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 469 Anthony Max Tung 060980815X Adrian 4 urbanecology 4.39 2001
author: Anthony Max Tung
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2007/09/01
date added: 2007/10/17
shelves: urbanecology
review:

]]> 316020 The Geography of Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler declared suburbia "a tragic landscape of cartoon architecture, junked cities, and ravaged countryside" and put himself at the heart of a fierce debate over how we will live in 21st century America. Now, Kunstler turns his wickedly mordant and astute eye on urban life both in America and across the world. From classical Rome to the "gigantic hairball" of contemporary Atlanta, he offers a far-reaching discourse on the history and current state of urban life.

The City in Mind tells the story of urban design and how the architectural makeup of a city directly influences its culture as well as its success. From the ingenious architectural design of Louis-Napoleon's renovation of Paris to the bloody collision of cultures that occurred when Cortes conquered the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, from the grandiose architectural schemes of Hitler and Albert Speer to the meanings behind the ludicrous spectacle of Las Vegas, Kunstler opens up a new dialogue on the development and effects of urban construction. In his investigations, he discovers American communities in the Sunbelt and Southwest alienated from each other and themselves, Northeastern cities caught between their initial civic construction and our current car-obsessed society, and a disparate Europe with its mix of pre-industrial creativity, and war-marked reminders of the twentieth century.

Expanding on ideas first discussed in Jane Jacobs' seminal work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Kunstler looks to Europe to discover what is constant and enduring in cities at their greatest, and at the same time, how a city's design can be directly linked to its decline. In these dazzling excursions he finds the reasons that American got lost in its suburban wilderness and locates the pathways in culture that might lead to a civic revival here.]]> 295 James Howard Kunstler 0743227239 Adrian 3 urbanecology 3.83 2001
author: James Howard Kunstler
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2007/09/01
date added: 2007/10/17
shelves: urbanecology
review:

]]> 125314 The Geography of Nowhere James Howard Kunstler visited the "tragic sprawlscape of cartoon architecture, junked cities, and ravaged countryside" America had become and declared that the deteriorating environment was not merely a symptom of a troubled culture, but one of the primary causes of our discontent.
In Home from Nowhere Kunstler not only shows that the original American Dream -- the desire for peaceful, pleasant places in which to work and live -- still has a strong hold on our imaginations, but also offers innovative, eminently practical ways to make that dream a reality. Citing examples from around the country, he calls for the restoration of traditional architecture, the introduction of enduring design principles in urban planning, and the development of public spaces that acknowledge our need to interact comfortable with one another.]]> 320 James Howard Kunstler 0684837374 Adrian 3 urbanecology 3.84 1996
author: James Howard Kunstler
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2007/10/01
date added: 2007/10/17
shelves: urbanecology
review:

]]> 294081 The Pulitzer Prize-winning modern classic of two Cuban musician brothers during the mambo-filled nights of 1950s New York, from literary trailblazer Oscar Hijuelos

It's 1949, and two young Cuban musicians make their way from Havana to the grand stage of New York City. It is the era of mambo, and the Castillo brothers, workers by day, become stars of the dance halls by night, where their orchestra plays the lush, sensuous, pulsing music that earns them the title "Mambo Kings." This is their moment of youth, exuberance, love, and freedom―a golden time that decades later is remembered with nostalgia and deep affection.

Oscar Hijuelos's portrait of the Castillo brothers, their families, their fellow musicians and lovers, and their triumphs and tragedies recreates the sights and sounds of an era in music and an unsung moment in American life. Exuberantly celebrated from the moment it was published in 1989, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1990, making Hijuelos the first Hispanic recipient of the award. It remains a perennial bestseller, with the story's themes of cultural fusion and identity still relevant today.]]> 407 Oscar Hijuelos 0140143912 Adrian 3 3.68 1989
author: Oscar Hijuelos
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at: 2007/07/01
date added: 2007/10/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 153982 352 Spiro Kostof 0500280991 Adrian 4 urbanecology 4.18 1991
author: Spiro Kostof
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at: 2007/10/01
date added: 2007/10/17
shelves: urbanecology
review:

]]> 161711
Jason Elliot has spent the last four years traveling in Iran, and in this remarkable book he reveals the many sides of the culture, art, architecture, and people that Westerners cannot see or conveniently ignore. Part close reading of symbols and images, part history, and part intimate interviews with Iranians of many different kinds--from wealthy aristocrats at forbidden parties to tribal horsemen in the most remote mountain villages, who have never seen a Westerner-- Mirrors of the Unseen is a beautiful and thought-provoking book by one of the world's most acclaimed adventurers and authors.]]> 416 Jason Elliot 031230191X Adrian 4 3.79 2006
author: Jason Elliot
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2007/10/01
date added: 2007/10/17
shelves:
review:
A brilliant book, full of great anecdotes and sharp, offbeat observations. The people, history, art and culture of Iran are absolutely fascinating. They have a momentous history and have made an unbelievably important contribution to "Western Civilization." At least based on the author's impressions, the people are open minded and realistic about the limits and weaknesses of their own government and are genuinely concerned at the bad image that their leaders give them around the world. Everything I read in this book convinced me of the insanity of the talk in the United States about attacking Iran. It sounds a beautiful country and this book makes me want to visit.
]]> 16084 Beowulf, tells his own side of the story in this frequently banned book. This classic and much lauded retelling of Beowulf follows the monster Grendel as he learns about humans and fights the war at the center of the Anglo Saxon classic epic. This is the book William Gass called "one of the finest of our contemporary fictions."]]> 144 John Gardner 0575075821 Adrian 4 3.77 1971
author: John Gardner
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1971
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/06/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 18723 As a good Muslim girl, Nazneen struggles to not question why things happen. She submits, as she must, to Fate and devotes herself to her husband and daughters. Yet to her amazement, she begins an affair with a handsome young radical, and her erotic awakening throws her old certainties into chaos.
Monica Ali's splendid novel is about journeys both external and internal, where the marvelous and the terrifying spiral together.]]> 432 Monica Ali 0743243315 Adrian 3 3.45 2003
author: Monica Ali
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/06/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 77425 "[O'Brian's] Aubrey-Maturin series, 20 novels of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars, is a masterpiece. It will outlive most of today's putative literary gems as Sherlock Holmes has outlived Bulwer-Lytton, as Mark Twain has outlived Charles Reade." —David Mamet, New York Times

Commissioned to rescue Governor Bligh of Bounty fame, Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend and surgeon Stephen Maturin sail the Leopard to Australia with a hold full of convicts. Among them is a beautiful and dangerous spy—and a treacherous disease that decimates the crew.]]> 350 Patrick O'Brian 039330812X Adrian 3 4.40 1978
author: Patrick O'Brian
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1978
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/06/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 77433 382 Patrick O'Brian 0393308200 Adrian 3 4.38 1980
author: Patrick O'Brian
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1980
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/06/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 77426 An essential of the truly gripping book for the narrative addict is the creation of a whole, solidly living world for the imagination to inhabit, and O'Brian does this with prodigal specificity and generosity." —A.S. Byatt

Captain Jack Aubrey, R. N., arrives in the Dutch East Indies to find himself appointed to the command of the fastest and best-armed frigate in the Navy. He and his friend Stephen Maturin take passage for England in a dispatch vessel. But the War of 1812 breaks out while they are en route. Bloody actions precipitate them both into new and unexpected scenes where Stephen's past activities as a secret agent return on him with a vengeance.]]> 355 Patrick O'Brian 0393308138 Adrian 3 4.39 1979
author: Patrick O'Brian
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1979
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/06/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 672492 366 Patrick O'Brian 0393308626 Adrian 3 4.45 1984
author: Patrick O'Brian
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1984
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/06/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 77431 348 Patrick O'Brian 039330762X Adrian 3 4.34 1977
author: Patrick O'Brian
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1977
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/06/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 77429 400 Patrick O'Brian 0393308219 Adrian 3 4.32 1981
author: Patrick O'Brian
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1981
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/06/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 765093 368 Patrick O'Brian 0393308634 Adrian 3 4.39 1983
author: Patrick O'Brian
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1983
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/06/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 77432 527 Patrick O'Brian 0393307069 Adrian 3 4.25 1972
author: Patrick O'Brian
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1972
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/06/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 77427 H.M.S. Surprise, British naval officer Jack Aubrey and surgeon Stephen Maturin face near-death and tumultuous romance in the distant waters ploughed by the ships of the East India Company. Tasked with ferrying a British ambassador to the Sultan of Kampong, they find themselves on a prolonged voyage aboard a Royal Navy frigate en route to the Malay Peninsula. In this new sphere, Aubrey is on the defensive, pitting wits and seamanship against an enemy who enjoys overwhelming local superiority. But somewhere in the Indian Ocean lies the prize that could secure him a marriage to his beloved Sophie and make him rich beyond his wildest dreams: the ships sent by Napoleon to attack the China Fleet.]]> 379 Patrick O'Brian 0393307611 Adrian 3 4.44 1973
author: Patrick O'Brian
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1973
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/06/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 77430 Sophie. Accompanied by his eccentric new friend, the physician and naturalist Stephen Maturin, Aubrey does battle with the naval hierarchy, with his own tendency to make social blunders, and with the challenges of forging an effective crew -- before ultimately taking on enemy ships in a vivid, intricately detailed series of sea battles.]]> 464 Patrick O'Brian 0393307050 Adrian 3 4.08 1969
author: Patrick O'Brian
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1969
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/06/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 824899 The Conversations at Curlow Creek is an extraordinary exploration of nature and justice, of the workings of fate, of intimacy, compassion, and duty. Two men talk through the night - a convict waiting to be hanged at dawn and the officer in charge of the hanging - revealing their pasts, discovering unlikely connections between their lives. And in the precise, evocative language and with the acute perception we have come to expect from David Malouf, the conversation between these two dissimilar men goes far beyond the details of their lives to express both the isolation of the individual and the experiences, shared in silence, that unite us all]]> 214 David Malouf 0701165715 Adrian 3 ireland 3.74 1996
author: David Malouf
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/05/10
shelves: ireland
review:

]]> 237040 170 J.M. Coetzee Adrian 3 3.81 1980
author: J.M. Coetzee
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1980
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/05/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 57658 A CULT MASTERPIECE—THE ADVENTURE NOVEL THAT INSPIRED JOHN HUSTON'S CLASSIC FILM, BY THE ELUSIVE AUTHOR WHO WAS A MODEL FOR THE HERO OF ROBERTO BOLAÑO'S 2666

Little is known for certain about B. Traven. Evidence suggests that he was born Otto Feige in Schlewsig-Holstein and that he escaped a death sentence for his involvement with the anarchist underground in Bavaria. Traven spent most of his adult life in Mexico, where, under various names, he wrote several bestsellers and was an outspoken defender of the rights of Mexico's indigenous people. First published in 1935, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is Traven's most famous and enduring work, the dark, savagely ironic, and riveting story of three down-and-out Americans hunting for gold in Sonora.]]> 308 B. Traven 0809001608 Adrian 4 4.10 1935
author: B. Traven
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1935
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/05/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 12502 McCarthy's Bar, his journey begins in Cork and continues along the west coast to Donegal in the north. Traveling through spectacular landscapes, but at all times obeying the rule, "never pass a bar that has your name on it," he encounters McCarthy's bars up and down the land, meeting fascinating people before pleading to be let out at four o'clock in the morning.

Written by someone who is at once an insider and an outside, McCarthy's Bar is a wonderfully funny and affectionate portrait of a rapidly changing country.]]> 338 Pete McCarthy 0312311338 Adrian 3 ireland 3.82 1999
author: Pete McCarthy
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/05/10
shelves: ireland
review:

]]> 839157 320 Robert Macfarlane 1862076545 Adrian 4 4.11 2003
author: Robert Macfarlane
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/05/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 819675 220 Walter Mosley 0393028542 Adrian 4 3.83 1990
author: Walter Mosley
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/05/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 2187 Middlesex tells the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family, who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City and the race riots of 1967 before moving out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.]]> 529 Jeffrey Eugenides 0312422156 Adrian 2 4.03 2002
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2007/05/10
shelves:
review:
I had heard a lot of hype about this book before I started it and I was initially very interested in the story of Cal and her family. The author's depictions of Greek life in Asia Minor were fascinating. And his chronicle of Detroit at it's mid-20th century peak and its incredible fall is wonderful, funny, quirky and tragic at the same time. But once Cal's story becomes center stage I found myself losing interest. Cal's struggle to find her identity and to come to terms with being different carried a faint whiff of trite platitudes about being happy with yourself and discovering the true you. Eugenides has a breezy pleasant writing style, the way he structures his sentences and paragraphs make you want to keep reading. I found that it was his technical skill that carried me through the last 100 or so pages and not really any interest in what happens to Cal/Callie in the long run.
]]> 9015 507 Nelson Mandela 0030565812 Adrian 4 4.47 1994
author: Nelson Mandela
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 599
Whether deconstructing Saved by the Bell episodes or the artistic legacy of Billy Joel, the symbolic importance of The Empire Strikes Back or the Celtics/Lakers rivalry, Chuck will make you think, he'll make you laugh, and he'll drive you insane -- usually all at once. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is ostensibly about art, entertainment, infotainment, sports, politics, and kittens, but -- really -- it's about us. All of us. As Klosterman realizes late at night, in the moment before he falls asleep, "In and of itself, nothing really matters. What matters is that nothing is ever 'in and of itself.'" Read to believe.]]> 272 Chuck Klosterman 0743236017 Adrian 1 3.74 2003
author: Chuck Klosterman
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2003
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2007/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 11334 338 Toni Morrison 140003342X Adrian 3 4.15 1977
author: Toni Morrison
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1977
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 11734
Coleman Silk has a secret, one which has been kept for fifty years from his wife, his four children, his colleagues, and his friends, including the writer Nathan Zuckerman. It is Zuckerman who stumbles upon Silk's secret and sets out to reconstruct the unknown biography of this eminent, upright man, esteemed as an educator for nearly all his life, and to understand how this ingeniously contrived life came unraveled. And to understand also how Silk's astonishing private history is, in the words of the Wall Street Journal, "magnificently" interwoven with "the larger public history of modern America."]]> 361 Philip Roth Adrian 3 3.89 2000
author: Philip Roth
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/04/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 189606
“Lukacs’s book is consistently interesting, surprising, and provocative.”—James Joll, New York Times Book Review

“This dispassionate, humorous, serious, and brilliantly written book marks an important step forward in our understanding of a past that is still within living memory.”�Economist

“An excellent, valuable, and highly readable book. . . . It makes both fascinating and extraordinarily valuable reading. It is a major contribution to historical scholarship.”—Joseph G. Harrison, Christian Science Monitor

“A brilliant, original study of what this era meant--socially, politically, artistically, intellectually--in the lives of the peoples of Europe. . . . [Lukacs’s] grasp of emotional as well as intellectual history is commanding.”�New Yorker

“Deserves to be widely read, seriously considered, and vigorously debated.”—Gordon Wright, American Historical Review
]]> 576 John Lukacs Adrian 3 4.29 1976
author: John Lukacs
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1976
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 65211 275 Carlo Levi 0374530092 Adrian 4 4.11 1945
author: Carlo Levi
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1945
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 264894
We have accepted a "reality" we should reject, he writes, one where poverty kills, people are hungry, machines are more precious than humans, and children work from dark to dark. In the North, we are fed on a diet of artificial need and all made the same by things we own; the South is the galley slave enabling our greed.]]> 358 Eduardo Galeano 0312420315 Adrian 4 4.34 1998
author: Eduardo Galeano
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 662953 432 Biruté M.F. Galdikas 0316301868 Adrian 4 4.27 1995
author: Biruté M.F. Galdikas
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 7745 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.]]> 204 Hunter S. Thompson 0679785892 Adrian 5 4.08 1971
author: Hunter S. Thompson
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1971
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 643177 430 Leo Marx 0195133501 Adrian 3 4.00 1964
author: Leo Marx
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1964
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 30043 "A River Runs Through It" that he is "haunted by waters," so have readers been haunted by his novella. A retired English professor who began writing fiction at the age of 70, Maclean produced what is now recognized as one of the classic American stories of the twentieth century. Originally published in 1976, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories now celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary, marked by this new edition that includes a foreword by Annie Proulx.

Maclean grew up in the western Rocky Mountains in the first decades of the twentieth century. As a young man he worked many summers in logging camps and for the United States Forest Service. The two novellas and short story in this collection are based on his own experiences—the experiences of a young man who found that life was only a step from art in its structures and beauty. The beauty he found was in reality, and so he leaves a careful record of what it was like to work in the woods when it was still a world of horse and hand and foot, without power saws, "cats," or four-wheel drives. Populated with drunks, loggers, card sharks, and whores, and set in the small towns and surrounding trout streams and mountains of western Montana, the stories concern themselves with the complexities of fly fishing, logging, fighting forest fires, playing cribbage, and being a husband, a son, and a father.]]> 217 Norman Maclean 0226500667 Adrian 4 4.18 1976
author: Norman Maclean
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1976
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 662942 D.H. Lawrence 0946889139 Adrian 3 3.68 1932
author: D.H. Lawrence
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1932
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 297583 384 Walter Karp 1879957558 Adrian 4 4.23 1979
author: Walter Karp
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 415863 303 Edward Abbey 0345023552 Adrian 4 4.30 1968
author: Edward Abbey
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1968
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:
This is a very angry book. Abbey is a true misanthrope, but that's not a bad thing. He's angry at the stupidity of the Western World and our callous attitude toward the environment. But at the risk of sounding crude, this is not a book for so-called "tree huggers" His environmentalism is predicated more on disgust for his fellow man than on a desire for a harmonious existence with nature. He respects the natural world because of the savage and unfeeling power that it contains and human desecration of it has more to do with our lack of awe than with an absence of green feelings.
]]> 307276
Pankaj Mishra describes his restless journeys into India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, among Islamists and the emerging Hindu middle class, exploring the myths and places of the Buddha's life. He discusses Western explorers' "discovery" of Buddhism in the nineteenth century. He also considers the impact of Buddhist ideas on such modern politicians as Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.

As he reflects on his travels and on his own past, Mishra ultimately reaches an enlightenment of his own by discovering the living meaning of the Buddha's teaching, in this "unusually discerning, beautifully written, and deeply affecting reflection on Buddhism" ( Booklist ).]]> 422 Pankaj Mishra 0312425090 Adrian 3 3.96 2004
author: Pankaj Mishra
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 133394 Graham Greene's classic Cuban spy story, now with a new package and a new introduction

First published in 1959, Our Man in Havana is an espionage thriller, a penetrating character study, and a political satire that still resonates to this day. Conceived as one of Graham Greene's 'entertainments,' it tells of MI6's man in Havana, Wormold, a former vacuum-cleaner salesman turned reluctant secret agent out of economic necessity. To keep his job, he files bogus reports based on Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare and dreams up military installations from vacuum-cleaner designs. Then his stories start coming disturbingly true.

]]> 220 Graham Greene 0140184937 Adrian 3 3.94 1958
author: Graham Greene
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1958
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 3690
In his introduction, John Updike calls The Power and the Glory, "Graham Greene's masterpiece�. The energy and grandeur of his finest novel derive from the will toward compassion, an ideal communism even more Christian than Communist."]]> 222 Graham Greene 0142437301 Adrian 4 3.99 1940
author: Graham Greene
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1940
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 170277
Part memoir of a West Indian boyhood, part passionate celebration and defence of cricket as an art form, part indictment of colonialism, Beyond a Boundary addresses not just a sport but a whole culture and asks the question, 'What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?]]> 355 C.L.R. James 022407427X Adrian 3 4.12 1963
author: C.L.R. James
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1963
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 113165 384 C.L.R. James 0140299815 Adrian 3 4.41 1938
author: C.L.R. James
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1938
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 332573

From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 236 James Dickey 0440318688 Adrian 3 3.93 1970
author: James Dickey
name: Adrian
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1970
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 75186
Everyone loves real food, but they're afraid bacon and eggs will give them a heart attack--thus the culinary abomination known as the egg-white omelet. But it turns out that tossing out the yolk isn't smart. Real Food reveals why traditional foods are not only delicious--everyone knows that butter tastes better--but are actually good for you, making the nutritional case for egg, cream, butter, grass-fed beef, roast chicken with the skin, lard, cocoa butter, and more.

In lively, personal chapters on produce, dairy, meat, fish, Nina explains how the foods we've eaten for thousands of years--pork, lamb, raw milk cheese, sea salt--have been falsely accused. Industrial foods like corn syrup, which lurks everywhere from fruit juice to chicken broth, are to blame for the triple epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, not real food.

Nina Planck grew up on a vegetable farm in Virginia and learned to eat right from her no-nonsense parents: along with lots of local fruits and vegetables, the Plancks drank raw milk and ate meatloaf, bacon, and eggs with impunity. But the nutritional trends ran the other way--fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol were taboo--and in her teens and twenties, Nina tried vegan, vegetarian, low-fat, and low-cholesterol diets, with unhappy results.

When she opened the first farmers' markets in London, Nina began to eat real food again--for pleasure, not health--and to her surprise she lost weight and felt great. She began to wonder about the farmhouse diet back home. Was it deadly, as the cardiologists say? Happily for people who love food, the answer is no.

Real Food upends the conventional wisdom on diet and health. Prepare for pleasant surprises on whipped cream and other delights. The days of deprivation are over.
(from the flap)]]> 288 Nina Planck 1596911441 Adrian 4 foodstuffs 4.04 2006
author: Nina Planck
name: Adrian
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2007/04/18
shelves: foodstuffs
review:

]]>