en-US Wed, 26 Sep 2018 13:46:27 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 38649806
In 1761, a tiny, odd-looking girl named Marie is born in a village in Switzerland. After the death of her parents, she is apprenticed to an eccentric wax sculptor and whisked off to the seamy streets of Paris, where they meet a domineering widow and her quiet, pale son. Together, they convert an abandoned monkey house into an exhibition hall for wax heads, and the spectacle becomes a sensation. As word of her artistic talent spreads, Marie is called to Versailles, where she tutors a princess and saves Marie Antoinette in childbirth. But outside the palace walls, Paris is roiling: The revolutionary mob is demanding heads, and... at the wax museum, heads are what they do.

In the tradition of Gregory Maguire's Wicked and Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, Edward Carey's Little is a darkly endearing cavalcade of a novel—a story of art, class, determination, and how we hold on to what we love.]]> 448 Edward Carey 0525534326 Neal 0 to-read 3.99 2018
author: Edward Carey
name: Neal
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/26
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]]> 28503724 At last a great American Hanukkah story! This very funny, very touching novel of growing up Jewish has the makings of a holiday classic.

One lousy miracle. Is that too much to ask?

Evidently so for Joel, as he tries to survive Hannukah, 1971 in the suburbs of the suburbs of Los Angeles (or, as he calls it, “The Land of Shriveled Dreams�). That’s no small task when you’re a “seriously funny-looking� twelve-year-old magician who dreams of being his own superhero: Normalman. And Joel’s a long way from that as the only Jew at Bixby School, where his attempts to make himself disappear fail spectacularly. Home is no better, with a family that’s not just mortifyingly embarrassing but flat-out broke.

That’s why Joel’s betting everything on these eight nights, to see whether it’s worth believing in God or miracles or anything at all. Armed with his favorite jokes, some choice Yiddish words, and a suitcase full of magic tricks, he’s scrambling to come to terms with the world he lives in—from hospitals to Houdini to the Holocaust—before the last of the candles burns out.

No wonder his head is spinning: He’s got dreidels on the brain. And little does he know that what’s actually about to happen to him and his family this Hanukkah will be worse than he’d feared . . . And better than he could have imagined.]]> 8 Joel Ben Izzy 0735288054 Neal 5 4.07 2016
author: Joel Ben Izzy
name: Neal
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2016/10/05
date added: 2016/10/05
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review:
Joel ben Izzy is a master storyteller and this new book is the latest example of his artistry. It's a pleasure to read about this 13-year-old's travails during Chanukah, told as a narrative with hilarious and surprising digressions. It's a terrific and touching story, and gets at the vulnerability and the humanity in all of us. I highly recommend it.
]]> 20893582
Young Clod Iremonger is on the cusp of being "trousered" and betrothed (unhappily) to his cousin Pinalippy when he meets the plucky orphan servant Lucy Pennant, with whose help he begins to uncover the dark secrets of his family's empire. Mystery, romance and the perils of the Heaps await!

Gorgeously and ghoulishly illustrated by the author, the novel is peopled with unforgettable characters--anxious, animal-loving Tummis with his pet seagull, menacing cousin Moorcus, dreadful Aunt Rosamud and more. As Carey writes, "Every life is thick with rubbish, but the Iremongers did it with a difference . . ."]]> 416 Edward Carey 1468309536 Neal 3 3.46 2013
author: Edward Carey
name: Neal
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/11/29
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review:

]]> 20578836
Narrated by an unnamed archivist who is attempting to piece together the truth of Heinrich’s life, The Search for Heinrich Schlögel dances between reality and dream, asking us to consider not only our role in imagining the future into existence but also the consequences of our past choices.
]]> 345 Martha Baillie 1935639900 Neal 2 3.79 2014
author: Martha Baillie
name: Neal
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2015/03/26
date added: 2015/03/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 17333325
Sandra Vega, a forensic analyst with the Roman police department, mourns deeply for a marriage that ended too soon. A few months ago, in the dead of night, her husband, an up-and-coming journalist, plunged to his death at the top of a high-rise construction site. The police ruled it an accident. Sanda is convinced it was anything but.

Launching her own inquiries, Sanda finds herself on a dangerous trail, working the same case that she is convinced led to her husband's murder. An investigation which is deeply entwined with a series of disappearances that has swept the city, and brings Sandra ever closer to a centuries-old secret society that will do anything to stay in the shadows.]]> 432 Donato Carrisi 0316246794 Neal 4 3.96 2011
author: Donato Carrisi
name: Neal
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2014/11/30
date added: 2014/11/30
shelves:
review:
This book is full of twists, surprises, and satisfying sudden turns. If you like fast-paced, action packed adventures,this may not be for you, because this story takes its sweet time. Which is not to say it's not suspenseful. It's well developed, nuanced, and interesting, and you can never be sure who ultimately to trust and believe, which I like. Why should a reader be too comfortable?
]]> 16176440
Meet the Cooke family: Mother and Dad, Lowell, Rosemary and her unusual sister Fern. Rosemary begins her story in the middle. She has her reasons. “Until Fern’s expulsion...,� Rosemary says, “she was my twin, my funhouse mirror, my whirlwind other half and I loved her.� As a child, Rosemary never stopped talking. Then, something happened, and Rosemary wrapped herself in silence.

In We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler weaves her most accomplished work to date—a tale of loving but fallible people whose well-intentioned actions lead to heartbreaking consequences.]]> 310 Karen Joy Fowler 0399162097 Neal 4
My one criticism of the book is that it times it wasn't believable to me. The idea the book is built upon is sometimes difficult for at least this reader to feel convinced by, so there were times I couldn't get past it.

I think I'll read other books by this author, because she's a great writer and does a masterful job with a nonlinear structure.]]> 3.70 2013
author: Karen Joy Fowler
name: Neal
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/10/29
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review:
The person who loaned me the book made me swear not to read the back cover, etc. because she wanted me to feel the full impact of the twists and turns of this book. And I think she was right; this book, claiming to begin in the middle of the story, moves through time and space with ease, and the structure of it fits the story elegantly. It's also beautifully written and I highly recommend it, especially to animal lovers.

My one criticism of the book is that it times it wasn't believable to me. The idea the book is built upon is sometimes difficult for at least this reader to feel convinced by, so there were times I couldn't get past it.

I think I'll read other books by this author, because she's a great writer and does a masterful job with a nonlinear structure.
]]> 18079712 A powerful novel about friendship and family that calls to mind Bridge to Terabithia

Twelve-year-old John Fischer Jr., or "Little John" as he’s always been known, is spending his summer helping his father with his tree removal business, clearing brush for Mr. King, the wealthy owner of a chain of Texas dollar stores, when he hears a beautiful song that transfixes him. He follows the melody and finds, not a bird, but a young girl sitting in the branches of a tall sycamore tree.

There’s something magical about this girl, Gayle, especially her soaring singing voice, and Little John’s friendship with Gayle quickly becomes the one bright spot in his life, for his home is dominated by sorrow over his sister’s death and his parents� ever-tightening financial difficulties.

But then Mr. King draws Little John into an impossible choice—forced to choose between his family’s survival and a betrayal of Gayle that puts her future in jeopardy.

Inspired by a Hans Christian Andersen story, Nightingale's Nest is an unforgettable novel about a boy with the weight of the world on his shoulders and a girl with the gift of healing in her voice.]]> 256 Nikki Loftin 159514546X Neal 2 3.86 2014
author: Nikki Loftin
name: Neal
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2014/08/20
date added: 2014/10/10
shelves:
review:
This book didn't really know where it was landing. Was it magical realism? I hoped so, actually, because it began so sweetly. Was it a mystery? Turns out to be a bit of a painful story about a boy who can't really do anything right until the very end (which didn't feel resolved to me). Too many bad things happen and not a single adult has a single redeeming quality; they're all bad news for the kids. This may be true for some kids out there in the world, but it didn't make for workable fiction for me. There's got to be more redemption, more hope in a middle grade book for me to feel more positively about it.
]]> 19085562 Science can change the world . . . but can it go too far?
Ěý
Eleven-year-old Ellie has never liked change. She misses fifth grade. She misses her old best friend. She even misses her dearly departed goldfish. Then one day a strange boy shows up. He’s bossy. He’s cranky. And weirdly enough . . . he looks a lot like Ellie’s grandfather, a scientist who’s always been slightly obsessed with immortality. Could this pimply boy really be Grandpa Melvin? Has he finally found the secret to eternal youth?]]> 3 Jennifer L. Holm 0804193819 Neal 3 3.82 2014
author: Jennifer L. Holm
name: Neal
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2014/09/08
date added: 2014/10/10
shelves:
review:
This is a fun and interesting book with a great premise and wonderful characters. A bit light for my taste, but well written. and oh that grumpy grampa. But I was surprised more kids didn't make fun of him at school...
]]> 20929552
Abandoned in the depths of the Heaps, Lucy Pennant has been rescued by a terrifying creature, Binadit Iremonger, more animal than human. She is desperate and determined to find Clod. But unbeknownst to her, Clod has become a golden sovereign and 'lost'. He is being passed as currency from hand to hand all around Foulsham, and yet everywhere people are searching for him, desperate to get hold of this dangerous Iremonger, who, it is believed, has the power to bring the mighty Umbitt down.

But all around the city, things, everyday things, are twitching into life...]]> 400 Edward Carey Neal 0 to-read 3.96 2014
author: Edward Carey
name: Neal
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/08/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> 26919 Continental Drift is a masterful novel of hope lost and gained, and a gripping, indelible story of fragile lives uprooted and transformed by injustice, disappointment, and the seductions and realities of the American dream.]]> 410 Russell Banks 0060854944 Neal 2 3.88 1985
author: Russell Banks
name: Neal
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1985
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2014/07/25
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review:

]]> 20170580
Chirp finds comfort in watching her beloved wild birds. She also finds a true friend in Joey, the mysterious boy who lives across the street. Together they create their own private world and come up with the perfect plan: Escape. Adventure. Discovery.

Nest is Esther Ehrlich's stunning debut novel. Her lyrical writing is honest, humorous, and deeply affecting. Chirp and Joey will steal your heart. Long after you finish Nest, the spirit of Chirp and her loving family will stay with you.

Praise for Nest:

"A poignant, insightful story of family crisis and the healing power of friendship." �Kirkus Reviews, Starred

"A stunning debut, with lyrical prose and superbly developed characters. . . . [Readers] will savor Nest and reflect on it long after its conclusion." �School Library Journal, Starred

"Ehrlich's novel beautifully captures the fragile bond shared by Chirp and Joey and their growing trust for each other in a world filled with disappointments and misunderstandings." �Publishers Weekly, Starred

"Chirp's first-person voice is believable; her poignant earnestness is truly heartrending. Ehrlich writes beautifully, constructing scenes with grace and layers of telling detail and insight." �The Horn Book

What authors are saying about Nest:

"Nest sings with heart and emotion. Simply gorgeous." —Jennifer L. Holm, New York Times bestselling author of Turtle in Paradise

"Nest speaks to the heart. I wanted to put my arms around Chirp and never let go." —Holly Goldberg Sloan, author of Counting by 7s and I'll Be There

"I loved the book! It's so tender and touching and real. Chirp is a marvelous character, and Joey's just plain lovable. I worry about him. Congratulations. The book is absolutely splendid and I hope everyone in the world notices." —Karen Cushman, author of the Newbery Medal–winning, The Midwife's Apprentice, and the Newbery Honor, Catherine, Called Birdy

"A remarkable work. Esther Ehrlich's characters stand out so real and true: Chirp's friendship with Joey is tender and moving, and truly unforgettable. One can see Cape Cod and feel Chirp's love for the birds wheeling overhead. I wanted this story to go on and on. What a brilliant future this author has. I can't wait to read her next book." —Patricia Reilly Giff, two-time Newbery Honor–winning author]]> 336 Esther Ehrlich 0385386079 Neal 5 Nest is a moving, honest, and captivating book that, although published as a middle grade book, is also a great read for adults. The author captures the voices of all her characters, and this is one of the book’s great strengths. Chirp resonates as a 6th grade girl who, while upbeat, is nonetheless forced to confront some tough family issues. Joey is a delight and complex. The other members of Chirp’s family are likewise nuanced and real. This beautifully written book will move whoever reads it. It certainly moved me.]]> 3.99 2014
author: Esther Ehrlich
name: Neal
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2014/01/19
date added: 2014/01/31
shelves:
review:
Nest is a moving, honest, and captivating book that, although published as a middle grade book, is also a great read for adults. The author captures the voices of all her characters, and this is one of the book’s great strengths. Chirp resonates as a 6th grade girl who, while upbeat, is nonetheless forced to confront some tough family issues. Joey is a delight and complex. The other members of Chirp’s family are likewise nuanced and real. This beautifully written book will move whoever reads it. It certainly moved me.
]]> 102504 Lost within this unwelcoming place, Billy finds the companionship of two lonely children, Effie and Gus Mumford - one a science fair genius, the other a charming, silent bully. With a nearly forgotten bravery, Billy confronts the monotony of his job in telephone sales, the awkward beauty of a desperate pickpocket named Penny Maple, and the seemingly impossible solution to the mystery of his sister's death. Along the path laden with hidden clues and codes that dare to be deciphered, the boy detective may learn the greatest secret of all: the necessity of the unknown.

]]> 328 Joe Meno 1933354100 Neal 0 to-read 3.90 2006
author: Joe Meno
name: Neal
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 488447 400 Thomas Wharton 0743444159 Neal 0 to-read 3.66 2001
author: Thomas Wharton
name: Neal
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> 356527 Harvey, whose debut collection was praised by the New Yorker
as "intensely visual, mournfully comic and syntactically
inventive," offers her second stunning collection

Units are the engines
I understand best.

One betrayal, two.
Merrily, merrily, merrily.
-from "Introduction to the World"

In Sad Little Breathing Machine, Matthea Harvey explores the strange and intricate mechanics of human systems-of the body, of thought, of language itself. These are the engines, like poetry, that propel both our comprehension and misunderstanding. "If you're lucky," Harvey writes, "after a number of / revolutions, you'll / feel something catch."]]> 80 Matthea Harvey 1555973965 Neal 0 to-read 4.10 2004
author: Matthea Harvey
name: Neal
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 17977053 The Iremongers have taken up what was not wanted and wanted it.

Clod is an Iremonger. He lives in the Heaps, a vast sea of lost and discarded items collected from all over London. At the centre is Heap House, a puzzle of houses, castles, homes and mysteries reclaimed from the city and built into a living maze of staircases and scurrying rats. The Iremongers are a mean and cruel family, robust and hardworking, but Clod has an illness. He can hear the objects whispering. His birth object, a universal bath plug, says 'James Henry', Cousin Tummis's tap is squeaking 'Hilary Evelyn Ward-Jackson' and something in the attic is shouting 'Robert Burrington' and it sounds angry.

A storm is brewing over Heap House. The Iremongers are growing restless and the whispers are getting louder. When Clod meets Lucy Pennant, a girl newly arrived from the city, everything changes. The secrets that bind Heap House together begin to unravel to reveal a dark truth that threatens to destroy Clod's world.]]> 410 Edward Carey 1471401561 Neal 0 to-read 3.68 2013
author: Edward Carey
name: Neal
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> 10235919 Reality is illusory and magical in the stunning new literary SF novel from the multiple award-winning author of The Prestige—for fans of Haruki Murakami and David Mitchell
Ěý
A tale of murder, artistic rivalry, and literary trickery; a Chinese puzzle of a novel where nothing is quite what it seems; a narrator whose agenda is artful and subtle; a narrative that pulls you in and plays an elegant game with you. The Dream Archipelago is a vast network of islands. The names of the islands are different depending on who you talk to, their very locations seem to twist and shift. Some islands have been sculpted into vast musical instruments, others are home to lethal creatures, others the playground for high society. Hot winds blow across the archipelago and a war fought between two distant continents is played out across its waters. The Islanders serves both as an untrustworthy but enticing guide to the islands; an intriguing, multi-layered tale of a murder; and the suspect legacy of its appealing but definitely untrustworthy narrator. It shows Christopher Priest at the height of his powers and illustrates his undiminished power to dazzle.]]> 342 Christopher Priest 0575070048 Neal 0 to-read 3.69 2011
author: Christopher Priest
name: Neal
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> 12266560 Joe Spork spends his days fixing antique clocks. The son of infamous London criminal Mathew “Tommy Gun� Spork, he has turned his back on his family’s mobster history and aims to live a quiet life. That orderly existence is suddenly upended when Joe activates a particularly unusual clockwork mechanism. His client, Edie Banister, is more than the kindly old lady she appears to be—she’s a retired international secret agent. And the device? It’s a 1950s doomsday machine. Having triggered it, Joe now faces the wrath of both the British government and a diabolical South Asian dictator who is also Edie’s old arch-nemesis. On the upside, Joe’s got a girl: a bold receptionist named Polly whose smarts, savvy and sex appeal may be just what he needs. With Joe’s once-quiet world suddenly overrun by mad monks, psychopathic serial killers, scientific geniuses and threats to the future of conscious life in the universe, he realizes that the only way to survive is to muster the courage to fight, help Edie complete a mission she abandoned years ago and pick up his father’s old gun...]]> 478 Nick Harkaway 0307595951 Neal 4 3.90 2012
author: Nick Harkaway
name: Neal
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 428 Play It as It Lays captures the mood of an entire generation, the ennui of contemporary society reflected in spare prose that blisters and haunts the reader. Set in a place beyond good and evil - literally in Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the barren wastes of the Mojave Desert, but figuratively in the landscape of an arid soul - it remains more than three decades after its original publication a profoundly disturbing novel, riveting in its exploration of a woman and a society in crisis and stunning in the still-startling intensity of its prose.
]]> 231 Joan Didion 0374529949 Neal 4 3.94 1970
author: Joan Didion
name: Neal
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 24848 240 Harry Crews 0671758527 Neal 2 3.89 1990
author: Harry Crews
name: Neal
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1990
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 24847 192 Harry Crews 0684842483 Neal 3 4.03 1976
author: Harry Crews
name: Neal
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1976
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
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review:

]]> 24853 208 Harry Crews 207074633X Neal 4 3.98 1972
author: Harry Crews
name: Neal
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1972
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 9080 400 Tim Sandlin 1594480222 Neal 2 3.43 2003
author: Tim Sandlin
name: Neal
average rating: 3.43
book published: 2003
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 125154
Sandlin provides his bumbling hero with an appropriately quirky past: it's 1984, Sam is 33 and his second wife has just left him. He lives in North Carolina with his 19-year-old daughter, born to him and an eighth-grade classmate. (The earlier parts of Sam's life were chronicled in Skipped Parts and Sorrow Floats.) Sam never knew his birth father's identity: his mother claims to have been gang-raped by five high-school football players, which has left Sam with an abhorrence of men and of conventional sex as well. The impending divorce puts Sam in a mind to get his life together, so he spontaneously introduces himself to four out of five of his possible dads (and big oops to the unsuspecting widow of the fifth). He fails to consider the repercussions this will have in the men's families; he's attacked by two of his possible half-brothers, seduced by his could-be stepmother and charmed by his potential half-sister. To say that Sam brings on his own calamities would be an understatement, yet his absurd logic in matters of romance, lust and paternity is oddly endearing.

The characters in this third installment of Sandlin's GroVont Trilogy don't spend much time in GroVont, Wyo. In fact, Sam doesn't escape west until after the climax of his tawdry tale. Still, Sam would be a literal riot in any state, and, as rendered by Sandlin, his voice is an effective blend of flippancy and compassion.

-Publishers Weekly]]> 336 Tim Sandlin 1573225886 Neal 4 4.01 1995
author: Tim Sandlin
name: Neal
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1995
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 125155
After attempting suicide and being thrown out by her philandering husband, she meets Lloyd and Shane, two recovering alcoholics who have devised a scheme to smuggle Coors beer to the East Coast. Longing to be reunited with her eight-year-old daughter Shannon in North Carolina (Sandlin chronicled Shannon's birth in Skipped Parts ), Maurey decamps on an unlikely odyssey, pulling a horse trailer full of beer behind a broken-down old ambulance, sipping Yukon Jack from the bottle as her companions search for AA meetings. Maurey is not yet ready to deal with her alcoholism or her reluctance to be loved, but the hardships of the road and the bonds that unite this group of refugees (others join them along the way) will change that.

Maurey's wry, cocksure voice evokes both her cowgirl roots and the novel's '70s setting. Despite the bickering, sarcasm, cynicism and personal tragedy that season the lives of his colorful, credible characters, Sandlin fashions a convincing tale of redemption.

-Publishers Weekly]]> 416 Tim Sandlin 1573226041 Neal 5 4.00 1992
author: Tim Sandlin
name: Neal
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 9078 400 Tim Sandlin 1573228397 Neal 4 3.85 1991
author: Tim Sandlin
name: Neal
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 9799 Motherless Brooklyn, a daring, riotous, sweeping novel that spins the tale of two friends and their adventures in late 20th-century America.

This is the story of two boys, Dylan Ebdus and Mingus Rude. They live in Brooklyn and are friends and neighbours; but since Dylan is white and Mingus is black, their friendship is not simple.

This is the story of 1970s America, a time when the simplest decisions—what music you listen to, whether to speak to the kid in the seat next to you, whether to give up your lunch money—are laden with potential political, social and racial disaster. This is also the story of 1990s America, when nobody cared anymore.

This is the story of what would happen if two teenaged boys obsessed with comic book heroes actually had superpowers: they would screw up their lives.]]> 528 Jonathan Lethem 0571219357 Neal 4 3.85 2003
author: Jonathan Lethem
name: Neal
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 16719
Pella's father, Clement, has just been swept out of elective office in New York and has set his sights on the next political frontier: joining the first human settlers on the Planet of the Archbuilders. Once the domain of a super-evolved alien species who used "viruses" to alter their ecosystem before abandoning it, the planet is now a hothouse landscape of ruined towers and refuse inhabited only by skittery, mouselike "household deer" and a few remaining Archbuilders.

Clement's mission, to forge a community that embraces the Archbuilders, puts him on a collision course with Ephram Nugent, a xenophobic homesteader.]]> 280 Jonathan Lethem 0375703918 Neal 2 3.58 1998
author: Jonathan Lethem
name: Neal
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1998
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 16718
Metcalf has been shadowing Celeste, the wife of an affluent doctor. Perhaps he's falling a little in love with her at the same time. When the doctor turns up dead, our amiable investigator finds himself caught in a crossfire between the boys from the Inquisitor's Office and gangsters who operate out of the back room of a bar called the Fickle Muse.

Mixing elements of sci-fi, noir, and mystery, this clever first novel from the author of Motherless Brooklyn is a wry, funny, and satiric look at all that the future may hold.]]> 271 Jonathan Lethem 0156028972 Neal 2 3.77 1994
author: Jonathan Lethem
name: Neal
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1994
rating: 2
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date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 328854 Motherless Brooklyn is a brilliantly original homage to the classic detective novel by one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation.]]> 311 Jonathan Lethem 0345803396 Neal 4 3.86 1999
author: Jonathan Lethem
name: Neal
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 106133 Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye, Russell Banks’s quintessential novel of a disaffectedĚýhomeless youth living on the edge of society “redefines the young modern anti-hero.Ěý.Ěý.Ěý.ĚýRule of the Bone has its own culture and language, and Bone is sure to become a beloved character for generationsâ€� (San Francisco Chronicle). With a compelling, off-beat protagonist evocative of Holden Caulfield and Quentin Coldwater, and a narrative voice that masterfully and naturally captures the nuances of a modern vernacular, Banks’s haunting and powerful novel is an indisputable—and unforgettable—modern classic.]]> 390 Russell Banks 0060927240 Neal 4 3.88 1995
author: Russell Banks
name: Neal
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1995
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 22328 Alternate cover for ISBN: 9780441569595

Case was the sharpest data thief in the Matrix, until an ex-employer crippled his nervous system. Now a new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run against an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a mirror-eyed girl street-samurai riding shotgun, he's ready for the silicon-quick, bleakly prophetic adventure that upped the ante on an entire genre of fiction.]]> 271 William Gibson Neal 4 3.87 1984
author: William Gibson
name: Neal
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1984
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 534185 224 Edward Carey 0151007829 Neal 4 3.76 2003
author: Edward Carey
name: Neal
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 329326 356 Edward Carey 0375709231 Neal 5 3.93 2000
author: Edward Carey
name: Neal
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/01/12
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]]> 16276 John Henry Days is an acrobatic, intellectually dazzling, and laugh-out-loud funny book that will be read and talked about for years to come.]]> 400 Colson Whitehead Neal 3 3.64 2001
author: Colson Whitehead
name: Neal
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2001
rating: 3
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]]> 16271 Librarian note: Click here for alternate cover edition
Two warring factions in the Department of Elevator Inspectors in a bustling metropolis vie for dominance: the Empiricists, who go by the book and rigorously check every structural and mechanical detail, and the Intuitionists, whose observational methods involve meditation and instinct.

Lila Mae Watson, the city’s first black female inspector and a devout Intuitionist with the highest accuracy rate in the department, is at the center of the turmoil. An elevator in a new municipal building has crashed on Lila Mae’s watch, fanning the flames of the Empiticist-Intuitionist feud and compelling Lila Mae to go underground to investigate. As she endeavors to clear her name, she becomes entangled in a web of intrigue that leads her to a secret that will change her life forever.

A dead-serious and seriously funny feat of the imagination, The Intuitionist conjures a parallel universe in which latent ironies in matters of morality, politics, and race come to light, and stands as the celebrated debut of an important American writer.]]> 255 Colson Whitehead Neal 5 3.64 1999
author: Colson Whitehead
name: Neal
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1999
rating: 5
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]]> 168668
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.]]> 453 Joseph Heller 0684833395 Neal 5 3.99 1961
author: Joseph Heller
name: Neal
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1961
rating: 5
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]]> 4981 Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.�

An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it.

Fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut's portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties.]]> 275 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Neal 5 4.10 1969
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Neal
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1969
rating: 5
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]]> 2429135
An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.]]> 480 Stieg Larsson 0670069019 Neal 2 4.17 2005
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Neal
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2005
rating: 2
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