Woodhen's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 27 Dec 2024 02:46:33 -0800 60 Woodhen's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet]]> 55145261 A deeply moving and mind-expanding collection of personal essays in the first ever work of non-fiction from #1 internationally bestselling author John Green

The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale.

Complex and rich with detail, the Anthropocene's reviews have been praised as 'observations that double as exercises in memoiristic empathy', with over 10 million lifetime downloads. John Green's gift for storytelling shines throughout this artfully curated collection about the shared human experience; it includes beloved essays along with six all-new pieces exclusive to the book.]]> 304 John Green 0525555218 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.37 2021 The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
author: John Green
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> Essays 30733
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.

We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.]]> 406 Michel de Montaigne 014017897X Woodhen 0 to-read 4.16 1580 Essays
author: Michel de Montaigne
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1580
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/12/17
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]]> Tess of the D’Urbervilles 32261 here and here.

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D’Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her ‘cousinâ€� Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future.]]> 518 Thomas Hardy Woodhen 0 3.83 1891 Tess of the D’Urbervilles
author: Thomas Hardy
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1891
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/11/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Penguin History of New Zealand]]> 108780 570 Michael King 0143018671 Woodhen 5 4.13 2003 The Penguin History of New Zealand
author: Michael King
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2022/09/10
date added: 2022/09/10
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]]> I Am a Girl from Africa 54304244 The inspiring journey of a girl from Africa whose near-death experience sparked a dream that changed the world.

She squeezes my hand and smiles. "I am here to feed hungry children in the village, because as Africans we must uplift each other."
I don't understand what it means to uplift others, but I nod.
I know that I can finally stand up. I will search for food. I will live.


When severe draught hit her village in Zimbabwe, Elizabeth, then eight, had no idea that this moment of utter devastation would come to define her life purpose. Unable to move from hunger, she encountered a United Nations aid worker who gave her a bowl of warm porridge and saved her life. This transformative moment inspired Elizabeth to become a humanitarian, and she vowed to dedicate her life to giving back to her community, her continent, and the world.

Grounded by the African concept of ubuntu—“I am because we are”â€�I Am a Girl from Africa charts Elizabeth’s quest in pursuit of her dream from the small village of Goromonzi to Harare, London, New York, and beyond, where she eventually became a Senior Advisor at the United Nations and launched HeForShe, one of the world’s largest global solidarity movements for gender equality. For over two decades, Elizabeth has been instrumental in creating change in communities all around the world; uplifting the lives of others, just as her life was once uplifted. The memoir brings to vivid life one extraordinary woman’s story of persevering through incredible odds and finding her true calling—while delivering an important message of hope and empowerment in a time when we need it most.]]> 272 Elizabeth Nyamayaro 1982113014 Woodhen 0 4.29 2021 I Am a Girl from Africa
author: Elizabeth Nyamayaro
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea and Human Life]]> 17160008
He meets people trying to restore lost forests and bring back missing species—such as wolves, lynx, wolverines, wild boar, and gray whales—and explores astonishing evidence that certain species, not just humans, have the power to shape the physical landscape. This process of rewilding, Monbiot argues, offers an alternative to a silent spring: the chance of a raucous summer in which ecological processes resume and humans draw closer to the natural world.]]> 256 George Monbiot 0670067172 Woodhen 2 4.16 2013 Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea and Human Life
author: George Monbiot
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at: 2022/09/10
date added: 2022/09/10
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]]> THE FIRST FORTY-NINE STORIES 56651820




A collection of Hemingway's first forty-nine short stories, featuring a brief introduction by the author and lesser known as well as familiar tales, including 'Up in Michigan', 'Fifty Grand', and 'The Light of the World', and the Snows of Kilimanjaro, Winner Take Nothing' and Men Without Women collections.]]> 671 Ernest Hemingway Woodhen 4 4.00 1938 THE FIRST FORTY-NINE STORIES
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1938
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/07/22
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]]> <![CDATA[English Pastoral: An Inheritance]]> 49309243
English Pastoral is the story of an inheritance: one that affects us all. It tells of how rural landscapes around the world were brought close to collapse, and the age-old rhythms of work, weather, community and wild things were lost. And yet this elegy from the northern fells is also a song of hope: of how, guided by the past, one farmer began to salvage a tiny corner of England that was now his, doing his best to restore the life that had vanished and to leave a legacy for the future.

This is a book about what it means to have love and pride in a place, and how, against all the odds, it may still be possible to build a new pastoral: not a utopia, but somewhere decent for us all.]]> 285 James Rebanks 0241245729 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.49 2020 English Pastoral: An Inheritance
author: James Rebanks
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/12/09
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]]> <![CDATA[A Dog in King Arthur's Court (Cavall in Camelot #1)]]> 36628737
When Cavall and his brother Glessic leave the comfort of their simple barn to join the lavish court of Camelot, Cavall wants nothing more than to prove he’s a good dog to the great knights and dogs of the castle—especially to King Arthur. But Gless says only the best dogs are worthy of greatness, and Cavall has never been as strong, brave, or fast as his brother.

Meanwhile, malevolent forces lurk in Camelot, and Cavall must figure out how to protect his person. To make matters worse, Arthur’s mysterious nightmares are getting worse, threatening to shake his grip on reality and undermine his authority as king. To fight back against the dangers of the dream world, Cavall will need help from some loyal hounds and the enchanting, sometimes frightening creatures that call themselves the fay. He will have to prove that not only can he be a good dog for his person but that he is capable of a greatness all his own.]]> 256 Audrey Mackaman 0062494481 Woodhen 0 to-read, ideas-for-tom 4.27 A Dog in King Arthur's Court (Cavall in Camelot #1)
author: Audrey Mackaman
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/11/19
shelves: to-read, ideas-for-tom
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]]> <![CDATA[Pacific: The Ocean of the Future]]> 25816988
As the Mediterranean shaped the classical world, and the Atlantic connected Europe to the New World, the Pacific Ocean defines our tomorrow. With China on the rise, so, too, are the American cities of the West coast, including Seattle, San Francisco, and the long cluster of towns down the Silicon Valley.

Today, the Pacific is ascendant. Its geological history has long transformed us—tremendous earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis—but its human history, from a Western perspective, is quite young, beginning with Magellan’s sixteenth-century circumnavigation. It is a natural wonder whose most fascinating history is currently being made.

In telling the story of the Pacific, Simon Winchester takes us from the Bering Strait to Cape Horn, the Yangtze River to the Panama Canal, and to the many small islands and archipelagos that lie in between. He observes the fall of a dictator in Manila, visits aboriginals in northern Queensland, and is jailed in Tierra del Fuego, the land at the end of the world. His journey encompasses a trip down the Alaska Highway, a stop at the isolated Pitcairn Islands, a trek across South Korea and a glimpse of its mysterious northern neighbor.

Winchester’s personal experience is vast and his storytelling second to none. And his historical understanding of the region is formidable, making Pacific a paean to this magnificent sea of beauty, myth, and imagination that is transforming our lives.]]> 512 Simon Winchester 0062315412 Woodhen 5 4.03 2015 Pacific: The Ocean of the Future
author: Simon Winchester
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2021/09/04
date added: 2021/09/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse]]> 55877570
Eye-opening, inspiring and riveting, Silent Earth is part love letter to the insect world, part elegy, part rousing manifesto for a greener planet. It is a call to arms for profound change at every level - in government policy, agriculture, industry and in our own homes and gardens. Although time is running out, it is not yet too late for insect populations to recover. We may feel helpless in the face of many of the environmental issues that loom on our horizon, but Goulson shows us that we can all take simple steps to encourage insects and counter their destruction.]]> 336 Dave Goulson 1787333345 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.43 2021 Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse
author: Dave Goulson
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/08/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Garden Jungle: or Gardening to Save the Planet]]> 42277872 **SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**

The Garden Jungle is a wonderful introduction to the hundreds of small creatures with whom we live cheek-by-jowl and of the myriad ways that we can encourage them to thrive.

The Garden Jungle is about the wildlife that lives right under our noses, in our gardens and parks, between the gaps in the pavement, and in the soil beneath our feet. Wherever you are right now, the chances are that there are worms, woodlice, centipedes, flies, silverfish, wasps, beetles, mice, shrews and much, much more, quietly living within just a few paces of you.

Dave Goulson gives us an insight into the fascinating and sometimes weird lives of these creatures, taking us burrowing into the compost heap, digging under the lawn and diving into the garden pond. He explains how our lives and ultimately the fate of humankind are inextricably intertwined with that of earwigs, bees, lacewings and hoverflies, unappreciated heroes of the natural world.

The Garden Jungle is at times an immensely serious book, exploring the environmental harm inadvertently done by gardeners who buy intensively reared plants in disposable plastic pots, sprayed with pesticides and grown in peat cut from the ground. Goulson argues that gardens could become places where we can reconnect with nature and rediscover where food comes from. With just a few small changes, our gardens could become a vast network of tiny nature reserves, where humans and wildlife can thrive together in harmony rather than conflict.

For anyone who has a garden, and cares about our planet, this book is essential reading.]]> 272 Dave Goulson 1787331350 Woodhen 5 4.41 2019 The Garden Jungle: or Gardening to Save the Planet
author: Dave Goulson
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2021/08/28
date added: 2021/08/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #5)]]> 4556058
While the Olympians struggle to contain the rampaging monster Typhon, Kronos begins his advance on New York City, where Mount Olympus stands virtually unguarded. Now it's up to Percy Jackson and an army of young demigods to stop the Lord of Time.

In this momentous final book in the New York Times best-selling series, the long-awaited prophecy surrounding Percy's sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate.]]> 381 Rick Riordan 1423101472 Woodhen 0 4.59 2009 The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #5)
author: Rick Riordan
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at: 2021/07/06
date added: 2021/07/06
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]]> <![CDATA[The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4)]]> 2120932
In this fourth installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop the invasion, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth - a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn.]]> 361 Rick Riordan 1423101464 Woodhen 0 4.41 2008 The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4)
author: Rick Riordan
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at: 2021/07/06
date added: 2021/07/06
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]]> <![CDATA[The Titan’s Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #3)]]> 561456
But when you're the son of a Greek god, it happens. And now my friend Annabeth is missing, a goddess is in chains and only five half-blood heroes can join the quest to defeat the doomsday monster.

Oh, and guess what? The Oracle has predicted that not all of us will survive...]]> 352 Rick Riordan Woodhen 0 4.37 2007 The Titan’s Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #3)
author: Rick Riordan
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at: 2021/07/06
date added: 2021/07/06
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #2)]]> 28186
In this episode, The Sea of Monsters, Percy sets out to retrieve the Golden Fleece before his summer camp is destroyed, surpassing the first book's drama and setting the stage for more thrills to come.]]> 279 Rick Riordan 0786856866 Woodhen 0 4.25 2006 The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #2)
author: Rick Riordan
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at: 2021/07/06
date added: 2021/07/06
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]]> <![CDATA[The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)]]> 28187 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse - Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he'll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena - Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.]]> 377 Rick Riordan 0786838655 Woodhen 0 4.31 2005 The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)
author: Rick Riordan
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at: 2021/07/06
date added: 2021/07/06
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]]> The River Singers 18456787
Knowing their lives are under threat, Sylvan and his brother and sisters have no choice but to abandon their burrow for ever. Together they set out on an epic journey along the Great River; but with dangers lurking at every turn, will they ever find a safe place to call home?

Adventurous, exciting, and bursting with charming illustrations - this is a book you'll want to treasure for ever.]]> 256 Tom Moorhouse 0192734806 Woodhen 0 4.19 2013 The River Singers
author: Tom Moorhouse
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2021/07/06
date added: 2021/07/06
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]]> <![CDATA[The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind]]> 17978489 The New York Times best-selling author of Physics of the Impossible, Physics of the Future and Hyperspace tackles the most fascinating and complex object in the known universe: the human brain.

For the first time in history, the secrets of the living brain are being revealed by a battery of high tech brain scans devised by physicists. Now what was once solely the province of science fiction has become a startling reality. Recording memories, telepathy, videotaping our dreams, mind control, avatars, and telekinesis are not only possible; they already exist.

The Future of the Mind gives us an authoritative and compelling look at the astonishing research being done in top laboratories around the world—all based on the latest advancements in neuroscience and physics. One day we might have a "smart pill" that can enhance our cognition; be able to upload our brain to a computer, neuron for neuron; send thoughts and emotions around the world on a "brain-net"; control computers and robots with our mind; push the very limits of immortality; and perhaps even send our consciousness across the universe.

Dr. Kaku takes us on a grand tour of what the future might hold, giving us not only a solid sense of how the brain functions but also how these technologies will change our daily lives. He even presents a radically new way to think about "consciousness" and applies it to provide fresh insight into mental illness, artificial intelligence and alien consciousness.

With Dr. Kaku's deep understanding of modern science and keen eye for future developments, The Future of the Mind is a scientific tour de force--an extraordinary, mind-boggling exploration of the frontiers of neuroscience.]]> 377 Michio Kaku 038553082X Woodhen 0 currently-reading 4.07 2014 The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind
author: Michio Kaku
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/22
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]]> Down To Earth 34879206 272 Montagu Don 0241318270 Woodhen 3 4.43 Down To Earth
author: Montagu Don
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.43
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/22
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]]> Forces of Nature 30359599

‘What is motion?â€�
‘Why is every snowflake different?â€�
‘Why is life symmetrical?â€�


To answer these and many other questions, Professor Brian Cox uncovers some of the most extraordinary natural events on Earth and in the Universe and beyond.


From the immensity of the Universe and the roundness of Earth to the form of every single snowflake, the forces of nature shape everything we see. Pushed to extremes, the results are astonishing. In seeking to understand the everyday world, the colours, structure, behaviour and history of our home, we develop the knowledge and techniques necessary to step beyond the everyday and approach the Universe beyond.


Forces of Nature takes you to the great plains of the Serengeti, the volcanoes of Indonesia and the precipitous cliffs in Nepal, to the humpback whales of the Caribbean and the northern lights of the Arctic. Brian will answer questions on Earth that will illuminate our understanding of the Universe.


Think you know our planet?
Think again.]]> 288 Brian Cox 0007488823 Woodhen 0 currently-reading 4.10 2016 Forces of Nature
author: Brian Cox
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures]]> 52668915
Neither plant nor animal, it is found throughout the earth, the air and our bodies. It can be microscopic, yet also accounts for the largest organisms ever recorded, living for millennia and weighing tens of thousands of tonnes. Its ability to digest rock enabled the first life on land, it can survive unprotected in space, and thrives amidst nuclear radiation.

In this captivating adventure, Merlin Sheldrake explores the spectacular and neglected world of fungi: endlessly surprising organisms that sustain nearly all living systems. They can solve problems without a brain, stretching traditional definitions of ‘intelligenceâ€�, and can manipulate animal behaviour with devastating precision. In giving us bread, alcohol and life-saving medicines, fungi have shaped human history, and their psychedelic properties, which have influenced societies since antiquity, have recently been shown to alleviate a number of mental illnesses. The ability of fungi to digest plastic, explosives, pesticides and crude oil is being harnessed in break-through technologies, and the discovery that they connect plants in underground networks, the ‘Wood Wide Webâ€�, is transforming the way we understand ecosystems. Yet they live their lives largely out of sight, and over ninety percent of their species remain undocumented.

Entangled Life is a mind-altering journey into this hidden kingdom of life, and shows that fungi are key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel and behave. The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them.]]> 352 Merlin Sheldrake 0525510311 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.34 2020 Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
author: Merlin Sheldrake
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/03
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]]> <![CDATA[What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions]]> 21413662 xkcd comic ask Munroe a lot of strange questions: What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? What if everyone only had one soulmate? What would happen if the moon went away?

In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by his signature xkcd comics. (They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.)

In celebration of 10 years of unusual insight, Randall Munroe has revised his classic blockbuster to ask what if? x 10. The result is 10x the adventure of scientific inquiry. Featuring brand-new 2-color annotations and illustrations, this special anniversary edition is far more than a book for geeks, What If? explains the laws of science in operation in a way that every intelligent reader will enjoy and feel much smarter for having read.]]> 303 Randall Munroe 0544272994 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.13 2014 What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
author: Randall Munroe
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/03/03
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]]> <![CDATA[The Wood: The Life & Times of Cockshutt Wood]]> 35407325 The Wood is the story of English woodlands as they change with the seasons. Lyrical and informative, steeped in poetry and folklore. For four years John Lewis-Stempel managed Cockshutt wood, a particular wood - three and half acres of mixed woodland in south west Herefordshire - that stands as exemplar for all the small woods of England. John coppiced the trees and raised cows and pigs who roamed free there. This is the diary of the last year, by which time he had come to know it from the bottom of its beech roots to the tip of its oaks, and to know all the animals that lived there - the fox, the pheasants, the wood mice, the tawny owl - and where the best bluebells grew. For many fauna and flora, woods like Cockshutt are the last refuge. It proves a sanctuary for John too.]]> 304 John Lewis-Stempel 1473542537 Woodhen 3 4.03 2018 The Wood: The Life & Times of Cockshutt Wood
author: John Lewis-Stempel
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2021/03/03
date added: 2021/03/03
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]]> Norwegian Wood 8835878 Alternate cover edition of ISBN-13:
9780307762719 / ISBN-10: 0307762718


First American Publication
This stunning and elegiac novel by the author of the internationally acclaimed Wind-Up Bird Chronicle has sold over 4 million copies in Japan and is now available to American audiences for the first time. It is sure to be a literary event.

Toru, a quiet and preternaturally serious young college student in Tokyo, is devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman, but their mutual passion is marked by the tragic death of their best friend years before. Toru begins to adapt to campus life and the loneliness and isolation he faces there, but Naoko finds the pressures and responsibilities of life unbearable. As she retreats further into her own world, Toru finds himself reaching out to others and drawn to a fiercely independent and sexually liberated young woman.

A poignant story of one college student's romantic coming-of-age, Norwegian Wood takes us to that distant place of a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.]]> 269 Haruki Murakami Woodhen 4 3.81 1987 Norwegian Wood
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2021/03/02
date added: 2021/03/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Shepherd's Life: A People's History of the Lake District]]> 22856150 320 James Rebanks 0385682840 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.12 2015 The Shepherd's Life: A People's History of the Lake District
author: James Rebanks
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/27
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]]> <![CDATA[The Art of Rest: How to Find Respite in the Modern Age]]> 51115322
The Art of Rest draws on ground-breaking research Claudia Hammond collaborated on - 'The Rest Test' - the largest global survey into rest ever undertaken, which was completed by 18,000 people across 135 different countries. Much of value has been written about sleep, but rest is different; it is how we unwind, calm our minds and recharge our bodies. And, as the survey revealed, how much rest you get is directly linked to your sense of well-being.

Counting down through the top ten activities which people find most restful, Hammond explains why rest matters, examines the science behind the results to establish what really works and offers a roadmap for a new, more restful and balanced life.]]> 304 Claudia Hammond 1786892804 Woodhen 0 to-read 3.59 2019 The Art of Rest: How to Find Respite in the Modern Age
author: Claudia Hammond
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Back to Nature: How to love life - and save it]]> 55891446 One thing has become clear this year - we need nature more than ever. And it needs us too.

From our balconies and gardens to our woodlands, national parks and beyond, Back to Nature captures the essence of how we feel about the wildlife outside our windows. Through personal stories, conservation breakthroughs and scientific discoveries, it explores the wonder and the solace of nature, and the ways in which we can connect with it - and protect it.]]> 296 Chris Packham 1529350395 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.17 Back to Nature: How to love life - and save it
author: Chris Packham
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.17
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/27
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]]> Ways of Seeing 2784 John Berger’s Classic Text on Art

Ways of Seeing is one of the most stimulating and the most influential books on art in any language. First published in 1972, it was based on the BBC television series about which the (London) Sunday Times a critic commented: "This is an eye-opener in more ways than one: by concentrating on how we look at paintings . . . he will almost certainly change the way you look at pictures." By now he has.

"Berger has the ability to cut right through the mystification of the professional art critics . . . He is a liberator of images: and once we have allowed the paintings to work on us directly, we are in a much better position to make a meaningful evaluation" —Peter Fuller, Arts Review

"The influence of the series and the book . . . was enormous . . . It opened up for general attention to areas of cultural study that are now commonplace" —Geoff Dyer in Ways of Telling.]]> 176 John Berger 0140135154 Woodhen 0 to-read 3.93 1972 Ways of Seeing
author: John Berger
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/27
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]]> Diary of a Young Naturalist 48853063
These vivid, evocative and moving diary entries about his connection to wildlife and the way he sees the world are raw in their telling.

"I was diagnosed with Asperger's/autism aged five ... By age seven I knew I was very different, I had got used to the isolation, my inability to break through into the world of talking about football or Minecraft was not tolerated. Then came the bullying. Nature became so much more than an escape; it became a life-support system." Diary of a Young Naturalist portrays Dara's intense connection to the natural world, and his perspective as a teenager juggling exams and friendships alongside a life of campaigning. "In writing this book," Dara explains, "I have experienced challenges but also felt incredible joy, wonder, curiosity and excitement. In sharing this journey my hope is that people of all generations will not only understand autism a little more but also appreciate a child's eye view on our delicate and changing biosphere."]]> 224 Dara McAnulty 1908213795 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.24 2020 Diary of a Young Naturalist
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]]> 100 Selected Poems 76889 121 E.E. Cummings 0802130720 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.29 1923 100 Selected Poems
author: E.E. Cummings
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1923
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need]]> 52275335 In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical - and accessible - plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe.

Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide toward certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal.

He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions-suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise.

As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.]]> 272 Bill Gates 0241448301 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.12 2021 How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
author: Bill Gates
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.12
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]]> <![CDATA[The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race]]> 54968118 The Double Helix on her bed. As she sped through the pages, she became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the code of life. Even though her high school counselor told her girls didn’t become scientists, she decided she would.

Driven by a passion to understand how nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, she would help to make what the book’s author, James Watson, told her was the most important biological advance since his co-discovery of the structure of DNA. She and her collaborators turned â€�a curiosity ​of nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions.

The development of CRISPR and the race to create vaccines for coronavirus will hasten our transition to the next great innovation revolution. The past half-century has been a digital age, based on the microchip, computer, and internet. Now we are entering a life-science revolution. Children who study digital coding will be joined by those who study genetic code.

Should we use our new evolution-hacking powers to make us less susceptible to viruses? What a wonderful boon that would be! And what about preventing depression? Hmmm
Should we allow parents, if they can afford it, to enhance the height or muscles or IQ of their kids?

After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020.]]> 536 Walter Isaacson 1982115858 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.23 2021 The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.23
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]]> <![CDATA[Capital in the Twenty First Century]]> 18736925 Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality.

Piketty shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality—the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth—today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, Piketty says, and may do so again.]]> 685 Thomas Piketty 067443000X Woodhen 0 to-read 4.04 2013 Capital in the Twenty First Century
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name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2013
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]]> <![CDATA[Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine]]> 31434883 No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen, the three rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they had been living. Ultimately, it is Raymond’s big heart that will help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. If she does, she'll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.

Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .

the only way to survive is to open your heart.]]> 336 Gail Honeyman 0735220689 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.21 2017 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
author: Gail Honeyman
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2017
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]]> A Long Petal of the Sea 46042377 From the author of The House of the Spirits, this epic novel spanning decades and crossing continents follows two young people as they flee the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in search of a place to call home.

In the late 1930s, civil war grips Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border. Among them is Roser, a pregnant young widow, who finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. In order to survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them desires.

Together with two thousand other refugees, they embark on the SS Winnipeg, a ship chartered by the poet Pablo Neruda, to Chile: “the long petal of sea and wine and snow.â€� As unlikely partners, they embrace exile as the rest of Europe erupts in world war. Starting over on a new continent, their trials are just beginning, and over the course of their lives, they will face trial after trial. But they will also find joy as they patiently await the day when they will be exiles no more. Through it all, their hope of returning to Spain keeps them going. Destined to witness the battle between freedom and repression as it plays out across the world, Roser and Victor will find that home might have been closer than they thought all along.

A masterful work of historical fiction about hope, exile, and belonging, A Long Petal of the Sea shows Isabel Allende at the height of her powers. ]]> 325 Isabel Allende Woodhen 0 to-read 4.03 2019 A Long Petal of the Sea
author: Isabel Allende
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.03
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]]> H is for Hawk 18803640
When her father dies and she is knocked sideways by grief, she becomes obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk. She buys Mabel for ÂŁ800 on a Scottish quayside and takes her home to Cambridge. Then she fills the freezer with hawk food and unplugs the phone, ready to embark on the long, strange business of trying to train this wildest of animals.

Destined to be a classic of nature writing, "H is for Hawk" is a record of a spiritual journey - an unflinchingly honest account of Macdonald's struggle with grief during the difficult process of the hawk's taming and her own untaming. At the same time, it's a kaleidoscopic biography of the brilliant and troubled novelist T. H. White, best known for "The Once and Future King." It's a book about memory, nature and nation, and how it might be possible to try to reconcile death with life and love.]]> 300 Helen Macdonald 0224097008 Woodhen 0 to-read 3.73 2014 H is for Hawk
author: Helen Macdonald
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2014
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]]> Vesper Flights 48637750 Animals don't exist in order to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves.

Helen Macdonald's bestselling debut H is for Hawk brought the astonishing story of her relationship with goshawk Mabel to global critical acclaim and announced Macdonald as one of this century's most important and insightful nature writers. H is for Hawk won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Nonfiction and the Costa Book Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, launching poet and falconer Macdonald as our preeminent nature essayist, with a semi-regular column in the New York Times Magazine.

In Vesper Flights Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep. Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing songbirds from the Empire State Building as they migrate through the Tribute of Light, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk's poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds' nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife. By one of this century's most important and insightful nature writers, Vesper Flights is a captivating and foundational book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make sense of the world around us.]]> 304 Helen Macdonald 0802128815 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.10 2020 Vesper Flights
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]]> The Salt Path 38085814
They have almost no money for food or shelter and must carry only the essentials for survival on their backs as they live wild in the ancient, weathered landscape of cliffs, sea and sky. Yet through every step, every encounter, and every test along the way, their walk becomes a remarkable journey.

The Salt Path is an honest and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.]]> 288 Raynor Winn 0241349648 Woodhen 0 to-read 3.97 2018 The Salt Path
author: Raynor Winn
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2018
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]]> With My Little Eye 56038090
'Hilarious, moving and brilliantly told' - Susan Johnson

'It reads like the very best of spy thrillers.' - Matthew Condon

'An intimate and compelling look at an ordinary family who happen to be ASIO agents.' - Kristina Olsson

Growing up in the 1950s, the three Doherty children were trained by their parents to memorise car number plates, to spot unusual behaviour on the street and, most important of all, to avoid drawing attention to themselves.

The children became unwitting foot soldiers in Australia's battle against Soviet infiltration in the Cold War. They attended political rallies, stood watch on houses owned by communist sympathisers, and insinuated themselves into the UFO Society. In 1956 the Doherty family went on a beach holiday with Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov, the famous Soviet defectors, who were hiding from Soviet assassins.

Dudley and Joan Doherty swore their children to secrecy, and for decades, they didn't even discuss among themselves the work they did for ASIO.

With My Little Eye is a poignant and very funny account of a peculiar childhood in 1950s suburban Australia.]]> 240 Sandra Hogan 1760878464 Woodhen 0 to-read 3.47 With My Little Eye
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]]> <![CDATA[Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?: (And How to Fix It)]]> 41959331 Look around your office. Turn on the TV. Incompetent leadership is everywhere, and there's no denying that most of these leaders are men.

In this timely and provocative book, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic asks two powerful questions: Why is it so easy for incompetent men to become leaders? And why is it so hard for competent people—especially competent women—to advance?

Marshaling decades of rigorous research, Chamorro-Premuzic points out that although men make up a majority of leaders, they underperform when compared with female leaders. In fact, most organizations equate leadership potential with a handful of destructive personality traits, like overconfidence and narcissism. In other words, these traits may help someone get selected for a leadership role, but they backfire once the person has the job.

When competent women—and men who don't fit the stereotype—are unfairly overlooked, we all suffer the consequences. The result is a deeply flawed system that rewards arrogance rather than humility, and loudness rather than wisdom.

There is a better way. With clarity and verve, Chamorro-Premuzic shows us what it really takes to lead and how new systems and processes can help us put the right people in charge.]]> 240 Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic 1633696324 Woodhen 0 to-read 3.81 2019 Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?: (And How to Fix It)
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]]> <![CDATA[Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?]]> 54486819 London Review of Books editor Mary-Kay Wilmers.

Jenny Diski was a fearless writer, for whom no subject was too difficult, even her own cancer diagnosis. Her columns in the London Review of Books selected here by her editor and friend Mary-Kay Wilmers, on subjects as various as death, motherhood, sexual politics and the joys of solitude have been described as "virtuoso performances," and "small masterpieces."

From Highgate Cemetery to the interior of a psychiatric hospital, from Tottenham Court Road to the icebergs of Antarctica, Why Didn't You Just Do What You Were Told? is a collective interrogation of the universal experience from a very particular psyche: original, opinionated and mordantly funny.]]> 432 Jenny Diski 1526621908 Woodhen 0 to-read 3.96 2020 Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told?
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]]> Winter (Seasonal, #2) 34516974 The dazzling second novel in Ali Smith’s essential Seasonal Quartet—from the Baileys Prize-winning, Man Booker-shortlisted author of Autumn and How to be Both.

Winter? Bleak. Frosty wind, earth as iron, water as stone, so the old song goes. The shortest days, the longest nights. The trees are bare and shivering. The summer’s leaves? Dead litter.

The world shrinks; the sap sinks.
But winter makes things visible. And if there’s ice, there’ll be fire.

In Ali Smith's Winter, lifeforce matches up to the toughest of the seasons. In this second novel in her acclaimed Seasonal cycle, the follow-up to her sensational Autumn, Smith's shape-shifting quartet of novels casts a merry eye over a bleak post-truth era with a story rooted in history, memory and warmth, its taproot deep in the evergreens: art, love, laughter.

It’s the season that teaches us survival.
Here comes Winter.]]> 322 Ali Smith 0241207029 Woodhen 0 to-read 3.81 2017 Winter (Seasonal, #2)
author: Ali Smith
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.81
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]]> <![CDATA[Valerie Taylor: An Adventurous Life: The remarkable story of the trailblazing ocean conservationist, photographer and shark expert]]> 51592656 At 83 years old, Valerie Taylor has lived a big, bold adventurous life.

Born in Australia, Valerie spent a great deal of her childhood in New Zealand. A talented artist, she dropped out of school when she contracted polio and was saved by Sister Elizabeth Kenny's treatment plan; it was two years before she could walk unaided. When Valerie was fifteen, she found work as an animator and moved back to Australia with her family. All the while she thrived on being close to the ocean, and was a keen spear fisher.

In the 1950s, she met Ron Taylor and then her real adventures started. Together they sailed all over the world, photographing and filming their travels for magazines, TV and movies, and making many documentaries. Valerie and Ron became interested in conservation, and focused on sharks in particular. They did all the shark work on Jaws, and James Cameron decided he wanted to become a filmmaker because of Valerie and her husband.

Valerie is working with the brilliant Ben Mckelvey to share her story of falling in love with the ocean and with her husband, Ron. From trainee animator to Spielberg, from JAWS to BLUE LAGOON, this is the remarkable story of an incredible woman.

]]> 286 Valerie Taylor 0733641733 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.33 2019 Valerie Taylor: An Adventurous Life: The remarkable story of the trailblazing ocean conservationist, photographer and shark expert
author: Valerie Taylor
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.33
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]]> <![CDATA[21 Lessons for the 21st Century]]> 38820046 In Sapiens, he explored our past. In Homo Deus, he looked to our future. Now, one of the most innovative thinkers on the planet turns to the present to make sense of today's most pressing issues.

How do computers and robots change the meaning of being human? How do we deal with the epidemic of fake news? Are nations and religions still relevant? What should we teach our children?

Yuval Noah Harari's 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a probing and visionary investigation into today's most urgent issues as we move into the uncharted territory of the future. As technology advances faster than our understanding of it, hacking becomes a tactic of war, and the world feels more polarized than ever, Harari addresses the challenge of navigating life in the face of constant and disorienting change and raises the important questions we need to ask ourselves in order to survive.

In twenty-one accessible chapters that are both provocative and profound, Harari builds on the ideas explored in his previous books, untangling political, technological, social, and existential issues and offering advice on how to prepare for a very different future from the world we now live in: How can we retain freedom of choice when Big Data is watching us? What will the future workforce look like, and how should we ready ourselves for it? How should we deal with the threat of terrorism? Why is liberal democracy in crisis?

Harari's unique ability to make sense of where we have come from and where we are going has captured the imaginations of millions of readers. Here he invites us to consider values, meaning, and personal engagement in a world full of noise and uncertainty. When we are deluged with irrelevant information, clarity is power. Presenting complex contemporary challenges clearly and accessibly, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is essential reading.]]> 372 Yuval Noah Harari 0525512179 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.16 2018 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2018
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]]> Stillness Is the Key 43582733 In The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy, bestselling author Ryan Holiday made ancient wisdom wildly popular with a new generation of leaders in sports, politics, and technology. In his new book, Stillness Is the Key, Holiday draws on timeless Stoic and Buddhist philosophy to show why slowing down is the secret weapon for those charging ahead.

All great leaders, thinkers, artists, athletes, and visionaries share one indelible quality. It enables them to conquer their tempers. To avoid distraction and discover great insights. To achieve happiness and do the right thing. Ryan Holiday calls it stillness--to be steady while the world spins around you.

In this book, he outlines a path for achieving this ancient, but urgently necessary way of living. Drawing on a wide range of history's greatest thinkers, from Confucius to Seneca, Marcus Aurelius to Thich Nhat Hanh, John Stuart Mill to Nietzsche, he argues that stillness is not mere inactivity, but the doorway to self-mastery, discipline, and focus.

Holiday also examines figures who exemplified the power of stillness: baseball player Sadaharu Oh, whose study of Zen made him the greatest home run hitter of all time; Winston Churchill, who in balancing his busy public life with time spent laying bricks and painting at his Chartwell estate managed to save the world from annihilation in the process; Fred Rogers, who taught generations of children to see what was invisible to the eye; Anne Frank, whose journaling and love of nature guided her through unimaginable adversity.

More than ever, people are overwhelmed. They face obstacles and egos and competition. Stillness Is the Key offers a simple but inspiring antidote to the stress of 24/7 news and social media. The stillness that we all seek is the path to meaning, contentment, and excellence in a world that needs more of it than ever.]]> 288 Ryan Holiday 0525538585 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.19 2019 Stillness Is the Key
author: Ryan Holiday
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average rating: 4.19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph]]> 18668059 “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.â€� â€� Marcus Aurelius

We are stuck, stymied, frustrated. But it needn’t be this way. There is a formula for success that’s been followed by the icons of history—from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs—a formula that let them turn obstacles into opportunities. Faced with impossible situations, they found the astounding triumphs we all seek.

These men and women were not exceptionally brilliant, lucky, or gifted. Their success came from timeless philosophical principles laid down by a Roman emperor who struggled to articulate a method for excellence in any and all situations.

This book reveals that formula for the first time—and shows us how we can turn our own adversity into advantage.]]> 201 Ryan Holiday 1591846358 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.13 2014 The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
author: Ryan Holiday
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
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]]> <![CDATA[The Broken Path (Survivors, #4)]]> 18052864 Erin Hunter, the #1 nationally bestselling author of the Warriors series, is back with book four in the New York Times bestselling Survivors series about a dog named Lucky. This thrilling animal fantasy series was praised by Kirkus as "wild and wonderful adventure" in a starred review. It will be welcomed by all fans of epic animal fantasy adventure.

Lucky and Alpha have reached a shaky truce, but tensions within the newly united Pack are still running high. As the dogs search for a home far away from the Fierce Dog camp, they discover that no territory is truly safe when they encounter a terrifying new Pack.

]]> 325 Erin Hunter 0062102710 Woodhen 3 4.38 2014 The Broken Path (Survivors, #4)
author: Erin Hunter
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/12
date added: 2021/02/12
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]]> <![CDATA[The Endless Lake (Survivors, #5)]]> 18599647
Kirkus Reviews praised Survivors as a "wild and wonderful adventure" in a starred review. Lucky and his Pack's adventures continue in the action-packed fifth Survivors novel from the #1 nationally bestselling author of Warriors!

Lucky and his Pack were able to defeat Terror's dogs, but their new world still holds many dangers. Now the Pack has come to the edge of a strange lake that seems to stretch on forever, and Lucky discovers that there is barely enough food to survive. As winter approaches and Lucky struggles to keep his friends safe, he is haunted by visions of a storm of dogs-and a terrible battle that seems to loom closer every day.

The first two books in the Survivors series both received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews. With its heartpounding blend of epic action, friendship, and animal folklore, this New York Times bestselling series from the author of Warriors is sure to leave readers howling for more.]]> 325 Erin Hunter 0062102753 Woodhen 0 4.38 2014 The Endless Lake (Survivors, #5)
author: Erin Hunter
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2021/02/13
date added: 2021/02/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Adults in the Room: My Battle with Europe's Deep Establishment]]> 34673467
Varoufakis sparked one of the most spectacular and controversial battles in recent political history when, as finance minister of Greece, he attempted to renegotiate his country’s relationship with the EU. Despite the mass support of the Greek people and the simple logic of his arguments, he succeeded only in provoking the fury of Europe’s political, financial and media elite. But the true story of what happened is almost entirely unknown â€� not least because so much of the EU’s real business takes place behind closed doors.

In this fearless account, Varoufakis reveals all: an extraordinary tale of brinkmanship, hypocrisy, collusion and betrayal that will shake the deep establishment to its foundations.

As is now clear, the same policies that required the tragic and brutal suppression of Greece’s democratic uprising have led directly to authoritarianism, populist revolt and instability throughout the Western world.

'Adults In The Room' is an urgent wake-up call to renew European democracy before it is too late.]]> 561 Yanis Varoufakis Woodhen 0 currently-reading 4.31 2017 Adults in the Room: My Battle with Europe's Deep Establishment
author: Yanis Varoufakis
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2017
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]]> Mom & Me & Mom 15798797 Mom & Me & Mom, Angelou dramatizes her years reconciling with the mother she preferred to simply call “Lady,â€� revealing the profound moments that shifted the balance of love and respect between them.
Ìę
Delving into one of her life’s most rich, rewarding, and fraught relationships, Mom & Me & Mom explores the healing and love that evolved between the two women over the course of their lives, the love that fostered Maya Angelou’s rise to the heights.]]> 201 Maya Angelou 1400066115 Woodhen 4 4.20 2013 Mom & Me & Mom
author: Maya Angelou
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Good Services: Decoding the Mystery of What Makes a Good Service]]> 51209181
This book lays out the essential principles for building services that work well for users. Demystifying what we mean by a ‘goodâ€� and ‘badâ€� service and describing the common elements within all services that mean that it either works for users or doesn’t. A practical book for non-practitioners interested in better service delivery, a book to guide their decision making without the need to first learn how to design a service themselves.]]> 192 Lou Downe Woodhen 0 currently-reading 4.30 Good Services: Decoding the Mystery of What Makes a Good Service
author: Lou Downe
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.30
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date added: 2021/02/10
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]]> The Oak Papers 53441191
Canton examines our long-standing dependency on the oak, and how that has developed and morphed into myth and legend. We no longer need these sturdy trees to build our houses and boats, to fuel our fires, or to grind their acorns into flour in times of famine. What purpose, then, do they serve in our world today? Are these miracles of nature no longer necessary to our lives? What can they offer us?Ìę

Canton tells the story of this tree in its ecological, spiritual, literary, and historical contexts, using it as a prism to see his own life and human history. The Oak Papers is a reflection on change and transformation, and the role nature has played in sustaining and redeeming us.Ìę]]> 256 James Canton 0063037947 Woodhen 4 3.63 2021 The Oak Papers
author: James Canton
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2021/02/10
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]]> My Name is Lucy Barton 31340710 193 Elizabeth Strout 0241248787 Woodhen 0 to-read 3.75 2016 My Name is Lucy Barton
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/07
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]]> The Overstory 40180098 The Overstory is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of - and paean to - the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

A New York Times Bestseller.]]> 502 Richard Powers 039335668X Woodhen 0 to-read 4.10 2018 The Overstory
author: Richard Powers
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
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]]> Only the Animals 20681123 The Boat.

Ten tales are told by the souls of animals killed in human conflicts in the past century or so, from a camel in colonial Australia to a cat in the trenches in World War I, from a bear starved to death during the siege of Sarajevo to a mussel that died in Pearl Harbour. Each narrator also pays homage to an author who has written imaginatively about animals during much the same time span: Henry Lawson, Colette, Kafka, Virginia Woolf, Tolstoy, GĂŒnter Grass, Julian Barnes, and others.

These stories are brilliantly plotted, exquisitely written, inevitably poignant but also playful and witty. They ask us to consider profound questions. Why do animals shock us into feeling things we can't seem to feel for other humans? Why do animals allow authors to say the unsayable? Why do we sometimes treat humans as animals, and animals as humans? Can fiction help us find moral meaning in a disillusioned world?

Ceridwen Dovey is a prodigiously gifted storyteller, an insightful thinker, and a prose writer of great range. Each of the storylines is an opening to a new way of considering the nature of violence and the relationship between human and animal experiences of the world. Only The Animals will ask you to believe again, just for a moment, in the redemptive power of reading and writing fiction.]]> 304 Ceridwen Dovey 1926428587 Woodhen 0 to-read 3.65 2014 Only the Animals
author: Ceridwen Dovey
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing 18218630 A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing is to plunge inside its narrator's head, experiencing her world first-hand. This isn't always comfortable - but it is always a revelation.

Touching on everything from family violence to sexuality and the personal struggle to remain intact in times of intense trauma, McBride writes with singular intensity, acute sensitivity and mordant wit. A Girl is a Half-formed Thing is moving, funny � and alarming. It is a book you will never forget.]]> 205 Eimear McBride 0957185324 Woodhen 0 to-read 3.50 2013 A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing
author: Eimear McBride
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Tuai: A Traveller in Two Worlds]]> 40387192
On his epic journey Tuai would visit exotic foreign ports, mix with teeming crowds in the huge metropolis of London, and witness the marvels of industrialisation at the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire. With his lively travelling companion Tītere, he would attend fashionable gatherings and sit for his portrait. He shared his deep understanding of Māori language and culture. And his missionary friends did their best to convert him to Christianity. But on returning to his Māori world in 1819, Tuai found there were difficult choices to be made. His plan to integrate new European knowledge and relationships into his Ngare Raumati community was to be challenged by the rapidly shifting politics of the Bay of Islands.

With sympathy and insight, Alison Jones and Kuni Kaa Jenkins uncover the remarkable story of one of the first Māori travellers to Europe.]]> 288 Alison Jones 0947518800 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.00 2017 Tuai: A Traveller in Two Worlds
author: Alison Jones
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less]]> 18077875 Do you simultaneously feel overworked and underutilized?
Are you often busy but not productive?
ÌęDo you feel like your time is constantly being hijacked by other people’s agendas?

If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is the Way of the EssentialistThe Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done.Ìę It is notÌęÌęa time management strategy, or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter.Ìę

By forcing us to apply a more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy � instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us.

Essentialism is not one more thing â€� it’s a whole new way of doing everything. A must-read for any leader, manager, or individual who wants to learn how to do less, but better, in every area of their lives, Essentialism Ìęis a movement whose time has come.]]> 260 Greg McKeown 0804137382 Woodhen 3 4.05 2011 Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
author: Greg McKeown
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2021/02/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World]]> 28256439 The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods and forests and explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in the woodland and the amazing scientific processes behind the wonders of which we are blissfully unaware. Much like human families, tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, and support them as they grow, sharing nutrients with those who are sick or struggling and creating an ecosystem that mitigates the impact of extremes of heat and cold for the whole group. As a result of such interactions, trees in a family or community are protected and can live to be very old. In contrast, solitary trees, like street kids, have a tough time of it and in most cases die much earlier than those in a group.

Drawing on groundbreaking new discoveries, Wohlleben presents the science behind the secret and previously unknown life of trees and their communication abilities; he describes how these discoveries have informed his own practices in the forest around him. As he says, a happy forest is a healthy forest, and he believes that eco-friendly practices not only are economically sustainable but also benefit the health of our planet and the mental and physical health of all who live on Earth.]]> 272 Peter Wohlleben 1771642483 Woodhen 2 4.06 2015 The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World
author: Peter Wohlleben
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2015
rating: 2
read at: 2021/02/01
date added: 2021/02/01
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]]> Rebecca 17899948 Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady's maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives--presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave.

First published in 1938, this classic gothic novel is such a compelling read that it won the Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century.]]> 449 Daphne du Maurier 0316323705 Woodhen 0 4.28 1938 Rebecca
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1938
rating: 0
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]]> The Sun Also Rises 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 Woodhen 0 to-read 3.81 1926 The Sun Also Rises
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1926
rating: 0
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]]> The Old Man and the Sea 2165 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

This short novel, already a modern classic, is the superbly told, tragic story of a Cuban fisherman in the Gulf Stream and the giant Marlin he kills and loses—specifically referred to in the citation accompanying the author's Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.]]> 96 Ernest Hemingway 0684830493 Woodhen 0 to-read 3.81 1952 The Old Man and the Sea
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1952
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Worst Journey in the World]]> 48503 The Worst Journey in the World recounts Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated expedition to the South Pole. Apsley Cherry-Garrard, the youngest member of Scott's team and one of three men to make and survive the notorious Winter Journey, draws on his firsthand experiences as well as the diaries of his compatriots to create a stirring and detailed account of Scott's legendary expedition. Cherry himself would be among the search party that discovered the corpses of Scott and his men, who had long since perished from starvation and brutal cold. It is through Cherry's insightful narrative and keen descriptions that Scott and the other members of the expedition are fully memorialized.

First published in 1922.]]> 693 Apsley Cherry-Garrard 0143039385 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.17 1922 The Worst Journey in the World
author: Apsley Cherry-Garrard
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1922
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World]]> 10374 Lord Jim.

Science fiction, detective story and post-modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is the tour de force that expanded Haruki Murakami's international following. Tracking one man's descent into the Kafkaesque underworld of contemporary Tokyo, Murakami unites East and West, tragedy and farce, compassion and detachment, slang and philosophy.]]> 400 Haruki Murakami Woodhen 0 to-read 4.14 1985 Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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]]> Long Walk to Freedom 318431
Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.

The foster son of a Thembu chief, Mandela was raised in the traditional, tribal culture of his ancestors, but at an early age learned the modern, inescapable reality of what came to be called apartheid, one of the most powerful and effective systems of oppression ever conceived. In classically elegant and engrossing prose, he tells of his early years as an impoverished student and law clerk in a Jewish firm in Johannesburg, of his slow political awakening, and of his pivotal role in the rebirth of a stagnant ANC and the formation of its Youth League in the 1950s.

He describes the struggle to reconcile his political activity with his devotion to his family, the anguished breakup of his first marriage, and the painful separations from his children. He brings vividly to life the escalating political warfare in the fifties between the ANC and the government, culminating in his dramatic escapades as an underground leader and the notorious Rivonia Trial of 1964, at which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Herecounts the surprisingly eventful twenty-seven years in prison and the complex, delicate negotiations that led both to his freedom and to the beginning of the end of apartheid. Finally he provides the ultimate inside account.]]> 656 Nelson Mandela 0316548189 Woodhen 0 4.34 1994 Long Walk to Freedom
author: Nelson Mandela
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1994
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics]]> 25135194 Geography shapes not only our history, but where we're headed...

All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Yes, to follow world events you need to understand people, ideas and movements - but if you don't know geography, you'll never have the full picture.

If you've ever wondered why Putin is so obsessed with Crimea, why the USA was destined to become a global superpower, or why China's power base continues to expand ever outwards, the answers are all here.

In ten chapters and ten maps, Prisoners of Geography looks at the past, present and future to offer an essential insight into one of the major factors that determines world history.

It's time to put the 'geo' back into geopolitics.

Ten maps; ten chapters:

Russia * China * United States of America * Latin America * the Middle East * Africa * India and Pakistan * Europe * Japan and Korea * the Arctic]]> 256 Tim Marshall 1783961414 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.18 2015 Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics
author: Tim Marshall
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Another Now: Dispatches from an Alternative Present]]> 49098225 What would a fair and equal society actually look like? The world-renowned economist and bestselling author Yanis Varoufakis presents his radical and subversive answer.

Imagine it is 2025. Years earlier, in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, a global hi-tech uprising has birthed a post-capitalist world in which work, money, land, digital networks and politics have been truly democratised.

In a thought-experiment of startling originality, world-famous economist Yanis Varoufakis offers a glimpse of this alternative reality. Through the eyes of three characters - a libertarian ex-banker, a Marxist-feminist and a maverick technologist - we see the genesis of a world without commercial banks or stock markets, where companies are owned equally by all staff, basic income is guaranteed, global imbalances and climate change cancel each other out, and housing is socialised.

Is a liberal socialism feasible? Can prosperity grow without costing the Earth? Are we able to build the good society, despite our flaws?

As radical in its form as in its vision, Another Now blends Platonic dialogue with speculative fiction to show that there is an alternative to capitalism, while also confronting us with the greatest question: how far are we willing to go to bring it about?]]> 235 Yanis Varoufakis 1847925634 Woodhen 0 3.80 2020 Another Now: Dispatches from an Alternative Present
author: Yanis Varoufakis
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: or, How Capitalism Works—and How It Fails]]> 36490332 In Talking to My Daughter About the Economy, activist Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s former finance minister and the author of the international bestseller Adults in the Room, pens a series of letters to his young daughter, educating her about the business, politics, and corruption of world economics.

Yanis Varoufakis has appeared before heads of nations, assemblies of experts, and countless students around the world. Now, he faces his most important—and difficult—audience yet. Using clear language and vivid examples, Varoufakis offers a series of letters to his young daughter about the economy: how it operates, where it came from, how it benefits some while impoverishing others. Taking bankers and politicians to task, he explains the historical origins of inequality among and within nations, questions the pervasive notion that everything has its price, and shows why economic instability is a chronic risk. Finally, he discusses the inability of market-driven policies to address the rapidly declining health of the planet his daughter’s generation stands to inherit.

Throughout, Varoufakis wears his expertise lightly. He writes as a parent whose aim is to instruct his daughter on the fundamental questions of our age—and through that knowledge, to equip her against the failures and obfuscations of our current system and point the way toward a more democratic alternative.]]> 224 Yanis Varoufakis 0374718431 Woodhen 0 4.19 2013 Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: or, How Capitalism Works—and How It Fails
author: Yanis Varoufakis
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[How Did We Get into This Mess?: Politics, Equality, Nature]]> 25734114 Leading political and environmental commentator on where we have gone wrong, and what to do about it

“Without countervailing voices, naming and challenging power, political freedom withers and dies. Without countervailing voices, a better world can never materialise. Without countervailing voices, wells will still be dug and bridges will still be built, but only for the few. Food will still be grown, but it will not reach the mouths of the poor. New medicines will be developed, but they will be inaccessible to many of those in need.â€�

George Monbiot is one of the most vocal, and eloquent, critics of the current consensus. How Did We Get into This Mess?, based on his powerful journalism, assesses the state we are now in: the devastation of the natural world, the crisis of inequality, the corporate takeover of nature, our obsessions with growth and profit and the decline of the political debate over what to do.

While his diagnosis of the problems in front of us is clear-sighted and reasonable, he also develops solutions to challenge the politics of fear. How do we stand up to the powerful when they seem to have all the weapons? What can we do to prepare our children for an uncertain future? Controversial, clear but always rigorously argued, How Did We Get into This Mess? makes a persuasive case for change in our everyday lives, our politics and economics, the ways we treat each other and the natural world.]]> 352 George Monbiot 1784783625 Woodhen 0 4.01 2016 How Did We Get into This Mess?: Politics, Equality, Nature
author: George Monbiot
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century]]> 785432
The next century will witness more far-reaching scientific revolutions, as we make the transition from unraveling the secrets of nature to becoming masters of nature. We will no longer be passive bystanders to the dance of the universe, but will become creative choreographers of matter, life, and intelligence.

The first section of Visions presents a shocking look at a cyber-world infiltrated by millions of tiny intelligence systems. Part two illustrates how the decoding of DNA's genetic structure will allow humans the "godlike ability to manipulate life almost at will." Finally, VISIONS focuses on the future of quantum physics, in which physicists will perfect new ways to manipulate matter and harness the cosmic energy of the universe.

What makes Michio Kaku's vision of the science of the future so compelling--and so different from the mere forecasts of most thinkers--is that it is based on the groundbreaking research taking place in labs today, as well as the consensus of over 150 of Kaku's scientific colleagues. Science, for all its breathtaking change, evolves slowly; we can accurately predict, asserts Kaku, what the direction of science will be, based on the paths that are being forged today.

A thrilling, unique narrative that brings together the thinking of many of the world's most accomplished scientists to explore the world of the future, Visions is science writing at its best.


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 403 Michio Kaku 0385484992 Woodhen 0 4.03 Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century
author: Michio Kaku
name: Woodhen
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]]> <![CDATA[The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality and Our Destiny Beyond Earth]]> 36407347 The #1 bestselling author of The Future of the Mind brings us a stunning new vision of our future in space.

Human civilization is on the verge of spreading beyond Earth. More than a possibility, it is becoming a necessity: whether our hand is forced by climate change and resource depletion or whether future catastrophes compel us to abandon Earth, one day we will make our homes among the stars.

World-renowned physicist and futurist Michio Kaku explores in rich, accessible detail how humanity might gradually develop a sustainable civilization in outer space. With his trademark storytelling verve, Kaku shows us how science fiction is becoming reality: mind-boggling developments in robotics, nanotechnology, and biotechnology could enable us to build habitable cities on Mars; nearby stars might be reached by microscopic spaceships sailing through space on laser beams; and technology might one day allow us to transcend our physical bodies entirely.

With irrepressible enthusiasm and wonder, Dr. Kaku takes readers on a fascinating journey to a future in which humanity could finally fulfil its long-awaited destiny among the stars - and perhaps even achieve immortality.]]> 368 Michio Kaku 0241304849 Woodhen 0 4.17 2018 The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality and Our Destiny Beyond Earth
author: Michio Kaku
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> The Greatest: My Own Story 2021768 415 Richard Durham 0394462688 Woodhen 0 4.20 1975 The Greatest: My Own Story
author: Richard Durham
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1975
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Complete Stories Of Katherine Mansfield]]> 544675 830 Katherine Mansfield 0670820164 Woodhen 5 read-pre-2017 4.29 1945 The Complete Stories Of Katherine Mansfield
author: Katherine Mansfield
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1945
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/01/19
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review:
Can you ever not be reading this book? It's one in the collection that you should have by the bedside to pick up and dip into to be transported into another's life by the beautiful writing.
]]> The Poetry of Pablo Neruda 5936
"In his work a continent awakens to consciousness." So wrote the Swedish Academy in awarding the Nobel Prize to Pablo Neruda, the author of more than thirty-five books of poetry and one of Latin America's most revered writers, lionized during his lifetime as "the people's poet." This selection of Neruda's poetry, the most comprehensive single volume available in English, presents nearly six hundred poems. Scores of them are in new and sometimes multiple translations, and many accompanied by the Spanish original. In his introduction, Ilan Stavans situates Neruda in his native milieu as well as in a contemporary English-language one, and a group of new translations by leading poets testifies to Neruda's enduring, vibrant legacy among English-speaking writers and readers today.]]> 1040 Pablo Neruda 0374529604 Woodhen 5 4.44 1951 The Poetry of Pablo Neruda
author: Pablo Neruda
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1951
rating: 5
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I think I will always be "currently reading" Pablo Neruda - he is like strawberries and cream for the mind.
]]> Dearly 50706476 A new book of poetry from internationally acclaimed, award-winning and bestselling author Margaret Atwood

InÌęDearly, Margaret Atwood’s first collection of poetry in over a decade, Atwood addresses themes such as love, loss, the passage of time, the nature of nature and - zombies. Her new poetry is introspective and personal in tone, but wide-ranging in topic. In poem after poem, she casts her unique imagination and unyielding, observant eye over the landscape of a life carefully and intuitively lived.


While many are familiar with Margaret Atwood’s fiction—including her groundbreaking and bestselling novelsÌęThe Handmaid’s Tale,ÌęThe Testaments,ÌęOryx and Crake, among others—she has, from the beginning of her career, been one of our most significant contemporary poets. And she is one of the very few writers equally accomplished in fiction and poetry.ÌęÌęThis collection is a stunning achievement that will be appreciated by fans of her novels and poetry readers alike.]]> 124 Margaret Atwood 006303249X Woodhen 0 to-read 3.75 2020 Dearly
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2020
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]]> MaddAddam (MaddAddam, #3) 17262203
Told with wit, dizzying imagination, and dark humour, Booker Prize-winning Margaret Atwood’s unpredictable, chilling and hilarious MaddAddam takes us further into a challenging dystopian world and holds up a skewed mirror to our own possible future.]]> 394 Margaret Atwood 0385528787 Woodhen 0 4.00 2013 MaddAddam (MaddAddam, #3)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam, #2)]]> 6080337
Have others survived? Ren's bioartist friend Amanda? Zeb, her eco-fighter stepfather? Her onetime lover, Jimmy? Or the murderous Painballers, survivors of the mutual-elimination Painball prison? Not to mention the shadowy, corrupt policing force of the ruling powers...

Meanwhile, gene-spliced life forms are proliferating: the lion/lamb blends, the Mo'hair sheep with human hair, the pigs with human brain tissue. As Adam One and his intrepid hemp-clad band make their way through this strange new world, Ren and Toby will have to decide on their next move. They can't stay locked away...

By turns dark, tender, violent, thoughtful, and uneasily hilarious, The Year of the Flood is Atwood at her most brilliant and inventive.]]> 431 Margaret Atwood 0385528779 Woodhen 0 4.06 2009 The Year of the Flood (MaddAddam, #2)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)]]> 42975172 The Handmaid's Tale, readers had no way of telling what lay ahead for her--freedom, prison or death.

With The Testaments, the wait is over.

Margaret Atwood's sequel picks up the story more than fifteen years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead.

In this brilliant sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, acclaimed author Margaret Atwood answers the questions that have tantalized readers for decades.

"Dear Readers: Everything you've ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we've been living in." --Margaret Atwood

An alternate cover edition of ISBN 978-0385543781 can be found here.]]> 422 Margaret Atwood Woodhen 0 4.16 2019 The Testaments (The Handmaid's Tale, #2)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam, #1)]]> 46756 Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help of the green-eyed Children of Crake–through the lush wilderness that was so recently a great city, until powerful corporations took mankind on an uncontrolled genetic engineering ride. Margaret Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.]]> 389 Margaret Atwood Woodhen 0 4.01 2003 Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam, #1)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)]]> 38447
Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.]]> 311 Margaret Atwood 038549081X Woodhen 0 4.15 1985 The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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]]> Men Without Women 33652490 Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage.

Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all.

Marked by the same wry humor that has defined his entire body of work, in this collection Murakami has crafted another contemporary classic.]]> 242 Haruki Murakami 0385689454 Woodhen 0 3.75 2014 Men Without Women
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1)]]> 13214
Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.â€� At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeareâ€�) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.]]> 289 Maya Angelou 0553279378 Woodhen 0 to-read 4.30 1969 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1)
author: Maya Angelou
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1969
rating: 0
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]]> Letter to My Daughter 4016515 Ìę
Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter transcends genres and guidebook, memoir, poetry, and pure delight.

Here in short spellbinding essays are glimpses of the tumultuous life that led Angelou to an exalted place in American letters and taught her lessons in compassion and how she was brought up by her indomitable grandmother in segregated Arkansas, taken in at thirteen by her more worldly and less religious mother, and grew to be an awkward, six-foot-tall teenager whose first experience of loveless sex paradoxically left her with her greatest gift, a son.

Whether she is recalling such lost friends as Coretta Scott King and Ossie Davis, extolling honesty, decrying vulgarity, explaining why becoming a Christian is a “lifelong endeavor,â€� or simply singing the praises of a meal of red rice–Maya Angelou writes from the heart to millions of women she considers her extended family.

Like the rest of her remarkable work, Letter to My Daughter entertains and teaches; it is a book to cherish, savor, re-read, and share.

“I gave birth to one child, a son, but I have thousands of daughters. You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish speaking, Native Americans and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all. Here is my offering to you.”—from Letter to My Daughter]]> 192 Maya Angelou 1400066123 Woodhen 0 4.09 1987 Letter to My Daughter
author: Maya Angelou
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at: 2020/11/20
date added: 2021/01/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas]]> 112804 An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work & Ideas
Mohandas K. Gandhi, called Mahatma (“great soulâ€�), was the father of modern India, but his influence has spread well beyond the subcontinent, and is as important today as it was in the first part of the twentieth century, and during this nation’s own civil rights movement. Taken from Gandhi’s writings throughout his life. The Essential Gandhi introduces us to his thoughts on politics, spirituality, poverty, suffering, love, non-violence, civil disobedience, and his own life. The pieces collected here, with explanatory head-notes by Gandhi biographer Louis Fischer, offer the clearest, most thorough portrait of one of the greatest spiritual leaders the world has known.
“Gandhi was inevitable. If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable... We may ignore him at our own risk.â€� â€� Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

With a new Preface drawn from the writings of Eknath Easwaran

In the annals of spirituality certain books stand out both for their historical importance and for their continued relevance. The Vintage Spiritual Classics series offers the greatest of these works in authoritative new editions, with specially commissioned essays by noted contemporary commentators. Filled with eloquence and fresh insight, encouragement and solace, Vintage Spiritual Classics are incomparable resources for all readers, who seek a more substantive understanding of mankind's relation to the divine.]]> 368 Mahatma Gandhi 1400030501 Woodhen 0 read-pre-2017
]]> 4.25 1962 The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas
author: Mahatma Gandhi
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1962
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So much to take in - how does one even live a snippet of Gandhi's life? The more I read his letters, the more I realise how incredible he was and how much we need a Gandhi today, and how rare such people are.


]]> Martha Gellhorn: A Life 301185 Book by Caroline Moorehead 580 Caroline Moorehead 0701169516 Woodhen 0 4.21 2003 Martha Gellhorn: A Life
author: Caroline Moorehead
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Travels With Myself and Another]]> 925368
"Martha Gellhorn was so fearless in a male way, and yet utterly capable of making men melt," writes New Yorker literary editor Bill Buford. As a journalist, Gellhorn covered every military conflict from the Spanish Civil War to Vietnam and Nicaragua. She also bewitched Eleanor Roosevelt's secret love and enraptured Ernest Hemingway with her courage as they dodged shell fire together. Hemingway is, of course, the unnamed "other" in the title of this tart memoir, first published in 1979, in which Gellhorn describes her globe-spanning adventures, both accompanied and alone. With razor-sharp humor and exceptional insight into place and character, she tells of a tense week spent among dissidents in Moscow; long days whiled away in a disused water tank with hippies clustered at Eilat on the Red Sea; and her journeys by sampan and horse to the interior of China during the Sino-Japanese War.]]> 320 Martha Gellhorn 1585420905 Woodhen 0 currently-reading 3.80 1979 Travels With Myself and Another
author: Martha Gellhorn
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1979
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Story of Trees: And How They Changed the World]]> 46260285
"Entwining fascinating facts about 100 trees with inspiring stories of their importance to ancient civilizations, trade, religious and pagan beliefs, wellbeing and medicinal uses over the ages, this delightful and well-researched book provokes curiosity on every page." � Dr. Alexandra Wagstaffe, Eden Project Learning

The Story of Trees takes the reader on a visual journey from some of the earliest known tree species on our planet to the latest fruit cultivars.

The chosen trees have all had a profound effect on the planet and humankind. Starting with the Ginkgo Biloba , fossils of which date back 270 million years, we learn about how trees came to be integral to the development of our species, and how specific trees have become important religious, political, and cultural symbols.

With beautiful illustrations by Thibaud Herem and fascinating botanical facts and figures, this book will appeal to tree lovers from all over the world.

"Within these pages, we hope to inform and inspire those who already have a love of trees, as well as those who otherwise may have taken them for granted. The Story of Trees is our story, but also that of our ancestors. It is about our relationship with some of the world's most important trees, both on a local scale and globally. With so many trees to choose from, we have endeavored to feature those that have been, and in most cases continue to be, of cultural and practical value to humankind."
� From the Introduction of The Story of Trees]]> 216 Kevin Hobbs 1786275228 Woodhen 0 currently-reading 4.39 2020 The Story of Trees: And How They Changed the World
author: Kevin Hobbs
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> The Meaning Of Trees 42670873


The Meaning of Trees tells the story of plants and people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Beautifully illustrated with botanical drawings, paintings and photographs, it shows us how a globally unique flora has been used for food, medicine, shelter, spirituality and science. From Jurassic giants to botanical oddballs - these are our wonderful native and endemic plants, in an exquisite hardback edition.]]> 0 Robert Vennell 1775491617 Woodhen 0 currently-reading 4.77 2019 The Meaning Of Trees
author: Robert Vennell
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.77
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/01/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Into the Shadows (Survivors: The Gathering Darkness, #3)]]> 30226730
United, a Pack can face any threat. Divided, they will fall.

There is a traitor in the midst of the Wild Pack, and tensions—and suspicions—keep rising. Storm is determined to protect her Pack
but if they don’t find the traitor soon, there may be nothing left for her to protect.

Survivors’s winning blend of epic action, canine friendship, and animal folklore has earned it rave reviews, including two starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, which praised the series as “wild and wonderful adventure.â€� This action-packed second arc is perfect for both new readers and existing fans who’ve been howling for more of the Wild Pack!]]> 336 Erin Hunter 0062343440 Woodhen 0 4.42 2017 Into the Shadows (Survivors: The Gathering Darkness, #3)
author: Erin Hunter
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2021/01/08
date added: 2021/01/19
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]]> <![CDATA[A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian]]> 828387 A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian was bestselling author Marina Lewycka's bestselling debut novel which has sold over one million copies worldwide. Lewycka tells the side-splittingly funny story of two feuding sisters, Vera and Nadezhda, who join forces against their father's new, gold-digging girlfriend.

Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcée. He was eighty-four and she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside.

Sisters Vera and Nadezhda must set aside a lifetime of feuding to save their émigré engineer father from voluptuous gold-digger Valentina. With her proclivity for green satin underwear and boil-in-the-bag cuisine, she will stop at nothing in her pursuit of Western wealth.

But the sisters' campaign to oust Valentina unearths family secrets, uncovers fifty years of Europe's darkest history and sends them back to roots they'd much rather forget . . . .]]> 326 Marina Lewycka 0141020520 Woodhen 1 3.44 2005 A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
author: Marina Lewycka
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2005
rating: 1
read at: 2021/01/04
date added: 2021/01/19
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]]> Boy Swallows Universe 37558445
Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a mute brother, a mum in jail, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crime for a babysitter. It's not as if Eli's life isn't complicated enough already. He's just trying to follow his heart, learning what it takes to be a good man, but life just keeps throwing obstacles in the way - not least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer.

But if Eli's life is about to get a whole lot more serious. He's about to fall in love. And, oh yeah, he has to break into Boggo Road Gaol on Christmas Day, to save his mum.

A story of brotherhood, true love and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe will be the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novel you will read all year.]]> 474 Trent Dalton 1460753895 Woodhen 4 4.31 2018 Boy Swallows Universe
author: Trent Dalton
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/14
date added: 2021/01/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Dead of Night (Survivors: The Gathering Darkness, #2)]]> 26795338 304 Erin Hunter 0062343386 Woodhen 0 4.36 2016 Dead of Night (Survivors: The Gathering Darkness, #2)
author: Erin Hunter
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2021/01/05
date added: 2021/01/19
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]]> <![CDATA[What I Talk About When I Talk About Running]]> 2195464
Equal parts training log, travelogue, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his four-month preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon and takes us to places ranging from Tokyo’s Jingu Gaien gardens, where he once shared the course with an Olympian, to the Charles River in Boston among young women who outpace him. Through this marvelous lens of sport emerges a panorama of memories and insights: the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer, his greatest triumphs and disappointments, his passion for vintage LPs, and the experience, after fifty, of seeing his race times improve and then fall back.

By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is rich and revelatory, both for fans of this masterful yet guardedly private writer and for the exploding population of athletes who find similar satisfaction in running.]]> 188 Haruki Murakami Woodhen 4 3.87 2007 What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2016/12/15
date added: 2021/01/19
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]]> <![CDATA[By Sea & Stars: The Story of the First Fleet]]> 40383150
Originally published as a multi-part serial in The Australian, By Sea and Stars tells the story of the epic voyage which led to the founding of our nation, as told from the point of view of the people who took part - willingly or unwillingly - in it. Drawing from historical sources of the time, including letters and journals, Trent Dalton, one of Australia's best writers, brings this epic voyage, and the people who went on it, to vivid life.

This is not dry history of dates and names. These are gripping stories of real people, from the lowest to the highest. From terrified nine year old chimney sweep and convict John Hudson to conscientious Lieutenant Ralph Clark, pining after his wife and son, to the brave and determined Captain-General Arthur Phillip, the brightest star of the British Navy: these are the people who made the voyage, and these are their stories - of death, duty, glory, lust, violence, escape, mutiny - and a great southern land...]]> 160 Trent Dalton 1460757416 Woodhen 0 to-read 3.67 2018 By Sea & Stars: The Story of the First Fleet
author: Trent Dalton
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> All Our Shimmering Skies 48814878 The bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe, Trent Dalton returns with All Our Shimmering Skies - a glorious novel destined to become another Australian classic. Darwin, 1942, and as Japanese bombs rain down, motherless Molly Hook, the gravedigger's daughter, turns once again to the sky for guidance. She carries a stone heart inside a duffel bag next to the map that leads to Longcoat Bob, the deep-country sorcerer who put a curse on her family. By her side are the most unlikely travelling companions: Greta, a razor-tongued actress and Yukio, a fallen Japanese fighter pilot. Run, Molly, run, says the daytime sky. Run to the vine forests. Run to northern Australia's wild and magical monsoon lands. Run to friendship. Run to love. Run. Because the graverobber's coming, Molly, and the night-time sky is coming with him. So run, Molly, run.

All Our Shimmering Skies is a story about gifts that fall from the sky, curses we dig from the earth and the secrets we bury inside ourselves. It is an odyssey of true love and grave danger, of darkness and light, of bones and blue skies; a buoyant, beautiful and magical novel abrim with warmth, wit and wonder; and a love letter to Australia and the art of looking up.]]> 448 Trent Dalton Woodhen 0 to-read 3.95 2020 All Our Shimmering Skies
author: Trent Dalton
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future]]> 25541028 392 Ashlee Vance 0062301233 Woodhen 3 4.12 2015 Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
author: Ashlee Vance
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2017/01/10
date added: 2018/01/11
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]]> Man’s Search for Meaning 4069 Man's Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.]]> 165 Viktor E. Frankl 080701429X Woodhen 3 4.39 1946 Man’s Search for Meaning
author: Viktor E. Frankl
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1946
rating: 3
read at: 2017/01/13
date added: 2017/01/15
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]]> Poke the Box 10368067 Poke the Box is a manifesto about producing something that’s scarce, and thus valuable. It demands that you stop waiting for a road map and start drawing one instead. You know how to do this, you’ve done it before, but along the way, someone talked you out of it.

We need your insight and your dreams and your contributions. Hurry.]]> 85 Seth Godin 1936719002 Woodhen 2 3.78 2011 Poke the Box
author: Seth Godin
name: Woodhen
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2011
rating: 2
read at: 2017/01/15
date added: 2017/01/15
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]]> At the Existentialist Café 25658482 this cocktail!'

From this moment of inspiration, Sartre will create his own extraordinary philosophy of real, experienced life–of love and desire, of freedom and being, of cafĂ©s and waiters, of friendships and revolutionary fervour. It is a philosophy that will enthral Paris and sweep through the world, leaving its mark on post-war liberation movements, from the student uprisings of 1968 to civil rights pioneers.

At the Existentialist CafĂ© tells the story of modern existentialism as one of passionate encounters between people, minds and ideas. From the ‘king and queen of existentialism'–Sartre and de Beauvoir–to their wider circle of friends and adversaries including Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Iris Murdoch, this book is an enjoyable and original journey through a captivating intellectual movement. Weaving biography and thought, Sarah Bakewell takes us to the heart of a philosophy about life that also changed lives, and that tackled the biggest questions of all: what we are and how we are to live.]]> 440 Sarah Bakewell 0701186585 Woodhen 0 books-for-tom, to-read 4.23 2016 At the Existentialist CafĂ©
author: Sarah Bakewell
name: Woodhen
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/01/02
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]]>