Paul's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 02 Sep 2024 10:44:45 -0700 60 Paul's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Yellow Wall-Paper 286957
In a private journal, the woman records her growing obsession with the “horrid� wallpaper. Its strange pattern mutates in the moonlight, revealing what appears to be a human figure in the design. With nothing else to occupy her mind, the woman resolves to unlock the mystery of the wallpaper. Her quest, however, leads not to the truth, but into the darkest depths of madness.

A condemnation of the patriarchy, The Yellow Wallpaper explores with terrifying economy the oppression, grave misunderstanding, and willful dismissal of women in late nineteenth-century society.

First published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine.

Excerpt:
Out of another I get a lovely view of the bay and a little private wharf belonging to the estate. There is a beautiful shaded lane that runs down there from the house. I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try.]]> 62 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1558611584 Paul 5 4.11 1892 The Yellow Wall-Paper
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Paul
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1892
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/09/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles, #2)]]> 43814 481 Anne Rice 0345476883 Paul 3 4.10 1985 The Vampire Lestat (The Vampire Chronicles, #2)
author: Anne Rice
name: Paul
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1985
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/09/01
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review:
I’m confident this will be brilliantly adapted for AMC’s ongoing series, but as a book this one is a bit of a chore to get through. It lacks the lush descriptions and beautiful prose of “Interview with the Vampire�. The story feels repetitive and meandering, with no real clear sense of direction (I think in televised format a lot of this can be addressed). Even Lestat’s “voice� is a bit bland - Rice had not really embraced his “brat prince� persona. There’s a lot of lore-building, but not enough heart.
]]> Whalefall 62919162 327 Daniel Kraus 1665918160 Paul 4 3.66 2023 Whalefall
author: Daniel Kraus
name: Paul
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/07/31
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review:
Wow. I felt such a strong connection to the protagonist in this book. Kraus really understands the long-lasting trauma that sensitive children experience when faced with toxic masculinity. Some of my own personal baggage keeps me from giving this 5 stars, but it was so close. Suspenseful, visceral, vivid, and memorable.
]]> Negative Space 52028992 364 B.R. Yeager 1733569456 Paul 2 3.71 2020 Negative Space
author: B.R. Yeager
name: Paul
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2020
rating: 2
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date added: 2024/07/24
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review:
5-stars for the first half of this book - it presents an intriguing world and features exceptional writing. But there’s a shift in the second half. It becomes aimless, confusing, and repetitive. I’m good with experimental, difficult novels, but I didn’t feel much depth or ingenuity with the back half of this one.
]]> Piranesi 50202953
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.]]> 272 Susanna Clarke 163557563X Paul 2 4.22 2020 Piranesi
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Paul
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 2
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date added: 2024/07/12
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I’m hopeful for the recently announced animated film adaptation - I think it could be an enjoyable and imaginative visual experience. But I did not enjoy reading this as a book. There wasn’t enough to draw me into the world - I craved more detailed descriptions and something more compelling overall.
]]> The Master of Shearhaven 214526321 Shearhaven, 1877

The grand but foreboding estate has stood on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi since before Illinois was a state. Now, in the aftermath of the Civil War, Tomas Doyle is pulled away from his quiet life to the mansion by its reclusive owner, Jackson Vanguard.

Vanguard is about to set off a chain of events that will leave the town talking all the way until...

Shearhaven, 2024

Max Morgan is sick of the limelight and ready to leave Chicago and his music career behind. For a little while, at least. He needs somewhere he can feel normal again. He decides to buy a disused mansion downstate to relax and work on a new album. A budding romance with Ty, a local cafe owner is a nice extra.

But there are chilling stories about his new home. Shearhaven's dark history is due for a reckoning.]]> 400 Jon Wesley Huff Paul 5 4.62 The Master of Shearhaven
author: Jon Wesley Huff
name: Paul
average rating: 4.62
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/06/18
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]]> The Troop 17571466 358 Nick Cutter 1476717710 Paul 3 3.83 2014 The Troop
author: Nick Cutter
name: Paul
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/06/10
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review:
This was good, but I’m still searching for an equal to Scott Smith’s “The Ruins� for page-turning dread. Thought this might be a contender, but didn’t quite reach those heights.
]]> Strangers 1347446 208 Taichi Yamada 1932234039 Paul 3 3.64 1987 Strangers
author: Taichi Yamada
name: Paul
average rating: 3.64
book published: 1987
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/05/26
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review:
A rare example where the movie is better than the book! The book is a nice read, but Andrew Haigh took Yamada’s material and polished it into something sharp and deep. Yamada keeps things relatively simple and superficial. Haigh takes the concept to a more confrontational and complex place of catharsis and healing.
]]> Where I End 62695355
At night, my mother creaks. The house creaks along with her.

Through our thin shared wall, I can hear the makings of my mother gurgle through her body just like the water in the walls of the house...

Teenage Aoileann has never left the island. Her silent, bed-bound mother is a wreckage, the survivor of a private disaster no one will speak about.

Aoileann desperately wants a family, and when Sarah and her young child move to the island, Aoileann finds a focus for her relentless love.

A horror story about being bound by the blood knot of family.]]> 232 Sophie White 191529004X Paul 5 4.06 2022 Where I End
author: Sophie White
name: Paul
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/05/02
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]]> The Laramie Project 136531 Gross Indecency, was hailed as a work of unsurpassed originality–conducted hundreds of interviews with the citizens of Laramie, Wyoming, to create this portrait of a town struggling with a horrific event.

The savage killing of Shepard, a young gay man, has become a national symbol of the struggle against intolerance. But for the people of Laramie–both the friends of Matthew and those who hated him without knowing him–the tragedy was personal. In a chorus of voices that brings to mind Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, The Laramie Project allows those most deeply affected to speak, and the result is a brilliantly moving theatrical creation.]]> 110 Moisés Kaufman 0375727191 Paul 4 4.19 2001 The Laramie Project
author: Moisés Kaufman
name: Paul
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2001
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/03/19
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An intriguing and moving mosaic of voices and perspectives about this tragic murder, which deeply impacted so many (and continues to do so).
]]> The House of Hidden Meanings 181109983
A profound introspection of his life, relationships, and identity,Ěý The House of Hidden Meanings Ěýis a self-portrait of the legendary icon on the road to global fame and changing the way the world thinks about drag. Central to RuPaul’s success has been his chameleonic adaptability. From drag icon to powerhouse producer of one of the world’s largest television franchises, RuPaul’s ever-shifting nature has always been part of his brand as both supermodel and supermogul.

Yet that adaptability has made him enigmatic to the public. In this memoir, his most intimate and detailed book yet, RuPaul makes himself truly known. Stripping away all artifice, RuPaul recounts the story of his life with breathtaking clarity and tenderness, bringing his signature wisdom and wit to his own biography. From his early years growing up as a queer Black kid in San Diego navigating complex relationships with his absent father and temperamental mother, to forging an identity in the punk and drag scenes of Atlanta and New York, to finding enduring love with his husband Georges LeBar and self-acceptance in sobriety, RuPaul excavates his own biography, uncovering new truths and insights in his personal history.

Here in RuPaul’s singular and extraordinary story is a manual for living—a personal philosophy that testifies to the value of chosen family, the importance of harnessing what makes you different, and the transformational power of facing yourself fearlessly. If we’re all born naked and the rest is drag, then this is RuPaul totally out of drag. This is RuPaul stripped bare.Ěý]]> 256 RuPaul 0063263904 Paul 3 This memoir?: a sensible 3 stars

A good read, but I was hoping for more details and insights. It gradually devolves into a laundry list of “and then this happened, then this happened, then I met this person..� I can’t help but feel like focusing on more precise moments and fleshing those out in more detail may have left more of an impact? I still enjoyed it for what it is, though.]]> 3.78 2024 The House of Hidden Meanings
author: RuPaul
name: Paul
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/03/17
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RuPaul as a person?: 5 stars
This memoir?: a sensible 3 stars

A good read, but I was hoping for more details and insights. It gradually devolves into a laundry list of “and then this happened, then this happened, then I met this person..� I can’t help but feel like focusing on more precise moments and fleshing those out in more detail may have left more of an impact? I still enjoyed it for what it is, though.
]]> The Pole 125484660 166 J.M. Coetzee 1324093862 Paul 5 3.69 2023 The Pole
author: J.M. Coetzee
name: Paul
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2023
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/10/08
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A marvelous return to form for Coetzee. The writing is precise, even cold, which is perfect for this type of story filled with murky intentions and miscommunication. It's a wonderfully tense read, not just because of the power dynamics between Witold and Beatriz, but the way Coetzee structures the novel. "The Pole" will stick with me as much as some of his best works, like "Disgrace" and "Foe".
]]> <![CDATA[Enya: A Treatise on Unguilty Pleasures]]> 55811418 Does music have to be smart or does it just have to go to the heart?

Chilly Gonzales is one of the most exciting, original, hard-to-pin-down musicians of our time, known as much for the intimate piano touch of his best-selling Solo Piano album trilogy as for his sweaty showmanship and composition for award-winning stars. Filling the world's great philharmonic halls, at the piano in slippers and a bathrobe - inany one night he can dissect the musicology of a Billie Eilish hit, give a sublime solo recital, and display his lyrical dexterity as a rapper.

In crisp, erudite prose Gonzales delves beyond Enya's innumerable gold discs and millions of fans to excavate his own enthusiasm for her singular music, as well as the mysterious musician herself, and along the way uncovers new truths about the nature of music, fame, success, and the artistic endeavor.]]> 72 Chilly Gonzales Paul 4 4.00 Enya: A Treatise on Unguilty Pleasures
author: Chilly Gonzales
name: Paul
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/03/21
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]]> In The Dark Of The Grove 59397341
Essen, Indiana never felt like home to Kyle Thomas. Now, as he returns fifteen years after he was kicked out for being gay, he finds it stranger than ever. His novelist father, days after releasing his newest book—Dunbar’s Grove—committed suicide. And most people think his father’s book was a thinly-disguised confession to the murder of Kyle’s mother years before.

A mysterious note in his father’s old typewriter points to a secret the town is keeping. How did this little town in the middle of nowhere get so much money? What does the elite Minty Green Club have to do with it?

Kyle decides to put his investigative journalist skills to the test, reconnecting with old friends and running into old foes. The closer he gets to the town’s secrets, the fewer people he can trust and the more every trail seems to lead to the mysterious grove of trees outside of town.]]> 313 Jon Wesley Huff 919874254X Paul 5 4.71 In The Dark Of The Grove
author: Jon Wesley Huff
name: Paul
average rating: 4.71
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2021/11/05
date added: 2021/11/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Y2K-9: The Dog Who Saved The World]]> 1385988
Byte's been trained to do a tough job -- he sniffs out computer bugs on missions too dangerous for humans. But lately he's just been killing time, chatting with geeks on-line. Then Byte receives an emergency e-mail. The sewer system's not quite ready for the Y2K! And as the new millenium dawns, someone's about to unleash a virus that could back up toilets till the year 3000. Byte's about to spring into action -- and he's asking the geeks to help.]]> 134 Todd Strasser 0439142474 Paul 3 3.78 1999 Y2K-9: The Dog Who Saved The World
author: Todd Strasser
name: Paul
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2021/09/03
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]]> <![CDATA[When Dogs Heal: Powerful Stories of People Living with HIV and the Dogs That Saved Them]]> 49295423
Three well-known leaders in their fields—award-winning dog photographer Jesse Freidin, adolescent HIV+ specialist Dr. Robert Garofalo, and LGBTQ advocate and journalist Zach Stafford—offer a refreshing, beautiful, and unique portrait of HIV infused with a deep message of hope. Each extraordinary profile shows the power of the incredible bonds between humans and their canine companions, whether that means combating loneliness and stigma, discovering the importance of unconditional love, overcoming addiction, or simply having a best friend in a time of need.

When Dogs Heal shares the stories of a diverse set of people who are thriving and celebrating life thanks to the compassion and unconditional love of their dogs.

A portion of the proceeds from this book benefits Fred Says, an organization dedicated to financially supporting HIV+ teen health care.]]> 152 Jesse Freidin 154158676X Paul 5 4.65 When Dogs Heal: Powerful Stories of People Living with HIV and the Dogs That Saved Them
author: Jesse Freidin
name: Paul
average rating: 4.65
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/04/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail]]> 2767943 400 Dan White 0061376930 Paul 4 3.41 2008 The Cactus Eaters: How I Lost My Mind and Almost Found Myself on the Pacific Crest Trail
author: Dan White
name: Paul
average rating: 3.41
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/04/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Grace and Witherbloom: The Other Key (Grace and Witherbloom, #6)]]> 13540964 It's the beginning of the end. Over a year after the shocking finale of the last adventure, the hunt for the mysterious Lord Ashmore continues. However, a trip to Venice to recover his latest troublesome device goes awry thanks to an attack by a terrifying creature from the ocean depths.

About Grace and

The world is changing to the whirring of gears and the clanging of pistons. But even in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, change is coming too slowly for some. All around the world, impossibly advanced devices are emerging, wreaking havoc on a world that is simply not ready for them. Enter renowned explorer and adventurer Josiah Witherbloom and his young niece, Helen Grace. Together they travel the globe to seek out these devices and shut them down before they can damage the natural flow of history. But Josiah and Helen are not exactly who they appear to be, and the secrets they keep could either be the key to the world's salvation... or its ultimate ruination!]]> 63 Jon Wesley Huff Paul 5 4.50 Grace and Witherbloom: The Other Key (Grace and Witherbloom, #6)
author: Jon Wesley Huff
name: Paul
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/11/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Forgotten Fair (Grace and Witherbloom #7)]]> 13554904
New York City is about to host its first World's Fair... about eighty-six years too early. All of Lord Ashmore's plans are about to come to fruition, and our adventurers are racing against time to stop him. As all the secrets of friend and foe alike are revealed, the future of mankind will be decided.


About Grace and

The world is changing to the whirring of gears and the clanging of pistons. But even in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, change is coming too slowly for some. All around the world, impossibly advanced devices are emerging, wreaking havoc on a world that is simply not ready for them. Enter renowned explorer and adventurer Josiah Witherbloom and his young niece, Helen Grace. Together they travel the globe to seek out these devices and shut them down before they can damage the natural flow of history. But Josiah and Helen are not exactly who they appear to be, and the secrets they keep could either be the key to the world's salvation... or its ultimate ruination!]]> 63 Jon Wesley Huff Paul 5 4.50 The Forgotten Fair (Grace and Witherbloom #7)
author: Jon Wesley Huff
name: Paul
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/11/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Grace and Witherbloom: The Village That Sleeps (Grace & Witherbloom, #3)]]> 13494175 What happened to the residents of the picturesque Welsh village of Ddubryn? And why have the authorities closed it off to the rest of the world? Josiah Witherbloom must enter the village alone to uncover its secrets, but finding answers to the mysteries of the village that sleeps will become—quite literally—a matter of life and death.

About Grace and Witherbloom:

The world is changing to the whirring of gears and the clanging of pistons. But even in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, change is coming too slowly for some. All around the world, impossibly advanced devices are emerging, wreaking havoc on a world that is simply not ready for them. Enter renowned explorer and adventurer Josiah Witherbloom and his young niece, Helen Grace. Together they travel the globe to seek out these devices and shut them down before they can damage the natural flow of history. But Josiah and Helen are not exactly who they appear to be, and the secrets they keep could either be the key to the world's salvation... or its ultimate ruination!

This ebook is now out of print, but can be found in the Complete Grace & Witherbloom until 12/31/13.]]> Jon Wesley Huff Paul 5 4.50 Grace and Witherbloom: The Village That Sleeps (Grace & Witherbloom, #3)
author: Jon Wesley Huff
name: Paul
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/11/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Grace and Witherbloom: The Obsidian Emperor (Grace & Witherbloom, #5)]]> 13514256
An impossible artifact may usher in the greatest threat humanity has ever known. The British Museum is about to display a brand new exhibit, the centerpiece of which is a gloriously intricate Chinese archway. Unfortunately, Helen knows that its origins lie in a world other than our own. Josiah and Helen decide to investigate, not knowing that another artifact is arriving at the museum—and this one may tear apart the team of Grace & Witherbloom forever.

This ebook is now out of print, but can be found in the Complete Grace & Witherbloom until 12/31/13.]]> Jon Wesley Huff Paul 5 4.50 2012 Grace and Witherbloom: The Obsidian Emperor (Grace & Witherbloom, #5)
author: Jon Wesley Huff
name: Paul
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2012
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/11/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Flood Lily (Grace & Witherbloom, #2)]]> 13489286
About Grace and Witherbloom:

The world is changing to the whirring of gears and the clanging of pistons. But even in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, change is coming too slowly for some. All around the world, impossibly advanced devices are emerging, wreaking havoc on a world that is simply not ready for them. Enter renowned explorer and adventurer Josiah Witherbloom and his young niece, Helen Grace. Together they travel the globe to seek out these devices and shut them down before they can damage the natural flow of history. But Josiah and Helen are not exactly who they appear to be, and the secrets they keep could either be the key to the world's salvation... or its ultimate ruination!

This ebook is now out of print, but can be found in the Complete Grace & Witherbloom until 12/31/13.]]> Jon Wesley Huff Paul 5 4.27 The Flood Lily (Grace & Witherbloom, #2)
author: Jon Wesley Huff
name: Paul
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/11/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Grace and Witherbloom: The Light on the Moor (Grace & Witherbloom, #4)]]> 13503165
The origin of Josiah Witherbloom. Wilhelmina has had enough of Josiah and Helen's secrets, and intends to get some answers. But what does a falling star over the Highlands of Scotland one hundred years ago have to do with it? And is the young maid really ready to know?

About Grace and

The world is changing to the whirring of gears and the clanging of pistons. But even in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, change is coming too slowly for some. All around the world, impossibly advanced devices are emerging, wreaking havoc on a world that is simply not ready for them. Enter renowned explorer and adventurer Josiah Witherbloom and his young niece, Helen Grace. Together they travel the globe to seek out these devices and shut them down before they can damage the natural flow of history. But Josiah and Helen are not exactly who they appear to be, and the secrets they keep could either be the key to the world's salvation... or its ultimate ruination!]]> 33 Jon Wesley Huff Paul 5 4.10 Grace and Witherbloom: The Light on the Moor (Grace & Witherbloom, #4)
author: Jon Wesley Huff
name: Paul
average rating: 4.10
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/11/14
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]]> Cleanness 45892271 In the highly anticipated follow-up to his beloved debut, What Belongs to You, Garth Greenwell deepens his exploration of foreignness, obligation, and desire

Sofia, Bulgaria, a landlocked city in southern Europe, stirs with hope and impending upheaval. Soviet buildings crumble, wind scatters sand from the far south, and political protesters flood the streets with song.

In this atmosphere of disquiet, an American teacher navigates a life transformed by the discovery and loss of love. As he prepares to leave the place he’s come to call home, he grapples with the intimate encounters that have marked his years abroad, each bearing uncanny reminders of his past. A queer student’s confession recalls his own first love, a stranger’s seduction devolves into paternal sadism, and a romance with another foreigner opens, and heals, old wounds. Each echo reveals startling insights about what it means to seek connection: with those we love, with the places we inhabit, and with our own fugitive selves.]]> 240 Garth Greenwell 0374124582 Paul 3 3.82 2020 Cleanness
author: Garth Greenwell
name: Paul
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 3
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date added: 2020/05/12
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]]> Edie on the Green Screen 53013400
New York Times bestseller Beth Lisick’s first novel Edie On The Green Screen chronicles Silicon Valley’s rapidly changing culture with biting observational humor, an insider’s wisdom, and disarming pathos, while asking, “What comes after It?”]]> 244 Beth Lisick 1733367209 Paul 4 3.82 2020 Edie on the Green Screen
author: Beth Lisick
name: Paul
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/05/09
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]]> Waiting for the Barbarians 6194 J. M. Coetzee's prize-winning novel is a startling allegory of the war between oppressor and oppressed. The Magistrate is not simply a man living through a crisis of conscience in an obscure place in remote times; his situation is that of all men living in unbearable complicity with regimes that ignore justice and decency.]]> 152 J.M. Coetzee 0140283358 Paul 4 3.94 1980 Waiting for the Barbarians
author: J.M. Coetzee
name: Paul
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1980
rating: 4
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date added: 2020/01/04
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]]> Foe 525544
In 1720 the eminent man of letters Daniel Foe is approached by Susan Barton, lately a castaway on a desert island. She wants him to tell her story, and that of the enigmatic man who has become her rescuer, companion, master, and sometimes lover: Cruso. Cruso is dead, and his manservant, Friday, is incapable of speech. As she tries to relate the truth about him, the ambitious Barton cannot help turning Cruso into her invention. For as narrated by Foe—as by Coetzee himself—the stories we thought we knew acquire depths that are at once treacherous, elegant, and unexpectedly moving.]]> 157 J.M. Coetzee Paul 5 3.44 1986 Foe
author: J.M. Coetzee
name: Paul
average rating: 3.44
book published: 1986
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/12/31
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]]> The Complete Maus 15195
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus tells the story of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler’s Europe, and his son, a cartoonist coming to terms with his father’s story. Maus approaches the unspeakable through the diminutive. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), shocks us out of any lingering sense of familiarity and succeeds in “drawing us closer to the bleak heart of the Holocaust� (The New York Times).

Maus is a haunting tale within a tale. Vladek’s harrowing story of survival is woven into the author’s account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. Against the backdrop of guilt brought by survival, they stage a normal life of small arguments and unhappy visits. This astonishing retelling of our century’s grisliest news is a story of survival, not only of Vladek but of the children who survive even the survivors. Maus studies the bloody pawprints of history and tracks its meaning for all of us.]]> 296 Art Spiegelman 0141014083 Paul 5 4.57 1980 The Complete Maus
author: Art Spiegelman
name: Paul
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1980
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/10/08
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]]> Rusty Brown 43159391 Jimmy Corrigan I immediately started a new long story based on characters who had originated as parodies, but whom now I wanted to humanize... amidst a setting of memories of my Omaha childhood and Nebraska upbringing.�
--Chris Ware, Monograph

Now, twenty years later, Ware is publishing Rusty Brown in book form. It is, he says, â€a fully interactive, full-colour articulation of the time-space interrelationships of six complete consciousnesses on a single Midwestern American day and the tiny piece of human grit about which they involuntarily orbit.â€� The six characters are Rusty Brown himself, a shy schoolkid obsessed with superheroes, his father â€Woodyâ€� Brown, an eccentric teacher at Rusty’s school, Chalky White, another schoolboy, Alison White, Chalky’s sister, Jason Lint, an older boy who bullies Rusty and Chalky and fancies Alison, and the boysâ€� teacher, Joanne Cole. Ware tells each of their stories in minute detail (or as he puts it, â€From childhood to old age, no frozen plotline is left unthawedâ€�), producing another masterwork of the comics form that is at once achingly beautiful, heartbreakingly sad and painfully funny.

]]> 351 Chris Ware 0224078135 Paul 4 4.27 2019 Rusty Brown
author: Chris Ware
name: Paul
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 4
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date added: 2019/10/08
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]]> Darkest Hour (Cutler, #5) 563452
But when tragedy befalls her best friend Lillian comes to believe Emily's grim words. Meekly, she endures her penance, finding a strange solace in the endless repetition of prayers. Then Papa loses The Meadows in a card game, and Lillian is faced with a new and terrifying prospect. Arrogant, handsome playboy Bill Cutler will return the plantation if Lillian will marry him...]]> 394 V.C. Andrews 0671759329 Paul 2 3.87 1993 Darkest Hour (Cutler, #5)
author: V.C. Andrews
name: Paul
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1993
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2019/08/31
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]]> <![CDATA[Midnight Whispers (Cutler, #4)]]> 8705401 Alternative cover edition of ISBN 9781451602739

Soon to be a Lifetime limited series! Christie, Dawn’s daughter, searches for her own happiness and break the cycle of darkness that has plagued her family for generations in this book in the Cutler series from #1 New York Times bestselling author V.C. Andrews.

Having grown up surrounded by love and safety, there’s no real reason for Christie Longchamp to feel that a cloud hovers over Cutler’s Cove—a cloud with origins in her family’s troubled history. But when Christie discovers the truth about her uncle’s unbrotherly love for her mother Dawn, she’s desperate to get away. Fleeing to New York City, she finds her real father...a pathetic, helpless has-been. Desperate and heartbroken, she turns to Gavin, her Daddy Jimmy’s young and handsome stepbrother. In his arms, Christie finds a refuge from her painful memories. But all too soon, she is torn from Gavin’s embrace and as black storms of evil gather around her, Christie must do what it takes to defy the curse that has haunted Cutler’s Cove for generations.]]> 452 V.C. Andrews Paul 4 4.23 1992 Midnight Whispers (Cutler, #4)
author: V.C. Andrews
name: Paul
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1992
rating: 4
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date added: 2019/08/12
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]]> Twilight's Child (Cutler, #3) 397429
At last, Dawn can create a haven of warmth and love for her beautiful baby girl, Christie, and her darling Jimmy. Dawn is a huge success as the new owner of the Cutler's Cove hotel and soon she and Jimmy will be blessed with a child of their own.

Yet Dawn cannot quell her forebodings of evil. She can sense Grandmother Cutler's presence everywhere ... can feel her bitter hatred as if the old lady plotted her vengeance from the grave. When Dawn discovers that her brother, Philip, still clings to his mad, shameful passion for her, she is heartstricken. Her spiteful, jealous sister, Clara, is far easier to ignore until the day Clara's childish rage explodes into violence, destroying Dawn's most cherished, precious dream.

Then Christie's father, debonair singing star Michael Sutton, returns. Now, as the heartaches and scandals of the past threaten to engulf her, Dawn must fight for her steadfast Jimmy ... for only with Jimmy's love can she find the rainbow at the end of the storm.
(back cover)]]> 410 V.C. Andrews 0671695142 Paul 3 3.85 1992 Twilight's Child (Cutler, #3)
author: V.C. Andrews
name: Paul
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2019/08/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Secrets of the Morning (Cutler, #2)]]> 660523 Dawn can hardly believe she's a student at one of New York City's best music schools. Now her most precious wish, to become a singer, can come true. But Dawn still dreams about Jimmy, her strong, intense boyfriend, and the love and anguished secrets they share.
Then Michael Sutton arrives, a new teacher at the school, a singing star and the most wonderful looking man Dawn has ever seen. Together they create a world of feeling Dawn has never known. In his embrace Dawn awakens to disturbing, unfamiliar desires, and Michael's promises offer a vision of music and romance forever...until he disappears.
Dazed by his cruelty, alone with the bitter fruit of his betrayal, Dawn becomes, once again, a victim of her grandmothers twisted schemes. Desolate, she clings to the tender hope that Jimmy will return and renew with her their deepest hearts' dream...]]> 405 V.C. Andrews 0671695126 Paul 5 3.85 1991 Secrets of the Morning (Cutler, #2)
author: V.C. Andrews
name: Paul
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1991
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/07/30
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]]> Dawn (Cutler, #1) 397456 Now Dawn and her older brother Jimmy have a chance for a decent, respectable life, and Dawn's secret, precious hope to study singing can come true. Philip Cutler, the handsomest boy in school, sets Dawn's heart on fire. She is deeply devoted to her brooding brother; but with Philip, she imagines a lovely dream of romance...
Then Dawn's mother suddenly dies, and her entire world begins to crumble. After a terrible new shock, she is thrust into a different family and an evil web of unspoken sins. Her sweet innocence lost, humiliated and scorned, Dawn is desperate to find Jimmy again and...strip away the wicked lies that will change all their lives forever!]]> 407 V.C. Andrews 0671670689 Paul 5 3.90 1990 Dawn (Cutler, #1)
author: V.C. Andrews
name: Paul
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1990
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/07/25
shelves:
review:

]]> Lincoln in the Bardo 29906980 Lincoln in the Bardo is a literary experience unlike any other—for no one but Saunders could conceive it.

February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. "My poor boy, he was too good for this earth," the president says at the time. "God has called him home." Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returned to the crypt several times alone to hold his boy's body.

From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a thrilling, supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory, where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie's soul.

Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction's ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices—living and dead, historical and invented—to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end?]]> 368 George Saunders 0812995341 Paul 3 3.75 2017 Lincoln in the Bardo
author: George Saunders
name: Paul
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 3
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date added: 2019/07/18
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]]> Other Voices, Other Rooms 2287 Other Voices, Other Rooms is a literary touchstone of the mid-twentieth century. In this semiautobiographical coming-of-age novel, thirteen-year-old Joel Knox, after losing his mother, is sent from New Orleans to live with the father who abandoned him at birth. But when Joel arrives at Skully’s Landing, the decaying mansion in rural Alabama, his father is nowhere to be found. Instead, Joel meets his morose stepmother, Amy, eccentric cousin Randolph, and a defiant little girl named Idabel, who soon offers Joel the love and approval he seeks.

Fueled by a world-weariness that belied Capote’s tender age, this novel tempers its themes of waylaid hopes and lost innocence with an appreciation for small pleasures and the colorful language of its time and place.

This new edition, featuring an enlightening Introduction by John Berendt, offers readers a fresh look at Capote’s emerging brilliance as a writer of protean power and effortless grace.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 232 Truman Capote 0679745645 Paul 5 3.80 1948 Other Voices, Other Rooms
author: Truman Capote
name: Paul
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1948
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/06/23
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]]> A Little Life 22822858
Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride.ĚýYet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539258 Paul 4 4.28 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Paul
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2017/02/14
date added: 2017/02/14
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]]> A Monster Calls 8621462
At seven minutes past midnight, thirteen-year-old Conor wakes to find a monster outside his bedroom window. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting - he's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the nightmare he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his backyard is different. It's ancient. And wild. And it wants something from Conor. Something terrible and dangerous. It wants the truth.

From the final idea of award-winning author Siobhan Dowd - whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself - Patrick Ness has spun a haunting and darkly funny novel of mischief, loss, and monsters both real and imagined.]]> 226 Patrick Ness 1406311529 Paul 5 4.35 2011 A Monster Calls
author: Patrick Ness
name: Paul
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/10/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Wuvable Oaf (Wuvable Oaf, Volume: 1)]]> 22405660 264 Ed Luce 1606998161 Paul 5 3.85 2015 Wuvable Oaf (Wuvable Oaf, Volume: 1)
author: Ed Luce
name: Paul
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2016/06/10
date added: 2016/06/10
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A joyous experience. I'm slightly obsessed.
]]> Long Walk to Valhalla 23492428
There are many things that Rory would like to forget about his childhood growing up in rural Arkansas. He'd like to forget his alcoholic father or absent mother. He'd like to forget about his ex-girlfriend, now married to his ex-best friend. Sometimes, he'd even like to forget about his older brother Joe. Joe saw the world differently than other people--sometimes in beautiful ways, seeing what he always called "the Pretty Things." But sometimes the Pretty Things turned ugly and bad things happened. Those are the things Rory wishes he could forget most of all.

When his car breaks down on the side of the road just out of town, a young girl named Sylvia appears from the corn fields. Sylvia is a Valkyrie sent by the Norse god Odin to deliver Rory to Valhalla. Because today is the day he's going to die. Together, Rory and Sylvia walk back through the memories of Rory's childhood, this time seeing them the way Joe saw them. Rory must face the Pretty Things, the Ugly Things, and all the real life in between before it's time to say goodbye.]]> 96 Adam Smith 1608866920 Paul 4 3.66 2015 Long Walk to Valhalla
author: Adam Smith
name: Paul
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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date added: 2016/06/01
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review:
Incredible artwork and a personal story that tackles some heavy issues. I'm not sure the fantasy framework enhanced the story - it was a bit distracting and gimmicky. Look forward to seeing what these guys do next.
]]> Stitches: A Memoir 6407014
One day David Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. A vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the fourteen-year-old boy had not been told that he had cancer and was expected to die.

In Stitches, Small, the award-winning children's illustrator and author, re-creates this terrifying event in a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. As the images painfully tumble out, one by one, we gain a ringside seat at a gothic family drama where David—a highly anxious yet supremely talented child—all too often became the unwitting object of his parents' buried frustration and rage.

Believing that they were trying to do their best, David's parents did just the reverse. Edward Small, a Detroit physician, who vented his own anger by hitting a punching bag, was convinced that he could cure his young son's respiratory problems with heavy doses of radiation, possibly causing David's cancer. Elizabeth, David's mother, tyrannically stingy and excessively scolding, ran the Small household under a cone of silence where emotions, especially her own, were hidden.

Depicting this coming-of-age story with dazzling, kaleidoscopic images that turn nightmare into fairy tale, Small tells us of his journey from sickly child to cancer patient, to the troubled teen whose risky decision to run away from home at sixteen—with nothing more than the dream of becoming an artist—will resonate as the ultimate survival statement.

A silent movie masquerading as a book, Stitches renders a broken world suddenly seamless and beautiful again. Finalist for the 2009 National Book Award (Young Adult); finalist for two 2010 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards (Best Writer/Artist: Nonfiction; Best Reality-Based Work).]]> 329 David Small 0393068579 Paul 5 4.05 2009 Stitches: A Memoir
author: David Small
name: Paul
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2009
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/06/01
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review:
A true masterpiece. The simple drawings and carefully chosen lines of text build to a devastating, emotional crescendo. I sobbed.
]]> Patience 25652706 180 Daniel Clowes 1606999052 Paul 4 3.88 2016 Patience
author: Daniel Clowes
name: Paul
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2016/05/27
date added: 2016/05/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three - Lady of Shadows #1 (of 5)]]> 26225164 Robin Furth Paul 5 4.00 Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three - Lady of Shadows #1 (of 5)
author: Robin Furth
name: Paul
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/09/09
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]]> <![CDATA[Swamp Thing, Vol. 2: Love and Death]]> 109244 Swamp Thing shouldn't be underestimated in the history of comics and, specifically, the history of horror comics. The modern comics landscape has been changed by the Vertigo line of books--an imprint that traces its roots back to this version of Swamp Thing. By taking a horror character fully entrenched in a superhero world (as silly as that might seem), this creative team put a new face on horror comics and on horror in general. Swamp Thing: Love and Death is the second collection of the team's work on the series, presented here in full color. Don't let the mediocre Swamp Thing movies fool you, this book is filled with sophisticated suspense and terror.

Collects issues #28�34 and Annual #2.]]> 207 Alan Moore 0930289544 Paul 5 4.39 1985 Swamp Thing, Vol. 2: Love and Death
author: Alan Moore
name: Paul
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at: 2015/08/25
date added: 2015/08/25
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]]> The Gunslinger 23965387 300 Stephen King Paul 5 3.79 1982 The Gunslinger
author: Stephen King
name: Paul
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1982
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/08/19
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]]> The Complete Eightball 18444235
Now, for the 25th Anniversary of Eightball, Fantagraphics is collecting these long out-of-print issues in a slipcased set of two hardcover volumes, reproducing each issue in facsimile form exactly as they were originally published. Included are over 450 pages of vintage Clowes, including such seminal serialized graphic novels/strips/rants as Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, Ghost World, Pussey, I Hate You Deeply, Sexual Frustration, Ugly Girls, Why I Hate Christians, Message to the People of the Future, Paranoid, My Suicide, Chicago, Art School Confidential, On Sports, Zubrick and Pogeybait, Hippypants and Peace-Bear, Grip Glutz, The Sensual Santa, Feldman, and so many more."]]> 560 Daniel Clowes 1606997572 Paul 5 4.47 1997 The Complete Eightball
author: Daniel Clowes
name: Paul
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2015/08/14
date added: 2015/08/14
shelves:
review:
There are so many reasons this is a 5-star collection. The "Eightball" comics themselves are groundbreaking, experimental works that (in my opinion) paved the way for independent comics in the mid-90's and beyond. The content varies greatly: from juvenile gags, to cynical rants about society and culture, to sensitive coming-of-age tales. Clowes is such a versatile artist, dabbling in various artistic styles and themes. The presentation of this volume is top-notch. The sturdy slipcase is covered with fantastic art, both inside and out. The two hardcovers have glossy covers that are also covered with Clowes' awesome artistry. The pages are thick and heavy. High quality, all the way. This set is a must for any indie comic lovers.
]]> <![CDATA[The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, #7)]]> 5091 The Dark Tower saga is perhaps the most anticipated book in the author's long career. King began this epic tale about the last gunslinger in the world more than 20 years ago; now he draws its suspenseful story to a close, snapping together the last pieces of his action puzzle and drawing Roland Deschain ever closer to his ultimate goal.

Alternate cover edition for ISBN-10: 1416524525; ISBN-13: 9781416524526]]> 1050 Stephen King Paul 4 4.27 2004 The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower, #7)
author: Stephen King
name: Paul
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2015/08/05
date added: 2015/08/05
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"Endings are heartless." -Stephen King
]]> <![CDATA[Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book One]]> 12477413 205 Alan Moore 1401220835 Paul 5 4.28 1983 Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book One
author: Alan Moore
name: Paul
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1983
rating: 5
read at: 2015/07/27
date added: 2015/07/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower, #6)]]> 5093 544 Stephen King 1416521496 Paul 5 3.98 2004 Song of Susannah (The Dark Tower, #6)
author: Stephen King
name: Paul
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2015/07/11
date added: 2015/07/11
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5 Stars for the brilliant final chapters and "Coda" that wrap up this installment. A brave (and controversial) creative decision by King.
]]> <![CDATA[Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower, #5)]]> 656420
In less than a month, the Wolves will raid again. In exchange for Roland’s aid, Father Callahan—a priest originally from our world—offers to give Roland a powerful but evil seeing sphere, a sinister globe called Black Thirteen which he has hidden below the floorboards of his church.

Not only must Roland and his tet discover a way to defeat the invincible Wolves, but they must also return to New York so that they can save our world’s incarnation of the Dark Tower from the machinations of the evil Sombra Corporation.]]> 714 Stephen King 1880418568 Paul 4 4.15 2003 Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower, #5)
author: Stephen King
name: Paul
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2015/06/30
date added: 2015/06/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, #4)]]> 5096 845 Stephen King 0340829788 Paul 2
There are a few bright spots. Characters like Rhea of the Cöos and Sheemie are intriguing and unforgettable. And once Roland's agonizing and dull backstory is finished, the book comes to a strong finish.

For building such a unique, vivid world in the first three books - this entry just feels stale and generic. ]]> 4.26 1997 Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, #4)
author: Stephen King
name: Paul
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1997
rating: 2
read at: 2015/06/16
date added: 2015/06/16
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In the afterward of this installment of "The Dark Tower" series, King admits that, "love is hard" for him to write. Indeed. Your enjoyment of "Wizard and Glass" relies entirely on your interest and connection to Roland and Susan's romance, but I found their relationship to be incredibly shallow - based purely on lust. And I'd be okay with that if there was some well-written, steamy romance between them - but King can't even deliver that. It was a slog waiting for the obvious conclusion to finally arrive. The whole setup of this book distracted me, too. Roland is telling this story to his ka-tet, yet the story is told as an omniscient POV. So I kept thinking, how did he know all this stuff? And is he really telling them all of these weird details? :-p

There are a few bright spots. Characters like Rhea of the Cöos and Sheemie are intriguing and unforgettable. And once Roland's agonizing and dull backstory is finished, the book comes to a strong finish.

For building such a unique, vivid world in the first three books - this entry just feels stale and generic.
]]> <![CDATA[The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, #3)]]> 34084 422 Stephen King 0670032565 Paul 5 4.25 1991 The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, #3)
author: Stephen King
name: Paul
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1991
rating: 5
read at: 2015/06/06
date added: 2015/06/06
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]]> <![CDATA[One Rainy Day in May (The Familiar, #1)]]> 23012473 NATIONAL BEST SELLER Ěý

From the author of the international best seller House of Leaves and National Book Award–nominated Only Revolutions comes a monumental new novel as dazzling as it is riveting. The Familiar (Volume 1) ranges from Mexico to Southeast Asia, from Venice, Italy, to Venice, California, with nine lives hanging in the balance, each called upon to make a terrifying choice. They include a therapist-in-training grappling with daughters as demanding as her patients; an ambitious East L.A. gang member contracted for violence; two scientists in Marfa, Texas, on the run from an organization powerful beyond imagining; plus a recovering addict in Singapore summoned at midnight by a desperate billionaire; and a programmer near Silicon Beach whose game engine might unleash consequences far exceeding the entertainment he intends. At the very heart, though, is a twelve-year-old girl named Xanther who one rainy day in May sets out with her father to get a dog, only to end up trying to save a creature as fragile as it is dangerous . . . which will change not only her life and the lives of those she has yet to encounter, but this world, too—or at least the world we think we know and the future we take for granted.

(With full-color illustrations throughout.)Ěý]]> 880 Mark Z. Danielewski 0375714944 Paul 1 3.66 2015 One Rainy Day in May (The Familiar, #1)
author: Mark Z. Danielewski
name: Paul
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2015
rating: 1
read at: 2015/05/18
date added: 2015/05/18
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]]> <![CDATA[The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2)]]> 5094
Here he links forces with the defiant young Eddie Dean and the beautiful, brilliant, and brave Odetta Holmes, in a savage struggle against underworld evil and otherworldly enemies.

Once again, Stephen King has masterfully interwoven dark, evocative fantasy and icy realism.]]> 463 Stephen King 0451210859 Paul 4 4.23 1987 The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2)
author: Stephen King
name: Paul
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1987
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/05/18
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]]> The First Bad Man 21412400 No One Belongs Here More Than You, a spectacular debut novel that is so heartbreaking, so dirty, so tender, so funny � so Miranda July � readers will be blown away.

Here is Cheryl, a tightly-wound, vulnerable woman who lives alone, with a perpetual lump in her throat. She is haunted by a baby boy she met when she was six, who sometimes recurs as other people's babies. Cheryl is also obsessed with Phillip, a philandering board member at the women's self-defense non-profit where she works. She believes they've been making love for many lifetimes, though they have yet to consummate in this one.

When Cheryl's bosses ask if their twenty-one-year-old daughter Clee can move into her house for a little while, Cheryl's eccentrically-ordered world explodes. And yet it is Clee � the selfish, cruel blond bombshell � who bullies Cheryl into reality and, unexpectedly, provides her the love of a lifetime.

Tender, gripping, slyly hilarious, infused with raging sexual fantasies and fierce maternal love, Miranda July's first novel confirms her as a spectacularly original, iconic and important voice today, and a writer for all time. The First Bad Man is dazzling, disorienting, and unforgettable.]]> 288 Miranda July 1439172560 Paul 4 3.67 2015 The First Bad Man
author: Miranda July
name: Paul
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2015/04/11
date added: 2015/04/11
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]]> <![CDATA[The Prisoner (Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three, #1)]]> 23017959
COLLECTING: Dark Tower : The Drawing of the Three - The Prisoner 1-5

]]> 128 Peter David 0785191577 Paul 5 4.22 2015 The Prisoner (Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three, #1)
author: Peter David
name: Paul
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2015/03/11
date added: 2015/03/11
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]]> Saga, Volume 2 17131869
Collects: Saga #7-12.]]> 144 Brian K. Vaughan 1607066920 Paul 4 4.49 2013 Saga, Volume 2
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Paul
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/02/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Saga, Volume 1 15704307
Collects: Saga #1-6.]]> 160 Brian K. Vaughan 1607066017 Paul 5 4.16 2012 Saga, Volume 1
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Paul
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/02/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Omnibus]]> 21489181 COLLECTING: THE JOURNEY BEGINS 1-5, THE LITTLE SISTERS OF ELURIA 1-5, THE BATTLE OF TULL 1-5, THE WAY STATION 1-5, THE MAN IN BLACK 1-5, SHEEMIE'S TALE 1-2, EVIL GROUND 1-2, SO FELL LORD PERTH 1]]> 1048 Robin Furth 0785188703 Paul 3 4.17 2014 Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Omnibus
author: Robin Furth
name: Paul
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2015/02/01
date added: 2015/02/01
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3.5 Stars. Following-up the first volume of Marvel's "The Dark Tower" omnibus was bound to be a difficult task. There was a consistency to the storytelling and artwork in the first volume that made it one of the best graphic novel experiences I've had. Some of that magic is missing in this second volume. The narration feels flat, and the artwork just isn't as memorable as Jae Lee's sublime renderings. These series of side-quests don't add up to an epic, suspenseful conclusion - but they do help advance the story. Also: disappointed in the paper/printing quality with this omnibus! The previous was printed on heavy, glossy paper. These pages are thin, with a rougher matte texture. For the same price point ($150) I expected the same level of quality.
]]> The Dark Tower Omnibus 10689754
DARK TOWER OMNIBUS "The Man in Black fled across the desert...and the gunslinger followed." With those words from a short story published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Stephen King launched one of the most seminal characters in his lifetime of writing into a destiny fraught with danger, death, triumph and loss. In the almost thirty years since that momentous occasion, King introduced millions of readers to the densely textured realm of Mid-World through his magnum opus, the Dark Tower series of novels. King joined with Marvel in 2007 to bring his masterwork of fantasy to a new generation of readers. Adding stunning new textures to the mythos of Roland and Mid-World for four years, the initial arc of King and Marvel's union is now complete, and the entire run is collected here. Collecting DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER BORN #1-7, THE LONG ROAD HOME #1-5, TREACHERY #1-6, SORCERER #1, THE FALL OF GILEAD #1-6 and THE BATTLE OF JERICHO HILL #1-5. 296 PGS Dark Tower Omnibus Companion Chock full of essential short stories, bonus material and apocrypha, this volume is a must-read for Stephen King enthusiasts. Three guidebooks overseen by Dark Tower: A Concordance author Robin Furth unlock the many secrets of Roland Deschain, the Gunslingers, Gilead and the dark forces of Farson - bringing readers greater insight into the people, places and things of Mid-World. And supplemental material from the first thirty issues of Marvel's Dark Tower series shed even more light on King's epic - with short stories by Furth, and a tour through artists Jae Lee and Richard Isanove's sketchbooks, and more! Collecting DARK TOWER: GUNSLINGER'S GUIDEBOOK, END-WORLD ALMANAC and GUIDE TO GILEAD; MARVEL SPOTLIGHT: DARK TOWER; and material from DARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER BORN #1-7, THE LONG ROAD HOME #1-5, TREACHERY #1-6, SORCERER #1, THE FALL OF GILEAD #1-6 and THE BATTLE OF JERICHO HILL #1-5. 600 PGS. ©2011 Stephen King. All rights reserved.]]> 896 Robin Furth 0785155414 Paul 5 4.47 2011 The Dark Tower Omnibus
author: Robin Furth
name: Paul
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2015/01/25
date added: 2015/01/25
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Ambitious. Massive. Dense. Gorgeous. Thrilling.
]]> <![CDATA[Starfighter Chapter 2 (Starfighter, #2)]]> 13356825 69 Hamlet Machine 1938926021 Paul 3 4.17 2012 Starfighter Chapter 2 (Starfighter, #2)
author: Hamlet Machine
name: Paul
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Starfighter Chapter 1 (Starfighter, #1)]]> 8453265 64 Hamlet Machine 1938926005 Paul 3 3.98 2010 Starfighter Chapter 1 (Starfighter, #1)
author: Hamlet Machine
name: Paul
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> The Strange Library 23128304
The story of a lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plotting their escape from a nightmarish library, the book is like nothing else Murakami has written. Designed by Chip Kidd and fully illustrated in full color throughout, this small format, 96-page volume is a treat for book lovers of all ages.]]> 96 Haruki Murakami 0385354304 Paul 4 3.58 2005 The Strange Library
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Paul
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Pretty Deadly, Vol. 1: The Shrike]]> 20638291
"It's a perfect match for the gorgeous, dizzying artwork in a sumptuous palette-overlaid panels add intricate choreography to fight scenes, and detailed, whirling splash pages beg for long-lingering looks. Couple that, along with a handful of Eisner nominations, with a multicultural cast of tough-as-nails women who all fight for their own honor, and this is a series to watch out for." - Booklist

"It's ambitious and challenging (two qualities that are not often valued, but that probably should be), under a façade of violence and sacrifice. Rio's art is lush and detailed, and is more than capable of keeping up with the far-reaching story." - PW]]> 120 Kelly Sue DeConnick 1607069628 Paul 3 3.79 2014 Pretty Deadly, Vol. 1: The Shrike
author: Kelly Sue DeConnick
name: Paul
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act]]> 23093359 176 Kieron Gillen 1632150190 Paul 3 3.81 2014 The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act
author: Kieron Gillen
name: Paul
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[There Will Be Blood (Nailbiter, #1)]]> 22358462 Twin Peaks with the horror of Se7en!

Collects: Nailbiter #1-5.]]> 144 Joshua Williamson 163215112X Paul 5 4.03 2014 There Will Be Blood (Nailbiter, #1)
author: Joshua Williamson
name: Paul
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/01/09
shelves:
review:

]]> The Snow Garden 119030 But the past does not die so easily, and the intricate webs of deceit that they have spun to protect themselves are slowly twisted into shackles that chain them to their doom. Snowbound and trapped on the campus, the friends find themselves unwilling pawns in the machinations of a malevolent force that has taken hold of Atherton -- and all their oldest fears, veiled passions, and secret nightmares are about to come to life in...The Snow Garden.]]> 534 Christopher Rice 0743470389 Paul 1 3.75 2002 The Snow Garden
author: Christopher Rice
name: Paul
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2002
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2014/11/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Invisible Monsters Remix 12813565 302 Chuck Palahniuk 0393083527 Paul 4 4.05 1999 Invisible Monsters Remix
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Paul
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/11/05
shelves:
review:

]]> Monkey Fist 23015302 82 Brad Sun 0996075828 Paul 3 3.73 2014 Monkey Fist
author: Brad Sun
name: Paul
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/11/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Chinatown 17702734 122 Sun Bros Paul 2 3.68 2013 Chinatown
author: Sun Bros
name: Paul
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2013
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2014/11/04
shelves:
review:

]]> White Rapids 1179394
Blanchet's unique, streamlined, retro-inspired aesthetic draws on art deco and fifties modernist design to vividly conjure up idyllic scenes of lazy summer days and crisp winter nights in White Rapids, transporting the reader back to a more innocent time.]]> 156 Pascal Blanchet 1897299249 Paul 5 3.80 2006 White Rapids
author: Pascal Blanchet
name: Paul
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/11/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Lovecraft 552430


In the original graphic novel LOVECRAFT (Vertigo; Publication Date: March 1, 2004), screenwriter Hans Rodionoff (The Hollow), comics legend Keith Giffen, and acclaimed Argentinean artist Enrique Breccia follow the life of Howard Phillips Lovecraft from his bizarre childhood (where his mother dressed him as a girl) to the dissolution of his marriage. Lovecraft comes to believe that he is the guardian of the Necronomicon, the accursed book that is the doorway to the beyond. Was he insane? Or was he a hero?


LOVECRAFT is a 144-page VERTIGO original hardcover graphic novel and is suggested for mature readers.

]]> 144 Keith Giffen 1401201105 Paul 3 3.85 2003 Lovecraft
author: Keith Giffen
name: Paul
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/11/01
shelves:
review:

]]> Inherent Vice 5933841 Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon - private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog

It's been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his ex-girlfriend, Shasta Fay. Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens to be in love with. Easy for her to say. It's the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that "love" is another of those words going around at the moment, like "trip" or "groovy," except that this one usually leads to trouble. Despite which he soon finds himself drawn into a bizarre tangle of motives and passions whose cast of characters includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers, a murderous loan shark, a tenor sax player working undercover, an ex-con with a swastika tattoo and a fondness for Ethel Merman, and a mysterious entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax dodge set up by some dodgy dentists.

In this lively yarn, Thomas Pynchon, working in an unaccustomed genre, provides a classic illustration of the principle that if you can remember the sixties, you weren't there . . . or . . . if you were there, then you . . . or, wait, is it . . .hang on. . .what]]> 369 Thomas Pynchon 1594202249 Paul 5
"Inherent Vice" is certainly Pynchon's most accessible novel, but will still not be an easy read for most. A huge cast of characters can make things pretty complicated (Pynchon rarely, if ever, reminds readers of character's relations to each other, or their backstories). I always wish I had taken notes while reading his books. Also challenging is his unique approach to story arcs. Rather than introducing one main storyline, building to a climax, and offering resolution, "Inherent Vice" (along with "V", "Gravity's Rainbow" and "Against the Day") offers several, maybe dozens, of beginnings, middles, and ends. It's more about just going on a journey and exploring these strange worlds rather than following one simple story from beginning to end. This can have a dizzying, chaotic effect on the reader. After finishing his books, I often think back and wonder "Okay, what exactly happened? And in what order?" But then, isn't that life? I mean, how often have you looked back on your life and wondered "Okay, I know a lot of stuff has happened in my life, but I can't exactly remember it all... it's a bit hazy." That might give you a good description of the effects of "Inherent Vice". It's messy - but in a way that is beautiful and challenging. ]]> 3.79 2009 Inherent Vice
author: Thomas Pynchon
name: Paul
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2013/04/11
date added: 2014/11/01
shelves:
review:
There were so many times while reading this that I would just stop and think, "This is such a cool book." The dialogue is killer - often bouncing between wit and slapstick. The surreal tone and bizarre circumstances make for a cool, dreamy vibe. It's also laugh-out-loud funny at times, in kind of a juvenile way.

"Inherent Vice" is certainly Pynchon's most accessible novel, but will still not be an easy read for most. A huge cast of characters can make things pretty complicated (Pynchon rarely, if ever, reminds readers of character's relations to each other, or their backstories). I always wish I had taken notes while reading his books. Also challenging is his unique approach to story arcs. Rather than introducing one main storyline, building to a climax, and offering resolution, "Inherent Vice" (along with "V", "Gravity's Rainbow" and "Against the Day") offers several, maybe dozens, of beginnings, middles, and ends. It's more about just going on a journey and exploring these strange worlds rather than following one simple story from beginning to end. This can have a dizzying, chaotic effect on the reader. After finishing his books, I often think back and wonder "Okay, what exactly happened? And in what order?" But then, isn't that life? I mean, how often have you looked back on your life and wondered "Okay, I know a lot of stuff has happened in my life, but I can't exactly remember it all... it's a bit hazy." That might give you a good description of the effects of "Inherent Vice". It's messy - but in a way that is beautiful and challenging.
]]> <![CDATA[The Days of Anna Madrigal (Tales of the City, #9)]]> 18090035 Suspenseful, comic, and touching, the ninth and final novel in Armistead Maupin's bestselling Tales of the City series follows one of modern literature's most unforgettable and enduring characters—Anna Madrigal, the legendary transgender landlady of 28 Barbary Lane—on a road trip that will take her deep in her past.

Now a fragile ninety-two years old and committed to the notion of "leaving like a lady," Anna Madrigal has seemingly found peace in the bosom of her "logical family" in San Francisco: her devoted young caretaker, Jake Greenleaf; her former tenant Brian Hawkins; Brian's daughter Shawna; and Michael Tolliver and Mary Ann Singleton, who have known and loved Anna for nearly four decades.

Some members of Anna's family are bound for the otherworldly landscape of Burning Man, the art festival in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada where sixty thousand revelers build a temporary city (Michael calls it "a Fellini carnival on Mars") designed to last only one week. Anna herself has another Nevada destination in mind: a lonely stretch of road outside of Winnemucca where the sixteen-year-old boy she used to be ran away from the whorehouse he then called home. With Brian and his beat-up RV, she journeys into the dusty, troubled heart of her Depression-era childhood, where she begins to unearth a lifetime of secrets and dreams, and to attend to unfinished business she has long avoided.]]> 270 Armistead Maupin 0062196243 Paul 2 4.06 2014 The Days of Anna Madrigal (Tales of the City, #9)
author: Armistead Maupin
name: Paul
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2014
rating: 2
read at: 2014/05/25
date added: 2014/05/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sandman, Vol. 7: Brief Lives]]> 25105 256 Neil Gaiman 1563891379 Paul 5 4.55 1993 The Sandman, Vol. 7: Brief Lives
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Paul
average rating: 4.55
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/03/06
shelves:
review:

]]> I Know This Much Is True 227711
One of the most acclaimed novels of our time, Wally Lamb's I Know This Much Is True is a story of alienation and connection, devastation and renewal, at once joyous, heartbreaking, poignant, mystical, and powerfully, profoundly human.]]> 897 Wally Lamb 0060987561 Paul 5 favorites 4.21 1998 I Know This Much Is True
author: Wally Lamb
name: Paul
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2014/01/11
date added: 2014/01/11
shelves: favorites
review:

]]> Bobcat and Other Stories 17086102 209 Rebecca Lee 1616201738 Paul 4 3.91 2010 Bobcat and Other Stories
author: Rebecca Lee
name: Paul
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2013/12/28
date added: 2013/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Yokohama Threeway: And Other Small Shames (City Lights/Sister Spit)]]> 17465647
Beth Lisick has made a career of opening her life to her readers in all of its messy, smart hilarity, but this type of story doesn't usually find its way into a memoir. With her trademark humor and sly intelligence, writing in short flashes the way these episodes tend to pop up in memory, Lisick recounts her most embarrassing moments with gusto. From a trick she played on a neighbor thirty years ago to what she accidentally blurted out at last night's dinner party, she explores the bad judgments and free-floating regrets that keep her up at night, and the result is a daring, candid, and wickedly funny collection of embarrassment embraced, the triumph of humor and perspective over everyday mortification.

Writer, performer, and independent film actress Beth Lisick is the author of the New York Times best-selling comic memoir Everybody Into the Pool and the gonzo self-help manifesto Helping Me Help Myself.]]> 128 Beth Lisick 0872866254 Paul 5 3.74 2013 Yokohama Threeway: And Other Small Shames (City Lights/Sister Spit)
author: Beth Lisick
name: Paul
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2013/12/24
date added: 2013/12/24
shelves:
review:

]]> The Hellbound Heart 52635 164 Clive Barker 0061002828 Paul 3 4.08 1986 The Hellbound Heart
author: Clive Barker
name: Paul
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1986
rating: 3
read at: 2013/11/23
date added: 2013/11/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Doomed (Damned, #2) 17262208 Madison Spencer, the liveliest and snarkiest dead girl in the universe, continues the afterlife adventure begun in Chuck Palahniuk’s bestseller Damned. Just as that novel brought us a brilliant Hell that only he could imagine, Doomed is a dark and twisted apocalyptic vision from this provocative storyteller.

The bestselling Damned chronicled Madison’s journey across the unspeakable (and really gross) landscape of the afterlife to confront the Devil himself. But her story isn’t over yet. In a series of electronic dispatches from the Great Beyond, Doomed describes the ultimate showdown between Good and Evil.

After a Halloween ritual gone awry, Madison finds herself trapped in Purgatory—or, as mortals like you and I know it, Earth. She can see and hear every detail of the world she left behind, yet she’s invisible to everyone who’s still alive. Not only do people look right through her, they walk right through her as well. The upside is that, no longer subject to physical limitations, she can pass through doors and walls. Her first stop is her parents� luxurious apartment, where she encounters the ghost of her long-deceased grandmother. For Madison, the encounter triggers memories of the awful summer she spent upstate with Nana Minnie and her grandfather, Papadaddy. As she revisits the painful truth of what transpired over those months (including a disturbing and finally fatal meeting in a rest stop’s fetid men’s room, in which . . . well, never mind), her saga of eternal damnation takes on a new and sinister meaning. Satan has had Madison in his sights from the very beginning: through her and her narcissistic celebrity parents, he plans to engineer an era of eternal damnation. For everyone.

Once again, our unconventional but plucky heroine must face her fears and gather her wits for the battle of a lifetime. Dante Alighieri, watch your back; Chuck Palahniuk is gaining on you.]]> 336 Chuck Palahniuk 0385533039 Paul 1 3.32 2013 Doomed (Damned, #2)
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Paul
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2013
rating: 1
read at: 2013/11/17
date added: 2013/11/17
shelves:
review:
Goodbye, Chuck Palahniuk. We've had some great times together. Sadly, your ratio of good:bad books has tipped in the wrong direction. I'll always treasure the grotesque, vivid, and imaginative stories you've shared in books like "Choke", "Lullaby", "Invisible Monsters", and "Snuff". I've grown tired of the constant disappointments. This book was a waste of time, and left me puzzled - why does Palahniuk think this protagonist, or story, is so deserving of a 3-book trilogy? Even though the book's predecessor, "Damned", felt fresh and clever, "Doomed" feels forced and scattered. I have no desire to read the final part of this trilogy, whenever it's completed.
]]> The Christmas Sweater 3268926 If You Could Change Your Life by Reversing Your Biggest Regrets, Sorrows and Mistakes...Would You?

#1 New York Times bestselling author and renowned radio and television host Glenn Beck delivers an instant holiday classic about boyhood memories, wrenching life lessons, and the true meaning of the gifts we give to one another in love.

We weren't wealthy, we weren't poor -- we just were. We never wanted for anything, except maybe more time together....

When Eddie was twelve years old, all he wanted for Christmas was a bike. Although his life had gotten harder -- and money tighter -- since his father died and the family bakery closed...Eddie dreamed that somehow his mother would find a way to have his dream bike gleaming beside their modest Christmas tree that magical morning.

What he got from her instead was a sweater. "A stupid, handmade, ugly sweater" that young Eddie left in a crumpled ball in the corner of his room.

Scarred deeply by the realization that kids don't always get what they want, and too young to understand that he already owned life's most valuable treasures, that Christmas morning was the beginning of Eddie's dark and painful journey on the road to manhood. It will take wrestling with himself, his faith, and his family -- and the guidance of a mysterious neighbor named Russell -- to help Eddie find his path through the storm clouds of life and finally see the real significance of that simple gift his mother had crafted by hand with love in her heart.

Based on a deeply personal true story, The Christmas Sweater is a warm and poignant tale of family, faith and forgiveness that offers us a glimpse of our own lives -- while also making us question if we really know what's most important in them.]]> 284 Glenn Beck 141659485X Paul 1 3.82 2008 The Christmas Sweater
author: Glenn Beck
name: Paul
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2008
rating: 1
read at: 2013/11/08
date added: 2013/11/08
shelves:
review:
I learned to hate life, because of this book.
]]> Wishin' and Hopin' 8152697 New York Times bestselling author of The Hour I First Believed, I Know This Much Is True, and She’s Come Undone, delivers a holiday treat with Wishin� and Hopin�—an unforgettable novella that captures the warmth and joy of the holiday season. Poignant and hilarious, in a vein similar to Jean Shepherd’s A Christmas Story and David Sedaris’s The Santaland Diaries, Lamb’s Christmas tale focuses on a feisty parochial school fifth grader named Felix Funicello—a distant cousin of the iconic Annette!]]> 268 Wally Lamb Paul 2 3.56 2009 Wishin' and Hopin'
author: Wally Lamb
name: Paul
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at: 2013/10/30
date added: 2013/10/30
shelves:
review:
Where do I begin? Let's start with: THIS ISN'T A CHRISTMAS BOOK. It's just a fictionalized nostalgic look at a boy's life during the 60's, and a small part of it happens to involve a school Christmas pageant. So if you're expecting some kind of feel-good (or feel-bad, this IS Wally Lamb we're talking about here...) holiday plot (which the COVER OF THE BOOK LEADS YOU TO BELIEVE!) you might be disappointed. But even for a book about a boy's life it falls flat. There are a few smiles along the way (emphasis on "few"), but it's not charming or believable enough to be adored. It's also not hard or revealing enough to make readers reflect or learn about themselves. It's just... a forgettable story. A ridiculous and unnecessary "Epilogue" gives you updates on what happened to every single character, no matter how small their appearance. All I could think while glancing over these final pages was, "I really don't care what 'happened' to these fake characters."
]]> <![CDATA[Doctor Sleep (The Shining, #2)]]> 16130549 WHSmith Collector's Edition

Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special 12-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.

On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless - mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky 12-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the "steam" that children with the "shining" produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father's legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant "shining" power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes "Doctor Sleep."

Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan's own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra's soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted fans of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.]]> 531 Stephen King 1476727651 Paul 4 4.11 2013 Doctor Sleep (The Shining, #2)
author: Stephen King
name: Paul
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2013/10/29
date added: 2013/10/29
shelves:
review:
Very happy to report this didn't suck. :) King's writing is strong, and the story slowly builds to almost unbearable suspense. My only complaint is that the main villain(s) weren't developed enough. They were broad caricatures. Even though the novel is over 500 pages long, it still felt like more could have been done to make this a true Stephen King classic. Still, an easy recommendation for King fans.
]]> Moby Dick; or, The Whale 3082472 615 Herman Melville Paul 5 3.94 1851 Moby Dick; or, The Whale
author: Herman Melville
name: Paul
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1851
rating: 5
read at: 2013/10/06
date added: 2013/10/06
shelves:
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]]> Under the Skin 123063 Under the Skin takes us on a heart-thumping ride through dangerous territory—our own moral instincts and the boundaries of compassion.]]> 296 Michel Faber 1841954802 Paul 5 3.76 2000 Under the Skin
author: Michel Faber
name: Paul
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2013/09/14
date added: 2013/09/14
shelves:
review:
A haunting novel - the kind that sticks with you and lingers in your mind. Faber's use of language is superb - carefully selecting which details to share with the reader. He never gives away too much, but you always have a sense that something is "off". It really builds a lot of suspense, and the pages just flew by. Some of the book's themes are not very original, and a few scenarios verge on being corny, but Faber is able to course-correct pretty swiftly. The strength of the writing and overall tone of this book definitely make it an easy recommendation.
]]> <![CDATA[Ender’s Game (Ender's Saga, #1)]]> 375802
But Ender is not the only result of the experiment. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway almost as long. Ender's two older siblings, Peter and Valentine, are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. While Peter was too uncontrollably violent, Valentine very nearly lacks the capability for violence altogether. Neither was found suitable for the military's purpose. But they are driven by their jealousy of Ender, and by their inbred drive for power. Peter seeks to control the political process, to become a ruler. Valentine's abilities turn more toward the subtle control of the beliefs of commoner and elite alike, through powerfully convincing essays. Hiding their youth and identities behind the anonymity of the computer networks, these two begin working together to shape the destiny of Earth-an Earth that has no future at all if their brother Ender fails.]]> 324 Orson Scott Card 0812550706 Paul 2 4.31 1985 Ender’s Game (Ender's Saga, #1)
author: Orson Scott Card
name: Paul
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1985
rating: 2
read at: 2013/08/30
date added: 2013/08/30
shelves:
review:
Strong start and finish - but I found the middle of the book too repetitive. As it lingered on endless descriptions of training exercises, I started to feel less attached to the characters. Disappointed.
]]> Impatient Virgin 1898050
Ruth's one real friend was her Uncle Ben. He taught her that whenever her instincts told her she was right, she was right. "If you would like to get drunk or have a palace to live in, recognize the desire in yourself-- don't treat those urges merely as thoughts the devil has put in your mind," he advised her. But Uncle Ben didn't live to see Ruth put her advice into practice. he died soon after she left college. Three days later Ruth started for the big city ...

(from inside cover copy)]]> 313 Donald Henderson Clarke Paul 5 3.75 1931 Impatient Virgin
author: Donald Henderson Clarke
name: Paul
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1931
rating: 5
read at: 2013/08/17
date added: 2013/08/17
shelves:
review:
Picked this up at an antique store after noticing: it was written in 1931, had a shocking title, and dealt with some taboo subjects (for the time). It's not really a trashy, vulgar book - but the moral and ethical dilemmas presented to the reader are pretty interesting, considering when it was written. This was a rather progressive book for the time! After wrestling with interpreting the tone of the book (is this satire? is it a story of empowerment? is it a cautionary tale?), I finished the book feeling confident and satisfied with what "side" the author was taking. Not necessarily 5 stars by my usual standards, but because this is such an oddity, I can't possibly give it less. :)
]]> <![CDATA[American Gods (American Gods, #1)]]> 4407
Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.

Scary, gripping and deeply unsettling, American Gods takes a long, hard look into the soul of America. You'll be surprised by what - and who - it finds there...

This is the author's preferred text, never before published in the UK, and is about 12,000 words longer than the previous UK edition.

]]> 635 Neil Gaiman Paul 5 4.10 2001 American Gods (American Gods, #1)
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Paul
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2013/05/19
date added: 2013/05/19
shelves:
review:

]]> The Potty Mouth at the Table 13260506
So if you’ve ever found yourself wondering if the person seated next to you on the plane is being earnest when he tells the stewardess he will handle the emergency door in the event of a crash landing or spotted a chunk of something that could be chocolate under your keyboard and desperately wanted to eat it, then this collection of sometimes bizarre and always entertaining observations is for you.]]> 256 Laurie Notaro Paul 3 3.70 2013 The Potty Mouth at the Table
author: Laurie Notaro
name: Paul
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2013/05/19
date added: 2013/05/19
shelves:
review:

]]> Phoenix 17380711
Rachel married Ted because he was uncomplicated and loyal. But he was also devoted to his wretched house (done up in black granite, black appliances, even black dishware) and his first love, an old, flatulent cat named Belinda Carlisle. Once Rachel becomes pregnant, Ted reluctantly agrees to move and give up the cat. But the house doesn't sell, and Belinda Carlisle still haunts their home: every day the creature becomes fatter and more malodorous. When the house burns to the ground in a freak conflagration and the couple's daughter, April, is born blind soon thereafter, the marriage is never the same again. Only on a business trip three years later does Rachel begin to reckon with the damage.

In an Orlando motel room far from Ted and April, Rachel wonders: Is her simple-minded husband more vindictive and manipulative than even Rachel could have imagined? How far will she go to keep the upper hand—a bit of emotional and physical torture, perhaps? Will she win the battle, only to lose so much else?

If all is fair in love and war, there are few contemporary writers better equipped than Palahniuk to travel the extremes, right to the chilling intersection of "I do" and "I'm damned."]]> 32 Chuck Palahniuk Paul 5 Superb. 3.73 2013 Phoenix
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Paul
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2013/02/22
date added: 2013/02/22
shelves:
review:
Superb.
]]> <![CDATA[A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel]]> 13513205
Never before illustrated, A Wrinkle in Time is now available in a spellbinding graphic novel adaptation. Hope Larson takes the classic story to a new level with her vividly imagined interpretations of Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who, Mrs Which, the Happy Medium, Aunt Beast, and the many other characters that readers have loved for the past fifty years. Winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal, A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet.]]> 392 Hope Larson 0374386153 Paul 2 3.88 2012 A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel
author: Hope Larson
name: Paul
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2012/10/18
shelves:
review:
Why did this feel like such a chore to read? Uninspired illustrations, poorly adapted dialogue, odd pacing - a missed opportunity.
]]> The Fifty Year Sword 13531066 288 Mark Z. Danielewski 0307907724 Paul 4 3.58 2012 The Fifty Year Sword
author: Mark Z. Danielewski
name: Paul
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2012/10/16
date added: 2012/10/16
shelves:
review:
Once you ease yourself into the storytelling structure ("Ugh, more 'Only Revolutions'-esque prose poetry?") this little novella, which is easily read in one sitting, casts a spell. Spooky and original.
]]> Building Stories 13573235 After years of sporadic work on other books and projects and following the almost complete loss of his virility, it's here: a new graphic novel by Chris Ware.
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Building Stories imagines the inhabitants of a three-story Chicago apartment building: a 30-something woman who has yet to find someone with whom to spend the rest of her life; a couple, possibly married, who wonder if they can bear each other's company another minute; and the building's landlady, an elderly woman who has lived alone for decades. Taking advantage of the absolute latest advances in wood pulp technology, Building Stories is a book with no deliberate beginning nor end, the scope, ambition, artistry and emotional prevarication beyond anything yet seen from this artist or in this medium, probably for good reason.]]> 260 Chris Ware 0375424334 Paul 5 4.32 2012 Building Stories
author: Chris Ware
name: Paul
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2012/10/07
date added: 2012/10/07
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]]> Gone Girl 8442457 What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone.

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?]]> 399 Gillian Flynn Paul 3 3.93 2012 Gone Girl
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Paul
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2012/09/23
date added: 2012/09/23
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Overall I felt this book was an easy, well-structured, and mostly-entertaining summer read. It's a page-turner to the very last. Sadly, I had to dock it a few stars because I felt the twists were manipulative and nonsensical - lacking proper logic or motive. Made some parts of the book seem pointless in hindsight. Also, some of the character development seemed a little off - one character in particular (Desi) behaves in an almost cartoonish fashion - and Nick never quite becomes as sympathetic as I think Flynn intends. Not sure how I feel about that ending, either. Still, I feel compelled to give this 3-stars because it did keep me reading to the very end, and was usually pretty compelling. Might not be worthy of all the hype, though.
]]> <![CDATA[Unlovable: The Complete Collection]]> 7909388 832 Esther Pearl Watson 1606993976 Paul 4 4.36 2010 Unlovable: The Complete Collection
author: Esther Pearl Watson
name: Paul
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/09/03
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review:
I purchased this on a whim because of the interesting premise and devoured the whole thing in a flash. This series perfectly captures all of the obsessions, exaggerations, awkward moments, and intense emotions that comes with being a teen. I laughed. I squirmed. Long-buried, painful memories of my own childhood floated to the surface. I laughed some more. A unique read - glad I picked it up!
]]> <![CDATA[Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail]]> 12262741 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here

At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State � and she would do it alone.

Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.]]> 336 Cheryl Strayed 0307592731 Paul 5 4.06 2012 Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
author: Cheryl Strayed
name: Paul
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2012/07/22
date added: 2012/07/22
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This book far exceeded my expectations. Cheryl Strayed is an enormously gifted writer. She writes with a vivid, clear, and confident voice that few authors can capture. Through this intimate narration, I felt a deep and immediate connection to her on this personal journey. The book isn't so much about the act of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Instead, it's more of a document of her grieving process. Some unfortunate events and poor choices left Cheryl's life feeling fractured and aimless. She undertook this journey not with the aim of just hiking the trail, but of accomplishing something enormous before building her new life. Along the way, Strayed has small, but stunning, moments of revelation and clarity that help her begin to heal. Her journey inspired me, moved me to tears, and made me reflect on my own life. What more can you want from a book?
]]> <![CDATA[Helpful Hints for Hurried Homemakers: Time and Money Sving Shortcuts]]> 2289299 176 Dorsey Connors 0933893531 Paul 4 4.50 1984 Helpful Hints for Hurried Homemakers: Time and Money Sving Shortcuts
author: Dorsey Connors
name: Paul
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1984
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/04/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Mary Ann in Autumn (Tales of the City, #8)]]> 7978315
Twenty years have passed since Mary Ann Singleton left her husband and child in San Francisco to pursue her dream of a television career in New York. Now a pair of personal calamities has driven her back to the city of her youth and into the arms of her oldest friend, Michael "Mouse" Tolliver, a gardener happily ensconced with his much-younger husband.

Mary Ann finds temporary refuge in the couple's backyard cottage, where, at the unnerving age of fifty-seven, she licks her wounds and takes stock of her mistakes. Soon, with the help of Facebook and a few old friends, she begins to reengage with life, only to confront fresh terrors when her checkered past comes back to haunt her in a way she could never have imagined.

After the intimate first-person narrative of Maupin's last novel, Michael Tolliver Lives, Mary Ann in Autumn marks the author's return to the multicharacter plotlines and darkly comic themes of his earlier work. Among those caught in Mary Ann's orbit are her estranged daughter, Shawna, a popular sex blogger; Jake Greenleaf, Michael's transgendered gardening assistant; socialite DeDe Halcyon-Wilson; and the indefatigable Anna Madrigal, Mary Ann's former landlady at 28 Barbary Lane.

More than three decades in the making, Armistead Maupin's legendary Tales of the City series rolls into a new age, still sassy, irreverent, and curious, and still exploring the boundaries of the human experience with insight, compassion, and mordant wit.]]> 304 Armistead Maupin 0061470880 Paul 2 4.02 2010 Mary Ann in Autumn (Tales of the City, #8)
author: Armistead Maupin
name: Paul
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2012/04/15
shelves:
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]]> Exquisite Corpse 15320 the most intimate art. After feigning his own death to escape from prison, Compton makes his way to the United States with the sole ambition of bringing his "art" to new heights. Tortured by his own perverse desires, and drawn to possess and destroy young boys, Compton inadvertently joins forces with Jay Byrne, a dissolute playboy who has pushed his "art" to limits even Compton hadn't previously imagined. Together, Compton and Byrne set their sights on an exquisite young Vietnamese-American runaway, Tran, whom they deem to be the perfect victim.

Swiftly moving from the grimy streets of London's Piccadilly Circus to the decadence of the New Orleans French Quarter, and punctuated by rants from radio talk show host Lush Rimbaud, a.k.a. Luke Ransom, Tran's ex-lover, who is dying of AIDS and who intends to wreak ultimate havoc before leaving this world, Exquisite Corpse unfolds into a labyrinth of murder and love. Ultimately all four characters converge on a singular bloody night after which their lives will be irrevocably changed � or terminated.

Poppy Z. Brite dissects the landscape of torture and invites us into the mind of a killer. Exquisite Corpse confirms Brite as a writer who defies categorization. It is a novel for those who dare trespass where the sacred and profane become one.]]> 240 Poppy Z. Brite 0684836270 Paul 5 3.81 1996 Exquisite Corpse
author: Poppy Z. Brite
name: Paul
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/04/08
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]]> George's Marvellous Medicine 74532 120 Roald Dahl 0224064908 Paul 3 4.05 1981 George's Marvellous Medicine
author: Roald Dahl
name: Paul
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1981
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/03/09
shelves:
review:

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