A K S's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 05 May 2025 02:32:32 -0700 60 A K S's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Letters to a Young Poet 46199
A hugely influential collection for writers and artists of all kinds, Rilke's profound and lyrical letters to a young friend advise on writing, love, sex, suffering and the nature of advice itself.]]> 80 Rainer Maria Rilke 0486422453 A K S 5 4.32 1929 Letters to a Young Poet
author: Rainer Maria Rilke
name: A K S
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1929
rating: 5
read at: 2025/05/05
date added: 2025/05/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)]]> 44421460 What would you change if you could go back in time?

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time.

In Before the Coffee Gets Cold, we meet four visitors, each of whom is hoping to make use of the café’s time-travelling offer, in order to: confront the man who left them, receive a letter from their husband whose memory has been taken by early onset Alzheimer's, to see their sister one last time, and to meet the daughter they never got the chance to know.

But the journey into the past does not come without risks: customers must sit in a particular seat, they cannot leave the café, and finally, they must return to the present before the coffee gets cold . . .

Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful, moving story explores the age-old question: what would you change if you could travel back in time? More importantly, who would you want to meet, maybe for one last time?]]> 213 Toshikazu Kawaguchi 1529029589 A K S 0 3.66 2015 Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Before the Coffee Gets Cold, #1)
author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
name: A K S
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/21
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]]> Jung on Active Imagination 520513
This method is based on the natural healing function of the imagination, and its many expressions. Chodorow clearly presents the texts, and sets them in the proper context. She also interweaves her discussion of Jung's writings and ideas with contributions from Jungian authors and artists.]]> 198 C.G. Jung 0691015767 A K S 0 to-read 4.42 1996 Jung on Active Imagination
author: C.G. Jung
name: A K S
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1996
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/31
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]]> The Communist Manifesto 30474 The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels' revolutionary 1848 summons to the working classes, is one of the most influential political theories ever formulated. After four years of collaboration, the authors produced this incisive account of their idea of Communism, in which they envisage a society without classes, private property, or a state. They argue that increasing exploitation of industrial workers will eventually lead to a revolution in which capitalism is overthrown. Their vision transformed the world irrevocably, and remains relevant as a depiction of global capitalism today.]]> 288 Karl Marx 0140447571 A K S 0 3.67 1848 The Communist Manifesto
author: Karl Marx
name: A K S
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1848
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/31
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sign of Four (Sherlock Holmes, #2)]]> 608474
For Mary Marston has received several large pearls - one a year for the last six years - and now a mystery letter telling her she is a wronged woman. If she would seek justice she is to meet her unknown benefactor, bringing with her two companions.

But unbeknownst to them all, others stalk London's fog-enshrouded streets: a one-legged ruffian with revenge on his mind - and his companion, who places no value on human life...]]> 129 Arthur Conan Doyle A K S 0 3.91 1890 The Sign of Four (Sherlock Holmes, #2)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: A K S
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1890
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life]]> 57901800
Weaving her own deeply personal journey of awakening with her groundbreaking research, Dr. Miller’s book reveals that humans are universally equipped with a capacity for spirituality, and that our brains become more resilient and robust as a result of it. For leaders in business and government, truth-seekers, parents, healers, educators, and any person confronting life’s biggest questions, The Awakened Brain combines cutting-edge science (from MRI studies to genetic research, epidemiology, and more) with on-the-ground application for people of all ages and from all walks of life, illuminating the surprising science of spirituality and how to engage it in our lives:

� The awakened decision is the better decision. With an awakened perception, we are more creative, collaborative, ethical, and innovative.
� The awakened brain is the healthier brain. An engaged spiritual life enhances grit, optimism, and resilience while providing insulation against addiction, trauma, and depression.
� The awakened life is the inspired life. Loss, uncertainty, and even trauma are the gateways by which we are invited to move beyond merely coping with hardship to transcend into a life of renewal, healing, joy, and fulfillment.

Absorbing, uplifting, and ultimately enlightening, The Awakened Brain is a conversation-starting saga of scientific discovery packed with counterintuitive findings and practical advice on concrete ways to access your innate spirituality and build a life of meaning and contribution.]]> 272 Lisa Miller 198485562X A K S 0 to-read 4.11 2021 The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life
author: Lisa Miller
name: A K S
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/18
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]]> <![CDATA[A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes, #1)]]> 102868
But it's not long before Sherlock Holmes, with Watson in tow, is working with Scotland Yard investigating the murder of two Americans whose deaths have some mysterious connection to sinister groups gathering power in both Britain and America.

Here's where it all began. 'A Study in Scarlet.' Meet Sherlock Holmes, one of the world's leading consulting detectives - fictional of course!]]> 123 Arthur Conan Doyle 1420925539 A K S 4 4.16 1887 A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes, #1)
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: A K S
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1887
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/11/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Everybody: A Book About Freedom]]> 55298345
Drawing on her own experiences in protest and alternative medicine, and traveling from Weimar Berlin to the prisons of Joseph McCarthy’s America, Laing grapples with some of the most significant and complicated figures of the past century—among them Nina Simone, Christopher Isherwood, Andrea Dworkin, Sigmund Freud, Susan Sontag, and Malcolm X. Arriving at a moment in which basic bodily rights are once again imperiled, Everybody is an investigation into the forces arranged against freedom and a celebration of how ordinary human bodies can resist oppression and reshape the world.]]> 368 Olivia Laing 0393608778 A K S 0 to-read 4.26 2021 Everybody: A Book About Freedom
author: Olivia Laing
name: A K S
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions]]> 25666050 A fascinating exploration of how insights from computer algorithms can be applied to our everyday lives, helping to solve common decision-making problems and illuminate the workings of the human mind

All our lives are constrained by limited space and time, limits that give rise to a particular set of problems. What should we do, or leave undone, in a day or a lifetime? How much messiness should we accept? What balance of new activities and familiar favorites is the most fulfilling? These may seem like uniquely human quandaries, but they are not: computers, too, face the same constraints, so computer scientists have been grappling with their version of such issues for decades. And the solutions they've found have much to teach us.

In a dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, acclaimed author Brian Christian and cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths show how the algorithms used by computers can also untangle very human questions. They explain how to have better hunches and when to leave things to chance, how to deal with overwhelming choices and how best to connect with others. From finding a spouse to finding a parking spot, from organizing one's inbox to understanding the workings of memory, Algorithms to Live By transforms the wisdom of computer science into strategies for human living.]]> 368 Brian Christian 1627790365 A K S 0 to-read 4.12 2016 Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions
author: Brian Christian
name: A K S
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/05
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]]> Daisy Jones & The Six 40597810 Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n� roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.]]> 368 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798622 A K S 4 4.20 2019 Daisy Jones & The Six
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: A K S
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/01
date added: 2024/08/02
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]]> The Swimmers 58214333 From the award winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and When the Emperor Was Divine, a tour de force of economy, precision, and emotional power about what happens to a group of obsessed recreational swimmers when a crack appears at the bottom of their local pool.

The swimmers are unknown to each other except through their private routines (slow lane, fast lane), and the solace each takes in their morning or afternoon laps. But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are cast out into an unforgiving world without comfort or relief.

One of these swimmers is Alice, who is slowly losing her memory. For Alice, the pool was a final stand against the darkness of her encroaching dementia. Without the fellowship of other swimmers and the routine of her daily laps she is plunged into dislocation and chaos, swept into memories of her childhood and the Japanese internment camp in which she spent the war. Narrated by Alice's daughter, who witnesses her stark and devastating decline, The Swimmers is a searing, intimate story of mothers and daughters, and the sorrows of implacable loss, written in spellbinding, incantatory prose.

The most commanding and unforgettable work yet from a modern master.
]]> 176 Julie Otsuka 0593321332 A K S 3 3.65 2022 The Swimmers
author: Julie Otsuka
name: A K S
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/24
date added: 2024/07/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story]]> 29948 400 Richard Bach 0061148482 A K S 5 3.90 1982 The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story
author: Richard Bach
name: A K S
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1982
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/24
date added: 2024/07/24
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]]> The Science of Being Well 5792956 72 Wallace D. Wattles 1604593423 A K S 0 3.73 1993 The Science of Being Well
author: Wallace D. Wattles
name: A K S
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/17
date added: 2024/06/18
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]]> One 265264 320 Richard Bach 0330311735 A K S 5 3.98 1988 One
author: Richard Bach
name: A K S
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at: 2024/06/13
date added: 2024/06/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Thought Vibration: or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World]]> 24375071 78 William Walker Atkinson 163384563X A K S 0 4.13 2010 Thought Vibration: or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World
author: William Walker Atkinson
name: A K S
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/13
date added: 2024/06/13
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]]> Everything I Know About Love 40099418 Sunday Times dating columnist Dolly Alderton has seen and tried it all. In her memoir, she vividly recounts falling in love, wrestling with self-sabotage, finding a job, throwing a socially disastrous Rod-Stewart themed house party, getting drunk, getting dumped, realising that Ivan from the corner shop is the only man you've ever been able to rely on, and finding that that your mates are always there at the end of every messy night out. It's a book about bad dates, good friends and - above all else - about recognising that you and you alone are enough.

Glittering with wit and insight, heart and humour, Dolly Alderton's powerful début weaves together personal stories, satirical observations, a series of lists, recipes, and other vignettes that will strike a chord of recognition with women of every age - while making you laugh until you fall over. Everything I know About Love is about the struggles of early adulthood in all its grubby, hopeful uncertainty.]]> 358 Dolly Alderton 0241982103 A K S 0 4.00 2018 Everything I Know About Love
author: Dolly Alderton
name: A K S
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2024/03/13
date added: 2024/06/11
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]]> Ecstacy 171661831 0 Irvine Welsh A K S 0 4.19 Ecstacy
author: Irvine Welsh
name: A K S
average rating: 4.19
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/11
date added: 2024/06/11
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]]> The Power of Awareness 93971 122 Neville Goddard 0875166555 A K S 0 4.35 1951 The Power of Awareness
author: Neville Goddard
name: A K S
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1951
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/01
date added: 2024/06/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha]]> 173666 For many of us, feelings of deficiency are right around the corner. It doesn’t take much--just hearing of someone else’s accomplishments, being criticized, getting into an argument, making a mistake at work--to make us feel that we are not okay. Beginning to understand how our lives have become ensnared in this trance of unworthiness is our first step toward reconnecting with who we really are and what it means to live fully.
--from Radical Acceptance

Radical Acceptance

“Believing that something is wrong with us is a deep and tenacious suffering,� says Tara Brach at the start of this illuminating book. This suffering emerges in crippling self-judgments and conflicts in our relationships, in addictions and perfectionism, in loneliness and overwork--all the forces that keep our lives constricted and unfulfilled. Radical Acceptance offers a path to freedom, including the day-to-day practical guidance developed over Dr. Brach’s twenty years of work with therapy clients and Buddhist students.

Writing with great warmth and clarity, Tara Brach brings her teachings alive through personal stories and case histories, fresh interpretations of Buddhist tales, and guided meditations. Step by step, she leads us to trust our innate goodness, showing how we can develop the balance of clear-sightedness and compassion that is the essence of Radical Acceptance. Radical Acceptance does not mean self-indulgence or passivity. Instead it empowers genuine change: healing fear and shame and helping to build loving, authentic relationships. When we stop being at war with ourselves, we are free to live fully every precious moment of our lives.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 333 Tara Brach A K S 0 currently-reading 4.15 2000 Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
author: Tara Brach
name: A K S
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/04
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change]]> 36072 372 Stephen R. Covey 0743269519 A K S 0 4.16 1989 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
author: Stephen R. Covey
name: A K S
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/05
date added: 2024/06/04
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]]> Quicunque Vult 25532212 (Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1811)

A feisty Irish prostitute with a murky past finds herself stuck in London’s East End in the year of the Ripper.

Reeling from a series of bad choices and even worse luck, Mary Jane needs to quit her immoral life. She’s approaching thirty years of age, which means her best days are coming to an end, and she’s running out of time to better herself.

Ever cognizant of the narrowing window of opportunity before her, the openly sapphic and increasingly reluctant harlot sets her mind to escape from Whitechapel, her wishy-washy plans spurred on all the more when she meets Eva: an inexperienced young flower girl who falls keenly into her embrace and her bed.

Determined to shield the poorly educated and impecunious sixteen-year-old against the corrupting influence of men, and the desperate misery of poverty that drives so many naive slum girls to the streets, Mary Jane will do whatever it takes to preserve Eva’s innocence, and to keep the wolf from baying at their door. Even if it kills her.]]> 721 Keira Michelle Telford 0992011582 A K S 0 to-read 4.42 2015 Quicunque Vult
author: Keira Michelle Telford
name: A K S
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself]]> 1963638 The Untethered Soul offers simple yet profound answers to these questions.

Whether this is your first exploration of inner space, or you’ve devoted your life to the inward journey, this book will transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you. You’ll discover what you can do to put an end to the habitual thoughts and emotions that limit your consciousness. By tapping into traditions of meditation and mindfulness, author and spiritual teacher Michael A. Singer shows how the development of consciousness can enable us all to dwell in the present moment and let go of painful thoughts and memories that keep us from achieving happiness and self-realization.

Copublished with the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) The Untethered Soul begins by walking you through your relationship with your thoughts and emotions, helping you uncover the source and fluctuations of your inner energy. It then delves into what you can do to free yourself from the habitual thoughts, emotions, and energy patterns that limit your consciousness. Finally, with perfect clarity, this book opens the door to a life lived in the freedom of your innermost being.]]> 183 Michael A. Singer A K S 5 4.19 2007 The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself
author: Michael A. Singer
name: A K S
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/04/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Ordinary Magic: Everyday Life as Spiritual Path]]> 581273
Sunshine and green leaves / Thich Nhat Hanh --
Everyday life as practice / Karlfried Graf von DĂĽrckheim --
Earth and space / Chögyam Trungpa --
This very moment / Charlotte Joko Beck --
Not preferring samsara or nirvana / Pema Chödrön --
Seeing without the observer / J. Krishnamurti --
Are you here? / A.H. Almaas --
The way of seeing / Frederick Franck --
Writing fearlessly / Natalie Goldberg --
Meditation and poetics / Allen Ginsberg --
Just being at the piano / Mildred Chase --
Coming home to the body / Denise Taylor --
Zen archery / Eugen Herrigel --
The art of sword / Takuan Soho --Driving meditation / Kevin Berger and Todd Berger --
The work of craft / Carla Needleman --
Working for a living / Jean Martine --
The healing power of unconditional presence / John Welwood --
Touch and go / Karen Kissel Wegela --
The listening mind / Ram Dass and Paul Gorman --
On being unable to breathe / Stephen Butterfield --
Conscious eating / Marc David --
Being with anger / Stephen Levine --
Being peace / Thich Nhat Hanh --
Personal disarmament / Deena Metzger --
The greening of the self / Joanna Macy --
The path of service / Jack Kornfield --
Mindful social action / Ken Jones --
The power of peace / Chagdud Tulku --
Nowness and enlightened society / Chögyam Trungpa --
Intimate relationship as a practice and a path / John Welwood --
Contemplation and intimacy / Monica Furlong --
Family life and spiritual practice / Fran Tribe --
Working with dying people / Stephen Levine --
Facing death / Dainin Katagiri]]> 368 John Welwood 0877735972 A K S 5 3.98 1992 Ordinary Magic: Everyday Life as Spiritual Path
author: John Welwood
name: A K S
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/04/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism]]> 11910905 The Charisma Myth is a mix of fun stories, sound science, and practical tools. Cabane takes a hard scientific approach to a heretofore mystical topic, covering what charisma actually is, how it is learned, what its side effects are, and how to handle them.]]> 264 Olivia Fox Cabane 1591844568 A K S 0 3.90 2012 The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism
author: Olivia Fox Cabane
name: A K S
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2023/03/23
date added: 2023/03/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter—And How to Make the Most of Them Now]]> 40603783 not the new twenty. In this enlightening book, Dr. Meg Jay reveals how many twentysomethings have been caught in a swirl of hype and misinformation that has trivialized what are actually the most defining years of adulthood. Drawing from more than ten years of work with hundreds of twentysomething clients and students, Dr. Jay weaves the science of the twentysomething years with compelling, behind-closed-doors stories from twentysomethings themselves. She shares what psychologists, sociologists, neurologists, reproductive specialists, human resources executives, and economists know about the unique power of our twenties and how they change our lives. The result is a provocative and sometimes poignant read that shows us why our twenties do matter. Our twenties are a time when the things we do--and the things we don't do--will have an enormous effect across years and even generations to come.]]> 273 Meg Jay A K S 5 re-read 4.09 2012 The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter—And How to Make the Most of Them Now
author: Meg Jay
name: A K S
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2023/03/15
date added: 2023/03/15
shelves: re-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)]]> 1232 487 Carlos Ruiz ZafĂłn A K S 5 4.26 2001 The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1)
author: Carlos Ruiz ZafĂłn
name: A K S
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/03/03
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]]> <![CDATA[I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream]]> 415459 I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream contains seven stories with copyrights ranging from 1958 through 1967. This edition contains the original introduction by Theodore Sturgeon and the original foreword by Harlan Ellison, along with a brief update comment by Ellison that was added in the 1983 edition. Among Ellison's more famous stories, two consistently noted as among his very best ever are the title story and the volume's concluding one, Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes.

Since Ellison himself strongly resists categorization of his work, we won't call them science fiction, or SF, or speculative fiction or horror or anything else except compelling reading experiences that are sui generis. They could only have been written by Harlan Ellison and they are incomparably original.

CONTENTS
"I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream"
"Big Sam Was My Friend"
"Eyes of Dust"
"World of the Myth"
"Lonelyache"
"Delusion for Dragonslayer"
"Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes"]]> 134 Harlan Ellison 0441363954 A K S 0 to-read 3.93 1967 I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
author: Harlan Ellison
name: A K S
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1967
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/24
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]]> Surface Detail (Culture, #9) 7937744
With the assistance of one of its most powerful - and arguably deranged - warships, Lededje finds herself heading into a combat zone not even sure which side the Culture is really on.

A brutal, far-reaching war is already raging within the digital realms that store the souls of the dead and it's about to erupt into reality. It started in the realm of the Real & that is where it will end. It will touch countless lives and affect entire civilizations, but at the center of it all is a young woman whose need for revenge masks another motive altogether.]]> 627 Iain M. Banks 0316123404 A K S 0 to-read 4.24 2010 Surface Detail (Culture, #9)
author: Iain M. Banks
name: A K S
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo]]> 32620332
Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the �80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story nears its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.]]> 389 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1501139231 A K S 0 4.39 2017 The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: A K S
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/02/13
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]]> Man’s Search for Meaning 4069 Man's Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.]]> 165 Viktor E. Frankl 080701429X A K S 0 to-read 4.39 1946 Man’s Search for Meaning
author: Viktor E. Frankl
name: A K S
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1946
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/12/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment]]> 6708 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781577314806.

To make the journey into the Now we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. From the very first page of Eckhart Tolle's extraordinary book, we move rapidly into a significantly higher altitude where we breathe a lighter air. We become connected to the indestructible essence of our Being, “The eternal, ever present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.� Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle uses simple language and an easy question-and-answer format to guide us.

A word-of-mouth phenomenon since its first publication, The Power of Now is one of those rare books with the power to create an experience in readers, one that can radically change their lives for the better.]]> 229 Eckhart Tolle A K S 5 4.16 1997 The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
author: Eckhart Tolle
name: A K S
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/01
date added: 2022/12/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams]]> 773038
Filled with timeless wisdom and practical steps you can apply right away, this pocketbook edition of Chopra’s classic bestselling book makes it easy for you to read and refer to again and again. Carry it with you in your purse or your pocket, and in less than one hour, learn the seven powerful principles that can easily be applied to create success in all areas of your life.]]> 115 Deepak Chopra 1878424114 A K S 0 4.16 1994 The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams
author: Deepak Chopra
name: A K S
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at: 2022/01/01
date added: 2022/12/24
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Win at College: Surprising Secrets for Success from the Country's Top Students]]> 253197

What does it take to be a standout student? How can you make the most of your college years—graduate with honors, choose exciting activities, build a head-turning resume, and gain access to the best post-college opportunities? Based on interviews with star students at universities nationwide, from Harvard to the University of Arizona, How to Win at College presents seventy-five simple rules that will rocket you to the top of the class. These college-tested—and often surprising—strategies include:

� Don’t do all your reading
� Drop classes every term
� Become a club president
� Care about your grades, Ignore your GPA
� Never pull an all-nighter
� Take three days to write a paper
� Always be working on a “grand project�
� Do one thing better than anyone else you know

Proving that success has little to do with being a genius workaholic, and everything to do with playing the game, How to Win at College is the must-have guide for making the most of these four important years—and getting an edge on life after graduation.]]> 193 Cal Newport 0767917871 A K S 5 3.97 2005 How to Win at College: Surprising Secrets for Success from the Country's Top Students
author: Cal Newport
name: A K S
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/01
date added: 2022/12/24
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Die: An Ancient Guide to the End of Life]]> 36582041 How to Die gathers in one volume, for the first time, Seneca’s remarkable meditations on death and dying. Edited and translated by James Romm, How to Die reveals a provocative thinker and dazzling writer who speaks with a startling frankness about the need to accept death or even, under certain conditions, to seek it out.

Seneca believed that life is only a journey toward death and that one must rehearse for death throughout life. Here, he tells us how to practice for death, how to die well, and how to understand the role of a good death in a good life. He stresses the universality of death, its importance as life’s final rite of passage, and its ability to liberate us from pain, slavery, or political oppression.


Featuring beautifully rendered new translations, How to Die also includes an enlightening introduction, notes, the original Latin texts, and an epilogue presenting Tacitus's description of Seneca's grim suicide.

]]> 230 Seneca 0691175578 A K S 5 4.05 2017 How to Die: An Ancient Guide to the End of Life
author: Seneca
name: A K S
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2017
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/12/24
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]]> Animal Farm 170448 Librarian's note: There is an Alternate Cover Edition for this edition of this book here.

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned –a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.
When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.]]> 141 George Orwell 0451526341 A K S 0 4.07 1945 Animal Farm
author: George Orwell
name: A K S
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1945
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/12/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery]]> 53642699 250 Brianna Wiest A K S 0 4.08 2020 The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery
author: Brianna Wiest
name: A K S
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/12/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One]]> 12951631
Not only will you be given the necessary knowledge to change any aspect of yourself, but you will be taught the step-by-step tools to apply what you learn in order to make measurable changes in any area of your life. Dr. Joe demystifies ancient understandings and bridges the gap between science and spirituality. Through his powerful workshops and lectures, thousands of people in 24 different countries have used these principles to change from the inside out. Once you break the habit of being yourself and truly change your mind, your life will never be the same!]]> 329 Joe Dispenza 1401938086 A K S 0 4.11 2012 Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One
author: Joe Dispenza
name: A K S
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/12/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body]]> 34272471 Two New York Times-bestselling authors unveil new research showing what meditation can really do for the brain.

In the last twenty years, meditation and mindfulness have gone from being kind of cool to becoming an omnipresent Band-Aid for fixing everything from your weight to your relationship to your achievement level. Unveiling here the kind of cutting-edge research that has made them giants in their fields, Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson show us the truth about what meditation can really do for us, as well as exactly how to get the most out of it.

Sweeping away common misconceptions and neuromythology to open readers' eyes to the ways data has been distorted to sell mind-training methods, the authors demonstrate that beyond the pleasant states mental exercises can produce, the real payoffs are the lasting personality traits that can result. But short daily doses will not get us to the highest level of lasting positive change--even if we continue for years--without specific additions. More than sheer hours, we need smart practice, including crucial ingredients such as targeted feedback from a master teacher and a more spacious, less attached view of the self, all of which are missing in widespread versions of mind training. The authors also reveal the latest data from Davidson's own lab that point to a new methodology for developing a broader array of mind-training methods with larger implications for how we can derive the greatest benefits from the practice.

Exciting, compelling, and grounded in new research, this is one of those rare books that has the power to change us at the deepest level.]]> 336 Daniel Goleman 0399184384 A K S 0 to-read 3.87 2017 Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body
author: Daniel Goleman
name: A K S
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> Interpreter of Maladies 5439 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In "A Temporary Matter," published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant.]]> 198 Jhumpa Lahiri 0618101365 A K S 0 to-read 4.18 1999 Interpreter of Maladies
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: A K S
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/01/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Story of the Lost Child (Neapolitan Novels, #4)]]> 25242224 The Guardian about the Neapolitan novels in 2014. Against the backdrop of a Naples that is as seductive as it is perilous and a world undergoing epochal change, Elena Ferrante tells the story of a lifelong friendship between two women with unmatched honesty and brilliance.

The Story of the Lost Child is the concluding volume in the dazzling saga of two women � the brilliant, bookish Elena, and the fiery, uncontainable Lila. Both are now adults, with husbands, lovers, aging parents, and children. Their friendship has been the gravitational center of their lives. Both women fought to escape the neighborhood in which they grew up � a prison of conformity, violence, and inviolable taboos. Elena married, moved to Florence, started a family, and published several well-received books. In this final novel she has returned to Naples, drawn back as if responding to the city's obscure magnetism. Lila, on the other hand, could never free herself from the city of her birth. She has become a successful entrepreneur, but her success draws her into closer proximity with the nepotism, chauvinism, and criminal violence that infect the neighborhood. Proximity to the world she has always rejected only brings her role as its unacknowledged leader into relief. For Lila is unstoppable, unmanageable, unforgettable.

The four volumes in this series constitute a long remarkable story that readers will return to again and again, and each return will bring with it new revelations.]]> 473 Elena Ferrante 1609452860 A K S 5 4.47 2014 The Story of the Lost Child (Neapolitan Novels, #4)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: A K S
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2014
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/01/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (Neapolitan Novels, #3)]]> 23156040 418 Elena Ferrante A K S 5 4.38 2013 Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (Neapolitan Novels, #3)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: A K S
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/16
date added: 2022/01/18
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]]> <![CDATA[My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)]]> 35036409 My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style lends itself perfectly to a meticulous portrait of these two women that is also the story of a nation and a touching meditation on the nature of friendship. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighbourhood, a city and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between her two protagonists.]]> 331 Elena Ferrante A K S 5 4.08 2011 My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels, #1)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: A K S
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/02
date added: 2022/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Story of a New Name (Neapolitan Novels, #2)]]> 17465515 My Brilliant Friend introduced readers to the unforgettable Elena and Lila, whose lifelong friendship provides the backbone for the Neapolitan Novels. The Story of a New Name is the second book in this series. With these books, which the New Yorker's James Wood described as "large, captivating, amiably peopled ... a beautiful and delicate tale of confluence and reversal," Ferrante proves herself to be one of Italy's most accomplished storytellers. She writes vividly about a specific neighborhood of Naples from the late-1950s through to the current day and about two remarkable young women who are very much the products of that place and time. Yet in doing so she has created a world in which readers will recognize themselves and has drawn a marvelously nuanced portrait of friendship.

In The Story of a New Name, Lila has recently married and made her entrée into the family business; Elena, meanwhile, continues her studies and her exploration of the world beyond the neighborhood that she so often finds stifling. Love, jealousy, family, freedom, commitment, and above all friendship: these are signs under which both women live out this phase in their stories. Marriage appears to have imprisoned Lila, and the pressure to excel is at times too much for Elena. Yet the two young women share a complex and evolving bond that is central to their emotional lives and is a source of strength in the face of life's challenges. In these Neapolitan Novels, Elena Ferrante, the acclaimed author of The Days of Abandonment, gives readers a poignant and universal story about friendship and belonging.]]> 471 Elena Ferrante A K S 5 4.47 2012 The Story of a New Name (Neapolitan Novels, #2)
author: Elena Ferrante
name: A K S
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/10
date added: 2022/01/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence]]> 17288646 304 Rick Hanson 0385347316 A K S 5 3.61 2013 Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence
author: Rick Hanson
name: A K S
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/04
date added: 2022/01/10
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]]> The Prophet 2547 The Prophet, is one of the most beloved classics of our time. Published in 1923, it has been translated into more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone have sold more than nine million copies.

The Prophet is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, inspirational. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chapters covering such sprawling topics as love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.]]> 127 Kahlil Gibran 000100039X A K S 0 4.27 1923 The Prophet
author: Kahlil Gibran
name: A K S
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1923
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Who Cooked the Last Supper: The Women's History of the World]]> 56354
Starting with women in pre-history the author looks beyond the myth of â€Man the Hunterâ€� to reveal women’s central role in the survival and evolution of the human race. She follows their progress from the days when God was a woman through to the triumphs of the Amazons and Assyrian war queens: she looks at the rise of organised religion and the growing oppression of women: she charts the long slow struggle for women’s rights culminating in the twentieth century women’s movements: and finally she presents a vision of women breaking free.

This brilliant and absorbing book turns the spotlight on the hidden side of history to present a fascinating new view of the world, overturning our preconceptions to restore women to their rightful place at the centre of the worldwide story of revolution, empire, war and peace.

Spiced with tales of individual women who have shaped history, celebrating the work and lives of the unsung female millions, distinguished by a wealth of research, The Women’s History of the World redefines the concept of historical reality.]]> 352 Rosalind Miles 0609806955 A K S 0 to-read 3.82 1989 Who Cooked the Last Supper: The Women's History of the World
author: Rosalind Miles
name: A K S
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1989
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Heroines: Powerful Indian Women of Myth and History]]> 33795518 238 Ira Mukhoty 9386021358 A K S 0 to-read 3.81 Heroines: Powerful Indian Women of Myth and History
author: Ira Mukhoty
name: A K S
average rating: 3.81
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous]]> 41880609 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born � a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam � and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.]]> 246 Ocean Vuong 0525562028 A K S 0 to-read 4.05 2019 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
author: Ocean Vuong
name: A K S
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones]]> 40121378 Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Learn how to:
- Make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
- Overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
- Design your environment to make success easier;
- Get back on track when you fall off course;
...and much more.

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.]]> 319 James Clear A K S 0 4.34 2018 Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
author: James Clear
name: A K S
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/06/06
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]]> The Space Between Us 218357 321 Thrity Umrigar 006079156X A K S 0 to-read 4.02 2005 The Space Between Us
author: Thrity Umrigar
name: A K S
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/05/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me]]> 6694 Who needs a ladder when you’ve got a giraffe with an extended neck?

The Ladderless Window-Cleaning Company certainly doesn't. They don’t need a pail, either, because they have a pelican with a bucket-sized beak. With a monkey to do the washing and Billy as their manager, this business is destined for success. Now they have their big break—a chance to clean all 677 windows of the Hampshire House, owned by the richest man in all of England! That’s exciting enough, but along the way there are surprises and adventures beyond their wildest window-washing dreams.

Billy's biggest wish is to turn a weird old wooden house into a wonderful sweet shop. But then he finds a giraffe, a pelly and a monkey living inside - Now they're the Ladderless Window Cleaning Company! They become best friends, and now that they have a promising job to carrout out, there's a chance that Billy's scrumptious, galumptious dream just might come true...

Roald Dahl, is the brilliant and worldwide acclaimed author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and many more timeless classics for children. Besides keeping millions of readers entertained for years, these delightfully disturbing tales have recently been turned into hit films, helping to continue to make millions of children & adults alike shiver with his unique stories.]]> 32 Roald Dahl 0140568190 A K S 5 3.83 1985 The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
author: Roald Dahl
name: A K S
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1985
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie Bucket, #1)]]> 6310 (back cover)]]> 176 Roald Dahl 0142403881 A K S 0 4.16 1964 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie Bucket, #1)
author: Roald Dahl
name: A K S
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1964
rating: 0
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]]> The Color Purple 52892857 Read the original inspiration for the new, boldly reimagined film from producers Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award

A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance and silence. Through a series of letters spanning twenty years, first from Celie to God, then the sisters to each other despite the unknown, the novel draws readers into its rich and memorable portrayals of Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery and Sofia and their experience. The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience and bravery. Deeply compassionate and beautifully imagined, Alice Walker's epic carries readers on a spirit-affirming journey towards redemption and love.

â€Áč±đ˛ą»ĺľ±˛Ô˛µ The Color Purple was the first time I had seen Southern, Black women’s literature as world literature. In writing us into the world—bravely, unapologetically, and honestly—Alice Walker has given us a gift we will never be able to repay.â€� —Tayari Jones

�The Color Purple was what church should have been, what honest familial reckoning could have been, and it is still the only art object in the world by which all three generations of Black artists in my family judge American art.� —Kiese Laymon]]> 287 Alice Walker 0143135694 A K S 0 to-read 4.40 1982 The Color Purple
author: Alice Walker
name: A K S
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1982
rating: 0
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]]> The Bell Jar 6514 294 Sylvia Plath 0571268862 A K S 0 to-read 4.05 1963 The Bell Jar
author: Sylvia Plath
name: A K S
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1963
rating: 0
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]]> Behind Her Eyes 28965131 Why is everyone talking about the ending of Sarah Pinborough's Behind Her Eyes?

Louise is a single mom, a secretary, stuck in a modern-day rut. On a rare night out, she meets a man in a bar and sparks fly. Though he leaves after they kiss, she’s thrilled she finally connected with someone.

When Louise arrives at work on Monday, she meets her new boss, David. The man from the bar. The very married man from the bar…who says the kiss was a terrible mistake but who still can’t keep his eyes off Louise.

And then Louise bumps into Adele, who’s new to town and in need of a friend, but she also just happens to be married to David. David and Adele look like the picture-perfect husband and wife, but then why is David so controlling, and why is Adele so scared of him?

As Louise is drawn into David and Adele’s orbit, she uncovers more puzzling questions than answers. The only thing that is crystal clear is that something in this marriage is very, very wrong, but Louise can’t guess how wrong―and how far a person might go to protect their marriage’s secrets.]]> 307 Sarah Pinborough 125011117X A K S 5 3.79 2017 Behind Her Eyes
author: Sarah Pinborough
name: A K S
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2021/05/06
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]]> The Motivation Hacker 17788725
I wrote this book in three months while simultaneously attempting seventeen other missions, including running a startup, launching a hit iPhone app, learning to write 3,000 new Chinese words, training to attempt a four-hour marathon from scratch, learning to skateboard, helping build a successful cognitive testing website, being best man at two weddings, increasing my bench press by sixty pounds, reading twenty books, going skydiving, helping to start the Human Hacker House, learning to throw knives, dropping my 5K time by five minutes, and learning to lucid dream. I planned to do all this while sleeping eight hours a night, sending 1,000 emails, hanging out with a hundred people, going on ten dates, buying groceries, cooking, cleaning, and trying to raise my average happiness from 6.3 to 7.3 out of 10.

How? By hacking my motivation.]]> 138 Nick Winter 0989279804 A K S 0 3.73 2013 The Motivation Hacker
author: Nick Winter
name: A K S
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/04/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia]]> 46815
Why would a talented young girl go through the looking glass and step into a netherworld where up is down and food is greed, where death is honor and flesh is weak? Why enter into a love affair with hunger, drugs, sex and death? Marya Hornbacher sustained both anorexia and bulimia through five lengthy hospitalizations, endless therapy, the loss of family, friends, jobs and, ultimately, any sense of what it meant to be "normal."

In this vivid, emotionally wrenching memoir, she re-creates the experience and illuminates the tangle of personal, family and cultural causes that underlie eating disorders. Hornbacher's story gathers intensity with each passing year. By the time she is in college and working for a news service in Washington, DC, she is in the grip of a such a horrifying bout with anorexia that it will forever put to rest the romance of wasting away. Down to 52 pounds and counting, Hornbacher's body becomes a the death instinct with the drive to live, mind and body locked in mortal combat.

Wasted is the story of one woman's travels to the darker side of reality, and her decision to find her way back -- on her own terms. A landmark book from a 23-year-old writer of virtuoso prose, Wasted takes us inside the experience of anorexia and bulimia in a way that no one else has ever done.]]> 298 Marya Hornbacher 0060858796 A K S 0 4.02 1998 Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia
author: Marya Hornbacher
name: A K S
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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]]> Wintergirls 5152478
In her most powerfully moving novel since Speak, award-winning author, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia's struggle, her painful path to recovery, and her desperate attempts to hold on to the most important thing of all—hope.]]> 278 Laurie Halse Anderson 067001110X A K S 0 3.96 2009 Wintergirls
author: Laurie Halse Anderson
name: A K S
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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]]> The Secret (The Secret, #1) 52529 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781582701707.

The worldwide bestselling phenomenon that has helped millions tap the power of the law that governs all our lives to create—intentionally and effortlessly—a joyful life.

In 2006, a groundbreaking feature-length film revealed the great mystery of the universe�The Secret—and, later that year, Rhonda Byrne followed with a book that became a worldwide bestseller.

Fragments of a Great Secret have been found in the oral traditions, in literature, in religions, and philosophies throughout the centuries. For the first time, all the pieces of The Secret come together in an incredible revelation that will be life-transforming for all who experience it.

In this book, you’ll learn how to use The Secret in every aspect of your life—money, health, relationships, happiness, and in every interaction you have in the world. You’ll begin to understand the hidden, untapped power that’s within you, and this revelation can bring joy to every aspect of your life.

The Secret contains wisdom from modern-day teachers—men and women who have used it to achieve health, wealth, and happiness. By applying the knowledge of The Secret, they bring to light compelling stories of eradicating disease, acquiring massive wealth, overcoming obstacles, and achieving what many would regard as impossible.]]> 199 Rhonda Byrne A K S 0 3.74 2006 The Secret (The Secret, #1)
author: Rhonda Byrne
name: A K S
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Being in Love: How to Love with Awareness and Relate Without Fear]]> 1441467
In this thoughtful, provocative work, Osho—one of the most revolutionary thinkers of our time—challenges us to question what we think we know about love and opens us to the possibility of a love that is natural, fulfilling, and free of possessiveness and jealousy.

With his characteristic wit, humor, and understanding, Osho dares us to resist the unhealthy relationship patterns we’ve learned from those around us, and to rediscover the meaning of love for ourselves. “By the time you are ready to explore the world of love, you are filled with so much rubbish about love that there is not much hope for you to be able to find the authentic and discard the false.�

By answering the questions that so many lovers face, Osho shares new ways to love that will forever change how you relate to others, including how to:

� Love without clinging
� Let go of expectations, rules, and demands
� Free yourself from the fear of being alone
� Be fully present in your relationships
� Keep your love fresh and alive
� Become a life partner with whom someone could continue to grow and change
� Surrender your ego so you can surrender to love

Being in Love will inspire you to welcome love into your life anew and experience the joy of being truly alive by sharing it.]]> 256 Osho 0307337901 A K S 0 4.04 2008 Being in Love: How to Love with Awareness and Relate Without Fear
author: Osho
name: A K S
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/04/27
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]]> <![CDATA[So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love]]> 13525945
Not only is the cliché flawed—preexisting passions are rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work—but it can also be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping.

After making his case against passion, Newport sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving what they do. Spending time with organic farmers, venture capitalists, screenwriters, freelance computer programmers, and others who admitted to deriving great satisfaction from their work, Newport uncovers the strategies they used and the pitfalls they avoided in developing their compelling careers.

Matching your job to a preexisting passion does not matter, he reveals. Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it.

With a title taken from the comedian Steve Martin, who once said his advice for aspiring entertainers was to "be so good they can't ignore you," Cal Newport's clearly written manifesto is mandatory reading for anyone fretting about what to do with their life, or frustrated by their current job situation and eager to find a fresh new way to take control of their livelihood. He provides an evidence-based blueprint for creating work you love.

So Good They Can't Ignore You will change the way we think about our careers, happiness, and the crafting of a remarkable life.]]> 288 Cal Newport 1455509108 A K S 5 4.05 2012 So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
author: Cal Newport
name: A K S
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/27
date added: 2021/04/27
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]]> A Replacement for Religion 48661496
Whether or not we believe in religion, many of us feel drawn toward a spiritual life. Maybe we love cathedral architecture, Mozart's Requiem, or Buddhist literature.

The School of Life is a secular organization fascinated by the gaps left in modern society by the gradual disappearance of religion. They're interested in how hard it is to find a sense of community, why rituals are dying out, and when we crave the solemn quiet only found in religious buildings. This book lays out how we might absorb the best lessons of religion, update them for our times and incorporate them into our daily lives and societies-without taking on the theological or doctrinal elements.]]> 148 The School of Life A K S 5 3.63 A Replacement for Religion
author: The School of Life
name: A K S
average rating: 3.63
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/27
date added: 2021/04/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now]]> 37830765
In Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now Jaron Lanier draws on his insider's expertise to explain precisely how social media works and why its cruel and dangerous effects are at the heart of its current business model and design. As well as offering ten simple arguments for liberating yourself from its addictive hold, his witty and urgent manifesto outlines a vision for an alternative that provides all the benefits of social media without the harm. nicer person in the process.]]> 146 Jaron Lanier 1847925391 A K S 0 3.58 2018 Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now
author: Jaron Lanier
name: A K S
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2021/04/27
date added: 2021/04/27
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]]> Kimberly's Capital Punishment 15738076 464 Richard Milward 0571288987 A K S 0 to-read 3.01 2012 Kimberly's Capital Punishment
author: Richard Milward
name: A K S
average rating: 3.01
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments]]> 6748 Infinite Jest.]]> 353 David Foster Wallace 0316925284 A K S 0 to-read 4.24 1996 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments
author: David Foster Wallace
name: A K S
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/03/03
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]]> <![CDATA[I Would Leave Me If I Could: A Collection of Poetry]]> 54441047 144 Halsey A K S 0 to-read 3.82 2020 I Would Leave Me If I Could: A Collection of Poetry
author: Halsey
name: A K S
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> On Love 23426
The narrator is smitten by Chloe on a Paris-London flight, and by the time they've reached the luggage carousel, he knows he is in love. He loves her chestnut hair and pale nape and watery green eyes, the way she drives a car and eats Chinese food, the gap that makes her teeth Kantian and not Platonic, her views on Heidegger's Being and Time - although he hates her taste in shoes.
On Love plots the course of their affair from the initial delirium of infatuation to the depths of suicidal despair, through the (Groucho) "Marxist" stage of coming to terms with being loved by the unattainable beloved, through a fit of anhedonia, defined in medical texts as a disease resulting from the terror brought on by the threat of utter happiness, and finally through the nausea induced and terrorist tactics employed when the beloved begins, inexplicably, to drift away.

Alain de Botton is simultaneously hilarious and intellectually astute, shifting with ease among such seminal romantic texts as The Divine Comedy, Madame Bovary, and The Bleeding Heart, a self-help book for those who love too much. He is schematically flawless, funny, funky, and totally engaging.
Filled with profound observations and useful diagrams, On Love displays and examines for all of us the pain and exhilaration of love, asking, "Can we not be forgiven if we believe ourselves fated to stumble one day upon the man or woman of our dreams? Can we not be excused a certain superstitious faith in a creature who will prove the solution to our relentless yearnings?"]]> 194 Alain de Botton 0802142400 A K S 4 3.99 1993 On Love
author: Alain de Botton
name: A K S
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2021/01/05
date added: 2021/01/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life]]> 104909 Quince secretos que te llevarán hacia el camino de la iluminación: una síntesis cristalina del pensamiento y la sabiduría de uno de los guías espirituales más importantes de nuestra era.

En este libro, Deepak Chopra te acerca a diversas respuestas, para que alcances el autodescubrimiento que siempre has anhelado.

Todos queremos saber quién es nuestra alma gemela, qué carrera es la más gratificante, cómo educar a nuestros hijos, cuál es el sentido de la vida... Buscamos una revelación que nos muestre el significado de las cosas y de nuestra existencia.

La vida es un libro de secretos, listo para ser abierto. El secreto del amor perfecto se encuentra allí, al igual que los secretos para sanar, para tener más esperanza, para aprender a ser compasivos... Somos un misterio para nosotros mismos, sin importar cuán cerca estén las respuestas que añoramos, pues aquello que más deseamos saber se encuentra oculto en las profundidades de nuestro ser.

Otros autores han opinado:

"El libro más profundo y sobresaliente de Deepak Chopra." -Ken Wilber, autor de Breve historia de todas las cosas-
]]> 279 Deepak Chopra 1400098343 A K S 0 to-read 3.99 2004 The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life
author: Deepak Chopra
name: A K S
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/11/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> Capitalism: A Ghost Story 18528093
Capitalism: A Ghost Story examines the dark side of democracy in contemporary India, and shows how the demands of globalized capitalism has subjugated billions of people to the highest and most intense forms of racism and exploitation.]]> 136 Arundhati Roy 1608463850 A K S 0 to-read 3.94 2014 Capitalism: A Ghost Story
author: Arundhati Roy
name: A K S
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/10/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The School of Life: An Emotional Education]]> 43264830 Discover everything you were never taught at school about how to lead a better life...

Introduced and edited by the bestselling author of The Consolations of Philosophy, The Art of Travel and The Course of Love

We spend years in school learning facts and figures but the one thing we're never taught is how to live a fulfilled life. That's why we need The School of Life - a real organisation founded ten years ago by writer and philosopher Alain de Botton. The School of Life has one simple aim: to equip people with the tools to survive and thrive in the modern world. And the most important of these tools is emotional intelligence.

This book brings together ten years of essential and transformative research on emotional intelligence, with practical topics including:

- how to understand yourself
- how to master the dilemmas of relationships
- how to become more effective at work
- how to endure failure
- how to grow more serene and resilient

The School of Life is nothing short of a crash course in emotional maturity. With all the trademark wit and elegance of Alain de Botton's other writings, and rooted in practical, achievable advice, it show us a path to the better lives we all want and deserve.]]> 310 Alain de Botton 0241382327 A K S 5 4.23 2019 The School of Life: An Emotional Education
author: Alain de Botton
name: A K S
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/09/29
date added: 2020/10/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books]]> 7603 Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi's living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.

]]> 356 Azar Nafisi 081297106X A K S 0 to-read 3.64 2003 Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
author: Azar Nafisi
name: A K S
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/10/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Anne of Windy Poplars (Anne of Green Gables, #4)]]> 65840 they had wanted as principal of Summerside High School. But as she settles into the cozy tower room at Windy Poplars, Anne finds she has great allies in the widows Aunt Kate and Aunt Chatty--and in their irrepressible housekeeper, Rebecca Dew. As Anne learns Summerside's strangest secrets, winning the support of the prickly Pringles becomes only the first of her delicious triumphs.]]> 288 L.M. Montgomery 0808516965 A K S 0 to-read 4.04 1936 Anne of Windy Poplars (Anne of Green Gables, #4)
author: L.M. Montgomery
name: A K S
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1936
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/10/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Great Thinkers: Simple Tools from 60 Great Thinkers to Improve Your Life Today]]> 30813429 The School of Life, the gallery of individuals across the millennia who help to frame our intellectual project � and we will have succeeded if, in the days and years ahead, you find yourself turning to our thinkers to illuminate the multiple dilemmas, joys and griefs of daily life.]]> The School of Life A K S 5 4.36 2016 Great Thinkers: Simple Tools from 60 Great Thinkers to Improve Your Life Today
author: The School of Life
name: A K S
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2020/09/29
date added: 2020/10/28
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]]> On Confidence 35890182 touches: confidence. On Confidence walks us around the key issues that stop us from making more of our potential.
We hear about the impostor syndrome, the wisdom of imagining the great in their bathrooms, and what Nietzsche and Montaigne (among others) have to tell us about resilience and courage. We often stay stuck with the level of confidence we have because we regard being confident as a matter of good luck. In fact, the opposite is true: confidence is a skill based on ideas about our place in the world, and its secrets can be learnt.]]> 60 The School of Life A K S 5 3.99 2017 On Confidence
author: The School of Life
name: A K S
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2020/08/12
date added: 2020/10/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy]]> 39893127 From comedian and ex-diet junkie Caroline Dooner, an inspirational guide that will help you stop dieting, reboot your relationship with food, and regain your personal power

DIETING DOESN’T WORK

Not long term. In fact, our bodies are hardwired against it. But each time our diets fail, instead of considering that maybe our ridiculously low-carb diet is the problem, we wonder what’s wrong with us. Why can’t we stick to our simple plan of grapefruit and tuna fish??? Why are we so hungry? What is wrong with us??? We berate ourselves for being lazy and weak, double down on our belief that losing weight is the key to our everlasting happiness, and resolve to do better tomorrow. But it’s time we called a spade a spade: Constantly trying to eat the smallest amount possible is a miserable way to live, and it isn’t even working. So fuck eating like that. 

In The F*ck It Diet, Caroline Dooner tackles the inherent flaws of dieting and diet culture, and offers readers a counterintuitively simple path to healing their physical, emotional, and mental relationship with food. What’s the secret anti-diet? Eat. Whatever you want. Honor your appetite and listen to your hunger. Trust that your body knows what it is doing. Oh, and don’t forget to rest, breathe, and be kind to yourself while you’re at it.  Once you get yourself out of survival mode, it will become easier and easier to eat what your body really needs—a healthier relationship with food ultimately leads to a healthier you.

An ex-yo-yo dieter herself, Dooner knows how terrifying it can be to break free of the vicious cycle, but with her signature sharp humor and compassion, she shows readers that a sustainable, easy relationship with food is possible.

Irreverent and empowering, The F*ck It Diet is call to arms for anyone who feels guilt or pain over food, weight, or their body. It’s time to give up the shame and start thriving. Welcome to the F*ck It Diet. Let’s Eat.]]> 304 Caroline Dooner 006288364X A K S 5 4.02 2019 The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy
author: Caroline Dooner
name: A K S
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/29
date added: 2020/10/28
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]]> The White Tiger 1768603
Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life—having nothing but his own wits to help him along.

Born in the dark heart of India, Balram gets a break when he is hired as a driver for his village's wealthiest man, two house Pomeranians (Puddles and Cuddles), and the rich man's (very unlucky) son. From behind the wheel of their Honda City car, Balram's new world is a revelation. While his peers flip through the pages of Murder Weekly ("Love -- Rape -- Revenge!"), barter for girls, drink liquor (Thunderbolt), and perpetuate the Great Rooster Coop of Indian society, Balram watches his employers bribe foreign ministers for tax breaks, barter for girls, drink liquor (single-malt whiskey), and play their own role in the Rooster Coop. Balram learns how to siphon gas, deal with corrupt mechanics, and refill and resell Johnnie Walker Black Label bottles (all but one). He also finds a way out of the Coop that no one else inside it can perceive.

Balram's eyes penetrate India as few outsiders can: the cockroaches and the call centers; the prostitutes and the worshippers; the ancient and Internet cultures; the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is (almost) impossible, the white tiger. And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem -- but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations.

The White Tiger recalls The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, and narrative genius, with a mischief and personality all its own. Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation —and a startling, provocative debut.]]> 276 Aravind Adiga 1416562591 A K S 4 3.76 2008 The White Tiger
author: Aravind Adiga
name: A K S
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/10/24
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]]> The God of Small Things 9777
Armed only with the invincible innocence of children, they fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family—their lonely, lovely mother, Ammu (who loves by night the man her children love by day), their blind grandmother, Mammachi (who plays Handel on her violin), their beloved uncle Chacko (Rhodes scholar, pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher), their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grandaunt), and the ghost of an imperial entomologist's moth (with unusually dense dorsal tufts).

When their English cousin, Sophie Mol, and her mother, Margaret Kochamma, arrive on a Christmas visit, Esthappen and Rahel learn that Things Can Change in a Day. That lives can twist into new, ugly shapes, even cease forever, beside their river "graygreen." With fish in it. With the sky and trees in it. And at night, the broken yellow moon in it.

The brilliantly plotted story uncoils with an agonizing sense of foreboding and inevitability. Yet nothing prepares you for what lies at the heart of it.

The God of Small Things takes on the Big Themes—Love. Madness. Hope. Infinite Joy. Here is a writer who dares to break the rules. To dislocate received rhythms and create the language she requires, a language that is at once classical and unprecedented. Arundhati Roy has given us a book that is anchored to anguish, but fueled by wit and magic.]]> 321 Arundhati Roy 0679457313 A K S 5 3.97 1997 The God of Small Things
author: Arundhati Roy
name: A K S
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/23
date added: 2020/10/24
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]]> Wonder (Wonder, #1) 11387515 I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.

August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. Wonder, begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others.]]> 315 R.J. Palacio 0375869026 A K S 5 lives-in-my-room-x1f48c 4.34 2012 Wonder (Wonder, #1)
author: R.J. Palacio
name: A K S
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2020/08/09
date added: 2020/09/20
shelves: lives-in-my-room-x1f48c
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]]> <![CDATA[Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind]]> 23346740 Homo sapiens.

How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come?

In Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical � and sometimes devastating � breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, palaeontology and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come?

Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power ... and our future.]]> 498 John Purcell A K S 5 lives-in-my-room-x1f48c 4.42 2011 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
author: John Purcell
name: A K S
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2020/09/20
date added: 2020/09/20
shelves: lives-in-my-room-x1f48c
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]]> <![CDATA[Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence]]> 41723515 'Funny, angry, urgent. Ghodsee is going to start a revolution' Daisy Buchanan, author of The Sisterhood

A witty, fiercely intelligent exploration of why capitalism is rigged against women and what we can do about it.

Unregulated capitalism is bad for women. Socialism, if done properly, leads to economic independence, better labour conditions, better work/family balance and, yes, even better sex.

If you like the idea of such outcomes, then come along for an exploration of how we can change women’s lives for the better.]]> 218 Kristen R. Ghodsee 1529110572 A K S 0 to-read 3.98 2018 Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence
author: Kristen R. Ghodsee
name: A K S
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World]]> 40672036
In this timely and enlightening book, the bestselling author of Deep Work introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives.

Digital minimalists are all around us. They're the calm, happy people who can hold long conversations without furtive glances at their phones. They can get lost in a good book, a woodworking project, or a leisurely morning run. They can have fun with friends and family without the obsessive urge to document the experience. They stay informed about the news of the day, but don't feel overwhelmed by it. They don't experience "fear of missing out" because they already know which activities provide them meaning and satisfaction.

Now, Newport gives us a name for this quiet movement, and makes a persuasive case for its urgency in our tech-saturated world. Common sense tips, like turning off notifications, or occasional rituals like observing a digital sabbath, don't go far enough in helping us take back control of our technological lives, and attempts to unplug completely are complicated by the demands of family, friends and work. What we need instead is a thoughtful method to decide what tools to use, for what purposes, and under what conditions.

Drawing on a diverse array of real-life examples, from Amish farmers to harried parents to Silicon Valley programmers, Newport identifies the common practices of digital minimalists and the ideas that underpin them. He shows how digital minimalists are rethinking their relationship to social media, rediscovering the pleasures of the offline world, and reconnecting with their inner selves through regular periods of solitude. He then shares strategies for integrating these practices into your life, starting with a thirty-day "digital declutter" process that has already helped thousands feel less overwhelmed and more in control.

Technology is intrinsically neither good nor bad. The key is using it to support your goals and values, rather than letting it use you. This book shows the way.]]> 302 Cal Newport 052553654X A K S 5 4.06 2019 Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
author: Cal Newport
name: A K S
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/07/21
date added: 2020/07/21
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]]> Landline 18081809
Maybe that was always beside the point.

Two days before they’re supposed to visit Neal’s family in Omaha for Christmas, Georgie tells Neal that she can’t go. She’s a TV writer, and something’s come up on her show; she has to stay in Los Angeles. She knows that Neal will be upset with her � Neal is always a little upset with Georgie � but she doesn't expect him to pack up the kids and go home without her.

When her husband and the kids leave for the airport, Georgie wonders if she’s finally done it. If she’s ruined everything.

That night, Georgie discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past. It’s not time travel, not exactly, but she feels like she’s been given an opportunity to fix her marriage before it starts...

Is that what she’s supposed to do?

Or would Georgie and Neal be better off if their marriage never happened?]]> 320 Rainbow Rowell 1250049377 A K S 5 Rainbow Rowells books are so addictive and light ohmygosh
Georgie McCool, first of all, is majestic.
SOMEBODY FIND ME A NEAL
All her characters are so real
Heather wow I love her!!!!
and THE SCENE WITH THE PUGS OHMYGOD
the only thing was the ending
what about Seth and the meeting?
why you never give closure R.R.? :(
But I loved this book so much wow]]> 3.54 2014 Landline
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: A K S
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2020/07/04
date added: 2020/07/21
shelves:
review:
4.5 stars
Rainbow Rowells books are so addictive and light ohmygosh
Georgie McCool, first of all, is majestic.
SOMEBODY FIND ME A NEAL
All her characters are so real
Heather wow I love her!!!!
and THE SCENE WITH THE PUGS OHMYGOD
the only thing was the ending
what about Seth and the meeting?
why you never give closure R.R.? :(
But I loved this book so much wow
]]> Dumplin' (Dumplin', #1) 18304322
Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroineâ€�¶ŮłÜłľ±č±ôľ±˛Ôâ€� is guaranteed to steal your heart.]]> 375 Julie Murphy 0062327186 A K S 0 3.88 2015 Dumplin' (Dumplin', #1)
author: Julie Murphy
name: A K S
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/12
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]]> And the Mountains Echoed 16115612 404 Khaled Hosseini 159463176X A K S 0 to-read 4.06 2012 And the Mountains Echoed
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: A K S
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/06/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> A Thousand Splendid Suns 128029
With the passing of time comes Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the streets of Kabul loud with the sound of gunfire and bombs, life a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, the women's endurance tested beyond their worst imaginings. Yet love can move people to act in unexpected ways, lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism. In the end it is love that triumphs over death and destruction.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a portrait of a wounded country and a story of family and friendship, of an unforgiving time, an unlikely bond, and an indestructible love.]]> 372 Khaled Hosseini 1594489505 A K S 5 4.44 2007 A Thousand Splendid Suns
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: A K S
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2019/04/22
date added: 2020/06/12
shelves:
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]]> 1984 5470 328 George Orwell A K S 5 4.15 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: A K S
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1949
rating: 5
read at: 2020/06/12
date added: 2020/06/12
shelves:
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]]> Sing You Home 10678171 464 Jodi Picoult 1444724568 A K S 5 I really need to read more Jodi Picoult.
The writing style and the way the story was told made me feel like I was right there with the characters. The dialogue and the characters were so REAL. I got so attached to the characters. I feel Max was the realest of all the characters. Some of the things that happen in the book left me like- woah. Angela was so kick-ass. And her jokes, they killed me. I loved every single page of this book
Although some parts are very dark, they are dealt with and explained so well.
I do have a problem with the ending of the book. So many issues were left unresolved. It seemed kind of abrupt. What happens to Reid? What about Lucy? C'mon I need closure.
I can't exactly review this book well because I feel so strongly about LGBTQ rights and I get all riled up about it.]]> 3.89 2011 Sing You Home
author: Jodi Picoult
name: A K S
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2015/08/28
date added: 2020/06/08
shelves:
review:
OHMYGOSH I FRICKIN LOVED THIS BOOK.
I really need to read more Jodi Picoult.
The writing style and the way the story was told made me feel like I was right there with the characters. The dialogue and the characters were so REAL. I got so attached to the characters. I feel Max was the realest of all the characters. Some of the things that happen in the book left me like- woah. Angela was so kick-ass. And her jokes, they killed me. I loved every single page of this book
Although some parts are very dark, they are dealt with and explained so well.
I do have a problem with the ending of the book. So many issues were left unresolved. It seemed kind of abrupt. What happens to Reid? What about Lucy? C'mon I need closure.
I can't exactly review this book well because I feel so strongly about LGBTQ rights and I get all riled up about it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Inexplicable Logic of My Life]]> 23447923 A warmly humane look at universal questions of belonging, infused with humour, from the bestselling author of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.

Sal used to know his place with his adoptive gay father, their loving Mexican American family, and his best friend, Samantha. But it’s senior year, and suddenly Sal is throwing punches, questioning everything, and realizing he no longer knows himself. If Sal’s not who he thought he was, who is he?]]> 452 Benjamin Alire Sáenz 0544586506 A K S 4 4.12 2017 The Inexplicable Logic of My Life
author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz
name: A K S
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2020/06/05
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World]]> 25744928 One of the most valuable skills in our economy is becoming increasingly rare. If you master this skill, you'll achieve extraordinary results.

Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a super power in our increasingly competitive twenty-first century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep-spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there's a better way.

In Deep Work, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules," for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.

A mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, Deep Work takes the reader on a journey through memorable stories-from Carl Jung building a stone tower in the woods to focus his mind, to a social media pioneer buying a round-trip business class ticket to Tokyo to write a book free from distraction in the air-and no-nonsense advice, such as the claim that most serious professionals should quit social media and that you should practice being bored. Deep Work is an indispensable guide to anyone seeking focused success in a distracted world.]]> 296 Cal Newport 1455586692 A K S 5 4.16 2016 Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
author: Cal Newport
name: A K S
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/01
date added: 2020/06/05
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]]> Gone Girl 21480930 560 Gillian Flynn 0553418351 A K S 5 In the start I was a bit hesitant and didn't know if I wanted to continue..
But it picked up so fast! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time!
THIS BOOK IS GENIUS.]]> 4.05 2012 Gone Girl
author: Gillian Flynn
name: A K S
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2015/03/23
date added: 2020/06/05
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I LOVE THIS BOOK. I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK.
In the start I was a bit hesitant and didn't know if I wanted to continue..
But it picked up so fast! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time!
THIS BOOK IS GENIUS.
]]> So Sad Today: Personal Essays 25904473 So Sad Today, Broder delves deeper into the existential themes she explores on Twitter, grappling with sex, death, love, low self-esteem, addiction, and the drama of waiting for the universe to text you back. With insights as sharp as her humor, Broder explores—in prose that is both gutsy and beautiful, aggressively colloquial and achingly poetic—questions most of us are afraid to even acknowledge, let alone answer, in order to discover what it really means to be a person in this modern world.]]> 206 Melissa Broder 1455562726 A K S 5 3.81 2016 So Sad Today: Personal Essays
author: Melissa Broder
name: A K S
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/01
date added: 2020/06/05
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]]> Sex Object: A Memoir 26795372 Guardian US columnist Jessica Valenti has been leading the national conversation on gender and politics for over a decade. Now, in a darkly funny and bracing memoir, Valenti explores the toll that sexism takes from the every day to the existential.

Sex Object explores the painful, funny, embarrassing, and sometimes illegal moments that shaped Valenti’s adolescence and young adulthood in New York City, revealing a much shakier inner life than the confident persona she has cultivated as one of the most recognizable feminists of her generation.

In the tradition of writers like Joan Didion and Mary Karr, this literary memoir is sure to shock those already familiar with Valenti’s work and enthrall those who are just finding it.]]> 205 Jessica Valenti 0062435086 A K S 4 3.64 2016 Sex Object: A Memoir
author: Jessica Valenti
name: A K S
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/01
date added: 2020/06/05
shelves:
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]]> The Girl on the Train 22557272
An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.]]> 336 Paula Hawkins 1594633665 A K S 5 lives-in-my-room-x1f48c 3.97 2015 The Girl on the Train
author: Paula Hawkins
name: A K S
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/06/05
shelves: lives-in-my-room-x1f48c
review:

]]> Siddharta 42639871 152 Hermann Hesse 9502531329 A K S 5 4.14 1922 Siddharta
author: Hermann Hesse
name: A K S
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1922
rating: 5
read at: 2020/02/20
date added: 2020/02/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ocean at the End of the Lane]]> 15783514
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.]]> 181 Neil Gaiman 0062255657 A K S 0 4.00 2013 The Ocean at the End of the Lane
author: Neil Gaiman
name: A K S
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> The Catcher in the Rye 7967885 230 J.D. Salinger 0241950422 A K S 4 3.69 1951 The Catcher in the Rye
author: J.D. Salinger
name: A K S
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1951
rating: 4
read at: 2015/08/30
date added: 2019/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)]]> 12139510 387 Marissa Meyer 0141340134 A K S 0 4.15 2012 Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1)
author: Marissa Meyer
name: A K S
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #2)]]> 83346 228 Lewis Carroll 0688120490 A K S 5 Bizzare. Beautiful. 4.05 1871 Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #2)
author: Lewis Carroll
name: A K S
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1871
rating: 5
read at: 2016/07/13
date added: 2018/12/02
shelves:
review:
Bizzare. Beautiful.
]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two (Harry Potter, #8)]]> 29056083
It was always difficult being Harry Potter, and it isn't much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and a father of three school-age children.

While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son, Albus, must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.

Based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany, a new play by Jack Thorne, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" is the complete and official playscript of the original, award-winning West End production. This updated edition includes the final dialogue and stage directions, a conversation piece between director John Tiffany and playwright Jack Thorne, the Potter family tree, and a timeline of events in the wizarding world leading up to "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child."]]> 343 J.K. Rowling 0540027340 A K S 5 lives-in-my-room-x1f48c 3.42 2016 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two (Harry Potter, #8)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: A K S
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2018/10/20
date added: 2018/10/20
shelves: lives-in-my-room-x1f48c
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]]> Elizabeth Is Missing 24179216
'Elizabeth is missing' reads the note in Maud's pocket in her own handwriting, and the one on the wall.

Maud's been getting forgetful. She keeps buying peach slices when she has a cupboard full, forgets to drink the cups of tea she's made and writes notes to remind herself of things. But Maud is determined to discover what has happened to her friend, Elizabeth, and what it has to do with the unsolved disappearance of her sister Sukey, years back, just after the war.

A fast-paced mystery, an unforgettable voice: you will laugh and cry but you'll never forget Maud.]]> 275 Emma Healey 0241968186 A K S 5 lives-in-my-room-x1f48c 3.70 2014 Elizabeth Is Missing
author: Emma Healey
name: A K S
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2018/10/19
date added: 2018/10/19
shelves: lives-in-my-room-x1f48c
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]]>