Quinn's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 04 Jan 2024 11:19:36 -0800 60 Quinn's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Shantaram 33600
So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay. Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear.

Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay's hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.

As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power.

Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas—this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart. Based on the life of the author, it is by any measure the debut of an extraordinary voice in literature.]]> 936 Gregory David Roberts 192076920X Quinn 0 to-read 4.27 2003 Shantaram
author: Gregory David Roberts
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Impossible People: A Completely Average Recovery Story]]> 62315670 In her keenly observed graphic memoir, Impossible People,Ìýcelebrated cartoonist Julia Wertz chronicles her haphazard attempts at sobriety and the relentlessly challenging, surprisingly funny, and occasionally absurd cycle of addiction and recovery.

Opening atÌýthe culmination of a disastrous trip to Puerto Rico, Impossible PeopleÌýfinds Wertz standing stupefied in the middle of the jungle beside a rental Jeep she'sÌýjust crashed. From this moment, the story flashes back to the beginning of her five-year journey towards sobriety that includes group therapy sessions, relapses, an ill-fated relationship, terrible dates, and an unceremoniousÌýeviction from her New York City apartment.ÌýFar from the typical addiction narrative that follows an upward trajectory from rock bottom to rehab to recovery, Impossible People portrays the lesser told but more common story: that the road to recover is not always linear. With unflinching honesty, Wertz details the arduous, frustrating, and hilarious story of trying and failing and trying again.]]> 320 Julia Wertz 0762468254 Quinn 5 4.32 2023 Impossible People: A Completely Average Recovery Story
author: Julia Wertz
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/17
date added: 2023/05/17
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Julia Wertz really comes into her own in this new memoir. While she has been releasing autobiographical comics for over a decade, this is by far her most bracing and brutally honest work, as she traces her struggles with addiction and the long and bumpy road to recovery without ever letting go of her trademark snark and disarmingly crude sense of humor. There’s a patience and palpable affection to her portrayal of her bohemian life as a New York comic artist, particularly her striking renderings of neighborhood buildings, which lend a sense of place and time to the book’s events that complement the simple universality of her characters and their many conversations and dramas. A good number of comics artists came to prominence in the first decade of the 2000s with their irreverent takes on young adult life, and Wertz was no exception, but her work has matured immensely while still managing to retain a sense of playful vulgarity that’s an absolute joy to read.
]]> X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga 18925493 200 Chris Claremont Quinn 0 4.31 1980 X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga
author: Chris Claremont
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at: 2018/09/25
date added: 2018/09/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Star Wars: Darth Vader, Vol. 1: Vader]]> 26888198
The original Dark Lord of the Sith stars in his first ongoing series! Ever since Darth Vader's first on-screen appearance, he has become one of pop-culture's most popular villains. Now, follow Vader straight from the ending of A NEW HOPE (and the pages of the new STAR WARS comic book) into his own solo adventures � showing the Empire's war with the Rebel Alliance from the other side! But when a Dark Lord needs help, who can he turn to? As Vader pursues a very personal vengeance against the Rebels and investigates the Emperor's secret machinations, he clashes with weapons scavenger Aphra and deadly Battle Droids, and returns to Geonosis to build an army. But some very powerful people don't want him to learn the truths he seeks! Guest-starring Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett and more!]]> 160 Kieron Gillen 1302482602 Quinn 0 currently-reading 4.40 2015 Star Wars: Darth Vader, Vol. 1: Vader
author: Kieron Gillen
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/07/20
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Fellowship (1001 Knights #2) 37643710 262 Annie Stoll Quinn 0 to-read 4.00 Fellowship (1001 Knights #2)
author: Annie Stoll
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/04/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> Lolita 18133 Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov's most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Most of all, it is a meditation on love—love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.]]> 317 Vladimir Nabokov Quinn 0 to-read 3.97 1955 Lolita
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1955
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/03/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[You Died: The Dark Souls Companion]]> 29974072 317 Keza MacDonald 1909430234 Quinn 4 4.10 2016 You Died: The Dark Souls Companion
author: Keza MacDonald
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2016/05/14
date added: 2016/05/14
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]]> The Tale of Tallest Rabbit 28516276 A word book for young readers, The Tale of Tallest Rabbit is a family friendly collection of stories tied together by an overarching narrative of bravery and friendship.]]> 140 Rodrigo D. López Quinn 5 4.56 The Tale of Tallest Rabbit
author: Rodrigo D. López
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.56
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2016/03/27
date added: 2016/03/27
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]]> <![CDATA[The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories]]> 129798 This collection reprints all the supernatural stories from The King in Yellow , including the grisly "Yellow Sign," the disquieting "Repairer of Reputations," the tender "Demoiselle d'Ys," and others. Robert W. Chambers' finest stories from other sources have also been added, such as the thrilling "Maker of Moons" and "The Messenger." In addition, an unusual pleasure awaits those who know Chambers only by his horror three of his finest early biological science-fiction fantasies from In Search of the Unknown appear here as well.]]> 320 Robert W. Chambers 0486437507 Quinn 0 3.69 1970 The King in Yellow and Other Horror Stories
author: Robert W. Chambers
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1970
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/11/05
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]]> <![CDATA[A Natural History of Dragons (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #1)]]> 12974372 You, dear reader, continue at your own risk. It is not for the faint of heart—no more so than the study of dragons itself. But such study offers rewards beyond compare: to stand in a dragon's presence, even for the briefest of moments—even at the risk of one's life—is a delight that, once experienced, can never be forgotten. . . .

All the world, from Scirland to the farthest reaches of Eriga, know Isabella, Lady Trent, to be the world's preeminent dragon naturalist. She is the remarkable woman who brought the study of dragons out of the misty shadows of myth and misunderstanding into the clear light of modern science. But before she became the illustrious figure we know today, there was a bookish young woman whose passion for learning, natural history, and, yes, dragons defied the stifling conventions of her day.

Here at last, in her own words, is the true story of a pioneering spirit who risked her reputation, her prospects, and her fragile flesh and bone to satisfy her scientific curiosity; of how she sought true love and happiness despite her lamentable eccentricities; and of her thrilling expedition to the perilous mountains of Vystrana, where she made the first of many historic discoveries that would change the world forever.]]> 334 Marie Brennan 0765331969 Quinn 0 to-read 3.83 2013 A Natural History of Dragons (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #1)
author: Marie Brennan
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/10/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> Mogworld 7923163
On his side, he's got a few shambling corpses, an inept thief, and a powerful death wish. But he's up against tough odds: angry mobs of adventurers, a body falling apart at the seams - and a team of programmers racing a deadline to hammer out the last few bugs in their AI.]]> 413 Yahtzee Croshaw 1595825290 Quinn 2
Right now Yahtzee reads like someone doing a pretty good job of imitating Douglas Adams. I'm confident he can grow into a writer with his own voice to rival Adams' if he can turn his keen criticism skills on himself.]]> 3.88 2010 Mogworld
author: Yahtzee Croshaw
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2010/11/16
date added: 2015/09/23
shelves:
review:
Yahtzee is one of my favorite game critics, not just because his Zero Punctuation series is hilarious but because he's generally spot on with his criticisms, especially where storytelling is concerned, because he understands when it works and when it doesn't. Unfortunately, not all of his own advice makes it into his first published novel, and the results are a bit disappointing. This is by no means a bad book - it's frequently funny and full of clever and original ideas - but it doesn't come close to matching the humor density of one of his short video reviews, and when the humor's not there, the rest of the book is pretty thin. Just about all of the characters except for Jim the protagonist are one-or-two-note caricatures, and seem to exist largely to give Jim someone at which to be annoyed. The plot is choppy and episodic, whisking Jim from encounter to encounter (usually via the device of making him temporarily dead or at least unconscious, which gets repetitive) without a clear rhythm or sense of progression. This makes the climax feel a bit abrupt. The denouement is clever enough to make up for that, but on the whole I expected this book to be less of an effort to get through.

Right now Yahtzee reads like someone doing a pretty good job of imitating Douglas Adams. I'm confident he can grow into a writer with his own voice to rival Adams' if he can turn his keen criticism skills on himself.
]]> <![CDATA[Shadowshaper (Shadowshaper Cypher, #1)]]> 22295304
Sierra soon discovers a supernatural order called the Shadowshapers, who connect with spirits via paintings, music, and stories. Her grandfather once shared the order's secrets with an anthropologist, Dr. Jonathan Wick, who turned the Caribbean magic to his own foul ends. Now Wick wants to become the ultimate Shadowshaper by killing all the others, one by one. With the help of her friends and the hot graffiti artist Robbie, Sierra must dodge Wick's supernatural creations, harness her own Shadowshaping abilities, and save her family's past, present, and future.]]> 297 Daniel José Older 0545591619 Quinn 0 to-read 3.74 2015 Shadowshaper (Shadowshaper Cypher, #1)
author: Daniel José Older
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/06/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith]]> 1894
At the core of Krakauer’s book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder, Krakauer constructs a multi-layered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, polygamy, savage violence, and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 399 Jon Krakauer 1400032806 Quinn 4 3.97 2003 Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
author: Jon Krakauer
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/04/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Imaro (Imaro #1) 1535273
Imaro is heroic fantasy like it’s never been done before. Based on Africa, and African traditions and legends, Charles Saunders has created Nyumbani (which means “home� in Swahili), an amalgam of the real, the semi-real, and the unreal. Imaro is the name of the larger-than-life warrior, an outcast, who travels across Nyumbani, searching for a home.

Like his contemporaries, Karl Edward Wagner (Kane) and Michael Moorcock (Elric), Charles Saunders brings something new to the traditional heroic fantasy tale. A broad knowledge of, and passion for, the history and myths of Africa led to the creation of a heroic fantasy character the likes of which the world has never seen. Imaro is no Tarzan� no Conan� Imaro is a warrior out of African legend.

Saunders' novel fuses the narrative style of fantasy fiction with a pre-colonial, alternate Africa. Inspired by and directly addresses the alienation of growing up an African American fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy, which to this day remains a very ethnically homogonous genre. It addresses this both structurally (via its unique setting) and thematically (via its alienated, tribeless hero-protagonist). The tribal tensions and histories presented in this fantasy novel reflect actual African tribal histories and tensions, and provide a unique perspective to current and recent conflicts in Africa, particularly the Rwandan genocide and the ongoing conflict in The Sudan.]]> 256 Charles R. Saunders 1597800368 Quinn 0 to-read 3.88 1981 Imaro (Imaro #1)
author: Charles R. Saunders
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/03/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Assassin's Curse (The Assassin's Curse, #1)]]> 13533650
And when the assassin, Naji, finally catches up with her, things get even worse. Ananna inadvertently triggers a nasty curse � with a life-altering result. Now Ananna and Naji are forced to become uneasy allies as they work together to break the curse and return their lives back to normal. Or at least as normal as the lives of a pirate and an assassin can be.]]> 298 Cassandra Rose Clarke 1908844019 Quinn 0 did-not-finish 3.67 2012 The Assassin's Curse (The Assassin's Curse, #1)
author: Cassandra Rose Clarke
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/03/11
shelves: did-not-finish
review:

]]> Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1) 60929
The Oankali survive by genetically merging with primitive civilizations—whether their new hosts like it or not. For the first time since the nuclear holocaust, Earth will be inhabited. Grass will grow, animals will run, and people will learn to survive the planet’s untamed wilderness. But their children will not be human. Not exactly.]]> 248 Octavia E. Butler 0446603775 Quinn 0 4.15 1987 Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1)
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/03/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)]]> 17333324
On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest.

Once, she was the Justice of Toren - a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy.

Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.]]> 386 Ann Leckie Quinn 0 to-read 3.98 2013 Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch, #1)
author: Ann Leckie
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/01/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Stars Change 18754952 162 Mary Anne Mohanraj 1613900856 Quinn 0 to-read 3.64 2013 The Stars Change
author: Mary Anne Mohanraj
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/12/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Zahrah the Windseeker 1257586
In this exciting debut novel by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, things aren't always what they seem -- monkeys tell fortunes, plants offer wisdom, and a teenage girl is the only one who stands a chance at saving her best friend's life.

-from the Hardcover edition]]> 308 Nnedi Okorafor Quinn 0 to-read 4.14 2005 Zahrah the Windseeker
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/12/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction]]> 15798335 In its 4.5 billion–year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times: shattered by asteroid impacts, entombed in ice, smothered by methane, and torn apart by unfathomably powerful megavolcanoes. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How?

As a species, Homo sapiens is at a crossroads. Study of our planet’s turbulent past suggests that we are overdue for a catastrophic disaster, whether caused by nature or by human interference.
It’s a frightening prospect, as each of the Earth’s past major disasters—from meteor strikes to bombardment by cosmic radiation—resulted in a mass extinction, where more than 75 percent of the planet’s species died out. But in Scatter, Adapt, and Remember, Annalee Newitz, science journalist and editor of the science Web site io9.com explains that although global disaster is all but inevitable, our chances of long-term species survival are better than ever. Life on Earth has come close to annihilation—humans have, more than once, narrowly avoided extinction just during the last million years—but every single time a few creatures survived, evolving to adapt to the harshest of conditions.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý This brilliantly speculative work of popular science focuses on humanity’s long history of dodging the bullet, as well as on new threats that we may face in years to come. Most important, it explores how scientific breakthroughs today will help us avoid disasters tomorrow. From simulating tsunamis to studying central Turkey’s ancient underground cities; from cultivating cyanobacteria for “living citiesâ€� to designing space elevators to make space colonies cost-effective; from using math to stop pandemics to studying the remarkable survival strategies of gray whales, scientists and researchers the world over are discovering the keys to long-term resilience and learning how humans can choose life over death.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý Newitz’s remarkable and fascinating journey through the science of mass extinctions is a powerful argument about human ingenuity and our ability to change. In a world populated by doomsday preppers and media commentators obsessively forecasting our demise, Scatter, Adapt, and Remember is a compelling voice of hope. It leads us away from apocalyptic thinking into a future where we live to build a better world—on this planet and perhaps on others. Readers of this book will be equipped scientifically, intellectually, and emotionally to face whatever the future holds.]]> 305 Annalee Newitz 0385535910 Quinn 0 3.51 2013 Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction
author: Annalee Newitz
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/09/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Cloud Roads (Books of the Raksura, #1)]]> 9461562 ]]> 278 Martha Wells 1597802166 Quinn 0 3.94 2011 The Cloud Roads (Books of the Raksura, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/09/20
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century]]> 568236 Barbara Tuchman anatomizes the century, revealing both the great rhythms of history and the grain and texture of domestic life as it was lived.]]> 714 Barbara W. Tuchman 0345349571 Quinn 0 to-read, owned 4.04 1978 A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
author: Barbara W. Tuchman
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1978
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/09/20
shelves: to-read, owned
review:

]]> <![CDATA[On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft]]> 10569 (back cover)]]> 320 Stephen King 0743455967 Quinn 0 to-read, owned 4.33 2000 On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
author: Stephen King
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/09/20
shelves: to-read, owned
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Watership Down (Watership Down, #1)]]> 76620 Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN13 9780380395866 here.

Set in England's Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of friends, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society.]]> 478 Richard Adams 038039586X Quinn 0 owned, currently-reading 4.08 1972 Watership Down (Watership Down, #1)
author: Richard Adams
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1972
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/09/20
shelves: owned, currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)]]> 1 652 J.K. Rowling Quinn 5 4.57 2005 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/04/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1)]]> 127455 Ocean's Eleven, and entirely enthralling...

An orphan's life is harsh � and often short � in the island city of Camorr, built on the ruins of a mysterious alien race. But born with a quick wit and a gift for thieving, Locke Lamora has dodged both death and slavery, only to fall into the hands of an eyeless priest known as Chains � a man who is neither blind nor a priest.

A con artist of extraordinary talent, Chains passes his skills on to his carefully selected "family" of orphans � a group known as the Gentlemen Bastards. Under his tutelage, Locke grows to lead the Bastards, delightedly pulling off one outrageous confidence game after another. Soon he is infamous as the Thorn of Camorr, and no wealthy noble is safe from his sting.

Passing themselves off as petty thieves, the brilliant Locke and his tightly knit band of light-fingered brothers have fooled even the criminal underworld's most feared ruler, Capa Barsavi. But there is someone in the shadows more powerful � and more ambitious � than Locke has yet imagined.

Known as the Gray King, he is slowly killing Capa Barsavi's most trusted men � and using Locke as a pawn in his plot to take control of Camorr's underworld. With a bloody coup under way threatening to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the Gray King at his own brutal game � or die trying...

]]> 499 Scott Lynch 0553804677 Quinn 3 4.28 2006 The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1)
author: Scott Lynch
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/01/13
shelves:
review:

]]> A Year of Biblical Womanhood 13544022
Pursuing a different virtue each month, Evans learns the hard way that her quest for biblical womanhood requires more than a "gentle and quiet spirit" (1 Peter 3:4). It means growing out her hair, making her own clothes, covering her head, obeying her husband, rising before dawn, abstaining from gossip, remaining silent in church, and even camping out in the front yard during her period.

See what happens when a thoroughly modern woman starts referring to her husband as "master" and "praises him at the city gate" with a homemade sign. Learn the insights she receives from an ongoing correspondence with an Orthodox Jewish woman, and find out what she discovers from her exchanges with a polygamist wife. Join her as she wrestles with difficult passages of scripture that portray misogyny and violence against women.

With just the right mixture of humor and insight, compassion and incredulity, A Year of Biblical Womanhood is an exercise in scriptural exploration and spiritual contemplation. What does God truly expect of women, and is there really a prescription for biblical womanhood? Come along with Evans as she looks for answers in the rich heritage of biblical heroines, models of grace, and all-around women of valor.]]> 308 Rachel Held Evans Quinn 4 3.99 2012 A Year of Biblical Womanhood
author: Rachel Held Evans
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2013/09/21
date added: 2013/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, #3)]]> 34084 422 Stephen King 0670032565 Quinn 4 4.24 1991 The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, #3)
author: Stephen King
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at: 2013/08/29
date added: 2013/08/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[In the Night Garden (The Orphan's Tales, #1)]]> 202769
Every once in a great while a book comes along that reminds us of the magic spell that stories can cast over us—to dazzle, entertain, and enlighten. Welcome to the Arabian Nights for our time–a lush and fantastical epic guaranteed to spirit you away from the very first page...

Secreted away in a garden, a lonely girl spins stories to warm a curious peculiar feats and unspeakable fates that loop through each other and back again to meet in the tapestry of her voice. Inked on her eyelids, each twisting, tattooed tale is a piece in the puzzle of the girl’s own hidden history. And what tales she tells! Tales of shape-shifting witches and wild horsewomen, heron kings and beast princesses, snake gods, dog monks, and living stars—each story more strange and fantastic than the one that came before.

From ill-tempered 'mermaid' to fastidious Beast, nothing is ever quite what it seems in these ever-shifting tales—even, and especially, their teller. Adorned with illustrations by the legendary Michael Kaluta, Valente’s enchanting lyrical fantasy offers a breathtaking reinvention of the untold myths and dark fairy tales that shape our dreams. And just when you think you’ve come to the end, you realize the adventure has only begun�.]]> 483 Catherynne M. Valente 0553384031 Quinn 0 did-not-finish = 4.02 2006 In the Night Garden (The Orphan's Tales, #1)
author: Catherynne M. Valente
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/29
shelves: did-not-finish
review:
=
]]> Grandville (Grandville #1) 6660561 98 Bryan Talbot 1595823972 Quinn 0 to-read 3.81 2005 Grandville (Grandville #1)
author: Bryan Talbot
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia]]> 13651 387 Ursula K. Le Guin Quinn 0 to-read 4.24 1974 The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/10/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Kingdom of Gods (Inheritance, #3)]]> 7923006 613 N.K. Jemisin 184149819X Quinn 0 3.96 2011 The Kingdom of Gods (Inheritance, #3)
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2012/10/03
date added: 2012/10/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Film After Film: (Or, What Became of 21st Century Cinema?)]]> 13139803 304 J. Hoberman 1844677516 Quinn 0 to-read 3.54 2012 Film After Film: (Or, What Became of 21st Century Cinema?)
author: J. Hoberman
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/09/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> Gone Girl 8442457 What have we done to each other?

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

So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?]]> 399 Gillian Flynn Quinn 4 3.93 2012 Gone Girl
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/09/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2)]]> 5094
Here he links forces with the defiant young Eddie Dean and the beautiful, brilliant, and brave Odetta Holmes, in a savage struggle against underworld evil and otherworldly enemies.

Once again, Stephen King has masterfully interwoven dark, evocative fantasy and icy realism.]]> 463 Stephen King 0451210859 Quinn 4 4.23 1987 The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2)
author: Stephen King
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/09/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)]]> 43615
He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland pursues The Man in Black, encounters an alluring woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the Kid from Earth called Jake. Both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, The Gunslinger leaves readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter.]]> 231 Stephen King 1501143514 Quinn 3 3.95 1982 The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, #1)
author: Stephen King
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1982
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/09/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Princess of Mars (Barsoom, #1)]]> 40395 186 Edgar Rice Burroughs 0143104888 Quinn 3 3.81 1912 A Princess of Mars (Barsoom, #1)
author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1912
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/09/10
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3)]]> 62291 An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Here is the third volume in George R.R. Martin's magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings. Together, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction.

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, victim of the sorceress who holds him in her thrall. Young Robb still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world. And as opposing forces manoeuver for the final showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost limits of civilization, accompanied by a horde of mythical Others—a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords...]]> 1177 George R.R. Martin 055357342X Quinn 4 4.54 2000 A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2000
rating: 4
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date added: 2012/09/10
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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 Quinn 5 4.24 1996 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments
author: David Foster Wallace
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/09/10
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]]> <![CDATA[A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail]]> 9791 A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).]]> 397 Bill Bryson 0307279464 Quinn 4 4.07 1998 A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
author: Bill Bryson
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/09/10
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]]> Finder, Vol. 04: Talisman 422955
If your mother never gave away, threw out, or sold a book that had changed your life;

If you're not still half looking for that book every time you pull one off the shelf...

But of course you are.

"Talisman" is about hunger and magic.]]> 104 Carla Speed McNeil 0967369134 Quinn 0 to-read 4.25 2002 Finder, Vol. 04: Talisman
author: Carla Speed McNeil
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/05/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> A Northern Light 64481
Set in 1906 against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, Jennifer Donnelly's astonishing debut novel effortlessly weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving, and real, and wholly original.

Includes a reader's guide and an interview with the author.]]> 396 Jennifer Donnelly 0152053107 Quinn 0 to-read 3.83 2003 A Northern Light
author: Jennifer Donnelly
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)]]> 10572
It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.

Here is the second volume in George R.R. Martin magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Game of Thrones and A Storm of Swords. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever experienced. Already hailed as a classic, George R.R. Martin stunning series is destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction.]]> 1009 George R.R. Martin 0553381695 Quinn 3 4.42 1998 A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at: 2011/12/16
date added: 2011/12/16
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]]> One Con Glory 10120747 112 Sarah Kuhn 0578060752 Quinn 0 to-read 3.78 2009 One Con Glory
author: Sarah Kuhn
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/10/31
shelves: to-read
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]]> Shadows Over Baker Street 125755 Sherlock Holmes enters the nightmare world of H.P. Lovecraft

New Tales of Terror!

What would happen if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's peerless detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his allies were to find themselves faced with Lovecraftian mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but beyond sanity itself. In this collection of original tales, twenty of today's cutting-edge writers provide answers to that burning question.

Contributors include Neil Gaiman, Brian Stableford, Poppy Z. Bright, Barbara Hambly, Steve Perry, and Caitlin R. Kierman. These and other masters of horror, mystery, fantasy and science fiction spin dark tales within a terrifyingly surreal universe.

Includes the Hugo Award-winning story A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman.

Cover design: David Stevenson
Cover Illustration: John Jude Palencar]]> 438 Michael Reaves 0345452739 Quinn 0 to-read 4.12 2003 Shadows Over Baker Street
author: Michael Reaves
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/10/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Mist 813214
The mist is alive, seething with unearthly sounds and movements. What unleashed this terror? Was it the Arrowhead Project—the top secret government operation that everyone has noticed but no one quite understands?

And what happens when the provisions have run out and you're forced to make your escape, edging blindly through the dim light?]]> 176 Stephen King Quinn 4 3.95 1980 The Mist
author: Stephen King
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1980
rating: 4
read at: 2011/10/17
date added: 2011/10/17
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]]> The History of Hell 676701 288 Alice K. Turner 0156001373 Quinn 0 to-read 3.88 1993 The History of Hell
author: Alice K. Turner
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/10/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)]]> 7260188 My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans—except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay—no matter what the personal cost.]]> 390 Suzanne Collins 0439023513 Quinn 3 4.10 2010 Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/10/12
date added: 2011/10/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]> 391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 Quinn 3 4.34 2009 Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2011/09/21
date added: 2011/09/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)]]> 2767052
Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins 0439023483 Quinn 3 4.34 2008 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2011/08/13
date added: 2011/09/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Magician King (The Magicians #2)]]> 10819920
Quentin Coldwater should be happy. He escaped a miserable Brooklyn childhood, matriculated at a secret college for magic, and graduated to discover that Fillory—a fictional utopia—was actually real. But even as a Fillorian king, Quentin finds little peace. His old restlessness returns, and he longs for the thrills a heroic quest can bring.
Accompanied by his oldest friend, Julia, Quentin sets off—only to somehow wind up back in the real world and not in Fillory, as they'd hoped. As the pair struggle to find their way back to their lost kingdom, Quentin is forced to rely on Julia's illicitly-learned sorcery as they face a sinister threat in a world very far from the beloved fantasy novels of their youth.]]> 400 Lev Grossman 0670022314 Quinn 5 3.88 2011 The Magician King (The Magicians #2)
author: Lev Grossman
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2011/08/25
date added: 2011/08/25
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]]> Bossypants 9418327
She has seen both these dreams come true.

At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon—from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy.]]> 283 Tina Fey Quinn 4 3.97 2011 Bossypants
author: Tina Fey
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2011/08/21
date added: 2011/08/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Get Capone: The Secret Plot That Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster]]> 7123692
From the moment he arrived in Chicago in 1920, Capone found himself in a world of limitless opportunity. He was an impetuous, affable young man of average intelligence, ill prepared for fame and fortune, whose most notable characteristic was his scarred left cheek. Yet within a few years, Capone controlled an illegal bootlegging business with annual revenue rivaling that of some of the nation’s largest corporations. Along the way he corrupted the Chicago police force and local courts while becoming one of the world’s first international celebrities.

A furious President Herbert Hoover insisted that Capone be brought to justice because the criminal was making a mockery of federal law. Legend credits Eliot Ness and his “Untouchables� with apprehending Capone. But it was the U.S. attorney in Chicago and little-known agents working on direct orders from the White House who compromised their ethics—and risked their lives—to get their man.

The most infamous crime attributed to Capone was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, a crime that Capone insisted he didn’t commit. Using newly discovered FBI records, Eig offers a surprising explanation for the murders.

Get Capone explores every aspect of the man called “Scarface,� paying particular attention to the myths that have for so long surrounded and obscured him. Capone emerges as a worldly, emotionally complex man, doomed as much by his ego as by his vicious criminality. This is the real Al Capone.]]> 436 Jonathan Eig 141658059X Quinn 3 3.79 2010 Get Capone: The Secret Plot That Captured America's Most Wanted Gangster
author: Jonathan Eig
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2011/08/08
date added: 2011/08/08
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]]> Among Others 8706185 Among Others is at once the compelling story of a young woman struggling to escape a troubled childhood, a brilliant diary of first encounters with the great novels of modern fantasy and science fiction, and a spellbinding tale of escape from ancient enchantment.

Raised by a half-mad mother who dabbled in magic, Morwenna Phelps found refuge in two worlds. As a child growing up in Wales, she and her twin sister played among the spirits who made their homes in industrial ruins, but her mind found freedom and promise in the science fiction novels that were her closest companions. When her mother tries to bend the spirits to dark ends with deadly results, Mori is sent away and must try to come to terms with what has happened without falling prey to the darkness.]]> 304 Jo Walton 076532153X Quinn 0 to-read 3.69 2011 Among Others
author: Jo Walton
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2011/08/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Neverending Story 27712
The story begins with a lonely boy named Bastian and the strange book that draws him into the beautiful but doomed world of Fantastica. Only a human can save this enchanted place by giving its ruler, the Childlike Empress, a new name. But the journey to her tower leads through lands of dragons, giants, monsters, and magic, and once Bastian begins his quest, he may never return. As he is drawn deeper into Fantastica, he must find the courage to face unspeakable foes and the mysteries of his own heart.

Readers, too, can travel to the wondrous, unforgettable world of Fantastica if they will just turn the page...]]> 396 Michael Ende 0525457585 Quinn 0 to-read 4.16 1979 The Neverending Story
author: Michael Ende
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1979
rating: 0
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date added: 2011/08/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter]]> 7059033 Ìý
Until recently, Bissell was somewhat reluctant to admit to his passion for games. In this, he is not alone. Millions of adults spend hours every week playing video games, and the industry itself now reliably outearns Hollywood. But the wider culture seems to regard video games as, at best, well designed if mindless entertainment.
Ìý
Extra Lives is an impassioned defense of this assailed and misunderstood art form. Bissell argues that we are in a golden age of gaming—but he also believes games could be even better. He offers a fascinating and often hilarious critique of the ways video games dazzle and, just as often, frustrate. Along the way, we get firsthand portraits of some of the best minds (Jonathan Blow, Clint Hocking, Cliff Bleszinski, Peter Molyneux) at work in video game design today, as well as a shattering and deeply moving final chapter that describes, in searing detail, Bissell’s descent into the world of Grand Theft Auto IV , a game whose themes mirror his own increasingly self-destructive compulsions.
Ìý
Blending memoir, criticism, and first-rate reportage, Extra Lives is like no other book on the subject ever published. Whether you love video games, loathe video games, or are merely curious about why they are becoming the dominant popular art form of our time, Extra Lives is required reading.]]> 204 Tom Bissell 0307378705 Quinn 3 3.49 2010 Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
author: Tom Bissell
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2010
rating: 3
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date added: 2011/07/19
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]]> Skeleton Crew 13440 Librarian's Note: Alternate-cover edition for ISBN 0751504386

In a bumper collection of truly chilling tales, we meet Gramma - who only wanted to hug little George, even after she was dead; The Raft - a primeval sea creature with an insatiable appetite; The Monkey - an innocent-looking toy with sinister powers; the unspeakable horror of The Mist. And there is a gruesome host of other stories, each with the distinctive blend of unimaginable terror and realism that typifies King's writing.]]> 612 Stephen King 0751504386 Quinn 0 3.98 1985 Skeleton Crew
author: Stephen King
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/07/19
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Empire State: A Love Story (or Not)]]> 9501285
Jimmy's cross-country bus trip to Manhattan is as hapless and funny as Jimmy himself. When he arrives in the city he's thought of as "a festering hellhole," he's surprised by how exciting he finds New York, and how heartbreaking—he discovers Sara has a boyfriend!

Jason Shiga's bold visual storytelling, sly pokes at popular culture, and subtle text work together seamlessly in Empire State, creating a quirky graphic novel comedy about the vagaries of love and friendship.


Praise for Empire

"He [Shiga] displays a wicked sense of comic timing."
- Publishers Weekly

" Empire A Love Story (Or Not) is funny, sweet, geeky and affecting, and definitely worth a read."
-Wired.com

"Shiga's illustrations . . . are unique and endearing, and his images of NYC are instantly recognizable."
- am New York

"If Woody Allen grew up in Oakland rather than Manhattan, he'd most likely see the world, and especially New York City, as Jason Shiga does in Empire State ." -Big Think.com]]> 144 Jason Shiga 0810997479 Quinn 4 3.20 2011 Empire State: A Love Story (or Not)
author: Jason Shiga
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.20
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/07/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)]]> 6101718
Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.

At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, The Magicians boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price.]]> 402 Lev Grossman 0670020559 Quinn 4 3.53 2009 The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)
author: Lev Grossman
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/07/19
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]]> Kindred 60931 The visionary author’s masterpiece pulls us—along with her Black female hero—through time to face the horrors of slavery and explore the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now.

Dana, a modern Black woman, is celebrating her 26th birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.]]> 288 Octavia E. Butler 0807083690 Quinn 4 4.30 1979 Kindred
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/07/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wizard Hunters (The Fall of Ile-Rien, #1)]]> 367333
And now the last hope of a magical realm under siege rests within a child's plaything.]]> 464 Martha Wells 038080798X Quinn 0 to-read 3.90 2003 The Wizard Hunters (The Fall of Ile-Rien, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/06/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> Huntress 9415946
To solve the crisis, the oracle stones are cast, and Kaede and Taisin, two seventeen-year-old girls, are picked to go on a dangerous and unheard-of journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen. Taisin is a sage, thrumming with magic, and Kaede is of the earth, without a speck of the otherworldly. And yet the two girls' destinies are drawn together during the mission. As members of their party succumb to unearthly attacks and fairy tricks, the two come to rely on each other and even begin to fall in love. But the Kingdom needs only one huntress to save it, and what it takes could tear Kaede and Taisin apart forever.

The exciting adventure prequel to Malinda Lo's highly acclaimed novel Ash is overflowing with lush Chinese influences and details inspired by the I Ching, and is filled with action and romance.]]> 371 Malinda Lo 031604007X Quinn 4 3.79 2011 Huntress
author: Malinda Lo
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/06/15
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1: Apocalypse Suite]]> 2795053
These seven children form the Umbrella Academy, a dysfunctional family of superheroes with bizarre powers. Their first adventure at the age of ten pits them against an erratic and deadly Eiffel Tower, piloted by the fearsome zombie-robot Gustave Eiffel. Nearly a decade later, the team disbands, but when Hargreeves unexpectedly dies, these disgruntled siblings reunite just in time to save the world once again.

Collecting: The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite 1-6, as well as out-of-print short stories and an expanded sketchbook section featuring work by Gabriel Bá, James Jean, and Gerard Way]]> 184 Gerard Way Quinn 1
The story follows seven superpowered youths who have grown up and grown apart, but are brought back together by the imminent end of the world. Their meager character development leans toward the cliche, when it's there at all: there's the stoic no-nonsense leader, the brooding antihero, the girl who gets to be a vague love interest but nothing else. Their motivations are unclear and often confusing. It's never even explained what exactly their powers are, so there's precious little to hold on to among our supposed protagonists. Meanwhile, the story barrels along at top speed without ever pausing to give a sense of atmosphere or meaning to the proceedings, and then it just ends anticlimactically without resolving half of the plot threads.

At least the art has a distinct style and charm to it. However, a few visuals in the book seem to be references to Watchmen, and believe me, this volume does not benefit from that comparison. Perhaps the series gains some stronger footing later on, but I'm not interested in finding out.]]> 3.87 2007 The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1: Apocalypse Suite
author: Gerard Way
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2007
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2011/05/06
shelves:
review:
I picked up this volume on the promise of a showdown between the superpowered students of the titular Academy and a robot zombie Gustave Eiffel as the latter rampages around Paris inside his famous tower; when this scene ended abruptly after about two pages, I got a sinking feeling that I was in for a lot of wasted potential. And that's ultimately what this little story arc is. There's an undercurrent of clever ideas throughout, but those ideas never amount to much more than flimsy setpieces that end so quickly they almost seem embarrassed of themselves.

The story follows seven superpowered youths who have grown up and grown apart, but are brought back together by the imminent end of the world. Their meager character development leans toward the cliche, when it's there at all: there's the stoic no-nonsense leader, the brooding antihero, the girl who gets to be a vague love interest but nothing else. Their motivations are unclear and often confusing. It's never even explained what exactly their powers are, so there's precious little to hold on to among our supposed protagonists. Meanwhile, the story barrels along at top speed without ever pausing to give a sense of atmosphere or meaning to the proceedings, and then it just ends anticlimactically without resolving half of the plot threads.

At least the art has a distinct style and charm to it. However, a few visuals in the book seem to be references to Watchmen, and believe me, this volume does not benefit from that comparison. Perhaps the series gains some stronger footing later on, but I'm not interested in finding out.
]]> Dark Places 5886881
Since then, she has been drifting. But when she is contacted by a group who are convinced of Ben's innocence, Libby starts to ask questions she never dared to before. Was the voice she heard her brother's? Ben was a misfit in their small town, but was he capable of murder? Are there secrets to uncover at the family farm or is Libby deluding herself because she wants her brother back?

She begins to realise that everyone in her family had something to hide that day... especially Ben. Now, twenty-four years later, the truth is going to be even harder to find.

Who did massacre the Day family?]]> 424 Gillian Flynn 0307341569 Quinn 5 3.95 2009 Dark Places
author: Gillian Flynn
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2011/04/19
date added: 2011/04/19
shelves:
review:
Dark, disturbing, gruesome, ruthless, and a hell of a page-turner. This book is like Rob Zombie's We Were the Mulvaneys: a story of a family's horrific dissolution, as revisited by its only surviving daughter years later. There are so many ugly things going on in the book's two parallel storylines - poverty, alcoholism, pedophilia, Satan-worshipping, murder - that it's amazing it all fits together so well and never feels too extreme or unbelievable. Flynn has a very sure, steady hand as an author; the pacing is solid, the characters are always believable, and she reveals just enough of the book's core mystery at a time to keep you repeating, "just one more chapter and then I'll go to bed." She's good at planting small character details that become significant later, and establishes setting and mood with economy, so the story is always moving forward. If you don't mind her unflinching look into some of the truly awful aspects of the human soul, you can look forward to a quick and exciting read. Highly recommended.
]]> Leviathan (Leviathan, #1) 6050678
Deryn Sharp is a commoner, disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.

With World War I brewing, Alek and Deryn's paths cross in the most unexpected way…taking them on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure that will change both their lives forever.]]> 440 Scott Westerfeld 1416971734 Quinn 0 to-read 3.92 2009 Leviathan (Leviathan, #1)
author: Scott Westerfeld
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/04/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Anya's Ghost 9615347 Anya could really use a friend. But her new BFF isn't kidding about the "Forever" part.

Of all the things Anya expected to find at the bottom of an old well, a new friend was not one of them. Especially not a new friend who’s been dead for a century.

Falling down a well is bad enough, but Anya's normal life might actually be worse. She's embarrassed by her family, self-conscious about her body, and she's pretty much given up on fitting in at school. A new friend—even a ghost—is just what she needs.

Or so she thinks. Spooky, sardonic, and secretly sincere, Anya's Ghost is a wonderfully entertaining debut from author/artist Vera Brosgol.]]> 224 Vera Brosgol 1596437138 Quinn 0 to-read 3.91 2011 Anya's Ghost
author: Vera Brosgol
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/03/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Special Exits 8400446
Elderly parents Lars and Rachel, who have enjoyed a long and loving married life together, are rendered in fine, confident pen lines. Set in southern Los Angeles (which makes for a terrifying sequence as blind Rachel and ailing Lars are trapped in their home without power during the 1992 Rodney King riots), backgrounds and props are lovingly detailed: these objects serve as memory triggers for Lars and Rachel, even as they eventually overwhelm them and their home, which the couple is loathe to leave. Special Exits is laid out in an eight-panel grid, which creates a leisurely storytelling pace that not only helps to convey the slow, inexorable decline in Lars' and Rachel's health, but perfectly captures the timbre of the exchanges between a long-married couple: the affectionate bickering; their gallows humor; their querulousness as their bodies break down.

Though Lars and Rachel are the protagonists of Special Exits, Farmer makes her voice known through creative visual metaphors and in her indictment of the careless treatment of the elderly in nursing homes. Special Exits gracefully deals with the hard reality of caring for aging loved ones: those who are or who have been in similar situations might find comfort in it, and those who haven't will find much to admire in the bravery and good humor of Lars and Rachel. Joyce Farmer, best known for co-creating the Tits 'n Clits comics anthology in the 1970s, a feminist response to the rampant misogyny in underground comix, spent 11 years crafting Special Exits, a graphic memoir in the vein of Alison Bechdel's Fun Home or Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner, and Frank Stack's Our Cancer Year, about caring for her dying father and stepmother.]]> 200 Joyce Farmer 160699381X Quinn 0 to-read 4.03 2010 Special Exits
author: Joyce Farmer
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/02/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Cold Magic (Spiritwalker, #1) 7114825 528 Kate Elliott 1841498815 Quinn 2 3.72 2010 Cold Magic (Spiritwalker, #1)
author: Kate Elliott
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2011/02/21
date added: 2011/02/21
shelves:
review:
This one took some effort. It managed to pass my 50-page rule (I give every book 50 pages to hook me, and I'll take off one page per year after I turn 50) but quickly turned into a long slog with an ending that was only satisfying because it was over. This was frustrating, because - like a lot of fantasies I've read that missed the mark - this book's setting and characters had a lot of potential. The story is set in an alternate-history steampunkish Europe in which the Roman Empire didn't fall until 1000, some sort of ice age has turned everything north of Scotland into a vast sweep of deadly ice, there's a parallel spirit world full of magic, and a Spanish version of Napoleon threatens to change everything. Also, there are trolls, and the ones we meet are lawyers. But none of this inventive spirit carries over into the actual story. The book has a map of its alternate Europe in the beginning, which teased me with the prospect of a continent-spanning adventure, and the early mentions of a great airship seemed to back this up. Then the author blows up the airship (off-page, no less) and locks the characters down to a small range of southern England for the rest of the story. I know this is the only the first book in a trilogy, but the airship incident just feels like the first in a long series of missed opportunities. The plotting just feels off, especially in terms of pacing; characters and plot points are introduced haphazardly and, as often as not, turn out to be dead ends. The main conflict between the protagonist and her family is an interesting one, but since she's separate from her family for the vast majority of the book, it feels like one note being held for nearly the entire volume. Then there's Elliott's florid faux-Victorian prose, which ranges from awkward to dreadful. It doesn't flow, it doesn't feel historically accurate, and it's seriously distracting. Between this and a draggy, anticlimactic ending, I don't see any reason to pick up the rest of the trilogy, even if it does make good on a lot of this book's early promises.
]]> <![CDATA[Kushiel's Dart (Phèdre's Trilogy, #1)]]> 153008
Phèdre nó Delaunay is a young woman who was born with a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into indentured servitude as a child, her bond is purchased by Anafiel Delaunay, a nobleman with very a special mission... and the first one to recognize who and what she is: one pricked by Kushiel's Dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one.

Phèdre is trained equally in the courtly arts and the talents of the bedchamber, but, above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Almost as talented a spy as she is courtesan, Phèdre stumbles upon a plot that threatens the very foundations of her homeland. Treachery sets her on her path; love and honor goad her further. And in the doing, it will take her to the edge of despair... and beyond. Hateful friend, loving enemy, beloved assassin; they can all wear the same glittering mask in this world, and Phèdre will get but one chance to save all that she holds dear.

Set in a world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess, this is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel's Dart-a massive tale about the violent death of an old age, and the birth of a new.]]> 1040 Jacqueline Carey 0330493744 Quinn 0 to-read 4.01 2001 Kushiel's Dart (Phèdre's Trilogy, #1)
author: Jacqueline Carey
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/02/12
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Broken Kingdoms (Inheritance, #2)]]> 7904453
Oree's peculiar guest is at the heart of it, his presence putting her in mortal danger -- but is it him the killers want, or Oree? And is the earthly power of the Arameri king their ultimate goal, or have they set their sights on the Lord of Night himself?]]> 384 N.K. Jemisin 0316043966 Quinn 4 4.12 2010 The Broken Kingdoms (Inheritance, #2)
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2011/01/03
shelves:
review:
A solid follow-up to The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Jemisin's second book is another imaginative, challenging, character-driven take on epic fantasy. I was glad to see more of her invented world, particularly the ways in which the events of the first book are experienced over the decade following them by ordinary people. I thought the choice to make the protagonist blind was a novel one; although she can see magic at times, her lack of sight forces the writing to cleverly eschew the typically bombastic visuals of a fantasy setting in favor of the sounds, touches, and smells of the place. Some of the first book's issues are back as well: a lot of the book is made up of conversations, and these can be a bit too muted at times, when perhaps a ripping argument would have conveyed the same information in a more lively fashion; more significantly, the main character spends a lot of the book being batted about by greater forces, and doesn't get a lot of space to control the story herself. That said, she comes across as stronger and more resourceful than Yeine from THTK, so there's some improvement here. Small complaints aside, I enjoyed this book a lot and I'm really interested in finding out how the story gets resolved in the final volume.
]]> The Waste Land 34080 The Waste Land, first published in 1922, is often regarded as T.S. Eliot's masterpiece, as well as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry.

The work, divided in 5 sections, juxtaposes the legend of the Holy Grail and the Fisher King, with a snapshot of early twentieth-century British society. In contemporary times, it is often read published within The Waste Land and Other Poems and has come to be Eliot's most popular poem.

T.S. Elliot was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. Born in 1888 in St. Louis (MO, USA), he is considered one of the 20th century's major poets, and a central figure in English-language Modernist poetry."In ten years' time," wrote Edmund Wilson in Axel's Castle (1931), "Elliot has left upon English poetry a mark more unmistakable than that of any other poet writing in English." In 1948, Eliot was awarded the Nobel Price "for his work as a trail-blazing pioneer of modern poetry."]]> 288 T.S. Eliot 0393974995 Quinn 4 4.11 1922 The Waste Land
author: T.S. Eliot
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1922
rating: 4
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date added: 2010/11/30
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review:

]]> Mom's Cancer 359722 Mom's Cancer is a graphic novel about one family's struggle with metastatic lung cancer. Honest, unflinching, and sometimes humorous, it is a look at the practical and emotional effect that serious illness can have on patients and their families. In the end, it is a story of hope--uniquely told in words and illustrations.]]> 128 Brian Fies 0810958406 Quinn 4 3.91 2006 Mom's Cancer
author: Brian Fies
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/10/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)]]> 13496
Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, A Game of Thrones tells a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; a child is lost in the twilight between life and death; and a determined woman undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear. Amid plots and counter-plots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, allies and enemies, the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance, as each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.]]> 835 George R.R. Martin 0553588486 Quinn 5 4.44 1996 A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 2010/10/14
date added: 2010/10/14
shelves:
review:
It's rare that I would recommend a book with the caveat, "It takes about 400 pages to really get going," but once you hit page 400 this book really gets going. A lot of fantasy writers have bold, vast, sweeping visions for their epics, and a lot of them stumble long before they get there. Martin, however, is the rare writer who absolutely makes good on his ambitions. It all comes down to character. There are ten or more POV characters in this volume and they all have a distinctive voice; on top of this, there's never a chapter in which nothing happens to advance the story. We meet noble lords, vicious scheming villains, and a lot of young people thrust into life-or-death decisions and forced to mature far too early. Martin is not afraid to put his characters through the wringer, and the result is an often brutal take on fantasy that's very much aimed at adults - lots of moral ambiguity and complex motivations at play. If you loved the epic sweep of Lord of the Rings but crave a more character-driven, ethically challenging and realistic approach to your medieval European fantasy worlds, this is a great next step. I was skeptical that I could make it through three more thick tomes (as of this writing, with more to come) of Martin's epic after this book, but I'm afraid he has me hooked.
]]> <![CDATA[Superman vs. Hollywood: How Fiendish Producers, Devious Directors, and Warring Writers Grounded an American Icon]]> 1497542 352 Jake Rossen 1556527314 Quinn 0 to-read 3.97 2008 Superman vs. Hollywood: How Fiendish Producers, Devious Directors, and Warring Writers Grounded an American Icon
author: Jake Rossen
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/10/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Silver Phoenix (Kingdom of Xia, #1)]]> 5577995
But now, something is after her. Something terrifying—a force she cannot comprehend. And as pieces of the puzzle start to fit together, Ai Ling begins to understand that her journey to the Palace of Fragrant Dreams isn't only a quest to find her beloved father but a venture with stakes larger than she could have imagined.

Bravery, intelligence, the will to fight and fight hard . . . she will need all of these things. Just as she will need the new and mysterious power growing within her. She will also need help.

It is Chen Yong who finds her partly submerged and barely breathing at the edge of a deep lake. There is something of unspeakable evil trying to drag her under. On a quest of his own, Chen Yong offers that help . . . and perhaps more.]]> 340 Cindy Pon 0061730211 Quinn 0 to-read 3.57 2009 Silver Phoenix (Kingdom of Xia, #1)
author: Cindy Pon
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/09/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell 14201
Proceeding to London, he raises a beautiful woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French. Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician: the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange.

Young, handsome and daring, Strange is the very antithesis of Norrell. So begins a dangerous battle between these two great men which overwhelms that between England and France. And their own obsessions and secret dabblings with the dark arts are going to cause more trouble than they can imagine.]]> 1006 Susanna Clarke Quinn 4 3.84 2004 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/09/06
shelves:
review:
A wildly creative, clever, and intricately detailed magical alternate history of England. But a looooooong one. I almost put this book down during the slow-building early pages (roughly the first 400), and only stuck with it to prove that, for all my addictions to the Internet and video games, I still have an attention span. I'm glad I did, but I won't pretend I didn't struggle through some of the book; I felt like I deserved college credit for getting through the footnotes alone. Length and density aside, this is a delightful story, with characters who almost always feel alive and a particularly charismatic villain. Maybe it didn't need to be so long or so detailed, but the doting care of the author to her story's every tiny facet is admirable. It was nice for once to have my patience (mostly) rewarded.
]]> The Alchemy of Stone 2412562 The Alchemy of Stone represents a new and intriguing direction by the author of the critically-acclaimed The Secret History of Moscow: ]]> 304 Ekaterina Sedia 0809572842 Quinn 2 3.64 2008 The Alchemy of Stone
author: Ekaterina Sedia
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at: 2010/09/06
date added: 2010/09/06
shelves:
review:
I've heard this book called "concise" and "understated", but to me it felt anemic and underdeveloped. Which is too bad, because there are a lot of inventive ideas at play here: a big steampunk city forged from stone by living gargoyles; a war between alchemists and mechanics; an automaton protagonist who is emancipated more in name than in spirit. If Sedia would just take the time to describe the locations, characters, and major events with more than an adjective or two at a time, this story could really come to life. Instead, most of the book is given over to brief but repetitive conversations that seldom reveal much about the characters or the plot; they feel like filler and they make a thin volume seem much longer than it is. Even when some big action interrupts all the talkiness, like an assassination attempt or a riot, Sedia tends to rush through it before it can leave any real impression. The ending had more punch than I was expecting, but it would have been more moving and meaningful if the preceding story were more patient and fleshed out.
]]> <![CDATA[The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)]]> 186074
The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.]]> 662 Patrick Rothfuss 075640407X Quinn 0 to-read 4.52 2007 The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/08/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle 11275
In a Tokyo suburb a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife's missing cat. Soon he finds himself looking for his wife as well in a netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of Tokyo. As these searches intersect, Okada encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists: a psychic prostitute; a malevolent yet mediagenic politician; a cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old-girl; and an aging war veteran who has been permanently changed by the hideous things he witnessed during Japan's forgotten campaign in Manchuria.

Gripping, prophetic, suffused with comedy and menace, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is a tour de force equal in scope to the masterpieces of Mishima and Pynchon.]]> 607 Haruki Murakami 0965341984 Quinn 0 to-read, owned 4.16 1994 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/08/21
shelves: to-read, owned
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion]]> 79257 181 Neil Gaiman 0671664263 Quinn 2 4.32 1986 Don't Panic: The Official Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Companion
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1986
rating: 2
read at: 2010/08/02
date added: 2010/08/17
shelves:
review:
A short look at the story behind one of the best book series, and one of the funniest authors, I've ever read. And it's written by one of my other favorite authors and major inspirations. So it feels odd that I didn't enjoy this book all that much. It's mostly a series of anecdotes that functions pretty well as a chronology of Douglas Adams' career, but didn't give me much insight into his writing process (other than it occurring at least several weeks after his deadlines), or how exactly H2G2 got so popular so quickly. Neither is there much here about his personal life, so I came away with little more sense of Adams as a person than I already had. It's a quick read, amusing, good for reference, but hardly essential, even to huge Adams/Gaiman fans.
]]> <![CDATA[Tongues of Serpents (Temeraire, #6)]]> 7818666
Convicted of treason despite their heroic defense against Napoleon’s invasion of England, Temeraire and Laurence—stripped of rank and standing—have been transported to the prison colony at New South Wales in distant Australia, where, it is hoped, they cannot further corrupt the British Aerial Corps with their dangerous notions of liberty for dragons. Temeraire and Laurence carry with them three dragon eggs intended to help establish a covert in the colony and destined to be handed over to such second-rate, undesirable officers as have been willing to accept so remote an assignment—including one former acquaintance, Captain Rankin, whose cruelty once cost a dragon its life.

Nor is this the greatest difficulty that confronts the exiled dragon and Instead of leaving behind all the political entanglements and corruptions of the war, Laurence and Temeraire have instead sailed into a hornet’s nest of fresh complications. For the colony at New South Wales has been thrown into turmoil after the overthrow of the military governor, one William Bligh—better known as Captain Bligh, late of HMS Bounty. Bligh wastes no time in attempting to enlist Temeraire and Laurence to restore him to office, while the upstart masters of the colony are equally determined that the new arrivals should not upset a balance of power precariously tipped in their favor.

Eager to escape this political quagmire, Laurence and Temeraire take on a mission to find a way through the forbidding Blue Mountains and into the interior of Australia. But when one of the dragon eggs is stolen from Temeraire, the surveying expedition becomes a desperate race to recover it in time—a race that leads to a shocking discovery and a dangerous new obstacle in the global war between Britain and Napoleon.]]> 369 Naomi Novik Quinn 3 4.01 2010 Tongues of Serpents (Temeraire, #6)
author: Naomi Novik
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2010/08/14
date added: 2010/08/14
shelves:
review:
I'm a big fan of this series, but unfortunately this was not one of the stronger entries. Novik still impresses with her command of 1800s English and her clever re-imaginings of the Napoleonic Era; however, the pacing of this volume feels off, with too much time spent on an endless cross-Australia chase and not very much character development to go with it. The action sequences are as exciting as ever, and I particularly liked the creatures of Aboriginal myth that Novik incorporates, but these scenes are short and disappointingly rare. The ending is a bit odd as well, since it gives little indication of where the story will go next and has a strange sense of finality for a book with three planned follow-ups. Still, I'm going to see the series through to the end, and I'm confident that Novik can recover from this book's missteps.
]]> The Historian 10692
Late one night in 1972, as a 16-year-old girl, she discovers a mysterious book and a sheaf of letters in her father's library—a discovery that will have dreadful and far-reaching consequences, and will send her on a journey of mind-boggling danger. While seeking clues to the secrets of her father's past and her mother's puzzling disappearance, she follows a trail from London to Istanbul to Budapest and beyond, and learns that the letters in her possession provide a link to one of the world's darkest and most intoxicating figures. Generation after generation, the legend of Dracula has enticed and eluded both historians and opportunists alike. Now a young girl undertakes the same search that ended in the death and defilement of so many others—in an attempt to save her father from an unspeakable fate.
(Fall 2005 Selection)]]> 704 Elizabeth Kostova 0751537284 Quinn 1 3.78 2005 The Historian
author: Elizabeth Kostova
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2005
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2010/08/02
shelves:
review:
I wanted an exciting vampire novel and I got an agonizingly dull travelogue instead. Kostova teases us with an intriguing premise involving a missing mother, mysterious symbols, and a bloodthirsty Romanian named Vlad, and then proceeds to vigorously waste our time with endless scenes of characters searching old monasteries for tiny pieces of a very simple puzzle. The plot is clumsily split between two parallel storylines; one is much longer than the other, which makes the cross-cutting awkward, and their climaxes, which occur pages apart, are nearly identical. Cut out the action (all ten pages of it) and you might have a decent Lonely Planet guide to Eastern Europe, but a moody and sensuous journey into the macabre this is not.
]]> Anansi Boys 2744 God is dead. Meet the kids.

Fat Charlie Nancy's normal life ended the moment his father dropped dead on a Florida karaoke stage. Charlie didn't know his dad was a god. And he never knew he had a brother.

Now brother Spider's on his doorstep -- about to make Fat Charlie's life more interesting... and a lot more dangerous.]]> 387 Neil Gaiman 0060515198 Quinn 5 American Gods, and it's actually better than its more-acclaimed predecessor. Rather than a sweeping epic about American belief and identity we get a far more focused affair with a handful of well-drawn characters, a clever, patient weaving of myth into the story, and most importantly, humor: this is probably the funniest book Gaiman has written on his own. Highly recommended.]]> 4.03 2005 Anansi Boys
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/08/02
shelves:
review:
An offshoot of American Gods, and it's actually better than its more-acclaimed predecessor. Rather than a sweeping epic about American belief and identity we get a far more focused affair with a handful of well-drawn characters, a clever, patient weaving of myth into the story, and most importantly, humor: this is probably the funniest book Gaiman has written on his own. Highly recommended.
]]> The Shining (The Shining, #1) 11588 497 Stephen King 0450040186 Quinn 4 4.28 1977 The Shining (The Shining, #1)
author: Stephen King
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1977
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/08/02
shelves:
review:
The scariest book I've ever read. It's not as sophisticated as Kubrick's film version (and how rare is that?), but it's a great read, and you'll never enter a hotel bathroom the same way again.
]]> Moon Palace 447
Beginning during the summer that men first walked on the moon, and moving backward and forward in time to span three generations, Moon Palace is propelled by coincidence and memory, and illuminated by marvelous flights of lyricism and wit. Here is the most entertaining and moving novel yet from an author well known for his breathtaking imagination.]]> 320 Paul Auster 0140115854 Quinn 5 City of Glass, for example) suspense that actually pays off. The ending is only slightly unsatisfying, so it's an excellent introduction to Auster's milieu, and it's really stuck with me. ]]> 3.99 1989 Moon Palace
author: Paul Auster
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/07/29
shelves:
review:
Things Paul Auster likes: characters who retrace the journeys of other characters before them, people who throw away all of their material comforts to experience life at its rawest, and endings that are, to varying degrees, pointedly unsatisfying. Of the five-odd Auster books I've read, this is probably the quintessential compendium of all the author's favorite tropes, and it's one of his best stories overall. It features a number of memorable characters with various bizarre back stories, and (unlike City of Glass, for example) suspense that actually pays off. The ending is only slightly unsatisfying, so it's an excellent introduction to Auster's milieu, and it's really stuck with me.
]]> The Starstone (Gom, #4) 947025 240 Chetwin 0027183157 Quinn 3 4.17 1989 The Starstone (Gom, #4)
author: Chetwin
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/07/29
shelves:
review:
One of the middle books in a not-very-well-known YA fantasy series, and a surprisingly fun read. I learned the hard way that it's not a very good place to start, though; lots of callbacks to earlier volumes left me very confused. But there are some great high fantasy ideas at play here (the hero's nemesis is an enormous leviathan that lurks in a world-spanning subterranean ocean, for starters), and I loved the unexpected development in which the lead character trains with a crotchety wizard and actually gets kicked out for his screw-ups, never to go back. The ending leaves a lot unresolved, but there are five books that follow, and I might pick them up someday and see where the story goes.
]]> The Kite Runner 77203 371 Khaled Hosseini 159463193X Quinn 2 4.34 2003 The Kite Runner
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2003
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2010/07/29
shelves:
review:
Everyone seemed to like this book except me. As much as I enjoyed the depictions of life in Afghanistan before, during, and after the Taliban's takeover, everything else about the story had a false ring to it, even with so many obviously autobiographical elements. The climax in particular struck me as hopelessly contrived, and I had a hard time buying the almost cartoonish depictions of the saintly friend and the brimstone-snorting evil villain. Sure, it's a first novel, but it was also a major international bestseller, so I'm less inclined to be forgiving.
]]> <![CDATA[Chasing Vermeer (Chasing Vermeer, #1)]]> 444347 254 Blue Balliett 0439372941 Quinn 2 Da Vinci Code knockoffs. The two lead characters are almost indistinguishable from each other despite their different genders and backgrounds. Not nearly as inspired as I'd hoped it would be. ]]> 3.73 2004 Chasing Vermeer (Chasing Vermeer, #1)
author: Blue Balliett
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2010/07/29
shelves:
review:
A mystery story that might be halfway decent for young readers but not for adults who are already sick of Da Vinci Code knockoffs. The two lead characters are almost indistinguishable from each other despite their different genders and backgrounds. Not nearly as inspired as I'd hoped it would be.
]]> Left Behind (Left Behind, #1) 27523 470 Tim LaHaye 0842342702 Quinn 1 3.86 1995 Left Behind (Left Behind, #1)
author: Tim LaHaye
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1995
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2010/07/29
shelves:
review:
'Nuff said.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance, #1)]]> 6437061 427 N.K. Jemisin 0316043915 Quinn 4 3.88 2010 The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance, #1)
author: N.K. Jemisin
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2010/07/03
date added: 2010/07/29
shelves:
review:
This great debut novel is the rare fantasy that would rather tantalize you with glimpses of its well-imagined world than inundate you with excessive detail. Jemisin prefers to focus on her characters, and she's very skilled at developing them slowly through their actions and dialogue. This can make the book a little talky at points, but the author is good for a dazzling magical setpiece any time the pace threatens to drag. The result is a compulsively readable story and a solid introduction to a trilogy. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms in the next installments.
]]> Her Fearful Symmetry 6202342
When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her London apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina. These two American girls never met their English aunt, only knew that their mother, too, was a twin, and Elspeth her sister. Julia and Valentina are semi-normal American teenagers--with seemingly little interest in college, finding jobs, or anything outside their cozy home in the suburbs of Chicago, and with an abnormally intense attachment to one another.

The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which borders Highgate Cemetery in London. They come to know the building's other residents. There is Martin, a brilliant and charming crossword puzzle setter suffering from crippling Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Marjike, Martin's devoted but trapped wife; and Robert, Elspeth's elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery. As the girls become embroiled in the fraying lives of their aunt's neighbors, they also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including--perhaps--their aunt, who can't seem to leave her old apartment and life behind.

Niffenegger weaves a captivating story in Her Fearful Symmetry about love and identity, about secrets and sisterhood, and about the tenacity of life--even after death.]]> 406 Audrey Niffenegger 0224085611 Quinn 4 3.27 2009 Her Fearful Symmetry
author: Audrey Niffenegger
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/07/22
shelves:
review:
Of all the authors today who like to mix fantastic elements with a very grounded take on the real world, Audrey Niffenegger is easily one of the best. Just like in The Time Traveller's Wife, she introduces something outlandish (this time, ghosts) into the lives of her characters and watches very carefully as they react to it. There are a lot more characters and juggling viewpoints than in TTW, so in some ways this book lacks the intimacy that made her first novel so memorable, but it's still a very compelling story with believable people at the heart of it.
]]> <![CDATA[And Another Thing... (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #6)]]> 6359434 AN ENGLISHMAN'S CONTINUING SEARCH THROUGH SPACE AND TIME FOR A DECENT CUP OF TEA...

Arthur Dent's accidental association with that wholly remarkable book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has not been entirely without incident.

Arthur has traveled the length, breadth, and depth of known, and unknown, space. He has stumbled forward and backward through time. He has been blown up, reassembled, cruelly imprisoned, horribly released, and colorfully insulted more than is strictly necessary. And of course Arthur Dent has comprehensively failed to grasp the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.

Arthur has finally made it home to Earth, but that does not mean he has escaped his fate.

Arthur's chances of getting his hands on a decent cuppa have evaporated rapidly, along with all the world's oceans. For no sooner has he touched down on the planet Earth than he finds out that it is about to be blown up...again.

And Another Thing...is the rather unexpected, but very welcome, sixth installment of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. It features a pantheon of unemployed gods, everyone's favorite renegade Galactic President, a lovestruck green alien, an irritating computer, and at least one very large slab of cheese.]]> 275 Eoin Colfer 1401323588 Quinn 2 did-not-finish 3.58 2009 And Another Thing... (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #6)
author: Eoin Colfer
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2009
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2010/07/22
shelves: did-not-finish
review:
I feel for Eoin Colfer; asking an author to follow up on Douglas Adams' best work is like asking a Mongolian villager to follow up Genghis Khan. But I tried for 70 pages to get into this book and I just wasn't laughing. As much as I wanted to see a new, happier ending for all the protagonists after Mostly Harmless, this never really felt like more than decent fanfiction, and I couldn't get through it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Book of Ratings: Opinions, Grades, and Assessments of Everything Worth Thinking About]]> 341285 Washington Post

Are you harshly judgmental? Yes! Do you walk around snidely rating everything in your path? Of course you do! You can't help it—it's just too easy and too much fun to rate everything from your coworkers and dates to restaurants and supermodels.

The Book of Ratings, which grades and compares everyday items in its own unique way, is the ultimate catalog of the most mundane and most hilarious rankings around.

For instance: Have you ever considered marsupials?
Koalas: Koala bears eat only one thing, day in and day out. Koalas look cuddly, but they're actually irritable, solitary beasts who do not want belly rubs. What kind of mocking god created creatures with poofy ears and big black noses that don't want belly rubs? B

Opossums: North America gets one lousy marsupial, and let's just say it's not going to win any beauty contests. Or even not-ugly contests. °äâˆ�

Wombats: "Wombat" is a great name. It's got a "wom" and a "bat," and an "omba." They're kind of nondescript animals, cute in a generic pudgy mammal way, but their name spelled backward is "tabmow," and that makes all the difference. A

The Book of Ratings is hysterically arbitrary and undeniably infectious.]]> 218 Lore Fitzgerald Sjoberg 0609808524 Quinn 5 4.34 2002 The Book of Ratings: Opinions, Grades, and Assessments of Everything Worth Thinking About
author: Lore Fitzgerald Sjoberg
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/07/22
shelves:
review:
Lore Sjoberg was doing Internet humor before it was cool, or even before it was uncool, and his Ratings were a highlight among his many hilarious writings. I'm not sure if this book is still in print, but you can still read almost all of these online, and you should.
]]> <![CDATA[Thieves & Kings: Apprentices, Book I (Thieves & Kings, #6)]]> 4441797 100 Mark Oakley 0968102565 Quinn 5 4.15 2008 Thieves & Kings: Apprentices, Book I (Thieves & Kings, #6)
author: Mark Oakley
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/07/22
shelves:
review:
One of the most hugely sweeping and inventive fantasy comics I've ever read, all from a single self-published Canadian artist. Great characters and world-building throughout, with lots of exciting action and clever twists. Suffers from a bit of repetition, particularly later in the series (which is still ongoing as of this review), with too many story threads wandering off track and slowing the pace to a crawl. Still, the first three trades are brilliant and I'm certainly going to stick it out to see how the whole thing ends.
]]> Night 1617 Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man. This new translation by his wife and most frequent translator, Marion Wiesel, corrects important details and presents the most accurate rendering in English of Elie Wiesel's testimony to what happened in the camps and of his unforgettable message that this horror must simply never be allowed to happen again.]]> 120 Elie Wiesel 0374500010 Quinn 5 4.38 1956 Night
author: Elie Wiesel
name: Quinn
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1956
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/07/22
shelves:
review:
I've read many, many books and stories about the Holocaust, but this one was probably all I ever needed. The unsparing and brutal account of the author's own experience in a concentration camp is all the more powerful for its spareness. Highly recommended.
]]> The Assassins of Tamurin 43684 464 S.D. Tower 0380806215 Quinn 2 3.98 2002 The Assassins of Tamurin
author: S.D. Tower
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at: 2010/07/22
date added: 2010/07/22
shelves:
review:
An entertaining but ultimately disappointing fantasy read that doesn't live up to its potential. Some solid characters and conflicts, and an imaginative setting, are bogged down by clumsy exposition, an annoying preference for telling over showing, and a climax that feels rushed and unsatisfying. The ending is pretty saccharine and completely throws out the moral ambiguity that the first half of the book seemed to be setting up. Too bad, because it could have been much improved by a few solid rewrites.
]]> <![CDATA[Racing the Dark (Spirit Binders, #1)]]> 1107632 Racing the Dark is set in a land of volcanoes and earthquakes, plagues and typhoons, of island nations bound by fear of the spirits they imprisoned to control their volatile environment. Lana, a teenaged girl on a nameless backwater island, finds an ominous blood-red jewel that marks her as someone with power, setting in motion events that drive her away from her family and into an apprenticeship with a mysterious one-armed witch.]]> 368 Alaya Dawn Johnson 1932841288 Quinn 0 to-read 3.75 2007 Racing the Dark (Spirit Binders, #1)
author: Alaya Dawn Johnson
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/07/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)]]> 37442 When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

]]> 406 Gregory Maguire 0060987103 Quinn 2 3.52 1995 Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1)
author: Gregory Maguire
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1995
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2010/07/10
shelves:
review:

]]> The Old Man and the Sea 2165 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

This short novel, already a modern classic, is the superbly told, tragic story of a Cuban fisherman in the Gulf Stream and the giant Marlin he kills and loses—specifically referred to in the citation accompanying the author's Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.]]> 96 Ernest Hemingway 0684830493 Quinn 3 3.81 1952 The Old Man and the Sea
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1952
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/07/10
shelves:
review:

]]> The Metamorphosis 485894 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."

With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."]]> 201 Franz Kafka 0553213695 Quinn 3 3.90 1915 The Metamorphosis
author: Franz Kafka
name: Quinn
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1915
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/07/10
shelves:
review:

]]>