Simone's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 09 Aug 2024 19:06:48 -0700 60 Simone's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg A Little Life 25334922 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER � A stunning “portrait of the enduring grace of friendship� (NPR) about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century.

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST � MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST � WINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZE �

A Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.]]> 720 Hanya Yanagihara 1447294823 Simone 4 4.28 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: Simone
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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date added: 2024/08/09
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]]> Is There No Place for Me? 22016239
Using case studies and her own observations, Kate challenges the common belief that patients are responsible � even somehow to blame � for the existence of their illness. To the best of their ability, they are responsible for its management, but they did not create it. She argues for empowering patients and their families to be active members of treatment teams. She suggests that along with the right medication, sustained healing requires psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to reach out across the patient–therapist divide and find an essential human connection.

Kate's experiences are detailed in the critically acclaimed Madness: A Memoir.]]> 90 Kate Richards 0143571877 Simone 5 3.99 2013 Is There No Place for Me?
author: Kate Richards
name: Simone
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2013
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/11/15
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I heard Kate speak at a recent psychiatry conference about her wonderful memoir, 'Madness,' and this book is the follow-up. There are four vignettes - four stories of people struggling with mental illness, but this book never wallows. It's beautifully written, it's clear and concise and offers a new way of approaching the complexities of mental illness. Great read.
]]> Fusion 43738080
One day Wren discovers a woman on the road nearby, badly injured and unconscious. He brings her back to the cottage, and he and the twins nurse her back to health. But the arrival of this outsider shatters the dynamic within, with unforeseen consequences.

Lyrical and poetic, Fusion is a unique and haunting modern-gothic tale that has at its heart questions of selfhood, dependency, difference and love. It is the compelling first novel by the award-winning author of "Madness: A Memoir".]]> 290 Kate Richards 1926428706 Simone 5 3.84 2013 Fusion
author: Kate Richards
name: Simone
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/11/15
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This is a really unusual book - the conjoined twins are strange and brilliant but they have a lot of heart too. I think their dialogue is what makes it the best thing I've read in a while.
]]> Choke 29059 Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times.

Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be “saved� by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor’s life, go on to send checks to support him.

When he’s not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park.

His creator, Chuck Palahniuk, renowned author of classics like Fight Club, is the visionary we need and the satirist we deserve.]]> 293 Chuck Palahniuk 0385720920 Simone 0 to-read 3.71 2001 Choke
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Simone
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Death du Jour (Temperance Brennan, #2)]]> 128756 451 Kathy Reichs 0671011375 Simone 0 3.97 1999 Death du Jour (Temperance Brennan, #2)
author: Kathy Reichs
name: Simone
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Déjà Dead (Temperance Brennan, #1)]]> 231604 532 Kathy Reichs Simone 0 3.89 1997 Déjà Dead (Temperance Brennan, #1)
author: Kathy Reichs
name: Simone
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/30
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]]> The Flamethrowers 15803141
The Flamethrowers is an intensely engaging exploration of the mystique of the feminine, the fake, the terrorist. At its center is Kushner’s brilliantly realized protagonist, a young woman on the verge. Thrilling and fearless, this is a major American novel from a writer of spectacular talent and imagination.]]> 383 Rachel Kushner 1439142009 Simone 5 currently-reading 3.51 2013 The Flamethrowers
author: Rachel Kushner
name: Simone
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/27
date added: 2020/07/30
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Acute Misfortune: The Life and Death of Adam Cullen]]> 22463239 Acute Misfortune is an unflinching portrait of talent and addiction.

In 2008, the artist Adam Cullen invited journalist Erik Jensen to stay in his spare room and write his biography. A publisher wanted it, Cullen said. He was sick and ready to talk. Everything would be on the record.

What followed were four years of intense honesty and a relationship that became increasingly dangerous. At one point Cullen shot Jensen, to see how committed he was to the book. At another, he threw Jensen from a speeding motorbike.

Eventually, Jensen realised the contract did not exist. Cullen had invented it to get to know the writer. The book became an investigation of Cullen’s psychology and the decline of his final years.

In Acute Misfortune, we have a riveting account of the life and death of one of Australia’s most celebrated artists. The figure famous for his Archibald Prize-winning portrait of David Wenham is followed through drug deals and periods of deep self-reflection, onward into his trial for weapon possession and finally his death in 2012 at the age of 46.

The story is by turns tender and horrifying: a spare tale of art, sex, drugs and childhood, told at close quarters and without judgment.]]> 160 Erik Jensen 186395693X Simone 4 currently-reading 3.90 2014 Acute Misfortune: The Life and Death of Adam Cullen
author: Erik Jensen
name: Simone
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2014
rating: 4
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date added: 2020/07/30
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> State of Wonder 9118135
As Dr. Marina Singh embarks upon an uncertain odyssey into the insect-infested Amazon, she will be forced to surrender herself to the lush but forbidding world that awaits within the jungle.

Charged with finding her former mentor Dr. Annick Swenson, a researcher who has disappeared while working on a valuable new drug, she will have to confront her own memories of tragedy and sacrifice as she journeys into the unforgiving heart of darkness.

Stirring and luminous, "State of Wonder" is a world unto itself, where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss beneath the rain forest's jeweled canopy.]]> 353 Ann Patchett 0062049801 Simone 5 to-read 3.88 2011 State of Wonder
author: Ann Patchett
name: Simone
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2011
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/07/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Rosie Effect (Don Tillman, #2)]]> 21844019
GREETINGS. My name is Don Tillman. I am forty-one years old. I have been married to Rosie Jarman, world's most perfect woman, for ten months and ten days.

Marriage added significant complexity to my life. When we relocated to New York City, Rosie brought three maximum-size suitcases. We abandoned the Standardised Meal System and agreed that sex should not be scheduled in advance.

Then Rosie told me we had 'something to celebrate', and I was faced with a challenge even greater than finding a partner.

I have attempted to follow traditional protocols and have sourced advice from all six of my friends, plus a therapist and the internet.

The result has been a web of deceit. I am now in danger of prosecution, deportation and professional disgrace.

And of losing Rosie forever.]]> 415 Graeme Simsion 1922182109 Simone 0 3.48 2014 The Rosie Effect (Don Tillman, #2)
author: Graeme Simsion
name: Simone
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/07/30
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]]> The Shell Collector 883235 219 Anthony Doerr 0142002968 Simone 0 3.99 2001 The Shell Collector
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Simone
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at: 2020/07/30
date added: 2020/07/30
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]]> Candy 29488
He met Candy amid a lush Sydney summer. Gorgeous, sexy, free-spirited Candy. They fell in love fast, lots of laughter and lust, the days melting warmly into each other. He never planned to give her a habit. But she wanted a taste. And wasn't love, after all, about sharing lives? Candy had a bit of money and in the beginning, everything was beautiful. Heady, heroin-hazed days, the world open and inviting. But when the money ran out, the craving remained, and the days ceased their luxurious stretch.

But there was still love. Only now, it was a threesome. Heroin had its own demands, its own timetable, and thoughts of nabbing the next fix hurled them into each day. Then, when desperation sets in, Candy will stop at nothing to secure a blast, as she and her lover become hostage to the nightmarish world of addiction.

Painful, sexy, tender, and charged with dark humor, Candy provocatively charts the daily rituals of two lovers maintaining a long-term junk habit. Told in stunningly vivid prose and set against the backdrop of suburban and urban Australia, Candy is both an electrifying and frightening glimpse of contemporary life and love.]]> 304 Luke Davies 0345423879 Simone 4 4.13 1997 Candy
author: Luke Davies
name: Simone
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1997
rating: 4
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]]> Americanah 15796700 477 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Simone 5 4.32 2013 Americanah
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Simone
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2020/07/30
date added: 2020/07/30
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]]> The Spill 50702382
Nicole and Samantha Cooper both remember the summer day when their mother, Tina, lost control of their car � but not in quite the same way. It is only after Tina’s death, almost four decades later, that the sisters are forced to reckon with the repercussions of the crash. Nicole, after years of aimless drifting, has finally found love, and yet can’t quite commit. And Samantha is hiding something that might just tear apart the life she’s worked so hard to build for herself.

The Spill explores the cycles of love, loss and regret that can follow a family through the years � moments of joy, things left unsaid, and things misremembered. Above all, it is a deeply moving portrait of two sisters falling apart and finding a way to fit back together.]]> 336 Imbi Neeme 1760893765 Simone 2 3.81 The Spill
author: Imbi Neeme
name: Simone
average rating: 3.81
book published:
rating: 2
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date added: 2020/07/30
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]]> The Underground Railroad 30555488
In Whitehead's ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no mere metaphor--engineers and conductors operate a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora and Caesar's first stop is South Carolina, in a city that initially seems like a haven. But the city's placid surface masks an insidious scheme designed for its black denizens. And even worse: Ridgeway, the relentless slave catcher, is close on their heels. Forced to flee again, Cora embarks on a harrowing flight, state by state, seeking true freedom.

Like the protagonist of Gulliver's Travels, Cora encounters different worlds at each stage of her journey--hers is an odyssey through time as well as space. As Whitehead brilliantly re-creates the unique terrors for black people in the pre-Civil War era, his narrative seamlessly weaves the saga of America from the brutal importation of Africans to the unfulfilled promises of the present day. The Underground Railroad is at once a kinetic adventure tale of one woman's ferocious will to escape the horrors of bondage and a shattering, powerful meditation on the history we all share.]]> 320 Colson Whitehead 0385542364 Simone 5 4.04 2016 The Underground Railroad
author: Colson Whitehead
name: Simone
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2016
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/06/11
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]]> Of A Boy 3353346
It is 1977. Adrian is nine. He lives with his gran and his uncle Rory. Adrian watches his suburban world, but there is much he cannot understand. He does not, for instance, know why three neighbourhood children might set out to buy ice cream and never come back home...

Effortlessly moving from matter-of-fact to mystical, at times exquisitely painful to read, Of A Boy is an almost suffocatingly powerful evocation of the emotional life of the very young. It is recommended reading for anyone who recalls being a child. And everyone who doesn't.]]> Sonya Hartnett Simone 4 3.75 2000 Of A Boy
author: Sonya Hartnett
name: Simone
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2000
rating: 4
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date added: 2020/04/21
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]]> Autobiography 18625064
Achieving eleven Top 10 albums (plus nine with the Smiths), his songs have been recorded by David Bowie, Nancy Sinatra, Marianne Faithfull, Chrissie Hynde, Thelma Houston, My Chemical Romance and Christy Moore, amongst others.

An animal protectionist, in 2006 Morrissey was voted the second greatest living British icon by viewers of the BBC, losing out to Sir David Attenborough. In 2007 Morrissey was voted the greatest northern male, past or present, in a nationwide newspaper poll. In 2012, Morrissey was awarded the Keys to the City of Tel-Aviv.

It has been said 'Most pop stars have to be dead before they reach the iconic status that Morrissey has reached in his lifetime.'

Autobiography covers Morrissey's life from his birth until the present day.]]> 457 Morrissey Simone 3 3.62 2013 Autobiography
author: Morrissey
name: Simone
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2013
rating: 3
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date added: 2019/05/02
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]]> The Twyborn Affair 1711567 The cover uploaded is from the first edition hardback (Jonathan Cape 1979)]]> 432 Patrick White 0224017330 Simone 5 4.07 1979 The Twyborn Affair
author: Patrick White
name: Simone
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1979
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/04/29
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]]> The Waves 46114 The Waves introduces six characters—three men and three women—who are grappling with the death of a beloved friend, Percival. Instead of describing their outward expressions of grief, Virginia Woolf draws her characters from the inside, revealing them through their thoughts and interior soliloquies. As their understanding of nature’s trials grows, the chorus of narrative voices blends together in miraculous harmony, remarking not only on the inevitable death of individuals but on the eternal connection of everyone. The novel that most epitomizes Virginia Woolf’s theories of fiction in the working form, The Waves is an amazing book very much ahead of its time. It is a poetic dreamscape, visual, experimental, and thrilling.]]> 297 Virginia Woolf 0156949601 Simone 5 4.17 1931 The Waves
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Simone
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1931
rating: 5
read at: 2019/03/20
date added: 2019/03/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The African Trilogy: Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God (The African Trilogy, #1-3)]]> 17113 Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe's first novel, has received widespread critical acclaim since its first publication thirty years ago. It has sold over 3 million copies and has been translated into more than forty languages. No Longer at Ease, its sequel, won the Nigerian national trophy, while Arrow of God confirmed Achebe's standing as the founder of modern African fiction. These three novels, collected here in a single volume with a new introduction by the author, chronicle the story of twentieth century West Africa.
'The Story is the tragedy of Okonkwo, an important man in the Obi tribe in the days when white men were first appearing on the scene. Mr Achebe handles the macabre with telling restraint and the pathetic without any false embarrassment.'
THE OBSERVER]]> 560 Chinua Achebe 0330303317 Simone 5 4.27 1988 The African Trilogy: Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, Arrow of God (The African Trilogy, #1-3)
author: Chinua Achebe
name: Simone
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1988
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/02/19
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]]> Autobiography of a Face 534255 I spent five years of my life being treated for cancer, but since then I've spent fifteen years being treated for nothing other than looking different from everyone else. It was the pain from that, from feeling ugly, that I always viewed as the great tragedy of my life. The fact that I had cancer seemed minor in comparison.

At age nine, Lucy Grealy was diagnosed with a potentially terminal cancer. When she returned to school with a third of her jaw removed, she faced the cruel taunts of classmates. In this strikingly candid memoir, Grealy tells her story of great suffering and remarkable strength without sentimentality and with considerable wit. Vividly portraying the pain of peer rejection and the guilty pleasures of wanting to be special, Grealy captures with unique insight what it is like as a child and young adult to be torn between two warring impulses: to feel that more than anything else we want to be loved for who we are, while wishing desperately and secretly to be perfect.]]> 236 Lucy Grealy 0060569662 Simone 0 to-read 3.97 1994 Autobiography of a Face
author: Lucy Grealy
name: Simone
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1994
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/02/19
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]]> The Orphan Master's Son 11529868
Considering himself "a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world," Jun Do becomes a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his Korean overlords in order to stay alive. Driven to the absolute limit of what any human being could endure, he boldly takes on the treacherous role of rival to Kim Jong Il in an attempt to save the woman he loves, Sun Moon, a legendary actress "so pure, she didn't know what starving people looked like."

Part breathless thriller, part story of innocence lost, part story of romantic love, The Orphan Master's Son is also a riveting portrait of a world heretofore hidden from view: a North Korea rife with hunger, corruption, and casual cruelty but also camaraderie, stolen moments of beauty, and love. A towering literary achievement, The Orphan Master's Son ushers Adam Johnson into the small group of today's greatest writers.

An epic novel and a thrilling literary discovery, The Orphan Master's Son follows a young man's journey through the icy waters, dark tunnels, and eerie spy chambers of the world's most mysterious dictatorship, North Korea.]]> 443 Adam Johnson 0812992792 Simone 0 to-read 4.05 2012 The Orphan Master's Son
author: Adam Johnson
name: Simone
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/02/19
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]]> Foucault’s Pendulum 17841 623 Umberto Eco 015603297X Simone 5 3.92 1988 Foucault’s Pendulum
author: Umberto Eco
name: Simone
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1988
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/02/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1)]]> 1736739
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.

As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life � sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty.]]> 270 Elizabeth Strout Simone 5 to-read 3.85 2008 Olive Kitteridge (Olive Kitteridge, #1)
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Simone
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2008
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/02/16
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]]> <![CDATA[My Name Is Lucy Barton (Amgash, #1)]]> 25893709 193 Elizabeth Strout 1400067693 Simone 5 to-read 3.56 2016 My Name Is Lucy Barton (Amgash, #1)
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Simone
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2016
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/02/16
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]]> <![CDATA[The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales]]> 63697 243 Oliver Sacks Simone 5 to-read 4.08 1985 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales
author: Oliver Sacks
name: Simone
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1985
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/02/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> Fingersmith 45162
One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and madeto live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum.

With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways...But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.]]> 548 Sarah Waters Simone 5 Favourite book of 2012. 3.99 2002 Fingersmith
author: Sarah Waters
name: Simone
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2002
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/02/16
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Favourite book of 2012.
]]> <![CDATA[Tracks: A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback]]> 78895 NOWA MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

Robyn Davidson's opens the memoir of her perilous journey across 1,700 miles of hostile Australian desert to the sea with only four camels and a dog for company with the following words: “I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there's no going back."

Enduring sweltering heat, fending off poisonous snakes and lecherous men, chasing her camels when they get skittish and nursing them when they are injured, Davidson emerges as an extraordinarily courageous heroine driven by a love of Australia's landscape, an empathy for its indigenous people, and a willingness to cast away the trappings of her former identity.Tracksis the compelling, candid story of her odyssey of discovery and transformation.

“An unforgettably powerful book.”—Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild

Now with a new postscript by Robyn Davidson.]]> 288 Robyn Davidson 0679762876 Simone 0 to-read 3.92 1980 Tracks: A Woman's Solo Trek Across 1700 Miles of Australian Outback
author: Robyn Davidson
name: Simone
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1980
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/02/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Penguin Book Of The Ocean 9963306
Ever since the first travellers reached the coast of Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago, the ocean has been one of the wellsprings of the human imagination. Its restless immensity has given us new horizons to cross, new possibilities to explore, and inspired wonder, heartache and heroism.

In The Penguin Book of the Ocean bestselling author James Bradley presents a dazzling selection of writing exploring this grandest of obsessions, combining fact and fiction, classical and contemporary, to create a collection like no other.

From Rachel Carson's luminous account of our planet's birth to the story of the wreck that inspired Moby-Dick, from Ernest Shackleton's harrowing account of his escape from Antarctica by open boat to Tim Winton's award-winning dissection of the dark side of surfing, The Penguin Book of the Ocean is a hymn to the mystery, beauty and majesty of the ocean, and to the poets and explorers it has inspired.]]> 496 James Bradley 1926428161 Simone 0 to-read 4.00 2010 The Penguin Book Of The Ocean
author: James Bradley
name: Simone
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/02/15
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]]> <![CDATA[The Element of Need: Murder and Memory in Adelaide]]> 15830559 27 James Bradley 1742537995 Simone 0 currently-reading 3.95 2012 The Element of Need: Murder and Memory in Adelaide
author: James Bradley
name: Simone
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/02/15
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]]> The Name of the Rose 17164289 This is an alternate cover edition - ISBN 13: 9780156001311

The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon—all sharpened to a glistening edge by wry humor and a ferocious curiosity. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where “the most interesting things happen at night.”]]> 536 Umberto Eco Simone 5 3.88 1980 The Name of the Rose
author: Umberto Eco
name: Simone
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 2019/02/15
date added: 2019/02/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Blood Test (Alex Delaware, #2)]]> 172912
Their search leads them into an amoral underworld, where drugs, dreams, and sex are all for sale and where fantasies are fulfilled. The situation just gets more and more complicated and may even cost a young boy his life.]]> 308 Jonathan Kellerman 0345466616 Simone 0 to-read 3.79 1986 Blood Test (Alex Delaware, #2)
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Simone
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1986
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/02/15
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]]> The Butcher's Theater 85427
A brilliant novel by a master ofthe genre, a vivid look at the torturedcomplexities of a psychopath's mind, a rich evocation of acity steeped in history -- this, and more, is The Butcher's Theater .]]> 640 Jonathan Kellerman 0345460677 Simone 3 3.83 1988 The Butcher's Theater
author: Jonathan Kellerman
name: Simone
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1988
rating: 3
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date added: 2019/02/15
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]]> <![CDATA[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)]]> 5 435 J.K. Rowling 043965548X Simone 5 4.57 1999 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Simone
average rating: 4.57
book published: 1999
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/02/15
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]]> <![CDATA[In the Garden of the Fugitives]]> 36347894 The New York Times as “a gifted prose stylist,� Ceridwen Dovey returns with a startling tale of obsession, control, and identity

Almost twenty years after forbidding him to contact her, Vita receives a letter from a man who has long stalked her from a distance. Once, Royce was her benefactor and she was one of his brightest protégées. Now Royce is ailing and Vita’s career as a filmmaker has stalled, and both have reasons for wanting to settle accounts. They enter into an intimate game of words, played according to shifting rules of engagement.

Beyond their murky shared history, they are both aware they can use each other to free themselves from deeper pasts. Vita is processing the shameful inheritance of her birthplace, and making sense of the disappearance of her beloved. Royce is haunted by memories of the untimely death of his first love, an archaeologist who worked in the Garden of the Fugitives in Pompeii. Between what’s been repressed and what has been disguised are disturbances that reach back through decades, even centuries. But not everything from the past is precious: each gorgeous age is built around a core of rottenness.

Profoundly addictive and unsettling, In the Garden of the Fugitives is a masterful novel of duplicity and counterplay, as brilliantly illuminating as it is surprising � about the obscure workings of guilt in the human psyche, the compulsion to create and control, and the dangerous morphing of desire into obsession.]]> 384 Ceridwen Dovey 0374226644 Simone 0 to-read 3.19 2018 In the Garden of the Fugitives
author: Ceridwen Dovey
name: Simone
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/01/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Girl on the Page 39726936
Amy Winston is a hard-drinking, bed-hopping, hot-shot young book editor on a downward spiral. Having made her name and fortune by turning an average thriller writer into a Lee Child, Amy is given the unenviable task of steering literary great Helen Owen back to publication.

When Amy knocks on the door of their beautiful townhouse in north-west London, Helen and her husband, the novelist Malcolm Taylor, are conducting a silent war of attrition. The townhouse was paid for with the enormous seven-figure advance Helen was given for the novel she wrote to end fifty years of making ends meet on critical acclaim alone. The novel Malcolm thinks unworthy of her. The novel Helen has yet to deliver. The novel Amy has come to collect.

Amy has never faced a challenge like this one. Helen and Malcolm are brilliant, complicated writers who unsettle Amy into asking questions of herself - questions about what she values, her principles, whether she has integrity, whether she is authentic. Before she knows it, answering these questions becomes a matter of life or death.

From ultimate book industry insider, John Purcell, comes a literary page-turner, a ferocious and fast-paced novel that cuts to the core of what it means to balance ambition and integrity, and the redemptive power of great literature.]]> 371 John Purcell 1460710746 Simone 2 Didn't finish. 3.62 2018 The Girl on the Page
author: John Purcell
name: Simone
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2018
rating: 2
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date added: 2019/01/14
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Didn't finish.
]]> <![CDATA[Anything Is Possible (Amgash, #2)]]> 32080126 Olive Kitteridge in its richness, structure, and complexity, Anything Is Possible explores the whole range of human emotion through the intimate dramas of people struggling to understand themselves and others.

Here are two sisters: One trades self-respect for a wealthy husband while the other finds in the pages of a book a kindred spirit who changes her life. The janitor at the local school has his faith tested in an encounter with an isolated man he has come to help; a grown daughter longs for mother love even as she comes to accept her mother’s happiness in a foreign country; and the adult Lucy Barton (the heroine of My Name Is Lucy Barton, the author’s celebrated New York Times bestseller) returns to visit her siblings after seventeen years of absence.

Reverberating with the deep bonds of family, and the hope that comes with reconciliation, Anything Is Possible again underscores Elizabeth Strout’s place as one of America’s most respected and cherished authors.]]> 254 Elizabeth Strout 0812989406 Simone 0 to-read 3.74 2017 Anything Is Possible (Amgash, #2)
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: Simone
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/12/29
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]]> Orlando 18839 Orlando 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth's England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost. At the midpoint of the novel, Orlando, now an ambassador in Constantinople, awakes to find that he is now a woman, and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, a year consonant with full suffrage for women. Orlando, now a wife and mother, stands poised at the brink of a future that holds new hope and promise for women.]]> 336 Virginia Woolf 0141184272 Simone 5 3.88 1928 Orlando
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Simone
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1928
rating: 5
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]]> The Lover 275 117 Marguerite Duras Simone 5 3.79 1984 The Lover
author: Marguerite Duras
name: Simone
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1984
rating: 5
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date added: 2018/12/29
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]]> <![CDATA[What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours]]> 25810500
Oyeyemi’s tales span multiple times and landscapes as they tease boundaries between coexisting realities. Is a key a gate, a gift, or an invitation?]]> 325 Helen Oyeyemi 1594634637 Simone 0 to-read 3.65 2016 What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours
author: Helen Oyeyemi
name: Simone
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/12/29
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]]> The Vegetarian 25489025
Celebrated by critics around the world, The Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one woman’s struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her.]]> 188 Han Kang 0553448188 Simone 0 to-read 3.61 2007 The Vegetarian
author: Han Kang
name: Simone
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/12/29
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]]> A Man of the People 37772 From the renowned author of The African Trilogy, a political satire about an unnamed African country navigating a path between violence and corruption

As Minister for Culture, former school teacher M. A. Nanga is a man of the people, as cynical as he is charming, and a roguish opportunist. When Odili, an idealistic young teacher, visits his former instructor at the ministry, the division between them is vast. But in the eat-and-let-eat atmosphere, Odili's idealism soon collides with his lusts--and the two men's personal and political tauntings threaten to send their country into chaos. When Odili launches a vicious campaign against his former mentor for the same seat in an election, their mutual animosity drives the country to revolution.

Published, prophetically, just days before Nigeria's first attempted coup in 1966, A Man of the People is an essential part of Achebe's body of work.]]> 160 Chinua Achebe Simone 0 to-read 3.90 1966 A Man of the People
author: Chinua Achebe
name: Simone
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1966
rating: 0
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]]> Purple Hibiscus 126381
When Nigeria begins to fall apart under a military coup, Kambili’s father sends her and her brother away to stay with their aunt, a University professor, whose house is noisy and full of laughter. There, Kambili and her brother discover a life and love beyond the confines of their father’s authority. The visit will lift the silence from their world and, in time, give rise to devotion and defiance that reveal themselves in profound and unexpected ways.

This is a book about the promise of freedom; about the blurred lines between childhood and adulthood; between love and hatred, between the old gods and the new.]]> 336 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Simone 0 to-read 4.14 2003 Purple Hibiscus
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Simone
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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]]> Half of a Yellow Sun 18749 A masterly, haunting new novel from a writer heralded by The Washington Post Book World as “the 21st-century daughter of Chinua Achebe,� Half of a Yellow Sun re-creates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria in the 1960s, and the chilling violence that followed.

With astonishing empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor’s beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another.

Epic, ambitious, and triumphantly realized, Half of a Yellow Sun is a remarkable novel about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race—and the ways in which love can complicate them all. Adichie brilliantly evokes the promise and the devastating disappointments that marked this time and place, bringing us one of the most powerful, dramatic, and intensely emotional pictures of modern Africa that we have ever had.]]> 435 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 1400044162 Simone 5 4.34 2006 Half of a Yellow Sun
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Simone
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2006
rating: 5
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]]> Snuff 1840511 From the master of literary mayhem and provocation, a full-frontal Triple X novel that goes where no American work of fiction has gone before

Cassie Wright, porn priestess, intends to cap her legendary career by breaking the world record for serial fornication. On camera. With six hundred men. Snuff unfolds from the perspectives of Mr. 72, Mr. 137, and Mr. 600, who await their turn on camera in a very crowded green room. This wild, lethally funny, and thoroughly researched novel brings the huge yet underacknowledged presence of pornography in contemporary life into the realm of literary fiction at last. Who else but Chuck Palahniuk would dare do such a thing? Who else could do it so well, so unflinchingly, and with such an incendiary (you might say) climax?]]> 208 Chuck Palahniuk 0385517882 Simone 3 3.23 2008 Snuff
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Simone
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2008
rating: 3
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date added: 2018/12/29
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]]> Interpreter of Maladies 5439 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In "A Temporary Matter," published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant.]]> 198 Jhumpa Lahiri 0618101365 Simone 5 4.18 1999 Interpreter of Maladies
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: Simone
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1999
rating: 5
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]]> Rebecca 594139 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780380730407.

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. . ."

With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten—a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house's current occupants. With an eerie presentiment of evil tightening her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim's first wife—the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.

This special edition of Rebecca includes excerpts from Daphne du Maurier's The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories, an essay on the real Manderley, du Maurier's original epilogue to the book, and more.]]> 410 Daphne du Maurier Simone 5 4.25 1938 Rebecca
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Simone
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1938
rating: 5
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]]> Different Seasons 39662
A “hypnotic� (The New York Times Book Review) collection of four novellas—including the inspirations behind the films Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption—from Stephen King, bound together by the changing of seasons, each taking on the theme of a journey with strikingly different tones and characters.

This gripping collection begins with “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,� in which an unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge—the basis for the Best Picture Academy Award-nominee The Shawshank Redemption.

Next is “Apt Pupil,� the inspiration for the film of the same name about top high school student Todd Bowden and his obsession with the dark and deadly past of an older man in town.

In “The Body,� four rambunctious young boys plunge through the façade of a small town and come face-to-face with life, death, and intimations of their own mortality. This novella became the movie Stand By Me.

Finally, a disgraced woman is determined to triumph over death in “The Breathing Method.�

“The wondrous readability of his work, as well as the instant sense of communication with his characters, are what make Stephen King the consummate storyteller that he is,� hailed the Houston Chronicle about Different Seasons.]]> 560 Stephen King 0751514624 Simone 0 to-read 4.42 1982 Different Seasons
author: Stephen King
name: Simone
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1982
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Two Past Midnight: Secret Window, Secret Garden]]> 133268 Four Past Midnight.

Recently divorced writer Mort Rainey is alone at Tashmore Lake--that is, until a figure named John Shooter arrives, pointing an accusing finger.

]]> 140 Stephen King 0453007465 Simone 0 to-read 3.97 1990 Two Past Midnight: Secret Window, Secret Garden
author: Stephen King
name: Simone
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1990
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/05/30
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]]> The Great Gatsby 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author’s own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]> 180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 Simone 5 3.93 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Simone
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 5
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]]> Haunted 22288
The stories are told by people who have all answered an ad headlined 'Artists Retreat: Abandon your life for three months'. They are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of 'real life' that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them.

But 'here' turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theater where they are utterly isolated from the outside world - and where heat and power and, most importantly, food are in increasingly short supply. And the more desperate the circumstances become, the more desperate the stories they tell - and the more devious their machinations to make themselves the hero of the inevitable play/movie/non-fiction blockbuster that will certainly be made from their plight.]]> 419 Chuck Palahniuk 1400032822 Simone 0 to-read 3.60 2005 Haunted
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Simone
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/05/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1)]]> 2429135
An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.]]> 480 Stieg Larsson 0670069019 Simone 4 4.17 2005 The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1)
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Simone
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2005
rating: 4
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date added: 2017/05/30
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]]> <![CDATA[A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)]]> 10888677 Game of Thrones.

Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun. It will stretch from the south, where heat breeds plot, lusts and intrigues; to the vast and savage eastern lands; all the way to the frozen north, where an 800-foot wall of ice protects the kingdom from the dark forces that lie beyond.

The Game of Thrones. You win, or you die.

Book one of A Song of Ice and Fire begins the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age.]]> 806 George R.R. Martin Simone 0 to-read 4.42 1996 A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Simone
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1996
rating: 0
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]]> We Were Liars 16143347 A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.

Read it.

And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.]]> 242 E. Lockhart 0385741278 Simone 0 to-read 3.66 2014 We Were Liars
author: E. Lockhart
name: Simone
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/05/30
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]]> Life of Pi 4214 460 Yann Martel 0770430074 Simone 5 3.94 2001 Life of Pi
author: Yann Martel
name: Simone
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 5
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]]> And Then There Were None 16299
"Ten little boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little boys traveling in Devon; One said he'd stay there then there were seven. Seven little boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in half and then there were six. Six little boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two little boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none."

When they realize that murders are occurring as described in the rhyme, terror mounts. One by one they fall prey. Before the weekend is out, there will be none. Who has choreographed this dastardly scheme? And who will be left to tell the tale? Only the dead are above suspicion.]]> 264 Agatha Christie 0312330871 Simone 5 4.28 1939 And Then There Were None
author: Agatha Christie
name: Simone
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1939
rating: 5
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]]> Sufficient Grace 15781771
Then Ruth learns that Naomi harbours a terrible secret. She searches for solace in the mysteries of the natural world: broken fawns, migrating birds, and the strange fish deep beneath the ice. Can the girls� prayers for deliverance be answered?

Sufficient Grace is a story of lost innocence and the unfailing bond between two young women. It is at once devastating and beautiful, and ultimately transcendent.]]> 327 Amy Espeseth 1922070025 Simone 0 to-read 3.59 2012 Sufficient Grace
author: Amy Espeseth
name: Simone
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/05/30
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]]> My Hundred Lovers 13634670 280 Susan Johnson 1741756359 Simone 2 3.46 2012 My Hundred Lovers
author: Susan Johnson
name: Simone
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2012
rating: 2
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date added: 2017/05/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1)]]> 960
A devastating new weapon of destruction.
When world-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a mysterious symbol -- seared into the chest of a murdered physicist -- he discovers evidence of the unimaginable: the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati...the most powerful underground organization ever to walk the earth. The Illuminati has now surfaced to carry out the final phase of its legendary vendetta against its most hated enemy -- the Catholic Church.

Langdon's worst fears are confirmed on the eve of the Vatican's holy conclave, when a messenger of the Illuminati announces they have hidden an unstoppable time bomb at the very heart of Vatican City. With the countdown under way, Langdon jets to Rome to join forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to assist the Vatican in a desperate bid for survival.
Embarking on a frantic hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome toward the long-forgotten Illuminati lair...a clandestine location that contains the only hope for Vatican salvation.

An explosive international thriller, Angels & Demons careens from enlightening epiphanies to dark truths as the battle between science and religion turns to war.]]> 736 Dan Brown 1416524797 Simone 4 3.95 2000 Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1)
author: Dan Brown
name: Simone
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2000
rating: 4
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date added: 2017/05/30
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]]> <![CDATA[Girt (The Unauthorised History of Australia #1)]]> 18179458
In this hilarious history, David Hunt reveals the truth of Australia’s past, from megafauna to Macquarie � the cock-ups and curiosities, the forgotten eccentrics and Eureka moments that have made us who we are.

Girt introduces forgotten heroes like Mary McLoghlin, transported for the crime of “felony of sock�, and Trim the cat, who beat a French monkey to become the first animal to circumnavigate Australia. It recounts the misfortunes of the escaped Irish convicts who set out to walk from Sydney to China, guided only by a hand-drawn paper compass, and explains the role of the coconut in Australia’s only military coup.

Our nation’s beginnings are steeped in the strange, the ridiculous and the frankly bizarre. Girt proudly reclaims these stories for all of us.

Not to read it would be un-Australian.]]> 274 David Hunt 1863956115 Simone 0 to-read 3.85 2013 Girt (The Unauthorised History of Australia #1)
author: David Hunt
name: Simone
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/05/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> Burial Rites 17333319
Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.

Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only Tóti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard.

Riveting and rich with lyricism, Burial Rites evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?]]> 336 Hannah Kent 0316243914 Simone 4 4.00 2013 Burial Rites
author: Hannah Kent
name: Simone
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2017/05/08
date added: 2017/05/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, #3)]]> 6411961
Washington DC: Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned at the last minute to deliver an evening lecture in the Capitol Building. Within moments of his arrival, however, a disturbing object - gruesomely encoded with five symbols - is discovered at the epicentre of the Rotunda. It is, he recognises, an ancient invitation, meant to beckon its recipient towards a long-lost world of hidden esoteric wisdom.

When Langdon's revered mentor, Peter Solomon - philanthropist and prominent mason - is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes that his only hope of saving his friend's life is to accept this mysterious summons and follow wherever it leads him.

Langdon finds himself quickly swept behind the facade of America's most historic city into the unseen chambers, temples and tunnels which exist there. All that was familiar is transformed into a shadowy, clandestine world of an artfully concealed past in which Masonic secrets and never-before-seen revelations seem to be leading him to a single impossible and inconceivable truth.

A brilliantly composed tapestry of veiled histories, arcane icons and enigmatic codes, The Lost Symbol is an intelligent, lightning-paced thriller that offers surprises at every turn. For, as Robert Langdon will discover, there is nothing more extraordinary or shocking than the secret which hides in plain sight...]]> 509 Dan Brown 0385504225 Simone 0 to-read 3.75 2009 The Lost Symbol (Robert Langdon, #3)
author: Dan Brown
name: Simone
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/05/30
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]]> Deception Point 976 here

A shocking scientific discovery.
A conspiracy of staggering brilliance.
A thriller unlike any you've ever read....

When a new NASA satellite spots evidence of an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory� a victory that has profound implications for U.S. space policy and the impending presidential election.

With the Oval Office in the balance, the President dispatches White House Intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton to the Milne Ice Shelf to verify the authenticity of the find. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic academic Michael Tolland, Rachel uncovers the unthinkable—evidence of scientific trickery—a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy.

But before Rachel can contact the President, she and Michael are attacked by a deadly task force…a private team of assassins controlled by a mysterious powerbroker who will stop at nothing to hide the truth. Fleeing for their lives in an environment as desolate as it is lethal, they possess only one hope, to find out who is behind this masterful ploy. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all…]]> 556 Dan Brown 0671027387 Simone 0 to-read 3.76 2001 Deception Point
author: Dan Brown
name: Simone
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/05/30
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]]> The Hot Guy 33117811
Cate, a sports publicist who loves to crack a joke, is feeling down about her newly single status when her friends suggest the perfect pick-me-up: a night with the Hot Guy.

But that one night leaves both Cate and Adam wanting�

Is a genuine connection possible with a guy this phenomenally smokin�?

Written by film critic duo Mel Campbell and Anthony Morris, and packed with movie-related humour, The Hot Guy is a funny, warm, savvy romcom, with characters you won’t want to kick out of bed.]]> 311 Mel Campbell 176040621X Simone 1 2.51 2017 The Hot Guy
author: Mel Campbell
name: Simone
average rating: 2.51
book published: 2017
rating: 1
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date added: 2017/05/30
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I tried.....but it just didn't work. Is it satire? Irony? Romance? Chick-lit? I have no idea.
]]> Petit Mal 17846933 "If rape or arson, poison or the knife
Has wove no pleasing patterns in the stuff
Of this drab canvas we accept as life -
It is because we are not bold enough!"
Charles Baudelaire

If you are familiar with the explosive End Times Trilogy (Vernon God Little, Ludmila's Broken English, Lights Out in Wonderland) by DBC Pierre, you will be well-acclimatised to the heady heights traversed in this collection. Drawing on memoir and a life lived in pursuit of sensation, but always ignited by the flame of fiction, Petit Mallegories take us further into the imagination of one of the most radically original prose stylists of the past decade.

Accompanied by dozens of illustrations and photographic 'evidence', the stories here inhabit worlds defined by appetite, excess and transcendence. Whether through food, drink, sex, drugs, or a fantastic cocktail of all four, the impulse in this book is towards epiphany. And the inevitable hangover that follows. But even that (or those) in the world of DBC Pierre can be nourishing.]]> 208 D.B.C. Pierre 0571298389 Simone 0 3.15 2013 Petit Mal
author: D.B.C. Pierre
name: Simone
average rating: 3.15
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2017/04/01
date added: 2017/04/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot, #18)]]> 131359
Who is also on board? Christie's great detective Hercule Poirot is on holiday. He recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: ‘I’d like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.� Despite the exotic setting, nothing is ever quite what it seems…]]> 352 Agatha Christie Simone 5 4.13 1937 Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot, #18)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Simone
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1937
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/04/04
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]]> The Time Traveler's Wife 14050 537 Audrey Niffenegger 0965818675 Simone 0 to-read 3.90 2003 The Time Traveler's Wife
author: Audrey Niffenegger
name: Simone
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/04/04
shelves: to-read
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]]> 1984 5470 328 George Orwell Simone 5 4.15 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: Simone
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1949
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/04/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2)]]> 85266 This item does not meet our catalog guidelines and can no longer be rated or reviewed.
Please add this edition to your shelf instead:
The da Vinci Code]]> 454 Dan Brown Simone 4 3.81 2003 The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2)
author: Dan Brown
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average rating: 3.81
book published: 2003
rating: 4
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]]> Fight Club 5759 218 Chuck Palahniuk 0393327345 Simone 5 4.19 1996 Fight Club
author: Chuck Palahniuk
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average rating: 4.19
book published: 1996
rating: 5
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]]> The Swan Book 18247932 The Swan Book is set in the future, with Aboriginals still living under the Intervention in the north, in an environment fundamentally altered by climate change. It follows the life of a mute young woman called Oblivia, the victim of gang-rape by petrol-sniffing youths, from the displaced community where she lives in a hulk, in a swamp filled with rusting boats, and thousands of black swans, to her marriage to Warren Finch, the first Aboriginal president of Australia, and her elevation to the position of First Lady, confined to a tower in a flooded and lawless southern city. The Swan Book has all the qualities which made Wright’s previous novel, Carpentaria, a prize-winning best-seller. It offers an intimate awareness of the realities facing Aboriginal people; the energy and humour in her writing finds hope in the bleakest situations; and the remarkable combination of storytelling elements, drawn from myth and legend and fairy tale, has Oblivia Ethylene in the company of amazing characters like Aunty Bella Donna of the Champions, the Harbour Master, Big Red and the Mechanic, a talking monkey called Rigoletto, three genies with doctorates, and throughout, the guiding presence of swans.]]> 342 Alexis Wright 1922146412 Simone 5 3.31 2013 The Swan Book
author: Alexis Wright
name: Simone
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2013
rating: 5
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]]> The Marriage Plot 10964693
As Madeleine tries to understand why "it became laughable to read writers like Cheever and Updike, who wrote about the suburbia Madeleine and most of her friends had grown up in, in favor of reading the Marquis de Sade, who wrote about deflowering virgins in eighteenth century France," real life, in the form of two very different guys, intervenes. Leonard Bankhead - charismatic loner, college Darwinist, and lost Portland boy - suddenly turns up in a semiotics seminar, and soon Madeleine finds herself in a highly charged erotic and intellectual relationship with him. At the same time, her old "friend" Mitchell Grammaticus - who's been reading Christian mysticism and generally acting strange - resurfaces, obsessed with the idea that Madeleine is destined to be his mate.

Over the next year, as the members of the triangle in this amazing, spellbinding novel graduate from college and enter the real world, events force them to reevaluate everything they learned in school. Leonard and Madeleine move to a biology laboratory on Cape Cod, but can't escape the secret responsible for Leonard's seemingly inexhaustible energy and plunging moods. And Mitchell, traveling around the world to get Madeleine out of his mind, finds himself face-to-face with ultimate questions about the meaning of life, the existence of God, and the true nature of love.

Are the great love stories of the nineteenth century dead? Or can there be a new story, written for today and alive to the realities of feminism, sexual freedom, prenups, and divorce? With devastating wit and an abiding understanding of and affection for his characters, Jeffrey Eugenides revives the motivating energies of the Novel, while creating a story so contemporary and fresh that it reads like the intimate journal of our own lives.]]> 406 Jeffrey Eugenides 0374203059 Simone 0 to-read 3.46 2011 The Marriage Plot
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Simone
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2011
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]]> A Death in the Family 113091 The classic American novel, re-published for the 100th anniversary of James Agee's birth

Published in 1957, two years after its author's death at the age of forty-five, A Death in the Family remains a near-perfect work of art, an autobiographical novel that contains one of the most evocative depictions of loss and grief ever written. As Jay Follet hurries back to his home in Knoxville, Tennessee, he is killed in a car accident--a tragedy that destroys not only a life but also the domestic happiness and contentment of a young family. A novel of great courage, lyric force, and powerful emotion, A Death in the Family is a masterpiece of American literature.


]]> 320 James Agee 0375701230 Simone 5 3.90 1957 A Death in the Family
author: James Agee
name: Simone
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1957
rating: 5
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]]> The Confessions of Nat Turner 577283 453 William Styron 0679736638 Simone 0 to-read 3.96 1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner
author: William Styron
name: Simone
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1968
rating: 0
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]]> A Thousand Acres 41193 371 Jane Smiley 1400033837 Simone 5 3.82 1991 A Thousand Acres
author: Jane Smiley
name: Simone
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1991
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao]]> 297673
Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.]]> 335 Junot Díaz 1594489580 Simone 5 3.89 2007 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
author: Junot Díaz
name: Simone
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2007
rating: 5
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]]> Cairo 17926286
Tom is delighted at his new life, but his charismatic older friends aren’t quite what they appear to be. As he falls increasingly under their sway, Tom enters a bohemian world of parties and gallery openings, but also of more sinister events involving murder, deception and betrayal, not to mention one of the greatest unsolved art heists of the twentieth century: the infamous theft of Picasso’s *Weeping Woman*.

Set among the demimonde � where nothing and nobody is as they seem � *Cairo* is a novel about growing up, the perils of first love, and finding one’s true place in the world.]]> 304 Chris Womersley 1922070513 Simone 2 3.58 2013 Cairo
author: Chris Womersley
name: Simone
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2013
rating: 2
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]]> <![CDATA[Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)]]> 6101138 This is an alternative cover edition for ISBN 9780007230181

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?]]> 653 Hilary Mantel Simone 5 3.90 2009 Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)
author: Hilary Mantel
name: Simone
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2009
rating: 5
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]]> Relativity 25305284
Claire's life is centred on Ethan; she is fiercely protective of her talented, vulnerable son, and of her own feelings. When Ethan falls ill, tied to a tragic event from when he was a baby, Claire's tightly held world is split open.

On the other side of the country, Mark is trying to forget about the events that tore his family apart. Then a sudden and unexpected call home forces him to confront his past, and the hole in his life that was once filled with his wife Claire and his son Ethan.

When Ethan secretly intercepts a letter from Mark to Claire, he unleashes long-suppressed forces that � like gravity � pull the three together again, testing the limits of love and forgiveness.]]> 358 Antonia Hayes 0670078581 Simone 2 3.68 2015 Relativity
author: Antonia Hayes
name: Simone
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2015
rating: 2
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]]> <![CDATA[Tell Me I'm Here: One Family's Experience of Schizophrenia]]> 1505030
The book won Australia's 1991 Human Rights Nonfiction Award.]]> Anne Deveson 0140173390 Simone 5 4.33 1991 Tell Me I'm Here: One Family's Experience of Schizophrenia
author: Anne Deveson
name: Simone
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1991
rating: 5
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]]> The Night Guest 17332361
Now that Frida is in her house, is Ruth right to fear the tiger she hears on the prowl at night, far from its jungle habitat? Why do memories of childhood in Fiji press upon her with increasing urgency? How far can she trust this mysterious woman, Frida, who seems to carry with her, her own troubled past? And how far can Ruth trust herself?]]> 256 Fiona McFarlane 0865477736 Simone 0 to-read 3.44 2013 The Night Guest
author: Fiona McFarlane
name: Simone
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2013
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]]> Welcome to Your New Life 17678115 226 Anna Goldsworthy 1863955933 Simone 2 3.73 2013 Welcome to Your New Life
author: Anna Goldsworthy
name: Simone
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2013
rating: 2
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]]> Yes, Chef! 22586466 Townsville Bulletin]]> 195 Lisa Joy 176014035X Simone 1 3.38 2014 Yes, Chef!
author: Lisa Joy
name: Simone
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2014
rating: 1
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]]> Good Money 26154336
Stella's phone rings. A young African boy, the son of one of her clients, has been murdered in a dingy back alley. Stella, in her forties and running low on empathy, heads into the night to comfort the grieving mother. But when she gets there, she makes a discovery that has the potential to uncover something terrible from her past � something she thought she'd gotten away with.

Then Stella's neighbour Tania mysteriously vanishes. When Stella learns that Tania is the heir to a billion-dollar mining empire, Stella realises her glamorous young friend might have had more up her sleeve than just a perfectly toned arm. Who is behind her disappearance?

Enlisting the help of her friend, Senior Constable Phuong Nguyen, Stella's investigation draws her further and further into a dark world of drug dealers, sociopaths, and killers, such as the enigmatic Mr Funsail, whose name makes even hardened criminals run for cover.

One thing is clear: Stella needs to find answers fast � before the people she's looking for find her instead.

Set in the bustling, multicultural innerwest of Melbourne, Good Money reveals a daring and exciting new voice in Australian crime fiction.]]> 278 J.M. Green 1925106926 Simone 0 to-read 3.36 2015 Good Money
author: J.M. Green
name: Simone
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2015
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]]> <![CDATA[Mistakes Were Made (A Penguin Special)]]> 25204923 67 Liam Pieper 0143573128 Simone 2 3.74 2015 Mistakes Were Made (A Penguin Special)
author: Liam Pieper
name: Simone
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2015
rating: 2
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]]> The Collected Stories 50705
At every stage in his career, Michaels produced taut, spare tales of sex, love, and other adult gossip, argument, friendship, guilt, rage. A fearless writer�"destructive, joyful, brilliant, purely creative," in the words of John Hawkes―Michaels probed his characters' motivations with brutal humor and startling frankness; his ear for the vernacular puts him in the company of Philip Roth, Grace Paley, and Bernard Malamud. Remarkable for its compression and cadences, his prose is nothing short of addictive.

The Collected Stories is a landmark.

"Leonard Michaels's stories stand alongside those of his best Jewish contemporaries -- Grace Paley and Philip Roth." -- Mona Simpson, The New York Times Book Review]]> 416 Leonard Michaels 0374126542 Simone 0 to-read 4.20 2007 The Collected Stories
author: Leonard Michaels
name: Simone
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2007
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]]> American Journeys 3967936 Don Watson 1740513169 Simone 0 to-read 3.81 2008 American Journeys
author: Don Watson
name: Simone
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2008
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]]> Bel Canto 5826 318 Ann Patchett Simone 5 3.93 2001 Bel Canto
author: Ann Patchett
name: Simone
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2001
rating: 5
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]]> Catch-22 168668
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.]]> 453 Joseph Heller 0684833395 Simone 5 3.99 1961 Catch-22
author: Joseph Heller
name: Simone
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1961
rating: 5
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]]> Steve Jobs 11084145 630 Walter Isaacson 1451648537 Simone 0 to-read 4.15 2011 Steve Jobs
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Simone
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2011
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]]> Into the Wild 1845 Librarian's Note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

In April, 1992, a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself. Four months later, a party of moose hunters found his decomposed body. How McCandless came to die is the unforgettable story of Into the Wild.

Immediately after graduating from college in 1991, McCandless had roamed through the West and Southwest on a vision quest like those made by his heroes Jack London and John Muir. In the Mojave Desert he abandoned his car, stripped it of its license plates, and burned all of his cash. He would give himself a new name, Alexander Supertramp, and, unencumbered by money and belongings, he would be free to wallow in the raw, unfiltered experiences that nature presented. Craving a blank spot on the map, McCandless simply threw away the maps. Leaving behind his desperate parents and sister, he vanished into the wild.]]> 207 Jon Krakauer 0385486804 Simone 0 to-read 4.01 1996 Into the Wild
author: Jon Krakauer
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average rating: 4.01
book published: 1996
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]]> Grace: A Memoir 13536591
With the witty, forthright voice that has endeared her to her colleagues and peers for more than forty years, Grace now creatively directs the reader through the storied narrative of her life so far. Evoking the time when models had to tote their own bags and props to shoots, Grace describes her early career as a model, working with such world-class photographers as David Bailey and Norman Parkinson, before she stepped behind the camera to become a fashion editor at British Vogue in the late 1960s. Here she began creating the fantasy “travelogues� that would become her trademark. In 1988 she joined American Vogue, where her breathtakingly romantic and imaginative fashion features, a sampling of which appear in this book, have become instant classics.

Delightfully underscored by Grace’s pen-and-ink illustrations, Grace will introduce readers to the colorful designers, hairstylists, makeup artists, photographers, models, and celebrities with whom Grace has created her signature images. Grace reveals her private world with equal candor—the car accident that almost derailed her modeling career, her two marriages, the untimely death of her sister, Rosemary, her friendship with Harper’s Bazaar editor-in-chief Liz Tilberis, and her thirty-year romance with Didier Malige. Finally, Grace describes her abiding relationship with Anna Wintour, and the evolving mastery by which she has come to define the height of fashion.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY FINANCIAL TIMES

“If Wintour is the Pope . . . Coddington is Michelangelo, trying to paint a fresh version of the Sistine Chapel twelve times a year.”� Time]]> 416 Grace Coddington 0812993357 Simone 0 to-read 3.78 2012 Grace: A Memoir
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average rating: 3.78
book published: 2012
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]]> The Goldfinch 17333223
Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love - and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph - a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate.]]> 771 Donna Tartt 0316055433 Simone 5 3.94 2013 The Goldfinch
author: Donna Tartt
name: Simone
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 5
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]]> We Need to Talk About Kevin 80660 The gripping international bestseller about motherhood gone awry.

Eva never really wanted to be a mother - and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.

]]> 400 Lionel Shriver 006112429X Simone 5 4.07 2003 We Need to Talk About Kevin
author: Lionel Shriver
name: Simone
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2003
rating: 5
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]]> Demons 22343708 They were going to tell stories. Let's go away for the weekend, said Megan, and leave our phones behind and turn off the computers and television and stop time because time is moving too fast and soon we'll all be saying where the hell did our lives go? We'll cook some food and drink some wine and each tell a story.

IT IS THE MIDDLE OF WINTER. Seven friends leave their ordinary lives behind to travel to a remote coastal beach house off the Great Ocean Road.

The stories they tell, turn by turn, are the beginning of a puzzle, each exposing the foibles of humankind.

But what to these disturbing tales reveal - or conceal - about each of them? Where does fact finish and fiction begin?

As a storm rolls in and torrential rain cuts the party off from the outside world, it becomes clear that some secrets are best kept hidden.

Brilliantly exploring the line between life and art, truth and lies, Demons is a mesmerising novel from one of Australia's most inventive writers.]]> 230 Wayne Macauley 1922147362 Simone 0 to-read 2.71 2014 Demons
author: Wayne Macauley
name: Simone
average rating: 2.71
book published: 2014
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]]> Golden Boys 20621185 "Sonya Hartnett's third novel for adults is perfectly formed and utterly compelling, an unflinching and disquieting work from one of Australia's finest writers." - Booktopia

Colt Jenson and his younger brother Bastian live in a world of shiny, new things � skateboards, slot cars, train sets and even the latest BMX. Their affluent father, Rex, has made sure that they'll be the envy of the new, working-class suburb they've moved to.

But underneath the surface of the perfect family, is there something unsettling about the Jensons? To the local kids, Rex becomes a kind of hero, but Colt senses there's something in his father that could destroy their fragile new lives.]]> 224 Sonya Hartnett 1926428617 Simone 0 to-read 3.72 2014 Golden Boys
author: Sonya Hartnett
name: Simone
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2014
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]]> <![CDATA[Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned"]]> 20588698 Not That Kind of Girl. These are stories about getting your butt touched by your boss, about friendship and dieting (kind of) and having two existential crises before the age of 20. Stories about travel, both successful and less so, and about having the kind of sex where you feel like keeping your sneakers on in case you have to run away during the act. Stories about proving yourself to a room of 50-year-old men in Hollywood and showing up to "an outlandishly high-fashion event with the crustiest red nose you ever saw." Fearless, smart, and as heartbreakingly honest as ever, Not That Kind of Girl establishes Lena Dunham as more than a hugely talented director, actress and producer-it announces her as a fresh and vibrant new literary voice.]]> 265 Lena Dunham 081299499X Simone 4 3.28 2014 Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned"
author: Lena Dunham
name: Simone
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2014
rating: 4
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]]> The Dinner 15797938
Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act - an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. When the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple shows just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, The Dinner is an internationally bestselling phenomenon that will leave you breathless.]]> 292 Herman Koch 0770437850 Simone 2 3.18 2009 The Dinner
author: Herman Koch
name: Simone
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2009
rating: 2
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]]> April Fool's Day 510247 673 Bryce Courtenay 0140272933 Simone 5 4.21 1993 April Fool's Day
author: Bryce Courtenay
name: Simone
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1993
rating: 5
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]]> Skin (Skin #1) 24721903
For the people of Caer Cad, ‘skin� is their totem, their greeting, their ancestors, their land.

Ailia does not have skin. Abandoned at birth, she serves the Tribequeen of her township. Ailia is not permitted to marry, excluded from tribal ceremonies and, most devastatingly, forbidden to learn. But the Mothers, the tribal ancestors, have chosen her for another path.

Lured by the beautiful and enigmatic Taliesin, Ailia embarks on an unsanctioned journey to attain the knowledge that will protect her people from the most terrifying invaders they have ever faced.

Set in Iron-Age Britain on the cusp of Roman invasion, Skin is a thrilling, full-blooded, mesmerising novel about the collision of two worlds, and a young woman torn between two men.]]> 356 Ilka Tampke 1922182338 Simone 0 to-read 3.81 2015 Skin (Skin #1)
author: Ilka Tampke
name: Simone
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]>