en-US Mon, 15 Nov 2010 06:38:08 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 2177236
Meanwhile, browsing through an online memorial for Spencer put together by his classmates, Betsy Hill is struck by a photo that appears to have been taken on the night of her son's death and he wasn't alone. She thinks it is Adam Baye standing just outside the camera's range; but when Adam goes missing, it soon becomes clear that something deep and sinister has infected their community. For Tia and Mike Baye, the question they must answer is this: when it comes to your kids, is it possible to know too much?]]> 416 Harlan Coben Wendy 4 3.94 2008
author: Harlan Coben
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/11/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 43931
Paul Copeland's sister was one of the missing teenagers. Now raising a daughter alone after the death of his wife, he balances family life with a career as a prosecutor. But when a body is found, the well-buried secrets of the past threaten everything.

Could the victim be one of the missing teenagers? Could his sister be alive? Copeland has to confront so much he left behind that summer twenty years ago: his first love, Lucy; his mother, who abandoned the family; and the secrets that his parents have been hiding ...]]> 404 Harlan Coben 0525950125 Wendy 4 4.03 2007
author: Harlan Coben
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/11/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 71332 177 Sapphire 0679766758 Wendy 5 3.89 1996
author: Sapphire
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:
Not for the faint of heart. Lots of language and devastating incidents happen throughout book, but struck me as very true depiction of life as a poor, abused inner-city kid. Makes you grateful for the life you have.
]]> 368916
[text from the back cover of the book]]]> 106 Helene Hanff Wendy 4 4.17 1970
author: Helene Hanff
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 43933
Everyone tells him it's time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible- that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive.

Beck has been warned to tell no one. And he doesn't. Instead, he runs from the people he trusts the most, plunging headlong into a search for the shadowy figure whose messages hold out a desperate hope.

But already Beck is being hunted down. He's headed straight into the heart of a dark and deadly secret- and someone intends to stop him before he gets there.]]> 370 Harlan Coben 0440236703 Wendy 3 4.06 2001
author: Harlan Coben
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 351652 Every Secret Thing is a bravura demonstration of the extraordinary storytelling skill that has won Laura Lippman every major literary prize bestowed upon mystery writers, including the Edgar®, the Anthony, the Shamus, and the Agatha Awards.
]]> 410 Laura Lippman 0060506687 Wendy 4 3.45 2003
author: Laura Lippman
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 842582
What do a suburban mom and her troubled daughter, two recently divorced brothers, a pair of former child stars, born-again Christian newlyweds, and a couple of young millionaires have in common? They have all been selected to compete on Lost and Found, a daring new reality TV show. In teams of two, they will race across the globe - from Egypt to Japan, from Sweden to England - to battle for a million-dollar prize. They must decipher encrypted clues, recover mysterious artifacts, and outwit their opponents to stay in play.

What starts as a lark turns deadly serious as the number of players is whittled down, temptations beckon, and the bonds between partners strain and unravel. Before long the question is not only who will capture the final prize, but at what cost.]]> 496 Carolyn Parkhurst 0786287160 Wendy 1 3.26 2006
author: Carolyn Parkhurst
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2006
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:
Very different from her first book. I found this book to be incredibly boring.
]]> 89691 278 Carolyn Parkhurst 0316778508 Wendy 5 3.58 2003
author: Carolyn Parkhurst
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 783291 The Lovely Bones and Lucky.

For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined. Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this searing, fast-paced novel explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate.

It is a challenging, moving, gripping story, written with the fluidity and strength of voice that only Alice Sebold can bring to the page.]]> 295 Alice Sebold 0316677469 Wendy 1 2.71 2007
author: Alice Sebold
name: Wendy
average rating: 2.71
book published: 2007
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:
HORRIBLE follow-up to "The Lovely Bones." The main character is so unlikeable. I couldn't finish it-got it out of the library twice and stopped reading after the first 50 pages both times.
]]> 60278 Ìý
Reverend Clare Fergusson gets an early morning phone call to join the Millers Kill search and rescue operation. As a former Army helicopter pilot trained in survival skills, she can't refuse the request—even though it's the day of the bishop's annual visit. Worse for Clare, the search operation will link her up with Russ Van Alstyne, the very married local police chief who is her greatest temptation. Now, as Clare and Russ race time to find Millie van der Hoeven, they soon discover the secrets of someone who is desperate to stop the sale...and a deadly madness waiting to destroy them all.
Ìý

To Darkness and to Death is aÌýstunning mystery from award-winning author Julia Spencer-Fleming.]]> 370 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312988877 Wendy 0 currently-reading 4.00 2005
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 60281 ]]> 385 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312995431 Wendy 4 3.89 2003
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 113002 a world of trouble, an attraction to each other--and murder...]]> 370 Julia Spencer-Fleming 0312986769 Wendy 4 3.89 2002
author: Julia Spencer-Fleming
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 1618 226 Mark Haddon 1400032717 Wendy 5 3.89 2003
author: Mark Haddon
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 14935 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780141439662

'The more I know of the world, the more am I convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!'

Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve, and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behaviour leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Meanwhile Elinor, always sensitive to social convention, is struggling to conceal her own romantic disappointment, even from those closest to her. Through their parallel experience of love—and its threatened loss—the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love.

This edition includes explanatory notes, textual variants between the first and second editions, and Tony Tanner's introduction to the original Penguin Classic edition.]]> 409 Jane Austen 0141439661 Wendy 4 4.10 1811
author: Jane Austen
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1811
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 1381 Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.

So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey.

If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance.

In the myths and legends that are retold here, Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom, and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery.

Renowned classicist Bernard Knox's superb Introduction and textual commentary provide new insights and background information for the general reader and scholar alike, intensifying the strength of Fagles' translation.

This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the public at large, and to captivate a new generation of Homer's students.

--

Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, presents us with Homer's best-loved and most accessible poem in a stunning new modern-verse translation.]]> 541 Homer 0143039954 Wendy 5 3.79 -700
author: Homer
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.79
book published: -700
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 3636 208 Lois Lowry 0385732554 Wendy 4 4.12 1993
author: Lois Lowry
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 37435 The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.]]> 302 Sue Monk Kidd 0142001740 Wendy 5 4.10 2001
author: Sue Monk Kidd
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2001
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 227443 a. lose 7 pounds
b. stop smoking
c. develop Inner Poise

"129 lbs. (how is it possible to put on 4 pounds in the middle of the night? Could flesh have somehow solidified becoming denser and heavier? Repulsive, horrifying notion), alcohol units 4 (excellent), cigarettes 21 (poor but will give up totally tomorrow), number of correct lottery numbers 2 (better, but nevertheless useless)..."

"Bridget Jones' Diary" is the devastatingly self-aware, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of Bridget's permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement � a year in which she resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not just to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a responsible adult - and learn to program the VCR.

Over the course of the year, Bridget loses a total of 72 pounds but gains a total of 74. She remains, however, optimistic. Through it all, Bridget will have you helpless with laughter, and � like millions of readers the world round � you'll find yourself shouting, "Bridget Jones is me!"]]> 288 Helen Fielding 014028009X Wendy 5 3.81 1996
author: Helen Fielding
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 10210 Alternate editions can be found here and here.

A gothic masterpiece of tempestuous passions and dark secrets, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is edited with an introduction and notes by Stevie Davis in Penguin Classics.

Charlotte Brontë tells the story of orphaned Jane Eyre, who grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, enduring loneliness and cruelty. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit - which prove necessary when she finds employment as a governess to the young ward of Byronic, brooding Mr Rochester. As her feelings for Rochester develop, Jane gradually uncovers Thornfield Hall's terrible secret, forcing her to make a choice. Should she stay with Rochester and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions - even if it means leaving the man she loves? A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre dazzled readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom.]]> 532 Charlotte Brontë 0142437204 Wendy 4 4.14 1847
author: Charlotte Brontë
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1847
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 14050 537 Audrey Niffenegger 0965818675 Wendy 3 3.90 2003
author: Audrey Niffenegger
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 1885 Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780679783268]]> 279 Jane Austen 1441341706 Wendy 5 4.28 1813
author: Jane Austen
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1813
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 41865
First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him - and I didn't know how dominant that part might be - that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

Deeply seductive and extraordinarily suspenseful, Twilight is a love story with bite.]]> 498 Stephenie Meyer 0316015849 Wendy 5 3.66 2005
author: Stephenie Meyer
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 3 309 J.K. Rowling 0439554934 Wendy 5 4.47 1997
author: J.K. Rowling
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 1202
These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much heralded scholar who studies the stuff and riddles of everyday life -- from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing -- and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. He usually begins with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.

Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives -- how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of ... well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.

What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and -- if the right questions are asked -- is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Steven Levitt, through devilishly clever and clear-eyed thinking, shows how to see through all the clutter.

Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
(front flap)]]> 268 Steven D. Levitt 0061234001 Wendy 4 4.01 2005
author: Steven D. Levitt
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 168642
As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.]]> 343 Truman Capote 0679745580 Wendy 3 4.08 1966
author: Truman Capote
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1966
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 7677
Parque jurásico, la novela más célebre de Michael Crichton y una de las más leídas en los últimos años, fue adaptada al cine por Steven Spielberg en una película que se convirtió en el gran acontecimiento cinematográfico de 1993 y en el origen del fenómeno de masas llamado «dinomanía».]]> 467 Michael Crichton 030734813X Wendy 3 3.90 1990
author: Michael Crichton
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 7869 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Who is Jason Bourne? Is he an assassin, a terrorist, a thief? Why has he got four million dollars in a Swiss bank account? Why has someone tried to murder him?...

Jason Bourne does not know the answer to any of these questions. Suffering from amnesia, he does not even know that he is Jason Bourne. What manner of man is he? What are his secrets? Who has he killed?]]> 566 Robert Ludlum 0752864327 Wendy 3 4.06 1980
author: Robert Ludlum
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1980
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 32542 This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780385338608

Before The Firm and The Pelican Brief made him a superstar, John Grisham wrote this riveting story of retribution and justice. In this searing courtroom drama, best-selling author John Grisham probes the savage depths of racial violence, as he delivers a compelling tale of uncertain justice in a small southern town, Clanton, Mississippi.

The life of a ten-year-old girl is shattered by two drunken and remorseless young men. The mostly white town reacts with shock and horror at the inhuman crime. That is, until her black father acquires an assault rifle and takes matters into his hands.

For ten days, as burning crosses and the crack of sniper fire spread through the streets of Clanton, the nation sits spellbound as young defense attorney Jake Brigance struggles to save his client's life, and then his own.]]> 738 John Grisham Wendy 3 4.11 1989
author: John Grisham
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 77203 371 Khaled Hosseini 159463193X Wendy 5 4.34 2003
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 968 The da Vinci Code, The da Vinci Code, The da Vinci Code, and The da Vinci Code

While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. While working to solve the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci -- clues visible for all to see -- yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion -- an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others.

In a breathless race through Paris, London, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who seems to anticipate their every move. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory's ancient secret -- and an explosive historical truth -- will be lost forever.

The Da Vinci Code heralds the arrival of a new breed of lightning-paced, intelligent thriller utterly unpredictable right up to its stunning conclusion.]]> 489 Dan Brown Wendy 4 3.92 2003
author: Dan Brown
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 7763 Alternate cover editions of ISBN 9780143038092 can be found here.

Four mothers, four daughters, four families, whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's telling the stories. In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of what they left behind in China. United in loss and new hope for their daughters' futures, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Their daughters, who have never heard these stories, think their mothers' advice is irrelevant to their modern American lives � until their own inner crises reveal how much they've unknowingly inherited of their mothers' pasts.

With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.]]> 288 Amy Tan Wendy 3 3.96 1989
author: Amy Tan
name: Wendy
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 7244 The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.]]> 546 Barbara Kingsolver 0060786507 Wendy 5 4.10 1998
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: Wendy
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/04/05
shelves:
review:

]]>