rshepard24gmail.com's bookshelf: read en-US Thu, 03 Aug 2023 01:54:35 -0700 60 rshepard24gmail.com's bookshelf: read 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs]]> 37559166 Legendary venture capitalist John Doerr reveals how the goal-setting system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) has helped tech giants from Intel to Google achieve explosive growth--and how it can help any organization thrive.

In the fall of 1999, John Doerr met with the founders of a start-up whom he'd just given $12.5 million, the biggest investment of his career. Larry Page and Sergey Brin had amazing technology, entrepreneurial energy, and sky-high ambitions, but no real business plan. For Google to change the world (or even to survive), Page and Brin had to learn how to make tough choices on priorities while keeping their team on track. They'd have to know when to pull the plug on losing propositions, to fail fast. And they needed timely, relevant data to track their progress -- to measure what mattered.

Doerr taught them about a proven approach to operating excellence: Objectives and Key Results. He had first discovered OKRs in the 1970s as an engineer at Intel, where the legendary Andy Grove ("the greatest manager of his or any era") drove the best-run company Doerr had ever seen. Later, as a venture capitalist, Doerr shared Grove's brainchild with more than fifty companies. Wherever the process was faithfully practiced, it worked.

In this goal-setting system, objectives define what we seek to achieve; key results are how those top-priority goals will be attained with specific, measurable actions within a set time frame. Everyone's goals, from entry level to CEO, are transparent to the entire organization.

The benefits are profound. OKRs surface an organization's most important work. They focus effort and foster coordination. They keep employees on track. They link objectives across silos to unify and strengthen the entire company. Along the way, OKRs enhance workplace satisfaction and boost retention.

In Measure What Matters, Doerr shares a broad range of first-person, behind-the-scenes case studies, with narrators including Bono and Bill Gates, to demonstrate the focus, agility, and explosive growth that OKRs have spurred at so many great organizations. This book will help a new generation of leaders capture the same magic.]]>
320 John Doerr 052553623X rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.11 2017 Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs
author: John Doerr
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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A Visit from the Goon Squad 8519525 NATIONAL BESTSELLER
National Book Critics Circle Award Winner
PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist
A New York Times Book Review Best Book

One of the Best Books of the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Daily Beast, The Miami Herald, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Newsday, NPR's On Point, O, the Oprah Magazine, People, Publishers Weekly, Salon, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Slate, Time, The Washington Post, and Village Voice

Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.




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337 Jennifer Egan rshepard24gmail.com 0 3.75 2010 A Visit from the Goon Squad
author: Jennifer Egan
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2023/05/31
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The Last Days of Night 59041265
The case affords Paul entry to the heady world of high society--the glittering parties in Gramercy Park mansions, and the more insidious dealings done behind closed doors. The task facing him is beyond daunting. Edison is a wily, dangerous opponent with vast resources at his disposal--private spies, newspapers in his pocket, and the backing of J. P. Morgan himself. Yet this unknown lawyer shares with his famous adversary a compulsion to win at all costs. How will he do it?

In obsessive pursuit of victory, Paul crosses paths with Nikola Tesla, an eccentric, brilliant inventor who may hold the key to defeating Edison, and with Agnes Huntington, a beautiful opera singer who proves to be a flawless performer on stage and off. As Paul takes greater and greater risks, he'll find that everyone in his path is playing their own game, and no one is quite who they seem.]]>
370 Graham Moore rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.46 2016 The Last Days of Night
author: Graham Moore
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2023/01/26
date added: 2023/01/26
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<![CDATA[Outliers: The Story of Success]]> 7630041 Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Blink and The Bomber Mafia and host of the podcast Revisionist History, explores what sets high achievers apartâ€Äěrom Bill Gates to the Beatlesâ€�in this seminal work from "a singular talent" (New York Times Book Review). In this stunning book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"—the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band. Brilliant and entertaining, Outliers is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate.]]> 321 Malcolm Gladwell rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.30 2008 Outliers: The Story of Success
author: Malcolm Gladwell
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)]]> 20562717 DAY ONE: THE NAME OF THE WIND
Ěý
My name is Kvothe.
Ěý
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
Ěý
You may have heard of me.
Ěý
So begins a tale unequaled in fantasy literature—the story of a hero told in his own voice. It is a tale of sorrow, a tale of survival, a tale of one man’s search for meaning in his universe, and how that search, and the indomitable will that drove it, gave birth to a legend. Ěý
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676 Patrick Rothfuss rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.55 2007 The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at: 2022/11/07
date added: 2022/11/07
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<![CDATA[Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike, #3)]]> 40611999 Cormoran Strike is back, with his assistant Robin Ellacott, in a mystery based around soldiers returning from war.

When a mysterious package is delivered to Robin Ellacott, she is horrified to discover that it contains a woman’s severed leg.

Her boss, private detective Cormoran Strike, is less surprised but no less alarmed. There are four people from his past who he thinks could be responsible � and Strike knows that any one of them is capable of sustained and unspeakable brutality.

With the police focusing on the one suspect Strike is increasingly sure is not the perpetrator, he and Robin take matters into their own hands, and delve into the dark and twisted worlds of the other three men. But as more horrendous acts occur, time is running out for the two of them�

Career of Evil is the third in the series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott. A mystery and also a story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives.]]>
609 Robert Galbraith 0316349925 rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.22 2015 Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike, #3)
author: Robert Galbraith
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2022/11/06
date added: 2022/11/07
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<![CDATA[Remembrance of Earth's Past: The Three-Body Trilogy (Remembrance of Earth's Past, #1-3)]]> 34569357 This discounted ebundle includes: The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, Death’s End

"Wildly imaginative, really interesting." —President Barack Obama

The Three-Body trilogy by New York Times bestseller Cixin Liu keeps you riveted with high-octane action, political intrigue, and unexpected twists in this saga of first contact with the extraterrestrial Trisolaris.


The Three-Body Problem � An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion.

The Dark Forest � In The Dark Forest, the aliens' human collaborators may have been defeated, but the presence of the sophons, the subatomic particles that allow Trisolaris instant access to all human information remains. Humanity responds with the Wallfacer Project, a daring plan that grants four men enormous resources to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from Earth and Trisolaris alike. Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is a total unknown. Luo Ji, an unambitious Chinese astronomer and sociologist, is baffled by his new status. All he knows is that he's the one Wallfacer that Trisolaris wants dead.

Death’s End � Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early 21st century, awakens from hibernation in this new age. She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds. Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?

Other Books by Cixin Liu (Translated to English)

The Remembrance of Earth's Past
The Three-Body Problem
The Dark Forest
Death's End

Other Books
Ball Lightning

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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1884 Liu Cixin rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.62 2012 Remembrance of Earth's Past: The Three-Body Trilogy (Remembrance of Earth's Past, #1-3)
author: Liu Cixin
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2022/09/11
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<![CDATA[The Way of the Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire]]> 33804873

The mark of a true classic is that it becomes more relevant with the passage of time Twenty years ago, David Deida wrote The Way of the Superior Man share lessons on “how a man can grow spiritually while passionately tussling with the challenges of women, work, and sexual desire,� Today, men of all ages continue to struggle with these universal challenges, and the practical insights found in this book will help each one of us to give the gifts we were born to give.

“It is time to evolve beyond the macho jerk ideal, all spine and no heart,� writes David Deida “It is also time to evolve beyond the sensitive and caring wimp ideal, all heart and no spine � Including an all-new introduction by the author, The Way of the Superior Man invites a new generation of men to participate in the full expression of consciousness and love in the infinite openness of the present moment.

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204 David Deida 1622038339 rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.32 1997 The Way of the Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire
author: David Deida
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at: 2022/09/10
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<![CDATA[Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It]]> 44548093 A Wall Street JournalĚýBestseller!What are venture capitalists saying about your startup behind closed doors? And what can you do to influence that conversation?If Silicon Valley is the greatest wealth-generating machine in the world, Sand Hill Road is its humming engine. That's where you'll find the biggest names in venture capital, including famed VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, where lawyer-turned-entrepreneur-turned-VC Scott Kupor serves as managing partner.Whether you're trying to get a new company off the ground or scale an existing business to the next level, you need to understand how VCs think. In Secrets of Sand Hill Road, Kupor explains exactly how VCs decide where and how much to invest, and how entrepreneurs can get the best possible deal and make the most of their relationships with VCs. Kupor explains, for ĚýĚýĚý•ĚýWhy most VCs typically invest in only one startup in a given business category. ĚýĚýĚý•ĚýWhy the skill you need most when raising venture capital is the ability to tell a compelling story. ĚýĚýĚý•ĚýHow to handle a "down round," when startups have to raise funds at a lower valuation than in the previous round. ĚýĚýĚý•ĚýWhat to do when VCs get too entangled in the day-to-day operations of the business. ĚýĚýĚý•ĚýWhy you need to build relationships with potential acquirers long before you decide to sell. Filled with Kupor's firsthand experiences, insider advice, and practical takeaways, Secrets of Sand Hill Road is the guide every entrepreneur needs to turn their startup into the next unicorn.]]> 320 Scott Kupor 0593083598 rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.32 2019 Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It
author: Scott Kupor
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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The Goldfinch 18902634
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.]]>
774 Donna Tartt rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.03 2013 The Goldfinch
author: Donna Tartt
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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SPIN Selling 34390929 The international bestseller that revolutionized high-end selling!

Written by Neil Rackham, former president and founder of Huthwaite corporation, SPIN Selling is essential reading for anyone involved in selling or managing a sales force. Unquestionably the best-documented account of sales success ever collected and the result of the Huthwaite corporation's massive 12-year, $1-million dollar research into effective sales performance, this groundbreaking resource details the revolutionary SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff) strategy.

In SPIN Selling, Rackham, who has advised leading companies such as IBM and Honeywell delivers the first book to specifically examine selling high-value product and services. By following the simple, practical, and easy-to-apply techniques of SPIN, readers will be able to dramatically increase their sales volume from major accounts. Rackham answers key questions such as “What makes success in major sales� and “Why do techniques like closing work in small sales but fail in larger ones?�

You will learn why traditional sales methods which were developed for small consumer sales, just won't work for large sales and why conventional selling methods are doomed to fail in major sales. Packed with real-world examples, illuminating graphics, and informative case studies - and backed by hard research data - SPIN Selling is the million-dollar key to understanding and producing record-breaking high-end sales performance.

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234 Neil Rackham 1260027090 rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.52 1988 SPIN Selling
author: Neil Rackham
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike, #1)]]> 40193858 561 Robert Galbraith rshepard24gmail.com 4 4.13 2013 The Cuckoo's Calling (Cormoran Strike, #1)
author: Robert Galbraith
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2020/11/16
date added: 2020/11/16
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Greenlights 54771828
Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges—how to get relative with the inevitable—you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.�

So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.

Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.

It’s a love letter. To life.

It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights—and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

Good luck.]]>
253 Matthew McConaughey rshepard24gmail.com 5 4.19 2020 Greenlights
author: Matthew McConaughey
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/10/28
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Where the Crawdads Sing 42421761
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life's lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world–until the unthinkable happens.

In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens juxtaposes an exquisite ode to the natural world against a profound coming of age story and haunting mystery. Thought-provoking, wise, and deeply moving, Owens’s debut novel reminds us that we are forever shaped by the child within us, while also subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps.

The story asks how isolation influences the behavior of a young woman, who like all of us, has the genetic propensity to belong to a group. The clues to the mystery are brushed into the lush habitat and natural histories of its wild creatures.]]>
370 Delia Owens rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.60 2018 Where the Crawdads Sing
author: Delia Owens
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2020/08/09
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<![CDATA[The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Millennium, #3)]]> 8300755 Lisbeth Salander - outsider and apparent enemy of society - is charged with attempted murder. The state has also ruled that she is mentally unstable, and should be locked away in an institution once again But she is closely guarded in a hospital having taken a bullet to the head so how will she prove her innocence?

The Enemy
Pulling the strings of the prosecution is the powerful inner circle of Säpo, the state security police. Determined to protect the secrets and corruption at Sweden's rotten core, Säpo is not an adversary to take on alone.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Only with the help of Mikael Blomkvist and the journalists at Millennium magazine can Salander avoid the fate that has been decided for her. Together they form a compelling and dynamic alliance. This final volume of the Millenium Trilogy is the culmination of one of the most mesmerizing fictional achievements of our time.]]>
675 Stieg Larsson rshepard24gmail.com 5 4.37 2007 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Millennium, #3)
author: Stieg Larsson
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2020/05/23
date added: 2020/05/23
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<![CDATA[The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millennium #2)]]> 8115818 Millenium publisher Mikael Blomkvist has made his reputation exposing corrupt establishment figures. So when a young journalist approaches him with an investigation into sex trafficking, Blomkvist cannot resist waging war on the powerful figures who control this lucrative industry.

The Murder
When a young couple is found dead in their Stockholm apartment, it's a straightforward job for Inspector Bublanski and his team. The killer left the weapon at the scene - and the fingerprints on the gun point in only one direction.

The Girl Who Played with Fire
Ex-security analyst Lisbeth Salander is wanted for murder. Her history of unpredictable and vengeful behaviour makes her an official danger to society - but no-one can find her. The only way Salander can be reached is by computer. But she can break into almost any network she chooses...]]>
738 Stieg Larsson rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.37 2006 The Girl Who Played With Fire (Millennium #2)
author: Stieg Larsson
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at: 2020/04/21
date added: 2020/04/21
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The Bone Tree (Penn Cage #5) 22961745
The only way Penn can save his father, Dr. Tom Cage—who is fleeing a murder charge as well as corrupt cops bent on killing him—is either to make a devil’s bargain with Knox or destroy him. While Penn desperately pursues both options, Caitlin uncovers the real story behind a series of unsolved civil rights murders that may hold the key to the Double Eagles� downfall. The trail leads her deep into the past, into the black backwaters of the Mississippi River, to a secret killing ground used by slave owners and the Klan for over two hundred years . . . a place of terrifying evil known only as “the bone tree.�

The Bone Tree is an explosive, action-packed thriller full of twisting intrigue and deadly secrets, a tale that explores the conflicts and casualties that result when the darkest truths of American history come to light. It puts us inside the skin of a noble man who has always fought for justice—now finally pushed beyond his limits.

Just how far will Penn Cage, the hero we thought we knew, go to protect those he loves?

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865 Greg Iles 006231114X rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.34 2015 The Bone Tree (Penn Cage #5)
author: Greg Iles
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2019/12/17
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<![CDATA[Natchez Burning (Penn Cage, #4)]]> 19416701 New York Times bestselling author Greg Iles comes the first novel in his Natchez Burning trilogy—which also includes The Bone Tree and the upcoming Mississippi Blood—an epic trilogy that interweaves crimes, lies, and secrets past and present in a mesmerizing thriller featuring Southern lawyer and former prosecutor Penn Cage.

Raised in the southern splendor of Natchez, Mississippi, Penn Cage learned all he knows of duty from his father, Dr. Tom Cage. But now the beloved family doctor has been accused of murdering the African American nurse with whom he worked in the dark days of the 1960s. Once a crusading prosecutor, Penn is determined to save his father, but Tom, stubbornly invoking doctor-patient privilege, refuses even to speak in his own defense.

Penn's quest for the truth sends him deep into his father's past, where a sexually charged secret lies. More chilling, this long-buried sin is only one thread in a conspiracy of greed and murder involving the vicious Double Eagles, an offshoot of the KKK controlled by some of the most powerful men in the state. Aided by a dedicated reporter privy to Natchez's oldest secrets and by his fiancée, Caitlin Masters, Penn uncovers a trail of corruption and brutality that places his family squarely in the Double Eagles' crosshairs.

With every step costing blood and faith, Penn is forced to confront the most wrenching dilemma of his Does a man of honor choose his father or the truth?]]>
865 Greg Iles 0062311107 rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.27 2014 Natchez Burning (Penn Cage, #4)
author: Greg Iles
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2019/12/05
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A Little Life 39100683
In rich and resplendent prose, Yanagihara has fashioned a tragic and transcendent hymn to brotherly love, a masterful depiction of heartbreak, and a dark examination of the tyranny of memory and the limits of human endurance.

Source: penguinrandomhouse.com]]>
951 Hanya Yanagihara 0385539266 rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.29 2015 A Little Life
author: Hanya Yanagihara
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at: 2019/08/07
date added: 2019/08/07
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<![CDATA[Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed]]> 40203647 From a psychotherapist, and national advice columnist comes a thought-provoking new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist's world -- where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she).

One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist in whose office she suddenly lands. With his balding head, cardigan, and khakis, he seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but.

As Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her patients' lives -- a self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a terminal illness, a senior citizen threatening to end her life on her birthday if nothing gets better, and a twenty-something who can't stop hooking up with the wrong guys -- she finds that the questions they are struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to Wendell.

With startling wisdom and humor, Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is revolutionary in its candor, offering a deeply personal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly revealing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.]]>
413 Lori Gottlieb rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.41 2019 Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
author: Lori Gottlieb
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at: 2019/08/07
date added: 2019/08/07
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<![CDATA[Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen]]> 6565082 NATIONAL BESTSELLER â€� The astonishing and hugely entertaining story that completely changed the way we run.ĚýAn epic adventure that began with one simple Why does my foot hurt?“Equal parts quest, physiology treatise, and running history.... The climactic race reads like a sprint.... It simply makes you want to run.â€� —Outside MagazineIsolated by Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. In a riveting narrative, award-winning journalist and often-injured runner Christopher McDougall sets out to discover their secrets. In the process, he takes his readers from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America’s best ultra-runners against the tribe. McDougall’s incredible story will not only engage your mind but inspire your body when you realize that you, indeed all of us, were born to run.Look for Born to Run 2, out now!]]> 306 Christopher McDougall 0307271919 rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.45 2009 Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
author: Christopher McDougall
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at: 2018/08/27
date added: 2018/08/27
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Beartown (Beartown, #1) 31675787
People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.]]>
432 Fredrik Backman rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.36 2016 Beartown (Beartown, #1)
author: Fredrik Backman
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2018/08/18
date added: 2018/08/18
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<![CDATA[How to Fix a Broken Heart (TED Books)]]> 36896608
Real heartbreak is unmistakable. We think of nothing else. We feel nothing else. We care about nothing else. Yet while we wouldn’t expect someone to return to daily activities immediately after suffering a broken limb, heartbroken people are expected to function normally in their lives, despite the emotional pain they feel. Now psychologist Guy Winch imagines how different things would be if we paid more attention to this unique emotion—if only we can understand how heartbreak works, we can begin to fix it.

Through compelling research and new scientific studies, Winch reveals how and why heartbreak impacts our brain and our behavior in dramatic and unexpected ways, regardless of our age. Emotional pain lowers our ability to reason, to think creatively, to problem solve, and to function at our best. In How to Fix a Broken Heart he focuses on two types of emotional pain—romantic heartbreak and the heartbreak that results from the loss of a cherished pet. These experiences are both accompanied by severe grief responses, yet they are not deemed as important as, for example, a formal divorce or the loss of a close relative. As a result, we are often deprived of the recognition, support, and compassion afforded to those whose heartbreak is considered more significant.

Our heart might be broken, but we do not have to break with it. Winch reveals that recovering from heartbreak always starts with a decision, a determination to move on when our mind is fighting to keep us stuck. We can take control of our lives and our minds and put ourselves on the path to healing. Winch offers a toolkit on how to handle and cope with a broken heart and how to, eventually, move on.]]>
129 Guy Winch 1501120131 rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.30 2018 How to Fix a Broken Heart (TED Books)
author: Guy Winch
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2018/06/25
date added: 2018/06/25
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<![CDATA[The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life]]> 29965800 ASIN B019MMUA8S moved to the more recent edition

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Over 1 million copies sold

In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.

For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F**k positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected American society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited�"not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault." Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.

There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.

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229 Mark Manson rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.11 2016 The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
author: Mark Manson
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2018/06/24
date added: 2018/06/24
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<![CDATA[Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It]]> 15846918
Afterwards, people came up individually and told me how much what I'd shared meant to them. This book is based on the truth I spoke about.

It's something I learned from within myself, something I believed saved me. And more than that, the way I set about to do it.

This is a collection of thoughts on what I learned, what worked, what didn't. Where I succeed and importantly, where I fail daily.

The truth is to love yourself with the same intensity you would use to pull yourself up if you were hanging off a cliff with your fingers. As if your life depended upon it. Once you get going, it's not hard to do. Just takes commitment and I'll share how I did it.

It's been transformative for me. I know it will be transformative for you as well.]]>
58 Kamal Ravikant rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.07 2012 Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It
author: Kamal Ravikant
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at: 2018/06/19
date added: 2018/06/19
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Thy Neighbor's Wife 6648162

The provocative classic work newly updated

An intimate personal odyssey across America's changing sexual landscape

When first published, Gay Talese's 1981 groundbreaking work, Thy Neighbor's Wife, shocked a nation with its powerful, eye-opening revelations about the sexual activities and proclivities of the American public in the era before AIDS. A marvel of journalistic courage and craft, the book opened a window into a new world built on a new moral foundation, carrying the reader on a remarkable journey from the Playboy Mansion to the Supreme Court, to the backyards and bedrooms of suburbia—through the development of the porn industry, the rise of the "swinger" culture, the legal fight to define obscenity, and the daily sex lives of "ordinary" people. It is the book that forever changed the way Americans look at themselves and one another.

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482 Gay Talese 0061872288 rshepard24gmail.com 0 3.86 1980 Thy Neighbor's Wife
author: Gay Talese
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at: 2018/06/06
date added: 2018/06/06
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<![CDATA[The Escape Artist (Escape Artist #1)]]> 34923859 Who is Nola Brown? Nola is a mystery Nola is trouble. And Nola is supposed to be dead.
Her body was found on a plane that mysteriously fell from the sky as it left a secret military base in the Alaskan wilderness. Her commanding officer verifies she's dead. The US government confirms it. But Jim "Zig" Zigarowski has just found out the truth: Nola is still alive. And on the run.
Zig works at Dover Air Force Base, helping put to rest the bodies of those who die on top-secret missions. Nola was a childhood friend of Zig's daughter and someone who once saved his daughter's life. So when Zig realizes Nola is still alive, he's determined to find her. Yet as Zig digs into Nola's past, he learns that trouble follows Nola everywhere she goes.
Nola is the US Army's artist-in-residence-a painter and trained soldier who rushes into battle, making art from war's aftermath and sharing observations about today's wars that would otherwise go overlooked. On her last mission, Nola saw something nobody was supposed to see, earning her an enemy unlike any other, one who will do whatever it takes to keep Nola quiet.
Together, Nola and Zig will either reveal a sleight of hand being played at the highest levels of power or die trying to uncover the US Army's most mysterious secret-a centuries-old conspiracy that traces back through history to the greatest escape artist of all: Harry Houdini.
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432 Brad Meltzer rshepard24gmail.com 0 3.97 2018 The Escape Artist (Escape Artist #1)
author: Brad Meltzer
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2018/06/03
date added: 2018/06/03
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The Hellfire Club 36621070
The debut political thriller from Jake Tapper, CNN's chief Washington correspondent and the New York Times bestselling author of The Outpost-- 1950's D.C. intrigue about a secret society and a young Congressman in its grip

Charlie Marder is an unlikely Congressman. Thrust into office by his family ties after his predecessor died mysteriously, Charlie is struggling to navigate the dangerous waters of 1950s Washington, DC, alongside his young wife Margaret, a zoologist with ambitions of her own. Amid the swirl of glamorous and powerful political leaders and deal makers, a mysterious fatal car accident thrusts Charlie and Margaret into an underworld of backroom deals, secret societies, and a plot that could change the course of history. When Charlie discovers a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of governance, he has to fight not only for his principles and his newfound political career...but for his life.
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352 Jake Tapper rshepard24gmail.com 0 3.87 2018 The Hellfire Club
author: Jake Tapper
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2018/05/26
date added: 2018/05/26
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Molly's Game 22462732
Molly Bloom reveals how she built one of the most exclusive, high-stakes underground poker games in the world—an insider’s story of excess and danger, glamour and greed.

In the late 2000s, Molly Bloom, a twentysomething petite brunette from Loveland Colorado, ran the highest stakes, most exclusive poker game Hollywood had ever seen—she was its mistress, its lion tamer, its agent, and its oxygen. Everyone wanted in, few were invited to play.

Hundreds of millions of dollars were won and lost at her table. Molly’s game became the game for those in the know—celebrities, business moguls, and millionaires. Molly staged her games in palatial suites with beautiful views and exquisite amenities. She flew privately, dined at exclusive restaurants, hobnobbed with the heads of Hollywood studios, was courted by handsome leading men, and was privy to the world’s most delicious gossip, until it all came crashing down around her.

Molly’s Game is a behind the scenes look at Molly’s game, the life she created, the life she lost, and what she learned in the process.]]>
274 Molly Bloom rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.11 2014 Molly's Game
author: Molly Bloom
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2018/01/12
date added: 2018/01/12
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<![CDATA[Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry Series)]]> 33395538 The #1 New York Times Bestseller: The essential universe, from our most celebrated and beloved astrophysicist.

What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? There’s no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.

But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.

While you wait for your morning coffee to brew, for the bus, the train, or a plane to arrive, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.

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222 Neil deGrasse Tyson rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.27 2017 Astrophysics for People in a Hurry (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry Series)
author: Neil deGrasse Tyson
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2018/01/01
date added: 2018/01/01
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<![CDATA[World Without End (Kingsbridge, #2)]]> 5201512
World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth. The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own. This time the men and women of an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroads of new ideas—about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice. In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race—the Black Death.]]>
1088 Ken Follett rshepard24gmail.com 5 4.47 2007 World Without End (Kingsbridge, #2)
author: Ken Follett
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2017/12/13
date added: 2017/12/13
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<![CDATA[Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1)]]> 18158562
Rachel might as well have a target on her back. Initiated into a world of dynastic splendor beyond imagination, Rachel meets Astrid, the It Girl of Singapore society; Eddie, whose family practically lives in the pages of the Hong Kong socialite magazines; and Eleanor, Nick's formidable mother, a woman who has very strong feelings about who her son should--and should not--marry.

Uproarious, addictive, and filled with jaw-dropping opulence, Crazy Rich Asians is an insider's look at the Asian JetSet; a perfect depiction of the clash between old money and new money; between Overseas Chinese and Mainland Chinese; and a fabulous novel about what it means to be young, in love, and gloriously,ĚýcrazilyĚýrich.]]>
546 Kevin Kwan 0385536984 rshepard24gmail.com 0 3.99 2013 Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1)
author: Kevin Kwan
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2017/10/14
date added: 2017/10/14
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I Am Pilgrim (Pilgrim, #1) 18297514
Pilgrim is the codename for a man who doesn’t exist. The adopted son of a wealthy American family, he once headed up a secret espionage unit for US intelligence. Before he disappeared into anonymous retirement, he wrote the definitive book on forensic criminal investigation.

But that book will come back to haunt him. It will help NYPD detective Ben Bradley track him down. And it will take him to a rundown New York hotel room where the body of a woman is found facedown in a bath of acid, her features erased, her teeth missing, her fingerprints gone. It is a textbook murder � and Pilgrim wrote the book.

What begins as an unusual and challenging investigation will become a terrifying race-against-time to save America from oblivion. Pilgrim will have to make a journey from a public beheading in Mecca to a deserted ruins on the Turkish coast via a Nazi death camp in Alsace and the barren wilderness of the Hindu Kush in search of the faceless man who would commit an appalling act of mass murder in the name of his God.]]>
624 Terry Hayes 1439177740 rshepard24gmail.com 5 4.50 2013 I Am Pilgrim (Pilgrim, #1)
author: Terry Hayes
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2017/10/05
date added: 2017/10/05
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<![CDATA[Breaking BUD/S: How Regular Guys Can Become Navy SEALs (formerly The SEAL Training Bible)]]> 18848204 423 Mark Owens rshepard24gmail.com 0 4.34 2013 Breaking BUD/S: How Regular Guys Can Become Navy SEALs (formerly The SEAL Training Bible)
author: Mark Owens
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at: 2017/01/02
date added: 2017/01/02
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<![CDATA[Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind]]> 20873740 From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.�

One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?

Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.

Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?

Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem.]]>
414 Yuval Noah Harari 0062316109 rshepard24gmail.com 4 4.44 2011 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2016/03/14
date added: 2016/03/14
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Steve Jobs 11297044 Walter Isaacson’s “enthralling� (The New Yorker) worldwide bestselling biography of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs.

Based on more than forty interviews with Steve Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than 100 family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. Isaacson’s portrait touched millions of readers.

At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.

Although Jobs cooperated with the author, he asked for no control over what was written. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. He himself spoke candidly about the people he worked with and competed against.

His friends, foes, and colleagues offer an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.

His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership, and values.

Steve Jobs is the inspiration for the movie of the same name starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, and Jeff Daniels, directed by Danny Boyle with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.]]>
656 Walter Isaacson rshepard24gmail.com 5 4.29 2011 Steve Jobs
author: Walter Isaacson
name: rshepard24gmail.com
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2015/11/24
date added: 2015/11/24
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