Jacob's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 06 Mar 2025 04:02:42 -0800 60 Jacob's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Hello Beautiful 217005288
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters� unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?]]> 416 Ann Napolitano 0593243757 Jacob 0 to-read 4.14 2023 Hello Beautiful
author: Ann Napolitano
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/06
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]]> <![CDATA[A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul]]> 11786517 123 George MacDonald Jacob 0 4.10 1890 A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul
author: George MacDonald
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1890
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/02/26
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]]> Engaging Exposition 19192566 Discovery process—how to equip the student to discover the meaning of a biblical text by using sound principles of interpretation, and to move from biblical analysis to biblical interpretation.Danny Akin addresses the Development process—how to equip the student to develop expository sermons based upon results of the interpretive process, and to move from the Main Idea of the Text (MIT) to the completed sermon.Stephen Rummage explains the Delivery process—how to equip students to deliver expository messages using the completed sermon, and to move from an understanding of speech communication principles to persuasive delivery.]]> 426 Daniel L. Akin 143367369X Jacob 0 4.21 2011 Engaging Exposition
author: Daniel L. Akin
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/17
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]]> The Hanging City 63127235 For a young woman who wields the power of fear, humanity’s greatest enemy is her only hope in a new fairy-tale adventure by Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg.

Seven years on the run from her abusive father, and with no hope of sanctuary among the dwindling pockets of human civilization, Lark is out of options. Her only leverage is a cursed power: she can thrust fear onto others, leaving all threats fleeing in terror. It’s a means of survival as she searches for a place to call home. If the campfire myths of her childhood are true, Lark’s sole chance for refuge could lie in Cagmar, the city of trolls—a brutal species and the sworn enemies of humanity.

Valuing combat prowess, the troll high council is intrigued. Lark could be much more useful than the low-caste humans who merely labor in Cagmar. Her gift makes her invaluable as a monster slayer to fight off the unspeakable creatures that torment the trolls� hanging city, suspended from a bridge over an endless dark canyon.

Lark will do anything to make Cagmar her home, but her new role comes with a caveat: use her power against a troll, and she’ll be killed. Her loyalty is quickly put to the test when she draws the hatred of a powerful troll who loathes humankind. Still, she finds unexpected friendship in the city and, even more surprisingly, love. But if everything else doesn’t undo her, being caught in the arms of a troll surely will. Now in the fight of her life, Lark has a lot to learn—about her past, about trust and hope when all seems lost, and above all, about the extraordinary power of fear itself.]]> 344 Charlie N. Holmberg 1662508719 Jacob 0 currently-reading 3.96 2023 The Hanging City
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/17
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Domestic Monastery 49360247 112 Ronald Rolheiser 0232534128 Jacob 4 4.27 Domestic Monastery
author: Ronald Rolheiser
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/04
date added: 2025/02/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Glass Magician (The Paper Magician, #2)]]> 22910024 Three months after returning Magician Emery Thane’s heart to his body, Ceony Twill is well on her way to becoming a Folder. Unfortunately, not all of Ceony’s thoughts have been focused on paper magic. Though she was promised romance by a fortuity box, Ceony still hasn’t broken the teacher-student barrier with Emery, despite their growing closeness.

When a magician with a penchant for revenge believes that Ceony possesses a secret, he vows to discover it…even if it tears apart the very fabric of their magical world. After a series of attacks target Ceony and catch those she holds most dear in the crossfire, Ceony knows she must find the true limits of her powers…and keep her knowledge from falling into wayward hands.

The delightful sequel to Charlie N. Holmberg’s The Paper Magician, The Glass Magician will charm readers young and old alike.

]]> 224 Charlie N. Holmberg 147787593X Jacob 0 4.08 2014 The Glass Magician (The Paper Magician, #2)
author: Charlie N. Holmberg
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
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]]> Eleven Numbers 222163948 An American mathematician’s assignment in Russia spirals into a high-stakes maze of shifting loyalties and intrigue in a propulsive short thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child.

Nathan Tyler is an unassuming professor at a middling American university with a rather obscure specialty in mathematics—in short, a nobody from nowhere. So why is the White House calling? Summoned to Washington, DC, for a top-secret briefing, Nathan discovers that he’s the key to a massive foreign intelligence breakthrough. Reading between the lines of a cryptic series of equations, he could open a door straight into the heart of the Kremlin and change the global balance of power forever. All he has to do is get to a meeting with the renowned Russian mathematician who created it. But when Nathan crashes headlong into a dangerous new game, the odds against him suddenly look a lot steeper.]]> 50 Lee Child 1662526202 Jacob 0 4.09 2025 Eleven Numbers
author: Lee Child
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
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]]> On the Holy Spirit 20494441 99 Basil the Great 162630078X Jacob 0 4.19 375 On the Holy Spirit
author: Basil the Great
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.19
book published: 375
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
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]]> <![CDATA[What Did Jesus Really Mean When He Said Follow Me?]]> 19032879 65 David Platt 1414396309 Jacob 0 currently-reading 4.22 2013 What Did Jesus Really Mean When He Said Follow Me?
author: David Platt
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[The Book of Life (All Souls, #3)]]> 16054217 The #1 New York Times bestselling series finale and sequel to A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night

Bringing the magic and suspense of the All Souls Trilogy to a deeply satisfying conclusion, this highly anticipated finale went straight to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In The Book of Life, Diana and Matthew time-travel back from Elizabethan London to make a dramatic return to the present—facing new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home, Sept-Tours, they reunite with the beloved cast of characters from A Discovery of Witches—with one significant exception. But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency.]]> 561 Deborah Harkness 0670025593 Jacob 0 to-read 4.15 2014 The Book of Life (All Souls, #3)
author: Deborah Harkness
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> Never Let Me Go 6334
Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.

Never Let Me Go breaks through the boundaries of the literary novel. It is a gripping mystery, a beautiful love story, and also a scathing critique of human arrogance and a moral examination of how we treat the vulnerable and different in our society. In exploring the themes of memory and the impact of the past, Ishiguro takes on the idea of a possible future to create his most moving and powerful book to date.]]> 288 Kazuo Ishiguro 1400078776 Jacob 0 currently-reading 3.85 2005 Never Let Me Go
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth]]> 35230919
Hailed by many as the best modern book on Christian spirituality, Celebration of Discipline explores the "classic Disciplines," or central spiritual practices, of the Christian faith. Along the way, Foster shows that it is only by and through these practices that the true path to spiritual growth can be found.

Dividing the Disciplines into three movements of the Spirit, Foster shows how each of these areas contribute to a balanced spiritual life. The inward Disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study offer avenues of personal examination and change. The outward Disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service help prepare us to make the world a better place. The corporate Disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration bring us nearer to one another and to God.

Foster provides a wealth of examples demonstrating how these Disciplines can become part of our daily activities—and how they can help us shed our superficial habits and "bring the abundance of God into our lives." He offers crucial new insights on simplicity, demonstrating how the biblical view of simplicity, properly understood and applied, brings joy and balance to our inward and outward lives and "sets us free to enjoy the provision of God as a gift that can be shared with others." The discussion of celebration, often the most neglected of the Disciplines, shows its critical importance, for it stands at the heart of the way to Christ. Celebration of Discipline will help Christians everywhere to embark on a journey of prayer and spiritual growth.]]> 288 Richard J. Foster 0062803883 Jacob 0 currently-reading 4.37 1978 Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth
author: Richard J. Foster
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1978
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/02
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]]> A Christmas Carol 848498 95 Charles Dickens Jacob 4 3.94 1843 A Christmas Carol
author: Charles Dickens
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1843
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/30
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]]> A Year with C.S. Lewis 20038003 Beloved author C. S. Lewis is our trusted guide in this intimate day-by-day companion offering his distinctive and celebrated wisdom. Amidst the bustle of our daily experience, A Year with C. S. Lewis provides the necessary respite and inspiration to meet the many challenges we face in our lives. Ruminating on such themes as the nature of love, the existence of miracles, overcoming a devastating loss, and discovering a profound faith, Lewis offers unflinchingly honest insight for each day of the year.

These daily meditations have been culled from Lewis's celebrated Signature Classics: Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, Miracles, and A Grief Observed, as well as from the distinguished works The Weight of Glory and The Abolition of Man.

Throughout this elegant daybook the reader will find poignant biographical com-mentary about C. S. Lewis's life that offers a remarkable portrait of Lewis in the context of his work. As each day unfolds, we embark on a path of discovery with a friend by your side. A Year with C. S. Lewis is the perfect com-panion for everyone who cherishes Lewis's timeless words.

]]> 416 C.S. Lewis 0007532822 Jacob 4 4.31 2003 A Year with C.S. Lewis
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
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]]> Septology (Septologien, #1-7) 60246552
Jon Fosse’s ​SٴDZDz is a transcendent exploration of the human condition, and a radically other reading experience � incantatory, hypnotic, and utterly unique.]]> 825 Jon Fosse 1804270067 Jacob 0 to-read 4.51 2022 Septology (Septologien, #1-7)
author: Jon Fosse
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/22
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]]> <![CDATA[Life of the Beloved and Our Greatest Gift]]> 33152575 192 Henri J.M. Nouwen 1473635349 Jacob 4 4.25 2002 Life of the Beloved and Our Greatest Gift
author: Henri J.M. Nouwen
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2024/12/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things]]> 157095669 #1 New York Times bestseller

"This brilliant book will shatter your assumptions about what it takes to improve and succeed. I wish I could go back in time and gift it to my younger self. It would've helped me find a more joyful path to progress."
-Serena Williams, 23-time Grand Slam singles tennis champion

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again illuminates how we can elevate ourselves and others to unexpected heights.

We live in a world that’s obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distances we ourselves can travel. We can all improve at improving. And when opportunity doesn’t knock, there are ways to build a door.

Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid story­telling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space. He shows that progress depends less on how hard you work than how well you learn. Growth is not about the genius you possess � it’s about the character you develop. Grant explores how to build the charac­ter skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked.

This book reveals how anyone can rise to achieve greater things. The true measure of your potential is not the height of the peak you’ve reached, but how far you’ve climbed to get there.]]> 304 Adam M. Grant 0593653149 Jacob 0 to-read 4.09 2023 Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things
author: Adam M. Grant
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones]]> 40121378 Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving—every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

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

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

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

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.]]> 319 James Clear Jacob 0 to-read 4.34 2018 Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
author: James Clear
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/27
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 51901147
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]> 541 Suzanne Collins Jacob 0 to-read 3.99 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/27
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]]> Fahrenheit 451 13079982 Sixty years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.� But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.]]> 194 Ray Bradbury Jacob 0 3.97 1953 Fahrenheit 451
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1953
rating: 0
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]]> I Who Have Never Known Men 43208407 ‘For a very long time, the days went by, each just like the day before, then I began to think, and everything changed�

Deep underground, thirty-nine women live imprisoned in a cage. Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only vague recollection of their lives before.

As the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl - the fortieth prisoner - sits alone and outcast in the corner. Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground.]]> 188 Jacqueline Harpman 152911179X Jacob 0 to-read 4.24 1995 I Who Have Never Known Men
author: Jacqueline Harpman
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/27
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]]> Where the Crawdads Sing 36809135
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.]]> 384 Delia Owens 0735219117 Jacob 0 4.35 2018 Where the Crawdads Sing
author: Delia Owens
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow]]> 58784475 In this exhilarating novel, two friends—often in love, but never lovers—come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.

On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.]]> 401 Gabrielle Zevin 0735243344 Jacob 0 to-read 4.12 2022 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
author: Gabrielle Zevin
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/11/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Arise O God: The Gospel of Christ’s Defeat of Demons, Sin, and Death]]> 58923944 146 Andrew Stephen Damick 1955890021 Jacob 3 4.59 Arise O God: The Gospel of Christ’s Defeat of Demons, Sin, and Death
author: Andrew Stephen Damick
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.59
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/28
date added: 2024/11/27
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]]> <![CDATA[Counter Culture Scripture and Prayer Guide]]> 30892910
Let David Platt, in the Counter Culture Scripture and Prayer Guide , take you on a thirty-one-day tour of the pressing issues of our day and how Christ would have us respond to them. This guide includes instructions on how to lead a month-long group discussion about these issues, as well as thirty individual daily Bible readings. Don’t let the winds of this culture push you and your family around. Throughout the next thirty-one days, take time to build your life on the truth of God’s Word.]]> 112 David Platt 1496422759 Jacob 4 4.25 Counter Culture Scripture and Prayer Guide
author: David Platt
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/31
date added: 2024/10/04
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]]> Hello Beautiful 207599286 Can love make a broken person whole?

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it's as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family's dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos.

But then darkness from William's past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia's carefully orchestrated plans for their future but the sisters' unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?

An exquisite homage to Louisa May Alcott's timeless classic Little Women, Hello Beautiful is a profoundly moving portrait of what is possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.]]> 387 Ann Napolitano 0593243730 Jacob 0 to-read 4.05 2023 Hello Beautiful
author: Ann Napolitano
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)]]> 25499718
WHO WILL INHERIT THIS NEW EARTH?

The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.

Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?]]> 608 Adrian Tchaikovsky 1447273281 Jacob 0 to-read 4.29 2015 Children of Time (Children of Time, #1)
author: Adrian Tchaikovsky
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/28
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]]> Titus Groan (Gormenghast, #1) 39063 396 Mervyn Peake 0879514256 Jacob 0 to-read 3.91 1946 Titus Groan (Gormenghast, #1)
author: Mervyn Peake
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1946
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/28
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]]> Night Watch (Watch, #1) 6650931
Set in contemporary Moscow, where shape shifters, vampires, and street-sorcerers linger in the shadows, Night Watch is the first book of the hyper-imaginative fantasy pentalogy from best-selling Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko.

This epic saga chronicles the eternal war of the “Others,� an ancient race of humans with supernatural powers who must swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. The agents of the Dark � the Night Watch � oversee nocturnal activity, while the agents of the Light keep watch over the day. For a thousand years both sides have maintained a precarious balance of power, but an ancient prophecy has decreed that a supreme Other will one day emerge, threatening to tip the scales. Now, that day has arrived. When a mid-level Night Watch agent named Anton stumbles upon a cursed young woman � an uninitiated Other with magnificent potential � both sides prepare for a battle that could lay waste to the entire city, possible the world. With language that throbs like darkly humorous hard-rock lyrics about blood and power, freedom and responsibility, Night Watch is a chilling, cutting-edge thriller, a pulse-pounding ride of fusion fiction that will leave you breathless for the next instalment.]]> 364 Sergei Lukyanenko 1401394604 Jacob 3 3.89 1998 Night Watch (Watch, #1)
author: Sergei Lukyanenko
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1998
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/09/12
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]]> <![CDATA[Upon Waking: 60 Daily Reflections to Discover Ourselves and the God We Were Made For]]> 98181060
What do you wake up to each day? What do you discover once your eyes have opened and you put your feet to the floor? A mountain of notifications? An endless feed of headlines that make you angry? A flood of tasks that you can’t possibly get done in the next twenty-four hours?

What if you could wake up each day to discover something so much bigger—and so much better for you—than all that chaos? What if you could discover God? What if you could discover yourself in light of that God? What if your eyes could be opened to the things that really mattered? What if, in one simple devotional a day, you could glean principles from timeless wisdom to sharpen you for each day's inevitable challenges?

In her lyrical, compelling, and poignant voice, bestselling author and Bible teacher Jackie Hill Perry offers sixty short, daily reflections on specific passages from Scripture to help you awaken to the God you were made for, the life you were made for, and the person you were made to be.
]]> 208 Jackie Hill Perry 1087783712 Jacob 5 4.71 Upon Waking: 60 Daily Reflections to Discover Ourselves and the God We Were Made For
author: Jackie Hill Perry
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.71
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/11
date added: 2024/09/11
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]]> Enjoy your prayer life 21461437 46 Michael Reeves 1909611646 Jacob 0 4.42 2014 Enjoy your prayer life
author: Michael Reeves
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2024/09/11
date added: 2024/09/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)]]> 211721806
You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.

Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show.

Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not.

Includes part one of the exclusive bonus story “Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret.�]]> 450 Matt Dinniman 059382024X Jacob 0 to-read 4.51 2020 Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> North Woods 214642600
This magisterial and highly inventive novel from Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason brims with love and madness, humor and hope. Following the cycles of history, nature, and even language, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment, to history, and to one another. It is not just an unforgettable novel about secrets and destinies, but a way of looking at the world that asks the timeless question: How do we live on, even after we’re gone?]]> 374 Daniel Mason 0593597044 Jacob 0 to-read 4.13 2023 North Woods
author: Daniel Mason
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Hard Rain Falling 6553843 308 Don Carpenter 1590173244 Jacob 0 to-read 4.13 1966 Hard Rain Falling
author: Don Carpenter
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Karamazov Brothers 41722579 Alternate cover edition of ISBN-13: 978-1840221862 / ASIN 1840221860


"What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love."

Translated by Constance Garnett, with an Introduction by A. D. P. Briggs.

As Fyodor Karamazov awaits an amorous encounter, he is violently done to death. The three sons of the old debauchee are forced to confront their own guilt or complicity. Who will own to parricide? The reckless and passionate Dmitri? The corrosive intellectual Ivan? Surely not the chaste novice monk Alyosha? The search reveals the divisions which rack the brothers, yet paradoxically unite them. Around the writhings of this one dysfunctional family Dostoevsky weaves a dense network of social, psychological and philosophical relationships.

At the same time he shows - from the opening 'scandal' scene in the monastery to a personal appearance by an eccentric Devil - that his dramatic skills have lost nothing of their edge. The Karamazov Brothers, completed a few months before Dostoevsky's death in 1881, remains for many the high point of his genius as novelist and chronicler of the modern malaise.

It cast a long shadow over D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Albert Camus, and other giants of twentieth-century European literature.]]> 896 Fyodor Dostoevsky Jacob 0 4.45 1880 The Karamazov Brothers
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1880
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/16
shelves: russian-lit, currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream]]> 7497897
It's easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily...

But who do you know who lives like that? Do you?

In Radical , David Platt challengesyou to consider with an open heart how we havemanipulated thegospel to fit our culturalpreferences. He shows what Jesus actually said about being his disciple--then invites you to believe and obey what you have heard. And he tells the dramatic story of what is happening as a "successful" suburban church decides to get serious about the gospel according to Jesus.

Finally, he urges you to join in The Radical Experiment--a one-year journey in authentic discipleship that will transform how you live in a world that desperately needs the Good News Jesus came to bring.]]> 230 David Platt 1601422210 Jacob 0 4.18 2010 Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream
author: David Platt
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/14
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus]]> 17561431 Why should you join a church?

Becoming a member of a church is an important, and often neglected, part of the Christian life. Yet the trend these days is one of shunning the practice of organized religion and showing a distaste or fear of commitment, especially of institutions.

Jonathan Leeman addresses these issues with a straightforward explanation of what church membership is and why it's important. Giving the local church its proper due, Leeman has built a compelling case for committing to the local body.]]> 146 Jonathan Leeman 1433532395 Jacob 0 to-read 4.27 Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus
author: Jonathan Leeman
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale]]> 120954288 A Kirkus Book Prize Finalist!

Caldecott Medalist and New York Times best-selling author-illustrator Jon Klassen delivers a deliciously macabre treat for folktale fans.

Jon Klassen's signature wry humor takes a turn for the ghostly in this thrilling retelling of a traditional Tyrolean folktale. In a big abandoned house, on a barren hill, lives a skull. A brave girl named Otilla has escaped from terrible danger and run away, and when she finds herself lost in the dark forest, the lonely house beckons. Her host, the skull, is afraid of something too, something that comes every night. Can brave Otilla save them both? Steeped in shadows and threaded with subtle wit—with rich, monochromatic artwork and an illuminating author’s note� The Skull is as empowering as it is mysterious and foreboding.]]> 112 Jon Klassen 1536223360 Jacob 0 4.28 2023 The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale
author: Jon Klassen
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves:
review:

]]> Snail in Space 125279182 A riotous, rousing celebration of self‑belief starring the one and only Gail the Snail!

A 'Watch Out For' pick in The Sunday 'A rallying cry for believing in your goals and sticking to them. It makes you laugh and makes everything seem possible.' Nicolette Jones

'Inspiringly bonkers [...] A lively, humorous collaboration from two picture-book stars.' Imogen Russell Williams, The Guardian
Gail the snail has always been told not to dreamtoo big or reach too far, but Gail is not your average snail, and she hasplans to be the first . . . SNAIL IN SPACE!Join Gail on her stellar adventure and discover the magic of reaching for the stars and giving it your all.
The utterly irresistible new picture book from out-of-this-world bestsellers and creators of Slug in Love, Rachel Bright and Nadia Shireen.
]]> 32 Rachel Bright 1471199460 Jacob 0 4.11 Snail in Space
author: Rachel Bright
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[When Sadness Comes to Call (Big Emotions)]]> 44778717 32 Eva Eland 1783447958 Jacob 0 4.60 2018 When Sadness Comes to Call (Big Emotions)
author: Eva Eland
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.60
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/03
date added: 2024/08/03
shelves:
review:

]]> Paradise Lost 4293527 responses to the poem since its initial publication. They also include on-page notes to explain the poem's language and allusions. This modernized edition of one of the most influential works in the English language will truly bring to light Milton's genius for today's reader.

About the For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.]]> 317 John Milton 0199535744 Jacob 0 currently-reading 3.99 1667 Paradise Lost
author: John Milton
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1667
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Rise 189900510 86 Ian Rankin 1662515340 Jacob 0 3.65 2023 The Rise
author: Ian Rankin
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/28
date added: 2024/07/28
shelves:
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]]> The Sea 581536 264 John Banville 0330483293 Jacob 0 currently-reading 3.39 2005 The Sea
author: John Banville
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/28
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Lathe of Heaven 53513520 This science fiction classic by the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author is"a rare and powerful synthesis of poetry and science, reason and emotion" (The New York Times).

In a near-future world beset by war, climate change, and overpopulation, Portland resident George Orr discovers that his dreams have the power to alter reality. Upon waking, the world he knew has become a strange, barely recognizable place, where only George has a clear memory of how it was before. Seeking escape from these “effective dreams,� George eventually turns to behavioral psychologist Dr. William Haber for a cure. But Haber has other ideas in mind.

Seeing the profound power of George’s dreams, Haber believes it must be harnessed for the greater good—no matter the cost. Soon, George is a pawn in Haber’s dangerous game, where the fate of humanity grows more imperiled with every waking hour.

As relevant today as it was when it won the Locus Award in 1971,The Lathe of Heavenis a true classic, at once eerie and prescient, entertaining and intelligent. In short, it does “what science fiction is supposed to do" (Newsweek).]]> 194 Ursula K. Le Guin Jacob 4 4.24 1971 The Lathe of Heaven
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1971
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/15
date added: 2024/07/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[We Become What We Normalize: What We Owe Each Other in Worlds That Demand Our Silence]]> 142677180


From one of the most respected thinkers and public intellectuals of our day comes a book that is both a cultural critique of the state of our country and a robust summons to resist complicity. As we move through the world, we constantly weigh our conscience against what David Dark calls "deferential fear"--going along just to get along, especially in relation to our cultural, political, and religious conversations. Dark reveals our compromised the host of hidden structures and tacit social arrangements that draw us away from ourselves and threaten to turn us slowly into what we decry in others.



We Become What We Normalize counsels a creative, slow, and artful response to the economy of reaction, hurry, shaming, and fearmongering. Dark offers a deep analysis of the ways our conceptions of ourselves and our use of technology often lead us away from what we believe, reinforcing the false narrative that we must humiliate others in order to survive. "I suspect we become what we sit still for, what we play along with, and what we abide in our attempts to access more perceived power and more alleged influence," Dark writes. We Become What We Normalize calls for a new kind of struggle, ethic, witness, and spirit that helps us step away from the infinite loop of normalizing harm into effecting true change for ourselves and the worlds we inhabit.]]> 225 David Dark 1506481698 Jacob 3 3.43 We Become What We Normalize: What We Owe Each Other in Worlds That Demand Our Silence
author: David Dark
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.43
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/13
date added: 2024/07/13
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus, Become Like Him, Do As He Did]]> 83817455
“One of the most important books I have read in a decade. . . If we would all follow in this way,our lives would change and the world would change.”—Jennie Allen, author of Get Out of Your Head and Find Your People

We are constantly being formed by the world around us. To be formed by Jesus will require us to become his apprentice.

To live by what the first Christian disciples called a Rule of Life—a set of practices and relational rhythms that slow us down and open up space in our daily lives for God to do what only God can do—transforms the deepest parts of us to become like him.

This introduction to spiritual formation is full of John Mark Comer’s trademark mix of theological substance and cultural insight as well as practical wisdom on developing your own Rule of Life.

These ancient practices have much to offer us. By learning to rearrange our days, we can follow the Way of Jesus. We can be with him. Become like him. And do as he did.]]> 288 John Mark Comer 0593193822 Jacob 5 4.57 2024 Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus, Become Like Him, Do As He Did
author: John Mark Comer
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/08
date added: 2024/07/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)]]> 62226126
An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home.

With the body count rising, the package still missing and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die?]]> 421 Richard Osman 0241512441 Jacob 4 4.44 2023 The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)
author: Richard Osman
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1)]]> 164154 334 Walter M. Miller Jr. 0060892994 Jacob 0 to-read 3.99 1959 A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1)
author: Walter M. Miller Jr.
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1959
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Children of Men 8713733 Children of Men is a brilliant mystery possessing all of the qualities which distinguish P.D. James as a novelist.

Under the despotic rule of Xan Lyppiatt, the Warden of England, the old are despairing and the young cruel. Theo Faren, a cousin of the Warden, lives a solitary life in this ominous atmosphere. That is, until a chance encounter with a young woman leads him into contact with a group of dissenters. Suddenly his life is changed irrevocably, as he faces agonising choices which could affect the future of mankind.

PD James is the world's pre-eminent crime writer, most famous for her Adam Dalgliesh mysteries and for her bestselling titles Death Comes to Pemberley and The Murder Room. Children of Men was adapted into a hit film in 2006, directed by Alfonso Cuar�n the film starred Clive Owen, Michael Caine and Julianne Moore.]]> 342 P.D. James 0571253415 Jacob 0 to-read 3.53 1992 The Children of Men
author: P.D. James
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.53
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga, #6)]]> 29227774 Darrow returns as Pierce Brown’s New York Times bestselling Red Rising series continues in the thrilling sequel to Dark Age.

�The measure of a man is not the fear he sows in his enemies. It is the hope he gives his friends.”—Virginia au Augustus

The Reaper is a legend, more myth than man: the savior of worlds, the leader of the Rising, the breaker of chains.

But the Reaper is also Darrow, born of the red soil of Mars: a husband, a father, a friend.

The worlds once needed the Reaper. But now they need Darrow. Because after the dark age will come a new age: of light, of victory, of hope.]]> 682 Pierce Brown 1473646804 Jacob 0 to-read 4.74 2023 Light Bringer (Red Rising Saga, #6)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.74
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga, #4)]]> 33257757 They call him father, liberator, warlord, Reaper. But he feels a boy as he falls toward the pale blue planet, his armor red, his army vast, his heart heavy. It is the tenth year of war and the thirty-second of his life.

A decade ago, Darrow was the hero of the revolution he believed would break the chains of the Society. But the Rising has shattered everything: Instead of peace and freedom, it has brought endless war. Now he must risk everything he has fought for on one last desperate mission. Darrow still believes he can save everyone, but can he save himself?

And throughout the worlds, other destinies entwine with Darrow’s to change his fate forever:

A young Red girl flees tragedy in her refugee camp and achieves for herself a new life she could never have imagined.

An ex-soldier broken by grief is forced to steal the most valuable thing in the galaxy—or pay with his life.

And Lysander au Lune, the heir in exile to the sovereign, wanders the stars with his mentor, Cassius, haunted by the loss of the world that Darrow transformed, and dreaming of what will rise from its ashes.

Red Rising was the story of the end of one universe, and Iron Gold is the story of the creation of a new one. Witness the beginning of a stunning new saga of tragedy and triumph from masterly New York Times bestselling author Pierce Brown.]]> 602 Pierce Brown 042528591X Jacob 0 to-read 4.20 2018 Iron Gold (Red Rising Saga, #4)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Morning Star (Red Rising Saga, #3)]]> 18966806
Finally, the time has come.

But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender.]]> 525 Pierce Brown 0345539842 Jacob 0 to-read 4.52 2016 Morning Star (Red Rising Saga, #3)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)]]> 18966819
A lamb among wolves in a cruel world, Darrow finds friendship, respect, and even love—but also the wrath of powerful rivals. To wage and win the war that will change humankind’s destiny, Darrow must confront the treachery arrayed against him, overcome his all-too-human desire for retribution—and strive not for violent revolt but a hopeful rebirth. Though the road ahead is fraught with danger and deceit, Darrow must choose to follow Eo’s principles of love and justice to free his people.

He must live for more.]]> 466 Pierce Brown 0345539826 Jacob 0 to-read 4.47 2015 Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2)
author: Pierce Brown
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/17
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Cloud Cuckoo Land 62847008 When everything is lost, it’s our stories that survive.

How do we weather the end of things? Cloud Cuckoo Land brings together an unforgettable cast of dreamers and outsiders from past, present and future to offer a vision of survival against all odds.

Constantinople, 1453:
An orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy with a love for animals risk everything on opposite sides of a city wall to protect the people they love.

Idaho, 2020:
An impoverished, idealistic kid seeks revenge on a world that’s crumbling around him. Can he go through with it when a gentle old man stands between him and his plans?

Unknown, Sometime in the Future:
With her tiny community in peril, Konstance is the last hope for the human race. To find a way forward, she must look to the oldest stories of all for guidance.

Bound together by a single ancient text, these tales interweave to form a tapestry of solace and resilience and a celebration of storytelling itself. Like its predecessor All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr’s new novel is a tale of hope and of profound human connection.]]> 580 Anthony Doerr 0008478678 Jacob 0 4.17 2021 Cloud Cuckoo Land
author: Anthony Doerr
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/06/16
date added: 2024/06/16
shelves:
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]]> The Imitation of Christ 18949200 231 Thomas à Kempis 1783790385 Jacob 0 currently-reading 4.62 1427 The Imitation of Christ
author: Thomas à Kempis
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.62
book published: 1427
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/31
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope]]> 48994895 Growing up in the American South, Esau McCaulley knew firsthand the ongoing struggle between despair and hope that marks the lives of some in the African American context. A key element in the fight for hope, he discovered, has long been the practice of Bible reading and interpretation that comes out of traditional Black churches. This ecclesial tradition is often disregarded or viewed with suspicion by much of the wider church and academy, but it has something vital to say. Reading While Black is a personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation. At a time in which some within the African American community are questioning the place of the Christian faith in the struggle for justice, New Testament scholar McCaulley argues that reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition is invaluable for connecting with a rich faith history and addressing the urgent issues of our times. He advocates for a model of interpretation that involves an ongoing conversation between the collective Black experience and the Bible, in which the particular questions coming out of Black communities are given pride of place and the Bible is given space to respond by affirming, challenging, and, at times, reshaping Black concerns. McCaulley demonstrates this model with studies on how Scripture speaks to topics often overlooked by white interpreters, such as ethnicity, political protest, policing, and slavery. Ultimately McCaulley calls the church to a dynamic theological engagement with Scripture, in which Christians of diverse backgrounds dialogue with their own social location as well as the cultures of others. Reading While Black moves the conversation forward.]]> 200 Esau McCaulley Jacob 5
McCauley answers all these questions and more in great detail and with thorough research and with faithful reading of the Biblical text. It is a scholarly work that is immediately accessible and practical so that any reader can enjoy the book and learn from it.

I was challenged to consider the ways in which I read the Bible through a cultural lens and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It simply is - none of us can escape it. You’re reading this review right now through a particular cultural lens and making interpretations based upon that. I would challenge anyone who reads this book to simply start with that basic assumption - and then go forward with reading scripture, holding your various perspectives loosely in one hand. And as we see both our own and others� perspectives, we begin to more clearly see how scripture is reveal not only our culture, but our biases and blind spots. If we’re willing, we can be sanctified all the more deeply by recognizing and learning from these perspectives as we study the scriptures in community. If we’re willing.]]> 4.43 2020 Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope
author: Esau McCaulley
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/26
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves:
review:
What does it mean to read the Bible as an African American? How does that impact your understanding and what insight does that bring to other, non-African American readers in Christian community? Is it even appropriate to have such a distinct lens through which you read, interpret, and apply scripture?

McCauley answers all these questions and more in great detail and with thorough research and with faithful reading of the Biblical text. It is a scholarly work that is immediately accessible and practical so that any reader can enjoy the book and learn from it.

I was challenged to consider the ways in which I read the Bible through a cultural lens and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It simply is - none of us can escape it. You’re reading this review right now through a particular cultural lens and making interpretations based upon that. I would challenge anyone who reads this book to simply start with that basic assumption - and then go forward with reading scripture, holding your various perspectives loosely in one hand. And as we see both our own and others� perspectives, we begin to more clearly see how scripture is reveal not only our culture, but our biases and blind spots. If we’re willing, we can be sanctified all the more deeply by recognizing and learning from these perspectives as we study the scriptures in community. If we’re willing.
]]> ALL ABOUT LOVE 63272004 Podcast-Carle 0 bell hooks 0063269341 Jacob 3
There was something about the tone or writing style that seemed odd to me. Maybe it was just different from what I normally read. At times it felt like authoritative statements, judgments, declarations that “this is how it is� given without much justification of the position? I could very well have missed it and the misunderstanding be my own issue. I did often feel like I was slowly wading through deep water, occasionally finding pearls of wisdom.

But overall, it was such a beautiful challenge to me to read this and I’m glad I bought it. hooks has helped open a door into a new perspective on love and lovelessness in this world and I’m grateful to her for it.]]> 3.83 1999 ALL ABOUT LOVE
author: bell hooks
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/26
date added: 2024/05/01
shelves:
review:
Good book, for better and for worse. There are some powerful statements and points here, made in poignant ways that stuck with me and will continue to stay with me. Like the definition of love (the will to extend oneself to nurture our or another's spiritual growth) and the difference between love and cathexis (essentially investment in someone), or that love and abuse cannot coexist. I appreciated an insistence from the start on defining some key terms. I appreciated insight from a perspective and honesty that I don’t often hear, and I learned a great deal from that.

There was something about the tone or writing style that seemed odd to me. Maybe it was just different from what I normally read. At times it felt like authoritative statements, judgments, declarations that “this is how it is� given without much justification of the position? I could very well have missed it and the misunderstanding be my own issue. I did often feel like I was slowly wading through deep water, occasionally finding pearls of wisdom.

But overall, it was such a beautiful challenge to me to read this and I’m glad I bought it. hooks has helped open a door into a new perspective on love and lovelessness in this world and I’m grateful to her for it.
]]> The Covenant of Water 180357146 From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret

Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala's Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl—and future matriarch, Big Ammachi—will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.

A shimmering evocation of a bygone India and of the passage of time itself, The Covenant of Water is a hymn to progress in medicine and to human understanding, and a humbling testament to the hardships undergone by past generations for the sake of those alive today. Imbued with humor, deep emotion, and the essence of life, it is one of the most masterful literary novels published in recent years.]]> 724 Abraham Verghese 0802162177 Jacob 0 to-read 4.34 2023 The Covenant of Water
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity]]> 51282696 Associate research fellow at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, Jason Thacker, helps us navigate our digital age in this thoughtful exploration of the social, moral, and ethical challenges of our ongoing interactions with artificial intelligence.

Alexa, how is AI changing our world?We interact with artificial intelligence, or AI, nearly every moment of the day without knowing it. From our Twitter and Facebook social media feeds to our online carts to smart thermostats and Alexa and Google Home, AI is everywhere. In The Age of AI, Jason Thacker shows us how Christian truth transforms how we use AI in order to love God and our neighbor better.

Applying God's Word to this new AI-empowered age, The Age of AI serves as a guide for those wary of technology's impact on our society and also for those who are enthusiastic about where AI is taking us. Jason explains how AI affects us individually, in our relationships, and in our society at large as he addresses AI's impact on our bodies, sexuality, work, economics, and privacy. With theological depth and a wide awareness of the current trends in AI, Jason is a steady guide reminding us that while AI is changing most things, it does not change the foundations of the Christian faith.

Are robots going to take my job? How are smartphones affecting my kids? Do I need to worry about privacy when I get online or ask Siri for directions? Whatever questions you have about AI, The Age of AI gives you insights on how to navigate this brand new world as you apply God's ageless truths to your life and future.]]> 192 Jason Thacker 0310357659 Jacob 3
Honestly, unless you just really want the details or basis for certain positions, you could read the Statement of Principles () and be just fine without reading this book.]]> 3.80 2020 The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity
author: Jason Thacker
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/06
date added: 2024/04/06
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Basically fleshes out with stories and examples the ERLC’s “Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles� from 2019, which I believe Thacker helped to write. I did notice an additional chapter on Data & Privacy, and nothing on “Public Policy,� but those were the only differences in the chapter/topic headings of the two texts.

Honestly, unless you just really want the details or basis for certain positions, you could read the Statement of Principles () and be just fine without reading this book.
]]> Common Sense 161744 Pennsylvania Magazine. On January 10, 1776, he published his pamphlet Common Sense, a persuasive argument for the colonies' political and economic separation from Britain.

Common Sense cites the evils of monarchy, accuses the British government of inflicting economic and social injustices upon the colonies, and points to the absurdity of an island attempting to rule a continent. Credited by George Washington as having changed the minds of many of his countrymen, the document sold over 500,000 copies within a few months.

Today, Common Sense remains a landmark document in the struggle for freedom, distinguished not only by Paine's ideas but also by its clear and passionate presentation. Designed to ignite public opinion against autocratic rule, the pamphlet offered a careful balance between imagination and judgment, and appropriate language and expression to fit the subject. It immediately found a receptive audience, heartened Washington's despondent army, and foreshadowed much of the phrasing and substance of the Declaration of Independence.]]> 104 Thomas Paine 0143036254 Jacob 4
Granted, there are some implicitly (and explicitly) racist, misogynistic, and colonization-era ideologies that reflect the sentiments of the time in which he wrote. But Paine had some serious ideas that are worthy of reflection and consideration, and I don’t think the book (or pamphlet, rather) as a whole should be discounted because of the obvious negatives.]]> 3.96 1776 Common Sense
author: Thomas Paine
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1776
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/04
date added: 2024/04/04
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Clear thought, sharp wit, and an almost prescient description of trends we are witnessing today. My favorite part was the appendix, in which he summarized his thoughts, responded to detractors, and called out the Quakers in particular on their double standards and hypocrisy.

Granted, there are some implicitly (and explicitly) racist, misogynistic, and colonization-era ideologies that reflect the sentiments of the time in which he wrote. But Paine had some serious ideas that are worthy of reflection and consideration, and I don’t think the book (or pamphlet, rather) as a whole should be discounted because of the obvious negatives.
]]> Blacktop Wasteland 55921476
After a series of financial calamities (worsened by the racial prejudices of the small town he lives in) Bug reluctantly takes part in a daring diamond heist to solve his money troubles - and to go straight once and for all. However, when it goes horrifically wrong, he's sucked into a grimy underworld which threatens everything, and everyone, he holds dear . . .]]> 285 S.A. Cosby 1472273745 Jacob 3 3.86 2020 Blacktop Wasteland
author: S.A. Cosby
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/30
date added: 2024/03/30
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]]> The Count of Monte Cristo 7126 The epic tale of wrongful imprisonment, adventure and revenge, in its definitive translation

Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantès is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to use the treasure to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas� epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s.

Translated with an Introduction by Robin Buss

An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here]]> 1276 Alexandre Dumas 0140449264 Jacob 5 4.29 1846 The Count of Monte Cristo
author: Alexandre Dumas
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1846
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/26
date added: 2024/03/26
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]]> Stoner 50213170 This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780099561545.

Colum McCann once called Stoner one of the great forgotten novels of the past century, but it seems it is forgotten no longer - in 2013 translations of Stoner began appearing on bestseller lists across Europe. Forty-eight years after its first, quiet publication in the US, Stoner is finally finding the wide and devoted readership it deserves. Have you read it yet?William Stoner enters the University of Missouri at nineteen to study agriculture., A seminar on English literature changes his life, and he never returns to work on his father's farm. Stoner becomes a teacher. He marries the wrong woman., His life is quiet, and after his death his colleagues remember him rarely. Yet with truthfulness, compassion and intense power, this novel uncovers a story of universal value. Stoner tells of the conflicts, defeats and victories of the human race that pass unrecorded by history, and reclaims the significance of an individual life., A reading experience like no other, itself a paean to the power of literature, it is a novel to be savoured.]]> 288 John Williams Jacob 0 to-read 4.44 1965 Stoner
author: John Williams
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1965
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]> 17125 The only English translation authorized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

First published in the Soviet journal Novy Mir in 1962, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a classic of contemporary literature. The story of labor-camp inmate Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, it graphically describes his struggle to maintain his dignity in the face of communist oppression. An unforgettable portrait of the entire world of Stalin's forced work camps, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is one of the most extraordinary literary documents to have emerged from the Soviet Union and confirms Solzhenitsyn's stature as "a literary genius whose talent matches that of Dosotevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy"--Harrison Salisbury

This unexpurgated 1991 translation by H. T. Willetts is the only authorized edition available, and fully captures the power and beauty of the original Russian.]]> 182 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Jacob 0 to-read, russian-lit 3.98 1962 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/15
shelves: to-read, russian-lit
review:

]]> The Count of Monte Cristo 20416039 237 Mitsu Yamamoto Jacob 5 4.88 1979 The Count of Monte Cristo
author: Mitsu Yamamoto
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.88
book published: 1979
rating: 5
read at: 1995/12/01
date added: 2024/03/14
shelves:
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I remember reading this version in my younger days and greatly enjoying the story. Having now begun the unabridged version, we’ll see if that feeling remains!
]]> Waiting for Godot 592951 87 Samuel Beckett 0571229115 Jacob 4
Also, I kept imagining costuming Vladimir in a priest’s garb, just for the fun of it.]]> 3.75 1952 Waiting for Godot
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/10
date added: 2024/03/10
shelves:
review:
Quite the interesting play for all of its absurdity. Nothing really happens over the course of two acts. But there were some fascinating philosophical reflections, both explicit and implicit, throughout. Why are we here? And what are we doing with our time while we are?

Also, I kept imagining costuming Vladimir in a priest’s garb, just for the fun of it.
]]> <![CDATA[The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (The Hundred-Year-Old Man, #1)]]> 13486632 The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is a fun and feel-good book for all ages.]]> 396 Jonas Jonasson 1843913720 Jacob 3 3.80 2009 The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (The Hundred-Year-Old Man, #1)
author: Jonas Jonasson
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2024/03/07
date added: 2024/03/07
shelves:
review:
Quirky and humorous feel-good read. It was a nice break from heavier subjects that let me just get lost in a wild and wandering plot. Of course it’s too good to be true and obvious in so many ways - call it a guilty pleasure read. For me, it was simply fun to follow along and be unsurprisingly surprised at each subsequent step of the journey.
]]> <![CDATA[When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community From Emotional and Spiritual Abuse]]> 48617256 Why does narcissism seem to thrive in our churches? We've seen the news stories and heard the rumors. Maybe we ourselves have been hurt by a narcissistic church leader. It's easy to throw the term around and diagnose others from afar. But what is narcissism, really? And how does it infiltrate the church? Chuck DeGroat has been counseling pastors with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, as well as those wounded by narcissistic leaders and systems, for over twenty years. He knows firsthand the devastation narcissism leaves in its wake and how insidious and painful it is. In When Narcissism Comes to Church, DeGroat takes a close look at narcissism, not only in ministry leaders but also in church systems. He offers compassion and hope for those affected by its destructive power and imparts wise counsel for churches looking to heal from its systemic effects. DeGroat also offers hope for narcissists themselves--not by any shortcut, but by the long, slow road of genuine recovery, possible only through repentance and trust in the humble gospel of Jesus.]]> 200 Chuck DeGroat 0830841598 Jacob 5 4.36 2020 When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community From Emotional and Spiritual Abuse
author: Chuck DeGroat
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/04
date added: 2024/03/04
shelves:
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Honestly, I started this book with a secret hope that I’d find ammo for finger pointing. Instead, I found compassion for myself and for others - and the enduring hope that the author has for healing is contagious. Because the narcissism we find in individuals and groups and systems is not about “them� - it’s about *us*.
]]> <![CDATA[The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis]]> 63828159
In this book, acclaimed author Karen Swallow Prior examines evangelical history, both good and bad. By analyzing the literature, art, and popular culture that has surrounded evangelicalism, she unpacks some of the movement's most deeply held concepts, ideas, values, and practices to consider what is Christian rather than merely cultural. The result is a clearer path forward for evangelicals amid their current identity crisis--and insight for others who want a deeper understanding of what the term "evangelical" means today.

Brought to life with color illustrations, images, and paintings, this book explores ideas including conversion, domesticity, empire, sentimentality, and more. In the end, it goes beyond evangelicalism to show us how we might be influenced by images, stories, and metaphors in ways we cannot always see.]]> 304 Karen Swallow Prior 1587435756 Jacob 5 4.23 2023 The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis
author: Karen Swallow Prior
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/02
date added: 2024/03/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Secret: Jack Reacher, Book 28]]> 200271058 The gripping new Jack Reacher thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling authors Lee Child and Andrew Child

1992. Eight respectable, upstanding people have been found dead across the US. These deaths look like accidents and don’t appear to be connected. Until one body � the victim of a fatal fall from a hospital window � generates some unexpected attention.

That attention comes from the Secretary of Defense, who promptly calls for an inter-agency task force to investigate. Jack Reacher is assigned as the Army's representative.

Reacher may be an exceptional soldier, but sweeping other people's secrets under the carpet isn't part of his skill set. As he races to discover the link between these victims, and who killed them, he must navigate around the ulterior motives of his new 'partners'. And all while moving into the sight line of some of the most dangerous people he has ever encountered.

His mission is to uncover the truth. The question will Reacher bring the bad guys to justice the official way . . . or his way?]]> Lee Child Jacob 0 currently-reading 3.89 2023 The Secret: Jack Reacher, Book 28
author: Lee Child
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/24
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> The Power and the Glory 54839158 An alternative cover for this ASIN can be found here.
During a vicious persecution of the clergy in Mexico, a worldly priest, the 'whisky priest', is on the run. With the police closing in, his routes of escape are being shut off, his chances getting fewer. But compassion and humanity force him along the road to his destiny, reluctant to abandon those who need him, and those he cares for.]]> 261 Graham Greene Jacob 5 3.90 1940 The Power and the Glory
author: Graham Greene
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1940
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/19
date added: 2024/02/19
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]]> Blue Horses 39756853 63 Mary Oliver 1472153758 Jacob 5 4.34 2014 Blue Horses
author: Mary Oliver
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/20
date added: 2024/01/20
shelves:
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]]> Moby Dick 823573 This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9781853260087.

Widely considered one of the great American novels, Herman Melville’s masterpiece went largely unread during his lifetime and was out of print at the time of his death in 1891. Called the greatest book about the sea ever written by D.H. Lawrence, Moby Dick features detailed descriptions of whale hunting and whale oil extraction as well as beautiful, incisive writing on race, class, religion, art, and society. The story, loosely based on a real whaling shipwreck, features the unforgettable, vengeful Captain Ahab, who obsessively hunts a great white whale who bit his leg off below the knee.]]> 492 Herman Melville Jacob 0 currently-reading 3.56 1851 Moby Dick
author: Herman Melville
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1851
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/03
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Bullet That Missed (Thursday Murder Club, #3)]]> 58957615
Then a new foe pays Elizabeth a visit. Her mission? Kill or be killed. Suddenly the cold case has become red hot.

While Elizabeth wrestles with her conscience (and a gun), Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim chase down the clues with help from old friends and new. But can the gang solve the mystery and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again?

From an upmarket spa to a prison cell complete with espresso machine to a luxury penthouse high in the sky, this third adventure of the Thursday Murder Club is full of the cleverness, intrigue, and irresistible charm that readers have come to expect from Richard Osman's bestselling series.]]> 413 Richard Osman 0241512425 Jacob 0 4.32 2022 The Bullet That Missed (Thursday Murder Club, #3)
author: Richard Osman
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/02
date added: 2024/01/02
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn’t Have to Heal From]]> 64005330
But what if obedience is not the goal of Christian parenting? What if it’s our job as parents to instead help our kids get to know God and discover that God can be trusted? And what if faith is not constructed brick by brick, but rather woven strand by strand?

Much like a spider’s web, in which anchor strands and internal threads combine to form a unique web, Woven can help children anchor to who God is and have faith practices that are rich, textured, and all their own. Kids need space to explore the Bible, ask big questions, and even change their understanding of God and faith along the way. With Woven , families can nurture the kind of faith that can flex and grow, be broken and repaired. This is the sort of faith that can stand up to the life a child will live, the doubts they will encounter, and the questions that will come up along the way.

So many parents want to pass along their faith, but know that God is so much bigger than the list of do’s and don’ts they were taught about as children. They want to pass along a faith their child doesn’t have to heal from. Woven is the guidebook parents have been looking for. With a deep reverence for scripture and suggested activities to help your family grow in faith together, Woven is for parents who want to go beyond a list of do’s and don’ts and pass along a resilient faith based on genuine love for and trust in God.]]> 256 Meredith Miller 1546004351 Jacob 5 4.55 2023 Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn’t Have to Heal From
author: Meredith Miller
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/15
date added: 2023/12/15
shelves:
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Am I thankful for the practical tools for walking with my family through discovering and growing in faith? Yes, absolutely. But mostly I’m thankful for Miller writing the book I wish I had written for myself. It was a balm for my soul in a way that I needed deep down inside. The whole book was great, but the final chapter entitled “Jesus is Lord� and the final thoughts of the conclusion are worth the whole book. I have been challenged to think about faith, and particularly lordship, in ways I haven’t been challenged in a long time - and gently, not crushingly so. And perhaps better than that, I feel ministered to and compassionately guided toward healing from some church hurt in my own experience and I’m so grateful to God for that ministering work.
]]> Silent House 19219284
Biri tarihçi, biri devrimci, biri de zengin olmayı aklına koymuş üç torun İstanbul yakınlarındaki Cennethisar kasabasındaki evinde babaannelerini ziyaret ederler. Dedelerinin yetmiş yıl önce siyasi sürgün olarak kasabaya geldiğinde yaptırdığı bu evde bir hafta kalırlar. Bu sürede, babaannelerinin doksan yıllık anılarla yüklü geçmişi ağır ağır aralanırken, dedenin Doğu ile Batı arasındaki uçurumu bir çırpıda kapatacağını sandığı büyük bir ansiklopediyi yazışı hatırlanır. Evde sessiz gözlemleriyle kuşaklar arasında köprü kuran tanıklar, bahçe duvarlarının ötesinde ise aile ile ilgilenen tutkulu gençlerin hareketleri vardır. Orhan Pamuk'un ikinci romanı olan Sessiz Ev, yayımlandığında büyük heyecanla karşılanmış, pek çok dile çevrilmiş ve ödüller almıştı.

“Pamuk’un gençlik dönemi şaheseri...� � New York Review of Books

“Önemli sorular soran değişik bir kitap � hem klasik hem modern. Çehov’un Vişne Bahçesi’ni hatırlatıyor.� � Le Monde

“Orhan Pamuk, gerçek bir romanın işareti olan dilsel bir yoğunlukla, değişik açılar ve perspektiflerden bir olaylar dizisi kuruyor: Renkler, topografya, imgeler, zengin ayrıntılar...�
� Abidin Dino, Le Monde Diplomatique]]> 376 Orhan Pamuk 0571276024 Jacob 3 3.16 1983 Silent House
author: Orhan Pamuk
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.16
book published: 1983
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/15
date added: 2023/12/15
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]]> <![CDATA[All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)]]> 32758901 "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.� Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.]]> 144 Martha Wells Jacob 0 4.11 2017 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
author: Martha Wells
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2023/11/02
date added: 2023/11/02
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]]> The Graveyard Book 3487420
There are danger and adventures for Bod in the graveyard: The strange and terrible menace of The Sleer; a gravestone entrance to a desert that leads to the city of ghouls; friendship with a witch, and so much more.

But it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks, for it is there that the man Jack lives and he has already killed Bod's family.

A fascinating story of love and friendship realized in the most unlikely of place, this new novel by bestselling author Neil Gaiman, with illustrations by award-winning Chris Riddell, is set to become a classic.]]> 289 Neil Gaiman 0747569010 Jacob 4 4.16 2008 The Graveyard Book
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/14
date added: 2023/10/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?]]> 6696927 193 Philip K. Dick 0575094184 Jacob 4 3.96 1968 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
author: Philip K. Dick
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1968
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/12
date added: 2023/10/12
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]]> <![CDATA[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]> 16247459 143 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Jacob 4 3.95 1962 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/08
date added: 2023/10/08
shelves:
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Solzhenitsyn perfectly captures not only a day in the life a labor camp prisoner, but his mentality. It’s so normal you almost forget how shocking the reality is in which he’s surviving. My only real qualm with this book was the translation. Either I need to read the original or find a better translation.
]]> The Nightingale 25587463 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250080400.

In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says good-bye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. When a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home, she and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything. Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive.

Vianne’s sister, Isabelle, is a rebellious eighteen-year-old, searching for purpose with all the reckless passion of youth. While thousands of Parisians march into the unknown terrors of war, she meets Gaëtan, a partisan who believes the French can fight the Nazis from within France, and she falls in love as only the young can…completely. But when he betrays her, Isabelle joins the Resistance and never looks back, risking her life time and again to save others.]]> 590 Kristin Hannah Jacob 4
The tears you’ll cry reading this book are a gift. Treasure them.]]> 4.69 2015 The Nightingale
author: Kristin Hannah
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.69
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/02
date added: 2023/10/02
shelves:
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Are there problems with this book? Sure. As with almost any book. I could nitpick. But at the end of the day, it pulled me in and told me a story of sacrifice that was as beautiful as it was heart wrenching. It is horrific, to leave and face the cruelty of war. It is perhaps even more terrible to be among those who stayed behind and suffered so much. To remember and to honor all of the sacrifices made is a privilege.

The tears you’ll cry reading this book are a gift. Treasure them.
]]> <![CDATA[Kindred: The ground-breaking masterpiece]]> 38190066 In 1976, Dana dreams of being a writer. In 1815, she is assumed a slave.

When Dana first meets Rufus on a Maryland plantation, he's drowning. She saves his life - and it will happen again and again.

Neither of them understands his power to summon her whenever his life is threatened, nor the significance of the ties that bind them.

And each time Dana saves him, the more aware she is that her own life might be over before it's even begun.]]> 295 Octavia E. Butler 1472258223 Jacob 5 4.33 1979 Kindred: The ground-breaking masterpiece
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1979
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/20
date added: 2023/09/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Visual Theology: Seeing and Understanding the Truth About God]]> 26309271 160 Tim Challies 0310520436 Jacob 0 currently-reading 4.10 2016 Visual Theology: Seeing and Understanding the Truth About God
author: Tim Challies
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/16
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time]]> 895993
Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, fifteen-year-old Christopher is autistic and everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. He lives on patterns, rules, and a diagram kept in his pocket. Then one day, a neighbor's dog, Wellington, is killed and his carefully constructive universe is threatened. Christopher sets out to solve the murder in the style of his favorite (logical) detective, Sherlock Holmes. What follows makes for a novel that is deeply funny, poignant, and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing are a mind that perceives the world entirely literally.]]> 272 Mark Haddon 0224063782 Jacob 4 3.91 2003 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
author: Mark Haddon
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/09
date added: 2023/09/09
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]]> <![CDATA[The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2)]]> 55457493
Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He's made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life.

As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. And if they find the diamonds too? Well, wouldn't that be a bonus?

But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn't bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians. Can The Thursday Murder Club find the killer (and the diamonds) before the killer finds them?]]> 422 Richard Osman Jacob 4 4.36 2021 The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club, #2)
author: Richard Osman
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/06
date added: 2023/09/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings) (Vol 3)]]> 128856144 432 J.R.R. Tolkien Jacob 5 5.00 1955 Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings) (Vol 3)
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Jacob
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1955
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/22
date added: 2023/08/17
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]]> <![CDATA[The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)]]> 899758
The second volume in J.R.R. Tolkien's epic adventure The Lord of the Rings.

Frodo and the Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in the battle with an evil spirit in the Mines of Moria; and at the falls of Rauros, Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape the rest of the company were attacked by orcs.

Now they continue their journey alone down the great River Anduin - alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go.

This is the second part of a new three-book edition in B-format paperback which reproduces the complete unabridged text of the three books, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King, that together make up The Lord of the Rings. The Appendices and Index are included in The Return of the King. This reset edition contains newly drawn maps by Stephen Raw, based on Christopher Tolkien's original maps.]]> 338 J.R.R. Tolkien Jacob 5 4.41 1954 The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1954
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/17
date added: 2023/08/09
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]]> How to Really Love Your Child 25325015 Dr. Ross Campbell served thousands of families in his three decades as a counselor. He authored several books, including the Gold Medallion recipient How to Really Love Your Teen and The Five Love Languages of Children (coauthored with Gary Chapman), and wrote extensively on helping children deal with anger.]]> 178 D. Ross Campbell Jacob 0 to-read 4.30 1977 How to Really Love Your Child
author: D. Ross Campbell
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1977
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/07/31
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution]]> 59881006 A new dark academic fantasy by the New York Times bestselling author of The Poppy War

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

Oxford, 1836.

The city of dreaming spires.

It is the centre of all knowledge and progress in the world.

And at its centre is Babel, the Royal Institute of Translation. The tower from which all the power of the Empire flows.

Orphaned in Canton and brought to England by a mysterious guardian, Babel seemed like paradise to Robin Swift.

Until it became a prison�

But can a student stand against an empire?

An incendiary new novel from award-winning author R.F. Kuang about the power of language, the violence of colonialism, and the sacrifices of resistance.]]> 557 R.F. Kuang Jacob 0 4.13 2022 Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2023/07/28
date added: 2023/07/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Emotional Inheritance: A Therapist, Her Patients, and the Legacy of Trauma]]> 57941223
In this transformative book, Galit Atlas entwines the stories of her patients, her own stories, and decades of research to help us identify the links between our life struggles and the “emotional inheritance� we all carry. For it is only by following the traces those ghosts leave that we can truly change our destiny.]]> 288 Galit Atlas 0316492124 Jacob 0 to-read 4.21 2022 Emotional Inheritance: A Therapist, Her Patients, and the Legacy of Trauma
author: Galit Atlas
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/07/12
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]]> Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1) 28954189 Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art� of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

An alternate cover edition of ISBN: 9781442472426]]> 435 Neal Shusterman Jacob 0 to-read 4.32 2016 Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1)
author: Neal Shusterman
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/07/12
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]]> <![CDATA[A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society (The IVP Signature Collection)]]> 55836813 Since Eugene Peterson wrote this spiritual formation classic more than forty years ago, hundreds of thousands of Christians have been inspired by its call to deeper discipleship. Our society is still obsessed with quick fixes. But Peterson's time-tested prescription for discipleship remains the same--a long obedience in the same direction.

Following Jesus requires a deepening life of prayer, and throughout history Christians have learned to pray from the Psalms. Peterson finds particular encouragement for today's pilgrims in the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134). With prophetic and pastoral wisdom, he shows how the psalms teach us to grow in worship, service, joy, work, humility, community, and blessing.

Now including a bibliography of Peterson's works, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction is available as part of the IVP Signature Collection, which features special editions of iconic books in celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of InterVarsity Press. A companion Bible study guide is also available.]]> 208 Eugene H. Peterson 0830848630 Jacob 5 4.36 1980 A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society (The IVP Signature Collection)
author: Eugene H. Peterson
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.36
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/08
date added: 2023/07/08
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]]> <![CDATA[The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)]]> 3875037 One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit.

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.]]> 398 J.R.R. Tolkien Jacob 5 4.41 1954 The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1954
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/07/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Enneagram of Emotional Intelligence: A Journey to Personal and Professional Success]]> 72238866 · break free from the hidden fears that dictate your choices
· make more intentional decisions
· better understand the emotional dynamics of colleagues, friends, and family
· and more

In this journey toward radical self-awareness, you'll learn how to combat the self-limiting beliefs that keep you from living the life you were meant to live all along.]]> 240 Scott Allender 1540902765 Jacob 4 4.08 2023 Enneagram of Emotional Intelligence: A Journey to Personal and Professional Success
author: Scott Allender
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/22
date added: 2023/06/22
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle]]> 40914164
There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit.

We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.

Understood? Then let's begin . . .

Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others . . .

The most inventive debut of the year twists together a mystery of such unexpected creativity it will leave listeners guessing until the very last second.]]> 458 Stuart Turton 149267012X Jacob 0 to-read 3.75 2018 The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
author: Stuart Turton
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine]]> 31434883 No one’s ever told Eleanor that life should be better than fine

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: she struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding unnecessary human contact, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.

But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen, the three rescue one another from the lives of isolation that they had been living. Ultimately, it is Raymond’s big heart that will help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one. If she does, she'll learn that she, too, is capable of finding friendship—and even love—after all.

Smart, warm, uplifting, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is the story of an out-of-the-ordinary heroine whose deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit make for an irresistible journey as she realizes. . .

the only way to survive is to open your heart.]]> 336 Gail Honeyman 0735220689 Jacob 4 4.21 2017 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
author: Gail Honeyman
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/13
date added: 2023/06/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sleeping Giants (Themis Files, #1)]]> 28587880
Seventeen years later, the mystery of the bizarre artifact remains unsolved - the object's origins, architects, and purpose unknown.

But some can never stop searching for answers.

Rose Franklin is now a highly trained physicist leading a top-secret team to crack the hand's code. And along with her colleagues, she is being interviewed by a nameless interrogator whose power and purview are as enigmatic as the relic they seek. What's clear is that Rose and her compatriots are on the edge of unravelling history's most perplexing discovery-and finally figuring out what it portends for humanity. But once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, will the result be an instrument of lasting peace or a weapon of mass destruction?]]> 300 Sylvain Neuvel Jacob 4 3.87 2016 Sleeping Giants (Themis Files, #1)
author: Sylvain Neuvel
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/11
date added: 2023/06/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism]]> 1858013 Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical, is a prequel to The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.

The End of Faith. The God Delusion. God Is Not Great. Letter to a Christian Nation. Bestseller lists are filled with doubters. But what happens when you actually doubt your doubts?

Although a vocal minority continues to attack the Christian faith, for most Americans, faith is a large part of their lives: 86 percent of Americans refer to themselves as religious, and 75 percent of all Americans consider themselves Christians. So how should they respond to these passionate, learned, and persuasive books that promote science and secularism over religion and faith? For years, Tim Keller has compiled a list of the most frequently voiced “doubts� skeptics bring to his Manhattan church. And in The Reason for God, he single-handedly dismantles each of them. Written with atheists, agnostics, and skeptics in mind, Keller also provides an intelligent platform on which true believers can stand their ground when bombarded by the backlash. The Reason for God challenges such ideology at its core and points to the true path and purpose of Christianity.

Why is there suffering in the world? How could a loving God send people to Hell? Why isn’t Christianity more inclusive? Shouldn’t the Christian God be a god of love? How can one religion be “right� and the rest “wrong�? Why have so many wars been fought in the name of God? These are just a few of the questions even ardent believers wrestle with today. In this book, Tim Keller uses literature, philosophy, real-life conversations and reasoning, and even pop culture to explain how faith in a Christian God is a soundly rational belief, held by thoughtful people of intellectual integrity with a deep compassion for those who truly want to know the truth.]]> 293 Timothy J. Keller 0525950494 Jacob 4 4.22 2008 The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
author: Timothy J. Keller
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/10
date added: 2023/06/10
shelves:
review:

]]> Crying in H Mart 75668238
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humour and heart, she tells of growing up the only Asian-American kid at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the east coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, performing gigs with her fledgling band � and meeting the man who would become her husband � her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live.

It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal pancreatic cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

Vivacious, lyrical and honest, Michelle Zauner’s voice is as radiantly alive on the page as it is onstage. Rich with intimate anecdotes that will resonate widely, Crying in H Mart is a book to cherish, share, and reread.]]> 239 Michelle Zauner 1984898957 Jacob 0 to-read 4.20 2021 Crying in H Mart
author: Michelle Zauner
name: Jacob
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> 1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3) 10357575 The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is for ‘question mark.� A world that bears a question.� Meanwhile, an aspiring writer named Tengo takes on a suspect ghostwriting project. He becomes so wrapped up with the work and its unusual author that, soon, his previously placid life begins to come unraveled.

As Aomame’s and Tengo’s narratives converge over the course of this single year, we learn of the profound and tangled connections that bind them ever closer: a beautiful, dyslexic teenage girl with a unique vision; a mysterious religious cult that instigated a shoot-out with the metropolitan police; a reclusive, wealthy dowager who runs a shelter for abused women; a hideously ugly private investigator; a mild-mannered yet ruthlessly efficient bodyguard; and a peculiarly insistent television-fee collector.

A love story, a mystery, a fantasy, a novel of self-discovery, a dystopia to rival George Orwell’s � 1Q84 is Haruki Murakami’s most ambitious undertaking yet: an instant best seller in his native Japan, and a tremendous feat of imagination from one of our most revered contemporary writers.]]> 944 Haruki Murakami 0307593312 Jacob 0 to-read, dnf 3.94 2009 1Q84 (1Q84, #1-3)
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Jacob
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/05/23
shelves: to-read, dnf
review:

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