en-US Sat, 05 Apr 2025 18:32:19 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 90590134
We are approaching a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change.Ěý
Ěý
Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organise your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy.Ěý
Ěý
None of us are prepared.
Ěý
As co-founder of the pioneering AI company DeepMind, part of Google, Mustafa Suleyman has been at the centre of this revolution. The coming decade, he argues, will be defined by this wave of powerful, fast-proliferating new technologies.Ěý
Ěý
In The Coming Wave , Suleyman shows how these forces will create immense prosperity but also threaten the nation-state, the foundation of global order. As our fragile governments sleepwalk into disaster, we face an existential unprecedented harms on one side, the threat of overbearing surveillance on the other.Ěý
Ěý
Can we forge a narrow path between catastrophe and dystopia?]]> 332 Mustafa Suleyman 0593593952 Ryan 0 currently-reading 3.78 2023
author: Mustafa Suleyman
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 23602544 ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW� S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

A gripping day-by-day account of the 1978 Camp David conference, when President Jimmy Carter persuaded Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to sign the first peace treaty in the modern Middle East, one which endures to this day.

With his hallmark insight into the forces at play in the Middle East and his acclaimed journalistic skill, Lawrence Wright takes us through each of the thirteen days of the Camp David conference, illuminating the issues that have made the problems of the region so intractable, as well as exploring the scriptural narratives that continue to frame the conflict. In addition to his in-depth accounts of the lives of the three leaders, Wright draws vivid portraits of other fiery personalities who were present at Camp David––including Moshe Dayan, Osama el-Baz, and Zbigniew Brzezinski––as they work furiously behind the scenes. Wright also explores the significant role played by Rosalynn Carter.
What emerges is a riveting view of the making of this unexpected and so far unprecedented peace. Wright exhibits the full extent of Carter’s persistence in pushing an agreement forward, the extraordinary way in which the participants at the conference—many of them lifelong enemies—attained it, and the profound difficulties inherent in the process and its outcome, not the least of which has been the still unsettled struggle between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

In Thirteen Days in September, Wright gives us a resonant work of history and reportage that provides both a timely revisiting of this important diplomatic triumph and an inside look at how peace is made.




From the Hardcover edition.]]> 464 Lawrence Wright 0804170029 Ryan 0 currently-reading 4.10 2014
author: Lawrence Wright
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 213792608
After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in intimate detail, in a two-part memoir.

Her remarkable career is unique and unparalleled. The only woman to top Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades, she is the winner of an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, and an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who has been lauded by the Kennedy Center.

She is a longtime activist and philanthropist.

As a dyslexic child who dreamed of becoming famous, Cher was raised in often-chaotic circumstances, surrounded by singers, actors, and a mother who inspired her in spite of their difficult relationship.

With her trademark honesty and humor, The Memoir traces how this diamond in the rough succeeded with no plan and little confidence to become the trailblazing superstar the world has been unable to ignore for more than half a century.

The Memoir, Part One follows her extraordinary beginnings through childhood to meeting and marrying Sonny Bono—and reveals the highly complicated relationship that made them world-famous, but eventually drove them apart.

The Memoir reveals the daughter, the sister, the wife, the lover, the mother, and the superstar.

It is a life too immense for only one book.]]> 413 Cher 006286310X Ryan 0 currently-reading 4.29 2024
author: Cher
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 29794
Why did the rescue mission fail so miserably? And why were the reports compiled by the German authorities concealed from the public for more than two decades? Reeves takes on a catastrophe that permanently shifted the political spectrum with a fast-paced narrative that covers the events detail by detail. Based on years of exhaustive research, One Day in September is the definitive account of one of the most devastating and politically explosive tragedies of the late twentieth century, one that set the tone for nearly thirty years of renewed conflict in the Middle East.]]> 336 Simon Reeve 1559708131 Ryan 4 4.11 2000
author: Simon Reeve
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2000
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves:
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]]> 12105291 An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.

From the inspired minds of comics guru Grant Morrison (ACTION COMICS, ALL-STAR SUPERMAN) and artists Andy Kubert (FLASHPOINT), J.H. Williams III (BATWOMAN) and Tony S. Daniel (DETECTIVE COMICS) comes an astonishing tale of Batman's darkest hours.

Collects BATMAN #655-658, #663-669, #672-675, which includes issue #666 - a futuristic glimpse of Damian Wayne as the new Dark Knight!]]> 384 Grant Morrison 1401233368 Ryan 3 3.86 2014
author: Grant Morrison
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/07
date added: 2025/03/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 32498526
An electrifying standalone thriller that breaks all the rules! With an introduction by Stephen King.

Death is reporter Jack McEvoy's his calling, his obsession. But this time, death brings McEvoy the story he never wanted to write--and the mystery he desperately needs to solve. A serial killer of unprecedented savagery and cunning is at large. His homicide cops, each haunted by a murder case he couldn't crack. The killer's calling a quotation from the works of Edgar Allan Poe. His latest victim is McEvoy's own brother. And his last...may be McEvoy himself.]]> 656 Michael Connelly 1478948302 Ryan 5 4.25 1996
author: Michael Connelly
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 139400713 Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others—in which a newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a search that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of Tehran in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the Angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Electrifying, funny, wholly original, and profound, Martyr! heralds the arrival of a blazing and essential new voice in contemporary fiction.]]> 331 Kaveh Akbar 0593537610 Ryan 3 4.23 2024
author: Kaveh Akbar
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/14
date added: 2025/03/14
shelves:
review:

]]> 33917107
On November 9th, millions of Americans woke up to the impossible: the election of Donald Trump as president. Against all predictions, one of the most-disliked presidential candidates in history had swept the electoral college, elevating a man with open contempt for democratic norms and institutions to the height of power.

Timothy Snyder is one of the most celebrated historians of the Holocaust. In his books Bloodlands and Black Earth, he has carefully dissected the events and values that enabled the rise of Hitler and Stalin and the execution of their catastrophic policies. With Twenty Lessons, Snyder draws from the darkest hours of the twentieth century to provide hope for the twenty-first. As he writes, “Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism and communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.�

Twenty Lessons is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.]]> 127 Timothy Snyder 0804190119 Ryan 4 4.24 2017
author: Timothy Snyder
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
shelves:
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]]> 389627 In the first book of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, #1 international bestselling author Jeff Kinney, introduces us to Greg Heffley: an unforgettable, unlikely hero that every family can relate to.

Being a kid can really stink. And no one knows this better than Greg. He finds himself thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner, and already shaving. Greg is happy to have Rowley Jefferson, his sidekick, along for the ride. But when Rowley's star starts to rise, Greg tries to use his best friend's newfound popularity to his own advantage, kicking off a chain of events that will test their friendship in hilarious fashion.

The hazards of growing up before you're ready are uniquely revealed through words and drawings as Greg records them in his diary. But as Greg says: “Just don’t expect me to be all “Dear Diary� this and “Dear Diary� that.�

Luckily for us, what Greg Heffley says he won’t do and what he actually does are two very different things.]]> 226 Jeff Kinney 0810993139 Ryan 4 3.98 2007
author: Jeff Kinney
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/03
date added: 2025/03/03
shelves:
review:
A funny-for-kids book that gets an extra point since it’s the first one my son ever asked me to read.
]]> 91239387 Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for that world or ours.

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. When Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from it.

Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world.]]> 599 Stephen King 1668002191 Ryan 0 currently-reading 4.05 2022
author: Stephen King
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 60410877
“This book is exquisite and excruciating and I will be thinking about it for years and years to come.� � Rachel Kushner, New York Times bestselling author of The Flamethrowers and The Mars Room

In the eyes of eighteen-year-old Hua Hsu, the problem with Ken—with his passion for Dave Matthews, Abercrombie & Fitch, and his fraternity—is that he is exactly like everyone else.ĚýKen, whose Japanese American family has been in the United States for generations, is mainstream; for Hua, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, who makes ’zines and haunts Bay Area record shops, Ken represents all that he defines himself in opposition to. The only thing Hua and Ken have in common is that, however they engage with it, American culture doesn’t seem to have a place for either of them.

But despite his first impressions, Hua and Ken become friends, a friendship built on late-night conversations over cigarettes, long drives along the California coast, and the successes and humiliations of everyday college life. And then violently, senselessly, Ken is gone, killed in a carjacking, not even three years after the day they first meet.

Determined to hold on to all that was left of one of his closest friends—his memories—Hua turned to writing. Stay True is the book he’s been working on ever since. A coming-of-age story that details both the ordinary and extraordinary, Stay True is a bracing memoir about growing up, and about moving through the world in search of meaning and belonging.]]> 208 Hua Hsu 0593315200 Ryan 3 4.12 2022
author: Hua Hsu
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 231584 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here

With unsettling beauty and intelligence, Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel traces the intersection of four damaged lives in an abandoned Italian villa at the end of World War II. The nurse Hana, exhausted by death, obsessively tends to her last surviving patient. Caravaggio, the thief, tries to reimagine who he is, now that his hands are hopelessly maimed. The Indian sapper Kip searches for hidden bombs in a landscape where nothing is safe but himself. And at the center of his labyrinth lies the English patient, nameless and hideously burned, a man who is both a riddle and a provocation to his companions—and whose memories of suffering, rescue, and betrayal illuminate this book like flashes of heat lightning.]]> 305 Michael Ondaatje 0679745203 Ryan 3 3.79 1992
author: Michael Ondaatje
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves:
review:
A book that demonstrates that you can love the structure of a novel but despise several of its characters.
]]> 199798785
On January 28, 1986, just seventy-three seconds into flight, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all seven people on board. Millions of Americans witnessed the tragic deaths of a crew including New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. Like 9/11 or JFK’s assassination, the Challenger disaster is a defining moment in 20th-century history—yet the details of what took place that day, and why, have largely been forgotten. Until now.

Based on extensive archival records and meticulous, original reporting, Challenger follows a handful of central protagonists—including each of the seven members of the doomed crew—through the years leading up to the accident, a detailed account of the tragedy itself, and into the investigation that followed. It’s a tale of optimism and promise undermined by political cynicism and cost-cutting in the interests of burnishing national prestige; of hubris and heroism; and of an investigation driven by leakers and whistleblowers determined to bring the truth to light. Throughout, there are the ominous warning signs of a tragedy to come, recognized but then ignored, and ultimately kept from the public.

Higginbotham reveals the history of the shuttle program, the lives of men and women whose stories have been overshadowed by the disaster as well as the designers, engineers, and test pilots who struggled against the odds to get the first shuttle into space.]]> 576 Adam Higginbotham 198217661X Ryan 4 4.53 2024
author: Adam Higginbotham
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.53
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/16
date added: 2025/02/16
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]]> 173754979 A brilliant reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn—both harrowing and satirical—told from the enslaved Jim's point of view

When Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he runs away until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck has faked his own death to escape his violent father. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.

Brimming with nuanced humor and lacerating observations that have made Everett a literary icon, this brilliant and tender novel radically illuminates Jim's agency, intelligence, and compassion as never before. James is destined to be a major publishing event and a cornerstone of twenty-first-century American literature.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780385550369.]]> 303 Percival Everett Ryan 5 4.47 2024
author: Percival Everett
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
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]]> 6613578
Mark Twain's tale of a boy's picaresque journey down the Mississippi on a raft conveyed the voice and experience of the American frontier as no other work had done before. When Huck escapes from his drunken father and the 'sivilizing' Widow Douglas with the runaway slave Jim, he embarks on a series of adventures that draw him to feuding families and the trickery of the unscrupulous 'Duke' and 'Dauphin'. Beneath the exploits, however, are more serious undercurrents - of slavery, adult control and, above all, of Huck's struggle between his instinctive goodness and the corrupt values of society, which threaten his deep and enduring friendship with Jim.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]> 327 Mark Twain 0143105949 Ryan 1
“Huck Finn� is the kind of story where the narrator tells you what’s going to happen, then tells you what happens, then has other characters tell you what happens. The latter part would have worked well.

We get story after story after story after story after story about Huck and escaped slave Jim, their many successful aversions of capture and death, ass well as their just-as-many tricks making people think they have been killed and/or mistaken for ghosts.

Throw in some new characters here and there every 50-70 pages or so, and rearrange the same hogwash yada yada yada. Then you end up with a mind-numbingly dull/needlessly complicated escape plan set by Tom Sawyer and 1,000 hours later ~whoopsadaisies~ Jim was free THE WHOLE TIME.

So, it’s boring, too long and the equivalent of a dream story. Plus racist.

Blah blah blah I get that it’s set in the 1840s, captures the vernacular and mindset of the time; I get the symbolism of the raft and the river and the role reversals and all that shit. Yeah, a river can meander and drift JUST LIKE THIS STUPID BOOK DOES � ya know another thing about rivers? Y’ALL CAN DROWN IN THEM IF YOU’RE PULLED DOWN BY ANY NUMBER OF THINGS.

Looky here, if it was at least 100 pages shorter and the same “adventures� weren’t rinsed and repeated with slightly different supporting characters or similar backward river town settings, maybe I wouldn’t feel such unbridled disgust for this for-some-reason beloved book. But those last 70-80 pages are just bad, bad, bad � ]]> 3.82 1884
author: Mark Twain
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1884
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/13
date added: 2025/02/13
shelves:
review:
OH MY LANDS why is this book considered anything more than a steaming pile of garbage?

“Huck Finn� is the kind of story where the narrator tells you what’s going to happen, then tells you what happens, then has other characters tell you what happens. The latter part would have worked well.

We get story after story after story after story after story about Huck and escaped slave Jim, their many successful aversions of capture and death, ass well as their just-as-many tricks making people think they have been killed and/or mistaken for ghosts.

Throw in some new characters here and there every 50-70 pages or so, and rearrange the same hogwash yada yada yada. Then you end up with a mind-numbingly dull/needlessly complicated escape plan set by Tom Sawyer and 1,000 hours later ~whoopsadaisies~ Jim was free THE WHOLE TIME.

So, it’s boring, too long and the equivalent of a dream story. Plus racist.

Blah blah blah I get that it’s set in the 1840s, captures the vernacular and mindset of the time; I get the symbolism of the raft and the river and the role reversals and all that shit. Yeah, a river can meander and drift JUST LIKE THIS STUPID BOOK DOES � ya know another thing about rivers? Y’ALL CAN DROWN IN THEM IF YOU’RE PULLED DOWN BY ANY NUMBER OF THINGS.

Looky here, if it was at least 100 pages shorter and the same “adventures� weren’t rinsed and repeated with slightly different supporting characters or similar backward river town settings, maybe I wouldn’t feel such unbridled disgust for this for-some-reason beloved book. But those last 70-80 pages are just bad, bad, bad �
]]> 208930976 From the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters behind the 2018 bombshell New York Times exposé of then-President Trump’s finances, an explosive investigation into the history of Donald Trump’s wealth, revealing how one of the country’s biggest business failures lied his way into the White House

Soon after announcing his first campaign for the U.S. presidency, Donald J. Trump told a national television audience that life “has not been easy for me. It has not been easy for me.� Building on a narrative he had been telling for decades, he spun a hardscrabble fable of how he parlayed a small loan from his father into a multi-billion-dollar business and real estate empire. This feat, he argued, made him singularly qualified to lead the country—except none of it was true. Born to a rich father who made him the beneficiary of his own highly lucrative investments, Trump received the equivalent of more than $500 million today via means that required no business expertise.

For decades he squandered his fortunes on money-losing businesses only to be saved yet again by financial serendipity. He tacked his name on every building while taking out huge loans he’d never repay. He obsessed over appearances while ignoring threats to the bottom line and mounting costly lawsuits against city officials. He tarnished the value of his name by allowing anyone with a big enough check to use it, and he cheated the television producer who not only rescued him from bankruptcy but also cast him as a business savant—the public image that carried Trump to the White House.

Drawing on more than twenty years� worth of Trump’s confidential tax information—including the tax returns Trump tried to conceal—alongside business records and interviews with Trump insiders, New York Times investigative reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig track Trump's financial rise and fall—and rise and fall again.]]> 528 Russ Buettner 0593298640 Ryan 4 4.39 2024
author: Russ Buettner
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/04
date added: 2025/02/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 44526680 New York Times bestselling graphic novel!

The Joker has been murdered. His killer is a mystery. Batman is the World's Greatest Detective. But what happens when the person he is searching for is the man staring back at him in the mirror?

THE JOKER IS DEAD.

There is no doubt about that. But whether Batman finally snapped his scrawny neck or some other sinister force in Gotham City did the deed is still a mystery.

Problem is, Batman can't remember...and the more he digs into this labyrinthine case, the more he starts to doubt everything he's uncovering.

So who better to set him straight than...John Constantine?

The problem with that is as much as John loves a good mystery, he loves messing with people's heads even more. So with John's "help," the pair will delve into the sordid underbelly of Gotham as they race toward the mind-blowing truth of who murdered the Joker.

Batman: Damned is a groundbreaking supernatural horror story told by two of comics' greatest modern creators: Brian Azzarello (Dark Knight III: The Master Race, 100 Bullets) and Lee Bermejo (Hellblazer, Joker).

This hardcover volume collects Batman: Damned #1-3 and features a behind-the-scenes extras gallery with an afterword by Brian Azzarello.

NOTE: Enhanced cover will only be on first printing copies!]]> 176 Brian Azzarello 1401291406 Ryan 2 3.23 2019
author: Brian Azzarello
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.23
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2021/06/05
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
review:
Oof ... wish I could give this a good review, because “Batman: Damned� has a lot going for it. The Joker is dead, and Batman almost died, too. Bats might have killed his nemesis, though he can’t remember, and John Constantine shows up to help � sorta � but confuses Batman’s take on what happened even more. Meanwhile, a dark spirit is haunting our hero, taking us back to around the time Bruce’s parents were killed. This supernatural, reimagined take on the Thomas and Martha Wayne murders is the best part of the book, even if it’s buried in ... a lot of crap. A lot. The Constantine presence is fine, though his omniscient narration labored � it’s too much. The reader is often forced to make sense of whatever garbled points he’s tasked to carry. These constant (heh) interruptions take away from the dank, hyper-realistic art ... it’s a damned (sorry) shame it’s not bringing to life a better story.
]]> 50172427 80 Frank Miller 1779503911 Ryan 1
Bruce Wayne and Superman are more mentioned than seen; here, Carrie Kelley has donned full Batwoman gear to fight Gotham’s new breed of Joker goons. Meanwhile, Supergirl’s subplot from “Master Race� gets a warmed-over “I hate the world� reboot ... and worse, she has to be humiliated with the �80s movie mega-punishment of having to drag along her stupid little brother, Jonathan, everywhere. (He’s the so-called “Golden Child� � but that part never *really* matters.)

As alluded, the Joker is somehow brought back from the dead to ... work ... on ... Trump’s gubernatorial (?) campaign. It’s like that part in “A Death in the Family� where the Joker is working with Ayatollah Khomeini, only this time it’s Donald Trump � or, I guess it might be a Trump-like figure who looks and behaves just like Trump. (It doesn’t make any sense, other than giving a lazy link for the story’s madness.)

Anyway, back to the Golden Child: Darkseid wants him to take over the universe. REAL ORIGINAL. Solid nominee for worst ever.]]> 2.67 2019
author: Frank Miller
name: Ryan
average rating: 2.67
book published: 2019
rating: 1
read at: 2021/06/02
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
review:
Can I give this zero stars? That the original “Dark Knight Returns� and this MAGA-infused toxic waste of a graphic novel are part of the same series is stunning in every bad way imaginable. Frank Miller returns to the series in which he previously coughed up the incomprehensible “Dark Knight Strikes Again� and instantly-forgettable “Master Race,� which is where this garbled dive diner vomit of a story kicks off.

Bruce Wayne and Superman are more mentioned than seen; here, Carrie Kelley has donned full Batwoman gear to fight Gotham’s new breed of Joker goons. Meanwhile, Supergirl’s subplot from “Master Race� gets a warmed-over “I hate the world� reboot ... and worse, she has to be humiliated with the �80s movie mega-punishment of having to drag along her stupid little brother, Jonathan, everywhere. (He’s the so-called “Golden Child� � but that part never *really* matters.)

As alluded, the Joker is somehow brought back from the dead to ... work ... on ... Trump’s gubernatorial (?) campaign. It’s like that part in “A Death in the Family� where the Joker is working with Ayatollah Khomeini, only this time it’s Donald Trump � or, I guess it might be a Trump-like figure who looks and behaves just like Trump. (It doesn’t make any sense, other than giving a lazy link for the story’s madness.)

Anyway, back to the Golden Child: Darkseid wants him to take over the universe. REAL ORIGINAL. Solid nominee for worst ever.
]]> 9828349 344 Tony Kushner 1559363843 Ryan 5
We start in New York City during the 1980s: Roy Cohn is trying to convince Joe Pitt, a closeted law clerk, to become his inside man in Reagan’s justice department. Meanwhile, Joe becomes involved with one of his co-workers, a man crippled with guilt by choosing to leave his AIDS-stricken boyfriend, Prior. Prior himself has been identified as a prophet by a heaven-descended angel.

If this is all sounding a little [Kramer voice] out there, it’s because it is ... it’s about angels and death and fighting for survival and hope and Ethel Rosenberg and lust and questioning existence and endurance and basically everything.

Structurally, it’s virtually perfect, covering past, present and future with ideas, actions and dialogue. “Angels in America� is so epic and exhausting, and therefore so rewarding. It challenges your beliefs while damning you for questioning others.

How else can I package a two-part, eight-act play into a capsule review? Just read it ... or at least see the fantastic adaptation available on HBO.]]> 4.40 1995
author: Tony Kushner
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2021/04/06
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves:
review:
If you’re ever going to read a play outside of something you were assigned, it might as well be Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America.� It’s big, it’s ambitious, it’s pretentious � all things Kushner himself would say of his own work.

We start in New York City during the 1980s: Roy Cohn is trying to convince Joe Pitt, a closeted law clerk, to become his inside man in Reagan’s justice department. Meanwhile, Joe becomes involved with one of his co-workers, a man crippled with guilt by choosing to leave his AIDS-stricken boyfriend, Prior. Prior himself has been identified as a prophet by a heaven-descended angel.

If this is all sounding a little [Kramer voice] out there, it’s because it is ... it’s about angels and death and fighting for survival and hope and Ethel Rosenberg and lust and questioning existence and endurance and basically everything.

Structurally, it’s virtually perfect, covering past, present and future with ideas, actions and dialogue. “Angels in America� is so epic and exhausting, and therefore so rewarding. It challenges your beliefs while damning you for questioning others.

How else can I package a two-part, eight-act play into a capsule review? Just read it ... or at least see the fantastic adaptation available on HBO.
]]> 176443727 Blood Diamond, The Last Samurai, Legends of the Fall, About Last Night, and Glory, creator of the show thirtysomething, and executive producer of My So-Called Life, gives a dishy, behind-the-scenes look at working with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

“I’ll be dropping a few names,� Ed Zwick confesses in the introduction to his book. “Over the years I have worked with self-proclaimed masters-of-the-universe, unheralded geniuses, hacks, sociopaths, savants, and saints.�

He has encountered these Hollywood types during four decades of directing, producing, and writing projects that have collectively received eighteen Academy Award nominations (seven wins) and sixty-seven Emmy nominations (twenty-two wins). Though there are many factors behind such success, including luck and the contributions of his creative partner Marshall Herskovitz, he’s known to have a special talent for bringing out the best in the people he’s worked with, especially the actors. In those intense collaborations, he’s sought to discover the small pieces of connective tissue, vulnerability, and fellowship that can help an actor realize their character in full.

Talents whom he spotted early include Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Denzel Washington, Claire Danes, and Jared Leto. Established stars he worked closely with include Leonardo DiCaprio, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Daniel Craig, Jake Gyllenhaal, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, and Jennifer Connelly. He also sued Harvey Weinstein over the production of Shakespeare in Love —and won. He shares personal stories about all these people, and more.

Written mostly with love, sometimes with rue, this memoir is also a meditation on working, sprinkled throughout with tips for anyone who has ever imagined writing, directing, or producing for the screen. Fans with an appreciation for the beautiful mysteries—as well as the unsightly, often comic truths—of crafting film and television won’t want to miss it.]]> 304 Ed Zwick 1668046997 Ryan 3 3.97 2024
author: Ed Zwick
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves:
review:
Ed Zwick’s “Hits, Flops, and Other Illusions� names names and gives plenty of juicy behind-the-scenes Hollywood insights. While often overstuffed with faux-poetic detail, there’s real meat on the bone for better understanding modern film directing, connecting with actors and confirming that Harvey Weinstein is a monster.
]]> 127305949
József Debreczeni, a prolific Hungarian-language journalist and poet, arrived in Auschwitz in 1944; had he been selected to go “left,� his life expectancy would have been approximately forty-five minutes. One of the “lucky� ones, he was sent to the “right,� which led to twelve horrifying months of incarceration and slave labor in a series of camps, ending in the “Cold Crematorium”―the so-called hospital of the forced labor camp Dörnhau, where prisoners too weak to work awaited execution. But as Soviet and Allied troops closed in on the camps, local Nazi commanders―anxious about the possible consequences of outright murder―decided to leave the remaining prisoners to die in droves rather than sending them directly to the gas chambers.

Debreczeni recorded his experiences in Cold Crematorium , one of the harshest, most merciless indictments of Nazism ever written. This haunting memoir, rendered in the precise and unsentimental style of an accomplished journalist, is an eyewitness account of incomparable literary quality. The subject matter is intrinsically tragic, yet the author’s evocative prose, sometimes using irony, sarcasm, and even acerbic humor, compels the reader to imagine human beings in circumstances impossible to comprehend intellectually.

First published in Hungarian in 1950, it was never translated into a world language due to McCarthyism, Cold War hostilities and antisemitism. More than 70 years later, this masterpiece that was nearly lost to time will be available in 15 languages, finally taking its rightful place among the greatest works of Holocaust literature.]]> 256 JĂłzsef Debreczeni 1250290538 Ryan 4 4.51 1950
author: JĂłzsef Debreczeni
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.51
book published: 1950
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/21
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 211003759 In the tradition of Station Eleven, a literary thriller set partly on the roof of New York’s Museum of Natural History in a flooded future.

All the Water in the World is told in the voice of a girl gifted with a deep feeling for water. In the years after the glaciers melt, Nonie, her older sister and her parents and their researcher friends have stayed behind in an almost deserted New York City, creating a settlement on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History. The rule: Take from the exhibits only in dire need. They hunt and grow their food in Central Park as they work to save the collections of human history and science. When a superstorm breaches the city’s flood walls, Nonie and her family must escape north on the Hudson. They carry with them a book that holds their records of the lost collections. Racing on the swollen river towards what may be safety, they encounter communities that have adapted in very different and sometimes frightening ways to the new reality. But they are determined to find a way to make a new world that honors all they've saved.

Inspired by the stories of the curators in Iraq and Leningrad who worked to protect their collections from war, All the Water in the World is both a meditation on what we save from collapse and an adventure story—with danger, storms, and a fight for survival. In the spirit of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Parable of the Sower, this wild journey offers the hope that what matters most � love and work, community and knowledge � will survive.]]> 304 Eiren Caffall 1250353521 Ryan 4 3.58 2025
author: Eiren Caffall
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/18
date added: 2025/01/18
shelves:
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]]> 179546799
It’s 1914, and World War I is ceaselessly churning through thousands of young men on both sides of the fight. The violence of the front feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. News of the heroic deaths of their friends only makes the war more exciting.
Gaunt, half German, is busy fighting his own private battle—an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, the glamorous, charming Ellwood—without a clue that Ellwood is pining for him in return. When Gaunt's family asks him to enlist to forestall the anti-German sentiment they face, Gaunt does so immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood. To Gaunt's horror, Ellwood rushes to join him at the front, and the rest of their classmates soon follow. Now death surrounds them in all its grim reality, often inches away, and no one knows who will be next.
An epic tale of both the devastating tragedies of war and the forbidden romance that blooms in its grip, In Memoriam is a breathtaking debut.]]> 400 Alice Winn 0593467841 Ryan 5 4.54 2023
author: Alice Winn
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/16
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves:
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]]> 23485936 272 Mark Twain 1101628286 Ryan 3
By the time these punks ARE AGIN AFEARED DEAD because they GO BACK INTO A DANGEROUS CAVE to FIND TREASURE (YET AGAIN), I wanted this story to get lost in the cavern, never to be found again. ]]> 4.11 1876
author: Mark Twain
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1876
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves:
review:
Meh. These “adventures� of Tom Sawyer and his buddies would be a lot more adventuresome if so many of them weren’t sluggish or drawn out.

By the time these punks ARE AGIN AFEARED DEAD because they GO BACK INTO A DANGEROUS CAVE to FIND TREASURE (YET AGAIN), I wanted this story to get lost in the cavern, never to be found again.
]]> 206119058 In an industry dominated by white men, Connie Chung stood alone, the first and only Asian woman to break into the television news industry. This is her extraordinary story, told with incisive wit and remarkable candor. Ěý Connie Chung is a pioneer.ĚýIn 1969 at the age of 23, this once-shy daughter of Chinese parents took her first job at a local TV station in her hometown of Washington, D.C. and soon thereafter began working at CBS news as a correspondent.ĚýProfoundly influenced by her family’s cultural traditions,Ěýyet growing up completely Americanized in the United States, Chung describes her career as an Asian woman in a white male-centered world.ĚýOvert sexism was a way of life,Ěýbut Chung was tenacious in her pursuit of stories â€� battling rival reporters to secure scoops that ranged from interviewing Magic Johnson to covering the Watergate scandal â€� and quickly becameĚýa household name. She made history when she achieved her dream of being the first woman to co-anchor theĚýCBS Evening NewsĚýand the first AsianĚýto anchor any news program in the U.S. Ěý Chung pulls no punches as she provides a behind-the-scenesĚýtour ofĚýher singular life. FromĚýshowdowns withĚýpowerful men in and out of the newsroom to the stories behind some of her career-defining reporting and the unwavering support of her husband, Maury Povich, nothing is off-limits â€� good, bad, or ugly. So be sure to tune in for an irreverent and inspiring this is CONNIE like you’ve never seen her before.]]> 336 Connie Chung 1538766981 Ryan 4
Highlighting her series of “firsts� in a groundbreaking career, she also provides plenty of insight into working in TV news during the height of the medium’s importance.

She also speaks frankly about racism and sexism in her then male-dominated field, and what she did to “go along to get along� just to be taken seriously � and how, unfortunately, her long hours, preparation and dedication to deliver quality programming were not enough.

There’s also tons of gab in here, too � namely, behind the scenes drama with Dan Rather that she couldn’t avoid, and the same with Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters that she did. (Honestly, her stories about Rather are v satisfying.)

I remember seeing Connie Chung on broadcasts (e.g., her interview with Gary Condit) though so much of her career highlights were before I was really paying attention � I am so glad YouTube has many of her clips and appearances. You’ll likely revisit many of them along the journey.

That said, it is somewhat shocking to understand how some of her key moments and biggest ratings came from stories she did not want to do � and/or was not proud of. It’s one thing to hear her POV on such things, though to hear her talk about why (and how that measures up to how she was treated and assigned stories) is to have a broader understanding of how it all played into her overall story, struggles and triumphs from a career in broadcast.

Finally, it is touching to hear her talk about her career influences, her long relationship with Maury Povich and the legacy she has had on Chinese-American families.]]> 4.11 2024
author: Connie Chung
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves:
review:
This is so good. Connie Chung writes an earnest, revealing memoir that covers everything from her upbringing � her family’s journey from China to the United States is fascinating � to retirement and her personal understanding of her legacy.

Highlighting her series of “firsts� in a groundbreaking career, she also provides plenty of insight into working in TV news during the height of the medium’s importance.

She also speaks frankly about racism and sexism in her then male-dominated field, and what she did to “go along to get along� just to be taken seriously � and how, unfortunately, her long hours, preparation and dedication to deliver quality programming were not enough.

There’s also tons of gab in here, too � namely, behind the scenes drama with Dan Rather that she couldn’t avoid, and the same with Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters that she did. (Honestly, her stories about Rather are v satisfying.)

I remember seeing Connie Chung on broadcasts (e.g., her interview with Gary Condit) though so much of her career highlights were before I was really paying attention � I am so glad YouTube has many of her clips and appearances. You’ll likely revisit many of them along the journey.

That said, it is somewhat shocking to understand how some of her key moments and biggest ratings came from stories she did not want to do � and/or was not proud of. It’s one thing to hear her POV on such things, though to hear her talk about why (and how that measures up to how she was treated and assigned stories) is to have a broader understanding of how it all played into her overall story, struggles and triumphs from a career in broadcast.

Finally, it is touching to hear her talk about her career influences, her long relationship with Maury Povich and the legacy she has had on Chinese-American families.
]]> 13029370 â€� New York Times A Palm Beach playboy who amuses himself with murder finds himself on a collision course with a vacationing Motown cop in Elmore Leonard’s Split Images —a gripping and electrifying example of noir gold from “the coolest, hottest writer in Americaâ€� ( Chicago Tribune ).Ěý Split Images is Grand Master Leonard at the top of his game, a bravura example of how exemplary crime fiction is done by a writer who stands tall among the all-time mystery John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, et al. The brilliant creator of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (of TV’s Justified ) now brings us a cast of vivid and unforgettable characters on both sides of the law, in a twisting masterwork of unrelenting suspense that the Washington Post calls, “Brilliant...impressive...superb.”]]> 368 Elmore Leonard 0062122517 Ryan 4
Leonard’s stories invariably involve snappy dialogue, quick-witted (but not always smart) good guys and salty (if not always savvy) criminals � he’s predictable in the best ways, and that usually means a good novel that is worth your time.

But his best works are those that are distinctly his voice, though stray just so far outside of his usual lane, e.g., “Pagan Babies,� “Touch,� “Maximum Bob.�

“Split Images� joins that company of novels.]]> 3.92 1982
author: Elmore Leonard
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves:
review:
At this point, I’ve read more than 40 Elmore Leonard books � and this one, a relatively lesser-known novel about dirty cops and vain killers hopscotching from Michigan to Florida, knocked me to the floor with its gut punches and unpredictable plot.

Leonard’s stories invariably involve snappy dialogue, quick-witted (but not always smart) good guys and salty (if not always savvy) criminals � he’s predictable in the best ways, and that usually means a good novel that is worth your time.

But his best works are those that are distinctly his voice, though stray just so far outside of his usual lane, e.g., “Pagan Babies,� “Touch,� “Maximum Bob.�

“Split Images� joins that company of novels.
]]> 13112474 200 Scott Snyder 1401235735 Ryan 3 4.08 2010
author: Scott Snyder
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/31
date added: 2024/12/31
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]]> 200709265
Allen Carr’s Easyway is a global phenomenon which has helped millions of smokers from all over the world to quit instantly and easily. Stop Drinking Now applies Allen Carr’s Easyway method to problem drinking. Rather than employing scare-tactics and enforcing painful restrictions on your drinking habits, it unravels the cognitive brainwashing behind your addictive behaviour. In this way, it removes the desire to drink altogether without willpower or sacrifice.



A unique method which does not rely on willpower. Removes the desire to drink alcohol. Stop easily, immediately and painlessly. Regain control of your life. Follow the simple step-by-step instructions and escape the alcohol trap.]]> Allen Carr Ryan 4 3.60
author: Allen Carr
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.60
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/30
date added: 2024/12/30
shelves:
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]]> 6454520 Nobel Prize winner Heinrich Böll's powerful novel about a woman terrorized by the media

In an era in which journalists will stop at nothing to break a story, Henrich Böll's The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum has taken on heightened relevance. A young woman's association with a hunted man makes her the target of a journalist determined to grab headlines by portraying her as an evil woman. As the attacks on her escalate and she becomes the victim of anonymous threats, Katharina sees only one way out of her nightmare. Turning the mystery genre on its head, the novel begins with the confession of a crime, drawing the reader into a web of sensationalism, character assassination, and the unavoidable eruption of violence.]]> 128 Heinrich Böll 014310540X Ryan 4 3.66 1974
author: Heinrich Böll
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1974
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves:
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]]> 13573235 After years of sporadic work on other books and projects and following the almost complete loss of his virility, it's here: a new graphic novel by Chris Ware.
Ěý
Building Stories imagines the inhabitants of a three-story Chicago apartment building: a 30-something woman who has yet to find someone with whom to spend the rest of her life; a couple, possibly married, who wonder if they can bear each other's company another minute; and the building's landlady, an elderly woman who has lived alone for decades. Taking advantage of the absolute latest advances in wood pulp technology, Building Stories is a book with no deliberate beginning nor end, the scope, ambition, artistry and emotional prevarication beyond anything yet seen from this artist or in this medium, probably for good reason.]]> 260 Chris Ware 0375424334 Ryan 5 4.32 2012
author: Chris Ware
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 58082243 The epic story that began with Heir to the Empire reaches its dramatic conclusion in this essential Star Wars Legends novel.

The embattled Republic reels from the attacks of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who has marshaled the remnants of the Imperial forces and driven the Rebels back with an abominable technology recovered from the Emperor's secret fortress: clone soldiers. As Thrawn mounts his final siege, Han Solo and Chewbacca struggle to form a coalition of smugglers for a last-ditch attack, while Princess Leia holds the Alliance together and prepares for the birth of her Jedi twins.

The Republic has one last hope--sending a small force into the very stronghold that houses Thrawn's terrible cloning machines. There a final danger awaits, as the Dark Jedi C'baoth directs the battle against the Rebels and builds his strength to finish what he already started: the destruction of Luke Skywalker.]]> 496 Timothy Zahn 0593497031 Ryan 0 to-read 4.30 1993
author: Timothy Zahn
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58082226 In this essential Star Wars Legends novel, the sequel to Heir to the Empire, Grand Admiral Thrawn's sinister plan threatens to spell doom for the fledgling New Republic and its most iconic heroes.

The dying Empire's most cunning and ruthless warlord, Grand Admiral Thrawn, has taken command of the remnants of the Imperial Fleet and launched a massive campaign aimed at the New Republic's destruction. Meanwhile, Han Solo and Lando Calrissian race against time to find proof of treason inside the highest Republic Council--only to discover instead a ghostly fleet of warships that could bring doom to their friends and victory to their enemies.

Yet most dangerous of all is a new Dark Jedi, risen from the ashes of a shrouded past, consumed by bitterness, and scheming to corrupt Luke Skywalker to the dark side.]]> 480 Timothy Zahn 0593358791 Ryan 0 to-read 4.11 1992
author: Timothy Zahn
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 57631717 #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - In this essential Star Wars Legends novel--the first ever to take place after the events of the original trilogy--Grand Admiral Thrawn makes his debut on the galactic stage.

Five years ago, the Rebel Alliance destroyed the Death Star, defeated Darth Vader and the Emperor, and drove the remnants of the old Imperial Starfleet to a distant corner of the galaxy. Princess Leia and Han Solo are married and expecting twins. And Luke Skywalker has become the first in a long-awaited line of Jedi Knights.

But thousands of light-years away, the last of the Emperor's warlords, Grand Admiral Thrawn, has taken command of the shattered Imperial fleet, readied it for war, and pointed it at the fragile heart of the New Republic. For this dark warrior has made a vital discovery that could destroy everything the courageous men and women of the Rebel Alliance fought so hard to build.]]> 528 Timothy Zahn 0593358767 Ryan 0 to-read 4.17 1991
author: Timothy Zahn
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 61852070 119 Rainbow Rowell 1302943820 Ryan 3 4.07 2022
author: Rainbow Rowell
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves:
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]]> 216156578
The time is coming when the mineral that makes inter-system jumps possible runs out. When it does, the scattered inhabitants of the vast galaxy will be stuck where they are. Everything will be different . . . unless the discovery in the latest wreck Ada, Haika, and Mallic are scavenging can unlock a whole new kind of interstellar transit.]]> Owen D. Pomery Ryan 2 4.00 2023
author: Owen D. Pomery
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/12/15
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 32597690
In a lonely corner of Canada, the quiet town of Killhorn Falls seems like the perfect place for Old Man Logan to retreat to and make peace with his new life in the present-day Marvel Universe. But there's never any escape for the man who was once Wolverine. When Lady Deathstrike and her Reavers come for him, can Logan protect the people of Killhorn Falls � and the only thing in the present that he hopes will survive to meet him in the future? This is the X-Man at his most fundamental: his back to the wall � and survival riding only on his wits, his determination and his Adamantium claws! It's the ultimate cage match, and everything Old Man Logan cares about is on the line!]]> 109 Jeff Lemire 1302493949 Ryan 3 4.21 2016
author: Jeff Lemire
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/11
date added: 2024/12/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 31117259
Decades from now, the man who was Wolverine endured the deaths of his fellow heroes, the slaughter of his family by the hillbilly Hulk gang, and the murder of his closest friend, Hawkeye. So when Old Man Logan wakes up in the present to discover a world not yet gone to hell, he's determined to kill whomever it takes to ensure the Wasteland he knew never comes to pass! Old Man Logan's hit list includes the Hulk � but in this reality, he's All-Different and Totally Awesome! Will Logan find aid from his pal Clint Barton, or only end up in the archer's sights? And when his one-man mission of murder attracts the former Captain America's attention, who wins the battle between Old Man Logan and Old Man Rogers?]]> 115 Jeff Lemire 1302489380 Ryan 4 4.16 2016
author: Jeff Lemire
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/10
date added: 2024/12/10
shelves:
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]]> 28953400
This edition of Othello is edited with an introduction and notes by Russ McDonald and was recently repackaged with cover art by Manuja Waldia. Waldia received a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators for the Pelican Shakespeare series.

The legendary Pelican Shakespeare series features authoritative and meticulously researched texts paired with scholarship by renowned Shakespeareans. Each book includes an essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare’s time, an introduction to the individual play, and a detailed note on the text used. Updated by general editors Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller, these easy-to-read editions incorporate over thirty years of Shakespeare scholarship undertaken since the original series, edited by Alfred Harbage, appeared between 1956 and 1967. With stunning new covers, definitive texts, and illuminating essays, the Pelican Shakespeare will remain a valued resource for students, teachers, and theater professionals for many years to come.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

SEE LESS]]> 145 William Shakespeare 0143128612 Ryan 0 to-read 3.92 1603
author: William Shakespeare
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1603
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 210040065 In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.
Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.
Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.
A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective—the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change,� and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.
This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama’s conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.]]> 768 Barack Obama 1524763179 Ryan 0 to-read 3.94 2020
author: Barack Obama
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 29093208 A life is made up of a great number of small incidents and a small number of great ones.

As a young man, Roald Dahl's adventures took him from London to East Africa, until the Second World War began and he became a RAF pilot.

You'll read stories of whizzing through the air in a Tiger Moth Plane, encounters with deadly green mambas and hungry lions, and the terrible crash that led him to storytelling.

Going Solo is exciting, enthralling and just like its prequel, Boy,it's all true.

Illustrated with photographs and original letters.]]> 224 Roald Dahl 0141365552 Ryan 4 4.08 1986
author: Roald Dahl
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1986
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/29
date added: 2024/11/29
shelves:
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]]> 199368953
Once, JACK XAVER, star recruit of the media sensation super-team THIRD GEN, had it all. But when controversy sends CROSSJACK crawling back to his mom and dad's basement in the Midwest, Jack struggles to fit into a world he left far behind. And then the bodies start piling up.

Collects the complete first arc of the smash-hit series that Comicbook.com calls "a thought-provoking send-up to one of comics' weirdest eras, and if you're not reading it right now, you are absolutely missing out."

Collects LOCAL MAN #1-5]]> 169 Tim Seeley 1534392505 Ryan 2 3.91
author: Tim Seeley
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.91
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves:
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]]> 25853023 192 William Shakespeare 0143128558 Ryan 5 3.96 1605
author: William Shakespeare
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1605
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/13
date added: 2024/11/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 207298687 A special standalone of brand new stories set in the award-winning Slaughterverse–a perfect starting place for new readers ahead of the Netflix series!

Journey into Erica Slaughter’s past during her formative years set before the events of the foundational Archer’s Peak saga. This unofficial “Year Zero� style anthology of the hit sensation that has sold over 2 million copies worldwide follows Erica during her journey to various small and remote towns in the American countryside, hunting monsters down before they do the unthinkable to unsuspecting children. A perfect starting point for new readers and die hard Slaughterverse fans alike, each standalone issue from series creators James Tynion IV (Department of Truth, The Nice House On The Lake) and Werther Dell’Edera (House of Slaughter) highlights 5 different hunts that showcase the experiences that started Erica on her journey toward being the nearly unstoppable monster hunter she is today. Collects Something is Killing the Children #36-40.]]> 144 James Tynion IV 1684156289 Ryan 4 4.13 2024
author: James Tynion IV
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/09
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 205439790 284 Lisa Marie Presley 1035051079 Ryan 4
� And that is one the saddest things I’ve ever read � and it’s one of many gut-punches you’ll take reading “From Here to the Great Unknown,� a memoir started by Lisa Marie Presley and finished by her oldest daughter, Riley Keough.

This is a quick read, but a heavy one. We learn about Presley’s other-world childhood as the only daughter of Elvis, and how she escaped into drugs, alcohol and toxic relationships following his death.

Keough bridges the 10-year gap that was her mother’s sobriety, a time of an individual’s joy if not distance between herself and others she felt compelled to ice out. The men in her life � husbands Danny Keough, Michael Jackson, Nicolas Cage, Michael Lockwood � provide windows to her pain and longing for normalcy. But she never followed the path through � always around, always dulled by substances.

It is the death of Presleys’s son, who committed suicide in 2020, that sent her on a spiral that ended in her own death � not by opioids or alcohol, but of a broken heart. The similarities between Gladys-Elvis and Lisa Marie-her son, and how booze and drugs were players in all of their deaths, makes for a brutal family story.

This is not a good book to read during tough times. I wouldn’t outright recommend it to anyone, yet some people should read it � especially if they want to have a better understanding of how the furthest reaches of the addiction and depression spectrum can play themselves out. There are beautiful passages in this book about grief and loss of identity, and anyone who has experienced those feelings will find much to admire in the writing.]]> 4.59 2024
author: Lisa Marie Presley
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/04
date added: 2024/11/04
shelves:
review:
“When she lived in Nashville, in the depths of her addiction, my mom would often drive the two hundred miles southwest to Graceland to sleep in her dad’s bed. It seemed like the only place she found any comfort.�

� And that is one the saddest things I’ve ever read � and it’s one of many gut-punches you’ll take reading “From Here to the Great Unknown,� a memoir started by Lisa Marie Presley and finished by her oldest daughter, Riley Keough.

This is a quick read, but a heavy one. We learn about Presley’s other-world childhood as the only daughter of Elvis, and how she escaped into drugs, alcohol and toxic relationships following his death.

Keough bridges the 10-year gap that was her mother’s sobriety, a time of an individual’s joy if not distance between herself and others she felt compelled to ice out. The men in her life � husbands Danny Keough, Michael Jackson, Nicolas Cage, Michael Lockwood � provide windows to her pain and longing for normalcy. But she never followed the path through � always around, always dulled by substances.

It is the death of Presleys’s son, who committed suicide in 2020, that sent her on a spiral that ended in her own death � not by opioids or alcohol, but of a broken heart. The similarities between Gladys-Elvis and Lisa Marie-her son, and how booze and drugs were players in all of their deaths, makes for a brutal family story.

This is not a good book to read during tough times. I wouldn’t outright recommend it to anyone, yet some people should read it � especially if they want to have a better understanding of how the furthest reaches of the addiction and depression spectrum can play themselves out. There are beautiful passages in this book about grief and loss of identity, and anyone who has experienced those feelings will find much to admire in the writing.
]]> 209330212 A novel of money and morality from the New York Times bestselling author of Leave the World Behind.

Brooke wants. She isn’t in need, but there are things she wants. A sense of purpose, for instance. She wants to make a difference in the world, to impress her mother along the way, to spend time with friends and secure her independence. Her job assisting an octogenarian billionaire in his quest to give away a vast fortune could help her achieve many of these goals. It may inspire new desires as well: proximity to wealth turns out to be nothing less than transformative. What is money, really, but a kind of belief?

Taut, unsettling, and alive to the seductive distortions of money, Entitlement is a riveting tale for our new gilded age, a story that confidently considers questions about need and worth, race and privilege, philanthropy and generosity, passion and obsession. It is a provocative, propulsive novel about the American imagination.]]> 284 Rumaan Alam 0593718488 Ryan 4 3.11 2024
author: Rumaan Alam
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.11
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/03
date added: 2024/11/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 24487787
Now from Gregory Mosher, the producer of the original stage production, comes a stunning screen adaptation, directed by Michael Corrente and starring Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Franz, and Sean Nelson.

A classic tragedy, American Buffalo is the story of three men struggling in the pursuit of their distorted vision of the American Dream. By turns touching and cynical, poignant and violent, American Buffalo is a piercing story of how people can be corrupted into betraying their ideals and those they love.]]> 120 David Mamet 0802191800 Ryan 3 3.94 1975
author: David Mamet
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1975
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/02
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 209499400 From one of the most iconic actors in the history of film, an astonishingly revelatory account of a creative life in full. To the wider world, Al Pacino exploded onto the scene like a supernova. He landed his first leading role, in The Panic in Needle Park, in 1971, and by 1975, he had starred in four movies—The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon—that were not just successes but landmarks in the history of film. Those performances became legendary and changed his life forever. Not since Marlon Brando and James Dean in the late 1950s had an actor landed in the culture with such force. But Pacino was in his mid-thirties by then, and had already lived several lives. A fixture of avant-garde theater in New York, he had led a bohemian existence, working odd jobs to support his craft. He was raised by a fiercely loving but mentally unwell mother and her parents after his father left them when he was young, but in a real sense he was raised by the streets of the South Bronx, and by the troop of buccaneering young friends he ran with, whose spirits never left him. After a teacher recognized his acting promise and pushed him toward New York’s fabled High School of Performing Arts, the die was cast. In good times and bad, in poverty and in wealth and in poverty again, through pain and joy, acting was his lifeline, its community his tribe. Sonny Boy is the memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide. All the great roles, the essential collaborations, and the important relationships are given their full due, as is the vexed marriage between creativity and commerce at the highest levels. The book’s golden thread, however, is the spirit of love and purpose. Love can fail you, and you can be defeated in your ambitions—the same lights that shine bright can also dim. But Al Pacino was lucky enough to fall deeply in love with a craft before he had the foggiest idea of any of its earthly rewards, and he never fell out of love. That has made all the difference.]]> 384 Al Pacino 0593655117 Ryan 4
Al Pacino’s reckoning with fame, life and legacy takes us on the legendary actor’s South Bronx beginnings to his life now, as an 84-year-old looking back and asking, “is this really me?�

“Sonny Boy� is wildly different from your typically sanitized, otherwise vanilla Hollywood memoir. By establishing the details of his boyhood, especially the friendships and family members that shaped him, Pacino is able to give a more honest reflection on natural if sometimes perplexing reasons he became famous and so many of his friends lost their lives to drug addiction.

In addition to meaty chapters on some of his most famous works in the 1970s, Pacino also talks about acting as a profession and how he was compelled to do it. We get incredible insights as to how he found characters in his truly legendary films, as well as stage productions he’s appeared in throughout his lengthy career. He also admits his faults, flaws and disagreements with directors and producers, which are rare in most books of its kind.

Ultimately, “Sonny Boy� is about one man’s goodwill assessment of a life in which he acknowledges he’s near the end. Famous actor? Sure. Had access and privilege? Ok. Money? Not always. Addiction issues, watching friends die? That, too. Much of the book is Pacino searching for his soul amidst life events he cannot explain or easily adapt to � it is a refreshing take from a personality we think we know from a decades-long body of work. Pacino demonstrates that he is so much more than that.]]> 3.99 2024
author: Al Pacino
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/01
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves:
review:
“My whole life was a moon shot.�

Al Pacino’s reckoning with fame, life and legacy takes us on the legendary actor’s South Bronx beginnings to his life now, as an 84-year-old looking back and asking, “is this really me?�

“Sonny Boy� is wildly different from your typically sanitized, otherwise vanilla Hollywood memoir. By establishing the details of his boyhood, especially the friendships and family members that shaped him, Pacino is able to give a more honest reflection on natural if sometimes perplexing reasons he became famous and so many of his friends lost their lives to drug addiction.

In addition to meaty chapters on some of his most famous works in the 1970s, Pacino also talks about acting as a profession and how he was compelled to do it. We get incredible insights as to how he found characters in his truly legendary films, as well as stage productions he’s appeared in throughout his lengthy career. He also admits his faults, flaws and disagreements with directors and producers, which are rare in most books of its kind.

Ultimately, “Sonny Boy� is about one man’s goodwill assessment of a life in which he acknowledges he’s near the end. Famous actor? Sure. Had access and privilege? Ok. Money? Not always. Addiction issues, watching friends die? That, too. Much of the book is Pacino searching for his soul amidst life events he cannot explain or easily adapt to � it is a refreshing take from a personality we think we know from a decades-long body of work. Pacino demonstrates that he is so much more than that.
]]> 54326149 A New York Times bestseller

From Kamala Harris, one of America's most inspiring political leaders and Joe Biden's pick for his 2020 running mate, a book about the core truths that unite us, and the long struggle to discern what those truths are and how best to act upon them, in her own life and across the life of our country

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris's commitment to speaking truth is informed by her upbringing. The daughter of immigrants, she was raised in an Oakland, California community that cared deeply about social justice; her parents--an esteemed economist from Jamaica and an admired cancer researcher from India--met as activists in the civil rights movement when they were graduate students at Berkeley. Growing up, Harris herself never hid her passion for justice, and when she became a prosecutor out of law school, a deputy district attorney, she quickly established herself as one of the most innovative change agents in American law enforcement. She progressed rapidly to become the elected District Attorney for San Francisco, and then the chief law enforcement officer of the state of California as a whole. Known for bringing a voice to the voiceless, she took on the big banks during the foreclosure crisis, winning a historic settlement for California's working families. Her hallmarks were applying a holistic, data-driven approach to many of California's thorniest issues, always eschewing stale tough on crime rhetoric as presenting a series of false choices. Neither tough nor soft but smart on crime became her mantra. Being smart means learning the truths that can make us better as a community, and supporting those truths with all our might. That has been the pole star that guided Harris to a transformational career as the top law enforcement official in California, and it is guiding her now as a transformational United States Senator, grappling with an array of complex issues that affect her state, our country, and the world, from health care and the new economy to immigration, national security, the opioid crisis, and accelerating inequality.

By reckoning with the big challenges we face together, drawing on the hard-won wisdom and insight from her own career and the work of those who have most inspired her, Kamala Harris offers in THE TRUTHS WE HOLD a master class in problem solving, in crisis management, and leadership in challenging times. Through the arc of her own life, on into the great work of our day, she communicates a vision of shared struggle, shared purpose, and shared values. In a book rich in many home truths, not least is that a relatively small number of people work very hard to convince a great many of us that we have less in common than we actually do, but it falls to us to look past them and get on with the good work of living our common truth. When we do, our shared effort will continue to sustain us and this great nation, now and in the years to come.]]> 318 Kamala Harris 0525560734 Ryan 3 4.11 2019
author: Kamala Harris
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/28
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 217163885 Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Woodward tells the revelatory, behind-the-scenes story of three wars—Ukraine, the Middle East and the struggle for the American Presidency.

War is an intimate and sweeping account of one of the most tumultuous periods in presidential politics and American history.

We see President Joe Biden and his top advisers in tense conversations with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. We also see Donald Trump, conducting a shadow presidency and seeking to regain political power.

With unrivaled, inside-the-room reporting, Woodward shows President Biden’s approach to managing the war in Ukraine, the most significant land war in Europe since World War II, and his tortured path to contain the bloody Middle East conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.

Woodward reveals the extraordinary complexity and consequence of wartime back-channel diplomacy and decision-making to deter the use of nuclear weapons and a rapid slide into World War III.

The raw cage-fight of politics accelerates as Americans prepare to vote in 2024, starting between President Biden and Trump, and ending with the unexpected elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for president.

War provides an unvarnished examination of the vice president as she tries to embrace the Biden legacy and policies while beginning to chart a path of her own as a presidential candidate.

Woodward’s reporting once again sets the standard for journalism at its most authoritative and illuminating.]]> 448 Bob Woodward 166805227X Ryan 5
With barely two weeks to go before the consequential U.S. election, I’m so surprised and truly gobsmacked by how poorly the administration has been able to carry its message of Biden’s aptitude in world affairs � it has not been perfect, but he’s kept us above the fray in some very ugly situations � with no American troops on the ground in Ukraine or Israel.

At worst, Biden has minimized risks. The way the U.S. ultimately pulled out of Afghanistan wasn’t the best moment, but compartmentalizing ourselves in proxy wars with Russia and Iran have been impressive feats, despite some tactical issues.

That said, the full story has not yet been told � by Woodward’s own admission. Just during the week of its publication, Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who orchestrated the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, was killed. Russia’s alliances with North Korea, Iran and China can further complicate it all. Yet more events will critically shift based on the outcome of the U.S. election. Woodward masterfully weaves it all together.]]> 4.18 2024
author: Bob Woodward
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/21
date added: 2024/10/25
shelves:
review:
Bob Woodward’s “War� is the best current affairs book you can read right now. In his own words, Woodward says his book “presents the efforts and decisions to try to prevent war � and where war came, to avoid escalation.� And how. It crystallizes the foreign issues of Biden’s administration, showing how the president and his team of advisors manage incredibly tense situations where untold destruction hangs in the balance.

With barely two weeks to go before the consequential U.S. election, I’m so surprised and truly gobsmacked by how poorly the administration has been able to carry its message of Biden’s aptitude in world affairs � it has not been perfect, but he’s kept us above the fray in some very ugly situations � with no American troops on the ground in Ukraine or Israel.

At worst, Biden has minimized risks. The way the U.S. ultimately pulled out of Afghanistan wasn’t the best moment, but compartmentalizing ourselves in proxy wars with Russia and Iran have been impressive feats, despite some tactical issues.

That said, the full story has not yet been told � by Woodward’s own admission. Just during the week of its publication, Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who orchestrated the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, was killed. Russia’s alliances with North Korea, Iran and China can further complicate it all. Yet more events will critically shift based on the outcome of the U.S. election. Woodward masterfully weaves it all together.
]]> 127282570
Πε�νώντας απα�ατή�ητοι, οι ακτιβι�τές κηπου�οί, με α�χηγό τη Μί�α Μπάντινγκ, φυτεύουν λαχανικά, �υχνά πα�αβιάζοντας μεγάλες ιδιοκτη�ίες. Δεν έχουν όμως υπολογί�ει τον αινιγματικό Ρόμπε�τ Λεμόιν, μεγι�τάνα βιομηχανίας ντ�όουν, που ενδιαφέ�εται επί�ης για το ίδιο κομμάτι γης. Μπο�ούν να τον εμπι�τευτούν; Και, εν τέλει, καθώς μέ�α από μια απ�ο�δόκητη διαδικα�ία δοκιμάζονται βάναυ�α οι α�χές και η ιδεολογία τους, μπο�ούν να εμπι�τευτούν ο ένας τον άλλον;

�να �υνα�πα�τικό λογοτεχνικό θ�ίλε� από τη β�αβευμένη με Booker �λενο� Κάττον, �αιξπη�ικό ως π�ος το πνεύμα, τη δ�αματική πλοκή και την ολοκλη�ωμένη �κιαγ�άφη�η των χα�ακτή�ων. Μια έξοχα δομημένη αφήγη�η για τις π�οθέ�εις, τις π�άξεις και τις �υνέπειές τους, και κυ�ίως για αυτό το ακατανίκητο έν�τικτο του ανθ�ώπου για επιβίω�η.]]> 423 Eleanor Catton 1250321719 Ryan 4 3.88 2023
author: Eleanor Catton
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/23
date added: 2024/10/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 26135825
Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the Fun Home. It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.]]> 232 Alison Bechdel 0618871713 Ryan 2 4.07 2006
author: Alison Bechdel
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at: 2024/08/26
date added: 2024/10/21
shelves:
review:
This is deeply pretentious and heavy-handed garb.
]]> 202201952 Grindhouse horror meets high-concept supernatural fantasy in the second volume of the bold new series!

Birdie and Dom continue their journey through the Other Place in an attempt to safely deliver their ward. But when they find themselves stopping at an abandoned roadside circus, the trip takes another wildly surreal u-turn.

From JEFF LEMIRE (THE BONE ORCHARD MYTHOS, LITTLE MONSTERS) and GABRIEL HERN�NDEZ WALTA (The Vision, Hellboy and the B.P.R.D: Old Man Whittier), the Eisner Award-nominated creative team behind the bestselling Sentient series.

Collects #6-#10!]]> 136 Jeff Lemire 1534397167 Ryan 3 3.78 2024
author: Jeff Lemire
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 63901302 Night Fever is a pulse-pounding noir thriller from grand masters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. A Jekyll-and-Hyde story of a man facing the darkness inside himself, this riveting tour of the night is a must-have for all Brubaker and Phillips readers!]]> 120 Ed Brubaker 153432609X Ryan 3 3.86 2023
author: Ed Brubaker
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 65655663 Mad Max: Fury Road meets The Sandman in this high-octane adventure wrapped in a dark fantasy aesthetic.

Dom is a long-haul truck driver attempting to stay ahead of his tragic past. When he stops one night to assist Birdie, who has been in a massive car crash, they pull an artifact from the wreckage that throws their lives into fifth gear. Suddenly, a typical midnight run has become a frantic journey through a surreal world where Dom and Birdie find themselves the quarry of strange and impossible monsters.

It's grindhouse horror meets high-concept supernatural fantasy in the first volume of a bold new series from JEFF LEMIRE (THE BONE ORCHARD MYTHOS, LITTLE MONSTERS) and GABRIEL HERN�NDEZ WALTA (The Vision, Hellboy and the B.P.R.D: Old Man Whittier/I>), the Eisner Award-nominated creative team behind the bestselling Sentient series.]]> 132 Jeff Lemire 1534399798 Ryan 4 3.74 2023
author: Jeff Lemire
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/20
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 201242757 From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King comes an extraordinary new collection of twelve short stories, many never-before-published, and some of his best EVER.

“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,� writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel “the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,� and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.

“Two Talented Bastids� explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,� a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny’s most catastrophically. In “Rattlesnakes,� a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance—with major strings attached. In “The Dreamers,� a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. “The Answer Man� asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.

King’s ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace remains unsurpassed. Each of these stories holds its own thrills, joys, and mysteries; each feels iconic. You like it darker? You got it.]]> 512 Stephen King 1668037718 Ryan 3 4.16 2024
author: Stephen King
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/13
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 206092021 227 Ram V. 1779529090 Ryan 3 3.90 2024
author: Ram V.
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/07
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 37570546 From a psychotherapist, and national advice columnist comes a thought-provoking new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist's world -- where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she).

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

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

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

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is revolutionary in its candor, offering a deeply personal yet universal tour of our hearts and minds and providing the rarest of gifts: a boldly revealing portrait of what it means to be human, and a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious lives and our power to transform them.]]> 415 Lori Gottlieb 1328662055 Ryan 4
This isn’t really a book about specific psychological problems or how to work on them. Instead, Gottlieb talks about both her patients and her own issues (and her sessions with her therapist, “Wendell�), illustrating how these very different people with very different problems use therapy as a way to guide their way through their individual problems � and the causes of (and, maybe more importantly, solutions to) aren’t always clear to the patient.

So it jumps around a bit and can be sluggish at times � but as it moves forward, the approach ends up being perfect for the story, because Gottlieb’s own path (and her patients� paths) to wellness isn’t a straight line.

There are a lot of takeaways from this book � one of the most powerful revelations is that pain and problems aren’t scalable � they can be relative, though not ranked. We all experience things differently, and what makes our lives joyful or difficult on any given day can only make us all the more grateful when we can manage things (or ourselves) better. Sometimes we need help with that, and it’s ok to ask for it.]]> 4.36 2019
author: Lori Gottlieb
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/05
date added: 2024/10/05
shelves:
review:
Lori Gottlieb appeared on “The Daily Show� the night of the Biden-Chungus debate, talking about this book and what she learned about taking control of her life amidst the challenges she faced. The next day, “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone� was delivered.

This isn’t really a book about specific psychological problems or how to work on them. Instead, Gottlieb talks about both her patients and her own issues (and her sessions with her therapist, “Wendell�), illustrating how these very different people with very different problems use therapy as a way to guide their way through their individual problems � and the causes of (and, maybe more importantly, solutions to) aren’t always clear to the patient.

So it jumps around a bit and can be sluggish at times � but as it moves forward, the approach ends up being perfect for the story, because Gottlieb’s own path (and her patients� paths) to wellness isn’t a straight line.

There are a lot of takeaways from this book � one of the most powerful revelations is that pain and problems aren’t scalable � they can be relative, though not ranked. We all experience things differently, and what makes our lives joyful or difficult on any given day can only make us all the more grateful when we can manage things (or ourselves) better. Sometimes we need help with that, and it’s ok to ask for it.
]]> 168386479
A boarding house full of druggies. A neglected housewife. A young girl who thinks she’s a superhero. A cop who wants to be left alone. And a Private Detective looking for a runaway girl. These stories collide one fateful summer in Where the Body Was, a tale of love and murder in the suburbs, told from a dozen different points of view. All the neighbors on the block have an opinion about the murder and how it happened, but which of them is telling the truth?

Starting with a map of the crime scene, this murder mystery follows the ripples of this killing as they echo through decades of love and loss and passion and violence.

Where the Body Was is a tour-de-force readers will be obsessed with from grandmasters Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips—the bestselling multiple Eisner award winning creators of Pulp, Reckless, and Criminal.]]> 144 Ed Brubaker 1534398260 Ryan 2
I’ve long admired the Brubaker-Phillips team, and the jaded storyline mixed with the moody pastels of the �80s work well together � but they also have worked well in other collaborations � the act isn’t fresh.

A bigger issue is that there’s just too much going on for a one-shot graphic novel. With so many characters, there’s not really a central person that drives the action � except maybe Palmer, but he more or less pops in and out when Brubaker needs him to start a fight or move a body. By the time things are wrapping up, the whodunit doesn’t even seem to matter � the author didn’t seem to care, either, since he put the “reveal� in an epilogue.

More development would’ve made this story much more worthy of the talent in which the creative team is capable.]]> 4.10 2023
author: Ed Brubaker
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2024/01/01
date added: 2024/10/02
shelves:
review:
Another Brubaker-Phillips graphic novel that features a familiar cast of petty thieves, junkies, low-lifes and killers. The story follows some goings-on of a quiet street in a California town, 1984. Palmer is a liquor store clerk posing as a cop who saves a pair of teenage would-be lovers. His heroics catch the eye of a bored, lusty housewife. Her husband, a psychiatrist, is treating a shady war vet � oh, and the neighborhood is patrolled by a young comics-obsessed girl who wears a cape. And then there’s a PI snooping around for a missing kid. A dead body pops in there eventually.

I’ve long admired the Brubaker-Phillips team, and the jaded storyline mixed with the moody pastels of the �80s work well together � but they also have worked well in other collaborations � the act isn’t fresh.

A bigger issue is that there’s just too much going on for a one-shot graphic novel. With so many characters, there’s not really a central person that drives the action � except maybe Palmer, but he more or less pops in and out when Brubaker needs him to start a fight or move a body. By the time things are wrapping up, the whodunit doesn’t even seem to matter � the author didn’t seem to care, either, since he put the “reveal� in an epilogue.

More development would’ve made this story much more worthy of the talent in which the creative team is capable.
]]> 213960763 HOUSES OF THE UNHOLYĚýis a riveting horror thrill ride from bestselling creators ED BRUBAKER and SEAN PHILLIPS, the award-winning team behindĚýCRIMINALĚý(soon to be a TV series on Amazon Prime),ĚýRECKLESS,ĚýNIGHT FEVER,ĚýandĚýWHERE THE BODY WAS.]]> 144 Ed Brubaker 1534328262 Ryan 3 3.67 2024
author: Ed Brubaker
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/02
date added: 2024/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 3763
"Her hair was black and fell to her shoulders. She had high cheekbones and a sensual mouth, and wore a dress of white silk. Her eyes were blue, alight and disdainful, but, as they gazed into his with a touch of humour, Bond realized that they contained a message. Solitaire watched his eyes on her and nonchalantly drew her forearms together so that the valley between her breasts deepened. The message was unmistakable."

The beautiful, fortune-telling Solitaire is the prisoner (and criminal tool) of Mr Big - master of fear, artist in crime, and Voodoo Baron of Death. James Bond has no time for superstition, he knows that this criminal heavy hitter is also a top SMERSH operative and a real threat to international security. More than that, after tracking him through the jazz joints of Harlem to the everglades in Florida, and on to the Caribbean, 007 realizes that Big is one of the most dangerous men that he has ever faced. And no-one, not even the mysterious Solitaire, can be sure how their battle of wills is going to end…]]> 229 Ian Fleming 0142003239 Ryan 3 3.61 1954
author: Ian Fleming
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1954
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/28
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 32626683 For readers of Nora Ephron, Anna Quindlen, and even Lena Dunham, comes a collection of stories and essays about what women of a certain age have learned sometimes the hard way.

In You Don t Look Your Age, Sheila Nevins has put together an incredibly surprising, funny and poignant collection of short stories, essays, and poetry that, taken together, tell not only her life story but the life stories of a generation of women.

Nevins has seen it all. A famed documentary producer (many credit her with creating the modern documentary) Nevins has always been behind the scenes. But now it s time for her to take center stage. Nevinswas stopped at every path as a girlfriend, during motherhood, and with her career. . You Don t Look Your Age is Nevins chance to tell how things really were, and are, for countless women. Topics she tackles frenemies, infidelity, plastic surgery, dieting, Viagra, the heartbreak of young first love, the discomforts of growing old, and a celebration in the long run of what life has to offer.

With biting humor, charm, deep insight, wisdom, and surprising poignancy, Nevins has written that rare book that will be shared between mothers and daughters and even granddaughters.

"]]> 192 Sheila Nevins 1250111323 Ryan 2 3.36 2017
author: Sheila Nevins
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2017
rating: 2
read at: 2017/07/09
date added: 2024/09/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 197124587 149 Ram V. 1779526520 Ryan 3 3.89 2023
author: Ram V.
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/26
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 6592214 1153 Tom Clancy 1101002360 Ryan 0 to-read 4.48 1994
author: Tom Clancy
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.48
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 209646361 Prepare yourself for a shockingly brutal retelling of the first bloody clash between The Joker and the Batman!

Detective Jim Gordon must call on the mysterious Dark Knight to help investigate the latest string of murder and mayhem terrorizing Gotham City. But what will it take to find the culprit behind these darkly comedic antics, and what will the repercussions be for everyone involved?

The Eisner Award-winning team of Tom King and Mitch Gerads reunite to give life to what may be the most frightening Joker story in a generation! Collects King and Gerads's The Winning Card storyline from Batman: The Brave and the Bold #1-2, #5, and #9.]]> 109 Tom King 1779529686 Ryan 3 4.18
author: Tom King
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/22
date added: 2024/09/22
shelves:
review:
If we really needed a retelling of Batman #1, it could've gone wrong in a lot of ways ... but we're in good hands with Tom King. Others have noted that the Joker is truly terrifying in this story (he is) and Alfred is used well as a cautionary figure to Batman's rather foolish pursuit of vengeance (he is). But we also don't get much in terms of development -- much is derived from what we know of these characters, and the only real play here are some twists on the original tale.
]]> 123263170 160 Fiona Staples 1534399135 Ryan 3 4.18 2023
author: Fiona Staples
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/21
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 29237224
Collects: Saga #55-60.]]> 160 Fiona Staples 1534323341 Ryan 3 4.30 2022
author: Fiona Staples
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/21
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 38812872
Collects: Saga #49-54.]]> 152 Brian K. Vaughan 1534308377 Ryan 4 4.57 2018
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/21
date added: 2024/09/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 34065580 Bestselling and Newbery Medal-winning author Louis Sachar knows how to make readers laugh. And there are laughs galore in perennial favorite Wayside School Is Falling Down, now available for the first time in ebook format!ĚýĚýThis early middle grade novel is an excellent choice for tween readers in grades 3 to 5, especially during homeschooling. It’s a fun way to keep your child entertained and engaged while not in the classroom.

Yum! Miss Mush is dishing out her famous Mushroom Surprise in the Wayside School cafeteria. Ron says it tastes like hot dogs and grape jelly. Clean your plate and you’ll turn green in time for class picture day. Wear your craziest outfit and you’ll fit right in between Maurecia in her striped bikini and Calvin, who’s wearing his birthday tattoo. Say cheese!

And get ready forĚýWayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom, theĚýbrand-new, fourth installment in the series, and the first in twenty-five years!Ěý

More thanĚýfifteen million readersĚýĚýhave laughed at the clever and hilarious stories of Wayside School. So what are you waiting for? Come visit Wayside School!]]> 192 Louis Sachar 0062383205 Ryan 2 4.53 1989
author: Louis Sachar
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.53
book published: 1989
rating: 2
read at: 2020/10/16
date added: 2024/09/20
shelves:
review:
Not nearly as fun or as memorable as the first in the series ... although I did like the chapters where one of Mrs. Jewls’s students finds herself stuck on the nineteenth floor with Mrs. Zarves. Stick with the original.
]]> 43307890
Collects: Saga #43-48.]]> 152 Brian K. Vaughan 1534303499 Ryan 3 4.46 2017
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2017
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/16
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 34065578 Bestselling and Newbery Medal-winning author Louis Sachar knows how to make readers laugh. And there are laughs galore in perennial favorite Sideways Stories from Wayside School, now available for the first time in ebook format!

Accidentally built sideways and standing thirty stories high (the builder said he was very sorry for the mistake), Wayside School has some of the wackiest classes in town, especially on the thirtieth floor. That’s where you’ll meet Bebe, the fastest draw in art class; John, who only reads upside down; Myron, the best class president, ever; and Sammy, the new kid—he’s a real rat.

More than nine million readers have laughed at the wacky stories of Wayside School. So what are you waiting for? Come visit Wayside School!]]> 163 Louis Sachar 0062383183 Ryan 4 4.44 1978
author: Louis Sachar
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1978
rating: 4
read at: 2020/10/11
date added: 2024/09/16
shelves:
review:
“Sideways Stories from Wayside School� is the first chapter book I remember reading as a kid, so it was fun to revisit it. Wayside School is 30 stories high � a classroom on each floor � and the book follows the goofy stories about the children in Mrs. Jewls’s class at the top of the building. For not having read this book in about 30 years, I was surprised how much I remembered! It’s a lighthearted book that tucks some good lessons about responsibility and kindness in between its wacky moments.
]]> 29237211 Saga event! Finally reunited with her ever-expanding family, Hazel travels to a war-torn comet that Wreath and Landfall have been battling over for ages. New friendships are forged and others are lost forever in this action-packed volume about families, combat and the refugee experience.

Collects: Saga #37-42.]]> 152 Brian K. Vaughan 1534300600 Ryan 5 4.48 2017
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/10
date added: 2024/09/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 28862528
Collects: Saga #31-36.]]> 152 Brian K. Vaughan 163215711X Ryan 4 4.46 2016
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/08
date added: 2024/09/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 14539948
Darwyn Cooke, Eisner-Award winning creator of DC: The New Frontier, continues adapting Richard Stark's genre-defining Parker novels with his signature pulp flair in this third installment. A hard-nosed thief, Parker is Richard Stark's most famous creation, and Stark, in turn, is the most famous pen name of Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Donald E. Westlake.]]> 160 Darwyn Cooke 1613772084 Ryan 3 4.30 2012
author: Darwyn Cooke
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2023/01/17
date added: 2024/09/04
shelves:
review:

]]> 25451555
Collects: Saga #25-30.]]> 152 Brian K. Vaughan 1632154382 Ryan 4 4.40 2015
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/02
date added: 2024/09/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 23093367
Collects: Saga #19-24.]]> 144 Brian K. Vaughan 1632150778 Ryan 4 4.42 2014
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/01
date added: 2024/09/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 19358975
Collects: Saga #13-18.]]> 144 Brian K. Vaughan 1607069318 Ryan 3 4.48 2014
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/31
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves:
review:

]]> 179392652 FromĚýNew York TimesĚýbestselling author Ben the book Elon Musk doesn’t want you to read.

BREAKING TWITTER takes readers inside the darkly comic battle between one of the most intriguing, polarizing, influential men of our time—Elon Musk—and the company that represents our culture’s dearest hope for a shared global conversation. From employee accounts within Twitter headquarters to the mission-driven team Musk surrounded himself with, this is the full story from all sides. Can Musk miraculously succeed or will he spectacularly fail?Ěý What will that mean to the global town hall that is Twitter? ĚýWhat, really, is Elon’s end goal? ĚýThe whole world is watching.Ěý BREAKING TWITTER will provide ringside seats.Ěý

Elon Musk didn't break Twitter. Twitter broke Elon Musk.Ěý
Ěý]]> 337 Ben Mezrich 1538707624 Ryan 1
Ehhh not really.

“Breaking Twitter� goes into more detail about the social media platform’s history and “other side� stories that Isaacson doesn’t cover � but those items are either readily available on a Wikipedia page OR aren’t key to the broader understanding of how Musk took a broken company and (very) quickly made it a lot worse.

That said, there are some minor/armchair psychologist insights and observations about Musk as a business personality. For example, through SpaceX, Tesla and other ventures, he surrounded himself with highly dedicated, intense people who were aligned with his broader vision. When Musk took over Twitter, the building wasn’t exactly filled with acolytes who were down with licking his boots, no matter if they were as supposedly hardcore as the new Chief Twit. That the company became an extension of his polarizing personality, and that people no longer used the same glowing terms to describe him, made an apparently more-brittle-than-we-thought GeNiUs torpedo himself into one colossally short-sighted decision after another �

� at least, according to Ben Mezrich. He’s covered other phenomena such as the rise of Facebook, the GameStop short squeeze and MIT card counters who conquered Vegas. Like the latter book, at least, Mezrich admits at the start that “Breaking Twitter� is creative narrative nonfiction in which he employs reimagined dialogue and composite characters.

Which, to me, means this book isn’t really nonfiction. It’s glorified speculation informed by semi-secondary reporting, littered with overwrought descriptions and annoyingly repetitious references to “the billionaire.� Just say Elon or Musk, FFS.

Wrapping up this “creative narrative� before current X CEO Linda Yaccarino officially took over from Musk, Mezrich’s book is hardly a comprehensive story of the disastrous Twitter takeover.

So, for now, stick with Isaacson’s take and wait for credibility to arrive in a year or two when another author gives this story the proper treatment.]]> 3.90 2023
author: Ben Mezrich
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2024/01/21
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves:
review:
After reading Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk bio, is this book necessary?

Ehhh not really.

“Breaking Twitter� goes into more detail about the social media platform’s history and “other side� stories that Isaacson doesn’t cover � but those items are either readily available on a Wikipedia page OR aren’t key to the broader understanding of how Musk took a broken company and (very) quickly made it a lot worse.

That said, there are some minor/armchair psychologist insights and observations about Musk as a business personality. For example, through SpaceX, Tesla and other ventures, he surrounded himself with highly dedicated, intense people who were aligned with his broader vision. When Musk took over Twitter, the building wasn’t exactly filled with acolytes who were down with licking his boots, no matter if they were as supposedly hardcore as the new Chief Twit. That the company became an extension of his polarizing personality, and that people no longer used the same glowing terms to describe him, made an apparently more-brittle-than-we-thought GeNiUs torpedo himself into one colossally short-sighted decision after another �

� at least, according to Ben Mezrich. He’s covered other phenomena such as the rise of Facebook, the GameStop short squeeze and MIT card counters who conquered Vegas. Like the latter book, at least, Mezrich admits at the start that “Breaking Twitter� is creative narrative nonfiction in which he employs reimagined dialogue and composite characters.

Which, to me, means this book isn’t really nonfiction. It’s glorified speculation informed by semi-secondary reporting, littered with overwrought descriptions and annoyingly repetitious references to “the billionaire.� Just say Elon or Musk, FFS.

Wrapping up this “creative narrative� before current X CEO Linda Yaccarino officially took over from Musk, Mezrich’s book is hardly a comprehensive story of the disastrous Twitter takeover.

So, for now, stick with Isaacson’s take and wait for credibility to arrive in a year or two when another author gives this story the proper treatment.
]]> 53000876
In December of 1999, a multinational team journeys out to the stars, to the most awesome encounter in human history. Who—or what—is out there? In Cosmos, Carl Sagan explained the universe. In Contact, he predicts its future—and our own.]]> 375 Carl Sagan Ryan 5 4.29 1985
author: Carl Sagan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1985
rating: 5
read at: 2024/08/10
date added: 2024/08/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 209541 Meanwhile, from out of the West arose a new conservative movement led by Ronald Reagan, a one-time Hollywood actor whose speech in 1964 in support of the doomed candidacy of Barry Goldwater not only electrified a national television audience but also created a political star who would change the course of history.
With meticulous detail, Hayward captures an America at war with itself—and an era whose reverberations we feel to this very day. He brings new insight into the profound failure of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, the oddly liberal nature of Richard Nixon's administration, the significance of Reagan's years as California's governor, and the sudden-death drama of his near defeat of Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican primary, the listlessness of Jimmy Carter's leadership, and the political earthquake that was Reagan's victorious presidential campaign in 1980.
Provocative, authoritative, and majestic in scope, The Age of Reagan is an unforgettable account of the rebirth and triumph of the American spirit.]]> 811 Steven F. Hayward 076151337X Ryan 2 4.29
author: Steven F. Hayward
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 2
read at: 2006/02/01
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 52893890 Josie Schuller is a picture-perfect homemaker, wife, and mother--but she's also a ruthless killer!

She balances cheerful domestic bliss with coldly efficient assassinations. From the World's Fair in Seattle to the beaches of Florida, Josie tries to keep her perfect family alive in a bloodstained new vision of the American Dream.

Joelle Jones became an overnight sensation with this gory midcentury series, leading to successful runs on DC's Catwoman and Batman titles. Now Lady Killer's complete story (so far) is together in one oversized hardcover, the perfect showcase for Jones's phenomenal artwork.

This oversized hardcover collects the original series cowritten by Jones's longtime collaborator Jamie S. Rich, as well as the followup, which she both wrote and drew solo. Also included are the sketchbooks from both series and previously unpublished art.

Collects Lady Killer TPB volumes 1 & 2.]]> 288 Joëlle Jones 1506716520 Ryan 3 4.13 2020
author: Joëlle Jones
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/04
date added: 2024/08/04
shelves:
review:

]]> 74878795 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER � Passionate advocate for end-of-life care and TikTok star Hadley Vlahos shares moving stories of joy, wisdom, and redemption from her patients� final moments in this “brilliant� (Zibby Owens, Good Morning America) memoir.
Ěý
“This extraordinary book helps dispel fear around death and dying—revealing it to be a natural part of our soul’s evolution.”—Laura Lynne Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Signs and The Light Between Us

Talking about death and dying is considered taboo in polite company, and even in the medical field. Our ideas about dying are confusing at Will our memories flash before our eyes? Regrets consume our thoughts? Does a bright light appear at the end of a tunnel? For most people, it will be a slower process, one eased with preparedness, good humor, and a bit of faith. At the forefront of changing attitudes around palliative care is hospice nurse Hadley Vlahos, who shows that end-of-life care can teach us just as much about how to live as it does about how we die.
Ěý
Vlahos was raised in a strict religious household, but began questioning her beliefs in high school after the sudden death of a friend. When she got pregnant at nineteen, she was shunned by her community and enrolled herself in nursing school to be able to support herself and her baby. But nursing soon became more than a when she focused on palliative care and hospice work, it became a calling.Ěý
Ěý
In The In-Between, Vlahos recounts the most impactful experiences she’s had with the people she’s worked with—from the woman who never once questioned her faith until she was close to death, to the older man seeing visions of his late daughter, to the young patient who laments that she spent too much of her short life worrying about what others thought of her—while also sharing her own fascinating journey.
Ěý
Written with profound insight, humility, and respect, The In-Between is a heartrending memoir that shows how caring for others can transform a life while also offering wisdom and comfort for those dealing with loss and providing inspiration for how to live now.]]> 268 Hadley Vlahos 0593499948 Ryan 4 4.67 2023
author: Hadley Vlahos
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/25
date added: 2024/07/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 26934849
Collects: Saga #7-12.]]> 171 Brian K. Vaughan Ryan 4 4.45 2013
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/10
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 60399106
The bestselling authors of The Man Who Ran Washington argue that Trump was not just lurching from one controversy to another; he was learning to be more like the foreign autocrats he admired.

The Divider brings us into the Oval Office for countless scenes both tense and comical, revealing how close we got to nuclear war with North Korea, which cabinet members had a resignation pact, whether Trump asked Japan’s prime minister to nominate him for a Nobel Prize and much more. The book also explores the moral choices confronting those around Trump—how they justified working for a man they considered unfit for office, and where they drew their lines.

The Divider is based on unprecedented access to key players, from President Trump himself to cabinet officers, military generals, close advisers, Trump family members, congressional leaders, foreign officials and others, some of whom have never told their story until now.
--penguinrandomhouse]]> 725 Peter Baker 0385546548 Ryan 5 4.46 2022
author: Peter Baker
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 26888296
Collects: Saga #1-6.]]> 188 Brian K. Vaughan Ryan 4 4.12 2012
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/07
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 45168235 354 Garth Ennis Ryan 2 3.97 2006
author: Garth Ennis
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2006
rating: 2
read at: 2024/07/06
date added: 2024/07/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 31691212 137 Ed Brubaker 1534301186 Ryan 2 4.21 2016
author: Ed Brubaker
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2016
rating: 2
read at: 2024/06/24
date added: 2024/06/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 89724 Shirley Jackson’s beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family’s dark secret

Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate. This edition features a new introduction by Jonathan Lethem.]]> 152 Shirley Jackson 0143039970 Ryan 3 3.93 1962
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1962
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 27068618 128 Ed Brubaker Ryan 3 4.41 2015
author: Ed Brubaker
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2024/06/23
date added: 2024/06/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 20638245 Captain America: The Winter Soldier comes this smash-hit spy thriller with a unique new twist!

When the world's greatest secret agent is killed, all evidence points to Velvet Templeton, the personal secretary to the Director of the Agency. But Velvet's got a dark secret buried in her past... because she's also the most dangerous woman alive!

Collecting: Velvet 1-5]]> 128 Ed Brubaker 1607069644 Ryan 4 4.11 2014
author: Ed Brubaker
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/22
date added: 2024/06/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 43211327 Gotham City's worst criminals--Joker, Riddler, Ra's al Ghul, Clayface and others--have emerged to throw Batman's life into utter chaos. However, these villains are part of a much more elaborate, sinister scheme to destroy the Dark Knight once and for all, one headed by a mastermind much closer to Bruce Wayne than any foe before...

Gotham City is infected by a crime epidemic and all of Batman's enemies have emerged to throw his life into utter chaos. But little do they know that they're all pawns of the villainous Hush in an elaborate game of revenge against Bruce Wayne. Pushed past his breaking point, Batman will need to use more than the world's greatest detective skills to uncover the true identity of this mysterious mastermind before it's too late.

Written by Jeph Loeb (Batman: The Long Halloween, Batman: Dark Victory) and artist and DC Publisher and CCO Jim Lee (Justice League, Suicide Squad) stack the odds against the caped crusader in a story that redefined Batman for a new generation!

Collects Batman #608-619.]]> 376 Jeph Loeb 1401297242 Ryan 4 4.29 2002
author: Jeph Loeb
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at: 2024/06/21
date added: 2024/06/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 319472
The definitive account of Germany's malign transformation under Hitler's total rule and the implacable march to war

This magnificent second volume of Richard J. Evans's three-volume history of Nazi Germany was hailed by Benjamin Schwartz of the Atlantic Monthly as "the definitive English-language account... gripping and precise." It chronicles the incredible story of Germany's radical reshaping under Nazi rule. As those who were deemed unworthy to be counted among the German people were dealt with in increasingly brutal terms, Hitler's drive to prepare Germany for the war that he saw as its destiny reached its fateful hour in September 1939. The Third Reich in Power is the fullest and most authoritative account yet written of how, in six years, Germany was brought to the edge of that terrible abyss.]]> 941 Richard J. Evans 0143037900 Ryan 0 to-read 4.47 2005
author: Richard J. Evans
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 44088476 This is the official adaptation of the original screenplay for Alien 3, written by William Gibson, the award-winning science fiction author of the cyberpunk cult classic Neuromancer. You'll see familiar characters and places--but not all is the same in this horrifying Cold War thriller!After the deadly events of the film Aliens, the spaceship Sulaco carrying the sleeping bodies of Ripley, Hicks, Newt, and Bishop are intercepted by the Union of Progressive Peoples. What the U.P.P forces don't expect is another deadly passenger that is about to unleash chaos between two governmental titans intent on developing the ultimate cold war weapon of mass destruction. Collects William Gibson's Alien 3 #1-5.]]> 136 William Gibson 1506708552 Ryan 3 3.49
author: William Gibson
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.49
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2020/12/12
date added: 2024/05/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 545641 959 Margaret Mitchell 1416548890 Ryan 0 to-read 4.34 1936
author: Margaret Mitchell
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1936
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 5291539
Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into a complex and atmospheric novel.]]> 590 Stieg Larsson 0307454541 Ryan 3 4.07 2005
author: Stieg Larsson
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2005
rating: 3
read at: 2011/06/15
date added: 2024/05/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 39340860
These Truths tells this uniquely American story, beginning in 1492, asking whether the course of events over more than five centuries has proven the nation’s truths, or belied them. To answer that question, Lepore traces the intertwined histories of American politics, law, journalism, and technology, from the colonial town meeting to the nineteenth-century party machine, from talk radio to twenty-first-century Internet polls, from Magna Carta to the Patriot Act, from the printing press to Facebook News.

Along the way, Lepore’s sovereign chronicle is filled with arresting sketches of both well-known and lesser-known Americans, from a parade of presidents and a rogues� gallery of political mischief makers to the intrepid leaders of protest movements, including Frederick Douglass, the famed abolitionist orator; William Jennings Bryan, the three-time presidential candidate and ultimately tragic populist; Pauli Murray, the visionary civil rights strategist; and Phyllis Schlafly, the uncredited architect of modern conservatism.


Americans are descended from slaves and slave owners, from conquerors and the conquered, from immigrants and from people who have fought to end immigration. "A nation born in contradiction will fight forever over the meaning of its history," Lepore writes, but engaging in that struggle by studying the past is part of the work of citizenship. "The past is an inheritance, a gift and a burden," These Truths observes. "It can’t be shirked. There’s nothing for it but to get to know it."]]> 955 Jill Lepore 0393635252 Ryan 3 4.46 2018
author: Jill Lepore
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2018
rating: 3
read at: 2024/05/18
date added: 2024/05/18
shelves:
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]]> 25814472
Scientists have only recently accepted the intelligence of dogs, birds, and chimpanzees but now are watching octopuses solve problems and are trying to decipher the meaning of the animal’s color-changing techniques. With her “joyful passion for these intelligent and fascinating creatures� (Library Journal Editors� Spring Pick), Montgomery chronicles the growing appreciation of this mollusk as she tells a unique love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound, The Soul of an Octopus reveals what octopuses can teach us about the meeting of two very different minds.]]> 262 Sy Montgomery 1451697724 Ryan 0 to-read 4.05 2015
author: Sy Montgomery
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 186490031 In only one scenario could the world as we know it end in a matter of that is nuclear war. And one of the triggers for that war would be a nuclear missile inbound towards the United States.Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These projects are vital to how we understand the world we really live where one nuclear missile begets one in return; where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds-notice, with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear A Scenario explores this ticking clock scenario, based on dozens of new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons; created the response plans; and been responsible for those decisions should they need to have been made. Nuclear A Scenario is unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.]]> 400 Annie Jacobsen 0593476107 Ryan 2
After a brief history of how the world’s superpowers created WMD stockpiles, she takes us through the details about how a thermonuclear missile would make its way to Washington, D.C., how the nation’s military would maneuver, and how the president is expected to make decisions with humanity’s survival in the balance.

This section of the book is its strongest � Jacobson has spent years working with sources and combing through declassified records to tell us how this would all go down �

� and when it *does* start going down, the narrative is bogged down by details that just don’t matter. We know how this ends. The book concludes with a look months, years and then millennia down the road to see how Earth recovers. These are fascinating passages that confirm what Tina Turner sang about: The living would envy the dead.]]> 4.55 2024
author: Annie Jacobsen
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2024
rating: 2
read at: 2024/05/06
date added: 2024/05/06
shelves:
review:
“Nuclear War: A Scenario� is exactly what it sounds like � a 300-page exploration of WWIII’s first hour. One could find fault with reading any speculative account that ends the world so quickly and with such brutal annihilation, but Annie Jacobson takes us a greater distance.

After a brief history of how the world’s superpowers created WMD stockpiles, she takes us through the details about how a thermonuclear missile would make its way to Washington, D.C., how the nation’s military would maneuver, and how the president is expected to make decisions with humanity’s survival in the balance.

This section of the book is its strongest � Jacobson has spent years working with sources and combing through declassified records to tell us how this would all go down �

� and when it *does* start going down, the narrative is bogged down by details that just don’t matter. We know how this ends. The book concludes with a look months, years and then millennia down the road to see how Earth recovers. These are fascinating passages that confirm what Tina Turner sang about: The living would envy the dead.
]]> 13623872 �New York Times Book Review

With more than forty novels to his credit and still going strong, the legendary Elmore Leonard has well earned the title, “America’s greatest crime writer� (Newsweek). And U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Pronto, Riding the Rap, Fire in the Hole) is one of Leonard’s most popular creations, thanks in part to the phenomenal success of the hit TV series “Justified.� Leonard’s Raylan shines a spotlight once again on the dedicated, if somewhat trigger-happy lawman, this time in his familiar but not particularly cozy milieu of Harlan County, Kentucky, where the drug dealing Crowe brothers are branching out into the human body parts business. Suspenseful, darkly wry and riveting, and crackling with Leonard’s trademark electric dialogue, Raylan is prime Grand Master Leonard as you have always loved him and always will.
]]> 263 Elmore Leonard 0062119478 Ryan 3 3.79 2012
author: Elmore Leonard
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/22
date added: 2024/04/22
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]]> 28388918 alternate cover for 9780452265349

In his second Pulitzer Prize winner, August Wilson fashions a haunting and dramatic work. At the heart of the play stands the ornately carved upright piano that has been gathering dust in the parlor of Berniece Charles's Pittsburgh home. When Boy Willie, her exuberant brother, bursts into her life with his dreams of buying the same Mississippi land that their family had worked as slaves, he plans to sell their antique piano for the cash he needs to stake his future. Berniece refuses to sell, though, clinging to the piano as a reminder of the history that is their family legacy.]]> 108 August Wilson Ryan 4 3.71 1990
author: August Wilson
name: Ryan
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/19
date added: 2024/04/19
shelves:
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]]> 42046112 Memory makes reality.

That's what NYC cop Barry Sutton is learning, as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.

That's what neuroscientist Helena Smith believes. It's why she's dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious memories. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent.

As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face to face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds, but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it.

But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them?

At once a relentless pageturner and an intricate science-fiction puzzlebox about time, identity, and memory, Recursion is a thriller as only Blake Crouch could imagine it—and his most ambitious, mind-boggling, irresistible work to date.]]> 326 Blake Crouch 1524759783 Ryan 4 4.15 2019
author: Blake Crouch
name: Ryan
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/17
date added: 2024/04/17
shelves:
review:

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