en-US Mon, 31 Mar 2025 09:05:36 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 199793426 Polostan follows the early life of the enigmatic Dawn Rae Bjornberg. Born in the American West to a clan of cowboy anarchists, Dawn is raised in Leningrad after the Russian Revolution by her Russian father, a party line Leninist who re-christens her Aurora. She spends her early years in Russia but then grows up as a teenager in Montana, before being drawn into gunrunning and revolution in the streets of Washington, D.C., during the depths of the Great Depression. When a surprising revelation about her past puts her in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities, Dawn returns to Russia, where she is groomed as a spy by the organization that later becomes the KGB.]]> 303 Neal Stephenson 0062334492 Abe 1
Polostan is not a novel. It is a rushed spattering of skeletal, unrelated historical setpieces that Neal Stephenson has jotted down in his notes over the years, and somebody decided to publish these notes without allowing them to be tied together and fully edited. The setpieces are connected solely by the diaphanous thread of a single character, a character who has very little to do with her surroundings at any given time.

There is no sense of conflict or stakes. I wish I were exaggerating, but I sadly must report that this book does not contain a story. All it does is set up a character. The reader hopscotches unsteadily through geography and time from one random historical scene to another, with no sense of direction until the last couple dozen pages. Are you wondering why the blurb seems so generic and doesn't hint at what is going to happen? It's because there's a lack of content-that-happens for the blurb to so hint at. The protagonist doesn't even have a goal until five pages before the book ends. I'm not exaggerating: only the last chapter gives any reason or opportunity for the protagonist to act to change her circumstances, and even then the other character integral to this action has only been introduced one chapter previously, so his characterization is necessarily thin and the connection between the two is disastrously rushed. If the Soviet timeline had involved this character from the start, this would have been a much stronger book.

The most disappointing part of Polostan is that the writing style is plain and dull compared to Stephenson's typically exuberant, stylish, observant, and hilarious prose. Perhaps only one in every 50 sentences exhibits a trace of the style I've come to love so much from Mr. Stephenson. This may be intentional—Stephenson is the master of the third-person limited perspective, in which the prose subtly changes to reflect the intellect and mental / emotional state of the primary character concerned. This style is markedly effective (and hilarious!) when he bounces between chapters from hifalutin academic to ruthless hitman to master hacker to cyborg dog, but when the entire book exclusively follows a 16- to 18-year old girl of no academic or professional repute, it mostly comes across as typical YA novel writing, a style that is not at all in line with why I read Neal Stephenson.

I'm confused where "Bomb Light" could even go from here. And I am not alone in this confusion. In the acknowledgments, Stephenson himself announces that he can't even give proper thanks to anybody besides his lifelong editor because he has no idea where this thing is going.

Fortunately, the last 60 or so pages of the book pick up some a semblance of a story compared to the narratively vacuous first 240 pages, at least in the sense of a hope emerging that the two main timelines connect in some way that gives the main character a semblance of an idea of an opposing force to act against. And in the last few pages, finally that does happen.

I'm still a big Stephenson fan, and Polostan ends on a note promising a real story is just around the corner, so I will probably give Bomb Light #2 a hesitant try. I just wish they'd given Polostan another year to cook instead of releasing it half-baked.]]> 3.70 2024
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2025/03/31
shelves:
review:
I am a devoted fan of Neal Stephenson, and it pains me greatly to say this, but this book is a bummer.

Polostan is not a novel. It is a rushed spattering of skeletal, unrelated historical setpieces that Neal Stephenson has jotted down in his notes over the years, and somebody decided to publish these notes without allowing them to be tied together and fully edited. The setpieces are connected solely by the diaphanous thread of a single character, a character who has very little to do with her surroundings at any given time.

There is no sense of conflict or stakes. I wish I were exaggerating, but I sadly must report that this book does not contain a story. All it does is set up a character. The reader hopscotches unsteadily through geography and time from one random historical scene to another, with no sense of direction until the last couple dozen pages. Are you wondering why the blurb seems so generic and doesn't hint at what is going to happen? It's because there's a lack of content-that-happens for the blurb to so hint at. The protagonist doesn't even have a goal until five pages before the book ends. I'm not exaggerating: only the last chapter gives any reason or opportunity for the protagonist to act to change her circumstances, and even then the other character integral to this action has only been introduced one chapter previously, so his characterization is necessarily thin and the connection between the two is disastrously rushed. If the Soviet timeline had involved this character from the start, this would have been a much stronger book.

The most disappointing part of Polostan is that the writing style is plain and dull compared to Stephenson's typically exuberant, stylish, observant, and hilarious prose. Perhaps only one in every 50 sentences exhibits a trace of the style I've come to love so much from Mr. Stephenson. This may be intentional—Stephenson is the master of the third-person limited perspective, in which the prose subtly changes to reflect the intellect and mental / emotional state of the primary character concerned. This style is markedly effective (and hilarious!) when he bounces between chapters from hifalutin academic to ruthless hitman to master hacker to cyborg dog, but when the entire book exclusively follows a 16- to 18-year old girl of no academic or professional repute, it mostly comes across as typical YA novel writing, a style that is not at all in line with why I read Neal Stephenson.

I'm confused where "Bomb Light" could even go from here. And I am not alone in this confusion. In the acknowledgments, Stephenson himself announces that he can't even give proper thanks to anybody besides his lifelong editor because he has no idea where this thing is going.

Fortunately, the last 60 or so pages of the book pick up some a semblance of a story compared to the narratively vacuous first 240 pages, at least in the sense of a hope emerging that the two main timelines connect in some way that gives the main character a semblance of an idea of an opposing force to act against. And in the last few pages, finally that does happen.

I'm still a big Stephenson fan, and Polostan ends on a note promising a real story is just around the corner, so I will probably give Bomb Light #2 a hesitant try. I just wish they'd given Polostan another year to cook instead of releasing it half-baked.
]]> 32075859
All Denny Malone wants is to be a good cop.

He is "the King of Manhattan North," a highly decorated NYPD detective sergeant and the real leader of "Da Force." Malone and his crew are the smartest, the toughest, the quickest, the bravest, and the baddest, an elite special unit given carte blanche to fight gangs, drugs, and guns. Every day and every night for the eighteen years he’s spent on the Job, Malone has served on the front lines, witnessing the hurt, the dead, the victims, the perps. He’s done whatever it takes to serve and protect in a city built by ambition and corruption, where no one is clean—including Malone himself.

What only a few know is that Denny Malone is dirty: he and his partners have stolen millions of dollars in drugs and cash in the wake of the biggest heroin bust in the city’s history. Now Malone is caught in a trap and being squeezed by the Feds, and he must walk the thin line between betraying his brothers and partners, the Job, his family, and the woman he loves, trying to survive, body and soul, while the city teeters on the brink of a racial conflagration that could destroy them all.

This is the great cop novel of our time and a book only Don Winslow could write: a haunting story of greed and violence, inequality and race, crime and injustice, retribution and redemption that reveals the seemingly insurmountable tensions between the police and the diverse citizens they serve. A searing portrait of a city on the edge and of a courageous, heroic, and deeply flawed man who stands at the edge of its abyss, The Force is a masterpiece of urban realism full of shocking and surprising twists, leavened by flashes of dark humor, a morally complex and utterly riveting dissection of modern American society and the controversial issues confronting us today.]]> 496 Don Winslow 0062664417 Abe 0 to-read 4.08 2017
author: Don Winslow
name: Abe
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 38376040 New York Times bestselling author of The Force.

What do you do when there are no borders?  When the lines you thought existed simply vanish?  How do you plant your feet to make a stand when you no longer know what side you’re on?

The war has come home.

For over forty years, Art Keller has been on the front lines of America’s longest conflict: The War On Drugs. His obsession to defeat the world’s most powerful, wealthy, and lethal kingpin—the godfather of the Sinaloa Cartel, Adán Barrera—has left him bloody and scarred, cost him people he loves, even taken a piece of his soul.

Now Keller is elevated to the highest ranks of the DEA, only to find that in destroying one monster he has created thirty more that are wreaking even more chaos and suffering in his beloved Mexico. But not just there.

Barrera’s final legacy is the heroin epidemic scourging America. Throwing himself into the gap to stem the deadly flow, Keller finds himself surrounded by enemies—men that want to kill him, politicians that want to destroy him, and worse, the unimaginable—an incoming administration that’s in bed with the very drug traffickers that Keller is trying to bring down.

Art Keller is at war with not only the cartels, but with his own government. And the long fight has taught him more than he ever imagined. Now, he learns the final lesson—there are no borders.

In a story that moves from deserts south of the border to Wall Street, from the slums of Guatemala to the marbled corridors of Washington, D.C., Winslow follows a new generation of narcos, the cops that fight them, the street traffickers, the addicts, the politicians, money-launderers, real-estate moguls and mere children fleeing the violence for the chance of a life in a new country.

A shattering tale of vengeance, violence, corruption and justice, this last novel in Don Winslow’s magnificent, award-winning, internationally bestselling trilogy is packed with unforgettable, drawn-from-the-headlines scenes. Shocking in its brutality, raw in its humanity, The Border is an unflinching portrait of modern America, a story of—and for—our time.]]> 768 Don Winslow 0062664514 Abe 0 to-read 4.44 2019
author: Don Winslow
name: Abe
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 23602561 The Power of the Dog comes The Cartel, a gripping, true-to-life, ripped-from-the-headlines epic story of power, corruption, revenge, and justice spanning the past decade of the Mexican-American drug wars.

It’s 2004. DEA agent Art Keller has been fighting the war on drugs for thirty years in a blood feud against Adán Barrera, the head of El Federación, the world’s most powerful cartel, and the man who brutally murdered Keller’s partner. Finally putting Barrera away cost Keller dearly—the woman he loves, the beliefs he cherishes, the life he wants to lead.

Then Barrera gets out, determined to rebuild the empire that Keller shattered. Unwilling to live in a world with Barrera in it, Keller goes on a ten-year odyssey to take him down. His obsession with justice—or is it revenge?—becomes a ruthless struggle that stretches from the cities, mountains, and deserts of Mexico to Washington’s corridors of power to the streets of Berlin and Barcelona.

Keller fights his personal battle against the devastated backdrop of Mexico’s drug war, a conflict of unprecedented scale and viciousness, as cartels vie for power and he comes to the final reckoning with Barrera—and himself—that he always knew must happen.

The Cartel is a story of revenge, honor, and sacrifice, as one man tries to face down the devil without losing his soul. It is the story of the war on drugs and the men—and women—who wage it.]]> 616 Don Winslow 1101874996 Abe 0 to-read 4.33 2015
author: Don Winslow
name: Abe
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 206236
This novel of the drug trade takes you deep inside a world riddled with corruption, betrayal, and bloody revenge. Art Montana is an obsessive DEA agent. The Barrera brothers are heirs to a drug empire. Nora Hayden is a jaded teenager who becomes a high-class hooker. Father Parada is a powerful and incorruptible Catholic priest. Callan is an Irish kid from Hell’s Kitchen who grows up to be a merciless hitman. And they are all trapped in the world of the Mexican drug Federaci. From the streets of New York City to Mexico City and Tijuana to the jungles of Central America, this is the war on drugs like you’ve never seen it.]]> 542 Don Winslow 1400096936 Abe 0 to-read 4.36 2005
author: Don Winslow
name: Abe
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 102030 970 Eiji Yoshikawa 4770019572 Abe 0 to-read 4.47 1935
author: Eiji Yoshikawa
name: Abe
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1935
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1971304
By turns insightful and funny, thrilling and terrifying, City of Thieves is a gripping, cinematic World War II adventure and an intimate coming-of-age story with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men.]]> 258 David Benioff 0670018708 Abe 0 to-read 4.28 2008
author: David Benioff
name: Abe
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 212987930 From the bestselling author M. R. Carey comes an utterly unique and enchantingly dark epic fantasy fable like no other.

This is the tale of Once Was Willem, who - eleven hundred and some years after the death of Christ, in the kingdom that had but recently begun to call itself England - rose from the dead to defeat a great evil facing the humble village of Cosham.

Pennick for all its beauty was ever a place with a dark reputation. The forests of the Chase were said to be home to nixies and boggarts, and there was a common belief, passed down through many generations, that the castle housed an unquiet ghost of terrible and malign power. These rumours I can attest were all true; indeed they fell short of the truth by a long way . . .]]> 310 M.R. Carey 0316505129 Abe 0 to-read 4.12 2025
author: M.R. Carey
name: Abe
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1617 Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man. This new translation by his wife and most frequent translator, Marion Wiesel, corrects important details and presents the most accurate rendering in English of Elie Wiesel's testimony to what happened in the camps and of his unforgettable message that this horror must simply never be allowed to happen again.]]> 120 Elie Wiesel 0374500010 Abe 4 4.38 1956
author: Elie Wiesel
name: Abe
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1956
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/04
date added: 2025/03/04
shelves:
review:

]]> 50482979 From the author of the National Book Award-winning short story collection Redeployment comes an astonishing novel of Conradian suspense, set in Colombia among other fronts of America's wars, as four lives become fatally entangled thanks to our country's gift for projecting its power into situations it half understands.

Neither Mason, a U.S. Army Special Forces medic, nor Lisette, a foreign correspondent, has emerged from America's long post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan unscathed. Yet war also exerts a terrible draw that neither can shake--the noble calling, the camaraderie, the life-and-death stakes. Where else in the world can such a person go? All roads lead to Colombia, where the US, with its patented fusion of intelligence dominance and quick-striking special operators, has partnered with local government to stamp out a vicious civil war and keep the predatory narco gangs at bay. Mason, now a liaison to the Colombian military, is ready for the good war, and Lisette is more than ready to cover it.

For Juan Pablo, Mason's counterpart in the Colombian officer corps, translating reality into a language the Americans can understand requires a cartoonist's gift for caricature, but it's child's play next to the challenge of navigating the viper's nest of factions bidding for power, in the capital and far out in the field. And if Juan Pablo's view is dark, the outlook of Abel, a lieutenant in the militia Los Mil Jesuses, which controls territory in rural Norte de Santander, a region on the Venezuelan border where the writ of law scarcely runs, is positively Stygian. Abel has lost everything he loves in the carnage that for his entire life has flowed unceasingly in this region, where the lines between drug cartels, militias, and the state are semi-permeable. It is Abel's cruel fate to find safety only by serving a man he has come to fear and loathe.

Missionaries is an astonishment, a novel of extraordinary suspense whose central, unsparing drama is infused by a geopolitical sophistication and a wisdom about the human heart that would be rare even in isolation. As Los Mil Jesuses make their move to fill a power vacuum in Norte de Santander, aided and abetted by the Colombian military for its own reasons, the Americans are made pawns of a game they don't even begin to understand. The result is an unfolding calamity that will leave no character unscathed, and will echo across the planet. A work whose accomplishment calls forth comparisons to Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, and Robert Stone, Missionaries ultimately stands apart as its own electrifying new form of artistic reckoning with the forces we have unleashed in our world.]]> 416 Phil Klay 1984880659 Abe 1 3.81 2020
author: Phil Klay
name: Abe
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2020
rating: 1
read at: 2025/02/09
date added: 2025/02/09
shelves:
review:
I appreciate the ideas behind the book and the realistic portrayal of cartel mini-war violence, but 90% of the writing is just characters talking about things that happened a long while ago with little bearing on the story. Only Part III has any momentum.
]]> 837021
Best known for his poems and short fiction, Poe perfected the psychological thriller, invented the detective story, and rarely missed transporting the reader to his own supernal realm.

He has also been hailed posthumously as one of the finest literary critics of the nineteenth century. In Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales and Poems fans may indulge in all of Poe's most imaginative short-stories, including The Fall of the House of Usher, The Murders in Rue Morgue, The Tell-Tale Heart, Ligeia and Ms. In a Bottle,.

His complete early and miscellaneous poetic masterpieces are also here, including The Raven, Ulalume, Annabel Lee, Tamerlane, as well as select reviews and narratives.]]> 1092 Edgar Allan Poe 1566196035 Abe 5 4.49 1849
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Abe
average rating: 4.49
book published: 1849
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 776077
Wer kennt es nicht, das dramatische Schicksal und Handeln des »Faust«! Es gibt wohl kaum einen Schüler, der ihm nicht einmal in seiner Schulzeit begegnet wäre, für den Bildungsbürger gehört er sowieso zum Kanon. Zurecht! Denn was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 60-jähriger Schaffenszeit mit dem »Faust« zuwege gebracht hat, sucht in der deutschen Dichtung seinesgleichen, lässt sich nur mit dem Begriff der Weltliteratur angemessen fassen und steht auf einer Ebene mit dem »Don Quijote« oder der »Göttlichen Kommödie«.

Der Universalgelehrte Faust befindet sich in einer tiefen Krise bei seiner Suche nach dem, »was die Welt im Innersten zusammenhält«. Eingesperrt in seine Gelehrtenstube drängt es ihn schließlich bis nahe an den Selbstmord. Nur die Osterglocken retten ihn. Beim berühmten Osterspaziergang wird ihm bewusst, dass er sich nach umfassendem Weltwissen gleichermaßen wie nach irdischer Weltlust sehnt. Da er sich aber von allen irdischen Lebenswerten abgeschnitten sieht, verflucht er das Leben. Hier nun wittert der Teufel in Gestalt des Mephisto seine Chance und bietet Faust einen Pakt an: Würde dieser auch nur einen Augenblick das Leben genießen und dabei verweilen wollen, wäre Fausts Seele auf immer verloren.

Faust lässt sich auf den Handel ein und wird von Mephisto nun mit derbsten Sinnesgenüssen überschüttet: Aber sowohl die Studentenrunde in Auerbachs Keller als auch den Spuk in der Hexenküche erträgt Faust nur widerwillig. Erst die Begegnung mit dem nur 14-jährigen Gretchen erweckt in Faust irdisches Verlangen. Nun nimmt das Drama seinen Lauf ...

Bei aller Individualität des Schicksals von Faust, der uns hier in einer Charaktertragödie entgegentritt, verweist das Stück klar über das Einzelschicksal hinaus auf ein allgemeines Menschheitsdrama. Dies macht den ›Faust� zu einem zeitlosen Lese- und Theatererlebnis bis in unsere Zeit.

»Trotz der 60jährigen Schaffenszeit und der Mannigfaltigkeit der theatralischen wie poetischen Mittel bildet die Dichtung eine dramatisch-strukturelle Einheit, deren Handlungsziel durch die Wette des Herrn mit Mephisto festgelegt ist: der verworrene Mensch ist zur Klarheit prädestiniert, der Irrende wird zum Urquell zurückfinden, ein guter Mensch in seinem dunklen Drange ist sich des rechten Weges wohl bewußt. Gegen den Glauben des Herrn an das Gute im Menschen setzt Mephisto sein diffamierendes Menschenbild. Der Teufel, das verneinende und zerstörende Prinzip, hat doch zugleich im Weltenplan gegen seinen Willen eine die natürliche Trägheit des Menschen anstachelnde Funktion.« Gero v. Wilpert: »Lexikon der Weltliteratur«]]> 416 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 3423124008 Abe 0 to-read 3.90 1832
author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
name: Abe
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1832
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 406373 Faust reworks the late medieval myth of a brilliant scholar so disillusioned he resolves to make a contract with Mephistopheles. The devil will do all he asks on Earth and seeks to grant him a moment in life so glorious that he will wish it to last forever. But if Faust does bid the moment stay, he falls to Mephistopheles and must serve him after death. In this first part of Goethe’s great work, the embittered thinker and Mephistopheles enter into their agreement, and soon Faust is living a rejuvenated life and winning the love of the beautiful Gretchen. But in this compelling tragedy of arrogance, unfulfilled desire, and self-delusion, Faust heads inexorably toward an infernal destruction.]]> 503 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 0385031149 Abe 0 to-read 3.90 1808
author: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
name: Abe
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1808
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 2932 320 Daniel Defoe Abe 3 3.69 1719
author: Daniel Defoe
name: Abe
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1719
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 53121524 320 David Ignatius 0393254178 Abe 4 3.51 2020
author: David Ignatius
name: Abe
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/02
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves:
review:
Always a good time reading a David Ignatius novel.
]]> 23316525 384 David Ignatius 0393350592 Abe 0 to-read 3.45 2014
author: David Ignatius
name: Abe
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 200196195
David Ignatius is known for his uncanny ability, in novel after novel, to predict the next great national security headline. In Phantom Orbit, he presents a story both searing and topical, with stakes as far-reaching as outer space. It follows Ivan Volkov, a Russian student in Beijing, who discovers an unsolved puzzle in the writings of the seventeenth-century astronomer Johannes Kepler. He takes the puzzle to a senior scientist in the Chinese space program and declares his intention to solve it. Volkov returns to Moscow and continues his secret work. The puzzle holds untold consequences for space warfare.

The years pass, and they are not kind to Volkov. After the loss of his son, a prosecutor who’d been too tough on corruption, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Volkov makes the fraught decision to contact the CIA. He writes: Satellites are your enemies, especially your own. . . . Hidden codes can make time stop and turn north into south. . . . If you are smart, you will find me.

With this timely novel, Ignatius addresses our moment of renewed interest in space exploration amid geopolitical tumult. Phantom Orbit brims with the author’s vital insights and casts Volkov as the man who, at the risk of his life, may be able to stop the Doomsday clock.]]> 384 David Ignatius 1324050918 Abe 0 to-read 3.68 2024
author: David Ignatius
name: Abe
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 350 NAME: Valentine Michael Smith
ANCESTRY: Human
ORIGIN: Mars

Valentine Michael Smith is a human being raised on Mars, newly returned to Earth. Among his people for the first time, he struggles to understand the social mores and prejudices of human nature that are so alien to him, while teaching them his own fundamental beliefs in grokking, watersharing, and love.]]> 525 Robert A. Heinlein Abe 3 3.93 1961
author: Robert A. Heinlein
name: Abe
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1961
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/31
date added: 2024/10/31
shelves:
review:
The first third of the book is essentially a riveting mystery story, told in a cool futuristic setting, that I found quite compelling. The story peters out from there, but I can understand why the bigger ideas were so popularly received when this book was published.
]]> 26154389
Jeffrey Lockhart’s father, Ross, is a billionaire in his sixties, with a younger wife, Artis Martineau, whose health is failing. Ross is the primary investor in a remote and secret compound where death is exquisitely controlled and bodies are preserved until a future time when biomedical advances and new technologies can return them to a life of transcendent promise. Jeff joins Ross and Artis at the compound to say “an uncertain farewell� to her as she surrenders her body.

“We are born without choosing to be. Should we have to die in the same manner? Isn’t it a human glory to refuse to accept a certain fate?�

These are the questions that haunt the novel and its memorable characters, and it is Ross Lockhart, most particularly, who feels a deep need to enter another dimension and awake to a new world. For his son, this is indefensible. Jeff, the book’s narrator, is committed to living, to experiencing “the mingled astonishments of our time, here, on earth.�

Don DeLillo’s seductive, spectacularly observed and brilliant new novel weighs the darkness of the world—terrorism, floods, fires, famine, plague—against the beauty and humanity of everyday life; love, awe, “the intimate touch of earth and sun.�

Zero K is glorious.]]> 274 Don DeLillo 1501135392 Abe 3 Flashes of brilliance. 3.19 2016
author: Don DeLillo
name: Abe
average rating: 3.19
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves:
review:
Flashes of brilliance.
]]> 86059627 320 David Pedreira Abe 0 to-read 3.49 2023
author: David Pedreira
name: Abe
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 145624505
“My mother stayed, so that we could go.�

Having fled conflict in the former-Soviet Republic of Georgia as children, Saba and his brother have fought to make peace with the past. In particular, they struggle with the sacrifices of a mother who remained in a war zone so that their father could get them out. Now, years later, the brothers are young adults, their mother is dead, and their father has been lured back to their beautiful, decaying homeland � only to disappear. Then Saba’s older brother, chasing after their missing father, vanishes too.

Left alone to figure out what has happened and to find his family, Saba sets off on his own urgent, haunted search across his homeland. Accompanied by new friends and old ghosts as he follows a breadcrumb trail of clues, he must wrestle the present from the past as he crosses into the kind of danger zones � both physical and emotional � that he thought he had left behind. 

Harrowing and tender but leavened with humor and an appreciation for the absurd, Hard by a Great Forest offers a unique story about traumas of war felt even decades after the fighting, and the long-term effects on those families driven not just to survive, but to remember.]]> 352 Leo Vardiashvili 0593545036 Abe 0 to-read 3.85 2024
author: Leo Vardiashvili
name: Abe
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6411016
Intense, powerful, and compelling, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and James Jones's The Thin Red Line. It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them forever.

Written over the course of thirty years by a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, Matterhorn is a visceral and spellbinding novel about what it is like to be a young man at war. It is an unforgettable novel that transforms the tragedy of Vietnam into a powerful and universal story of courage, camaraderie, and sacrifice: a parable not only of the war in Vietnam but of all war, and a testament to the redemptive power of literature.

A graduate of Yale University and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, Karl Marlantes served as a Marine in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, and ten air medals. This is his first novel. He lives in rural Washington State.]]> 663 Karl Marlantes 0979528534 Abe 4
Great characterization. Individual scenes consist of standout, sharp, observant dialogue that often outclasses the overall flat prose narrative surrounding it. Sometimes the book slips a bit into "telling" instead of "showing." I somewhat forgive the novel for this because a lot of the "telling" narration/observations are probably just the brutal, spontaneous thoughts of the author (the veteran whose experiences form the basis of the story) simply transposing the thoughts raw from his head as they occurred to him way back then, and I appreciate the "rawness." That being said, I'd prefer if he had curated the writing with more craft for the novel format.]]> 4.23 2010
author: Karl Marlantes
name: Abe
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/01
date added: 2024/10/01
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A moving story about the disenchantment of a Yale grad who dreamt of using Vietnam combat experience as an officer to boost his postwar political prospects when he sees how the officers above him use young men's lives as pawns in their own political games.

Great characterization. Individual scenes consist of standout, sharp, observant dialogue that often outclasses the overall flat prose narrative surrounding it. Sometimes the book slips a bit into "telling" instead of "showing." I somewhat forgive the novel for this because a lot of the "telling" narration/observations are probably just the brutal, spontaneous thoughts of the author (the veteran whose experiences form the basis of the story) simply transposing the thoughts raw from his head as they occurred to him way back then, and I appreciate the "rawness." That being said, I'd prefer if he had curated the writing with more craft for the novel format.
]]> 3698 Graham Greene's classic exploration of love, innocence, and morality in Vietnam

"I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused," Graham Greene's narrator Fowler remarks of Alden Pyle, the eponymous "Quiet American" of what is perhaps the most controversial novel of his career. Pyle is the brash young idealist sent out by Washington on a mysterious mission to Saigon, where the French Army struggles against the Vietminh guerrillas. As young Pyle's well-intentioned policies blunder into bloodshed, Fowler, a seasoned and cynical British reporter, finds it impossible to stand safely aside as an observer. But Fowler's motives for intervening are suspect, both to the police and himself, for Pyle has stolen Fowler's beautiful Vietnamese mistress.

First published in 1956 and twice adapted to film, The Quiet American remains a terrifiying and prescient portrait of innocence at large. This Graham Greene Centennial Edition includes a new introductory essay by Robert Stone.]]> 180 Graham Greene 0143039024 Abe 3 3.97 1955
author: Graham Greene
name: Abe
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1955
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/30
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]]> 18056670 44 Alexander Pushkin 1909115584 Abe 0 to-read 4.67 2007
author: Alexander Pushkin
name: Abe
average rating: 4.67
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/26
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]]> 36691128
This superb new translation of the Qur'an is written in contemporary language that remains faithful to the meaning and spirit of the original, making the text crystal clear while retaining all of this great work's eloquence. The translation is accurate and completely free from the archaisms, incoherence, and alien structures that mar existing translations. Thus, for the first time, English-speaking readers will have a text of the Qur'an which is easy to use and comprehensible. Furthermore, Haleem includes notes that explain geographical, historical, and personal allusions as well as an index in which Qur'anic material is arranged into topics for easy reference. His introduction traces the history of the Qur'an, examines its structure and stylistic features, and considers issues related to militancy, intolerance, and the subjection of women.

Clearly written and filled with helpful information and guidance, this brilliant translation of the Qur'an is the best available introduction to the faith of Moslems around the world.

About the For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.]]> 505 Anonymous Abe 5 4.45 632
author: Anonymous
name: Abe
average rating: 4.45
book published: 632
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/09/24
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An accessible and superb translation with just enough footnotes to explain certain esoteric historical points without being obtrusive to the main text.
]]> 9998 The Woman in the Dunes, by celebrated writer and thinker Kobo Abe, combines the essence of myth, suspense and the existential novel.

After missing the last bus home following a day trip to the seashore, an amateur entomologist is offered lodging for the night at the bottom of a vast sand pit. But when he attempts to leave the next morning, he quickly discovers that the locals have other plans. Held captive with seemingly no chance of escape, he is tasked with shoveling back the ever-advancing sand dunes that threaten to destroy the village. His only companion is an odd young woman, and together their fates become intertwined as they work side by side through this Sisyphean of tasks.]]> 241 KĹŤbĹŤ Abe 0679733787 Abe 0 to-read 3.90 1962
author: KĹŤbĹŤ Abe
name: Abe
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/20
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]]> 323172 288 Walter Tevis 0345431626 Abe 3 4.11 1980
author: Walter Tevis
name: Abe
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1980
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/13
date added: 2024/09/13
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]]> 100834 704 G.J. Meyer 0553803549 Abe 0 to-read 4.33 2006
author: G.J. Meyer
name: Abe
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/08
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]]> 790550 The Egyptian Books of the Dead is unquestionably one of the most influential books in all of history. Embodying a ritual to be performed for the dead, with detailed instructions for the behavior of the disembodied spirit in the Land of the Gods, it served as the most important repository of religious authority for some three thousand years. Chapters were carved on the pyramids of the ancient 5th Dynasty, texts were written in papyrus, and selections were painted on mummy cases well into the Christian Era. In a certain sense it stood behind all Egyptian civilization.

In the year 1888 Dr. E. Wallis Budge, then purchasing agent for the British Museum, followed rumors he heard of a spectacular archaeological find in Upper Egypt, and found in an 18th Dynasty tomb near Luxor "the largest roll of papyrus I had ever seen, tied with a thick band of papyrus, and in a perfect state of preservation." It was a copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, written around 1500 B.C. for Ani, Royal Scribe of Thebes, Overseer of the Granaries of the Lords of Abydos, and Scribe of the Offerings of the Lords of Thebes.

The Papyrus of Ani, a full version of the Theban recension, is presented here by Dr. Budge, who later became perhaps the world's most renowned Egyptologist. Reproduced in full are a clear copy of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and interlinear transliteration of their sounds (as reconstructed), a word-for-word translation, and separately a complete smooth translation. All this is preceded by an introduction of more than 150 pages. As a result of this multiple apparatus the reader has a unique opportunity to savor all aspects of the Book of the Dead, or as it is otherwise known, the Book of the Great Awakening.]]> 377 Anonymous 048621866X Abe 2 3.94 -1500
author: Anonymous
name: Abe
average rating: 3.94
book published: -1500
rating: 2
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]]> 686583 Pocas novelas podemos calificar como imprescindibles. La voz dormida es una de ellas porque nos ayuda a bucear en el papel que las mujeres desempeñaron durante unos años decisivos para la historia de España. Relegadas al ámbito doméstico, decidieron asumir el protagonismo que la tradición les negaba para luchar por un mundo más justo. Unas en la retaguardia y las más osadas en la vanguardia armada de la guerrilla, donde dejaron la evidencia de su valentía y sacrificio.

]]> 390 Dulce ChacĂłn 8420464384 Abe 0 to-read 4.44 2002
author: Dulce ChacĂłn
name: Abe
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/29
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]]> 44560193 Esta historia es un canto a la amistad, el amor, la lealtad y el honor. Invita, además, a reflexionar sobre el peso de la conciencia y el poder que ejerce en cada una de nuestras decisiones.
Una trama envolvente de desenlace inesperado.]]> 798 Juan Castilla Brazales 8471691884 Abe 0 to-read 5.00
author: Juan Castilla Brazales
name: Abe
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> 54479 252 Jules Verne 014044906X Abe 3 3.95 1872
author: Jules Verne
name: Abe
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1872
rating: 3
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]]> 203608562 The prestigious annual story anthology, now in its fourth year with a guest editor format and with a new bestselling track record

Continuing a century-long tradition of cutting-edge literary excellence, this year's edition contains twenty prizewinning stories chosen from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year. Guest editor Amor Towles has brought his own refreshing perspective to the prize, selecting stories by an engaging mix of celebrated names and emerging voices. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Towles, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines that publish short fiction.]]> 432 Amor Towles 0593470613 Abe 0 to-read 4.15 2024
author: Amor Towles
name: Abe
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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]]> 17934530 Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.

The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.]]> 195 Jeff VanderMeer 0374104093 Abe 0 to-read 3.79 2014
author: Jeff VanderMeer
name: Abe
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/15
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]]> 129876 157 R.K. Narayan 0143039679 Abe 0 to-read 3.92 1957
author: R.K. Narayan
name: Abe
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1957
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/13
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]]> 526307 disappears. Since the location is too distant to reach by wormhole, a faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance, is dispatched to learn what has occurred and whether it represents a threat. In command is Wilson Kime, a five-time rejuvenated ex-NASA pilot whose glory days are centuries behind him.

Opposed to the mission are the Guardians of Selfhood, a cult that believes the human race is being manipulated by an alien entity they call the Starflyer. Bradley Johansson, leader of the Guardians, warns of sabotage, fearing the Starflyer means to use the starship’s mission for its own ends.

Pursued by a Commonwealth special agent convinced the Guardians are crazy but dangerous, Johansson flees. But the danger is not averted. Aboard the Second Chance, Kime wonders if his crew has been infiltrated. Soon enough, he will have other worries. A thousand light-years away, something truly incredible is waiting: a deadly discovery whose unleashing will threaten to destroy the Commonwealth . . . and humanity itself.

Could it be that Johansson was right?]]> 988 Peter F. Hamilton 0345479211 Abe 0 currently-reading 4.12 2004
author: Peter F. Hamilton
name: Abe
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> 12048538
In this edition, everyone’s favorite misanthrope appears in company with four more Dickens stories� The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Battle of Life , and The Haunted Man —that further develop the Christmas spirit Dickens did so much to invent.]]> 416 Charles Dickens 0307947211 Abe 5 4.07 1848
author: Charles Dickens
name: Abe
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1848
rating: 5
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]]> 325785 Capital, one of Marx's major and most influential works, was the product of thirty years close study of the capitalist mode of production in England, the most advanced industrial society of his day. This new translation of Volume One, the only volume to be completed and edited by Marx himself, avoids some of the mistakes that have marred earlier versions and seeks to do justice to the literary qualities of the work. The introduction is by Ernest Mandel, author of Late Capitalism, one of the only comprehensive attempts to develop the theoretical legacy of Capital.]]> 1152 Karl Marx 0140445684 Abe 1 4.28 1867
author: Karl Marx
name: Abe
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1867
rating: 1
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]]> 17286782
In the eyes of her corporate law firm, Ingrid Yung is a "two-fer." As a Chinese-American woman about to be ushered into the elite rank of partner, she's the face of Parsons Valentine & Hunt LLP's recruiting brochures--their treasured "Golden Girl." But behind the firm’s welcoming façade lies the scotch-sipping, cigar-smoking old-boy network that shuts out lawyers like Ingrid. To compensate, Ingrid gamely plays in the softball league, schmoozes in the corporate cafeteria, and puts in the billable hours � until a horrifically offensive performance at the law firm's annual summer outing throws the carefully constructed image way out of equilibrium. Scrambling to do damage control, Parsons Valentine announces a new "Diversity Initiative" and commands a reluctant Ingrid to spearhead the effort, taking her priority away from the enormous deal that was to be the final step in securing partnership. For the first time, Ingrid finds herself at odds with her colleagues � including her handsome, golden-boy boyfriend � in a clash of class, race, and sexual politics.

"Smart, incisive, and fast-paced, THE PARTNER TRACK is a sparklingly readable look at the inner workings of a Wall Street law firm -- from the vantage point of a brainy, beautiful and self-doubting Asian-American associate. Wan has the remarkable ability to make you feel as if "you are there" -- inside the law firm, inside protagonist Ingrid Yung's head. I did not want to put this book down." –Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of "QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking"

"A wholly engrossing behind-the-scenes look at real life behind the pomp, power and prestige of a high-powered law firm that wants to still play by a 1950s rule book." –Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus, co-authors of "Citizen Girl"

"Hell hath no fury like Helen Wan's savvy heroine in this terrific debut. We all know women like Ingrid Yung: the well-educated over-achiever who does everything right to ensure a long, productive journey on a lucrative career path. But what happens when someone blows up the path? The Partner Track is a delicious, satisfying read for anyone who has fantasized about getting the better of the boss, the ex-lover, the corporate powers that be--or all three. Ingrid Yung has done it for all of us." –Kristin van Ogtrop, editor of REAL SIMPLE

"Behind Helen Wan's wit and sparkling prose is a poignant and at times, painfully honest tale of loyalty, ambition and sacrifice. Funny, fragile, sometimes bold, often unsure, Ingrid Yung is one of those unforgettable heroines that you actually miss, like a dear friend, when the story’s over." –Ann Leary, New York Times bestselling author of "The Good House"

"What a terrific debut novel. Ingrid Yung is a fresh, funny, and fearless heroine. Her razor-sharp wit and keen observations of gender, race and class politics in corporate America make THE PARTNER TRACK an entertaining, engrossing and ultimately deeply compelling read." –Cristina Alger, author of "The Darlings"

"The Partner Track is a marvelous story about female ambition and power, about betrayal, identity, and the conflict between self-interest and desire. In short: all the big, human stuff. Read it." –Alison Clement, author of "Twenty Questions"]]> 304 Helen Wan 1250019575 Abe 0 to-read 3.73 2013
author: Helen Wan
name: Abe
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/08/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> 396329 209 Walter Tevis 0345431618 Abe 0 to-read 4.01 1963
author: Walter Tevis
name: Abe
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1963
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/01
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]]> 150778780
“I never thought I’d see you here,� Sarah says. Then she adds, “But I never thought I’d see you anywhere.� Sarah and Warren’s college love story ended in a single moment.

Decades later, when a chance meeting brings them together, a passion ignites―threatening the foundations of the lives they’ve built apart. Since they parted in college, each has married, raised a family, and made a career. When they meet again, Sarah is divorced and living outside New York, while Warren is still married and living in Boston.

Seeing Warren sparks an awakening in Sarah, who feels emotionally alive for the first time in decades. Still, she hesitates to reclaim a chance at love after her painful divorce and years of framing her life around her children and her work. Warren has no such reservations: he wants to leave his marriage but can’t predict how his wife and daughter will react.

As their affair intensifies, Sarah and Warren must confront the moral responsibilities of their love for their families and each other. Leaving charts a passage through loyalty and desire as it builds to a shattering conclusion.

In her boldest and most powerful work to date, Roxana Robinson demonstrates her “trademark gifts as an intelligent, sensitive analyst of family life� (Wendy Smith, Chicago Tribune ) in an engrossing exploration of the vows we make to one another, the tensile relationships between parents and their children, and what we owe to others and ourselves.]]> 344 Roxana Robinson 1324065389 Abe 0 to-read 3.68 2024
author: Roxana Robinson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/18
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]]> 6224935 A riotously funny, emotionally raw New York Times bestselling novel about love, marriage, divorce, family, and the ties that bind—whether we like it or not.

The death of Judd Foxman’s father marks the first time that the entire Foxman clan has congregated in years. There is, however, one conspicuous absence: Judd's wife, Jen, whose affair with his radio- shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public. Simultaneously mourning the demise of his father and his marriage, Judd joins his dysfunctional family as they reluctantly sit shiva and spend seven days and nights under the same roof. The week quickly spins out of control as longstanding grudges resurface, secrets are revealed and old passions are reawakened. Then Jen delivers the clincher: she's pregnant...

“Often sidesplitting, mostly heartbreaking...[Tropper is] a more sincere, insightful version of Nick Hornby, that other master of male psyche.”—USA Today

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING JASON BATEMAN, TINA FEY, JANE FONDA, AND ADAM DRIVER]]> 339 Jonathan Tropper 052595127X Abe 0 to-read 3.87 2003
author: Jonathan Tropper
name: Abe
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/18
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]]> 42201996
Ask Again, Yes is a moving novel about two families, the bond between their children, a tragedy that reverberates over four decades, the daily intimacies of marriage, and the power of forgiveness.]]> 388 Mary Beth Keane 1982106980 Abe 0 to-read 3.92 2019
author: Mary Beth Keane
name: Abe
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 3805 After almost fifty years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson's disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives. The oldest, Gary, a once-stable portfolio manager and family man, is trying to convince his wife and himself, despite clear signs to the contrary, that he is not clinically depressed. The middle child, Chip, has lost his seemingly secure academic job and is failing spectacularly at his new line of work. And Denise, the youngest, has escaped a disastrous marriage only to pour her youth and beauty down the drain of an affair with a married man - or so her mother fears. Desperate for some pleasure to look forward to, Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.
Stretching from the Midwest at midcentury to the Wall Street and Eastern Europe of today, "The Corrections" brings an old-fashioned world of civic virtue and sexual inhibitions into violent collision with the era of home surveillance, hands-off parenting, do-it-yourself mental healthcare, and globalised greed. Richly realistic, darkly hilarious, deeply humane, it confirms Jonathan Franzen as one of our most brilliant interpreters of American society and the American soul.]]> 653 Jonathan Franzen 1841156736 Abe 0 to-read 3.83 2001
author: Jonathan Franzen
name: Abe
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/06/13
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]]> 117305 1424 William Shakespeare 0199267189 Abe 5 4.47 1623
author: William Shakespeare
name: Abe
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1623
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/05/13
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]]> 58537666 On a generation ship bound for a distant star, one engineer-in-training must discover the secrets at the heart of the voyage in this new sci-fi novel.

It's been over a century since three generation ships escaped an Earth dominated by artificial intelligence in pursuit of a life on a distant planet orbiting Tau Ceti. Now, it's nearly Braking Day, when the ships will begin their long-awaited descent to their new home.

Born on the lower decks of the Archimedes, Ravi Macleod is an engineer-in-training, set to be the first of his family to become an officer in the stratified hierarchy aboard the ship. While on a routine inspection, Ravi sees the impossible: a young woman floating, helmetless, out in space. And he's the only one who can see her.

As his visions of the girl grow more frequent, Ravi is faced with a choice: secure his family's place among the elite members of Archimedes' crew or risk it all by pursuing the mystery of the floating girl. With the help of his cousin, Boz, and her illegally constructed AI, Ravi must investigate the source of these strange visions and uncovers the truth of the Archimedes' departure from Earth before Braking Day arrives and changes everything about life as they know it.]]> 359 Adam Oyebanji 0756418224 Abe 0 to-read 3.84 2022
author: Adam Oyebanji
name: Abe
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/24
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]]> 588138
Myth, according to Campbell, is the projection of a culture's dreams onto a large screen; Campbell's book, like Star Wars, the film it helped inspire, is an exploration of the big-picture moments from the stage that is our world. It is a must-have resource for both experienced students of mythology and the explorer just beginning to approach myth as a source of knowledge.]]> 416 Joseph Campbell 0691017840 Abe 0 to-read 4.15 1949
author: Joseph Campbell
name: Abe
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1949
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/01
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]]> 1706646 205 Robert Silverberg 0586039953 Abe 0 to-read 3.70 1971
author: Robert Silverberg
name: Abe
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1971
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/27
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]]> 968902
Universally acclaimed as Robert Silverberg's masterwork, Dying Inside is a vivid, harrowing portrait of a man who squandered a remarkable gift, of a superman who had to learn what it was to be human.]]> 245 Robert Silverberg 0743435087 Abe 0 to-read 3.85 1972
author: Robert Silverberg
name: Abe
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/27
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]]> 127227 The Human Condition is a in many respects more relevant now than when it first appeared in 1958. In her study of the state of modern humanity, Hannah Arendt considers humankind from the perspective of the actions of which it is capable. The problems Arendt identified then--diminishing human agency and political freedom; the paradox that as human powers increase through technological and humanistic inquiry, we are less equipped to control the consequences of our actions—continue to confront us today.]]> 349 Hannah Arendt 0226025985 Abe 0 to-read 4.22 1958
author: Hannah Arendt
name: Abe
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1958
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/24
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]]> 52090 The New Yorker, Hannah Arendt’s authoritative and stunning report on the trial of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann sparked a flurry of debate upon its publication.

This revised edition includes material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt’s postscript directly addressing the controversy that arose over her account. A major journalistic triumph by an intellectual of singular influence,

Eichmann in Jerusalem is as shocking as it is informative—an unflinching look at one of the most unsettling and unsettled issues of the twentieth century that remains hotly debated to this day.]]> 312 Hannah Arendt Abe 5 4.22 1963
author: Hannah Arendt
name: Abe
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1963
rating: 5
read at: 2022/07/23
date added: 2024/03/24
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]]> 2205226
Operation Iraqi Freedom, that's the code name. But the young men and women in the military's Civil Affairs Battalion have a simpler name for WAR.

In this new novel, Walter Dean Myers looks at a contemporary war with the same power and searing insight he brought to the Vietnam war of his classic, FALLEN ANGELS. He creates memorable characters like the book's narrator, Birdy, a young recruit from Harlem who's questioning why he even enlisted; Marla, a blond, tough-talking, wisecracking gunner; Jonesy, a guitar-playing bluesman who just wants to make it back to Georgia and open a club;]]> 304 Walter Dean Myers 0439916240 Abe 5 3.73 2008
author: Walter Dean Myers
name: Abe
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2008
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/03/23
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]]> 20518872 472 Liu Cixin Abe 3
If the translation had rendered the dialogue more natural in English, if the narrative were more consistent, if the characters were better developed, and if the concept of the multi-dimensional constructions within “sub-baryonic� matter during the development of the critically-important-to-the-plot Sophons were not so problematic (the many dimensions are not given even a cursory explanation in the book, and I see issues with how a speck of “sub-baryonic-sized� instruments smaller than any light wavelength would be able to perceive, record, and transmit information gathered exclusively by light, and to make that light travel faster than light, to boot [I might also add that if the final pre-parenthetical phrase seemed a bit wordy, you are warned that this book contains myriad such phrases]), “The Three Body Problem� could very well have been an awe-inspiring read for me.

The three-body game itself is a genius way to expose the humans in the story and the humans reading the story to the plight of those who live in such a unique gravitational system. I wish I could play more games like it! The Stable Eras remind me of wandering through the Playstation game “Journey,� but attempting to understand the cycle of the celestial bodies while living at risk of extreme heat or cold at any moment would add another layer of intrigue to the game.

The Chinese literary mindset tends to deal more with society than the individual - this seems particularly true during the beginning time period of the novel - but this book clearly tries to tell its tale through the journeys of two of its characters. Neither of those two, however, are literarily developed or unique characters. They fill a perfunctory void. I’ll agree with many reviewers here that the main policeman in the novel is certainly the best character of them all, but his role is secondary. I wish the story had somehow been told exclusively through his eyes. The book would have been much more fun that way!

Compared to the author, I am merely a neophyte when it comes to physics, so if anyone up to speed on current string theory models can offer clarification about how the hypothesized Sophons could possibly send video information, that would be helpful. I also wonder how, if they are only able to travel around the earth approximately 8 times per second, they would still be able to meddle with enough people simultaneously to accomplish their task. Perhaps my doubts are ill-founded, and I am but a bug.]]> 4.08 2006
author: Liu Cixin
name: Abe
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2018/06/01
date added: 2024/03/23
shelves:
review:
This book is a uniquely flavored but undercooked sample of my favorite style of dish: mind-bending science fiction. This review contains mild spoilers about technology in the book that reveal no plot details.

If the translation had rendered the dialogue more natural in English, if the narrative were more consistent, if the characters were better developed, and if the concept of the multi-dimensional constructions within “sub-baryonic� matter during the development of the critically-important-to-the-plot Sophons were not so problematic (the many dimensions are not given even a cursory explanation in the book, and I see issues with how a speck of “sub-baryonic-sized� instruments smaller than any light wavelength would be able to perceive, record, and transmit information gathered exclusively by light, and to make that light travel faster than light, to boot [I might also add that if the final pre-parenthetical phrase seemed a bit wordy, you are warned that this book contains myriad such phrases]), “The Three Body Problem� could very well have been an awe-inspiring read for me.

The three-body game itself is a genius way to expose the humans in the story and the humans reading the story to the plight of those who live in such a unique gravitational system. I wish I could play more games like it! The Stable Eras remind me of wandering through the Playstation game “Journey,� but attempting to understand the cycle of the celestial bodies while living at risk of extreme heat or cold at any moment would add another layer of intrigue to the game.

The Chinese literary mindset tends to deal more with society than the individual - this seems particularly true during the beginning time period of the novel - but this book clearly tries to tell its tale through the journeys of two of its characters. Neither of those two, however, are literarily developed or unique characters. They fill a perfunctory void. I’ll agree with many reviewers here that the main policeman in the novel is certainly the best character of them all, but his role is secondary. I wish the story had somehow been told exclusively through his eyes. The book would have been much more fun that way!

Compared to the author, I am merely a neophyte when it comes to physics, so if anyone up to speed on current string theory models can offer clarification about how the hypothesized Sophons could possibly send video information, that would be helpful. I also wonder how, if they are only able to travel around the earth approximately 8 times per second, they would still be able to meddle with enough people simultaneously to accomplish their task. Perhaps my doubts are ill-founded, and I am but a bug.
]]> 58950899 The This is the new social media platform everyone is talking about. Allow it to be injected into the roof of your mouth and it will grow into your brain, allow you to connect with others without even picking up your phone. Its followers are growing. Its detractors say it is a cult. But for one journalist, hired to do a puff-piece interview with their CEO, it will change the world forever.

Adan just wants to stay at home with his smart-companion Elegy - phone, friend, confidante, sex toy. But when his mother flees to Europe and joins a cult, leaving him penniless, he has to enlist in the army. Sentient robots are invading America, but it seems Adan has a surprising ability to survive their attacks. He has a purpose, even if he doesn't know what it is.

And in the far future, war between a hivemind of Ais and the remnants of humanity is coming to its inevitable end. But one woman has developed a weapon which might change the course of the war. It's just a pity she's trapped in an inescapable prison on a hivemind ship.]]> 296 Adam Roberts 147323090X Abe 0 to-read 3.72 2022
author: Adam Roberts
name: Abe
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 19383382
It began when the animal right movement injected domestic animals with artificial intelligences in bid to have the status of animals realigned by the international court of human rights. But what is an animal that can talk? Where does its intelligence end at its machine intelligence begin? And where might its soul reside.

As we place more and more pressure on the natural world and become more and more divorced Adam Roberts' new novel posits a world where nature can talk back, and can question us and our beliefs.

Roberts is an award winning author at the peak of his powers and each new novel charts an exciting new direction while maintaining a uniformly high level of literary achievement.]]> 312 Adam Roberts 0575127686 Abe 0 to-read 3.68 2014
author: Adam Roberts
name: Abe
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> 71247 317 Adam Roberts 0575073969 Abe 0 to-read 3.74 2002
author: Adam Roberts
name: Abe
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> 24772
Captain Laurent Zai of the Imperial frigate Lynx is a walking dead man. Unjustly held responsible for the death of the Child Empress, sister of the immortal Emperor, Zai has been sent to fight an unwinnable battle. The Lynx must stop a vastly superior Rix ship from reaching the planet Legis, a suicide mission that will almost certainly end in oblivion for Captain Zai and his crew.

On the planet Legis below, a Rix compound mind--a massive emergent AI formed from every computer on the planet--as been isolated by their Imperial blockade. But the mind has guided a lone Rix commando, Herd, to the planet's frozen north, and will soon order a desperate attempt to seize a polar communications array and break the blockade. Herd is a single warrior against an Imperial army, but moving silently behind her is the intelligence of an entire planet.

Ten light-years away, Captain Zai's true love, the psychic (some say mad) Senator Nara Oxham is engaged in a deadly game of political intrigue. From her position on the Emperor's War Council, Senator Oxham must find a way to forestall the Emperor's final solution if the blockade is a nuclear strike to destroy the compound mind, which will also kill millions of Imperial citizens. She suspects that the Emperor has a hidden weakness discovered, by the mind, a secret so dangerous to his immortal dynasty that to prevent its discovery the Emperor is willing to countenance the ultimate crime. . . .

The killing of worlds.

With this powerful conclusion to the first story arc of Succession , Scott Westerfeld confirms his stature as one of the leading writers of high space opera.]]> 336 Scott Westerfeld 0765308509 Abe 0 to-read 4.06 2003
author: Scott Westerfeld
name: Abe
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> 267022 Lynx must rescue the Child Empress, sister of immortal Emperor worshiped by 80 human worlds for 1600 years. Enemy Rix are machine-augmented humans who worship AI compound minds. Separated by light years, bound by an unlikely love, Zai and pacifist senator Nara Oxham face the Rix and hold the fate of the empire.]]> 304 Scott Westerfeld 0765305550 Abe 0 to-read 3.87 2003
author: Scott Westerfeld
name: Abe
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/21
shelves: to-read
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]]> 94715 174 L. Sprague de Camp 0515608173 Abe 0 to-read 3.96 1941
author: L. Sprague de Camp
name: Abe
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1941
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 35921
But the people out to get her have made one mistake.

They've made her mad!]]> 464 David Weber 1416509372 Abe 0 to-read 4.13 1993
author: David Weber
name: Abe
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 60531416 #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson brings us a gripping story set in the Cosmere universe told by Hoid, where two people from incredibly different worlds must compromise and work together to save their worlds from ruin.

Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster?]]> 480 Brandon Sanderson 1938570375 Abe 0 to-read 4.46 2023
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: Abe
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 58416952 At the elite Catenan Academy, a young fugitive uncovers layered mysteries and world-changing secrets in this new fantasy series by internationally bestselling author of The Licanius Trilogy, James Islington.

AUDI. VIDE. TACE.

The Catenan Republic � the Hierarchy � may rule the world now, but they do not know everything.

I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilised society in allowing my strength, my drive and my focus � what they call Will � to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.

I tell them that I belong, and they believe me.

But the truth is that I have been sent to the Academy to find answers. To solve a murder. To search for an ancient weapon. To uncover secrets that may tear the Republic apart.

And that I will never, ever cede my Will to the empire that executed my family.

To survive, though, I will still have to rise through the Academy’s ranks. I will have to smile, and make friends, and pretend to be one of them and win. Because if I cannot, then those who want to control me, who know my real name, will no longer have any use for me.

And if the Hierarchy finds out who I truly am, they will kill me.]]> 639 James Islington 1982141190 Abe 0 to-read 4.61 2023
author: James Islington
name: Abe
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 18743333 Covered in her husband's blood, the dead man's melancholy wife spins a tale for the police about a masked intruder armed with a knife. The investigation appears to be little more than a formality--the evidence points to a crime of passion by the wife.
But homicide detective Sime Mackenzie is electrified by the widow during his interview, convinced that he has met her before, even though this is clearly impossible.

Haunted by this strange certainty, Sime's insomnia is punctuated by vivid, hallucinatory dreams of a distant past on a Scottish island 3,000 miles away, dreams in which he and the widow play leading roles.

Sime's conviction soon becomes an obsession. And despite mounting evidence of the woman's guilt, he finds himself convinced of her innocence, leading to a conflict between the professional duty he must fulfill and the personal destiny he is increasingly sure awaits him.]]> 448 Peter May 1782062203 Abe 0 to-read 3.90 2013
author: Peter May
name: Abe
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 56898153 A high-stakes heist novel set in a gritty world of magic and malice

In just over a year’s time, Ryia Cautella has already earned herself a reputation as the quickest, deadliest blade in the dockside city of Carrowwick—not to mention the sharpest tongue. But Ryia Cautella is not her real name.

For the past six years, a deadly secret has kept her in hiding, running from town to town, doing whatever it takes to stay one step ahead of the formidable Guildmaster—the sovereign ruler of the five kingdoms of Thamorr. No matter how far or fast she travels, his servants never fail to track her down...but even the most powerful men can be defeated.

Ryia’s path now leads directly into the heart of the Guildmaster’s stronghold, and against every instinct she has, it’s not a path she can walk alone. Forced to team up with a crew of assorted miscreants, smugglers, and thieves, Ryia must plan her next moves very carefully. If she succeeds, her freedom is won once and for all…but unfortunately for Ryia, her new allies are nearly as selfish as she is, and they all have plans of their own.]]> 352 M.J. Kuhn 1982142146 Abe 0 to-read 3.66 2021
author: M.J. Kuhn
name: Abe
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 23209924
When rumours of a game-changing water source surface, Las Vegas dispatches elite water knife Angel Velasquez to Phoenix to investigate. There, he discovers hardened journalist Lucy Monroe, who holds the secret to the water source Angel seeks. But Angel isn't the only one hunting for water, Lucy is no pushover, and the death of a despised water knife is a small price to pay in return for the life-giving flow of a river.]]> 371 Paolo Bacigalupi 0385352875 Abe 0 to-read 3.81 2015
author: Paolo Bacigalupi
name: Abe
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 4703581
Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel’s equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives.

What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.

Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.]]> 312 China Miéville 0345497511 Abe 4
I do think the setting would be stronger if the whole story were contained to just this fantastical, psychologically divided set of twin cities, and not in a world where actual Google is available (and name dropped).

I couldn't put the book down when the detective story really gets cooking. Had to finish the last 200 or so pages in one go.

Overall, fascinating and unique. Really enjoyed this one.]]> 3.90 2009
author: China Miéville
name: Abe
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/19
date added: 2024/03/19
shelves:
review:
I adore the unique setting of The City and the City. I'll never be able to unsee it.

I do think the setting would be stronger if the whole story were contained to just this fantastical, psychologically divided set of twin cities, and not in a world where actual Google is available (and name dropped).

I couldn't put the book down when the detective story really gets cooking. Had to finish the last 200 or so pages in one go.

Overall, fascinating and unique. Really enjoyed this one.
]]> 5940939 Series Info:
This is the first part of the "Forever War" series, however it can be read as a standalone.

Book Description:
The Earth's leaders have drawn a line in the interstellar sand—despite the fact that the fierce alien enemy that they would oppose is inscrutable, unconquerable, and very far away. A reluctant conscript drafted into an elite Military unit, Private William Mandella has been propelled through space and time to fight in the distant thousand-year conflict; to perform his duties and do whatever it takes to survive the ordeal and return home. But "home" may be even more terrifying than battle, because, thanks to the time dilation caused by space travel, Mandella is aging months while the Earth he left behind is aging centuries.]]> 265 Joe Haldeman 0312536631 Abe 5 favorites 4.10 1974
author: Joe Haldeman
name: Abe
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/19
date added: 2024/03/19
shelves: favorites
review:
Gets better with every re-read. Easily one of my 10 favorite books.
]]> 24914 --back cover]]> 363 E.L. Doctorow 0812976150 Abe 0 to-read 3.75 2005
author: E.L. Doctorow
name: Abe
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 175675 Ragtime changed our very concept of what a novel could be. An extraordinary tapestry, Ragtime captures the spirit of America in the era between the turn of the century & the First World War. The story opens in 1906 in New Rochelle, NY, at the home of an affluent American family. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside their house. Almost magically, the line between fantasy & historical fact, between real & imaginary characters, disappears. Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud & Emiliano Zapata slip in & out of the tale, crossing paths with Doctorow's imagined family & other fictional characters, including an immigrant peddler & a ragtime musician from Harlem whose insistence on a point of justice drives him to revolutionary violence.]]> 320 E.L. Doctorow 0812978188 Abe 0 to-read 3.88 1975
author: E.L. Doctorow
name: Abe
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 207874 253 E.L. Doctorow 0812978196 Abe 0 to-read 3.45 1994
author: E.L. Doctorow
name: Abe
average rating: 3.45
book published: 1994
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> 89231 Augustus is a sweeping narrative that brings vividly to life a compelling cast of historical figures through their letters, dispatches, and memoirs.

A mere eighteen years of age when his uncle, Julius Caesar, is murdered, Octavius Caesar prematurely inherits rule of the Roman Republic. Surrounded by men who are jockeying for power–Cicero, Brutus, Cassius, and Mark Antony–young Octavius must work against the powerful Roman political machinations to claim his destiny as first Roman emperor. Sprung from meticulous research and the pen of a true poet, Augustus tells the story of one man’s dream to liberate a corrupt Rome from the fancy of the capriciously crooked and the wildly wealthy.]]> 336 John Williams 1400076730 Abe 0 to-read 4.23 1972
author: John Williams
name: Abe
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/19
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]]> 457228 Butcher’s Crossing, his fiercely intelligent, beautifully written western, Williams dismantles the myths of modern America.

It is the 1870s, and Will Andrews, �red up by Emerson to seek “an original relation to nature,� drops out of Harvard and heads west. He washes up in Butcher’s Crossing, a small Kansas town on the outskirts of nowhere. Butcher’s Crossing is full of restless men looking for ways to make money and ways to waste it. Before long Andrews strikes up a friendship with one of them, a man who regales Andrews with tales of immense herds of buffalo, ready for the taking, hidden away in a beautiful valley deep in the Colorado Rockies. He convinces Andrews to join in an expedition to track the animals down. The journey out is grueling, but at the end is a place of paradisal richness. Once there, however, the three men abandon themselves to an orgy of slaughter, so caught up in killing buffalo that they lose all sense of time. Winter soon overtakes them: they are snowed in. Next spring, half-insane with cabin fever, cold, and hunger, they stagger back to Butcher’s Crossing to �nd a world as irremediably changed as they have been.]]> 274 John Williams 1590171985 Abe 0 to-read 4.18 1960
author: John Williams
name: Abe
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1960
rating: 0
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]]> 2103974 Goddess .
A writer of striking originality, he spoke with a highly individual yet ordered voice in which lucidity and intensity combine to a remarkable degree. His love poetry, some of his best-known and most distinctive work, is at once cynical and passionate, romantic and erotic, personal and universal. He
wanted his poetry to act as a "spiritual cathartic" to the poet and the reader. His work has been described as "romanticism boiled dry," a striving for the pure, the unpretentious, the essential, the vigorous, and the "non-literary."
This volume represents Graves' final thoughts on his prodigious body of work, containing those poems which he most wanted to see survive. Long out of print, it is being reissued to honor his death in early 1986.]]> 624 Robert Graves 0195051432 Abe 5 3.91 1961
author: Robert Graves
name: Abe
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1961
rating: 5
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]]> 763241 Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time

Considered the greatest 20th century novel written in English, in this edition Walter Gabler uncovers previously unseen text. It is a disillusioned study of estrangement, paralysis and the disintegration of society.]]> 783 James Joyce 0679600116 Abe 3 4.03 1922
author: James Joyce
name: Abe
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1922
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/03/18
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]]> 21611 278 Joe Haldeman Abe 5 4.14 1974
author: Joe Haldeman
name: Abe
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at: 2024/03/03
date added: 2024/03/18
shelves:
review:
Gets better with every re-read. Easily one of my 10 favorite books.
]]> 33887274 243 Peter Cawdron 1328834557 Abe 0 to-read 3.59 2016
author: Peter Cawdron
name: Abe
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 36158 In Conquest Born is the monumental science fiction epic that received unprecedented acclaim-and launched C.S. Friedman's phenomenal career. A sweeping story of two interstellar civilizations-locked in endless war, it was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award.

From the back cover:

Braxi and Azea - two interstellar civilizations fighting an endless war over a long-forgotten cause; two peoples descended from the human species and bred over countless generations to embody opposing ideals, seeking opposite paths to power.

The Braxana - dominant tribe of the fierce Braxin Holding - are brilliant, powerful, and aloof from the society they rule. They were bred by their primitive forebearers to be aggressive, competitive, and secretive beyond all prior human norms. The mysteries of their internal society are legendary even among the people they rule.

The Azeans - masters of genetic science - have redesigned their own race to reflect ancient ideals. Now they seek to unlock the powers of the human mind, using telepathy to penetrate where mere weapons cannot.

But Zatar and Anzha - master Braxana and Azean generals - have exceeded all genetic expectations of their opposed cultures, and have made this endless war a personal vendetta. Who can say what will happen when these ultimate warriors use every power of mind and body to claim the vengeance of total conquest?]]> 530 C.S. Friedman 0756400430 Abe 0 to-read 3.90 1987
author: C.S. Friedman
name: Abe
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1987
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 13235961 Golden Age SF meets Golden Age Crime in this British Science Fiction Award winner for best novel, from the author of Swiftly, New Model Army, and Yellow Blue Tibia

Jack Glass is the murderer—we know this from the start. Yet as this extraordinary novel unfolds, readers will be astonished to discover how he committed the murders and by the end of the book, their sympathies for the killer will be fully engaged. Riffing on the tropes of crime fiction (the country house murder, the locked room mystery) and imbued with the feel of golden age SF, this is another bravura performance from Roberts. Whatever games he plays with the genre, whatever questions he asks of the reader, Roberts never loses sight of the need to entertain. Filled with wonderfully gruesome moments and liberal doses of sly humor, this novel is built around three gripping HowDunnits that challenge notions of crime, punishment, power, and freedom.]]> 373 Adam Roberts 0575127627 Abe 0 to-read 3.69 2012
author: Adam Roberts
name: Abe
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 776489
They called him Charlie. He had big eyes, abundant body hair and fairly long nostrils.

His skeletal body was found clad in a bright red spacesuit, hidden in a rocky grave.

They didn't know who he was, how he got there, or what had killed him.

All they knew was that his corpse was 50,000 years old; and that meant that this man had somehow lived long before he ever could have existed!]]> 216 James P. Hogan 0345257049 Abe 0 to-read 4.06 1977
author: James P. Hogan
name: Abe
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1977
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/18
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]]> 15790894 That is, until she just gets a job on a tiny trade ship with a nasty reputation for surprises. The Glorious Fool isn't misnamed: it likes to get into trouble, so much so that one year of security work under its captain is equal to five years everywhere else. With odds like that, Devi knows she's found the perfect way to get the jump on the next part of her Plan. But the Fool doesn't give up its secrets without a fight, and one year on this ship might be more than even Devi can handle.]]> 320 Rachel Bach 0316221112 Abe 0 to-read 3.92 2013
author: Rachel Bach
name: Abe
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 112537 243 Arthur C. Clarke 1857231589 Abe 4
As to the science stuff, it seems that Clarke's primary technique for building suspense is to make sure no one, absolutely no one, among the teams of scientists working on Rama (or on the moon discussing the situation) thinks of (insert catastrophic event here) until right before it happens. Now, I'm by no means a professional scientist, but I know a bit about physics, and just based on the description of Rama's internals I was already asking myself questions about what would happen that apparently didn't occur to ANY of the Endeavor crew. Massive body of water + atmosphere + temperature changes as approach to sun + electric forces + rotational forces lead to some pretty obvious outcomes you don't need a certified expert to see coming. These characters are experts, though. Still a well thought out and entertaining story overall, but I would have appreciated more competent scientists and less forced tension.

As to the aliens stuff, by the end you could almost view this as a sister novel to Roadside Picnic. I really enjoyed the ending.

As to the humans stuff, it still just stretches belief that anyone would ever live on Mercury.]]> 4.12 1973
author: Arthur C. Clarke
name: Abe
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1973
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/17
date added: 2024/03/17
shelves:
review:
The conflict here deals with the science behind what would occur on such a strange ship as Rama as it gets closer to the sun. And some mysterious alien stuff. And, as always with these first contact stories, some humans who just want to blow everything up.

As to the science stuff, it seems that Clarke's primary technique for building suspense is to make sure no one, absolutely no one, among the teams of scientists working on Rama (or on the moon discussing the situation) thinks of (insert catastrophic event here) until right before it happens. Now, I'm by no means a professional scientist, but I know a bit about physics, and just based on the description of Rama's internals I was already asking myself questions about what would happen that apparently didn't occur to ANY of the Endeavor crew. Massive body of water + atmosphere + temperature changes as approach to sun + electric forces + rotational forces lead to some pretty obvious outcomes you don't need a certified expert to see coming. These characters are experts, though. Still a well thought out and entertaining story overall, but I would have appreciated more competent scientists and less forced tension.

As to the aliens stuff, by the end you could almost view this as a sister novel to Roadside Picnic. I really enjoyed the ending.

As to the humans stuff, it still just stretches belief that anyone would ever live on Mercury.
]]> 13147230
2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Cop Monica Jansson is exploring the burned-out home of a reclusive - some said mad, others dangerous - scientist when she finds a curious gadget - a box containing some wiring, a three-way switch and a... potato. It is the prototype of an invention that will change the way Mankind views his world forever.

And that is an understatement if ever there was one...]]> 336 Terry Pratchett 0062067753 Abe 0 to-read 3.77 2012
author: Terry Pratchett
name: Abe
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/17
shelves: to-read
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]]> 100680 Alternate-cover editions can be found here and here

Stephen Baxter's highly acclaimed first novel and the beginning of his stunning Xeelee Sequence. A spaceship from Earth accidentally crossed through a hole in space-time to a universe where the force of gravity is one billion times as strong as the gravity we know. Somehow the crew survived, aided by the fact that they emerged into a cloud of gas surrounding a black hole, which provided a breathable atmosphere. Five hundred years later, their descendants still struggle for existence, divided into two main groups. The Miners live on the Belt, a ramshackle ring of dwellings orbiting the core of a dead star, which they excavate for raw materials. These can be traded for food from the Raft, a structure built from the wreckage of the ship, on which a small group of scientists preserve the ancient knowledge which makes survival possible. Rees is a Miner whose curiosity about his world makes him stow away on a flying tree—just one of the many strange local lifeforms—carrying trade between the Belt and the Raft.]]> 251 Stephen Baxter 0586210911 Abe 0 to-read 3.69 1991
author: Stephen Baxter
name: Abe
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1991
rating: 0
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]]> 13456414
In this haunting existential novella, author, philosopher, and ecologist Steven L. Peck explores a subversive vision of eternity, taking the reader on a journey through the afterlife of a world where everything everyone believed in turns out to be wrong.]]> 110 Steven L. Peck 098374842X Abe 0 to-read 4.17 2011
author: Steven L. Peck
name: Abe
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> 333867
The Stars My Destination is a classic of technological prophecy and timeless narrative enchantment by an acknowledged master of science fiction.]]> 258 Alfred Bester 0679767800 Abe 0 to-read 4.08 1956
author: Alfred Bester
name: Abe
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1956
rating: 0
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]]> 359821
Obi-Wan takes comfort in his friends, the other leaders of the revolution. Together they have power--perhaps too much power. As the revolution continues, friends become enemies, and Obi-Wan's path grows more and more uncertain. Qui-Gon is no longer around to help him.

Obi-Wan is on his own.]]> 140 Jude Watson 0590519697 Abe 3 3.81 2000
author: Jude Watson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2000
rating: 3
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I remember liking this book a lot as a lad because Obi-Wan stands up for his values and his friends at the cost of upending his potential to be a jedi. Thinking back on it as an adult, I've gained respect for Qui-Gon for letting Obi-Wan do his thing, knowing his Padawan would either learn a valuable lesson and come back, or he would leave forever - in which case, it just wasn't meant to be. So don't worry about it.
]]> 359808
As Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon investigate a strange wave of planetary sabotages, they find their relationship shifting--sometimes in a dangerous direction. As events turn deadly, their lives may never be the same again.]]> 144 Jude Watson 0439139376 Abe 3 3.78 2002
author: Jude Watson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2002
rating: 3
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]]> 359809
Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi take the assignment, thinking it will be easy. But nothing is ever easy when crime is concerned, and soon the two Jedi are entangled in a violent web of power, corruption, and lies. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan know their allegiance is to the witness. But can she be trusted?]]> 128 Jude Watson 0439139368 Abe 3 3.73 2002
author: Jude Watson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2002
rating: 3
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]]> 359827
He wants revenge.

His fellow Jedi--his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Jedi Council member Mace Windu--will try to stop him. But when Qui-Gon strikes out on his own, anything can happen. Revenge is not a Jedi trait . . . but it is a human one. Can Qui-Gon separate his personal feelings from his Jedi training.]]> 144 Jude Watson 043913935X Abe 3 3.84 2001
author: Jude Watson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2001
rating: 3
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]]> 359823 "I pledge myself to you, Qui-Gon."

With these words, two Jedi Knights acknowledged that their bond had grown beyond friendship and into love.

Now Tahl has been abducted in a trap that Qui-Gon feels he should have foreseen. Consumed by dark visions, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan Kenobi must do everything in their power to get her back before it's too late. But that won't be easy in a land where nobody can be trusted . . . and everyone has something to hide.]]> 144 Jude Watson 0439139341 Abe 3 3.84 2001
author: Jude Watson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2001
rating: 3
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]]> 359829
Now the leader has been killed. His daughters have been kidnapped. And Qui-Gon and Tahl have returned to Apsolon with Qui-Gon's apprentice Obi-Wan--against the wishes of the Jedi Council.

The ties that bind Qui-Gon and Tahl are about to experience their most powerful test yet.]]> 144 Jude Watson 0439139333 Abe 3 3.82 2001
author: Jude Watson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2001
rating: 3
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]]> 359822
Jenna Zan Arbor will stop at nothing in her quest to discover the secrets of the Force--and use them for her own power and greed.

One Jedi remains in her dangerous grasp. And a whole planet is being held hostage by her sinister plans.

Only a single team of Jedi stand in her way....]]> 144 Jude Watson 0439139325 Abe 3 3.82 2001
author: Jude Watson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2001
rating: 3
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]]> 359796
Qui-Gon Jinn is now her captive.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is desperately searching for his Master. Meanwhile, Qui-Gon must match wits with one of the most dangerous enemies he has ever encountered.

His survival depends on it.]]> 144 Jude Watson 0439139317 Abe 3 3.83 2001
author: Jude Watson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2001
rating: 3
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]]> 359810
Her target: an old friend of Qui-Gon Jinn's.

Qui-Gon and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, make an attempt to catch her...and fail.

Now they are her targets, too.]]> 128 Jude Watson 0439139309 Abe 3 3.81 2000
author: Jude Watson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2000
rating: 3
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]]> 350404
Leed, the heir to the Rutan throne, does not want to return to his home planet. His father will stop at nothing to get him back. Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi must prevent this rift from turning to bloodshed.

It is their hardest challenge yet.]]> 130 Jude Watson 0590520849 Abe 3 3.71 2000
author: Jude Watson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2000
rating: 3
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]]> 359824
They are not welcomed with open arms. Instead, Qui-Gon and Adi find themselves caught in a web of deception while Obi-Wan and Siri are imprisoned in a school where thought is dictated, dissent is forbidden, and detention is permanent.

On this planet, the Jedi must fight for truth...even though nobody wants to face it.]]> 138 Jude Watson 0590520806 Abe 3 3.83 2000
author: Jude Watson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2000
rating: 3
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]]> 320407
The penalty is death.

Suddenly Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are fugitives on a planet where everyone is an enemy.

Xanatos' day of reckoning has come.]]> 134 Jude Watson 0590520792 Abe 3 3.82 2000
author: Jude Watson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2000
rating: 3
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]]> 359786
Everybody is under suspicion, and no one is safe from harm. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn must get to the heart of the conspiracy...or watch the Temple be destroyed—from the inside.]]> 132 Jude Watson 0590519700 Abe 3 3.87 1999
author: Jude Watson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1999
rating: 3
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]]> 359819
Thirteen-year-old Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn are not supposed to take sides in any war. But once Obi-Wan meets Cerasi and Nield, he feels he must join their fight...even though Qui-Gon forbids it.

The rebellion has become personal.

And Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are on opposing sides.]]> 140 Jude Watson 0590519565 Abe 3 3.80 1999
author: Jude Watson
name: Abe
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1999
rating: 3
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]]>