Carol's bookshelf: all en-US Sun, 16 Mar 2025 03:38:30 -0700 60 Carol's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine]]> 215749903 A revelatory new history of the Irish Great Famine, showing how the British Empire caused Ireland’s most infamous disaster

In 1845, European potato fields from Spain to Scandinavia were attacked by a novel pathogen. But it was only in Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom, that the blight’s devastation reached apocalyptic levels, leaving more than a million people dead and forcing millions more to emigrate.

In Rot, historian Padraic X. Scanlan offers the definitive account of the Great Famine, showing how Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom and the British Empire made it uniquely vulnerable to starvation. Ireland’s overreliance on the potato was a desperate adaptation to an unstable and unequal marketplace created by British colonialism. The empire’s laissez-faire economic policies saw Ireland exporting livestock and grain even as its people starved. When famine struck, relief efforts were premised on the idea that only free markets and wage labor could save the Irish. Ireland’s wretchedness, before and during the Great Famine, was often blamed on Irish backwardness, but in fact, it resulted from the British Empire’s embrace of modern capitalism.

Uncovering the disaster’s roots in Britain’s deep imperial faith in markets, commerce, and capitalism, Rot reshapes our understanding of the Great Famine and its tragic legacy.]]> 352 Padraic X. Scanlan 1541601548 Carol 0 to-read, 2025-new-list 4.19 2025 Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine
author: Padraic X. Scanlan
name: Carol
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/16
shelves: to-read, 2025-new-list
review:

]]> Mansfield Park 45032 488 Jane Austen Carol 4 classics, fiction 3.86 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Carol
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: classics, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities]]> 22711736 Istanbul explores a city which stands as a gateway between the east and west, one of the indisputably greatest cities in the world. Previously known by the names Byzantium and Constantinople, this is the most celebrated metropolis in the world to sit on two continents, straddling the dividing line of the Bosphorus Strait between Europe and Asia.

During its long history, Istanbul has served as the capital of the Roman, Byzantine, Latin and Ottoman Empires. Its architecture reflects these many cultures, including the Hagia Sophia (Byzantine), the Blue Mosque (Ottoman), the Valens Aqueduct (Roman), the Topkapi Palace (Ottoman), and more modern Art Nouveau avenues built in the 19th and 20th centuries - many of which are UNESCO World Heritage sites. With the founding of the Republic of Turkey by Ataturk in 1923, Istanbul was overlooked and Ankara became the capital. Over the next 90 years, Istanbul has undergone great structural change, and in the 1970s the population of the city rocketed as people moved to the city to find work, turning Istanbul into the cultural, economic and financial centre of Turkey. Events there recently have again brought Istanbul to the forefront of global attention. Indeed, while writing this book, Bettany was caught with her daughters in the crossfire of Taksim Square.

Bettany Hughes has been researching and writing this rich portrait of one of the world's most multi-faceted cities for over a decade. Her compelling biography of a momentous city is visceral, immediate and sensuous narrative history at its finest.]]> 800 Bettany Hughes 0297868489 Carol 5 history 4.11 2016 Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities
author: Bettany Hughes
name: Carol
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/07/07
shelves: history
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Meditations: A New Translation]]> 61354484 Nearly two thousand years after it was written, Meditations remains profoundly relevant for anyone seeking to lead a meaningful life.

Few ancient works have been as influential as the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, philosopher and emperor of Rome (A.D. 161�180). A series of spiritual exercises filled with wisdom, practical guidance, and profound understanding of human behavior, it remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. Marcus’s insights and advice—on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity and interacting with others—have made the Meditations required reading for statesmen and philosophers alike, while generations of ordinary readers have responded to the straightforward intimacy of his style. For anyone who struggles to reconcile the demands of leadership with a concern for personal integrity and spiritual well-being, the Meditations remains as relevant now as it was two thousand years ago.

In Gregory Hays’s new translation—the first in thirty-five years—Marcus’s thoughts speak with a new immediacy. In fresh and unencumbered English, Hays vividly conveys the spareness and compression of the original Greek text. Never before have Marcus’s insights been so directly and powerfully presented.

With an Introduction that outlines Marcus’s life and career, the essentials of Stoic doctrine, the style and construction of the Meditations, and the work’s ongoing influence, this edition makes it possible to fully rediscover the thoughts of one of the most enlightened and intelligent leaders of any era.]]> Marcus Aurelius Carol 0 stoicism 4.50 180 Meditations: A New Translation
author: Marcus Aurelius
name: Carol
average rating: 4.50
book published: 180
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/28
shelves: stoicism
review:

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

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

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

]]> Paris 18730321 The Song of Roland; a humble family that embodies the ideals of the French Revolution; a pair of brothers from the slums behind Montmartre, one of whom works on the Eiffel Tower as the other joins the underworld near the Moulin Rouge; and merchants who lose everything during the reign of Louis XV, rise again in the age of Napoleon, and help establish Paris as the great center of art and culture that it is today. With Rutherfurd’s unrivaled blend of impeccable research and narrative verve, this bold novel brings the sights, scents, and tastes of the City of Light to brilliant life.]]> 809 Edward Rutherfurd 0345530764 Carol 0 to-read 4.07 2013 Paris
author: Edward Rutherfurd
name: Carol
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Paris 15786792 809 Edward Rutherfurd 0385535309 Carol 0 up-next 3.98 2013 Paris
author: Edward Rutherfurd
name: Carol
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/25
shelves: up-next
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail]]> 64000414
As a park ranger with the National Park Service's law enforcement team, Andrea Lankford led search and rescue missions in some of the most beautiful (and dangerous) landscapes across America, fromYosemite to the Grand Canyon. But though she had the support of the agency, Andrea grew frustrated with the service's bureaucratic idiosyncrasies, and left the force after twelve years. Two decades later, however, she stumbles across a mystery that pulls her right back where she left - three young men have vanished from the Pacific Crest Trail, the 2,650-mile trek made famous by Cheryl Strayed's Wild , and no one has been able to find them. It’s bugging the hell out of her.

Andrea’s concern soon leads her to a wild environment unlike any she’s ever ventured into - missing person Facebook groups. Andrea launches an investigation, joining forces with an eclectic team of amateurs who are determined to solve the cases: a mother of the missing, a retired pharmacy manager, and a mapmaker who monitors terrorist activity for the government. Together, they track the activities of kidnappers and murderers, investigate a cult, rescue a psychic in peril, cross paths with an unconventional scientist, and reunite an international fugitive with his family. Searching for the missing is a brutal psychological and physical test with the highest stakes, but eventually their hardships begin to bear strange fruits—ones that lead them to places and people they never saw coming.]]> 352 Andrea Lankford 0306831953 Carol 0 to-read 3.70 2023 Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail
author: Andrea Lankford
name: Carol
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Swerve: How the World Became Modern]]> 13707734
Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic, On the Nature of Things, by Lucretius—a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions.

The copying and translation of this ancient book—the greatest discovery of the greatest book-hunter of his age—fueled the Renaissance, inspiring artists such as Botticelli and thinkers such as Giordano Bruno; shaped the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein; and had a revolutionary influence on writers such as Montaigne and Shakespeare and even Thomas Jefferson.]]> 356 Stephen Greenblatt 0393343405 Carol 0 history, nonfiction 3.88 2011 The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
author: Stephen Greenblatt
name: Carol
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2023/12/23
date added: 2023/12/23
shelves: history, nonfiction
review:

]]> The Shipping News 7354
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
(back cover)]]> 337 Annie Proulx 0743225422 Carol 0 recommended-to-me, to-read 3.88 1993 The Shipping News
author: Annie Proulx
name: Carol
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/31
shelves: recommended-to-me, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Happy Derren Brown, How Emotions Are Made The Secret Life of the Brain, No Alzheimer's Smarter Brain Keto Solution 3 Books Collection Set]]> 52295100 Please Note That The Following Individual Books As Per Original ISBN and Cover Image In this Listing shall be Dispatched

Happy Derren Brown, How Emotions Are Made The Secret Life of the Brain, No Alzheimer's Smarter Brain Keto Solution 3 Books Collection


In Happy Derren Brown explores changing concepts of happiness - from the surprisingly modern wisdom of the Stoics and Epicureans in classical times right up until today, when the self-help industry has attempted to claim happiness as its own. He shows how many of self-help’s suggested routes to happiness and success � such as positive thinking, self-belief and setting goals � can be disastrous to follow and, indeed, actually cause anxiety.

How Emotions Are The Secret Life of the
When you feel anxious, angry, happy, or surprised, what's really going on inside of you?Many scientists believe that emotions come from a specific part of the brain, triggered by the world around us. The thrill of seeing an old friend, the fear of losing someone we love - each of these sensations seems to arise automatically and uncontrollably from within us, finding expression on our faces and in our behaviour, carrying us away with the experience.This understanding of emotion has been around since Plato. But what if it is wrong?

No Alzheimer's Smarter Brain Keto
If you are concerned about Alzheimer's its time to take control of your diet. Studies suggest there's a possibility of reversing some of the side effects of Alzheimer's by changing what you eat! Step forward the case for KETO; a low-carb, high-fat diet which will change your relationship with food forever. By significantly reducing carbohydrate intake and replacing this with fat, the body goes into ketosis.]]> 0 Derren Brown 9123877502 Carol 4 3.94 Happy Derren Brown, How Emotions Are Made The Secret Life of the Brain, No Alzheimer's Smarter Brain Keto Solution 3 Books Collection Set
author: Derren Brown
name: Carol
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/10/20
shelves: introspection, nonfiction, stoicism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession]]> 62873378 One of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of the twenty-first the story of the world’s most prolific art thief, Stéphane Breitwieser.

In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, the best-selling author of The Stranger in the Woods brings us into Breitwieser’s strange world—unlike most thieves, he never stole for money, keeping all his treasures in a single room where he could admire them.

For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion.

In The Art Thief, Michael Finkel brings us into Breitwieser’s strange and fascinating world. Unlike most thieves, Breitwieser never stole for money. Instead, he displayed all his treasures in a pair of secret rooms where he could admire them to his heart’s content. Possessed of a remarkable athleticism and an innate ability to circumvent practically any security system, Breitwieser managed to pull off a breathtaking number of audacious thefts. Yet these strange talents bred a growing disregard for risk and an addict’s need to score, leading Breitwieser to ignore his girlfriend’s pleas to stop—until one final act of hubris brought everything crashing down.

This is a riveting story of art, crime, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost.]]> 224 Michael Finkel 0525657320 Carol 5 nonfiction 3.92 2023 The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession
author: Michael Finkel
name: Carol
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/10/01
shelves: nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Ledge: An Inspirational Story of Friendship and Survival]]> 13531836 “The authors bring extreme climbing to life. . . . Perhaps no author can rationalize why some choose to risk their lives . . . for the thrill of conquering a mountain. The Ledge comes perilously close and tells a ripping true story at the same time.”�The Denver Post

In June 1992, best friends Jim Davidson and Mike Price stood atop Washington’s Mount Rainier, celebrating what they hoped would be the first of many milestones in their lives as passionate mountaineers. Then their triumph turned tragic when a cave-in plunged them deep inside a glacial crevasse—the pitch-black, ice-walled hell of every climber’s nightmares.

An avid adventurer since youth, Davidson was a seasoned climber at the time of the Rainier ascent. But the harrowing free fall left him challenged by nature’s grandeur at its most unforgiving. Trapped on a narrow frozen shelf, deep below daylight, he desperately battled crumbling ice, snow that threatened to bury him alive, and crippling fear of the inescapable chasm below—all the while struggling to save his fatally injured friend. Finally, alone, with little equipment and rapidly dwindling hope, he confronted a fateful choice: the certainty of a slow, lonely death or the near impossibility of an agonizing climb for life. A story of heart-stopping adventure, heartfelt friendship, fleeting mortality, and implacable nature, The Ledge chronicles the elation and grief, dizzying heights and punishing depths, of a journey to hard-won wisdom.

“Plunges readers into a dark, icy chasm from which escape seems impossible. Then it reveals the strength it takes to look up, and to start climbing.”—Jim Sheeler, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of the National Book Award finalist Final Salute

“How [Davidson] rescued himself is the core of The Ledge, and its most gripping part. The physical effort and will involved are astonishing.�—The Plain Dealer

“A moving portrait of friendship and loss.�—The Wall Street Journal]]> 272 Jim Davidson 0345523202 Carol 0 to-read, nonfiction, survival 3.98 The Ledge: An Inspirational Story of Friendship and Survival
author: Jim Davidson
name: Carol
average rating: 3.98
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/21
shelves: to-read, nonfiction, survival
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life]]> 18775383
Excellent Sheep takes a sharp look at the high-pressure conveyor belt that begins with parents and counselors who demand perfect grades and culminates in the skewed applications Deresiewicz saw firsthand as a member of Yale’s admissions committee. As schools shift focus from the humanities to "practical" subjects like economics and computer science, students are losing the ability to think in innovative ways. Deresiewicz explains how college should be a time for self-discovery, when students can establish their own values and measures of success, so they can forge their own path. He addresses parents, students, educators, and anyone who's interested in the direction of American society, featuring quotes from real students and graduates he has corresponded with over the years, candidly exposing where the system is broken and clearly presenting solutions.]]> 245 William Deresiewicz 1476702713 Carol 0 3.85 2014 Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life
author: William Deresiewicz
name: Carol
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/01
shelves: to-read, work-related, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Inn at Rose Harbor (Rose Harbor #1)]]> 17883934
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber comes a heartwarming new series based in the Pacific Northwest town of Cedar Cove, where a charming cast of characters finds love, forgiveness, and renewal behind the doors of the cozy Rose Harbor Inn.

Jo Marie Barlow first arrives in Cedar Cove seeking a sense of peace and a fresh start. Coping with the death of her husband, she purchases a local bed-and-breakfast—the newly christened Rose Harbor Inn—ready to begin her life anew. Yet the inn holds more surprises than Jo Marie can imagine.

Her first guest is Joshua Weaver, who has come home to care for his ailing stepfather. The two have never seen eye to eye, and Joshua has little hope that they can reconcile their differences. But a long-lost acquaintance from Joshua’s high school days proves to him that forgiveness is never out of reach and love can bloom even where it’s least expected.

The other guest is Abby Kincaid, who has returned to Cedar Cove to attend her brother’s wedding. Back for the first time in twenty years, she almost wishes she hadn’t come, the picturesque town harboring painful memories from her past. And while Abby reconnects with family and old friends, she realizes she can only move on if she truly allows herself to let go.

A touching novel of life’s grand possibilities and the heart’s ability to heal, The Inn at Rose Harbor is a welcome introduction to an unforgettable set of friends.


From the Hardcover edition..]]> 448 Debbie Macomber 0345535251 Carol 0 firstreads-entries 4.18 2012 The Inn at Rose Harbor (Rose Harbor #1)
author: Debbie Macomber
name: Carol
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/19
shelves: firstreads-entries
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Becoming a Changemaker: An Actionable, Inclusive Guide to Leading Positive Change at Any Level]]> 60021446
In Becoming a Changemaker, Alex Budak provides a fresh, inspiring and research-backed guide to developing the mindsets and leadership skills needed to navigate, shape, and lead change and to make a positive impact in our lives, career, and communities.

Through a diverse series of case studies, and brand new insights from his original research on the traits the most successful changemakers have in common, Alex provides an actionable, inclusive guide for people of all backgrounds, levels, ages, and industries to get unstuck and to start leading change from wherever they are.

The book is based on Budak’s wildly-popular class of the same name at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business that changemakers like Olympic athlete Alicia Wilson describe as "life changing." Accessible and energizing concepts like Microleadership show how each of us can lead from where we are, and principles like “Confidence without Attitude,� “Question the Status Quo,� and “Beyond Yourself'' provide a framework for stepping into our own unique changemaker potential.]]> 304 Alex Budak 1538707764 Carol 0 work-related 4.12 Becoming a Changemaker: An Actionable, Inclusive Guide to Leading Positive Change at Any Level
author: Alex Budak
name: Carol
average rating: 4.12
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2023/02/26
date added: 2023/02/26
shelves: work-related
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Scaling Leadership: Building Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes that Matter Most]]> 43710233 Transform Your Organization by Scaling Leadership

How do senior leaders, in their own words, describe the most effective leaders--the ones that get results, grow the business, enhance the culture and leave in their wake a trail of other really effective leaders? Conversely, how do senior leaders describe the kind of leader that undercuts the organization's capacity and capability to create its future? This book, based on groundbreaking research, shows how senior leaders describe and develop leadership that works, that does not, that scales, and that limits scale.

Is your leadership built for scale as you advance in today's volatile, uncertain, dynamic, and disruptive business environment? This context puts a premium on a very particular kind of leadership--High-Creative leadership capable of rapidly growing the organization while simultaneously transforming it into more agile, innovative, adaptive and engaging workplace. The research presented in this book suggests that senior leaders can describe the High-Creative leadership with surprising clarity. They also describe with equal precision the High-Reactive leadership that cancels itself out and seriously limits scale. Which type of leader are you?

You scale your leadership by increasing the multiple on your leadership in three ways. First, by developing the strengths that differentiate the most effective leaders from the strengths deployed by the most Reactive and ineffective leaders. And second, by increasing your leadership ratio--the ratio of most the effective strengths to the most damaging liabilities. Third, by developing High-Creative leaders all around you.

Scaling Leadership provides a proven framework for magnifying agile and scalable leadership in your organization. Scalable leadership drives forward-momentum by multiplying high-achieving leaders at scale so that growth, productivity and innovation increase exponentially. Creative leaders multiply their strengths beyond technical competence by leading in deep relationship, with radical humanity, passion and integrity.

Drawing upon decades of solid research and experience enhancing individual capability and collective leadership effectiveness with Fortune 500 companies and government agencies, the authors provide an innovative and efficient framework to help

Take stock of your own personal balance of leadership strengths and weaknesses Scale your leadership in deep relationship and high integrity Proliferate high-achievers throughout your organization's leadership system Identify ineffective leadership and course-correct quickly Transform your organization by transforming leadership Scaling Leadership is an invaluable tool for executives, managers, and leaders in business, academia, nonprofit organizations, and more. This innovative resource provides effective techniques, real-world examples, and expert guidance for organizations seeking to improve performance, align and execute strategies, and transform their business with scalable leadership capability.]]> 324 Bob Anderson 1119538300 Carol 0 4.17 2019 Scaling Leadership: Building Organizational Capability and Capacity to Create Outcomes that Matter Most
author: Bob Anderson
name: Carol
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/26
shelves: currently-reading, work-related
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living]]> 36517689
Now Holiday and Hanselman are back with The Daily Stoic Journal, an interactive guide to integrating this ancient philosophy into our 21st century lives. Readers will find weekly explanations and quotations to inspire deeper reflection on Stoic practices, as well as daily prompts and a helpful introduction explaining the various Stoic tools of self-management. The beautifully designed hardback features space for morning and evening notes, along with advice to encourage ongoing writing and insights, day by day through the year.

As a companion volume for those who already love The Daily Stoic, or as a stylish stand-alone journal, this is perfect for anyone seeking inner peace and clarity in our volatile world.]]> 384 Ryan Holiday 1788160231 Carol 0 currently-reading, stoicism 4.27 2017 The Daily Stoic Journal: 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living
author: Ryan Holiday
name: Carol
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/26
shelves: currently-reading, stoicism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Top 10 Porto (Eyewitness Travel)]]> 53585638
Discover the laid-back vibe of Portugal's second city - explore the pretty Old Town on foot, ride a vintage tram as it trundles along the cobbled streets, sample port from a famous wine lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia, or enjoy fabulous views across the Douro river as you sample delicious local food.

From Top 10 restaurants to the Top 10 things to do for free - discover the best of Porto with this easy-to-use travel guide, perfect for a short break.

Inside Top 10
- Easy-to-follow itineraries so you can see all the best sights, whether you're staying for a day, a weekend, or a week
- Top 10 lists showcase the best attractions in Porto, including the magnificent Sé, São Bento railway station with its amazing tiles, and the weird and wonderful Livraria Lello, which inspired JK Rowling
- Sturdy, laminated pull-out map of Porto
- In-depth area guides explore Porto's most interesting neighbourhoods, with the best places for shopping, going out and sightseeing
- Color-coded chapters divided by area make it easy to find information quickly and plan your day
- Essential travel tips including our expert choices of where to stay, eat, shop and sightsee, plus useful transport, visa and health information
- Color maps help you navigate with ease
- Chapters covering Ribeira, Baixa, Vila Nova d Daia, Miragaia and Massarelos, Foz de Doura and around

Staying for longer and looking for a comprehensive guide to the whole country? Try our DK Eyewitness Travel Guide Portugal.

About DK Eyewitness DK's Top 10 guides take the work out of planning a short trip, with easy-to-read maps, tips, and tours to inform and enrich your weekend trip or cultural break. DK is the world's leading illustrated reference publisher, producing beautifully designed books for adults and children in over 120 countries.]]> 318 DK Eyewitness Travel 0744025729 Carol 0 currently-reading, travel 4.50 Top 10 Porto (Eyewitness Travel)
author: DK Eyewitness Travel
name: Carol
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/26
shelves: currently-reading, travel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Discourses, Fragments, Handbook]]> 18189134 Discourses have been the most widely read and influential of all writings of Stoic philosophy, from antiquity onwards. They set out the core ethical principles of Stoicism in a form designed to help people put them into practice and to use them as a basis for leading a good human life. Epictetus was a teacher, and a freed slave, whose discourses have a vivid informality, animated by anecdotes and dialogue. Forceful, direct, and challenging, their central message is that the basis of happiness is up to us, and that we all have the capacity, through sustained reflection and hard work, of achieving this goal. They still speak eloquently to modern readers seeking meaning in their own lives.

This is the only complete modern translation of the Discourses, together with the Handbook or manual of key themes, and surviving fragments. Robin Hard's accurate and accessible translation is accompanied by Christopher Gill's full introduction and comprehensive notes.]]> 355 Epictetus 0199595186 Carol 0 currently-reading, stoicism 4.43 108 Discourses, Fragments, Handbook
author: Epictetus
name: Carol
average rating: 4.43
book published: 108
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/26
shelves: currently-reading, stoicism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stoicism, Bullying, and Beyond: How to Keep Your Head When Others Around You Have Lost Theirs and Blame You]]> 61911833 This is the first book applying Stoic philosophy, and its extraordinary exercises in resilience and self-care, to the epidemic problem of bullying and 'mobbing'. Aimed preeminently at targets, it offers guidance on managing negative emotions, and making good decisions, in what for many people is the greatest challenge of their lives.



"Sharpe understands the terror of being mobbed at work, he captures that terror in engaging prose, and he draws from Stoic philosophy practical ways of recovering the joy of life. Few books this profound are as easy to read as this one. It will do a lot of people a lot of good." - Kenneth Westhues, Professor Emeritus, University of Waterloo, author of Eliminating A Guide to the Dismissal Process, coauthor of The Remedy and Prevention of Mobbing in Higher Education and other works.

"Being the target of workplace bullying and harassment is confusing and paralysing. Matthew Sharpe is providing us with a different perspective-based on case studies, history and literature. I think that this perspective can help validate a target in the early stages of bullying and harassment and provide some sensible options." - Evelyn M Field OAM.FAPS, author of Bully Blocking (2007), Bully Blocking at Work (2010) and Strategies for Surviving Bullying at Work (2011)

"Bullying at work? Consider a Stoic response. Matthew Sharpe tells how in this accessible and practical treatment." - Emeritus Professor Brian Martin, University of Wollongong, author of Justice the dynamics of backfire (2007), and A Practical Guide (2013).

"This book is a therapeutic read for anyone who has been the target of bullying. It makes a distinct contribution by providing a self-help guide that is informed by the practical wisdom of Stoic philosophy. It will be a welcomed companion for those who are striving to grow through the experience of being bullied--from its sensitive analysis of this experience, to the thoughtful exercises on how to best respond." - Dr. Rob Nolan, Clinical and Research Psychologist, Director of the Cardiac eHealth and Behavioural Cardiology Research Unit at the University Health Network, Toronto.


"In this timely book, Matthew Sharpe provides a helpful framework and practical tools for surviving the hidden but widespread scourge of workplace bullying. Based on insights from Stoicism and contemporary psychology, How to Keep Your Head is a lifesaver for targets of bullying and those who support them." - Brittany Polat, author of Tranquility Parenting (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), co-founder Stoicare, steering committee member, Modern Stoicism]]> 190 Matthew Sharpe 1982295341 Carol 0 currently-reading, stoicism 4.38 Stoicism, Bullying, and Beyond: How to Keep Your Head When Others Around You Have Lost Theirs and Blame You
author: Matthew Sharpe
name: Carol
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/26
shelves: currently-reading, stoicism
review:

]]> Sink: A Memoir 61237136
Stranded within an ever-shifting family’s desperate but volatile attempts to love, saddled with a mercurial mother mired in crack addiction, and demeaned daily for his perceived weakness, Joseph Earl Thomas grew up feeling he was under constant threat. Roaches fell from the ceiling, colonizing bowls of noodles and cereal boxes. Fists and palms pounded down at school and at home, leaving welts that ached long after they disappeared. An inescapable hunger gnawed at his frequently empty stomach, and requests for food were often met with indifference if not open hostility. Deemed too unlike the other boys to ever gain the acceptance he so desperately desired, he began to escape into fantasy and virtual worlds, wells of happiness in a childhood assailed on all sides.

In a series of exacting and fierce vignettes, Thomas guides readers through the unceasing cruelty that defined his circumstances, laying bare the depths of his loneliness and illuminating the vital reprieve geek culture offered him. With remarkable tenderness and devastating clarity, he explores how lessons of toxic masculinity were drilled into his body and the way the cycle of violence permeated the very fabric of his environment. Even in the depths of isolation, there were unexpected moments of joy carved out, from summers where he was freed from the injurious structures of his surroundings to the first glimpses of kinship he caught on his journey to becoming a Pokémon master. SINK follows Thomas's coming-of-age towards an understanding of what it means to lose the desire to fit in—with his immediate peers, turbulent family, or the world—and how good it feels to build community, love, and salvation on your own terms.]]> 256 Joseph Earl Thomas 1538706172 Carol 0 to-read 3.66 2023 Sink: A Memoir
author: Joseph Earl Thomas
name: Carol
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Greenlights 52838315 From the Academy Award®–winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.

I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges - how to get relative with the inevitable - you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.�

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

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

It’s a love letter. To life.

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

Good luck.]]> 289 Matthew McConaughey 0593139135 Carol 0 memoirs, stoicism 4.21 2020 Greenlights
author: Matthew McConaughey
name: Carol
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/20
shelves: memoirs, stoicism
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stoicism: How to Use Stoic Philosophy to Find Inner Peace and Happiness]]> 53509714 Are you tired of the glass being half empty?Do you worry you don’t have the strength to cope when something bad happens? (And something bad ALWAYS happens!)Stoicism changed the lives of its followers for the better and now it can do the same for you.The Stoics knew what made for a good person � and a good life. Four simple virtues empowered them to cope with the end of a relationship, the loss of a job, ill health and even bereavement. Now you too can discover for yourself what gave them the emotional resilience to make the most of any situation.Do you want more enjoyment in life instead of stressing all the time?In How to Use Stoic Philosophy to Find Inner Peace and Happiness, you will learn about what made the ancient philosophers so wise. You will uncover how to find the opportunity in any challenge and how you can use your journal to transform your life. If you’re looking for the answer to modern stresses and strains, you’ll find it in Stoicism.Specifically, you will so many successful people are StoicThe counterintuitive reason you should welcome misfortuneStoicism’s four Virtues and how you can apply them in any situationHow you can find opportunity in any challengeHow you can welcome hardship � and why this is an essential ingredient for happinessHow Plato’s view will transform the way you see the worldWhy you will never have complete control over your life and this is okayWritten in plain English, this book takes profound concepts and delivers them in bite-sized chunks anyone can understand, even if you’re completely new to philosophy. Life’s a journey, but you don’t have to travel alone. With Stoicism on your side, you’ll be able to roll with the punches and make the most of whatever comes your way, good or bad.Discover the Secrets to Stoicism Today by Scrolling Up and Clicking the "Buy now with 1-Click" Button to Get Your Book Instantly.]]> 143 Jason Hemlock Carol 0 stoicism 4.09 Stoicism: How to Use Stoic Philosophy to Find Inner Peace and Happiness
author: Jason Hemlock
name: Carol
average rating: 4.09
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/20
shelves: stoicism
review:

]]> Meditations 30659 Meditations of Marcus Aurelius offer a remarkable series of challenging spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the emperor struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe. While the Meditations were composed to provide personal consolation and encouragement, Marcus Aurelius also created one of the greatest of all works of philosophy: a timeless collection that has been consulted and admired by statesmen, thinkers and readers throughout the centuries.]]> 254 Marcus Aurelius 0140449337 Carol 0 stoicism 4.29 180 Meditations
author: Marcus Aurelius
name: Carol
average rating: 4.29
book published: 180
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/20
shelves: stoicism
review:

]]> Gulag: A History 224379 The Gulag—the vast array of Soviet concentration camps—was a system of repression and punishment whose rationalized evil and institutionalized inhumanity were rivaled only by the Holocaust.

The Gulag entered the world's historical consciousness in 1972, with the publication of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's epic oral history of the Soviet camps, The Gulag Archipelago. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, dozens of memoirs and new studies covering aspects of that system have been published in Russia and the West. Using these new resources as well as her own original historical research, Anne Applebaum has now undertaken, for the first time, a fully documented history of the Soviet camp system, from its origins in the Russian Revolution to its collapse in the era of glasnost. It is an epic feat of investigation and moral reckoning that places the Gulag where it belongs: at the center of our understanding of the troubled history of the twentieth century.

Anne Applebaum first lays out the chronological history of the camps and the logic behind their creation, enlargement, and maintenance. The Gulag was first put in place in 1918 after the Russian Revolution. In 1929, Stalin personally decided to expand the camp system, both to use forced labor to accelerate Soviet industrialization and to exploit the natural resources of the country's barely habitable far northern regions. By the end of the 1930s, labor camps could be found in all twelve of the Soviet Union's time zones. The system continued to expand throughout the war years, reaching its height only in the early 1950s. From 1929 until the death of Stalin in 1953, some 18 million people passed through this massive system. Of these 18 million, it is estimated that 4.5 million never returned.

But the Gulag was not just an economic institution. It also became, over time, a country within a country, almost a separate civilization, with its own laws, customs, literature, folklore, slang, and morality. Topic by topic, Anne Applebaum also examines how life was lived within this shadow country: how prisoners worked, how they ate, where they lived, how they died, how they survived. She examines their guards and their jailers, the horrors of transportation in empty cattle cars, the strange nature of Soviet arrests and trials, the impact of World War II, the relations between different national and religious groups, and the escapes, as well as the extraordinary rebellions that took place in the 1950s. She concludes by examining the disturbing question why the Gulag has remained relatively obscure, in the historical memory of both the former Soviet Union and the West.

Gulag: A History will immediately be recognized as a landmark work of historical scholarship and an indelible contribution to the complex, ongoing, necessary quest for truth.]]> 677 Anne Applebaum 0767900561 Carol 0 4.27 2003 Gulag: A History
author: Anne Applebaum
name: Carol
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan]]> 46158740

Traveling alone, Erika Fatland is a true adventurer in every sense. In Sovietistan, she takes the reader on a compassionate and insightful journey to explore how their Soviet heritage has influenced these countries, with governments experimenting with both democracy and dictatorships.


In Kyrgyzstani villages, she meets victims of the tradition of bride snatching; she visits the huge and desolate Polygon in Kazakhstan where the Soviet Union tested explosions of nuclear bombs; she meets shrimp gatherers on the banks of the dried out Aral Sea; she witnesses the fall of a dictator.


She travels incognito through Turkmenistan, a country that is closed to journalists. She meets exhausted human rights activists in Kazakhstan, survivors from the massacre in Osh in 2010, and German Mennonites that found paradise on the Kyrgyzstani plains 200 years ago. We learn how ancient customs clash with gas production and witness the underlying conflicts between ethnic Russians and the majority in a country that is slowly building its future in nationalist colors.


Once the frontier of the Soviet Union, life follows another pace of time. Amidst the treasures of Samarkand and the brutalist Soviet architecture, Sovietistan is a rare and unforgettable adventure.]]> 477 Erika Fatland 1643133268 Carol 0 4.28 2014 Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan
author: Erika Fatland
name: Carol
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Your Money or Your Life - Abridged]]> 6437363 2 Vicki Robin 1591797306 Carol 0 3.83 Your Money or Your Life - Abridged
author: Vicki Robin
name: Carol
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff: Declutter, Downsize, and Move Forward with Your Life]]> 58933265 America's top cleaning expert and star of the hit series Legacy List with Matt Paxton distills his fail-proof approach to decluttering and downsizing.

Your boxes of photos, family's china, and even the kids' height charts aren't just stuff; they're attached to a lifetime of memories--and letting them go can be scary. With empathy, expertise, and humor, Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff, written in collaboration with AARP, helps you sift through years of clutter, let go of what no longer serves you, and identify the items worth keeping so that you can focus on living in the present.

For over 20 years, Matt Paxton has helped people from all walks of life who want to live more simply declutter and downsize. As a featured cleaner on Hoarders and host of the Emmy-nominated Legacy List with Matt Paxton on PBS, he has identified the psychological roadblocks that most organizational experts routinely miss but that prevent so many of us from lightening our material load. Using poignant stories from the thousands of individuals and families he has worked with, Paxton brings his signature insight to a necessary task.

Whether you're tired of living with clutter, making space for a loved one, or moving to a smaller home or retirement community, this book is for you. Paxton's unique, step-by-step process gives you the tools you need to get the job done.]]> 320 Matt Paxton 0593418972 Carol 0 3.73 2022 Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff: Declutter, Downsize, and Move Forward with Your Life
author: Matt Paxton
name: Carol
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nonprofit Management 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Leaders and Professionals]]> 10993942 672 Darian Rodriguez Heyman 1118017943 Carol 0 4.11 2011 Nonprofit Management 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Leaders and Professionals
author: Darian Rodriguez Heyman
name: Carol
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/15
shelves: currently-reading, work-related
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Your Legacy is Now: Life is Not a Search for Meaning from Others -- It's the Creation of Meaning for Yourself]]> 57452840
Alan Weiss

I’ve dealt with esteem (low), narcissism (high), family problems, leadership dysfunctions, insecurities, addictions, and ethical quandaries. And I’ve talked with them through the coronavirus crisis. But don’t get the wrong idea. About 95% of these people have been well-meaning, honest (to the best of their knowledge), and interested in becoming a better person and better professional. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be talking to me.

I found the equivalent of the "runner’s wall" in their journeys, where they must break through the pain and the obstacles and then can keep going with renewed energy and spirit. But runners know how far they must go after the breakthrough, be it another half lap or another five miles. There is a finish line.

I’ve found that people in all positions, even after the "breakthrough," don’t know where they are in the race, let alone where the finish line is.

They do not know what meaning is for them. They may have money in the bank, good relationships, the admiration of others, and the love of their dogs. But they have no metrics for "What now?" They believe that at the end of life there is a tallying, some metaphysical accountant who totals up their contributions, deducts their bad acts, and creates the (hopefully positive) difference.

That difference, they believe, is their "legacy."

But the thought that legacy arrives at the end of life is as ridiculous as someone who decides to sell a business and tries to increase its valuation the day prior. Legacy is now. Legacy is daily. Every day we create the next page in our lives, but the question becomes who is writing it and what’s being written. Is someone else creating our legacy? Or are we, ourselves, simply writing the same page repeatedly?

Or do we leave it blank?

Our organic, living legacy is marred and squeezed by huge normative pressures. There is a "threshold" point, at which one’s beliefs and values are overridden by immense peer pressure. Our metrics are forced to change.

In an age of social media, biased press, and bullying, we’ve come to a point where our legacy, ironically, is almost out of our hands.

Yet our "meaning" � our creation of meaning and not a search for some illusive alchemy � creates worth and impact for us and all those with whom we interact.]]> 150 Alan Weiss 1000357813 Carol 1 abandoned, work-related 3.71 Your Legacy is Now: Life is Not a Search for Meaning from Others -- It's the Creation of Meaning for Yourself
author: Alan Weiss
name: Carol
average rating: 3.71
book published:
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2023/01/03
shelves: abandoned, work-related
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Scaling Teams: Strategies for Building Successful Teams and Organizations]]> 28321017 280 Alexander Grosse 149195227X Carol 0 work-related 4.23 Scaling Teams: Strategies for Building Successful Teams and Organizations
author: Alexander Grosse
name: Carol
average rating: 4.23
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/03
shelves: work-related
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Concise History of Bulgaria (Cambridge Concise Histories)]]> 577008 312 R.J. Crampton 0521616379 Carol 0 3.82 1987 A Concise History of Bulgaria (Cambridge Concise Histories)
author: R.J. Crampton
name: Carol
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1987
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/27
shelves: to-read, history, nonfiction, bulgaria-romania
review:

]]> <![CDATA[An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville]]> 60384460

The Persian students Baskerville educated in English in turn educated him about their struggle for democracy, ultimately inspiring him to leave his teaching post and join them in their fight against a tyrannical shah and his British and Russian backers. “The only difference between me and these people is the place of my birth," Baskerville declared, “and that is not a big difference.�


In 1909, Baskerville was killed in battle alongside his students, but his martyrdom spurred on the revolutionaries who succeeded in removing the shah from power, signing a new constitution, and rebuilding parliament in Tehran. To this day, Baskerville’s tomb in the city of Tabriz remains a place of pilgrimage. Every year, thousands of Iranians visit his grave to honor the American who gave his life for Iran.


In this rip-roaring tale of his life and death, Aslan gives us a powerful parable about the universal ideals of democracy—and to what degree Americans are willing to support those ideals in a foreign land. Woven throughout is an essential history of the nation we now know as Iran—frequently demonized and misunderstood in the West. Indeed, Baskerville’s life and death represent a “road not taken� in Iran. Baskerville’s story, like his life, is at the center of a whirlwind in which Americans must ask themselves: How seriously do we take our ideals of constitutional democracy and whose freedom do we support?]]> 384 Reza Aslan 1324004479 Carol 0 to-read 4.06 2022 An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville
author: Reza Aslan
name: Carol
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/08/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> My Life at the Limit 22271750
Messner is known as one of history's greatest Himalayan mountaineers, a man who pushed back the frontiers of the possible for a whole generation of climbers. While the interest in My Life at the Limit is that it exposes much more of the man than his climbing career, that career is still utterly remarkable--and Mountaineers Books is proud to present this book, which is core to our mission, to audiences across North America.]]> 256 Reinhold Messner 1594858527 Carol 3 nature 3.80 2004 My Life at the Limit
author: Reinhold Messner
name: Carol
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/05/15
shelves: nature
review:

]]> <![CDATA[50 Philosophy Classics: Thinking, Being, Acting, Seeing, Profound Insights and Powerful Thinking from Fifty Key Books (50 Classics)]]> 17087629
From Aristotle, Plato, Epicurus, Confucius, Cicero and Heraclitus in ancient times to 17th century rationalists Descartes, Leibniz and Spinoza, from 20th-century greats Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Baudrillard and Simone de Beauvoir to contemporary thinkers Michael Sandel, Peter Singer and Slavoj Zizek, 50 Philosophy Classics explores key writings that have shaped the discipline and had an impact on the real world.

Philosophy can no longer be confined to academia, and 50 Philosophy Classics shows how powerful it can be as a tool for opening our minds and helping us think. Whether you are fascinated or daunted by the big questions of how to think, how to be, how to act and how to see, this is the perfect introduction to some of humanity's greatest minds and their landmark books.]]> 325 Tom Butler-Bowdon 1857885961 Carol 0 firstreads-entries 4.11 2013 50 Philosophy Classics: Thinking, Being, Acting, Seeing, Profound Insights and Powerful Thinking from Fifty Key Books (50 Classics)
author: Tom Butler-Bowdon
name: Carol
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/02/04
shelves: firstreads-entries
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering How the Forest Is Wired for Intelligence and Healing]]> 54977434
Die Forstwissenschaftlerin Suzanne Simard nimmt uns mit in ihre Welt, ins Zentrum des Waldes, und zeigt, dass Bäume viel mehr sind als bloße Rohstofflieferanten: Lebendige Wesen mit hochspezialisierten Aufgaben, die soziale Strukturen bilden und über ein Geflecht aus unterirdischen Netzwerken miteinander kommunizieren. Sie lernen, passen ihr Verhalten an die Bedingungen ihrer Umwelt an, erkennen Nachbarn, haben Erinnerungen und sogar einen Sinn für Zukunft. Sie konkurrieren miteinander und unterstützen sich gegenseitig auf erstaunlich hochentwickelte Weise � Eigenschaften, die normalerweise menschlichen Gesellschaften zugeschrieben werden. Im Zentrum von Simards Forschungen stehen die »Mutterbäume«: alte, mächtige und geheimnisvolle Bäume, welche die anderen um sie herum versorgen, verbinden und beschützen.
Während sie ihre wissenschaftliche Suche nachzeichnet, die zu ihrer bahnbrechenden Entdeckung des »Wood Wide Web« führte, erzählt Suzanne Simard auch von ihrer eigenen Reise. Von ihrer Kindheit in den Wäldern von British Columbia, von Liebe und Verlust, von Beobachtung und Veränderung und von der zutiefst menschlichen Eigenschaft, verstehen zu wollen, wer wir wirklich sind und welchen Platz wir in der Welt einnehmen. So verstehen wir letztlich nicht nur, was eine der spannendsten Wissenschaftlerinnen der Gegenwart antreibt, sondern auch, dass uns mehr mit den Wäldern dieser Welt verbindet, als wir denken. Denn um zu überleben, sind wir aufeinander angewiesen.]]> 368 Suzanne Simard 0735237751 Carol 0 to-read 4.36 2021 Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering How the Forest Is Wired for Intelligence and Healing
author: Suzanne Simard
name: Carol
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/10/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Sociopath Next Door 72536 you know?

Is it your lying, cheating ex-husband?
Your sadistic high school gym teacher?
Your boss who loves to humiliate people in meetings?
The colleague who stole your idea and passed it off as her own?

In the pages of The Sociopath Next Door, you will realize that your ex was not just misunderstood. He’s a sociopath. And your boss, teacher, and colleague? They may be sociopaths too.

We are accustomed to think of sociopaths as violent criminals, but in The Sociopath Next Door, Harvard psychologist Martha Stout reveals that a shocking 4 percent of ordinary people—one in twenty-five—has an often undetected mental disorder, the chief symptom of which is that that person possesses no conscience. He or she has no ability whatsoever to feel shame, guilt, or remorse. One in twenty-five everyday Americans, therefore, is secretly a sociopath. They could be your colleague, your neighbor, even family. And they can do literally anything at all and feel absolutely no guilt.

How do we recognize the remorseless? One of their chief characteristics is a kind of glow or charisma that makes sociopaths more charming or interesting than the other people around them. They’re more spontaneous, more intense, more complex, or even sexier than everyone else, making them tricky to identify and leaving us easily seduced. Fundamentally, sociopaths are different because they cannot love. Sociopaths learn early on to show sham emotion, but underneath they are indifferent to others� suffering. They live to dominate and thrill to win.

The fact is, we all almost certainly know at least one or more sociopaths already. Part of the urgency in reading The Sociopath Next Door is the moment when we suddenly recognize that someone we know—someone we worked for, or were involved with, or voted for—is a sociopath. But what do we do with that knowledge? To arm us against the sociopath, Dr. Stout teaches us to question authority, suspect flattery, and beware the pity play. Above all, she writes, when a sociopath is beckoning, do not join the game.

It is the ruthless versus the rest of us, and The Sociopath Next Door will show you how to recognize and defeat the devil you know.]]> 256 Martha Stout 0767915828 Carol 0 to-read 3.76 2005 The Sociopath Next Door
author: Martha Stout
name: Carol
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/08/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination]]> 839157 320 Robert Macfarlane 1862076545 Carol 4 travel, nonfiction 4.11 2003 Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination
author: Robert Macfarlane
name: Carol
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2021/08/22
shelves: travel, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin]]> 13645377 200 Loretta Graziano Breuning 1463790929 Carol 0 firstreads-entries 3.91 2015 Meet Your Happy Chemicals: Dopamine, Endorphin, Oxytocin, Serotonin
author: Loretta Graziano Breuning
name: Carol
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/07/14
shelves: firstreads-entries
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Count of Monte Cristo, V1 (The Count of Monte Cristo, part 1 of 2)]]> 46529 644 Alexandre Dumas 1404346864 Carol 5 fiction, classics 4.47 1844 The Count of Monte Cristo, V1 (The Count of Monte Cristo, part 1 of 2)
author: Alexandre Dumas
name: Carol
average rating: 4.47
book published: 1844
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2021/03/29
shelves: fiction, classics
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Fire of Peru: Recipes and Stories from My Peruvian Kitchen]]> 24000290
Lima-born Los Angeles chef and restaurateur Ricardo Zarate delivers a standout cookbook on the new "it" cuisine—the food of Peru. Zarate has been called "the godfather of Peruvian cuisine" for good He perfectly captures the spirit of modern Peruvian cooking, which reflects indigenous South American foods as well as Japanese, Chinese, and European influences, but also balances that variety with an American sensibility; his most popular dishes range from classic recipes (such as ceviche and Pisco sour) to artfully crafted Peruvian-style sushi to a Peruvian burger. With 100 recipes (from appetizers to cocktails), lush color photography, and Zarate’s moving and entertaining accounts of Peru’s food traditions and his own compelling story, The Fire of Peru beautifully encapsulates the excitement Zarate brings to the American dining scene.]]> 276 Ricardo Zarate 0544454308 Carol 5 food
Yes, there are a lot of sauces involved with this cuisine. Yes, you will need to source a few frequently used specialty ingredients ahead of time (I mail ordered). Yes, there are sometimes sub-recipes of sub-recipes that require annoying page-flipping. But if you read the recipe in advance and prep the sauces a day or two beforehand, you'll be in good shape for the day of. I often ended up with extra sauce and popped it into the freezer for convenient future use. These recipes are all about the sauces. And they're sooo tasty and readily adaptable to incorporating into daily use beyond this cookbook.

It's pretty much all been a flavor explosion. The only recipe I was truly disappointed in was the rotisserie chicken as the marinade flavor didn't take at all, but I also didn't truly follow the recipe. I didn't sous-vide - cooking in plastic is just not my thing, seems creepy and carcinogenic.

What I've made:

Main:
- shrimp dumplings with soy-lime sauce & rocoto oil (yum!)
- mixed seafood ceviche with aji amarillo tiger's milk (yum!)
- grilled tuna steaks with roasted red papper anticucho sauce
- grilled Peruvian-style rotisserie chicken (meh)
- Peruvian-style burger with aji amarillo yogurt & pickled cucumbers (yum but messy)
- Peruvian beef stir-fry with red onions, tomatoes, scallions & cilantro (made 2x and will continue to make regularly)
- braised lamb with seco sauce & canario beans (easy and fantastic)
- warm vegetable quinoa salad with miso-lime dressing (can really play with this one, conceptually)

Sauces (all easy and great and useful beyond the immediate recipe):
- anticucho sauce
- roasted red bell pepper anticucho sauce
- aji amarillo-cumin yogurt sauce (yum and super simple, will be putting into regular rotation for use on just about everything. Just give it a day or two in the fridge for the flavors to meld)
- saltado sauce
- cilantro-beer seco braise
- miso-lime dressing

Sub-recipes:
- Pureed garlic (useful for so much; store extra in freezer)
- aji amarillo leche de tigre

Sides:
- quick pickles
- confit garlic (yum! the flavored oil is an extra bonus)
- canarios beans

Beverages:
- avocado daiquiri (thin it a bit and first strain it into a pourable container before pouring into serving glasses)



]]> 4.12 2015 The Fire of Peru: Recipes and Stories from My Peruvian Kitchen
author: Ricardo Zarate
name: Carol
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2020/09/19
date added: 2020/09/19
shelves: food
review:
Ran into this book in a winery gift shop and was instantly hooked by the photos and unique flavor profile. I don't review cookbooks unless I make at least 10 recipes. By my count, I've already made 20 in just a few short months. That alone is a testament to how great this cookbook is.

Yes, there are a lot of sauces involved with this cuisine. Yes, you will need to source a few frequently used specialty ingredients ahead of time (I mail ordered). Yes, there are sometimes sub-recipes of sub-recipes that require annoying page-flipping. But if you read the recipe in advance and prep the sauces a day or two beforehand, you'll be in good shape for the day of. I often ended up with extra sauce and popped it into the freezer for convenient future use. These recipes are all about the sauces. And they're sooo tasty and readily adaptable to incorporating into daily use beyond this cookbook.

It's pretty much all been a flavor explosion. The only recipe I was truly disappointed in was the rotisserie chicken as the marinade flavor didn't take at all, but I also didn't truly follow the recipe. I didn't sous-vide - cooking in plastic is just not my thing, seems creepy and carcinogenic.

What I've made:

Main:
- shrimp dumplings with soy-lime sauce & rocoto oil (yum!)
- mixed seafood ceviche with aji amarillo tiger's milk (yum!)
- grilled tuna steaks with roasted red papper anticucho sauce
- grilled Peruvian-style rotisserie chicken (meh)
- Peruvian-style burger with aji amarillo yogurt & pickled cucumbers (yum but messy)
- Peruvian beef stir-fry with red onions, tomatoes, scallions & cilantro (made 2x and will continue to make regularly)
- braised lamb with seco sauce & canario beans (easy and fantastic)
- warm vegetable quinoa salad with miso-lime dressing (can really play with this one, conceptually)

Sauces (all easy and great and useful beyond the immediate recipe):
- anticucho sauce
- roasted red bell pepper anticucho sauce
- aji amarillo-cumin yogurt sauce (yum and super simple, will be putting into regular rotation for use on just about everything. Just give it a day or two in the fridge for the flavors to meld)
- saltado sauce
- cilantro-beer seco braise
- miso-lime dressing

Sub-recipes:
- Pureed garlic (useful for so much; store extra in freezer)
- aji amarillo leche de tigre

Sides:
- quick pickles
- confit garlic (yum! the flavored oil is an extra bonus)
- canarios beans

Beverages:
- avocado daiquiri (thin it a bit and first strain it into a pourable container before pouring into serving glasses)




]]> Leonardo da Vinci 34684622 600 Walter Isaacson 1501139150 Carol 5 biography 4.19 2017 Leonardo da Vinci
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Carol
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/09/01
shelves: biography
review:

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

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

Twenty Lessons is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.]]> 127 Timothy Snyder 0804190119 Carol 0 4.23 2017 On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
author: Timothy Snyder
name: Carol
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/25
shelves: currently-reading, audiobook, modern-life
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks]]> 16277245
Some of the most extraordinary and obscure plants have been fermented and distilled, and they each represent a unique cultural contribution to our global drinking traditions and our history. Molasses was an essential ingredient in American independence: when the British forced the colonies to buy British (not French) molasses for their New World rum-making, the settlers outrage kindled the American Revolution. Rye, which turns up in countless spirits, is vulnerable to ergot, which contains a precursor to LSD, and some historians have speculated that the Salem witch trials occurred because girls poisoned by ergot had seizures that made townspeople think they d been bewitched. Then there's the tale of the thirty-year court battle that took place over the trademarking of Angostura bitters, which may or may not actually contain bark from the Angostura tree.

With a delightful two-color vintage-style interior, over fifty drink recipes, growing tips for gardeners, and advice that carries Stewart's trademark wit, this is the perfect gift for gardeners and cocktail aficionados alike.]]> 362 Amy Stewart 1616200464 Carol 0 currently-reading, nonfiction 4.02 2013 The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks
author: Amy Stewart
name: Carol
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/07/18
shelves: currently-reading, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger]]> 38532207 A transformative book urging twenty-first century-women to embrace their anger and harness it as a tool for lasting personal and societal change.

Women are angry, and it isn’t hard to figure out why.

We are underpaid and overworked. Too sensitive, or not sensitive enough. Too dowdy or too made-up. Too big or too thin. Sluts or prudes. We are harassed, told we are asking for it, and asked if it would kill us to smile. Yes, yes it would.

Contrary to the rhetoric of popular “self-help� and an entire lifetime of being told otherwise, our rage is one of the most important resources we have, our sharpest tool against both personal and political oppression. We’ve been told for so long to bottle up our anger, letting it corrode our bodies and minds in ways we don’t even realize. Yet our anger is a vital instrument, our radar for injustice and a catalyst for change. On the flip side, the societal and cultural belittlement of our anger is a cunning way of limiting and controlling our power.

We are so often told to resist our rage or punished for justifiably expressing it, yet how many remarkable achievements in this world would never have gotten off the ground without the kernel of anger that fueled them? Rage Becomes Her makes the case that anger is not what gets in our way, it is our way, sparking a new understanding of one of our core emotions that will give women a liberating sense of why their anger matters and connect them to an entire universe of women no longer interested in making nice at all costs.

Following in the footsteps of classic feminist manifestos like The Feminine Mystique and Our Bodies, Ourselves, Rage Becomes Her is an eye-opening book for the twenty-first century woman: an engaging, accessible credo offering us the tools to re-understand our anger and harness its power to create lasting positive change.]]> 364 Soraya Chemaly 1501189557 Carol 4 work-related 4.36 2018 Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger
author: Soraya Chemaly
name: Carol
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2020/07/18
date added: 2020/07/18
shelves: work-related
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wild Vine: A Forgotten Grape and the Untold Story of American Wine]]> 9774404 The Wild Vine is the tale of a little-known American grape that rocked the fine-wine world of the nineteenth century and is poised to do so again today.


Author Todd Kliman sets out on an epic quest to unravel the mystery behind Norton, a grape used to make a Missouri wine that claimed a prestigious gold medal at an international exhibition in Vienna in 1873. At a time when the vineyards of France were being ravaged by phylloxera, this grape seemed to promise a bright future for a truly American brand of wine-making, earthy and wild. And then Norton all but vanished. What happened?
The narrative begins more than a hundred years before California wines were thought to have put America on the map as a wine-making nation and weaves together the lives of a fascinating cast of renegades. We encounter the suicidal Dr. Daniel Norton, tinkering in his experimental garden in 1820s Richmond, Virginia. Half on purpose and half by chance, he creates a hybrid grape that can withstand the harsh New World climate and produce good, drinkable wine, thus succeeding where so many others had failed so fantastically before, from the Jamestown colonists to Thomas Jefferson himself. Thanks to an influential Long Island, New York, seed catalog, the grape moves west, where it is picked up in Missouri by German immigrants who craft the historic 1873 bottling. Prohibition sees these vineyards burned to the ground by government order, but bootleggers keep the grape alive in hidden backwoods plots. Generations later, retired Air Force pilot Dennis Horton, who grew up playing in the abandoned wine caves of the very winery that produced the 1873 Norton, brings cuttings of the grape back home to Virginia. Here, dot-com-millionaire-turned-vintner Jenni McCloud, on an improbable journey of her own, becomes Norton’s ultimate champion, deciding, against all odds, to stake her entire reputation on the outsider grape.
Brilliant and provocative, The Wild Vine shares with readers a great American secret, resuscitating the Norton grape and its elusive, inky drink and forever changing the way we look at wine, America, and long-cherished notions of identity and reinvention.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 288 Todd Kliman 0307409376 Carol 0 3.52 2010 The Wild Vine: A Forgotten Grape and the Untold Story of American Wine
author: Todd Kliman
name: Carol
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/07
shelves: food, recommended-to-me, nonfiction, to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking]]> 17286778 Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day�the revolutionary approach to bread-making

With more than half a million copies of their books in print, Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François have proven that people want to bake their own bread, so long as they can do it easily and quickly. Based on fan feedback, Jeff and Zoë have completely revamped their first, most popular, and now-classic book,Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Responding to their thousands of ardent fans, Jeff and Zoë returned to their test kitchens to whip up more delicious recipes. They’ve also included a gluten-free chapter,forty all-new gorgeous color photos, and one hundred informative black-and-white how-to photos. They’ve made the “Tips and Techniques� and “Ingredients� chapters bigger and better than ever before, and included readers� Frequently Asked Questions.

This revised edition also includes more thanthirty brand-new recipes for Beer-Cheese Bread, Crock-Pot Bread, Panini, Pretzel Buns, Apple-Stuffed French Toast, and many more. There’s nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread to fill a kitchen with warmth, eager appetites, and endless praise. Now, using Jeff and Zoë’s innovative technique, you can create bread that rivals those of the finest bakers in the world in just five minutes of active preparation time.]]> 400 Jeff Hertzberg 1250018285 Carol 0 firstreads-entries 4.45 2007 The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking
author: Jeff Hertzberg
name: Carol
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/05/29
shelves: firstreads-entries
review:

]]> Wanderers (Wanderers, #1) 32603079
For as the sleepwalking phenomenon awakens terror and violence in America, the real danger may not be the epidemic but the fear of it. With society collapsing all around them--and an ultraviolent militia threatening to exterminate them--the fate of the sleepwalkers depends on unraveling the mystery behind the epidemic. The terrifying secret will either tear the nation apart--or bring the survivors together to remake a shattered world.]]> 845 Chuck Wendig 039918211X Carol 0 to-read 3.94 2019 Wanderers (Wanderers, #1)
author: Chuck Wendig
name: Carol
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/04/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> A Gentleman in Moscow 29430012 He can't leave. You won't want to.

With his breakout novel Rules of Civility, Amor Towles established himself as a master of absorbing, sophisticated fiction, bringing late-1930s Manhattan to life with splendid atmosphere and a flawless command of style. A Gentleman in Moscow immerses us in another elegantly drawn era with the story of Count Alexander Rostov.

When, in 1922, the thirty-year-old Count is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, he is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. An indomitable man of erudition and wit, Rostov must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors.

Unexpectedly, the Count's reduced circumstances provide him entry to a much larger world of emotional discovery as he forges friendships with the hotel's other denizens, including a willful actress, a shrewd Kremlinite, a gregarious American, and a temperamental chef. But when fate suddenly puts the life of a young girl in his hands, he must draw on all his ingenuity to protect the future she so deserves.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the Count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.]]> 462 Amor Towles Carol 0 fiction, abandoned 4.33 2016 A Gentleman in Moscow
author: Amor Towles
name: Carol
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/04/18
shelves: fiction, abandoned
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Great Mistake: How We Wrecked Public Universities and How We Can Fix Them (Critical University Studies)]]> 29944864
In The Great Mistake, Newfield asks how we can fix higher education, given the damage done by private-sector models. The current accepted wisdom--that to succeed, universities should be more like businesses--is dead wrong. Newfield combines firsthand experience with expert analysis to show that private funding and private-sector methods cannot replace public funding or improve efficiency, arguing that business-minded practices have increased costs and gravely damaged the university's value to society.

It is imperative that universities move beyond the destructive policies that have led them to destabilize their finances, raise tuition, overbuild facilities, create a national student debt crisis, and lower educational quality. Laying out an interconnected cycle of mistakes, from subsidizing the private sector to "the poor get poorer" funding policies, Newfield clearly demonstrates how decisions made in government, in the corporate world, and at colleges themselves contribute to the dismantling of once-great public higher education. A powerful, hopeful critique of the unnecessary death spiral of higher education, The Great Mistake is essential reading for those who wonder why students have been paying more to get less and for everyone who cares about the role the higher education system plays in improving the lives of average Americans.]]> 448 Christopher Newfield 1421421623 Carol 0 currently-reading 4.06 The Great Mistake: How We Wrecked Public Universities and How We Can Fix Them (Critical University Studies)
author: Christopher Newfield
name: Carol
average rating: 4.06
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/04/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving]]> 52668196 Despite our constant search for new ways to 'hack' our bodies and minds for peak performance, human beings are working more instead of less, living harder not smarter, and becoming more lonely and anxious. We strive for the absolute best in every aspect of our lives, ignoring what we do well naturally. Why do we measure our time in terms of efficiency instead of meaning? Why can't we just take a break?

In Do Nothing, award-winning journalist Celeste Headlee illuminates a new path ahead, seeking to institute a global shift in our thinking so we can stop sabotaging our well-being, put work aside and start living instead of doing.

The key lies in embracing what makes us human: our creativity, our social connections (Instagram doesn't count), our ability for reflective thought, and our capacity for joy. Celeste's strategies will allow you to regain control over your life and break your addiction to false efficiency, including:

-Increase your time perception and determine how your hours are being spent.
-Stop comparing yourself to others.
-Invest in quality idle time. Take a hot bath and listen to music.
-Spend face-to-face time with friends and family

It's time to recover our leisure time and reverse the trend that's making us all sadder, sicker, and less productive.

]]> 288 Celeste Headlee 1984824732 Carol 4 3.84 2020 Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving
author: Celeste Headlee
name: Carol
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2020/04/16
date added: 2020/04/16
shelves:
review:

]]> The Settler 14408364 424 Brian Duncan 1466298553 Carol 0 firstreads-entries 3.94 2012 The Settler
author: Brian Duncan
name: Carol
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/04/15
shelves: firstreads-entries
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Eat Sleep Work Repeat: 30 Hacks for Bringing Joy to Your Job]]> 46178719 Suggest a Tea Break (it increases team cohesiveness and productivity)
Conduct a Pre-Mortem (foreseeing possible issues can prevent problems and creates a spirit of curiosity and inquisitiveness) “Let’s start enjoying our jobs again,� Daisley insists. “It’s time to rediscover the joy of work.”]]> 320 Bruce Daisley 0062944509 Carol 0 to-read, work-related 3.64 2020 Eat Sleep Work Repeat: 30 Hacks for Bringing Joy to Your Job
author: Bruce Daisley
name: Carol
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/04/05
shelves: to-read, work-related
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Mirror & the Light (Thomas Cromwell, #3)]]> 45992717 If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?�

England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen before Jane dies giving birth to the male heir he most craves.

Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to the breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him?

With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion, and courage.]]> 757 Hilary Mantel 0805096604 Carol 5 fiction 4.36 2020 The Mirror & the Light (Thomas Cromwell, #3)
author: Hilary Mantel
name: Carol
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2020/04/02
shelves: fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Architecture of the Cocktail: Constructing the Perfect Cocktail from the Bottom Up]]> 17318196 The Architecture of the Cocktail will reveal the answers to all your burning cocktail queries and more. Focusing on the precise measurements to help you craft the perfect cocktail as well as the recommended garnish and embellishments, you’ll no longer have to guess what the perfect cocktail should taste like.Laying out the exact measurements from the bottom of your glass to the top, you’ll discover the order which you should layer your liquors, the precise measurements needed, and even recommended brands.Not sure which stemware is appropriate?Consult the mini guide on identifying the correct stemware in the back of the book.Featuring 75 different cocktails and recipes in a unique blueprint-inspired design (including specifications, notes, and embellishments), this is the perfect gift for the cocktail lover in your life.Don’t waste another minute on watered-down cocktails � become a cocktail master with this beautifully illustrated guide. Amy Zavatto writes about wine, spirits, and food for Imbibe, Foxnews.com, Details, Edible Manhattan, Wynn, and Every Day with Rachael Ray. She is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Bartending, The Hedonist Guide to Eat NY, and co-author of The Renaissance Guide to Wine & Food Pairing with Tony DiDio.
Melissa Wood is an illustrator and architectural planner who pored over Charles Addams, James Thurber and Ludwig Bemelman's sketches as a child, dreaming to illustrate a book of her own. Her cool clients include Crate&Barrel, Garnet Hill, Trader Joe's, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Crane & Co., and is a fav of a gal named Oprah.]]> 144 Amy Zavatto 1937994325 Carol 0 firstreads-entries 4.26 2013 The Architecture of the Cocktail: Constructing the Perfect Cocktail from the Bottom Up
author: Amy Zavatto
name: Carol
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/03/12
shelves: firstreads-entries
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The State of the American Mind: 16 Leading Critics on the New Anti-Intellectualism]]> 24685657
That was over twenty years ago. Since then, the United States has experienced unprecedented wealth, more youth enrolling in higher education than ever before, and technology advancements far beyond what many in the 1980s dreamed possible. And yet, the state of the American mind seems to have deteriorated further. Benjamin Franklin’s “self-made man� has become a man dependent on the state. Independence has turned into self-absorption. Liberty has been curtailed in the defense of multiculturalism.

In order to fully grasp the underpinnings of this shift away from the self-reliant, well-informed American, editors Mark Bauerlein and Adam Bellow have brought together a group of cultural and educational experts to discuss the root causes of the decline of the American mind. The writers of these fifteen original essays include E. D. Hirsch, Nicholas Eberstadt, and Dennis Prager, as well as Daniel Dreisbach, Gerald Graff, Richard Arum, Robert Whitaker, David T. Z. Mindich, Maggie Jackson, Jean Twenge, Jonathan Kay, Ilya Somin, Steve Wasserman, Greg Lukianoff, and R. R. Reno. Their essays are compiled into three main


The State of the American Mind is both an assessment of our current state as well as a warning, foretelling what we may yet become. For anyone interested in the intellectual fate of America, The State of the American Mind offers an accessible and critical look at life in America and how our collective mind is faring.]]> 280 Mark Bauerlein 1599474581 Carol 0 to-read 3.33 2015 The State of the American Mind: 16 Leading Critics on the New Anti-Intellectualism
author: Mark Bauerlein
name: Carol
average rating: 3.33
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/07/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Anti-Intellectualism in American Life]]> 582067 Anti-intellectualism in American Life was awarded the 1964 Pulitzer Prize in Non-Fiction. It is a book which throws light on many features of the American character. Its concern is not merely to portray the scorners of intellect in American life, but to say something about what the intellectual is, and can be, as a force in a democratic society.

Hofstadter set out to trace the social movements that altered the role of intellect in American society from a virtue to a vice. In so doing, he explored questions regarding the purpose of education and whether the democratization of education altered that purpose and reshaped its form.

In considering the historic tension between access to education and excellence in education, Hofstadter argued that both anti-intellectualism and utilitarianism were consequences, in part, of the democratization of knowledge.

Moreover, he saw these themes as historically embedded in America's national fabric, an outcome of her colonial European and evangelical Protestant heritage. Anti-intellectualism and utilitarianism were functions of American cultural heritage, not necessarily of democracy.]]> 434 Richard Hofstadter 0394703170 Carol 0 to-read 4.13 1963 Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
author: Richard Hofstadter
name: Carol
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1963
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/07/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I'm Off Then: Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino de Santiago]]> 6213762 I'm Off Then has sold more than three million copies in Germany and has been translated into eleven languages. The number of pilgrims along the Camino has increased by 20 percent since the book was published. Hape Kerkeling's spiritual journey has struck a chord.

Overweight, overworked, and disenchanted, Kerkeling was an unlikely candidate to make the arduous pilgrimage across the Pyrenees to the Spanish shrine of St. James, a 1,200-year-old journey undertaken by nearly 100,000 people every year. But he decided to get off the couch and do it anyway. Lonely and searching for meaning along the way, he began the journal that turned into this utterly frank, engaging book. Filled with unforgettable characters, historic landscapes, and Kerkeling's self-deprecating humor, I'm Off Then is an inspiring travelogue, a publishing phenomenon, and a spiritual journey unlike any other.]]> 352 Hape Kerkeling 1416553878 Carol 3 nonfiction, travel 3.66 2006 I'm Off Then: Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino de Santiago
author: Hape Kerkeling
name: Carol
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2011/12/11
date added: 2019/06/03
shelves: nonfiction, travel
review:
Moderately enjoyable account of the Camino. Author's critical eye is in overdrive, though. I expected an account written by a comedian to be...well, funnier.
]]> Autobiography 18625064
Achieving eleven Top 10 albums (plus nine with the Smiths), his songs have been recorded by David Bowie, Nancy Sinatra, Marianne Faithfull, Chrissie Hynde, Thelma Houston, My Chemical Romance and Christy Moore, amongst others.

An animal protectionist, in 2006 Morrissey was voted the second greatest living British icon by viewers of the BBC, losing out to Sir David Attenborough. In 2007 Morrissey was voted the greatest northern male, past or present, in a nationwide newspaper poll. In 2012, Morrissey was awarded the Keys to the City of Tel-Aviv.

It has been said 'Most pop stars have to be dead before they reach the iconic status that Morrissey has reached in his lifetime.'

Autobiography covers Morrissey's life from his birth until the present day.]]> 457 Morrissey Carol 4 memoirs, nonfiction
As others have noted there are no chapters, but Autobiography does seem to be broken down into three distinct acts:

In the magnificent opening act, Moz recounts his childhood in poetic, melodic prose. A unique voice.

Act 2 descends into an intense and lengthy barrage of non-stop kvetching, capped off by an incredibly repetitive rant about the Smith court case. Infuriating but insightful. And often unintentionally funny.

Act 3 is wrapped and coddled inwarm and fuzzy self-adulation of his musical output and concert tours. The ending seems abrupt.

I was a bit frustrated by what wasn't included - there was no real description of the moment when he first took the leap into musicianship. There was never any discussion of his approach to the writing process. Wish he'd included more insight into his creative methods. ]]> 3.62 2013 Autobiography
author: Morrissey
name: Carol
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2013/11/15
date added: 2019/05/02
shelves: memoirs, nonfiction
review:
Wildly uneven but in a wonderful way.

As others have noted there are no chapters, but Autobiography does seem to be broken down into three distinct acts:

In the magnificent opening act, Moz recounts his childhood in poetic, melodic prose. A unique voice.

Act 2 descends into an intense and lengthy barrage of non-stop kvetching, capped off by an incredibly repetitive rant about the Smith court case. Infuriating but insightful. And often unintentionally funny.

Act 3 is wrapped and coddled inwarm and fuzzy self-adulation of his musical output and concert tours. The ending seems abrupt.

I was a bit frustrated by what wasn't included - there was no real description of the moment when he first took the leap into musicianship. There was never any discussion of his approach to the writing process. Wish he'd included more insight into his creative methods.
]]> <![CDATA[The Long Road Turns to Joy: A Guide to Walking Meditation]]> 263293 82 Thich Nhat Hanh 093807783X Carol 0 4.10 2008 The Long Road Turns to Joy: A Guide to Walking Meditation
author: Thich Nhat Hanh
name: Carol
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/05/11
shelves: to-read, introspection, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The World of Venice: Revised Edition]]> 61045 320 Jan Morris 0156983567 Carol 2 nonfiction, travel
It's so....listy. Lists of boats, lists of lions, lists of towers, lists of burial places. The lists go on and on. The description is so exhaustive as to be exhausting. In a word: tedious.

There is, I think, an easy explanation for the vast difference in quality and style between the two books. was written in 2002, one of her later works. The World of Venice, on the other hand, was written in 1960. I don't think she'd yet found her unique and lovely way of bringing together the eloquent travel essay, the quirks of history, and the expert tour guide into one unified whole.

I think she admits this herself in her forward to the 1974 edition, when she notes that - upon revisiting the book to update and revise it - she'd discovered that she'd fallen out of love with Venice, that the "sad magic" was gone for her. My guess, however, is that she did still love Venice (how can you not?). She just no longer cared for the way her pen had treated it as a younger, less mature writer. Just my guess.]]> 3.93 1960 The World of Venice: Revised Edition
author: Jan Morris
name: Carol
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1960
rating: 2
read at: 2012/10/24
date added: 2018/02/28
shelves: nonfiction, travel
review:
The husband and I visited both Trieste and Venice earlier this year (before then setting off for two weeks of fine walking in Slovenia). I read J. Morris' while in Trieste and lapped up its languid, rich portrayal of that faded Habsburg port. We then fell in love with La Serenissima and I determined to read Morris's classic treatment of Venice upon our return. I was expecting a work of a similar quality and style, but it just can't compare.

It's so....listy. Lists of boats, lists of lions, lists of towers, lists of burial places. The lists go on and on. The description is so exhaustive as to be exhausting. In a word: tedious.

There is, I think, an easy explanation for the vast difference in quality and style between the two books. was written in 2002, one of her later works. The World of Venice, on the other hand, was written in 1960. I don't think she'd yet found her unique and lovely way of bringing together the eloquent travel essay, the quirks of history, and the expert tour guide into one unified whole.

I think she admits this herself in her forward to the 1974 edition, when she notes that - upon revisiting the book to update and revise it - she'd discovered that she'd fallen out of love with Venice, that the "sad magic" was gone for her. My guess, however, is that she did still love Venice (how can you not?). She just no longer cared for the way her pen had treated it as a younger, less mature writer. Just my guess.
]]> <![CDATA[The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair]]> 19301797 643 Joël Dicker 0143126687 Carol 0 to-read, fiction 3.98 2012 The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair
author: Joël Dicker
name: Carol
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/02/15
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> Descent 20312459
As their world comes undone, the Courtlands are drawn into a vortex of dread and recrimination. Why weren’t they more careful? What has happened to their daughter? Is she alive? Will they ever know? Caitlin’s disappearance, all the more devastating for its mystery, is the beginning of the family’s harrowing journey down increasingly divergent and solitary paths until all that continues to bind them together are the questions they can never bring themselves to ask: At what point does a family stop searching? At what point will a girl stop fighting for her life?]]> 376 Tim Johnston 1616203048 Carol 0 fiction, abandoned 3.55 2015 Descent
author: Tim Johnston
name: Carol
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/01
shelves: fiction, abandoned
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Cheated: The UNC Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports]]> 24453951

Written by UNCprofessor of history Jay Smith and UNC athletics department whistleblower Mary Willingham, Cheated exposes the fraudulent inner workings of this famous university. For decades these internal systems have allowed woefully underprepared basketball and football players to take fake courses and earndevalued degrees from one of the nation’s top universities while faculty and administrators looked the other way.In unbiased and carefully sourced detail, Cheated recountsthe academic fraud in UNC’s athletics department, even as universityleaders focused on minimizing the damage in order to keep the billion-dollar college sports revenue machine functioning. Smith and Willingham make an impassioned argument that the “student-athletes� in these programs are being cheated out of what, after all, ispromised them in the first a college education.
]]> 304 Jay M. Smith 1612347282 Carol 4 nonfiction, work-related 3.68 2015 Cheated: The UNC Scandal, the Education of Athletes, and the Future of Big-Time College Sports
author: Jay M. Smith
name: Carol
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2017/10/01
shelves: nonfiction, work-related
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Scandinavians: In Search of the Soul of the North]]> 32505354 480 1468314823 Carol 0 history, abandoned 3.39 2017 Scandinavians: In Search of the Soul of the North
author: Robert Ferguson
name: Carol
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/10/01
shelves: history, abandoned
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind]]> 23692271 512 Yuval Noah Harari Carol 3 4.34 2011 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Carol
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2017/08/04
date added: 2017/08/04
shelves: early-civs, history, nonfiction
review:

]]> Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939 31932761 1008 Volker Ullrich 1469065541 Carol 5 history, nonfiction 4.38 2013 Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939
author: Volker Ullrich
name: Carol
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2017/04/02
date added: 2017/04/02
shelves: history, nonfiction
review:

]]> The Plot Against America 703
For one boy growing up in Newark, Lindbergh's election is the first in a series of ruptures that threatens to destroy his small, safe corner of America - and with it, his mother, his father, and his older brother.]]> 391 Philip Roth 1400079497 Carol 0 to-read, fiction 3.79 2004 The Plot Against America
author: Philip Roth
name: Carol
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/02/04
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> Stranded 28220842
Badly battered by an apocalyptic storm, the crew of the Arctic Promise find themselves in increasingly dire circumstances as they sail blindly into unfamiliar waters and an ominously thickening fog. Without functioning navigation or communication equipment, they are lost and completely alone. One by one, the men fall prey to a mysterious illness. Deckhand Noah Cabot is the only person unaffected by the strange force plaguing the ship and her crew, which does little to ease their growing distrust of him.

Dismissing Noah's warnings of worsening conditions, the captain of the ship presses on until the sea freezes into ice and they can go no farther. When the men are ordered overboard in an attempt to break the ship free by hand, the fog clears, revealing a faint shape in the distance that may or may not be their destination. Noah leads the last of the able-bodied crew on a journey across the ice and into an uncertain future where they must fight for their lives against the elements, the ghosts of the past and, ultimately, themselves.]]> 304 Bracken MacLeod 0765382431 Carol 0 to-read, fiction 3.45 2016 Stranded
author: Bracken MacLeod
name: Carol
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/01/23
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> The North Water 25666046 1859. A man joins a whaling ship bound for the Arctic Circle. Having left the British Army with his reputation in tatters, Patrick Sumner has little option but to accept the position of ship's surgeon on this ill-fated voyage. But when, deep into the journey, a cabin boy is discovered brutally killed, Sumner finds himself forced to act. Soon he will face an evil even greater than he had encountered at the siege of Delhi, in the shape of Henry Drax: harpooner, murderer, monster . . .]]> 255 Ian McGuire 1627795944 Carol 5 3.93 2016 The North Water
author: Ian McGuire
name: Carol
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2017/01/22
date added: 2017/01/22
shelves:
review:
Yes, it was bloody, which isn't my thing. But my, was it a fun ride. A fine companion to all the nonfiction Arctic and Antarctic misadventures that have come out the past few years. BBC plans to make it into a miniseries.
]]> <![CDATA[The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself]]> 26150770
In short chapters filled with intriguing historical anecdotes, personal asides, and rigorous exposition, readers learn the difference between how the world works at the quantum level, the cosmic level, and the human level--and then how each connects to the other. Carroll's presentation of the principles that have guided the scientific revolution from Darwin and Einstein to the origins of life, consciousness, and the universe is dazzlingly unique.

Carroll shows how an avalanche of discoveries in the past few hundred years has changed our world and what really matters to us. Our lives are dwarfed like never before by the immensity of space and time, but they are redeemed by our capacity to comprehend it and give it meaning.

The Big Picture is an unprecedented scientific worldview, a tour de force that will sit on shelves alongside the works of Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Daniel Dennett, and E. O. Wilson for years to come.]]> 480 Sean Carroll 0525954821 Carol 0 4.18 2016 The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
author: Sean Carroll
name: Carol
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/01/22
shelves: to-read, introspection, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The New Librarianship Field Guide (The MIT Press)]]> 30216050 This book offers a guide for librarians who see their profession as a chance to make a positive difference in their communities -- librarians who recognize that it is no longer enough to stand behind a desk waiting to serve. R. David Lankes, author of The Atlas of New Librarianship, reminds librarians of their mission: to improve society by facilitating knowledge creation in their communities. In this book, he provides tools, arguments, resources, and ideas for fulfilling this mission. Librarians will be prepared to become radical positive change agents in their communities, and other readers will learn to understand libraries in a new way.The librarians of Ferguson, Missouri, famously became positive change agents in August 2014 when they opened library doors when schools were closed because of civil unrest after the shooting of an unarmed teen by police. Working with other local organizations, they provided children and their parents a space for learning, lunch, and peace. But other libraries serve other communities -- students, faculty, scholars, law firms -- in other ways. All libraries are about community, writes Lankes; that is just librarianship. In concise chapters, Lankes addresses the mission of libraries and explains what constitutes a library. He offers practical advice for librarian training; provides teaching notes for each chapter; and answers "Frequently Argued Questions" about the new librarianship.]]> 322 R. David Lankes Carol 0 4.56 2016 The New Librarianship Field Guide (The MIT Press)
author: R. David Lankes
name: Carol
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at: 2016/12/28
date added: 2016/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present]]> 58233
In this account, Barzun describes what Western Man wrought from the Renaisance and Reformation down to the present in the double light of its own time and our pressing concerns. He introduces characters and incidents with his unusual literary style and grace, bringing to the fore those that have "Puritans as Democrats," "The Monarch's Revolution," "The Artist Prophet and Jester" -- show the recurrent role of great themes throughout the eras.

The triumphs and defeats of five hundred years form an inspiring saga that modifies the current impression of one long tale of oppression by white European males. Women and their deeds are prominent, and freedom (even in sexual matters) is not an invention of the last decades. And when Barzun rates the present not as a culmination but a decline, he is in no way a prophet of doom. Instead, he shows decadence as the creative novelty that will burst forth -- tomorrow or the next day.

Only after a lifetime of separate studies covering a broad territory could a writer create with such ease the synthesis displayed in this magnificent volume.]]> 828 Jacques Barzun 0060928832 Carol 0 4.14 2000 From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present
author: Jacques Barzun
name: Carol
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/12/28
shelves: nonfiction, history, abandoned
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Parting the Waters: Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement 1954-63]]> 99199 Parting the Waters is more than a biography of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the decade preceding his emergence as a national figure. This 1000-page effort, which won the Pulitzer Prize as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, profiles the key players & events that helped shape the American social landscape following WWII but before the civil-rights movement of the 60s reached its climax. Branch then goes a step further, endeavoring to explain how the struggles evolved as they did by probing the influences of the main actors while discussing the manner in which events conspired to create fertile ground for change. Also analyzing the beginnings of black self-consciousness, this book maps the structure of segregation & bigotry in America between '54 & '63. The author considers the constantly changing behavior of those in Washington with regard to the injustice of offical racism operating in many states at this time.
Forerunner: Vernon Johns
Rockefeller and Ebenezer
Niebuhr and the Pool Tables
First Trombone
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
A Taste of the World
The Quickening
Shades of Politics
A Pawn of History
The Kennedy Transition
Baptism on Wheels
The Summer of Freedom Rides
Moses in McComb, King in Kansas City
Almost Christmas in Albany
Hoover's Triangle and King's Machine
The Fireman's Last Reprieve
The Fall of Ole Miss
To Birmingham
Greenwood and Birmingham Jail
The Children's Miracle
Firestorm
The March on Washington
Crossing Over: Nightmares and Dreams]]> 1062 Taylor Branch 0333529456 Carol 0 history, nonfiction, to-read 4.33 1988 Parting the Waters: Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement 1954-63
author: Taylor Branch
name: Carol
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/12/28
shelves: history, nonfiction, to-read
review:

]]> The Wild Truth: A Memoir 20828370 New York Timesbestselling author Jon Krakauer, but also the rest of the nation. Krakauer's book, Into the Wild,became an international bestseller,translated into thirty-one languages, and Sean Penn's inspirational film by the same name further skyrocketed Chris McCandless to global fame.

But the real story ofChris'slife and his journey has not yet been told—until now. The missing pieces are finally revealed inThe Wild Truth, written by Carine McCandless, Chris's beloved and trusted sister.Featured in both the book and film, Carine has wrestled for more than twenty years with the legacy of her brother's journey to self-discovery,and now tells her own story while filling in the blanks of his.

Carine was Chris's best friend, the person with whom he had the closest bond, and who witnessed firsthand the dysfunctional and violent family dynamic that made Chris willing to embrace the harsh wilderness of Alaska. Growing up in the same troubled household, Carine speaks candidly about the deeper reality of life in the McCandless family. In the many years since the tragedy of Chris's death, Carine has searched for some kind of redemption.

In this touching and deeply personal memoir, she reveals how she has learned that real redemption can only come from speaking the truth.]]> 278 Carine McCandless 0062325140 Carol 4 memoirs, nonfiction 3.78 2014 The Wild Truth: A Memoir
author: Carine McCandless
name: Carol
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2016/12/28
date added: 2016/12/28
shelves: memoirs, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Meaning of Human Existence]]> 20665570
In The Meaning of Human Existence, his most philosophical work to date, Pulitzer Prize–winning biologist Edward O. Wilson grapples with these and other existential questions, examining what makes human beings supremely different from all other species. Searching for meaning in what Nietzsche once called "the rainbow colors" around the outer edges of knowledge and imagination, Wilson takes his readers on a journey, in the process bridging science and philosophy to create a twenty-first-century treatise on human existence—from our earliest inception to a provocative look at what the future of mankind portends.

Continuing his groundbreaking examination of our "Anthropocene Epoch," which he began with The Social Conquest of Earth, described by the New York Times as "a sweeping account of the human rise to domination of the biosphere," here Wilson posits that we, as a species, now know enough about the universe and ourselves that we can begin to approach questions about our place in the cosmos and the meaning of intelligent life in a systematic, indeed, in a testable way.

Once criticized for a purely mechanistic view of human life and an overreliance on genetic predetermination, Wilson presents in The Meaning of Human Existence his most expansive and advanced theories on the sovereignty of human life, recognizing that, even though the human and the spider evolved similarly, the poet's sonnet is wholly different from the spider's web. Whether attempting to explicate "The Riddle of the Human Species," "Free Will," or "Religion"; warning of "The Collapse of Biodiversity"; or even creating a plausible "Portrait of E.T.," Wilson does indeed believe that humanity holds a special position in the known universe.

The human epoch that began in biological evolution and passed into pre-, then recorded, history is now more than ever before in our hands. Yet alarmed that we are about to abandon natural selection by redesigning biology and human nature as we wish them, Wilson soberly concludes that advances in science and technology bring us our greatest moral dilemma since God stayed the hand of Abraham.]]> 207 Edward O. Wilson 0871401002 Carol 4 3.84 2014 The Meaning of Human Existence
author: Edward O. Wilson
name: Carol
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2016/12/26
date added: 2016/12/26
shelves: nonfiction, introspection, pre-history
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Forty-Something Phoenix: A Travel Memoir]]> 17257009
Marlayna had been a single parent for fifteen years when she felt she had nothing left of herself to give. Drained and empty, she writes, "I'd reached a point in my life where something had to give, and it could no longer be me."

In Forty-Something Phoenix, she discovers how passion can arise unexpectedly from the ashes of one life to craft another. This memoir redefines the love story; illustrating how self-acceptance and self-love can be renewed when exploring the disparities, similarities, histories, loves and losses in other cultures.

“Reading a Marlayna Glynn Brown memoir is like watching a high speed train picking up speed, as it careens towards a collision with an oncoming train. In this case, the heroine (Marlayna) jumps to safety seconds before the inevitable collision. It's nearly impossible to stop watching. Marlayna's personality is a fascinating mixture of vulnerability, sincerity, optimism, self reflection, sexiness, and humbleness. She is the ultimate underdog. She picks herself up and dusts herself off after another of a series of failed romances and friendships.

I would highly recommend reading her prior memoirs. It will assist in putting her latest in the proper perspective.� John L.]]> 256 Marlayna Glynn 1482014637 Carol 0 firstreads-entries 3.94 Forty-Something Phoenix: A Travel Memoir
author: Marlayna Glynn
name: Carol
average rating: 3.94
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/12/16
shelves: firstreads-entries
review:

]]> <![CDATA[English as She Is Spoke: The New Guide of the Conversation, in Portuguese and English, in Two Parts]]> 19490157 In 1855, when Jose da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino wrote an English phrasebook for Portuguese students, they faced just one problem: they didn't know any English. Even worse, they didn't own an English-to-Portuguese dictionary. What they did have, though, was a Portuguese-to-French dictionary, and a French-to-English dictionary. The linguistic train wreck that ensued is a classic of unintentional humor, now revived in the first newly selected edition in a century. Armed with Fonseca and Carolino's guide, a Portuguese traveler can insult a barber ("What news tell me? All hairs dresser are newsmonger"), complain about the orchestra ("It is a noise which to cleve the head"), go hunting ("let aim it! let make fire him"), and consult a handy selection of truly mystifying "Idiotisms and Proverbs."]]> 133 Pedro Carolino Carol 0 0.0 1855 English as She Is Spoke: The New Guide of the Conversation, in Portuguese and English, in Two Parts
author: Pedro Carolino
name: Carol
average rating: 0.0
book published: 1855
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/07/07
shelves: language, comedy, classics, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest]]> 25622819 368 David Roberts 0393352331 Carol 4 nonfiction, history 4.04 2015 The Lost World of the Old Ones: Discoveries in the Ancient Southwest
author: David Roberts
name: Carol
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2016/07/07
date added: 2016/07/07
shelves: nonfiction, history
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy]]> 26367751 160 Maggie Berg 1442613858 Carol 0 3.73 2013 Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy
author: Maggie Berg
name: Carol
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/07/06
shelves: to-read, work-related, modern-life, nonfiction
review:

]]> Silent Spring 27333
The book appeared in September 1962 and the outcry that followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water. Carson’s book was instrumental in launching the environmental movement.]]> 378 Rachel Carson 0618249060 Carol 0 4.04 1962 Silent Spring
author: Rachel Carson
name: Carol
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/07/04
shelves: to-read, modern-life, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Wasteland with Words: A Social History of Iceland]]> 8039937
In Wasteland with Words Sigurdur Gylfi Magnússon presents a wide-ranging and detailed analysis of the island’s history that examines the evolution and transformation of Icelandic culture while investigating the literary and historical factors that created the rich cultural heritage enjoyed by Icelanders today. Magnússon explains how a nineteenth-century economy based on the industries of fishing and agriculture—one of the poorest in Europe—grew to become a disproportionately large economic power in the late twentieth century, while retaining its strong sense of cultural identity. Bringing the story up to the present, he assesses the recent economic and political collapse of the country and how Iceland has coped. Throughout Magnússon seeks to chart the vast changes in this country’s history through the impact and effect on the Icelandic people themselves.

Up-to-date and fascinating, Wasteland with Words is a comprehensive study of the island’s cultural and historical development, from tiny fishing settlements to a global economic power.]]> 288 Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon 1861896611 Carol 0 3.82 2010 Wasteland with Words: A Social History of Iceland
author: Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon
name: Carol
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/07/04
shelves: travel, nonfiction, history, iceland, to-read
review:

]]> Independent People 77287 Kristin Lavransdatter. And if Bjartur of Summerhouses, the book's protagonist, is an ordinary sheep farmer, his flinty determination to achieve independence is genuinely heroic and, at the same time, terrifying and bleakly comic.

Having spent eighteen years in humiliating servitude, Bjartur wants nothing more than to raise his flocks unbeholden to any man. But Bjartur's spirited daughter wants to live unbeholden to him. What ensues is a battle of wills that is by turns harsh and touching, elemental in its emotional intensity and intimate in its homely detail. Vast in scope and deeply rewarding, Independent People is simply a masterpiece]]> 482 Halldór Laxness 0679767924 Carol 0 travel, fiction, abandoned 4.13 1934 Independent People
author: Halldór Laxness
name: Carol
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1934
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/07/04
shelves: travel, fiction, abandoned
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)]]> 23168277
The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.]]> 371 Viet Thanh Nguyen 0802123457 Carol 0 fiction, abandoned 4.00 2015 The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1)
author: Viet Thanh Nguyen
name: Carol
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/07/04
shelves: fiction, abandoned
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Associate University Librarian Handbook: A Resource Guide]]> 13792260
Bradford Lee Eden has brought together a variety of helpful topics for university librarians. The first section provides a broad overview of the field and what it means to be an associate librarian. A section on managing change, a topic endemic to the academic library in these times, follows. The next section deals with the question of funding the library enterprise and managing resources, with chapters on how best to handle budget reductions, cultivating donors and donor relations, and managing a research function. The fourth section covers career management, and includes chapters on navigating the transition to university librarian. A concluding section deals with leadership and defining the future. Intended for both those in the position of associate university librarian and for those aspiring to get there, The Associate University Librarian Handbook will be a valuable tool and guide.]]> 208 Journal of Tolkien Research]]> 0810883813 Carol 3 3.00 2012 The Associate University Librarian Handbook: A Resource Guide
author: Bradford Lee Eden Editor of Journal of Tolkien Research
name: Carol
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2016/07/04
date added: 2016/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Search & Rescue in Colorado's Sangre de Cristos]]> 26201249 288 Kevin G. Wright 1555664644 Carol 4 survival, nonfiction 4.15 2015 Search & Rescue in Colorado's Sangre de Cristos
author: Kevin G. Wright
name: Carol
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at: 2016/07/03
date added: 2016/07/03
shelves: survival, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[That's Not How We Do It Here!: A Story about How Organizations Rise and Fall--and Can Rise Again]]> 27209387 “That’s not how we do it here!�

In their iconic bestseller Our Iceberg Is Melting , John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber used a simple fable about penguins to explain the process of lead­ing people through major changes. Now, ten years later, they’re back with another must-read story that will help any team or organization cope with their biggest challenges and turn them into exciting opportunities.

Once upon a time a clan of meerkats lived in the Kalahari, a region in southern Africa. After years of steady growth, a drought has sharply reduced the clan’s resources, and deadly vulture attacks have increased. As things keep getting worse, the har­mony of the clan is shattered. The executive team quarrels about possible solutions, and sugges­tions from frontline workers face a soul-crushing response: “That’s not how we do it here!�

So Nadia, a bright and adventurous meerkat, hits the road in search of new ideas to help her trou­bled clan. She discovers a much smaller group that operates very differently, with much more teamwork and agility. These meerkats have developed innova­tive solutions to find food and evade the vultures. But not everything in this small clan is as perfect as it seems at first.

Can Nadia figure out how to combine the best of both worlds—a large, disciplined, well-managed clan and a small, informal, inspiring clan—before it’s too late?

This book distills Kotter’s decades of experi­ence and award-winning research to reveal why organizations rise and fall, and how they can rise again in the face of adversity.]]> 176 John P. Kotter 0399563946 Carol 5 3.74 2016 That's Not How We Do It Here!: A Story about How Organizations Rise and Fall--and Can Rise Again
author: John P. Kotter
name: Carol
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2016/06/23
date added: 2016/06/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune]]> 18730323 �winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly sixty years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the nineteenth century with a twenty-first-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades. Though she owned palatial homes in California, New York, and Connecticut, why had she lived for twenty years in a simple hospital room, despite being in excellent health? Why were her valuables being sold off? Was she in control of her fortune, or controlled by those managing her money?

Dedman has collaborated with Huguette Clark’s cousin, Paul Clark Newell, Jr., one of the few relatives to have frequent conversations with her. Dedman and Newell tell a fairy tale in reverse: the bright, talented daughter, born into a family of extreme wealth and privilege, who secrets herself away from the outside world.

Huguette was the daughter of self-made copper industrialist W. A. Clark, nearly as rich as Rockefeller in his day, a controversial senator, railroad builder, and founder of Las Vegas. She grew up in the largest house in New York City, a remarkable dwelling with 121 rooms for a family of four. She owned paintings by Degas and Renoir, a world-renowned Stradivarius violin, a vast collection of antique dolls. But wanting more than treasures, she devoted her wealth to buying gifts for friends and strangers alike, to quietly pursuing her own work as an artist, and to guarding the privacy she valued above all else.

The Clark family story spans nearly all of American history in three generations, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps in the Montana gold rush, from backdoor politics in Washington to a distress call from an elegant Fifth Avenue apartment. The same Huguette who was touched by the terror attacks of 9/11 held a ticket nine decades earlier for a first-class stateroom on the second voyage of the Titanic.

Empty Mansions reveals a complex portrait of the mysterious Huguette and her intimate circle. We meet her extravagant father, her publicity-shy mother, her star-crossed sister, her French boyfriend, her nurse who received more than $30 million in gifts, and the relatives fighting to inherit Huguette’s copper fortune. Richly illustrated with more than seventy photographs, Empty Mansions is an enthralling story of an eccentric of the highest order, a last jewel of the Gilded Age who lived life on her own terms.

The No. 1 New York Times bestseller. Best nonfiction books of the year at ŷ, Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble. One of the New York Times critic Janet Maslin's 10 favorite books of 2013.
]]> 470 Bill Dedman 0345534530 Carol 0 to-read 4.03 2013 Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune
author: Bill Dedman
name: Carol
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/06/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Apollo, Challenger, and Columbia: The Decline of the Space Program (A Study in Organizational Communication)]]> 1818552 * 1967: when Tompkins first served as a Summer Faculty Consultant in Organizational Communication to legendary rocket scientist Wernher von Braun during the Apollo Program.
* 1968: when he served in the same capacity to help reorganize NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
* 1986: when he investigated the communication failures that caused the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
* 1987: when he researched NASA's highly successful Aviation Safety Reporting System.
* 2003: when he interpreted the communication failures leading up to the catastrophic failure of the space shuttle Columbia.
The result is a presentation of concrete communication correlates of organizational success and failure. Tompkins is a master of what Clifford Geertz called "thick description." The result is a compelling, richly detailed, longitudinal case study concentrating on processual changes in communication-as-organization. In this book, Tompkins introduces theory subtly, inserting it to explain details of the organization that would otherwise defy understanding.
In considering other organizations in trouble, Tompkins identifies ten "communication transgressions," one of which, for example, is "ignorantia affectata"--an affected or cultivated ignorance of organizational problems. In contrast to these failed organizations and their pathologies, Tompkins offers a sketch of two healthy organizations that live by "value logics"--applying ethical values in the organizational workplace. There are lessons to be learned from NASA's disasters. With all of the high-profile ethical lapses in U.S. corporations, Tompkins advocates individuals and organizations taking responsibility for their actions.]]> 288 Phillip K. Tompkins 1931719322 Carol 5 3.94 2004 Apollo, Challenger, and Columbia: The Decline of the Space Program (A Study in Organizational Communication)
author: Phillip K. Tompkins
name: Carol
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2016/06/03
date added: 2016/06/03
shelves:
review:

]]> The Gene: An Intimate History 27276428
The story of the gene begins in an obscure Augustinian abbey in Moravia in 1856 where a monk stumbles on the idea of a ‘unit of heredity�. It intersects with Darwin’s theory of evolution, and collides with the horrors of Nazi eugenics in the 1940s. The gene transforms post-war biology. It reorganizes our understanding of sexuality, temperament, choice and free will. This is a story driven by human ingenuity and obsessive minds � from Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel to Francis Crick, James Watson and Rosalind Franklin, and the thousands of scientists still working to understand the code of codes.

This is an epic, moving history of a scientific idea coming to life, by the author of The Emperor of All Maladies. But woven through The Gene, like a red line, is also an intimate history � the story of Mukherjee’s own family and its recurring pattern of mental illness, reminding us that genetics is vitally relevant to everyday lives. These concerns reverberate even more urgently today as we learn to “read� and “write� the human genome � unleashing the potential to change the fates and identities of our children.

Majestic in its ambition, and unflinching in its honesty, The Gene gives us a definitive account of the fundamental unit of heredity � and a vision of both humanity’s past and future.]]> 592 Siddhartha Mukherjee Carol 0 to-read, nonfiction, health 4.34 2016 The Gene: An Intimate History
author: Siddhartha Mukherjee
name: Carol
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/05/09
shelves: to-read, nonfiction, health
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Oblivion Seekers and Other Stories]]> 6483544 Acclaimed by The Guardian as "highly literary, evocative, romantic," these tales reflect the author's nomadic life and passionate adventures in sun-baked Algerian villages and amid the vastness of the Sahara. Paul Bowles, a master of the short story and author of The Sheltering Sky, translated Eberhardt's stories from the French . A fellow expatriate who made his home in North Africa, Bowles contributes a preface that offers an intriguing portrait of Eberhardt, who drowned in 1904 at the age of 27 but lives forever in a small but superb body of work.]]> 96 Isabelle Eberhardt 0486471810 Carol 4 nonfiction, travel
You'll find a brief summary of Isabelle's life - one that will make you want to about her. You'll find a modest collection of her stories, vignettes really, that are full of obvious autobiographical references and firsthand observations, as well as odd premonitions of her own untimely death. These will make you want to read more of and learn more about the context of her writings. You'll also find a ridiculously brief excerpt from her - which will make you want to read the full diary. And a smattering of letters and personal notes.

On the one hand, the book was frustratingly lightweight, leaving me hankering for more. On the other hand, it is a quick overview a fascinating personality that serves as a nice entrée into future reading.]]> 4.15 1975 The Oblivion Seekers and Other Stories
author: Isabelle Eberhardt
name: Carol
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1975
rating: 4
read at: 2012/08/11
date added: 2016/04/19
shelves: nonfiction, travel
review:
This tiny tome is a teaser, a tasting menu of tidbits by and about the remarkable Isabelle Eberhardt. She was the original rebel girl, adopting the dress of an Algerian man in the late 19th century, wandering freely about the desert on horseback, and causing Algerian officials all kinds of headaches.

You'll find a brief summary of Isabelle's life - one that will make you want to about her. You'll find a modest collection of her stories, vignettes really, that are full of obvious autobiographical references and firsthand observations, as well as odd premonitions of her own untimely death. These will make you want to read more of and learn more about the context of her writings. You'll also find a ridiculously brief excerpt from her - which will make you want to read the full diary. And a smattering of letters and personal notes.

On the one hand, the book was frustratingly lightweight, leaving me hankering for more. On the other hand, it is a quick overview a fascinating personality that serves as a nice entrée into future reading.
]]> The Book of Negroes 2088385 487 Lawrence Hill 1554681561 Carol 0 to-read, fiction 4.46 2007 The Book of Negroes
author: Lawrence Hill
name: Carol
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/03/09
shelves: to-read, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1: Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain Into Your Life and Landscape]]> 13821150
This revised and expanded second edition increases potential for on-site harvests with more integrated tools and strategies for solar design, a primer on your water/energy/carbon connections, descriptions of water/erosion flow patterns and their water-harvesting response, and updated illustrations to show you how to do it all.

Volume 1 helps bring your site to life, reduce your cost of living, endow you with skills of self-reliance, and create living air conditioners of vegetation, growing beauty, food, and wildlife habitat. Stories of people who are successfully welcoming rain into their life and landscape will encourage you to do the same!]]> 304 Brad Lancaster 0977246434 Carol 0 firstreads-entries 4.49 Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 1: Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain Into Your Life and Landscape
author: Brad Lancaster
name: Carol
average rating: 4.49
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/02/24
shelves: firstreads-entries
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (Yale Nota Bene)]]> 101157 736 Camille Paglia 0300091273 Carol 0 4.00 1990 Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (Yale Nota Bene)
author: Camille Paglia
name: Carol
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/02/09
shelves: to-read, modern-life, nonfiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink]]> 26834174
Costello continues to add to one of the most intriguing and extensive songbooks of our day. His performances have taken him from strumming a cardboard guitar in his parents� front room to fronting a rock and roll band on our television screens and performing in the world’s greatest concert halls in a wild variety of company.Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Inkdescribes how Costello’s career has endured for almost four decades through a combination of dumb luck and animal cunning, even managing the occasional absurd episode of pop stardom.

This memoir, written entirely by Costello, offers his unique view of his unlikely and sometimes comical rise to international success, with diversions through the previously undocumented emotional foundations of some of his best-known songs and the hits of tomorrow. It features many stories and observations about his renowned cowriters and co-conspirators, though Costello also pauses along the way for considerations of the less appealing side of fame.

Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Inkprovides readers with a master’s catalogue of a lifetime of great music. Costello reveals the process behind writing and recording legendary albums likeMy Aim Is True,This Year’s Model,Armed Forces,Almost Blue,Imperial Bedroom, andKing of America. He tells the detailed stories, experiences, and emotions behind such beloved songs as “Alison,� “Accidents Will Happen,� “Watching the Detectives,� “Oliver’s Army,� “Welcome to the Working Week,� “Radio Radio,� “Shipbuilding,� and “Veronica,� the last of which is one of a number of songs revealed to connect to the lives of the previous generations of his family.

Costello recounts his collaborations with George Jones, Chet Baker, and T Bone Burnett, and writes about Allen Toussaint's inspiring return to work after the disasters following Hurricane Katrina. He describes writing songs with Paul McCartney, the Brodsky Quartet, Burt Bacharach, and The Roots during moments of intense personal crisis and profound sorrow. He shares curious experiences in the company of The Clash, Tony Bennett, The Specials, Van Morrison, and Aretha Franklin; writing songs for Solomon Burke and Johnny Cash; and touring with Bob Dylan; along with his appreciation of the records of Frank Sinatra, David Bowie, David Ackles, and almost everything on the Tamla Motown label.

Costello chronicles his musical apprenticeship, a child's view of his father Ross MacManus' career on radio and in the dancehall; his own initial almost comical steps in folk clubs and cellar dive before his first sessions for Stiff Record, the formation of the Attractions, and his frenetic and ultimately notorious third U.S. tour. He takes readers behind the scenes ofTop of the PopsandSaturday Night Live, and his own show,Spectacle, on which he hosted artists such as Lou Reed, Elton John, Levon Helm, Jesse Winchester, Bruce Springsteen, and President Bill Clinton.

The idiosyncratic memoir of a singular man,Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Inkis destined to be a classic.]]> 692 Elvis Costello 0399576592 Carol 0 nonfiction, memoirs, up-next 3.70 2015 Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink
author: Elvis Costello
name: Carol
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/02/08
shelves: nonfiction, memoirs, up-next
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World]]> 28256439 The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods and forests and explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in the woodland and the amazing scientific processes behind the wonders of which we are blissfully unaware. Much like human families, tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, and support them as they grow, sharing nutrients with those who are sick or struggling and creating an ecosystem that mitigates the impact of extremes of heat and cold for the whole group. As a result of such interactions, trees in a family or community are protected and can live to be very old. In contrast, solitary trees, like street kids, have a tough time of it and in most cases die much earlier than those in a group.

Drawing on groundbreaking new discoveries, Wohlleben presents the science behind the secret and previously unknown life of trees and their communication abilities; he describes how these discoveries have informed his own practices in the forest around him. As he says, a happy forest is a healthy forest, and he believes that eco-friendly practices not only are economically sustainable but also benefit the health of our planet and the mental and physical health of all who live on Earth.]]> 272 Peter Wohlleben 1771642483 Carol 0 to-read, nonfiction, nature 4.06 2015 The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World
author: Peter Wohlleben
name: Carol
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/01/31
shelves: to-read, nonfiction, nature
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride & Prejudice]]> 25852870
Youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia are too busy with their CrossFit workouts and Paleo diets to get jobs. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master's degree and barely leaves her room, except for those mysterious Tuesday-night outings she won't discuss. And Mrs. Bennet has one thing on her mind: how to marry off her daughters, especially as Jane's fortieth birthday fast approaches.

Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome new-in-town doctor who recently appeared on the juggernaut reality TV dating show Eligible. At a Fourth of July barbecue, Chip takes an immediate interest in Jane, but Chip's friend, neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy, reveals himself to Liz to be much less charming. . . . And yet, first impressions can be deceiving.]]> 492 Curtis Sittenfeld 1400068320 Carol 0 to-read, book-club, fiction 3.58 2016 Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride & Prejudice
author: Curtis Sittenfeld
name: Carol
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/01/30
shelves: to-read, book-club, fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America]]> 352136
Hoping to win the wager and save her family’s farm, Helga and her teenaged daughter Clara, armed with little more than a compass, red-pepper spray, a revolver, and Clara’s curling iron, set out on foot from Eastern Washington. Their route would pass through 14 states, but they were not allowed to carry more than five dollars each. As they visited Indian reservations, Western boomtowns, remote ranches and local civic leaders, they confronted snowstorms, hunger, thieves and mountain lions with equal aplomb.

Their treacherous and inspirational journey to New York challenged contemporary notions of femininity and captured the public imagination. But their trip had such devastating consequences that the Estby women's achievement was blanketed in silence until, nearly a century later, Linda Lawrence Hunt encountered their extraordinary story.]]> 307 Linda Lawrence Hunt 1400079934 Carol 0 3.72 2003 Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America
author: Linda Lawrence Hunt
name: Carol
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/01/30
shelves: to-read, book-club, nonfiction
review:

]]> An Unfinished Life 440753 An Unfinished Life shows a novelist of extraordinary talents in the fullness of his powers.]]> 272 Mark Spragg 1400076145 Carol 0 to-read, fiction, book-club 3.95 2004 An Unfinished Life
author: Mark Spragg
name: Carol
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/01/30
shelves: to-read, fiction, book-club
review:

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