en-US Thu, 25 Apr 2024 17:41:51 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 452235 --jgrisham.com]]> 501 John Grisham 044021145X George 4 4.26 1991
author: John Grisham
name: George
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at: 2010/08/20
date added: 2024/04/25
shelves:
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]]> 151
«Nos capítulos iniciais de Anna Karénina, somos conduzidos, uma e outra vez, a um sentido de analogia musical. Há efeitos de contraponto e harmonia no desenvolvimento das principais tramas do “prelúdio Oblonski� (o acidente na estação ferroviária, a zombadora discussão sobre o divórcio entre Vronski e a baronesa Chilton, o deslumbramento do fogo vermelho diante dos olhos de Anna). O método de Tolstoi é polifónico; mas as harmonias principais desen- volvem-se com uma tremenda força e amplitude. As técnicas musicais e linguísticas não podem comparar-se de um modo exato. Mas como poderíamos elucidar de outro modo o sentimento de que as novelas de Tolstoi surgem de um princípio interior de ordem e vitalidade, enquanto as dos escritores menos importantes parecem alinhavadas?»

«Anna Karénina morre no mundo do romance; mas cada vez que lemos o livro ela ressuscita, e mesmo depois de o termos acabado adquire outra vida na nossa recordação. Em cada personagem literária existe algo da Fénix imortal. Através das vidas perduráveis das suas personagens, a própria existência de Tolstoi teve a sua eternidade.» [George Steiner, Tolstoi ou Dostoievski]]]> 838 Leo Tolstoy 0143035002 George 0 to-read 4.10 1878
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: George
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1878
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1601100 Atonement follows through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century.
(back cover)]]> 480 Ian McEwan 0307388840 George 4 3.76 2001
author: Ian McEwan
name: George
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2008/01/15
date added: 2019/05/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 25735012 Cormoran Strike is back, with his assistant Robin Ellacott, in a mystery based around soldiers returning from war.

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

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

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

Career of Evil is the third in the series featuring private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott. A mystery and also a story of a man and a woman at a crossroads in their personal and professional lives.]]> 512 Robert Galbraith 0316349933 George 4
JKR is such a master at character development. When you become emotionally invested in the characters of a fictional world, you know the author has his/her shit together. And that's exactly what happened here.

Also, because this series keeps getting better, I just had to go back and adjust my ratings for her previous works in this series. ]]> 4.18 2015
author: Robert Galbraith
name: George
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2017/03/31
shelves:
review:
This series gets better with each new entry. The pacing is great, and the material darker than I expected.

JKR is such a master at character development. When you become emotionally invested in the characters of a fictional world, you know the author has his/her shit together. And that's exactly what happened here.

Also, because this series keeps getting better, I just had to go back and adjust my ratings for her previous works in this series.
]]> 16160797 456 Robert Galbraith 0316206849 George 4 3.88 2013
author: Robert Galbraith
name: George
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2013/08/20
date added: 2017/03/31
shelves:
review:

]]> 983100
One of the most talked-about books of the new millennium, American Gods is a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an American landscape at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. It is, quite simply, a contemporary masterpiece.
--back cover]]> 592 Neil Gaiman 0060558121 George 2 4.04 2001
author: Neil Gaiman
name: George
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2001
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2017/03/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 175343
From the author of the New York Times bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie comes a novel that explores unexpected connections and the idea that heaven is more than a place: it's an answer.]]> 196 Mitch Albom George 4 3.75 2003
author: Mitch Albom
name: George
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/08/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 17563539 A short story about the universe and your place in it.

"You were on your way home when you died. It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. ... And that’s when you met me."

The Egg is a short story written by Andy Weir, his most popular, and follows a nameless 48-year-old man who discovers the "meaning of life" after he dies. The story is about "you" (in the second person), and God, who is "me" (in the first person). God says that you have been reincarnated many times before, and that you are soon to be reincarnated once more, leading to quite a few existential questions.

Andy Weir (1972-) built a career as a software engineer until the success of his first published novel, The Martian (2011), allowed him to live out his dream of writing fulltime. He is a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of subjects such as relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight. He also mixes a mean cocktail.]]> 3 Andy Weir George 5 4.21 2009
author: Andy Weir
name: George
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/06/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 259836 This Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy adventure is the first installment in the beloved Dragonlance Chronicles, set in the magical world of Krynn.

Once merely creatures of legend, the dragons have returned to Krynn. But with their arrival comes the departure of the old gods—and all healing magic. As war threatens to engulf the land, lifelong friends reunite for an adventure that will change their lives and shape their world forever . . .

When Tanis, Sturm, Caramon, Raistlin, Flint, and Tasslehoff see a woman use a blue crystal staff to heal a villager, they wonder if it's a sign the gods have not abandoned them after all. Fueled by this glimmer of hope, the Companions band together to uncover the truth behind the gods' absence—though they aren't the only ones with an interest in the staff. The Seekers, a new religious order, wants the artifact for their own ends, believing it will help them replace the gods and overtake the continent of Ansalon. Now, the Companions must assume the unlikely roles of heroes if they hope to prevent the staff from falling into the hands of darkness.

Lifelong friends, they went their separate ways. Now they are together again, though each holds secrets from the others in his heart. They speak of a world shadowed with rumors of war. They speak of tales of strange monsters, creatures of myth, creatures of legend. They do not speak of their secrets. Not then. Not until a chance encounter with a beautiful, sorrowful woman, who bears a magical crystal staff, draws the companions deeper into the shadows, forever changing their lives and shaping the fate of the world.

No one expected them to be heroes.

Least of all, them.]]> 444 Margaret Weis 0786915749 George 0 to-read 4.01 1984
author: Margaret Weis
name: George
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/05/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> 10803121
Kelsier, Vin, Elend, Sazed, Spook, and the rest are now part of history—or religion. Yet even as science and technology are reaching new heights, the old magics of Allomancy and Feruchemy continue to play a role in this reborn world. Out in the frontier lands known as the Roughs, they are crucial tools for the brave men and women attempting to establish order and justice.

One such is Waxillium Ladrian, a rare Twinborn who can Push on metals with his Allomancy and use Feruchemy to become lighter or heavier at will.

After twenty years in the Roughs, Wax has been forced by family tragedy to return to the metropolis of Elendel. Now he must reluctantly put away his guns and assume the duties and dignity incumbent upon the head of a noble house. Or so he thinks, until he learns the hard way that the mansions and elegant tree-lined streets of the city can be even more dangerous than the dusty plains of the Roughs.]]> 325 Brandon Sanderson 0765330423 George 0 to-read 4.20 2011
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: George
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 17182126
Nobody fights the Epics...nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart � the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning � and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.]]> 386 Brandon Sanderson 0385743564 George 0 to-read 4.14 2013
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: George
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/02/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 5552635
As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life—sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition—its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.]]> 286 Elizabeth Strout 0812971833 George 0 to-read 3.75 2008
author: Elizabeth Strout
name: George
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 2767793
Who is the Hero of Ages?

To end the Final Empire and restore freedom, Vin killed the Lord Ruler. But as a result, the Deepness—the lethal form of the ubiquitous mists—is back, along with increasingly heavy ashfalls and ever more powerful earthquakes. Humanity appears to be doomed.

Having escaped death at the climax of The Well of Ascension only by becoming a Mistborn himself, Emperor Elend Venture hopes to find clues left behind by the Lord Ruler that will allow him to save the world. Vin is consumed with guilt at having been tricked into releasing the mystic force known as Ruin from the Well. Ruin wants to end the world, and its near omniscience and ability to warp reality make stopping it seem impossible. Vin can't even discuss it with Elend lest Ruin learn their plans!]]> 572 Brandon Sanderson 0765316897 George 5 4.54 2008
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: George
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2015/12/24
date added: 2015/12/24
shelves:
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]]> 68429
The impossible has been accomplished. The Lord Ruler—the man who claimed to be god incarnate and brutally ruled the world for a thousand years—has been vanquished. But Kelsier, the hero who masterminded that triumph, is dead too, and now the awesome task of building a new world has been left to his young protégé, Vin, the former street urchin who is now the most powerful Mistborn in the land, and to the idealistic young nobleman she loves.

As Kelsier's protégé and slayer of the Lord Ruler she is now venerated by a budding new religion, a distinction that makes her intensely uncomfortable. Even more worrying, the mists have begun behaving strangely since the Lord Ruler died, and seem to harbor a strange vaporous entity that haunts her.

Stopping assassins may keep Vin's Mistborn skills sharp, but it's the least of her problems. Luthadel, the largest city of the former empire, doesn't run itself, and Vin and the other members of Kelsier's crew, who lead the revolution, must learn a whole new set of practical and political skills to help. It certainly won't get easier with three armies - one of them composed of ferocious giants - now vying to conquer the city, and no sign of the Lord Ruler's hidden cache of atium, the rarest and most powerful allomantic metal.

As the siege of Luthadel tightens, an ancient legend seems to offer a glimmer of hope. But even if it really exists, no one knows where to find the Well of Ascension or what manner of power it bestows.]]> 590 Brandon Sanderson 0765316889 George 5 4.38 2007
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: George
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/12/01
shelves:
review:
Okay, so I've been reading nothing but Brandon Sanderson since around June. Is this a known syndrome? I'm not sure, but excuse me as I now jump into the next one.
]]> 68428 What if the whole world were a dead, blasted wasteland?

Mistborn
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison. Kelsier "snapped" and found in himself the powers of a Mistborn. A brilliant thief and natural leader, he turned his talents to the ultimate caper, with the Lord Ruler himself as the mark.

Kelsier recruited the underworld's elite, the smartest and most trustworthy allomancers, each of whom shares one of his many powers, and all of whom relish a high-stakes challenge. Then Kelsier reveals his ultimate dream, not just the greatest heist in history, but the downfall of the divine despot.

But even with the best criminal crew ever assembled, Kel's plan looks more like the ultimate long shot, until luck brings a ragged girl named Vin into his life. Like him, she's a half-Skaa orphan, but she's lived a much harsher life. Vin has learned to expect betrayal from everyone she meets. She will have to learn trust if Kel is to help her master powers of which she never dreamed.

Brandon Sanderson, fantasy's newest master tale-spinner and author of the acclaimed debut Elantris, dares to turn a genre on its head by asking a simple question: What if the prophesied hero failed to defeat the Dark Lord? The answer will be found in the Mistborn Trilogy, a saga of surprises that begins with the book in your hands. Fantasy will never be the same again.]]> 541 Brandon Sanderson George 5 4.48 2006
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: George
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2015/10/24
date added: 2015/10/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 259028 447 Erik Larson 0375725601 George 0 to-read 3.97 2003
author: Erik Larson
name: George
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/09/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 21032488 896 Patrick Rothfuss 0575081449 George 0 to-read 3.51
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: George
average rating: 3.51
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/09/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6135237
Against the sumptuous backdrop of Charleston, South Carolina, South of Broad gathers a unique cast of sinners and saints. Leopold Bloom King, our narrator, is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school principal and a well-known Joyce scholar. After Leo's older brother commits suicide at the age of thirteen, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death, and Leo, lonely and isolated, searches for something to sustain him. Eventually, he finds his answer when he becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that includes friends Sheba and Trevor Poe, glamorous twins with an alcoholic mother and a prison-escapee father; hardscrabble mountain runaways Niles and Starla Whitehead; socialite Molly Huger and her boyfriend, Chadworth Rutledge X; and an ever-widening circle whose liaisons will ripple across two decades-from 1960s counterculture through the dawn of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

The ties among them endure for years, surviving marriages happy and troubled, unrequited loves and unspoken longings, hard-won successes and devastating breakdowns, and Charleston's dark legacy of racism and class divisions. But the final test of friendship that brings them to San Francisco is something no one is prepared for. South of Broad is Pat Conroy at his finest; a long-awaited work from a great American writer whose passion for life and language knows no bounds.]]> 514 Pat Conroy 038541305X George 3 3.83 2009
author: Pat Conroy
name: George
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2009/08/19
date added: 2015/08/31
shelves:
review:
While I don't think SoB was as good as many of his earlier works (Prince of Tides, Lord of Discipline, Beach Music, etc.), it was still high above the ranks of anything I have read this year.
]]> 17332218 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance, Book Two of the Stormlight Archive, continues the immersive fantasy epic that The Way of Kings began.

Expected by his enemies to die the miserable death of a military slave, Kaladin survived to be given command of the royal bodyguards, a controversial first for a low-status "darkeyes." Now he must protect the king and Dalinar from every common peril as well as the distinctly uncommon threat of the Assassin, all while secretly struggling to master remarkable new powers that are somehow linked to his honorspren, Syl.

The Assassin, Szeth, is active again, murdering rulers all over the world of Roshar, using his baffling powers to thwart every bodyguard and elude all pursuers. Among his prime targets is Highprince Dalinar, widely considered the power behind the Alethi throne. His leading role in the war would seem reason enough, but the Assassin's master has much deeper motives.

Brilliant but troubled Shallan strives along a parallel path. Despite being broken in ways she refuses to acknowledge, she bears a terrible burden: to somehow prevent the return of the legendary Voidbringers and the civilization-ending Desolation that will follow. The secrets she needs can be found at the Shattered Plains, but just arriving there proves more difficult than she could have imagined.

Meanwhile, at the heart of the Shattered Plains, the Parshendi are making an epochal decision. Hard pressed by years of Alethi attacks, their numbers ever shrinking, they are convinced by their war leader, Eshonai, to risk everything on a desperate gamble with the very supernatural forces they once fled. The possible consequences for Parshendi and humans alike, indeed, for Roshar itself, are as dangerous as they are incalculable.]]> 1088 Brandon Sanderson 0765326361 George 5 4.76 2014
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: George
average rating: 4.76
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2015/08/02
date added: 2015/08/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 7235533 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings, book one of The Stormlight Archive begins an incredible new saga of epic proportion.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

Speak again the ancient oaths:

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.

and return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.]]> 1007 Brandon Sanderson 0765326353 George 5 4.66 2010
author: Brandon Sanderson
name: George
average rating: 4.66
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2015/07/19
date added: 2015/07/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 1215032 There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.�

My name is Kvothe.
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
You may have heard of me.

So begins the tale of a hero told from his own point of view � a story unequaled in fantasy literature. Now in The Wise Man's Fear, an escalating rivalry with a powerful member of the nobility forces Kvothe to leave the University and seek his fortune abroad. Adrift, penniless, and alone, he travels to Vintas, where he quickly becomes entangled in the politics of courtly society. While attempting to curry favor with a powerful noble, Kvothe uncovers an assassination attempt, comes into conflict with a rival arcanist, and leads a group of mercenaries into the wild, in an attempt to solve the mystery of who (or what) is waylaying travelers on the King's Road.

All the while, Kvothe searches for answers, attempting to uncover the truth about the mysterious Amyr, the Chandrian, and the death of his parents. Along the way, Kvothe is put on trial by the legendary Adem mercenaries, is forced to reclaim the honor of the Edema Ruh, and travels into the Fae realm. There he meets Felurian, the faerie woman no man can resist, and who no man has ever survived ... until Kvothe.

In The Wise Man's Fear, Kvothe takes his first steps on the path of the hero and learns how difficult life can be when a man becomes a legend in his own time.

]]> 994 Patrick Rothfuss 0756404738 George 5 4.55 2011
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: George
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2015/07/05
date added: 2015/07/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 186074
The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years spent as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daringly brazen yet successful bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that will transport readers into the body and mind of a wizard.]]> 662 Patrick Rothfuss 075640407X George 5 4.52 2007
author: Patrick Rothfuss
name: George
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2015/06/20
date added: 2015/06/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 317818 Life of Pi is a magical reading experience, an endless blue expanse of storytelling about adventure, survival, and ultimately, faith. The precocious son of a zookeeper, 16-year-old Pi Patel is raised in Pondicherry, India, where he tries on various faiths for size, attracting "religions the way a dog attracts fleas." Planning a move to Canada, his father packs up the family and their menagerie and they hitch a ride on an enormous freighter. After a harrowing shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean, trapped on a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker ("His head was the size and color of the lifebuoy, with teeth"). It sounds like a colorful setup, but these wild beasts don't burst into song as if co-starring in an anthropomorphized Disney feature. After much gore and infighting, Pi and Richard Parker remain the boat's sole passengers, drifting for 227 days through shark-infested waters while fighting hunger, the elements, and an overactive imagination. In rich, hallucinatory passages, Pi recounts the harrowing journey as the days blur together, elegantly cataloging the endless passage of time and his struggles to survive: "It is pointless to say that this or that night was the worst of my life. I have so many bad nights to choose from that I've made none the champion."

The protagonist Piscine "Pi" Molitor Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores the issues of religion and spirituality from an early age and survives 227 days shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean.]]> 319 Yann Martel 0151008116 George 0 to-read 3.95 2001
author: Yann Martel
name: George
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/06/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 3591262
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.

An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.
(front flap)]]> 560 Abraham Verghese 0375414495 George 5 4.32 2009
author: Abraham Verghese
name: George
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/05/12
shelves:
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]]> 18214414 Private investigator Cormoran Strike returns in a new mystery from Robert Galbraith, author of the #1 international bestseller The Cuckoo's Calling.

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

But as Strike investigates, it becomes clear that there is more to Quine's disappearance than his wife realizes. The novelist has just completed a manuscript featuring poisonous pen-portraits of almost everyone he knows. If the novel were to be published, it would ruin lives—meaning that there are a lot of people who might want him silenced.

When Quine is found brutally murdered under bizarre circumstances, it becomes a race against time to understand the motivation of a ruthless killer, a killer unlike any Strike has encountered before...]]> 464 Robert Galbraith 0316206873 George 5 4.02 2014
author: Robert Galbraith
name: George
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/04/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 10644930
In 2011, Jake Epping, an English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, sets out on an insane � and insanely possible � mission to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

Leaving behind a world of computers and mobile phones, he goes back to a time of big American cars and diners, of Lindy Hopping, the sound of Elvis, and the taste of root beer.

In this haunting world, Jake falls in love with Sadie, a beautiful high school librarian. And, as the ominous date of 11/22/63 approaches, he encounters a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald...]]> 849 Stephen King 1451627289 George 5 4.33 2011
author: Stephen King
name: George
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2015/02/18
date added: 2015/02/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 18007564
Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error� are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills � and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit � he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

]]> 384 Andy Weir 0804139024 George 5 4.41 2011
author: Andy Weir
name: George
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/02/18
shelves:
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If 'Cast Away' was on Mars, and Tom Hanks was Mark Watney, a brilliantly clever NASA engineer with an incredible sense of self irony, you'd have something like 'The Martian'. (Sorry, but Wilson gets no equivalent here.) I can't even comprehend the amount of research that Andy Weir must have put into writing this. And the most amazing part was that, for a story that takes place on Mars, nothing felt far fetched; never once did I find myself suspending disbelief. I highly recommend this.
]]> 8664353
The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he'd been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.]]> 475 Laura Hillenbrand 1400064163 George 5 4.38 2010
author: Laura Hillenbrand
name: George
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/02/07
shelves:
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]]> 6130135
Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

With a forward by Markus Zusak, interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney, and four-color interior art throughout, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.]]> 0 Sherman Alexie 1436124905 George 5 4.29 2007
author: Sherman Alexie
name: George
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/01/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 24059019 176 Maryam Malik 1457534282 George 5 4.00 2014
author: Maryam Malik
name: George
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]> 220859
Anthony Briggs's superb translation combines stirring, accessible prose with fidelity to Tolstoy's original, while Orlando Figes's afterword discusses the novel's vast scope and depiction of Russian identity. This edition also includes appendices, notes, a list of prominent characters and maps.]]> 1440 Leo Tolstoy 0140447938 George 0 to-read 4.40 1869
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: George
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1869
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/10/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> 290979
War and Peace centers broadly on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the best-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves behind his family to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman, who intrigues both men. As Napoleon’s army invades, Tolstoy vividly follows characters from diverse backgrounds—peasants and nobility, civilians and soldiers—as they struggle with the problems unique to their era, their history, and their culture. And as the novel progresses, these characters transcend their specificity, becoming some of the most moving—and human—figures in world literature.

Pevear and Volokhonsky have brought us this classic novel in a translation remarkable for its fidelity to Tolstoy’s style and cadence and for its energetic, accessible prose. With stunning grace and precision, this new version of War and Peace is set to become the definitive English edition.]]> 1296 Leo Tolstoy 0307266931 George 0 to-read 4.32 1869
author: Leo Tolstoy
name: George
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1869
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/10/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 77220 617 John Irving George 0 currently-reading 4.19 1989
author: John Irving
name: George
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/10/09
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 2157743 The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known...of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect—a man divided in his soul...of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame...and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state and brother against brother.

A spellbinding epic of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, this is Ken Follett's historical masterpiece.]]> 973 Ken Follett 0451225244 George 5 4.26 1989
author: Ken Follett
name: George
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1989
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/06/23
shelves:
review:

]]> 8709 * The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
* Life, the Universe and Everything
* So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish
* Mostly Harmless

Suppose a good friend calmly told you over a round of drinks that the world was about to end? And suppose your friend went on to confess that he wasn't from around here at all, but rather from a small planet near Betelgeuse? And what if the world really did come to an end, but instead of being blown away, you found yourself hitching a ride on a spaceship with your buddy as a traveling companion?

It happens to Arthur Dent.

An ordinary guy from a small town in England, Arthur is one lucky sonofagun: his alien friend, Ford Prefect, is in fact a roving researcher for the universally bestselling Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ... and expert at seeing the cosmos on 30 Altairian dollars a day. Ford lives by the Guide's seminal bit of advice: Don't Panic. Which comes in handy when their first ride--on the very same vessel that demolished Earth to make way for a hyperspacial freeway--ends disastrously (they are booted out of an airlock). with 30 seconds of air in their lungs and the odd of being picked up by another ship 2^276,709 to 1 against, the pair are scooped up by the only ship in the universe powered by the Infinite Improbability Drive.

But this (and the idea that Bogart movies and McDonald's hamburgers now exist only in his mind) is just the beginning of the weird things Arthur will have to get used to. For, on his travels, he'll encounter Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-President of the Galaxy; Trillian, a sexy spacecadet he once tried to pick up at a cocktail party, now Zaphod's girlfriend; Marvin, a chronically depressed robot; and Slartibartfast, the award-winning engineer who built the Earth and travels in a spaceship disguised as a bistro.

Arthur's crazed wanderings will take him from the restaurant at the end of the Universe (where the main dish of the day introduces itself and the floor show is doomsday), to the planet Krikkit (locked in Slo-Time to punish its inhabitants for trying to end the Universe), to Earth (huh? wait! wasn't it destroyed?!) to the very offices of The Hitchhiker's Guide itself as he and his friends quest for the answer to the Question of Life, the Universe and Everything ... and search for a really good cup of tea.

Ready or not, Arthur Dent is in for one hell of a ride!]]> 839 Douglas Adams 0739410121 George 1 4.42 1979
author: Douglas Adams
name: George
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1979
rating: 1
read at: 2010/07/22
date added: 2014/06/22
shelves: i-tried-but-couldn-t-get-into-it
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]]> 11870085
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.]]> 313 John Green George 5 4.13 2012
author: John Green
name: George
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/06/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 1839 The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Yet his survey is binocular: one eye has the rather distant vision of the evolutionary biologist, while the other eye--and his heart--belongs to the people of New Guinea, where he has done field work for more than 30 years.]]> 518 Jared Diamond 0393061310 George 4 4.04 1997
author: Jared Diamond
name: George
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/06/04
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]]> 13262783 Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.
There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone A wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.]]> 322 David Levithan 0307931889 George 5 to-read 3.91 2012
author: David Levithan
name: George
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/06/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 1 652 J.K. Rowling George 5 4.57 2005
author: J.K. Rowling
name: George
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/04/28
shelves:
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]]> 24583
Unlike his brother Sid, Tom receives "lickings" from his Aunt Polly; ever the mischief-maker, would rather play hooky than attend school and often sneaks out his bedroom window at night to adventure with his friend, Huckleberry Finn ­ the town's social outcast. Tom, despite his dread of schooling, is extremely clever and would normally get away with his pranks if Sid were not such a "tattle-tale."

As punishment for skipping school to go swimming, Aunt Polly assigns Tom the chore of whitewashing the fence surrounding the house. In a brilliant scheme, Tom is able to con the neighborhood boys into completing the chore for him, managing to convince them of the joys of whitewashing. At school, Tom is equally as flamboyant, and attracts attention by chasing other boys, yelling, and running around. With his usual antics, Tom attempts to catch the eye of Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get "engaged" by kissing him. But their romance collapses when she learns Tom has been "engaged" previously to Amy Lawrence. Shortly after Becky shuns him, he accompanies Huckleberry Finn to the graveyard at night, where they witness the murder of Dr. Robinson.

Excerpt:
"TOM!"
No answer.
"TOM!"
No answer.
"What's gone with that boy,  I wonder? You TOM!"
No answer.
The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked through them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not service—she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear:
"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll�"
She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.
"I never did see the beat of that boy!"]]> 244 Mark Twain George 0 to-read 3.92 1876
author: Mark Twain
name: George
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1876
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/04/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> 834713 An alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a 2007 novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It is his second, following his bestselling 2003 debut, The Kite Runner. The book, which spans a period of over 40 years, from the 1960s to 2003, focuses on the tumultuous lives and relationship of Mariam and Laila, two Afghan women. Mariam, an illegitimate child, suffers from the stigma surrounding her birth and the abuse she faces throughout her marriage. Laila, born a generation later, is comparatively privileged during her youth until their lives intersect and she is also forced to accept a marriage proposal from Rasheed, Mariam's husband.]]> 372 Khaled Hosseini 0747582971 George 4 4.46 2007
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: George
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/04/09
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]]> 374855 here, here and here.

In this eagerly awaited sequel to A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin has created a work of unsurpassed vision, power, and imagination. A Clash of Kings transports us to a world of revelry and revenge, wizardry and warfare unlike any you have ever experienced.

A comet the colour of blood and flame cuts across the sky. And from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk at night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.

Audacious, inventive, brilliantly imagined, A Clash of Kings is a novel of dazzling beauty and boundless enchantment—a tale of pure excitement you will never forget.]]> 1009 George R.R. Martin 0553579908 George 5 4.35 1998
author: George R.R. Martin
name: George
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2014/04/07
shelves:
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]]> 104837 336 William Shakespeare 0743482859 George 3 3.70 1606
author: William Shakespeare
name: George
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1606
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/04/03
shelves:
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]]> 8852
This shocking tragedy - a violent caution to those seeking power for its own sake - is, to this day, one of Shakespeare’s most popular and influential masterpieces.]]> 249 William Shakespeare 0743477103 George 4 3.90 1623
author: William Shakespeare
name: George
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1623
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/03/27
shelves:
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]]> 12996 319 William Shakespeare George 5 3.89 1603
author: William Shakespeare
name: George
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1603
rating: 5
read at: 2014/02/23
date added: 2014/02/23
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]]> 13547504 Far from the Tree is that being exceptional is at the core of the human condition—that difference is what unites us. He writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down's syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, or multiple severe disabilities; with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender. While each of these characteristics is potentially isolating, the experience of difference within families is universal, and Solomon documents triumphs of love over prejudice in every chapter.

All parenting turns on a crucial question: to what extent should parents accept their children for who they are, and to what extent they should help them become their best selves. Drawing on ten years of research and interviews with more than three hundred families, Solomon mines the eloquence of ordinary people facing extreme challenges.

Elegantly reported by a spectacularly original and compassionate thinker, Far from the Tree explores how people who love each other must struggle to accept each other—a theme in every family’s life.]]> 962 Andrew Solomon George 5 4.25 2012
author: Andrew Solomon
name: George
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2014/02/02
date added: 2014/02/02
shelves:
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]]> 91571 Measure for Measure is among the most passionately discussed of Shakespeare’s plays. In it, a duke temporarily removes himself from governing his city-state, deputizing a member of his administration, Angelo, to enforce the laws more rigorously. Angelo chooses as his first victim Claudio, condemning him to death because he impregnated Juliet before their marriage.

Claudio’s sister Isabella, who is entering a convent, pleads for her brother’s life. Angelo attempts to extort sex from her, but Isabella preserves her chastity. The duke, in disguise, eavesdrops as she tells her brother about Angelo’s behavior, then offers to ally himself with her against Angelo.]]> 278 William Shakespeare 0743484908 George 4 3.66 1604
author: William Shakespeare
name: George
average rating: 3.66
book published: 1604
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/02/02
shelves:
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]]> 985153 624 Thomas F.X. Noble 0618794255 George 3 3.50 2010
author: Thomas F.X. Noble
name: George
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2009/03/14
date added: 2013/12/15
shelves:
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]]> 16130549
On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless - mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky 12-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the "steam" that children with the "shining" produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father's legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant "shining" power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes "Doctor Sleep."

Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan's own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra's soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted fans of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.]]> 531 Stephen King 1476727651 George 0 to-read 4.11 2013
author: Stephen King
name: George
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/12/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> 13932
The Noonday Demon examines depression in personal, cultural, and scientific terms. Drawing on his own struggles with the illness and interviews with fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, policymakers and politicians, drug designers and philosophers, Solomon reveals the subtle complexities and sheer agony of the disease. He confronts the challenge of defining the illness and describes the vast range of available medications, the efficacy of alternative treatments, and the impact the malady has had on various demographic populations around the world and throughout history. He also explores the thorny patch of moral and ethical questions posed by emerging biological explanations for mental illness.

The depth of human experience Solomon chronicles, the range of his intelligence, and his boundless curiosity and compassion will change the reader's view of the world.]]> 576 Andrew Solomon 0684854678 George 0 to-read 4.18 2000
author: Andrew Solomon
name: George
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/11/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> 13547180 New York Times bestseller that goes far beyond its riveting medical mystery, Brain on Fire is the powerful account of one woman’s struggle to recapture her identity.

When twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a hospital room, strapped to her bed and unable to move or speak, she had no memory of how she’d gotten there. Days earlier, she had been on the threshold of a new, adult life: at the beginning of her first serious relationship and a promising career at a major New York newspaper. Now she was labeled violent, psychotic, a flight risk. What happened?

In a swift and breathtaking narrative, Cahalan tells the astonishing true story of her descent into madness, her family’s inspiring faith in her, and the lifesaving diagnosis that nearly didn’t happen.]]> 250 Susannah Cahalan 145162137X George 0 to-read 4.06 2012
author: Susannah Cahalan
name: George
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/10/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6815530 The Human Brain Book is a complete guide to the one organ in the body that makes each of us what we are - unique individuals. It combines the latest findings from the field of neuroscience with expert text and state-of-the-art illustrations and imaging techniques to provide an incomparable insight into every facet of the brain. Layer by layer, it reveals the fascinating details of this remarkable structure, covering all the key anatomy and delving into the inner workings of the mind, unlocking its many mysteries, and helping you to understand what's going on in those millions of little gray and white cells.

Tricky concepts are illustrated and explained with clarity and precision, as The Human Brain Book looks at how the brain sends messages to the rest of the body, how we think and feel, how we perform unconscious actions (for example breathing), explores the nature of genius, asks why we behave the way we do, explains how we see and hear things, and how and why we dream. Physical and psychological disorders affecting the brain and nervous system are clearly illustrated and summarized in easy-to-understand terms.

The unique DVD brings the subject to life with interactive elements. These include a clickable model of the brain's structure that allows the user to zoom in and discover deeper layers of detail, while complex processes, such as the journey of a nerve impulse, are broken down and simplified through intuitive animations.]]> 264 Rita Carter 0756654416 George 5 neuroscience 4.33 2009
author: Rita Carter
name: George
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/09/05
shelves: neuroscience
review:

]]> 15811102 "Sometimes you're better off dead. . . ."

When Royce Bruyere chose to be cryogenically frozen upon death, he figured coming back to life would be exciting. Neat. Bonus time. The world he awakes to is nothing of the sort.

A Chinese invasion has crippled the United States, dividing the country in a decade-long stalemate along the Mississippi. Royce's successful reanimation is unprecedented, making him the Chinese regime's most prized possession--but not for long. Eager to control life and death, the Chinese reanimate other "cryonics," until something goes horribly wrong.

Royce travels through a future wrought with violence and despair, only to discover the cure for the disease lies within him. It's a race against time as he flees the Chinese and the bloodthirsty victims of a terrifying epidemic in the hope of saving the country from apocalypse and creating a life worth living.]]> 261 Travis Bradberry 0974320668 George 0 to-read 3.22 2013
author: Travis Bradberry
name: George
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 18196973 43 Maryam Malik George 5 4.75 2013
author: Maryam Malik
name: George
average rating: 4.75
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/07/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 21 544 Bill Bryson 076790818X George 5 science-books 4.21 2003
author: Bill Bryson
name: George
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2003
rating: 5
read at: 2013/06/02
date added: 2013/07/09
shelves: science-books
review:

]]> 425123 The tough neighborhood of Dorchester is no place for the innocent or the weak. Its territory is defined by hard heads and even harder luck; its streets are littered with the detritus of broken families, hearts, and dreams. Now one of its youngest is missing. Private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro don’t want the case. But after pleas from the child’s aunt, they open an investigation that will ultimately risk everything—their relationship, their sanity, and even their lives—to find a little girl lost.]]> 412 Dennis Lehane 0380730359 George 4 lehane 4.15 1998
author: Dennis Lehane
name: George
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/07/09
shelves: lehane
review:

]]> 11566
There are more wonders in heaven and hell than anyone at Cold Mountain can imagine and one of those wonders might just have stepped in amongst them.]]> 592 Stephen King 0451933028 George 0 to-read 4.48 1996
author: Stephen King
name: George
average rating: 4.48
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]> 391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 George 5 4.34 2009
author: Suzanne Collins
name: George
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2013/06/30
date added: 2013/06/30
shelves:
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]]> 16115612 404 Khaled Hosseini 159463176X George 4 4.06 2012
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: George
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2013/06/18
date added: 2013/06/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 15783514
Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what.

A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark.]]> 181 Neil Gaiman 0062255657 George 0 to-read 4.00 2013
author: Neil Gaiman
name: George
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/06/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 13083008
Boston, 1926. The '20s are roaring. Liquor is flowing, bullets are flying, and one man sets out to make his mark on the world.

Prohibition has given rise to an endless network of underground distilleries, speakeasies, gangsters, and corrupt cops. Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a prominent Boston police captain, has long since turned his back on his strict and proper upbringing. Now having graduated from a childhood of petty theft to a career in the pay of the city's most fearsome mobsters, Joe enjoys the spoils, thrills, and notoriety of being an outlaw.

But life on the dark side carries a heavy price. In a time when ruthless men of ambition, armed with cash, illegal booze, and guns, battle for control, no one - neither family nor friend, enemy nor lover - can be trusted. Beyond money and power, even the threat of prison, one fate seems most likely for men like Joe: an early death. But until that day, he and his friends are determined to live life to the hilt.

Joe embarks on a dizzying journey up the ladder of organized crime that takes him from the flash of Jazz Age Boston to the sensual shimmer of Tampa's Latin Quarter to the sizzling streets of Cuba. Live by Night is a riveting epic layered with a diverse cast of loyal friends and callous enemies, tough rumrunners and sultry femmes fatales, Bible-quoting evangelists and cruel Klansmen, all battling for survival and their piece of the American dream. At once a sweeping love story and a compelling saga of revenge, it is a spellbinding tour de force of betrayal and redemption, music and murder, that brings fully to life a bygone era when sin was cause for celebration and vice was a national virtue.]]> 402 Dennis Lehane 0060004878 George 5 lehane 3.87 2012
author: Dennis Lehane
name: George
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/05/30
shelves: lehane
review:
Wow. Best Lehane novel I've read in years--possibly ever. He took something simple here, a prohibition era crime novel, and brought it to a whole new level, complete with his signature dark and unapologetic prose. This novel soars high above "The Given Day."
]]> 4214 460 Yann Martel 0770430074 George 4 3.94 2001
author: Yann Martel
name: George
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2013/04/20
shelves:
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]]> 125777 Descartes' Error, Damasio revealed the critical importance of emotion in the making of reason. Building on this foundation, he now shows how consciousness is created. Consciousness is the feeling of what happens-our mind noticing the body's reaction to the world and responding to that experience. Without our bodies there can be no consciousness, which is at heart a mechanism for survival that engages body, emotion, and mind in the glorious spiral of human life. A hymn to the possibilities of human existence, a magnificent work of ingenious science, a gorgeously written book, The Feeling of What Happens is already being hailed as a classic.]]> 386 António Damásio 0156010755 George 0 to-read 4.01 1999
author: António Damásio
name: George
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> 103867 Descartes� Error in 1995. Antonio Damasio�"one of the world’s leading neurologists" (The New York Times)—challenged traditional ideas about the connection between emotions and rationality. In this wondrously engaging book, Damasio takes the reader on a journey of scientific discovery through a series of case studies, demonstrating what many of us have long suspected: emotions are not a luxury, they are essential to rational thinking and to normal social behavior.]]> 336 António Damásio 014303622X George 0 to-read 3.97 1994
author: António Damásio
name: George
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/01/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 780672 384 Joseph E. LeDoux 0684836599 George 5 4.08 1996
author: Joseph E. LeDoux
name: George
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/01/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 31555 Phantoms in the Brain, Dr. Ramachandran recounts how his work with patients who have bizarre neurological disorders has shed new light on the deep architecture of the brain, and what these findings tell us about who we are, how we construct our body image, why we laugh or become depressed, why we may believe in God, how we make decisions, deceive ourselves and dream, perhaps even why we're so clever at philosophy, music and art. Some of his most notable cases:


A woman paralyzed on the left side of her body who believes she is lifting a tray of drinks with both hands offers a unique opportunity to test Freud's theory of denial.
A man who insists he is talking with God challenges us to ask: Could we be "wired" for religious experience?
A woman who hallucinates cartoon characters illustrates how, in a sense, we are all hallucinating, all the time.
Dr. Ramachandran's inspired medical detective work pushes the boundaries of medicine's last great frontier -- the human mind -- yielding new and provocative insights into the "big questions" about consciousness and the self.]]> 352 V.S. Ramachandran 0688172172 George 5 neuroscience Amazing. 4.26 1998
author: V.S. Ramachandran
name: George
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2013/01/10
date added: 2013/01/10
shelves: neuroscience
review:
Amazing.
]]> 947061
Mapping the Mind charts the way human behavior and culture have been molded by the landscape of the brain. Carter shows how our personalities reflect the biological mechanisms underlying thought and emotion and how behavioral eccentricities may be traced to abnormalities in an individual brain. Obsessions and compulsions seem to be caused by a stuck neural switch in a region that monitors the environment for danger. Addictions stem from dysfunction in the brain's reward system. Even the sense of religious experience has been linked to activity in a certain brain region. The differences between men and women's brains, the question of a "gay brain," and conditions such as dyslexia, autism, and mania are also explored.

Looking inside the brain, writes Carter, we see that actions follow from our perceptions, which are due to brain activity dictated by a neuronal structure formed from the interplay between our genes and the environment. Without sidestepping the question of free will, Carter suggests that future generations will use our increasing knowledge of the brain to "enhance those mental qualities that give sweetness and meaning to our lives, and to eradicate those that are destructive."]]> 224 Rita Carter 0520224612 George 0 to-read 4.10 1998
author: Rita Carter
name: George
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/12/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> 151132 416 Joseph E. LeDoux 0142001783 George 0 to-read 4.00 2002
author: Joseph E. LeDoux
name: George
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/12/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> 9751599
How is consciousness possible? What biological purpose does it serve? And why do we value it so highly? In Soul Dust , the psychologist Nicholas Humphrey, a leading figure in consciousness research, proposes a startling new theory. Consciousness, he argues, is nothing less than a magical-mystery show that we stage for ourselves inside our own heads. This self-made show lights up the world for us and makes us feel special and transcendent. Thus consciousness paves the way for spirituality, and allows us, as human beings, to reap the rewards, and anxieties, of living in what Humphrey calls the "soul niche."

Tightly argued, intellectually gripping, and a joy to read, Soul Dust provides answers to the deepest questions. It shows how the problem of consciousness merges with questions that obsess us all―how life should be lived and the fear of death. Resting firmly on neuroscience and evolutionary theory, and drawing a wealth of insights from philosophy and literature, Soul Dust is an uncompromising yet life-affirming work―one that never loses sight of the majesty and wonder of consciousness.]]> 256 Nicholas Humphrey 0691138621 George 0 to-read 3.62 2011
author: Nicholas Humphrey
name: George
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/12/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> 31557 Encyclopedia of the Human Brain places all information in a single source and contains clearly written summaries on what is known of the human brain.

Covering anatomy, physiology, neuropsychology, clinical neurology, neuropharmacology, evolutionary biology, genetics, and behavioral science, this four-volume encyclopedia contains over 200 peer reviewed signed articles from experts around the world. The Encyclopedia articles range in size from 5-30 printed pages each, and contain a definition paragraph, glossary, outline, and suggested readings, in addition to the body of the article. Lavishly illustrated, the Encyclopedia includes over 1000 figures, many in full color. Managing both breadth and depth, the Encyclopedia is a must-have reference work for life science libraries and researchers investigating the human brain.]]> 3454 V.S. Ramachandran 0122272102 George 0 to-read 4.04 1994
author: V.S. Ramachandran
name: George
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/12/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 31554 208 V.S. Ramachandran 0131872788 George 0 to-read 4.01 2003
author: V.S. Ramachandran
name: George
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> 376496 What makes humans different from other beings? Can science explain the nature of human creativity and empathy? While Darwinian science explains how humans evolved just as animals did, modern neuroscience is now unlocking the keys to those less tangible traits that set humans apart. Internationally renowned physician and neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran now gives us twenty-first-century answers to these age-old questions, showcasing the most current researcha much of it his ownainto physical mechanisms in the brain, including the mysterious mirror neurons.
Just as Oliver Sacks has entertained a generation of readers with fascinating patient stories, "The Man with the Phantom Twin" features incredible case studies of bizarre behavior, such as a patient who becomes progressively demented yet creates beautiful paintings of extraordinary realism; a woman who suffers from a paranoid terror of the strangers who live in mirrors; a stroke victim who can no longer understand metaphors; and a patient who sees each number as being tinged with a color. Revealing a stunning new approach to the intersection of science and creativity, "The Man with the Phantom Twin" will forever change the way you think about what makes you beautiful and special.]]> 304 V.S. Ramachandran 0525950230 George 0 to-read 4.02 2008
author: V.S. Ramachandran
name: George
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/11/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> 8574712 384 V.S. Ramachandran 0393077829 George 0 to-read 4.14 2010
author: V.S. Ramachandran
name: George
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/11/08
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 452777 246 Paul Broks 0802141285 George 4 neuroscience 3.90 2003
author: Paul Broks
name: George
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2012/11/03
date added: 2012/11/03
shelves: neuroscience
review:

]]> 9748781 The hijacked yacht is lavish, but for the Somalian pirates, the real prize was the young woman aboard. Nineteen-year-old Cayla Bannock is the daughter of oil heiress Hazel Bannock. Stoking their greed, the kidnappers demand a dizzying twenty billion dollar ransom for her release. Worse yet, world powers seem disinclined to provide any substantive help. Increasingly anxious (for apparently good reason) and with no other options, the mother enlists the help of security company operative Hector Cross to rescue Cayla from the lawless, lascivious monsters. Wilbur Smith (Dark of the Sun; The Sound of Thunder) delivers a high seas, high-risk adventure story.

]]> 656 Wilbur Smith George 0 to-read 3.00 2011
author: Wilbur Smith
name: George
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/10/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 13503109
In prose that is endlessly energetic, inventive, tender, and funny, the stories in This Is How You Lose Her lay bare the infinite longing and inevitable weakness of the human heart. They remind us that passion always triumphs over experience, and that “the half-life of love is forever.�]]> 217 Junot Díaz 1594487367 George 0 to-read 3.74 2010
author: Junot Díaz
name: George
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/10/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> 930
In "Memoirs of a Geisha," we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction - at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful - and completely unforgettable.]]> 434 Arthur Golden 0739326228 George 4 4.07 1997
author: Arthur Golden
name: George
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/08/29
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]]> 7507825
Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to “write a history of the world without leaving home.� The bathroom provides the occasion for a history of hygiene; the bedroom, sex, death, and sleep; the kitchen, nutrition and the spice trade; and so on, as Bryson shows how each has figured in the evolution of private life. Whatever happens in the world, he demonstrates, ends up in our house, in the paint and the pipes and the pillows and every item of furniture.
(front flap)]]> 497 Bill Bryson 0767919386 George 0 to-read 3.98 2010
author: Bill Bryson
name: George
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/07/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 7094569
The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED. Now, twenty years after the Rising, bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives—the dark conspiracy behind the infected.

The truth will get out, even if it kills them.]]> 599 Mira Grant 0316081051 George 0 currently-reading 3.85 2010
author: Mira Grant
name: George
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/07/06
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 7783191
Πως μπο�εί ένας αστυνομικός να πε�άσει τ�έχοντας μπ�οστά από μία σκηνή βίαιης επίθεσης χω�ίς να τη δει;

Γιατί β�αβευμένες ταινίες είναι γεμάτες λάθη στο μοντάζ;

Τί κοινό έχουν οι εγκληματίες με τους κο�υφαίους σκακιστές;

Γιατί η ιλα�ά και άλλες παιδικές ασθένειες επιστ�έφουν;

Γιατί οι οικονομικοί διευθυντές μπο�ο�ν να μάθουν πολλά από τους μετεω�ολόγους;

Ο "Αό�ατος γο�ίλλας" αποκαλ�πτει τους πολυά�ιθμους τ�όπους με τους οποίους η διαίσθησή μας μπο�εί να μας πα�απλανήσει, αλλά είναι πολ� πε�ισσότε�α από ένας κατάλογος ανθ�ωπίνων ελαττωμάτων. Οι Τσάμπ�ις και Σάιμονς εξηγο�ν γιατί υποκ�πτουμε σε αυτές τις καθημε�ινές ψευδαισθήσεις και τι μπο�ο�με να κάνουμε για π�οστατευτο�με από τις επιδ�άσεις τους. Εντέλει, το βιβλίο π�οσφέ�ει ένα είδος ό�ασης με ακτίνες Χ, διαπε�νώντας έτσι το πέπλο των ψευδαισθήσεων που θολώνουν τις σκέψεις μας, και για π�ώτη φο�ά ίσως να σκεφτο�με καθα�ά.]]> 320 Christopher Chabris 0307459659 George 0 to-read 3.90 2010
author: Christopher Chabris
name: George
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/07/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> 9378733
The Psychopath Test is a fascinating journey through the minds of madness. Jon Ronson's exploration of a potential hoax being played on the world's top neurologists takes him, unexpectedly, into the heart of the madness industry. An influential psychologist who is convinced that many important CEOs and politicians are, in fact, psychopaths teaches Ronson how to spot these high-flying individuals by looking out for little telltale verbal and nonverbal clues. And so Ronson, armed with his new psychopath-spotting abilities, enters the corridors of power. He spends time with a death-squad leader institutionalized for mortgage fraud in Coxsackie, New York; a legendary CEO whose psychopathy has been speculated about in the press; and a patient in an asylum for the criminally insane who insists he's sane and certainly not a psychopath.

Ronson not only solves the mystery of the hoax but also discovers, disturbingly, that sometimes the personalities at the helm of the madness industry are, with their drives and obsessions, as mad in their own way as those they study. And that relatively ordinary people are, more and more, defined by their maddest edges.]]> 288 Jon Ronson 1594488010 George 0 to-read 3.87 2011
author: Jon Ronson
name: George
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/07/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> 771
Today, physicists and mathematicians throughout the world are feverishly working on one of the most ambitious theories ever proposed: superstring theory. String theory, as it is often called, is the key to the Unified Field Theory that eluded Einstein for more than thirty years. Finally, the century-old antagonism between the large and the small--General Relativity and Quantum Theory--is resolved. String theory proclaims that all of the wondrous happenings in the universe, from the frantic dancing of subatomic quarks to the majestic swirling of heavenly galaxies, are reflections of one grand physical principle and manifestations of one single entity: microscopically tiny vibrating loops of energy, a billionth of a billionth the size of an atom. In this brilliantly articulated and refreshingly clear book, Greene relates the scientific story and the human struggle behind twentieth-century physics' search for a theory of everything.

Through the masterful use of metaphor and analogy, The Elegant Universe makes some of the most sophisticated concepts ever contemplated viscerally accessible and thoroughly entertaining, bringing us closer than ever to understanding how the universe works.]]> 425 Brian Greene 0375708111 George 0 to-read 4.06 1999
author: Brian Greene
name: George
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/06/11
shelves: to-read
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]]> 11890816
Timothy Wilde tends bar near the Exchange, fantasizing about the day he has enough money to win the girl of his dreams. But when his dreams literally incinerate in a fire devastating downtown Manhattan, he finds himself disfigured, unemployed, and homeless. His older brother obtains Timothy a job in the newly minted NYPD, but he is highly skeptical of this new "police force." And he is less than thrilled that his new beat is the notoriously down-and-out Sixth Ward - at the border of Five Points, the world's most notorious slum.

One night while making his rounds, Wilde literally runs into a little slip of a girl - a girl not more than ten years old - dashing through the dark in her nightshirt... covered head to toe in blood.

Timothy knows he should take the girl to the House of Refuge, yet he can't bring himself to abandon her. Instead, he takes her home, where she spins wild stories, claiming that dozens of bodies are buried in the forest north of 23rd Street. Timothy isn't sure whether to believe her or not, but, as the truth unfolds, the reluctant copper star finds himself engaged in a battle for justice that nearly costs him his brother, his romantic obsession, and his own life.]]> 408 Lyndsay Faye 0399158375 George 0 to-read 3.86 2012
author: Lyndsay Faye
name: George
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/05/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> 2475251
One day a shell lands in a bread line and kills twenty-two people as the cellist watches from a window in his flat. He vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinoni’s Adagio once a day for each of the twenty-two victims. The Adagio had been re-created from a fragment after the only extant score was firebombed in the Dresden Music Library, but the fact that it had been rebuilt by a different composer into something new and worthwhile gives the cellist hope.

Meanwhile, Kenan steels himself for his weekly walk through the dangerous streets to collect water for his family on the other side of town, and Dragan, a man Kenan doesn’t know, tries to make his way towards the source of the free meal he knows is waiting. Both men are almost paralyzed with fear, uncertain when the next shot will land on the bridges or streets they must cross, unwilling to talk to their old friends of what life was once like before divisions were unleashed on their city. Then there is “Arrow,� the pseudonymous name of a gifted female sniper, who is asked to protect the cellist from a hidden shooter who is out to kill him as he plays his memorial to the victims.

In this beautiful and unforgettable novel, Steven Galloway has taken an extraordinary, imaginative leap to create a story that speaks powerfully to the dignity and generosity of the human spirit under extraordinary duress.]]> 235 Steven Galloway 1594489866 George 0 to-read 3.99 2008
author: Steven Galloway
name: George
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/05/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 12111823 The Winds of Winter is the forthcoming sixth novel in the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.

The previous installment, A Dance with Dragons, covered less story than Martin intended, omitting at least one planned large battle sequence and leaving several character threads ending in cliffhangers. Martin intends to resolve these cliffhangers "very early" in The Winds of Winter, saying "I'm going to open with the two big battles that I was building up to, the battle in the ice and the battle at Meereen—the battle of Slaver's Bay. And then take it from there."]]> George R.R. Martin 0002247410 George 0 to-read 4.40
author: George R.R. Martin
name: George
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/05/02
shelves: to-read
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]]> 41804
I, ROBOT

They mustn't harm a human being, they must obey human orders, and they must protect their own existence...but only so long as that doesn't violate rules one and two. With these Three Laws of Robotics, humanity embarked on perhaps its greatest adventure: the invention of the first positronic man. It was a bold new era of evolution that would open up enormous possibilities—and unforeseen risks. For the scientists who invented the earliest robots weren't content that their creations should ' remain programmed helpers, companions, and semisentient worker-machines. And soon the robots themselves; aware of their own intelligence, power, and humanity, aren't either.

As humans and robots struggle to survive together—and sometimes against each other—on earth and in space, the future of both hangs in the balance. Human men and women confront robots gone mad, telepathic robots, robot politicians, and vast robotic intelligences that may already secretly control the world. And both are asking the same questions: What is human? And is humanity obsolete?

In l, Robot Isaac Asimov changes forever our perception of robots, and human beings and updates the timeless myth of man's dream to play god. with all its rewards—and terrors.
--front flap]]> 224 Isaac Asimov 0553803700 George 0 to-read 4.22 1950
author: Isaac Asimov
name: George
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1950
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/04/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> 85443
This powerful and breathtaking novel is the story of four cadets who have become bloodbrothers. Together they will encounter the hell of hazing and the rabid, raunchy and dangerously secretive atmosphere of an arrogant and proud military institute. They will experience the violence. The passion. The rage. The friendship. The loyalty. The betrayal. Together, they will brace themselves for the brutal transition to manhood... and one will not survive.

With all the dramatic brilliance he brought to The Great Santini, Pat Conroy sweeps you into the turbulent world of these four friends -- and draws you deep into the heart of his rebellious hero, Will McLean, an outsider forging his personal code of honor, who falls in love with a whimsical beauty... and who undergoes a transition more remarkable then he ever imagined possible.]]> 512 Pat Conroy 0553271369 George 5 4.32 1980
author: Pat Conroy
name: George
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at: 2008/01/29
date added: 2012/04/21
shelves:
review:
This would be the 3rd unforgettable book I've read by Mr. Conroy in the past year, and to date. I just love reading his work. There is no other way to put it. He just simply writes, in my humble opinion, the most beautiful sentences I have ever read. He has an unflinching capacity to be so brutally honest it often hurts. But it is the greatest pain one can recieve from a great novel. The amount of passion, pain, and pure adrenaline within the pages of this book will not let the reader put this one down. I promise!
]]> 43615
He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland pursues The Man in Black, encounters an alluring woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the Kid from Earth called Jake. Both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, The Gunslinger leaves readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter.]]> 231 Stephen King 1501143514 George 4 3.95 1982
author: Stephen King
name: George
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at: 2009/12/14
date added: 2012/04/08
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]]> 16793 Alternate cover edition can be found here

Young Tristran Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of beautiful Victoria—even fetch her the star they watch fall from the night sky. But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall that gives their tiny village its name. Beyond that old stone wall, Tristran learns, lies Faerie—where nothing not even a fallen star, is what he imagined.]]> 248 Neil Gaiman 0061142026 George 4 4.11 1999
author: Neil Gaiman
name: George
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/03/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 11084145 630 Walter Isaacson 1451648537 George 5 biographies 4.15 2011
author: Walter Isaacson
name: George
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/03/18
shelves: biographies
review:
I really couldn't have asked for more. As with Isaacson's biography of Einstein, I'm walking away from this experience feeling as though I actually knew Jobs, all of Jobs--good, bad, and ugly.
]]> 6117055
"The Greatest Show on Earth" is a stunning counter-attack on creationists, followers of "Intelligent Design" and all those who still question evolution as scientific fact. In this brilliant tour de force, Richard Dawkins pulls together the incontrovertible evidence that underpins it: from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics.

"The Greatest Show on Earth" comes at a critical time as systematic opposition to the fact of evolution flourishes as never before in many schools worldwide. Dawkins wields a devastating argument against this ignorance whilst sharing with us his palpable love of science and the natural world. Written with elegance, wit and passion, it is hard-hitting, absorbing and totally convincing.]]> 470 Richard Dawkins 059306173X George 0 to-read 4.15 2009
author: Richard Dawkins
name: George
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/03/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 2767052
Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins 0439023483 George 4 4.34 2008
author: Suzanne Collins
name: George
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/03/18
shelves:
review:
While I wasn't blown away by any means, The Hunger Games did turn out to be an above average thriller that, despite its being aimed toward a younger audience, had me gripped throughout.
]]> 11487807
Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, “the last real ghul hunter in the great city of Dhamsawaat,� just wants a quiet cup of tea. Three score and more years old, he has grown weary of hunting monsters and saving lives, and is more than ready to retire from his dangerous and demanding vocation. But when an old flame’s family is murdered, Adoulla is drawn back to the hunter’s path.

Raseed bas Raseed, Adoulla’s young assistant, is a hidebound holy warrior whose prowess is matched only by his piety. But even as Raseed’s sword is tested by ghuls and manjackals, his soul is tested when he and Adoulla cross paths with the tribeswoman Zamia.

Zamia Badawi, Protector of the Band, has been gifted with the near-mythical power of the lion-shape, but shunned by her people for daring to take up a man’s title. She lives only to avenge her father’s death. Until she learns that Adoulla and his allies also hunt her father’s killer. Until she meets Raseed.

When they learn that the murders and the Falcon Prince’s brewing revolution are connected, the companions must race against time—and struggle against their own misgivings—to save the life of a vicious despot. In so doing they discover a plot for the Throne of the Crescent Moon that threatens to turn Dhamsawaat, and the world itself, into a blood-soaked ruin.]]> 274 Saladin Ahmed 0756407117 George 5 3.62 2012
author: Saladin Ahmed
name: George
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/01/24
shelves:
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]]> 10156330
George has come to Athens to learn ancient languages after growing up in New England boarding schools and Ivy League colleges. He has no close relationships with anyone and spends his days hunched over books or wandering the city in a drunken stupor.

Henry is in Athens to dig. An accomplished young archaeologist, he devotedly uncovers the city’s past as a way to escape his own, which holds a secret that not even his doting parents can talk about.

...and then, with a series of chance meetings, Rebecca, George, and Henry are suddenly in flight, their lives brighter and clearer than ever, as they fall headlong into a summer that will forever define them in the decades to come.]]> 402 Simon Van Booy 0061661481 George 0 to-read 3.75 2011
author: Simon Van Booy
name: George
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/01/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 10664113 Alternate cover edition of ASIN B004XISI4A

In the aftermath of a colossal battle, the future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance—beset by newly emerging threats from every direction. In the east, Daenerys Targaryen, the last scion of House Targaryen, rules with her three dragons as queen of a city built on dust and death. But Daenerys has thousands of enemies, and many have set out to find her. As they gather, one young man embarks upon his own quest for the queen, with an entirely different goal in mind.

Fleeing from Westeros with a price on his head, Tyrion Lannister, too, is making his way to Daenerys. But his newest allies in this quest are not the rag-tag band they seem, and at their heart lies one who could undo Daenerys’s claim to Westeros forever.

Meanwhile, to the north lies the mammoth Wall of ice and stone—a structure only as strong as those guarding it. There, Jon Snow, 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, will face his greatest challenge. For he has powerful foes not only within the Watch but also beyond, in the land of the creatures of ice.

From all corners, bitter conflicts reignite, intimate betrayals are perpetrated, and a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves, will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Some will fail, others will grow in the strength of darkness. But in a time of rising restlessness, the tides of destiny and politics will lead inevitably to the greatest dance of all.]]> 1125 George R.R. Martin George 4 4.33 2011
author: George R.R. Martin
name: George
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2011/07/31
date added: 2012/01/16
shelves:
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]]> 96197
In elegant, moving prose, Black Dog of Fate charts Balakian's growth and personal awakening to the facts of his family's history and the horrifying aftermath of the Turkish government's continued campaign to cover up one of the worst crimes ever committed against humanity. In unearthing the secrets of a family's past and how they affect its present, Black Dog of Fate gives fresh meaning to the story of what it means to be an American.]]> 304 Peter Balakian 0767902548 George 4 4.22 1997
author: Peter Balakian
name: George
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/01/06
shelves:
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]]> 116503
Ovid's epic poem―whose theme of change has resonated throughout the ages―is one of the most important texts of Western imagination, an inspiration from Dante's times to the present day, when writers such as Salman Rushdie and Italo Calvino have found a living source in Ovid's work. Charles Martin combines a close fidelity to Ovid's text with verse that catches the speed and liveliness of the original. Martin's Metamorphoses will be the translation of choice for contemporary readers in English. The translation is accompanied by an introduction by Bernard Knox, endnotes, and a glossary of people, places, and personifications.]]> 624 Ovid 039332642X George 4 4.19 8
author: Ovid
name: George
average rating: 4.19
book published: 8
rating: 4
read at: 2011/12/18
date added: 2011/12/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 1982 848 Charles Dickens 0517093391 George 0 to-read 4.25 1861
author: Charles Dickens
name: George
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1861
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/12/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 6344097 The Stand: Captain Trips series of comics (#1-5) into one Hardcover volume. It all begins here: the epic apocalyptic battle between good and evil. On a secret army base in the Californian desert, something has gone horribly, terribly wrong. Something will send Charlie Campion, his wife and daughter fleeing in the middle of the night. Unfortunately for the Campion family, and the rest of America, they are unaware that all three of them are carrying a deadly cargo: a virus that will spread from person to person like wildfire, triggering a massive wave of disease and death, prefacing humanity's last stand.]]> 160 Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa 0785136207 George 0 to-read 4.47 2009
author: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
name: George
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/11/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 7745 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.]]> 204 Hunter S. Thompson 0679785892 George 0 to-read 4.08 1971
author: Hunter S. Thompson
name: George
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1971
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2011/09/29
shelves: to-read
review:

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