JS's bookshelf: read en-US Sun, 08 Dec 2024 10:04:30 -0800 60 JS's bookshelf: read 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Adventures of Pinocchio 6059070 256 Carlo Collodi 8809018168 JS 2 3.65 1883 The Adventures of Pinocchio
author: Carlo Collodi
name: JS
average rating: 3.65
book published: 1883
rating: 2
read at: 2013/12/12
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves: adventure, coming-of-age, fairies, fairy-tales, fantasy
review:

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The Time of the Hero 119945 379 Mario Vargas Llosa 0571173209 JS 0 to-read 3.95 1962 The Time of the Hero
author: Mario Vargas Llosa
name: JS
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1962
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/13
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #2)]]> 83346 228 Lewis Carroll 0688120490 JS 3 fantasy, adventure, classics 4.05 1871 Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #2)
author: Lewis Carroll
name: JS
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1871
rating: 3
read at: 2012/12/24
date added: 2018/12/01
shelves: fantasy, adventure, classics
review:

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Rayuela 46171
La aparición de Rayuela en 1963 conmocionó el panorama cultural de su tiempo y supuso una verdadera revolución en la narrativa en lengua castellana: por primera vez un escritor llevaba hasta las últimas consecuencias la voluntad de transgredir el orden tradicional de una historia y el lenguaje para contarla. Es quizás el libro donde Cortázar está entero, con toda su complejidad ética y estética, con su imaginación y su humor.

Cortázar empieza por proponer un acercamiento activo al libro y ofrece varias posibilidades de lectura: el lector ha de decidir: ¿optar por el orden de lectura tradicional? ¿Seguir el tablero de dirección? ¿Remitirse al azar? Después lo lleva a dos lugares distintos. «Del lado de allá», París, la relación de Oliveira y la Maga, el club de la serpiente, el primer descenso de Horacio a los infiernos; y «Del lado de acá», Buenos Aires, el encuentro de Tráveler y Talita, el circo, el manicomio, el segundo descenso.

¿Viaje hacia delante, viaje hacia atrás? Viaje iniciático, sin duda, del que el lector emerge tal vez con otra idea acerca del modo de leer los libros y de ver la vida. Un mosaico donde toda una época se vio maravillosamente reflejada.]]>
752 Julio Cortázar 8437604575 JS 0 to-read 4.22 1963 Rayuela
author: Julio Cortázar
name: JS
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1963
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/02/16
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics (Game Development Series)]]> 919513 576 Eric Lengyel 1584502770 JS 0 to-read 3.63 2001 Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics (Game Development Series)
author: Eric Lengyel
name: JS
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/03/02
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[El Coronel no tiene quien le escriba]]> 139560 100 Gabriel García Márquez 9681317300 JS 3 latin-america 3.56 1961 El Coronel no tiene quien le escriba
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: JS
average rating: 3.56
book published: 1961
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/02/10
shelves: latin-america
review:

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1984 5470 328 George Orwell JS 5 4.15 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: JS
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1949
rating: 5
read at: 2013/10/19
date added: 2013/12/13
shelves: dystopia, war, utopia, politics, slavery
review:

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The Princess and the Goblin 444381 241 George MacDonald 0140367462 JS 3 adventure, goblins, fantasy 4.02 1872 The Princess and the Goblin
author: George MacDonald
name: JS
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1872
rating: 3
read at: 2013/10/19
date added: 2013/12/13
shelves: adventure, goblins, fantasy
review:

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<![CDATA[La buena suerte: Claves de la prosperidad]]> 66460

¿Quién aceptará el reto de ir al bosque encantado en búsqueda del Trébol Mágico? Así comienza la leyenda de La buena suerte, un libro inspirador y extraordinariamente positivo: una fábula mediante la cual se desvelan las claves de la buena suerte y la prosperidad tanto para la vida como para los negocios.

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128 Ãlex Rovira Celma 8495787555 JS 4 4.05 2004 La buena suerte: Claves de la prosperidad
author: Ãlex Rovira Celma
name: JS
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2013/11/04
date added: 2013/11/04
shelves: fantasy, wizards, kingdoms, witches
review:

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<![CDATA[World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War]]> 8908
Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, "By excluding the human factor, aren't we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn't the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as 'the living dead'?"

Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission.]]>
342 Max Brooks 0307346609 JS 3 zombies, war, science-fiction 4.02 2006 World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
author: Max Brooks
name: JS
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2013/10/06
date added: 2013/10/06
shelves: zombies, war, science-fiction
review:

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Undine 140996 128 Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué 158715689X JS 3 3.73 1811 Undine
author: Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué
name: JS
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1811
rating: 3
read at: 2013/09/21
date added: 2013/10/06
shelves: fairies, goblins, dwarves, fantasy
review:

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<![CDATA[Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World]]> 10374 Lord Jim.

Science fiction, detective story and post-modern manifesto all rolled into one rip-roaring novel, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World is the tour de force that expanded Haruki Murakami's international following. Tracking one man's descent into the Kafkaesque underworld of contemporary Tokyo, Murakami unites East and West, tragedy and farce, compassion and detachment, slang and philosophy.]]>
400 Haruki Murakami JS 4 4.14 1985 Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
author: Haruki Murakami
name: JS
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1985
rating: 4
read at: 2013/09/15
date added: 2013/09/15
shelves: magical-realism, science-fiction, winter, utopia, fantasy
review:

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<![CDATA[The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century]]> 6555228
In this compelling volume, Medieval history expert Mortimer (The Fears of Henry IV) transports readers to jolly, squalid old England for a thorough survey of everyday 14th century life. Going beyond the "nasty, brutish and short" of it, Mortimer's immersive visitor's-guide approach to popular history gives readers a seamless sense of being there. The population is young-"Half of the population is aged twenty-one or less"-but incredibly diverse. The idea that social classes were distinct and few-fighters, prayers, and farmers-gets exploded in Mortimer's examination society and the Medieval character, including everything from humor and juggling to mariners to doctors. Mortimer even argues, convincingly, over relative standards of hygiene ("to regard a medieval kitchen as 'dirty' because it has not been wiped down with modern detergent is to apply our own standards inappropriately"). He also looks at the role of period's four greatest writers of the time , and reveals the horrors of contemporary medicine (with terrifying descriptions of the plague) and law (the outskirts of every town were decorated with the hanged corpses of minor criminals). Mortimer's toungue-in-cheek vistor's guide is an impressive accomplishment, turning 600 years of history transparent to give 21st century audiences a clear view on Medieval life.]]>
342 Ian Mortimer 1439112894 JS 0 to-read 4.06 2008 The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century
author: Ian Mortimer
name: JS
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Knight, the Lady and the Priest: The Making of Modern Marriage in Mediaeval France]]> 12450406 320 Georges Duby 0140551433 JS 0 to-read 4.33 1981 The Knight, the Lady and the Priest: The Making of Modern Marriage in Mediaeval France
author: Georges Duby
name: JS
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Thinking Medieval: An Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages]]> 2806175 166 Marcus Bull 1403912955 JS 0 to-read 3.73 2005 Thinking Medieval: An Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages
author: Marcus Bull
name: JS
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

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Cloud Atlas 49628
Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . .

Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history.

But the story doesn't end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.

As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.]]>
509 David Mitchell 0375507256 JS 4 4.02 2004 Cloud Atlas
author: David Mitchell
name: JS
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2013/08/15
date added: 2013/08/15
shelves: adventure, dystopia, science-fiction, sea, slavery
review:

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<![CDATA[The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy]]> 199002 The Great Divergence brings new insight to one of the classic questions of history: Why did sustained industrial growth begin in Northwest Europe, despite surprising similarities between advanced areas of Europe and East Asia? As Ken Pomeranz shows, as recently as 1750, parallels between these two parts of the world were very high in life expectancy, consumption, product and factor markets, and the strategies of households. Perhaps most surprisingly, Pomeranz demonstrates that the Chinese and Japanese cores were no worse off ecologically than Western Europe. Core areas throughout the eighteenth-century Old World faced comparable local shortages of land-intensive products, shortages that were only partly resolved by trade.

Pomeranz argues that Europe's nineteenth-century divergence from the Old World owes much to the fortunate location of coal, which substituted for timber. This made Europe's failure to use its land intensively much less of a problem, while allowing growth in energy-intensive industries. Another crucial difference that he notes has to do with trade. Fortuitous global conjunctures made the Americas a greater source of needed primary products for Europe than any Asian periphery. This allowed Northwest Europe to grow dramatically in population, specialize further in manufactures, and remove labor from the land, using increased imports rather than maximizing yields. Together, coal and the New World allowed Europe to grow along resource-intensive, labor-saving paths.

Meanwhile, Asia hit a cul-de-sac. Although the East Asian hinterlands boomed after 1750, both in population and in manufacturing, this growth prevented these peripheral regions from exporting vital resources to the cloth-producing Yangzi Delta. As a result, growth in the core of East Asia's economy essentially stopped, and what growth did exist was forced along labor-intensive, resource-saving paths--paths Europe could have been forced down, too, had it not been for favorable resource stocks from underground and overseas.]]>
392 Kenneth Pomeranz 0691090106 JS 0 to-read 3.69 2000 The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy
author: Kenneth Pomeranz
name: JS
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 (Studies in Environment and History)]]> 983034 408 Alfred W. Crosby 0521546184 JS 0 to-read 3.98 1986 Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 (Studies in Environment and History)
author: Alfred W. Crosby
name: JS
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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Europe: A History 40631 1392 Norman Davies 0060974680 JS 0 to-read 4.20 1996 Europe: A History
author: Norman Davies
name: JS
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/10
shelves: to-read
review:

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Orientalism 355190
In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of "orientalism" to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of power, defined "the orient" simply as "other than" the occident. This entrenched view continues to dominate western ideas and, because it does not allow the East to represent itself, prevents true understanding. Essential, and still eye-opening, Orientalism remains one of the most important books written about our divided world.]]>
424 Edward W. Said JS 0 to-read 4.13 1978 Orientalism
author: Edward W. Said
name: JS
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1978
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/08/08
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays]]> 942560 This collection includes historical writings such as The GNU Manifesto, which defined and launched the activist Free Software Movement, along with new writings on hot topics in copyright, patent law, and the controversial issue of "trusted computing."
Stallman takes a critical look at common abuses of copyright law and
patents when applied to computer software programs, and how these
abuses damage our entire society and remove our existing freedoms. He
also discusses the social aspects of software and how free software
can create community and social justice.




Given the current turmoil in copyright and patent laws, including
the DMCA and proposed CBDTPA, these essays are more relevant than
ever. Stallman tackles head-on the essential issues driving the
current changes in copyright law. He argues that for creativity to
flourish, software must be free of inappropriate and overly-broad
legal constraints. Over the past twenty years his arguments and
actions have changed the course of software history; this new book is
sure to impact the future of software and legal policies in the years
to come.




Lawrence Lessig, the author of two well-known books on similar topics,
writes the introduction. He is a noted legal expert on copyright law
and a Stanford Law School professor.

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224 Richard M. Stallman 1882114981 JS 0 to-read 4.11 2002 Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays
author: Richard M. Stallman
name: JS
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/08/01
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Billionaire Who Wasn't: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune]]> 2842145 Forbes Magazine as the twenty-fourth richest American alive. But secretly Feeney had already transferred all his wealth to his foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies. Only in 1997 when he sold his duty free interests, was he “outed� as one of the greatest and most mysterious American philanthropists in modern times. After going “underground� again, he emerged in 2005 to cooperate on a biography promoting giving while living. Now in his mid-seventies, Feeney is determined his foundation should spend down the remaining $4 billion in his lifetime.]]> 368 Conor O'Clery 158648642X JS 0 to-read 4.04 2007 The Billionaire Who Wasn't: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune
author: Conor O'Clery
name: JS
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/07/26
shelves: to-read
review:

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Pedro Páramo 38787
As one enters Juan Rulfo's legendary novel, one follows a dusty road to a town of death. Time shifts from one consciousness to another in a hypnotic flow of dreams, desires, and memories, a world of ghosts dominated by the figure of Pedro Páramo - lover, overlord, murderer.

Rulfo's extraordinary mix of sensory images, violent passions, and unfathomable mysteries has been a profound influence on a whole generation of Latin American writers, including Carlos Fuentes, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Gabriel García Márquez. To read Pedro Páramo today is as overwhelming an experience as when it was first published in Mexico back in 1955.]]>
124 Juan Rulfo 0802133908 JS 5 4.06 1955 Pedro Páramo
author: Juan Rulfo
name: JS
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1955
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/06/27
shelves: ghosts, magical-realism, mexico
review:

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<![CDATA[The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)]]> 2767052
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 JS 3 science-fiction, dystopia 4.34 2008 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: JS
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2013/06/16
date added: 2013/06/27
shelves: science-fiction, dystopia
review:

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<![CDATA[The Perks of Being a Wallflower]]> 22628 offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see
what it looks like from the dance floor.

This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in contemporary fiction: The Perks of Being A WALLFLOWER

This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that the perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.

Through Charlie, Stephen Chbosky has created a deeply affecting coming-of-age story, a powerful novel that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller coaster days known as growing up.

(back cover)]]>
213 Stephen Chbosky JS 4 mental-illness, coming-of-age 4.24 1999 The Perks of Being a Wallflower
author: Stephen Chbosky
name: JS
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2013/06/26
date added: 2013/06/27
shelves: mental-illness, coming-of-age
review:

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Phantastes 174948
In MacDonald's fairy tales, both those for children and (like this one) those for adults, the "fairy land" clearly represents the spiritual world, or our own world revealed in all of its depth and meaning. At times almost forthrightly allegorical, at other times richly dreamlike (and indeed having a close connection to the symbolic world of dreams), this story of a young man who finds himself on a long journey through a land of fantasy is more truly the story of the spiritual quest that is at the core of his life's work, a quest that must end with the ultimate surrender of the self.

The glory of MacDonald's work is that this surrender is both hard won (or lost!) and yet rippling with joy when at last experienced. As the narrator says of a heavenly woman in this tale, "She knew something too good to be told." One senses the same of the author himself.

Newly designed and typeset in a modern 6-by-9-inch format by Waking Lion Press.]]>
212 George MacDonald 160096401X JS 5 3.91 1858 Phantastes
author: George MacDonald
name: JS
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1858
rating: 5
read at: 2013/06/16
date added: 2013/06/16
shelves: adventure, fairies, fantasy, kingdoms, goblins, ghosts, heroes, winter
review:

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<![CDATA[Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight]]> 15841837 Confessions of a Sociopath is an engrossing, highly captivating narrative of the author's life as a diagnosed sociopath.

She is a charismatic charmer, an ambitious self-promoter, and a cunning and calculating liar. She can induce you to invest in her financial schemes, vote for her causes, and even join her in bed. Like a real-life Lisbeth Salander, she has her own system of ethics, and like Dexter, she thrives on bending and occasionally breaking the rules. She is a diagnosed, high-functioning, noncriminal sociopath, and this is her world from her point of view.

Drawn from the author's own experiences; her popular blog, Sociopathworld.com; and scientific literature, Confessions of a Sociopath is part confessional memoir, part primer for the curious. Written from the point of view of a diagnosed sociopath, it unveils for the very first time these people who are hiding in plain sight. The book confirms suspicions and debunks myths about sociopathy, providing a road map for dealing with the sociopath in your life.]]>
320 M.E. Thomas 0307956644 JS 0 to-read 3.21 2013 Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight
author: M.E. Thomas
name: JS
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/05/15
shelves: to-read
review:

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American Psycho 28676 American Psycho is a bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognize but do not wish to confront.]]> 399 Bret Easton Ellis 0679735771 JS 4 3.82 1991 American Psycho
author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: JS
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at: 2013/04/27
date added: 2013/04/28
shelves: serial-killers, mental-illness
review:

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The Rose And the Ring 654972 204 William Makepeace Thackeray 142193311X JS 3 fairies, kingdoms, fantasy 3.78 1855 The Rose And the Ring
author: William Makepeace Thackeray
name: JS
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1855
rating: 3
read at: 2013/03/20
date added: 2013/04/28
shelves: fairies, kingdoms, fantasy
review:

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<![CDATA[Difficult People: How to Deal with Impossible Clients, Bosses and Employees]]> 1448380 Roberta Cava 1552091252 JS 0 to-read 5.00 1990 Difficult People: How to Deal with Impossible Clients, Bosses and Employees
author: Roberta Cava
name: JS
average rating: 5.00
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/04/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster]]> 1898
Into Thin Air is the definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed journalist and author of the bestseller Into the Wild. On assignment for Outside Magazine to report on the growing commercialization of the mountain, Krakauer, an accomplished climber, went to the Himalayas as a client of Rob Hall, the most respected high-altitude guide in the world. A rangy, thirty-five-year-old New Zealander, Hall had summited Everest four times between 1990 and 1995 and had led thirty-nine climbers to the top. Ascending the mountain in close proximity to Hall's team was a guided expedition led by Scott Fischer, a forty-year-old American with legendary strength and drive who had climbed the peak without supplemental oxygen in 1994. But neither Hall nor Fischer survived the rogue storm that struck in May 1996.

Krakauer examines what it is about Everest that has compelled so many people -- including himself -- to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense. Written with emotional clarity and supported by his unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's eyewitness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement.]]>
368 Jon Krakauer JS 0 to-read 4.24 1997 Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
author: Jon Krakauer
name: JS
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/04/06
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West]]> 11797365 A New York Times bestseller, the shocking story of one of the few people born in a North Korean political prison to have escaped and survived.

North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did.

In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence-he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his own family. Through Harden's harrowing narrative of Shin's life and remarkable escape, he offers an unequaled inside account of one of the world's darkest nations and a riveting tale of endurance, courage, and survival.]]>
205 Blaine Harden 0670023329 JS 0 to-read 3.99 2012 Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West
author: Blaine Harden
name: JS
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/04/06
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality]]> 7640261
How can reality be reconciled with the accepted narrative? It can't be, according to renegade thinkers Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá. While debunking almost everything we "know" about sex, they offer a bold alternative explanation in this provocative and brilliant book.

Ryan and Jethá's central contention is that human beings evolved in egalitarian groups that shared food, child care, and, often, sexual partners. Weaving together convergent, frequently overlooked evidence from anthropology, archaeology, primatology, anatomy, and psychosexuality, the authors show how far from human nature monogamy really is. Human beings everywhere and in every era have confronted the same familiar, intimate situations in surprisingly different ways. The authors expose the ancient roots of human sexuality while pointing toward a more optimistic future illuminated by our innate capacities for love, cooperation, and generosity.

With intelligence, humor, and wonder, Ryan and Jethá show how our promiscuous past haunts our struggles over monogamy, sexual orientation, and family dynamics. They explore why long-term fidelity can be so difficult for so many; why sexual passion tends to fade even as love deepens; why many middle-aged men risk everything for transient affairs with younger women; why homosexuality persists in the face of standard evolutionary logic; and what the human body reveals about the prehistoric origins of modern sexuality.

In the tradition of the best historical and scientific writing, Sex at Dawn unapologetically upends unwarranted assumptions and unfounded conclusions while offering a revolutionary understanding of why we live and love as we do.]]>
416 Christopher Ryan JS 0 to-read 3.95 2010 Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
author: Christopher Ryan
name: JS
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/04/05
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Looking Glass Wars (The Looking Glass Wars, #1)]]> 44170 Alyss of Wonderland?
When Alyss Heart, newly orphaned heir to the Wonderland throne, flees through the Pool of Tears to escape her murderous Aunt Redd, she finds herself lost and alone in Victorian London. Befriended by an aspiring author named Lewis Carrol, Alyss tells the violent, heartbreaking story of her young life. Alyss trusts this author to tell the truth so that someone, somewhere will find her and bring her home. But he gets the story all wrong. He even spells her name incorrectly!

Fortunately, Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan knows all too well the awful truth of Alyss' story - and he's searching every corner of our world to find the lost princess and return her to Wonderland, to battle Redd for her rightful place as the Queen of Hearts.

The Looking Glass Wars unabashedly challenges our Wonderland assumptions of mad tea parties, grinning Cheshire cats, and a curious little blond girl to reveal an epic battle in the endless war for Imagination.]]>
384 Frank Beddor 0803731531 JS 0 to-read 3.94 2004 The Looking Glass Wars (The Looking Glass Wars, #1)
author: Frank Beddor
name: JS
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/03/23
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, #1)]]> 40445
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526 Richard K. Morgan 0345457692 JS 0 to-read 4.07 2002 Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, #1)
author: Richard K. Morgan
name: JS
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

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Snow Crash 830 Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous� you'll recognize it immediately.]]> 438 Neal Stephenson 0553380958 JS 4 4.02 1992 Snow Crash
author: Neal Stephenson
name: JS
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1992
rating: 4
read at: 2013/03/12
date added: 2013/03/14
shelves: computers, science-fiction, revenge
review:

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Apology 73945 The Apology of Socrates is Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he unsuccessfully defended himself in 399BCE against the charges of "corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel" (24b). "Apology" here has its earlier meaning (now usually expressed by the word "apologia") of speaking in defense of a cause or of one's beliefs or actions.

The revised edition of this popular textbook features revised vocabulary and grammatical notes that now appear on the same page as the text, sentence diagrams, principal parts of verbs listed both by Stephanus page and alphabetically, word frequency list for words occurring more than twice, and complete vocabulary.]]>
127 Plato 0865163480 JS 5 classics, philosophy, trial 4.22 -399 Apology
author: Plato
name: JS
average rating: 4.22
book published: -399
rating: 5
read at: 2013/03/08
date added: 2013/03/10
shelves: classics, philosophy, trial
review:

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Permutation City 156784 Permutation City is the tale of a man with a vision—how to create immortality—and how that vision becomes something way beyond his control. Encompassing the lives and struggles of an artificial life junkie desperate to save her dying mother, a billionaire banker scarred by a terrible crime, the lovers for whom, in their timeless virtual world, love is not enough—and much more—Permutation City is filled with the sense of wonder.]]> 352 Greg Egan 006105481X JS 0 to-read 4.08 1994 Permutation City
author: Greg Egan
name: JS
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1994
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Crow 97486 240 James O'Barr 074344647X JS 0 to-read 4.30 1989 The Crow
author: James O'Barr
name: JS
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/24
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Along Came a Spider (Alex Cross, #1)]]> 13145
Gary Soneji wants to commit the crime of the century. Alex Cross is the brilliant homicide detective pitted against him. Jezzie Flanagan is the first female supervisor of the Secret Service. They complete one of the most unusual suspense triangles in any thriller you have ever read.

Alex and Jezzie are about to have a forbidden love affair—at the worst possible time for both of them. Because Gary Soneji is playing at the top of his game. The latest of the unspeakable crimes happens in Alex Cross's precinct and it happens under the nose of Jezzie and her men.

Alex faces the ultimate test: how do you outmaneuver a brilliant psychopath?]]>
449 James Patterson 0446692638 JS 0 to-read 4.13 1993 Along Came a Spider (Alex Cross, #1)
author: James Patterson
name: JS
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/23
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt, #1)]]> 252577
"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."

So begins the Pulitzer Prize winning memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank's mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank's father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy—exasperating, irresponsible and beguiling—does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father's tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.

Perhaps it is story that accounts for Frank's survival. Wearing rags for diapers, begging a pig's head for Christmas dinner and gathering coal from the roadside to light a fire, Frank endures poverty, near-starvation and the casual cruelty of relatives and neighbors—yet lives to tell his tale with eloquence, exuberance and remarkable forgiveness.

Angela's Ashes, imbued on every page with Frank McCourt's astounding humor and compassion, is a glorious book that bears all the marks of a classic.]]>
452 Frank McCourt 0007205236 JS 0 to-read 4.15 1996 Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt, #1)
author: Frank McCourt
name: JS
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/20
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)]]> 21611 278 Joe Haldeman JS 0 to-read 4.14 1974 The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)
author: Joe Haldeman
name: JS
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/17
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)]]> 9969571 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

IN THE YEAR 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.

But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.]]>
480 Ernest Cline 030788743X JS 0 to-read 4.21 2011 Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)
author: Ernest Cline
name: JS
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/02/06
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Complete Stories and Poems]]> 13235 384 Lewis Carroll 0517220776 JS 0 to-read 4.35 1884 The Complete Stories and Poems
author: Lewis Carroll
name: JS
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1884
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/01/24
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The King of the Golden River (Yesterday's Classics)]]> 651440 60 John Ruskin 1599151251 JS 3 fantasy, fairy-tales 3.89 1841 The King of the Golden River (Yesterday's Classics)
author: John Ruskin
name: JS
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1841
rating: 3
read at: 2013/01/14
date added: 2013/01/17
shelves: fantasy, fairy-tales
review:

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The Catcher in the Rye 5107 It's Christmas time and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school...

Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters—shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, its mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning.

The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic in coming-of-age literature- an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind.

J.D. Salinger's (1919�2010) classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and in the 1950's and 60's it was the novel that every teenage boy wants to read.]]>
277 J.D. Salinger 0316769177 JS 4 coming-of-age 3.81 1951 The Catcher in the Rye
author: J.D. Salinger
name: JS
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1951
rating: 4
read at: 2013/01/13
date added: 2013/01/17
shelves: coming-of-age
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<![CDATA[The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #2)]]> 78418
If you have picked up this book with the hope of finding a simple and cheery tale, I'm afraid you have picked up the wrong book altogether. The story may seem cheery at first, when the Baudelaire children spend time in the company of some interesting reptiles and a giddy uncle, but don't be fooled. If you know anything at all about the unlucky Baudelaire children, you already know that even pleasant events lead down the same road to misery.

In fact, within the pages you now hold in your hands, the three siblings endure a car accident, a terrible odor, a deadly serpent, a long knife, a large brass reading lamp, and the appearance of a person they'd hoped never to see again.

I am bound to record these tragic events, but you are free to put this book back on the shelf and seek something lighter.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket]]>
192 Lemony Snicket JS 2 orphans 4.02 1999 The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #2)
author: Lemony Snicket
name: JS
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1999
rating: 2
read at: 2013/01/06
date added: 2013/01/17
shelves: orphans
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The Time Machine 2493
So begins the Time Traveller’s astonishing firsthand account of his journey 800,000 years beyond his own era—and the story that launched H.G. Wells’s successful career and earned him his reputation as the father of science fiction. With a speculative leap that still fires the imagination, Wells sends his brave explorer to face a future burdened with our greatest hopes...and our darkest fears. A pull of the Time Machine’s lever propels him to the age of a slowly dying Earth.  There he discovers two bizarre races—the ethereal Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks—who not only symbolize the duality of human nature, but offer a terrifying portrait of the men of tomorrow as well.  Published in 1895, this masterpiece of invention captivated readers on the threshold of a new century. Thanks to Wells’s expert storytelling and provocative insight, The Time Machine will continue to enthrall readers for generations to come.

Ìý±Õ±Õ>
118 H.G. Wells JS 3 3.91 1895 The Time Machine
author: H.G. Wells
name: JS
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1895
rating: 3
read at: 2012/12/30
date added: 2013/01/17
shelves: science-fiction, time-travel, dystopia
review:

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<![CDATA[Down and Out in Paris and London]]> 393199 213 George Orwell 015626224X JS 0 to-read 4.10 1933 Down and Out in Paris and London
author: George Orwell
name: JS
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1933
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/12
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage]]> 18154 Cliff Stoll was an astronomer turned systems manager at Lawrence Berkeley Lab when a 75-cent accounting error alerted him to the presence of an unauthorized user on his system. The hacker's code name was "Hunter" -- a mysterious invader who managed to break into U.S. computer systems and steal sensitive military and security information. Stoll began a one-man hunt of his spying on the spy. It was a dangerous game of deception, broken codes, satellites, and missile bases -- a one-man sting operation that finally gained the attention of the CIA...and ultimately trapped an international spy ring fueled by cash, cocaine, and the KGB.]]> 399 Clifford Stoll 1416507787 JS 0 to-read 4.27 1989 The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
author: Clifford Stoll
name: JS
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/01/04
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground]]> 9319468
The word spread through the hacking underground like some unstoppable new virus: an audacious crook had staged a hostile takeover of an online criminal network that siphoned billions of dollars from the US economy.

The culprit was a brilliant programmer with a hippie ethic and a supervillain's double identity. Max 'Vision' Butler was a white-hat hacker and a celebrity throughout the programming world, even serving as a consultant to the FBI. But there was another side to Max. As the black-hat 'Iceman', he'd seen the fraudsters around him squabble, their ranks riddled with infiltrators, their methods inefficient, and in their dysfunction was the ultimate challenge: he would stage a coup and steal their ill-gotten gains from right under their noses.

Through the story of Max Butler's remarkable rise, KINGPIN lays bare the workings of a silent crime wave affecting millions worldwide. It exposes vast online-fraud supermarkets stocked with credit card numbers, counterfeit cheques, hacked bank accounts and fake passports. Thanks to Kevin Poulsen's remarkable access to both cops and criminals, we step inside the quiet,desperate battle that law enforcement fights against these scammers. And learn that the boy next door may not be all he seems.]]>
288 Kevin Poulsen 0307588688 JS 0 to-read 3.94 2011 Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground
author: Kevin Poulsen
name: JS
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/04
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker]]> 10256723 If they were a hall of fame or shame for computer hackers, a Kevin Mitnick plaque would be mounted the near the entrance. While other nerds were fumbling with password possibilities, this adept break-artist was penetrating the digital secrets of Sun Microsystems, Digital Equipment Corporation, Nokia, Motorola, Pacific Bell, and other mammoth enterprises. His Ghost in the Wires memoir paints an action portrait of a plucky loner motivated by a passion for trickery, not material game. (P.S. Mitnick's capers have already been the subject of two books and a movie. This first-person account is the most comprehensive to date.)

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413 Kevin D. Mitnick 0316037702 JS 0 to-read 3.94 2011 Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker
author: Kevin D. Mitnick
name: JS
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2013/01/04
shelves: to-read
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The C Programming Language 515601
From the Preface:
We have tried to retain the brevity of the first edition. C is not a big language, and it is not well served by a big book. We have improved the exposition of critical features, such as pointers, that are central to C programming. We have refined the original examples, and have added new examples in several chapters. For instance, the treatment of complicated declarations is augmented by programs that convert declarations into words and vice versa. As before, all examples have been tested directly from the text, which is in machine-readable form.

As we said in the first preface to the first edition, C "wears well as one's experience with it grows." With a decade more experience, we still feel that way. We hope that this book will help you to learn C and use it well.

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272 Brian W. Kernighan 0131103628 JS 0 to-read 4.44 1978 The C Programming Language
author: Brian W. Kernighan
name: JS
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1978
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/12/29
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[How to Design Programs: An Introduction to Programming and Computing]]> 1119079 720 Matthias Felleisen 0262062186 JS 0 to-read 4.02 2001 How to Design Programs: An Introduction to Programming and Computing
author: Matthias Felleisen
name: JS
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/12/29
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)]]> 100915
Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At first her brothers and sister don't believe her when she tells of her visit to the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund, then Peter and Susan step through the wardrobe themselves. In Narnia they find a country buried under the evil enchantment of the White Witch. When they meet the Lion Aslan, they realize they've been called to a great adventure and bravely join the battle to free Narnia from the Witch's sinister spell.]]>
206 C.S. Lewis JS 3 4.24 1950 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)
author: C.S. Lewis
name: JS
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1950
rating: 3
read at: 2012/12/29
date added: 2012/12/29
shelves: fantasy, adventure, narnia, winter, witches
review:

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Life of Pi 4214 460 Yann Martel 0770430074 JS 4 adventure, sea, biology 3.94 2001 Life of Pi
author: Yann Martel
name: JS
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2012/12/23
date added: 2012/12/29
shelves: adventure, sea, biology
review:

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Poema de Mio Cid 7186069 En espanol. 448 pp. 448 Unknown 8402006922 JS 4 classics 3.25 1110 Poema de Mio Cid
author: Unknown
name: JS
average rating: 3.25
book published: 1110
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/12/29
shelves: classics
review:

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<![CDATA[The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible]]> 495395
Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs decides to dive in headfirst and attempt to obey the hundreds of less-publicised rules. The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal, and will make you see history's most influential book with new eyes.]]>
388 A.J. Jacobs 0743291476 JS 0 to-read 3.76 2007 The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
author: A.J. Jacobs
name: JS
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/12/29
shelves: to-read
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Conversation in the Cathedral 53970 Conversation in The Cathedral takes place in 1950s Peru during the dictatorship of Manuel Apolinario Odría Amoretti. Over beers and a sea of freely spoken words, the conversation flows between two individuals, Santiago and Ambrosia, who talk of their tormented lives and of the overall degradation and frustration that has slowly taken over their town. Through a complicated web of secrets and historical references, Mario Vargas Llosa analyzes the mental and moral mechanisms that govern power and the people behind it. More than a historic analysis, Conversation in The Cathedral is a groundbreaking novel that tackles identity as well as the role of a citizen and how a lack of personal freedom can forever scar a people and a nation.]]> 608 Mario Vargas Llosa 0060732806 JS 0 to-read 4.32 1969 Conversation in the Cathedral
author: Mario Vargas Llosa
name: JS
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1969
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/12/22
shelves: to-read
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Story of O (Story of O, #1) 526080
In brief, Story of O relates the progressive willful debasement of a young and beautiful Parisian fashion photographer, O, who wants nothing more than to be a slave to her lover, René. The test is severe—sexual in method, psychological in substance� The artistic interest here has precisely to do with the use not only of erotic materials but also erotic methods, the deliberate stimulation of the reader as a part of and means to a total, authentic literary experience.�

—Eliot Fremont-Smith, The New York Times

“That Pauline Réage is a more dangerous writer than the Marquis de Sade follows from the fact that art is more persuasive than propaganda... Aiming only to reveal, to clarify, to make real to the reader those dark and repulsive practices and emotions that his better self rejects as improbable or evil, Pauline Réage succeeds in drawing us irresistably into her perverse world through the magnetism of her own selfless absorption in it. Like some exquisitely balanced, gently undulating instrument, she carefully inscribes the cruel shocks inflicted on her heroine’s refined sensibility � and we believe.�

—The New York Times Book Review

“An ironic fable of unfreedom, a mystic document that transcends the pornographic and even the erotic...[it] is so horrifying, outraging cherished beliefs in the sanctity of the body and in personal freedom.... To give the body, to allow it to be ravaged, exploited and totally possessed, can be an act of consequence.�

—N±ð·É²õ·É±ð±ð°ì±Õ±Õ>
287 Pauline Réage 0552089303 JS 0 to-read 3.21 1954 Story of O (Story of O, #1)
author: Pauline Réage
name: JS
average rating: 3.21
book published: 1954
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/12/22
shelves: to-read
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Let the Right One In 943402
But the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door—a girl who has never seen a Rubik's Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There is something wrong with her, though, something odd. And she only comes out at night....]]>
513 John Ajvide Lindqvist 1847241697 JS 0 to-read 4.08 2004 Let the Right One In
author: John Ajvide Lindqvist
name: JS
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/12/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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Animal Farm 7613
When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.]]>
129 George Orwell JS 4 dystopia 3.90 1945 Animal Farm
author: George Orwell
name: JS
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1945
rating: 4
read at: 2012/12/19
date added: 2012/12/19
shelves: dystopia
review:

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<![CDATA[The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao]]> 297673
Diaz immerses us in the tumultuous life of Oscar and the history of the family at large, rendering with genuine warmth and dazzling energy, humor, and insight the Dominican-American experience, and, ultimately, the endless human capacity to persevere in the face of heartbreak and loss. A true literary triumph, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao confirms Junot Diaz as one of the best and most exciting voices of our time.]]>
335 Junot Díaz 1594489580 JS 0 to-read 3.89 2007 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
author: Junot Díaz
name: JS
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/12/19
shelves: to-read
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Slow Death 1078771 320 Jim Fielder 0786011998 JS 0 to-read 3.60 2001 Slow Death
author: Jim Fielder
name: JS
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Great Time Machine Hoax 441276
That's why Chester is desperate enough to use the Generalized Nonlinear Extrapolator (GENIE for short) to perpetuate one of the biggest entertainment scams of all time - THE GREAT TIME MACHINE HOAX (But he should have read the instructon manual.)]]>
210 Keith Laumer 0441302564 JS 0 to-read 3.50 1964 The Great Time Machine Hoax
author: Keith Laumer
name: JS
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/12/18
shelves: to-read
review:

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Alice in Wonderland 13023 This is an adaptation. For the editions of the original book, see here .

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice falling through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. Its narrative course and structure, characters and imagery have been enormously influential in both popular culture and literature, especially in the fantasy genre.]]>
96 Jane Carruth 0517223627 JS 5 fantasy, adventure 4.03 1865 Alice in Wonderland
author: Jane Carruth
name: JS
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1865
rating: 5
read at: 2012/12/17
date added: 2012/12/17
shelves: fantasy, adventure
review:

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<![CDATA[A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)]]> 13496
Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, A Game of Thrones tells a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; a child is lost in the twilight between life and death; and a determined woman undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear. Amid plots and counter-plots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, allies and enemies, the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance, as each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.]]>
835 George R.R. Martin 0553588486 JS 4 4.44 1996 A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: JS
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at: 2012/12/16
date added: 2012/12/17
shelves: fantasy, dragons, kingdoms, winter
review:

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<![CDATA[The Hobbit, or There and Back Again]]> 5907 Written for J.R.R. Tolkien’s own children, The Hobbit met with instant critical acclaim when it was first published in 1937. Now recognized as a timeless classic, this introduction to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins, the wizard Gandalf, Gollum, and the spectacular world of Middle-earth recounts of the adventures of a reluctant hero, a powerful and dangerous ring, and the cruel dragon Smaug the Magnificent. The text in this 372-page paperback edition is based on that first published in Great Britain by Collins Modern Classics (1998), and includes a note on the text by Douglas A. Anderson (2001).]]> 366 J.R.R. Tolkien JS 4 4.29 1937 The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: JS
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1937
rating: 4
read at: 2012/07/11
date added: 2012/12/12
shelves: fantasy, middle-earth, adventure, hobbits, wizards, dragons, trolls, goblins, elfs
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The Great Gatsby 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author’s own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]>
180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 JS 4 3.93 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: JS
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 4
read at: 2012/06/20
date added: 2012/12/12
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<![CDATA[The Colour of Magic (Discworld, #1)]]> 601238 Alternate Cover Editions can be found here, and here

On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out. There's an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE EDGE on the planet...]]>
287 Terry Pratchett 0552124753 JS 3 3.80 1983 The Colour of Magic (Discworld, #1)
author: Terry Pratchett
name: JS
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1983
rating: 3
read at: 2012/12/12
date added: 2012/12/12
shelves: fantasy, discworld, wizards, heroes, adventure
review:

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<![CDATA[Genes, Girls, and Gamow: After the Double Helix]]> 540366 Genes, Girls, and Gamow is the marvelous chronicle of those pursuits. Watson effortlessly glides between his heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious debacles in the field of love and his heady inquiries in the field of science. He also reflects with touching candor on some of science’s other titans, from fellow Nobelists Linus Pauling and the incorrigible Richard Feynman to Russian physicist George Gamow, who loved whiskey, limericks, and card tricks as much as he did molecules and genes. What emerges is a refreshingly human portrait of a group of geniuses and a candid, often surprising account of how science is done.]]> 336 James D. Watson 0375727159 JS 0 to-read 3.26 2001 Genes, Girls, and Gamow: After the Double Helix
author: James D. Watson
name: JS
average rating: 3.26
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/08/25
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Crown Conspiracy (The Riyria Revelations, #1)]]> 4345290 They killed the king. They pinned it on two men. They chose poorly.

There is no ancient evil to defeat, no orphan destined for greatness, just two guys in the wrong place at the wrong time. Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater make a profitable living carrying out dangerous assignments for conspiring nobles until they become the unwitting scapegoats in a plot to murder the king. Sentenced to death, they have only one way out...and so begins this tale of treachery and adventure, sword fighting and magic, myth and legend.]]>
296 Michael J. Sullivan 0980003431 JS 0 to-read 4.21 2008 The Crown Conspiracy (The Riyria Revelations, #1)
author: Michael J. Sullivan
name: JS
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/08/19
shelves: to-read
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Aztec (Aztec, #1) 550454 Aztec is the extraordinary story of the last and greatest native civilization of North America. Told in the words of one of the most robust and memorable characters in modern fiction, Mixtli-Dark Cloud, Aztec reveals the very depths of Aztec civilization from the peak and feather-banner splendor of the Aztec Capital of Tenochtitlan to the arrival of Hernán Cortes and his conquistadores, and their destruction of the Aztec empire. The story of Mixtli is the story of the Aztecs themselves---a compelling, epic tale of heroic dignity and a colossal civilization's rise and fall.]]> 754 Gary Jennings 0765317508 JS 0 to-read 4.22 1980 Aztec (Aztec, #1)
author: Gary Jennings
name: JS
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1980
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/08/06
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea]]> 6178648 Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population.

Taking us into a landscape most of us have never before seen, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, in which radio and television dials are welded to the one government station, and where displays of affection are punished; a police state where informants are rewarded and where an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life.

Demick takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors. Through meticulous and sensitive reporting, we see her six subjects—average North Korean citizens—fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we experience the moments when they realize that their government has betrayed them.

Nothing to Envy is a groundbreaking addition to the literature of totalitarianism and an eye-opening look at a closed world that is of increasing global importance.]]>
316 Barbara Demick 0385523904 JS 0 to-read 4.43 2009 Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
author: Barbara Demick
name: JS
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/08/05
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[My Life: A Spoken Autobiography]]> 1757027 724 Fidel Castro 1416553282 JS 0 to-read 4.21 2006 My Life: A Spoken Autobiography
author: Fidel Castro
name: JS
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/07/24
shelves: to-read
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In Search of Lost Time 18796
For this authoritative English-language edition, D. J. Enright has revised the late Terence Kilmartin’s acclaimed reworking of C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s translation to take into account the new definitive French editions of À la recherche du temps perdu (the final volume of these new editions was published by the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade in 1989).]]>
4211 Marcel Proust 0812969642 JS 0 to-read 4.34 1913 In Search of Lost Time
author: Marcel Proust
name: JS
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1913
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/07/22
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Johnny The Homicidal Maniac #1]]> 7149631 24 Jhonen Vásquez JS 0 to-read 4.28 1995 Johnny The Homicidal Maniac #1
author: Jhonen Vásquez
name: JS
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/07/20
shelves: to-read
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Rat Catching 158346 185 Crispin Hellion Glover 0962299707 JS 0 to-read 4.24 1999 Rat Catching
author: Crispin Hellion Glover
name: JS
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/07/14
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[From Dictatorship to Democracy]]> 1119326 93 Gene Sharp JS 0 to-read 3.83 1993 From Dictatorship to Democracy
author: Gene Sharp
name: JS
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/07/05
shelves: to-read
review:

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The Analyst: A Novel 1564303 512 John Katzenbach 0345426274 JS 0 to-read 3.89 2002 The Analyst: A Novel
author: John Katzenbach
name: JS
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/06/24
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag]]> 69951
Amid escalating nuclear tensions, Kim Jong-un and North Korea's other leaders have kept a tight grasp on their one-party state, quashing any nascent opposition movements and sending all suspected dissidents to its brutal concentration camps for "re-education."

Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of one of these camps to escape and tell his story to the world, documenting the extreme conditions in these gulags and providing a personal insight into life in North Korea. Sent to the notorious labor camp Yodok when he was nine years old, Kang observed frequent public executions and endured forced labor and near-starvation rations for ten years. In 1992, he escaped to South Korea, where he found God and now advocates for human rights in North Korea.

Part horror story, part historical document, part memoir, part political tract, this book brings together unassailable firsthand experience, setting one young man's personal suffering in the wider context of modern history, giving eyewitness proof to the abuses perpetrated by the North Korean regime.]]>
238 Kang Chol-Hwan 0465011047 JS 0 to-read 4.10 2000 The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag
author: Kang Chol-Hwan
name: JS
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/06/24
shelves: to-read
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Mindfulness in Plain English 64369 step by step through the myths, realities, and benefits of meditation and the practice of mindfulness. This expanded edition includes the complete text of its predecessor along with a new chapter on cultivating loving kindness. For anyone who is new to meditation, this is a great resource for learning how to live a more productive and peaceful life.]]> 208 Henepola Gunaratana 0861713214 JS 0 to-read 4.13 1992 Mindfulness in Plain English
author: Henepola Gunaratana
name: JS
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/06/10
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[In the Dust of This Planet (Horror of Philosophy, #1)]]> 11944741
In the Dust of This Planet explores these relationships between philosophy and horror. In Thacker’s hands, philosophy is not academic logic-chopping; instead, it is the thought of the limit of all thought, especially as it dovetails into occultism, demonology, and mysticism. Likewise, Thacker takes horror to mean something beyond the focus on gore and scare tactics, but as the under-appreciated genre of supernatural horror in fiction, film, comics, and music. This relationship between philosophy and horror does not mean the philosophy of horror, if anything, it means the reverse, the horror of philosophy: those moments when philosophical thinking enigmatically confronts the horizon of its own existence. For Thacker, the genre of supernatural horror is the key site in which this paradoxical thought of the unthinkable takes place.]]>
179 Eugene Thacker 184694676X JS 0 to-read 3.67 2011 In the Dust of This Planet (Horror of Philosophy, #1)
author: Eugene Thacker
name: JS
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/06/09
shelves: to-read
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The Way Things Work 304889 Get to grips with how things work inside hundreds of machines with this extraordinary book for kids that explains the science behind technologies and inventions.In this extensive encyclopedia packed full of simple science for kids aged 9+, David Macaulay's beautiful illustrations show the inner workings of each machine, from clocks and watches to jet engines and the Internet.The Way Things Work explains every machine you've ever wanted to understand, as well as some you've probably never thought about before. From the basic lever to the modern microprocessor, this bestseller has now been completely updated with the latest technologies - find out how a touchscreen works, look inside an optical mouse, and see the inner workings of a smartphone. This fascinating machines book for children - The inner workings of each machine, showing the technology in detail but making it accessible through Macaulay's uniquely playful illustrations.- The use of machines in everyday objects explainde, such as clocks, bikes, and watches, as well as the technology behind complicated machines such as space rockets and nuclear reactors.- Key scientific principles illustrated with Macaulay's brand of dry humour, using lighthearted stories involving mammoths.- An updated edition with machines and technologies that have become commonplace since the book's last major revision in 2016.In The Way Things Work Now, David Macaulay explains machines in a way no other illustrator can. Macaulay's inspired illustrations and humorous approach make even the most complex technology fun, fascinating, and accessible for children of all ages.]]> 384 David Macaulay 0590429892 JS 0 to-read 4.34 1988 The Way Things Work
author: David Macaulay
name: JS
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/06/09
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food]]> 1587362 The ultimate one-stop vegetarian cookbook-from the author of the classic How to Cook EverythingHailed as "a more hip Joy of Cooking" by the Washington Post, Mark Bittman's award-winning book How to Cook Everything has become the bible for a new generation of home cooks, and the series has more than 1 million copies in print. Now, with How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian, Bittman has written the definitive guide to meatless meals-a book that will appeal to everyone who wants to cook simple but delicious meatless dishes, from health-conscious omnivores to passionate vegetarians.

How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian includes more than 2,000 recipes and variations-far more than any other vegetarian cookbook. As always, Bittman's recipes are refreshingly straightforward, resolutely unfussy, and unfailingly delicious-producing dishes that home cooks can prepare with ease and serve with confidence. The book covers the whole spectrum of meatless cooking-including salads, soups, eggs and dairy, vegetables and fruit, pasta, grains, legumes, tofu and other meat substitutes, breads, condiments, desserts, and beverages. Special icons identify recipes that can be made in 30 minutes or less and in advance, as well as those that are vegan. Illustrated throughout with handsome line illustrations and brimming with Bittman's lucid, opinionated advice on everything from selecting vegetables to preparing pad Thai, How to Cook Everything: Vegetarian truly makes meatless cooking more accessible than ever.

Praise for How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

"Mark Bittman's category lock on definitive, massive food tomes continues with this well-thought-out ode to the garden and beyond. Combining deep research, tasty information, and delicious easy-to-cook recipes is Mark's forte and everything I want to cook is in here, from chickpea fries to cheese soufflés."
—Mario Batali, chef, author, and entrepreneur

"How do you make an avid meat eater (like me) fall in love with vegetarian cooking? Make Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian part of your culinary library."
—Bobby Flay, chef/owner of Mesa Grill and Bar Americain and author of the Mesa Grill Cookbook

"Recipes that taste this good aren't supposed to be so healthy. Mark Bittman makes being a vegetarian fun."
—Dr. Mehmet Oz, Professor of Surgery, New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Medical Center and coauthor of You: The Owner's Manual]]>
996 Mark Bittman 0764524836 JS 0 to-read 4.08 2007 How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food
author: Mark Bittman
name: JS
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food]]> 603204 Great Food Made Simple

Here's the breakthrough one-stop cooking reference for today's generation of cooks! Nationally known cooking authority Mark Bittman shows you how to prepare great food for all occasions using simple techniques, fresh ingredients, and basic kitchen equipment. Just as important, How to Cook Everything takes a relaxed, straightforward approach to cooking, so you can enjoy yourself in the kitchen and still achieve outstanding results.

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944 Mark Bittman 0028610105 JS 0 to-read 3.99 1998 How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food
author: Mark Bittman
name: JS
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/06/04
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Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1) 77507 In his most ambitious project to date, award-winning author Kim Stanley Robinson utilizes years of research and cutting-edge science in the first of a trilogy chronicling the colonization of Mars.

For eons, sandstorms have swept the desolate landscape. For centuries, Mars has beckoned humans to conquer its hostile climate. Now, in 2026, a group of 100 colonists is about to fulfill that destiny.

John Boone, Maya Toitavna, Frank Chalmers and Arkady Bogdanov lead a terraforming mission. For some, Mars will become a passion driving them to daring acts of courage and madness. For others it offers an opportunity to strip the planet of its riches. For the genetic alchemists, it presents a chance to create a biomedical miracle, a breakthrough that could change all we know about life and death. The colonists orbit giant satellite mirrors to reflect light to the surface. Black dust sprinkled on the polar caps will capture warmth. Massive tunnels, kilometers deep, will be drilled into the mantle to create stupendous vents of hot gases. Against this backdrop of epic upheaval, rivalries, loves and friendships will form and fall to pieces—for there are those who will fight to the death to prevent Mars from ever being changed.

Brilliantly imagined, breathtaking in scope and ingenuity, Red Mars is an epic scientific saga, chronicling the next step in evolution, creating a world in its entirety. It shows a future, with both glory and tarnish, that awes with complexity and inspires with vision.]]>
572 Kim Stanley Robinson 0553560735 JS 0 to-read 3.86 1992 Red Mars (Mars Trilogy, #1)
author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: JS
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/06/03
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster]]> 413681 384 David Attenborough 0563487801 JS 0 to-read 4.39 2002 Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster
author: David Attenborough
name: JS
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/06/02
shelves: to-read
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Silence 25200 "In my opinion one of the finest novels of our time." - Graham Greene

Shusaku Endo is Japan's foremost novelist, and Silence is generally regarded to be his masterpiece. In a perfect fusion of treatment and theme, this powerful novel tells the story of a seventeenth-century Portuguese priest in Japan at the height of the fearful persecution of the small Christian community.]]>
219 Shūsaku EndŠ0800871863 JS 0 to-read 4.11 1966 Silence
author: ShÅ«saku EndÅ
name: JS
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1966
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/06/02
shelves: to-read
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Living Buddha, Living Christ 73184 240 Thich Nhat Hanh 1573225681 JS 0 to-read 4.14 1997 Living Buddha, Living Christ
author: Thich Nhat Hanh
name: JS
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/05/31
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Last Good Kiss (C.W. Sughrue, #1)]]> 523795 244 James Crumley 0394759893 JS 0 to-read 4.06 1978 The Last Good Kiss (C.W. Sughrue, #1)
author: James Crumley
name: JS
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1978
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/05/31
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Poison Study (Study, #1) 60510 Choose: A quick death� or slow poison...

About to be executed for murder, Yelena is offered an extraordinary reprieve. She'll eat the best meals, have rooms in the palace—and risk assassination by anyone trying to kill the Commander of Ixia.

And so Yelena chooses to become a food taster. But the chief of security, leaving nothing to chance, deliberately feeds her Butterfly's Dust—and only by appearing for her daily antidote will she delay an agonizing death from the poison.

As Yelena tries to escape her new dilemma, disasters keep mounting. Rebels plot to seize Ixia and Yelena develops magical powers she can't control. Her life is threatened again and choices must be made. But this time the outcomes aren't so clear...]]>
427 Maria V. Snyder 0778324338 JS 0 to-read 4.09 2005 Poison Study (Study, #1)
author: Maria V. Snyder
name: JS
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/05/23
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Types and Programming Languages (Mit Press)]]> 112252 623 Benjamin C. Pierce 0262162091 JS 0 to-read 4.27 2002 Types and Programming Languages (Mit Press)
author: Benjamin C. Pierce
name: JS
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/05/23
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Diversity of Life (Questions of Science)]]> 503051 432 Edward O. Wilson 0393319407 JS 0 to-read 4.22 1992 The Diversity of Life (Questions of Science)
author: Edward O. Wilson
name: JS
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1992
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/05/22
shelves: to-read
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Tao of Jeet Kune Do 57858 208 Bruce Lee 0897500482 JS 0 to-read 4.35 1975 Tao of Jeet Kune Do
author: Bruce Lee
name: JS
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1975
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Myrren's Gift (The Quickening, #1)]]> 450692 528 Fiona McIntosh 0060747579 JS 0 to-read 3.86 2003 Myrren's Gift (The Quickening, #1)
author: Fiona McIntosh
name: JS
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/05/20
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<![CDATA[The Star King (Demon Princes, #1)]]> 1902266
In a seedy tavern on Smade's Planet, Kirth Gersen picks up the trail of Attel Malagate, a member of an alien species called Star Kings, who masquerade as humans. Malagate maintains anonymity behind a screen of sinister henchmen, but Gersen will combine subtle guile and stark violence in a strategy to bring him face to face with the first of the Demon Princes.]]>
160 Jack Vance 0340253940 JS 0 to-read 3.88 1964 The Star King (Demon Princes, #1)
author: Jack Vance
name: JS
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1964
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/05/20
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<![CDATA[The Court of the Air (Jackelian, #1)]]> 837197
Oliver Brooks has led a sheltered life in the home of his merchant uncle. But when he is framed for his only relative's murder he is forced to flee for his life. He is accompanied by Harry Stave, an agent of the Court of the Air -- a shadowy organization independent of the government that acts as the final judiciary of the land, ensuring that order prevails.

Chased across the country, Oliver finds himself in the company of thieves, outlaws and spies, and gradually learns more about the secret that has blighted his life, but which may also offer him the power to avert the coming catastrophe. Their enemies are ruthless and myriad, but Molly and Oliver are joined by indomitable friends in this endlessly inventive tale full of drama, intrigue and adventure.]]>
582 Stephen Hunt 0007232187 JS 0 to-read 3.34 2007 The Court of the Air (Jackelian, #1)
author: Stephen Hunt
name: JS
average rating: 3.34
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/05/20
shelves: to-read
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Fool's Errand (Tawny Man, #1) 68488 alternate cover for ISBN 9780006486015

Fifteen years have passed since the end of the Red Ship War with the terrifying Outislanders. Since then, Fitz has wandered the world accompanied only by his wolf and Wit-partner, Nighteyes, finally settling in a tiny cottage as remote from Buckkeep and the Farseers as possible.

But lately the world has come crashing in again. The Witted are being persecuted because of their magical bonds with animals; and young Prince Dutiful has gone missing just before his crucial diplomatic wedding to an Outislander princess. Fitz’s assignment to fetch Dutiful back in time for the ceremony seems very much like a fool’s errand, but the dangers ahead could signal the end of the Farseer reign.

Cover illustration by John Howe

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661 Robin Hobb JS 0 to-read 4.35 2001 Fool's Errand (Tawny Man, #1)
author: Robin Hobb
name: JS
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/05/20
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<![CDATA[Across the Nightingale Floor (Tales of the Otori, #1)]]> 77160 The youth Takeo has been brought up in a remote mountain village among the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people who have taught him only the ways of peace. But unbeknownst to him, his father was a celebrated assassin and a member of the Tribe, an ancient network of families with extraordinary, preternatural skills. When Takeo's village is pillaged, he is rescued and adopted by the mysterious Lord Otori Shigeru. Under the tutelage of Shigeru, he learns that he too possesses the skills of the Tribe. And, with this knowledge, he embarks on a journey that will lead him across the famed nightingale floor—and to his own unimaginable destiny...]]> 305 Lian Hearn 1573223328 JS 0 to-read 4.08 2002 Across the Nightingale Floor (Tales of the Otori, #1)
author: Lian Hearn
name: JS
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2012/05/20
shelves: to-read
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