en-US Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:59:28 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 8201411 A dramatic account of the politics and personalities behind NBC's calamitous attempt to reinvent late-night television.

When NBC decided to move Jay Leno into prime time to make room for Conan O'Brien to host the Tonight show-a job he had been promised five years earlier-skeptics anticipated a train wreck for the ages. It took, in fact, only a few months for the dire predictions to come true. Leno's show, panned by critics, dragged down the ratings-and the profits-of NBC's affiliates, while ratings for Conan's new Tonight show plummeted to the lowest levels in history. Conan's collapse, meanwhile, opened an unexpected door of opportunity for rival David Letterman. What followed was a boisterous, angry, frequently hilarious public battle that had millions of astonished viewers glued to their sets. In The War for Late Night, New York Times reporter Bill Carter offers a detailed behind-the-scenes account of the events of the unforgettable 2009/2010 late-night season as all of its players- performers, producers, agents, and network executives-maneuvered to find footing amid the shifting tectonic plates of television culture.]]> 394 Bill Carter 067002208X Igor 4 4.03 2010
author: Bill Carter
name: Igor
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2010
rating: 4
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]]> 12696375
Bittman argues that a simple meal prepared at home is a powerful It’s one small step toward improving your health and, by extension, the health of the planet. Our reliance on prepared food—i˛Ô the form of snacks, soft drinks, frozen meals, and fast food—supports a system of agriculture that is playing havoc with our bodies, our economy, and the environment. How can we break the cycle? By cooking.

"People who prepare meals—even infrequently—achieve outcomes that extend far beyond the morsel at the end of the fork,� writes Bittman. “Cooking may not solve everything, but it solves a lot. When people make food a priority in their lives, they actively contribute to society. Cooking can change our collective lives for the better.�

"Cooking Solves Everything" is an engaging manifesto that inspires non-cooks to reach for a pan (Bittman’s shopping list and foolproof recipes will get them started) and encourages all of us to take a closer look at how we feed ourselves and our loved ones.]]> 40 Mark Bittman Igor 0 to-read 3.89 2011
author: Mark Bittman
name: Igor
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> 10464963 When the Emperor Was Divine is a tour de force of economy and precision, a novel that tells the story of a group of young women brought from Japan to San Francisco as “picture brides� nearly a century ago.

In eight incantatory sections, The Buddha in the Attic traces the picture brides� extraordinary lives, from their arduous journey by boat, where they exchange photographs of their husbands, imagining uncertain futures in an unknown land; to their arrival in San Francisco and their tremulous first nights as new wives; to their backbreaking work picking fruit in the fields and scrubbing the floors of white women; to their struggles to master a new language and a new culture; to their experiences in childbirth, and then as mothers, raising children who will ultimately reject their heritage and their history; to the deracinating arrival of war.]]> 144 Julie Otsuka 0307700003 Igor 0 currently-reading 3.68 2011
author: Julie Otsuka
name: Igor
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2011/12/31
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]]> 6926832 278 Melissa Febos 0312561024 Igor 3 3.61 2010
author: Melissa Febos
name: Igor
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2010
rating: 3
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date added: 2011/12/30
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]]> 109520 New York Times bestselling, darkly funny memoir of a young New Yorker's daring dual life—advertising art director by day, glitter-dripping drag queen and nightclub beauty-pageant hopeful by night—was a smash literary debut for Josh Kilmer-Purcell, now known for his popular Planet Green television series The Fabulous Beekman Boys. His story begins here—before the homemade goat milk soaps and hand-gathered honeys, before his memoir of the city mouse’s move to the country, The Bucolic Plague—i˛Ô I Am Not Myself These Days,  with “plenty of dishy anecdotes and moments of tragi-camp delightâ€� (WashingtonPost).]]> 305 Josh Kilmer-Purcell 0060817321 Igor 3 3.95 2006
author: Josh Kilmer-Purcell
name: Igor
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2006
rating: 3
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]]> 6962221 243 Stephen McCauley 0743224752 Igor 2 3.45 2010
author: Stephen McCauley
name: Igor
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2010
rating: 2
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]]> 9938498
A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the New Germany, she has one affair after another, including with the surprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler's true character and ruthless ambition.

Suffused with the tense atmosphere of the period, and with unforgettable portraits of the bizarre Goring and the expectedly charming—yet wholly sinister—Goebbels, In the Garden of Beasts lends a stunning, eyewitness perspective on events as they unfold in real time, revealing an era of surprising nuance and complexity. The result is a dazzling, addictively readable work that speaks volumes about why the world did not recognize the grave threat posed by Hitler until Berlin, and Europe, were awash in blood and terror.]]> 448 Erik Larson 0307408841 Igor 3 3.87 2011
author: Erik Larson
name: Igor
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2011
rating: 3
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]]> 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 Igor 3 4.38 2010
author: Laura Hillenbrand
name: Igor
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2010
rating: 3
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]]> 9653223 135 Stephen Leather Igor 2 3.61 2010
author: Stephen Leather
name: Igor
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2010
rating: 2
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]]> 10768069
Vince and Griff are two twentysomethings struggling to find their places in the world and in each other's lives. This is a story of friendship and love, both unrequited and requited, and of learning how to fly through the post-college void, which just might hold more than a cranberry hush.]]> 262 Ben Monopoli Igor 3 3.92 2011
author: Ben Monopoli
name: Igor
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2011
rating: 3
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]]> 7445 THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing--a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.]]> 288 Jeannette Walls 074324754X Igor 5 4.32 2005
author: Jeannette Walls
name: Igor
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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