en-US Sun, 11 Feb 2024 04:10:43 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 117942 The only English translation authorized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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

This unexpurgated 1991 translation by H. T. Willetts is the only authorized edition available, and fully captures the power and beauty of the original Russian.]]> 160 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 0451523105 Ben 4 2009 3.91 1962
author: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
name: Ben
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1962
rating: 4
read at: 2009/05/26
date added: 2024/02/11
shelves: 2009
review:

]]> 93251
Contents:

路 The Dwarf 路 ss Fantastic Jan/Feb 鈥�54
路 The Next in Line 路 nv Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947
路 The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse 路 ss Beyond Fantasy Fiction Mar 鈥�54
路 Skeleton 路 ss Weird Tales Sep 鈥�45
路 The Jar 路 ss Weird Tales Nov 鈥�44
路 The Lake 路 ss Weird Tales May 鈥�44
路 The Emissary 路 ss Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947
路 Touched with Fire [鈥淪hopping for Death鈥漖 路 ss Maclean鈥檚 Jun 1 鈥�54
路 The Small Assassin 路 ss Dime Mystery Magazine Nov 鈥�46
路 The Crowd 路 ss Weird Tales May 鈥�43
路 Jack-in-the-Box 路 ss Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947
路 The Scythe 路 ss Weird Tales Jul 鈥�43
路 Uncle Einar 路 ss Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947
路 The Wind 路 ss Weird Tales Mar 鈥�43
路 The Man Upstairs 路 ss Harper鈥檚 Mar 鈥�47
路 There Was an Old Woman 路 ss Weird Tales Jul 鈥�44
路 The Cistern 路 ss Mademoiselle May 鈥�47
路 Homecoming 路 ss Mademoiselle Oct 鈥�46
路 The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone 路 ss Charm Jul 鈥�54]]> 334 Ray Bradbury 0380973871 Ben 0 2009, to-read, putasidefornow 4.12 1955
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Ben
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1955
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/02/21
shelves: 2009, to-read, putasidefornow
review:

]]> 14316
Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But the thirteen chapters, each a short story in its own right, create an exquisitely observed world that is anything but sleepy. A world of Kissingeresque realpolitik enacted in boys鈥� games on a frozen lake; of 鈥渘ightcreeping鈥� through the summer backyards of strangers; of the tabloid-fueled thrills of the Falklands War and its human toll; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend, Ross Wilcox; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigr茅 who is both more and less than she appears; of Jason鈥檚 search to replace his dead grandfather鈥檚 irreplaceable smashed watch before the crime is discovered; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran LPs, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher鈥檚 recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons.

Pointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, Black Swan Green is David Mitchell鈥檚 most subtlest and effective achievement to date.]]> 296 David Mitchell 0812974018 Ben 4 2009 3.97 2006
author: David Mitchell
name: Ben
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2010/01/04
date added: 2010/01/04
shelves: 2009
review:

]]> 77711 Alternate Cover Edition can be found here.

A Fire upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale.

Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence.

Fleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.]]> 613 Vernor Vinge 0812515285 Ben 3 2009 4.14 1992
author: Vernor Vinge
name: Ben
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2009/12/30
date added: 2009/12/30
shelves: 2009
review:

]]> 166912
Janoth knows there was one witness to his entry into Pauline鈥檚 apartment on the night of the murder; he knows that man must have been the man Pauline was with before he got back; but he doesn鈥檛 know who he was. Janoth badly wants to get his hands on that man, and he picks one of his most trusted employees to track him down: George Stroud, who else?

How does a man escape from himself? No book has ever dramatized that question to more perfect effect than The Big Clock, a masterpiece of American noir.]]> 175 Kenneth Fearing 1590171810 Ben 5 2009 3.85 1946
author: Kenneth Fearing
name: Ben
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1946
rating: 5
read at: 2009/12/17
date added: 2009/12/17
shelves: 2009
review:

]]> 184419
As Jonathan Lethem remarks in his Introduction, The real characters are the ideas. Chesterton's nutty agenda is really quite simple: to expose moral relativism and parlor nihilism for the devils he believes them to be. This wouldn't be interesting at all, though, if he didn't also show such passion for giving the devil his due. He animates the forces of chaos and anarchy with every ounce of imaginative verve and rhetorical force in his body.]]> 182 G.K. Chesterton 0375757910 Ben 4 2009 3.85 1908
author: G.K. Chesterton
name: Ben
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1908
rating: 4
read at: 2009/12/15
date added: 2009/12/15
shelves: 2009
review:

]]> 829943
Once again, acclaimed editors and anthologists David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer have compiled an extraordinary collection featuring stunning works from modern masters as well as dazzling gems from brilliant new talents -- tales that carry the reader to the far corners of the galaxy and beyond, into hitherto unexplored regions. Get ready to take glorious flight on a journey to the miraculous.

Contents

xi 鈥� Introduction (Year's Best SF 11) 鈥� (2006) 鈥� essay by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
1 鈥� New Hope for the Dead 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by David Langford
5 鈥� Deus Ex Homine 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Hannu Rajaniemi
22 鈥� When the Great Days Came 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Gardner Dozois [as by Gardner R. Dozois ]
29 鈥� Second Person, Present Tense 鈥� (2005) 鈥� novelette by Daryl Gregory
54 鈥� Dreadnought 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Justina Robson
58 鈥� A Case of Consilience 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Ken MacLeod
73 鈥� Toy Planes 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Tobias S. Buckell
77 鈥� Mason's Rats 鈥� [Mason's Rats] 鈥� (1992) 鈥� shortstory by Neal Asher (variant of Mason's Rats I)
85 鈥� A Modest Proposal 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Vonda N. McIntyre
89 鈥� Guadalupe and Hieronymus Bosch 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Rudy Rucker
106 鈥� The Forever Kitten 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Peter F. Hamilton
111 鈥� City of Reason 鈥� [Homesteader/Coordinator Group 鈥� 3] 鈥� (2005) 鈥� novelette by Matthew Jarpe
136 鈥� Ivory Tower 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Bruce Sterling
140 鈥� Sheila 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Lauren McLaughlin
156 鈥� Rats of the System 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Paul J. McAuley [as by Paul McAuley ]
176 鈥� I Love Liver: A Romance 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Larissa Lai
180 鈥� The Edge of Nowhere 鈥� (2005) 鈥� novelette by James Patrick Kelly
207 鈥� What's Expected of Us 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Ted Chiang
211 鈥� Girls and Boys, Come Out to Play 鈥� [Darger and Surplus] 鈥� (2005) 鈥� novelette by Michael Swanwick
241 鈥� Lakes of Light 鈥� [Xeelee] 鈥� (2005) 鈥� novelette by Stephen Baxter
262 鈥� The Albian Message 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Oliver Morton
266 鈥� Bright Red Star 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Bud Sparhawk
281 鈥� Third Day Lights 鈥� (2005) 鈥� novelette by Alaya Dawn Johnson
305 鈥� Ram Shift Phase 2 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Greg Bear
310 鈥� On the Brane 鈥� (2004) 鈥� novelette by Gregory Benford
330 鈥� Oxygen Rising 鈥� (2005) 鈥� novelette by R. Garcia y Robertson
377 鈥� And Future King . . . 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Adam Roberts
387 鈥� Beyond the Aquila Rift 鈥� (2005) 鈥� novelette by Alastair Reynolds
425 鈥� Angel of Light 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Joe Haldeman
435 鈥� Ikiryoh 鈥� (2005) 鈥� shortstory by Liz Williams
448 鈥� I, Robot 鈥� (2005) 鈥� novelette by Cory Doctorow]]> 512 David G. Hartwell 0060873418 Ben 3 2009 3.85 2006
author: David G. Hartwell
name: Ben
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2009/12/15
date added: 2009/12/15
shelves: 2009
review:

]]> 9809 165 Italo Calvino 0156453800 Ben 4 2009 4.16 1972
author: Italo Calvino
name: Ben
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1972
rating: 4
read at: 2009/11/23
date added: 2009/11/23
shelves: 2009
review:

]]> 17214
In one of Robert A. Heinlein鈥檚 most controversial bestsellers, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the Universe鈥攁nd into battle with the Terran Mobile Infantry against mankind鈥檚 most alarming enemy.
]]> 264 Robert A. Heinlein Ben 3 2009 4.01 1959
author: Robert A. Heinlein
name: Ben
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1959
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/11/23
shelves: 2009
review:

]]> 2376115
The secret directorate that governs the city makes sure that its inhabitants know nothing of this. Raised in common in cr猫ches, nurtured on synthetic food, prevented above all from venturing outside the closed circuit of the city, they are carefully sheltered from the dire necessities that have come to define human existence. And yet the city is in crisis. The people are growing restive, the population is dwindling, and the rulers know that, for all their efforts, slowly but surely the city is slipping ever farther behind the optimum.

Helward Mann is a member of the city鈥檚 elite. Better than anyone, he knows how tenuous is the city鈥檚 continued existence. But the world鈥攈e is about to discover鈥攊s infinitely stranger than the strange world he believes he knows so well.]]> 322 Christopher Priest 1590172698 Ben 5 2009 4.00 1974
author: Christopher Priest
name: Ben
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at: 2009/08/31
date added: 2009/08/31
shelves: 2009
review:

]]> 2460478
At first he hardly questions them, though he is shocked when his sternly pious father and rigidly compliant mother force his aunt to forsake her baby. It is a while before he realizes that he too is out of the ordinary, in possession of a power that could doom him to death or introduce him to a new, hitherto-unimagined world of freedom.

The Chrysalids 聽is a perfectly conceived and constructed work from the classic era of science fiction. It is a Voltairean philosophical tale that has as much resonance in our own day, when genetic and religious fundamentalism are both on the march, as when it was written during the Cold War.]]> 200 John Wyndham 1590172922 Ben 4 2009 3.91 1955
author: John Wyndham
name: Ben
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1955
rating: 4
read at: 2009/08/14
date added: 2009/08/14
shelves: 2009
review:

]]> 698034
But he gradually begins to suspect that his life - indeed his whole world - is an illusion, constructed around him for the express purpose of keeping him docile and happy. But if that is the case, what is his real world like, and what is he actually doing every day when he thinks he is guessing 'Where Will The Little Green Man Be Next?']]> 255 Philip K. Dick 037571927X Ben 4 2009 3.87 1959
author: Philip K. Dick
name: Ben
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1959
rating: 4
read at: 2009/08/02
date added: 2009/08/02
shelves: 2009
review:
Not his best, but quite unnerving at times.
]]> 6193 In a South Africa torn by civil war, Michael K sets out to take his mother back to her rural home. On the way there she dies, leaving him alone in an anarchic world of brutal roving armies. Imprisoned, Michael is unable to bear confinement and escapes, determined to live with dignity. Life and Times of Michael K goes to the centre of human experience鈥攖he need for an interior, spiritual life, for some connections to the world in which we live, and for purity of vision.]]> 192 J.M. Coetzee Ben 3 2009 3.87 1983
author: J.M. Coetzee
name: Ben
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1983
rating: 3
read at: 2009/07/26
date added: 2009/07/26
shelves: 2009
review:

]]> 6819
A writer of pyrotechnic virtuosity and profound compassion, a mind to which nothing human is alien, David Mitchell spins genres, cultures, and ideas like gossamer threads around and through these nine linked stories. Many forces bind these lives, but at root all involve the same universal longing for connection and transcendence, an axis of commonality that leads in two directions鈥攖o creation and to destruction. In the end, as lives converge with a fearful symmetry, Ghostwritten comes full circle, to a point at which a familiar idea鈥攖hat whether the planet is vast or small is merely a matter of perspective鈥攕trikes home with the force of a new revelation. It marks the debut novel of a writer with astonishing gifts.]]> 426 David Mitchell 0375724508 Ben 4 2009 I liked it. 4.06 1999
author: David Mitchell
name: Ben
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at: 2009/07/15
date added: 2009/07/15
shelves: 2009
review:
I liked it.
]]> 5113 鈥楨verything everybody does is so鈥擨 don鈥檛 know鈥攏ot wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and鈥攕ad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you鈥檙e conforming just as much only in a different way.鈥�

First published in The New Yorker as two sequential stories, 鈥楩ranny鈥� and 鈥榋ooey鈥� offer a dual portrait of the two youngest members of J. D. Salinger鈥檚 fictional Glass family.

Franny Glass is a pretty, effervescent college student on a date with her intellectually confident boyfriend, Lane. They appear to be the perfect couple, but as they struggle to communicate with each other about the things they really care about, slowly their true feelings come to the surface. The second story in this book, 鈥榋ooey鈥�, plunges us into the world of her ethereal, sophisticated family. When Franny鈥檚 emotional and spiritual doubts reach new heights, her older brother Zooey, a misanthropic former child genius, offers her consolation and brotherly advice.

Written in Salinger鈥檚 typically irreverent style, these two stories offer a touching snapshot of the distraught mindset of early adulthood and are full of the insightful emotional observations and witty turns of phrase that have helped make Salinger鈥檚 reputation what it is today.]]> 201 J.D. Salinger 0316769029 Ben 2 2009 3.97 1957
author: J.D. Salinger
name: Ben
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1957
rating: 2
read at: 2009/06/07
date added: 2009/06/07
shelves: 2009
review:
Kind of interminable despite being only 200 pages. Not a single likable character.
]]> 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 Ben 4 2009 4.02 2004
author: David Mitchell
name: Ben
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2009/05/17
date added: 2009/05/17
shelves: 2009
review:

]]> 532424 300 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 0385295901 Ben 4 2009 4.05 1987
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Ben
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1987
rating: 4
read at: 2009/04/26
date added: 2009/04/26
shelves: 2009
review:

]]> 19794
Set against the Platte River鈥檚 massive spring migrations 鈥� one of the greatest spectacles in nature 鈥� The Echo Maker is a gripping mystery that explores the improvised human self and the even more precarious brain that splits us from and joins us to the rest of creation.]]> 451 Richard Powers 0374146357 Ben 0 2009, putasidefornow, to-read 3.42 2006
author: Richard Powers
name: Ben
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/04/21
shelves: 2009, putasidefornow, to-read
review:

]]> 1851148 221 Joe Haldeman 0380393212 Ben 4 2009 3.81 1977
author: Joe Haldeman
name: Ben
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1977
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/04/21
shelves: 2009
review:

]]> 114550 191 David Markson 1593760108 Ben 4 2009 3.90 2004
author: David Markson
name: Ben
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2009/01/10
date added: 2009/01/10
shelves: 2009
review:
More of the same awesome stuff found in The Last Novel and some of his other books. Always a pleasure.
]]> 166997
John Williams鈥檚 luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world.]]> 292 John Williams 1590171993 Ben 5 2009, favorites
A perfect novel.]]> 4.35 1965
author: John Williams
name: Ben
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1965
rating: 5
read at: 2009/01/08
date added: 2009/01/09
shelves: 2009, favorites
review:
A great start to a new year of reading.

A perfect novel.
]]>