Nathan's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 23 Jan 2025 21:42:04 -0800 60 Nathan's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)]]> 38213061 From a New York Times bestselling and Hugo award-winning author comes a modern masterwork of science fiction, introducing a captain, his crew, and a detective as they unravel a horrifying solar system wide conspiracy that begins with a single missing girl.? Humanity has colonized the solar system¡ªMars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond¡ªbut the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for¡ªand kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations¡ªand the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.]]> 577 James S.A. Corey Nathan 4 4.48 2011 Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse, #1)
author: James S.A. Corey
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/23
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves:
review:

]]> The Ministry of Time 199798179 A time travel romance, a spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all:

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she¡¯ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering ¡°expats¡± from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible¡ªfor the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a ¡°bridge¡±: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as ¡°1847¡± or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin¡¯s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he¡¯s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as ¡°washing machines,¡± ¡°Spotify,¡± and ¡°the collapse of the British Empire.¡± But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry¡¯s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how¡ªand whether she believes¡ªwhat she does next can change the future.]]> 339 Kaliane Bradley 1668045141 Nathan 1 3.54 2024 The Ministry of Time
author: Kaliane Bradley
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2024
rating: 1
read at: 2025/01/22
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves:
review:

]]> The Historian 10692
Late one night in 1972, as a 16-year-old girl, she discovers a mysterious book and a sheaf of letters in her father's library¡ªa discovery that will have dreadful and far-reaching consequences, and will send her on a journey of mind-boggling danger. While seeking clues to the secrets of her father's past and her mother's puzzling disappearance, she follows a trail from London to Istanbul to Budapest and beyond, and learns that the letters in her possession provide a link to one of the world's darkest and most intoxicating figures. Generation after generation, the legend of Dracula has enticed and eluded both historians and opportunists alike. Now a young girl undertakes the same search that ended in the death and defilement of so many others¡ªin an attempt to save her father from an unspeakable fate.
(Fall 2005 Selection)]]> 704 Elizabeth Kostova 0751537284 Nathan 1 3.78 2005 The Historian
author: Elizabeth Kostova
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2005
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves:
review:
I tried. O man I really tried. But at some point, something needed to actually happen. Nothing did. I gave up.
]]> Children of Dune (Dune, #3) 8117884 Book Three in the Magnificent Dune Chronicles¡ªthe Bestselling Science Fiction Adventure of All Time

The Children of Dune are twin siblings Leto and Ghanima Atreides, whose father, the Emperor Paul Muad¡¯Dib, disappeared in the desert wastelands of Arrakis nine years ago. Like their father, the twins possess supernormal abilities¡ªmaking them valuable to their manipulative aunt Alia, who rules the Empire in the name of House Atreides.

Facing treason and rebellion on two fronts, Alia¡¯s rule is not absolute. The displaced House Corrino is plotting to regain the throne while the fanatical Fremen are being provoked into open revolt by the enigmatic figure known only as The Preacher. Alia believes that by obtaining the secrets of the twins¡¯ prophetic visions, she can maintain control over her dynasty.

But Leto and Ghanima have their own plans for their visions¡ªand their destinies....]]> 623 Frank Herbert 1440630518 Nathan 4 4.24 1976 Children of Dune (Dune, #3)
author: Frank Herbert
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1976
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/16
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves:
review:

]]> Drinking Coffee Elsewhere 529172 Chosen by John Updike as a Today Show Book Club Pick. Already an award-winning writer, ZZ Packer now shares with us her debut, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. Her impressive range and talent are abundantly evident: Packer dazzles with her command of language, surprising and delighting us with unexpected turns and indelible images, as she takes us into the lives of characters on the periphery, unsure of where they belong. We meet a Brownie troop of black girls who are confronted with a troop of white girls; a young man who goes with his father to the Million Man March and must decides where his allegiance lies; an international group of drifters in Japan, who are starving, unable to find work; a girl in a Baltimore ghetto who has dreams of the larger world she has seen only on the screens in the television store nearby, where the Lithuanian shopkeeper holds out hope for attaining his own American Dream.

With penetrating insight that belies her youth¡ªshe was only nineteen years old when Seventeen magazine printed her first published story¡ªZZ Packer helps us see the world with a clearer vision. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is a striking performance¡ªfresh, versatile, and captivating. It introduces us to an arresting and unforgettable new voice.

Brownies --
Every tongue shall confess --
Our Lady of Peace --
The ant of the self --
Drinking coffee elsewhere --
Speaking in tongues --
Geese --
Doris is coming]]> 265 ZZ Packer 1573223786 Nathan 3 3.88 2004 Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
author: ZZ Packer
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2008/06/08
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy, #1)]]> 469571 302 Cormac McCarthy 0679744398 Nathan 5
This book is based around themes I care very little about. I'm not into westerns, I've never owned a pair of cowboy boots, I don't know anything about horses, I'm not particularly enamored with the old west or cowboy culture. Nevertheless, from the second I opened the first page I was swallowed whole.

All the pretty horses is a love story. A love story between John Crady Gole and his horse--or maybe more precisely horses. There's a girl in there too, and the girl gets him in trouble and lots of horrible things happen, and alas, he and the girl are not to be. But that's okay, because it's not really a story about her. It's about the horses. And it is beautiful.]]> 4.04 1992 All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy, #1)
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at: 2014/09/10
date added: 2025/01/23
shelves:
review:
I recently re-read this novel and realized I had woefully under-rated it. Only 4 stars???? Oof. I think I read it too soon after No Country For Old Men which I believe is one of the best-told stories ever put to paper. Anything is a let down after finishing that, even a story as beautifully told as this one. So, error corrected.

This book is based around themes I care very little about. I'm not into westerns, I've never owned a pair of cowboy boots, I don't know anything about horses, I'm not particularly enamored with the old west or cowboy culture. Nevertheless, from the second I opened the first page I was swallowed whole.

All the pretty horses is a love story. A love story between John Crady Gole and his horse--or maybe more precisely horses. There's a girl in there too, and the girl gets him in trouble and lots of horrible things happen, and alas, he and the girl are not to be. But that's okay, because it's not really a story about her. It's about the horses. And it is beautiful.
]]> Around the World in 80 Days 1038671 317 Jules Verne 1416939369 Nathan 2 3.63 1872 Around the World in 80 Days
author: Jules Verne
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1872
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking]]> 6607898 An essential tool for our post-truth a witty primer on logic¡ªand the dangers of illogical thinking¡ªby a renowned Notre Dame professor Logic is synonymous with reason, judgment, sense, wisdom, and sanity. Being logical is the ability to create concise and reasoned arguments¡ªarguments that build from given premises, using evidence, to a genuine conclusion. But mastering logical thinking also requires studying and understanding illogical thinking, both to sharpen one¡¯s own skills and to protect against incoherent, or deliberately misleading, reasoning. Elegant, pithy, and precise,?Being Logical?breaks logic down to its essentials through clear analysis, accessible examples, and focused insights. D. Q. McInerney covers the sources of illogical thinking, from na?ve optimism to narrow-mindedness, before dissecting the various tactics¡ªred herrings, diversions, and simplistic reasoning¡ªthe illogical use in place of effective reasoning. An indispensable guide to using logic to advantage in everyday life, this is a concise, crisply readable book. Written explicitly for the layperson, McInerny¡¯s?Being Logical?promises to take its place beside Strunk and White¡¯s?The Elements of Style?as a classic of lucid, invaluable advice. Praise for Being Logical ¡°Highly readable . . . D. Q. McInerny offers an introduction to symbolic logic in plain English, so you can finally be clear on what is deductive reasoning and what is inductive. And you¡¯ll see how deductive arguments are constructed.¡±¡ªDetroit Free Press ¡°McInerny¡¯s explanatory outline of sound thinking will be eminently beneficial to expository writers, debaters, and public speakers.¡±¡ªµþ´Ç´Ç°ì±ô¾±²õ³Ù ¡°Given the shortage of logical thinking, And the fact that mankind is adrift, if not sinking, It is vital that all of us learn to think straight. And this small book by D.Q. McInerny is great. It follows therefore since we so badly need it, Everybody should not only but it, but read it.¡± ¡ªCharles Osgood]]> 160 D.Q. McInerny Nathan 3 4.01 2004 Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking
author: D.Q. McInerny
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2020/06/21
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves:
review:

]]> The Shipping News 77470
A vigorous, darkly comic, and at times magical portrait of the contemporary American family, The Shipping News shows why Annie Proulx is recognized as one of the most gifted and original writers in America today.
--back cover

Cover illustration by David Blackwood

]]> 337 Annie Proulx 0671510053 Nathan 4
Quoyle finds redemption from a place that itself is bleak, full of hardship, and dying. I found this to be poetic and strangely uplifting. Its sort of the anti-coming of age story. No beautiful starry-eyed twentysomething trotting off to exotic locations or big cities here. Instead, the story of a middle-aged man who hates himself even more than he hates his circumstance, moving back to his modest roots, finding a lot of darkness in the places he comes from. He watches people fall on hard times and move away, endures monotony, deep cold, harsh storms and odd, forced relationships. And in the midst of it he finds friendship, love, and his own self-worth. I just thought it was beautiful. The scene near the end in which Quoyle prepares to attend the wake for one of his close friends, looks at his gigantic naked body in the mirror, and feels a surge of joy to be such an honest and satisfying moment of redemption. This dying place brings him to life, and eventually, for the first time in his life, he finds joy and peace. And he finds it in himself, not in the circumstances around him.

It snuck up on me. I didn't realize until it was too late how hard I had fallen for this lot. ]]> 3.76 1993 The Shipping News
author: Annie Proulx
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2008/01/01
date added: 2023/08/02
shelves:
review:
This book snuck up on me. Tricky tricky. It started out interesting enough. Proulx's writing style is mesmerizing, almost hypnotic. I found the book initially to be a relaxing solace on my commute home after a busy day of work, soley because of its use of language and setting. But I hated the characters. All of them. Quoyle, a big, damp loaf of a man, as Proulx describes him, is the definition of pathetic. His daughters are brats. And his wife Petal is a two-dimensional device created solely as a catalyst for the story to come. In the beginning it felt a little forced. Then at some point in the second half, the book went from a nice little read to a ferocious page-turner, and I still am not sure how it became so compelling. There was no melodramatic conflict introduced. No secret codes to be found in paintings. Instead, Proulx builds her momentum slowly, slowly, taking you deeper into the lives of these characters, who started out so hard, unattractive, broken, and nasty. The thing of it is, they start to feel so honest. Before you know it, their presence is comforting. I found I wanted to be with them. Wanted to be in the boat with Quoyle. Wanted to see the green house. Wanted to go to the Christmas Pageant. Wanted to eat flipper pie with him and the girls. Wanted to welcome Aunt home.

Quoyle finds redemption from a place that itself is bleak, full of hardship, and dying. I found this to be poetic and strangely uplifting. Its sort of the anti-coming of age story. No beautiful starry-eyed twentysomething trotting off to exotic locations or big cities here. Instead, the story of a middle-aged man who hates himself even more than he hates his circumstance, moving back to his modest roots, finding a lot of darkness in the places he comes from. He watches people fall on hard times and move away, endures monotony, deep cold, harsh storms and odd, forced relationships. And in the midst of it he finds friendship, love, and his own self-worth. I just thought it was beautiful. The scene near the end in which Quoyle prepares to attend the wake for one of his close friends, looks at his gigantic naked body in the mirror, and feels a surge of joy to be such an honest and satisfying moment of redemption. This dying place brings him to life, and eventually, for the first time in his life, he finds joy and peace. And he finds it in himself, not in the circumstances around him.

It snuck up on me. I didn't realize until it was too late how hard I had fallen for this lot.
]]> <![CDATA[Genesis: The Story of How Everything Began]]> 56762203 A breakout bestseller in Italy, now available for American readers for the first time, The Story of How Everything Began is a short, humanistic tour of the origins of the universe, earth, and life¡ªdrawing on the latest discoveries in physics to explain the seven most significant moments in the creation of the cosmos.Curiosity and wonderment about the origins of the universe are at the heart of our experience of the world. From Hesiod¡¯s Chaos, described in his poem about the origins of the Greek gods, Theogony, to today¡¯s mind-bending theories of the multiverse, humans have been consumed by the relentless pursuit of an answer to one awe inspiring What exactly happened during those first moments?Guido Tonelli, the acclaimed, award-winning particle physicist and a central figure in the discovery of the Higgs boson (the ¡°God particle¡±), reveals the extraordinary story of our genesis¡ªfrom the origins of the universe, to the emergence of life on Earth, to the birth of human language with its power to describe the world. Evoking the seven days of biblical creation, Tonelli takes us on a brisk, lively tour through the evolution of our cosmos and considers the incredible challenges scientists face in exploring its mysteries. Genesis both explains the fundamental physics of our universe and marvels at the profound wonder of our existence.]]> 231 Guido Tonelli 037460049X Nathan 0 currently-reading 4.15 Genesis: The Story of How Everything Began
author: Guido Tonelli
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.15
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/04/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Foundation and Empire (Foundation, #2)]]> 29581 256 Isaac Asimov 0553803727 Nathan 3 currently-reading 4.23 1952 Foundation and Empire (Foundation, #2)
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1952
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2020/07/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Foundation (Foundation, #1) 29579 The first novel in Isaac Asimov's classic science-fiction masterpiece, the Foundation series

For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future--to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save humankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire--both scientists and scholars--and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation.]]> 244 Isaac Asimov 0553803719 Nathan 3 4.18 1951 Foundation (Foundation, #1)
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1951
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2020/07/11
shelves:
review:

]]> The Devil in the White City 5711242
Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.

The Devil in the White City draws the reader into a time of magic and majesty, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and others. Erik Larson¡¯s gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the great fair that obsessed them both.]]> 447 Erik Larson Nathan 4 4.04 2003 The Devil in the White City
author: Erik Larson
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2020/06/21
date added: 2020/06/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Beginner's Guide to Skepticism]]> 43601740 Emmy award winner for best Drama 2021 TV series `TEHRAN`***Science and faith¡ªcomplementary or contradictory?And where does the scientific-religious discussion stand in the 21st century?This book deals with faith in the psychological sense, examined through scientific goggles.Readers are given tools for critical observation¡ªto use on concepts such as God and religion, but also on non-religious beliefs.As a result, this book offers scientific alternatives to many spiritual issues.]]> 216 Maor Kohn Nathan 3 3.73 A Beginner's Guide to Skepticism
author: Maor Kohn
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.73
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2020/06/21
date added: 2020/06/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The End of Policing 35403039 The problem is not overpolicing, it is policing itself

Recent years have seen an explosion of protest against police brutality and repression. Among activists, journalists and politicians, the conversation about how to respond and improve policing has focused on accountability, diversity, training, and community relations. Unfortunately, these reforms will not produce results, either alone or in combination. The core of the problem must be addressed: the nature of modern policing itself.

This book attempts to spark public discussion by revealing the tainted origins of modern policing as a tool of social control. It shows how the expansion of police authority is inconsistent with community empowerment, social justice¡ªeven public safety. Drawing on groundbreaking research from across the world, and covering virtually every area in the increasingly broad range of police work, Alex Vitale demonstrates how law enforcement has come to exacerbate the very problems it is supposed to solve.

In contrast, there are places where the robust implementation of policing alternatives¡ªsuch as legalization, restorative justice, and harm reduction¡ªhas led to a decrease in crime, spending, and injustice. The best solution to bad policing may be an end to policing.]]> 272 Alex S. Vitale 1784782912 Nathan 0 currently-reading 4.18 2017 The End of Policing
author: Alex S. Vitale
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/06/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Doctor Sleep (The Shining, #2)]]> 17406532 Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special twelve-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.

On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless¡ªmostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and spunky twelve-year-old Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the ¡°steam¡± that children with the ¡°shining¡± produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

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

Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan¡¯s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra¡¯s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of devoted readers of The Shining and satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.]]> 658 Stephen King Nathan 4 4.31 2013 Doctor Sleep (The Shining, #2)
author: Stephen King
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/16
date added: 2019/12/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Thinking, Fast and Slow 12385458 Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think.

System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation¡ªeach of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives¡ªand how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011, Thinking, Fast and Slow is destined to be a classic.]]> 512 Daniel Kahneman 1429969350 Nathan 0 currently-reading 4.20 2011 Thinking, Fast and Slow
author: Daniel Kahneman
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/07/15
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Dune Messiah (Dune, #2) 8117883 Book Two in the Magnificent Dune Chronicles¡ªthe Bestselling Science Fiction Adventure of All Time

Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atreides, better known¡ªand feared¡ªas the man christened Muad¡¯Dib. As Emperor of the known universe, he possesses more power than a single man was ever meant to wield. Worshipped as a religious icon by the fanatical Fremen, Paul faces the enmity of the political houses he displaced when he assumed the throne¡ªand a conspiracy conducted within his own sphere of influence.

And even as House Atreides begins to crumble around him from the machinations of his enemies, the true threat to Paul comes to his lover, Chani, and the unborn heir to his family¡¯s dynasty...]]> 350 Frank Herbert Nathan 3 4.08 1969 Dune Messiah (Dune, #2)
author: Frank Herbert
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1969
rating: 3
read at: 2019/07/04
date added: 2019/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values]]> 7785194 The End of Faith, ignited a worldwide debate about the validity of religion. In the aftermath, Harris discovered that most people - from religious fundamentalists to non-believing scientists - agree on one point: science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, our failure to address questions of meaning and morality through science has now become the most common justification for religious faith. It is also the primary reason why so many secularists and religious moderates feel obligated to "respect" the hardened superstitions of their more devout neighbors.

In this explosive new book, Sam Harris tears down the wall between scientific facts and human values, arguing that most people are simply mistaken about the relationship between morality and the rest of human knowledge. Harris urges us to think about morality in terms of human and animal well-being, viewing the experiences of conscious creatures as peaks and valleys on a "moral landscape." Because there are definite facts to be known about where we fall on this landscape, Harris foresees a time when science will no longer limit itself to merely describing what people do in the name of "morality"; in principle, science should be able to tell us what we ought to do to live the best lives possible.

Bringing a fresh perspective to age-old questions of right and wrong and good and evil, Harris demonstrates that we already know enough about the human brain and its relationship to events in the world to say that there are right and wrong answers to the most pressing questions of human life. Because such answers exist, moral relativism is simply false - and comes at increasing cost to humanity. And the intrusions of religion into the sphere of human values can be finally repelled: for just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, there can be no Christian or Muslim morality.

Using his expertise in philosophy and neuroscience, along with his experience on the front lines of our "culture wars," Harris delivers a game-changing book about the future of science and about the real basis of human cooperation.]]> 291 Sam Harris 1439171211 Nathan 3 3.90 2010 The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values
author: Sam Harris
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2019/06/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, and Students]]> 69736
Thinking with Type is divided into three sections: letter, text, and grid. Each section begins with an easy-to-grasp essay that reviews historical, technological, and theoretical concepts, and is then followed by a set of practical exercises that bring the material covered to life. Sections conclude with examples of work by leading practitioners that demonstrate creative possibilities (along with some classic no-no's to avoid).]]> 176 Ellen Lupton 1568984480 Nathan 4 4.09 2004 Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, and Students
author: Ellen Lupton
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/27
date added: 2019/06/27
shelves:
review:

]]> Slaughterhouse-Five 4981 Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world¡¯s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber¡¯s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming ¡°unstuck in time.¡±

An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut¡¯s writing¡ªthe political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit¡ªthat have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it.

Fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut's portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era¡¯s uncertainties.]]> 275 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Nathan 4 4.10 1969 Slaughterhouse-Five
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1969
rating: 4
read at: 2019/06/27
date added: 2019/06/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1)]]> 6424171 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind¡¯s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them¡ªfor a price. Until something goes wrong. . . .--back cover]]> 416 Michael Crichton 0345370775 Nathan 3 4.25 1990 Jurassic Park (Jurassic Park, #1)
author: Michael Crichton
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2018/12/07
shelves:
review:

]]> The Martian 18007564
Now, he¡¯s sure he¡¯ll be the first person to die there.

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

Chances are, though, he won¡¯t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old ¡°human error¡± are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn¡¯t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills ¡ª and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit ¡ª he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

]]> 384 Andy Weir 0804139024 Nathan 3
So why did I enjoy it so much? You got me, but I did. It's a super light read. The main character is super relatable. You're rooting for him. It appeals to your sense of adventure. But mostly I think it just has so much sheer science nerdery, it very nearly makes up for what it may lack in craft. It's not a great work, but I really enjoyed it. ]]> 4.41 2011 The Martian
author: Andy Weir
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2015/08/03
date added: 2015/08/04
shelves:
review:
the Martian is a fun story that is told without any sort of grace or skill whatsoever. I'm curious about weir's background. The book smacks of something written by a scientist who decided to try his hand at writing rather than someone who has devoted their life to the craft of storytelling. There were lots of moments where the writing itself yanked me out of the story faster than one of his broken airlocks; that's never pleasant. Some of the action sequences are told at a pace so quick, there's no time for the tension to really build before its all over. It isn't great writing. The dialog is wooden and unimaginative. The attempts at foreshadowing are blunt and transparent.

So why did I enjoy it so much? You got me, but I did. It's a super light read. The main character is super relatable. You're rooting for him. It appeals to your sense of adventure. But mostly I think it just has so much sheer science nerdery, it very nearly makes up for what it may lack in craft. It's not a great work, but I really enjoyed it.
]]> <![CDATA[My Almost Certainly Real Imaginary Jesus]]> 13595523
Heartbreakingly honest and hilarious, My Almost Certainly Real Imaginary Jesus shows just how easy it can be to fall headlong into fundamentalism, venturing into the very heart of enemy territory and the church¡¯s false promises of altar calls and sexual cures. In the spirit of Anne Lamott¡¯s Traveling Mercies, this debut memoir is plainspoken, speaking with candor and insight. Barth particularly addresses the disconnect between the radical and very human Jesus of history and the church¡¯s supernatural savior. She asks the question to all in the closet¡ªboth closet Christians and closet homosexuals: Which is more difficult, admitting to being Christian or admitting to being gay?

An answer is found in her own hard-won journey, a hopeful answer that is an ¡°attempt to leave a record of the early signs of the turning and softening of a collective heart.¡± Giving voice to many who have searched for sanctuary in a church that has largely rejected them, this story pauses at the threshold of one of a growing number of churches which, in opening the door to her and other homosexuals, welcome Jesus back inside as well.]]> 229 Kelly Barth 0980040752 Nathan 0 to-read 4.06 2012 My Almost Certainly Real Imaginary Jesus
author: Kelly Barth
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/06/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Pearl 231813
Today, nearly forty years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures. Over the next year, his many works published as black-spine Penguin Classics for the first time and will feature eye-catching, newly commissioned art. Penguin Classics is proud to present these seminal works to a new generation of readers and to the many who revisit them again and again.]]> 90 John Steinbeck 014017737X Nathan 3 3.40 1947 The Pearl
author: John Steinbeck
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.40
book published: 1947
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> The Power of Myth 35519 293 Joseph Campbell 0385418868 Nathan 4 4.26 1988 The Power of Myth
author: Joseph Campbell
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at: 2014/09/03
date added: 2014/09/03
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Luminous Portrait: Capture the Beauty of Natural Light for Glowing, Flattering Photographs]]> 12943872 ¼Ó΢ÐÅ[soweinc]ÿÌì·ÖÏíºÃÊé,ÑûÄã¼ÓÈë¹ú¼Ê£¨À´×Ô±±ÃÀ °ÄÖÞ ÈÕ±¾ ÄÏÑÇ Å·ÖÞ...µÄ¾«Ó¢ÊéÓÑ£©Î¢ÐÅȺѧϰ½»Á÷.
΢ÐźÃÓѹºÊé¼Û¸ñ5-9¸öÕÛ¿Û.
¡¶¹â²ÊÕÕÈË£º×ÔÈ»¹âÈËÏñÉãÓ°µÄÒÕÊõ¡·(°ÚÃÀ±ÕÒÁÀöɯ°×¡¤Ã·Î÷ÄÉ£¬½Ü¿üÁÕ¡¤Íбö)
The Luminous Portrait
×÷Õß:ÒÁÀöɯ°×¡¤Ã·Î÷ÄÉ ½Ü¿üÁÕ¡¤Íбö Áõ·¼Ôª
³ö°æÉç:Õã½­ÉãÓ°³ö°æÉç

×°¶©·½Ê½:ƽװ
°æ´Î:µÚ1°æ
¿ª±¾:16¿ª
³ö°æʱ¼ä:2014-10-01
ÓÃÖ½:Í­°æÖ½
Ò³Êý:176
ÓïÖÖ:ÖÐÎÄ
´ÔÊéÃû:
ÀàÄ¿:ÉãÓ°´¥ÈËÎïÉãÓ°±Õ±Õ> 176 Elizabeth Messina 0817400125 Nathan 4 4.35 2012 The Luminous Portrait: Capture the Beauty of Natural Light for Glowing, Flattering Photographs
author: Elizabeth Messina
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2014/09/03
date added: 2014/09/03
shelves:
review:

]]> Steve Jobs 11084145 630 Walter Isaacson 1451648537 Nathan 3 4.15 2011 Steve Jobs
author: Walter Isaacson
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/08/23
shelves:
review:
There was some good stuff in here, but overall I think it's a huge missed opportunity on ISaacson,s part.
]]> The Fountainhead 2122
This modern classic is the story of intransigent young architect Howard Roark, whose integrity was as unyielding as granite...of Dominique Francon, the exquisitely beautiful woman who loved Roark passionately, but married his worst enemy...and of the fanatic denunciation unleashed by an enraged society against a great creator. As fresh today as it was then, Rand¡¯s provocative novel presents one of the most challenging ideas in all of fiction¡ªthat man¡¯s ego is the fountainhead of human progress...

¡°A writer of great power. She has a subtle and ingenious mind and the capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly...This is the only novel of ideas written by an American woman that I can recall.¡±¡ªThe New York Times]]> 704 Ayn Rand Nathan 1 3.87 1943 The Fountainhead
author: Ayn Rand
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1943
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2014/08/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse, #2)]]> 110494
The point is: they saved her life. So when one of the bloodsuckers asks for a favor, she obliges - and soon Sookie's in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire. She's supposed to interview certain humans involved, but she makes one condition: the vampires must promise to behave and let the humans go unharmed. But that's easier said than done, and all it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly....]]> 291 Charlaine Harris 1841493007 Nathan 1 3.98 2002 Living Dead in Dallas (Sookie Stackhouse, #2)
author: Charlaine Harris
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2002
rating: 1
read at: 2010/05/18
date added: 2014/08/23
shelves:
review:
Better than the first book, still not as good as the series. This material in the hands of Alan Ball is immeasurably more interesting and dimensional. Still, it's a fun read.
]]> <![CDATA[Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, #3)]]> 140082 274 Charlaine Harris Nathan 1 4.03 2003 Club Dead (Sookie Stackhouse, #3)
author: Charlaine Harris
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2003
rating: 1
read at: 2010/05/25
date added: 2014/08/23
shelves:
review:
Thus series has become quite the little guilty pleasure.
]]> <![CDATA[Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1)]]> 301082
Maybe having a vampire for a boyfriend isn't such a bright idea.]]> 292 Charlaine Harris 0441008534 Nathan 1 3.98 2001 Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1)
author: Charlaine Harris
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2001
rating: 1
read at: 2009/09/22
date added: 2014/08/23
shelves:
review:
This was pretty entertaining for pulp.
]]> <![CDATA[The Magician's Nephew (The Chronicles of Narnia, #6)]]> 509797 The secret passage to the house next door leads to a fascinating adventure.

Narnia... where the woods are thick and cool, where Talking Beasts are called to life... a new world where the adventure begins.

Digory and Polly meet and make friends one cold, wet summer in London. Their lives burst into adventure when Digory's Uncle Andrew, who thinks he is a magician, sends them hurtling to... somewhere else. They find their way to Narnia, newborn from the Lion's song, and encounter the evil sorceress Jadis, before they finally return home.]]> 221 C.S. Lewis 0064471101 Nathan 4 3.94 1955 The Magician's Nephew (The Chronicles of Narnia, #6)
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1955
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/06/23
shelves:
review:

]]> The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 24583
Unlike his brother Sid, Tom receives "lickings" from his Aunt Polly; ever the mischief-maker, would rather play hooky than attend school and often sneaks out his bedroom window at night to adventure with his friend, Huckleberry Finn ? the town's social outcast. Tom, despite his dread of schooling, is extremely clever and would normally get away with his pranks if Sid were not such a "tattle-tale."

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

Excerpt:
"TOM!"
No answer.
"TOM!"
No answer.
"What's gone with that boy, ?I wonder? You TOM!"
No answer.
The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked?through?them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not service¡ªshe could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear:
"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll¡ª"
She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.
"I never did see the beat of that boy!"]]> 244 Mark Twain Nathan 3 3.92 1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
author: Mark Twain
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1876
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/04/25
shelves:
review:

]]> Moby Dick 2389 6 Herman Melville 0143058096 Nathan 3 3.47 1851 Moby Dick
author: Herman Melville
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.47
book published: 1851
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2014/02/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas]]> 17675653
Wish me a Merry Christmas.

At a time when Christian values are challenged¡ªwhen the greeting "Merry Christmas" has been replaced by the supposedly less offensive "Happy Holidays"¡ªGovernor Sarah Palin makes the case for bringing back the freedom to express the religious spirit of the season.

In her bestselling books, Going Rogue and America by Heart, Palin has revealed how her strong Christian faith has guided her life and family. Now, in Good Tidings and Great Joy, she discusses one of Christianity's most sacred celebrations, and how the holiday has been robbed of its meaning and true tradition by the pressures of political correctness.

Palin defends the importance of preserving Jesus Christ in Christmas¡ªwhether in public displays, school concerts, and pageants, or in our hearts¡ªand delivers a sharp rebuke to today's society for the homogenization of the holiday season. Sharing personal memories from Palin Christmases past, she illustrates why she holds the celebration of Jesus Christ's Nativity so dear.

Good Tidings and Great Joy revisits our traditional roots and the true meaning of Christmas. It is a call to action to readers to defend and openly celebrate the joys of their Christianity, and to say to one another, "Merry Christmas!"]]> 238 Sarah Palin 0062292889 Nathan 1
I guess it's all of the above. I can't help but wonder if Palin had a ghost writer for this book. If she did, I feel really sorry for that writer, trying to make any sense at all out of this complete nonsense. It's mind boggling that someone with such a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of freedom of speech and religion was once a serious candidate for the vice presidency. Palin clearly sees religion as some kind of contest that must be won by any tactic possible. At one point, after droning on and on for pages about how Christians are in danger of losing their fundamental rights to push their religion onto other people, she stops to pay tribute to the proud day that Christianity confiscated the Winter Solstice from the Pagans. They won the Solstice for Christ, and it's the duty of every American Christian to make sure the pagans never take it back. The thought process behind this argument is so bonkers and un-christlike, you can't help but laugh. Still, she makes a lot of emotional arguments that will successfully incite fear in her fans. And maybe some of the arguments almost seem convincing on their surface, if you live in a fear bubble, and if you take her words as a balanced representation of the facts. It's too bad there isn't a single citation anywhere in the book, so good luck with the fact checking. Palin seems to misunderstand the most basic issues upon which she bases her thesis. She fundamentally doesn't seem to understand the difference between public and private institutions and property, and she has no concept of why the government should remain religiously neutral, all the while attacking all the religions she doesn't want to have any part of. You can taste the irony. There should be a recipe for it in the last chapter. She cries 'freedom' over and over, but she's not interested in freedom. She wants a Christian Theocracy, and the further we move away from that ideal, the more violated she feels.

If the book weren't written at a 4th grade reading level and easily readable in a couple of hours, I never would have been able to finish it, but I'm glad I did, because I really appreciated her detailed recipe on how to make Rice Krispies Treats. But if you don't have 2 hours of your life to waste on complete drivel, I recommend you skip straight to the chapter where Palin imagines visiting her grandson in college 20 years in the future. It is a fascinating inside look at the rantings of a clearly delusional mind. Incidentally it's also in this chapter that I think Palin got one fact right. In 20 years, no one is going to remember who she is.]]> 3.65 2013 Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas
author: Sarah Palin
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2013
rating: 1
read at: 2014/01/15
date added: 2014/01/28
shelves:
review:
I've finished this book, and I'm not really sure what it is. Is it a holiday memoir? A political essay? A religious self-help primer? Recipe book? Comedy? Tragedy?

I guess it's all of the above. I can't help but wonder if Palin had a ghost writer for this book. If she did, I feel really sorry for that writer, trying to make any sense at all out of this complete nonsense. It's mind boggling that someone with such a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of freedom of speech and religion was once a serious candidate for the vice presidency. Palin clearly sees religion as some kind of contest that must be won by any tactic possible. At one point, after droning on and on for pages about how Christians are in danger of losing their fundamental rights to push their religion onto other people, she stops to pay tribute to the proud day that Christianity confiscated the Winter Solstice from the Pagans. They won the Solstice for Christ, and it's the duty of every American Christian to make sure the pagans never take it back. The thought process behind this argument is so bonkers and un-christlike, you can't help but laugh. Still, she makes a lot of emotional arguments that will successfully incite fear in her fans. And maybe some of the arguments almost seem convincing on their surface, if you live in a fear bubble, and if you take her words as a balanced representation of the facts. It's too bad there isn't a single citation anywhere in the book, so good luck with the fact checking. Palin seems to misunderstand the most basic issues upon which she bases her thesis. She fundamentally doesn't seem to understand the difference between public and private institutions and property, and she has no concept of why the government should remain religiously neutral, all the while attacking all the religions she doesn't want to have any part of. You can taste the irony. There should be a recipe for it in the last chapter. She cries 'freedom' over and over, but she's not interested in freedom. She wants a Christian Theocracy, and the further we move away from that ideal, the more violated she feels.

If the book weren't written at a 4th grade reading level and easily readable in a couple of hours, I never would have been able to finish it, but I'm glad I did, because I really appreciated her detailed recipe on how to make Rice Krispies Treats. But if you don't have 2 hours of your life to waste on complete drivel, I recommend you skip straight to the chapter where Palin imagines visiting her grandson in college 20 years in the future. It is a fascinating inside look at the rantings of a clearly delusional mind. Incidentally it's also in this chapter that I think Palin got one fact right. In 20 years, no one is going to remember who she is.
]]> Why Evolution Is True 4005310 Why evolution is more than just a theory: it is a fact.

In all the current highly publicized debates about creationism and its descendant "intelligent design," there is an element of the controversy that is rarely mentioned¡ªthe "evidence," the empirical truth of evolution by natural selection. Even Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould, while extolling the beauty of evolution and examining case studies, have not focused on the evidence itself. Yet the proof is vast, varied, and magnificent, drawn from many different fields of science. Scientists are observing species splitting into two and are finding more and more fossils capturing change in the past¡ªdinosaurs that have sprouted feathers, fish that have grown limbs.

Why Evolution Is True weaves together the many threads of modern work in genetics, paleontology, geology, molecular biology, and anatomy that demonstrate the "indelible stamp" of the processes first proposed by Darwin. In crisp, lucid prose accessible to a wide audience, Why Evolution Is True dispels common misunderstandings and fears about evolution and clearly confirms that this amazing process of change has been firmly established as a scientific truth.]]> 282 Jerry A. Coyne 0670020532 Nathan 3
This book has a far more neutral tone, and is a a nice succinct look at the science of evolution. He chases less rabbits than Dawkins also, and he presents the evidence with a less impassioned tone than Dawkins, which I think is real plus if you're actually hoping to get those who disagree with you to listen to what you're saying.

You can see the differences in these two books just by looking at the titles. Dawkins' Greatest Show on Earth is an impassioned case for evolution. It's practically a love letter to the natural world. Why Evolution is True is a far drier presentation of much of the same evidence. I personally enjoy Dawkins clever writing and all his rabbit chasing, and the passion for the subject that he can not hide, so personally I didn't enjoy this book as much as The Greatest Show on Earth. But it's a very good general-interest overview of the science of evolution. Reading these two books together, I realize how much my education as a child failed me, largely because my science teachers were clearly afraid of wrath of the religious influences in our community if they really taught the facts of evolution. To me that this is still going on is a travesty.

Since I started the quest for a book that I could share with young-earth creationists, I've realized the search is a futile one. Once you realize where creationists begin their argument, you realize there's no point in trying to have a reasoned conversation with them. They start by stating their hypothesis is fact, and indeed is revealed through God's own words. Then they work in reverse. Anything that doesn't support this conclusion is suspect, and is thrown out, or otherwise ignored. They aren't looking at the evidence to see where it leads, they are looking at the evidence to figure out how to discredit it, or how they can possibly warp it into a way in which it might lend some kind of credibility to what they already believe. Their minds are already made up. They have no respect for the scientific process, and consider the academic process of peer reviewed publication--probably one of the greatest things to happen to the process of learning--to be a conspiracy. I don't know how I forgot this, but i'm grateful for the reminder. Far greater minds than me have been unable to get these people to see how flawed this worldview is. It's certainly not something I'm going to cure. So I think this book concludes my quest. I don't think it will sway many minds that are already made up, But if you're someone out there just looking for a great overview so you can learn more about about the massive evidence used to understand the process that got us here, or if you genuinely don't know what to believe, because science education in this country has failed you miserably, this is a great place to start.

One more thought. I think he should have left the final chapter out. I understand why he feels like he needs to assuage fears that if society in general accepts evolution is true, we'll quickly de-evolve into a pack rabid dogs, but i don't think the argument is something that can be tacked on to this conversation and dealt with fairly in a few pages, and I don't think it has any place in a book about the science itself. It's the job of science to excavate the truth about how the world around us works. It's up to philosophers and religious leaders and the like to figure out what to do with that information. I think the fear of evolution destroying religious world views is about as rational as the fear that the entire universe doesn't revolve around the earth will end the Christian world view. When religion and science spar, historically, religion always loses, and it always finds a way to bounce back. I think the best way to forward for science is to continue to present the evidence and let the religious leaders work out how they're going to work it into their wordview, though I see why Coyne and Dawkins and others feel that to this point, that approach hasn't worked out so well. Still I think the important point that should be hammered relentlessly is that science makes no commentary on faith. Evolution makes no true commentary on God. It isn't even a theory on origins, merely a theory on how life adapted over time. Faith deals with the super-natural. Science stops at the natural world. I think the scientific world would make better progress if they continue to make this point with the religious communities. ]]> 4.18 2008 Why Evolution Is True
author: Jerry A. Coyne
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2012/12/03
date added: 2013/12/10
shelves:
review:
I picked this book after reading Dawkins' Greatest Show on Earth. After a series of conversations I had with some young-earth creationists, and in light of what is occurring in the battle for science curriculum here in Texas, I wanted to find a book that I could recommend to creationists, since most creationists have absolutely no clue about the actual science. Dawkins' book is not that book because he is unable to keep his contempt for young-earth creationists out of the conversation. I think the book would only insult those people who I wish would open up their worldviews a bit. To that end, Dawkins defeats his own purpose for writing the book in the way he delivers the material.

This book has a far more neutral tone, and is a a nice succinct look at the science of evolution. He chases less rabbits than Dawkins also, and he presents the evidence with a less impassioned tone than Dawkins, which I think is real plus if you're actually hoping to get those who disagree with you to listen to what you're saying.

You can see the differences in these two books just by looking at the titles. Dawkins' Greatest Show on Earth is an impassioned case for evolution. It's practically a love letter to the natural world. Why Evolution is True is a far drier presentation of much of the same evidence. I personally enjoy Dawkins clever writing and all his rabbit chasing, and the passion for the subject that he can not hide, so personally I didn't enjoy this book as much as The Greatest Show on Earth. But it's a very good general-interest overview of the science of evolution. Reading these two books together, I realize how much my education as a child failed me, largely because my science teachers were clearly afraid of wrath of the religious influences in our community if they really taught the facts of evolution. To me that this is still going on is a travesty.

Since I started the quest for a book that I could share with young-earth creationists, I've realized the search is a futile one. Once you realize where creationists begin their argument, you realize there's no point in trying to have a reasoned conversation with them. They start by stating their hypothesis is fact, and indeed is revealed through God's own words. Then they work in reverse. Anything that doesn't support this conclusion is suspect, and is thrown out, or otherwise ignored. They aren't looking at the evidence to see where it leads, they are looking at the evidence to figure out how to discredit it, or how they can possibly warp it into a way in which it might lend some kind of credibility to what they already believe. Their minds are already made up. They have no respect for the scientific process, and consider the academic process of peer reviewed publication--probably one of the greatest things to happen to the process of learning--to be a conspiracy. I don't know how I forgot this, but i'm grateful for the reminder. Far greater minds than me have been unable to get these people to see how flawed this worldview is. It's certainly not something I'm going to cure. So I think this book concludes my quest. I don't think it will sway many minds that are already made up, But if you're someone out there just looking for a great overview so you can learn more about about the massive evidence used to understand the process that got us here, or if you genuinely don't know what to believe, because science education in this country has failed you miserably, this is a great place to start.

One more thought. I think he should have left the final chapter out. I understand why he feels like he needs to assuage fears that if society in general accepts evolution is true, we'll quickly de-evolve into a pack rabid dogs, but i don't think the argument is something that can be tacked on to this conversation and dealt with fairly in a few pages, and I don't think it has any place in a book about the science itself. It's the job of science to excavate the truth about how the world around us works. It's up to philosophers and religious leaders and the like to figure out what to do with that information. I think the fear of evolution destroying religious world views is about as rational as the fear that the entire universe doesn't revolve around the earth will end the Christian world view. When religion and science spar, historically, religion always loses, and it always finds a way to bounce back. I think the best way to forward for science is to continue to present the evidence and let the religious leaders work out how they're going to work it into their wordview, though I see why Coyne and Dawkins and others feel that to this point, that approach hasn't worked out so well. Still I think the important point that should be hammered relentlessly is that science makes no commentary on faith. Evolution makes no true commentary on God. It isn't even a theory on origins, merely a theory on how life adapted over time. Faith deals with the super-natural. Science stops at the natural world. I think the scientific world would make better progress if they continue to make this point with the religious communities.
]]> <![CDATA[The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution]]> 6117055
"The Greatest Show on Earth" is a stunning counter-attack on creationists, followers of "Intelligent Design" and all those who still question evolution as scientific fact. In this brilliant tour de force, Richard Dawkins pulls together the incontrovertible evidence that underpins it: from living examples of natural selection to clues in the fossil record; from plate tectonics to molecular genetics.

"The Greatest Show on Earth" comes at a critical time as systematic opposition to the fact of evolution flourishes as never before in many schools worldwide. Dawkins wields a devastating argument against this ignorance whilst sharing with us his palpable love of science and the natural world. Written with elegance, wit and passion, it is hard-hitting, absorbing and totally convincing.]]> 470 Richard Dawkins 059306173X Nathan 4
One of my primary reasons for reading the book was to find something I could give to christians who are young-earth creationists that might give them a singular place to go to unpack just how misleading and manipulative the young-earth intelligent design movement is. I think most people in this position mostly read information from dishonest sources that are deliberately misleading and full of pseudo-science and rhetoric. I'd love to find a primer on the actual science behind evolution that could explain the massive problems with young-earth creationism in a way that doesn't insult their core beliefs. I had my doubts that a writing by the world's most famous atheist could do this, and I think I was right. Despite what I think is an honest effort, Dawkins still has trouble hiding his contempt for "history-deniers" as he calls them, and his atheist world view bubbles to the top pretty often. I don't personally have an issue with this, and in fact I can empathize with why Dawkins is so demonstrably irritated with proponents of young-earth creationism. And he's right. It's deplorable that scientists in 2012 have to stop their legitimate research and put dealings in the academic arena on hold in order to defend the basic facts of the universe from what basically amounts to medieval religious persecution. And I think his anger over the matter is directed entirely at the leaders of the movement who are so deliberately ignorant and/or misleading, and not at the average believer on 'the street." But, that's a subtlety that readers who don't believe in evolution on spiritual grounds will likely miss. In a perfect world, people would be able to read this dispassionately. Unfortunately we live in the polarized time of rhetoric and sound bites, and I think the people that most need the information in this book will be turned off and offended by Dawkins' tone. It's a shame, and it shouldn't be true, but it is. What evolution needs is someone who can deliver the science on this 'street-veiw' level without being critical of people's spiritual views. I don't think this book quite hits the right tone.

Still, I really enjoyed it. I learned many things I didn't know. I read it twice straight through, because there was so much here to chew on.
]]> 4.15 2009 The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
author: Richard Dawkins
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2012/10/07
date added: 2012/10/08
shelves:
review:
I really enjoyed this book as a good comprehensive primer on the current state of the theory of evolution, and how the evidence continues to mount in favor of the undeniable fact that the earth is ancient on the scale of billions of years, and the diversification of life on earth through natural selection. I can't imagine how difficult it must be for someone like Dawkins to walk a delicate balance between making these subjects easy enough for those of us who don't hold PhDs in zoology or microbiology to follow the evidence, without watering it down to the point that it loses all poignancy. I think He does a brilliant job.

One of my primary reasons for reading the book was to find something I could give to christians who are young-earth creationists that might give them a singular place to go to unpack just how misleading and manipulative the young-earth intelligent design movement is. I think most people in this position mostly read information from dishonest sources that are deliberately misleading and full of pseudo-science and rhetoric. I'd love to find a primer on the actual science behind evolution that could explain the massive problems with young-earth creationism in a way that doesn't insult their core beliefs. I had my doubts that a writing by the world's most famous atheist could do this, and I think I was right. Despite what I think is an honest effort, Dawkins still has trouble hiding his contempt for "history-deniers" as he calls them, and his atheist world view bubbles to the top pretty often. I don't personally have an issue with this, and in fact I can empathize with why Dawkins is so demonstrably irritated with proponents of young-earth creationism. And he's right. It's deplorable that scientists in 2012 have to stop their legitimate research and put dealings in the academic arena on hold in order to defend the basic facts of the universe from what basically amounts to medieval religious persecution. And I think his anger over the matter is directed entirely at the leaders of the movement who are so deliberately ignorant and/or misleading, and not at the average believer on 'the street." But, that's a subtlety that readers who don't believe in evolution on spiritual grounds will likely miss. In a perfect world, people would be able to read this dispassionately. Unfortunately we live in the polarized time of rhetoric and sound bites, and I think the people that most need the information in this book will be turned off and offended by Dawkins' tone. It's a shame, and it shouldn't be true, but it is. What evolution needs is someone who can deliver the science on this 'street-veiw' level without being critical of people's spiritual views. I don't think this book quite hits the right tone.

Still, I really enjoyed it. I learned many things I didn't know. I read it twice straight through, because there was so much here to chew on.

]]> <![CDATA[Elizabeth I: The Shrewdness of Virtue]]> 991569 391 Jasper Ridley 088064110X Nathan 3 3.00 1987 Elizabeth I: The Shrewdness of Virtue
author: Jasper Ridley
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.00
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/08/25
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam]]> 3873 496 Karen Armstrong 0517223120 Nathan 0 to-read 3.89 1993 A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
author: Karen Armstrong
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/06/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Breakfast of Champions 4980 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

In Breakfast of Champions, one of Kurt Vonnegut¡¯s most beloved characters, the aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. What follows is murderously funny satire, as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us how to see the truth.]]> 303 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 0385334206 Nathan 0 to-read 4.08 1973 Breakfast of Champions
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2012/06/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown]]> 7510517 ?
In 13 Bankers, Simon Johnson¡ªone of the most prominent and frequently cited economists in America (former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT, and author of the controversial ¡°The Quiet Coup¡± in The Atlantic )¡ªand James Kwak give a wide-ranging, meticulous, and bracing account of recent U.S. financial history within the context of previous showdowns between American democracy and Big from Thomas Jefferson to Andrew Jackson, from Theodore Roosevelt to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. They convincingly show why our future is imperiled by the ideology of finance (finance is good, unregulated finance is better, unfettered finance run amok is best) and by Wall Street¡¯s political control of government policy pertaining to it.
?
As the authors insist, the choice that America faces is whether Washington will accede to the vested interests of an unbridled financial sector that runs up profits in good years and dumps its losses on taxpayers in lean years, or reform through stringent regulation the banking system as first and foremost an engine of economic growth. To restore health and balance to our economy, Johnson and Kwak make a radical yet feasible and focused reconfigure the megabanks to be ¡°small enough to fail.¡±
?
Lucid, authoritative, crucial for its timeliness, 13 Bankers is certain to be one of the most discussed and debated books of 2010.]]> 305 Simon Johnson 0307379051 Nathan 2 3.86 2010 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown
author: Simon Johnson
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2010
rating: 2
read at: 2012/06/27
date added: 2012/06/27
shelves:
review:

]]> The Screwtape Letters 11149 The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging and humorous account of temptation¡ªand triumph over it¡ªever written.^]]> 209 C.S. Lewis 0060652896 Nathan 1 4.17 1942 The Screwtape Letters
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1942
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> The Ragamuffin Gospel 173526
Many believers feel stunted in their Christian growth. We beat ourselves up over our failures and, in the process, pull away from God because we subconsciously believe He tallies our defects and hangs His head in disappointment. In this newly repackaged edition--now with full appendix, study questions, and the author's own epilogue, ""Ragamuffin" Ten Years Later," Brennan Manning reminds us that nothing could be further from the truth. The Father beckons us to Himself with a "furious love" that burns brightly and constantly. Only when we truly embrace God's grace can we bask in the joy of a gospel that enfolds the most needy of His flock--the "ragamuffins."

Are you bedraggled, beat-up, burnt-out?

Most of us believe in God's grace--in theory. But somehow we can't seem to apply it in our daily lives. We continue to see Him as a small-minded bookkeeper, tallying our failures and successes on a score sheet.

Yet God gives us His grace, willingly, no matter what we've done. We come to Him as ragamuffins--dirty, bedraggled, and beat-up. And when we sit at His feet, He smiles upon us, the chosen objects of His "furious love."

Brennan Manning 's now-classic meditation on grace and what it takes to access it--simple honesty--has changed thousands of lives. Now with a Ragamuffin's thirty-day spiritual journey guide, it will change yours, too.]]> 240 Brennan Manning 1576737160 Nathan 2 4.18 1990 The Ragamuffin Gospel
author: Brennan Manning
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1990
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Nine Stories 4009
The stories are:

"A Perfect Day for Bananafish"
"Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut"
"Just Before the War with the Eskimos"
"The Laughing Man"
"Down at the Dinghy"
"For Esm¨¦ ¨C with Love and Squalor"
"Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes"
"De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period"
"Teddy"]]> 302 J.D. Salinger 0316767727 Nathan 3 4.20 1953 Nine Stories
author: J.D. Salinger
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1953
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Breakfast at Tiffany¡¯s and Three Stories]]> 251688 Holly Golightly knows that nothing bad can ever happen to you at Tiffany's.

In this seductive, wistful masterpiece, Capote created a woman whose name has entered the American idiom and whose style is a part of the literary landscape¡ªher poignancy, wit, and na?vet¨¦ continue to charm.

It's New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's... And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveler, a tease. She is irrepressibly 'top banana in the shock department', and one of the shining flowers of American fiction.

Also included are three of Capote's best-known stories:
? House of Flowers - Ottilie is entranced by a beautiful young man, and leaves her life and friends to live with him and his old grandmother, who seems to hate her.
? A Diamond Guitar - Hear the story of the prized possession of a younger prison inmate, a rhinestone-studded guitar.
? A Christmas Memory - A poignant tale of two innocents¡ªa small boy and the old woman who is his best friend¡ªwhose sweetness contains a hard, sharp kernel of truth.]]> 142 Truman Capote Nathan 3 3.88 1958 Breakfast at Tiffany¡¯s and Three Stories
author: Truman Capote
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1958
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> The Cask of Amontillado 261240
It is set in a nameless Italian city in an unspecified year (possibly during the eighteenth century) and concerns the revenge taken by the narrator on a friend who he claims has insulted him. Like several of Poe's stories, and in keeping with the 19th-century fascination with the subject, the narrative revolves around the possibility of a person being buried alive or enclosed in a small space with not possibility of escape (aka immurement).

Librarian's note: this entry relates to the story "The Cask of Amontillado." Collections of short stories by the author can be found elsewhere on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ.]]> 24 Edgar Allan Poe 1594561869 Nathan 5 4.09 1846 The Cask of Amontillado
author: Edgar Allan Poe
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1846
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> The Most Dangerous Game 157076 The Most Dangerous Game features a big-game hunter from New York who becomes shipwrecked on an isolated island in the Caribbean and is hunted by a Russian aristocrat.]]> 48 Richard Connell 1599869691 Nathan 3 3.93 1924 The Most Dangerous Game
author: Richard Connell
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1924
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Monkey's Paw (Oxford Bookworms)]]> 351064 30 Diane Mowat 0194232638 Nathan 3 3.88 1902 The Monkey's Paw (Oxford Bookworms)
author: Diane Mowat
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1902
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> To Build a Fire 194808 "Day had broken cold and grey, exceedingly cold and grey, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the high earth- bank, where a dim and little-travelled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland..."

A man alone on the Yukon Trail¡ªsave for his dog¡ªis planning on meeting friends when the day turns for the worse and he encounters severe cold reaching 75 degrees below zero. His luck only goes downhill from there when he gets wet after falling through the snow. Now, his only hope of surviving is to build a fire, but his lack of supplies, the extreme elements and his own diminishing senses prove to be an impenetrable barrier to his existence.

First published in 1902, 'To Build a Fire' is one of Jack London's most beloved short stories. A heartbreaking tale set in the vast wintry landscape of the North, it endures as one of the greatest adventures ever written.

Jack London (1876-1916) was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. His most famous works include 'The Call of the Wild' (1903) and 'White Fang' (1906), as well as the short stories 'To Build a Fire' (1902), 'An Odyssey of the North' (1900), and 'Love of Life' (1905).]]> 32 Jack London 0968709184 Nathan 4 3.97 1902 To Build a Fire
author: Jack London
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1902
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Gift of the Magi and Other Short Stories]]> 31626
Though his work earned him an avid readership, O. Henry died in poverty and oblivion scarcely eight years after his arrival in New York. But in the treasury of stories he left behind are such classics of the genre as "The Gift of the Magi," "The Last Leaf," "The Ransom of Red Chief," "The Voice of the City" and "The Cop and the Anthem" ¡ª all included in this choice selection. A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.]]> 96 O. Henry 0486270610 Nathan 3 4.16 1904 The Gift of the Magi and Other Short Stories
author: O. Henry
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1904
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> David Copperfield 58696 882 Charles Dickens Nathan 4 4.02 1850 David Copperfield
author: Charles Dickens
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1850
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 93263 Please note that this is the graphic novel adaptation of Sleepy Hollow. If you're looking for the short story, go here.

This is Bo Hampton's 1993 Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a faithful adaptation of Washington Irving's tale surrounding the ghostly inhabitants of Tarrytown, New York around the time of the American Revolution. The cast of characters is headed up by the Headless Horseman himself. This edition boasts new covers and 16 pages of new material, including numerous preliminary sketches of scenes and characters.]]> 64 Bo Hampton 1582404119 Nathan 2 3.98 1993 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
author: Bo Hampton
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1993
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson]]> 112204 THE ONLY ONE-VOLUME EDITION CONTAINING ALL 1,775 OF EMILY DICKINSON¡¯S POEMS

Only eleven of Emily Dickinson¡¯s poems were published prior to her death in 1886; the startling originality of her work doomed it to obscurity in her lifetime. Early posthumously published collections-some of them featuring liberally ¡°edited¡± versions of the poems-did not fully and accurately represent Dickinson¡¯s bold experiments in prosody, her tragic vision, and the range of her intellectual and emotional explorations. Not until the 1955 publication of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, a three-volume critical edition compiled by Thomas H. Johnson, were readers able for the first time to assess, understand, and appreciate the whole of Dickinson¡¯s extraordinary poetic genius.

This book, a distillation of the three-volume Complete Poems, brings together the original texts of all 1,775 poems that Emily Dickinson wrote.]]> 716 Emily Dickinson Nathan 3 4.28 1890 The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
author: Emily Dickinson
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1890
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Memoirs of a Geisha 930
In "Memoirs of a Geisha," we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction - at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful - and completely unforgettable.]]> 434 Arthur Golden 0739326228 Nathan 1 4.07 1997 Memoirs of a Geisha
author: Arthur Golden
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1997
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Needful Things 107291 790 Stephen King Nathan 3 3.97 1991 Needful Things
author: Stephen King
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1991
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Treasure Island 295 Treasure Island has never been surpassed. From the moment young Jim Hawkins first encounters the sinister Blind Pew at the Admiral Benbow Inn until the climactic battle for treasure on a tropic isle, the novel creates scenes and characters that have fired the imaginations of generations of readers. Written by a superb prose stylist, a master of both action and atmosphere, the story centers upon the conflict between good and evil - but in this case a particularly engaging form of evil. It is the villainy of that most ambiguous rogue Long John Silver that sets the tempo of this tale of treachery, greed, and daring. Designed to forever kindle a dream of high romance and distant horizons, Treasure Island is, in the words of G. K. Chesterton, 'the realization of an ideal, that which is promised in its provocative and beckoning map; a vision not only of white skeletons but also green palm trees and sapphire seas.' G. S. Fraser terms it 'an utterly original book' and goes on to write: 'There will always be a place for stories like Treasure Island that can keep boys and old men happy.']]> 352 Robert Louis Stevenson 0753453800 Nathan 2 3.84 1882 Treasure Island
author: Robert Louis Stevenson
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1882
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> Charlotte¡¯s Web 24178 Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan, is a classic of children's literature that is "just about perfect." This high-quality paperback features vibrant illustrations colorized by Rosemary Wells!

Some Pig. Humble. Radiant. These are the words in Charlotte's Web, high up in Zuckerman's barn. Charlotte's spiderweb tells of her feelings for a little pig named Wilbur, who simply wants a friend. They also express the love of a girl named Fern, who saved Wilbur's life when he was born the runt of his litter.

E. B. White's Newbery Honor Book is a tender novel of friendship, love, life, and death that will continue to be enjoyed by generations to come. This edition contains newly color illustrations by Garth Williams, the acclaimed illustrator of E. B. White's Stuart Little and Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, among many other books.]]> 184 E.B. White 0064410935 Nathan 3 4.20 1952 Charlotte¡¯s Web
author: E.B. White
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1952
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things]]> 41231 210 Barry Glassner 0465014909 Nathan 4 3.69 1999 The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things
author: Barry Glassner
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/02/17
shelves:
review:
Every yrpear that Fox News and CNN remain in the air I become more and more and more convinced that this book should be required reading.
]]> <![CDATA[A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius]]> 4953 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read for decades to come.]]> 530 Dave Eggers 0375725784 Nathan 5 3.70 2000 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
author: Dave Eggers
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Anthem 667 Anthem is Ayn Rand's classic tale of a dystopian future of the great "We"¡ªa world that deprives individuals of a name or independence¡ªthat anticipates her later masterpieces, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

They existed only to serve the state. They were conceived in controlled Palaces of Mating. They died in the Home of the Useless. From cradle to grave, the crowd was one¡ªthe great WE.

In all that was left of humanity, there was only one man who dared to think, seek, and love. He lived in the dark ages of the future. In a loveless world, he dared to love the woman of his choice. In an age that had lost all trace of science and civilization, he had the courage to seek and find knowledge. But these were not the crimes for which he would be hunted. He was marked for death because he had committed the unpardonable sin: He had stood forth from the mindless human herd. He was a man alone. He had rediscovered the lost and holy word¡ªI.

"I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals, and I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up to these possibilities."
?¡ªAyn Rand]]> 105 Ayn Rand 0452281253 Nathan 3 3.59 1938 Anthem
author: Ayn Rand
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1938
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2012/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> The Beach 607639
The Khao San Road, Bangkok -- first stop for the hordes of rootless young Westerners traveling in Southeast Asia. On Richard's first night there, in a low-budget guest house, a fellow traveller slashes his wrists, bequeathing to Richard a meticulously drawn map to "the Beach."

The Beach, as Richard has come to learn, is the subject of a legend among young travellers in Asia: a lagoon hidden from the sea, with white sand and coral gardens, freshwater falls surrounded by jungle, plants untouched for a thousand years. There, it is rumoured, a carefully selected international few have settled in a communal Eden.

Haunted by the figure of Mr. Duck -- the name by which the Thai police have identified the dead man -- and his own obsession with Vietnam movies, Richard sets off with a young French couple to an island hidden away in an archipelago forbidden to tourists. They discover the Beach, and it is as beautiful and idyllic as it is reputed to be. Yet over time it becomes clear that Beach culture, as Richard calls it, has troubling, even deadly, undercurrents.

Spellbinding and hallucinogenic, The Beach by Alex Garland -- both a national bestseller and his debut -- is a highly accomplished and suspenseful novel that fixates on a generation in their twenties, who, burdened with the legacy of the preceding generation and saturated by popular culture, long for an unruined landscape, but find it difficult to experience the world first hand.]]> 436 Alex Garland 1573226521 Nathan 5 3.97 1996 The Beach
author: Alex Garland
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hero With a Thousand Faces]]> 588138
Myth, according to Campbell, is the projection of a culture's dreams onto a large screen; Campbell's book, like Star Wars, the film it helped inspire, is an exploration of the big-picture moments from the stage that is our world. It is a must-have resource for both experienced students of mythology and the explorer just beginning to approach myth as a source of knowledge.]]> 416 Joseph Campbell 0691017840 Nathan 4 4.15 1949 The Hero With a Thousand Faces
author: Joseph Campbell
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1949
rating: 4
read at: 2009/01/08
date added: 2012/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Myths to Live By 821380 Myths to Live By, Joseph Campbell explores the enduring power of the universal myths that influence our lives daily and examines the myth-making process from the primitive past to the immediate present, retuning always to the source from which all mythology springs: the creative imagination. Campbell stresses that the borders dividing the Earth have been shattered; that myths and religions have always followed the certain basic archetypes and are no longer exclusive to a single people, region, or religion. He shows how we must recognize their common denominators and allow this knowledge to be of use in fulfilling human potential everywhere.]]> 276 Joseph Campbell 0140194614 Nathan 4 4.15 1972 Myths to Live By
author: Joseph Campbell
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1972
rating: 4
read at: 2008/04/08
date added: 2012/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> Petty Crimes 536620 168 Gary Soto 0152016589 Nathan 4


]]> 4.20 1998 Petty Crimes
author: Gary Soto
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at: 2008/01/01
date added: 2012/02/17
shelves:
review:
My wife and I frequently read short story collections to each other at night. She is a junior high English teacher and also writes young adult fiction, and as such she reads a lot of material written for adolescents. This is one of those books. It's 10 stories of 10 children growing up in urban Hispanic American culture. Most of them are poor, all of them dealing with something traumatic. A bully, street gangs, an aging grandfather, a missing rooster. Some of these stories are so funny I nearly wet my pants laughing. Others are quite real and morose, while still others are tender. In each of them, Soto manages to really find the voice of young adolescence. It is easy to see he is writing from his roots, and he is very in-tune with the feelings and experience and awkwardness that is young adulthood. I'm often amazed at how really good writers of young adult fiction are often more poignant and profound than most writers of adult fiction who use five times as many words. We read one story a night and skipped a few nights, so it took us about two weeks, but you could plow through this book in an hour, and what a delightful hour it would be.




]]> Girl Meets God 49188 Girl Meets God, this appealing woman takes us through a year in her Christian life as she attempts to reconcile both sides of her religious identity.

Here readers will find a new literary voice: a spiritual seeker who is both an unconventional thinker and a devoted Christian. The twists and turns of Winner¡¯s journey make her the perfect guide to exploring true faith in today¡¯s complicated world.]]> 320 Lauren F. Winner 0812970802 Nathan 2 Meh. 3.86 2002 Girl Meets God
author: Lauren F. Winner
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2002
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2012/02/17
shelves:
review:
Meh.
]]> The Basic Eight 10997 416 Daniel Handler 0060733861 Nathan 2
This would make a great b movie. Right up there with like, Teaching MS.Tingle, The Faculty, and The In Crowd. But it's not worth more than 90 minutes on a lazy Saturday afternoon. ]]> 3.80 1999 The Basic Eight
author: Daniel Handler
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1999
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2012/02/17
shelves:
review:
It tries real hard to be edgy. It tries real hard to be a caricature of high school. It doesn't get either one right. It's just a not very interesting story of a bunch of really vile teens with an ending so absurd it's...well...absurd.

This would make a great b movie. Right up there with like, Teaching MS.Tingle, The Faculty, and The In Crowd. But it's not worth more than 90 minutes on a lazy Saturday afternoon.
]]> My Drowning 220752 Ever since Ellen Tote can remember, she has dreamed of her mother slowly drowning. Now, with her own children all grown and her siblings long gone, Ellen journeys back to her childhood for answers. Piecing together her memories, she finally articulates a story so shattering, it had long been silenced by fear and shame. Both heartrending and life-affirming, this compelling portrait of a brave yet tragic woman celebrates the courage and endurance of the human spirit.]]> 258 Jim Grimsley 0684841231 Nathan 1 3.77 1997 My Drowning
author: Jim Grimsley
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1997
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2012/02/17
shelves:
review:
Grimsley's first book, Winter Birds is one of my favorite books. It's a stunning piece of fiction. I also thought Dream Boy was impossible to put down. It falls apart at the end, maybe, but even then it's a great read. By comparison this book felt like a tepid regurgitation of his first works. It was bleak, and sad, and hopelessly derivative of his own genius.
]]> <![CDATA[Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul]]> 1847 242 John Eldredge 0785287965 Nathan 1 3.82 2001 Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul
author: John Eldredge
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2001
rating: 1
read at:
date added: 2012/02/17
shelves:
review:
I found this book so offensive that at one point I chucked it across a room and broke a glass figurine. How's that for wild at heart?
]]> Different Seasons 39662
A ¡°hypnotic¡± (The New York Times Book Review) collection of four novellas¡ªincluding the inspirations behind the films Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption¡ªfrom Stephen King, bound together by the changing of seasons, each taking on the theme of a journey with strikingly different tones and characters.

This gripping collection begins with ¡°Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,¡± in which an unjustly imprisoned convict seeks a strange and startling revenge¡ªthe basis for the Best Picture Academy Award-nominee The Shawshank Redemption.

Next is ¡°Apt Pupil,¡± the inspiration for the film of the same name about top high school student Todd Bowden and his obsession with the dark and deadly past of an older man in town.

In ¡°The Body,¡± four rambunctious young boys plunge through the fa?ade of a small town and come face-to-face with life, death, and intimations of their own mortality. This novella became the movie Stand By Me.

Finally, a disgraced woman is determined to triumph over death in ¡°The Breathing Method.¡±

¡°The wondrous readability of his work, as well as the instant sense of communication with his characters, are what make Stephen King the consummate storyteller that he is,¡± hailed the Houston Chronicle about Different Seasons.]]> 560 Stephen King 0751514624 Nathan 3 4.42 1982 Different Seasons
author: Stephen King
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1982
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2011/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Point of Impact (Bob Lee Swagger, #1)]]> 127712
But with consummate psychological skill, a shadowy military organization seduces Bob into leaving his beloved Arkansas hills for one last mission for his country, unaware until too late that the game is rigged.

The assassination plot is executed to perfection¡ªuntil Bob Lee Swagger, alleged lone gunman, comes out of the operation alive, the target of a nationwide manhunt, his only allies a woman he just met and a discredited FBI agent.

Now Bob Lee Swagger is on the run, using his lethal skills once more¡ªbut this time to track down the men who set him up and to break a dark conspiracy aimed at the very heart of America.]]> 528 Stephen Hunter 0099453452 Nathan 2
There's a pretty good thriller in this book. It's a shame that it's trapped inside so many unnecessary words. Hunter suffers from the delusion that he is a gifted writer, and clearly thinks that going into unimaginable amounts of detail is the sign of inspiration. It isn't. He drones on and on about some of the most mundane detail you can imagine. The conversations between characters are the worst. They were so repetitive that at times that I had to check to make sure I wasn't accidentally re-reading the same page.

I would also like to applaud Hunter on his courageous use of the word 'banal.' If I were a writer, i think I wouldn't have the gumption to use a word as contrived as banal more than once or twice in a given opus. But Mr. Hunter fearlessly and relentlessly invokes the word so often that the use of the word 'banal' actually becomes banal. It is one of the greatest uses of irony I've ever seen in a modern work of fiction.

There was a brief moment at the end of the book, when it got very exciting and it looked as though dredging through the mire of the first 490 pages was going to pay off in the last act. It didn't.

Do yourself a favor and skip this book and just watch the movie Shooter. No, it isn't any less contrived than the novel, but at least then you've only wasted two hours of your life, and, hey...Marky Mark.



]]> 4.26 1993 Point of Impact (Bob Lee Swagger, #1)
author: Stephen Hunter
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1993
rating: 2
read at: 2010/08/13
date added: 2011/08/05
shelves:
review:
I picked this up for a nice pulpy, summer read. I assumed it would be pretty entertaining, since that Marky Mark movie Shooter that derived from this book is so fun. Awful. But fun.

There's a pretty good thriller in this book. It's a shame that it's trapped inside so many unnecessary words. Hunter suffers from the delusion that he is a gifted writer, and clearly thinks that going into unimaginable amounts of detail is the sign of inspiration. It isn't. He drones on and on about some of the most mundane detail you can imagine. The conversations between characters are the worst. They were so repetitive that at times that I had to check to make sure I wasn't accidentally re-reading the same page.

I would also like to applaud Hunter on his courageous use of the word 'banal.' If I were a writer, i think I wouldn't have the gumption to use a word as contrived as banal more than once or twice in a given opus. But Mr. Hunter fearlessly and relentlessly invokes the word so often that the use of the word 'banal' actually becomes banal. It is one of the greatest uses of irony I've ever seen in a modern work of fiction.

There was a brief moment at the end of the book, when it got very exciting and it looked as though dredging through the mire of the first 490 pages was going to pay off in the last act. It didn't.

Do yourself a favor and skip this book and just watch the movie Shooter. No, it isn't any less contrived than the novel, but at least then you've only wasted two hours of your life, and, hey...Marky Mark.




]]> <![CDATA[Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It]]> 8727466 An eye-opening, myth-shattering examination of what makes us fat, from acclaimed science writer Gary Taubes.

In his New York Times best seller, Good Calories, Bad Calories, Taubes argued that our diet¡¯s overemphasis on certain kinds of carbohydrates¡ªnot fats and not simply excess calories¡ªhas led directly to the obesity epidemic we face today. The result of thorough research, keen insight, and unassailable common sense, Good Calories, Bad Calories immediately stirred controversy and acclaim among academics, journalists, and writers alike. Michael Pollan heralded it as ¡°a vitally important book, destined to change the way we think about food.¡±

Building upon this critical work in Good Calories, Bad Calories and presenting fresh evidence for his claim, Taubes now revisits the urgent question of what¡¯s making us fat¡ªand how we can change¡ªin this exciting new book. Persuasive, straightforward, and practical, Why We Get Fat makes Taubes¡¯s crucial argument newly accessible to a wider audience.

Taubes reveals the bad nutritional science of the last century, none more damaging or misguided than the ¡°calories-in, calories-out¡± model of why we get fat, and the good science that has been ignored, especially regarding insulin¡¯s regulation of our fat tissue. He also answers the most persistent questions: Why are some people thin and others fat? What roles do exercise and genetics play in our weight? What foods should we eat, and what foods should we avoid?

Packed with essential information and concluding with an easy-to-follow diet, Why We Get Fat is an invaluable key in our understanding of an international epidemic and a guide to what each of us can do about it.]]> 272 Gary Taubes Nathan 4
My one issue with the book is how down on the concept of exercise Taubes is. I think he's only trying to make the point that if you continue to heat high-carb diets, exercise a ton, and subscribe to the calories in/calories out ideas about weight loss (which he disproves both through an in-depth look at how your body actually metabolizes food, and through lots and lots and lots of clinical data) you're never going to lose weight, and you'll still be at risk for things like heart disease and diabetes. But he's practically dismissive of exercise, giving it only one general nod in the whole book that it "may have other health benefits." People looking for an excuse not to exercise could certainly use this book to come to the conclusion that it isn't necessary, and while maybe it's true that exercising is not going to keep you thin if you don't understand the devastating effects of carbs on your body, There most certainly are lots and lots and lots of other reasons to keep yourself fit and strong through regular exercise.

Other than this one point, I think Taubes has laid out a solid, easy-to-understand, if sometimes dry blueprint for what's wrong with modern Western diets, and why the way we eat is killing us via obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and a plethora of other diseases.

If you've done a bunch of traditional diets to try and manage your weight and failed, I think Taubes work could be particularly helpful. His contention is that it isn't your fault, to this point, that you can't control your weight. It's not that you lack will power or are too lazy, as many of us have been told. It's that you've been given the wrong information to succeed. You've been set up for failure, and then blamed when you do fail. Do yourself a favor, read this book, find a physician who understands these principals, and tell your nutritionist to suck it.


]]> 3.99 2010 Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It
author: Gary Taubes
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2011/03/28
date added: 2011/03/29
shelves:
review:
This is one great book, and I'd recommend pretty much everyone read it. Especially if you struggle with your weight, or heart disease or diabetes run in your family, as they do in mine. My mom recommended this book to me after she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, despite the fact that she's very fit and active, not even slightly overweight, and has eaten 'right' all of her life. The basic theme of the book is everything you've been taught about the right way to eat and manage your weight is wrong. It's based on bad science with little to no evidence to back it up, while there continues to be more and more and more mounting evidence that the food pyramid is killing us all. Taubes is not a particularly gifted writer. There is little here in the way of clever writing. It's just straightforward explanation of facts. The amount of research he has done to uncover data and debunk popular concepts of healthy eating is enlightening and frightening.

My one issue with the book is how down on the concept of exercise Taubes is. I think he's only trying to make the point that if you continue to heat high-carb diets, exercise a ton, and subscribe to the calories in/calories out ideas about weight loss (which he disproves both through an in-depth look at how your body actually metabolizes food, and through lots and lots and lots of clinical data) you're never going to lose weight, and you'll still be at risk for things like heart disease and diabetes. But he's practically dismissive of exercise, giving it only one general nod in the whole book that it "may have other health benefits." People looking for an excuse not to exercise could certainly use this book to come to the conclusion that it isn't necessary, and while maybe it's true that exercising is not going to keep you thin if you don't understand the devastating effects of carbs on your body, There most certainly are lots and lots and lots of other reasons to keep yourself fit and strong through regular exercise.

Other than this one point, I think Taubes has laid out a solid, easy-to-understand, if sometimes dry blueprint for what's wrong with modern Western diets, and why the way we eat is killing us via obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and a plethora of other diseases.

If you've done a bunch of traditional diets to try and manage your weight and failed, I think Taubes work could be particularly helpful. His contention is that it isn't your fault, to this point, that you can't control your weight. It's not that you lack will power or are too lazy, as many of us have been told. It's that you've been given the wrong information to succeed. You've been set up for failure, and then blamed when you do fail. Do yourself a favor, read this book, find a physician who understands these principals, and tell your nutritionist to suck it.



]]> <![CDATA[The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)]]> 2767052
Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .

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

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins 0439023483 Nathan 3 4.34 2008 The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2011/03/05
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America]]> 7897556 ?
The financial crisis that exploded in 2008 isn¡¯t past but prologue. The stunning rise, fall, and rescue of Wall Street in the bubble-and-bailout era was the coming-out party for the network of looters who sit at the nexus of American political and economic power. The grifter class¡ªmade up of the largest players in the financial industry and the politicians who do their bidding¡ªhas been growing in power for a generation, transferring wealth upward through increasingly complex financial mechanisms and political maneuvers. The crisis was only one terrifying manifestation of how they¡¯ve hijacked America¡¯s political and economic life.

Rolling Stone¡¯s Matt Taibbi here unravels the whole fiendish story, digging beyond the headlines to get into the deeper roots and wider implications of the rise of the grifters. He traces the movement¡¯s origins to the cult of Ayn Rand and her most influential¡ªand possibly weirdest¡ªacolyte, Alan Greenspan, and offers fresh reporting on the backroom deals that decided the winners and losers in the government bailouts. He uncovers the hidden commodities bubble that transferred billions of dollars to Wall Street while creating food shortages around the world, and he shows how finance dominates politics, from the story of investment bankers auctioning off America¡¯s infrastructure to an inside account of the high-stakes battle for health-care reform¡ªa battle the true reformers lost. Finally, he tells the story of Goldman Sachs, the ¡°vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.¡±

Taibbi has combined deep sources, trailblazing reportage, and provocative analysis to create the most lucid, emotionally galvanizing, and scathingly funny account yet written of the ongoing political and financial crisis in America. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the labyrinthine inner workings of politics and finance in this country, and the profound consequences for us all.]]> 253 Matt Taibbi 0385529953 Nathan 4
If you've been trying to pay attention the past few years, trying to follow mass media to figure out how a few banks were allowed to tank our economy, and then take trillions of dollars in bailouts, pay themselves hundreds of millions in bonuses, and avoid jail, Taibbi lays it out in a concise series of investigations that manage to get deep into the guts of the blueprints of an economic system that incubated such a catastrophe, while managing to deal with it in a way all of us plebeians can understand.

This book is frightening. It's frightening enough that people who don't want to look at where our country is headed can easily enough wave it off as "conspiracy theory" only the problem is there's no conspiracy here. Taibbi uses interviews with industry insiders, and the recorded statements of the CEOs and government officials who perpetrated this crime on the american people to expose what is going on. The most frightening part is when you realize that the crises of 2008 isn't the first crises that has resulted from this criminal setup, and it most certainly isn't going to be the last.

The heart of Taibbi's thesis is how these industries have managed to completely rape the American dream while somehow passing it off as capitalism--which it isn't--how the government is so infested with industry cronies and bureaucratic inefficiencies it's completely powerless to stop it, and in some cases down right complicit in the crimes, and how in the meantime they've got the rest of us reduced to playing politics like they're some kind of sporting event, rooting for blue versus red and boiling down these insanely complex and nuanced crimes into an us vs. them fight that has us all so emotionally blinded by red herring sound byte politics that we're too paralyzed to demand the government stand up and actually do it's job.

And here also lies the book's biggest weakness. In terms of facts and figures, Taibbi is not playing partisan politics here. He indicts both sides of the aisle for getting us where we are. He is equally as critical of the Clinton and Obama administrations and the democrat-controlled congress as he is of republican leadership. He speaks openly about is own disillusionment with the entire bi-paritsan system. But in his tone and language, his historical liberal biases come blazing through. In the opening chapter he attempts to lay out an argument for how the elite in this country have taken the legitimate anger of the tea party movement, and completely neutered it in an elaborate shell game that has well-intentioned, concerned Americans barking up all the wrong trees. I 100% agree with this assessment, but Taibbi writes about the tea party movement with such offensive disdain that he immediately sours any chance of getting any of these people to pay attention to the rest of his argument, and that's a real shame, because these are the people Taibbi really should be hoping to win over with this book. They're the Americans that are upset enough to try to do something to change the system. IF he weren't so intent on insulting them on a such a base level, he might be able to get them to hear his arguments. But in the end he proves his own point about the state of bi-partisan politics in this country, that he can't control his own emotions enough to afford these people any respect whatsoever.

But regardless of his personal biases against conservative leadership, the heart of this book is not that conservatives are bad and liberals are good. His point is that a small group of people have hijacked our country while the rest of us scratch at each other's faces about mostly non-issue politics. When you read the brunt of his argument, only the most blinded libertarian extremists could possibly argue that the problem is that these industries are somehow over-regulated. In is epilogue he sums it up nicely:

we are faced with "A national economy in which the old Adam Smith capitalist notion of companies succeeding or failing on their merits, with the price of their assets determined entirely by the market, was tossed out the window. In its place was a system in which mergers and bankruptcies were brokered not by the market, but by government officials...and prices of assets were determined not by what investors were willing to pay, but by the level of political influence of the company's leaders."
]]> 4.14 2010 Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America
author: Matt Taibbi
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2011/02/26
date added: 2011/02/26
shelves:
review:
This is a book that every American who is wondering what the hell is going on this country needs to read. Taibbi digs deep into the hot mess that is this country's financial system, to uncover how wall street and it's vile relationship with our government is literally stealing our wealth in a series of schemes that are so criminal in nature, to say they're unbelievable is a huge understatement.

If you've been trying to pay attention the past few years, trying to follow mass media to figure out how a few banks were allowed to tank our economy, and then take trillions of dollars in bailouts, pay themselves hundreds of millions in bonuses, and avoid jail, Taibbi lays it out in a concise series of investigations that manage to get deep into the guts of the blueprints of an economic system that incubated such a catastrophe, while managing to deal with it in a way all of us plebeians can understand.

This book is frightening. It's frightening enough that people who don't want to look at where our country is headed can easily enough wave it off as "conspiracy theory" only the problem is there's no conspiracy here. Taibbi uses interviews with industry insiders, and the recorded statements of the CEOs and government officials who perpetrated this crime on the american people to expose what is going on. The most frightening part is when you realize that the crises of 2008 isn't the first crises that has resulted from this criminal setup, and it most certainly isn't going to be the last.

The heart of Taibbi's thesis is how these industries have managed to completely rape the American dream while somehow passing it off as capitalism--which it isn't--how the government is so infested with industry cronies and bureaucratic inefficiencies it's completely powerless to stop it, and in some cases down right complicit in the crimes, and how in the meantime they've got the rest of us reduced to playing politics like they're some kind of sporting event, rooting for blue versus red and boiling down these insanely complex and nuanced crimes into an us vs. them fight that has us all so emotionally blinded by red herring sound byte politics that we're too paralyzed to demand the government stand up and actually do it's job.

And here also lies the book's biggest weakness. In terms of facts and figures, Taibbi is not playing partisan politics here. He indicts both sides of the aisle for getting us where we are. He is equally as critical of the Clinton and Obama administrations and the democrat-controlled congress as he is of republican leadership. He speaks openly about is own disillusionment with the entire bi-paritsan system. But in his tone and language, his historical liberal biases come blazing through. In the opening chapter he attempts to lay out an argument for how the elite in this country have taken the legitimate anger of the tea party movement, and completely neutered it in an elaborate shell game that has well-intentioned, concerned Americans barking up all the wrong trees. I 100% agree with this assessment, but Taibbi writes about the tea party movement with such offensive disdain that he immediately sours any chance of getting any of these people to pay attention to the rest of his argument, and that's a real shame, because these are the people Taibbi really should be hoping to win over with this book. They're the Americans that are upset enough to try to do something to change the system. IF he weren't so intent on insulting them on a such a base level, he might be able to get them to hear his arguments. But in the end he proves his own point about the state of bi-partisan politics in this country, that he can't control his own emotions enough to afford these people any respect whatsoever.

But regardless of his personal biases against conservative leadership, the heart of this book is not that conservatives are bad and liberals are good. His point is that a small group of people have hijacked our country while the rest of us scratch at each other's faces about mostly non-issue politics. When you read the brunt of his argument, only the most blinded libertarian extremists could possibly argue that the problem is that these industries are somehow over-regulated. In is epilogue he sums it up nicely:

we are faced with "A national economy in which the old Adam Smith capitalist notion of companies succeeding or failing on their merits, with the price of their assets determined entirely by the market, was tossed out the window. In its place was a system in which mergers and bankruptcies were brokered not by the market, but by government officials...and prices of assets were determined not by what investors were willing to pay, but by the level of political influence of the company's leaders."

]]> The Road 6288
A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don¡¯t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food¡ªand each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, ¡°each the other¡¯s world entire,¡± are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.]]> 241 Cormac McCarthy 0307265439 Nathan 4
The Road is not as good as Old Country, but it is well worth the read. Really the biggest fault of the book is the premise itself. The post-apocolyptic setting of some grey, destroyed planet earth is hardly a fresh idea, and it was hard for me to shake the clich¨¦. But if you get past that, McCarthy's writing is no less poetic. It's the rhythm of his writing that I find so compelling. He's concise, minimalistic in every way. Not a single wasted word, and there really is almost a music to his prose. I've never found it so easy to get swept up in someone's writing.

the story itself is harrowing, gruesome, and incredibly bleak. Reading it before bed kept me up on more than one occasion. I won't go into all that, because you can read all about that in every other review, but even writing about the most depraved state of humanity, I just found his writing to be so beautiful I could not put it down. I closed the book last night, and the only question on my mind was which of his back catalogue I should crack open next. ]]> 3.99 2006 The Road
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2010/11/30
date added: 2010/12/01
shelves:
review:
This is only the second book by McCarthy I've read, and already I feel somehow like the man has had a profound influence on me as a reader. Frankly i feel cheated that no one insisted I read something much earlier in my life. No Country For Old Men was simply one of the best books I can ever remember reading and I could not stop thinking about it once I was finished. Not in any kind of profound "what does it all mean?" kind of way. I just kept thinking about how perfect it was, as a novel.

The Road is not as good as Old Country, but it is well worth the read. Really the biggest fault of the book is the premise itself. The post-apocolyptic setting of some grey, destroyed planet earth is hardly a fresh idea, and it was hard for me to shake the clich¨¦. But if you get past that, McCarthy's writing is no less poetic. It's the rhythm of his writing that I find so compelling. He's concise, minimalistic in every way. Not a single wasted word, and there really is almost a music to his prose. I've never found it so easy to get swept up in someone's writing.

the story itself is harrowing, gruesome, and incredibly bleak. Reading it before bed kept me up on more than one occasion. I won't go into all that, because you can read all about that in every other review, but even writing about the most depraved state of humanity, I just found his writing to be so beautiful I could not put it down. I closed the book last night, and the only question on my mind was which of his back catalogue I should crack open next.
]]> <![CDATA[My Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big-City Backyard into a Farm]]> 7031533
Manny¡¯s James Beard Foundation Award¨Cwinning New York magazine cover story¡ªthe impetus for this project¡ªbegan as an assessment of the locavore movement. We now think more about what we eat than ever before, buying organic for our health and local for the environment, often making those decisions into political statements in the process. My Empire of Dirt is a ground-level examination¡ªtrenchant, touching, and outrageous¡ªof the cultural reflex to control one of the most elemental aspects of our feeding ourselves.

Unlike most foodies with a farm fetish, Manny didn¡¯t put on overalls with much of a philosophy in mind, save a healthy dose of skepticism about some of the more doctrinaire tendencies of locavores. He did not set out to grow all of his own food because he thought it was the right thing to do or because he thought the rest of us should do the same. Rather, he did it because he was just crazy enough to want to find out how hard it would actually be to take on a challenge based on a radical interpretation of a trendy (if well-meaning) idea and see if he could rise to the occasion.

A chronicle of the experiment that took slow-food to the extreme, My Empire of Dirt tells the story of one man¡¯s struggle against environmental, familial, and agricultural chaos, and in the process asks us to consider what it really takes (and what it really means) to produce our own food. It¡¯s one thing to know the farmer, it turns out¡ªit¡¯s another thing entirely to be the farmer. For most of us, farming is about food. For the farmer, and his family, it¡¯s about work.]]> 288 Manny Howard 1416585168 Nathan 4
What I expected was a witty little story about home farming with a trendy social lesson at the end about how we're all doing our part to destroy the earth by not growing our own food, or at least eating 100% local.

The book is funny, but it is not at all preaching. Howard approaches the assignment purely as an experiment, and the story is a deeply personal one. I wasn't prepared for some of the more heartbreaking stories about what it was like to deal with the mounting failures of the farm, or the tremendous pressure the project put on his relationship with his wife.

I find Howard to be incredibly relatable. In a very specific way. He seems like the kind of guy who loves to start projects. I'm a little that way, and my wife is a lot that way. We start lots of projects. We've even made stabs at container gardens that deliver fresh vegetables and herbs to our table. But we manage to consistently kill things like basil and rosemary, which both grow wild where we live. So I felt genuine empathy for Manny when his potato crop never grow larger than the size of shirt buttons.

There are some interesting social statements here, at least in the subtext. it is interesting to think about how in only a few generations most of us have become very removed from our food sources. Many of us would have no real clue how to raise or grow food if we ever had to do it. But the most interesting thing about the book, is the personal story of one guy trying his damnedest to live off of a back yard farm in the middle of Brooklyn. And as a story about one person's quest, it succeeds wildly. I could not put this book down.


]]> 2.74 2010 My Empire of Dirt: How One Man Turned His Big-City Backyard into a Farm
author: Manny Howard
name: Nathan
average rating: 2.74
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2010/08/22
date added: 2010/08/22
shelves:
review:
okay, first I decided to read this book for one reason. Manny Howard is the only person Ive ever seen beat Stephen Colbert at his own game. On multiple occasions during his short little interview on the Colbert Show, Howard really managed to take Colbert by surprise and left him at a loss for words. He was hilarious. I was sold.

What I expected was a witty little story about home farming with a trendy social lesson at the end about how we're all doing our part to destroy the earth by not growing our own food, or at least eating 100% local.

The book is funny, but it is not at all preaching. Howard approaches the assignment purely as an experiment, and the story is a deeply personal one. I wasn't prepared for some of the more heartbreaking stories about what it was like to deal with the mounting failures of the farm, or the tremendous pressure the project put on his relationship with his wife.

I find Howard to be incredibly relatable. In a very specific way. He seems like the kind of guy who loves to start projects. I'm a little that way, and my wife is a lot that way. We start lots of projects. We've even made stabs at container gardens that deliver fresh vegetables and herbs to our table. But we manage to consistently kill things like basil and rosemary, which both grow wild where we live. So I felt genuine empathy for Manny when his potato crop never grow larger than the size of shirt buttons.

There are some interesting social statements here, at least in the subtext. it is interesting to think about how in only a few generations most of us have become very removed from our food sources. Many of us would have no real clue how to raise or grow food if we ever had to do it. But the most interesting thing about the book, is the personal story of one guy trying his damnedest to live off of a back yard farm in the middle of Brooklyn. And as a story about one person's quest, it succeeds wildly. I could not put this book down.



]]> No Country for Old Men 12497 Alternate Cover Edition for ISBN 9780375706677

In his blistering new novel, Cormac McCarthy returns to the Texas-Mexico border, the setting of his famed Border Trilogy. The time is our own, when rustlers have given way to drug-runners and small towns have become free-fire zones.

One day, Llewellyn Moss finds a pickup truck surrounded by a bodyguard of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back. When Moss takes the money, he sets off a chain reaction of catastrophic violence that not even the law¨Cin the person of aging, disillusioned Sheriff Bell¨Ccan contain.

As Moss tries to evade his pursuers¨Cin particular a mysterious mastermind who flips coins for human lives¨CMcCarthy simultaneously strips down the American crime novel and broadens its concerns to encompass themes as ancient as the Bible and as bloodily contemporary as this morning¡¯s headlines.
No Country for Old Men is a triumph.]]> 309 Cormac McCarthy Nathan 5 4.15 2005 No Country for Old Men
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2010/06/21
shelves:
review:
This is quite simply the best book I've read in a really long time. McCarthy doesn't waste a single word. In a culture dominated by trash from the likes of Dan Brown, this book was a tall glass of water.
]]> <![CDATA[Ender¡¯s Game (Ender's Saga, #1)]]> 375802
But Ender is not the only result of the experiment. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway almost as long. Ender's two older siblings, Peter and Valentine, are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. While Peter was too uncontrollably violent, Valentine very nearly lacks the capability for violence altogether. Neither was found suitable for the military's purpose. But they are driven by their jealousy of Ender, and by their inbred drive for power. Peter seeks to control the political process, to become a ruler. Valentine's abilities turn more toward the subtle control of the beliefs of commoner and elite alike, through powerfully convincing essays. Hiding their youth and identities behind the anonymity of the computer networks, these two begin working together to shape the destiny of Earth-an Earth that has no future at all if their brother Ender fails.]]> 324 Orson Scott Card 0812550706 Nathan 3
From there the story breaks down a bit, sort of storming to an unsure ending, but overall really exciting book. ]]> 4.31 1985 Ender¡¯s Game (Ender's Saga, #1)
author: Orson Scott Card
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2010/06/14
shelves:
review:
An enjoyable read overall. Through the middle of the book I had a really hard time putting it down. Following Ender through battle school was exhilarating.

From there the story breaks down a bit, sort of storming to an unsure ending, but overall really exciting book.
]]> <![CDATA[Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse, #4)]]> 140077 291 Charlaine Harris 0441012183 Nathan 2 4.13 2004 Dead to the World (Sookie Stackhouse, #4)
author: Charlaine Harris
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2004
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2010/06/10
shelves:
review:
Meh. I think sookie and I need to take a break.
]]> <![CDATA[The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power]]> 554986 A journalist's penetrating look at the untold story of christian fundamentalism's most elite organization, a self-described invisible network dedicated to a religion of power for the powerful.

They are the Family¡ªfundamentalism's avant-garde, waging spiritual war in the halls of American power and around the globe. They consider themselves the new chosen¡ªcongressmen, generals, and foreign dictators who meet in confidential cells, to pray and plan for a "leadership led by God," to be won not by force but through "quiet diplomacy." Their base is a leafy estate overlooking the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia, and Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have reported from inside its walls.

The Family is about the other half of American fundamentalist power¡ªnot its angry masses, but its sophisticated elites. Sharlet follows the story back to Abraham Vereide, an immigrant preacher who in 1935 organized a small group of businessmen sympathetic to European fascism, fusing the far right with his own polite but authoritarian faith. From that core, Vereide built an international network of fundamentalists who spoke the language of establishment power, a "family" that thrives to this day. In public, they host Prayer Breakfasts; in private, they preach a gospel of "biblical capitalism," military might, and American empire. Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao as leadership models, the Family's current leader, Doug Coe, declares, "We work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."

Sharlet's discoveries dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the cold war, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization. The question Sharlet believes we must ask is not "What do fundamentalists want?" but "What have they already done?"

Part history, part investigative journalism, The Family is a compelling account of how fundamentalism came to be interwoven with American power, a story that stretches from the religious revivals that have shaken this nation from its beginning to fundamentalism's new frontiers. No other book about the right has exposed the Family or revealed its far-reaching impact on democracy, and no future reckoning of American fundamentalism will be able to ignore it.]]> 454 Jeff Sharlet 0060559799 Nathan 2 3.77 2008 The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
author: Jeff Sharlet
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2008
rating: 2
read at: 2010/05/13
date added: 2010/05/13
shelves:
review:
I read about half of this. I'm sure there's a really good conspiracy documentary in here, if you can get past all the words. Blah Blah Blah.
]]> The Manchurian Candidate 376514 358 Richard Condon 0743482972 Nathan 3
but really, I'm not sure how much Condon was trying to make a commentary on the cold war and McCarthyism as much as he just wanted to use them as a platform to tell a really good story. It was a really good story. It moved fast, full of intrigue, and death, and sex, and evil stone cold villains, and brainwashing! What more could you ask for?

]]> 4.10 1959 The Manchurian Candidate
author: Richard Condon
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1959
rating: 3
read at: 2010/05/13
date added: 2010/05/13
shelves:
review:
I expected this book to be a heavier, more cerebral read than it was. Maybe I'm completely desensitized by the mockery our political system has become, but nothing the book may have been trying to say about our political system was remotely shocking or thought-provoking.

but really, I'm not sure how much Condon was trying to make a commentary on the cold war and McCarthyism as much as he just wanted to use them as a platform to tell a really good story. It was a really good story. It moved fast, full of intrigue, and death, and sex, and evil stone cold villains, and brainwashing! What more could you ask for?


]]> How We Are Hungry 4955 "Another"

"What It Means When a Crowd in a Faraway Nation Takes a Soldier Representing Your Own Nation, Shoots Him, Drags Him from His Vehicle and Then Mutilates Him in the Dust"

"The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water"

"On Wanting to Have Three Walls Up Before She Gets Home"

"Climbing to the Window, Pretending to Dance"

"She Waits, Seething, Blooming"

"Quiet"

"Your Mother and I"

"Naveed"

"Notes for a Story of a Man Who Will Not Die Alone"

"About the Man Who Began Flying After Meeting Her"

"Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly"

"After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned"




From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 218 Dave Eggers 1400095565 Nathan 0 to-read 3.76 2004 How We Are Hungry
author: Dave Eggers
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Zeitoun 6512154
Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun run a house-painting business in New Orleans. In August of 2005, as Hurricane Katrina approaches, Kathy evacuates with their four young children, leaving Zeitoun to watch over the business. In the days following the storm he travels the city by canoe, feeding abandoned animals and helping elderly neighbors. Then, on September 6th, police officers armed with M-16s arrest Zeitoun in his home. Told with eloquence and compassion, Zeitoun is a riveting account of one family¡¯s unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water.]]> 342 Dave Eggers 1934781630 Nathan 0 to-read 4.05 2009 Zeitoun
author: Dave Eggers
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2010/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Annie Leibovitz at Work 2897662 240 Annie Leibovitz 0375505105 Nathan 4
The book spans the entirety of her career, from the resignation of Richard Nixon, to her absolutely gorgeous portraits of the Queen of England in 2007. But there is so much more than just the images here. it's the only photo book I've ever studied where the text is probably of more interest than the photos. Most of the pictures I've seen and studied before. But the back story she gives is incredibly valuable material. She talks about how ideas and collaborations developed. How she won or didn't win a person's confidence. How she executed the pictures. The book is incredibly dense. She covers 197 photos in just 216 pages, text, photos and all. She moves quickly from story to story and crams a lot of information into very few words. I have no doubt I'll read this again 2 or 3 times before I put it up on the shelf.

Over the years I've read a few interviews with Leibovitz and It's always been difficult to tell if she is incredibly self-involved and egomaniacal, or incredibly down-to-earth and practical. This book really illuminates just how much she falls into the latter category. None of the stories seem romanticized. Some are certainly quite funny, and many are rather heartbreaking. Through it all, though Leibovitiz's tone is incredibly even and pragmatic. She's not afraid to talk of exactly how a photo came to be, whose ideas were whose, how prepared or unprepared she was, and when she feels like she succeeded and when she feels like she failed. She is clearly a working photographer, and however confident she is, she doesn't seem to glorify herself or her work in the least. You realize just how pragmatic she is when she tells the story of photographing the Bush administration in 2001. They wanted to shoot in the Oval office, but Annie refused. She'd shot in there several times before and the huge line of windows behind the desk causes a lot of problems. Plus she didn't like the way Bush had decorated it.

And it's when you read stories like that, that you realize that you're reading the story of someone who has had a truly incredible life. She was there when Apollo 17 launched for our final trip to the moon. She was there when Nixon resigned. She's been on the road with The Rolling Stones, The Clinton and Obama Presidential campaigns, and the OJ Simpson trial. She's photographed humanity at its worst in Sarajevo and Rwanda. She's photographed nearly every cultural icon of the past half-century, and she's earned every opportunity she's had. Reading this book is quite simply getting a glimpse of genius at work. ]]> 4.11 2008 Annie Leibovitz at Work
author: Annie Leibovitz
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2009/09/26
date added: 2009/09/28
shelves:
review:
If you have even a passing interest in the process of photography you should read this book. Annie Leibovitz has unquestionably taken some of the most iconic and historic pictures of the past 40 years, and in this book she opens up and talks about the circumstances and the stories behind photos that are so iconic, they're almost taken for granted.

The book spans the entirety of her career, from the resignation of Richard Nixon, to her absolutely gorgeous portraits of the Queen of England in 2007. But there is so much more than just the images here. it's the only photo book I've ever studied where the text is probably of more interest than the photos. Most of the pictures I've seen and studied before. But the back story she gives is incredibly valuable material. She talks about how ideas and collaborations developed. How she won or didn't win a person's confidence. How she executed the pictures. The book is incredibly dense. She covers 197 photos in just 216 pages, text, photos and all. She moves quickly from story to story and crams a lot of information into very few words. I have no doubt I'll read this again 2 or 3 times before I put it up on the shelf.

Over the years I've read a few interviews with Leibovitz and It's always been difficult to tell if she is incredibly self-involved and egomaniacal, or incredibly down-to-earth and practical. This book really illuminates just how much she falls into the latter category. None of the stories seem romanticized. Some are certainly quite funny, and many are rather heartbreaking. Through it all, though Leibovitiz's tone is incredibly even and pragmatic. She's not afraid to talk of exactly how a photo came to be, whose ideas were whose, how prepared or unprepared she was, and when she feels like she succeeded and when she feels like she failed. She is clearly a working photographer, and however confident she is, she doesn't seem to glorify herself or her work in the least. You realize just how pragmatic she is when she tells the story of photographing the Bush administration in 2001. They wanted to shoot in the Oval office, but Annie refused. She'd shot in there several times before and the huge line of windows behind the desk causes a lot of problems. Plus she didn't like the way Bush had decorated it.

And it's when you read stories like that, that you realize that you're reading the story of someone who has had a truly incredible life. She was there when Apollo 17 launched for our final trip to the moon. She was there when Nixon resigned. She's been on the road with The Rolling Stones, The Clinton and Obama Presidential campaigns, and the OJ Simpson trial. She's photographed humanity at its worst in Sarajevo and Rwanda. She's photographed nearly every cultural icon of the past half-century, and she's earned every opportunity she's had. Reading this book is quite simply getting a glimpse of genius at work.
]]> Women 461563 256 Annie Leibovitz 0375756469 Nathan 4 4.21 1999 Women
author: Annie Leibovitz
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/09/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Photographs: Annie Leibovitz 1970-1990]]> 406737 232 Annie Leibovitz 0060923466 Nathan 4 4.25 1990 Photographs: Annie Leibovitz 1970-1990
author: Annie Leibovitz
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/09/26
shelves:
review:

]]> American Music 406738 256 Annie Leibovitz 0224072714 Nathan 4 4.31 2003 American Music
author: Annie Leibovitz
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2009/09/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People]]> 1335479 The basis for the upcoming HBO miniseries and the "definitive account of the Jonestown massacre" (Rolling Stone) -- now available for the first time in paperback.
Tim Reiterman s Raven provides the seminal history of the Rev. Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and the murderous ordeal at Jonestown in 1978.
This PEN Award winning work explores the ideals-gone-wrong, the intrigue, and the grim realities behind the Peoples Temple and its implosion in the jungle of South America. Reiterman s reportage clarifies enduring misperceptions of the character and motives of Jim Jones, the reasons why people followed him, and the important truth that many of those who perished at Jonestown were victims of mass murder rather than suicide.This widely sought work is restored to print after many years with a new preface by the author, as well as the more than sixty-five rare photographs from the original volume.

"]]> 622 Tim Reiterman 0525241361 Nathan 3 4.33 1982 Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People
author: Tim Reiterman
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1982
rating: 3
read at: 2009/09/08
date added: 2009/09/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Bible Road: Signs of Faith in the American Landscape]]> 616762 160 Sam Fentress 0715326856 Nathan 4 3.94 2007 Bible Road: Signs of Faith in the American Landscape
author: Sam Fentress
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2009/03/01
date added: 2009/03/07
shelves:
review:
an interesting collection of photographs that display what the photographer calls "a particularly American approach to religious expression," signs containing religious messages along American roadsides; everything from the simplest statement of belief to all-out turn-or-burn evangelism. Some a graffitied on urban landscapes, some adorn cars, and others are a strange mix of small business advertising like "Praise The Lord, Burger & Fries 99." The photographs span 25 years and are taken from roadsides in most if not all of the lower 48 states. The photos themselves are simple, and unpretentious. I get no sense that Fentress is attempting to make any statement for or against religion or religious expression. With the exception perhaps, of a little whimsy here and there--" he is not attempting to superimpose his own convictions, whatever they are, onto the photos, he is merely documenting what is there, with straight-forward framing and natural, unaffected color. The result is a simple and compelling look at roadside displays of faith.
]]> <![CDATA[The Complete Untitled Film Stills]]> 349086 Untitled Film Stills, a series of 69 black-and-white photographs created between 1977 and 1980, is widely seen as one of the most original and influential achievements in recent art. Witty, provocative and searching, this lively catalogue of female roles inspired by the movies crystallizes widespread concerns in our culture, examining the ways we shape our personal identities and the role of the mass media in our lives. Sherman began making these pictures in 1977 when she was 23 years old. The first six were an experiment: fan-magazine glimpses into the life (or roles) of an imaginary blond actress, played by Sherman herself. The photographs look like movie stills--or perhaps publicity pix--purporting to catch the blond bombshell in unguarded moments at home. The protagonist is shown preening in the kitchen and lounging in the bedroom. Onto something big, Sherman tried other characters in other roles: the chic starlet at her seaside hideaway, the luscious librarian, the domesticated sex kitten, the hot-blooded woman of the people, the ice-cold sophisticate and a can-can line of other stereotypes. She eventually completed the series in 1980. She stopped, she has explained, when she ran out of clich¨¦s.

Other artists had drawn upon popular culture but Sherman's strategy was new. For her the pop-culture image was not a subject (as it had been for Walker Evans) or raw material (as it had been for Andy Warhol) but a whole artistic vocabulary, ready-made. Her film stills look and function just like the real ones--those 8 x 10 glossies designed to lure us into a drama we find all the more compelling because we know it isn't real. In the Untitled Film Stills there are no Cleopatras, no ladies on trains, no women of a certain age. There are, of course, no men. The 69 solitary heroines map a particular constellation of fictional femininity that took hold in postwar America--the period of Sherman's youth and the starting point for our contemporary mythology. In finding a form for her own sensibility, Sherman touched a sensitive nerve in the culture at large. Although most of the characters are invented, we sense right away that we already know them. That twinge of instant recognition is what makes the series tick and it arises from Cindy Sherman's uncanny poise. There is no wink at the viewer, no open irony, no camp.

In 1995, The Museum of Modern Art purchased the series from the artist, preserving the work in its entirety. This book marks the first time that the complete series will be published as a unified work, with Sherman herself arranging the pictures in sequence.]]> 164 Cindy Sherman 0870705075 Nathan 3 4.08 1990 The Complete Untitled Film Stills
author: Cindy Sherman
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2009/03/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[An Inner Silence: The Portraits of Henri Cartier-Bresson]]> 72333
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) was perhaps the finest and most influential image maker of the twentieth century, and his portraits are among his best-known work. Over a fifty year period, he photographed some of the most eminent personalities of the era, as well as ordinary people, chosen as subjects because of their striking and unusual features.

In 2003, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, which was created to provide a permanent home for his collected works, opened in Paris. This book is published to coincide with the first exhibition at the Fondation that is drawn entirely from those archives, and it features both well-known images and previously unpublished portraits.

Each portrait has been chosen because it perfectly embodies Cartier-Bresson's description of what he was attempting to communicate in his "I'm seeking above all an inner silence. I am trying to translate the personality and not an expression." The portraits reproduced here¡ªdiscreet, without artifice, their subjects frozen in time¡ªconfirm once more the singular gift of Cartier-Bresson who instinctively knew in which revealing fraction of a second to click the shutter. 100 illustrations.]]> 160 Henri Cartier-Bresson 0500543178 Nathan 5
of everything I've been looking at, these are some of my favorites so far. Whether you know it or not, you're probably familiar with HCB's work on some level. He's one of the first photojournalists, and shot portraiture for nearly every important world figure, celebrity, and creative of the mid 20th century, and his work is simple genius. with an eye toward strong geometric shapes, a perfect sense of framing, and a certain flair for whimsy, HCB seems to have written the book on what makes an effective portrait.

I've studied and studied these shots over the last several days, and every time I look at one, there is a new layer to unlock, a new way to look at. The title of the book is perfect. These images really do capture a certain inner silence of their subjects. A quiet moment, as if there was a brief lull in a conversation among friends, and an in that moment, he lifted his camera and took a shot.

I have a hard time expressing in words what makes these photos so stunning. What I keep thinking about is looking at pictures of people you know. Often, you'll see a picture of someone you know, and you'll fall in love with that photo, because something about that photo perfactly captures the essence of the subject. It's their entire personality caught on film, and it makes you laugh, or feel some emotion, and it becomes a photo you love. People who don't know the subject may never look twice at that photo, because they have no reference for what makes the photo so meaningful. The portraits in this book, make me feel that way about their subjects. Whether it's a portrait of Joan Mir¨®, Marilyn Monroe, or an unkown young woman on the streets of Cracow, I can see that Bresson captured the essence of who they are, and I can recognize it instantly, even though I've never met them. And that is what makes him a master and the rest of us miserable hacks. ]]> 4.35 2006 An Inner Silence: The Portraits of Henri Cartier-Bresson
author: Henri Cartier-Bresson
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2009/02/28
date added: 2009/03/01
shelves:
review:
As I've been concentrating more and more heavily on my own photography, I've been looking at a lot of photography books which is taking up a lot of the time I would normally be reading some fantastic piece of fiction.

of everything I've been looking at, these are some of my favorites so far. Whether you know it or not, you're probably familiar with HCB's work on some level. He's one of the first photojournalists, and shot portraiture for nearly every important world figure, celebrity, and creative of the mid 20th century, and his work is simple genius. with an eye toward strong geometric shapes, a perfect sense of framing, and a certain flair for whimsy, HCB seems to have written the book on what makes an effective portrait.

I've studied and studied these shots over the last several days, and every time I look at one, there is a new layer to unlock, a new way to look at. The title of the book is perfect. These images really do capture a certain inner silence of their subjects. A quiet moment, as if there was a brief lull in a conversation among friends, and an in that moment, he lifted his camera and took a shot.

I have a hard time expressing in words what makes these photos so stunning. What I keep thinking about is looking at pictures of people you know. Often, you'll see a picture of someone you know, and you'll fall in love with that photo, because something about that photo perfactly captures the essence of the subject. It's their entire personality caught on film, and it makes you laugh, or feel some emotion, and it becomes a photo you love. People who don't know the subject may never look twice at that photo, because they have no reference for what makes the photo so meaningful. The portraits in this book, make me feel that way about their subjects. Whether it's a portrait of Joan Mir¨®, Marilyn Monroe, or an unkown young woman on the streets of Cracow, I can see that Bresson captured the essence of who they are, and I can recognize it instantly, even though I've never met them. And that is what makes him a master and the rest of us miserable hacks.
]]> The Tailor of Panama 45783 Le Carr¨¦'s Panama¡ªthe young country of 2.5 million souls which, on December 31, 1999, will gain full control of the Panama Canal¡ªis a Casablanca without heroes, a hotbed of drugs, laundered money and corruption.

Seldom has the weight of global politics descended so heavily on such a tiny and unprepared nation. And seldom has the hidden eye of British Intelligence selected such an unlikely champion as Harry Pendel¡ªa charmer, a dreamer, an evader, a fabulist and presiding genius of the house of Pendel & Braithwaite Co. Limitada, Tailors to Royalty, formerly of London and presently of Panama City.

Yet there is a logic to the spies' choice. Everybody who is anybody in Central America passes through Pendel's doors. He dresses politicos and crooks and conmen. His fitting room hears more confidences than a priest's confessional. And when Harry Pendel doesn't hear things as such¡ªwell, he hears them anyway, by other means.

For what is a tailor for, if not to disduise reality with appearance? What is truth if not the plaything of the artist? And what are spies and politicians and journalists if not themselves selectors and manipulators of the truth for their own ends?

In a thrilling, hilarious novel, le Carr¨¦ has provided us with a satire about the fate of truth in modern times. Once again, he has effortlessly expanded the borders of the spy story to bring us a magnificent entertainment straight out of the pages of tomorrow's history.

JOHN LE CARR? was born in 1931. After attending the universities of Bern and Oxford, he taught at Eton and spent five years in the British Foreign Service. His third novel, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, secured him a worldwide reputation, which was solidified by the acclaim for his trilogy, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People. His mostly autobiographical novel, A Perfect Spy, wa followed by The Russia House, The Night Manager and Our Game. The Tailor of Panama is his sixteenth novel.

John le Carr¨¦ lives in Cornwall, England.

]]> 332 John Le Carr¨¦ 0679454462 Nathan 3 3.52 1996 The Tailor of Panama
author: John Le Carr¨¦
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2009/01/08
date added: 2009/01/08
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (Joey Pigza, #1)]]> 820517
Joey knows he's really a good kid, but no matter how hard he tries to do the right thing, something always seems to go wrong. Will he ever get anything right?]]> 160 Jack Gantos 0064408337 Nathan 5
]]> 3.75 1998 Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key (Joey Pigza, #1)
author: Jack Gantos
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1998
rating: 5
read at: 2008/11/27
date added: 2009/01/08
shelves:
review:
This book is more proof positive that good juvenile fiction can rival anything put out there by people writing for adults. This concise little book about a boy struggling with a terrible family life and ADHD, is heartfelt, insanely funny--I couldn't count how many times I laughed out loud--and poignant. Jack Gantos said he wrote the book after doing a book signing in a classroom and watching a boy struggle unsuccessfully to keep his ADHD in control, and he wanted to write something on behalf of the often misunderstood children who genuinely suffer from the condition. From reading it though, I would have bet life that Gantos himself had ADHD, because he writes it with amazing empathy. I loved this book.


]]> <![CDATA[Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage]]> 139069 The harrowing tale of British explorer Ernest Shackleton's 1914 attempt to reach the South Pole, one of the greatest adventure stories of the modern age.

In August 1914, polar explorer Ernest Shackleton boarded the Endurance became locked in an island of ice. Thus began the legendary ordeal of Shackleton and his crew of twenty-seven men. When their ship was finally crushed between two ice floes, they attempted a near-impossible journey over 850 miles of the South Atlantic's heaviest seas to the closest outpost of civilization.

In Endurance, the definitive account of Ernest Shackleton's fateful trip, Alfred Lansing brilliantly narrates the harrowing and miraculous voyage that has defined heroism for the modern age.

First edition: here.]]> 282 Alfred Lansing Nathan 4 4.42 1959 Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage
author: Alfred Lansing
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1959
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2008/10/16
shelves:
review:

]]> The Birds and Other Stories 50241 How long he fought with them in the darkness he could not tell, but at last the beating of the wings about him lessened and then withdrew...

A classic of alienation and horror, The Birds was immortalised by Hitchcock in his celebrated film. The five other chilling stories in this collection echo a sense of dislocation and mock man's sense of dominance over the natural world. The mountain paradise of Monte Verit¨¤ promises immortality, but at a terrible price; a neglected wife haunts her husband in the form of an apple tree; a professional photographer steps out from behind the camera and into his subject's life; a date with a cinema usherette leads to a walk in the cemetery; and a jealous father finds a remedy when three's a crowd...]]> 242 Daphne du Maurier Nathan 0 to-read 4.02 1952 The Birds and Other Stories
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1952
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2008/09/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Little Children 37426 355 Tom Perrotta 0312315732 Nathan 0 to-read 3.63 2004 Little Children
author: Tom Perrotta
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2008/09/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Comic Book Tattoo 3233390 Featuring an introduction by Neil Gaiman, with stories by creators such as Carla Speed McNeil, Mark Buckingham, C.B. Cebulski, Nikki Cook, Hope Larson, John Ney Reiber, Ryan Kelly, and many, many others, Comic Book Tattoo encapsulates the breadth, depth, and beauty of modern comics in this coffee table format book.]]> 480 Rantz A. Hoseley 1582409668 Nathan 3
So obviously then, I read this book because I'm obsessed to an unhealthy extent with the music of Tori Amos, and so I must consume it in every way it is made available to me.

The book itself is beautiful. It's huge, and hefty, and the page stock is substantial enough to really display the art in these pages. As for the stories, I think it was a really interesting idea. Some of them are really beautiful, and some of them were really funny. I lot of them were prosaic and trite. I would have loved to have seen some more interpretive depictions. Taking a single metaphor from the lyric at random and building a story around isn't terribly interesting.

some of them were quite lovely. I thought Marianne was especially beautiful. despite any reservations, it was a nice way to spend a couple of hours, and the artwork is absolutely gorgeous. I really enjoyed looking at diversity in the artistic styles.

]]> 4.08 2008 Comic Book Tattoo
author: Rantz A. Hoseley
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2008/09/07
date added: 2008/09/07
shelves:
review:
I am not a big graphic novel reader. About the closest I ever came to reading comics as a kid was religiously watching X-Men and Spiderman and Friends on Saturday morning television. I briefly embraced the X-Men comic book at prodding from my friend Bart and his brother, but there were just too many stories. Too much history. Too many collectors editions and cards, and it was all just too much commitment for me at that young, fresh age. As an adult I have read exactly one graphic novel, one of the famous ones, and found it to be exceptionally mundane.

So obviously then, I read this book because I'm obsessed to an unhealthy extent with the music of Tori Amos, and so I must consume it in every way it is made available to me.

The book itself is beautiful. It's huge, and hefty, and the page stock is substantial enough to really display the art in these pages. As for the stories, I think it was a really interesting idea. Some of them are really beautiful, and some of them were really funny. I lot of them were prosaic and trite. I would have loved to have seen some more interpretive depictions. Taking a single metaphor from the lyric at random and building a story around isn't terribly interesting.

some of them were quite lovely. I thought Marianne was especially beautiful. despite any reservations, it was a nice way to spend a couple of hours, and the artwork is absolutely gorgeous. I really enjoyed looking at diversity in the artistic styles.


]]> Bill Owens 2596913 A comprehensive monograph, this volume consists of several sections of work from 1969 to the present, opening at the height of flower power, with images of the Beat generation, Woodstock and the protests against Vietnam. Owens has always remained intrigued by America as a subject: there follows a series of images focusing on urban America, its endless grids and homogeneous cities. In his most recent photos, many of which are in color and previously unpublished, Owens reveals how suburbia has evolved in the last 40 years--from the friendly place he captured in the 1970s to one characterized by sprawl and anonymity.]]> 224 Bill Owens 8862080174 Nathan 5 4.27 2008 Bill Owens
author: Bill Owens
name: Nathan
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2008/09/07
shelves:
review:

]]> The Ice Storm 15374 305 Rick Moody 0316706000 Nathan 2
On one hand, Moody has a spellbinding quality about his writing. His voice is quite unique, and from a purely linquistic and literary perspective I found the book quite appealing. Also, I'm always attracted to writers who write about real, unattractive, unwholesome, unheroic people, and I usually enjoy works that are trying to expose the dark underbelly of society.

On the other hand the story seems, I don't know, contrived maybe. I appreciate his commentary on what modern American life has done to the family, and how completely at odds the two are. I get the thesis on the general sense of disappointment that so many people live in. I understand how marriages are being pulled apart by a culture in which most of your value as a human being is defined by your occupation outside the home. I remember how hard puberty was, with all the awkwardness and self-doubt, and horniness, and self-loathing, and all of that. I understand that our culture is over-sexed. I just am not sure the story here is big enough to hold all of Moody's ideas. None of the characters ever completely feel real to me. They give it their best college try, but they just can't quite realize this grand commentary Moody is going for. Probably because they're spending so much of their time thinking about sex. All of them. Every person in the book is consumed with sex. At first it was provocative, and then it was tragic, and then it just got. Dull.

It was a good try, and it wasn't a bad read, but the tragic beauty Moody was going for got lost in the details.


]]> 3.67 1994 The Ice Storm
author: Rick Moody
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1994
rating: 2
read at: 2008/09/06
date added: 2008/09/07
shelves:
review:
I'm not sure what I think about this book.

On one hand, Moody has a spellbinding quality about his writing. His voice is quite unique, and from a purely linquistic and literary perspective I found the book quite appealing. Also, I'm always attracted to writers who write about real, unattractive, unwholesome, unheroic people, and I usually enjoy works that are trying to expose the dark underbelly of society.

On the other hand the story seems, I don't know, contrived maybe. I appreciate his commentary on what modern American life has done to the family, and how completely at odds the two are. I get the thesis on the general sense of disappointment that so many people live in. I understand how marriages are being pulled apart by a culture in which most of your value as a human being is defined by your occupation outside the home. I remember how hard puberty was, with all the awkwardness and self-doubt, and horniness, and self-loathing, and all of that. I understand that our culture is over-sexed. I just am not sure the story here is big enough to hold all of Moody's ideas. None of the characters ever completely feel real to me. They give it their best college try, but they just can't quite realize this grand commentary Moody is going for. Probably because they're spending so much of their time thinking about sex. All of them. Every person in the book is consumed with sex. At first it was provocative, and then it was tragic, and then it just got. Dull.

It was a good try, and it wasn't a bad read, but the tragic beauty Moody was going for got lost in the details.



]]> <![CDATA[Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium]]> 3730730
Cell-phone talkers broadcasting the intimate details of their lives in public spaces
Worship of self-awareness, self-realization, and self-fulfillment
T-shirts that read, ¡°Eat Me¡±
Facebook, MySpace, and kids being taught to market themselves
High-level cheating in business and sports
Reality television and the cosmetic surgery boom
Multinational corporations that claim, ¡°We care about you.¡±
The decline of organic communities
A line of cosmetics called ¡°S.L.U.T.¡±
The phony red state¨Cblue state divide
The penetration of OmniMarketing into OmniMedia and the insinuation of both into every facet of our lives

You undoubtedly could add to the list with hardly a moment¡¯s thought. In Why We Hate Us , Meyer absolutely nails America¡¯s early-twenty-first-century mood disorder. He points out the most widespread carriers of the why-we-hate-us germs, including the belligerence of partisan politics that perverts our democracy, the decline of once common manners, the vulgarity of Hollywood entertainment, the superficiality and untrustworthiness of the news media, the cult of celebrity, and the disappearance of authentic neighborhoods and voluntary organizations (the kind that have actual meetings where one can hobnob instead of just clicking in an online contribution).

Meyer argues¡ªwith biting wit and observations that make you want to shout, ¡°Yes! I hate that too!¡±¡ªthat when the social, spiritual, and political turmoil that followed the sixties collided with the technological and media revolution at the turn of the century, something inside us hit overload. American culture no longer reflects our own values. As a result, we are now morally and existentially tired, disoriented, anchorless, and defensive. We hate us and we wonder why.

Why We Hate Us reveals why we do and also offers a thoughtful and uplifting prescription for breaking out of our current morass and learning how to hate us less. It is a penetrating but always accessible Culture of Narcissism for a new generation, and it carries forward ideas that resounded with readers in bestsellers such as On Bullshit and Bowling Alone.]]> 288 Dick Meyer 0307406628 Nathan 0 to-read 3.29 2008 Why We Hate Us: American Discontent in the New Millennium
author: Dick Meyer
name: Nathan
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2008/08/25
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>