Barney's bookshelf: 2015 en-US Thu, 16 May 2024 14:50:45 -0700 60 Barney's bookshelf: 2015 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Selected Poems 9056501
This new edition--the only bilingual edition to include such a broad range of poems--fully reflects Rilke's poetic development. It contains the full text of the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus, and selected poems from The Book of Images, New Poems, and earlier volumes, and from the uncollected poetry 1906-26. The translations are accurate, sensitive, and nuanced, and are accompanied by an introduction and notes that chart the development of Rilke's poetic practice and his central role in modern poetry. The book also includes a chronology, select bibliography, and explanatory notes that identify people and places, and include key commentary by Rilke from letters or notes.]]> 416 Rainer Maria Rilke 019956941X Barney 4 poetry, 2015 4.14 1926 Selected Poems
author: Rainer Maria Rilke
name: Barney
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1926
rating: 4
read at: 2015/05/05
date added: 2024/05/16
shelves: poetry, 2015
review:
some lovely stuff in here. i preferred the clarity and focus of his earlier poems, with the melancholic and understated 'autumn' being a standout favourite
]]> <![CDATA[The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay]]> 52527061
Michael Chabon's exceptional novel is a thrilling tight-rope walk between high comedy and bitter tragedy, and confirms his position as one of the most inventive and daring of contemporary American writers. In Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay, he has created two unforgettable characters bound together by love, family and cartoons.]]> 639 Michael Chabon 1841154938 Barney 3 4.19 2000 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
author: Michael Chabon
name: Barney
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2015/01/05
date added: 2024/04/29
shelves: america, critical-darling, queer-as-folk, 2015, the-big-apple, z-atlas-america
review:

]]> The Lives of Others 18394990 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

Calcutta, 1967. Unnoticed by his family, Supratik has become dangerously involved in extremist political activism. Compelled by an idealistic desire to change his life and the world around him, all he leaves behind before disappearing is a note.

At home, his family slowly begins to unravel. Poisonous rivalries grow, the once-thriving family business implodes and destructive secrets are unearthed. And all around them the sands are shifting as society fractures, for this is a moment of turbulence, of inevitable and unstoppable changes.]]> 516 Neel Mukherjee 0701186291 Barney 3 3.62 2014 The Lives of Others
author: Neel Mukherjee
name: Barney
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2015/03/27
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: indian-subcontinent, critical-darling, 2015, z-atlas-india
review:

]]> Number9Dream 6820 Ghostwritten, with a work that is in its way even more ambitious. In outward form, number9dream is a Dickensian coming-of-age journey: Young dreamer Eiji Miyake, from remote rural Japan, thrust out on his own by his sister’s death and his mother’s breakdown, comes to Tokyo in pursuit of the father who abandoned him. Stumbling around this strange, awesome city, he trips over and crosses—through a hidden destiny or just monstrously bad luck—a number of its secret power centers. Suddenly, the riddle of his father’s identity becomes just one of the increasingly urgent questions Eiji must answer. Why is the line between the world of his experiences and the world of his dreams so blurry? Why do so many horrible things keep happening to him? What is it about the number 9? To answer these questions, and ultimately to come to terms with his inheritance, Eiji must somehow acquire an insight into the workings of history and fate that would be rare in anyone, much less in a boy from out of town with a price on his head and less than the cost of a Beatles disc to his name.]]> 401 David Mitchell 0812966929 Barney 4 3.88 2001 Number9Dream
author: David Mitchell
name: Barney
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2015/06/28
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: dark-and-twisted, japan, growing-pains, 2015, z-atlas-japan
review:

]]> Burma Chronicles 5596923 272 Guy Delisle 0224087711 Barney 5 4.01 2007 Burma Chronicles
author: Guy Delisle
name: Barney
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2015/06/28
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: nonfiction, graphic-novel, 2015, z-atlas-myanmar
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Down and Out in Paris and London]]> 873273 246 George Orwell 0141184388 Barney 2 4.09 1933 Down and Out in Paris and London
author: George Orwell
name: Barney
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1933
rating: 2
read at: 2015/06/30
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: yawn, 2015, memoiries, the-big-smoke, city-of-lights, z-atlas-uk, z-atlas-france
review:

]]> <![CDATA[American Gods (American Gods, #1)]]> 4407
Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm of preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.

Scary, gripping and deeply unsettling, American Gods takes a long, hard look into the soul of America. You'll be surprised by what - and who - it finds there...

This is the author's preferred text, never before published in the UK, and is about 12,000 words longer than the previous UK edition.

]]> 635 Neil Gaiman Barney 4 4.10 2001 American Gods (American Gods, #1)
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Barney
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2001
rating: 4
read at: 2015/07/20
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: america, dark-and-twisted, 2015, z-atlas-america
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Awakening (The Art of the Novella)]]> 9273033
Condemned as "sordid" and "immoral" on its publication in 1899, this story of a woman trapped in her marriage effectively ended Chopin's career but was revived as a proto-feminist classic in the 1970s. What Newsweek calls Chopin's "prophetic psychology" ensures its timeliness today.

The Art of The Novella Series

Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.]]> 224 Kate Chopin 1935554123 Barney 5 3.89 1899 The Awakening (The Art of the Novella)
author: Kate Chopin
name: Barney
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1899
rating: 5
read at: 2015/07/28
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: classics, favorites, girl-power, america, family, 2015, z-atlas-america
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Narrow Road to the Deep North]]> 18803672 A novel of the cruelty of war, and tenuousness of life and the impossibility of love.

Richard Flanagan's story � of Dorrigo Evans, an Australian doctor haunted by a love affair with his uncle's wife � journeys from the caves of Tasmanian trappers in the early twentieth century to a crumbling pre-war beachside hotel, from a Thai jungle prison to a Japanese snow festival, from the Changi gallows to a chance meeting of lovers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Taking its title from 17th-century haiku poet Basho's travel journal, The Narrow Road To The Deep North is about the impossibility of love. At its heart is one day in a Japanese slave labour camp in August 1943. As the day builds to its horrific climax, Dorrigo Evans battles and fails in his quest to save the lives of his fellow POWs, a man is killed for no reason, and a love story unfolds.]]> 448 Richard Flanagan 0701189053 Barney 3 4.05 2013 The Narrow Road to the Deep North
author: Richard Flanagan
name: Barney
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2015/08/12
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: critical-darling, japan, australia-nz, 2015, z-atlas-japan, z-atlas-australia, z-atlas-myanmar
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea]]> 8551322 Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population.
Taking us into a landscape most of us have never before seen, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, in which radio and television dials are welded to the one government station, and where displays of affection are punished; a police state where informants are rewarded and where an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life.
Demick takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors. Through meticulous and sensitive reporting, we see her six subjects—average North Korean citizens—fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we experience the moments when they realize that their government has betrayed them.
Nothing to Envy is a groundbreaking addition to the literature of totalitarianism and an eye-opening look at a closed world that is of increasing global importance.]]> 319 Barbara Demick 184708141X Barney 5 4.55 2009 Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea
author: Barbara Demick
name: Barney
average rating: 4.55
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2015/08/24
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: north-korea, favorites, nonfiction, well-i-never, 2015, we-shall-overcome, nowadays, z-atlas-nkorea
review:

]]> My Life 312865
Renowned as the greatest short story writer ever, Anton Chekhov was also a master of the novella, and perhaps his most overlooked is this gem, My Life —the tale of a rebellious young man so disgusted with bourgeois society that he drops out to live amongst the working classes, only to find himself confronted by the morally and mentally deadening effects of provincialism.

The 1896 tale is partly a commentary on Tolstoyan philosophy, and partly an autobiographical reflection on Chekhov's own small-town background. But it is, more importantly, Chekhov in his prime, displaying all his famous strengths—vivid characters, restrained but telling details, and brilliant psychological observation—and one of his most stirring the youthful struggle to maintain idealism against growing isolation.

The Art of The Novella Series

Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.]]> 150 Anton Chekhov 0974607827 Barney 1 ... meh 3.97 1896 My Life
author: Anton Chekhov
name: Barney
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1896
rating: 1
read at: 2015/08/31
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: russia, classics, yawn, 2015, z-atlas-russia
review:
... meh
]]> <![CDATA[The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England]]> 12254442
We meet the captivating Eleanor of Aquitaine, twice queen and the most famous woman in Christendom; her son, Richard the Lionheart, who fought Saladin in the Third Crusade; and King John, a tyrant who was forced to sign Magna Carta, which formed the basis of our own Bill of Rights.

This is the era of chivalry, of Robin Hood and the Knights Templar, the Black Death, the founding of Parliament, the Black Prince, and the Hundred Year’s War. It will appeal as much to readers of Tudor history as to fans of 'Game of Thrones.]]> 632 Dan Jones 0007213921 Barney 4 4.28 2012 The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England
author: Dan Jones
name: Barney
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2015/09/18
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: well-i-never, ancient-history, uk, nonfiction, 2015, z-atlas-uk
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Girl with All the Gifts (The Girl With All the Gifts, #1)]]> 17235026
Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

The Girl with All the Gifts is a sensational thriller, perfect for fans of Stephen King, Justin Cronin, and Neil Gaiman.]]> 461 M.R. Carey 0356500152 Barney 5 actual people inhabiting a fully-realised world. brilliant. just hope the film adaptation does it justice!]]> 3.94 2014 The Girl with All the Gifts (The Girl With All the Gifts, #1)
author: M.R. Carey
name: Barney
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2015/09/30
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: apocalypse-now, emosh, growing-pains, favorites, uk, wtf, dark-and-twisted, 2015, z-atlas-uk
review:
just when i thought a particular horror trope had been exhausted and there was nothing new to be done with it, along comes this intelligent, creative, and gripping novel replete with a complex cast of characters who feel like actual people inhabiting a fully-realised world. brilliant. just hope the film adaptation does it justice!
]]> Black Swan Green 25870997 9780340822807.

The dazzling novel from critically-acclaimed David Mitchell.

Shortlisted for the 2006 Costa Novel Award
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2006

January, 1982. Thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor - covert stammerer and reluctant poet - anticipates a stultifying year in his backwater English village. But he hasn't reckoned with bullies, simmering family discord, the Falklands War, a threatened gypsy invasion and those mysterious entities known as girls. Charting thirteen months in the black hole between childhood and adolescence, this is a captivating novel, wry, painful and vibrant with the stuff of life.]]> 384 David Mitchell Barney 4 4.04 2006 Black Swan Green
author: David Mitchell
name: Barney
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2015/10/09
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: uk, graphic-novel, emosh, family, 2015, growing-pains, z-atlas-uk
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China]]> 17857634
Empress Dowager Cixi (1835�1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age.
At the age of sixteen, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor’s numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China—behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male.

In this groundbreaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Cixi fought against monumental obstacles to change China. Under her the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern industries, railways, electricity, the telegraph and an army and navy with up-to-date weaponry. It was she who abolished gruesome punishments like “death by a thousand cuts� and put an end to foot-binding. She inaugurated women’s liberation and embarked on the path to introduce parliamentary elections to China. Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot.

Cixi reigned during extraordinary times and had to deal with a host of major national the Taiping and Boxer rebellions, wars with France and Japan—and an invasion by eight allied powers including Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States. Jung Chang not only records the Empress Dowager’s conduct of domestic and foreign affairs, but also takes the reader into the depths of her splendid Summer Palace and the harem of Beijing’s Forbidden City, where she lived surrounded by eunuchs—one of whom she fell in love, with tragic consequences. The world Chang describes here, in fascinating detail, seems almost unbelievable in its extraordinary mixture of the very old and the very new.

Based on newly available, mostly Chinese, historical documents such as court records, official and private correspondence, diaries and eyewitness accounts, this biography will revolutionize historical thinking about a crucial period in China’s—and the world’s—history. Packed with drama, fast paced and gripping, it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a as the concubine to a monarch, as the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population, and as a unique stateswoman.]]> 436 Jung Chang 0307271609 Barney 3 3.86 2013 Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China
author: Jung Chang
name: Barney
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2015/10/25
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: china, ancient-history, girl-power, nonfiction, well-i-never, 2015, z-atlas-china
review:
sometimes contradictory, somewhat muddled, and perhaps a little biased - but fascinating nevertheless.
]]> Home (Gilead, #2) 6097133
Now comes HOME, a deeply affecting novel that takes place in the same period and same Iowa town of Gilead. This is Jack's story. Jack - prodigal son of the Boughton family, godson and namesake of John Ames, gone twenty years - has come home looking for refuge and to try to make peace with a past littered with trouble and pain. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold down a job, Jack is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father, though he remains Boughton's most beloved child. His sister Glory has also returned to Gilead, fleeing her own mistakes, to care for their dying father. Brilliant, loveable, wayward, Jack forges an intense new bond with Glory and engages painfully with his father and his father's old friend John Ames.]]> 339 Marilynne Robinson 1844085503 Barney 4 3.98 2008 Home (Gilead, #2)
author: Marilynne Robinson
name: Barney
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2015/11/05
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: america, quiet, sadness, family, 2015, z-atlas-america
review:

]]> Blood Meridian 7117831 Blood Meridian is an epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the Wild West. Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into a nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.]]> 355 Cormac McCarthy 0330544586 Barney 1 4.05 1985 Blood Meridian
author: Cormac McCarthy
name: Barney
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1985
rating: 1
read at: 2015/11/29
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: america, critical-darling, 2015, z-atlas-america
review:
there are some nice little moments of beauty here, but for the most part they're lost amidst the sheer drudgery of the barren landscape, shallow violence, relentless racial slurs, and intensely unlikable (and somewhat homogenous and mostly undevelopled) characters. i get that all of that is sort of the point of the book, and i've read books that do a similar thing and manage to execute it well, but this wasn't one of them. b-o-r-e-d
]]> <![CDATA[The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors]]> 25360475

With vivid descriptions of the battle of Towton, where 28,000 men died in a single morning, to Bosworth, where the last Plantagenet king was hacked down, this is the real story behind Shakespeare's famous history plays.]]> 480 Dan Jones Barney 4 4.19 2014 The Hollow Crown: The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors
author: Dan Jones
name: Barney
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2015/12/09
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: ancient-history, uk, nonfiction, 2015, z-atlas-uk
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster]]> 15816125 38 Simon Armitage 1904590292 Barney 4 4.47 2012 Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster
author: Simon Armitage
name: Barney
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2015/12/29
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: uk, poetry, 2015, nowadays, z-atlas-uk
review:

]]> The Bone Clocks 22430860 The Bone Clocks follows the twists and turns of Holly's life from a scarred adolescence in Gravesend to old age on Ireland's Atlantic coast as Europe's oil supply dries up - a life not so far out of the ordinary, yet punctuated by flashes of precognition, visits from people who emerge from thin air and brief lapses in the laws of reality. For Holly Sykes - daughter, sister, mother, guardian - is also an unwitting player in a murderous feud played out in the shadows and margins of our world, and may prove to be its decisive weapon.

Metaphysical thriller, meditation on mortality and chronicle of our self-devouring times, this kaleidoscopic novel crackles with the invention and wit that have made David Mitchell one of the most celebrated writers of his generation. Here is fiction at its spellbinding and memorable best.

]]> 595 David Mitchell 0340921617 Barney 5 3.87 2014 The Bone Clocks
author: David Mitchell
name: Barney
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2015/12/27
date added: 2020/09/18
shelves: emosh, family, fantasy, growing-pains, wtf, 2015, the-big-smoke, z-atlas-uk
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History]]> 17910054
In prose that is at once frank, entertaining, and deeply informed, The New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species has before. Interweaving research in half a dozen disciplines, descriptions of the fascinating species that have already been lost, and the history of extinction as a concept, Kolbert provides a moving and comprehensive account of the disappearances occurring before our very eyes. She shows that the sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy, compelling us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.]]> 336 Elizabeth Kolbert 0805092994 Barney 5 4.13 2014 The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
author: Elizabeth Kolbert
name: Barney
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2015/05/05
date added: 2019/03/10
shelves: favorites, well-i-never, nonfiction, 2015, nowadays, planet-earth
review:

]]> The Martian 20829029
Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars's surface, with no way to signal Earth that he's alive. And even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, Mark 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.

Armed with nothing but his ingenuity, his engineering skills--and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength--Mark embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive. But will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

--back cover]]> 369 Andy Weir Barney 1 yawn, space, 2015, nope
secondly, the book really squanders its location. mars, a beautiful, barren, uncanny, ancient and unknown planet is completely overshadowed by the towering smugness of mark watney and the amount of energy the book expends trying to make you like him.

and then the final straw was a gay joke. at being told food supplies are being sent in a probe named after isis (the goddess of rainbows, among other things), he replies "so a gay probe is coming to save me". nope nope done bye.]]> 4.42 2011 The Martian
author: Andy Weir
name: Barney
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2011
rating: 1
read at: 2015/09/23
date added: 2017/02/21
shelves: yawn, space, 2015, nope
review:
oh boy, where do i even start. firstly, it's revealed gradually over a series of mission logs just how infuriating, smug, and unlikable mark watney, the protagonist, is. every incident is just a chance for the book to demonstrate what a wonderful and "funny" guy he is. i didn't care about him surviving, and yet i had to read pages of explanation about how he cleverly thinks himself out of scenario after scenario. he's also apparently psychologically impervious to the strain (to put it lightly) that being stranded alone for hundreds of days on an alien planet would have on an actual person, and just chugs along making "jokes" (like sending boobs to NASA, the absolute LAD) and outdated pop-culture references. thus the book wastes a prime opportunity to crank up the tension/interest.

secondly, the book really squanders its location. mars, a beautiful, barren, uncanny, ancient and unknown planet is completely overshadowed by the towering smugness of mark watney and the amount of energy the book expends trying to make you like him.

and then the final straw was a gay joke. at being told food supplies are being sent in a probe named after isis (the goddess of rainbows, among other things), he replies "so a gay probe is coming to save me". nope nope done bye.
]]> Titus Groan (Gormenghast #1) 100745 here

An undisputed classic of epic fantasy, Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels represent one of the most brilliantly sustained flights of Gothic imagination, Titus Groan, the first book in this timeless series, is the start of an unforgettable journey.

As the novel opens, Titus has just been born. As heir to Lord Sepulchrave, he stands to inherit the miles of rambling stone and mortar that form Castle Gormenghast. Inside of Gormenghast, all events are predetermined by complex rituals, the origins of which are lost in time. Dreamlike and macabre, Titus Groan is one of the most astonishing and fantastic works in modern fiction.]]> 396 Mervyn Peake 1585679070 Barney 4 fantasy, 2015 4.03 1946 Titus Groan (Gormenghast #1)
author: Mervyn Peake
name: Barney
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1946
rating: 4
read at: 2015/02/07
date added: 2016/01/13
shelves: fantasy, 2015
review:

]]> Saga, Volume 3 19358975
Collects: Saga #13-18.]]> 144 Brian K. Vaughan 1607069318 Barney 5 4.48 2014 Saga, Volume 3
author: Brian K. Vaughan
name: Barney
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2015/02/10
date added: 2016/01/13
shelves: fantasy, favorites, girl-power, graphic-novel, family, space, 2015
review:

]]> Bobcat and Other Stories 17086102 209 Rebecca Lee 1616201738 Barney 5 quiet, 2015, short-stories 3.91 2010 Bobcat and Other Stories
author: Rebecca Lee
name: Barney
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2015/02/12
date added: 2016/01/13
shelves: quiet, 2015, short-stories
review:
understated, elegant, and heartbreaking. beautiful.
]]> <![CDATA[Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)]]> 8935689
Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction.]]> 467 Iain M. Banks 1857231384 Barney 3 fantasy, wtf, space, 2015 3.86 1987 Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)
author: Iain M. Banks
name: Barney
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1987
rating: 3
read at: 2015/04/18
date added: 2016/01/13
shelves: fantasy, wtf, space, 2015
review:
once i got past the three-legged aliens, it was okay - but seriously, three-legged? how do they walk? run? sit down? anyway, i digress..
]]> Map of Days 16057218 56 Robert Frank Hunter 1907704612 Barney 3 graphic-novel, fantasy, 2015 3.83 2013 Map of Days
author: Robert Frank Hunter
name: Barney
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2015/04/25
date added: 2016/01/13
shelves: graphic-novel, fantasy, 2015
review:

]]> Gormenghast (Gormenghast, #2) 3213508
Gormenghast is the second volume in Mervyn Peake’s widely acclaimed trilogy, but it is much more than a sequel to Titus Groan—it is an enrichment and deepening of that book.

The Gormenghast Trilogy ranks as one of the twentieth century’s most remarkable feats of imaginative writing.
]]> 432 Mervyn Peake 1585679453 Barney 4 fantasy, 2015 4.33 1950 Gormenghast (Gormenghast, #2)
author: Mervyn Peake
name: Barney
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1950
rating: 4
read at: 2015/06/05
date added: 2016/01/13
shelves: fantasy, 2015
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys]]> 12510877 I have this rearrangement to make:
symbolic death, my backward glance.
The way the past is a kind of future
leaning against the sporty hood.
ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý —from “Bugcatching at Twilightâ€�

In D. A. Powell’s fifth book of poetry, the rollicking line he has made his signature becomes the taut, more discursive means to describing beauty, singing a dirge, directing an ironic smile, or questioning who in any given setting is the instructor and who is the pupil. This is a book that explores the darker side of divisions and developments, which shows how the interstitial spaces of boonies, backstage, bathhouse, or bar are locations of desire. With Powell’s witty banter, emotional resolve, and powerful lyricism, this collection demonstrates his exhilarating range.]]> 108 D.A. Powell 1555976050 Barney 2 3.98 2012 Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys
author: D.A. Powell
name: Barney
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2015/08/10
date added: 2016/01/13
shelves: poetry, queer-as-folk, yawn, 2015
review:

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