Sara's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 13 Mar 2025 01:25:07 -0700 60 Sara's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Zen & the Art of Writing 304582 Zen In The Art Of Writing is more than just a how-to manual for the would-be writer: it is a celebration of the act of writing itself that will delight, impassion, and inspire the writer in you. In it, Bradbury encourages us to follow the unique path of our instincts and enthusiasms to the place where our inner genius dwells, and he shows that success as a writer depends on how well you know one subject: your own life.]]> 34 Ray Bradbury 0012264792 Sara 5 4.12 1973 Zen & the Art of Writing
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Sara
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1973
rating: 5
read at: 2022/05/13
date added: 2025/03/13
shelves:
review:
As a reader of Ray Bradbury my whole life I was enthralled by hearing how he approached different pieces. From the raw creativity of an unknown striving writer to the forced work of a famous author contracted to produce. These essays have charm and wit and memory of times passed.
]]> Guardians of the Mountain 50534033 314 Tamara Couture 1734520000 Sara 0 currently-reading 3.67 Guardians of the Mountain
author: Tamara Couture
name: Sara
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Rise of the Crones (The Crone Wars #5)]]> 181705504 With great powers come great repercussions.

In the aftermath of her victory over the dark god Morok, Claire Emerson is ready for some well-earned peace and quiet, and for some healing time with her protector, Lucan. But tranquility evaporates when an ancient god arrives on her doorstep demanding sanctuary--and blaming Claire.

Claire's final battle with Morok tore apart the very fabric that separated the worlds, and now the Between is devouring the Otherworld, leaving the gods no choice but to flee to Earth. The chaos that follows them turns Claire's entire world upside down. Again.

Repairing the damage she caused while keeping a bunch of unruly deities in line won't be easy, but she's up to the challenge--until she learns that one of the deities is Morok, whose defeat wasn't as complete as she believed. Now, with her magick spread increasingly thin, Claire has no choice but to again fight a war she thought she'd already won. And this time, Morok isn't alone--but neither is she.

As alliances form and new enemies emerge, will Claire's struggle to restore balance be enough to save the world? Or will it plunge them all into utter annihilation?]]> 268 Lydia M. Hawke 1989457193 Sara 0 4.50 2024 Rise of the Crones (The Crone Wars #5)
author: Lydia M. Hawke
name: Sara
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Fall of NĂșmenor: and Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth]]> 61331094
J.R.R. Tolkien famously described the Second Age of Middle-earth as a ‘dark age, and not very much of its history is (or need be) toldâ€�. And for many years readers would need to be content with the tantalizing glimpses of it found within the pages of The Lord of the Rings and its appendices, including the forging of the Rings of Power, the building of the Barad-dĂ»r and the rise of Sauron.


It was not until Christopher Tolkien published The Silmarillion after his father’s death that a fuller story could be told. Although much of the book’s content concerned the First Age of Middle-earth, there were at its close two key works that revealed the tumultuous events concerning the rise and fall of the island of NĂșmenor. Raised out of the Great Sea and gifted to the Men of Middle-earth as a reward for aiding the angelic Valar and the Elves in the defeat and capture of the Dark Lord Morgoth, the kingdom became a seat of influence and wealth; but as the NĂșmenĂłreansâ€� power increased, the seed of their downfall would inevitably be sown, culminating in the Last Alliance of Elves and Men.


Even greater insight into the Second Age would be revealed in subsequent publications, first in Unfinished Tales of NĂșmenor and Middle-earth, then expanded upon in Christopher Tolkien’s magisterial twelve-volume The History of Middle-earth, in which he presented and discussed a wealth of further tales written by his father, many in draft form.


Now, adhering to the timeline of ‘The Tale of Yearsâ€� in the appendices to The Lord of the Rings, editor Brian Sibley has assembled into one comprehensive volume a new chronicle of the Second Age of Middle-earth, told substantially in the words of J.R.R. Tolkien from the various published texts, with new pencil illustrations by the doyen of Tolkien art, Alan Lee.]]> 352 J.R.R. Tolkien 0008537836 Sara 3 4.31 2022 The Fall of NĂșmenor: and Other Tales from the Second Age of Middle-earth
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Sara
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/20
date added: 2024/11/20
shelves:
review:
It was pretty coherent and I could follow all the bits and pieces as they were stitched together to tell this tragic tale. And it is sad.
]]> <![CDATA[Crone Unleashed (The Crone Wars #4)]]> 62227010 This book is the fourth in the Crone Wars series and the following description contains spoilers! You've been warned. ;)

She thought she’d won—but the war has only just started.

When Claire Emerson imprisoned Morok in the Camlann fragment of the world, it should have been the end of the dark god—and of the war between him and the Crones. But when Lucan, her protector, is accidentally trapped along with the god, Claire is determined to rescue him.

She’ll have to travel through the treacherous god realm—alone—to get to him. And that’s just the first hurdle. The bigger problem? The magick of an ancient Crone is hidden in the fragment, and if Morok discovers it, he’ll have enough power to break free and carry out his plan to destroy Claire’s entire world and all that she loves.

Can Claire save Lucan and find the Crone magic before Morok does? Or will she have to choose between the shifter she’s come to love and the power she never asked for in the first place?]]> 244 Lydia M. Hawke 1989457134 Sara 5 So fun and diverting.

I enjoyed all the familiar magical beings encountered on this adventure. I can't wait to start the next. Very fun.]]> 4.45 2023 Crone Unleashed (The Crone Wars #4)
author: Lydia M. Hawke
name: Sara
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/28
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves:
review:
So fun and diverting.

I enjoyed all the familiar magical beings encountered on this adventure. I can't wait to start the next. Very fun.
]]> <![CDATA[The House at Pooh Corner (Winnie-the-Pooh, #2)]]> 776407 180 A.A. Milne 0525444440 Sara 5 4.37 1928 The House at Pooh Corner (Winnie-the-Pooh, #2)
author: A.A. Milne
name: Sara
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1928
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/10/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder]]> 61714633 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on the Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire.

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then . . . six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death--for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound.]]> 331 David Grann 0385534264 Sara 4 4.14 2023 The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
author: David Grann
name: Sara
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/11
date added: 2024/10/11
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Fiery Cross (Outlander, #5)]]> 10967 1443 Diana Gabaldon 0440221668 Sara 0 currently-reading 4.24 2001 The Fiery Cross (Outlander, #5)
author: Diana Gabaldon
name: Sara
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca]]> 2016127
They journeyed for almost ten years in search of the Pacific Ocean that would guide them home, and they were forever changed by their experience. The men lived with a variety of nomadic Indians and learned several indigenous languages. They saw lands, peoples, plants, and animals that no outsider had ever before seen. In this enthralling tale of four castaways wandering in an unknown land, Andrés Reséndez brings to life the vast, dynamic world of North America just a few years before European settlers would transform it forever.]]> 336 Andrés Reséndez 0465068405 Sara 4 4.09 2007 A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca
author: Andrés Reséndez
name: Sara
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Royal Witches: Witchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth-Century England]]> 46158747
Some of these women may have turned to the “dark artsâ€� in order to divine the future or obtain healing potions, but the purpose of the accusations was purely political. Despite their status, these women were vulnerable because of their sex, as the men around them moved them like pawns for political gains.

In Royal Witches, Gemma Hollman explores the lives and the cases of these so-called witches, placing them in the historical context of fifteenth-century England, a setting rife with political upheaval and war. In a time when the line between science and magic was blurred, these trials offer a tantalizing insight into how malicious magic would be used and would later cause such mass hysteria in centuries to come.]]> 320 Gemma Hollman 1643133322 Sara 3 3.74 2019 Royal Witches: Witchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth-Century England
author: Gemma Hollman
name: Sara
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2024/09/30
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]]> <![CDATA[The King's Pleasure (Tudor Rose, #2)]]> 58456963
Having completed her Six Tudor Queens series of novels on the wives of Henry VIII, extensively researched and written from each queen’s point of view, Alison Weir now gives Henry himself a voice, telling the story of his remarkable thirty-six-year reign and his six marriages.

Young Henry began his rule as a magnificent and chivalrous Renaissance prince who embodied every virtue. He had all the qualities to make a triumph of his rule, yet we remember only the violence. Henry famously broke with the Pope, founding the Church of England and launching a religious revolution that divided his kingdom. He beheaded two of his wives and cast aside two others. He died a suspicious, obese, disease-riddled tyrant, old before his time. His reign is remembered as one of dangerous intrigue and bloodshed—and yet the truth is far more complex.

The King’s Pleasure brings to life the idealistic monarch who expanded Parliament, founded the Royal Navy, modernized medical training, composed music and poetry, and patronized the arts. A passionate man in search of true love, he was stymied by the imperative to produce a male heir, as much a victim of circumstance as his unhappy wives. Had fate been kinder to him, the history of England would have been very different.

Here is the story of the private man. To his contemporaries, he was a great king, a legend in his own lifetime. And he left an extraordinary legacy—a modern Britain.]]> 593 Alison Weir 0593355067 Sara 3 3.80 2023 The King's Pleasure (Tudor Rose, #2)
author: Alison Weir
name: Sara
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2024/09/30
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]]> The Egyptian Book of the Dead 790550 The Egyptian Books of the Dead is unquestionably one of the most influential books in all of history. Embodying a ritual to be performed for the dead, with detailed instructions for the behavior of the disembodied spirit in the Land of the Gods, it served as the most important repository of religious authority for some three thousand years. Chapters were carved on the pyramids of the ancient 5th Dynasty, texts were written in papyrus, and selections were painted on mummy cases well into the Christian Era. In a certain sense it stood behind all Egyptian civilization.

In the year 1888 Dr. E. Wallis Budge, then purchasing agent for the British Museum, followed rumors he heard of a spectacular archaeological find in Upper Egypt, and found in an 18th Dynasty tomb near Luxor "the largest roll of papyrus I had ever seen, tied with a thick band of papyrus, and in a perfect state of preservation." It was a copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, written around 1500 B.C. for Ani, Royal Scribe of Thebes, Overseer of the Granaries of the Lords of Abydos, and Scribe of the Offerings of the Lords of Thebes.

The Papyrus of Ani, a full version of the Theban recension, is presented here by Dr. Budge, who later became perhaps the world's most renowned Egyptologist. Reproduced in full are a clear copy of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and interlinear transliteration of their sounds (as reconstructed), a word-for-word translation, and separately a complete smooth translation. All this is preceded by an introduction of more than 150 pages. As a result of this multiple apparatus the reader has a unique opportunity to savor all aspects of the Book of the Dead, or as it is otherwise known, the Book of the Great Awakening.]]> 377 Anonymous 048621866X Sara 3 3.94 -1500 The Egyptian Book of the Dead
author: Anonymous
name: Sara
average rating: 3.94
book published: -1500
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/09/06
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]]> Mansfield Park 45032 488 Jane Austen Sara 2 3.86 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: Sara
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh (Winnie-the-Pooh, #1-4)]]> 99110
Gorgeous watercolor illustrations from Ernest H. Shepard appear in all their glory. With beautiful colors and simple lines, these images hold their own as classics. The tales, filled with superb story lines and lessons, will continue to capture the hearts of new generations.]]> 557 A.A. Milne 0525467262 Sara 5 4.48 1928 The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie-the-Pooh (Winnie-the-Pooh, #1-4)
author: A.A. Milne
name: Sara
average rating: 4.48
book published: 1928
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories]]> 721012 Sketch Book first appeared in 1819, readers in America and abroad greeted it with enthusiasm, and Irving emerged as America's first successful professional author. The pieces about life in England are gently ironic, reflecting the author's interest in the traditions of the Old World and his longings for his home in the New. But it is in "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" that Irving exhibits his true strength—the ability to depict American landscapes and culture so vividly that readers feel themselves a part of them. And it is on the basis of these two classic tales that Irving is generally credited with inventing the short story as a distinct literary genre.

Originally published as The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.]]> 368 Washington Irving 014043769X Sara 3 3.96 1820 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories
author: Washington Irving
name: Sara
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1820
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story]]> 25362017
As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee was one of millions trapped by a secretive and brutal totalitarian regime. Her home on the border with China gave her some exposure to the world beyond the confines of the Hermit Kingdom and, as the famine of the 1990s struck, she began to wonder, question and to realise that she had been brainwashed her entire life. Given the repression, poverty and starvation she witnessed surely her country could not be, as she had been told “the best on the planetâ€�?

Aged seventeen, she decided to escape North Korea. She could not have imagined that it would be twelve years before she was reunited with her family.

She could not return, since rumours of her escape were spreading, and she and her family could incur the punishments of the government authorities � involving imprisonment, torture, and possible public execution. Hyeonseo instead remained in China and rapidly learned Chinese in an effort to adapt and survive. Twelve years and two lifetimes later, she would return to the North Korean border in a daring mission to spirit her mother and brother to South Korea, on one of the most arduous, costly and dangerous journeys imaginable.

This is the unique story not only of Hyeonseo’s escape from the darkness into the light, but also of her coming of age, education and the resolve she found to rebuild her life â€� not once, but twice â€� first in China, then in South Korea. Strong, brave and eloquent, this memoir is a triumph of her remarkable spirit.]]> 304 Hyeonseo Lee 0007554834 Sara 4 4.36 2014 The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story
author: Hyeonseo Lee
name: Sara
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/11
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves:
review:
This story is sad, harrowing, and a testament to human love and desire for freedom. I am sad for the people in North Korea living in such horrific conditions. The story of how almost by accident people's lives can change so dramatically sticks with me. May the world find Peace.
]]> <![CDATA[Drums of Autumn (Outlander, #4)]]> 40909452 In this breathtaking novel, rich in history and adventure, #1 New York Times bestselling author Diana Gabaldon continues the story of Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser that started with the now-classic novel Outlander and continued in Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager. Once again spanning continents and centuries, Gabaldon has created a work of sheer brilliance.

What if you knew someone you loved was going to die? What if you thought you could save them? How much would you risk to try?

Claire Randall has gone to find Jamie Fraser, the man she loved more than life, and has left half her heart behind with their daughter, Brianna. Claire gave up Jamie to save Brianna, and now Bree has sent her mother back to the Scottish warrior who was willing to give his life to save them both. But a chilling discovery in the pages of history suggests that Jamie and Claire's story doesn't have a happy ending.

Brianna dares a terrifying leap into the unknown in search of her mother and the father she has never met, risking her own future to try to change history . . . and to save their lives. But as Brianna plunges into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past . . . or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong.]]> 928 Diana Gabaldon 0525618732 Sara 0 4.35 1996 Drums of Autumn (Outlander, #4)
author: Diana Gabaldon
name: Sara
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/11
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves:
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]]> Making It So 101160634
From his acclaimed stage triumphs to his legendary onscreen work in the Star Trek and X-Men franchises, Sir Patrick Stewart has captivated audiences around the world and across multiple generations with his indelible command of stage and screen. Now, he presents his long-awaited memoir, Making It So, a revealing portrait of an artist whose astonishing life—from his humble beginnings in Yorkshire, England, to the heights of Hollywood and worldwide acclaim—proves a story as exuberant, definitive, and enduring as the author himself.]]> 469 Patrick Stewart 1982167734 Sara 0 4.28 2023 Making It So
author: Patrick Stewart
name: Sara
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/01
date added: 2024/07/11
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]]> I Am Spock 77416 Having played the pivotal role of Mr. Spock in the original series, in six motion pictures, and in a special two-part episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as having directed two of the movies, Nimoy is well suited to tell the true story behind what was seen by the public. He provides an intelligent and insightful book about the creative process and the actor's craft - and gives his own unique insider's view of the creation of both the character, Mr. Spock, and the Star Trek phenomenon.

]]> 342 Leonard Nimoy 0786861827 Sara 0 3.94 1995 I Am Spock
author: Leonard Nimoy
name: Sara
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1995
rating: 0
read at: 2024/07/11
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek]]> 28220993
The Fifty-Year Volume Two is an incisive, no-holds-barred oral history telling the story of post-Original Series Star Trek , told exclusively by the people who were there, in their own words―sharing the inside scoop they’ve never told before―unveiling the oftentimes shocking true story of the history of Star Trek and chronicling the trials, tribulations―and tribbles―that have remained deeply buried secrets... until now.

The Fifty-Year Volume Two includes the voices of hundreds television and film executives, programmers, writers, creators, and cast, who span from the beloved The Next Generation and subsequent films through its Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise, as well J.J. Abrams� reimagined film series.]]> 848 Mark A. Altman 1250089468 Sara 5 4.12 2016 The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J. J. Abrams: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek
author: Mark A. Altman
name: Sara
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/11
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride]]> 21412202 Storm the castle once more

Standing on the stage for the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Princess Bride, I felt an almost overwhelming sense of gratitude and nostalgia. It was a remarkable night and it brought back vivid memories of being part of what appears to have become a cult classic film about pirates and princesses, giants and jesters, cliffs of insanity, and of course rodents of unusual size.

It truly was as fun to make the movie as it is to watch it, from getting to work on William Goldman's brilliant screenplay to being directed by the inimitable Rob Reiner. It is not an exaggeration to say that most days on set were exhilarating, from wrestling André the Giant, to the impossibility of playing mostly dead with Billy Crystal cracking jokes above me, to choreographing the Greatest Sword Fight in Modern Times with Mandy Patinkin, to being part of the Kiss That Left All the Others Behind with Robin Wright.

In this book I've gathered many more behind-the-scenes stories and hopefully answers to many of the questions we've all received over the years from fans. Additionally, Robin, Billy, Rob, and Mandy, as well as Christopher Guest, Wallace Shawn, Fred Savage, Chris Sarandon, Carol Kane, Norman Lear, and William Goldman graciously share their own memories and stories from making this treasured film.

If you'd like to know a little more about the making of The Princess Bride as seen through the eyes of a young actor who got much more than he bargained for, along with the rest of this brilliant cast, then all I can say is...as you wish.]]> 259 Cary Elwes 1476764026 Sara 3 4.16 2014 As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride
author: Cary Elwes
name: Sara
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2024/04/11
date added: 2024/07/11
shelves:
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]]> Homer Price 766917 The comic genius of Robert McCloskey and his wry look at small-town America has kept readers in stitches for generations!

]]> 149 Robert McCloskey 0140309276 Sara 3 4.09 1943 Homer Price
author: Robert McCloskey
name: Sara
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1943
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves:
review:

]]> Fan Fiction 56269181 A Mem-Noir: Inspired by True Events

From Brent Spiner, who played the beloved Lieutenant Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, comes this hilarious autobiographical novel, a personal look at the slightly askew relationship between a celebrity and his fans. If the Coen brothers were to make a Star Trek movie about the complexity of fan obsession and sci-fi, this dark comedy might be the result.

In 1991, just as Star Trek: The Next Generation has rocketed the cast to global fame, the young and impressionable Brent Spiner receives a mysterious package and a series of disturbing letters, sending him on a terrifying and bizarre journey. Paramount Security, the LAPD, and even the FBI were eventually involved in ending the danger that has his life and career hanging in the balance.

Fan Fiction is a zany love letter to a world in which we all participate, the phenomenon of "Fandom."]]> 256 Brent Spiner 1250274362 Sara 0 to-read 3.48 2021 Fan Fiction
author: Brent Spiner
name: Sara
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Nightfall 18297094 40 Isaac Asimov Sara 5 4.16 1941 Nightfall
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Sara
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1941
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/02/27
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language]]> 41716694
Amanda Montell, feminist linguist and staff features editor at online beauty and health magazine Byrdie.com, deconstructs language—from insults and cursing to grammar and pronunciation patterns—to reveal the ways it has been used for centuries to keep women form gaining equality. Ever wonder why so many people are annoyed when women use the word “likeâ€� as a filler? Or why certain gender neutral terms stick and others don’t? Or even how linguists have historically discussed women’s speech patterns? Wordslut is no stuffy academic study; Montell’s irresistible humor shines through, making linguistics not only approachable but both downright hilarious and profound.]]> 304 Amanda Montell 006286887X Sara 5 4.26 2019 Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language
author: Amanda Montell
name: Sara
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/26
date added: 2024/02/26
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration]]> 8171378
Wilkerson tells this interwoven story through the lives of three unforgettable protagonists: Ida Mae Gladney, a sharecropper’s wife, who in 1937 fled Mississippi for Chicago; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, and Robert Foster, a surgeon who left Louisiana in 1953 in hopes of making it in California.

Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous cross-country journeys by car and train and their new lives in colonies in the New World. The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an “unrecognized immigrationâ€� within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is a modern classic.]]> 622 Isabel Wilkerson 0679444327 Sara 0 currently-reading 4.45 2010 The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: Sara
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/04
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> My Bones Are Love Gifts 123228058 90 Dawn Sperber 1956056637 Sara 4 mystical-yet-grounded 4.80 My Bones Are Love Gifts
author: Dawn Sperber
name: Sara
average rating: 4.80
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/02
date added: 2024/02/04
shelves: mystical-yet-grounded
review:
These poems evoke magic in the earth and everyday life. I was moved and delighted. My favorite poem is We Take All The Luck We Can Get in the lines I can smell the luck coming just before it arrives.
]]> <![CDATA[Mortal Monarchs: 1000 Years of Royal Deaths]]> 60385275 Mortal Monarchs, medical historian Dr. Suzie Edge examines 1,000 years of royal deaths to uncover the plots, accusations, rivalries, and ever-present threat of poison that the kings and queens of old faced.]]> 256 Suzie Edge 147229422X Sara 2 4.29 2022 Mortal Monarchs: 1000 Years of Royal Deaths
author: Suzie Edge
name: Sara
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2022
rating: 2
read at: 2023/06/22
date added: 2024/02/04
shelves:
review:
Interesting and funny for sure. Just way too gruesome and medically detailed for me. I found those parts disturbing.
]]> <![CDATA[Medieval Wisdom Series/Boxed Set]]> 799892 Book by 192 C.J. McKnight 0811804151 Sara 4 2.75 1994 Medieval Wisdom Series/Boxed Set
author: C.J. McKnight
name: Sara
average rating: 2.75
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2024/02/04
shelves:
review:
Lots of factual information on little pages. Beautiful illustrations.
]]> <![CDATA[If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future]]> 50489327 These Truths, came across the company’s papers in MIT’s archives and set out to tell this forgotten history, the long-lost backstory to the methods, and the arrogance, of Silicon Valley.


Founded in 1959 by some of the nation’s leading social scientists—“the best and the brightest, fatally brilliant, Icaruses with wings of feathers and wax, flying to the sun”—Simulmatics proposed to predict and manipulate the future by way of the computer simulation of human behavior. In summers, with their wives and children in tow, the company’s scientists met on the beach in Long Island under a geodesic, honeycombed dome, where they built a “People Machineâ€� that aimed to model everything from buying a dishwasher to counterinsurgency to casting a vote. Deploying their “People Machineâ€� from New York, Washington, Cambridge, and even Saigon, Simulmaticsâ€� clients included the John F. Kennedy presidential campaign, the New York Times, the Department of Defense, and dozens of major manufacturers: Simulmatics had a hand in everything from political races to the Vietnam War to the Johnson administration’s ill-fated attempt to predict race riots. The company’s collapse was almost as rapid as its ascent, a collapse that involved failed marriages, a suspicious death, and bankruptcy. Exposed for false claims, and even accused of war crimes, it closed its doors in 1970 and all but vanished. Until Lepore came across the records of its remains.


The scientists of Simulmatics believed they had invented “the A-bomb of the social sciences.â€� They did not predict that it would take decades to detonate, like a long-buried grenade. But, in the early years of the twenty-first century, that bomb did detonate, creating a world in which corporations collect data and model behavior and target messages about the most ordinary of decisions, leaving people all over the world, long before the global pandemic, crushed by feelings of helplessness. This history has a past; If Then is its cautionary tale.]]> 432 Jill Lepore 1631496107 Sara 3 3.68 2020 If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future
author: Jill Lepore
name: Sara
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2024/01/26
date added: 2024/01/26
shelves:
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This was really interesting. I was a small child during these years but I was vaguely aware of the events and issues described in this book. I felt like the memory was filled in with color and detail and became a complete picture. It was fascinating to see the roots of what social manipulation has become today. The particular mid-century attitudes the main protagonists had, were a reminder of what that time felt like. Overall this was a good read.
]]> <![CDATA[The Ring Legends of Tolkien: An Illustrated Exploration of Rings in Tolkien's World, and the Sources that Inspired his Work from Myth, Literature and History]]> 55592665 Learn the most popular legends about the Rings of Power!

The history of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth is filled with an ongoing struggle between good and evil, centered on a set of rings forged by Elves and an evil sorcerer. The Ring Legends of Tolkien recounts stories and conflicts surrounding the Rings of Power. Insightful commentary by Tolkien scholar David Day discusses how people, tactics, and weapons were used to obtain and control the rings, and also how the legends of Middle-earth relate to the real-world mythology on which Tolkien based his famous literary creation. Maps and full-color illustrations help bring this rich universe to life, making it an invaluable reference book for Tolkien fans of all ages.
This work is unofficial and is not authorized by the Tolkien Estate or HarperCollins Publishers.]]> 275 David Day 0753734362 Sara 0 to-read 3.70 2020 The Ring Legends of Tolkien: An Illustrated Exploration of Rings in Tolkien's World, and the Sources that Inspired his Work from Myth, Literature and History
author: David Day
name: Sara
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Kindred 60931 The visionary author’s masterpiece pulls us—along with her Black female hero—through time to face the horrors of slavery and explore the impacts of racism, sexism, and white supremacy then and now.

Dana, a modern Black woman, is celebrating her 26th birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.]]> 288 Octavia E. Butler 0807083690 Sara 3 4.30 1979 Kindred
author: Octavia E. Butler
name: Sara
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1979
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/01/14
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing]]> 53238858 Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You? provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand.

“Through this lens we can build a renewed sense of personal self-worth and ultimately recalibrate our responses to circumstances, situations, and relationships. It is, in other words, the key to reshaping our very lives.â€�—Oprah Winfrey

This book is going to change the way you see your life.

Have you ever wondered "Why did I do that?" or "Why can't I just control my behavior?" Others may judge our reactions and think, "What's wrong with that person?" When questioning our emotions, it's easy to place the blame on ourselves; holding ourselves and those around us to an impossible standard. It's time we started asking a different question.

Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?â€� to “What happened to you?â€�

Here, Winfrey shares stories from her own past, understanding through experience the vulnerability that comes from facing trauma and adversity at a young age. In conversation throughout the book, she and Dr. Perry focus on understanding people, behavior, and ourselves. It’s a subtle but profound shift in our approach to trauma, and it’s one that allows us to understand our pasts in order to clear a path to our future—opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way.]]> 304 Bruce D. Perry 1250223180 Sara 4 It was a tough go in spots but I am glad I read it and recommend it to those interested in this topic.]]> 4.43 2021 What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing
author: Bruce D. Perry
name: Sara
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/14
date added: 2024/01/14
shelves:
review:
I am not going to lie. This book made me cry, a lot. The stories of trauma and survival are terrible and moving. The science is fascinating and the reason I wanted to read this book. I am glad we have gained an understanding of how horrible treatment and experiences can damage both children and adults. I wish humanity would stop hurting ourselves and each other. Still, the authors offer hope and some help and solutions for dealing with those in our lives who are hurt and the hurt we have in ourselves.
It was a tough go in spots but I am glad I read it and recommend it to those interested in this topic.
]]> <![CDATA[The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek-The First 25 Years]]> 26114151 Star Trek series debuted in 1966 and has spawned five TV series spin-offs and a dozen feature films, with an upcoming one from Paramount arriving in 2016. The Fifty-Year Mission is a no-holds-barred oral history of five decades of Star Trek, told by the people who were there. Hear from the hundreds of television and film executives, programmers, writers, creators and cast as they unveil the oftentimes shocking story of Star Trek's ongoing fifty-year mission -a mission that has spanned from the classic series to the animated show, the many attempts at a relaunch through the beloved feature films.

Make no mistake, this isn't just a book for Star Trek fans. Here is a volume for all fans of pop culture and anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of a television touchstone.]]> 560 Mark A. Altman 1250065844 Sara 5 4.07 2016 The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek-The First 25 Years
author: Mark A. Altman
name: Sara
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/01/07
date added: 2024/01/07
shelves:
review:
I am a big fan of Star Trek. Even familiar as I am with the timeline(s) and lore, I enjoyed this book very much. The firsthand stories from different viewpoints were enjoyable and enlightening. I didn't learn anything new but got deeper into the story overall.
]]> <![CDATA[Reviewed - "Written In My Own Heart's Blood" by Diana Gabaldon]]> 22891072
Written In My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon is finally here!

After waiting for 5 years, fans of Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander series" can finally return to the characters they know and love. Written In My Own Heart's Blood picks up where "An Echo In The Bone" left off and gets right into the action.

If you’d like to enhance your experience while reading Written In My Own Heart's Blood then this book review and study guide is perfect for you!

Yes, in Written In My Own Heart's Blood, Diana Gabaldon once again takes us on an action packed roller coaster ride that you’re sure to enjoy.

Follow along with Jamie, Claire, Roger, Buck, Brianna, Jem, Mandy and all the rest as Diana Gabaldon weaves their stories through the past and present and all over the world.

When you read Written In My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon - Reviewed you will get a deeper understanding of the characters and plot found in the original book, Written In My Own Heart's Blood as well as the themes and symbolism included in the novel.

You also get a detailed chapter by chapter breakdown and analysis of the events as they unfold along with a glossary of the important characters and terms used in the original book. Just in case that’s not enough for you I’ve also included a list of possible study questions (book club discussions topics) and quotes from the book that I found interesting.

Wrapping it all up is a discussion of the critical reviews for Written In My Own Heart's Blood as well as my overall opinion of the book. Plus much more!

Whether you’re reading this for a book club, school report, or just want to catch up with your favorite characters and find out what happens before diving into the full length book, you can use this book review and study guide to get most out of your experience reading Written In My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon.]]> 80 J.T. Salrich Sara 0 to-read 4.68 2014 Reviewed - "Written In My Own Heart's Blood" by Diana Gabaldon
author: J.T. Salrich
name: Sara
average rating: 4.68
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Assuming the Ecosexual Position: The Earth as Lover]]> 55707512   What’s sexy about saving the planet? Funny you should ask. Because that is precisely—or, perhaps, broadly—what Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens have spent many years bringing to light in their live art, exhibitions, and films. In 2008, Sprinkle and Stephens married the Earth, which set them on the path to explore the realms of ecosexuality as they became lovers with the Earth and made their mutual pleasure an embodied expression of passion for the environment. Ever since, they have been not just pushing but obliterating the boundaries circumscribing biology and ecology, creating ecosexual art in their performance of an environmentalism that is feminist, queer, sensual, sexual, posthuman, materialist, exuberant, and steeped in humor. Assuming the Ecosexual Position tells of childhood moments that pointed to a future of ecosexuality—for Annie, in her family swimming pool in Los Angeles; for Beth, savoring forbidden tomatoes from the vine on her grandparentsâ€� Appalachian farm. The book describes how the two came together as lovers and collaborators, how they took a stand against homophobia and xenophobia, and how this union led to the miraculous conception of the Love Art Laboratory, which involved influential performance artists Linda M. Montano, Guillermo GĂłmez-Peña, and feminist pornographer Madison Young. Stephens and Sprinkle share the process of making interactive performance art, including the Chemo Fashion Show, Cuddle, Sidewalk Sex Clinics, and Ecosex Walking Tours. Over the years, they celebrated many more weddings to various nature entities, from the Appalachian Mountains to the Adriatic Sea. To create these weddings, they collaborated with hundreds of people and invited thousands of guests as they vowed to love, honor, and cherish the many elements of the Earth. As entertaining as it is deeply serious, and arriving at a perilous time of sharp differences and constricting categories, the story of this artistic collaboration between Sprinkle, Stephens, their diverse communities, and the Earth opens gender and sexuality, art and environmentalism, to the infinite possibilities and promise of love.]]> 256 Annie Sprinkle 1517900190 Sara 3 4.16 Assuming the Ecosexual Position: The Earth as Lover
author: Annie Sprinkle
name: Sara
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2023/12/26
date added: 2023/12/26
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I felt it was very self conscious and silly. But absolutely ecosexual in a joyful way.
]]> <![CDATA[Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence]]> 13126099 Wired for Story reveals these cognitive secrets--and it's a game-changer for anyone who has ever set pen to paper. The vast majority of writing advice focuses on writing well as if it were the same as telling a great story. This is exactly where many aspiring writers fail--they strive for beautiful metaphors, authentic dialogue, and interesting characters, losing sight of the one thing that every engaging story must do: ignite the brain's hardwired desire to learn what happens next. When writers tap into the evolutionary purpose of story and electrify our curiosity, it triggers a delicious dopamine rush that tells us to pay attention. Without it, even the most perfect prose won't hold anyone's interest. Backed by recent breakthroughs in neuroscience as well as examples from novels, screenplays, and short stories, Wired for Story offers a revolutionary look at story as the brain experiences it. Each chapter zeroes in on an aspect of the brain, its corresponding revelation about story, and the way to apply it to your storytelling right now.]]> 262 Lisa Cron 1607742454 Sara 4 4.19 2012 Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence
author: Lisa Cron
name: Sara
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/23
date added: 2023/12/23
shelves:
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This book gave me a lot to consider in my creative writing. I highly recommend it. Examining what we know about the human response to stories and applying it to our storytelling is a wonderful tool.
]]> <![CDATA[Game of Crones (The Crone Wars #3)]]> 58921207 Once, there was power in her magick. Now, she must find magick in her power.

Claire Emerson has lost her magick—and with it, her place among the Crones. It should spell the end of her involvement in their centuries-old war against the dark god, Morok, but it can’t. Because Claire knows something the others don’t—Morok has become an imposter in the Cronesâ€� midst, and their destruction is imminent.

To stop the dark god’s nefarious plan, Claire will have to find her missing powers. But neither she nor her allies have a clue where to start—and that’s the easy part. The hard part? Getting past Morok’s monsters in time to rescue the Crones. Especially when she comes face to face with Morok himself.

Will Claire’s powers be enough to defeat a god and save her companions—and the world?]]> 254 Lydia M. Hawke 198945707X Sara 4 Good fun read

I am really enjoying this series. It's funny and adventurous with out being too silly. Can't wait ro start the next one. ]]> 4.39 2022 Game of Crones (The Crone Wars #3)
author: Lydia M. Hawke
name: Sara
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/12/11
date added: 2023/12/12
shelves:
review:
Good fun read

I am really enjoying this series. It's funny and adventurous with out being too silly. Can't wait ro start the next one.
]]> Voyager (Outlander, #3) 10987 Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber, the extraordinary saga continues.

Their passionate encounter happened long ago by whatever measurement Claire Randall took. Two decades before, she had traveled back in time and into the arms of a gallant eighteenth-century Scot named Jamie Fraser. Then she returned to her own century to bear his child, believing him dead in the tragic battle of Culloden. Yet his memory has never lessened its hold on her... and her body still cries out for him in her dreams.

Then Claire discovers that Jamie survived. Torn between returning to him and staying with their daughter in her own era, Claire must choose her destiny. And as time and space come full circle, she must find the courage to face the passion and pain awaiting her...the deadly intrigues raging in a divided Scotland... and the daring voyage into the dark unknown that can reunite or forever doom her timeless love.

]]> 870 Diana Gabaldon 0385335997 Sara 5 4.38 1993 Voyager (Outlander, #3)
author: Diana Gabaldon
name: Sara
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2023/12/11
date added: 2023/12/11
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander, #2)]]> 5364 An alternate cover edition can be found here.

From the author of Outlander... a magnificent epic that once again sweeps us back in time to the drama and passion of 18th-century Scotland...

For twenty years Claire Randall has kept her secrets. But now she is returning with her grown daughter to Scotland's majestic mist-shrouded hills. Here Claire plans to reveal a truth as stunning as the events that gave it birth: about the mystery of an ancient circle of standing stones ...about a love that transcends the boundaries of time ...and about James Fraser, a Scottish warrior whose gallantry once drew a young Claire from the security of her century to the dangers of his ....

Now a legacy of blood and desire will test her beautiful copper-haired daughter, Brianna, as Claire's spellbinding journey of self-discovery continues in the intrigue-ridden Paris court of Charles Stuart ...in a race to thwart a doomed Highlands uprising ...and in a desperate fight to save both the child and the man she loves....]]> 947 Diana Gabaldon Sara 5 4.33 1992 Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander, #2)
author: Diana Gabaldon
name: Sara
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1992
rating: 5
read at: 2023/09/29
date added: 2023/09/29
shelves:
review:
Someone told me this was a pretty good TV series and very good novels. I watched the TV series 2x and needed more so I began the books. Oh! these are truley wonderful to read.
]]> <![CDATA[A Gathering of Crones (The Crone Wars #2)]]> 58019943 She’s running out of time. And so is the world.

After learning on her sixtieth birthday that she’s one of five Crones destined to save the world, Claire Emerson has been desperately trying to acquire the lifetime of magic she missed out on. But the mages who are out to destroy everything she loves aren’t waiting, and when one of the other Crones ends up on Claire’s doorstep—wounded and unconscious—Claire knows she’s out of time.

Leaving the safety of her warded house, she goes in search of the remaining Crones� only to find them under siege by the mages and their nearly indestructible monster. And without control over her powerful elemental magic, she has no idea how to rescue them.

Can Claire harness her powers in time to help her fellow Crones defeat the mages—or will her efforts bring even greater disaster?]]> 250 Lydia M. Hawke 1989457061 Sara 4 4.36 2022 A Gathering of Crones (The Crone Wars #2)
author: Lydia M. Hawke
name: Sara
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2023/09/29
date added: 2023/09/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story]]> 57717410 The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a revealing vision of the American past and present.

In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.

The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story builds on The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning â€�1619 Project,â€� which reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This book substantially expands on the original "1619 Project, "weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This legacy can be seen in the way we tell stories, the way we teach our children, and the way we remember. Together, the elements of the book reveal a new origin story for the United States, one that helps explain not only the persistence of anti-Black racism and inequality in American life today, but also the roots of what makes the country unique.

The book also features an elaboration of the original project’s Pulitzer Prize–winning lead essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones on how the struggles of Black Americans have expanded democracy for all Americans, as well as two original pieces from Hannah-Jones, one of which makes a case for reparative solutions to this legacy of injustice.]]> 590 Nikole Hannah-Jones 0593230574 Sara 5 4.61 2019 The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
author: Nikole Hannah-Jones
name: Sara
average rating: 4.61
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/04
date added: 2023/08/04
shelves:
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This was eye-opening. Going into the nitty gritty details of malicious oppression. We see the results all around us but tend to think these are organic current problems. This book details how these problems were built on purpose over time. Acknowledging this is not a problem but a solution to current issues.
]]> <![CDATA[Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings]]> 870160
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones offers a collection of accessible, primary Zen sources so that readers can contemplate the meaning of Zen for themselves. Within the pages, readers will find:

When Zen Flesh, Zen Bones was published in 1957, it became an instant sensation with an entire generation of readers who were just beginning to experiment with Zen. Over the years it has inspired leading American Zen teachers, students, and practitioners. Its popularity is as high today as ever.]]> 211 Paul Reps 0804831866 Sara 3 4.17 1957 Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
author: Paul Reps
name: Sara
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1957
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2023/07/25
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]]> <![CDATA[The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation]]> 397970 452 Dennis William Hauck 0140195718 Sara 3 The first third is really interesting about ancient alchemy's history, personas, and writings. I found the illustrations fascinating. The second third was overly autobiographical and less informative. The third part was just plain old 90's New Age Woo. ]]> 4.14 1999 The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation
author: Dennis William Hauck
name: Sara
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/15
date added: 2023/07/15
shelves:
review:
I read this when it first came out and enjoyed it. I decided to reread it this year after a recent conversation about Alchemy.
The first third is really interesting about ancient alchemy's history, personas, and writings. I found the illustrations fascinating. The second third was overly autobiographical and less informative. The third part was just plain old 90's New Age Woo.
]]> Hollow Beasts (Jodi Luna #1) 60089943
After a long stint in academia, Jodi Luna leaves Boston for the wilds of New Mexico to start a new life as a game warden. Jodi is no stranger to the wilderness; her family has lived here for generations. Determined to protect her homeland, she nabs a poacher in her first week on the job.

But when he retaliates by stalking Jodi and her teenage daughter, a cat and mouse game leads Jodi to a white supremacist group deep in the mountains. She learns that new recruits are kidnapping women of color to prove their mettle to the organization’s leader.

When the local sheriff refuses to assist, Jodi joins up with young deputy Ashley Romero. Together, they set out to take down a terrorist network that will test not just their skills as investigators but also their knowledge of the land and commitment to its people.

But will Jodi’s fierce resolve to protect the voiceless put her loved ones in harm’s way?]]> 253 Alisa Lynn Valdes 1662507186 Sara 3 4.14 2023 Hollow Beasts (Jodi Luna #1)
author: Alisa Lynn Valdes
name: Sara
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2023/07/10
date added: 2023/07/10
shelves:
review:

]]> The Alchemist 18144590 The Alchemist has become a modern classic, selling millions of copies around the world and transforming the lives of countless readers across generations.

Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined. Santiago's journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, most importantly, following our dreams.]]> 182 Paulo Coelho 0062315005 Sara 2 As a nice happily retired lady enjoying her dreams at the end of her path, I found this fable obvious and superficial. Good luck out there y'all.]]> 4.01 1988 The Alchemist
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Sara
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1988
rating: 2
read at: 2023/07/10
date added: 2023/07/10
shelves:
review:
If you are young and just starting out, or at a low point in your life, this book might seem inspiring and motivating. By all means, follow your dreams.
As a nice happily retired lady enjoying her dreams at the end of her path, I found this fable obvious and superficial. Good luck out there y'all.
]]> <![CDATA[Egalia's Daughters: A Satire of the Sexes]]> 417157 272 Gerd Brantenberg 1878067583 Sara 0 to-read 3.99 1977 Egalia's Daughters: A Satire of the Sexes
author: Gerd Brantenberg
name: Sara
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1977
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Silmarillion 7332 386 J.R.R. Tolkien 0618391118 Sara 2 3.99 1977 The Silmarillion
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: Sara
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1977
rating: 2
read at: 2023/06/15
date added: 2023/06/15
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Becoming Crone (The Crone Wars, #1)]]> 57769303 She wanted purpose. She got dark magic and war.

Claire Emerson is adrift. After a lifetime as a wife, mother, and grandma, she never saw divorce or loneliness coming and is desperate for some sense of purpose. But when her sixtieth birthday brings a snarky gargoyle, an annoyingly sexy wolf shifter, and an unknown magical calling, she thinks she's losing the only thing she has left: her sanity.

Refusing to believe she's the powerful defender of humankind her so-called protectors claim, Claire attempts a return to her safe life... only to have her powers ignite when she's attacked by dark supernatural creatures. And without the training she was supposed to have received, she has no idea how she'll defeat sinister mages plotting her demise.

Can Claire overcome creaky joints and major hot flashes in time to save the world - and her own life?]]> 260 Lydia M. Hawke 1989457053 Sara 4 Very fun.

I am so tired of stories about teens discovering their secret powers. This book turns that theme on its head. As a Crone myself I smiled in recognition at these adventures. I look forward to the rest of the series. ]]> 4.23 2021 Becoming Crone (The Crone Wars, #1)
author: Lydia M. Hawke
name: Sara
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2023/06/12
date added: 2023/06/12
shelves:
review:
Very fun.

I am so tired of stories about teens discovering their secret powers. This book turns that theme on its head. As a Crone myself I smiled in recognition at these adventures. I look forward to the rest of the series.
]]> <![CDATA[It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism]]> 63249703
It’s OK to be angry about capitalism. Reflecting on our turbulent times, Senator Bernie Sanders takes on the billionaire class and speaks blunt truths about our country’s failure to address the destructive nature of a system that is fueled by uncontrolled greed and rigidly committed to prioritizing corporate profits over the needs of ordinary Americans.

Sanders argues that unfettered capitalism is to blame for an unprecedented level of income and wealth inequality, is undermining our democracy, and is destroying our planet. How can we accept an economic order that allows three billionaires to control more wealth than the bottom half of our society? How can we accept a political system that allows the super rich to buy elections and politicians? How can we accept an energy system that rewards the fossil fuel corporations causing the climate crisis? Sanders believes that, in the face of these overwhelming challenges, the American people must ask tough questions about the systems that have failed us and demand fundamental economic and political change. This is where the path forward begins.

It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism presents a vision that extends beyond the promises of past campaigns to reveal what would be possible if the political revolution took place, if we would finally recognize that economic rights are human rights, and if we would work to create a society that provides a decent standard of living for all. This isn’t some utopian fantasy; this is democracy as we should know it.]]> 320 Bernie Sanders 0593238710 Sara 1 4.09 2023 It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism
author: Bernie Sanders
name: Sara
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2023
rating: 1
read at: 2023/06/07
date added: 2023/06/07
shelves:
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Love Bernie. But even he was bored reading his book.
]]> Ludlow 22246701
The novel follows two primary characters: the fictional Luisa Mole, orphaned in the opening chapter, who must choose between life among the miners and the middle-class family who adopt her; and the historical figure Louis Tikas, a Cretan immigrant who, in the course of the book, becomes a labor organizer and a Ludlow martyr. But several minor characters—Too Tall MacIntosh, Lefty Calabrini, George Reed and his family, and even John D. Rockefeller, Jr.—also play significant roles in the book, which never succumbs to simplistic political pieties, but is engaged with identity and being.

I have also deliberately planted a version of the author in the book, guiding the story in time, allowing us to look at events from the vantage point of the whole century, and to understand both the personal import of the story to me and the profound difficulty of ever knowing the truth about such events. In a sense, the characters are more “groundedâ€� and real than the author, who tells the story as a way of holding onto his own identity in the West. It’s as if the historical fictions of Tolstoy or Cormac McCarthy met the radical skepticism of Jorge Luis Borges with a cinematic vividness. Indeed, my prose Afterword quotes Borgesâ€� call for a renewal of storytelling in verse. The book ends long after the massacre, with America changed by more wars and upheaval, in a scene where the author comes to know Luisa Mole more fully and imaginatively.

Finally, Ludlow is about language and landscape—the many languages that have named Colorado and America—the geographical memory of the nation.
]]> 232 David Mason Sara 4 Tragic and moving

I took a while to read this book. I kept having to stop, ponder and share. I and my husband have family ties to the events at Ludlow. We often visit the memorial even over a century after these events.
I have sometimes wondered at how the struggle for labor rights at the turn of the century isn't more prominently remembered. This book contributes to what we need to remember. People died, horribly, and unjustly, for all of our rights, I pray we remember these lessons and never need to repeat them.

The lyric quality of the poem helps carry the events to our imaginations in a personal way. I could picture the land and people as they lived through the conditions of their lives. ]]> 3.57 2007 Ludlow
author: David Mason
name: Sara
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2023/04/29
date added: 2023/04/30
shelves:
review:
Tragic and moving

I took a while to read this book. I kept having to stop, ponder and share. I and my husband have family ties to the events at Ludlow. We often visit the memorial even over a century after these events.
I have sometimes wondered at how the struggle for labor rights at the turn of the century isn't more prominently remembered. This book contributes to what we need to remember. People died, horribly, and unjustly, for all of our rights, I pray we remember these lessons and never need to repeat them.

The lyric quality of the poem helps carry the events to our imaginations in a personal way. I could picture the land and people as they lived through the conditions of their lives.
]]> Their Eyes Were Watching God 54899969 Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, it is the story of fair-skinned, fiercely independent Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trials, and purpose.

A true literary wonder, Hurston's masterwork remains as relevant and affecting today as when it was first published - perhaps the most widely read and highly regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature.]]> 219 Zora Neale Hurston Sara 3 4.08 1937 Their Eyes Were Watching God
author: Zora Neale Hurston
name: Sara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1937
rating: 3
read at: 1993/01/01
date added: 2023/04/25
shelves:
review:

]]> Outlander (Outlander, #1) 10964
Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart. For here James Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior, shows her a love so absolute that Claire becomes a woman torn between fidelity and desire—and between two vastly different men in two irreconcilable lives.]]> 850 Diana Gabaldon 0440242940 Sara 5 4.25 1991 Outlander (Outlander, #1)
author: Diana Gabaldon
name: Sara
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1991
rating: 5
read at: 2023/04/25
date added: 2023/04/25
shelves:
review:
I heard the books were "very good" and the series was "pretty good". After getting hooked on the series I was suffering for the next season coming out in June. I started the books and indeed this is very good. I am impressed with the author's writing process and the story is very good. The adventures linger in my mind and the relationships between the characters ring true.
]]> <![CDATA[A Stitch in Time (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, #27)]]> 5602407 An unique and intense tale following Elim Garak as he attempts to stitch the ravaged society of Cardassia back together. For nearly a decade Garak has longed for just one thing—to go home. Exiled on a space station, surrounded by aliens who loathe and distrust him, going back to Cardassia has been Garak's one dream. Now, finally, he is home. But home is a world whose landscape is filled with death and destruction. Desperation and dust are constant companions and luxury is a glass of clean water and a warm place to sleep. Ironically, it is a letter from one of the aliens on that space station, Dr. Julian Bashir, that inspires Garak to look at the fabric of his life. Elim Garak has been a student, a gardener, a spy, an exile, a tailor, even a liberator. It is a life that was charted by the forces of Cardassian society with very little understanding of the person, and even less compassion. But it is the tailor that understands who Elim Garak was, and what he could be. It is the tailor who sees the ruined fabric of Cardassia, and who knows how to bring this ravaged society back together. This is strange, because a tailor is the one thing Garak never wanted to be. But it is the tailor whom both Cardassia and Elim Garak need. It is the tailor who can put the pieces together, who can take a stitch in time.]]> 396 Andrew Jordt Robinson Sara 3 Entertaining

I read this on my kindle, mostly in waiting rooms. I could dive in and out and keep up with the story. Interesting and new, but with characters I know well .]]> 4.42 2000 A Stitch in Time (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, #27)
author: Andrew Jordt Robinson
name: Sara
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at: 2023/04/25
date added: 2023/04/25
shelves:
review:
Entertaining

I read this on my kindle, mostly in waiting rooms. I could dive in and out and keep up with the story. Interesting and new, but with characters I know well .
]]> Now, That's a Trick 75406049 44 Dawn Sperber 1646629434 Sara 4 mystical-yet-grounded 4.80 Now, That's a Trick
author: Dawn Sperber
name: Sara
average rating: 4.80
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/04/02
shelves: mystical-yet-grounded
review:

]]> Alias Grace 72579
An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories?

Captivating and disturbing, Alias Grace showcases best-selling, Booker Prize-winning author Margaret Atwood at the peak of her powers.]]> 468 Margaret Atwood 0385475713 Sara 0 to-read 4.08 1996 Alias Grace
author: Margaret Atwood
name: Sara
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Creation of Patriarchy 499353 The Creation of Patriarchy is a radical reconceptualization of Western civilization that makes gender central to its analysis. Gerda Lerner argues that male dominance over women is not "natural" or biological, but the product of a historical development begun in the second millennium B.C. in the Ancient Near East. As patriarchy as a system of organizing society was established historically, she contends, it can also be ended by the historical process.

Focusing on the contradiction between women's central role in creating society and their marginality in the meaning-giving process of definition and interpretation, Lerner explores such fascinating questions as: What can account for women's exclusion from the historical process? What could explain the long delay—more than 3,500 years—in women's coming to consciousness of their own subordinate position? She goes back to the cultures of the earliest known civilizations—those of the ancient Near East—to discover the origins of the major gender metaphors of Western civilization. Using historical, literary, archaeological, and artistic evidence, she then traces the development of these ideas, symbols, and metaphors and their incorporation into Western civilization as the basis of patriarchal gender relations.]]> 318 Gerda Lerner 0195051858 Sara 4 4.33 1986 The Creation of Patriarchy
author: Gerda Lerner
name: Sara
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1986
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/01/12
shelves:
review:

]]> Howl 6300 208 Allen Ginsberg 0060926112 Sara 5 4.21 1956 Howl
author: Allen Ginsberg
name: Sara
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1956
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation]]> 61190220 416 Rosemary Sullivan 006289238X Sara 0 to-read 3.93 2022 The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation
author: Rosemary Sullivan
name: Sara
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/12/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage]]> 58085262
The Latin term for the female genitalia, pudendum, means “parts for which you should be ashamed.â€� Until 1651, ovaries were called female testicles. The fallopian tubes are named for a man. Named, claimed, and shamed: Welcome to the story of the female body, as penned by men.

Today, a new generation of (mostly) women scientists is finally redrawing the map. With modern tools and fresh perspectives, they’re looking at the organs traditionally bound up in reproduction—the uterus, ovaries, vagina—and seeing within them a new biology of change and resilience. Through their eyes, journalist Rachel E. Gross takes readers on an anatomical odyssey to the center of this new world—a world where the uterus regrows itself, ovaries pump out fresh eggs, and the clitoris pulses beneath the surface like a shimmering pyramid of nerves. Full of wit and wonder, Vagina Obscura is a celebratory testament to how the landscape of knowledge can be rewritten to better serve everyone.]]> 336 Rachel E. Gross 1324006315 Sara 3 4.41 2022 Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage
author: Rachel E. Gross
name: Sara
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/12/13
date added: 2022/12/13
shelves:
review:
This was very interesting but sometimes cringingly clinical. If you have a vagina or love someone who does, this book will remove all mystery. I liked it overall, but I am rather squeamish so I didn't like some of the medical detail.
]]> <![CDATA[Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization]]> 59808487 Bringing his cosmic perspective to civilization on Earth, Neil deGrasse Tyson shines new light on the crucial fault lines of our time—war, politics, religion, truth, beauty, gender, and race—in a way that stimulates a deeper sense of unity for us all.

In a time when our political and cultural views feel more polarized than ever, Tyson provides a much-needed antidote to so much of what divides us, while making a passionate case for the twin chariots of enlightenment—a cosmic perspective and the rationality of science.

After thinking deeply about how science sees the world and about Earth as a planet, the human brain has the capacity to reset and recalibrates life’s priorities, shaping the actions we might take in response. No outlook on culture, society, or civilization remains untouched.

With crystalline prose, Starry Messenger walks us through the scientific palette that sees and paints the world differently. From insights on resolving global conflict to reminders of how precious it is to be alive, Tyson reveals, with warmth and eloquence, an array of brilliant and beautiful truths that apply to us all, informed and enlightened by knowledge of our place in the universe.]]> 271 Neil deGrasse Tyson 1250861500 Sara 4 4.09 2022 Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization
author: Neil deGrasse Tyson
name: Sara
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2022/12/13
date added: 2022/12/13
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Lord John and the Hellfire Club (Lord John Grey, #0.5)]]> 1709407 2 Diana Gabaldon 140255981X Sara 0 to-read 3.84 1998 Lord John and the Hellfire Club (Lord John Grey, #0.5)
author: Diana Gabaldon
name: Sara
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/11/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Dawnlands (The Fairmile #3) 60459297
Alinor’s son, Rob, is determined to stay clear of the war, but when he and his nephew set out to free Ned from execution for treason and Rowan from a convict deportation to Barbados, they find themselves enmeshed in the creation of an imposter Prince of Wales—a surrogate baby to the queen.

From the last battle in the desolate Somerset Levels to the hidden caves on the slave island of Barbados, this third volume of an epic story follows a family from one end of the empire to another, to find a new dawn in a world which is opening up before them with greater rewards and dangers than ever before.]]> 526 Philippa Gregory 150118721X Sara 0 to-read 3.91 2022 Dawnlands (The Fairmile #3)
author: Philippa Gregory
name: Sara
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/10/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Queens of the Crusades (England's Medieval Queens, #2)]]> 52355570 Packed with incredible true stories and legendary medieval intrigue, this epic narrative history chronicles the first five queens from the powerful royal family that ruled England and France for over three hundred years.

This remarkable recreation of the action-packed century that saw the murder of Thomas Becket and the signing of the Magna Carta covers the lives and reigns of the first five Plantagenet queens, who ruled England and France throughout the bloody 1200s, a particularly dramatic and violent period of European history. Wars, crusades, treachery, murder, passion, and the interplay between rival monarchs of Britain and France provide a surprising picture of these five ambitious women and their struggle for power.

The queens covered in the book are Eleanor of Aquitaine, Berengaria of Navarre, Isabella of Angouleme, Alienor of Provence and Eleanor of Castile. One of these queens became legendary when, accompanying her husband on crusade, she saved his life by sucking the blood from his poisoned-arrow wound. Equally intriguing are the descriptions of their marriages, including one that was extremely tempestuous, and one that was a love match turned sour when the jealous husband discovered his queen's infidelity and retaliated by killing her lovers and hanging their bodies from the canopy of her bed.

This second volume of historian Alison Weir's critically acclaimed Medieval Queens series brings these unfamiliar, fascinating royals to life, demonstrating how very much they resemble self-determining women of our own time.]]> 560 Alison Weir 1101966696 Sara 4 3.96 2021 Queens of the Crusades (England's Medieval Queens, #2)
author: Alison Weir
name: Sara
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/19
date added: 2022/09/19
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul]]> 56695137










With extended longevity comes the opportunity for extended personal growth and spiritual development. You now have the chance to become an Elder, to leave behind past roles, shift from work in the outer world to inner work with the soul, and become authentically who you are. This book is a guide to help get past the inner obstacles and embrace the hidden spiritual gifts of age.

Offering a radical reimagining of age for all generations, psychotherapist and bestselling author Connie Zweig reveals how to use inner work to uncover and explore the unconscious denial and resistance that erupts around key thresholds of later life, attune to your soul’s longing, and emerge renewed as an Elder filled with vitality and purpose. She explores the obstacles encountered in the transition to wise Elder and offers psychological shadow-work and diverse spiritual practices to help you break through denial to awareness, move from self-rejection to self-acceptance, repair the past to be fully present, reclaim your creativity, and allow mortality to be a teacher. Sharing contemplative practices for selfreflection, she also reveals how to discover ways to share your talents and wisdom to become a force for change in the lives of others.

Woven throughout with wisdom from prominent Elders, including Ken Wilber, Krishna Das, Father Thomas Keating, Anna Douglas, James Hollis, Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Ashton Applewhite, Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao, Roger Walsh, and Stanislav Grof, this book offers tools and guidance to help you let go of past roles, expand your identity, deepen self-knowledge, and move through these life passages to a new stage of awareness, choosing to be fully real, transparent, and free to embrace a fulfilling late life.]]> 416 Connie Zweig 1644113406 Sara 5 ]]> 4.01 The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul
author: Connie Zweig
name: Sara
average rating: 4.01
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2022/09/19
date added: 2022/09/19
shelves:
review:
I struggled with transitioning into retirement, and this book helped me immensely. I hadn't considered how to change purposefully and this book worked as a guide for me. I am not ready for the end yet, but I am working on accepting that the end will come. I journaled a lot while reading this, and gained some insight. I recommend it to everyone wondering about different life stages. After all, we are all going in this direction.

]]> The Never Ending Sacrifice 8136605 Continuing the post-television Deep Space Nine saga, this original novel shows the fall of the Cardassian empire as seen through the eyes of a young man with a foot in two worlds. Rugal is an orphaned Cardassian who has been raised by the people his race once conquered, the Bajorans. Reluctantly repatriated to Cardassia as a teenager, Rugal becomes the living witness to the downfall of the proud people to whom he was born, first by the invading Klingons, then during the Cardassiansâ€� unholy pact with the Dominion—a partnership that culminated in a near-genocide. Through it all, Rugal’s singular perspective illuminates the choices that brought the Cardassians to their ruin...even as he learns that the Cardassian soul is not as easy to understand as he imagined.]]> 388 Una McCormack Sara 4 My first Star Trek Novel

I am a big fan of DS9. This was a fun read. I will look for more Star Trek novels. Seeing familiar characters in new ways was a hoot. ]]> 4.37 2009 The Never Ending Sacrifice
author: Una McCormack
name: Sara
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2022/09/13
date added: 2022/09/13
shelves:
review:
My first Star Trek Novel

I am a big fan of DS9. This was a fun read. I will look for more Star Trek novels. Seeing familiar characters in new ways was a hoot.
]]> <![CDATA[My Mother/My Self: The Daughter's Search for Identity]]> 85707 My Mother/My Self in the early 1970s, no work existed that explored the unique interaction between mother and daughter. Today psychotherapists throughout the world acknowledge that if women are to be able to love without possessing, to find work that fulfills them, and to discover their full sexuality, they must first acknowledge their identity as separate from their mother’s. Nancy Friday’s book played a major role in that acceptance. The greatest gift a good mother can give remains unquestioning love planted deep in the first year of life, so deep and unassailable that the tiny child grown to womanhood is never held back by the fear of losing that love, no matter what her own choice in love, sexuality, or work may be.

Through candid self-disclosure and hundreds of interviews, Friday investigates a generational legacy and reveals the conflicting feelings of anger, hate, and love the daughter’s hold for their mothers–and why they so often “becomeâ€� that mother themselves.]]> 448 Nancy Friday 0385320159 Sara 3 3.75 1977 My Mother/My Self: The Daughter's Search for Identity
author: Nancy Friday
name: Sara
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1977
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/09/12
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination]]> 141566 What makes a distant oboe's wail beautiful? Why do some kinds of music lift us to ecstasy, but not others? How can music make sense to an ear and brain evolved for detecting the approaching lion or tracking the unsuspecting gazelle? Lyrically interweaving discoveries from science, psychology, music theory, paleontology, and philosophy, Robert Jourdian brilliantly examines why music speaks to us in ways that words cannot, and why we form such powerful connections to it. In clear, understandable language, Jourdian expertly guides the reader through a continuum of musical experience: sound, tone, melody, harmony, rhythm, composition, performance, listening, understanding—and finally to ecstasy. Along the way, a fascinating cast of characters brings Jourdian's narrative to vivid life: "idiots savants" who absorb whole pieces on a single hearing, composers who hallucinate entire compositions, a psychic who claims to take dictation from long-dead composers, and victims of brain damage who can move only when they hear music. Here is a book that will entertain, inform, and stimulate everyone who loves music—and make them think about their favorite song in startling new ways.

]]> 377 Robert Jourdain 038078209X Sara 4 4.01 1997 Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination
author: Robert Jourdain
name: Sara
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/08/14
shelves:
review:

]]> Bird by Bird 12543 A newer edition of this title can be found here.

"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said. 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"

With this basic instruction always in mind, Anne Lamott returns to offer us a new gift: a step-by-step guide on how to write and on how to manage the writer's life. From "Getting Started,' with "Short Assignments," through "Shitty First Drafts," "Character," "Plot," "Dialogue." all the way from "False Starts" to "How Do You Know When You're Done?" Lamott encourages, instructs, and inspires. She discusses "Writers Block," "Writing Groups," and "Publication." Bracingly honest, she is also one of the funniest people alive.

If you have ever wondered what it takes to be a writer, what it means to be a writer, what the contents of your school lunches said about what your parents were really like, this book is for you. From faith, love, and grace to pain, jealousy, and fear, Lamott insists that you keep your eyes open, and then shows you how to survive. And always, from the life of the artist she turns to the art of life.

]]> 238 Anne Lamott Sara 3 4.24 1994 Bird by Bird
author: Anne Lamott
name: Sara
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at: 2022/08/07
date added: 2022/08/07
shelves:
review:
This is a lovely book about writing. if you are a writer it will reaffirm your experience in the art. If you are not a writer it will give you a taste of what goes into putting words on paper. This read was sweet and sad and fun.
]]> <![CDATA[Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings]]> 10211697 364 Alison Weir 0345521331 Sara 4 3.77 2011 Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings
author: Alison Weir
name: Sara
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/07
date added: 2022/08/07
shelves:
review:
I really enjoy Alison Weir's history books. I have been reading Tudor history since I was 11 in the '60s. Mary Boleyn was always mentioned as an aside to Anne Boleyns tragic story. It turns out that Mary was a fascinating woman living in a fascinating time interacting with fascinating people. For so long women's lives haven't been examined but there is much to see in the details of this life.
]]> I, Claudius (Claudius, #1) 18765
I, Claudius and its sequel, Claudius the God, are among the most celebrated, as well the most gripping historical novels ever written.

Cover illustration: Brian Pike]]> 469 Robert Graves 067972477X Sara 4 4.24 1934 I, Claudius (Claudius, #1)
author: Robert Graves
name: Sara
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1934
rating: 4
read at: 2022/07/19
date added: 2022/07/19
shelves:
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I had seen the old tv series a few times and this was like watching it again. I enjoyed it very much even the gruesome bits.
]]> <![CDATA[The Monster's Bones: The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World]]> 58085265
In the dust of the Gilded Age Bone Wars, two vastly different men emerge with a mission to fill the empty halls of New York’s struggling American Museum of Natural History: Henry Fairfield Osborn, a privileged socialite whose reputation rests on the museum’s success, and intrepid Kansas-born fossil hunter Barnum Brown.

When Brown unearths the first Tyrannosaurus Rex fossils in the Montana wilderness, forever changing the world of paleontology, Osborn sees a path to save his museum from irrelevancy. With four-foot-long jaws capable of crushing the bones of its prey and hips that powered the animal to run at speeds of 25 miles per hour, the T. Rex suggests a prehistoric ecosystem more complex than anyone imagined. As the public turns out in droves to cower before this bone-chilling giant of the past and wonder at the mysteries of its disappearance, Brown and Osborn together turn dinosaurs from a biological oddity into a beloved part of culture.

Vivid and engaging, The Monster’s Bones journeys from prehistory to present day, from remote Patagonia to the unforgiving badlands of the American West to the penthouses of Manhattan. With a wide-ranging cast of robber barons, eugenicists, and opportunistic cowboys, New York Times best-selling author David K. Randall reveals how a monster of a bygone era ignited a new understanding of our planet and our place within it.]]> 288 David K. Randall 1324006536 Sara 0 to-read 3.81 2022 The Monster's Bones: The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World
author: David K. Randall
name: Sara
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2022/07/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Alienist (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, #1)]]> 40024
The newly appointed police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, in a highly unorthodox move, enlists the two men in the murder investigation, counting on the reserved Kreizler's intellect and Moore's knowledge of New York's vast criminal underworld. They are joined by Sara Howard, a brave and determined woman who works as a secretary in the police department. Laboring in secret (for alienists, and the emerging discipline of psychology, are viewed by the public with skepticism at best), the unlikely team embarks on what is a revolutionary effort in criminology-- amassing a psychological profile of the man they're looking for based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who has killed before--and will kill again before the hunt is over.

Fast-paced and gripping, infused with a historian's exactitude, The Alienist conjures up the Gilded Age and its untarnished underside: verminous tenements and opulent mansions, corrupt cops and flamboyant gangsters, shining opera houses and seamy gin mills. Here is a New York during an age when questioning society's belief that all killers are born, not made, could have unexpected and mortal consequences.]]> 498 Caleb Carr 0812976142 Sara 4 4.06 1994 The Alienist (Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, #1)
author: Caleb Carr
name: Sara
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/07/04
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Last White Rose (Tudor Rose #1)]]> 58735042 New York Times bestselling author Alison Weir explores the life of Henry VIII's mother, Elizabeth, the first queen of the Tudor dynasty, in this stunning historical novel.

Elizabeth of York is the oldest daughter of King Edward IV. Flame-haired, beautiful, and sweet-natured, she is adored by her family; yet her life is suddenly disrupted when her beloved father dies in the prime of life. Her uncle, the notorious Richard III, takes advantage of King Edward's death to grab the throne and imprison Elizabeth's two younger brothers, the rightful royal heirs. Forever afterwards known as the princes in the tower, the boys are never seen again. On the heels of this tragedy, Elizabeth is subjected to Richard's overtures to make her his wife, further legitimizing his claim to the throne. King Richard has murdered her brothers, yet she is obliged to accept his proposal.

As if in a fairy tale, Elizabeth is saved by Henry Tudor, who challenges Richard and kills him in the legendary Battle of Bosworth Field. In recognition of his victory, Henry becomes king and asks Elizabeth to be his wife, the first queen of the Tudor line. The marriage is happy and fruitful, not only uniting the warring houses of Lancaster and York--the red and white roses--but resulting in four surviving children, one of whom, Henry VIII, will rule the country for the next thirty-six years.

As in her popular Six Tudor Queens series, Alison Weir captures the personality of one of Britain's most important monarchs, conveying Elizabeth of York's dramatic life in a novel that is all the richer because of its firm basis in history.]]> 544 Alison Weir 0593355032 Sara 3 3.97 2022 The Last White Rose (Tudor Rose #1)
author: Alison Weir
name: Sara
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/07/04
date added: 2022/07/04
shelves:
review:
A dramatization of Alison Weir's non-fiction history. A fun way to get these details and drama of the time period.
]]> <![CDATA[The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science]]> 570172 427 Norman Doidge 067003830X Sara 3 The sections on animal experimentation and some of the stories on how persons with differences have been treated were pretty gross to me and made me uncomfortable. Still, I am grateful for the information we have today.
The things I learned in this book give me perspective on the behavior of others and insight into my own ways and needs to grow.
]]> 4.18 2007 The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
author: Norman Doidge
name: Sara
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2022/07/04
date added: 2022/07/04
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This was a fascinating topic. I have used the ideas behind neuroplasticity and mindset as a high school math teacher. Now as an older person I am interested in maintaining my physical, emotional and mental health. This book is well written and the stories are interesting. Each chapter is told to give detail on how and why and evidence to show; that our brains are amazingly plastic.
The sections on animal experimentation and some of the stories on how persons with differences have been treated were pretty gross to me and made me uncomfortable. Still, I am grateful for the information we have today.
The things I learned in this book give me perspective on the behavior of others and insight into my own ways and needs to grow.

]]> <![CDATA[The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward]]> 58446721 From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of When and Drive, a new book about the transforming power of our most misunderstood yet potentially most valuable emotion: regret.

Everybody has regrets, Daniel H. Pink explains in The Power of Regret. They're a universal and healthy part of being human. And understanding how regret works can help us make smarter decisions, perform better at work and school, and bring greater meaning to our lives.

Drawing on research in social psychology, neuroscience, and biology, Pink debunks the myth of the "no regrets" philosophy of life. And using the largest sampling of American attitudes about regret ever conducted as well as his own World Regret Survey--which has collected regrets from more than 15,000 people in 105 countries--he lays out the four core regrets that each of us has. These deep regrets offer compelling insights into how we live and how we can find a better path forward.

As he did in his bestsellers Drive, When, and A Whole New Mind, Pink lays out a dynamic new way of thinking about regret and frames his ideas in ways that are clear, accessible, and pragmatic. Packed with true stories of people's regrets as well as practical takeaways for reimagining regret as a positive force, The Power of Regret shows how we can live richer, more engaged lives.]]> 239 Daniel H. Pink 0735210659 Sara 0 to-read 3.80 2022 The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward
author: Daniel H. Pink
name: Sara
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/06/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation]]> 54496090 Less a mystery unsolved than a secret well kept...

Using new technology, recently discovered documents and sophisticated investigative techniques, an international team—led by an obsessed retired FBI agent—has finally solved the mystery that has haunted generations since World War II: Who betrayed Anne Frank and her family? And why?

Over thirty million people have read The Diary of a Young Girl, the journal teen-aged Anne Frank kept while living in an attic with her family and four other people in Amsterdam during World War II, until the Nazis arrested them and sent them to a concentration camp. But despite the many works—journalism, books, plays and novels—devoted to Anne’s story, none has ever conclusively explained how these eight people managed to live in hiding undetected for over two years—and who or what finally brought the Nazis to their door.

With painstaking care, retired FBI agent Vincent Pankoke and a team of indefatigable investigators pored over tens of thousands of pages of documents—some never before seen—and interviewed scores of descendants of people familiar with the Franks. Utilizing methods developed by the FBI, the Cold Case Team painstakingly pieced together the months leading to the infamous arrest—and came to a shocking conclusion.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation is the riveting story of their mission. Rosemary Sullivan introduces us to the investigators, explains the behavior of both the captives and their captors and profiles a group of suspects. All the while, she vividly brings to life wartime Amsterdam: a place where no matter how wealthy, educated, or careful you were, you never knew whom you could trust.]]> 400 Rosemary Sullivan 0062892355 Sara 0 to-read 3.82 2022 The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation
author: Rosemary Sullivan
name: Sara
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/06/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers]]> 10108
Henry was a charismatic, ardent - and brash - young lover who married six times; a scholar with a deep love of poetry and music; an energetic hunter who loved the outdoors; a monarch whose lack of a male heir haunted him incessantly; and a ruthless leader who would stop at nothing to achieve his desires. His monumental decision to split from Rome and the Catholic Church was one that would forever shape the religious and political landscape of Britain.

Combining magnificent storytelling with an extraordinary grasp of the pleasures and perils of power, Margaret George delivers a vivid portrait of Henry VIII and Tudor England and the powerhouse of players on its stage: Thomas Cromwell, Cardinal Wolsey, Thomas More and Anne Boleyn. It is also a narrative told from an original perspective: Margaret George writes from the King's point of view, injecting irreverent comments from Will Somers - Henry's jester and confidant.]]> 939 Margaret George 0312194390 Sara 3 4.26 1986 The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers
author: Margaret George
name: Sara
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1986
rating: 3
read at: 2022/06/22
date added: 2022/06/22
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Because I am already very familiar with the history I hoped to see a different POV from this book. The voice of Henry is just informational here. I expected to feel his motivations and feelings and natural POV more. Most tellings are sympathetic to his victims and I thought it might be neat to see him justify himself. It is more just a telling of the events in a narrative style. I liked it, it was a relaxing read.
]]> <![CDATA[In the Land of God and Man: A Latin Woman's Journey]]> 600457 336 Silvana Paternostro 0452280303 Sara 4 4.20 1998 In the Land of God and Man: A Latin Woman's Journey
author: Silvana Paternostro
name: Sara
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1998
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/06/14
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Life, the Universe, and Everything (Hitchhiker's Guide, #3)]]> 13452485 The most careful consultation of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and The Restaurant at the End of the Universe have left millions unaware of why Earth has always been shunned by the rest of the Galaxy. Now all -and more- can be revealed...]]> 162 Douglas Adams Sara 5 3.92 1982 Life, the Universe, and Everything (Hitchhiker's Guide, #3)
author: Douglas Adams
name: Sara
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1982
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/06/04
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]]> <![CDATA[The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel]]> 40766383 Everything Handmaids wear is red: the colour of blood, which defines us.

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, where women are prohibited from holding jobs, reading, and forming friendships. She serves in the household of the Commander and his wife, and under the new social order she has only one purpose: once a month, she must lie on her back and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if they are fertile. But Offred remembers the years before Gilead, when she was an independent woman who had a job, a family, and a name of her own. Now, her memories and her will to survive are acts of rebellion.

Provocative, startling, prophetic, The Handmaid's Tale has long been a global phenomenon. With this stunning graphic novel adaptation of Margaret Atwood's modern classic, beautifully realized by artist Renee Nault, the terrifying reality of Gilead has been brought to vivid life like never before.]]> 240 Renée Nault 038553924X Sara 4 4.21 2019 The Handmaid's Tale: The Graphic Novel
author: Renée Nault
name: Sara
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/07
date added: 2022/05/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality]]> 7640261
How can reality be reconciled with the accepted narrative? It can't be, according to renegade thinkers Christopher Ryan and Cacilda JethĂĄ. While debunking almost everything we "know" about sex, they offer a bold alternative explanation in this provocative and brilliant book.

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

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

In the tradition of the best historical and scientific writing, Sex at Dawn unapologetically upends unwarranted assumptions and unfounded conclusions while offering a revolutionary understanding of why we live and love as we do.]]> 416 Christopher Ryan Sara 3 3.95 2010 Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
author: Christopher Ryan
name: Sara
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2010
rating: 3
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date added: 2022/04/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors]]> 20821029
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.]]> 392 Dan Jones 0670026670 Sara 3 4.26 2014 The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors
author: Dan Jones
name: Sara
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2022/04/24
date added: 2022/04/24
shelves:
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I love all things, Tudor. I have been reading about this time period for several decades. It is very familiar to me. So I read this as a bedtime book. I enjoyed it and found it to be quite relaxing. It has lots of good details but isn't too gory.
]]> <![CDATA[Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy]]> 24452 In the acclaimed Blood Rites , Barbara Ehrenreich delved into the origins of our species' attraction to war. Here, she explores the opposite impulse, one that has been so effectively suppressed that we lack even a term for the desire for collective joy, historically expressed in ecstatic revels of feasting, costuming, and dancing.
Ehrenreich uncovers the origins of communal celebration in human biology and culture. Although sixteenth-century Europeans viewed mass festivities as foreign and "savage," Ehrenreich shows that they were indigenous to the West, from the ancient Greeks' worship of Dionysus to the medieval practice of Christianity as a "danced religion." Ultimately, church officials drove the festivities into the streets, the prelude to widespread Protestants criminalized carnival, Wahhabist Muslims battled ecstatic Sufism, European colonizers wiped out native dance rites. The elites' fear that such gatherings would undermine social hierarchies was the festive tradition inspired French revolutionary crowds and uprisings from the Caribbean to the American plains. Yet outbreaks of group revelry persist, as Ehrenreich shows, pointing to the 1960s rock-and-roll rebellion and the more recent "carnivalization" of sports.
Original, exhilarating, and deeply optimistic, Dancing in the Streets concludes that we are innately social beings, impelled to share our joy and therefore able to envision, even create, a more peaceable future.]]> 336 Barbara Ehrenreich 0805057234 Sara 4 3.84 2006 Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy
author: Barbara Ehrenreich
name: Sara
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2006
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/04/23
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]]> The Full Body Project 916777 96 Leonard Nimoy 0979472725 Sara 5 4.23 2007 The Full Body Project
author: Leonard Nimoy
name: Sara
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/04/23
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Reexamined as Grotesque Crippling Disease and Other Cultural Revelations]]> 136129 229 Cintra Wilson 014100195X Sara 3 3.77 2000 A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Reexamined as Grotesque Crippling Disease and Other Cultural Revelations
author: Cintra Wilson
name: Sara
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2000
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2022/04/23
shelves:
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]]> <![CDATA[The Math Instinct: Why You're a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs)]]> 1036455
What innate calculating skills do we humans have? Leaving aside built-in mathematics, such as the visual system, ordinary people do just fine when faced with mathematical tasks in the course of the day. Yet when they are confronted with the same tasks presented as “math,â€� their accuracy often drops.

But if we have innate mathematical ability, why do we have to teach math and why do most of us find it so hard to learn? Are there tricks or strategies that the ordinary person can do to improve mathematical ability? Can we improve our math skills by learning from dogs, cats, and other creatures that “do mathâ€�? The answer to each of these questions is a qualified yes. All these examples of animal math suggest that if we want to do better in the formal kind of math, we should see how it arises from natural mathematics.

From NPR’s “Math Guy”â€� The Math Instinct will provide even the most number-phobic among us with confidence in our own mathematical abilities.]]> 272 Keith Devlin 1560256729 Sara 5 3.79 2005 The Math Instinct: Why You're a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs)
author: Keith Devlin
name: Sara
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/04/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Little Book of Quitting: Enjoy the Freedom of Being a Non-smoker]]> 9319 125 Allen Carr 1402731329 Sara 2 3.84 1999 The Little Book of Quitting: Enjoy the Freedom of Being a Non-smoker
author: Allen Carr
name: Sara
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1999
rating: 2
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date added: 2022/04/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Stop Smoking in One Hour: Play the CDâ€� just onceâ€� and never smoke again!]]> 494341 After listening to Susan Hepburn’s unique and effective hypnotherapy script smokers will become non-smokers. Benefits
- no withdrawal symptoms or cravings
- no irritability
- no desire for snacks between meals
Hepburn strengthens the program with special breathing exercises, explained in the book The formula works no matter how many years you have smoked or how many a day. Although her formula doesn’t rely on your having the willpower of your own to give up â€� ie. you need help otherwise you would have managed before â€� it does need you to want to give up â€� not merely that your partner or someone else is twisting your arm!]]> 144 Susan Hepburn 0007104065 Sara 2 3.00 2000 Stop Smoking in One Hour: Play the CD
 just once
 and never smoke again!
author: Susan Hepburn
name: Sara
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2000
rating: 2
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date added: 2022/04/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Veggie Meals: Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals]]> 71807 127 Rachael Ray 189110506X Sara 3 3.21 2001 Veggie Meals: Rachael Ray's 30-Minute Meals
author: Rachael Ray
name: Sara
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2001
rating: 3
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date added: 2022/04/23
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]]> <![CDATA[On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not]]> 2740964 272 Robert A. Burton 0312359209 Sara 5 3.88 2008 On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not
author: Robert A. Burton
name: Sara
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2022/04/23
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]]> Porn for Women 455566 96 0811855511 Sara 5 4.01 2007 Porn for Women
author: Cambridge Women's Pornography Cooperative
name: Sara
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2007
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[If the Buddha Dated: A Handbook for Finding Love on a Spiritual Path]]> 209575 212 Charlotte Kasl 0140195831 Sara 3 4.11 1999 If the Buddha Dated: A Handbook for Finding Love on a Spiritual Path
author: Charlotte Kasl
name: Sara
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1999
rating: 3
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date added: 2022/04/23
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]]> <![CDATA[If the Buddha Married: Creating Enduring Relationships on a Spiritual Path (Compass)]]> 302171
Filled with the same lighthearted, highly practical, spiritually sound guidance that resonated with readers of If the Buddha Dated , this book is a fresh and inspiring guide for anyone who wants to strengthen, deepen, or revitalize a relationship or marriage. Charlotte Kasl, PhD, renowned for her ability to speak with depth, wisdom, and humor on important matters of the heart, empowers us to create fulfilling and vibrant relationships throuhg a commitment to awareness, truth, and compassion.

If the Buddha Married  explores how a "beginner's mind" can help us see our partners and ourselves afresh each day as we learn to nurture our commitment to each other. Marriage is truly a journey. Combining key teachings of Buddhism, Christianity, and other spiritual traditions with elements of psychology, this book is a wise and trusted guide through the joys and challenges of relationships that last and grow.]]> 272 Charlotte Kasl 0140196226 Sara 3 4.13 2001 If the Buddha Married: Creating Enduring Relationships on a Spiritual Path (Compass)
author: Charlotte Kasl
name: Sara
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2001
rating: 3
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date added: 2022/04/23
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]]> <![CDATA[1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England Comprising All the Parts You Can Remember including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings & 2 Genuine Dates]]> 55037 116 W.C. Sellar 1566191661 Sara 5 3.94 1930 1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England Comprising All the Parts You Can Remember including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings & 2 Genuine Dates
author: W.C. Sellar
name: Sara
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1930
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/04/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody: Great Figures of History Hilariously Humbled]]> 75921 ]]> 240 Will Cuppy 088029809X Sara 5 3.95 1950 The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody: Great Figures of History Hilariously Humbled
author: Will Cuppy
name: Sara
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1950
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/04/23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Blood Sugar Solution: The UltraHealthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Feeling Great Now! (The Dr. Mark Hyman Library, 1)]]> 12542813


In The Blood Sugar Solution , Dr. Mark Hyman reveals that the secret solution to losing weight and preventing not just diabetes but also heart disease, stroke, dementia, and cancer is balanced insulin levels. Dr. Hyman describes the seven keys to achieving wellness -- nutrition, hormones, inflammation, digestion, detoxification, energy metabolism, and a calm mind -- and explains his revolutionary six-week healthy-living program.

With advice on diet, green living, supplements and medication, exercise, and personalizing the plan for optimal results, the book also teaches readers how to maintain lifelong health. Groundbreaking and timely, The Blood Sugar Solution is the fastest way to lose weight, prevent disease, and feel better than ever.]]> 448 Mark Hyman 031612737X Sara 4 3.83 2011 The Blood Sugar Solution: The UltraHealthy Program for Losing Weight, Preventing Disease, and Feeling Great Now! (The Dr. Mark Hyman Library, 1)
author: Mark Hyman
name: Sara
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2011
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/04/23
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet Cookbook: More than 150 Recipes to Help You Lose Weight and Stay Healthy for Life (The Dr. Mark Hyman Library, 4)]]> 22675860
Dr. Hyman's bestselling The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet offered readers a step-by-step guide for losing weight and reversing disease. Now Dr. Hyman shares more than 150 delicious recipes that support the 10-Day Detox Diet, so you can continue on your path to good health.

With easy-to-prepare, delicious recipes for every meal -- including breakfast smoothies, lunches like Waldorf Salad with Smoked Paprika, and Grass-Fed Beef Bolognese for dinner -- you can achieve fast and sustained weight loss by activating your natural ability to burn fat, reducing insulin levels and inflammation, reprogramming your metabolism, shutting off your fat-storing genes, creating effortless appetite control, and soothing stress. Your health is a lifelong journey. The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet Cookbook helps make that journey both do-able and delicious.]]> 352 Mark Hyman 0316338818 Sara 4 4.06 2015 The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet Cookbook: More than 150 Recipes to Help You Lose Weight and Stay Healthy for Life (The Dr. Mark Hyman Library, 4)
author: Mark Hyman
name: Sara
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook: More than 175 Ultra-Tasty Recipes for Total Health and Weight Loss (The Dr. Mark Hyman Library, 2)]]> 16076019
In The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook , Dr. Mark Hyman shares recipes that support the Blood Sugar Solution lifestyle. In 1900, only two percent of meals in America were eaten outside the home; now it is over fifty percent. Dr. Hyman calls for readers to take back their health by taking back their kitchens.

Readers will exchange toxic factory-made foods for nutritious and easy-to-make dishes such as Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce, Mexican Shrimp Ceviche, Tuscan Zucchini Soup, Raspberry Banana Cream Pie Smoothie, Chocolate Nut Cake, and more. The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook will illuminate your inner nutritionist and chef.]]> 384 Mark Hyman 0316248193 Sara 4 3.88 2013 The Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook: More than 175 Ultra-Tasty Recipes for Total Health and Weight Loss (The Dr. Mark Hyman Library, 2)
author: Mark Hyman
name: Sara
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2022/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet: Activate Your Body's Natural Ability to Burn Fat and Lose Weight Fast (The Dr. Mark Hyman Library, 3)]]> 17899391
The key to losing weight and keeping it off is maintaining low insulin levels. Based on Dr. Hyman's groundbreaking Blood Sugar Solution program, The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet presents strategies for reducing insulin levels and producing fast and sustained weight loss.

Dr. Hyman explains how to: activate your natural ability to burn fat -- especially belly fat; reduce inflammation; reprogram your metabolism; shut off your fat-storing genes; de-bug your digestive system; create effortless appetite control; and soothe the stress to shed the pounds.

With practical tools designed to achieve optimum wellness, including meal plans, recipes, and shopping lists, as well as step-by-step, easy-to-follow advice on green living, supplements, medication, exercise, and more, The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet is the fastest way to lose weight, prevent disease, and feel your best.]]> 352 Mark Hyman 0316230022 Sara 4 3.78 2014 The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet: Activate Your Body's Natural Ability to Burn Fat and Lose Weight Fast (The Dr. Mark Hyman Library, 3)
author: Mark Hyman
name: Sara
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2014
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/04/23
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review:

]]>