en-US Tue, 30 Oct 2018 14:06:16 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 1624 Markham was the first woman in East Africa to be granted a commercial pilot's license, piloting passengers and supplies to remote corners of Africa. She became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west.
Considered a classic of outdoor literature and ranked #8 by National Geographic Adventure in 2008 on its list of the 100 best adventure books.]]> 294 Beryl Markham 0865471185 Ngolana 5 4.13 1942
author: Beryl Markham
name: Ngolana
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1942
rating: 5
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date added: 2018/10/30
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]]> 99955 416 Thomas Paine 0451528891 Ngolana 0 to-read 4.14 1776
author: Thomas Paine
name: Ngolana
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1776
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2016/05/16
shelves: to-read
review:

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Commissioned by the Amsterdam surgeon's guild, "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp" was the first major work by Rembrandt to be proclaimed a masterpiece. The novel opens on the morning of the medical dissection, and, as they prepare for that evening's big event, it follows several characters: a one-handed coat thief called Aris the Kid, who is awaiting his turn at the gallows; Flora, the woman pregnant with his child who hopes to save him from the noose; Jan Fetchet, a curio collector who also moonlights as an acquirer of medical cadavers; René Descartes, who attended the dissection in the course of his quest to understand where the human soul resides; and the 26-year old young master himself, who feels a shade uneasy about his assignment. Then there's Pia, an art restorer who is examining the painting in contemporary times. As the story builds to its dramatic and inevitable conclusion, the events that transpire throughout the day sway Rembrandt to change his initial composition in a fundamental way.

Bringing to life the vivid world of Amsterdam in 1632, The Anatomy Lesson offers a rich slice of history and a textured story by a masterful young writer.]]> 271 Nina Siegal 0385538367 Ngolana 0 to-read 3.49 2014
author: Nina Siegal
name: Ngolana
average rating: 3.49
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/12/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 18498569
"There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed . . ."

On a brisk autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt. But her new home, while splendorous, is not welcoming. Johannes is kind yet distant, always locked in his study or at his warehouse office--leaving Nella alone with his sister, the sharp-tongued and forbidding Marin.

But Nella's world changes when Johannes presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. To furnish her gift, Nella engages the services of a miniaturist--an elusive and enigmatic artist whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in eerie and unexpected ways . . .

Johannes' gift helps Nella to pierce the closed world of the Brandt household. But as she uncovers its unusual secrets, she begins to understand--and fear--the escalating dangers that await them all. In this repressively pious society where gold is worshipped second only to God, to be different is a threat to the moral fabric of society, and not even a man as rich as Johannes is safe. Only one person seems to see the fate that awaits them. Is the miniaturist the key to their salvation . . . or the architect of their destruction?

Enchanting, beautiful, and exquisitely suspenseful, The Miniaturist is a magnificent story of love and obsession, betrayal and retribution, appearance and truth.]]> 400 Jessie Burton 0062306812 Ngolana 0 to-read 3.59 2014
author: Jessie Burton
name: Ngolana
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/12/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 23665465 304 T.V. LoCicero 1503270750 Ngolana 0 to-read 4.00 2014
author: T.V. LoCicero
name: Ngolana
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/12/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 64895 294 Mark Kurlansky 0099268701 Ngolana 5 best-5-percent
]]> 3.92 1997
author: Mark Kurlansky
name: Ngolana
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1997
rating: 5
read at: 2007/10/18
date added: 2008/01/29
shelves: best-5-percent
review:
While one would think a book entirely devoted to codfish would enervate, if not actually annoy, in fact this work is a fascinating examination of the human tendency to greed as played out on a global scale. This is easily equal in quality and complexity, to my mind, with a novel by Dostoevsky, for instance. It follows the trail of guilt and rapacity from early times to today's sad, inadequate harvest and is witty in to the bargain. A great read.


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