Cjasper's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 03 Dec 2015 11:08:58 -0800 60 Cjasper's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Hired Girl 25163300 Today Miss Chandler gave me this beautiful book. I vow that I will never forget her kindness to me, and I will use this book as she told me to—that I will write in it with truth and refinement…But who could be refined living at Steeple Farm?

Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs, just like the heroines in her beloved novels, yearns for real life and true love. But what hope is there for adventure, beauty, or art on a hardscrabble farm in Pennsylvania where the work never ends? Over the summer of 1911, Joan pours her heart out into her diary as she seeks a new, better life for herself—because maybe, just maybe, a hired girl cleaning and cooking for six dollars a week can become what a farm girl could only dream of—a woman with a future.

Inspired by her grandmother’s journal, Newbery Medalist Laura Amy Schlitz brings her sharp wit and keen eye to early twentieth-century America in a comedic tour de force destined to become a modern classic. Joan’s journey from the muck of the chicken coop to the comforts of a society household in Baltimore (Electricity! Carpet sweepers! Sending out the laundry!) takes its reader on an exploration of feminism and housework, religion and literature, love and loyalty, cats, hats, bunions, and burns.]]> 387 Laura Amy Schlitz Cjasper 4 3.96 2015 The Hired Girl
author: Laura Amy Schlitz
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Sworn to Silence (Kate Burkholder, #1)]]> 6115138 321 Linda Castillo 0312374976 Cjasper 4 4.02 2009 Sworn to Silence (Kate Burkholder, #1)
author: Linda Castillo
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2009
rating: 4
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]]> The Death of Bees 15818333 Swamplandia! and The Secret Life of Bees—in which two young sisters attempt to hold the world at bay after the mysterious death of their parents.

Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved.

Marnie and her little sister Nelly are on their own now. Only they know what happened to their parents, Izzy and Gene, and they aren’t telling. While life in Glasgow’s Hazlehurst housing estate isn’t grand, they do have each other. Besides, it’s only one year until Marnie will be considered an adult and can legally take care of them both.

As the new year comes and goes, Lennie, the old man next door, realizes that his young neighbors are alone and need his help. Or does he need theirs? But he’s not the only one who suspects something isn’t right. Soon, the sisters� friends, their other neighbors, the authorities, and even Gene’s nosy drug dealer begin to ask questions. As one lie leads to another, dark secrets about the girls� family surface, creating complications that threaten to tear them apart.

Written with fierce sympathy and beautiful precision, told in alternating voices, The Death of Bees is an enchanting, grimly comic tale of three lost souls who, unable to answer for themselves, can answer only for each other.]]> 312 Lisa O'Donnell 0062209841 Cjasper 5 3.80 2012 The Death of Bees
author: Lisa O'Donnell
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2012
rating: 5
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]]> Gold Fame Citrus 24612148
For the moment, the couple’s fragile love, which somehow blooms in this arid place, seems enough. But when they cross paths with a mysterious child, the thirst for a better future begins.

Immensely moving, profoundly disquieting, and mind-blowingly original, Watkins’s novel explores the myths we believe about others and tell about ourselves, the double-edged power of our most cherished relationships, and the shape of hope in a precarious future that may be our own.]]> 339 Claire Vaye Watkins 1594634238 Cjasper 5 3.29 2015 Gold Fame Citrus
author: Claire Vaye Watkins
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.29
book published: 2015
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End]]> 20696006 In Being Mortal, author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending

Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering.

Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person's last weeks or months may be rich and dignified.]]> 282 Atul Gawande 0805095152 Cjasper 5 4.47 2014 Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
author: Atul Gawande
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2014
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry]]> 23604559 A charming, warmhearted novel from the author of the New York Times bestseller A Man Called Ove.

Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.

When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as Fredrik Backman’s bestselling debut novel, A Man Called Ove. It is a story about life and death and one of the most important human rights: the right to be different.]]> 372 Fredrik Backman 1501115065 Cjasper 4 4.04 2013 My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2013
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Keepsake (Rizzoli & Isles, #7)]]> 2653622
For untold years, the perfectly preserved mummy had lain forgotten in the dusty basement of Boston’s Crispin Museum. Now its sudden rediscovery by museum staff is both a major coup and an attention-grabbing mystery. Dubbed “Madam X,� the mummy–to all appearances, an ancient Egyptian artifact� seems a ghoulish godsend for the financially struggling institution. But medical examiner Maura Isles soon discovers a macabre message hidden within the corpse–horrifying proof that this “centuries-old� relic is instead a modern-day murder victim.

To Maura and Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli, the forensic evidence is unmistakable, its implications terrifying. And when the grisly remains of yet another woman are found in the hidden recesses of the museum, it becomes chillingly clear that a maniac is at large–and is now taunting them.
Archaeologist Josephine Pulcillo’s blood runs cold when the killer’s cryptic missives are discovered, and her darkest dread becomes real when the carefully preserved corpse of yet a third victim is left in her car like a gruesome offering–or perhaps a ghastly promise of what’s to come.

The twisted killer’s familiarity with post-mortem rituals suggests to Maura and Jane that he may have scientific expertise in common with Josephine. Only Josephine knows that her stalker shares a knowledge even more personally terrifying: details of a dark secret she had thought forever buried.

Now Maura must summon her own dusty knowledge of ancient death traditions to unravel his twisted endgame. And when Josephine vanishes, Maura and Jane have precious little time to derail the Archaeology Killer before he adds another chilling piece to his monstrous collection.]]> 349 Tess Gerritsen 0345497627 Cjasper 3 4.10 2008 The Keepsake (Rizzoli & Isles, #7)
author: Tess Gerritsen
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2008
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Robert B. Parker's Kickback (Spenser, #43)]]> 23281911
What started out as a joke landed seventeen-year-old Dillon Yates in a lockdown juvenile facility. When he set up a prank Twitter account for his vice principal, he never dreamed he could be brought up on criminal charges, but that’s exactly what happened.

Now we visit Blackburn, Massachusetts and its facility, where zero tolerance for minors is a way of life. Leading the movement is tough-as-nails Judge Joe Scali who gives speeches about getting tough on today’s wild youth. But Dillon’s mother, who knows other Blackburn kids who are doing hard time for minor infractions, isn’t buying Scali’s line. She hires Spenser to find the truth behind the draconian sentencing.

From the Harbor Islands to a gated Florida community, Spenser and trusted ally Hawk follow a trail through the Boston underworld with links to a shadowy corporation that runs New England’s private prisons. They eventually uncover a culture of corruption and cover-ups in the old mill town, where hundreds of kids are sent off to for-profit juvie jails.

Librarian's note: this is one of the Ace Atkin's Spenser series. As of 2021, there are 9 volumes by Atkins. The first was "Lullaby" in 2012, the 40th in the overall series created by Robert B. Parker; the most recent, "Someone to Watch Over Me," is the 48th.]]> 304 Ace Atkins 0399170847 Cjasper 3 3.81 2015 Robert B. Parker's Kickback (Spenser, #43)
author: Ace Atkins
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2015
rating: 3
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]]> Uprooted 22544764 “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.�

Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.

Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.

The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows�everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.

But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.]]> 438 Naomi Novik 0804179034 Cjasper 3 4.02 2015 Uprooted
author: Naomi Novik
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2015
rating: 3
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]]> I Take You 22237470
Lily’s fiancé Will is a brilliant, handsome archaeologist. Lily is sassy, impulsive, fond of a good drink (or five) and has no business getting married. Lily likes Will, but does she love him? Will loves Lily, but does he know her? As the wedding approaches, Lily’s nights—and mornings, and afternoons—of booze, laughter and questionable decisions become a growing reminder that the happiest day of her life might turn out to be her worst mistake yet.

Unapologetically sexy with the ribald humor of Bridesmaids, this joyously provocative debut introduces a self-assured protagonist you won’t soon forget.]]> 320 Eliza Kennedy 0553417827 Cjasper 3 2.96 2015 I Take You
author: Eliza Kennedy
name: Cjasper
average rating: 2.96
book published: 2015
rating: 3
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]]> Every Fifteen Minutes 21853628 435 Lisa Scottoline 125001011X Cjasper 3 3.73 2015 Every Fifteen Minutes
author: Lisa Scottoline
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2015
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[The Summer Girls (Lowcountry Summer, #1)]]> 16130281 From New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe, the heartwarming first installment in the Lowcountry Summer trilogy, a poignant series following three half-sisters and their grandmother.

Three granddaughters. Three months. One summer house.

In this enchanting trilogy set on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, New York Times bestselling author Mary Alice Monroe captures the complex relationships between Dora, Carson, and Harper, three half-sisters scattered across the country—and a grandmother determined to help them rediscover their family bonds.

For years, Carson Muir has drifted, never really settling, certain only that a life without the ocean is a life half lived. Adrift and penniless in California, Carson is the first to return to Sea Breeze, wondering where things went wrong…until the sea she loves brings her a minor miracle. Her astonishing bond with a dolphin helps Carson renew her relationships with her sisters and face the haunting memories of her ill-fated father. As the rhythms of the island open her heart, Carson begins to imagine the next steps toward her future.

In this heartwarming novel, three sisters discover the true treasures Sea Breeze offers as surprising truths are revealed, mistakes forgiven, and precious connections made that will endure long beyond one summer.]]> 392 Mary Alice Monroe 1476709009 Cjasper 3 3.80 2013 The Summer Girls (Lowcountry Summer, #1)
author: Mary Alice Monroe
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2013
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Four Nights With the Duke (Desperate Duchesses by the Numbers #2; Desperate Duchesses #8)]]> 21331590
Evander Septimus Brody has his own reasons for agreeing to Mia's audacious proposal, but there's one thing he won't give his inconvenient wife: himself.

Instead, he offers Mia a devil's bargain... he will spend four nights a year with her. Four nights, and nothing more. And those only when she begs for them.

Which Mia will never do.

Now Vander faces the most crucial challenge of his life: he must seduce his own wife in order to win her heart—and no matter what it takes, this is the one battle he can't afford to lose.]]> 384 Eloisa James Cjasper 3 3.80 2015 Four Nights With the Duke (Desperate Duchesses by the Numbers #2; Desperate Duchesses #8)
author: Eloisa James
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2015
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!]]> 24001092
Jonathan Evison—bestselling author of West of Here, The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, and All About Lulu—has crafted a bighearted novel with a supremely endearing heroine at its center. Through Harriet, he paints a bittersweet portrait of a postmodern everywoman with great warmth, humanity, and humor. Part dysfunctional love story, part poignant exploration of the mother/daughter relationship, nothing is what it seems in this tale of acceptance, reexamination, forgiveness, and, ultimately, healing. It is sure to appeal to admirers of Evison’s previous work, as well as fans of such writers as Meg Wolitzer, Junot Diaz, and Karen Joy Fowler.]]> 296 Jonathan Evison 1616202610 Cjasper 3 3.36 2015 This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance!
author: Jonathan Evison
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2015
rating: 3
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]]> Ink and Ashes 23009011
Claire knows she should let it go, but she can’t shake the feeling that something’s been kept from her. In search of answers, Claire combs through anything that will give her information about her father... until she discovers he was a member of the yakuza, the Japanese mafia. The discovery opens a door that should have been left closed.

So begins the race to outrun his legacy as the secrets of her father’s past threaten Claire’s friends and family, newfound love, and ultimately her life.]]> 386 Valynne E. Maetani 1620142112 Cjasper 2 3.69 2015 Ink and Ashes
author: Valynne E. Maetani
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2015
rating: 2
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]]> Jane, the Fox & Me 17214302 Hélène weighs 216; she smells like BO. Her loving mother is too tired to be any help. Fortunately, Hélène has one consolation, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Hélène identifies strongly with Jane’s tribulations, and when she is lost in the pages of this wonderful book, she is able to ignore her tormentors. But when Hélène is humiliated on a class trip in front of her entire grade, she needs more than a fictional character to allow her to see herself as a person deserving of laughter and friendship.

Leaving the outcasts� tent one night, Hélène encounters a fox, a beautiful creature with whom she shares a moment of connection. But when Suzanne Lipsky frightens the fox away, insisting that it must be rabid, Hélène’s despair becomes even more pronounced: now she believes that only a diseased and dangerous creature would ever voluntarily approach her. But then a new girl joins the outcasts� circle, Géraldine, who does not even appear to notice that she is in danger of becoming an outcast herself. And before long Hélène realizes that the less time she spends worrying about what the other girls say is wrong with her, the more able she is to believe that there is nothing wrong at all.

This emotionally honest and visually stunning graphic novel reveals the casual brutality of which children are capable, but also assures readers that redemption can be found through connecting with another, whether the other is a friend, a fictional character or even, amazingly, a fox.]]> 104 Fanny Britt 1554983606 Cjasper 4 3.97 2012 Jane, the Fox & Me
author: Fanny Britt
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2012
rating: 4
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]]> Pretty Baby 23638955 A chance encounter sparks an unrelenting web of lies in this stunning new psychological thriller from national bestselling author Mary Kubica

She sees the teenage girl on the train platform, standing in the pouring rain, clutching an infant in her arms. She boards a train and is whisked away. But she can't get the girl out of her head...

Heidi Wood has always been a charitable woman: she works for a nonprofit, takes in stray cats. Still, her husband and daughter are horrified when Heidi returns home one day with a young woman named Willow and her four-month-old baby in tow. Disheveled and apparently homeless, this girl could be a criminal—or worse. But despite her family's objections, Heidi invites Willow and the baby to take refuge in their home.

Heidi spends the next few days helping Willow get back on her feet, but as clues into Willow's past begin to surface, Heidi is forced to decide how far she's willing to go to help a stranger. What starts as an act of kindness quickly spirals into a story far more twisted than anyone could have anticipated.]]> 380 Mary Kubica 0778317706 Cjasper 4 3.67 2015 Pretty Baby
author: Mary Kubica
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2015
rating: 4
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]]> Above All Things 13069244 The Paris Wife meets Into Thin Air in this breathtaking debut novel of obsession and divided loyalties, which brilliantly weaves together the harrowing story of George Mallory's ill-fated 1924 attempt to be the first man to conquer Mount Everest, with that of a single day in the life of his wife as she waits at home in England for news of his return.
Ěý
A captivating blend of historical fact and imaginative fiction, Above All Things moves seamlessly back and forth between the epic story of Mallory's legendary final expedition and a heartbreaking account of a day in the life of Ruth Mallory. Through George's perspective, and that of the newest member of the climbing team, Sandy Irvine, we get an astonishing picture of the terrible risks taken by the men on the treacherous terrain of the Himalaya. But it is through Ruth's eyes that a complex portrait of a marriage emerges, one forged on the eve of the First World War, shadowed by its losses, and haunted by the ever-present possibility that George might not come home.

Drawing on years of research, this powerful and beautifully written novel is a timeless story of desire, redemption, and the lengths we are willing to go for honour, glory, and love.]]> 357 Tanis Rideout 0771076355 Cjasper 3 3.68 2012 Above All Things
author: Tanis Rideout
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2012
rating: 3
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date added: 2015/04/27
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]]> The Wind Is Not a River 18085516 The Wind Is Not a River is Brian Payton's gripping tale of survival and an epic love story in which aĚýhusband and wife—separated by the only battle of World War IIĚýto take place on American soil—fight to reunite inĚýAlaska's starkly beautiful Aleutian Islands.

Following the death of his younger brother in Europe, journalist John Easley is determined to find meaning in his loss. Leaving behind his beloved wife, Helen, he heads north to investigate the Japanese invasion of Alaska's AleutianĚýIslands, a story censored by the U.S. government.Ěý

While John is accompanying a crew on a bombing run, his plane is shot down over the island of Attu. He survives only to find himself exposed to a harsh and unforgiving wilderness, known as “the birthplace of winds.â€� There, John must battle the elements, starvation, and his own remorse while evading discovery by the Japanese.Ěý

Alone at home, Helen struggles with the burden of her husband's disappearance. Caught in extraordinary circumstances, in this new world of the missing, she is forced to reimagine who she is—and what she is capable of doing. Somehow, she must find John and bring him home, a quest that takes her into the farthest reaches of the war, beyond the safety of everything she knows.Ěý]]> 320 Brian Payton 0062279971 Cjasper 3 3.68 2013 The Wind Is Not a River
author: Brian Payton
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2013
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[The Fire Sermon (The Fire Sermon, #1)]]> 18109771 The Hunger Games meets Cormac McCarthy's The Road in this richly imagined first novel in a new postapocalyptic trilogy by award-winning poet Francesca Haig.

Four hundred years in the future, the Earth has turned primitive following a nuclear fire that laid waste to civilization and nature. Though the radiation fallout has ended, for some unknowable reason every person is born with a twin. Of each pair one is an Alpha - physically perfect in every way - and the other an Omega burdened with deformity, small or large.

With the Council ruling an apartheid-like society, Omegas are branded and ostracized while the Alphas have gathered the world's sparse resources for themselves. Though proclaiming their superiority, for all their effort Alphas cannot escape one harsh fact: Whenever one twin dies, so does the other. Cass is a rare Omega, one burdened with psychic foresight. While her twin, Zach, gains power on the Alpha Council, she dares to dream the most dangerous dream of all: equality. For daring to envision a world in which Alphas and Omegas live side by side as equals, both the Council and the Resistance have her in their sights.

©2015 De Tores Ltd (P)2015 Audible Inc.

]]> 384 Francesca Haig 1476767181 Cjasper 3 3.63 2014 The Fire Sermon (The Fire Sermon, #1)
author: Francesca Haig
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2015/04/01
date added: 2015/04/27
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]]> The Bully of Order 19522890
“The Bully of Order does what only the best works of fiction can do: it brilliantly imagines those parts of life that history all too often fails to record. This is a thoroughly engrossing story told in mesmerizing prose.� —Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds

Keen to make his fortune, Jacob Ellstrom, armed with his medical kit and new wife, Nell, lands in The Harbor—a mud-filled, raucous coastal town teeming with rough trade pioneers, sawmill laborers, sailors, and prostitutes. But Jacob is not a doctor, and a botched delivery exposes his ruse, driving him onto the streets in a plunge toward alcoholism. Alone, Nell scrambles to keep herself and their young son, Duncan, safe in this dangerous world. When a tentative reunion between the couple—in the company of Duncan and Jacob’s malicious brother, Matius—results in tragedy, Jacob must flee town to elude being charged with murder.

Years later, the wild and reckless Duncan seems to be yet another of The Harbor’s hoodlums. His only salvation is his overwhelming love for Teresa Boyerton, the daughter of the town’s largest mill owner. But disaster will befall the lovers with heartbreaking consequences.

And across town, Bellhouse, a union boss and criminal rabble-rouser, sits at the helm of The Harbor’s seedy underbelly, perpetuating a cycle of greed and violence. His thug Tartan directs his pack of thieves, pimps, and murderers, and conceals an incendiary secret involving Duncan’s mother. As time passes, a string of calamitous events sends these characters hurtling towards each other in an epic collision that will shake the town to its core.]]> 400 Brian Hart 0062297740 Cjasper 4 3.32 2014 The Bully of Order
author: Brian Hart
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2014
rating: 4
read at: 2015/03/01
date added: 2015/04/27
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]]> War Dances 6387626 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, best-selling author Sherman Alexie delivers a virtuoso collection of tender, witty, and soulful stories that expertly capture modern relationships from the most diverse angles. War Dances brims with Alexie’s poetic and revolutionary prose, and reminds us once again why he ranks as one of our country’s finest writers.

With bright insight into the minds of artists, entrepreneurs, fathers, husbands, and sons, Alexie populates his stories with average men on the brink of exceptional change: In the title story, a son recalls his father’s “natural Indian death� from alcohol and diabetes, just as he learns that he himself may have a brain tumor; “The Ballad of Paul Nonetheless,� dissects a vintage clothing store owner’s failing marriage and courtship of a Puma-clad stranger in airports across the country; and “Breaking and Entering� recounts a film editor’s fateful confrontation with an thieving adolescent.

Brazen and wise War Dances takes us to the heart of what it means to be human. The new beginnings, successes, mistakes, and regrets that make up our daily lives are laid bare in this wide-ranging new work that is quintessential.]]> 209 Sherman Alexie 0802119190 Cjasper 3 3.91 2009 War Dances
author: Sherman Alexie
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2014/01/01
date added: 2014/01/21
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]]> The Stud Book 15798595
In the hip haven of Portland, Oregon, a pack of unsteady but loyal friends asks what it means to bring babies into an already crowded world.

Sarah studies animal behavior at the zoo. She’s well versed in the mating habits of captive animals, and at the same time she’s desperate to mate, to create sweet little offspring of her own. Georgie is busy with a newborn, while her husband, Humble, finds solace in bourbon and televised violence. Dulcet makes a living stripping down in high school gyms to sell the beauty of sex-ed. Nyla is out to save the world while having trouble saving her own teen daughter, who has discovered the world of drugs and the occult. As these friends and others navigate a space between freedom and intimacy, they realize the families they forge through shared experience are as important as those inherited through birth.

A smart, edgy and poignantly funny exploration of the complexities of what parenthood means today, Monica Drake's second novel demonstrates that when it comes to babies, we can learn a lot by considering our place in the animal kingdom.]]> 336 Monica Drake 0307955524 Cjasper 3 3.32 2013 The Stud Book
author: Monica Drake
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.32
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2013/12/01
date added: 2014/01/21
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]]> Burial Rites 17333319
Set against Iceland's stark landscape, Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to await execution.

Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer, the family at first avoids Agnes. Only TĂłti, a priest Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks to understand her. But as Agnes's death looms, the farmer's wife and their daughters learn there is another side to the sensational story they've heard.

Riveting and rich with lyricism, Burial Rites evokes a dramatic existence in a distant time and place, and asks the question, how can one woman hope to endure when her life depends upon the stories told by others?]]> 336 Hannah Kent 0316243914 Cjasper 3 4.00 2013 Burial Rites
author: Hannah Kent
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2013/12/01
date added: 2014/01/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Teach Your Children Well: Why Values and Coping Skills Matter More Than Grades, Trophies, or "Fat Envelopes"]]> 13623142 352 Madeline Levine 0062196685 Cjasper 3 3.91 2012 Teach Your Children Well: Why Values and Coping Skills Matter More Than Grades, Trophies, or "Fat Envelopes"
author: Madeline Levine
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2013/12/01
date added: 2014/01/21
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Impossible Knife of Memory]]> 18079527
Will being back home help Andy’s PTSD, or will his terrible memories drag him to the edge of hell, and drugs push him over? The Impossible Knife of Memory is Laurie Halse Anderson at her finest: compelling, surprising, and impossible to put down.]]> 391 Laurie Halse Anderson 0670012092 Cjasper 3 3.92 2014 The Impossible Knife of Memory
author: Laurie Halse Anderson
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2014
rating: 3
read at: 2014/01/01
date added: 2014/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian]]> 693208
Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

With a foreward by Markus Zusak & interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney
]]> 230 Sherman Alexie 0316013684 Cjasper 3 4.05 2007 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
author: Sherman Alexie
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2014/01/01
date added: 2014/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The Goldfinch 17333223
Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives an accident that otherwise tears his life apart. Alone and rudderless in New York, he is taken in by the family of a wealthy friend. He is tormented by an unbearable longing for his mother, and down the years clings to the thing that most reminds him of her: a small, strangely captivating painting that ultimately draws him into the criminal underworld. As he grows up, Theo learns to glide between the drawing rooms of the rich and the dusty antiques store where he works. He is alienated and in love - and his talisman, the painting, places him at the centre of a narrowing, ever more dangerous circle.

The Goldfinch is a haunted odyssey through present-day America and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettably vivid characters and thrilling suspense, it is a beautiful, addictive triumph - a sweeping story of loss and obsession, of survival and self-invention, of the deepest mysteries of love, identity and fate.]]> 771 Donna Tartt 0316055433 Cjasper 4 3.94 2013 The Goldfinch
author: Donna Tartt
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2014/01/01
date added: 2014/01/21
shelves:
review:

]]> The Way the Crow Flies 7199 848 Ann-Marie MacDonald 0060586370 Cjasper 4 4.11 2003 The Way the Crow Flies
author: Ann-Marie MacDonald
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at: 2013/08/12
date added: 2013/08/12
shelves:
review:
Started this already while waiting for Tree of Smoke to come in from library. Wonderful, so far.
]]> <![CDATA[In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto]]> 315425 The Omnivore's Dilemma, launched a national conversation about the American way of eating; now In Defense of Food shows us how to change it, one meal at a time. Pollan proposes a new answer to the question of what we should eat that comes down to seven simple but liberating words: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Pollan's bracing and eloquent manifesto shows us how we can start making thoughtful food choices that will enrich our lives, enlarge our sense of what it means to be healthy, and bring pleasure back to eating.,,,]]> 205 Michael Pollan 1594201455 Cjasper 4 my-books 4.07 2008 In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
author: Michael Pollan
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2008
rating: 4
read at: 2013/08/12
date added: 2013/08/12
shelves: my-books
review:

]]> The Paperboy 52424
Then Ward James, hotshot investigative reporter for the Miami Times, returns to his rural hometown with a death row femme fatale who promises him the story of the decade.ĚýĚýShe's armed with explosive evidence, aiming to free--and meet--her convicted "fiancĂ©."

With Ward's disillusioned younger brother Jack as their driver, they barrel down Florida's back roads and seamy places in search of The Story, racing flat out into a shocking head-on collision between character and fate as truth takes a back seat to headline news...]]> 336 Pete Dexter 0385315724 Cjasper 4 3.61 1995 The Paperboy
author: Pete Dexter
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.61
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/11/27
shelves:
review:

]]> In the Shadow of the Banyan 13057939
For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. Soon the family's world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus.

Over the next four years, as she endures the deaths of family members, starvation, and brutal forced labor, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood - the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival. Displaying the author's extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyan is testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience.]]> 322 Vaddey Ratner 1451657706 Cjasper 4 4.04 2012 In the Shadow of the Banyan
author: Vaddey Ratner
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2012/11/01
date added: 2012/11/27
shelves:
review:

]]> The Red Chamber 13115538
In this dazzling debut, Pauline A. Chen draws the reader deep into the secret, exquisite world of the women’s quarters of an aristocratic household, where the burnish of wealth and refinement mask a harsher truth: marriageable girls are traded like chattel for the family’s advancement, and to choose to love is to risk everything.Ěý]]> 386 Pauline A. Chen 0307701573 Cjasper 3 3.88 2012 The Red Chamber
author: Pauline A. Chen
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at: 2012/10/15
date added: 2012/11/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Swift Justice (A Charlie Swift Mystery #1)]]> 7986016

Charlotte “Charlie� Swift prefers working alone. That’s why after eight years as an Air Force investigator she became a PI rather than a cop. She lives alone, she works alone, and aside for the occasional flirtation with sexy cop Connor Montgomery or her hunky neighbor Father Dan, she likes it that way. Then her silent partner flees the country, leaving his wife, Gigi, with nothing but the house, the Hummer, and a half interest in Swift Investigations. Charlie ends up with a heap of debt and Gigi, who has decided to be a not-so-silent partner. This change comes about while Charlie is trying to find the mother of a baby abandoned on a client’s doorstep. While following leads, she sends Gigi out on crazy assignments, hoping that the pampered socialite will be driven to quit. However, when the baby’s mother turns up dead, there’s a murderer on the loose, and Charlie will need all the help she can get.

Swift Justice is a Lefty Award finalist for best humorous mystery.

]]> 304 Laura DiSilverio 0312641508 Cjasper 3 3.69 2010 Swift Justice (A Charlie Swift Mystery #1)
author: Laura DiSilverio
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2010
rating: 3
read at: 2012/10/18
date added: 2012/10/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet]]> 183845 The Good Women of China, received a telephone call asking her to travel four hours to meet an oddly dressed woman who had just crossed the border from Tibet into China. Xinran made the trip and met the woman, called Shu Wen, who recounted the story of her thirty-year odyssey in the vast landscape of Tibet.

Shu Wen and her husband had been married for only a few months in the 1950s when he joined the Chinese army and was sent to Tibet for the purpose of unification of the two countries. Shortly after he left she was notified that he had been killed, although no details were given. Determined to find the truth, Shu Wen joined a militia unit going to the Tibetan north, where she soon was separated from the regiment. Without supplies and knowledge of the language, she wandered, trying to find her way until, on the brink of death, she was rescued by a family of nomads under whose protection she moved from place to place with the seasons and eventually came to discover the details of her husband's death.

In the haunting Sky Burial, Xinran has recreated Shu Wen's journey, writing beautifully and simply of the silence and the emptiness in which Shu Wen was enveloped. The book is an extraordinary portrait of a woman and a land, each at the mercy of fate and politics. It is an unforgettable, ultimately uplifting tale of love, loss, loyalty, and survival.]]> 210 Xinran 0385515480 Cjasper 3 4.10 2004 Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet
author: Xinran
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2012/10/29
date added: 2012/10/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Why Have Kids?: A New Mom Explores the Truth About Parenting and Happiness]]> 13594583 Ěý
In Why Have Kids?, Valenti explores these controversial questions through on-the-ground reporting, startling new research, and her own unique experiences as a mom. She moves beyond the black and white “mommy warsâ€� over natural parenting, discipline, and work-life balance to explore a more nuanced reality: one filled with ambivalence, joy, guilt, and exhaustion.Ěý
Ěý
Would-be parents must navigate the decision to have children amidst a daunting combination of cultural expectations and hard facts. And new parents find themselves struggling to reconcile their elation with the often exhausting, confusing, and expensive business of child care. When researchers for a 2010 Pew study asked parents why they decided to have their first child, nearly 90 percent answered, for “the joy of having children.â€� Yet nearly every study in the last ten years shows a marked decline in the life satisfaction of those with kids.Ěý Valenti explores this disconnect between parentsâ€� hopes and the day-to-day reality of raising children—revealing all the ways mothers and fathers are quietly struggling. A must-read for parents as well as those considering starting a family, Why Have Kids? is an explosive addition to the conversation about modern parenthood.]]> 176 Jessica Valenti 0547892616 Cjasper 2 3.52 2012 Why Have Kids?: A New Mom Explores the Truth About Parenting and Happiness
author: Jessica Valenti
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2012/10/02
date added: 2012/10/02
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Call of the Mild: Learning to Hunt My Own Dinner]]> 12822569
So she embarked upon the project of learning to hunt from square one. From attending a Hunter Safety course designed for children to field dressing an elk and serving it for dinner, she explores the sport of hunting and all it entails, and tackles the big questions surrounding one of the most misunderstood American practices and pastimes. Not just a personal memoir, this book also explores the role of the hunter in the twenty-first century, the tension (at times artificial) between hunters and environmentalists, and new models of sustainable and ethical food procurement.]]> 336 Lily Raff McCaulou Cjasper 4 4.12 2012 Call of the Mild: Learning to Hunt My Own Dinner
author: Lily Raff McCaulou
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2012/09/30
date added: 2012/10/01
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France (The Resistance Trilogy Book 1)]]> 11556268
Eventually, the Gestapo hunted down 230 of these women and imprisoned them in a fort outside Paris. Separated from home and loved ones, these disparate individuals turned to one another, their common experience conquering divisions of age, education, profession, and class, as they found solace and strength in their deep affection and camaraderie.

In January 1943, they were sent to their final destination: Auschwitz. Only forty-nine would return to France.

A Train in Winter draws on interviews with these women and their families; German, French, and Polish archives; and documents held by World War II resistance organizations to uncover a dark chapter of history that offers an inspiring portrait of ordinary people, of bravery and survival—and of the remarkable, enduring power of female friendship.]]> 374 Caroline Moorehead 0061650706 Cjasper 3 3.81 2011 A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France (The Resistance Trilogy Book 1)
author: Caroline Moorehead
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2011
rating: 3
read at: 2012/09/15
date added: 2012/09/27
shelves:
review:

]]> Sarah's Key 556602
Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's sixtieth anniversary, Julia Jarmond, an American journalist, is asked by her Paris-based American magazine to write an article about this black day in France's past. Julia has lived in Paris for nearly twenty-five years, married a Frenchman, and she is shocked both by her ignorance about the event and the silence that still surrounds it. In the course of her investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connects her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from the terrible days spent shut in at the Vel' d'Hiv' to the camps and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

Writing about the fate of her country with a pitiless clarity, Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and denial surrounding this painful episode in French history.
(front flap)]]> 294 Tatiana de Rosnay 0312370830 Cjasper 4 4.18 2006 Sarah's Key
author: Tatiana de Rosnay
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2012/09/15
date added: 2012/09/27
shelves:
review:

]]> The Orchardist 13540215
You belong to the earth, and the earth is hard.

At the turn of the twentieth century, in a rural stretch of the Pacific Northwest in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, a solitary orchardist named Talmadge carefully tends the grove of fruit trees he has cultivated for nearly half a century. A gentle, solitary man, he finds solace and purpose in the sweetness of the apples, apricots, and plums he grows, and in the quiet, beating heart of the land--the valley of yellow grass bordering a deep canyon that has been his home since he was nine years old. Everything he is and has known is tied to this patch of earth. It is where his widowed mother is buried, taken by illness when he was just thirteen, and where his only companion, his beloved teenaged sister Elsbeth, mysteriously disappeared. It is where the horse wranglers--native men, mostly Nez Perce--pass through each spring with their wild herds, setting up camp in the flowering meadows between the trees.

One day, while in town to sell his fruit at the market, two girls, barefoot and dirty, steal some apples. Later, they appear on his homestead, cautious yet curious about the man who gave them no chase. Feral, scared, and very pregnant, Jane and her sister Della take up on Talmadage's land and indulge in his deep reservoir of compassion. Yet just as the girls begin to trust him, brutal men with guns arrive in the orchard, and the shattering tragedy that follows sets Talmadge on an irrevocable course not only to save and protect them, putting himself between the girls and the world, but to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past.

Writing with breathtaking precision and empathy, Amanda Coplin has crafted an astonishing debut novel about a man who disrupts the lonely harmony of an ordered life when he opens his heart and lets the world in. Transcribing America as it once was before railways and roads connected its corners, she weaves a tapestry of solitary souls who come together in the wake of unspeakable cruelty and misfortune, bound by their search to discover the place they belong. At once intimate and epic, evocative and atmospheric, filled with haunting characters both vivid and true to life, and told in a distinctive narrative voice, The Orchardist marks the beginning of a stellar literary career.

The National Book Foundation selected Amanda Coplin as one of the authors being honored as "5 Under 35" in 2013.]]> 426 Amanda Coplin 006218850X Cjasper 4 3.77 2012 The Orchardist
author: Amanda Coplin
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2012/08/01
date added: 2012/09/24
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Continuum Concept: In Search of Happiness Lost]]> 331046 192 Jean Liedloff 0201050714 Cjasper 2 my-books
Anyway, I still find the book unsettling for a couple of truths, as in true to my experience. Most moms I know find motherhood isolating. Most find it horribly disorienting. Most find it oppressively difficult. We all come through it, find ways to cope, rearrange our lives and psyches and eventually sort out our lives again. Nonetheless, I do wish I lived in a culture where these states of motherhood were not something to be overcome, a culture where motherhood is never even associated with these states of being. But now, much less then when I read this for the first time, I haven't a clue as to what to do with this insight. ]]> 4.05 1975 The Continuum Concept: In Search of Happiness Lost
author: Jean Liedloff
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1975
rating: 2
read at: 2008/04/01
date added: 2008/04/23
shelves: my-books
review:
I first read this book seven years ago, as a new mom, and just reread it for book group. First of all, I am appalled at the state of mind I must have been in when I first read it, cause boy did I swallow it hook, line, and sinker. My brain must have been in a hormone-induced state of mush. I mean, "evidence" suggests that homosexuality may be caused by non-continuum care. I didn't even notice this before! Or how awesome it is that the girls' in the indigenous cultures greatest joy stems from the pleasure of bringing their father a drink of water. Yeah, that resembles what I want for my girls.

Anyway, I still find the book unsettling for a couple of truths, as in true to my experience. Most moms I know find motherhood isolating. Most find it horribly disorienting. Most find it oppressively difficult. We all come through it, find ways to cope, rearrange our lives and psyches and eventually sort out our lives again. Nonetheless, I do wish I lived in a culture where these states of motherhood were not something to be overcome, a culture where motherhood is never even associated with these states of being. But now, much less then when I read this for the first time, I haven't a clue as to what to do with this insight.
]]> The Almost Moon 783291 The Lovely Bones and Lucky.

For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined. Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this searing, fast-paced novel explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate.

It is a challenging, moving, gripping story, written with the fluidity and strength of voice that only Alice Sebold can bring to the page.]]> 295 Alice Sebold 0316677469 Cjasper 3 my-books 2.71 2007 The Almost Moon
author: Alice Sebold
name: Cjasper
average rating: 2.71
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2008/03/01
date added: 2008/04/16
shelves: my-books
review:
As soon as my husband saw me reading this, he told me that it had gotten terrible reviews. I wondered if I should put my time elsewhere. I'm glad I didn't. The critics seem to feel no sympathy for Helen (I did), think that the irrational dysfunction of the family rung false (I didn't) and accused Sebold of shocking rather than engaging (I wasn't that shocked). Yes, there are some flaws that came to the surface by the end of the book. Helen does seem to emotionally intelligent for her own actions. But man, for me it captured the bizarre stranglehold mental illness has over a family and the way it reaches way deeper than anyone suspects.
]]> <![CDATA[Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy]]> 1298834
In "Against Happiness," the scholar Eric G. Wilson argues that melancholia is necessary to any thriving culture, that it is the muse of great literature, painting, music, and innovation--and that it is the force underlying original insights. Francisco Goya, Emily Dickinson, Marcel Proust, and Abraham Lincoln were all confirmed melancholics. So enough Prozac-ing of our brains. Let's embrace our depressive sides as the wellspring of creativity. What most people take for contentment, Wilson argues, is living death, and what the majority takes for depression is a vital force. In "Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy," Wilson suggests it would be better to relish the blues that make humans people.

Eric G. Wilson is the Thomas H. Pritchard Professor of English at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The recipient of several important awards, including a National Humanities Center year-long fellowship, he is the author of five books on the relationship between literature and psychology.

"Mr. Wilson's basic thesis is that, without suffering, the human soul becomes stagnant and empty . . . We must live between the poles of sadness and joy and not try to expunge misery from our lives. Mr. Wilson makes a strong case . . . to deny our essential sadness in the face of a tragic world is to suppress a large part of what we are as human beings."--Colin McGinn, "The Wall Street Journal"

"[Wilson has] the passionate soul of a nineteenth-century romantic who, made wise by encounters with his own personal darkness, invites readers to share his reverence for nature and exuberance for life. Providing a powerful literary complement to recent psychological discussions of melancholy . . . this treatment is variously gloomy and ecstatic, infuriating and even inspiring."--"Booklist"

"An impassioned, compelling, dare I say poetic, argument on behalf of those who 'labor in the fields of sadness'. . . a loose and compelling argument for fully embracing one's existence, for it is a miracle itself -- a call to live hard and full, to participate in the great rondure of life and to be aware of the fact that no one perspective on the world is ever finally true."--"Minneapolis Star Tribune"

"[A] lively, reasoned call for the preservation of melancholy in the face of all-too-rampant cheerfulness . . . pithy and epigrammatic."--Bookforum

"Wilson's argument is important, and he makes it with passion."--"Raleigh News and Observer]]> 176 Eric G. Wilson 0374240663 Cjasper 3 my-books 3.22 2008 Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy
author: Eric G. Wilson
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.22
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2008/04/06
date added: 2008/04/14
shelves: my-books
review:
So my obsession with happiness is satisfied for the time being. It was interesting to read a totally different approach to the topic - this one from a reader of literature. I agree, what many Americans call happiness is an empty shell of existence and medicating to lessen negative emotions may rob me of a chance to grow. I think emotions are a gift - a message or clue from your psyche or spirit which is trying to express itself. We try hard to connect with our inner spirit, but I think strong emotions are our inner spirits trying to connect with us. A good book for someone like me to read when I want validation for things I already think. Is that a waste of time?
]]> Stumbling on Happiness 56627 � Why will sighted people pay more to avoid going blind than blind people will pay to regain their sight?
� Why do dining companions insist on ordering different meals instead of getting what they really want?
� Why do pigeons seem to have such excellent aim; why can’t we remember one song while listening to another; and why does the line at the grocery store always slow down the moment we join it?

In this brilliant, witty, and accessible book, renowned Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert describes the foibles of imagination and illusions of foresight that cause each of us to mis-conceive our tomorrows and mis-estimate our satisfactions. Vividly bringing to life the latest scientific research in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, and behavioral economics, Gilbert reveals what scientists have discovered about the uniquely human ability to imagine the future, and about our capacity to predict how much we will like it when we get there. With penetrating insight and sparkling prose, Gilbert explains why we seem to know so little about the hearts and minds of the people we are about to become.]]> 263 Daniel Todd Gilbert 1400077427 Cjasper 3 my-books that happy to begin with. So, I get it, our perception is flawed. Our ability to remember, perceive and predict is not well developed. I have thought of this book and brought it up in conversation quite a bit because either a)it has a lot of real life applications or b) I'm kind of obsessed with the subject of happiness. I will say that I think he used the term happiness in a lot of scenarios when I would have used pleasure. It has been a long time since I thought a piece of pie or a new couch or sex with an attractive partner would make me happy. They give me pleasure, but to make me happy, I'd need to make the pie and share it, have some company on that couch or find intimacy with someone I have a connection with (aka my awesome husband). I found it kind of annoying that Gilbert didn't distinguish. ]]> 3.82 2006 Stumbling on Happiness
author: Daniel Todd Gilbert
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2008/04/01
date added: 2008/03/25
shelves: my-books
review:
I think this book should have been called Stumbling on Humility, cause what I took from it is that I'm not even as happy as I thought I was, and really, I didn't think I was that happy to begin with. So, I get it, our perception is flawed. Our ability to remember, perceive and predict is not well developed. I have thought of this book and brought it up in conversation quite a bit because either a)it has a lot of real life applications or b) I'm kind of obsessed with the subject of happiness. I will say that I think he used the term happiness in a lot of scenarios when I would have used pleasure. It has been a long time since I thought a piece of pie or a new couch or sex with an attractive partner would make me happy. They give me pleasure, but to make me happy, I'd need to make the pie and share it, have some company on that couch or find intimacy with someone I have a connection with (aka my awesome husband). I found it kind of annoying that Gilbert didn't distinguish.
]]> <![CDATA[Junie B. Jones Is (Almost) a Flower Girl (Junie B. Jones, #13)]]> 284095 Ěý
Barbara Park’s #1Ěý New York Times Ěýbestselling chapter book series, Junie B. Jones, has been keeping kids laughing—and reading—for more than twenty-five years. Over 65 million copies sold!
Ěý
Meet the World’s Funniest Kindergartner—Junie B. Jones! Junie B.’s aunt Flo is getting married. What a perfect chance for her to show everyone how grown-up she is! Too bad she wasn’t picked to be the flower girl in the wedding so she could really show off. But surely Junie B. can still find some way to get everyone’s attention.
Ěý
USA Today :
“Junie B. is the darling of the young-reader set.�
Ěý
Publishers Weekly :
“Park convinces beginning readers that Junie B.—and reading—are lots of fun.�
Ěý
Kirkus Reviews :
“Junie’s swarms of young fans will continue to delight in her unique take on the world. . . . A hilarious, first-rate read-aloud.�
Ěý
Time :
“Junie B. Jones is a feisty six-year-old with an endearing penchant for honesty.”]]> 68 Barbara Park 0375800387 Cjasper 3 kids-books 4.05 1999 Junie B. Jones Is (Almost) a Flower Girl (Junie B. Jones, #13)
author: Barbara Park
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2008/02/01
date added: 2008/02/21
shelves: kids-books
review:
It was even funnier the second time. Lucy had to hide under the covers during the fight scene at the end.
]]> The World to Come 92644 336 Dara Horn 0393329062 Cjasper 3 my-books
Anyway, it's just my reaction. Clearly the ending works for many other people. What does it say about me that mixing reality and magic loses me instantly? It just seems like an easy out. I want my books to stretch my mind and my psyche regarding the world as it is. To do that while staying grounded in reality is so much more difficult and so much more meaningful.]]> 3.87 2006 The World to Come
author: Dara Horn
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at: 2008/03/01
date added: 2008/02/21
shelves: my-books
review:
First, I have admit that I don't like too much magic or dream elements in books. I was expecting that in this book, and made it most of the way through being pleasantly surprised that most of the unreal bits were played off as altered states of consciousness. I liked the plots, I liked (didn't love) the characters, I liked the history and culture references, and I loved how the imagery throughout the book - ladders, bridges, slime, mud, flight. And then I got to the end, and felt so let down. I actually felt indignant as I read the science experiments about hate and gossip. I felt so talked down to.

Anyway, it's just my reaction. Clearly the ending works for many other people. What does it say about me that mixing reality and magic loses me instantly? It just seems like an easy out. I want my books to stretch my mind and my psyche regarding the world as it is. To do that while staying grounded in reality is so much more difficult and so much more meaningful.
]]> <![CDATA[Junie B. Jones and That Meanie Jim's Birthday (Junie B. Jones, #6)]]> 333322 Barbara Park’s New York Times bestselling chapter book series, Junie B. Jones, is a classroom favorite and has been keeping kids laughing—and reading—for more than twenty years. Over 60 million copies in print and now with a bright new look for a new generation!

Meet the World’s Funniest Kindergartner—Junie B. Jones! That meanie Jim has invited everyone in Room Nine to his birthday party on Saturday—except Junie B.! Should she have her own birthday party six months early and not invite Jim? Or should she move to It’s a Small World After All in Disneyland?

USA Today :
“Junie B. is the darling of the young-reader set.�

Publishers Weekly :
“Park convinces beginning readers that Junie B.—and reading—are lots of fun.�

Kirkus Reviews :
“Junie’s swarms of young fans will continue to delight in her unique take on the world. . . . A hilarious, first-rate read-aloud.�

Time :
“Junie B. Jones is a feisty six-year-old with an endearing penchant for honesty.”]]> 85 Barbara Park Cjasper 3 kids-books 4.00 1996 Junie B. Jones and That Meanie Jim's Birthday (Junie B. Jones, #6)
author: Barbara Park
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2008/02/01
date added: 2008/02/17
shelves: kids-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus (Junie B. Jones, #1)]]> 958277 69 Barbara Park 0679826424 Cjasper 3 kids-books 3.97 1992 Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus (Junie B. Jones, #1)
author: Barbara Park
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1992
rating: 3
read at: 2008/02/01
date added: 2008/02/17
shelves: kids-books
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Junie B., First Grader: Boo...and I Mean It! (Junie B. Jones, #24)]]> 2368481 96 Barbara Park 0307280659 Cjasper 3 kids-books 4.14 2004 Junie B., First Grader: Boo...and I Mean It! (Junie B. Jones, #24)
author: Barbara Park
name: Cjasper
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2008/02/01
date added: 2008/02/10
shelves: kids-books
review:
Dave and Caroline have been reading chapter books together, but I'm excited that Lilly and Lucy and I are moving up to them too. We are currently reading our way through the entire Junie B. Jones series. Snob confession: I correct her grammar as I read. I can't help it. Forgive me, Barbara Park.
]]> The Blood of Flowers 348632
Both a sweeping love story and a luminous portrait of a city, The Blood of Flowers is the mesmerizing historical novel of an ill-fated young woman whose gift as a rug designer transforms her life. Illuminated with glorious detail of Persian rug-making, and brilliantly bringing to life the sights sounds and life of 17th-century Isfahan, The Blood of Flowers has captured readers' imaginations everywhere as a timeless tale of one woman's struggle to live a life of her choosing.]]> 368 Anita Amirrezvani 0316065765 Cjasper 2 my-books 3.97 2007 The Blood of Flowers
author: Anita Amirrezvani
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2007
rating: 2
read at: 2008/01/01
date added: 2008/02/10
shelves: my-books
review:
I loved getting sucked into the description, and a little hot romance is never a bad thing. I was fascinated by the description of making rugs. Unbelievable to me, really. Especially in this day of machine-made everything. Characters were one-dimensional, plot was predictable.
]]> Tree of Smoke 271074
Tree of Smoke was the 2007 National Book Award Winner for Fiction.]]> 614 Denis Johnson 0374279128 Cjasper 4 my-books this book. I read The Name of the World a long time ago (when it was new?)and found it intriguing, but was not moved or greatly affected by it, and that was a much smaller investment.

So why did I persevere? For one, reading this book is immersing yourself in a world. It's complicated and confusing and disorienting, but it is a reality. Also, the whole time you're reading, you sense that something big and terrible could happen at any moment and sooner or later will happen. And though the writing is sparse, the description is lush. The dialog is simultaneously over-the-top and spot-on believable. It's like Johnson is capturing the insanity of Apocalypse Now without the benefit of visuals or actors or intonations or music.

My discomfort with the book - that the "center does not hold," I've come to believe is a purposeful and powerful aspect of the book. ("The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity," is certainly an important theme, not one that is resolved, just explored.) The timeline, the progression of events, the non-linear format, all this contributes to this feeling that it's all falling apart and some rough beast is about to be born.)

If I had all the time in the world, I would love to read the book again. I would love to take notes and explore reference and discuss themes. Alas, I'll probably just move on to my next book group book.]]> 3.60 2004 Tree of Smoke
author: Denis Johnson
name: Cjasper
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2008/02/01
date added: 2008/02/08
shelves: my-books
review:
First, let me say it took me forever to read this book. I had to return it to the library, put a hold on it again, recheck it out, take a break to read a book for book group, return it, recheck it out...The entire time, my husband questioned why I was putting so much time into this book. I read The Name of the World a long time ago (when it was new?)and found it intriguing, but was not moved or greatly affected by it, and that was a much smaller investment.

So why did I persevere? For one, reading this book is immersing yourself in a world. It's complicated and confusing and disorienting, but it is a reality. Also, the whole time you're reading, you sense that something big and terrible could happen at any moment and sooner or later will happen. And though the writing is sparse, the description is lush. The dialog is simultaneously over-the-top and spot-on believable. It's like Johnson is capturing the insanity of Apocalypse Now without the benefit of visuals or actors or intonations or music.

My discomfort with the book - that the "center does not hold," I've come to believe is a purposeful and powerful aspect of the book. ("The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity," is certainly an important theme, not one that is resolved, just explored.) The timeline, the progression of events, the non-linear format, all this contributes to this feeling that it's all falling apart and some rough beast is about to be born.)

If I had all the time in the world, I would love to read the book again. I would love to take notes and explore reference and discuss themes. Alas, I'll probably just move on to my next book group book.
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