Mitchell's bookshelf: all en-US Mon, 28 Apr 2025 17:44:42 -0700 60 Mitchell's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania]]> 22551730
On May 1, 1915, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were anxious. Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone, and for months, its U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era's great transatlantic "Greyhounds" and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. He knew, moreover, that his ship - the fastest then in service - could outrun any threat.

Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger's U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small - hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more--all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.

It is a story that many of us think we know but don't, and Erik Larson tells it thrillingly, switching between hunter and hunted while painting a larger portrait of America at the height of the Progressive Era. Full of glamour, mystery, and real-life suspense, Dead Wake brings to life a cast of evocative characters, from famed Boston bookseller Charles Lauriat to pioneering female architect Theodate Pope Riddle to President Wilson, a man lost to grief, dreading the widening war but also captivated by the prospect of new love. Gripping and important, Dead Wake captures the sheer drama and emotional power of a disaster that helped place America on the road to war.]]> 430 Erik Larson 0307408868 Mitchell 0 currently-reading 4.10 2015 Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
author: Erik Larson
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/28
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> <![CDATA[Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland]]> 40163119
Patrick Radden Keefe's mesmerizing book on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, a war whose consequences have never been reckoned with. The brutal violence seared not only people like the McConville children, but also I.R.A. members embittered by a peace that fell far short of the goal of a united Ireland, and left them wondering whether the killings they committed were not justified acts of war, but simple murders.

Patrick Radden Keefe writes an intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating repercussions.]]> 441 Patrick Radden Keefe 0385521316 Mitchell 5 4.47 2018 Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
author: Patrick Radden Keefe
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/28
date added: 2025/04/28
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]]> <![CDATA[The Gospel According to Jesus Christ]]> 28859 ]]> 341 José Saramago 186046095X Mitchell 0 to-read 4.31 1991 The Gospel According to Jesus Christ
author: José Saramago
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1991
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma]]> 18693771 A pioneering researcher transforms our understanding of trauma and offers a bold new paradigm for healing.

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world's foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In The Body Keeps the Score, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers' capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain's natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk's own research and that of other leading specialists, The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.]]> 464 Bessel van der Kolk 0670785938 Mitchell 5 4.36 2014 The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
author: Bessel van der Kolk
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/14
date added: 2025/04/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus]]> 215807543 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERĚýâ€� From a renowned National Book Award–winning scholar, an extraordinary new account of the life of Jesus that explores the mystery of how a poor young man inspired a religion that reshaped the world.

“This a brilliant and necessary book. Sober, wise, respectful, and fearless."Ěý—Jon Meacham, author of The Soul of America

"Pagels� story is for believers and non-believers alike.� —Tara Westover, author of Educated

"The depth of spirituality she uncovers is profound.� —The New York Times Book Review

Early in her career, Elaine Pagels changed our understanding of the origins of Christianity with her work in The Gnostic Gospels. Now, in the culmination of a decades-long career, she explores the biggest subject of all, Jesus. In Miracles and Wonder she sets out to discover how a poor young Jewish man inspired a religion that shaped the world.

The book reads like a historical mystery, with each chapter addressing a fascinating question and answering it based on the gospels Jesus's followers left behind. Why is Jesus said to have had a virgin birth? Why do we say he rose from the dead? Did his miracles really happen and what did they mean?

The story Pagels tells is thrilling and tense. Not just does Jesus comes to life but his desperate, hunted followers do as well. We realize that some of the most compelling details of Jesus's life are the explanations his disciples created to paper over inconvenient facts. So Jesus wasn't illegitimate, his mother conceived by God; Jesus's body wasn't humiliatingly left to rot and tossed into a common grave—no, he rose from the dead and was seen whole by his followers; Jesus isn't a failed messiah, his kingdom is a he lives in us. These necessary fabrications were the very details and promises that electrified their listeners and helped his followers' numbers grow.

In Miracles and Wonder, Pagels does more than solve a historical mystery. She sheds light on Jesus's enduring power to inspire and attract.]]> 290 Elaine Pagels 0385547498 Mitchell 4 4.29 Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus
author: Elaine Pagels
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex]]> 17780
In the Heart of the Sea brings to new life the incredible story of the wreck of the whaleship Essex - an event as mythic in its own century as the Titanic disaster in ours, and the inspiration for the climax of Moby-Dick. In a harrowing page-turner, Nathaniel Philbrick restores this epic story to its rightful place in American history.

In 1820, the 240-ton Essex set sail from Nantucket on a routine voyage for whales. Fifteen months later, in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, it was repeatedly rammed and sunk by an eighty-ton bull sperm whale. Its twenty-man crew, fearing cannibals on the islands to the west, made for the 3,000-mile-distant coast of South America in three tiny boats. During ninety days at sea under horrendous conditions, the survivors clung to life as one by one, they succumbed to hunger, thirst, disease, and fear.

Philbrick interweaves his account of this extraordinary ordeal of ordinary men with a wealth of whale lore and with a brilliantly detailed portrait of the lost, unique community of Nantucket whalers. Impeccably researched and beautifully told, the book delivers the ultimate portrait of man against nature, drawing on a remarkable range of archival and modern sources, including a long-lost account by the ship's cabin boy.

At once a literary companion and a page-turner that speaks to the same issues of class, race, and man's relationship to nature that permeate the works of Melville, In the Heart of the Sea will endure as a vital work of American history.]]> 302 Nathaniel Philbrick 0141001828 Mitchell 5 4.16 2000 In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
author: Nathaniel Philbrick
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2000
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
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]]> <![CDATA[The Unbearable Lightness of Being]]> 9717 The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. This magnificent novel juxtaposes geographically distant places, brilliant and playful reflections, and a variety of styles, to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world’s truly great writers.]]> 314 Milan Kundera 0571224385 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.12 1984 The Unbearable Lightness of Being
author: Milan Kundera
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1984
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/08
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]]> Life, and Death, and Giants 222376836 "With Life, and Death, and Giants, Ron Rindo has performed literary magic. This is a remarkable, profoundly moving novel." –Larry Watson, author of Montana 1948


A heart too big for this world.
A life that changes everyone.

Gabriel Fisher was born an orphan, weighing eighteen pounds and measuring twenty-seven inches long. No one in Lakota, Wisconsin, knows what to make of him. He walks at eight months, communicates with animals, and seems to possess extraordinary athletic talent. But when the older brother who has been caring for him dies, Gabriel is taken in by his devout Amish grandparents who disapprove of all the attention and hide him away from the English world.

But it’s hard to hide forever when you’re nearly eight feet tall. At seventeen, Gabriel is spotted working in a hay field by the local football coach. What happens next transforms not only Gabriel’s life but the lives of everyone he meets.

Life, and Death, and Giants is a moving story of faith, family, buried secrets, and everyday miracles.]]> 336 Ron Rindo 1250375339 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.33 Life, and Death, and Giants
author: Ron Rindo
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.33
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date added: 2025/04/06
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]]> No One Writes Back 17591572 No One Writes Back is the story of a young man who leaves home with only his blind dog, an MP3 player, and a book, traveling aimlessly for three years, from motel to motel, meeting people on the road. Rather than learn the names of his fellow travelers—or even invent nicknames for them—he assigns them numbers. There's 239, who once dreamed of being a poet, but who now only reads her poems to a friend in a coma; there's 109, who rides trains endlessly because of a broken heart; and 32, who's already decided to commit suicide. The narrator writes letters to these men and women in the hope that he can console them in their various miseries, as well as keep a record of his own experiences: "A letter is like a journal entry for me, except that it gets sent to other people." No one writes back, of course, but that doesn't mean that there isn't some hope that one of them will, someday...]]> 203 Jang Eun-Jin 1564789608 Mitchell 5 Perfect! 4.25 2009 No One Writes Back
author: Jang Eun-Jin
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
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Perfect!
]]> <![CDATA[Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters]]> 12534
Here, in this compelling assembly of writings, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard explores the world of natural facts and human meanings. Veering away from the long, meditative studies of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek or Holy the Firm, Annie Dillard explores and celebrates moments of spirituality, dipping into descriptions of encounters with flora and fauna, stars, and more, from Ecuador to Miami. There is no writer quite like Dillard when it comes to the mysteries and wonder of the natural world.]]> 175 Annie Dillard 0060915412 Mitchell 4 4.17 1982 Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters
author: Annie Dillard
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/29
date added: 2025/03/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Don't Believe Everything You Think]]> 60726415
In this book, you'll discover the root cause of all psychological and emotional suffering and how to achieve freedom of mind to effortlessly create the life you've always wanted to live.

Although pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

This book offers a completely new paradigm and understanding of where our human experience comes from, allowing us to end our own suffering and create how we want to feel at any moment.

No matter what has happened to you, where you are from, or what you have done, you can still find total peace, unconditional love, complete fulfillment, and an abundance of joy in your life.

No person is an exception to this. Darkness only exists because of the light, which means even in our darkest hour, light must exist.

Within the pages of this book, contains timeless wisdom to empower you with the understanding of our mind’s infinite potential to create any experience of life that we want no matter the external circumstances.

Don’t Believe Everything You Think is not about rewiring your brain, rewriting your past, positive thinking or anything of the sort.

We cannot solve our problems with the same level of consciousness that created them. Tactics are temporary. An expansion of consciousness is permanent.

This book was written to help you go beyond your thinking and discover the truth of what you already intuitively know deep inside your soul.]]> 99 Joseph Nguyen Mitchell 4 3.79 2022 Don't Believe Everything You Think
author: Joseph Nguyen
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2022
rating: 4
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date added: 2025/03/23
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]]> Clear 176443690
Against the rugged backdrop of this faraway spot beyond Shetland, Carys Davies's intimate drama unfolds with tension and tenderness: a touching and crystalline study of ordinary people buffeted by history and a powerful exploration of the distances and connections between us. Perfectly structured and surprising at every turn, Clear is a marvel of storytelling, an exquisite short novel by a master of the form.]]> 196 Carys Davies 1668030667 Mitchell 5 Brilliant. 3.85 Clear
author: Carys Davies
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.85
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/18
date added: 2025/03/18
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Brilliant.
]]> The Showman 63365317 384 Simon Shuster 0063307421 Mitchell 5 4.18 The Showman
author: Simon Shuster
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.18
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/03/17
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]]> The Granddaughter 213162488 "Anyone who wants to understand contemporary Germany must read The Granddaughter now" �Le Monde

"The great novel of German reunification" �Le Figaro

From the bestselling author of The Reader, a striking exploration of the wounds of the past, told through the story of a German bookseller’s attempt to connect with his radicalized granddaughter.

It is only after the sudden death of his wife, Birgit, that Kaspar discovers the price she paid years earlier when she fled East Germany to join him: she had to abandon her baby. Shattered by grief, yet animated by a new hope, Kaspar closes up his bookshop in present day Berlin and sets off to find her lost child in the east.

His search leads him to a rural community of neo-Nazis, intent on reclaiming and settling ancestral lands to the East. Among them, Kaspar encounters Svenja, a woman whose eyes, hair, and even voice remind him of Birgit. Beside her is a red-haired, slouching, fifteen-year-old girl. His granddaughter? Their worlds could not be more different� an ideological gulf of mistrust yawns between them� but he is determined to accept her as his own.

More than twenty-five years after The Reader, Bernhard Schlink once again offers a masterfully gripping novel that powerfully probes the past’s role in contemporary life, transporting us from the divided Germany of the 1960s to modern day Australia, and asking what unites or separates us.

Translated from German by Charlotte Collins]]> 336 Bernhard Schlink 0063295237 Mitchell 5 4.10 2021 The Granddaughter
author: Bernhard Schlink
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/10
date added: 2025/03/10
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]]> <![CDATA[Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy, #1)]]> 7315573
This is an epic of love, hatred, war and revolution. This is a huge novel that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women.
It is 1911. The Coronation Day of King George V. The Williams, a Welsh coal-mining family is linked by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocratic coal-mine owners. Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London. Their destiny is entangled with that of an ambitious young aide to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and to two orphaned Russian brothers, whose plans to emigrate to America fall foul of war, conscription and revolution. In a plot of unfolding drama and intriguing complexity, "Fall Of Giants" moves seamlessly from Washington to St Petersburg, from the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty.]]> 985 Ken Follett 0525951652 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.31 2010 Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy, #1)
author: Ken Follett
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space]]> 199798785
On January 28, 1986, just seventy-three seconds into flight, the space shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all seven people on board. Millions of Americans witnessed the tragic deaths of a crew including New Hampshire schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. Like 9/11 or JFK’s assassination, the Challenger disaster is a defining moment in 20th-century history—yet the details of what took place that day, and why, have largely been forgotten. Until now.

Based on extensive archival records and meticulous, original reporting, Challenger follows a handful of central protagonists—including each of the seven members of the doomed crew—through the years leading up to the accident, a detailed account of the tragedy itself, and into the investigation that followed. It’s a tale of optimism and promise undermined by political cynicism and cost-cutting in the interests of burnishing national prestige; of hubris and heroism; and of an investigation driven by leakers and whistleblowers determined to bring the truth to light. Throughout, there are the ominous warning signs of a tragedy to come, recognized but then ignored, and ultimately kept from the public.

Higginbotham reveals the history of the shuttle program, the lives of men and women whose stories have been overshadowed by the disaster as well as the designers, engineers, and test pilots who struggled against the odds to get the first shuttle into space.]]> 563 Adam Higginbotham 198217661X Mitchell 5 4.52 2024 Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space
author: Adam Higginbotham
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/27
date added: 2025/02/27
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One of the best books of 2024 without doubt.
]]> <![CDATA[Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)]]> 211003936 How the expansion of primary education in the West emerged not from democratic ideals but from the state’s desire to control its citizens

Nearly every country today has universal primary education. But why did governments in the West decide to provide education to all children in the first place? In Raised to Obey, Agustina Paglayan offers an unsettling answer. The introduction of broadly accessible primary education was not mainly a response to industrialization, or fueled by democratic ideals, or even aimed at eradicating illiteracy or improving skills. It was motivated instead by elites� fear of the masses—and the desire to turn the “savage,� “unruly,� and “morally flawed� children of the lower classes into well-behaved future citizens who would obey the state and its laws.

Drawing on unparalleled evidence from two centuries of education provision in Europe and the Americas, and deploying rich data that capture the expansion of primary education and its characteristics, this sweeping book offers a political history of primary schools that is both broad and deep. Paglayan shows that governments invested in primary schools when internal threats heightened political elites� anxiety around mass violence and the breakdown of social order.

Two hundred years later, the original objective of disciplining children remains at the core of how most public schools around the world operate. The future of education systems—and their ability to reduce poverty and inequality—hinges on our ability to understand and come to terms with this troubling history.]]> 384 Agustina Paglayan 0691261261 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.67 Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)
author: Agustina Paglayan
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.67
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea]]> 121410 The Perfect Storm, before In the Heart of the Sea, Steven Callahan's dramatic tale of survival at sea was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than thirty-six weeks. In some ways the model for the new wave of adventure books, Adrift is an undeniable seafaring classic, a riveting firsthand account by the only man known to have survived more than a month alone at sea, fighting for his life in an inflatable raft after his small sloop capsized only six days out. Adrift is a must-have for any adventure library.]]> 344 Steven Callahan 0618257322 Mitchell 4 4.12 1986 Adrift: Seventy-Six Days Lost at Sea
author: Steven Callahan
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1986
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/14
date added: 2025/02/14
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]]> I Cheerfully Refuse 198276006 I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of Rainy, an aspiring musician setting sail on Lake Superior in search of his departed, deeply beloved, bookselling wife. An endearing bear of an Orphean narrator, he seeks refuge in the harbors, fogs, and remote islands of the inland sea. After encountering lunatic storms and rising corpses from the warming depths, he eventually lands to find an increasingly desperate and illiterate people, a malignant billionaire ruling class, a crumbled infrastructure, and a lawless society. As his guileless nature begins to make an inadvertent rebel of him, Rainy’s private quest for the love of his life grows into something wider and wilder, sweeping up friends and foes alike in his wake.]]> 336 Leif Enger 0802162932 Mitchell 5 3.96 2024 I Cheerfully Refuse
author: Leif Enger
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/01
date added: 2025/02/01
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Think Like Socrates: Ancient Philosophy as a Way of Life in the Modern World]]> 203578835 How can we apply the teachings of the greatest ancient philosopher to modern life?

Socrates is the quintessential Athenian philosopher, the source of the entire Western philosophical tradition, and Godfather to the Stoics. He spent his life teaching practical philosophy to ordinary people in the streets of Athens, yet few people today are familiar with the wisdom he has to offer us.

How to Think Like Socrates is an accessible and informative guide to the life of one of the greatest thinkers in history, and the first book to focus on applying his ideas to our daily lives. Author Donald J. Robertson transports readers back to ancient Athens, expertly weaving together a page-turning account of a philosopher who eschewed material pleasures and stood by his beliefs, even in the face of controversy, with a steadfastness that ultimately resulted in his execution.

How to Think Like Socrates highlights the continuing value of the Socratic Method to modern life. As a practicing cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist, Robertson also uses his expertise to reveal many parallels between the evidence-based concepts and techniques of modern psychology and the philosophy of Socrates and shows how his philosophical insights can guide and benefit all of us to this day.]]> 342 Donald J. Robertson 1250280508 Mitchell 4 4.13 How to Think Like Socrates: Ancient Philosophy as a Way of Life in the Modern World
author: Donald J. Robertson
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.13
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/15
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]]> Shuggie Bain 52741293 Shuggie Bain is the unforgettable story of young Hugh "Shuggie" Bain, a sweet and lonely boy who spends his 1980s childhood in run-down public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher's policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city's notorious drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings.

Shuggie's mother Agnes walks a wayward path: she is Shuggie's guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good--her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamourous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor. But under the surface, Agnes finds increasing solace in drink, and she drains away the lion's share of each week's benefits--all the family has to live on--on cans of extra-strong lager hidden in handbags and poured into tea mugs.

Agnes's older children find their own ways to get a safe distance from their mother, abandoning Shuggie to care for her as she swings between alcoholic binges and sobriety. Shuggie is meanwhile struggling to somehow become the normal boy he desperately longs to be, but everyone has realized that he is "no right," a boy with a secret that all but him can see. Agnes is supportive of her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everyone close to her--even her beloved Shuggie.

A heartbreaking story of addiction, sexuality, and love, Shuggie Bain is an epic portrayal of a working-class family that is rarely seen in fiction. Recalling the work of Edouard Louis, Alan Hollinghurst, Frank McCourt, and Hanya Yanagihara, it is a blistering debut by a brilliant novelist who has a powerful and important story to tell.]]> 430 Douglas Stuart 0802148042 Mitchell 5 4.29 2020 Shuggie Bain
author: Douglas Stuart
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/01/04
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]]> <![CDATA[Shakespeare: The World as Stage]]> 135611
The author of 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' isn't, after all, a Shakespeare scholar, a playwright, or even a biographer.

Reading 'Shakespeare The World As Stage', however, one gets the sense that this eclectic Iowan is exactly the type of person the Bard himself would have selected for the task.

The man who gave us 'The Mother Tongue' and 'A Walk in the Woods' approaches Shakespeare with the same freedom of spirit and curiosity that made those books such reader favorites. A refreshing take on an elusive literary master.]]> 199 Bill Bryson 0060740221 Mitchell 0 currently-reading 3.80 2007 Shakespeare: The World as Stage
author: Bill Bryson
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/15
shelves: currently-reading
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]]> Playground 205478762 The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.

They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away.

Set in the world’s largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.]]> 381 Richard Powers 1324086033 Mitchell 5 Perfect. 4.16 2024 Playground
author: Richard Powers
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/12
date added: 2024/10/12
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Perfect.
]]> The Castle 333538 Translated and with a preface by Mark Harman

Left unfinished by Kafka in 1922 and not published until 1926, two years after his death, The Castle is the haunting tale of K.’s relentless, unavailing struggle with an inscrutable authority in order to gain access to the Castle. Scrupulously following the fluidity and breathlessness of the sparsely punctuated original manuscript, Mark Harman’s new translation reveals levels of comedy, energy, and visual power, previously unknown to English language readers.]]> 328 Franz Kafka 0805211063 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.97 1926 The Castle
author: Franz Kafka
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1926
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/12
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]]> The Lion's Den 49465632 Exposing his father’s transgressions in a tell-all was the ethical, righteous—and profitable—thing to do. What’s left but to slink back home for a humbling face-to-face with the man whose secrets he sold?

He was a notorious government whistle-blower. Depending on whom you ask, he’s a treasonous felon, a folk hero, a validated patriot, or a national disgrace. To his son, Michael, he’s the father who threw his family into upheaval. Now, having moved back home at the age of thirty-four, Michael is getting to know him as a man. And getting nearer to understanding his motivations that have remained a mystery in this darkly humorous short story of sacrifice and betrayal by New York Times bestselling author Anthony Marra.

Anthony Marra’s The Lion’s Den is part of Inheritance, a collection of five stories about secrets, unspoken desires, and dangerous revelations between loved ones. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single setting. By yourself, behind closed doors, or shared with someone you trust.

]]> 28 Anthony Marra 1542010187 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.42 2019 The Lion's Den
author: Anthony Marra
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Promised Land 55976344 In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.
Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.
Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.
A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective—the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change,� and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.
This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama’s conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.]]> Barack Obama Mitchell 5 4.35 2020 The Promised Land
author: Barack Obama
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/26
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Hamlet: No Fear Shakespeare Side-by-Side Plain English]]> 39914040 This above all: to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

The searing tragedy of young student Hamlet, tormented by his father's death and confronting each of us with the mirror of our own mortality in an imperfect world.

]]> 411 William Shakespeare 1411479203 Mitchell 5 3.93 1601 Hamlet: No Fear Shakespeare Side-by-Side Plain English
author: William Shakespeare
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1601
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/23
date added: 2024/09/23
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Julius Caesar (No Fear Shakespeare) by SparkNotes, SparkNotes]]> 55614615
Available here :


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ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý


1586638475 Julius Caesar (No Fear Shakespeare) PDF by SparkNotes
Read Julius Caesar (No Fear Shakespeare) PDF from SparkNotes,SparkNotes
Download SparkNotes's PDF E-book Julius Caesar (No Fear Shakespeare)]]> SparkNotes Mitchell 5 3.56 Julius Caesar (No Fear Shakespeare) by SparkNotes, SparkNotes
author: SparkNotes
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.56
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/17
date added: 2024/09/17
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom]]> 38530663
Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass spoke widely, using his own story to condemn slavery. By the Civil War, Douglass had become the most famed and widely travelled orator in the nation. In his unique and eloquent voice, written and spoken, Douglass was a fierce critic of the United States as well as a radical patriot. After the war he sometimes argued politically with younger African Americans, but he never forsook either the Republican party or the cause of black civil and political rights.

In this biography, David Blight has drawn on new information held in a private collection that few other historian have consulted, as well as recently discovered issues of Douglass’s newspapers.]]> 888 David W. Blight 1416590315 Mitchell 4 4.14 2018 Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
author: David W. Blight
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/30
date added: 2024/08/30
shelves:
review:
Good read, although a bit too much in the weeds for casual readers. No doubt worthy of the Pulitzer Prize, its aim is mostly Douglass academics.
]]> <![CDATA[Winter's Reach (Revanche Cycle, #1)]]> 23512021
Felix is the scion of a dying merchant house, a man with just one chance to save his family and the woman he loves. His last hope lies in the snowbound hell of Winter's Reach, a former prison colony turned "free city" under a brutal tyrant's reign.

Livia and Felix have never crossed paths, but they've both been snared in a far greater web than they can imagine. They -- along with a pair of veteran bounty hunters, an exiled politician, and a sadistic coven of witches -- are cogs in one man's apocalyptic plan for revenge. A plan which, if it succeeds, will leave an entire nation in flames.]]> 357 Craig Schaefer 099033936X Mitchell 0 to-read 3.76 2014 Winter's Reach (Revanche Cycle, #1)
author: Craig Schaefer
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> To the Lighthouse 59716
As time winds its way through their lives, the Ramsays face, alone and simultaneously, the greatest of human challenges and its greatest triumph—the human capacity for change.]]> 209 Virginia Woolf Mitchell 0 to-read 3.81 1927 To the Lighthouse
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1927
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz]]> 51187948
On Winston Churchill's first day as prime minister, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold the country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally-and willing to fight to the end.

In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless." It is a story of political brinkmanship, but it's also an intimate domestic drama set against the backdrop of Churchill's prime-ministerial country home, Chequers; his wartime retreat, Ditchley, where he and his entourage go when the moon is brightest and the bombing threat is highest; and of course 10 Downing Street in London.

Drawing on diaries, original archival documents, and once-secret intelligence reports-some released only recently-Larson provides a new lens on London's darkest year through the day-to-day experience of Churchill and his wife, Clementine; their youngest daughter, Mary, who chafes against her parents' wartime protectiveness; their son, Randolph, and his beautiful, unhappy wife, Pamela; Pamela's illicit lover, a dashing American emissary; and the cadre of close advisers who comprised Churchill's "Secret Circle," including his lovestruck private secretary, John Colville; newspaper baron Lord Beaverbrook; and the Rasputin-like Frederick Lindemann.

The Splendid and the Vile takes readers out of today's political dysfunction and back to a time of true leadership, when-in the face of unrelenting horror-Churchill's eloquence, courage, and perseverance bound a country, and a family, together."--]]> 546 Erik Larson 038534872X Mitchell 5 4.30 2020 The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
author: Erik Larson
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/22
date added: 2024/07/22
shelves:
review:
Love the intimate moments portrayed in this book. It’s the good stuff. Great book.
]]> The Tsar of Love and Techno 23995336 A Constellation of Vital Phenomena—dazzling, poignant, and lyrical interwoven stories about family, sacrifice, the legacy of war, and the redemptive power of art.

This stunning, exquisitely written collection introduces a cast of remarkable characters whose lives intersect in ways both life-affirming and heartbreaking. A 1930s Soviet censor painstakingly corrects offending photographs, deep underneath Leningrad, bewitched by the image of a disgraced prima ballerina. A chorus of women recount their stories and those of their grandmothers, former gulag prisoners who settled their Siberian mining town. Two pairs of brothers share a fierce, protective love. Young men across the former USSR face violence at home and in the military. And great sacrifices are made in the name of an oil landscape unremarkable except for the almost incomprehensibly peaceful past it depicts.

In stunning prose, with rich character portraits and a sense of history reverberating into the present, The Tsar of Love and Techno is a captivating work from one of our greatest new talents.

The leopard --
Granddaughters --
The Grozny Tourist Bureau --
A prisoner of the Caucasus --
The tsar of love and techno --
Wolf of White Forest --
Palace of the people --
A temporary exhibition --
The end]]> 332 Anthony Marra 0770436439 Mitchell 5 Absolutely brilliant. 4.27 2015 The Tsar of Love and Techno
author: Anthony Marra
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/14
date added: 2024/07/14
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review:
Absolutely brilliant.
]]> <![CDATA[Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific]]> 41021227 Now the inspiration behind the HBO series THE PACIFIC

Here is one of the most riveting first-person accounts to ever come out of the Second World War. Robert Leckie was 21 when he enlisted in the US Marine Corps in January 1942. In Helmet for My Pillow we follow his journey, from boot camp on Parris Island, South Carolina, all the way to the raging battles in the Pacific, where some of the war's fiercest fighting took place. Recounting his service with the 1st Marine Division and the brutal action on Guadalcanal, New Britain and Peleliu, Leckie spares no detail of the horrors and sacrifice of war, painting an unsentimental portrait of how real warriors are made, fight, and all too often die in the defence of their country.

From the live-for-today rowdiness of Marines on leave to the terrors of jungle warfare against an enemy determined to fight to the last man, Leckie describes what it's really like when victory can only be measured inch by bloody inch. Unparalleled in its immediacy and accuracy, Helmet for My Pillow is a gripping account from an ordinary soldier fighting in extraordinary conditions. This is a book that brings you as close to the mud, the blood, and the experience of war as it is safe to come.

Helmet for My Pillow is a grand and epic prose poem. Robert Leckie's theme is the purely human experience of war in the Pacific, written in the graceful imagery of a human being who - somehow - survived - Tom Hanks]]> 322 Robert Leckie Mitchell 5 4.25 1957 Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific
author: Robert Leckie
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1957
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/27
date added: 2024/05/27
shelves:
review:
A masterful account of one Marine’s experiences during WW2 in the Pacific. Leckie had some serious writing chops. The writing is superb. It was fitting to finish this book on Memorial Day.
]]> <![CDATA[My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me]]> 155685403
Caleb Carr has had special relationships with cats since he was a young boy in a turbulent household, famously peopled by the founding members of the Beat Generation, where his steadiest companions were the adopted cats that lived with him both in the city and the country. As an adult, he has had many close feline companions, with relationships that have outlasted most of his human ones. But only after building a three-story home in rural, upstate New York did he enter into the most extraordinary of all of his cat Masha, a Siberian Forest cat who had been abandoned as a kitten, and was languishing in a shelter when Caleb met her. She had hissed and fought off all previous carers and potential adopters, but somehow, she chose Caleb as her savior.
Ěý
For the seventeen years that followed, Caleb and Masha were inseparable. Masha ruled the house and the extensive, dangerous surrounding fields and forests. When she was hurt, only Caleb could help her. When he suffered long-standing physical ailments, Masha knew what to do. Caleb’s life-long study of the literature of cat behavior, and his years of experience with previous cats, helped him decode much of Masha’s inner life. But their bond went far beyond academic studies and experience. The story of Caleb and Masha is an inspiring and life-affirming relationship for readers of all backgrounds and interests—a love story like no other.
Ěý]]> 344 Caleb Carr 0316503606 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.11 2024 My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me
author: Caleb Carr
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/12
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook]]> 191746386
On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution . Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment?

Hampton Sides� bravura account of Cook’s last journey both wrestles with Cook’s legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration in the 1700s. Cook was renowned for his peerless seamanship, his humane leadership, and his dedication to science-–the famed naturalist Joseph Banks accompanied him on his first voyage, and Cook has been called one of the most important figures of the Age of Enlightenment. He was also deeply interested in the native people he encountered. In fact, his stated mission was to return a Tahitian man, Mai, who had become the toast of London, to his home islands. On previous expeditions, Cook mapped huge swaths of the Pacific, including the east coast of Australia, and initiated first European contact with numerous peoples. He treated his crew well, and endeavored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and without judgment.

Yet something was different on this last voyage. Cook became mercurial, resorting to the lash to enforce discipline, and led his two vessels into danger time and again. Uncharacteristically, he ordered violent retaliation for perceived theft on the part of native peoples. This may have had something to do with his secret orders, which were to chart and claim lands before Britain’s imperial rivals could, and to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Whatever Cook’s intentions, his scientific efforts were the sharp edge of the colonial sword, and the ultimate effects of first contact were catastrophic for Indigenous people around the world. The tensions between Cook’s overt and covert missions came to a head on the shores of Hawaii. His first landing there was harmonious, but when Cook returned after mapping the coast of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians led to the fatal encounter.

At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers.]]> 408 Hampton Sides 0385544766 Mitchell 5 4.47 2024 The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
author: Hampton Sides
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/11
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves:
review:
I’m not big on reviews or criticism, but this is one of the best books I’ve read all year. Sides is a brilliant writer that can write a gripping narrative while also providing a lot of meaningful detail. The balance between deep diving and keeping the pages turning isn’t easy to accomplish. Sides does that wonderfully here with Captain Cook. Sides also presents a well balanced account and recognizes the disastrous consequences of colonialism. Sides treats indigenous people of the time with the dignity and respect they deserve.
]]> Horse 59109077 A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.

New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.

Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse--one studying the stallion's bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.

Based on the remarkable true story of the record-breaking thoroughbred Lexington, Horse is a novel of art and science, love and obsession, and our unfinished reckoning with racism.]]> 401 Geraldine Brooks 0399562966 Mitchell 4 4.17 2022 Horse
author: Geraldine Brooks
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/27
date added: 2024/04/27
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment]]> 150247437
"It is altogether fitting and proper that, with this meditation on democracy and its most subtle defender, Allen Guelzo again demonstrates that he is today’s most profound interpreter of this nation’s history and significance." —George F. Will

Abraham Lincoln grappled with the greatest crisis of democracy that has ever confronted the United States. While many books have been written about his temperament, judgment, and steady hand in guiding the country through the Civil War, we know less about Lincoln’s penetrating ideas and beliefs about democracy, which were every bit as important as his character in sustaining him through the crisis.

Allen C. Guelzo, one of America’s foremost experts on Lincoln, captures the president’s firmly held belief that democracy was the greatest political achievement in human history. He shows how Lincoln’s deep commitment to the balance between majority and minority rule enabled him to stand firm against secession while also committing the Union to reconciliation rather than recrimination in the aftermath of war. In bringing his subject to life as a rigorous and visionary thinker, Guelzo assesses Lincoln’s actions on civil liberties and his views on race, and explains why his vision for the role of government would have made him a pivotal president even if there had been no Civil War. Our Ancient Faith gives us a deeper understanding of this endlessly fascinating man and shows how his ideas are still sharp and relevant more than 150 years later.]]> 272 Allen C. Guelzo 0593534441 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.03 2024 Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment
author: Allen C. Guelzo
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> Nuclear War: A Scenario 182733784
Every generation, a journalist has looked deep into the heart of the nuclear military establishment: the technologies, the safeguards, the plans, and the risks. These investigations are vital to how we understand the world we really live in—where one nuclear missile will beget one in return, and where the choreography of the world’s end requires massive decisions made on seconds� notice with information that is only as good as the intelligence we have.

Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War: A Scenario explores this ticking-clock scenario, based on dozens of exclusive new interviews with military and civilian experts who have built the weapons, have been privy to the response plans, and have been responsible for those decisions should they have needed to be made. Nuclear War: A Scenario examines the handful of minutes after a nuclear missile launch. It is essential reading, and unlike any other book in its depth and urgency.]]> 400 Annie Jacobsen 0593476093 Mitchell 4 4.37 2024 Nuclear War: A Scenario
author: Annie Jacobsen
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/14
date added: 2024/04/14
shelves:
review:
I found this book really strong until the midway point and then it got a little repetitive on the damage a nuclear weapon can cause. We live in dangerous times. The danger nuclear weapons pose cannot be overstated. I would strongly recommend as a reminder to us all to strive towards peace and deescalation. It’s inevitable that as long as nuclear weapons exist that they will be used in the future.
]]> <![CDATA[The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics]]> 16158542
It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys� own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.]]> 404 Daniel James Brown 067002581X Mitchell 0 to-read 4.37 2013 The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
author: Daniel James Brown
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> North Woods 71872930
When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become home to an extraordinary succession of inhabitants . An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to apples. A pair of spinster twins survive war and famine, only to succumb to envy and desire.ĚýA crime reporter unearths a mass grave, but finds the ancient trees refuse to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a conman, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle; as each one confronts the mysteries of the north woods, they come to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.

Traversing cycles of history, nature, and even literature, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we’re connected to our environment and to one another, across time, language and space. Written along with the seasons and divided into the twelve months of the year, it is an unforgettable novel about secrets and fates that asks the timeless how do we live on, even after we’re gone?]]> 372 Daniel Mason 0593597036 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.11 2023 North Woods
author: Daniel Mason
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer]]> 146274
The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history -- the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror and sadness.

At the very center of this story is John Wilkes Booth, America's notorious villain. A Confederate sympathizer and a member of a celebrated acting family, Booth threw away his fame and wealth for a chance to avenge the South's defeat. For almost two weeks, he confounded the manhunters, slipping away from their every move and denying them the justice they sought.

Based on rare archival materials, obscure trial transcripts, and Lincoln's own blood relics, Manhunt is a fully documented work and a fascinating tale of murder, intrigue, and betrayal. A gripping hour-by-hour account told through the eyes of the hunted and the hunters, this is history as you've never read it before.]]> 444 James L. Swanson 0060518502 Mitchell 5 4.16 2006 Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer
author: James L. Swanson
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2024/04/03
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves:
review:
Brilliant book on the assassination plot surrounding Lincoln and the subsequent manhunt. Although basic, I can’t fathom a better place to start researching the topic or to simply end here on the topic if one so chooses.
]]> <![CDATA[Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse]]> 7687374 Bloody Crimes, James L. Swanson—the Edgar® Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Manhunt—brings to life two epic events of the Civil War era: the thrilling chase to apprehend Confederate president Jefferson Davis in the wake of the Lincoln assassination and the momentousĚýĚý20Ěý-day funeral that took Abraham Lincoln’s body home to Springfield. A true tale full of fascinating twists and turns, and lavishly illustrated with dozens of rare historical images—some never before seenâ€�Bloody Crimes is a fascinating companion to Swanson’s Manhunt andĚýĚýa riveting true-crime thriller that will electrify civil war buffs, generalĚýreaders, and everyone in between.]]> 464 James L. Swanson 0061233781 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.86 2010 Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse
author: James L. Swanson
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension]]> 181346634
There’s Always This Year is a triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject of his keen focus—whether it's basketball, or music, or performance—Hanif Abdurraqib’s exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, our country, and ourselves.]]> 334 Hanif Abdurraqib 0593448790 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.32 2024 There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension
author: Hanif Abdurraqib
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War]]> 195608683 The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War—a slow-burning crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in two.

On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston: Fort Sumter.
Ěý
Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.�
Ěý
At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous Secretary of State, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans.
Ěý
Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.]]> 565 Erik Larson 0385348746 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.13 2024 The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
author: Erik Larson
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/01
shelves: to-read
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]]> One Way Back: A Memoir 199753881
In One Way Back, Ford recounts the months she spent trying to get information into the right hands without exposing herself and her family to dangerous backlash. Drawing parallels to her life as a surfer, she explains the process of paddling out into unknown waters despite the risks and fears, knowing there is only one way back to shore. The book reveals riveting new details about the leadup to her testimony and its overwhelming aftermath and describes how she continues to navigate her way out of the storm.

This is the real story behind the headlines and the soundbites, a complex, page-turning memoir of a scientist, a surfer, a mother, a patriot and an unlikely whistleblower. Ford’s experience shows that when one person steps forward to speak truth to power, she adds to a collective whole, causing "a ripple that might one day become a wave.”]]> 298 Christine Blasey Ford 1250289653 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.27 2024 One Way Back: A Memoir
author: Christine Blasey Ford
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/23
shelves: to-read
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 Mitchell 4 4.14 2023 The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
author: David Grann
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/22
date added: 2024/03/22
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]]> Out There Screaming 142392376 Get Out, Us, and Nope, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions, curates this groundbreaking anthology of all-new stories of Black horror, exploring not only the terrors of the supernatural but the chilling reality of injustice that haunts our nation.

A cop begins seeing huge, blinking eyes where the headlights of cars should be that tell him who to pull over. Two freedom riders take a bus ride that leaves them stranded on a lonely road in Alabama where several unsettling somethings await them. A young girl dives into the depths of the Earth in search of the demon that killed her parents. These are just a few of the worlds of Out There Screaming, Jordan Peele’s anthology of all-new horror stories by Black writers. Featuring an introduction by Peele and an all-star roster of beloved writers and new voices, Out There Screaming is a master class in horror, and—like his spine-chilling films—its stories prey on everything we think we know about our world . . . and redefine what it means to be afraid.

Featuring stories by: Erin E. Adams, Violet Allen, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Maurice Broaddus, Chesya Burke, P. Djèlí Clark, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, Justin C. Key, L. D. Lewis, Nnedi Okorafor, Tochi Onyebuchi, Rebecca Roanhorse, Nicole D. Sconiers, Rion Amilcar Scott, Terence Taylor, and Cadwell Turnbull.]]> 387 Jordan Peele 059324379X Mitchell 0 to-read 3.77 2023 Out There Screaming
author: Jordan Peele
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/03/16
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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 immigration� 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 Mitchell 4 4.45 2010 The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/14
date added: 2024/03/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Book That Wouldn’t Burn (The Library Trilogy, #1)]]> 61612864
A girl has spent hers in a tiny settlement out on the Dust where nightmares stalk and no one goes.

The world has never even noticed them. That's about to change.

Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another. A journey on which knowledge erodes certainty, and on which, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities burned.]]> 559 Mark Lawrence 0593437918 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.94 2023 The Book That Wouldn’t Burn (The Library Trilogy, #1)
author: Mark Lawrence
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/06/18
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]]> <![CDATA[The Last Weeks of Abraham Lincoln: A Day-by-Day Account of His Personal, Political, and Military Challenges]]> 39304810 This day-by-day account of Abraham Lincoln's last six weeks of life covers a period of extraordinary events, not only for the president himself but for the fate of the nation.

From March 4 to April 15, 1865--a momentous time for the nation--Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address, supervised climatic battles leading up to the end of the Civil War, learned that Robert E. Lee had surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, and finally was killed by assassin John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre. Weaving an arresting narrative around the historical facts, historian David Alan Johnson brings to life the president's daily routine, as he guided the country through one of the most tumultuous periods of American history.

The reader follows the president as he greets visitors at the inaugural ball, asks abolitionist Frederick Douglass's opinion of the inaugural address, confers with Generals Grant and Sherman on the final stages of the war, visits a field hospital for wounded outside Fort Stedman in Virginia, and attempts to calm his high-strung wife Mary, who appears on the verge of nervous collapse. We read excerpts from press reviews of Lincoln's second inaugural address, learn that Mrs. Lincoln's ball gown created a sensation, and are given eye-witness accounts of the celebrations and drunken revelry that broke out in Washington when the end of the war was announced.

This engagingly written narrative history of a short but extremely important span of days vividly depicts the actions and thoughts of one of our greatest presidents during a time of national emergency.]]> 400 David Alan Johnson 1633883981 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.27 The Last Weeks of Abraham Lincoln: A Day-by-Day Account of His Personal, Political, and Military Challenges
author: David Alan Johnson
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/05/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The Betrayal: The True Story of My Brush with Death in the World of Narcos and Launderers]]> 60054968 From Robert Mazur, undercover agent and bestselling author of The Infiltrator, comes the riveting true story of grave corruption at the heart of one of the most explosive DEA missions of his career.

Three years after undercover agent Robert Mazur infiltrated Pablo Escobar’s Medellín drug cartel, he reemerged, a half-million-dollar bounty still on his head, with a new identity for a risky new sting. He was now Robert Baldasare, money launderer and president of an international trade finance company. Deployed to Panama, Mazur worked, traveled, partied, and washed millions with Central America’s criminal elite. Partnered with a young superstar DEA task force agent, Mazur slipped effortlessly into Colombia’s notorious Cali drug cartel. But as his underworld reputation skyrocketed, the operation started going dangerously off the rails.

On US soil, drug money en route to Mazur was seized. He started to notice an unsettling shift in the cartel’s inner circle. Contacts were being assassinated, and Mazur was being tailed. His identity had been compromised. Refusing to acknowledge the threats ahead, Mazur was obsessed with seeing the mission through to its treacherous expose the Cali cartel, find out who betrayed him, and escape with his life.]]> 314 Robert Mazur 1542032962 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.93 The Betrayal: The True Story of My Brush with Death in the World of Narcos and Launderers
author: Robert Mazur
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.93
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/27
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]]> The Library Book 39507318
Weaving her lifelong love of books and reading into an investigation of the fire, award-winning New Yorker reporter and New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean delivers a mesmerizing and uniquely compelling book that manages to tell the broader story of libraries and librarians in a way that has never been done before.

In The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from their humble beginnings as a metropolitan charitable initiative to their current status as a cornerstone of national identity; brings each department of the library to vivid life through on-the-ground reporting; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; reflects on her own experiences in libraries; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago.

Along the way, Orlean introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters from libraries past and present—from Mary Foy, who in 1880 at eighteen years old was named the head of the Los Angeles Public Library at a time when men still dominated the role, to Dr. C.J.K. Jones, a pastor, citrus farmer, and polymath known as “The Human Encyclopedia� who roamed the library dispensing information; from Charles Lummis, a wildly eccentric journalist and adventurer who was determined to make the L.A. library one of the best in the world, to the current staff, who do heroic work every day to ensure that their institution remains a vital part of the city it serves.

Brimming with her signature wit, insight, compassion, and talent for deep research, The Library Book is Susan Orlean’s thrilling journey through the stacks that reveals how these beloved institutions provide much more than just books—and why they remain an essential part of the heart, mind, and soul of our country. It is also a master journalist’s reminder that, perhaps especially in the digital era, they are more necessary than ever.]]> 317 Susan Orlean 1476740186 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.88 2018 The Library Book
author: Susan Orlean
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/25
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]]> The Cat and The City 54954624
But the city is changing. As it does, it pushes her to the margins where she chances upon a series of apparent strangers � from a homeless man squatting in an abandoned hotel, to a shut-in hermit afraid to leave his house, to a convenience store worker searching for love. The cat orbits Tokyo’s denizens, drawing them ever closer.]]> 304 Nick Bradley 1786499916 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.75 2020 The Cat and The City
author: Nick Bradley
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/25
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]]> The Kingdom of Sand 58772743 One of the great appeals of Florida has always been the sense that the minute you get here you have permission to collapse.

The Kingdom of Sand is a poignant tale of desire and dread—Andrew Holleran’s first new book in sixteen years. The nameless narrator is a gay man who moved to Florida to look after his aging parents—during the height of the AIDS epidemic—and has found himself unable to leave after their deaths. With gallows humor, he chronicles the indignities of growing old in a small town.

At the heart of the novel is the story of his friendship with Earl, whom he met cruising at the local boat ramp. For the last twenty years, he has been visiting Earl to watch classic films together and critique the neighbors. Earl is the only person in town with whom he can truly be himself. Now Earl’s health is failing, and our increasingly misanthropic narrator must contend with the fact that once Earl dies, he will be completely alone. He distracts himself with sexual encounters at the video porn store and visits to Walgreens. All the while, he shares reflections on illness and death that are at once funny and heartbreaking.

Holleran’s first novel, Dancer from the Dance, is widely regarded as a classic work of gay literature. The Kingdom of Sand displays all of Holleran’s considerable gifts; it’s an elegy to sex and a stunningly honest exploration of loneliness and the endless need for human connection, especially as we count down our days.]]> 258 Andrew Holleran 0374600961 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.45 2022 The Kingdom of Sand
author: Andrew Holleran
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/24
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]]> The Lonely Stories 59564386
If you’re feeling lonely or if you’ve ever felt unseen, if you’re emboldened by solitude or secretly longing for it: Welcome to The Lonely Stories. This cathartic collection of personal essays illuminates what the experience of being alone is like for all of us. Some of these stories are heartbreaking, such as Jesmyn Ward’s reckoning with the loss of her husband, Imani Perry’s confrontation with chronic illness, and Dina Nayeri’s reflection on immigrating to a foreign country. Others are witty, such as Lev Grossman’s rueful tale of heading to the woods alone or Anthony Doerr’s struggles with internet addiction. Still others celebrate solitude and the kind of clarity it can bring about, such as Claire Dederer’s journey toward sobriety and Lidia Yuknavitch’s sensual look at women and desire. Thoughtful and ultimately affirming, The Lonely Stories explores emotions that so often go undiscussed, and lets us all know that we’re not alone.]]> 252 Natalie Eve Garrett 194822660X Mitchell 0 to-read 3.66 2022 The Lonely Stories
author: Natalie Eve Garrett
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/24
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]]> Pablo Escobar: My Father 28696608
More than two decades after the full-fledged manhunt finally caught up with the king of cocaine, Juan Pablo Escobar travels to the past to reveal an unabridged version of his father―a man capable of committing the most extreme acts of cruelty while simultaneously professing infinite love for his family.

This is not the story of a child seeking redemption for his father, but a shocking look at the consequences of violence and the overwhelming need for peace and forgiveness.]]> 368 Juan Pablo Escobar 1250104629 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.85 2014 Pablo Escobar: My Father
author: Juan Pablo Escobar
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/24
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]]> Sea of Tranquility 58446227 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER - The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time travel, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

One of the Best Books of the Year: The New York Times, NPR, GoodReads

"One of [Mandel's] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet." --The New York Times

Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal--an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She's traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive's best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.]]> 259 Emily St. John Mandel 0593321448 Mitchell 3 4.04 2022 Sea of Tranquility
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 3
read at: 2022/04/23
date added: 2022/04/23
shelves:
review:
Just ok. Lacks any serious depth as a sci-fi novel. Not her best work. Written to be consumed, enjoyed and forgotten.
]]> Spring (Seasonal, #3) 40642956 From the Man Booker Prize Finalist comes the third novel in her Seasonal Quartet—a New York Times Notable Book andlonglisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2020.

What unites Katherine Mansfield, Charlie Chaplin, Shakespeare, Rilke, Beethoven, Brexit, the present, the past, the north, the south, the east, the west, a man mourning lost times, a woman trapped in modern times?

Spring. The great connective.

With an eye to the migrancy of story over time and riffing on Pericles, one of Shakespeare's most resistant and rollicking works, Ali Smith tell the impossible tale of an impossible time. In a time of walls and lockdown, Smith opens the door.

The time we're living in is changing nature. Will it change the nature of story?

Hope springs eternal.]]> 340 Ali Smith 110187077X Mitchell 0 to-read 4.12 2019 Spring (Seasonal, #3)
author: Ali Smith
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/22
shelves: to-read
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]]> Bleachers 5347
As Coach Rake's 'boys' sit in the bleachers waiting for the dimming field lights to signal his passing, they replay the old glories, and try to decide once and for all whether they love Eddie Rake � or hate him. For Neely Crenshaw, still struggling to come to terms with his explosive relationship with the Coach, his dreams of a great career in the NFL, and the choices he made as a young man, the stakes could not be higher.]]> 229 John Grisham Mitchell 0 to-read 3.53 2003 Bleachers
author: John Grisham
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> The Sea 581536 264 John Banville 0330483293 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.39 2005 The Sea
author: John Banville
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.39
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music]]> 57432587
Having entertained the idea for years, and even offered a few questionable opportunities ("It's a piece of cake! Just do 4 hours of interviews, find someone else to write it, put your face on the cover, and voila!") I have decided to write these stories just as I have always done, in my own hand. The joy that I have felt from chronicling these tales is not unlike listening back to a song that I've recorded and can't wait to share with the world, or reading a primitive journal entry from a stained notebook, or even hearing my voice bounce between the Kiss posters on my wall as a child.

This certainly doesn't mean that I'm quitting my day job, but it does give me a place to shed a little light on what it's like to be a kid from Springfield, Virginia, walking through life while living out the crazy dreams I had as young musician. From hitting the road with Scream at 18 years old, to my time in Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, jamming with Iggy Pop or playing at the Academy Awards or dancing with AC/DC and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, drumming for Tom Petty or meeting Sir Paul McCartney at Royal Albert Hall, bedtime stories with Joan Jett or a chance meeting with Little Richard, to flying halfway around the world for one epic night with my daughters…the list goes on. I look forward to focusing the lens through which I see these memories a little sharper for you with much excitement.]]> 11 Dave Grohl 1398506710 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.40 2021 The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music
author: Dave Grohl
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/20
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]]> Dreamland 57982365
â€A beautiful thought-provoking, eerily prescient and very witty.â€� Brit Bennett, author of The Vanishing Half

'Water courses through its pages, as rising sea levels heighten inequalities, buoy populist politicians and wash away every certainty of civilisation. But there’s also the novel’s prose � its liquid grace and glinting sparkle � and the sheer irresistibility of a narrative that sweeps along with a force that feels tidal in its pull.' The Observer

''You said that you would come back. You looked me in the eye and said that. Well, if you had, this is what you would have soft wood, black cracks, fridges in the road. The broken spines of old rides at Dreamland.'

In the coastal resort of Margate, hotels lie empty and sun-faded â€For Saleâ€� signs line the streets. The sea is higher â€� it’s higher everywhere â€� and those who can are moving inland. A young girl called Chance, however, is just arriving.

Chance’s family is one of many offered a cash grant to move out of London - and so she, her mother Jas and brother JD relocate to the seaside, just as the country edges towards vertiginous change.

In their new home, they find space and wide skies, a world away from the cramped bedsits they’ve lived in up until now. But challenges swiftly mount. JD’s business partner, Kole, has a violent, charismatic energy that whirlpools around him and threatens to draw in the whole family. And when Chance comes across Franky, a girl her age she has never seen before � well-spoken and wearing sunscreen � something catches in the air between them. Their fates are a connection that is immediate, unshakeable, and, in a time when social divides have never cut sharper, dangerous. Set in a future unsettlingly close to home, against a backdrop of soaring inequality and creeping political extremism, Rankin-Gee demonstrates, with cinematic pace and deep humanity, the enduring power of love and hope in a world spinning out of control]]> 352 Rosa Rankin-Gee 1471193837 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.05 2021 Dreamland
author: Rosa Rankin-Gee
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present]]> 114192

Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge—a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It reveals how blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Moving into the twentieth century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks, and the view that they were biologically inferior, oversexed, and unfit for adult responsibilities. Shocking new details about the government’s notorious Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less-well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, prisons, and private institutions.

The product of years of prodigious research into medical journals and experimental reports long undisturbed, Medical Apartheid reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit. At last, it provides the fullest possible context for comprehending the behavioral fallout that has caused black Americans to view researchers—and indeed the whole medical establishment—with such deep distrust. No one concerned with issues of public health and racial justice can afford not to read Medical Apartheid, a masterful book that will stir up both controversy and long-needed debate.]]> 501 Harriet A. Washington 0385509936 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.42 2007 Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present
author: Harriet A. Washington
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together]]> 104189 A dangerous, homeless drifter who grew up pickingĚýcotton in virtual slavery.

An upscale art dealer accustomed to the worldĚýof Armani and Chanel.

A gutsy woman with a stubborn dream.

A story so incredible no novelist would dare dream it.

It begins outside a burning plantation hut in Louisiana . . . and an East TexasĚýhonky-tonk . . . and, without a doubt, inside the heart of God. It unfolds at aĚýHollywood hacienda . . . an upscale New York gallery . . . a downtown dumpster . . . a Texas ranch.

Gritty with betrayal, pain, and brutality, it also shines with anĚýunexpected, life-changing love.

Bonus material in this special movie edition includes:
Ěý]]> 237 Ron Hall 0849900417 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.18 2006 Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together
author: Ron Hall
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/18
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]]> <![CDATA[Stargazing: Memoirs of a Young Lighthouse Keeper]]> 277355 Hill learned quickly, though, of the centuries-old mechanics of the lighthouse, of the life-and-death necessity of its luminescence to seafarers, and of the great and unlikely friendships formed out of routine. With his head filled with Hendrix, Kerouac, and the war in Vietnam, Hill shared cups of tea and close quarters with salty lighthouse keepers of an entirely different generation. The stories they told and idiosyncrasies they exhibited came to define a summer Hill has memorialized with great wit and a disarmingly affectionate style.]]> 288 Peter Hill 1841956511 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.07 2003 Stargazing: Memoirs of a Young Lighthouse Keeper
author: Peter Hill
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Maidens 45300567
Mariana Andros is a brilliant but troubled group therapist who becomes fixated on The Maidens when one member, a friend of Mariana’s niece Zoe, is found murdered in Cambridge.

Mariana, who was once herself a student at the university, quickly suspects that behind the idyllic beauty of the spires and turrets, and beneath the ancient traditions, lies something sinister. And she becomes convinced that, despite his alibi, Edward Fosca is guilty of the murder. But why would the professor target one of his students? And why does he keep returning to the rites of Persephone, the maiden, and her journey to the underworld?

When another body is found, Mariana’s obsession with proving Fosca’s guilt spirals out of control, threatening to destroy her credibility as well as her closest relationships. But Mariana is determined to stop this killer, even if it costs her everything—including her own life.]]> 337 Alex Michaelides 1250304458 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.61 2021 The Maidens
author: Alex Michaelides
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Teacher of Warsaw: A WWII Novel]]> 59608950 For fans of The Warsaw Orphan and The Tattooist of Auschwitz: the start of WWII changed everything in Poland irrevocably—except for one man’s capacity to love.

“I want everyone I know to read this book.� �Kelly Rimmer, New York Times bestselling author of The Warsaw Orphan

September 1, 1939. Sixty-year-old Janusz Korczak and the students and teachers at his Dom Sierot Jewish orphanage are outside enjoying a beautiful day in Warsaw. Hours later, their lives are altered forever when the Nazis invade. Suddenly treated as an outcast in his own city, Janusz—a respected leader known for his heroism and teaching—is determined to do whatever it takes to protect the children from the horrors to come.

When over four hundred thousand Jewish people are rounded up and forced to live in the 1.3-square-mile walled compound of the Warsaw ghetto, Janusz and his friends take drastic measures to shield the children from disease and starvation. With dignity and courage, the teachers and students of Dom Sierot create their own tiny army of love and bravely prepare to march toward the future—whatever it may hold.

Unforgettable, devastating, and inspired by a real-life hero of the Holocaust, The Teacher of Warsaw reminds the world that one single person can incite meaning, hope, and love.

Praise for The Teacher of Warsaw:

“Through meticulous research and with wisdom and care, Mario Escobar brings to life a heartbreaking story of love and extraordinary courage. I want everyone I know to read this book.� �Kelly Rimmer, New York Times bestselling author of The Warsaw Orphan

“A beautifully written, deeply emotional story of hope, love, and courage in the face of unspeakable horrors. That such self-sacrifice, dedication and goodness existed restores faith in humankind. Escobar'sĚýheart-rending yet uplifting tale is made all the more poignant by its authenticity. Bravo!â€� —Tea Cooper, award-winning and bestselling author ofĚýThe Cartographer’s Secret


World War II historical fiction inspired by true events
Includes discussion questions for book clubs, a historical timeline, and notes from the author
Book length: 83,000 words
Also by author: Auschwitz Lullaby, Children of the Stars, Remember Me, The Librarian of Saint-Malo]]> 368 Mario Escobar 0785252177 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.07 2022 The Teacher of Warsaw: A WWII Novel
author: Mario Escobar
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/18
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]]> Ru 13538921 The novel's title, Ru, has meaning in both Kim's native and adoptive languages: in Vietnamese, ru is a lullaby; in French, a stream. And it provides the perfect name for this slim yet potent novel. With prose that soothes and sings, Ru weaves through time, flows and transports: a river of sensuous memories gathering power. It's a classic immigrant story told in a breathtaking new way.]]> 141 Kim ThĂşy 1608198987 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.74 2009 Ru
author: Kim ThĂşy
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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]]> The Anomaly 56920684
In June 2021, a senseless event upends the lives of hundreds of men and women, all passengers on a flight from Paris to New York. Among them: Blake, a respectable family man, though he works as a contract killer; Slimboy, a Nigerian pop star tired of living a lie; Joanna, a formidable lawyer whose flaws have caught up with her; and Victor Miesel, a critically acclaimed yet commercially unsuccessful writer who suddenly becomes a cult hit. All of them believed they had double lives. None imagined just how true that was.

This witty variation on the doppelgänger theme, which takes us on a journey from Lagos and Mumbai to the White House, is Hervé Le Tellier's most ambitious work yet.]]> 391 Hervé Le Tellier 1635421691 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.80 2020 The Anomaly
author: Hervé Le Tellier
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, #1)]]> 7108001 Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness."

"My baby boy..." she whispers before dying.

Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.

When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.]]> 336 Seth Grahame-Smith 0446563080 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.72 2010 Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, #1)
author: Seth Grahame-Smith
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice]]> 22609522
Bill Browder’s journey started on the South Side of Chicago and moved through Stanford Business School to the dog-eat-dog world of hedge fund investing in the 1990s. It continued in Moscow, where Browder made his fortune heading the largest investment fund in Russia after the Soviet Union’s collapse. But when he exposed the corrupt oligarchs who were robbing the companies in which he was investing, Vladimir Putin turned on him and, in 2005, had him expelled from Russia.

In 2007, a group of law enforcement officers raided Browder’s offices in Moscow and stole $230 million of taxes that his fund’s companies had paid to the Russian government. Browder’s attorney Sergei Magnitsky investigated the incident and uncovered a sprawling criminal enterprise. A month after Sergei testified against the officials involved, he was arrested and thrown into pre-trial detention, where he was tortured for a year. On November 16, 2009, he was led to an isolation chamber, handcuffed to a bedrail, and beaten to death by eight guards in full riot gear.

Browder glimpsed the heart of darkness, and it transformed his life: he embarked on an unrelenting quest for justice in Sergei’s name, exposing the towering cover-up that leads right up to Putin. A financial caper, a crime thriller, and a political crusade, Red Notice is the story of one man taking on overpowering odds to change the world.]]> 380 Bill Browder 147675571X Mitchell 0 to-read 4.39 2015 Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice
author: Bill Browder
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> A History of Wild Places 56898223
Called "Pastoral," this reclusive community was founded in the 1970s by like-minded people searching for a simpler way of life. By all accounts, the commune shouldn’t exist anymore and soon after Travis stumbles upon it� he disappears. Just like Maggie St. James.

Years later, Theo, a lifelong member of Pastoral, discovers Travis’s abandoned truck beyond the border of the community. No one is allowed in or out, not when there’s a risk of bringing a disease�rot—into Pastoral. Unraveling the mystery of what happened reveals secrets that Theo, his wife, Calla, and her sister, Bee, keep from one another. Secrets that prove their perfect, isolated world isn’t as safe as they believed—and that darkness takes many forms.

Hauntingly beautiful, hypnotic, and bewitching, A History of Wild Places is a story about fairy tales, our fear of the dark, and losing yourself within the wilderness of your mind.]]> 354 Shea Ernshaw 1982164808 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.92 2021 A History of Wild Places
author: Shea Ernshaw
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2021
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]]> Dead Poets Society 67238 166 N.H. Kleinbaum 0553282980 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.19 1988 Dead Poets Society
author: N.H. Kleinbaum
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois]]> 51183428 Homegoing; Sing, Unburied, Sing; and The Water Dancer—that chronicles the journey of one American family, from the centuries of the colonial slave trade through the Civil War to our own tumultuous era.

The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois, once wrote about the Problem of race in America, and what he called “Double Consciousness,� a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans—the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers—Ailey carries Du Bois’s Problem on her shoulders.

Ailey is reared in the north in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother’s family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that’s made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma, as well as the whispers of women—her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries—that urge Ailey to succeed in their stead.

To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family’s past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors—Indigenous, Black, and white—in the deep South. In doing so Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story—and the song—of America itself.]]> 816 Honorée Fanonne Jeffers 006294293X Mitchell 0 to-read 4.51 2021 The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois
author: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/13
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]]> <![CDATA[It Didn't Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle]]> 26026054 Ěý
Depression. Anxiety. Chronic Pain. Phobias. Obsessive thoughts. The evidence is the roots of these difficulties may not reside in our immediate life experience or in chemical imbalances in our brains—but in the lives of our parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents. The latest scientific research, now making headlines, supports what many have long intuited—that traumatic experience can be passed down through generations. It Didn’t Start with You builds on the work of leading experts in post-traumatic stress, including Mount Sinai School of Medicine neuroscientist Rachel Yehuda and psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score . Even if the person who suffered the original trauma has died, or the story has been forgotten or silenced, memory and feelings can live on. These emotional legacies are often hidden, encoded in everything from gene expression to everyday language, and they play a far greater role in our emotional and physical health than has ever before been understood.
Ěý
As a pioneer in the field of inherited family trauma, Mark Wolynn has worked with individuals and groups on a therapeutic level for over twenty years. It Didn’t Start with You offers a pragmatic and prescriptive guide to his method, the Core Language Approach. Diagnostic self-inventories provide a way to uncover the fears and anxieties conveyed through everyday words, behaviors, and physical symptoms. Techniques for developing a genogram or extended family tree create a map of experiences going back through the generations. And visualization, active imagination, and direct dialogue create pathways to reconnection, integration, and reclaiming life and health. It Didn’t Start With You is a transformative approach to resolving longstanding difficulties that in many cases, traditional therapy, drugs, or other interventions have not had the capacity to touch.]]> 256 Mark Wolynn 1101980362 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.45 2016 It Didn't Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle
author: Mark Wolynn
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2016
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]]> <![CDATA[The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China]]> 57432319
The relationship between the US and China, the world’s two superpowers, is peculiarly volatile. It rests on a seismic fault—of cultural misunderstanding, historical grievance, and ideological incompatibility. No other nations are so quick to offend and be offended. Their militaries play a dangerous game of chicken, corporations steal intellectual property, intelligence satellites peer, and AI technicians plot. The capacity for either country to cross a fatal line grows daily.Ěý

Kevin Rudd, a former Australian prime minister who has studied, lived in, and worked with China for more than forty years, is one of the very few people who can offer real insight into the mindsets of the leadership whose judgment will determine if a war will be fought. The Avoidable War demystifies the actions of both sides, explaining and translating them for the benefit of the other. Geopolitical disaster is still avoidable, but only if these two giants can find a way to coexist without betraying their core interests through what Rudd calls “managed strategic competition.� Should they fail, down that path lies the possibility of a war that could rewrite the future of both countries, and the world.]]> 432 Kevin Rudd 1541701291 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.21 2022 The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China
author: Kevin Rudd
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Catching Homelessness: A Nurse's Story of Falling Through the Safety Net]]> 28649432 240 Josephine Ensign 1631521179 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.47 2016 Catching Homelessness: A Nurse's Story of Falling Through the Safety Net
author: Josephine Ensign
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[How You Say It: Why We Judge Others by the Way They Talk―and the Costs of This Hidden Bias]]> 55047734 From “one of the most brilliant young psychologists of her generation� (Paul Bloom), a groundbreaking examination of how speech causes some of our deepest social divides—and how it can help us overcome them
Ěý We gravitate toward people like us; it’s human nature. Race, class, and gender shape our social identities, and thus who we perceive as “like usâ€� or “not like us.”ĚýBut one overlooked factor can be even more powerful: the way we speak. As the pioneering psychologist Katherine Kinzler reveals in How You Say It, the way we talk is central to our social identity because our speech largely reflects the voices we heard as children. We can change how we speak to some extent, whether by “code-switchingâ€� between dialects or by learning a new language; over time, our speech even changes to reflect our evolving social identity and aspirations. But for the most part, we are forever marked by our native tongue—and are hardwired to prejudge others by theirs, often with serious consequences. Someone’sĚýaccent alone can determine the economic opportunity or discrimination they encounter in life, making speech one of the most urgent social-justice issues of our day. Our linguistic differences present challenges, Kinzler shows, but they also can be a force for good. Humans can benefit from being exposed to multiple languages—a paradox that should inspire us to master this ancient source of tribalismĚýand rethink the role that speech plays in our society.
Ěý]]> 256 Katherine D. Kinzler 0358567106 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.81 2020 How You Say It: Why We Judge Others by the Way They Talk―and the Costs of This Hidden Bias
author: Katherine D. Kinzler
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.81
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]]> <![CDATA[The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion]]> 54998264 The definitive inside story of WeWork, its audacious founder, and what the company's epic unraveling exposes about Silicon Valley's delusions and the financial system's desperate hunger to cash in--from the Wall Street Journal reporters whose scoops hastened the company's downfall.

In 2001, Adam Neumann arrived in New York after five years as a conscript in the Israeli navy. Just over fifteen years later, he had transformed himself into the charismatic CEO of a company worth $47 billion--at least on paper. With his long hair and feel-good mantras, the 6-foot-five Neumann, who grew up in part on a kibbutz, looked the part of a messianic Silicon Valley entrepreneur. The vision he offered was mesmerizing: a radical reimagining of work space for a new generation, with its fluid jobs and lax office culture. He called it WeWork. Though the company was merely subleasing amenity-filled office space to freelancers and small startups, Neumann marketed it like a revolutionary product--and investors swooned.

As billions of funding dollars poured in, Neumann's ambitions grew limitless. WeWork wasn't just an office space provider, he boasted. It would build schools, create WeWork cities, even colonize Mars. Could he, Neumann wondered from the ice bath he'd installed in his office, become the first trillionaire or a world leader? In pursuit of its founder's grandiose vision, the company spent money faster than it could bring it in. From his private jet, sometimes clouded with marijuana smoke, the CEO scoured the globe for more capital. In late 2019, just weeks before WeWork's highly publicized IPO, a Hail Mary effort to raise cash, everything fell apart. Neumann was ousted from his company--but still was poised to walk away a billionaire.

Calling to mind the recent demise of Theranos and the hubris of the dotcom era bust, WeWork's extraordinary rise and staggering implosion were fueled by disparate characters in a financial system blind to its risks, from a Japanese billionaire with designs on becoming the Warren Buffet of tech, to leaders at JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs who seemed intoxicated by a Silicon Valley culture where sensible business models lost out to youthful CEOs who promised disruption. Why did some of the biggest names in banking and venture capital buy the hype? And what does the future hold for Silicon Valley unicorns? Wall Street Journal reporters Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell explore these questions in this definitive account of WeWork's unraveling.]]> 464 Eliot Brown 0593237110 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.24 2021 The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion
author: Eliot Brown
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2021
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]]> <![CDATA[Getting Grief Right: Finding Your Story of Love in the Sorrow of Loss]]> 30962223
What he shared was a truth that many have felt but rarely acknowledged by the professionals they turn that our grief is not a mental illness to be cured, but part of the abiding connection with the one we’ve lost .

Illuminated by O’Malley’s own story and those of many clients that he’s supported, readers learn how the familiar "stages of grief" too often mislabel our sorrow as a disorder, press us to "get over it," and amplify our suffering with shame and guilt when we do not achieve "closure" in due course.

"Sadness, regret, confusion, yearning―all the experiences of grief―are a part of the narrative of love," reflects O’Malley. Here, with uncommon sensitivity and support, he invites us to explore grief not as a process of recovery, but as the ongoing narrative of our relationship with the one we’ve lost―to be fully felt, told, and woven into our lives.

For those in bereavement and anyone supporting those who are, Getting Grief Right offers an uncommonly empathetic guide to opening to our sorrow as the full expression of our love.]]> 256 Patrick O'Malley 1622038193 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.43 Getting Grief Right: Finding Your Story of Love in the Sorrow of Loss
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name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.43
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]]> Booth 58502673 Best Book of the Year
Real Simple - AARP - USA Today

From the Man Booker finalist and bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves comes an epic and intimate novel about the family behind one of the most infamous figures in American history: John Wilkes Booth.

In 1822, a secret family moves into a secret cabin some thirty miles northeast of Baltimore, to farm, to hide, and to bear ten children over the course of the next sixteen years. Junius Booth--breadwinner, celebrated Shakespearean actor, and master of the house in more ways than one--is at once a mesmerizing talent and a man of terrifying instability. One by one the children arrive, as year by year, the country draws frighteningly closer to the boiling point of secession and civil war.

As the tenor of the world shifts, the Booths emerge from their hidden lives to cement their place as one of the country's leading theatrical families. But behind the curtains of the many stages they have graced, multiple scandals, family triumphs, and criminal disasters begin to take their toll, and the solemn siblings of John Wilkes Booth are left to reckon with the truth behind the destructively specious promise of an early prophecy.

Booth is a startling portrait of a country in the throes of change and a vivid exploration of the ties that make, and break, a family.]]> 470 Karen Joy Fowler 0593331435 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.76 2022 Booth
author: Karen Joy Fowler
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.76
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]]> <![CDATA[Free: Two Years, Six Lives, and the Long Journey Home]]> 59337819 95 percent of the millions of American men and women who go to prison eventually get out. What happens to them?

There's Arnoldo, who came of age inside a maximum security penitentiary, now free after nineteen years. Trevor and Catherine, who spent half of their young lives behind bars for terrible crimes committed when they were kids. Dave, inside the walls for 34 years, now about to reenter an unrecognizable world. Vicki, a five-time loser who had cycled in and out of prison for more than a third of her life. They are simultaneously joyful and overwhelmed at the prospect of freedom. Anxious, confused, sometimes terrified, and often ill-prepared to face the challenges of the free world, all are intent on reclaiming and remaking their lives.

What is the road they must travel from caged to free? How do they navigate their way home?

A gripping and empathetic work of immersion reportage, Free reveals what awaits them and the hundreds of thousands of others who are released from prison every year: the first rush of freedom followed quickly by institutionalized obstacles and logistical roadblocks, grinding bureaucracies, lack of resources, societal stigmas and damning self-perceptions, the sometimes overwhelming psychological challenges. Veteran reporter Lauren Kessler, both clear-eyed and compassionate, follows six people whose diverse stories paint an intimate portrait of struggle, persistence, and resilience.

The truth—the many truths—about life after lockup is more interesting, more nuanced, and both more troubling and more deeply triumphant than we know.]]> 320 Lauren Kessler 1728236517 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.14 2022 Free: Two Years, Six Lives, and the Long Journey Home
author: Lauren Kessler
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.14
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]]> The Pain Tree 23094226
Collected here are revenge stories (“The Goodness of my Heart�), a bargain with the Devil (“Boxed-in�), a Cinderella story (“The Country Cousin�), a magical realist interpretation of African spiritual beliefs (“Flying�) and a narrator’s belated acceptance of the healing power of traditional beliefs (“The Pain Tree�). “Coal� is a realist story set in the war years and depression that followed as folks try to find a new place in the world. Senior’s trademark children awakening to self-awareness and to the hypocrisy of adults are here too, from the heartbreaking “Moonlight� and “Silent� to the girls in “Lollipop� and “A Father Like That� who learn to confront loneliness and vulnerability with attitude.]]> 194 Olive Senior 1770864342 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.26 2015 The Pain Tree
author: Olive Senior
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2015
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]]> The Fisherman 29901930
Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. It's a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher: the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.]]> 266 John Langan 1939905214 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.86 2016 The Fisherman
author: John Langan
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2016
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]]> Piranesi 50202953
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.]]> 272 Susanna Clarke 163557563X Mitchell 0 to-read 4.22 2020 Piranesi
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
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]]> The years I lived inside 60785851 65 Nicolette Richardson Mitchell 0 to-read 4.00 The years I lived inside
author: Nicolette Richardson
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.00
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]]> <![CDATA[The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country]]> 23282062
A Year of Living Danishly looks at where the Danes get it right, where they get it wrong, and how we might just benefit from living a little more Danishly ourselves.]]> 304 Helen Russell 184831812X Mitchell 0 to-read 3.92 2015 The Year of Living Danishly: Uncovering the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country
author: Helen Russell
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/08
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]]> This Is Happiness 42972008
For one thing, the rain is stopping. Nobody remembers when it started; rain on the western seaboard is a condition of living. But now � just as Father Coffey proclaims the coming of the electricity � the rain clouds are lifting. Seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe is idling in the unexpected sunshine when Christy makes his first entrance into Faha, bringing secrets he needs to atone for. Though he can't explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed.

As the people of Faha anticipate the endlessly procrastinated advent of the electricity, and Noel navigates his own coming-of-age and his fallings in and out of love, Christy's past gradually comes to light, casting a new glow on a small world.

Harking back to a simpler time, This Is Happiness is a tender portrait of a community � its idiosyncrasies and traditions, its paradoxes and kindnesses, its failures and triumphs � and a coming-of-age tale like no other. Luminous and lyrical, yet anchored by roots running deep into the earthy and everyday, it is about the power of stories: their invisible currents that run through all we do, writing and rewriting us, and the transforming light that they throw onto our world.]]> 400 Niall Williams 163557420X Mitchell 0 to-read 4.18 2019 This Is Happiness
author: Niall Williams
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2019
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]]> <![CDATA[A Place Called Freedom: A Vast, Thrilling Work of Historical Fiction]]> 11281988 Set in an era of turbulent social changes, A Place Called Freedom is a magnificent historical fiction novel from the undisputed master of suspense and drama, Ken Follett.

A Life of Poverty
Scotland, 1767. Mack McAsh is a slave by birth, destined for a cruel and harsh life as a miner. But as a man of principles and courage, he has the strength to stand up for what he believes in, only to be labelled as a rebel and enemy of the state.

A Life of Wealth
Life feels constrained for rebellious Lizzie Hallim, as she struggles with the less cruel circumstances of wealth and privilege. Fiercely independent, she is engaged to a man she doesn’t care for, a landlord’s son and heir to an exploitative business empire.

A Search for Freedom
Lizzie finds herself helping Mack after he becomes a fugitive. Separated by class but bound by their yearning for freedom, they escape to London. True freedom, though, lies further afield, in a new life that awaits across the Atlantic Ocean . . .]]> 508 Ken Follett Mitchell 0 to-read 4.27 1995 A Place Called Freedom: A Vast, Thrilling Work of Historical Fiction
author: Ken Follett
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1995
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]]> Weather 39441764 From the author of the nationwide best seller Dept. of Speculation—one of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of the Year—a shimmering tour de force about a family, and a nation, in crisis

Lizzie Benson slid into her job as a librarian without a traditional degree. But this gives her a vantage point from which to practice her other calling: she is a fake shrink. For years, she has tended to her God-haunted mother and her recovering addict brother. They have both stabilized for the moment, but Lizzie has little chance to spend her new free time with husband and son before her old mentor, Sylvia Liller, makes a proposal. She's become famous for her prescient podcast, Hell and High Water, and wants to hire Lizzie to answer the mail she receives: from left-wingers worried about climate change and right wingers worried about the decline of western civilization.

As Lizzie dives into this polarized world, she begins to wonder what it means to keep tending your own garden once you've seen the flames beyond its walls. When her brother becomes a father and Sylvia a recluse, Lizzie is forced to address the limits of her own experience—but still she tries to save everyone, using everything she's learned about empathy and despair, conscience and collusion, from her years of wandering the library stacks... And all the while the voices of the city keep floating in—funny, disturbing, and increasingly mad.]]> 224 Jenny Offill Mitchell 0 to-read 3.60 2020 Weather
author: Jenny Offill
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2020
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]]> <![CDATA[The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans—And How We Can Fix It]]> 55028680 A groundbreaking exposé of racism in the American taxation system from a law professor and expert on tax policy

Dorothy A. Brown became a tax lawyer to get away from race. As a young black girl growing up in the South Bronx, she’d seen how racism limited the lives of her family and neighbors. Her law school classes offered a refreshing contrast: Tax law was about numbers, and the only color that mattered was green. But when Brown sat down to prepare tax returns for her parents, she found something strange: James and Dottie Brown, a plumber and a nurse, seemed to be paying an unusually high percentage of their income in taxes. When Brown became a law professor, she set out to understand why.

In The Whiteness of Wealth, Brown draws on decades of cross-disciplinary research to show that tax law isn’t as color-blind as she’d once believed. She takes us into her adopted city of Atlanta, introducing us to families across the economic spectrum whose stories demonstrate how American tax law rewards the preferences and practices of white people while pushing black people further behind. From attending college to getting married to buying a home, black Americans find themselves at a financial disadvantage compared to their white peers. The results are an ever-increasing wealth gap and more black families shut out of the American dream.

Solving the problem will require a wholesale rethinking of America’s tax code. But it will also require both black and white Americans to make different choices. This urgent, actionable book points the way forward.]]> 288 Dorothy A. Brown 0525577327 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.27 2021 The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans—And How We Can Fix It
author: Dorothy A. Brown
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2021
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date added: 2022/04/07
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]]> The Thing Around Your Neck 5587960
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie burst onto the literary scene with her remarkable debut novel, Purple Hibiscus, which critics hailed as "one of the best novels to come out of Africa in years" (Baltimore Sun), with "prose as lush as the Nigerian landscape that it powerfully evokes" (The Boston Globe); The Washington Post called her "the twenty-first-century daughter of Chinua Achebe." Her award-winning Half of a Yellow Sun became an instant classic upon its publication three years later, once again putting her tremendous gifts - graceful storytelling, knowing compassion, and fierce insight into her characters' hearts - on display. Now, in her most intimate and seamlessly crafted work to date, Adichie turns her penetrating eye on not only Nigeria but America, in twelve dazzling stories that explore the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States.

In "A Private Experience," a medical student hides from a violent riot with a poor Muslim woman whose dignity and faith force her to confront the realities and fears she's been pushing away. In "Tomorrow is Too Far," a woman unlocks the devastating secret that surrounds her brother's death. The young mother at the center of "Imitation" finds her comfortable life in Philadelphia threatened when she learns that her husband has moved his mistress into their Lagos home. And the title story depicts the choking loneliness of a Nigerian girl who moves to an America that turns out to be nothing like the country she expected; though falling in love brings her desires nearly within reach, a death in her homeland forces her to reexamine them.

Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow, and longing, these stories map, with Adichie's signature emotional wisdom, the collision of two cultures and the deeply human struggle to reconcile them. The Thing Around Your Neck is a resounding confirmation of the prodigious literary powers of one of our most essential writers.]]> 218 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 0307271072 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.24 2008 The Thing Around Your Neck
author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe]]> 58284109 The staggering story of an unlikely band of mothers in the 1970s who discovered Hooker Chemical's deadly secret of Love Canal--exposing one of America's most devastating toxic waste disasters and sparking the modern environmental movement as we know it today.

Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny, and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an elementary school, a playground, and rows of affordable homes. But in the spring of 1977, pungent odors began to seep into these little houses, and it didn't take long for worried mothers to identify the curious scent. It was the sickly sweet smell of chemicals.

In this propulsive work of narrative storytelling, NYT journalist Keith O'Brien uncovers how Gibbs and Kenny exposed the poisonous secrets buried in their neighborhood. The school and playground had been built atop an old canal--Love Canal, it was called--that Hooker Chemical, the city's largest employer, had quietly filled with twenty thousand tons of toxic waste in the 1940s and 1950s. This waste was now leaching to the surface, causing a public health crisis the likes of which America had never seen before and sparking new and specific fears. Luella Kenny believed the chemicals were making her son sick.

O'Brien braids together previously unknown stories of Hooker Chemical's deeds; the local newspaperman, scientist, and congressional staffer who tried to help; the city and state officials who didn't; and the heroic women who stood up to corporate and governmental indifference to save their families and their children. They would take their fight all the way to the top, winning support from the EPA, the White House, and even President Jimmy Carter. By the time it was over, they would capture America's imagination.

Sweeping and electrifying, Paradise Falls brings to life a defining story from our past, laying bare the dauntless efforts of a few women who--years before Erin Brockovich took up the mantle-- fought to rescue their community and their lives from the effects of corporate pollution and laid foundation for the modern environmental movement as we know it today.]]> 455 Keith O'Brien 0593318439 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.39 2022 Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe
author: Keith O'Brien
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/07
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]]> On the Road 70401 307 Jack Kerouac 0140042598 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.63 1957 On the Road
author: Jack Kerouac
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.63
book published: 1957
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/07
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[How God Became Jesus: The Real Origins of Belief in Jesus' Divine Nature—A Response To Bart Ehrman]]> 20802703
The first response book to this latest challenge to Christianity from Ehrman, How God Became Jesus features the work of five internationally recognized biblical scholars. While subjecting his claims to critical scrutiny, they offer a better, historically informed account of why the Galilean preacher from Nazareth came to be hailed as 'the Lord Jesus Christ.' Namely, they contend, the exalted place of Jesus in belief and worship is clearly evident in the earliest Christian sources, shortly following his death, and was not simply the invention of the church centuries later.]]> 233 Michael F. Bird 0310519616 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.84 2014 How God Became Jesus: The Real Origins of Belief in Jesus' Divine Nature—A Response To Bart Ehrman
author: Michael F. Bird
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth]]> 11543839
Known as a master explainer with deep knowledge of the field, Ehrman methodically demolishes both the scholarly and popular arguments against the existence of Jesus. Marshaling evidence from within the Bible and the wider historical record of the ancient world, Ehrman tackles the key issues that surround the popular mythologies associated with Jesus and the early Christian movement. Throughout Did Jesus Exist? Ehrman establishes the criterion for any genuine historical investigation and provides a robust defense of the methods required to discover the Jesus of history.]]> 304 Bart D. Ehrman 0062089943 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.80 2012 Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth
author: Bart D. Ehrman
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Ten Days in A Mad-House: A First-Hand Account of Life At Bellevue Hospital on Blackwell's Island in 1887]]> 36540533
"The insane asylum on Blackwell's Island is a human rat-trap. It is easy to get in, but once there it is impossible to get out."

This Edition of Ten Days in A Mad-House Is Illustrated and Annotated with a Brief History of Blackwell's Island Lunatic Asylum, With Additional Pictures, Word Definitions and Blank Pages for Notes.]]> 107 Nellie Bly Mitchell 0 to-read 4.04 1887 Ten Days in A Mad-House: A First-Hand Account of Life At Bellevue Hospital on Blackwell's Island in 1887
author: Nellie Bly
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1887
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning]]> 58438513 An NPR Best Book of the Year.

The incredible true story of the last ship to carry enslaved people to America, the remarkable town its survivors founded after emancipation, and the complicated legacy their descendants carry with them to this day—by the journalist who discovered the ship's remains.

Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, the Clotilda became the last ship in history to bring enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship was scuttled and burned on arrival to hide evidence of the crime, allowing the wealthy perpetrators to escape prosecution. Despite numerous efforts to find the sunken wreck, Clotilda remained hidden for the next 160 years. But in 2019, journalist Ben Raines made international news when he successfully concluded his obsessive quest through the swamps of Alabama to uncover one of our nation's most important historical artifacts.

Traveling from Alabama to the ancient African kingdom of Dahomey in modern-day Benin, Raines recounts the ship's perilous journey, the story of its rediscovery, and its complex legacy. Against all odds, Africatown, the Alabama community founded by the captives of the Clotilda, prospered in the Jim Crow South. Zora Neale Hurston visited in 1927 to interview Cudjo Lewis, telling the story of his enslavement in the New York Times bestseller Barracoon. And yet the haunting memory of bondage has been passed on through generations. Clotilda is a ghost haunting three communities—the descendants of those transported into slavery, the descendants of their fellow Africans who sold them, and the descendants of their American enslavers. This connection binds these groups together to this day. At the turn of the century, descendants of the captain who financed the Clotilda's journey lived nearby—where, as significant players in the local real estate market, they disenfranchised and impoverished residents of Africatown.

From these parallel stories emerges a profound depiction of America as it struggles to grapple with the traumatic past of slavery and the ways in which racial oppression continue to this day. And yet, at its heart, The Last Slave Ship remains optimistic—an epic tale of one community's triumphs over great adversity and a celebration of the power of human curiosity to uncover the truth about our past and heal its wounds.]]> 304 Ben Raines 1982136049 Mitchell 0 to-read 4.31 2022 The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning
author: Ben Raines
name: Mitchell
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/07
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]]> The Hours 1611704 230 Michael Cunningham 0312247184 Mitchell 0 to-read 3.86 1998 The Hours
author: Michael Cunningham
name: Mitchell
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/04/06
shelves: to-read
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