Lisa's bookshelf: eternally-reading-or-on-hold en-US Tue, 30 Jan 2024 07:36:40 -0800 60 Lisa's bookshelf: eternally-reading-or-on-hold 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Thinking, Fast and Slow 11468377 Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities—and also the faults and biases—of fast thinking, and reveals the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and behavior. The impact of loss aversion and overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the challenges of properly framing risks at work and at home, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning the next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems work together to shape our judgments and decisions.

Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Thinking, Fast and Slow will transform the way you think about thinking.]]> 499 Daniel Kahneman 0374275637 Lisa 0 4.17 2011 Thinking, Fast and Slow
author: Daniel Kahneman
name: Lisa
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/30
shelves: non-fiction, eternally-reading-or-on-hold
review:

]]> Tristes Tropiques 59003 Plus encore qu'un livre de voyage, il s'agit cette fois d'un livre sur le voyage. Sans renoncer aux détails pittoresques offerts par les sociétés indigènes du Brésil central, dont il a partagé l'existence et qui comptent parmi les plus primitives du globe, l'auteur entreprend, au cours d'une autobiographie intellectuelle, de situer celle-ci dans une perspective plus vaste : rapports entre l'Ancien et le Nouveau Monde ; place de l'homme dans la nature ; sens de la civilisation et du progrès.

Claude Lévi-Strauss souhaite ainsi renouer avec la tradition du "voyage philosophique" illustrée par la littérature depuis le XVIe siècle jusqu'au milieu du XIXe siècle, c'est-à-dire avant qu'une austérité scientifique mal comprise d'une part, le goût impudique du sensationnel de l'autre n'aient fart oublier qu'on court le monde, d'abord, à la recherche de soi.]]> 513 Claude Lévi-Strauss Lisa 0 4.09 1955 Tristes Tropiques
author: Claude LĂ©vi-Strauss
name: Lisa
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1955
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/09/01
shelves: anthropology, en-français, non-fiction, south-america, long-overdue, eternally-reading-or-on-hold
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dictionary of Word Origins: Histories of More Than 8,000 English-Language Words]]> 32117278 592 John Ayto Lisa 0 4.50 1990 Dictionary of Word Origins: Histories of More Than 8,000 English-Language Words
author: John Ayto
name: Lisa
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/11/19
shelves: non-fiction, eternally-reading-or-on-hold
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Skulls: An Exploration of Alan Dudley's Curious Collection]]> 14357463
In "Skulls," best-selling author Simon Winchester (author of "The Professor and the Madman"; "Atlantic: A Biography of the Ocean"; "Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded"; and others) tells the rich and fascinating story of skulls, both human and animal, from every perspective imaginable: historical, biographical, cultural, and iconographic. Presenting details about the parts of the skull (including the cranium, the mandible, the shape and positioning of the eye sockets, and species-specific features like horns, teeth, beaks and bills), information about the science and pseudoscience of skulls, and a look at skulls in religion, art and popular culture, his stories and information are riveting and enlightening.

At the center of "Skulls" is a stunning, never-before-seen-in-any-capacity, visual array of the skulls of more than 300 animals that walk, swim, and fly. The skulls are from the collection of Alan Dudley, a British collector and owner of what is probably the largest and most complete private collection of skulls in the world. Every skull is beautifully photographed to show several angles and to give the reader the most intimate view possible. Each includes a short explanatory paragraph and a data box with information on the animal's taxonomy, behavior, and diet.

"Skulls "was published in December 2011 as an e-book for the iPad by the innovative e-book publishers Touch Press, creators of the best-selling e-books for iPad "The Elements" and "Solar System." Both books were also published in print by Black Dog & Leventhal.]]> 256 Simon Winchester 1579129129 Lisa 0 4.37 2012 Skulls: An Exploration of Alan Dudley's Curious Collection
author: Simon Winchester
name: Lisa
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves: non-fiction, science-nature, eternally-reading-or-on-hold
review:

]]> Piano Stories 454294
"My stories have no logical structures," Hernández wrote, and indeed they proceed in a most uncanny fashion. Concatenations of images, skeins of sensations, startling metaphors like raids on the unconscious—these are the pathways through Hernández's fluid and animistic world. People and things, memory and fantasy are form-shifting aspects of one another: a statue stops taking its "role" seriously in order to spend time "playing with the pigeons"; a splashing Italian fountain foretells the astonishing part that water will play in a bereaved woman's life; curtained windows haunt a room as though they were twin maids dressed alike in lace and drapery; a man greets his wife by saying, "I always forget to bring a lens and have a good look at the plants in the greens of your eyes. I know how you get your complexion, though: by rubbing olives in your skin."

Though logic is not imposed on his stories from without, there is nothing arbitrary about Hernández's gentle surrealism. These tales unfold with the authority of dreams of childhood reveries, ready at any moment to take over from the rigorous banality we work so hard to enforce. Hernández's ear for the hidden language of the world is always strange and surprising. The delicious secret of his work is here revealed to English-language readers for, amazingly enough, the very first time.]]> 256 Felisberto Hernández 0941419541 Lisa 0 4.20 1993 Piano Stories
author: Felisberto Hernández
name: Lisa
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves: latin-america, short-story, to-read-2014, south-america, eternally-reading-or-on-hold
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction: Shorter Seventh Edition]]> 888154 Preface
Writing about fiction
Stories
I want to know why / Sherwood Anderson
Death by Landscape
Related: Atwood, Why do you write? / Margaret Atwood
Sonny's blues / James Baldwin
Gorilla, my love
Related: Bambara, What is it I think I'm doing anyhow? / Toni Cade Bambara
Snow / Ann Beattie
Occurrence at owl creek bridge / Ambrose Bierce
Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote / Jorge Luis Borges
Miriam /Truman Capote
Cathedral
Related: Carver, From on writing / Raymond Carver
Paul's case
Related: Andrea Barrett on Paul's case / Willa Cather
Enormous radio / John Cheever
Lady with the dog
Related: Chekhov, Letter to DV Grigorovich
Letter to A S Suvorin / Anton Chekhov
Story of an hour / Kate Chopin
Heart of darkness
Related: Conrad, Preface to the nigger of the Narcissus'' -- Letter to Barrett H Clark -- Barry Hannah on heart of darkness -- C P Sarvan, Racism and the heart of darkness / Joseph Conrad -- Continuity of parks / Julio Cortazar -- Open boat -- Related: Crane, Letter to John Northern Hiliard -- Allan Gurganus on the open boat -- Charles C Walcutt, [Stephen Crane: Naturalist] / Stephen Crane -- Wall of fire rising / Edwidge Danticat -- Intruder / Andre Dubus -- King of the bingo game -- Related: Ellison, an interview / Ralph Ellison -- Matchimanito / Louise Erdrich -- Barn burning -- Rose for Emily -- Related: Faulkner, an interview / William Faulkner -- Babylon revisited / F Scott Fitzgerald -- Great falls -- Related: Ford on Bharati Mukherjee's -- Management of grief / Richard Ford -- Handsomest drowned man in the world / Gabriel Garcia Marquez -- Yellow wallpaper / Charlotte Perkins Gilman -- Soldier's embrace / Nadine Gordimer -- Young Goodman Brown -- Related: Edgar Allan Poe, Review of Hawthorne's twice told tales / Nathaniel Hawthorne -- Hills like white elephants -- Related: Frederick Busch on hills like white elephants -- Hemingway, an interview / Ernest Hemingway -- Conscience of the court / Zora Neale Hurston -- Araby -- Dead -- Related: C C Loomis, Jr., structure and sympathy in Joyce's The dead'' / James Joyce
Metamorphosis
Hunger artist
Related: Stanley Corngold, Kafka's the metamorphosis: metamorphosis of the metaphor
Kafka, Letter to Max Brod / Franz Kafka
White horse / Yasunari Kawabata
Girl / Jamaica Kincaid
Horse dealer's daughter
Rocking horse winner
Related: Lawrence, Why the novel matters / DH Lawrence
Ones who walk away from Omelas / Ursula K Le Guin
Angel Levine / Bernard Malamud
Disorder and early sorrow
Related: Mann, letter to Paul Amann / Thomas Mann
Bliss / Katherine Mansfield
Shiloh / Bobbie Ann Mason
Adventure in Paris
Related: Maupassant, the novel / Guy De Maupassant
Why I like country music / James Alan Mcpherson
Bartleby, the Scrivener
Related: Leo Marx, Melville's parable of the walls / Herman Melville
Management of grief
Related: Richard Ford on the Management of grief
Mukherjee, a four-hundred-year-old woman / Bharati Mukherjee
Royal beatings
Related: Munro, What is real? / Alice Munro
Signs and symbols / Vladimir Nabokov
How I contemplated the world from the Detroit house of correction and began my life over again
Related: Oates, the Art and craft of revision / Joyce Carol Oates
Things they carried / Tim O'Brien
Good man is hard to find
Everything that rises must converge
Related: O'Connor, the Nature and aim of fiction
Lee Smith on a good man is hard to find / Flannery O'Connor
Guests of the nation
Related: Edward P Jones on Guests of the nation / Frank O'Connor
O yes / Tillie Olsen
Fall of the house of usher
Related: Poe, the Philosophy of composition
Poe, Review of Hawthorne's twice told tales
Richard Wilbur, the House of Poe / Edgar Allan Poe
Jilting of Granny Weatherall
Related: Porter, an interview / Katherine Anne Porter
Conversion of the Jews / Philip Roth
Gimpel the fool / Isaac Bashevis Singer
Chrysanthemums / John Steinbeck
Rules of the game / Amy Tan
Secret life of Walter Mitty
Related: Thurber, an interview / James Thurber
Death of Ivan Ilych
Related: Gary Saul Morson, the Reader as Voyeur: Tolstoi and the poetics of didactic fiction
Tolstoy, What is art? / Leo Tolstoy
A & P
Related: Updike, Accepting the Howells medal / John Updike
Moths / Helena Maria Viramontes
Everyday use / Alice Walker
Blackberry winter / Robert Penn Warren
Worn path
Related: Susan Dodd on a Worn path
Welty, an interview / Eudora Welty
Use of force / William Carlos Williams
In the garden of the North American martyrs / Tobias Wolff
Kew gardens / Virginia Woolf
Man who was almost a man / Richard Wright
Writers On Writing
Why do you write? / Margaret Atwood
What is it I think I'm doing anyhow? / Toni Cade Bambara
Letter to a young writer / Richard Bausch
from On writing / Raymond Carver
Letter to DV Grigorovich, March 28, 1886
Letter to AS Suvorin, October 27, 1888 / Anton Chekhov
Preface to the Nigger of the Narcissus'' -- Letter to Barrett H Clark, May 14, 1918 / Joseph Conrad -- Letter to John Northern Hiliard, February 1895 / Stephen Crane -- Interview / Ralph Ellison -- Interview / William Faulkner -- Interview / Ernest Hemingway -- Letter to Max Brod, July 5, 1922 / Franz Kafka -- Why the novel matters / D H Lawrence -- Letter to Paul Amann, September 10, 1915 / Thomas Mann -- Novel / Guy De Maupassant -- Four-hundred-year-old woman / Bharati Mukherjee -- What is real /Alice Munro -- Art and craft of revision / Joyce Carol Oates -- Nature and aim of fiction / Flannery O'Connor -- Philosophy of composition / Edgar Allan Poe -- Interview / Katherine Anne Porter -- Interview / James Thurber -- What is art? / Leo Tolstoy -- Accepting the Howells medal / John Updike -- Interview / Eudora Welty -- Writing Fiction -- Reviews And Commentaries -- Willa Cather's Paul's case'' / Andrea Barrett
Ernest Hemingway's Hills like white, elephants'' / Frederick Busch -- Kafka's the Metamorphosis: metamorphosis of the metaphor / Stanley Corngold -- Eudora Welty's A worn path'' / Susan Dodd
Bharati Mukherjee's The management of grief'' / Richard Ford -- Stephen Crane's The open boat / Allan Gurganus
Joseph Conrad's Heart of darkness / Barry Hannah
Frank O'Connor's Guests of the nation'' / Edward P Jones -- Structure and Sympathy in Joyce's The dead'' / C C Loomis, Jr
Melville's Parable of the walls / Leo Marx
Reader as voyeur: Tolstoi and the poetics of didactic fiction / Gary Saul Morson
Review of Hawthorne's twice told tales / Edgar Allan Poe
Racism and the heart of darkness / C P Sarvan
Flannery O'Connor's "A good man is hard to find'' / Lee Smith
[Stephen Crane: Naturalist] / Charles C Walcutt
From the house of Poe / Richard Wilbur
Glossary of critical terms
Permissions acknowledgments
Index of titles]]> 1088 Richard Bausch 0393926125 Lisa 0 4.06 The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction: Shorter Seventh Edition
author: Richard Bausch
name: Lisa
average rating: 4.06
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves: short-story, eternally-reading-or-on-hold
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass]]> 24213
When Alice sees a white rabbit take a watch out of its waistcoat pocket she decides to follow it, and a sequence of most unusual events is set in motion. This mini book contains the entire topsy-turvy stories of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, accompanied by practical notes and Martina Pelouso's memorable full-colour illustrations.]]> 239 Lewis Carroll Lisa 0 4.07 1871 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass
author: Lewis Carroll
name: Lisa
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1871
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves: eternally-reading-or-on-hold, long-overdue
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman]]> 76527
Laurence Sterne's great masterpiece of bawdy humour and rich satire defies any attempt to categorize it, with a rich metafictional narrative that might classify it as the first 'postmodern' novel. Part novel, part digression, its gloriously disordered narrative interweaves the birth and life of the unfortunate 'hero' Tristram Shandy, the eccentric philosophy of his father Walter, the amours and military obsessions of Uncle Toby, and a host of other characters, including Dr Slop, Corporal Trim and the parson Yorick. A joyful celebration of the endless possibilities of the art of fiction, Tristram Shandy is also a wry demonstration of its limitations. The text and notes of this volume are based on the acclaimed Florida Edition, with a critical introduction by Melvyn New and Christopher Ricks's introductory essay from the first Penguin Classics edition.]]> 735 Laurence Sterne 0141439777 Lisa 0 3.72 1767 The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
author: Laurence Sterne
name: Lisa
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1767
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves: feeling-ambitious, classic-literature, eternally-reading-or-on-hold
review:

]]> Island: Collected Stories 14271 448 Alasta MacLeod 0099422328 Lisa 0 4.14 2000 Island: Collected Stories
author: Alasta MacLeod
name: Lisa
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves: short-story, eternally-reading-or-on-hold
review:

]]> Paradise Lost 15997 Paradise Lost is one of the greatest epic poems in the English language. It tells the story of the Fall of Man, a tale of immense drama and excitement, of rebellion and treachery, of innocence pitted against corruption, in which God and Satan fight a bitter battle for control of mankind's destiny. The struggle rages across three worlds - heaven, hell, and earth - as Satan and his band of rebel angels plot their revenge against God. At the center of the conflict are Adam and Eve, who are motivated by all too human temptations but whose ultimate downfall is unyielding love.

Marked by Milton's characteristic erudition, Paradise Lost is a work epic both in scale and, notoriously, in ambition. For nearly 350 years, it has held generation upon generation of audiences in rapt attention, and its profound influence can be seen in almost every corner of Western culture.]]> 453 John Milton 0140424393 Lisa 3 3.83 1667 Paradise Lost
author: John Milton
name: Lisa
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1667
rating: 3
read at: 2005/01/01
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves: poetry, classic-literature, eternally-reading-or-on-hold
review:

]]> The Sagas of Icelanders 904279 782 Anonymous 0670889903 Lisa 0 4.28 1997 The Sagas of Icelanders
author: Anonymous
name: Lisa
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1997
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves: eternally-reading-or-on-hold, nordic
review:

]]> <![CDATA["Race" Is a Four-Letter Word: The Genesis of the Concept]]> 345670 Opening with an explanation of why the concept of race is biologically indefensible, "Race" Is a Four-Letter Word shows how the major elements of human biological variation have unrelated distributions and cannot be understood if the existence of "races" is assumed as a starting point. The book then examines the course of events that created the concept of race, journeying through time from Herodotus through Marco Polo; to the Renaissance and the role of the New World; on up to the American Civil War, the curious results of the alliance switch in World War I, Arthur Jensen, The Bell Curve , J. Philippe Rushton, and the Pioneer Fund in the twenty-first century.
Ideal as a supplementary text in anthropology courses, "Race" Is a Four-Letter Word can also be used in history of science courses and sociology courses. It is captivating reading for professionals and anyone else who seeks enlightenment on the socially debatable issue of "race."]]> 336 C. Loring Brace 0195173511 Lisa 4 4.14 2004 "Race" Is a Four-Letter Word: The Genesis of the Concept
author: C. Loring Brace
name: Lisa
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2009/01/01
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves: black-america, non-fiction, eternally-reading-or-on-hold, anthropology
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence]]> 185540 752 Martin Meredith 1586483986 Lisa 4 4.13 2005 The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence
author: Martin Meredith
name: Lisa
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves: africa, non-fiction, to-re-read, eternally-reading-or-on-hold
review:

]]> Gulliver’s Travels 7733 A wickedly clever satire uses comic inversions to offer telling insights into the nature of man and society. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Gulliver's Travels describes the four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon. In Lilliput he discovers a world in miniature; towering over the people and their city, he is able to view their society from the viewpoint of a god. However, in Brobdingnag, a land of giants, tiny Gulliver himself comes under observation, exhibited as a curiosity at markets and fairs. In Laputa, a flying island, he encounters a society of speculators and projectors who have lost all grip on everyday reality; while they plan and calculate, their country lies in ruins. Gulliver's final voyage takes him to the land of the Houyhnhnms, gentle horses whom he quickly comes to admire - in contrast to the Yahoos, filthy bestial creatures who bear a disturbing resemblance to humans. This text, based on the first edition of 1726, reproduces all the original illustrations and includes an introduction by Robert Demaria, Jr, which discusses the ways Gulliver's Travels has been interpreted since its first publication. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was born in Dublin.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]> 306 Jonathan Swift 0141439491 Lisa 4 3.59 1726 Gulliver’s Travels
author: Jonathan Swift
name: Lisa
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1726
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves: classic-literature, to-re-read, eternally-reading-or-on-hold
review:

]]> Dubliners 11012 I regret to see that my book has turned out un fiasco solenne.' James Joyce's disillusion with the publication of Dubliners in 1914 was the result of ten years battling with publishers, resisting their demands to remove swear words, real place names and much else, including two entire stories. Although only 24 when he signed his first publishing contract for the book, Joyce already knew its worth: to alter it in any way would 'retard the course of civilisation in Ireland'.

Joyce's aim was to tell the truth � to create a work of art that would reflect life in Ireland at the turn of the last century and by rejecting euphemism, reveal to the Irish the unromantic reality the recognition of which would lead to the spiritual liberation of the country.

Each of the fifteen stories offers a glimpse of the lives of ordinary Dubliners � a death, an encounter, an opportunity not taken, a memory rekindled � and collectively they paint a portrait of a nation.]]> 352 James Joyce Lisa 3 3.86 1914 Dubliners
author: James Joyce
name: Lisa
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1914
rating: 3
read at: 2004/01/01
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves: modern-classics, short-story, to-re-read, eternally-reading-or-on-hold, long-overdue
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation]]> 6878730

In this hip, hilarious and truly eye-opening cultural history, menstruation is talked about as never before. Flow spans its fascinating, occasionally wacky and sometimes downright scary story: from mikvahs (ritual cleansing baths) to menopause, hysteria to hysterectomies—not to mention the Pill, cramps, the history of underwear, and the movie about puberty they showed you in 5th grade.

Flow answers such questions as: What’s the point of getting a period? What did women do before pads and tampons? What about new drugs that promise to end periods—a hot idea or not? Sex during your period: gross or a turn-on? And what’s normal, anyway?  With color reproductions of (campy) historical ads and early (excruciating) femcare devices, it also provides a fascinating (and mind-boggling) gallery of this complex, personal and uniquely female process.

As irreverent as it is informative, Flow gives an everyday occurrence its true props � and eradicates the stigma placed on it for centuries.

]]> 254 Elissa Stein 031237996X Lisa 3 3.71 2009 Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation
author: Elissa Stein
name: Lisa
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2012/01/01
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves: non-fiction, eternally-reading-or-on-hold
review:

]]> The Canterbury Tales 2696 The procession that crosses Chaucer's pages is as full of life and as richly textured as a medieval tapestry. The Knight, the Miller, the Friar, the Squire, the Prioress, the Wife of Bath, and others who make up the cast of characters -- including Chaucer himself -- are real people, with human emotions and weaknesses. When it is remembered that Chaucer wrote in English at a time when Latin was the standard literary language across western Europe, the magnitude of his achievement is even more remarkable. But Chaucer's genius needs no historical introduction; it bursts forth from every page of The Canterbury Tales.

If we trust the General Prologue, Chaucer intended that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. He never finished his enormous project and even the completed tales were not finally revised. Scholars are uncertain about the order of the tales. As the printing press had yet to be invented when Chaucer wrote his works, The Canterbury Tales has been passed down in several handwritten manuscripts.

]]> 504 Geoffrey Chaucer 0140424385 Lisa 5 3.51 1400 The Canterbury Tales
author: Geoffrey Chaucer
name: Lisa
average rating: 3.51
book published: 1400
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2019/06/24
shelves: classic-literature, favorites, poetry, eternally-reading-or-on-hold
review:

]]>