en-US Mon, 09 Oct 2023 05:25:16 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 5107 It's Christmas time and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school...

Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters—shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, its mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning.

The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic in coming-of-age literature- an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind.

J.D. Salinger's (1919�2010) classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and in the 1950's and 60's it was the novel that every teenage boy wants to read.]]> 277 J.D. Salinger 0316769177 jeremy 5 my-favs 3.81 1951
author: J.D. Salinger
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1951
rating: 5
read at: 2023/01/01
date added: 2023/10/09
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]]> 36236124 Fight Club’s estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an enigmatic young man who holds secret after-hours boxing matches in the basement of bars. There, two men fight "as long as they have to." This is a gloriously original work that exposes the darkness at the core of our modern world.]]> 224 Chuck Palahniuk 0393355942 jeremy 5 my-favs 4.18 1996
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1996
rating: 5
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]]> 41880609 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born � a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam � and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.]]> 246 Ocean Vuong 0525562028 jeremy 5 my-favs 4.05 2019
author: Ocean Vuong
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 5
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]]> 406235 178 James Baldwin jeremy 5 my-favs 4.40 1956
author: James Baldwin
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.40
book published: 1956
rating: 5
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]]> 168668
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.]]> 453 Joseph Heller 0684833395 jeremy 5 my-favs 3.99 1961
author: Joseph Heller
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1961
rating: 5
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]]> 9589 322 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 0425161293 jeremy 4 3.83 1990
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/01
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]]> 4214 460 Yann Martel 0770430074 jeremy 5 3.94 2001
author: Yann Martel
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2001
rating: 5
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]]> 85921040 Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and The Elephant Vanishes, one of the most idiosyncratically brilliant writers at work in any language fuses science fiction, the hard-boiled thriller and white-hot satire into a new element of the literary periodic table.

As he searches for a mysteriously vanished girlfriend, Haruki Murakami's protagonist plunges into a wind tunnel of sexual violence and metaphysical dread in which he collides with call girls; plays chaperone to a lovely teenaged psychic; and receives cryptic instructions from a shabby but oracular Sheep Man. Dance Dance Dance is a tense, poignant, and often hilarious ride through the cultural Cuisinart that is contemporary Japan, a place where everything that is not up for sale is up for grabs.]]> 0 Haruki Murakami jeremy 3 3.93 1988
author: Haruki Murakami
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1988
rating: 3
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]]> 11230 296 Iris Murdoch 0141186690 jeremy 5 3.92 1958
author: Iris Murdoch
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1958
rating: 5
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]]> 1617 Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man. This new translation by his wife and most frequent translator, Marion Wiesel, corrects important details and presents the most accurate rendering in English of Elie Wiesel's testimony to what happened in the camps and of his unforgettable message that this horror must simply never be allowed to happen again.]]> 120 Elie Wiesel 0374500010 jeremy 5 4.38 1956
author: Elie Wiesel
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1956
rating: 5
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]]> 16842 186 Christopher Isherwood 0816638624 jeremy 5 4.08 1964
author: Christopher Isherwood
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1964
rating: 5
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]]> 10956 250 Jeffrey Eugenides 0747560595 jeremy 0 3.81 1993
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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]]> 6289251 Afrikaans 159 Eleanor Baker 0798124628 jeremy 4 3.11 1988
author: Eleanor Baker
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.11
book published: 1988
rating: 4
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I'm ashamed that I enjoyed this. I'm not going to pretend it's this incredible challenge of the form and I'm not going to pretend that Iris didn't seriously get on my nerves, but I couldn't help but be charmed by the writing style. It isn't something I'd ever have read out of my own volition but as far as set Afrikaans Huistaal books go, there have been much much worse. (specifically Suurlemoen, Droomdelwers & Fokus op Stella to name a few...) Though I definitely would have preferred a term with Raka or Kringe in 'n Bos instead. :)
]]> 18373 Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards, the powerful, classic story about a man who receives an operation that turns him into a genius...and introduces him to heartache.
Ěý
Charlie Gordon is about to embark upon an unprecedented journey. Born with an unusually low IQ, he has been chosen as the perfect subject for an experimental surgery that researchers hope will increase his intelligence � a procedure that has already been highly successful when tested on a lab mouse named Algernon.

As the treatment takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment appears to be a scientific breakthrough of paramount importance, until Algernon suddenly deteriorates. Will the same happen to Charlie?]]> 311 Daniel Keyes 015603008X jeremy 0 4.19 1966
author: Daniel Keyes
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at: 2023/04/27
date added: 2023/09/19
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]]> 63028719 Demigods Nico di Angelo and Will Solace must endure the terrors of Tartarus to rescue an old friend in this thrilling adventure co-written by New York Times #1 best-selling author Rick Riordan and award-winning author Mark Oshiro.

As the son of Hades, Nico di Angelo has been through so much, from the premature deaths of his mother and sister, to being outed against his will, to losing his friend Jason during the trials of Apollo. But there is a ray of sunshine in his life–literally: his boyfriend, Will Solace, the son of Apollo. Together the two demigods can overcome any obstacle or foe. At least, that’s been the case so far...

Now Nico is being plagued by a voice calling out to him from Tartarus, the lowest part of the Underworld. He thinks he knows who it is: a reformed Titan named Bob whom Percy and Annabeth had to leave behind when they escaped Hades’s realm. Nico’s dreams and Rachel Dare’s latest prophecy leave little doubt in Nico’s mind that Bob is in some kind of trouble. Nico has to go on this quest, whether Mr. D and Chiron like it or not. And of course Will insists on coming with. But can a being made of light survive in the darkest part of the world? and what does the prophecy mean that Nico will have to “leave something of equal value behind?�

Nico will have to face demons both internal and external as his relationship with Will is tested to the core in this standalone adventure featuring two of the most popular characters in the Percy Jackson saga.]]> 480 Rick Riordan 1368081347 jeremy 0 4.21 2023
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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]]> 3103
Forster understood that his homage to same-sex love, if published when he completed it in 1914, would probably end his career. Thus, Maurice languished in a drawer for fifty-seven years, the author requesting it be published only after his death (along with his stories about homosexuality later collected in The Life to Come).

Since its release in 1971, Maurice has been widely read and praised. It has been, and continues to be, adapted for major stage productions, including the 1987 Oscar-nominated film adaptation starring Hugh Grant and James Wilby.]]> 256 E.M. Forster 0393310329 jeremy 0 4.07 1971
author: E.M. Forster
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1971
rating: 0
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]]> 5129 Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine� (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New Worldd likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites.

"Aldous Huxley is the greatest 20th century writer in English." —Chicago Tribune]]> 268 Aldous Huxley 0060929871 jeremy 0 3.99 1932
author: Aldous Huxley
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1932
rating: 0
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]]> 914523 292 Elsa Joubert 0624023338 jeremy 0 to-read 4.04 1978
author: Elsa Joubert
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1978
rating: 0
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]]> 18114322
First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.]]> 496 John Steinbeck 067001690X jeremy 0 to-read 4.06 1939
author: John Steinbeck
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1939
rating: 0
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]]> 41817486 A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom. This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition, and Burgess’s introduction, “A Clockwork Orange Resucked.”]]> 240 Anthony Burgess 0393341763 jeremy 0 to-read 4.04 1962
author: Anthony Burgess
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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]]> 7144 671 Fyodor Dostoevsky jeremy 0 to-read 4.26 1866
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1866
rating: 0
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]]> 194746 No Longer Human, this leading postwar Japanese writer's second novel, tells the poignant and fascinating story of a young man who is caught between the breakup of the traditions of a northern Japanese aristocratic family and the impact of Western ideas. In consequence, he feels himself "disqualified from being human" (a literal translation of the Japanese title).

Donald Keene, who translated this and Dazai's first novel, The Setting Sun, has said of the author's work: "His world � suggests Chekhov or possibly postwar France, � but there is a Japanese sensibility in the choice and presentation of the material. A Dazai novel is at once immediately intelligible in Western terms and quite unlike any Western book." His writing is in some ways reminiscent of Rimbaud, while he himself has often been called a forerunner of Yukio Mishima.

Cover painting by Noe Nojechowiz, from the collection of John and Barbara Duncan; design by Gertrude Huston]]> 176 Osamu Dazai jeremy 0 to-read 3.99 1948
author: Osamu Dazai
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1948
rating: 0
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]]> 36236125
Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from being a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing your past and making up something better, and that salvation hides in the last place you'll ever want to look.

The narrator must exact revenge upon Evie, her best friend and fellow model; kidnap Manus, her two-timing ex-boyfriend; and hit the road with Brandy in search of a brand-new past, present and future.]]> 304 Chuck Palahniuk 0393355950 jeremy 5 4.02 1999
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1999
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/05/27
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]]> 11298 353 Haruki Murakami 037571894X jeremy 0 3.96 1982
author: Haruki Murakami
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at: 2023/05/23
date added: 2023/05/23
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]]> 8921 256 Arthur Conan Doyle jeremy 0 4.15 1902
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1902
rating: 0
read at: 2023/05/18
date added: 2023/05/18
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]]> 433567 [sic � ed.], a mathematician and resident of the two-dimensional Flatland, where women-thin, straight lines-are the lowliest of shapes, and where men may have any number of sides, depending on their social status.
Through strange occurrences that bring him into contact with a host of geometric forms, Square has adventures in Spaceland (three dimensions), Lineland (one dimension) and Pointland (no dimensions) and ultimately entertains thoughts of visiting a land of four dimensions—a revolutionary idea for which he is returned to his two-dimensional world. Charmingly illustrated by the author, Flatland is not only fascinating reading, it is still a first-rate fictional introduction to the concept of the multiple dimensions of space. "Instructive, entertaining, and stimulating to the imagination." � Mathematics Teacher.]]> 96 Edwin A. Abbott 048627263X jeremy 0 3.82 1884
author: Edwin A. Abbott
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1884
rating: 0
read at: 2023/04/29
date added: 2023/05/18
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]]> 30474 The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels' revolutionary 1848 summons to the working classes, is one of the most influential political theories ever formulated. After four years of collaboration, the authors produced this incisive account of their idea of Communism, in which they envisage a society without classes, private property, or a state. They argue that increasing exploitation of industrial workers will eventually lead to a revolution in which capitalism is overthrown. Their vision transformed the world irrevocably, and remains relevant as a depiction of global capitalism today.]]> 288 Karl Marx 0140447571 jeremy 0 3.67 1848
author: Karl Marx
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1848
rating: 0
read at: 2023/04/06
date added: 2023/05/18
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]]> 4149509 Mis, Mirakel en Drif tot ʼn drieluik, ʼn musikale eenheid as't ware, waarin variasies van verskeie temas weerklink.

Al die "verlore persone" ontsnap uit ʼn verstikkend gewone lewe en betree deur die toedoen van "teater" en ʼn reeks "towenaars" die buitegewone, dog gevaarlike wêreld van fantasie en vervulling.

Terselfdertyd verskil die drie stemmingstukke wesenlik van mekaar omdat elk ʼn spesifieke atmosfeer het.]]> 242 Reza de Wet 0636085600 jeremy 4 3.46
author: Reza de Wet
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.46
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/07
date added: 2023/05/17
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]]> 12067
People have been predicting the end of the world almost from its very beginning, so it’s only natural to be sceptical when a new date is set for Judgement Day. This time though, the armies of Good and Evil really do appear to be massing. The four Bikers of the Apocalypse are hitting the road. But both the angels and demons � well, one fast-living demon and a somewhat fussy angel � would quite like the Rapture not to happen.

And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist…]]> 491 Terry Pratchett jeremy 0 4.27 1990
author: Terry Pratchett
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at: 2023/04/05
date added: 2023/05/17
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]]> 233637 182 Carolyn Keene 0448095025 jeremy 0 3.95 1930
author: Carolyn Keene
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1930
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/25
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]]> 156979 204 Carolyn Keene 1557091579 jeremy 0 3.95 1930
author: Carolyn Keene
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1930
rating: 0
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]]> 32979 210 Carolyn Keene 1557091552 jeremy 0 3.99 1930
author: Carolyn Keene
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1930
rating: 0
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]]> 101001 Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series.TM & 2006 Simon & Schuster, Inc.]]> 160 Carolyn Keene 000692526X jeremy 0 3.95 1931
author: Carolyn Keene
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1931
rating: 0
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]]> 48764 200 Carolyn Keene 1557091587 jeremy 0 3.99 1930
author: Carolyn Keene
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1930
rating: 0
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]]> 20829994 417 Rick Riordan jeremy 0 4.45 2014
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> 27904311 "Magnus Chase, you nearly started Ragnarok. What are you going to do next?"

It's been six weeks since Magnus and his friends returned from defeating Fenris Wolf and the fire giants. Magnus has adjusted to life at the Hotel Valhalla—as much as a once-homeless and previously alive kid can. As a son of Frey, the god of summer, fertility, and health, Magnus doesn't exactly fit in with the rest of Odin's chosen warriors, but he has a few good peeps among his hallmates on floor nineteen, and he's been dutifully training for Ragnarok along with everyone else. His days have settled into a new kind of normal.

But Magnus should have known there's no such thing as normal in the Nine Worlds. His friends Hearthstone and Blitzen have disappeared. A new hallmate is creating chaos. According to a very nervous goat, a certain object belonging to Thor is still missing, and the thunder god's enemies will stop at nothing to gain control of it.

Time to summon Jack, the Sword of Summer, and take action. Too bad the only action Jack seems to be interested in is dates with other magical weapons. . . .]]> 459 Rick Riordan 1423160924 jeremy 0 4.29 2016
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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]]> 26252859
By making him human.

After angering his father Zeus, the god Apollo is cast down from Olympus. Weak and disorientated, he lands in New York City as a regular teenage boy. Now, without his godly powers, the four-thousand-year-old deity must learn to survive in the modern world until he can somehow find a way to regain Zeus's favour.

But Apollo has many enemies—gods, monsters and mortals who would love to see the former Olympian permanently destroyed. Apollo needs help, and he can think of only one place to go... an enclave of modern demigods known as Camp Half-Blood.]]> 376 Rick Riordan 148473274X jeremy 0 4.13 2016
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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]]> 15724396
One day, Magnus learns that someone else is trying to track him down—his uncle Randolph, a man his mother had always warned him about. When Magnus tries to outmaneuver his uncle, he falls right into his clutches. Randolph starts rambling about Norse history and Magnus's birthright: a weapon that has been lost for thousands of years.

The more Randolph talks, the more puzzle pieces fall into place. Stories about the gods of Asgard, wolves, and Doomsday bubble up from Magnus's memory. But he doesn't have time to consider it all before a fire giant attacks the city, forcing him to choose between his own safety and the lives of hundreds of innocents. . . .

Sometimes, the only way to start a new life is to die.]]> 512 Rick Riordan 1423160916 jeremy 0 4.22 2015
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> 18705209 Nico had warned them. Going through the House of Hades would stir the demigods' worst memories. Their ghosts would become restless. Nico may actually become a ghost if he has to shadow-travel with Reyna and Coach Hedge one more time. But that might be better than the alternative: allowing someone else to die, as Hades foretold.

Jason's ghost is his mother, who abandoned him when he was little. He may not know how he is going to prove himself as a leader, but he does know that he will not break promises like she did. He will complete his line of the prophecy: To storm or fire the world must fall.

Reyna fears the ghosts of her ancestors, who radiate anger. But she can't allow them to distract her from getting the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood before war breaks out between the Romans and Greeks. Will she have enough strength to succeed, especially with a deadly hunter on her trail?

Leo fears that his plan won't work, that his friends might interfere. But there is no other way. All of them know that one of the Seven has to die in order to defeat Gaea, the Earth Mother.

Piper must learn to give herself over to fear. Only then will she be able to do her part at the end: utter a single word.

Heroes, gods, and monsters all have a role to play in the climactic fulfillment of the prophecy in The Blood of Olympus, the electrifying finale of the best-selling Heroes of Olympus series.]]> 516 Rick Riordan jeremy 0 4.42 2014
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> 7090447
On Christmas Eve, Sadie and Carter are reunited when their father brings them to the British Museum, with a promise that he's going to "make things right." But all does not go according to plan: Carter and Sadie watch as Julius summons a mysterious figure, who quickly banishes their father and causes a fiery explosion.

Soon Carter and Sadie discover that the gods of Ancient Egypt are waking, and the worst of them—Set—has a frightening scheme. To save their father, they must embark on a dangerous journey—a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family and its links to the House of Life, a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.]]> 528 Rick Riordan 1423113381 jeremy 0 4.10 2010
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2010
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]]> 12127810 Hazel stands at a crossroads. She and the remaining crew of the Argo II could return home with the Athena Parthenos statue and try to stop Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter from going to war. Or they could continue their quest to find the House of Hades, where they might be able to open the Doors of Death, rescue their friends Percy and Annabeth from Tartarus, and prevent monsters from being reincarnated in the mortal world. Whichever road they decide to take, they have to hurry, because time is running out. Gaea, the bloodthirsty Earth Mother, has set the date of August 1 for her rise to power.

Annabeth and Percy are overwhelmed. How will the two of them make it through Tartarus? Starving, thirsty, and in pain, they are barely able to stumble on in the dark and poisonous landscape that holds new horrors at every turn. They have no way of locating the Doors of Death. Even if they did, a legion of Gaea's strongest monsters guards the Doors on the Tartarus side. Annabeth and Percy can't exactly launch a frontal assault.

Despite the terrible odds, Hazel, Annabeth, Percy, and the other demigods of the prophecy know that there is only one choice: to attempt the impossible. Not just for themselves, but for everyone they love. Even though love can be the riskiest choice of all.

Join the demigods as they face their biggest challenges yet in The House of Hades, the hair-raising penultimate book in the best-selling Heroes of Olympus series.]]> 597 Rick Riordan 1423146727 jeremy 0 4.56 2013
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]> 9520360 PERCY IS CONFUSED. When he awoke from his long sleep, he didn't know much more than his name. His brain fuzz is lingering, even after the wolf Lupa told him he is a demigod and trained him to fight with the pen/sword in his pocket. Somehow Percy manages to make it to a camp for half-bloods, despite the fact that he has to keep killing monsters along the way. But the camp doesn't ring any bells with him. The only thing he can recall from his past is another name: Annabeth.

HAZEL IS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD. When she lived before, she didn't do a very good job of it. Sure, she was an obedient daughter, even when her mother was possessed by greed. But that was the problem—when the Voice took over her mother and commanded Hazel to use her "gift" for an evil purpose, Hazel couldn't say no. Now because of her mistake, the future of the world is at risk. Hazel wishes she could ride away from it all on the stallion that appears in her dreams.

FRANK IS A KLUTZ. His grandmother says he is descended from heroes and can be anything he wants to be, but he doesn't see it. He doesn't even know who his father is. He keeps hoping Apollo will claim him, because the only thing he is good at is archery—although not good enough to win camp war games. His bulky physique makes him feel like an ox, especially in front of Hazel, his closest friend at camp. He trusts her completely—enough to share the secret he holds close to his heart.

Beginning at the "other" camp for half-bloods and extending as far as the land beyond the gods, this breathtaking second installment of the Heroes of Olympus series introduces new demigods, revives fearsome monsters, and features other remarkable creatures, all destined to play a part in the Prophesy of Seven.]]> 521 Rick Riordan 1423140591 jeremy 0 4.41 2011
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> 12127750 Annabeth is terrified. Just when she's about to be reunited with Percy—after six months of being apart, thanks to Hera—it looks like Camp Jupiter is preparing for war. As Annabeth and her friends Jason, Piper, and Leo fly in on the Argo II, she can't blame the Roman demigods for thinking the ship is a Greek weapon. With its steaming bronze dragon figurehead, Leo's fantastical creation doesn't appear friendly. Annabeth hopes that the sight of their praetor Jason on deck will reassure the Romans that the visitors from Camp Half-Blood are coming in peace.

And that's only one of her worries. In her pocket, Annabeth carries a gift from her mother that came with an unnerving command: Follow the Mark of Athena. Avenge me. Annabeth already feels weighed down by the prophecy that will send seven demigods on a quest to find—and close—the Doors of Death. What more does Athena want from her?

Annabeth's biggest fear, though, is that Percy might have changed. What if he's now attached to Roman ways? Does he still need his old friends? As the daughter of the goddess of war and wisdom, Annabeth knows she was born to be a leader—but never again does she want to be without Seaweed Brain by her side

Narrated by four different demigods, The Mark of Athena is an unforgettable journey across land and sea to Rome, where important discoveries, surprising sacrifices, and unspeakable horrors await. Climb aboard the Argo II, if you dare. . . .]]> 586 Rick Riordan 1423140605 jeremy 0 4.47 2012
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> 7736182 JASON HAS A PROBLEM. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper, and his best friend is a guy named Leo. They’re all students at the Wilderness School, a boarding school for “bad kids," as Leo puts it. What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly? Jason doesn't know anything—except that everything seems very wrong.

PIPER HAS A SECRET. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare about his being in trouble. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits during the school trip, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out, whether she wants to or not.

LEO HAS A WAY WITH TOOLS. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about, and some camper who's gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god. Does this have anything to do with Jason's amnesia, or the fact that Leo keeps seeing ghosts?

Join new and old friends from Camp Half-Blood in this thrilling first book in The Heroes of Olympus series. Best-selling author Rick Riordan has pumped up the action, humor, suspense, and mystery in an epic adventure that will leave readers panting for the next installment.]]> 576 Rick Riordan 142311339X jeremy 0 4.28 2010
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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]]> 4556058
While the Olympians struggle to contain the rampaging monster Typhon, Kronos begins his advance on New York City, where Mount Olympus stands virtually unguarded. Now it's up to Percy Jackson and an army of young demigods to stop the Lord of Time.

In this momentous final book in the New York Times best-selling series, the long-awaited prophecy surrounding Percy's sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate.]]> 381 Rick Riordan 1423101472 jeremy 0 4.59 2009
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.59
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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]]> 561456
But when you're the son of a Greek god, it happens. And now my friend Annabeth is missing, a goddess is in chains and only five half-blood heroes can join the quest to defeat the doomsday monster.

Oh, and guess what? The Oracle has predicted that not all of us will survive...]]> 352 Rick Riordan jeremy 0 4.37 2007
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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]]> 28186
In this episode, The Sea of Monsters, Percy sets out to retrieve the Golden Fleece before his summer camp is destroyed, surpassing the first book's drama and setting the stage for more thrills to come.]]> 279 Rick Riordan 0786856866 jeremy 0 4.25 2006
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> 2120932
In this fourth installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop the invasion, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth - a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn.]]> 361 Rick Riordan 1423101464 jeremy 0 4.41 2008
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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]]> 28187 Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse - Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him. When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he'll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea. Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena - Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.]]> 377 Rick Riordan 0786838655 jeremy 0 4.31 2005
author: Rick Riordan
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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]]> 8852
This shocking tragedy - a violent caution to those seeking power for its own sake - is, to this day, one of Shakespeare’s most popular and influential masterpieces.]]> 249 William Shakespeare 0743477103 jeremy 4 3.90 1623
author: William Shakespeare
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1623
rating: 4
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]]> 1420 289 William Shakespeare 0521618746 jeremy 5 4.02 1601
author: William Shakespeare
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1601
rating: 5
read at: 2023/02/19
date added: 2023/02/25
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]]> 1174043 310 Dalene Matthee 0624028178 jeremy 5 4.30 1984
author: Dalene Matthee
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1984
rating: 5
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]]> 11409101
Here the lives of rich and poor, white and coloured are tightly interwoven. Various characters roam here, each with their own story. As Oom Kêppies says: “He’s like the sea, like a wave. You think you’ve got him, but his foam line on the sand is all that’s left.�

But even before the line of foam is all that remains on the sand, the calm life cycle of the “salt of the earth� is suddenly threatened.,]]> 288 Esta Steyn 0624051455 jeremy 2 3.27 2011
author: Esta Steyn
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2011
rating: 2
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]]> 2784360 South African Poetry 34 N.P. van Wyk Louw 0624001520 jeremy 5 4.02 1941
author: N.P. van Wyk Louw
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1941
rating: 5
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]]> 1371
Combining the skills of a poet and scholar, Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, brings the energy of contemporary language to this enduring heroic epic. He maintains the drive and metric music of Homer’s poetry, and evokes the impact and nuance of the Iliad’s mesmerizing repeated phrases in what Peter Levi calls “an astonishing performance.”]]> 614 Homer 0140275363 jeremy 0 currently-reading 3.88 -800
author: Homer
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.88
book published: -800
rating: 0
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]]> 17143 Go Tell It On The Mountain, first published in 1953, is Baldwin's first major work, a semi-autobiographical novel that has established itself as an American classic. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves.]]> 256 James Baldwin 0141185910 jeremy 3 4.06 1953
author: James Baldwin
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1953
rating: 3
read at: 2023/02/05
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]]> 28676 American Psycho is a bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognize but do not wish to confront.]]> 399 Bret Easton Ellis 0679735771 jeremy 4 3.82 1991
author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1991
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/11
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]]> 6150 Cry, the Beloved Country, the most famous and important novel in South Africa’s history, was an immediate worldwide bestseller in 1948. Alan Paton’s impassioned novel about a black man’s country under white man’s law is a work of searing beauty.

Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.

The eminent literary critic Lewis Gannett wrote, “We have had many novels from statesmen and reformers, almost all bad; many novels from poets, almost all thin. In Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country the statesman, the poet and the novelist meet in a unique harmony.�

Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.]]> 316 Alan Paton 074326195X jeremy 4 3.91 1948
author: Alan Paton
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1948
rating: 4
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]]> 332018 198 Richard Rive 0864863039 jeremy 5 4.01 1986
author: Richard Rive
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1986
rating: 5
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]]> 32829
The expedition descends into an extinct volcano toward a sunless sea, where they encounter a subterranean world of luminous rocks, antediluvian forests, and fantastic marine life � a living past that holds the secrets to the origins of human existence.]]> 240 Jules Verne 0553213970 jeremy 3 3.87 1864
author: Jules Verne
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1864
rating: 3
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date added: 2023/02/15
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]]> 318337
Ten years after the fall of communism, a writer called B. commits suicide, devastating his circle and deeply puzzling his friend Kingsbitter. For among B.’s effects, Kingsbitter finds a play that eerily predicts events after his death. Why did B.–who was born at Auschwitz and miraculously survived–take his life? As Kingsbitter searches for the answer –and for the novel he is convinced lies hidden among his friend’s papers–Liquidation becomes an inquest into the deeply compromised inner life of a generation. The result is moving, revelatory, and haunting.]]> 130 Imre Kertész 140007505X jeremy 3 3.82 2003
author: Imre Kertész
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2003
rating: 3
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]]> 667 Anthem is Ayn Rand's classic tale of a dystopian future of the great "We"—a world that deprives individuals of a name or independence—that anticipates her later masterpieces, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

They existed only to serve the state. They were conceived in controlled Palaces of Mating. They died in the Home of the Useless. From cradle to grave, the crowd was one—the great WE.

In all that was left of humanity, there was only one man who dared to think, seek, and love. He lived in the dark ages of the future. In a loveless world, he dared to love the woman of his choice. In an age that had lost all trace of science and civilization, he had the courage to seek and find knowledge. But these were not the crimes for which he would be hunted. He was marked for death because he had committed the unpardonable sin: He had stood forth from the mindless human herd. He was a man alone. He had rediscovered the lost and holy word—I.

"I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals, and I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up to these possibilities."
�—Ayn Rand]]> 105 Ayn Rand 0452281253 jeremy 2 3.59 1938
author: Ayn Rand
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1938
rating: 2
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]]> 2767052
Winning means fame and fortune. Losing means certain death. The Hunger Games have begun. . . .

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.]]> 374 Suzanne Collins jeremy 4 4.34 2008
author: Suzanne Collins
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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]]> 1618 226 Mark Haddon 1400032717 jeremy 4 3.89 2003
author: Mark Haddon
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2003
rating: 4
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]]> 44279110
Our narrator should be happy, shouldn’t she? She’s young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart, and it isn’t just the loss of her parents, or the way her Wall Street boyfriend treats her, or her sadomasochistic relationship with her best friend, Reva. It’s the year 2000 in a city aglitter with wealth and possibility; what could be so terribly wrong?

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is a powerful answer to that question. Through the story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs designed to heal our heroine from her alienation from this world, Moshfegh shows us how reasonable, even necessary, alienation can be. Both tender and blackly funny, merciless and compassionate, it is a showcase for the gifts of one of our major writers working at the height of her powers.]]> 289 Ottessa Moshfegh 0525522131 jeremy 4 3.62 2018
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2018
rating: 4
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]]> 194373 Silver Blaze
The Cardboard Box
The Yellow Face
The Stockbroker's Clerk
The 'Gloria Scott'
The Musgrave Ritual
The Reigate Squire
The Crooked Man
The Resident Patient
The Greek Interpreter
The Naval Treaty
The Final Problem]]> 378 Arthur Conan Doyle 0192123092 jeremy 4 4.31 1893
author: Arthur Conan Doyle
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1893
rating: 4
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]]> 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author’s own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]> 180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 jeremy 4 3.93 1925
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 4
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]]> 17690 The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, The Trial has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers.]]> 255 Franz Kafka jeremy 4 4.00 1925
author: Franz Kafka
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1925
rating: 4
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]]> 76171 The exhilarating dystopian novel that inspired George Orwell's 1984 and foreshadowed the worst excesses of Soviet Russia

Yevgeny Zamyatin's We is a powerfully inventive vision that has influenced writers from George Orwell to Ayn Rand. In a glass-enclosed city of absolute straight lines, ruled over by the all-powerful 'Benefactor', the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState live out lives devoid of passion and creativity - until D-503, a mathematician who dreams in numbers, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul. Set in the twenty-sixth century AD, We is the classic dystopian novel and was the forerunner of works such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. It was suppressed for many years in Russia and remains a resounding cry for individual freedom, yet is also a powerful, exciting and vivid work of science fiction. Clarence Brown's brilliant translation is based on the corrected text of the novel, first published in Russia in 1988 after more than sixty years' suppression.]]> 256 Yevgeny Zamyatin 0140185852 jeremy 3 3.91 1924
author: Yevgeny Zamyatin
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1924
rating: 3
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]]> 591978 215 Haruki Murakami 4061860127 jeremy 3 3.52 1980
author: Haruki Murakami
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1980
rating: 3
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]]> 4929 Kafka on the Shore, a tour de force of metaphysical reality, is powered by two remarkable characters: a teenage boy, Kafka Tamura, who runs away from home either to escape a gruesome oedipal prophecy or to search for his long-missing mother and sister; and an aging simpleton called Nakata, who never recovered from a wartime affliction and now is drawn toward Kafka for reasons that, like the most basic activities of daily life, he cannot fathom. Their odyssey, as mysterious to them as it is to us, is enriched throughout by vivid accomplices and mesmerizing events. Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall from the sky. There is a brutal murder, with the identity of both victim and perpetrator a riddle—yet this, along with everything else, is eventually answered, just as the entwined destinies of Kafka and Nakata are gradually revealed, with one escaping his fate entirely and the other given a fresh start on his own.]]> 467 Haruki Murakami 1400079276 jeremy 5 4.14 2002
author: Haruki Murakami
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2002
rating: 5
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]]> 11297
A magnificent blending of the music, the mood, and the ethos that was the sixties with the story of one college student's romantic coming of age, Norwegian Wood brilliantly recaptures a young man's first, hopeless, and heroic love.]]> 296 Haruki Murakami 0375704027 jeremy 4 4.01 1987
author: Haruki Murakami
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1987
rating: 4
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]]> 50358503 A father's decades-long search for his missing daughter.
A young woman about to engineer the perfect scream.
The most dangerous secret Hollywood has ever kept.

Gates Foster lost his daughter, Lucy, seventeen years ago. He's never stopped searching. Suddenly, a shocking new development provides Foster with his first major lead in over a decade, and he may finally be on the verge of discovering the awful truth.

Meanwhile, Mitzi Ives has carved out a space among the Foley artists creating the immersive sounds giving Hollywood films their authenticity. Using the same secret techniques as her father before her, she's become an industry-leading expert in the sound of violence and horror, creating screams so bone-chilling, they may as well be real.

Soon Foster and Ives find themselves on a collision course that threatens to expose the violence hidden beneath Hollywood's glamorous façade. A grim and disturbing reflection on the commodification of suffering and the dangerous power of art, THE INVENTION OF SOUND is Chuck Palahniuk at the peak of his literary powers—his most suspenseful, most daring, and most genre-defying work yet.]]> 240 Chuck Palahniuk 1538718006 jeremy 3 3.46 2020
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.46
book published: 2020
rating: 3
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]]> 13079982 Sixty years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.� But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.]]> 194 Ray Bradbury jeremy 4 3.97 1953
author: Ray Bradbury
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1953
rating: 4
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]]> 40961427 Nineteen Eighty-Four is a rare work that grows more haunting as its futuristic purgatory becomes more real. Published in 1949, the book offers political satirist George Orwell's nightmarish vision of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff's attempt to find individuality. The brilliance of the novel is Orwell's prescience of modern life—the ubiquity of television, the distortion of the language—and his ability to construct such a thorough version of hell. Required reading for students since it was published, it ranks among the most terrifying novels ever written.]]> 298 George Orwell jeremy 4 4.24 1949
author: George Orwell
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1949
rating: 4
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]]> 38447
Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.]]> 311 Margaret Atwood 038549081X jeremy 5 4.15 1985
author: Margaret Atwood
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1985
rating: 5
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]]> 35031085 This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780143131847.

Mary Shelley's seminal novel of the scientist whose creation becomes a monster.

This edition is the original 1818 text, which preserves the hard-hitting and politically charged aspects of Shelley's original writing, as well as her unflinching wit and strong female voice. This edition also includes a new introduction and suggestions for further reading by author and Shelley expert Charlotte Gordon, literary excerpts and reviews selected by Gordon and a chronology and essay by preeminent Shelley scholar Charles E. Robinson.]]> 260 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 0143131842 jeremy 4 4.02 1818
author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1818
rating: 4
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]]> 4981 Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.�

An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it.

Fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut's portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties.]]> 275 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. jeremy 4 4.10 1969
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1969
rating: 4
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]]> 6514 294 Sylvia Plath 0571268862 jeremy 4 4.05 1963
author: Sylvia Plath
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1963
rating: 4
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]]> 2657 "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.]]> 323 Harper Lee 0060935464 jeremy 5 4.25 1960
author: Harper Lee
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1960
rating: 5
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]]> 170448 Librarian's note: There is an Alternate Cover Edition for this edition of this book here.

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned –a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.
When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.]]> 141 George Orwell 0451526341 jeremy 4 4.07 1945
author: George Orwell
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1945
rating: 4
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]]> 19063 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

(Note: this title was not published as YA fiction)]]> 592 Markus Zusak jeremy 4 4.38 2005
author: Markus Zusak
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2005
rating: 4
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]]> 5297 Apaixonado pela sua própria imagem na tela, Dorian deseja que esses traços imutáveis de beleza fiquem para sempre no seu rosto e que seja o retrato a envelhecer. É este o parti-pris narcisista, ou fáustico, do romance de Oscar Wilde.]]> 272 Oscar Wilde jeremy 5 4.13 1890
author: Oscar Wilde
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1890
rating: 5
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]]> 48855
In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe� of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.
--back cover]]> 283 Anne Frank jeremy 4 4.19 1947
author: Anne Frank
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1947
rating: 4
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]]> 7624 182 William Golding 0140283331 jeremy 4 3.70 1954
author: William Golding
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1954
rating: 4
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]]> 890 “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.�

They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.

A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.]]> 107 John Steinbeck 0142000671 jeremy 4 3.88 1937
author: John Steinbeck
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 4
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]]> 18135 Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a violent world, in which two young people fall in love. It is not simply that their families disapprove; the Montagues and the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud.

In this death-filled setting, the movement from love at first sight to the lovers� final union in death seems almost inevitable. And yet, this play set in an extraordinary world has become the quintessential story of young love. In part because of its exquisite language, it is easy to respond as if it were about all young lovers.]]> 281 William Shakespeare 0743477111 jeremy 4 3.74 1597
author: William Shakespeare
name: jeremy
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1597
rating: 4
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]]> 5479 Brave New World, originally published in 1932, presents Aldous Huxley's vision of the future--of a world utterly transformed. Through the most efficient scientific and psychological engineering, people are genetically designed to be passive and therefore consistently useful to the ruling class. This powerful work of speculative fiction sheds a blazing critical light on the present and is considered to be Aldous Huxley's most enduring masterpiece.

The non-fiction work Brave New World Revisited, published in 1958, is a fascinating work in which Huxley uses his tremendous knowledge of human relations to compare the modern-day world with his prophetic fantasy envisioned in Brave New World, including the threats to humanity, such as over-population, propaganda, and chemical persuasion.]]> 340 Aldous Huxley 0060776099 jeremy 3 4.17 1958
author: Aldous Huxley
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1958
rating: 3
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]]> 332613 9780451163967

Tyrannical Nurse Ratched rules her ward in an Oregon State mental hospital with a strict and unbending routine, unopposed by her patients, who remain cowed by mind-numbing medication and the threat of electric shock therapy. But her regime is disrupted by the arrival of McMurphy � the swaggering, fun-loving trickster with a devilish grin who resolves to oppose her rules on behalf of his fellow inmates. His struggle is seen through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a seemingly mute half-Indian patient who understands McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the powers that keep them imprisoned. Ken Kesey's extraordinary first novel is an exuberant, ribald and devastatingly honest portrayal of the boundaries between sanity and madness.]]> 325 Ken Kesey jeremy 5 4.20 1962
author: Ken Kesey
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1962
rating: 5
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]]> 49552 The Stranger has long been considered a classic of twentieth-century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its "100 Books of the Century" list. Through this story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."]]> 123 Albert Camus jeremy 3 4.04 1942
author: Albert Camus
name: jeremy
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1942
rating: 3
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]]>