Quantum's bookshelf: all en-US Sat, 19 Apr 2025 04:40:41 -0700 60 Quantum's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Sign of the Four: A Sherlock Holmes Graphic Novel]]> 8353094
The drama begins when a woman arrives on Holmes's doorstep asking for his help finding an anonymous person who has been sending her mysterious gifts and letters. Holmes agrees to investigate-but soon he and Dr. Watson find themselves entangled in a deadly treasure hunt.]]> 124 Ian Edginton 1402780036 Quantum 0 the-long-list 3.84 The Sign of the Four: A Sherlock Holmes Graphic Novel
author: Ian Edginton
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.84
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/19
shelves: the-long-list
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shaolin Sisters: Reborn Volume 3]]> 2265861 216 Narumi Kakinouchi 1595325093 Quantum 2 manga-graphic-novel 3.54 Shaolin Sisters: Reborn Volume 3
author: Narumi Kakinouchi
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.54
book published:
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: manga-graphic-novel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 1]]> 25849 190 Kazuo Umezu 1421507226 Quantum 0 to-read-horror-crime-wuxia 3.80 2006 The Drifting Classroom, Vol. 1
author: Kazuo Umezu
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves: to-read-horror-crime-wuxia
review:

]]> On Anarchism 17290815 On Anarchism provides the reasoning behind Noam Chomsky's fearless lifelong questioning of the legitimacy of entrenched power. In these essays, Chomsky redeems one of the most maligned ideologies, anarchism, and places it at the foundation of his political thinking. Chomsky's anarchism is distinctly optimistic and egalitarian. Moreover, it is a living, evolving tradition that is situated in a historical lineage; Chomsky's anarchism emphasizes the power of collective, rather than individualist, action.

The collection includes a revealing new introduction by journalist Nathan Schneider, who documented the Occupy movement for Harper's and The Nation, and who places Chomsky's ideas in the contemporary political moment. On Anarchism will be essential reading for a new generation of activists who are at the forefront of a resurgence of interest in anarchism—and for anyone who struggles with what can be done to create a more just world.]]> 193 Noam Chomsky 1595589104 Quantum 4
He draws quite liberally from Homage to Catalonia and Bolloton's The Grand Camoflauge--which are now on my TBR.]]> 3.87 2005 On Anarchism
author: Noam Chomsky
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at: 2022/08/09
date added: 2024/10/09
shelves: self-actualization, own, america
review:
Requires a bit of foreknowledge and the text is from different sources, so bit fragmented. Likely, an analysis of Chomsky's thoughts on anarchism would be a more effective learning experience.

He draws quite liberally from Homage to Catalonia and Bolloton's The Grand Camoflauge--which are now on my TBR.
]]> Frontier Incursion 21054319 442 Leonie Rogers 0987265229 Quantum 4 ya, sci-fi Frontier Incursion are thought-provoking as well as realistic and the subsequent exploration of the planet itself reminds me of the world exploration sci-fi (Rendezvous with Rama or Dragonriders of Pern, for example) that I loved in elementary school.]]> 4.43 2012 Frontier Incursion
author: Leonie Rogers
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at: 2017/12/03
date added: 2024/09/29
shelves: ya, sci-fi
review:
Although for those with a more military tactics and strategy bent, the battles near the end and interactions with the aliens (being somewhat of a trope) would stretch their suspension of disbelief, young adults would really glom on to the tough yet realistic characters and their loyal starcats in this story. The logic of genetics and biology underpinning the story universe of Frontier Incursion are thought-provoking as well as realistic and the subsequent exploration of the planet itself reminds me of the world exploration sci-fi (Rendezvous with Rama or Dragonriders of Pern, for example) that I loved in elementary school.
]]> <![CDATA[London Falling (Shadow Police, #1)]]> 18919275 London Falling by Paul Cornell is an urban fantasy twist on the classic police London cops versus magical creatures of nightPolice officers Quill, Costain, Sefton, and Ross know the worst of London—or they think they do. While investigating a mobster's mysterious death, they come into contact with a strange artifact and accidentally develop the Sight. Suddenly they can see the true evil haunting London's streets.Armed with police instincts and procedures, the four officers take on the otherworldly creatures secretly prowling London. Football lore and the tragic history of a Tudor queen become entwined in their pursuit of an age-old witch with a penchant for child sacrifice. But when London's monsters become aware of their meddling, the officers must decide what they are willing to sacrifice to clean up their city.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 417 Paul Cornell 1429946725 Quantum 0 the-long-list, supernatural 3.90 2012 London Falling (Shadow Police, #1)
author: Paul Cornell
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/26
shelves: the-long-list, supernatural
review:

]]> Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1) 6088007 Neuromancer is a cyberpunk, science fiction masterpiece—a classic that ranks with 1984 and Brave New World as one of the twentieth century’s most potent visions of the future.

The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus-hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace...

Henry Dorsett Case was the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

The winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer was the first fully-realized glimpse of humankind’s digital future—a shocking vision that has challenged our assumptions about our technology and ourselves, reinvented the way we speak and think, and forever altered the landscape of our imaginations.]]> 288 William Gibson Quantum 5 3.94 1984 Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1)
author: William Gibson
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/08/14
shelves: must-read-immediate-queue, 10-top-stories-to-understand, sci-fi-most-relevant, to-understand-current-fiction-genre
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Until Death Do Us Part, Vol. 1]]> 25156649 448 Hiroshi Takashige Quantum 0 to-read-manga-graphic-novel 3.29 Until Death Do Us Part, Vol. 1
author: Hiroshi Takashige
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.29
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: to-read-manga-graphic-novel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[True Names... and Other Dangers]]> 321005 Bookworm, Run! (1966)
True Names (1981)
The Peddler's Apprentice (1975) with Joan D. Vinge
The Ungoverned (1985)
Long Shot (1972)
Marooned in Realtime (excerpt) (1987)]]> 275 Vernor Vinge 0671653636 Quantum 0 to-read-scifi 4.09 1981 True Names... and Other Dangers
author: Vernor Vinge
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/23
shelves: to-read-scifi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[First Contact Last Resort: A Sci Fi Novella 4 (The Singularitive Scenarios)]]> 215151742 In this fourth installment of the sprawling soft sci-fi series, alums from Berkeley’s Earth Collision Lab, their children, and colleagues grapple with a maelstrom of personal, global, and galactic dilemmas.

After establishing two-way communication with an advanced extraterrestrial civilization, a leading scientist struggles to reach a consensus on humanity's first message to the aliens—especially because the potential for acquiring world-changing knowledge is also fraught with the potential for misinterpretation and resulting hostility.

Even before interacting with the extraterrestrial civilization, the United States president clashes with forces within our civilization who have fundamentally opposing values and are scheming to splinter the nation and render democracy unviable—all while the president’s son becomes yet another teenager addicted to a VR world.

Meanwhile, a novel medical technology that has permeated society begins to manifest itself in unforeseen ways, including a debilitating disorder for a frequent user of the technology, a strange neurodivergence for a child prenatally exposed to the technology, and a leap in evolution for a pregnant alt-lifestyle activist who wants to experiment with the neurodivergence on humans—starting with her fetus.

Packed with engaging and thought-provoking drama, the First Contact Last Resort series continues to interleave our world’s amazing beauty and goodness with its stunning absurdity and evil.]]> 158 Singularitive Ranch Quantum 5 Revealing communiqués with the Proximans jettison the booster rocket and ignite a new stage in the series

All the threads of the story begin to coalesce in the fourth novella. And there are so many threads packed into such a small form factor that it's sometimes hard to remember all that had transpired before. Thankfully, we have a "List of Characters and Other Reminders" quaintly reminiscent of some 18th century books and to which I dutifully referred to while writing this review.

The forces are rallying. Marc's personal and political challenges are deftly intertwined and climax with the debate between Marc the father and his son--a heart-wrenching moment and yet both sides came across as equally persuasive. (Indeed, a Herculean authorial achievement.)

And thus, isn't many a good story about the family, specifically, the children? Doesn't every parent dream of the perfect child and don't all new parents wish for their newborn to sleep through the night? Be careful what you wish for--the tech of the Sleeping Bear goggles has barely reached the peak of its utility. And in the world of First Contact | Last Resort, the perfect child could end up fragmenting society.

But the future of society and the role the children are going to play in it will have to wait until the next novella. For now, we'll get a hint of that future via a single, brief transmission. Nevertheless, you'll feel uplifted with the hallmark family reunion and left in a state of blissful anticipation for the next novella--you may even feel like you're in orbit awaiting a visor-to-visor meeting with a Proximan astronaut!]]> 5.00 First Contact Last Resort: A Sci Fi Novella 4 (The Singularitive Scenarios)
author: Singularitive Ranch
name: Quantum
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/20
date added: 2024/07/20
shelves:
review:
Revealing communiqués with the Proximans jettison the booster rocket and ignite a new stage in the series

All the threads of the story begin to coalesce in the fourth novella. And there are so many threads packed into such a small form factor that it's sometimes hard to remember all that had transpired before. Thankfully, we have a "List of Characters and Other Reminders" quaintly reminiscent of some 18th century books and to which I dutifully referred to while writing this review.

The forces are rallying. Marc's personal and political challenges are deftly intertwined and climax with the debate between Marc the father and his son--a heart-wrenching moment and yet both sides came across as equally persuasive. (Indeed, a Herculean authorial achievement.)

And thus, isn't many a good story about the family, specifically, the children? Doesn't every parent dream of the perfect child and don't all new parents wish for their newborn to sleep through the night? Be careful what you wish for--the tech of the Sleeping Bear goggles has barely reached the peak of its utility. And in the world of First Contact | Last Resort, the perfect child could end up fragmenting society.

But the future of society and the role the children are going to play in it will have to wait until the next novella. For now, we'll get a hint of that future via a single, brief transmission. Nevertheless, you'll feel uplifted with the hallmark family reunion and left in a state of blissful anticipation for the next novella--you may even feel like you're in orbit awaiting a visor-to-visor meeting with a Proximan astronaut!
]]> <![CDATA[First Contact Last Resort: A Sci Fi Novella 3 (The Singularitive Scenarios)]]> 202532111
A decade after the Extraterrestrial Singularitive, scientists identify a looming natural disaster. Even though the technology exists to avert the disaster, governments lack the political will to implement the costly solution.

When a large, peaceful rally against that government neglect turns violent, unprecedented contempt permeates society, undermining democratic elections and political leaders.

Meanwhile, a genetic engineering company unveils a body-modification technology that solves the last hurdle to crewed deep space travel. Now the company wants to popularize another use of the technology because—some hypothesize—it will diminish societal tribalism. And generate large profits.

At the center of the maelstrom are two young women. One is a brilliant scientist navigating first love, disability, and responsibility. The other is an idealistic scientist-turned-business executive trying to save her marriage while leading a movement. Together, these women confront the global dilemmas and their personal struggles.

This third story in the First Contact Last Resort series dramatizes how risky societal endeavors could be revolutionarily successful, or recklessly disastrous.]]> 148 Singularitive Ranch Quantum 5 sci-fi
Warning, warning, astronomical challenges ahead!

I love how the team has its own trials but pulls through because of their shared vision and dedication to striving to be on the right side of history. Although the individual team members have always played a significant role in the story, the laser focus on them and the global impact of their contributions in this novella underline how science is a team sport.

Warning, warning, social challenges ahead!

Although many of this third novella's technological challenges are extensions of the previous novella, it's here that their impacts are extrapolated in detail and borne out in society--because technology in and of itself is worthless without its human component. One of those technologies, super skinning, which promotes skin colour fluidity, propels societal change and like the social animals we are, we organize and reorganize: Technological Evolutionists, Technology Optimists, Union for the Mitigation of Societal Stratification and Strife, Doubters of Technology Elite. And we develop new political systems: Scalable Trusted Representative Democracy to help ourselves organize more effectively.

Don't forget to get super-skinned, girls and boys, and strap on your string bikinis before you dive into deep space!]]> 5.00 First Contact Last Resort: A Sci Fi Novella 3 (The Singularitive Scenarios)
author: Singularitive Ranch
name: Quantum
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/12/08
shelves: sci-fi
review:
Strap yourselves in and get ready to rocket off into both outer and social space.

Warning, warning, astronomical challenges ahead!

I love how the team has its own trials but pulls through because of their shared vision and dedication to striving to be on the right side of history. Although the individual team members have always played a significant role in the story, the laser focus on them and the global impact of their contributions in this novella underline how science is a team sport.

Warning, warning, social challenges ahead!

Although many of this third novella's technological challenges are extensions of the previous novella, it's here that their impacts are extrapolated in detail and borne out in society--because technology in and of itself is worthless without its human component. One of those technologies, super skinning, which promotes skin colour fluidity, propels societal change and like the social animals we are, we organize and reorganize: Technological Evolutionists, Technology Optimists, Union for the Mitigation of Societal Stratification and Strife, Doubters of Technology Elite. And we develop new political systems: Scalable Trusted Representative Democracy to help ourselves organize more effectively.

Don't forget to get super-skinned, girls and boys, and strap on your string bikinis before you dive into deep space!
]]> <![CDATA[The Metaframe Adept (The Metaframe War, #7)]]> 193390440
Anton Slayne and his friends return home to New England to discover the world has changed for the worse.

Anton's arch-nemesis, Vampire General Chloe Armitage, ushers in the open rule of vampires over their human subjects. A tithe in blood will be paid by all in service to an immortal queen and her new blood-sucking aristocracy.

But, the vampires are not unopposed, Louise Wesson marshals her Day Guard against the new tyranny, and Anton Slayne, Li Wu, and Peter Lamb find a new and powerful ally in a new-born goddess, but will anything be enough to defeat Armitage and her vampire army?

For the Living Darkness is coming for our world and its remorseless advance threatens to destroy all. Only one thing is sure in this world.

EVERYONE WILL SACRIFICE! Be prepared to be blown away by a high-octane, suspense-filled fantasy, action adventure thriller, that would be at home in a summer movie blockbuster. Join the heroes of the Metaframe War, buy The Metaframe Adept now.]]> 333 Graeme Rodaughan Quantum 5 sci-fi, sci-fi-military Series wrapped up in blood-soaking madness with a matching bloody bow

If you'd made it this far, then all you want to know is: Was it all worth it?

The answer is absolutely yes!

Get ready to be immersed in the blood-soaking madness of the finalé with its world, plot, and character arcs neatly tied up with matching bloody bows. (Need I mention that there's copious amounts of blood?)

Don't delay your insatiable vampiric desires and read it now.]]> 4.58 2023 The Metaframe Adept (The Metaframe War, #7)
author: Graeme Rodaughan
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/15
date added: 2023/11/25
shelves: sci-fi, sci-fi-military
review:
Series wrapped up in blood-soaking madness with a matching bloody bow

If you'd made it this far, then all you want to know is: Was it all worth it?

The answer is absolutely yes!

Get ready to be immersed in the blood-soaking madness of the finalé with its world, plot, and character arcs neatly tied up with matching bloody bows. (Need I mention that there's copious amounts of blood?)

Don't delay your insatiable vampiric desires and read it now.
]]> <![CDATA[How to Write a Movie in 21 Days]]> 284068 How to Write a Movie in 21 Days takes the aspiring screenwriter the shortest distance from blank page to complete script. Viki King's Inner Movie Method is a specific step-by-step process designed to get the story in the writer's onto the page. This method guides the would-be screenwriter through the writing of a movie. It answers such questions as:




How to clarify the idea you don't quite have yet


How to tell if your idea is really a movie


How to move from what you want to say saying it


How to stop getting ready and start
Once you know what to write, the Inner Movie Method will show you how to write it. It also addresses such issues as:




How to pay the rent while paying your dues


What to say to your spouse when you can't come to bed


How to keep going when you think you can't
For accomplished screenwriters honing their craft, as well as those who never before brought their ideas to paper, How to Write a Movie in 21 Days is an indispensable guide. And Viki King's upbeat, friendly style is like having a first-rate writing partner every step of the way.]]> 208 Viki King 0062730665 Quantum 5 3.82 1988 How to Write a Movie in 21 Days
author: Viki King
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1988
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/11/10
shelves: 10-top-writing-guides, read-and-own-as-reference, writing-craft
review:
Easily convert the pacing for a movie into the pacing for your genre novel. I'm using this right now for my next novel-length project.
]]> <![CDATA[Scene & Structure (Elements of Fiction Writing)]]> 190209
And the reader is hooked. But whether or not readers will stay on for the entire wild ride will depend on how well the writer structures the story, scene by scene.

This book is your game plan for success. Using dozens of examples from his own work - including "Dropshot," "Tiebreaker" and other popular novels - Jack M. Bickham will guide you in building a sturdy framework for your novel, whatever its form or length. You'll learn how to:
-"worry" your readers into following your story to the end
-prolong your main character's struggle while moving the story ahead
-juggle cause and effect to serve your story action
As you work on crafting compelling scenes that move the reader, moment by moment, toward the story's resolution, you'll see why believable fiction must make more sense than real life.
Every scene should end in disastersome scenes should be condensed, and others built big.
Whatever your story, this book can help you arrive at a happy ending in the company of satisfied readers.]]> 176 Jack M. Bickham 0898799066 Quantum 0 to-read-writing 4.09 1993 Scene & Structure (Elements of Fiction Writing)
author: Jack M. Bickham
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/10
shelves: to-read-writing
review:

]]> <![CDATA[FICTION FORMULA FIX-IT: How to Revise Your Fiction]]> 56384390 145 Deborah Chester Quantum 0 to-read-writing 4.27 FICTION FORMULA FIX-IT: How to Revise Your Fiction
author: Deborah Chester
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.27
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/10
shelves: to-read-writing
review:

]]> <![CDATA[FICTION FORMULA PLOTTING PRACTICE]]> 38101246 128 Deborah Chester Quantum 0 to-read-writing 4.35 FICTION FORMULA PLOTTING PRACTICE
author: Deborah Chester
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.35
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/10
shelves: to-read-writing
review:

]]> FICTION FORMULA PLOTTING 37656837 158 Deborah Chester Quantum 0 to-read-writing 4.20 FICTION FORMULA PLOTTING
author: Deborah Chester
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/10
shelves: to-read-writing
review:

]]> The Fantasy Fiction Formula 26265753
From the writing of strong, action-packed scenes to the handling of emotions, let award-winning fantasy author Deborah Chester guide you through the process of putting a book together. Convinced there's no need to shroud the writing process under a veil of mystery, Chester supplies tips that are both practical and proven. They are exactly what she uses in writing her own novels and what she teaches in her writing courses at the University of Oklahoma.

Along with explaining story construction step-by-step, Chester illustrates each technique with examples drawn from both traditional and urban fantasy. The technique chapters include exercises to assist novices in mastering the craft of writing fantasy as well as suggestions for avoiding or solving plot problems. More experienced writers will find tips for taking their work to the next level.

With an introduction by author Jim Butcher, The fantasy fiction formula provides the information you need to gain skill and proficiency in writing fantasy like a pro.
]]> 320 Deborah Chester 0719097061 Quantum 0 to-read-writing 4.42 2016 The Fantasy Fiction Formula
author: Deborah Chester
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.42
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/10
shelves: to-read-writing
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Janus and Oblivion (The Nightmares of Alamir, #1)]]> 51065047
One man does.

When the aloof fourth son of a business mogul makes the decision to save a life at the cost of his own, he discovers that what awaits him at the end of his mortality is not eternal oblivion.

He cannot help but be disappointed.

When he realizes the world he's been brought to works like the old fantasy games he used to love, he begins to see the merits.

If only he did not start out as the weakest thing in existence, and if only the world he was in was not populated with madness-inducing creatures and fates worse than death.

"Decide for yourself, your fantasies and your Nightmares, your companions and your adversaries, your angels and your demons, your gods and your monsters.
Alamir stretches to you a hand of a thousand possibilities -

You only need take it."]]> 332 Noam Oswin Quantum 0 litrpg, lemmed 4.27 2019 Janus and Oblivion (The Nightmares of Alamir, #1)
author: Noam Oswin
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/31
shelves: litrpg, lemmed
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dominion of Blades (Dominion of Blades, #1)]]> 34521681
Jonah wakes to find himself in-game, level one, with no memory of how he arrived and no way to eject. With only two companions, trapped in a world that once hosted millions, Jonah must battle his way across a treacherous landscape, fighting virtual monsters, all-too-real pain, and a very human enemy in a desperate bid to survive.]]> 430 Matt Dinniman Quantum 0 litrpg 4.14 2017 Dominion of Blades (Dominion of Blades, #1)
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at: 2023/10/31
date added: 2023/10/31
shelves: litrpg
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Instant Economist: Everything You Need to Know About How the Economy Works]]> 11737242
Economics isn't just about numbers: It's about politics, psychology, history, and so much more. We are all economists-when we work, save for the future, invest, pay taxes, and buy our groceries. Yet many of us feel lost when the subject arises. Award-winning professor Timothy Taylor tackles all the key questions and hot topics of both microeconomics and macroeconomics, including:

� Why do budget deficits matter?

� What exactly does the Federal Reserve do?

� Does globalization take jobs away from American workers?

� Why is health insurance so costly?

The Instant Economist offers the knowledge and sophistication to understand the issues- so you can understand and discuss economics on a personal, national, and global level.]]> 260 Timothy Taylor 0452297524 Quantum 0 3.93 2012 The Instant Economist: Everything You Need to Know About How the Economy Works
author: Timothy Taylor
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/28
shelves: sasab-self-actualization, sasab-property, quantum-katana-background, 10-top-self-actualization, currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq]]> 5805182 254 Steve Fainaru 0306817438 Quantum 0 3.80 2008 Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq
author: Steve Fainaru
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/28
shelves: sasab-self-actualization, own, quantum-katana-background, currently-reading
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China]]> 2635587

China has 130 million migrant workers—the largest migration in human history. In Factory Girls , Leslie T. Chang, a former correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Beijing, tells the story of these workers primarily through the lives of two young women, whom she follows over the course of three years as they attempt to rise from the assembly lines of Dongguan, an industrial city in China’s Pearl River Delta.

As she tracks their lives, Chang paints a never-before-seen picture of migrant life—a world where nearly everyone is under thirty; where you can lose your boyfriend and your friends with the loss of a mobile phone; where a few computer or English lessons can catapult you into a completely different social class. Chang takes us inside a sneaker factory so large that it has its own hospital, movie theater, and fire department; to posh karaoke bars that are fronts for prostitution; to makeshift English classes where students shave their heads in monklike devotion and sit day after day in front of machines watching English words flash by; and back to a farming village for the Chinese New Year, revealing the poverty and idleness of rural life that drive young girls to leave home in the first place. Throughout this riveting portrait, Chang also interweaves the story of her own family’s migrations, within China and to the West, providing historical and personal frames of reference for her investigation.

A book of global significance that provides new insight into China, Factory Girls demonstrates how the mass movement from rural villages to cities is remaking individual lives and transforming Chinese society, much as immigration to America’s shores remade our own country a century ago.]]> 420 Leslie T. Chang 0385520174 Quantum 5 3.92 2008 Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China
author: Leslie T. Chang
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2008
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/15
date added: 2023/10/15
shelves: quantum-katana-background, sasab-self-actualization
review:
Interweaving her own fascinating family history and taking the Studs Terkel approach via interviews with the woman on the street, Chang tells the uplifting stories of migrant women: teens who grow into women and build the edifices of their futures upon the staid yet also constricting traditions of the villages they come from and the freeing yet also dangerous challenges of the cities they migrate to.
]]> Practical English Usage 306927 Practical English Usage is a major new reference guide for intermediate and advanced students of English (of all nationalities) and their teachers. It contains short clear articles on all the grammatical problems which regularly cause difficulty to foreign learners. In addition, it deals with selected points of vocabulary, idiom, style, pronunciation and spelling. The main differences between British and American usage are also dealt with. Each entry contains an explanation of a problem, examples of correct usage, and - when this is useful - examples of typical mistakes.

Special features of this book include:
- simple and practical presentation
- alphabetical arrangement of numbered entries
- detailed index and cross-reference system
- distinction between formal and informal usage

A hardback edition is also available.]]> 658 Michael Swan 346410608X Quantum 5 4.30 1981 Practical English Usage
author: Michael Swan
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1981
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/09/22
shelves: own-as-reference, 5-top-for-writing-sellable-fiction, 10-top-writing-references
review:
A very useful and complete reference. Includes basic usage plus a lot of idiosyncrasies.
]]> <![CDATA[GMC: Goal, Motivation and Conflict: The Building Blocks of Good Fiction]]> 370005
Learn what causes sagging middles and how to fix them, which goals are important, which aren’t and why, how to get your characters to do what they need for your plot in a believable manner, and how to use conflict to create a good story. GMC can be used not only in plotting, but in character development, sharpening scenes, pitching ideas to an editor, and evaluating whether an idea will work.

Be confident your ideas will work before you write 200 pages.

Plan a road map to keep your story on track.

Discovery why your scenes aren’t working and what to do about it.

Create characters that editors and readers will care about.]]> 165 Debra Dixon 0965437108 Quantum 0 4.39 1999 GMC: Goal, Motivation and Conflict: The Building Blocks of Good Fiction
author: Debra Dixon
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1999
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/22
shelves: 5-top-for-writing-sellable-fiction, read-and-own-as-reference
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Deadman Wonderland Volume 5 (Deadman Wonderland, #5)]]> 10157513 192 Jinsei Kataoka 1427817901 Quantum 4
The work is really detailed and visceral, but occasionally combat close-ups are a bit hard to make sense of.]]> 4.27 2009 Deadman Wonderland Volume 5 (Deadman Wonderland, #5)
author: Jinsei Kataoka
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/09/13
shelves:
review:
Same old "I will save my friends" trope, almost a cliché--but it's the shounen subgenre's fault, not the mangaka's.

The work is really detailed and visceral, but occasionally combat close-ups are a bit hard to make sense of.
]]> <![CDATA[Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon]]> 13170021
Bomb is a 2012 National Book Awards finalist for Young People's Literature.
Bomb is a 2012 Washington Post Best Kids Books of the Year title.

Bomb is a 2013 Newbery Honor book.]]> 266 Steve Sheinkin 1596434872 Quantum 0 the-long-list 4.12 2012 Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
author: Steve Sheinkin
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/07
shelves: the-long-list
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Nine Day Novel: Writing Faster: 10K a Day, How to Write a Novel in 9 Days, Structuring Your Novel For Speed]]> 24737057 Are you ready yet?
Are you tired of waiting for the novel in your head to magically appear? Tired of being told to “write a little bit a day every day?� How’s that advice working for you? It’s not � is it?

If it was, your novel would be done. But I hear you. When I first learned how to write a novel, that “helpful� information � wasn't. I went slowly, plodded along, writing a little each day like all the authors told me to. Then I would get disinterested or distracted and my novel would get DEStructed!

You’ve listened to the podcasts, taken the writing workshops, read how to write a novel guides, but your novel still isn't written. Are you still waiting for that �1 hour a day� conventional wisdom to pay off?

Let's face it, it's a new ballgame for indie authors!

A numbers game. The number of books you publish, reviews you get, and downloads you can expect are all partly a function of how many words you write—how many books you publish. Conventional “wisdom� is getting us indie authors nowhere.

It’s time to take a different approach!
Wouldn't it be great to have something to show for all your hard work? Forget next year! What about sitting down to proofread your first draft next week?

That's what this book offers. That's what I want to show you how to do, because I've been there.

In this step-by-step writing workshop—feels more like boot camp adrenaline sprint—Steve Windsor walks you through how he writes novels in 9 “days.� With concrete examples of how to apply story structure, outlining, and plotting, you learn to drive your hero through his or her story.

You CAN write a novel in less time than it takes you to need your next haircut. Steve shows you how blockbuster novels and movies use a formula that’s as old as Aristotle to produce hits.

Packed with examples!
Using examples from his own novels, best selling books� He even makes up a story right before your eyes! Steve is a hands on hardcore writer who will show you just how “easy� it is.

Make no mistake, the Nine Day Novel series isn’t for everyone. Some people like pacing themselves on their way to the death of their dreams of becoming an author. Then again, you aren’t them.

In this motivational writer’s retreat disguised as a fast-paced writing workshop, you'll learn:

How story structure can help you write faster.
Through mainstream examples and Steve’s own brand of “Darth Vader� humor, Nine Day Novel will keep you pumped up to write.
And the FREE resources?

Inside the Nine Day Novel, you’ll get access to a starter file for one of the most popular writing software packages out there—Scrivener. Rather than spending hours or even days learning and creating a story structure outline, Steve did it for you.

There's not one, but three FREE writing tools to download inside!
So whether you are a yet to be discovered best]]> 193 Steve Windsor Quantum 0 3.67 2015 Nine Day Novel: Writing Faster: 10K a Day, How to Write a Novel in 9 Days, Structuring Your Novel For Speed
author: Steve Windsor
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/09/02
shelves: to-read-writing, writing-craft
review:

]]> Quozl 35179
From the bestselling author of Jed the Dead--here is the out-of-this-world comedy that introduced "Flip-A-Mation" (animated flip art inside each book) and the most lovable aliens in the universe...

The Quozl knew they'd love the third planet from the sun. But it never occurred to them that anyone lived there...

Includes "Flip-A-Mation" art inside each book!]]> 344 Alan Dean Foster 0727842773 Quantum 0 must-read-immediate-queue 3.54 1989 Quozl
author: Alan Dean Foster
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/19
shelves: must-read-immediate-queue
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Shadeslinger (The Ripple System #1)]]> 56683041
His advantages are twofold: exclusive access to the game’s three-day Head Start period, and a ridiculously handsome talking axe named Frank who has knowledge of the game’s deepest secrets…if the magnificent Frank ever feels like sharing them.

But those advantages also make Ned a target. Once the Head Start period ends, his fellow players will stop at nothing to rip that suave, violent-yet-disarmingly-charismatic axe right out of his hands.

In seventy-two hours, the greatest manhunt in gaming history is set to begin.

It’s gonna be a lot of fun.]]> 646 Kyle Kirrin Quantum 0 to-read 4.34 2021 Shadeslinger (The Ripple System #1)
author: Kyle Kirrin
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Grimm's World 6944687 176 Vernor Vinge 0425017508 Quantum 0 to-read-scifi 3.05 1969 Grimm's World
author: Vernor Vinge
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.05
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/08/03
shelves: to-read-scifi
review:

]]> City of Light (Outcast, #1) 25170761 Ěý
When the bombs that stopped the species war tore holes in the veil between this world and the next, they allowed entry to the Others—demons, wraiths, and death spirits who turned the shadows into their hunting grounds. Now, a hundred years later, humans and shifters alike live in artificially lit cities designed to keep the darkness at bay....
Ěý
As a déchet—a breed of humanoid super-soldiers almost eradicated by the war—Tiger has spent her life in hiding. But when she risks her life to save a little girl on the outskirts of Central City, she discovers that the child is one of many abducted in broad daylight by a wraith-like being—an impossibility with dangerous implications for everyone on earth.
Ěý
Because if the light is no longer enough to protect them, nowhere is safe...]]> 343 Keri Arthur 0349406987 Quantum 0 the-long-list, urban-fantasy 3.82 2016 City of Light (Outcast, #1)
author: Keri Arthur
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/30
shelves: the-long-list, urban-fantasy
review:

]]> Soul Eater, Vol. 4 22283320 208 Atsushi Ohkubo 0316237191 Quantum 5 4.28 2005 Soul Eater, Vol. 4
author: Atsushi Ohkubo
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/29
date added: 2023/07/29
shelves: manga-graphic-novel, fantasy, supernatural
review:
Ho ho, the story arc nears its climax.
]]> Soul Eater, Vol. 2 22085585 192 Atsushi Ohkubo 0316237167 Quantum 5 4.36 2004 Soul Eater, Vol. 2
author: Atsushi Ohkubo
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2004
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/29
date added: 2023/07/29
shelves: manga-graphic-novel, fantasy, supernatural
review:

]]> Soul Eater, Vol. 3 22283325 192 Atsushi Ohkubo 0316237175 Quantum 5 4.49 2005 Soul Eater, Vol. 3
author: Atsushi Ohkubo
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.49
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/29
date added: 2023/07/29
shelves: manga-graphic-novel, fantasy, supernatural
review:
Must've gotten flack for too much fanservice--because not there's hardly any. Good! The powerful threat, world building, and Maka and Soul's developing friendship are strong story drivers.
]]> Soul Eater, Vol. 2 6448482 196 Atsushi Ohkubo 0759530483 Quantum 4 manga-graphic-novel, fantasy 4.44 2004 Soul Eater, Vol. 2
author: Atsushi Ohkubo
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/07/16
shelves: manga-graphic-novel, fantasy
review:
The plot thickens (and less fanservice).
]]> Soul Eater, Vol. 1 6406018 208 Atsushi Ohkubo 0759530017 Quantum 4 manga-graphic-novel, fantasy 4.31 2004 Soul Eater, Vol. 1
author: Atsushi Ohkubo
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2023/07/16
date added: 2023/07/16
shelves: manga-graphic-novel, fantasy
review:
Very fanservice-y but cool, fast, hard-hitting action.
]]> <![CDATA[The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography (Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes) (Volume 2)]]> 175652
In his introduction, Joshua A. Fogel raises the significant moral and historiographical issues that frame the other essays. Mark Eykholt then provides an account of postwar Chinese responses to the massacre. Takashi Yoshida assesses the attempts to downplay the incident and its effects, providing a revealing analysis of Japanese debates over Japan's role in the world and the continuing ambivalence of many Japanese toward their defeat in World War II. In the concluding essay, Daqing Yang widens the scope of the discussion by comparing the Nanjing historiographic debates to similar debates in Germany over the nature of the Holocaust.]]> 268 Joshua A. Fogel 0520220072 Quantum 0 to-read-japan, history, asian 3.85 2000 The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography (Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes) (Volume 2)
author: Joshua A. Fogel
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/09
shelves: to-read-japan, history, asian
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I Ching: Book of Changes (1996-02-12)]]> 129147311 I Ching, or Book of Changes, is one of the 1st efforts of the human mind to place itself within the universe. It has exerted a living influence in China for 3000 years and interest in it has spread in the West.

Set down in the dawn of history as a book of oracles, the Book of Changes deepened in meaning when ethical values were attached to the oracular pronouncements; it became a book of wisdom, eventually one of the Five Classics of Confucianism, and provided the common source for both Confucianist and Taoist philosophy.

Wilhelm's rendering of the I Ching into German, published in 1924, presented it for the 1st time in a form intelligible to the general reader. Wilhelm, who translated many other ancient Chinese works and who wrote several books on Chinese philosophy and civilization, long resided in China. His close association with its cultural leaders gave him a unique understanding of the text of the I Ching. In the English translation, every effort has been made to preserve Wilhelm's pioneering insight into the spirit of the original.

This 3rd edition, completely reset, contains a new forward by Hellmut Wilhelm, one of the most eminent American scholars of Chinese culture. He discusses his father's textual methods and summarizes recent studies of the I Ching both in the West and in present-day China. The new edition contains minor textual corrections, bibliographical revisions and an index.]]> James Legge Quantum 0 to-buy-as-reference 0.0 -850 I Ching: Book of Changes (1996-02-12)
author: James Legge
name: Quantum
average rating: 0.0
book published: -850
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/09
shelves: to-buy-as-reference
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Ada's Algorithm: How Lord Byron's Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age]]> 23396040 The world’s first computer programmer and daughter of Lord Byron finally gets credit for her research in this gossipy short biography

Over 150 years after her death, a widely-used scientific computer program was named “Ada,� after Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate daughter of the eighteenth century’s version of a rock star, Lord Byron. Why?

Because, after computer pioneers such as Alan Turing began to rediscover her, it slowly became apparent that she had been a key but overlooked figure in the invention of the computer.

In Ada Lovelace, James Essinger makes the case that the computer age could have started two centuries ago if Lovelace’s contemporaries had recognized her research and fully grasped its implications.

It’s a remarkable tale, starting with the outrageous behavior of her father, which made Ada instantly famous upon birth. Ada would go on to overcome numerous obstacles to obtain a level of education typically forbidden to women of her day. She would eventually join forces with Charles Babbage, generally credited with inventing the computer, although as Essinger makes clear, Babbage couldn’t have done it without Lovelace. Indeed, Lovelace wrote what is today considered the world’s first computer program—despite opposition that the principles of science were “beyond the strength of a woman’s physical power of application.�

Based on ten years of research and filled with fascinating characters and observations of the period, not to mention numerous illustrations, Essinger tells Ada’s fascinating story in unprecedented detail to absorbing and inspiring effect.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 272 James Essinger 1612194095 Quantum 0 3.30 2013 Ada's Algorithm: How Lord Byron's Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age
author: James Essinger
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.30
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/07/09
shelves: to-read-science, history, science
review:

]]> Gilgamesh 22930984 126 Anonymous Quantum 5 world-mythology-folklore, own 3.76 -1200 Gilgamesh
author: Anonymous
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.76
book published: -1200
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/09
date added: 2023/07/09
shelves: world-mythology-folklore, own
review:
The original story of martial love between men. Yes, it's about dealing with death too and it's a fun story, but the Odyssey is much more varied and contains many tropes that are still used today. Nevertheless, because of it predates the Odyssey and it's short, reading Gilgamesh is a high value. In addition, this edition provides solid background material on the history of the development of the epic and like most ancient writings, different parts of it were written and different times and some parts lost--thus, the modern story is at-best a piecing together of these historical documents and making some educated guesses (not to mention the difficulties of translation) as well as couching them in our modern trappings.
]]> <![CDATA[First Contact Last Resort: A Sci Fi Novella 2 (The Singularitive Scenarios)]]> 181367050
In the wake of recent astounding discoveries, uncertainty about environmental catastrophe is roiling society. The vitriol leads to an unimaginable backlash against the scientific community, especially the Berkeley professor most associated with the discoveries.

Meanwhile, the nighttime use of a prototype medical device by one of the professor's students leads to a breakthrough—that will be an abomination to some. When the leader of the biotech company developing the device realizes the breakthrough's life-saving potential, he'll risk death threats, prison, and his company's survival to use the device before it's proven safe.

This second story in the First Contact Last Resort soft sci-fi series dramatizes how our society and leaders cope with massive progress and upheaval. Some will be heroic. Others vile.]]> 160 Singularitive Ranch Quantum 5 sci-fi-most-relevant, sci-fi
In novella 2, instead of physics and astronomy, we delve into physiology. With all the new discoveries, I would've loved to have spent more time with explorations of these technologies and the characters that make them reality, but they both come "future fast" exactly like the pacing of this series.

Still, don't let all the mind-blowing scientific advancements of Mbolic Biosciences lull you into a false sense of security--especially when they use human medical research surrogates. This novella's rocket barely gets a chance to lift off when "apocalyptic religious group[s]" with their "medieval devout vision" for the world come on strong, hellbent on derailing the narrative.

Speaking of the narrative, don't expect a single plot like in novella 1. Even while staying focused on Lita as the heroine, the story line fires its thrusters of complexity via a sleeper subplot that comes to its astounding fruition by the end of this novella.

Hold on to your Sleeping Bear goggles, girls and boys--it's going to be wild ride into inner space!]]> 5.00 First Contact Last Resort: A Sci Fi Novella 2 (The Singularitive Scenarios)
author: Singularitive Ranch
name: Quantum
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/07/08
date added: 2023/07/09
shelves: sci-fi-most-relevant, sci-fi
review:
Get ready to blast into inner space.

In novella 2, instead of physics and astronomy, we delve into physiology. With all the new discoveries, I would've loved to have spent more time with explorations of these technologies and the characters that make them reality, but they both come "future fast" exactly like the pacing of this series.

Still, don't let all the mind-blowing scientific advancements of Mbolic Biosciences lull you into a false sense of security--especially when they use human medical research surrogates. This novella's rocket barely gets a chance to lift off when "apocalyptic religious group[s]" with their "medieval devout vision" for the world come on strong, hellbent on derailing the narrative.

Speaking of the narrative, don't expect a single plot like in novella 1. Even while staying focused on Lita as the heroine, the story line fires its thrusters of complexity via a sleeper subplot that comes to its astounding fruition by the end of this novella.

Hold on to your Sleeping Bear goggles, girls and boys--it's going to be wild ride into inner space!
]]> Trust 58210933 An unparalleled novel about money, power, intimacy, and perception

Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly boundless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.

Hernan Diaz's TRUST elegantly puts these competing narratives into conversation with one another—and in tension with the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction. The result is a novel that spans over a century and becomes more exhilarating with each new revelation.

At once an immersive story and a brilliant literary puzzle, TRUST engages the reader in a quest for the truth while confronting the deceptions that often live at the heart of personal relationships, the reality-warping force of capital, and the ease with which power can manipulate facts.]]> 402 Hernan Diaz 0593420314 Quantum 0 must-read-immediate-queue 3.77 2022 Trust
author: Hernan Diaz
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/27
shelves: must-read-immediate-queue
review:

]]> Everybody's Fool (Sully, #2) 27068575
The irresistible Sully, who in the intervening years has come by some unexpected good fortune, is staring down a VA cardiologist's estimate that he has only a year or two left, and it's hard work trying to keep this news from the most important people in his life: Ruth, the married woman he carried on with for years ... the ultra-hapless Rub Squeers, who worries that he and Sully aren't still best friends ... Sully's son and grandson, for whom he was mostly an absentee figure (and now a regretful one). We also enjoy the company of Doug Raymer, the chief of police who's obsessing primarily over the identity of the man his wife might've been about to run off with, before dying in a freak accident ... Bath's mayor, the former academic Gus Moynihan, whose wife problems are, if anything, even more pressing ... and then there's Carl Roebuck, whose lifelong run of failing upward might now come to ruin. And finally, there's Charice Bond - a light at the end of the tunnel that is Chief Raymer's office - as well as her brother, Jerome, who might well be the train barreling into the station.

Everybody's Fool is filled with humor, heart, hard times and people you can't help but love, possibly because their various faults make them so stridently human.]]> 477 Richard Russo 0307270645 Quantum 0 must-read-immediate-queue 4.06 2016 Everybody's Fool (Sully, #2)
author: Richard Russo
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/27
shelves: must-read-immediate-queue
review:

]]> Jennifer Government 33356 335 Max Barry 0349117624 Quantum 5 sci-fi, satire
Picked it up again!

Hilarious and touching and dark--"and yet", All's Well That Ends Well.]]> 3.68 2002 Jennifer Government
author: Max Barry
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2023/06/12
date added: 2023/06/12
shelves: sci-fi, satire
review:
(I had to return it to the library, but I would pick it up again. It was funny in the beginning but now it's getting kind of dark (dark satire, that is).)

Picked it up again!

Hilarious and touching and dark--"and yet", All's Well That Ends Well.
]]> Cosmicomics 59780
During the course of these stories Calvino toys with continuous creation, the transformation of matter, and the expanding and contracting reaches of space and time. He succeeds in relating complex scientific concepts to the ordinary reactions of common humanity.

William Weaver's excellent translation won a National Book Award in 1969

“Naturally, we were all there," old Qfwfq said, "where else could we have been? Nobody knew then that there could be space. Or time either: what use did we have for time, packed in there like sardines?�

The distance of the moon --
At daybreak --
A sign in space --
All at one point --
Without colors --
Games without end --
The aquatic uncle --
How much shall we bet? --
The dinosaurs --
The form of space --
The light-years --
The spiral.]]> 153 Italo Calvino 0156226006 Quantum 0 4.23 1965 Cosmicomics
author: Italo Calvino
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1965
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/06/11
shelves: must-read-immediate-queue, sci-fi, world-mythology-folklore
review:

]]> <![CDATA[First Contact Last Resort: A Sci Fi Novella 1 (The Singularitive Scenarios)]]> 137114920 146 Singularitive Ranch Quantum 5 sci-fi
Neither does his story shy away from sociopolitical aspects in favor of hard science; instead it integrates current technological and sociopolitical trends and extrapolates their effects into the future. No mean feat of imagination and intellect.

But don't expect explosions on every page nor weird aliens, at least not in novella 1 of this first contact series. This story is about down-to-earth people grappling with real global and interstellar problems. Hold on to your keyboards and instrument panels, girls and boys--it's going to be wild rocket ride!]]> 4.67 First Contact Last Resort: A Sci Fi Novella 1 (The Singularitive Scenarios)
author: Singularitive Ranch
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2023/05/09
date added: 2023/05/09
shelves: sci-fi
review:
Loved all the creativity wrapped up in this concise story, especially new words like "singularitive" and omnipresent devices like "augmented reality monocles" that can be personalized with such ornamentations as a "Borg-styled frame". I would've liked to feel the characters more deeply, but nonetheless this story delivers an unrelenting pace, dangerously real-life threats, and awesome discoveries in an absolutely believable near-future.

Neither does his story shy away from sociopolitical aspects in favor of hard science; instead it integrates current technological and sociopolitical trends and extrapolates their effects into the future. No mean feat of imagination and intellect.

But don't expect explosions on every page nor weird aliens, at least not in novella 1 of this first contact series. This story is about down-to-earth people grappling with real global and interstellar problems. Hold on to your keyboards and instrument panels, girls and boys--it's going to be wild rocket ride!
]]> <![CDATA[Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics]]> 544325 176 Paul Gravett 1856693910 Quantum 0 3.91 2004 Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Comics
author: Paul Gravett
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/05/02
shelves: to-buy-as-reference, manga-graphic-novel, history
review:

]]> <![CDATA[My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Volume 1 (Light Novel)]]> 42183632
She is now Katarina Claes, the antagonist of the otome game, who nastily hounded the protagonist until the end. Knowing all the possible outcomes of the game, she realizes that every single possible route ends with Katarina being murdered or exiled! In order to avoid these Catastrophic Bad Ends, she has to use her knowledge of the game and her own wiles, starting with breaking off this engagement with the prince...

Will Katarina survive while making her way through this world, where bad flags trip at every turn? Find out in this reverse-harem rom-com, led by everybody's favorite villainess!]]> 183 Satoru Yamaguchi Quantum 5
A little repetitive and good bit of narrative summary in the secondary character POV scenes, but they nonetheless kept my interest, in part, because their tropes pulled on my heartstrings. In addition, the excellent narrative voice imitates the noblesse and yet maintains readability. Katerina's good-natured, resolute character and clever ideas pulled me in.

Sometime soon I'll buy the next one.]]> 4.24 2015 My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! Volume 1 (Light Novel)
author: Satoru Yamaguchi
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2022/01/19
date added: 2023/04/18
shelves: fantasy, middle-grade, romance, light-novel
review:
Hilarious, middle-grade-to-early-high-school, isekai, light romance.

A little repetitive and good bit of narrative summary in the secondary character POV scenes, but they nonetheless kept my interest, in part, because their tropes pulled on my heartstrings. In addition, the excellent narrative voice imitates the noblesse and yet maintains readability. Katerina's good-natured, resolute character and clever ideas pulled me in.

Sometime soon I'll buy the next one.
]]> <![CDATA[What Makes This Book So Great: Re-Reading the Classics of Science Fiction & Fantasy]]> 17910076 Among OthersĚýmight guess, Walton is both an inveterate reader of SF and fantasy, and a chronic re-reader of books. In 2008, then-new science-fiction mega-site Tor.com asked Walton to blog regularly about her re-readingâ€�about all kinds of older fantasy and SF, ranging from acknowledged classics, to guilty pleasures, to forgotten oddities and gems. These posts have consistently been among the most popular features of Tor.com. Now this volumes presents a selection of the best of them, ranging from short essays to long reassessments of some of the field's most ambitious series.

Among Walton's many subjects here are the Zones of Thought novels of Vernor Vinge; the question of what genre readers mean by "mainstream"; the underappreciated SF adventures of C. J. Cherryh; the field's many approaches to time travel; the masterful science fiction of Samuel R. Delany; Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children;Ěýthe early Hainish novels of Ursula K. Le Guin; and a Robert A. Heinlein novel you have most certainly never read.

Over 130 essays in all, What Makes This Book So GreatĚýis an immensely readable, engaging collection of provocative, opinionated thoughts about past and present-day fantasy and science fiction, from one ofĚýour best writers.Ěý]]> 446 Jo Walton 0765331934 Quantum 0 to-read-genre-research 3.86 2014 What Makes This Book So Great: Re-Reading the Classics of Science Fiction & Fantasy
author: Jo Walton
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/17
shelves: to-read-genre-research
review:

]]> Earth 96471 704 David Brin 055329024X Quantum 0 3.92 1990 Earth
author: David Brin
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/04/17
shelves: must-read-immediate-queue, sci-fi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Superconductivity: A Very Short Introduction]]> 6040975 into some of the deepest and most beautiful ideas in physics today.

About the Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.]]> 151 Stephen J. Blundell 019954090X Quantum 4 science, self-actualization 4.06 2009 Superconductivity: A Very Short Introduction
author: Stephen J. Blundell
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2023/03/27
date added: 2023/03/27
shelves: science, self-actualization
review:
A solid history sprinkled with a playful sense of humor, but at times waxes a bit technical for the layperson--and even for someone with a few university physics courses under their belt.
]]> <![CDATA[Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)]]> 54659324 An alternative cover edition for this ASIN can be found here.


The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman—now with bonus material exclusive to this print edition.

You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.

Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show.

Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not.

Includes part one of the exclusive bonus story “Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret.�]]> 446 Matt Dinniman Quantum 4
Having said that, summarizing things could've been replaced more often with Carl and Donut actually doing them and I would've been more immersed in the story if I saw things more directly through Carl's eyes.

But yeah, love the running gag on the foot fetish, the dopamine rush of loot drops and leveling up, and the well-timed flow of new characters and intrigue.]]> 4.57 2020 Dungeon Crawler Carl (Dungeon Crawler Carl, #1)
author: Matt Dinniman
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2022/05/05
date added: 2023/02/27
shelves: 10-top-gamelit, gamelit, gamelit-read, litrpg
review:
Hands-down, the best litRPG I've read!

Having said that, summarizing things could've been replaced more often with Carl and Donut actually doing them and I would've been more immersed in the story if I saw things more directly through Carl's eyes.

But yeah, love the running gag on the foot fetish, the dopamine rush of loot drops and leveling up, and the well-timed flow of new characters and intrigue.
]]> Glory Season 834670
Young Maia is fast approaching a turning point in her life.ĚýĚýAs a half-caste var, she must leave the clan home of her privileged half sisters and seek her fortune in the world.ĚýĚýWith her twin sister, Leie, she searches the docks of Port Sanger for an apprenticeship aboard the vessels that sail the trade routes of the Stratoin oceans.

On her far-reaching, perilous journey of discovery, Maia will endure hardship and hunger, imprisonment and loneliness, bloody battles with pirates and separation from her twin.ĚýĚýAnd along the way, she will meet a traveler who has come an unimaginable distance--and who threatens the delicate balance of the Stratoins' carefully maintained, perfect society....

Both exciting and insightful, Glory Season is a major novel, a transcendent saga of the human spirit.]]> 772 David Brin 0553567675 Quantum 0 to-read-scifi 3.75 1993 Glory Season
author: David Brin
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1993
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/27
shelves: to-read-scifi
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)]]> 21611 278 Joe Haldeman Quantum 5 4.14 1974 The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)
author: Joe Haldeman
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1974
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/02/25
shelves: 10-top-sci-fi, read-and-own-as-reference, sasab-self-actualization, sci-fi-military
review:

]]> All You Need Is Kill 6255949 There’s one thing worse than dying. It’s coming back to do it again and again�

When the alien Gitai invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many raw recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to find himself reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. On the 158th iteration though, he sees something different, something out of place: the female soldier known as the Bitch of War. Is the Bitch the key to Keiji’s escape, or to his final death?]]> 201 Hiroshi Sakurazaka 1421527618 Quantum 3 4.00 2004 All You Need Is Kill
author: Hiroshi Sakurazaka
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2004
rating: 3
read at: 2017/10/02
date added: 2023/02/25
shelves: japan, sci-fi, sci-fi-military
review:
What it does, it does well. Fast-paced military sci-fi with the usual hot-blooded soldierly prurience and detailed action sequences. Don’t expect deep characters or relationships and although the science-fiction is unique and somewhat persuasive, don’t be disappointed by the dearth of elaborate explanations (except for a minor infodump). After all, don’t forget why you came here. For kick-ass combat.
]]> <![CDATA[Terms of Enlistment (Frontlines, #1)]]> 18800655
You can hope to win the lottery and draw a ticket on a colony ship settling off-world, or you can join the service.

With the colony lottery a pipe dream, Andrew chooses to enlist in the armed forces for a shot at real food, a retirement bonus, and maybe a ticket off Earth. But as he starts a career of supposed privilege, he soon learns that the good food and decent health care come at a steep price…and that the settled galaxy holds far greater dangers than military bureaucrats or the gangs that rule the slums.]]> 345 Marko Kloos 1477859780 Quantum 4 sci-fi, sci-fi-military 4.07 2013 Terms of Enlistment (Frontlines, #1)
author: Marko Kloos
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2016/01/01
date added: 2023/02/25
shelves: sci-fi, sci-fi-military
review:

]]> Hybrid Child 36419755
Artificial Intelligence is all too real in this classic of Japanese science fiction by Mariko Ohara. Jonah, a child murdered by her mother, has become the spirit of an AI-controlled house where the rogue cyborg once known as Sample B #3 takes refuge and, making a meal of the dead girl buried under the house, takes Jonah’s form. On faraway Planet Caritas, an outpost of human civilization, the female AI system that governs society has become insane. Meanwhile, the threat of the Adiaptron Empire, the machine race that #3 was built to fight, remains.Ěý]]> 343 Mariko ĹŚhara 1517904900 Quantum 0 to-read-scifi 3.32 1991 Hybrid Child
author: Mariko ĹŚhara
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.32
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/19
shelves: to-read-scifi
review:

]]> The Chicago Manual of Style 8226853 The 16th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style has been superseded by the 17th edition.

The Chicago Manual of Style is the authoritative source that writers, editors, and publishers trust for guidance on style, grammar, and publishing process.

The sixteenth edition offers expanded information on producing electronic publications, including web-based content and e-books. The Chicago system for citing sources has been streamlined and adapted for a variety of online and digital sources. Figures and tables are updated throughout the book—including a return to the Manual’s popular hyphenation table and new, comprehensive listings of Unicode numbers for special characters.

With the wisdom of a hundred years of editorial practice and a wealth of industry expertise from both Chicago’s staff and an advisory board of publishing professionals, The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition, is an invaluable resource for anyone who works with words.]]> 1026 University of Chicago Press 0226104206 Quantum 5 4.50 1906 The Chicago Manual of Style
author: University of Chicago Press
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.50
book published: 1906
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/02/05
shelves: own-as-reference, 5-top-for-writing-sellable-fiction
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology]]> 60321447
You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everythingâ€� from missiles to microwaves, smartphones to the stock market â€� runs on chips. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower. Now, America's edge isĚýslipping, undermined by competitors in Taiwan, Korea,ĚýEurope, and, above all, China. Today, as Chip War reveals, China, which spends more money each year importing chips than it spends importing oil,Ěýis pouring billions into a chip-building initiative to catch up to the US. At stake is America's military superiority and economic prosperity.

Economic historian Chris Miller explains how the semiconductor came to play a critical role in modern life and how the U.S. become dominant in chip design and manufacturing and applied this technology to military systems. America's victory in the Cold War and its global military dominance stems from its ability to harness computing power more effectively than any other power. But here, too, China is catching up, with its chip-building ambitions and military modernization going hand in hand.ĚýAmerica has let key components of the chip-building process slip out of its grasp, contributing not only to a worldwide chip shortage but also a new Cold War with a superpower adversary that is desperate to bridge the gap.

Illuminating, timely, and fascinating, Chip War shows that, to make sense of the current state of politics, economics, and technology, we must first understand the vital role played by chips.]]> 464 Chris Miller 1982172002 Quantum 0 4.38 2022 Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology
author: Chris Miller
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/02/02
shelves: must-read-immediate-queue, science, history
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss (Manga), Vol. 1]]> 56817452 Avoid the bad ending at all costs!

When her fiancé breaks up with her in front of the entire student body, noblewoman Aileen d’Autriche is devastated—or she would have been, if that wasn’t also the exact moment memories of her past life came crashing back! Turns out, she’s been reborn as the villainess of a dating sim…and according to the story, she’s slated to die at the hands of the demon king in three months! But Aileen’s already got a plan: Step one, get Demon King Claude to fall in love with her. Step two, live!]]> 164 Anko Yuzu 1975321200 Quantum 4 4.19 2018 I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss (Manga), Vol. 1
author: Anko Yuzu
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2018
rating: 4
read at: 2023/01/28
date added: 2023/01/28
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss (Light Novel), Vol. 1]]> 57653536
​When her engagement to the prince ends unceremoniously, details of the young noblewoman Aileen’s past life come rushing back and help her realize she’s living inside the world of one of her favorite otome games—as the heroine’s greatest rival! However, her memory has more plot holes than bad fan fiction� and the only certainty is that if she doesn’t do something quick, her death is all but assured. The hero/main-love-interest can’t be relied on, so why not see what the last boss has to say?]]> 240 Sarasa Nagase 1975334051 Quantum 0 to-read-manga-graphic-novel 4.21 2017 I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss (Light Novel), Vol. 1
author: Sarasa Nagase
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/24
shelves: to-read-manga-graphic-novel
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Amulet of Samarkand (Bartimaeus, #1)]]> 334123
If leaving his parents and erasing his past life isn't tough enough, Nathaniel's master, Arthur Underwood, is a cold, condescending, and cruel middle-ranking magician in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The boy's only saving grace is the master's wife, Martha Underwood, who shows him genuine affection that he rewards with fierce devotion. Nathaniel gets along tolerably well over the years in the Underwood household until the summer before his eleventh birthday. Everything changes when he is publicly humiliated by the ruthless magician Simon Lovelace and betrayed by his cowardly master who does not defend him.

Nathaniel vows revenge. In a Faustian fever, he devours magical texts and hones his magic skills, all the while trying to appear subservient to his master. When he musters the strength to summon the 5,000-year-old djinni Bartimaeus to avenge Lovelace by stealing the powerful Amulet of Samarkand, the boy magician plunges into a situation more dangerous and deadly than anything he could ever imagine.]]> 462 Jonathan Stroud 078681859X Quantum 0 to-read-genre-research 4.03 2003 The Amulet of Samarkand (Bartimaeus, #1)
author: Jonathan Stroud
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2003
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/17
shelves: to-read-genre-research
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream]]> 7745 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.]]> 204 Hunter S. Thompson 0679785892 Quantum 5 4.08 1971 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
author: Hunter S. Thompson
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1971
rating: 5
read at: 2022/09/25
date added: 2023/01/11
shelves: sasab-social, america, writing-craft-examples
review:
I will likely need to reread, but the well-written—sometimes even post-modernist (which, in moderation, works terribly well but in excess is exhausting)—deep first of a snapshot of an American period with all its depravity and lost opportunity will leave your intellect reeling.
]]> <![CDATA[Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels]]> 60113 "Magnificent! The best how-to manual ever published." � Kevin Kelly, Cool Tools

Scott McCloud tore down the wall between high and low culture in 1993 with Understanding Comics, a massive comic book about comics, linking the medium to such diverse fields as media theory, movie criticism, and web design. In Reinventing Comics, McCloud took this to the next level, charting twelve different revolutions in how comics are generated, read, and perceived today. Now, in Making Comics, McCloud focuses his analysis on the art form itself, exploring the creation of comics, from the broadest principles to the sharpest details (like how to accentuate a character's facial muscles in order to form the emotion of disgust rather than the emotion of surprise.) And he does all of it in his inimitable voice and through his cartoon stand–in narrator, mixing dry humor and legitimate instruction. McCloud shows his reader how to master the human condition through word and image in a brilliantly minimalistic way.ĚýBoth comic book devotees and theĚýuninitiated will marvel at this journey into a once–underappreciated art form.]]> 264 Scott McCloud Quantum 5 4.34 2006 Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels
author: Scott McCloud
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/01/11
shelves: read-and-own-as-reference, writing-craft
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Go For Broke: The Nisei Warriors of World War II Who Conquered Germany, Japan, and American Bigotry]]> 2747965 216 C. Douglas Sterner 0979689619 Quantum 0 the-long-list 3.61 2007 Go For Broke: The Nisei Warriors of World War II Who Conquered Germany, Japan, and American Bigotry
author: C. Douglas Sterner
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/10
shelves: the-long-list
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Socialism: A Very Short Introduction]]> 480212
Not just another history of socialist ideas, this book aims for a different approach that looks at practice as well as theory--centering on the contrast between Communism and Social Democracy. The relationship between socialism and notions of democracy, freedom, and equality is also discussed. Newman brings the subject entirely up to date by tackling contemporary forms of socialism. While the book's focus is on Europe and the Soviet Union, it is set in a broader geographical context. Newman's fresh approach to the subject enables the reader to re-evaluate socialism.

About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
]]> 162 Michael Newman 0192804316 Quantum 5
Although published in 2005, its final chapter 4 is still relevant to current events today and points toward an international socialist path for the creation of an egalitarian world based on the values of solidarity and cooperation.]]> 3.62 2005 Socialism: A Very Short Introduction
author: Michael Newman
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2005
rating: 5
read at: 2020/01/12
date added: 2023/01/05
shelves: sasab-self-actualization, sasab-intellect, 10-top-self-actualization
review:
More than a broad-sweeping introduction to socialism--although it does that exceptionally well too. ^_^

Although published in 2005, its final chapter 4 is still relevant to current events today and points toward an international socialist path for the creation of an egalitarian world based on the values of solidarity and cooperation.
]]> <![CDATA[The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change]]> 2249 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a comprehensive program based on developing an awareness of how perceptions and assumptions hinder success---in business as well as presonal relationships. Here's an approach that will help broaden your way of thinking and lead to greater opportunities and effective problem solving.
Be Pro-Active: Take the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen.
Begin With an End in Mind: Start with a clear destination to understand where you are now, where you're going and what you value most.
Put First Things First: Manage yourself. Organize and execute around priorities.
Think Win/Win: See life as a cooperative, not a comprehensive arena where success is not achieved at the expense or exclusion of the success of others.
Seek First to Understand: Understand then be understood to build the skills of empathetic listening that inspires openness and trust.
Synergize: Apply the principles of cooperative creativity and value differences.
Renewal: Preserving and enhanving your greatest asset, yourself, by renewing the physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional dimensions of your nature. Stephen R. Covey is the most respected motivator in the business world today. Learn to use his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and see how they can change your life.]]> 358 Stephen R. Covey 0671708635 Quantum 4 4.02 1989 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
author: Stephen R. Covey
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1989
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/01/05
shelves: read-and-own-as-reference, sasab-vocation, sasab-self-actualization, 10-top-self-actualization
review:

]]> Next of Kin 57504564 ON AN ORDINARY WORKING DAY�

Leila Syed receives a call that cleaves her life in two. Her brother-in-law’s voice is filled with panic. He’s at his son’s nursery to pick up Max. But he isn’t there.

YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE�

Leila was supposed to drop Max off that morning. But she forgot.

Racing to the carpark, she grasps the horror of what she has done. Max has been locked in her car for three hours on the hottest day of the year.

IS ABOUT TO COME TRUE�

But she’s too late.

What follows is an explosive, high-profile trial, that will tear the family apart. But as the case progresses it becomes clear there’s more to this incident than meets the eye�

A gripping, brave and tense courtroom drama, Next of Kin will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final, heart-stopping page.]]> 384 Kia Abdullah 0008433631 Quantum 0 to-read-writing 4.05 2021 Next of Kin
author: Kia Abdullah
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/03
shelves: to-read-writing
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, Canadian Edition]]> 1450366 Joseph M. Williams 0321248090 Quantum 5 Elements of Style applicable to both nonfiction and fiction, although it's focus is on nonfiction. (I especially appreciated the punctuation refresher.) Although I didn't complete many of the exercises, I will at some point; and they have solutions, so the book is a workshop all on its own!]]> 4.00 1981 Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, Canadian Edition
author: Joseph M. Williams
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1981
rating: 5
read at: 2022/12/29
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: writing-craft, 5-top-for-writing-sellable-fiction
review:
A much more detailed and nuanced Elements of Style applicable to both nonfiction and fiction, although it's focus is on nonfiction. (I especially appreciated the punctuation refresher.) Although I didn't complete many of the exercises, I will at some point; and they have solutions, so the book is a workshop all on its own!
]]> <![CDATA[The Art of Character: Creating Memorable Characters for Fiction, Film, and TV]]> 15808807 383 David Corbett 014312157X Quantum 5 4.26 2013 The Art of Character: Creating Memorable Characters for Fiction, Film, and TV
author: David Corbett
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2022/02/07
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: 5-top-for-writing-sellable-fiction, 10-top-writing-guides, writing-craft, read-and-own-as-reference
review:
So many examples, references to stories and films that illustrate the techniques the best, and so well organized. It is not reductive; in fact, this book is a toolbox out of which you have a good chance of pulling out the right tool when you need it.
]]> <![CDATA[Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print]]> 180467
Hundreds of books have been written on the art of writing. Here at last is a book by two professional editors to teach writers the techniques of the editing trade that turn promising manuscripts into published novels and short stories.

In this completely revised and updated second edition, Renni Browne and Dave King teach you, the writer, how to apply the editing techniques they have developed to your own work. Chapters on dialogue, exposition, point of view, interior monologue, and other techniques take you through the same processes an expert editor would go through to perfect your manuscript. Each point is illustrated with examples, many drawn from the hundreds of books Browne and King have edited.]]> 288 Renni Browne 0060545690 Quantum 5 4.24 1993 Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print
author: Renni Browne
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1993
rating: 5
read at: 2016/10/24
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: 10-top-writing-guides, read-and-own-as-reference, 5-top-for-writing-sellable-fiction
review:
The nuts and bolts of writing. Clearly explained with a plethora of examples, exercises and their take on how they'd edit them. If I can inculcate these techniques into my first or even second draft I'd become a more efficient and effective writer. Keep this book on your desk with Strunk and White and take your writing to the next level!
]]> <![CDATA[Make a Scene: Writing a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time]]> 32585982 The definitive guide to writing scenes--now revised and expanded!

Scenes are the building blocks for any work of fiction--the DNA sequence that makes a novel un-put-downable and unforgettable. When writers are able to craft effective, engaging scenes, they can develop a complete, cohesive story--and a mesmerizing experience for readers.

Make a Scene Revised and Expanded Edition takes you step-by-step through the elements of strong scene construction and demonstrates how the essential aspects of a compelling story--including character, plot and dramatic tension--function within the framework of individual scenes to give momentum to the whole narrative. You'll learn how to:

- Craft an opening scene that hooks readers and foreshadows conflict.
- Develop various scene types--from contemplative to suspenseful to flashback--that are distinct and purposeful.
- Establish characters' intentions within a scene that drive the plot.
- Transition into new scenes by clearly establishing details of setting, character, and point of view.
- Create resonating climactic and final scenes that stay with readers long after they've finished your story.
The revised and expanded edition includes brand-new examples, an increased focus on advancing plot and character development, and the same knowledge and clarity that writers have come to expect from Jordan Rosenfeld. Make a Scene is an essential part of any novelist's library--make sure it's in yours.]]> 272 Jordan Rosenfeld 1440351414 Quantum 5
Well-organized; lots of lists and headings makes finding the right information a breeze. Excellent tips on scene revision--for example, how to revise a vignette that doesn't add to the plot and character arcs. Includes a revision checklist.

I bought a copy.]]> 4.20 Make a Scene: Writing a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time
author: Jordan Rosenfeld
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2019/11/23
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: 10-top-writing-guides, writing-craft, read-and-own-as-reference, 5-top-for-writing-sellable-fiction
review:
If you've read comprehensive writing craft books, then do yourself a favor and dive into this book on creating scenes. There are many books on plot and character but hardly any on crafting the crucial scene. Chock-full of techniques and examples. Describes core scene elements (setting, five senses, character (GMC), plot, subtext (for example, theme and the character subconscious), dramatic tension) and then uses them to describe some of the major scene types.

Well-organized; lots of lists and headings makes finding the right information a breeze. Excellent tips on scene revision--for example, how to revise a vignette that doesn't add to the plot and character arcs. Includes a revision checklist.

I bought a copy.
]]> <![CDATA[400 Things Cops Know: Street-Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman]]> 23481603 194 Adam Plantinga 1610352475 Quantum 5 3.98 2014 400 Things Cops Know: Street-Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman
author: Adam Plantinga
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2014
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: 10-top-writing-references, own-as-reference
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Putting the Science in Fiction: Expert Advice for Writing with Authenticity in Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Other Genres]]> 38395588
This book brings together scientists, physicians, engineers, and other experts to help you:
Understand the basic principles of science, technology, and medicine that are frequently featured in fiction.
Avoid common pitfalls and misconceptions to ensure technical accuracy.
Write realistic and compelling scientific elements that will captivate readers.
Brainstorm and develop new science- and technology-based story ideas.
Whether writing about mutant monsters, rogue viruses, giant spaceships, or even murders and espionage, Putting the Science in Fiction will have something to help every writer craft better fiction.

Putting the Science in Fiction collects articles from "Science in Sci-fi, Fact in Fantasy," Dan Koboldt's popular blog series for authors and fans of speculative fiction (). Each article discusses an element of sci-fi or fantasy with an expert in that field. Scientists, engineers, medical professionals, and others share their insights in order to debunk the myths, correct the misconceptions, and offer advice on getting the details right.]]> 272 Dan Koboldt 1440353387 Quantum 5 4.21 2018 Putting the Science in Fiction: Expert Advice for Writing with Authenticity in Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Other Genres
author: Dan Koboldt
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: 10-top-writing-references, writing-craft, own-as-reference
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms]]> 46989 134 Donald J. Borror 0874840538 Quantum 5 4.31 1960 Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms
author: Donald J. Borror
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1960
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: 10-top-writing-references, own-as-reference
review:
Very useful for creating new names from Latin and Greek, mainly.
]]> <![CDATA[Oxford Dictionary of First Names]]> 1240381 480 Patrick Hanks 0198610602 Quantum 5
It's also indispensable for giving appropriate and meaningful names to your fiction characters.]]> 4.23 1990 Oxford Dictionary of First Names
author: Patrick Hanks
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1990
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: writing-craft, 10-top-writing-references, own, own-as-reference
review:
Forget about those baby names books--buy this definitive and billion times more accurate dictionary of first names and give the best name to your son or daughter!

It's also indispensable for giving appropriate and meaningful names to your fiction characters.
]]> <![CDATA[Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum (Theoretical Minimum #2)]]> 18210750 From the bestselling author of The Theoretical Minimum, a DIY introduction to the math and science of quantum physics

First he taught you classical mechanics. Now, physicist Leonard Susskind has teamed up with data engineer Art Friedman to present the theory and associated mathematics of the strange world of quantum mechanics.

In this follow-up to The Theoretical Minimum, Susskind and Friedman provide a lively introduction to this famously difficult field, which attempts to understand the behavior of sub-atomic objects through mathematical abstractions. Unlike other popularizations that shy away from quantum mechanics� weirdness, Quantum Mechanics embraces the utter strangeness of quantum logic. The authors offer crystal-clear explanations of the principles of quantum states, uncertainty and time dependence, entanglement, and particle and wave states, among other topics, and each chapter includes exercises to ensure mastery of each area. Like The Theoretical Minimum, this volume runs parallel to Susskind’s eponymous Stanford University-hosted continuing education course.

An approachable yet rigorous introduction to a famously difficult topic, Quantum Mechanics provides a tool kit for amateur scientists to learn physics at their own pace.
]]> 364 Leonard Susskind 0465036678 Quantum 0 4.34 2014 Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum (Theoretical Minimum #2)
author: Leonard Susskind
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: science, must-read-immediate-queue, quantum-katana-background
review:

]]> The Lotus Sutra 767642 The Lotus Sutra has been regarded as one of the most illustrious scriptures in the Mahayana Buddhist canon. The object of intense veneration among generations of Buddhists in China, Korea, Japan, and other parts of the world, it has had a profound impact on the great works of Japanese and Chinese literature, attracting more commentary than any other Buddhist scripture.

As Watson notes in the introduction to his remarkable translation, " The Lotus Sutra is not so much an integral work as a collection of religious texts, an anthology of sermons, stories, and devotional manuals, some speaking with particular force to persons of one type or in one set of circumstances, some to those of another type or in other circumstances. This is no doubt why it has had such broad and lasting appeal over the ages and has permeated so deeply into the cultures that have been exposed to it."]]> 390 Anonymous 0231081618 Quantum 0 4.27 150 The Lotus Sutra
author: Anonymous
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.27
book published: 150
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: sasab-spirit, self-actualization, sasab-self-actualization, sasab-emotions, sasab-physical, own, must-read-immediate-queue, quantum-katana-background
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Little Brother (Little Brother, #1)]]> 954674
But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, his injured best friend Darryl does not come out. The city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: "M1k3y" will take down the DHS himself.]]> 382 Cory Doctorow 0765319853 Quantum 0 3.93 2008 Little Brother (Little Brother, #1)
author: Cory Doctorow
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: dystopian, sci-fi, must-read-immediate-queue, quantum-katana-background
review:

]]> <![CDATA[You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment]]> 6366371
Based on a retreat that Thich Nhat Hanh led for Westerners, this book offers a range of simple, effective practices for cultivating mindfulness, including awareness ofĚý breathing and walking, deep listening, and skillful speech. You Are Here also offers guidance on healing emotional pain and manifesting real love and compassion in our relationships with others.

Simple, warm, direct, and startlingly potent, this book reveals the heart of the Buddhist path and helps us to reconnect with the joy and wonder of being alive, regardless of life’s changing circumstances.

Praise for Thich Nhat Hanh

“Among Buddhist leaders influential in the West, Thich Nhat Hanh ranks second only to the Dalai Lama.”� New York Times

“Thich Nhat Hanh writes with the voice of the Buddha.”—Sogyal Rinpoche, author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying]]> 143 Thich Nhat Hanh 1590306759 Quantum 4 4.25 2004 You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment
author: Thich Nhat Hanh
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2015/06/04
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: sasab-spirit, sasab-self-actualization, sasab-emotions, sasab-physical, sasab-social, own, must-read-immediate-queue, quantum-katana-background
review:
A lot of good and practical ideas on meditation and happiness. Easy to understand and short, but repetitive. I'm going to read some of his other books.
]]> <![CDATA[Three Kingdoms (Volume 1 of 3)]]> 1059283
Three Kingdoms was first published in the period which saw the demise of the Yuan Dynasty and the rise of the Ming Dynasty. Many stories about the three kingdoms had circulated among the people before the appearance of the book. Many editions of Three Kingdoms have appeared, and the novel has been translated into foreign languages since the end of the 17th century. This English edition, by US sinologist Moss Roberts, is based on the Mao Zonggang edition published during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1644 � 1911).]]> 562 Luo Guanzhong 7119016644 Quantum 0 4.14 1322 Three Kingdoms (Volume 1 of 3)
author: Luo Guanzhong
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1322
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: 10-top-stories-to-understand, world-mythology-folklore, own, must-read-immediate-queue, quantum-katana-background
review:
Much manga/anime refer to or use stories and characters from this epic. Besides, this epic is the well-known throughout Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other east and southeast asian countries.
]]> <![CDATA[Three Kingdoms (5 Volume Set) (Chinese and English Edition)]]> 2414460 Chinese language edition. 3014 Luo Guanzhong 7119032194 Quantum 0 4.33 1522 Three Kingdoms (5 Volume Set) (Chinese and English Edition)
author: Luo Guanzhong
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1522
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: must-read-immediate-queue, quantum-katana-background
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Monkey: The Journey to the West]]> 100237 306 Wu Cheng'en 0802130860 Quantum 0 4.06 1592 Monkey: The Journey to the West
author: Wu Cheng'en
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1592
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: 10-top-stories-to-understand, world-mythology-folklore, own, must-read-immediate-queue, quantum-katana-background
review:
This epic is the well-known throughout Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other east and southeast asian countries.
]]> <![CDATA[The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind]]> 17978489 The New York Times best-selling author of Physics of the Impossible, Physics of the Future and Hyperspace tackles the most fascinating and complex object in the known universe: the human brain.

For the first time in history, the secrets of the living brain are being revealed by a battery of high tech brain scans devised by physicists. Now what was once solely the province of science fiction has become a startling reality. Recording memories, telepathy, videotaping our dreams, mind control, avatars, and telekinesis are not only possible; they already exist.

The Future of the Mind gives us an authoritative and compelling look at the astonishing research being done in top laboratories around the world—all based on the latest advancements in neuroscience and physics. One day we might have a "smart pill" that can enhance our cognition; be able to upload our brain to a computer, neuron for neuron; send thoughts and emotions around the world on a "brain-net"; control computers and robots with our mind; push the very limits of immortality; and perhaps even send our consciousness across the universe.

Dr. Kaku takes us on a grand tour of what the future might hold, giving us not only a solid sense of how the brain functions but also how these technologies will change our daily lives. He even presents a radically new way to think about "consciousness" and applies it to provide fresh insight into mental illness, artificial intelligence and alien consciousness.

With Dr. Kaku's deep understanding of modern science and keen eye for future developments, The Future of the Mind is a scientific tour de force--an extraordinary, mind-boggling exploration of the frontiers of neuroscience.]]> 377 Michio Kaku 038553082X Quantum 0 4.07 2014 The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind
author: Michio Kaku
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: science, must-read-immediate-queue, quantum-katana-background
review:

]]> The Left Hand of Darkness 118028 See alternate cover editions here and here.

Ursula K. Le Guin’s groundbreaking work of science fiction—winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

A lone human ambassador is sent to the icebound planet of Winter, a world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants� gender is fluid. His goal is to facilitate Winter’s inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters...

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.]]> 366 Ursula K. Le Guin 0441478123 Quantum 0 4.07 1969 The Left Hand of Darkness
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1969
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: sci-fi, sci-fi-most-relevant, must-read-immediate-queue, quantum-katana-background, to-understand-current-fiction-genre
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Halting State (Halting State, #1)]]> 222472
The prime suspects are a band of marauding orcs with a dragon in tow for fire support. The bank is located within the virtual land of Avalon Four, and the robbery was supposed to be impossible. When word gets out, Hayek Associates and all its virtual "economies" are going to crash hard.

For Smith, the investigation seems pointless. But the deeper she digs, the bigger the case gets. There are powerful players -- both real and pixilated -- who are watching her every move. Because there is far more at stake than just some game-head's fantasy financial security . . .]]> 351 Charles Stross 0441014984 Quantum 0 3.80 2007 Halting State (Halting State, #1)
author: Charles Stross
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: gamelit, sci-fi, own, must-read-immediate-queue, quantum-katana-background
review:

]]> Exhalation 41160292
In "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate," a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In "Exhalation," an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom," the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.

Including stories being published for the first time as well as some of his rare and classic uncollected work, Exhalation is Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic—revelatory.]]> 368 Ted Chiang Quantum 0 4.27 2019 Exhalation
author: Ted Chiang
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.27
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: must-read-immediate-queue, to-understand-current-fiction-genre, sci-fi
review:

]]> Homage to Catalonia 9646 232 George Orwell 0156421178 Quantum 0 4.09 1938 Homage to Catalonia
author: George Orwell
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1938
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: must-read-immediate-queue, quantum-katana-background, history
review:

]]> Station Eleven 20170404 An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization’s collapse—the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.

Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.

Twenty years later, Kirsten moves between the settlements of the altered world with a small troupe of actors and musicians. They call themselves The Traveling Symphony, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the remnants of art and humanity alive. But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who will threaten the tiny band’s existence. And as the story takes off, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, the strange twist of fate that connects them all will be revealed.]]> 333 Emily St. John Mandel 0385353308 Quantum 0 must-read-immediate-queue 4.05 2014 Station Eleven
author: Emily St. John Mandel
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: must-read-immediate-queue
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics (Theoretical Minimum #1)]]> 13587145 A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2013

A world-class physicist and a citizen scientist combine forces to teach Physics 101—the DIY way

The Theoretical Minimum is a book for anyone who has ever regretted not taking physics in college—or who simply wants to know how to think like a physicist. In this unconventional introduction, physicist Leonard Susskind and hacker-scientist George Hrabovsky offer a first course in physics and associated math for the ardent amateur. Unlike most popular physics books—which give readers a taste of what physicists know but shy away from equations or math—Susskind and Hrabovsky actually teach the skills you need to do physics, beginning with classical mechanics, yourself. Based on Susskind's enormously popular Stanford University-based (and YouTube-featured) continuing-education course, the authors cover the minimum—the theoretical minimum of the title—that readers need to master to study more advanced topics.

An alternative to the conventional go-to-college method, The Theoretical Minimum provides a tool kit for amateur scientists to learn physics at their own pace.
]]> 256 Leonard Susskind 046502811X Quantum 0 4.15 2013 The Theoretical Minimum: What You Need to Know to Start Doing Physics (Theoretical Minimum #1)
author: Leonard Susskind
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: science, must-read-immediate-queue
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Stories of Your Life and Others]]> 223380 ]]> 281 Ted Chiang 0330426648 Quantum 0 must-read-immediate-queue 4.28 2002 Stories of Your Life and Others
author: Ted Chiang
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: must-read-immediate-queue
review:

]]> <![CDATA[How To Write a Page Turner: Craft a Story Your Readers Can't Put Down]]> 43346042
Tension is the heart of conflict, the backbone of uncertainty, the hallmark of danger. It keeps readers guessing and characters on their toes. When you've got tension in place, stories leave readers breathless and wanting more. When it's missing, scenes feel inconsequential, plots drag, and characters meander.

Learning the craft of writing can sometimes feel like a paint by numbers approach--connect compelling character A to plot event B. To avoid writing that's formulaic, predictable, and slow, How to Write a Page Turner will help you sew the threads of tension tight for an unforgettable story. You'll learn how

ĚýĚýĚý•ĚýRecognize the essential tension elements of danger, conflict, uncertainty, and withholding, and add them to your fiction
ĚýĚýĚý•ĚýCreate levels of tension in your characters through flaws, dialogue, power struggles, and more
ĚýĚýĚý•ĚýBuild tension at energetic markers throughout the plot
ĚýĚýĚý•ĚýUse intimate imagery, strong sentences, and well-chosen words to build tension in exposition

While this book walks you through the key areas that need tension building, from character to plot, it also delves deeper, analyzing exceptional examples from contemporary fiction's most gripping page-turners. So as you dive into the inner conflicts of a character's deepest psyche, to the mechanics of how you reveal information to the reader, you'll also discover how to craft a story your readers can't put down!]]> 240 Jordan Rosenfeld 1440354340 Quantum 0 4.17 2019 How To Write a Page Turner: Craft a Story Your Readers Can't Put Down
author: Jordan Rosenfeld
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: sasab-vocation, must-read-immediate-queue
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens]]> 36647421 255 Barbara Oakley 052550446X Quantum 0 4.39 2018 Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens
author: Barbara Oakley
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: sasab-self-actualization, sasab-vocation, self-actualization, education, must-read-immediate-queue
review:

]]> The Grapes of Wrath 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 Quantum 0 4.06 1939 The Grapes of Wrath
author: John Steinbeck
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1939
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: historical-fiction, own, must-read-immediate-queue
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Positive Discipline: The Classic Guide to Helping Children Develop Self-Discipline, Responsibility, Cooperation, and Problem-Solving Skills]]> 188497
� bridge communication gaps
� defuse power struggles
� avoid the dangers of praise
� enforce your message of love
� build on strengths, not weaknesses
� hold children accountable with their self-respect intact
� teach children not what to think but how to think
� win cooperation at home and at school
� meet the special challenge of teen misbehavior

“It is not easy to improve a classic book, but Jane Nelson has done so in this revised edition. Packed with updated examples that are clear and specific, Positive Discipline shows parents exactly how to focus on solutions while being kind and firm. If you want to enrich your relationship with your children, this is the book for you.�
–Sal Severe, author ofĚýHow to Behave So Your Children Will, Too!


Millions of children have already benefited from the counsel in this wise and warmhearted book, which features dozens of true stories of positive discipline in action. Give your child the tools he or she needs for a well-adjusted life with this proven treasure trove of practical advice.]]> 349 Jane Nelsen 0345487672 Quantum 0 4.24 1981 Positive Discipline: The Classic Guide to Helping Children Develop Self-Discipline, Responsibility, Cooperation, and Problem-Solving Skills
author: Jane Nelsen
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: sasab-self-actualization, sasab-social, education, self-actualization, own, must-read-immediate-queue
review:

]]> Out of the Crisis 566574 524 W. Edwards Deming 0262541157 Quantum 0 4.00 1982 Out of the Crisis
author: W. Edwards Deming
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: education, science, self-actualization, sasab-intellect, sasab-self-actualization, own, must-read-immediate-queue
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Manga Guide to Biochemistry]]> 10796344

The latest addition to No Starch Press's EduManga series, The Manga Guide to Biochemistry uses Japanese comics, clear explanations, and a charming storyline to explain the basics of biochemistry. This volume begins with a discussion of the cells that make up living beings, as well as the basics of protein synthesis, metabolism, energy production, and photosynthesis. It goes on to cover ecosystems and material cycles; the mechanisms of respiration; lipids, cholesterol, and blood types; and the roles and structures of enzymes and proteins. Readers explore genes and DNA; the differences between biochemistry and molecular biology; and the mystery surrounding the origin of the cell—all with the aid of original Manga cartoons. This EduManga title is co-published with Ohmsha, Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan, and is one in a series of translations from Ohmsha's bestselling Japanese originals.

]]> 253 Masaharu Takemura 1593272766 Quantum 0 4.08 2009 The Manga Guide to Biochemistry
author: Masaharu Takemura
name: Quantum
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: sasab-self-actualization, sasab-intellect, sasab-physical, own, must-read-immediate-queue
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology]]> 6464275
Join them in The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology , and learn all about DNA, RNA, proteins, amino acids, and more. Along the way, you'll see chemical reactions first-hand and meet entertaining characters like Enzyme Man and Drinkzilla, who show how the liver metabolizes alcohol.

Together with Ami and Rin, you'll learn all
–The organelles and proteins inside cells, and how they support cellular functions
–The processes of transcription and translation, and your genes' role in synthesizing proteins
–The pieces that make up our genetic code, like nucleotides, codons, introns, and exons
–The processes of DNA replication, mitosis and cytokinesis
–Genetic technology like transduction and cloning, and the role of molecular biology in medicine

Whether you need a molecular biology refresher or you're just fascinated by the science of life, The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology will give you a uniquely fun and informative introduction.]]> 240 Masaharu Takemura 1593272022 Quantum 4
A good basic reference to supplement high school learning and refresh a student's memory.]]> 3.99 2009 The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology
author: Masaharu Takemura
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: sasab-intellect, sasab-self-actualization, sasab-physical, own, read-and-own-as-reference
review:
This book had a better explanation on genes, DNA, and chromosomes than wikipedia and a few other online resources. The pictures, diagrams and analogies help to make the concepts memorable. It also has a nice story to maintain the reader's interest. The diagram showing how genes map to the nucleotides and DNA could have been clearer.

A good basic reference to supplement high school learning and refresh a student's memory.
]]> <![CDATA[The Motley Fool Personal Finance Workbook]]> 83824
Pencil your way to financial security!

What would it be like to know that you were making the very best decision for every dollar you spent or saved? Can you imagine balancing your budget by the beginning of next month? Wouldn't it be great to know whether a pro's advice is right for your situation? How valuable would it be to have a customized financial plan that would serve you for life?

What you hold in your hands is the first step to achieving all of the above. Whatever your income, lifestyle, or financial concerns may be, The Motley Fool Personal Finance Workbook will help you put more power into every dollar. Like a financial global positioning system, The Motley Fool Personal Finance Workbook will show you exactly where you stand right now and the most direct path to where you want to be.

The Motley Fool's legendary smarts and math-made-easy will show

-How to create a workable budget that gives you money and a life
-The smartest (and fastest) way out of debt
-How to set priorities to guide your financial decisions
-The savviest ways to finance big purchases like a home or an education
-Tactics for eliminating stress when saving for retirement
-And much more...

Hip, funny, and immediately useful, The Motley Fool Personal Finance Workbook is an indispensable hands-on guide for anyone looking to make the most of his or her money.]]> 256 David Gardner 0743229975 Quantum 0 3.98 1998 The Motley Fool Personal Finance Workbook
author: David Gardner
name: Quantum
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/01/01
shelves: sasab-self-actualization, sasab-property, own, must-read-immediate-queue
review:

]]>