seth's bookshelf: read en-US Sat, 13 Jan 2024 20:32:30 -0800 60 seth's bookshelf: read 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Never Apologise, Never Explain (Inspector Carlyle, #2)]]> 12997103
When Agatha Mills is killed in her home in the shadow of the British Museum, there is only one suspect - her husband Henry. For John Carlyle, it looks like a welcome chance for a quick win. But, much to the Inspector's annoyance, Henry refuses to confess. Worse, he comes up with an alternative version of events that is almost impossible to investigate.

Distracted by other cases, the Inspector just wants the Mills murder closed. But when a distraught Henry kills himself on the way to prison, doubts begin to surface. Slowly, Carlyle has to face up to the fact that the man may just have been telling the truth.]]> 289 James Craig seth 0 to-read 3.68 2012 Never Apologise, Never Explain (Inspector Carlyle, #2)
author: James Craig
name: seth
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/01/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Thirty Years Later . . .: Catching Up with the Marcos-Era Crimes]]> 31707327 With the passing of 30 years, this book becomes a full accounting of the rapacious and avaricious rule the pair enjoyed--how they hoodwinked an unsuspecting people, and the truth behind many of the dirty tricks they employed revealed at last. The present is an opportune time to take stock, especially as their only son and heir, Ferdinand, Jr., and others of his ilk, launches a comeback attempt for national office in this year's Philippine elections, and trying to re-fabricate history in the process. This book will set the record straight.]]> 204 Myles A. Garcia 0578175606 seth 5 to-read 4.60 Thirty Years Later . . .: Catching Up with the Marcos-Era Crimes
author: Myles A. Garcia
name: seth
average rating: 4.60
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rating: 5
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date added: 2022/03/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Foundation and Empire (Foundation, #2)]]> 29581 256 Isaac Asimov 0553803727 seth 0 to-read 4.23 1952 Foundation and Empire (Foundation, #2)
author: Isaac Asimov
name: seth
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1952
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/12/29
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]]> At Night All Blood Is Black 58107511 “CłóŽÇłŠŽÇ±ôČčłÙâ€� soldier with the French army during World War I. When his friend Mademba Diop, in the same regiment, is seriously injured in battle, Diop begs Alfa to kill him and spare him the pain of a long and agonizing death in No Man’s Land.

Unable to commit this mercy killing, madness creeps into Alfa’s mind as he comes to see this refusal as a cruel moment of cowardice. Anxious to avenge the death of his friend and find forgiveness for himself, he begins a macabre ritual: every night he sneaks across enemy lines to find and murder a blue-eyed German soldier, and every night he returns to base, unharmed, with the German’s severed hand. At first his comrades look at Alfa’s deeds with admiration, but soon rumors begin to circulate that this super soldier isn’t a hero, but a sorcerer, a soul-eater. Plans are hatched to get Alfa away from the front, and to separate him from his growing collection of hands, but how does one reason with a demon, and how far will Alfa go to make amends to his dead friend?

Peppered with bullets and black magic, this remarkable novel fills in a forgotten chapter in the history of World War I. Blending oral storytelling traditions with the gritty, day-to-day, journalistic horror of life in the trenches, David Diop's At Night All Blood is Black is a dazzling tale of a man’s descent into madness.

Selected by students across France to win the Prix Goncourt des LycĂ©ens, David Diop’s English-language, historical fiction debut At Night All Blood is Black is a “powerful, hypnotic, and dark novelâ€� (Livres Hebdo) of terror and transformation in the trenches of the First World War.]]> 145 David Diop 1782277536 seth 0 to-read 3.79 2018 At Night All Blood Is Black
author: David Diop
name: seth
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> Lays of Ancient Rome 1503869 108 Thomas Babington Macaulay 1426400667 seth 0 to-read 4.10 1842 Lays of Ancient Rome
author: Thomas Babington Macaulay
name: seth
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1842
rating: 0
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]]> The Vela (The Vela #1) 54954844 In the fading light of a dying star, a soldier for hire searches for a missing refugee ship and uncovers a universe-shattering secret.

Orphan, refugee, and soldier-for-hire Asala Sikou doesn't think too much about the end of civilization. Her system's star is dying, and the only person she can afford to look out for is herself.

When a ship called The Vela vanishes during what was supposed to be a flashy rescue mission, a reluctant Asala is hired to team up with Niko, the child of a wealthy inner planet's president, to find it and the outer system refugees on board.

But this is no ordinary rescue mission; The Vela holds a secret that places the fate of the universe in the balance, and forces Asala to decide—in a dying world where good and evil are far from black and white, who deserves to survive?]]> 369 Yoon Ha Lee 1682107930 seth 0 to-read 3.88 2019 The Vela (The Vela #1)
author: Yoon Ha Lee
name: seth
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Humanity's Descent: The Consequences of Ecological Instability]]> 489412 325 Richard Potts 0380715236 seth 5 4.25 1996 Humanity's Descent: The Consequences of Ecological Instability
author: Richard Potts
name: seth
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at: 2020/02/02
date added: 2021/04/08
shelves: classics, favorites, evolution
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]]> The Search for Truth 2169661 153 Michael A. Singer 0914374036 seth 0 to-read 4.27 1974 The Search for Truth
author: Michael A. Singer
name: seth
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1974
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems]]> 34626431
In this practical and comprehensive guide, author Martin Kleppmann helps you navigate this diverse landscape by examining the pros and cons of various technologies for processing and storing data. Software keeps changing, but the fundamental principles remain the same. With this book, software engineers and architects will learn how to apply those ideas in practice, and how to make full use of data in modern applications.

Peer under the hood of the systems you already use, and learn how to use and operate them more effectivelyMake informed decisions by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of different toolsNavigate the trade-offs around consistency, scalability, fault tolerance, and complexityUnderstand the distributed systems research upon which modern databases are builtPeek behind the scenes of major online services, and learn from their architectures]]> 1051 Martin Kleppmann 1491903074 seth 0 to-read 4.70 2015 Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems
author: Martin Kleppmann
name: seth
average rating: 4.70
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> The Survivors 53519886 Coming home dredges up deeply buried secrets in The Survivors, a thrilling mystery by New York Times bestselling author Jane Harper.

Kieran Elliott's life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences.

The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home.

Kieran's parents are struggling in a town where fortunes are forged by the sea. Between them all is his absent brother, Finn.

When a body is discovered on the beach, long-held secrets threaten to emerge. A sunken wreck, a missing girl, and questions that have never washed away...]]> 379 Jane Harper 1250232414 seth 0 to-read 3.94 2020 The Survivors
author: Jane Harper
name: seth
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[El Secreto de los 36 Invisibles (Revelaciones nÂș 1) (Spanish Edition)]]> 24670827
Llena de esoterismo y confabulaciones, esta serie nos adentra en su primera entrega en un mundo histĂłrico que se nos hace difuso y oculto gracias al complot llevado a cabo por “los perseguidores del secretoâ€� desde hace siglos. No todo lo que sabemos del mundo y la historia es lo que parece.

Rosacruces y Masones, Guardianes y Perseguidores, secretos e intrigas, todos se entremezclan en esta historia que busca, como su nombre pregona, “REVELARâ€� la verdad a los que la buscan, aunque cause un escĂĄndalo entre los mĂĄs ortodoxos y conservadores historiadores y religiosos.

Figuras como JesĂșs, San Juan Bautista y Juana de Arco son algunos de los personajes que aparecen dentro de esta historia, solo que la historia que nos cuenta REVELACIONES sobre estos personajes no es la historia que conocemos.

Esta novela, basada en distintos medios de documentaciĂłn, ofrece al lector un estilo literario fuera de lo comĂșn que le llevara a dar un paseo por distintos tipos de narrativa que se entremezclan en una serie de relatos e imĂĄgenes dentro de otras, dĂĄndonos la apariencia de ser fragmentos aislados de un texto que a medida que avanza parece conseguirse con sus partes anteriores y con su narrador perdido formando poco a poco un cuerpo que nos muestra un todo y en el que todo esta conectado entre un caos completamente ordenado.

Todas las historias que esta “novela testimonioâ€� nos devela, aunque puedan resultar escandalosas para muchos, estĂĄn fuertemente documentadas, comprobadas cientĂ­ficamente y respaldadas por una amplia gama de documentos histĂłricos de todas partes del mundo.]]> 126 Jose Calabres seth 0 to-read 5.00 2007 El Secreto de los 36 Invisibles (Revelaciones nÂș 1) (Spanish Edition)
author: Jose Calabres
name: seth
average rating: 5.00
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Ashamed of the Gospel: When the Church Becomes Like the World]]> 291933 266 John F. MacArthur Jr. 1581342888 seth 5 currently-reading 4.31 1993 Ashamed of the Gospel: When the Church Becomes Like the World
author: John F. MacArthur Jr.
name: seth
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1993
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/09/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible]]> 17616126 The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Atlantic delivers his first book about America: a fascinating look at the men whose efforts and achievements helped unify the States and create one cohesive nation

"History is rarely as charming and entertaining as when it's told by Simon Winchester."-New York Times Book Review

For more than two centuries, E pluribus unum-Out of many, one-has been featured on America's official government seals and stamped on its currency. But how did America become "one nation, indivisible"? What unified a growing number of disparate states into the modern country we recognize today? In this monumental history, Simon Winchester addresses these questions, bringing together the breathtaking achievements that helped forge and unify America and the pioneers who have toiled fearlessly to discover, connect, and bond the citizens and geography of the U.S.A. from its beginnings.

Winchester follows in the footsteps of America's most essential explorers, thinkers, and innovators, including Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery Expedition to the Pacific Coast, the builders of the first transcontinental telegraph, and the powerful civil engineer behind the Interstate Highway System. He treks vast swaths of territory, from Pittsburgh to Portland; Rochester to San Francisco; Truckee to Laramie; Seattle to Anchorage, introducing these fascinating men and others-some familiar, some forgotten, some hardly known-who played a pivotal role in creating today's United States. Throughout, he ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree.

Featuring 32 illustrations throughout the text, The Men Who United the States is a fresh, lively, and erudite look at the way in which the most powerful nation on earth came together, from one of our most entertaining, probing, and insightful observers.]]> 691 Simon Winchester 006207962X seth 5 to-read 3.95 2013 The Men Who United the States: America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible
author: Simon Winchester
name: seth
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2013
rating: 5
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]]> The Mayor of Casterbridge 56759 Librarian note: The same ISBN is now being used here with a new cover.

In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a personality prone to self-destructive pride and temper. Subtitled ‘A Story of a Man of Characterâ€�, Hardy’s powerful and sympathetic study of the heroic but deeply flawed Henchard is also an intensely dramatic work, tragically played out against the vivid backdrop of a close-knit Dorsetshire town.]]> 393 Thomas Hardy seth 5 3.85 1886 The Mayor of Casterbridge
author: Thomas Hardy
name: seth
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1886
rating: 5
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]]> The Worldly Philosophers 3132079 The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times & Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers is a bestselling classic that not only enables us to see more deeply into our history but helps us better understand our own times. In this seventh edition, Robert L. Heilbroner provides a new theme that connects thinkers as diverse as Adam Smith and Karl Marx. The theme is the common focus of their highly varied ideas -- namely, the search to understand how a capitalist society works. It is a focus never more needed than in this age of confusing economic headlines. In a bold new concluding chapter entitled "The End of the Worldly Philosophy?" Heilbroner reminds us that the word "end" refers to both the purpose and limits of economics. This chapter conveys a concern that today's increasingly "scientific" economics may overlook fundamental social and political issues that are central to economics. Thus, unlike its predecessors, this new edition provides not just an indispensable illumination of our past but a call to action for our future.]]> 347 Robert L. Heilbroner 0671213261 seth 5 4.19 1953 The Worldly Philosophers
author: Robert L. Heilbroner
name: seth
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1953
rating: 5
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]]> The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 517188 150 Muriel Spark 0060931736 seth 5 3.73 1961 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
author: Muriel Spark
name: seth
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1961
rating: 5
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]]> Corelli’s Mandolin 3388 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is set in the early days of the second world war, before Benito Mussolini invaded Greece. Dr Iannis practices medicine on the island of Cephalonia, accompanied by his daughter, Pelagia, to whom he imparts much of his healing art. Even when the Italians do invade, life isn’t so bad—at first anyway. The officer in command of the Italian garrison is the cultured Captain Antonio Corelli, who responds to a Nazi greeting of “Heil Hitlerâ€� with his own “Heil Pucciniâ€�, and whose most precious possession is his mandolin. It isn't long before Corelli and Pelagia are involved in a heated affair--despite her engagement to a young fisherman, Mandras, who has gone off to join Greek partisans. Love is complicated enough in wartime, even when the lovers are on the same side. And for Corelli and Pelagia, it becomes increasingly difficult to negotiate the minefield of allegiances, both personal and political, as all around them atrocities mount, former friends become enemies and the ugliness of war infects everyone it touches.

British author Louis de BerniĂšres is well known for his forays into magical realism in such novels as The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman. Here he keeps it to a minimum, though certainly the secondary characters with whom he populates his island—the drunken priest, the strongman, the fisherman who swims with dolphins—would be at home in any of his wildly imaginative Latin American fictions. Instead, de BerniĂšres seems interested in dissecting the nature of history as he tells his ever-darkening tale from many different perspectives. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin works on many levels, as a love story, a war story and a deconstruction of just what determines the facts that make it into the history books.]]> 437 Louis de BerniĂšres 067976397X seth 5 3.97 1994 Corelli’s Mandolin
author: Louis de BerniĂšres
name: seth
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1994
rating: 5
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]]> Birdsong 6259 483 Sebastian Faulks 0679776818 seth 5 4.11 1993 Birdsong
author: Sebastian Faulks
name: seth
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1993
rating: 5
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]]> Tess of the D’Urbervilles 32261 here and here.

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D’Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her ‘cousinâ€� Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future.]]> 518 Thomas Hardy seth 5 3.83 1891 Tess of the D’Urbervilles
author: Thomas Hardy
name: seth
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1891
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Salterton Trilogy: Tempest-Tost / Leaven of Malice / A Mixture of Frailties]]> 48266
There's the Salterton Little Theatre Company, in which professional director Valentine Rich is tormented by the amateurish efforts of his actors. The families Vambrace and Bridgetower almost go to war over a fake notice of engagement in the local paper. And a family fortune is lavished on an aspiring singer because there is no male heir to claim it.

Tracing the lives and incidents of a small community in the middle of the last century, "The Salterton Trilogy" peels off the public veneer of geniality and respectability to reveal the private passions churning beneath.]]> 808 Robertson Davies 014015910X seth 5 4.37 1986 The Salterton Trilogy: Tempest-Tost / Leaven of Malice / A Mixture of Frailties
author: Robertson Davies
name: seth
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1986
rating: 5
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]]> Stoner 25489210 --nyrb.com]]> 313 John Williams 1590179285 seth 5 4.56 1965 Stoner
author: John Williams
name: seth
average rating: 4.56
book published: 1965
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Retreat of Western Liberalism]]> 34496942 Time to Start Thinking, Financial Times chief US columnist and commentator Edward Luce charted the course of America's relative decline, proving to be a prescient voice on our current social and political turmoil.

In The Retreat of Western Liberalism, Luce makes a larger statement about the weakening of western hegemony and the crisis of liberal democracy--of which Donald Trump and his European counterparts are not the cause, but a terrifying symptom. Luce argues that we are on a menacing trajectory brought about by ignorance of what it took to build the West, arrogance towards society's economic losers, and complacency about our system's durability--attitudes that have been emerging since the fall of the Berlin Wall. We cannot move forward without a clear diagnosis of what has gone wrong. Unless the West can rekindle an economy that produces gains for the majority of its people, its political liberties may be doomed. The West's faith in history teaches us to take democracy for granted. Reality tells us something troublingly different.

Combining on-the-ground reporting with intelligent synthesis of the literature and economic analysis, Luce offers a detailed projection of the consequences of the Trump administration, the rise of European populism, and a forward-thinking analysis of what those who believe in enlightenment values must do to defend them from the multiple onslaughts they face in the coming years.]]> 234 Edward Luce 0802127398 seth 5 3.96 2017 The Retreat of Western Liberalism
author: Edward Luce
name: seth
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2017
rating: 5
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]]> All That Is 13330444
From his experiences as a naval officer in battles off Okinawa during World War II, Philip Bowman returns to America and finds a position as a book editor. It was a time when publishing was still a private affair - a scattered family of small houses here and in Europe - a time of gatherings in fabled apartments, parties into the night. It is a world in which to immerse himself, a world of intimate connections and surprising triumphs. But the deal that Philip cannot seem to close is love: one marriage goes bad; another fails to happen; and, finally, he meets a woman who enthralls, then betrays him, setting him on a course he could never have imagined for himself.

Written with Salter's signature economy of prose, All That Is fiercely, fluidly explores a life unfolding in a world on the brink of change: a dazzling, sometimes devastating labyrinth of love and ambition, of the small shocks and grand pleasures of being alive.]]> 290 James Salter 1400043131 seth 5 3.36 2013 All That Is
author: James Salter
name: seth
average rating: 3.36
book published: 2013
rating: 5
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]]> The Deptford Trilogy 74403
Fifth Business
The Manticore
World of Wonders]]> 825 Robertson Davies 0140118594 seth 5 4.34 1975 The Deptford Trilogy
author: Robertson Davies
name: seth
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1975
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Colony of Unrequited Dreams]]> 95230 The Colony of Unrequited Dreams is an epic portrait of passion and ambition, set against the beautiful, brutal landscape of Newfoundland. In this widely acclaimed novel, Johnston has created two of the most memorable characters in recent fiction: Joey Smallwood, who claws his way up from poverty to become New Foundland's first premier; and Sheilagh Fielding, who renounces her father's wealth to become a popular columnist and writer, a gifted satirist who casts a haunting shadow on Smallwood's life and career.

The two meet as children at school and grow to realize that their lives are irreversibly intertwined, bound together by a secret they don't know they share. Smallwood, always on the make, torn between love of country and fear of failure, is as reluctant to trust the private truths of his heart as his rival and savior, Fielding—brilliant, hard-drinking, and unconventionally sexy. Their story ranges from small-town Newfoundland to New York City, from the harrowing ice floes of the seal hunt to the lavish drawing rooms of colonial governors, and combines erudition, comedy, and unflagging narrative brio in a manner reminiscent of John Irving and Charles Dickens. A tragicomic elegy for the "colony of unrequited dreams" that is Newfoundland, Wayne Johnston's masterful tribute to a people and a place establishes him as a novelist who is as profound as he is funny, with an impeccable sense of the intersection where private lives and history collide.]]> 590 Wayne Johnston 0385495439 seth 5 3.93 1998 The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
author: Wayne Johnston
name: seth
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1998
rating: 5
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]]> The Worldly Philosophers 82120 The bestselling classic that examines the history of economic thought from Adam Smith to Karl Marx—“all the economic lore most general readers conceivably could want to know, served up with a flourishâ€� (The New York Times).

The Worldly Philosophers not only enables us to see more deeply into our history but helps us better understand our own times. In this seventh edition, Robert L. Heilbroner provides a new theme that connects thinkers as diverse as Adam Smith and Karl Marx. The theme is the common focus of their highly varied ideas—namely, the search to understand how a capitalist society works. It is a focus never more needed than in this age of confusing economic headlines.

In a bold new concluding chapter entitled “The End of the Worldly Philosophy?â€� Heilbroner reminds us that the word “endâ€� refers to both the purpose and limits of economics. This chapter conveys a concern that today’s increasingly “scientificâ€� economics may overlook fundamental social and political issues that are central to economics. Thus, unlike its predecessors, this new edition provides not just an indispensable illumination of our past but a call to action for our future.]]> 368 Robert L. Heilbroner 068486214X seth 5 4.16 1953 The Worldly Philosophers
author: Robert L. Heilbroner
name: seth
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1953
rating: 5
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]]> David Copperfield 58696 882 Charles Dickens seth 5 4.02 1850 David Copperfield
author: Charles Dickens
name: seth
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1850
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers]]> 34811390
As the Mediterranean shaped the classical world, and the Atlantic connected Europe to the New World, the Pacific Ocean defines our tomorrow. With China on the rise, so, too, are the American cities of the West coast, including Seattle, San Francisco, and the long cluster of towns down the Silicon Valley.

Today, the Pacific is ascendant. Its geological history has long transformed us—tremendous earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis—but its human history, from a Western perspective, is quite young, beginning with Magellan’s sixteenth-century circumnavigation. It is a natural wonder whose most fascinating history is currently being made.

In telling the story of the Pacific, Simon Winchester takes us from the Bering Strait to Cape Horn, the Yangtze River to the Panama Canal, and to the many small islands and archipelagos that lie in between. He observes the fall of a dictator in Manila, visits aboriginals in northern Queensland, and is jailed in Tierra del Fuego, the land at the end of the world. His journey encompasses a trip down the Alaska Highway, a stop at the isolated Pitcairn Islands, a trek across South Korea and a glimpse of its mysterious northern neighbor.

Winchester’s personal experience is vast and his storytelling second to none. And his historical understanding of the region is formidable, making Pacific a paean to this magnificent sea of beauty, myth, and imagination that is transforming our lives.]]> 512 Simon Winchester seth 5 4.14 2015 Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers
author: Simon Winchester
name: seth
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2015
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]> 2956 327 Mark Twain 0142437174 seth 5 3.82 1884 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
author: Mark Twain
name: seth
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1884
rating: 5
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]]> Animal Farm 7613
When the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and equality. Soon the other animals discover that they are not all as equal as they thought, and find themselves hopelessly ensnared as one form of tyranny is replaced with another.

Animal Farm was one of George Orwell's most successful books - after its publication Orwell became one of the best-paid writers in England. Though the text continues to play a foundational role in the political education of young people across the world, its allegorical function has become more difficult to decode as the U.S.S.R recedes into the historical distance.]]> 129 George Orwell seth 5 classics, humanity 3.90 1945 Animal Farm
author: George Orwell
name: seth
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1945
rating: 5
read at: 2013/03/13
date added: 2020/09/05
shelves: classics, humanity
review:

]]> Animal Farm 170448 Librarian's note: There is an Alternate Cover Edition for this edition of this book here.

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned –a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.
When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.]]> 141 George Orwell 0451526341 seth 5 classics, favorites 4.07 1945 Animal Farm
author: George Orwell
name: seth
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1945
rating: 5
read at: 2009/12/27
date added: 2020/09/05
shelves: classics, favorites
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos]]> 11027756 499 Primitivo Mijares seth 5 currently-reading 4.11 1976 The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
author: Primitivo Mijares
name: seth
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1976
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/09/05
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Breath 2176735 Breath is an extraordinary evocation of an adolescence spent resisting complacency, testing one’s limits against nature, finding like-minded souls, and discovering just how far one breath will take you. It’s a story of extremes—extreme sports and extreme emotions.

On the wild, lonely coast of Western Australia, two thrillseeking and barely adolescent boys fall into the enigmatic thrall of veteran big-wave surfer Sando. Together they form an odd but elite trio. The grown man initiates the boys into a kind of Spartan ethos, a regimen of risk and challenge, where they test themselves in storm swells on remote and shark-infested reefs, pushing each other to the edges of endurance, courage, and sanity. But where is all this heading? Why is their mentor’s past such forbidden territory? And what can explain his American wife’s peculiar behavior? Venturing beyond all limits—in relationships, in physical challenge, and in sexual behavior—there is a point where oblivion is the only outcome. Full of Winton’s lyrical genius for conveying physical sensation, Breath is a rich and atmospheric coming-of-age tale from one of world literature’s finest storytellers.]]> 218 Tim Winton 0374116342 seth 5 3.90 2008 Breath
author: Tim Winton
name: seth
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2008
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Unicorn Project (The Phoenix Project)]]> 44333183 352 Gene Kim 1942788762 seth 0 to-read 4.01 2019 The Unicorn Project (The Phoenix Project)
author: Gene Kim
name: seth
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/06/06
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]]> <![CDATA[When Money Dies: The Nightmare of the Weimar Hyper-inflation]]> 8567383 When Money Dies is the classic history of what happens when a nation’s currency depreciates beyond recovery. In 1923, with its currency effectively worthless (the exchange rate in December of that year was one dollar to 4,200,000,000,000 marks), the German republic was all but reduced to a barter economy.ÌęExpensive cigars, artworks, and jewels were routinely exchanged for staples such as bread; a cinema ticket could be bought for a lump of coal; and a bottle of paraffin for a silk shirt. People watched helplessly as their life savings disappeared and their loved ones starved.ÌęGermany’s finances descended into chaos, with severe social unrest in its wake.

Money may no longer be physically printed and distributed in the voluminous quantities of 1923.ÌęHowever, “quantitative easing,â€� that modern euphemism for surreptitious deficit financing in an electronic era, can no less become an assault on monetary discipline.ÌęWhatever the reason for a country’s deficit necessity or profligacy, unwillingness to tax or blindness to expenditure it is beguiling to suppose that if the day of reckoning is postponed economic recovery will come in time to prevent higher unemployment or deeper recession.ÌęWhat if it does not? Germany in 1923 provides a vivid, compelling, sobering moral tale.

]]> 288 Adam Fergusson 1906964440 seth 0 to-read 3.74 1975 When Money Dies: The Nightmare of the Weimar Hyper-inflation
author: Adam Fergusson
name: seth
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1975
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/01/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Death Before Dinner (The Otter Tail County Mysteries)]]> 1106478
Every August Dr. George Gherkin, the Fergus Falls State University president, hosts a faculty party. It's tradition for George to lock himself inside the kitchen to prepare his signature dish. But instead of Chicken Kiev, the guests find their chef with a meat cleaver buried in his head.

All the guests are suspects. There's Sally Ann Pennwright, Gherkin's scorned secretary and former mistress; Sherwin Williams, the assistant professor of Art who's been denied tenure for years; and Francis Olson, the athletic director whose attempt to leave Fergus Falls was thwarted by Gherkin. Everyone has an ax to grind with the selfserving, manipulative university president. Can the small-town sheriff–who hasn't handled a homicide case in his entire career–solve this unsavory crime?]]> 264 Gerald Anderson 0738708747 seth 0 to-read 3.44 2007 Death Before Dinner (The Otter Tail County Mysteries)
author: Gerald Anderson
name: seth
average rating: 3.44
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/01/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Still Standing: How an Ex-con Found Salvation in the Floodwaters of Katrina]]> 25997493
Using a boat they found at an evacuated house in the Garden District, Anderson and his homeboys battled chin-high floodwaters to rescue victims, in some cases their a woman in labor, an old man without legs, an addict with a bullet in his chest. He and his friends looked after families and elderly in the projects “just like if we was protecting the President’s house.â€�

Still How an Ex-Con Found Salvation in the Floodwaters of Katrina is more than a tale of struggles when the levees broke. A gifted storyteller, Anderson weaves reflections on life before Katrina into the narrative. “Whenever I disobeyed my brother, he’d hold me up to the ceiling and drop me. One hour later I go right back and disobey him. After a while it like a bee sting, it hurt for a minute and go away. . . . The neighborhood I came up in, you sit on the porch, and it like watchinâ€� a wrasslinâ€� match. You see the ladies, the hustlers, the dogfights. If there ain’t men doin' violence, women be fightinâ€� about men.â€�

Anderson also reflects on using his wits in prison, where he grilled cheese sandwiches by ironing them inside brown paper bags. In Louisiana State Penitentiary, Anderson lived with his father for the first time and realized, “My daddy got a little care about me.â€�

Seeing dead bodies had been commonplace for Anderson. But when his beloved Miss Mary and her grandchildren are stabbed to death during Katrina, Anderson says, "It put chills in my body . . . . I ain’t never seen anyone murdered that open her heart to you like Miss Mary."

Anderson's memoir illuminates a man’s life that is tested by floodwaters and then given new meaning by his rescue efforts. His voice and cadence lend immediacy to his riveting story.

When author and award-winning journalist Susan Orlins met Anderson he was selling Street Sense, Washington, DC’s newspaper that is written and sold by homeless vendors. For 18 months they met weekly. He talked, she typed. She asked questions, he answered. Anderson’s memoir is the result.]]> 154 Gerald Anderson seth 0 to-read 4.38 2015 Still Standing: How an Ex-con Found Salvation in the Floodwaters of Katrina
author: Gerald Anderson
name: seth
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2015
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]]> Escape from Freedom 25491 Escape from Freedom, a landmark work by one of the most distinguished thinkers of our time, and a book that is as timely now as when first published in 1941. Few books have thrown such light upon the forces that shape modern society or penetrated so deeply into the causes of authoritarian systems. If the rise of democracy set some people free, at the same time it gave birth to a society in which the individual feels alienated and dehumanized. Using the insights of psychoanalysis as probing agents, Fromm's work analyzes the illness of contemporary civilization as witnessed by its willingness to submit to totalitarian rule.]]> 301 Erich Fromm 0805031499 seth 5 4.29 1941 Escape from Freedom
author: Erich Fromm
name: seth
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1941
rating: 5
read at: 2019/12/18
date added: 2019/12/18
shelves: classics, humanity, philosophy
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Time Falling Bodies Take To Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture]]> 498337 280 William Irwin Thompson 0312160623 seth 0 to-read 4.32 1980 The Time Falling Bodies Take To Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture
author: William Irwin Thompson
name: seth
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1980
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/11/30
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]]> At the Edge of History 5868339 252 William Irwin Thompson 0060910046 seth 5 4.13 1971 At the Edge of History
author: William Irwin Thompson
name: seth
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1971
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/11/30
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]]> The Great Cock Hunt 24261639
With so many memories and fantasies still lingering from college, Alex gears up for a satisfying trip down cock memory lane. With his friends Lizzie and Tommy, he wants to find out who got married, who came out, and of course, get some tail while he's at it. . .

The adventures begin when Alex sees his old flame with a new boytoy--and hooks up with both of them. But where there's history, there's complication, and Alex's never-ending pursuit for great cock takes him on a no-holds barred journey of guy-swapping, seducing straight dudes, mind-blowing orgies, and marathon-sex sessions that only rev him up for his next wild encounter. . .]]> 288 Alex 0758283571 seth 0 to-read 4.62 2008 The Great Cock Hunt
author: Alex
name: seth
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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]]> Fire & Blood 39943902 The history of the Targaryens comes to life in this Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon


Centuries before the events of A Game of Thrones, House Targaryen--the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria--took up residence on Dragonstone. Fire & Blood begins their tale with the legendary Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and goes on to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold that iconic seat, all the way up to the civil war that nearly tore their dynasty apart.

What really happened during the Dance of the Dragons? Why was it so deadly to visit Valyria after the Doom? What were Maegor the Cruel's worst crimes? What was it like in Westeros when dragons ruled the skies? These are but a few of the questions answered in this essential chronicle, as related by a learned maester of the Citadel. Readers have glimpsed small parts of this narrative in such volumes as The World of Ice & Fire, but now, for the first time, the full tapestry of Targaryen history is revealed.

With all the scope and grandeur of Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Fire & Blood is the first volume of the definitive two-part history of the Targaryens, giving readers a whole new appreciation for the dynamic, often bloody, and always fascinating history of Westeros.]]> 787 George R.R. Martin seth 0 to-read 4.09 2018 Fire & Blood
author: George R.R. Martin
name: seth
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2018
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]]> Children of Earth and Sky 26505409 The bestselling author of the ground breaking novels Under Heaven and River of Stars, Guy Gavriel Kay is back with a new novel, Children of Earth and Sky, set in a world inspired by the conflicts and dramas of Renaissance Europe. Against this tumultuous backdrop the lives of men and women unfold on the borderlands—where empires and faiths collide.
Ìę
From the small coastal town of Senjan, notorious for its pirates, a young woman sets out to find vengeance for her lost family. That same spring, from the wealthy city-state of Seressa, famous for its canals and lagoon, come two very different people: a young artist traveling to the dangerous east to paint the grand khalif at his request—and possibly to do more—and a fiercely intelligent, angry woman, posing as a doctor’s wife, but sent by Seressa as a spy.
Ìę
The trading ship that carries them is commanded by the accomplished younger son of a merchant family, ambivalent about the life he’s been born to live. And farther east a boy trains to become a soldier in the elite infantry of the khalif—to win glory in the war everyone knows is coming.
Ìę
As these lives entwine, their fates—and those of many others—will hang in the balance, when the khalif sends out his massive army to take the great fortress that is the gateway to the western world...


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 560 Guy Gavriel Kay 0698183274 seth 0 to-read 4.40 2016 Children of Earth and Sky
author: Guy Gavriel Kay
name: seth
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2016
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]]> <![CDATA[On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous]]> 41880609 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born � a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam � and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one's own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.]]> 246 Ocean Vuong 0525562028 seth 0 to-read 4.05 2019 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
author: Ocean Vuong
name: seth
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
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date added: 2019/11/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Where the Forest Meets the Stars]]> 40545956 In this gorgeously stunning debut, a mysterious child teaches two strangers how to love and trust again.

After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. She throws herself into her work from dusk to dawn, until her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin barefoot and covered in bruises.

The girl calls herself Ursa, and she claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles. With concerns about the child’s home situation, Jo reluctantly agrees to let her stay―just until she learns more about Ursa’s past.

Jo enlists the help of her reclusive neighbor, Gabriel Nash, to solve the mystery of the charming child. But the more time they spend together, the more questions they have. How does a young girl not only read but understand Shakespeare? Why do good things keep happening in her presence? And why aren’t Jo and Gabe checking the missing children’s website anymore?

Though the three have formed an incredible bond, they know difficult choices must be made. As the summer nears an end and Ursa gets closer to her fifth miracle, her dangerous past closes in. When it finally catches up to them, all of their painful secrets will be forced into the open, and their fates will be left to the stars.]]> 332 Glendy Vanderah 154204006X seth 0 to-read 3.98 2019 Where the Forest Meets the Stars
author: Glendy Vanderah
name: seth
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2019
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]]> <![CDATA[Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)]]> 6148028 Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol—a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest that she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel of the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before . . . and surprising readers at every turn.]]> 391 Suzanne Collins 0439023491 seth 5 4.34 2009 Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: seth
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at: 2019/11/23
date added: 2019/11/23
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]]> <![CDATA[Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, #1)]]> 40792913
But some things never change. So when ex-envoy, now-convict Takeshi Kovacs has his consciousness and skills downloaded into the body of a nicotine-addicted ex-thug and presented with a catch-22 offer, he really shouldn't be surprised. Contracted by a billionaire to discover who murdered his last body, Kovacs is drawn into a terrifying conspiracy that stretches across known space and to the very top of society.]]> 544 Richard K. Morgan seth 0 to-read 4.02 2002 Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, #1)
author: Richard K. Morgan
name: seth
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/11/01
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]]> <![CDATA[The John Locke Collection: 6 Classic Works]]> 19228318 Waxkeep Publishing Collections provide history's greatest authors' collected works in a convenient collection complete with a linked table of contents. Waxkeep Publishing's goal is to provide the most complete, and most easy to read collections in the marketplace.






The John Locke Collection includes the following:







Two Treatises on Government: Book I
Two Treatises on Government: Book II
The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina
A Letter Concerning Toleration
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Some Thoughts Concerning Education
]]> 635 John Locke seth 0 to-read 4.23 The John Locke Collection: 6 Classic Works
author: John Locke
name: seth
average rating: 4.23
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]]> <![CDATA[The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: A Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Koran]]> 3967455 In this in-depth study of the language of the Koran, scholar Christoph Luxenberg dispels much of the mystery surrounding numerous hitherto unclear passages. The key, as Luxenberg shows exhaustively, is to understand that Aramaic--the language of most Middle Eastern Jews and Christians of the pre-Islamic era--had a pervasive influence on the development of the Arabic text of the Koran. For a thousand years preceding the advent of Islam, Aramaic (or Syriac as it was sometimes called) was the lingua franca of many parts of the Near East. It was the native language of the first Christian evangelists and the main liturgical language of the early Christian churches from Syria to Iran.

Based on this historical context and a profound knowledge of Semitic languages, Luxenberg clarifies many thorny textual puzzles. Perhaps his most interesting argument is that the passage often translated as referring to the "virgins" that are believed to greet the departed faithful in paradise was long ago misunderstood. In fact, knowledge of ancient Christian hymns in Aramaic suggests that the word in question refers to "grapes" that the departed will enjoy in a paradisiacal garden. Luxenberg discusses many other similar fascinating instances where Aramaic vocabulary and concepts influenced the text of the Koran

This highly erudite work makes a significant contribution to the study of the Koran and the history of Islamic origins.]]> 349 Christoph Luxenberg 3899300882 seth 0 3.89 2007 The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran: A Contribution to the Decoding of the Language of the Koran
author: Christoph Luxenberg
name: seth
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics]]> 1960096
Drawing on the new field of neuroeconomics, Shermer investigates what brain scans reveal about bargaining, snap purchases, and establishing trust in business. He scrutinizes experiments in behavioral economics to understand why people hang on to losing stocks, why negotiations disintegrate into tit-for-tat disputes, and why money does not make us happy. He brings together astonishing findings from psychology, biology, and other sciences to describe how our tribal ancestry makes us suckers for brands, why researchers believe cooperation unleashes biochemicals similar to those released during sex, why free trade promises to build alliances between nations, and how even capuchin monkeys get indignant if they don't get a fair reward for their work.]]> 336 Michael Shermer 0805078320 seth 5 classics, favorites 3.55 2007 The Mind of the Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics
author: Michael Shermer
name: seth
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2019/05/28
date added: 2019/05/28
shelves: classics, favorites
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Aristotle and Dante, #1)]]> 12000020
But against all odds, when Ari and Dante meet, they develop a special bond that will teach them the most important truths of their lives, and help define the people they want to be. But there are big hurdles in their way, and only by believing in each other—and the power of their friendship—can Ari and Dante emerge stronger on the other side.]]> 390 Benjamin Alire Sáenz 1442408928 seth 0 to-read 4.29 2012 Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Aristotle and Dante, #1)
author: Benjamin Alire SĂĄenz
name: seth
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB]]> 10756 736 Christopher Andrew 0465003125 seth 0 to-read 3.93 1985 The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB
author: Christopher Andrew
name: seth
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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]]> Ramayana 141152 461 łŐÄć±ôłŸÄ«°ìŸ± 0520227034 seth 0 to-read 4.19 -400 Ramayana
author: łŐÄć±ôłŸÄ«°ìŸ±
name: seth
average rating: 4.19
book published: -400
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/05/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Wake Up to the Joy of You: 52 Meditations and Practices for a Calmer, Happier Life]]> 29889973 Keep this book by your bedside. It is your loving companion. Be creative and have fun with it. Use it as a tool to unlock your goodness, and wake up to the joy of you!

"]]> 320 Agapi Stassinopoulos 0451496000 seth 0 to-read 4.22 Wake Up to the Joy of You: 52 Meditations and Practices for a Calmer, Happier Life
author: Agapi Stassinopoulos
name: seth
average rating: 4.22
book published:
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]]> The Light of the Fireflies 28802599 A haunting and hopeful tale of discovering light in even the darkest of places.

For his whole life, the boy has lived underground, in a basement with his parents, grandmother, sister, and brother. Before he was born, his family was disfigured by a fire. His sister wears a white mask to cover her burns.

He spends his hours with his cactus, reading his book on insects, or touching the one ray of sunlight that filters in through a crack in the ceiling. Ever since his sister had a baby, everyone’s been acting very strangely. The boy begins to wonder why they never say who the father is, about what happened before his own birth, about why they’re shut away.

A few days ago, some fireflies arrived in the basement. His grandma said, There’s no creature more amazing than one that can make its own light. That light makes the boy want to escape, to know the outside world. Problem is, all the doors are locked. And he doesn’t know how to get out.
]]> 338 Paul Pen 1503988562 seth 0 to-read 3.70 2013 The Light of the Fireflies
author: Paul Pen
name: seth
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August]]> 35066358 417 Claire North seth 0 to-read 4.03 2014 The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
author: Claire North
name: seth
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2014
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]]> Fallen Dragon 45258
In the distant future, corporations have become sustainable communities with their own militaries, and corporate goals have essentially replaced political ideology. On a youthful, rebellious impulse, Lawrence joined the military of a corporation that he now recognizes to be ruthless and exploitative. His only hope for escape is to earn enough money to buy his place in a better corporation.

When his platoon is sent to a distant colony to quell a local resistance effort, it seems like a stroke of amazing fortune, and Lawrence plans to rob the colony of their fabled gemstone, the Fallen Dragon, to get the money he needs. However, he soon discovers that the Fallen Dragon is not a gemstone at all, but an alien life form that the local colonists have been protecting since it crashed in their area.

Now, Lawrence must decide if he will steal the alien to exploit the use of its inherent biotechnical processes � which far exceed anything humans are capable of � or if he will help the Resistance get the alien home.]]> 808 Peter F. Hamilton 0330480065 seth 0 to-read 4.07 2001 Fallen Dragon
author: Peter F. Hamilton
name: seth
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Lays of Anuskaya Omnibus Edition (The Lays of Anuskaya #1-3)]]> 35784732
Among inhospitable and unforgiving seas stands Khalakovo, a mountainous archipelago of seven islands, its prominent eyrie stretching a thousand feet into the sky. Serviced by windships bearing goods and dignitaries, Khalakovo’s eyrie stands at the crossroads of world trade. But all is not well in Khalakovo. Conflict has erupted between the ruling Landed, the indigenous Aramahn, and the fanatical Maharraht, and a wasting disease has grown rampant over the past decade. Now, Khalakovo is to play host to the Nine Dukes, a meeting which will weigh heavily upon Khalakovo’s future.

When an elemental spirit attacks an incoming windship, murdering the Grand Duke and his retinue, Prince Nikandr, heir to the scepter of Khalakovo, is tasked with finding the child prodigy believed to be behind the summoning. However, Nikandr discovers that the boy is an autistic savant who may hold the key to lifting the blight that has been sweeping the islands. Can the Dukes, thirsty for revenge, be held at bay? Can Khalakovo be saved? The elusive answer drifts upon the Winds of Khalakovo...]]> 1488 Bradley P. Beaulieu 193964920X seth 0 to-read 3.66 The Lays of Anuskaya Omnibus Edition (The Lays of Anuskaya #1-3)
author: Bradley P. Beaulieu
name: seth
average rating: 3.66
book published:
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]]> Vita Nostra (Vita Nostra, #1) 39090430
Our life is brief . . .

Sasha Samokhina has been accepted to the Institute of Special Technologies.

Or, more precisely, she’s been chosen.

Situated in a tiny village, she finds the students are bizarre, and the curriculum even more so. The books are impossible to read, the lessons obscure to the point of maddening, and the work refuses memorization. Using terror and coercion to keep the students in line, the school does not punish them for their transgressions and failures; instead, it is their families that pay a terrible price. Yet despite her fear, Sasha undergoes changes that defy the dictates of matter and time; experiences which are nothing she has ever dreamed of . . . and suddenly all she could ever want.

A complex blend of adventure, magic, science, and philosophy that probes the mysteries of existence, filtered through a distinct Russian sensibility, this astonishing work of speculative fiction—brilliantly translated by Julia Meitov Hersey—is reminiscent of modern classics such as Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, Max Barry’s Lexicon, and Katherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale, but will transport them to a place far beyond those fantastical worlds.]]> 417 Marina Dyachenko seth 0 to-read 3.98 2007 Vita Nostra (Vita Nostra, #1)
author: Marina Dyachenko
name: seth
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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]]> The Book of M 36204070 Set in a dangerous near future world, The Book of M tells the captivating story of a group of ordinary people caught in an extraordinary catastrophe who risk everything to save the ones they love. It is a sweeping debut that illuminates the power that memories have not only on the heart, but on the world itself.

One afternoon at an outdoor market in India, a man’s shadow disappears—an occurrence science cannot explain. He is only the first. The phenomenon spreads like a plague, and while those afflicted gain a strange new power, it comes at a horrible price: the loss of all their memories.

Ory and his wife Max have escaped the Forgetting so far by hiding in an abandoned hotel deep in the woods. Their new life feels almost normal, until one day Max’s shadow disappears too.

Knowing that the more she forgets, the more dangerous she will become to Ory, Max runs away. But Ory refuses to give up the time they have left together. Desperate to find Max before her memory disappears completely, he follows her trail across a perilous, unrecognizable world, braving the threat of roaming bandits, the call to a new war being waged on the ruins of the capital, and the rise of a sinister cult that worships the shadowless.

As they journey, each searches for answers: for Ory, about love, about survival, about hope; and for Max, about a new force growing in the south that may hold the cure.]]> 485 Peng Shepherd 0062669605 seth 0 to-read 3.67 2018 The Book of M
author: Peng Shepherd
name: seth
average rating: 3.67
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]]> The Complete Wheel of Time 22429484 11095 Robert Jordan 0765376865 seth 0 to-read 4.62 2014 The Complete Wheel of Time
author: Robert Jordan
name: seth
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2014
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]]> The Plague 11989
It tells the story from the point of view of a narrator of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran. The narrator remains unknown until the start of the last chapter, chapter 5 of part 5. The novel presents a snapshot of life in Oran as seen through the author's distinctive absurdist point of view.

The book tells a gripping tale of human unrelieved horror, of survival and resilience, and of the ways in which humankind confronts death, The Plague is at once a masterfully crafted novel, eloquently understated and epic in scope, and a parable of ageless moral resonance, profoundly relevant to our times. In Oran, a coastal town in North Africa, the plague begins as a series of portents, unheeded by the people. It gradually becomes an omnipresent reality, obliterating all traces of the past and driving its victims to almost unearthly extremes of suffering, madness, and compassion.

The Plague is considered an existentialist classic despite Camus' objection to the label. The novel stresses the powerlessness of the individual characters to affect their destinies. The narrative tone is similar to Kafka's, especially in The Trial, whose individual sentences potentially have multiple meanings; the material often pointedly resonating as stark allegory of phenomenal consciousness and the human condition.]]> 308 Albert Camus seth 0 to-read 4.05 1947 The Plague
author: Albert Camus
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]]> <![CDATA[Birth of a Think Tank: The Founding of PIDS]]> 43443924 independent policy think tank for government and made the critical decision to establish it 40 years ago when he was NEDA director-general and minister of economic planning.

"Leafing through the pages of this publication, one can immediately recognize his genius and, more importantly, his resolve to turn his vision into reality.

"On behalf of the past presidents of PIDS and staff members then and now, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to Dr. Sicat for his “giftâ€� to us and the Filipino people—the PIDS. The Institute has served as an avenue for economists and other social science academics and practitioners to use their intellectual capital for the socioeconomic advancement of this country.

"May the readers of this monograph find inspiration from the values and vision of Dr. Sicat. I earnestly hope that by understanding
the PIDS� history as a think tank, more people will appreciate and support it given its role in producing public goods necessary for nation building." - GILBERTO M. LLANTO, President, PIDS]]> 55 Gerardo P. Sicat 9715640710 seth 0 to-read 0.0 Birth of a Think Tank: The Founding of PIDS
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]]> <![CDATA[Rock Solid: How the Philippines Won Its Maritime Case against China]]> 41056305
Seasoned Filipino journalist Marites Vitug pored over transcripts and documents from arbitral hearings at The Hague, and interviewed key personalities involved in the maritime case.]]> 315 Marites Dañguilan Vitug 9715508731 seth 0 to-read 4.54 2018 Rock Solid: How the Philippines Won Its Maritime Case against China
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average rating: 4.54
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]]> <![CDATA[The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines: A Commentary]]> 40139783

TABLE OF CONTENTS

� Basic Principles and Policies
� Bill of Rights
� Citizenship
� Suffrage
� Legislative Department
� Executive Department
� Judicial Department
� Constitutional Commissions
� Local Governments
� Accountability of Public Officers
� National Economy
� Social Justice and Human Rights
� Education, etc.
� The Family]]> 1410 Joaquin G. Bernas seth 0 to-read 4.71 The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines: A Commentary
author: Joaquin G. Bernas
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]]> <![CDATA[History of Philosophy: The Great Philosophers]]> 33628024 351 Miriam Defensor Santiago 9716912854 seth 0 to-read 5.00 History of Philosophy: The Great Philosophers
author: Miriam Defensor Santiago
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]]> The Girl For Me 9878868
So... why does he keep thinking about her?

Or him.

Whatever.
__________
Status: complete
Word count: 77,510]]> 268 Failte seth 0 to-read 3.74 2006 The Girl For Me
author: Failte
name: seth
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2006
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]]> <![CDATA[The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)]]> 38447
Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.]]> 311 Margaret Atwood 038549081X seth 0 to-read 4.15 1985 The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)
author: Margaret Atwood
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average rating: 4.15
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]]> The Picture of Dorian Gray 5297 272 Oscar Wilde seth 0 to-read 4.13 1890 The Picture of Dorian Gray
author: Oscar Wilde
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average rating: 4.13
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]]> Jane Eyre 10210 Alternate editions can be found here and here.

A gothic masterpiece of tempestuous passions and dark secrets, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is edited with an introduction and notes by Stevie Davis in Penguin Classics.

Charlotte Brontë tells the story of orphaned Jane Eyre, who grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, enduring loneliness and cruelty. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit - which prove necessary when she finds employment as a governess to the young ward of Byronic, brooding Mr Rochester. As her feelings for Rochester develop, Jane gradually uncovers Thornfield Hall's terrible secret, forcing her to make a choice. Should she stay with Rochester and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions - even if it means leaving the man she loves? A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre dazzled readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom.]]> 532 Charlotte Brontë 0142437204 seth 0 to-read 4.14 1847 Jane Eyre
author: Charlotte Brontë
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average rating: 4.14
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]]> The Diary of a Young Girl 48855
In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexeâ€� of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.
--back cover]]> 283 Anne Frank seth 0 to-read 4.19 1947 The Diary of a Young Girl
author: Anne Frank
name: seth
average rating: 4.19
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]]> Of Mice and Men 890 “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.â€�

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

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

A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.]]> 107 John Steinbeck 0142000671 seth 0 classics 3.88 1937 Of Mice and Men
author: John Steinbeck
name: seth
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
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]]> The Fault in Our Stars 11870085
Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author John Green's most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love.]]> 313 John Green seth 0 to-read 4.13 2012 The Fault in Our Stars
author: John Green
name: seth
average rating: 4.13
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]]> Crime and Punishment 7144 671 Fyodor Dostoevsky seth 5 classics, favorites, humanity 4.26 1866 Crime and Punishment
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: seth
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1866
rating: 5
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]]> A Thousand Splendid Suns 128029
With the passing of time comes Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the streets of Kabul loud with the sound of gunfire and bombs, life a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, the women's endurance tested beyond their worst imaginings. Yet love can move people to act in unexpected ways, lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism. In the end it is love that triumphs over death and destruction.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a portrait of a wounded country and a story of family and friendship, of an unforgiving time, an unlikely bond, and an indestructible love.]]> 372 Khaled Hosseini 1594489505 seth 0 to-read 4.44 2007 A Thousand Splendid Suns
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: seth
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2007
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]]> A Man Called Ove 18774964
Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents' association to their very foundations.]]> 337 Fredrik Backman 1476738017 seth 0 to-read 4.35 2012 A Man Called Ove
author: Fredrik Backman
name: seth
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
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]]> <![CDATA[The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals]]> 3109 What should we have for dinner? For omnivore like ourselves, this simple question has always posed a dilemma. When you can eat just about anything nature (or the supermarket) has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the foods on offer might shorten your life. Today, buffered by one food fad after another, America is suffering from what can only be described as a national eating disorder. The omnivore’s dilemma has returned with a vengeance, as the cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet confronts us with a bewildering and treacherous food landscape. What’s at stake in our eating choices is not only our own and our children’s health, but the health of the environment that sustains life on earth.
The Omnivore's Dilemma is groundbreaking book, in which one of America’s most fascinating, original, and elegant writers turns his own omnivorous mind to the seemingly straightforward question of what we should have for dinner. The question has confronted us since man discovered fire, but according to Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Botany of Desire, how we answer it today, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, may well determine our very survival as a species. Should we eat a fast-food hamburger? Something organic? Or perhaps something we hunt, gather, or grow ourselves?
To find out, Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain us—industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves—from the source to a final meal, and in the process develops a definitive account of the American way of eating. His absorbing narrative takes us from Iowa cornfields to food-science laboratories, from feedlots and fast-food restaurants to organic farms and hunting grounds, always emphasizing our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the handful of plant and animal species we depend on. Each time Pollan sits down to a meal, he deploys his unique blend of personal and investigative journalism to trace the origins of everything consumed, revealing what we unwittingly ingest and explaining how our taste for particular foods and flavors reflects our evolutionary inheritance.
The surprising answers Pollan offers to the simple question posed by this book have profound political, economic, psychological, and even moral implications for all of us. Ultimately, this is a book as much about visionary solutions as it is about problems, and Pollan contends that, when it comes to food, doing the right thing often turns out to be the tastiest thing an eater can do. Beautifully written and thrillingly argued, The Omnivore’s Dilemma promises to change the way we think about the politics and pleasure of eating. For anyone who reads it, dinner will never again look, or taste, quite the same.]]> 450 Michael Pollan 1594200823 seth 0 to-read 4.18 2006 The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
author: Michael Pollan
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]]> The Little Prince 157993
Few stories are as widely read and as universally cherished by children and adults alike as The Little Prince, presented here in a stunning new translation with carefully restored artwork. The definitive edition of a worldwide classic, it will capture the hearts of readers of all ages.]]> 96 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 0152023984 seth 5 4.32 1943 The Little Prince
author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
name: seth
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1943
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban]]> 17851885 I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday.

When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education.

On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price. She was shot in the head at point-blank range while riding the bus home from school, and few expected her to survive.

Instead, Malala's miraculous recovery has taken her on an extraordinary journey from a remote valley in northern Pakistan to the halls of the United Nations in New York. At sixteen, she has become a global symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls' education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.]]> 327 Malala Yousafzai 0316322407 seth 0 to-read 4.15 2012 I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
author: Malala Yousafzai
name: seth
average rating: 4.15
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]]> Brave New World 5129 Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machineâ€� (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New Worldd likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites.

"Aldous Huxley is the greatest 20th century writer in English." —Chicago Tribune]]> 268 Aldous Huxley 0060929871 seth 5 evolution, classics 3.99 1932 Brave New World
author: Aldous Huxley
name: seth
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1932
rating: 5
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]]> Man’s Search for Meaning 4069 Man's Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.]]> 165 Viktor E. Frankl 080701429X seth 0 to-read 4.39 1946 Man’s Search for Meaning
author: Viktor E. Frankl
name: seth
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1946
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]]> Frankenstein: The 1818 Text 35031085 This is a previously-published edition of ISBN 9780143131847.

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

This edition is the original 1818 text, which preserves the hard-hitting and politically charged aspects of Shelley's original writing, as well as her unflinching wit and strong female voice. This edition also includes a new introduction and suggestions for further reading by author and Shelley expert Charlotte Gordon, literary excerpts and reviews selected by Gordon and a chronology and essay by preeminent Shelley scholar Charles E. Robinson.]]> 260 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 0143131842 seth 5 classics 4.02 1818 Frankenstein: The 1818 Text
author: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
name: seth
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1818
rating: 5
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]]> Lord of the Flies 7624 182 William Golding 0140283331 seth 0 to-read 3.70 1954 Lord of the Flies
author: William Golding
name: seth
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1954
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]]> The Cellist of Sarajevo 2475251
One day a shell lands in a bread line and kills twenty-two people as the cellist watches from a window in his flat. He vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinoni’s Adagio once a day for each of the twenty-two victims. The Adagio had been re-created from a fragment after the only extant score was firebombed in the Dresden Music Library, but the fact that it had been rebuilt by a different composer into something new and worthwhile gives the cellist hope.

Meanwhile, Kenan steels himself for his weekly walk through the dangerous streets to collect water for his family on the other side of town, and Dragan, a man Kenan doesn’t know, tries to make his way towards the source of the free meal he knows is waiting. Both men are almost paralyzed with fear, uncertain when the next shot will land on the bridges or streets they must cross, unwilling to talk to their old friends of what life was once like before divisions were unleashed on their city. Then there is “Arrow,â€� the pseudonymous name of a gifted female sniper, who is asked to protect the cellist from a hidden shooter who is out to kill him as he plays his memorial to the victims.

In this beautiful and unforgettable novel, Steven Galloway has taken an extraordinary, imaginative leap to create a story that speaks powerfully to the dignity and generosity of the human spirit under extraordinary duress.]]> 235 Steven Galloway 1594489866 seth 0 to-read 3.99 2008 The Cellist of Sarajevo
author: Steven Galloway
name: seth
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2008
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]]> <![CDATA[Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind]]> 23692271 512 Yuval Noah Harari seth 0 to-read 4.33 2011 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
author: Yuval Noah Harari
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average rating: 4.33
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]]> <![CDATA[Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed]]> 475 Collapse is destined to take its place as one of the essential books of our time, raising the urgent question: How can our world best avoid committing ecological suicide?

In his million-copy bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond examined how and why Western civilizations developed the technologies and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world. Now in this brilliant companion volume, Diamond probes the other side of the equation: What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates?

As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond weaves an all-encompassing global thesis through a series of fascinating historical-cultural narratives. Moving from the Polynesian cultures on Easter Island to the flourishing American civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya and finally to the doomed Viking colony on Greenland, Diamond traces the fundamental pattern of catastrophe. Environmental damage, climate change, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of these societies, but other societies found solutions and persisted. Similar problems face us today and have already brought disaster to Rwanda and Haiti, even as China and Australia are trying to cope in innovative ways. Despite our own society's apparently inexhaustible wealth and unrivaled political power, ominous warning signs have begun to emerge even in ecologically robust areas like Montana.

Brilliant, illuminating, and immensely absorbing, Collapse is destined to take its place as one of the essential books of our time, raising the urgent question: How can our world best avoid committing ecological suicide?]]> 608 Jared Diamond 0143036556 seth 0 to-read 3.93 2004 Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
author: Jared Diamond
name: seth
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2004
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]]> <![CDATA[Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies]]> 1842
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a national bestseller: the global account of the rise of civilization that is also a stunning refutation of ideas of human development based on race.

In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed writing, technology, government, and organized religion—as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war—and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth Club of California's Gold Medal]]> 498 Jared Diamond 0739467352 seth 0 to-read 4.04 1997 Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
author: Jared Diamond
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average rating: 4.04
book published: 1997
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]]> The Evolution of God 6340873
Nearly a decade in the making, The Evolution of God is a breathtaking re-examination of the past, and a visionary look forward.]]> 567 Robert Wright 0316734918 seth 0 to-read 3.93 2009 The Evolution of God
author: Robert Wright
name: seth
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2009
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]]> Phenomenology of Spirit 9454 640 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 0198245971 seth 0 classics, philosophy 3.96 1807 Phenomenology of Spirit
author: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
name: seth
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1807
rating: 0
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shelves: classics, philosophy
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]]> The Birth of Tragedy 2823 The Birth of Tragedy has become a key text in European culture and in literary criticism.]]> 121 Friedrich Nietzsche 0140433392 seth 0 to-read 4.01 1871 The Birth of Tragedy
author: Friedrich Nietzsche
name: seth
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1871
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]]> <![CDATA[Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress]]> 35696171
Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing.

Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature–tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking–which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation.

With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.]]> 576 Steven Pinker 0525427570 seth 0 to-read 4.18 2018 Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
author: Steven Pinker
name: seth
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2018
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]]> A Game of Thrones #1 18337259 32 Daniel Abraham 0345536150 seth 0 4.62 2011 A Game of Thrones #1
author: Daniel Abraham
name: seth
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Sailing to Sarantium (The Sarantine Mosaic, #1)]]> 104097 448 Guy Gavriel Kay 0743450094 seth 0 to-read 4.18 1998 Sailing to Sarantium (The Sarantine Mosaic, #1)
author: Guy Gavriel Kay
name: seth
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1)]]> 55399 Vast legions of gods, mages, humans, dragons and all manner of creatures play out the fate of the Malazan Empire in this first book in a major epic fantasy series from Steven Erikson.

The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting and bloody confrontations with the formidable Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, ancient and implacable sorcerers. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen's rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins.

For Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his squad of Bridgeburners, and for Tattersail, surviving cadre mage of the Second Legion, the aftermath of the siege of Pale should have been a time to mourn the many dead. But Darujhistan, last of the Free Cities of Genabackis, yet holds out. It is to this ancient citadel that Laseen turns her predatory gaze.

However, it would appear that the Empire is not alone in this great game. Sinister, shadowbound forces are gathering as the gods themselves prepare to play their hand...

Conceived and written on a panoramic scale, Gardens of the Moon is epic fantasy of the highest order--an enthralling adventure by an outstanding new voice.]]> 666 Steven Erikson 0765348780 seth 0 to-read 3.91 1999 Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #1)
author: Steven Erikson
name: seth
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/03
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[My Year of Rest and Relaxation]]> 36203391
This story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs, designed to heal us from our alienation from this world, shows us how reasonable, even necessary, that alienation sometimes is. Blackly funny, both merciless and compassionate â€� dangling its legs over the ledge of 9/11 â€� this novel is a showcase for the gifts of one of America’s major young writers working at the height of her powers.]]> 289 Ottessa Moshfegh 1787330419 seth 0 to-read 3.66 2018 My Year of Rest and Relaxation
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: seth
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)]]> 24921954
A thousand-story tower stretching into the sky. A glittering vision of the future where anything is possible—if you want it enough.

WELCOME TO MANHATTAN, 2118.

A hundred years in the future, New York is a city of innovation and dreams. Everyone there wants something
and everyone has something to lose.

LEDA COLE’s flawless exterior belies a secret addiction—to a drug she never should have tried and a boy she never should have touched.

ERIS DODD-RADSON’s beautiful, carefree life falls to pieces when a heartbreaking betrayal tears her family apart.

RYLIN MYERS’s job on one of the highest floors sweeps her into a world—and a romance—she never imagined
but will this new life cost Rylin her old one?

WATT BAKRADI is a tech genius with a secret: he knows everything about everyone. But when he’s hired to spy for an upper-floor girl, he finds himself caught up in a complicated web of lies.

And living above everyone else on the thousandth floor is AVERY FULLER, the girl genetically designed to be perfect. The girl who seems to have it all—yet is tormented by the one thing she can never have.

Amid breathtaking advancement and high-tech luxury, five teenagers struggle to find their place at the top of the world. But when you're this high up, there's nowhere to go but down....]]> 448 Katharine McGee seth 0 to-read 3.65 2016 The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)
author: Katharine McGee
name: seth
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/09/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> Punished 36347668
Parusa� Iyon ang salitang kumuha sa atensiyon ko habang kausap ko ang mga kapwa artists ng Black & White Comics. May parusa raw kasing ibinibigay ang editor namin na si Philip sa mga late magpasa.

Wala sa bokabularyo ko ang salitang “lateâ€� kaya hindi ko pa ko nararanasang maparusahan. Gusto kong malaman kung ano ang natatanggap na parusa ng mga offender. Nang wala akong makuhang sagot mula sa mga kasamahan ko, sinubukan kong magtanong kay Philip. Pero hindi ko na pala kailangang gawin iyon. Sa kauna-unahan kasing pagkakataon ay hindi ko na-meet ang deadline!

At nalaman ko ang parusang ibinibigay ni Philip
]]> 64 Claudine Erang seth 0 to-read 4.40 2017 Punished
author: Claudine Erang
name: seth
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/07/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Great Gatsby 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

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

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]> 180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 seth 5 classics 3.93 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: seth
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 5
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date added: 2018/07/10
shelves: classics
review:

]]> Like the Flowing River 587666 245 Paulo Coelho 0007235801 seth 0 to-read 3.95 2000 Like the Flowing River
author: Paulo Coelho
name: seth
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2000
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/07/10
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]]> The Time Keeper 13624688 In this fable, the first man on earth to count the hours becomes Father Time.

The inventor of the world's first clock is punished for trying to measure God's greatest gift. He is banished to a cave for centuries and forced to listen to the voices of all who come after him seeking more days, more years. Eventually, with his soul nearly broken, Father Time is granted his freedom, along with a magical hourglass and a mission: a chance to redeem himself by teaching two earthly people the true meaning of time.

He returns to our world - now dominated by the hour-counting he so innocently began - and commences a journey with two unlikely partners: one a teenage girl who is about to give up on life, the other a wealthy old businessman who wants to live forever. To save himself, he must save them both. And stop the world to do so.]]> 224 Mitch Albom 1401322786 seth 0 to-read 3.88 2012 The Time Keeper
author: Mitch Albom
name: seth
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/07/10
shelves: to-read
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