Allaina's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 24 Sep 2024 05:58:34 -0700 60 Allaina's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Complete Story of Civilization]]> 20657925 The Complete Story of Civilization by Will Durant represents the most comprehensive attempt in our times to embrace the vast panorama of man’s history and culture. This eleven volume set includes:
Volume One: Our Oriental Heritage;
Volume Two: The Life of Greece;
Volume Three: Caesar and Christ;
Volume Four: The Age of Faith;
Volume Five: The Renaissance;
Volume Six: The Reformation;
Volume Seven: The Age of Reason Begins;
Volume Eight: The Age of Louis XIV;
Volume Nine: The Age of Voltaire;
Volume Ten: Rousseau and Revolution;
Volume Eleven: The Age of Napoleon]]> 13971 Will Durant 1476779716 Allaina 0 to-read 4.37 1975 The Complete Story of Civilization
author: Will Durant
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1975
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/24
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]]> <![CDATA[Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking]]> 721564
Logic is synonymous with reason, judgment, sense, wisdom, and sanity. Being logical is the ability to create concise and reasoned arguments—arguments that build from given premises, using evidence, to a genuine conclusion. But mastering logical thinking also requires studying and understanding illogical thinking, both to sharpen one’s own skills and to protect against incoherent, or deliberately misleading, reasoning.

Elegant, pithy, and precise,Ěý Being Logical Ěýbreaks logic down to its essentials through clear analysis, accessible examples, and focused insights. D. Q. McInerney covers the sources of illogical thinking, from naĂŻve optimism to narrow-mindedness, before dissecting the various tactics—red herrings, diversions, and simplistic reasoning—the illogical use in place of effective reasoning.

An indispensable guide to using logic to advantage in everyday life, this is a concise, crisply readable book. Written explicitly for the layperson, McInerny’sĚý Being Logical Ěýpromises to take its place beside Strunk and White’sĚý The Elements of Style Ěýas a classic of lucid, invaluable advice.

Praise for Being Logical

“Highly readable . . . D. Q. McInerny offers an introduction to symbolic logic in plain English, so you can finally be clear on what is deductive reasoning and what is inductive. And you’ll see how deductive arguments are constructed.� � Detroit Free Press

“McInerny’s explanatory outline of sound thinking will be eminently beneficial to expository writers, debaters, and public speakers.� � Booklist

“Given the shortage of logical thinking,
And the fact that mankind is adrift, if not sinking,
It is vital that all of us learn to think straight.
And this small book by D.Q. McInerny is great.
It follows therefore since we so badly need it,
Everybody should not only but it, but read it.�
—Charles Osgood]]> 160 D.Q. McInerny 0812971159 Allaina 0 to-read 3.72 2004 Being Logical: A Guide to Good Thinking
author: D.Q. McInerny
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/08/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Dollars and Sex: How Economics Influences Sex and Love]]> 15791058 272 Marina Adshade 1452109222 Allaina 0 to-read 3.58 2013 Dollars and Sex: How Economics Influences Sex and Love
author: Marina Adshade
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/07/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media]]> 673719 274 Michael Parenti 0312020139 Allaina 0 to-read 4.54 1986 Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media
author: Michael Parenti
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.54
book published: 1986
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]]> <![CDATA[The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living]]> 29093292 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780735211735.

A beautifully packaged daily devotional of Stoic wisdom, featuring new translations of the most celebrated Stoics with historical context and practical tips from bestselling author Ryan Holiday.

Stoic philosophy has long been the secret weapon of history’s greatest and wisest leaders--from emperors to artists, activists to fighter pilots. Today, people of all stripes are seeking out Stoicism’s unique blend of practicality and wisdom as they look for answers to the great questions of daily life.

Where should they start? Epictetus? Marcus Aurelius? Seneca? Which edition? Which translator? Presented in a page-per-day format, this daily resource combines all new translations done by Stephen Hanselman of the greatest passages from the great Stoics (including several lesser known philosophers like Zeno, Cleanthes and Musonius Rufus) with helpful commentary.

Building on the organizational structure in Ryan Holiday’s cult classic The Obstacle is the Way, this guide also features twelve monthly themes (and helpful glossary) for clarifying perception, improving action, and unlocking the power of will. Aimed at the high-octane, action-oriented doers of our wired world, this book brings new daily rituals and new perspectives to produce balanced action, insight, effectiveness, and serenity.]]> 416 Ryan Holiday Allaina 0 4.33 2016 The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
author: Ryan Holiday
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2016
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]]> <![CDATA[Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love]]> 9547888 Is there a science to love?

In this groundbreaking book, psychiatrist and neuroscientist Amir Levine and psychologist Rachel S. F. Heller reveal how an understanding of attachment theory-the most advanced relationship science in existence today-can help us find and sustain love. Attachment theory forms the basis for many bestselling books on the parent/child relationship, but there has yet to be an accessible guide to what this fascinating science has to tell us about adult romantic relationships-until now.

Attachment theory owes its inception to British psychologist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby, who in the 1950s examined the tremendous impact that our early relationships with our parents or caregivers has on the people we become. Also central to attachment theory is the discovery that our need to be in a close relationship with one or more individuals is embedded in our genes.

In Attached, Levine and Heller trace how these evolutionary influences continue to shape who we are in our relationships today. According to attachment theory, every person behaves in relationships in one of three distinct ways:

*ANXIOUS people are often preoccupied with their relationships and tend to worry about their partner's ability to love them back.
*AVOIDANT people equate intimacy with a loss of independence and constantly try to minimize closeness.
*SECURE people feel comfortable with intimacy and are usually warm and loving.

Attached guides readers in determining what attachment style they and their mate (or potential mates) follow. It also offers readers a wealth of advice on how to navigate their relationships more wisely given their attachment style and that of their partner. An insightful look at the science behind love, Attached offers readers a road map for building stronger, more fulfilling connections.]]> 304 Amir Levine 1585428485 Allaina 0 4.11 2010 Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love
author: Amir Levine
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2010
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]]> <![CDATA[Conscious Communication - How to Establish Healthy Relationships and Resolve Conflict Peacefully while Maintaining Independence]]> 7858975 344 Miles Sherts 1934938602 Allaina 5 4.52 2010 Conscious Communication - How to Establish Healthy Relationships and Resolve Conflict Peacefully while Maintaining Independence
author: Miles Sherts
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.52
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2021/06/20
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]]> <![CDATA[Slavery: The history and legacy of one of the world’s most brutal institutions (All you need to know)]]> 35724193 128 James Walvin 1911187848 Allaina 0 to-read 3.67 Slavery: The history and legacy of one of the world’s most brutal institutions (All you need to know)
author: James Walvin
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.67
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]]> <![CDATA[Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less]]> 18077875 Do you simultaneously feel overworked and underutilized?
Are you often busy but not productive?
ĚýDo you feel like your time is constantly being hijacked by other people’s agendas?

If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is the Way of the EssentialistThe Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done.Ěý It is notĚýĚýa time management strategy, or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter.Ěý

By forcing us to apply a more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy � instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us.

Essentialism is not one more thing â€� it’s a whole new way of doing everything. A must-read for any leader, manager, or individual who wants to learn how to do less, but better, in every area of their lives, Essentialism Ěýis a movement whose time has come.]]> 260 Greg McKeown 0804137382 Allaina 0 to-read 4.05 2011 Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
author: Greg McKeown
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2011
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]]> <![CDATA[The Innocents Abroad, Or, the New Pilgrims' Progress]]> 2443 560 Mark Twain 0812967054 Allaina 0 to-read 3.83 1869 The Innocents Abroad, Or, the New Pilgrims' Progress
author: Mark Twain
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1869
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]]> <![CDATA[Foster Care: How to Fix This Corrupted System]]> 19817911
Every child has the right to a safe and secure home, but foster children sometimes find that being in the system brings them to a worse place than the home from which they were taken. Only through public involvement pressuring lawmakers to correct the shortcomings in the system will the innocent victims, the children, have the chance the system promises them. Foster Care explains what is happening with these children and what we can do to help correct this dire situation.

When foster parents and children gain a stronger voice to advocate for them, only then will the system be able to take care of those who are most vulnerable.]]> 103 Janet Solander Allaina 0 to-read 3.00 2013 Foster Care: How to Fix This Corrupted System
author: Janet Solander
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2013
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date added: 2019/01/24
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]]> <![CDATA["Not by Might, Nor by Power:" The Zionist Betrayal of Judaism]]> 33846741 With a new introduction by Adi An early and fierce critique of Zionism from a Jewish child of Palestine who argued against nationalism and injustice.

Born in 1893, Moshe Menuhin was part of the inaugural class to attend the first Zionist high school in Palestine, the Herzliya gymnasium in Tel Aviv. He had grown up in a Hasidic home, but eventually rejected orthodoxy while remaining dedicated to Judaism.
Ěý
As a witness to the evolution of Israel, Menuhin grew disaffected with what he saw as a betrayal of the Jews� spiritual principles. This memoir, written in 1965, is considered the first revisionist history of Zionism. A groundbreaking document, it discusses the treatment of the Palestinians, the effects of the Holocaust, the exploitation of the Mizrahi Jewish immigrants, and the use of propaganda to win over public opinion in America and among American Jews. In a postscript added after the Six-Day War, Menuhin also addresses the question of occupation. This new edition is updated with an introduction by Israeli philosopher Adi Ophir, putting Menuhin’s work into a contemporary historical context.
Ěý
Passionate and sometimes inflammatory in its prose, and met with controversy and anger upon its original publication under the title The Decadence of Judaism in Our Time, Menuhin’s polemic remains both a thought-provoking reassessment of Zionist history and a fascinating look at one observer’s experience of this embattled corner of the world over the course of several tumultuous decades.
Ěý]]> 868 Moshe Menuhin 1504039874 Allaina 0 to-read 3.67 "Not by Might, Nor by Power:" The Zionist Betrayal of Judaism
author: Moshe Menuhin
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.67
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]]> <![CDATA[Understanding The Purpose And Power Of Men]]> 832534 768 Myles Munroe 0883687259 Allaina 0 to-read 4.51 2001 Understanding The Purpose And Power Of Men
author: Myles Munroe
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Understanding The Purpose And Power Of Woman]]> 152417 768 Myles Munroe 0883686716 Allaina 0 to-read 4.36 2001 Understanding The Purpose And Power Of Woman
author: Myles Munroe
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[POLICE STATE USA -the Pledge of Allegiance was the origin of Hitler salutes + Nazi behavior, Swastikas were "S" letters for "SOCIALIST"]]> 30760228 186 Ian Tinny Allaina 0 to-read 5.00 POLICE STATE USA -the Pledge of Allegiance was the origin of Hitler salutes + Nazi behavior, Swastikas were "S" letters for "SOCIALIST"
author: Ian Tinny
name: Allaina
average rating: 5.00
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]]> Assassination on Embassy Row 23117729 Edgar Award Finalist: The gripping account of an assassination on US soil and the violent foreign conspiracy that stretched from Pinochet’s Chile to the streets of Washington, DC, with a new introduction by Ariel Dorfman.

On September 10, 1976, exiled Chilean leader Orlando Letelier delivered a blistering rebuke of Augusto Pinochet’s brutal right-wing regime in a speech at Madison Square Garden. Eleven days later, while Letelier was on Embassy Row in Washington, DC, a bomb affixed to the bottom of his car exploded, killing him and his coworker Ronni Moffitt. The slaying, staggering in its own right, exposed an international conspiracy that reached well into US territory. Pinochet had targeted Letelier, a former Chilean foreign minister and ambassador to the United States, and carried out the attack with the help of Operation Condor, the secret alliance of South America’s military dictatorships dedicated to wiping out their most influential opponents.

This gripping account tells the story not only of a political plot that ended in murder, but also of the FBI’s inquiry into the affair. Definitive in its examination both of Letelier’s murder and of the subsequent investigations carried out by American intelligence,ĚýAssassination on Embassy RowĚýis equal parts keen analysis and true-life spy thriller.]]> 420 John Dinges 1497672732 Allaina 0 to-read 4.27 1980 Assassination on Embassy Row
author: John Dinges
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1980
rating: 0
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]]> The Assassination of New York 23117730 The story of how the richest city in the world became one of the poorest in North America, with a new introduction by Peter Kwong

How did New York City come to be a network of steel towers, banks, and nail salons, with chain drugstores on every block—a place where, increasingly,Ěýno one can afford to live except the lords of Wall Street and foreign billionaires, and where more and more of the Big Apple’s best-loved businessesĚýhave closed their doors? It didn’t start with Michael Bloomberg—or with Robert Moses. As Robert Fitch meticulously demonstrates in this eye-opening book, the planning to assassinate New York began a century ago, as the city’s very richest few—the Morgans, the Mellons, and especially the Rockefellers—looked for ways to maximize the value of their real estate by pushing Gotham’s vibrant and astonishingly varied manufacturing sector out of town, and with it, the city’s working class.

The Assassination of New YorkĚýattacks a Goliath-like enemy: the real-estate developers who maintain a stranglehold on the city’s most valuable commodity. Their efforts to increase land value by replacing low-rent workers and factories with high-rent professionals and office buildings was one of the single most decisive factors in the city’s downturn. In the 1980s the number of real-estate vacancies eclipsed that of the fiscal crisis of the 1970s. In September of 1992 there was a staggering twenty-five million square feet of empty office space.

Are the city’s problems fixable? How will the future of New York play out through the twenty-first century? Fitch comes up with solutions, from saving jobs to promoting economic diversity to rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure. But it will take vision and hard work to restore New York to what it once was while creating a new and better home for coming generations.
]]> 318 Robert Fitch 1453234039 Allaina 0 to-read 3.85 1993 The Assassination of New York
author: Robert Fitch
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1993
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]]> <![CDATA[The Polk Conspiracy: Murder and Cover-Up in the Case of CBS News Correspondent George Polk (Forbidden Bookshelf)]]> 23117728 In war-torn Greece, the murder of a young American reporter sent a shock through the West and set the stage for the four-decade Cold War; now with a new introduction by the author

Greece in 1948 was a country reeling from two major conflicts. The Nazi occupation and World War II had left it weakened, and the Greek Civil War—already raging for two years—had torn it apart. One of the earliest clashes of the Cold War, Greece’s civil dispute pitted the American-backed royalist government against the Soviet-funded Greek Communist Party. Reporting at the front lines for CBS News, George Polk drew the ire of both sides with his uncompromising and incisive coverage.

In mid-May, days after going missing, Polk was found dead, shot execution style with his hands and feet bound. What transpired next was a mad scramble of finger pointing and international outrage. To appease its American backers, the Greek government quickly secured the dubious confession of a Communist journalist—though the bulk of the evidence pointed to the royalists.

An influential moment in the early days of the Cold War and a powerful force in the formation of the Truman Doctrine, the Polk conspiracy was emblematic of the ideological conflict that would embroil the globe for the next forty years.]]> 535 Kati Marton 1497672678 Allaina 0 to-read 4.00 1990 The Polk Conspiracy: Murder and Cover-Up in the Case of CBS News Correspondent George Polk (Forbidden Bookshelf)
author: Kati Marton
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1990
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Underground to Palestine: And Other Writing on Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East (Forbidden Bookshelf Book 11)]]> 25058165
In the spring of 1946, American journalist I. F. Stone embarked on an incredible adventure, accompanying Holocaust survivors as they made their historic voyage from Eastern Europe to the biblical Promised Land. Undertaken in secrecy against the strict orders of Palestine’s British colonial governors, this harrowing escape began in the displaced persons camps of Germany and Poland. An illegal convoy of the homeless, proud, and determined, these refugees traveled by train and by foot across the European continent before boarding the ship that would carry them past the British blockade to their ancient, ancestral home.

No account of the historic twentieth-century exodus is as poignant, powerful, exhilarating, and dramatic as this acclaimed first-person narrative. Through the words of author I. F. Stone, one of America’s most provocative and revered investigative reporters, these courageous men, women, and children live again. Largely implicit but nevertheless unyielding is Stone’s belief in a binational Arab-Jewish state, a creed unacceptable to the Zionist movement of the time.

Included are essays written in the years following Israel’s establishment, reflecting on the state of the newly reborn nation and the volatile situation in the Middle East thirty years beyond the establishment of Mandatory Palestine. Caught between the immediate, innate sense of belonging he felt in Palestine and his own developing critique of Zionism, Stone wrote into each of these works a personal struggle, a question of justice unsolved today.

With a new introduction by D. D. Guttenplan, this edition reveals a perspective indispensable to understanding past and present tensions in the Middle East.]]> 271 I.F. Stone Allaina 0 to-read 4.33 1978 Underground to Palestine: And Other Writing on Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East (Forbidden Bookshelf Book 11)
author: I.F. Stone
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1978
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hidden History of the Korean War, 1950�1951 (Forbidden Bookshelf)]]> 23117727 Journalistic icon I. F. Stone’s courageous, controversial book both raises and answers troubling questions about this forgotten war; now with a new introduction by Bruce Cumings

“Much about the Korean War is still hidden, and much will long remain hidden. I believe I have succeeded in throwing new light on its origins.� —From the author’s preface

In 1945 US troops arrived in Korea for what would become America’s longest-lasting conflict. While history books claim without equivocation that the war lasted from 1950 to 1953, those who have actually served there know better. By closely analyzingĚýUS intelligence beforeĚýJune 25, 1950 (the war’sĚýofficial start), and theĚýactions of key players like John Foster Dulles, General Douglas MacArthur,Ěýand Chiang Kai-shek, the great investigative reporterĚýI. F.ĚýStone demolishes the official story of America’s “forgotten warâ€� by shedding new light on the tangled sequence of events that led to it.Ěý

The Hidden History of the Korean WarĚýwas first published in 1952—during the Korean War—and then republished during the Vietnam War. In the 1990s, documents from the former Soviet archives became available, further illuminating this controversial period in history.
]]> 479 I.F. Stone 1497655153 Allaina 0 to-read 4.29 1952 The Hidden History of the Korean War, 1950–1951 (Forbidden Bookshelf)
author: I.F. Stone
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1952
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]]> <![CDATA[Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football]]> 22309159 A shocking exposé of widespread corruption and mob influence throughout the National Football League—on the field, in the owners� boxes, and in the corporate suitesAccording to investigative journalist Dan E. Moldea, for decades the National Football League has had a strong and unspoken understanding with a dangerous organized crime. In his classic exposé, Interference, Moldea bares the dark, sordid underbelly of America’s favorite professional team sport, revealing a nest of corruption that the league has largely ignored since its inception.Based on intensive research and in-depth interviews with coaches, players, mobsters, bookies, gamblers, referees, and league officials—including some of the sport’s all-time greats—the author’s shocking allegations suggest that the betting line is firmly in the hands of the mob, who occasionally manipulate the on-field action for maximum profit. Interference chronicles a long-standing history of gambling, drugs, and extortion, of point-shaving and game-fixing, and reveals the eye-opening truth about numerous gridiron contests where the final results were determined even before the kickoff. Moldea exposes the mob connections of many of the team owners and their startling complicity in illegal gambling operations, while showing how NFL internal security has managed to quash nearly every investigation into illegality and corruption within the professional football world before it could get off the ground. Provocative, disturbing, and controversial, Interference is a must-read for football fans and detractors alike, offering indisputable proof that what’s really happening on the field, in the locker room, and behind the scenes is a whole different ball game.]]> 509 Dan E. Moldea 1480461180 Allaina 0 to-read 3.78 1995 Interference: How Organized Crime Influences Professional Football
author: Dan E. Moldea
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1995
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Du Pont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain (Forbidden Bookshelf)]]> 23117731 Award-winning journalist Gerard Colby takes readers behind the scenes of one of America’s most powerful and enduring corporations; now with a new introduction by the author

Their name is everywhere. America’s wealthiest industrial family by far and a vast financial power, the Du Ponts, from their mansions in northern Delaware’s “Chateau Country,� have long been leaders in the relentless drive to turn the United States into a plutocracy.

The Du Pont story in this country began in 1800. Éleuthère IrĂ©nĂ©e du Pont, official keeper of the gunpowder of corrupt King Louis XVI, fled from revolutionary France to America. Two years later he founded the gunpowder company that called itself “America’s armorer”—and that President Wilson’s secretary of war called a “species of outlawsâ€� for war profiteering.ĚýDu Pont DynastyĚýintroduces many colorful characters, including “Generalâ€� Henry du Pont, who profited from the Civil War to build the Gunpowder Trust, one of the first corporate monopolies; Alfred I. du Pont, betrayed by his cousins and pushed out of the organization, landing in social exile as the powerful “Count of Floridaâ€�; the three brothers who expanded Du Pont’s control to General Motors, fought autoworkersâ€� right to unionize, and then launched a family tradition of waging campaigns to destroy FDR’s New Deal regulatory reforms; Governor Pete du Pont, who ran for president and backed Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Republican Revolution; and Irving S. Shapiro, the architect of Du Pont’s ongoing campaign to undermine effective environmental regulation.

From plans to force President Roosevelt from office, to munitions sales to warlords and the rising Nazis, to Freon’s damage to the planet’s life-protecting ozone layer, to the manufacture of deadly gases and the covered-up poisoning of Du Pont workers, to the reputation the company earned for being the worst polluter of America’s air and water, the Du Pont reign has been dappled with scandal for centuries.

Culled from years of painstaking research and interviews, this fully documented book unfolds like a novel. Laying bare the bitter feuds, power plays, smokescreens, and careless unaccountability that erupted in murder, Colby pulls back the curtain on a dynasty whose formidable influence continues to this day.

Suppressed in myriad ways and the subject of the author’s landmark federal lawsuit,ĚýDu Pont DynastyĚýis an essential history of the United States.]]> 1514 Gerard Colby 1453220887 Allaina 0 to-read 3.46 1974 Du Pont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain (Forbidden Bookshelf)
author: Gerard Colby
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1974
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Search for an Abortionist: The Classic Study of How American Women Coped with Unwanted Pregnancy before Roe v. Wade]]> 22309163 This eye-opening look at the abortion process prior to the Supreme Court’s landmarkĚýRoe v. WadeĚýdecision of 1973 is now more relevant than ever, with a new introduction by the author revisiting history that is still salient half a century later

In the years beforeĚýRoe v. Wade, women seeking to end their unwanted pregnancies had limited options—many of them dangerous, even potentially fatal, and nearly all of them illegal. This groundbreaking work by sociologist Nancy Howell Lee, first published in 1969, takes an intimate look at the entire abortion process—from the initial decision to terminate a pregnancy through the procedure itself and the aftermath—providing an incomparable view of what is still one of the most controversial and divisive issues in America.
Ěý
Based on interviews with one hundred fourteen women who had illegal abortions, Howell Lee’s book reveals how the abortions were procured and paid for, and looks at the lasting effects the experience had on the participants. The interviewees were open and honest about what influenced their decisions, how they conducted their search for someone to perform the procedure, and the physical and emotional aftereffects. With many state governments across America currently passing new legislation that restricts and, in many cases, effectively bans abortion, an eventual return to the pre-RoeĚýdays threatens the well-being of millions of women, making Nancy Howell Lee’s pioneering study more relevant than ever. It is a must-read for pro-choice and pro-life adherents alike.]]> 218 Nancy Howell Lee 1497620325 Allaina 0 to-read 3.77 1969 The Search for an Abortionist: The Classic Study of How American Women Coped with Unwanted Pregnancy before Roe v. Wade
author: Nancy Howell Lee
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1969
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]]> <![CDATA[The Phoenix Program: America's Use of Terror in Vietnam]]> 22309162 A shocking exposé of the covert CIA program of widespread torture, rape, and murder of civilians during America’s war in Vietnam, with a new introduction by the author

In the darkest days of the Vietnam War, America’s Central Intelligence Agency secretly initiated a sweeping program of kidnap, torture, and assassination devised to destabilize the infrastructure of the National Liberation Front (NLF) of South Vietnam, commonly known as the “Viet Cong.� The victims of the Phoenix Program were Vietnamese civilians, male and female, suspected of harboring information about the enemy—though many on the blacklist were targeted by corrupt South Vietnamese security personnel looking to extort money or remove a rival. Between 1965 and 1972, more than eighty thousand noncombatants were “neutralized,� as men and women alike were subjected to extended imprisonment without trial, horrific torture, brutal rape, and in many cases execution, all under the watchful eyes of US government agencies.

Based on extensive research and in-depth interviews with former participants and observers, Douglas Valentine’s startling exposé blows the lid off of what was possibly the bloodiest and most inhumane covert operation in the CIA’s history.

The ebook edition includes “The Phoenix Has Landed,� a new introduction that addresses the “Phoenix-style network� that constitutes America’s internal security apparatus today. Residents on American soil are routinely targeted under the guise of protecting us from terrorism—which is why, more than ever, people need to understand what Phoenix is all about.
]]> 460 Douglas Valentine 1497620201 Allaina 0 to-read 4.18 1990 The Phoenix Program: America's Use of Terror in Vietnam
author: Douglas Valentine
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1990
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]]> <![CDATA[Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Destructive Impact on Our Domestic and Foreign Policy]]> 22309161 The true story of how US intelligence organizations employed Nazi war criminals in clandestine warfare and propaganda against the USSR, anticolonial revolutionaries, and progressive movements worldwide that were claimed to be Soviet pawns; includes a new, previously suppressed introduction by the author on the CIA’s declassification of Nazi-related records

Even before the final shots of World War II were fired, another war began—a cold war that pitted the United States against its former ally, the Soviet Union. As the Soviets consolidated power in Eastern Europe, the CIA scrambled to gain the upper hand against new enemies worldwide. To this end, senior officials at the CIA, National Security Council, and other elements of the emerging US national security state turned to thousands of former Nazis, Waffen Secret Service, and Nazi collaborators for propaganda, psychological warfare, and military operations. Many new recruits were clearly responsible for the deaths of countless innocents as part of Adolph Hitler’s “Final Solution,� yet were whitewashed and claimed to be valuable intelligence assets. Unrepentant mass murderers were secretly accepted into the American fold, their crimes forgotten and forgiven with the willing complicity of the US government.

Blowback is the first thorough, scholarly study of the US government’s extensiveĚýrecruitment of Nazis and fascist collaborators right after the war. Although others have approached the topic since, Simpson’s book remains the essential starting point. The author demonstrates how this secret policy of collaboration only served to intensify the Cold War and has had lasting detrimental effects on the American government and society that endure to this day.]]> 407 Christopher Simpson 1497623065 Allaina 0 to-read 4.32 1988 Blowback: America's Recruitment of Nazis and Its Destructive Impact on Our Domestic and Foreign Policy
author: Christopher Simpson
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1988
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]]> <![CDATA[The Lords of Creation: The History of America's 1 Percent]]> 22309160 A look at America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the capitalists who changed the world—setting the stage for the most devastating global financial collapse in history—from “a diligent and perceptive reporterâ€� (Forbes). In the decades following the Civil War, America entered an era of unprecedented corporate expansion, with ultimate financial power in the hands of a few wealthy industrialists who exploited the system for everything it was worth. The Rockefellers, Fords, Morgans, and Vanderbilts were the “lords of creationâ€� who, along with like-minded magnates, controlled the economic destiny of the country, unrestrained by regulations or moral imperatives. Through a combination of foresight, ingenuity, ruthlessness, and greed, America’s giants of industry remolded the US economy in their own image. They established their power and authority, ensuring that they—and they alone—would control the means of production, transportation, energy, and commerce—creating the conditions for the stock market collapse of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed. As modern society continues to be affected by wealth inequality and cycles of boom and bust, it’s as important as ever to understand the origins of financial disaster, and the policies, practices, and people who bring them on. The Lords of Creation, first published when the catastrophe of the 1930s was still painfully fresh, is a fascinating story of bankers, railroad tycoons, steel magnates, speculators, scoundrels, and robber barons. It is a tale of innovation and shocking exploitation—and a sobering reminder that history can indeed repeat itself. Ěý Ěý]]> 492 Frederick Lewis Allen 1497622646 Allaina 0 to-read 4.27 1935 The Lords of Creation: The History of America's 1 Percent
author: Frederick Lewis Allen
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average rating: 4.27
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]]> Crime and Punishment 7144 671 Fyodor Dostoevsky Allaina 0 currently-reading 4.26 1866 Crime and Punishment
author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1866
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]]> <![CDATA[I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manual]]> 28696602 I'm Judging You, and you will argue with it, laugh hysterically at it, shout 'AW HELL YES' at it, and carry parts of it in your heart to dissect or inspire... Perfect for starting important and meaty discussions about all of the topics your mama told you never to bring up at polite dinner parties." (Jenny Lawson, New York Times best-selling author of Furiously Happy)

With over 500,000 readers a month at her enormously popular blog, AwesomelyLuvvie.com, Luvvie Ajayi has become a go-to source for smart takes on pop culture. I'm Judging You is her debut book of humorous essays that dissects our cultural obsessions and calls out bad behavior in our increasingly digital, connected lives—from the importance of the newest Shonda Rhimes television drama to serious discussions of race and media representation to what to do about your fool cousin sharing casket pictures from Grandma's wake on Facebook. With a lighthearted, razor-sharp wit and a unique perspective, I'm Judging You is the audiobook the world needs, doling out the hard truths and a road map for bringing some "act right" into our lives, social media, and popular culture.]]> 241 Luvvie Ajayi 1627796061 Allaina 0 3.68 2016 I'm Judging You: The Do-Better Manual
author: Luvvie Ajayi
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2016
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]]> The Sellout 22237161
Born in the "agrarian ghetto" of Dickens―on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles―the narrator of The Sellout resigns himself to the fate of lower-middle-class Californians: "I'd die in the same bedroom I'd grown up in, looking up at the cracks in the stucco ceiling that've been there since '68 quake." Raised by a single father, a controversial sociologist, he spent his childhood as the subject in racially charged psychological studies. He is led to believe that his father's pioneering work will result in a memoir that will solve his family's financial woes. But when his father is killed in a police shoot-out, he realizes there never was a memoir. All that's left is the bill for a drive-thru funeral.

Fueled by this deceit and the general disrepair of his hometown, the narrator sets out to right another wrong: Dickens has literally been removed from the map to save California from further embarrassment. Enlisting the help of the town's most famous resident―the last surviving Little Rascal, Hominy Jenkins―he initiates the most outrageous action conceivable: reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school, which lands him in the Supreme Court.]]> 289 Paul Beatty 0374260508 Allaina 0 to-read 3.75 2015 The Sellout
author: Paul Beatty
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2015
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]]> Cat’s Cradle 135479 Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it ...

Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding 'fathers' of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy to the world. For he's the inventor of 'ice-nine', a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet. The search for its whereabouts leads to Hoenikker's three ecentric children, to a crazed dictator in the Caribbean, to madness. Felix Hoenikker's Death Wish comes true when his last, fatal gift to humankind brings about the end, that for all of us, is nigh...]]> 306 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Allaina 0 to-read 4.17 1963 Cat’s Cradle
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name: Allaina
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1963
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]]> Fitness Confidential 18141636 250 Vinnie Tortorich Allaina 0 3.84 2013 Fitness Confidential
author: Vinnie Tortorich
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2013
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]]> <![CDATA[Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein]]> 437016 60 Marty Martin 0394511999 Allaina 0 to-read 3.79 1980 Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein
author: Marty Martin
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1980
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family]]> 25079 In a time when much of the country sees red whenever the subject of gay marriage comes up, Dan Savage-outspoken author of the column "Savage Love"- makes it personal.

Dan Savage's mother wants him to get married. His boyfriend, Terry, says "no thanks" because he doesn't want to act like a straight person. Their six-year-old son DJ says his two dads aren't "allowed" to get married, but that he'd like to come to the reception and eat cake. Throw into the mix Dan's straight siblings, whose varied choices form a microcosm of how Americans are approaching marriage these days, and you get a rollicking family memoir that will have everyone-gay or straight, right or left, single or married-howling with laughter and rethinking their notions of marriage and all it entails. BACKCOVER: "Hilarious, heartfelt."
-Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"As funny as David Sedaris's essay collections, but bawdier and more thought-provoking."
-Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

"Most of all, a book about creating and appreciating family."
-Seattle Times

"I think America would be a better place if everyone on every side of the gay marriage debate would read this book."
-Ira Glass, host of the public radio show This American Life

"The strongest argument here, which [Savage] brilliantly plays down, is that family means everything to these people: married, not married, blended, gay, straight, whatever."
-The Washington Post]]> 304 Dan Savage 0452287634 Allaina 0 3.93 2005 The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family
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name: Allaina
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2005
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]]> The Painted Bird 18452 The Painted Bird is a dark novel that examines the proximity of terror and savagery to innocence and love.]]> 234 Jerzy Kosiński 080213422X Allaina 0 to-read 3.91 1965 The Painted Bird
author: Jerzy Kosiński
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1965
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]]> <![CDATA[Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland]]> 647492
Ordinary Men is the true story of Reserve Police Battalion 101 of the German Order Police, which was responsible for mass shootings as well as round-ups of Jewish people for deportation to Nazi death camps in Poland in 1942. Browning argues that most of the men of RPB 101 were not fanaticalĚýNazis but, rather, ordinary middle-aged, working-class men who committed these atrocities out of a mixture of motives, including the group dynamics of conformity, deference to authority, role adaptation, and the altering of moral norms to justify their actions. Very quickly three groups emerged within the battalion: a core of eager killers, a plurality who carried out their duties reliably but without initiative, and a small minority who evaded participation in the acts of killing without diminishing the murderous efficiency of the battalion whatsoever.

While this book discusses a specific Reserve Unit during WWII, the general argument Browning makes is that most people succumb to the pressures of a group setting and commit actions they would never do of their own volition. Ěý

Ordinary Men is a powerful, chilling, and important work, with themes and arguments that continue to resonate today. Ěý]]> 271 Christopher R. Browning 0060995068 Allaina 0 to-read 4.10 1992 Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
author: Christopher R. Browning
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1992
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]]> Harriet Beecher Stowe 123978 544 Joan D. Hedrick 0195096398 Allaina 0 to-read 4.04 1994 Harriet Beecher Stowe
author: Joan D. Hedrick
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1994
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]]> <![CDATA[Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?]]> 181120
Before the age of thirty-five, Dorothy Parker was known as the wittiest woman in America. Her most casual remarks were repeated and printed. In fact, there was scarcely a bon mot of the day that was not attributed to her. She lived with hedonistic flair: luncheons at the Algonquin Round Table with George S. Kaufman, Alexander Woolcott, and Franklin P. Adams; evenings at the theater and later a tour of the fashionable speakeasies and brothels with Robert Benchley; weekends at the Long Island house parties that Fitzgeralds would memorialize in The Great Gatsby; vacations in France with Sara and Gerald Murphy. During the Depression, she and her husband were earning $5200 a week in Hollywood, where her friends and fellow writers included Lillian Hellman, S. J. Perelman, Nathanael West, and William Faulkner. Her commitment to left-wing politics added high drama to her life during the 1930s and later during the McCarthy period.

Superficially, at least, she seemed to have everything worth having and to know everyone worth knowing. Yet behind the wisecracks, the dazzling wordplay, and the whirlwind of high living was a wealth of private sadness: two broken marriages and a succession of lacerating love affairs, a string of suicide attempts and abortions, heavy debts, and even heavier drinking. The rage behind her wit had indeed turned in on her. She became a victim of her own neuroses, not unlike her friend Zelda Fitzgerald.

Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This? is the definitive biography of a uniquely colorful woman and a glittering portrait of her times. This is an enthralling, authoritative, and entertaining study of an extremely complex woman who was at the epicenter of an electrifying age.]]> 460 Marion Meade 0140116168 Allaina 0 to-read 3.97 1987 Dorothy Parker: What Fresh Hell Is This?
author: Marion Meade
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1987
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]]> <![CDATA[Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl]]> 152519 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl remains among the few extant slave narratives written by a woman. This autobiographical account chronicles the remarkable odyssey of Harriet Jacobs (1813�1897) whose dauntless spirit and faith carried her from a life of servitude and degradation in North Carolina to liberty and reunion with her children in the North.

Written and published in 1861 after Jacobs' harrowing escape from a vile and predatory master, the memoir delivers a powerful and unflinching portrayal of the abuses and hypocrisy of the master-slave relationship. Jacobs writes frankly of the horrors she suffered as a slave, her eventual escape after several unsuccessful attempts, and her seven years in self-imposed exile, hiding in a coffin-like "garret" attached to her grandmother's porch.

A rare firsthand account of a courageous woman's determination and endurance, this inspirational story also represents a valuable historical record of the continuing battle for freedom and the preservation of family.]]> 176 Harriet Ann Jacobs 0486419312 Allaina 0 to-read 4.15 1861 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
author: Harriet Ann Jacobs
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average rating: 4.15
book published: 1861
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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 Allaina 0 to-read 4.39 1946 Man’s Search for Meaning
author: Viktor E. Frankl
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1946
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]]> The 48 Laws of Power 1303 Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control � from the author of The Laws of Human Nature.

In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling� and “fascinating,� Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum.

Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master�), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness�), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally�). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.]]> 452 Robert Greene 0140280197 Allaina 0 4.11 1998 The 48 Laws of Power
author: Robert Greene
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1998
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]]> Mastery 13589182 318 Robert Greene 0670024961 Allaina 0 to-read 4.26 2012 Mastery
author: Robert Greene
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2012
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]]> <![CDATA[The Person and the Situation: Perspectives of Social Psychology]]> 10299632 304 Lee Ross 1905177445 Allaina 0 to-read 3.94 1991 The Person and the Situation: Perspectives of Social Psychology
author: Lee Ross
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1991
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]]> The Art of Seduction 20995 Robert Greene's bold, elegant, and ingenious manual of modern manipulation, The 48 Laws of Power. Now Greene has once again mined history and literature to distill the essence of seduction, the most highly refined mode of influence, the ultimate power trip.

The Art of Seduction is a masterful synthesis of the work of thinkers such as Freud, Ovid, Kierkegaard, and Einstein, as well as the achievements of the greatest seducers throughout history. From Cleopatra to John F. Kennedy, from Andy Warhol to Josephine Bonaparte, The Art of Seduction gets to the heart of the character of the seducer and his or her tactics, triumphs and failures. The seducer's many faces include: the Siren, the Rake, the Ideal Lover, the Dandy, the Natural, the Coquette, the Charmer, and the Charismatic. Twenty-four maneuvers will guide readers through the seduction process, providing cunning, amoral instructions for and analysis of this fascinating, all-pervasive form of power. Just as beautifully packaged and every bit as essential as The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction is an indispensable primer of persuasion and offers the best lessons on how to take what you want from whomever you want or how to prevent yourself from being taken.]]> 466 Robert Greene 1861977697 Allaina 0 to-read 3.93 2001 The Art of Seduction
author: Robert Greene
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2001
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]]> The Undiscovered Self 67891 One of the world's greatest psychiatrists reveals how to embrace our own humanity and resist the pressures of an ever-changing world.

In this challenging and provocative work, Dr. Carl Jung—one of history's greatest minds—argues that civilization's future depends on our ability as individuals to resist the collective forces of society. Only by gaining an awareness and understanding of one's unconscious mind and true, inner nature�"the undiscovered self"—can we as individuals acquire the self-knowledge that is antithetical to ideological fanaticism. But this requires that we face our fear of the duality of the human psyche—the existence of good and the capacity for evil in every individual.

In this seminal book, Jung compellingly argues that only then can we begin to cope with the dangers posed by mass society�"the sum total of individuals"—and resist the potential threats posed by those in power.]]> 112 C.G. Jung 0451217322 Allaina 0 to-read 4.18 1961 The Undiscovered Self
author: C.G. Jung
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1961
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]]> <![CDATA[Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One]]> 12951631
Not only will you be given the necessary knowledge to change any aspect of yourself, but you will be taught the step-by-step tools to apply what you learn in order to make measurable changes in any area of your life. Dr. Joe demystifies ancient understandings and bridges the gap between science and spirituality. Through his powerful workshops and lectures, thousands of people in 24 different countries have used these principles to change from the inside out. Once you break the habit of being yourself and truly change your mind, your life will never be the same!]]> 329 Joe Dispenza 1401938086 Allaina 0 4.10 2012 Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One
author: Joe Dispenza
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2012
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]]> Sophie’s World 10959 An alternative cover for this ISBN can be found here

One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.]]> 403 Jostein Gaarder 1857993284 Allaina 0 to-read 3.94 1991 Sophie’s World
author: Jostein Gaarder
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1991
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]]> Lolita 7604 Librarian's note: Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780141182537.

Humbert Humbert - scholar, aesthete and romantic - has fallen completely and utterly in love with Dolores Haze, his landlady's gum-snapping, silky skinned twelve-year-old daughter. Reluctantly agreeing to marry Mrs Haze just to be close to Lolita, Humbert suffers greatly in the pursuit of romance; but when Lo herself starts looking for attention elsewhere, he will carry her off on a desperate cross-country misadventure, all in the name of Love. Hilarious, flamboyant, heart-breaking and full of ingenious word play, Lolita is an immaculate, unforgettable masterpiece of obsession, delusion and lust.]]> 368 Vladimir Nabokov 0679723161 Allaina 0 to-read 3.87 1955 Lolita
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1955
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]]> <![CDATA[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)]]> 100915
Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor's mysterious old house. At first her brothers and sister don't believe her when she tells of her visit to the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund, then Peter and Susan step through the wardrobe themselves. In Narnia they find a country buried under the evil enchantment of the White Witch. When they meet the Lion Aslan, they realize they've been called to a great adventure and bravely join the battle to free Narnia from the Witch's sinister spell.]]> 206 C.S. Lewis Allaina 0 4.24 1950 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1950
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]]> 1984 5470 328 George Orwell Allaina 0 to-read 4.15 1949 1984
author: George Orwell
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1949
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]]> <![CDATA[Marie Curie and Her Daughters: The Private Lives of Science's First Family (MacSci)]]> 13167795 Published to widespread acclaim, in Marie Curie and Her Daughters, science writer Shelley Emling shows that far from a shy introvert toiling away in her laboratory, the famed scientist and two-time Nobel prize winner was nothing short of an iconoclast.

Emling draws on personal letters released by Curie's only granddaughter to show how Marie influenced her daughters yet let them blaze their own paths: Irene followed her mother's footsteps into science and was instrumental in the discovery of nuclear fission; Eve traveled the world as a foreign correspondent and then moved on to humanitarian missions. Emling also shows how Curie, following World War I, turned to America for help. Few people know about Curie's close friendship with American journalist Missy Meloney, who arranged speaking tours across the country for Marie, Eve, and Irene. Months on the road, charming audiences both large and small, endeared the Curies to American women and established a lifelong relationship with the United States that formed one of the strongest connections of Marie's life.

Factually rich, personal, and original, this is an engrossing story about the most famous woman in science that rips the cover off the myth and reveals the real person, friend, and mother behind it.]]> 219 Shelley Emling 0230115713 Allaina 0 to-read 3.72 2012 Marie Curie and Her Daughters: The Private Lives of Science's First Family (MacSci)
author: Shelley Emling
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2012
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]]> Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) 238958 The Boston Globe) and "utterly romantic" (New York magazine), Stacy Schiff's łŐĂ©°ů˛ą (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) brings to shimmering life one of the greatest literary love stories of our time. Vladimir Nabokov--the Ă©migrĂ© author of Lolita; Pale Fire; and Speak, Memory--wrote his books first for himself, second for his wife, łŐĂ©°ů˛ą, and third for no one at all.

"Without my wife," he once noted, "I wouldn't have written a single novel." Set in prewar Europe and postwar America, spanning much of the century, the story of the Nabokovs' fifty-two-year marriage reads as vividly as a novel. łŐĂ©°ů˛ą, both beautiful and brilliant, is its outsized heroine--a woman who loves as deeply and intelligently as did the great romantic heroines of Austen and Tolstoy. Stacy Schiff's łŐĂ©°ů˛ą is a triumph of the biographical form.]]> 480 Stacy Schiff 0330346733 Allaina 0 to-read 3.87 1999 Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)
author: Stacy Schiff
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1999
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]]> <![CDATA[Rising Strong: The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution]]> 23317538
It is the rise from falling that Brown takes as her subject in Rising Strong. As a grounded theory researcher, Brown has listened as a range of people—from leaders in Fortune 500 companies and the military to artists, couples in long-term relationships, teachers, and parents—shared their stories of being brave, falling, and getting back up. She asked herself, What do these people with strong and loving relationships, leaders nurturing creativity, artists pushing innovation, and clergy walking with people through faith and mystery have in common? The answer was clear: They recognize the power of emotion and they’re not afraid to lean in to discomfort.

Walking into our stories of hurt can feel dangerous. But the process of regaining our footing in the midst of struggle is where our courage is tested and our values are forged. Our stories of struggle can be big ones, like the loss of a job or the end of a relationship, or smaller ones, like a conflict with a friend or colleague. Regardless of magnitude or circumstance, the rising strong process is the same: We reckon with our emotions and get curious about what we’re feeling; we rumble with our stories until we get to a place of truth; and we live this process, every day, until it becomes a practice and creates nothing short of a revolution in our lives. Rising strong after a fall is how we cultivate wholeheartedness. It’s the process, Brown writes, that teaches us the most about who we are.]]> 336 Brené Brown 0812995821 Allaina 0 4.25 2015 Rising Strong: The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution
author: Brené Brown
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2015
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]]> <![CDATA[Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window]]> 328802 232 Tetsuko Kuroyanagi 4770020678 Allaina 0 to-read 4.37 1981 Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window
author: Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1981
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]]> <![CDATA[The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks]]> 6493208
Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored� ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia � a land of wooden quarters for enslaved people, faith healings, and voodoo � to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality� until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family � past and present � is inextricably connected to the history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?

Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.]]> 370 Rebecca Skloot 1400052173 Allaina 0 to-read 4.12 2010 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
author: Rebecca Skloot
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average rating: 4.12
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]]> <![CDATA[The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements]]> 15916 177 Eric Hoffer 0060505915 Allaina 0 to-read 4.19 1951 The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
author: Eric Hoffer
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1951
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]]> Economic Facts and Fallacies 2064279 262 Thomas Sowell 0465003494 Allaina 0 to-read 4.20 2007 Economic Facts and Fallacies
author: Thomas Sowell
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2007
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]]> <![CDATA[Rapture Practice: A True Story About Growing Up Gay in an Evangelical Family]]> 18656002 What happens when the person you’re becoming isn’t the one your family wants you to be?

When Aaron Hartzler was little, he couldn’t wait for the The Rapture: that moment when Jesus would come down from the clouds to whisk him and his family up to heaven. But as he turns sixteen, Aaron grows more curious about all the things his family forsakes for the Lord. He begins to realize he doesn’t want Jesus to come back just yet—not before he has his first kiss, sees his first movie, or stars in the school play.

Whether he’s sneaking out, making out, or playing hymns with a hangover, Aaron learns a few lessons that can’t be found in the Bible. He discovers that the girl of your dreams can just as easily be the boy of your dreams, and the tricky part about believing is that no one can do it for you.

In this funny and heartfelt coming-of-age memoir, debut author Aaron Hartzler recalls his teenage journey from devoted to doubtful, and the search to find his own truth without losing the fundamentalist family who loves him.]]> 416 Aaron Hartzler 0316094641 Allaina 0 3.93 2013 Rapture Practice: A True Story About Growing Up Gay in an Evangelical Family
author: Aaron Hartzler
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2013
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]]> <![CDATA[Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life: A Psychologist Investigates How Evolution, Cognition, and Complexity are Revolutionizing our View of Human Nature]]> 10808387
In Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life, social psychologist Douglas Kenrick exposes the selfish animalistic underside of human nature, and shows how it is intimately connected to our greatest and most selfless achievements. Masterfully integrating cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, and complexity theory, this intriguing book paints a comprehensive picture of the principles that govern our lives. As Kenrick divulges, beneath our civilized veneer, human beings are a lot like howling hyenas and barking baboons, with heads full of homicidal tendencies and sexual fantasies. But, in his view, many ingrained, apparently irrational behaviors—such as inclinations to one-night stands, racial prejudices, and conspicuous consumption—ultimately manifest what he calls “Deep Rationality.�

Although our heads are full of simple selfish biases that evolved to help our ancestors survive, modern human beings are anything but simple and selfish cavemen. Kenrick argues that simple and selfish mental mechanisms we inherited from our ancestors ultimately give rise to the multifaceted social lives that we humans lead today, and to the most positive features of humanity, including generosity, artistic creativity, love, and familial bonds. And out of those simple mechanisms emerge all the complexities of society, including international conflicts and global economic markets. By exploring the nuance of social psychology and the surprising results of his own research, Kenrick offers a detailed picture of what makes us caring, creative, and complex � that is, fully human.

Illuminated with stories from Kenrick’s own colorful experiences � from his criminally inclined shantytown Irish relatives, his own multiple high school expulsions, broken marriages, and homicidal fantasies, to his eventual success as an evolutionary psychologist and loving father of two boys separated by 26 years � this book is an exploration of our mental biases and failures, and our mind’s great successes. Idiosyncratic, controversial, and fascinating, Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life uncovers the pitfalls and promise of our biological inheritance.]]> 256 Douglas T. Kenrick 0465020445 Allaina 0 to-read 3.55 2011 Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life: A Psychologist Investigates How Evolution, Cognition, and Complexity are Revolutionizing our View of Human Nature
author: Douglas T. Kenrick
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2011
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]]> <![CDATA[The Belief Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life]]> 8018107 The Belief Instinct explains the psychology behind belief. Drawing on surprising new studies as well as on literature, philosophy, and even pop culture, it rewards readers with an enlightened understanding of belief―as well as the tools to break free of it.]]> 272 Jesse Bering 0393072991 Allaina 0 to-read 4.00 2011 The Belief Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life
author: Jesse Bering
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2011
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]]> <![CDATA[Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us]]> 17332242 Perv, there is a spectrum of perversion along which we all sit. Whether it’s voyeurism, exhibitionism, or your run-of-the-mill foot fetish, we all possess a suite of sexual tastes as unique as our fingerprints—and as secret as the rest of the skeletons we’ve hidden in our closets.

Combining cutting-edge studies and critiques of landmark research and conclusions drawn by Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kinsey, and the DSM-5, Bering pulls the curtain back on paraphilias, arguing that sexual deviance is commonplace.

Bering confronts hypocrisy, prejudice, and harm as they relate to sexuality on a global scale. Humanizing so-called deviants while at the same time asking serious questions about the differences between thought and action, he presents us with a challenge: to understand that our best hope of solving some of the most troubling problems of our age hinges entirely on the amoral study of sex.]]> 288 Jesse Bering 0374230897 Allaina 0 to-read 3.69 2013 Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us
author: Jesse Bering
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2013
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]]> <![CDATA[Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever]]> 3205065
Don’t feel too bad about it, though, because he has made being gayer than you his life’s work. At summer day camp, when he was six, Derfner tried to sign up for needlepoint and flower arranging, but the camp counselors wouldn’t let him, because, they said, those activities were for girls only. Derfner, just to be contrary, embarked that very day on a solemn and sacred to become the gayest person ever. Along the way he has become a fierce knitter, an even fiercer musical theater composer, and so totally the fiercest step aerobics instructor (just ask him—he’ll tell you himself).

In Swish , Derfner takes his readers on a flamboyant adventure along the glitter-strewn road from fabulous to divine. Whether he’s confronting the demons of his past at a GLBT summer camp, using the Internet to “meet� men—many, many men—or plunging headfirst (and nearly naked) into the shady world of go-go dancing, he reveals himself with every gayer-than-thou flourish to be not just a stylish explorer but also a fearless one. So fearless, in fact, that when he sneaks into a conference for people who want to cure themselves of their homosexuality, he turns the experience into one of the most fascinating, deeply moving chapters of the book. Derfner, like King Arthur, Christopher Columbus, and Indiana Jones—but with a better haircut and a much deeper commitment to fad diets—is a hero destined for legend.

Written with wicked humor and keen insight, Swish is at once a hilarious look at contemporary ideas about gay culture and a poignant exploration of identity that will speak to all readers—gay, straight, and in between.]]> 255 Joel Derfner 0767924304 Allaina 0 to-read 3.77 2008 Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever
author: Joel Derfner
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2008
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]]> <![CDATA[Opening Up: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships]]> 1128665 346 Tristan Taormino 157344295X Allaina 0 to-read 4.08 2007 Opening Up: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships
author: Tristan Taormino
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles]]> 10336 209 Julie Andrews Edwards 0060218053 Allaina 0 to-read 4.25 1974 The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles
author: Julie Andrews Edwards
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1974
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/02/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results]]> 16256798 The One Thing explains the success habit to overcome the six lies that block our success, beat the seven thieves that steal time, and leverage the laws of purpose, priority, and productivity.]]> 240 Gary Keller 1885167776 Allaina 5 4.11 2012 The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
author: Gary Keller
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2017/12/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Shut Up and Run: How to Get Up, Lace Up, and Sweat with Swagger]]> 27064435 An ultra marathoner and running coach captures the energy and joy of running in this illustrated, full-color motivational interactive fitness guide and journal that will inspire every type of runner—from beginner to experienced marathoner—to shut up and run.

Running isn’t just an activity, it’s a lifestyle that connects runners with the world around them, whether they’re pounding the pavement of crowded big city streets or traversing trails through quite woods and fields. Reflecting the excitement, color, and focus of the running experience, Shut Up and Run offers tips, tricks, and visual motivation to help every runner cultivate miles of sweat, laughter, swagger, and friendship. Combining a fitness manual, training program, and self-help advice book in one, this gorgeous, four-color book—filled with anecdotes and stunning action imagery, and supported by graphic inspirational quotes—contains essential training tips for every level, including meditation and visualization techniques, that address a runner’s body and mind.

Robin Arzon offers unique style tips and practical gear recommendations to help you show off your best stuff mile after mile, and tells you everything you need to know, from how to pick the best running shoes to how to get off that sofa and go. No detail is left to chance; Shut Up and Run is loaded with information on every aspect of the runner’s world, from gear and music to training for a half marathon and post-race recovery tips. Robin includes space at the end of each chapter to track your progress as you build up to your first marathon or other running goals.

Designed to help readers find the information quickly and easily, loaded with practical advice, style, and attitude, this practical guide—written by a runner for runners—makes it clear that to succeed, you need to shut up and run!]]> 192 Robin Arzón 0062445685 Allaina 0 3.86 Shut Up and Run: How to Get Up, Lace Up, and Sweat with Swagger
author: Robin ArzĂłn
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.86
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]]> <![CDATA[Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices]]> 12446801 336 Frank Viola 1414364555 Allaina 0 to-read 4.02 2005 Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices
author: Frank Viola
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2005
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]]> The Quest for Cosmic Justice 86312 224 Thomas Sowell 0684864630 Allaina 0 to-read 4.37 1999 The Quest for Cosmic Justice
author: Thomas Sowell
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1999
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]]> The Mystery of Banking (LvMI) 9207438
Most notably, he uses the T-account method of explaining the relationship between deposits and loans, showing the inherent instability of fractional-reserve banking and how it sets the stage for centralization, inflation, and the boom-bust cycle.

But there is more here. It is an explanation of money's origins and its meaning in the free market. The abstract theory is here but always with real application in history and in modern banking practice. Never does a paragraph go by without an example drawn from his massive knowledge of the subject.

Even further, he explains the integration between microeconomics and the business cycle. As Douglas French writes in the introduction, "Although first published 25 years ago, Murray Rothbard's The Mystery of Banking continues to be the only book that clearly and concisely explains the modern fractional reserve banking system, its origins, and its devastating effects on the lives of every man, woman, and child. It is especially appropriate in a year that will a surge in bank failures, central banks around the globe bailing out failed commercial and investment banks, double-digit inflation rates in many parts of the world and hyperinflation completely destroying Zimbabwe s economy, that a new edition of Rothbard's classic work be republished and made available through the efforts of Lew Rockwell and the staff at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Priced affordably for students and laymen interested in the vagaries of banking and how inflation and business cycles are created."

Further, Joseph Salerno explains in the foreword, "The Mystery of Banking is perhaps the least appreciated work among Murray Rothbard's prodigious body of output. This is a shame because it is a model of how to apply sound economic theory, dispassionately and objectively, to the origins and development of real-world institutions and to assess their consequences. It is institutional economics at its best. In this book, the institution under scrutiny is central banking as historically embodied in the Federal Reserve System � the Fed for short � the central bank of the United States.

"Rothbard s presentation of the basic principles of money-and-banking theory in the first eleven chapters of the book guides the reader in unraveling the mystery of how the central bank operates to create money through the fractional-reserve banking system and how this leads to inflation of the money supply and a rise in overall prices in the economy. But he does not stop there. In the subsequent five chapters he resolves the historical mystery of how an inherently inflationary institution like central banking, which is destructive of the value of money and, in the extreme case of hyperinflation, of money itself, came into being and was accepted as essential to the operation of the market economy."

Incredibly, both authors correctly anticipate the current crisis � and Rothbard explains it all and shows the way out. This is certainly the book for today, more essential than ever before.]]> 170 Murray N. Rothbard Allaina 0 to-read 3.83 1983 The Mystery of Banking (LvMI)
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average rating: 3.83
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]]> <![CDATA[The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History]]> 3871

Most Americans trust that their history professors and high school teachers will give students honest and accurate information. The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History makes it quite clear that liberal professors have misinformed our children for generations.

Professor Thomas E. Woods, Jr. takes on the most controversial moments of American history and exposes how history books are merely a series of clichés drafted by academics who are heavily biased against God, democracy, patriotism, capitalism and most American family values.

Woods reveals the truth behind many of today's prominent myths....

The First Amendment prohibits school prayer

The New Deal created great prosperity

What the Supreme Court says, goes

From the real American “revolutionaries� to the reality of labor unions, The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History is all you need for the truth about America—objective and unvarnished.]]> 270 Thomas E. Woods Jr. 0895260476 Allaina 0 to-read 4.03 2001 The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History
author: Thomas E. Woods Jr.
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2001
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]]> <![CDATA[Epicenter: Why Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future]]> 390163
Drawing on his experience in Washington, his own exclusive interviews with world leaders, and his astute political acumen, Joel makes sense of the events surrounding the Middle East. He connects information in a way that will make you understand and really care about the world's most important events and how they impact your life―from gas prices to your bank account.

Epicenter is Epicenter will answer questions ]]> 312 Joel C. Rosenberg 1414311354 Allaina 0 to-read 4.19 2006 Epicenter: Why Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future
author: Joel C. Rosenberg
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2006
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]]> <![CDATA[Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity]]> 18289396 304 Nabeel Qureshi 0310515025 Allaina 0 to-read 4.57 2014 Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity
author: Nabeel Qureshi
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2014
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]]> <![CDATA[The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism]]> 248748 * Outsourcing (why it's good for Americans) and zoning restrictions (why they're not)

* Why central planning has never worked and never will

* How prices operate in a free market (and why socialist schemes like rent control always backfire)

* How labor unions actually hurt workers more than they help them

* Why increasing the minimum wage is always a bad idea

* Why the free market is the best guard against racism

* How capitalism will save the environment--and why Communist countries were the most polluted on earth

* Raising why it is never "responsible"

* Why no genuine advocate for the downtrodden could endorse the dehumanizing Welfare State

* The single biggest myth underlying the public's support for government regulation of business

* Antitrust usually filed by firms that lose in free competition

* How tariffs and other restrictions "protect" privileged workers but make other Americans poorer

* The IMF and World why they don't help poor countries

* Are you a capitalist pig? Take the quiz and find out! Breezy, witty, but always clear, precise, and elegantly reasoned, The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to Capitalism is a solid and entertaining guide to free market economics. With his twelve-step plan for understanding the free market, Murphy shows why conservatives should resist attempts to socialize America and fight spiritedly for the free market.]]> 206 Robert P. Murphy 1596985046 Allaina 0 to-read 3.99 2005 The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism
author: Robert P. Murphy
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2005
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]]> Dangerous 35307290
Like his heroes Skeletor, Darth Vader and Joan Rivers, Milo will say anything about anyone, and he doesn't care who gets triggered by the truth.

Milo is an award-winning journalist, the hottest ticket in any town his tour stops in, and the ultimate voice for people of all ages that are proud to be a part of out glorious western civilization.

Dangerous is the first book written by Milo Yiannopoulos, and is the first of many bestsellers he will release on the Dangerous Books imprint.]]> 236 Milo Yiannopoulos 069289344X Allaina 4 3.89 2017 Dangerous
author: Milo Yiannopoulos
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2017
rating: 4
read at: 2017/08/03
date added: 2017/08/03
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]]> <![CDATA[Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy]]> 32938155
After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. “I was in â€the void,’â€� she writes, “a vast emptiness that fills your heart and lungs and restricts your ability to think or even breathe.â€� Her friend Adam Grant, a psychologist at Wharton, told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound from life-shattering experiences. We are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. It is a muscle that everyone can build.
Option B combines Sheryl’s personal insights with Adam’s eye-opening research on finding strength in the face of adversity. Beginning with the gut-wrenching moment when she finds her husband, Dave Goldberg, collapsed on a gym floor, Sheryl opens up her heart—and her journal—to describe the acute grief and isolation she felt in the wake of his death. But Option B goes beyond Sheryl’s loss to explore how a broad range of people have overcome hardships including illness, job loss, sexual assault, natural disasters, and the violence of war. Their stories reveal the capacity of the human spirit to persevere . . . and to rediscover joy.
Resilience comes from deep within us and from support outside us. Even after the most devastating events, it is possible to grow by finding deeper meaning and gaining greater appreciation in our lives. Option B illuminates how to help others in crisis, develop compassion for ourselves, raise strong children, and create resilient families, communities, and workplaces. Many of these lessons can be applied to everyday struggles, allowing us to brave whatever lies ahead. Two weeks after losing her husband, Sheryl was preparing for a father-child activity. “I want Dave,� she cried. Her friend replied, “Option A is not available,� and then promised to help her make the most of Option B.
We all live some form of Option B. This book will help us all make the most of it.]]> 240 Sheryl Sandberg 0753548283 Allaina 0 to-read 3.81 2017 Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy
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name: Allaina
average rating: 3.81
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]]> <![CDATA[Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life]]> 22609866
In 2012, Eric Greitens unexpectedly heard from a former SEAL comrade, a brother-in-arms he hadn't seen in a decade. Zach Walker had been one of the toughest of the tough. But ever since he returned home from war to his young family in a small logging town, he d been struggling. Without a sense of purpose, plagued by PTSD, and masking his pain with heavy drinking, he needed help. Zach and Eric started writing and talking nearly every day, as Eric set down his thoughts on what it takes to build resilience in our lives.

Eric's letters drawing on both his own experience and wisdom from ancient and modern thinkers are now gathered and edited into this timeless guidebook. Resilience explains how we can build purpose, confront pain, practice compassion, develop a vocation, find a mentor, create happiness, and much more. Eric s lessons are deep yet practical, and his advice leads to clear solutions.

We all face pain, difficulty, and doubt. But we also have the tools to take control of our lives. Resilience is an inspiring meditation for the warrior in each of us.]]> 9 Eric Greitens 1427260141 Allaina 0 to-read 4.20 2015 Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life
author: Eric Greitens
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2015
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]]> Everyone Has A Story 30817225 Meera, a fledgling writer who is in search of a story that can touch millions of lives.
Vivaan, assistant branch manager at Citibank, who dreams of travelling the world.
Kabir, a café manager who desires something of his own. Nisha, the despondent café customer who keeps secrets of her own.
Everyone has their own story, but what happens when these four lives are woven together?
Pull up a chair in Kafe Kabir and watch them explore friendship and love, writing their own pages of life from the cosy café to the ends of the world.]]> 184 Savi Sharma 9386036754 Allaina 0 to-read 3.21 2015 Everyone Has A Story
author: Savi Sharma
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.21
book published: 2015
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]]> New York 2140 29570143
The waters rose, submerging New York City.

But the residents adapted and it remained the bustling, vibrant metropolis it had always been. Though changed forever.

Every street became a canal. Every skyscraper an island.

Through the eyes of the varied inhabitants of one building, Kim Stanley Robinson shows us how one of our great cities will change with the rising tides.

And how we too will change.]]> 624 Kim Stanley Robinson 031626234X Allaina 0 to-read 3.57 2017 New York 2140
author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> The 33 Strategies of War 35289
Robert Greene’s groundbreaking guides, The 48 Laws of Power , The Art of Seduction , and Mastery Ěýespouse profound, timeless lessons from the events of history to help readers vanquish an enemy, ensnare an unsuspecting victim, or become the greatest in your field. In The 33 Strategies of War , Greene has crafted an important addition to this ruthless and unique series.

Spanning world civilizations, synthesizing dozens of political, philosophical, and religious texts and thousands of years of violent conflict, The 33 Strategies of War is a comprehensive guide to the subtle social game of everyday life informed by the most ingenious and effective military principles in war. Structured in Greene’s trademark style, The 33 Strategies of War is the I-Ching of conflict, the contemporary companion to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War .

Abundantly illustrated with examples from history, including the folly and genius of everyone from Napoleon to Margaret Thatcher, Shaka the Zulu to Lord Nelson, Hannibal to Ulysses S. Grant, as well as movie moguls, Samurai swordsmen, and diplomats, each of the thirty-three chapters outlines a strategy that will help you win life’s wars. Learn the offensive strategies that require you to maintain the initiative and negotiate from a position of strength, or the defensive strategies designed to help you respond to dangerous situations and avoid unwinnable wars. The great warriors of battlefields and drawing rooms alike demonstrate prudence, agility, balance, and calm, and a keen understanding that the rational, resourceful, and intuitive always defeat the panicked, the uncreative, and the stupid. An indispensable book, The 33 Strategies of War provides all the psychological ammunition you need to overcome patterns of failure and forever gain the upper hand.]]> 496 Robert Greene 0670034576 Allaina 0 to-read 4.22 2001 The 33 Strategies of War
author: Robert Greene
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2001
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]]> <![CDATA[Body Mind Mastery: Training For Sport and Life]]> 189890 208 Dan Millman 1577310942 Allaina 0 4.08 1999 Body Mind Mastery: Training For Sport and Life
author: Dan Millman
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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One of the best health and wellness books I've read. Will definitely read again and use as a point of reference. Very good at explaining the mind-body connection of health and wellness. If you are interested in sports psychology, and or self-mastery, I definitely recommend this book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women]]> 4914761 The Purity Myth Jessica Valenti argues that the country’s intense focus on chastity is damaging to young women. Through in-depth cultural and social analysis, Valenti reveals that powerful messaging on both extremes � ranging from abstinence curriculum to Girls Gone Wild infomercials � place a young woman’s worth entirely on her sexuality. Morals are therefore linked purely to sexual behavior, rather than values like honesty, kindness, and altruism. Valenti sheds light on the value � and hypocrisy � around the notion that girls remain virgin until they’re married by putting into context the historical question of purity, modern abstinence-only education, pornography, and public punishments for those who dare to have sex. The Purity Myth presents a revolutionary argument that girls and women are overly valued for their sexuality, as well as solutions for a future without a damaging emphasis on virginity.]]> 263 Jessica Valenti Allaina 5 4.07 2009 The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women
author: Jessica Valenti
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2009
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything]]> 4224060 The element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. "The Element" draws on the stories of a wide range of people, from ex-Beatle Paul McCartney to Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons"; from Meg Ryan to Gillian Lynne, who choreographed the Broadway productions of "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera"; and from writer Arianna Huffington to renowned physicist Richard Feynman and others, including business leaders and athletes. It explores the components of this new paradigm: The diversity of intelligence, the power of imagination and creativity, and the importance of commitment to our own capabilities.
With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in the element and those that stifle that possibility. He shows that age and occupation are no barrier, and that once we have found our path we can help others to do so as well. "The Element" shows the vital need to enhance creativity and innovation by thinking differently about human resources and imagination. It is also an essential strategy for transforming education, business, and communities to meet the challenges of living and succeeding in the twenty-first century.]]> 288 Ken Robinson 0670020478 Allaina 4 3.84 2009 The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
author: Ken Robinson
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2009
rating: 4
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]]> Do the Work 10645233
Our enemy is not lack of preparation; it's not the difficulty of the project, or the state of the marketplace or the emptiness of our bank account.

The enemy is resistance.

The enemy is our chattering brain, which, if we give it so much as a nanosecond, will start producing excuses, alibis, transparent self-justifications and a million reasons why he can't/shouldn't/won't do what we know we need to do.

Start before you're ready.]]> 109 Steven Pressfield 1455820997 Allaina 4 3.93 2011 Do the Work
author: Steven Pressfield
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2011
rating: 4
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]]> The Beauty Myth 39926 368 Naomi Wolf 0060512180 Allaina 5 3.90 1990 The Beauty Myth
author: Naomi Wolf
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1990
rating: 5
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]]> Overcoming Eating Disorders 18190074 162 Kathleen Zraly Allaina 4 4.00 1990 Overcoming Eating Disorders
author: Kathleen Zraly
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1990
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Always Too Much and Never Enough]]> 25489453 Ěý
From the extra pounds and unrelenting bullies that left her eating lunch alone in a bathroom stall at school to the low self-esteem that left her both physically and emotionally vulnerable to abuse, Jasmin Singer’s struggle with weight defined her life.
Ěý
Most people think there’s no such thing as a fat vegan. Most people don’t realize that deep-fried tofu tastes amazing and that Oreos are, in fact, vegan. So, even after Jasmin embraced a vegan lifestyle, having discovered her passion in advocating for the rights of animals, she defied any “skinny vegan� stereotypes by getting even heavier.
Ěý
More importantly, she realized that her compassion for animals didn’t extend to her own body, and that her low self-esteem was affecting her health. She needed a change. By committing to monthly juice fasts and a diet of whole, unprocessed foods, Jasmin lost almost a hundred pounds, gained an understanding of her destructive relationship with food, and finally realized what it means to be truly full.
Ěý
Told with humble humor and heartbreaking honesty, this is Jasmin’s story of how she went from finding solace in a box of cheese crackers to finding peace within herself.]]> 340 Jasmin Singer 042527957X Allaina 4 3.58 2016 Always Too Much and Never Enough
author: Jasmin Singer
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2016
rating: 4
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]]> Happy Accidents: A Memoir 10604115 In the summer of 1974, a fourteen-year-old girl in Dolton, Illinois, had a dream. A dream to become an actress, like her idols Ron Howard and Vicki Lawrence. But it was a long way from the South Side of Chicago to Hollywood, and it didn't help that she'd recently dropped out of the school play, The Ugly Duckling. Or that the Hollywood casting directors she wrote to replied that "professional training was a requirement."

But the funny thing is, it all came true. Through a series of Happy Accidents, Jane Lynch created an improbable and hilarious path to success. In those early years, despite her dreams, she was also consumed with anxiety, feeling out of place in both her body and her family. To deal with her worries about her sexuality, she escaped in positive ways such as joining a high school chorus not unlike the one in Glee but also found destructive outlets. She started drinking almost every night her freshman year of high school and developed a mean and judgmental streak that turned her into a real- life Sue Sylvester.

Then, at thirty-one, she started to get her life together. She was finally able to embrace her sexuality, come out to her parents, and quit drinking for good. Soon after, a Frosted Flakes commercial and a chance meeting in a coffee shop led to a role in the Christopher Guest movie Best in Show, which helped her get cast in The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Similar coincidences and chance meetings led to roles in movies starring Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, and even Meryl Streep in 2009's Julie & Julia. Then, of course, came the two lucky accidents that truly changed her life. Getting lost in a hotel led to an introduction to her future wife, Lara. Then, a series she'd signed up for abruptly got canceled, making it possible for her to take the role of Sue Sylvester in Glee, which made her a megastar.

Today, Jane Lynch has finally found the contentment she thought she'd never have. Part comic memoir and part inspirational narrative, this is a book equally for the rabid Glee fan and for anyone who needs a new perspective on life, love, and success.

WITH A FOREWORD BY CAROL BURNETT

Excerpt from Happy Accidents:

If I could go back in time and talk to my twenty-year-old self, the first thing I would say is: "Lose the perm." Secondly I would say: "Relax. Really. Just relax. Don't sweat it."

I can't remember a time when I wasn't anxious and fearful that the parade would pass me by. And I was sure there was someone or something outside of myself with all the answers. I had a driving, anxiety-filled ambition. I wanted to be a working actor so badly. I wanted to belong and feel like I was valued and seen. Well, now I am a working actor, and I guarantee you it's not because I suffered or worried over it.

As I look back, the road to where I am today has been a series of happy accidents I was either smart or stupid enough to take advantage of. I thought I had to have a plan, a strategy. Turns out I just had to be ready and willing to take chances, look at what's right in front of me, and put my heart into everything I do. All that anxiety and fear didn't help, nor did it fuel anything useful. My final piece of advice to twenty-year-old me: Be easy on your sweet self. And don't drink Miller Lite tall boys in the morning.




]]> 304 Jane Lynch 1401341764 Allaina 3 3.70 2011 Happy Accidents: A Memoir
author: Jane Lynch
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2011
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)]]> 10335308
Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you've come to the right book, mostly!

In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door - not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.]]> 222 Mindy Kaling 0307886263 Allaina 3 3.86 2011 Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
author: Mindy Kaling
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2011
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned"]]> 20588698 Not That Kind of Girl. These are stories about getting your butt touched by your boss, about friendship and dieting (kind of) and having two existential crises before the age of 20. Stories about travel, both successful and less so, and about having the kind of sex where you feel like keeping your sneakers on in case you have to run away during the act. Stories about proving yourself to a room of 50-year-old men in Hollywood and showing up to "an outlandishly high-fashion event with the crustiest red nose you ever saw." Fearless, smart, and as heartbreakingly honest as ever, Not That Kind of Girl establishes Lena Dunham as more than a hugely talented director, actress and producer-it announces her as a fresh and vibrant new literary voice.]]> 265 Lena Dunham 081299499X Allaina 3 3.28 2014 Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned"
author: Lena Dunham
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2014
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Managing Oneself (Harvard Business Review Classics)]]> 2477223 72 Peter F. Drucker 142212312X Allaina 5 3.93 2007 Managing Oneself (Harvard Business Review Classics)
author: Peter F. Drucker
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2007
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/05/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story]]> 14546626 One of the most anticipated autobiographies of this generation, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall is the candid story by one of the world’s most remarkable actors, businessmen, and world leaders.

Born in the small city of Thal, Austria, in 1947, Arnold Schwarzenegger moved to Los Angeles at the age of twenty-one. Within ten years, he was a millionaire businessman. After twenty years, he was the world’s biggest movie star. In 2003, he was elected governor of California and a household name around the world.

Chronicling his embodiment of the American Dream, Total Recall covers Schwarzenegger’s high-stakes journey to the United States, from creating the international bodybuilding industry out of the sands of Venice Beach, to breathing life into cinema’s most iconic characters, and becoming one of the leading political figures of our time. Proud of his accomplishments and honest about his regrets, Schwarzenegger spares nothing in sharing his amazing story.]]> 656 Arnold Schwarzenegger 1451662432 Allaina 5 4.15 2012 Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story
author: Arnold Schwarzenegger
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2017/04/15
date added: 2017/05/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty]]> 11044200
In The Science of Evil Simon Baron-Cohen, an award-winning British researcher who has investigated psychology and autism for decades, develops a new brain-based theory of human cruelty. A true psychologist, however, he examines social and environmental factors that can erode empathy, including neglect and abuse.

Based largely on Baron-Cohen's own research, The Science of Evil will change the way we understand and treat human cruelty.]]> 256 Simon Baron-Cohen Allaina 3 3.74 2011 The Science of Evil: On Empathy and the Origins of Cruelty
author: Simon Baron-Cohen
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2011
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[The Missing Piece (The Missing Piece, #1)]]> 30122 From Shel Silverstein, the celebrated author of The Giving Tree and Where the Sidewalk Ends, comes The Missing Piece, a charming fable that gently probes the nature of quest and fulfillment.

"It was missing a piece. And it was not happy."

What it finds on its search for the missing piece is simply and touchingly told. This inventive and heartwarming fable can be read on many levels, and Silverstein’s iconic drawings and humor are sure to delight fans of all ages.

"So it set off in search
of its missing piece.
And as it rolled
it sang this song�
'Oh I'm lookin' for my missin' piece
I'm lookin' for my missin' piece
Hi-dee-ho, here I go,
Lookin' for my missin' piece."

And don't miss Runny Babbit Returns (2017), the new book from Shel Silverstein!]]> 112 Shel Silverstein 0060256710 Allaina 5 4.28 1976 The Missing Piece (The Missing Piece, #1)
author: Shel Silverstein
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1976
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[8 Keys to Recovery from an Eating Disorder: Effective Strategies from Therapeutic Practice and Personal Experience (8 Keys to Mental Health)]]> 12951039
For anyone who has suffered, their family and friends, and other helping professionals, this book should be by your side. With great compassion and clinical expertise, Costin and Grabb walk readers through the ins and outs of the recovery process, describing what therapy entails, clarifying the common associated emotions such as fear, guilt, and shame, and, most of all, providing motivation to seek help if you have been discouraged, resistant, or afraid. The authors bring self-disclosure to a level not yet seen in an eating disorder book and offer hope to readers that full recovery is possible.]]> 296 Carolyn Costin 0393706958 Allaina 5 4.30 2011 8 Keys to Recovery from an Eating Disorder: Effective Strategies from Therapeutic Practice and Personal Experience (8 Keys to Mental Health)
author: Carolyn Costin
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at: 2016/10/11
date added: 2017/05/02
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]]> <![CDATA[A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose]]> 76334 With his bestselling spiritual guide "The Power of Now," Eckhart Tolle inspired millions of readers to discover the freedom and joy of a life lived ?in the now.? In "A New Earth," Tolle expands on these powerful ideas to show how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world. Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence. "The Power of Now" was a question-and-answer handbook. "A New Earth" has been written as a traditional narrative, offering anecdotes and philosophies in a way that is accessible to all. Illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting, "A New Earth" is a profoundly spiritual manifesto for a better way of life?and for building a better world.]]> 316 Eckhart Tolle 0452287588 Allaina 5 4.15 2005 A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
author: Eckhart Tolle
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave]]> 91587
An astonishing orator and a skillful writer, Douglass became a newspaper editor, a political activist, and an eloquent spokesperson for the civil rights of African Americans. He lived through the Civil War, the end of slavery, and the beginning of segregation. He was celebrated internationally as the leading black intellectual of his day, and his story still resonates in ours.]]> 160 Frederick Douglass 1593080417 Allaina 5 4.25 1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
author: Frederick Douglass
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1845
rating: 5
read at: 2016/09/13
date added: 2017/05/02
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]]> <![CDATA[How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving]]> 500901
ĚýĚýĚý1.Ěý Attention to the present moment; observing, listening, and noticing all the feelings at play in our relationships.
ĚýĚýĚý2.Ěý Acceptance of ourselves and others just as we are.
ĚýĚýĚý3.Ěý Appreciation of all our gifts, our limits, our longings, and our poignant human predicament.
ĚýĚýĚý4.Ěý Affection shown through holding and touching in respectful ways.
ĚýĚýĚý5.Ěý Allowing life and love to be just as they are, with all their ecstasy and ache, without trying to take control.


When deeply understood and applied, these five simple concepts—what Richo calls the five A's—form the basis of mature love. They help us to move away from judgment, fear, and blame to a position of openness, compassion, and realism about life and relationships. By giving and receiving these five A's, relationships become deeper and more meaningful, and they become a ground for personal transformation.]]> 265 David Richo 1570628122 Allaina 5 4.13 2002 How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving
author: David Richo
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2002
rating: 5
read at: 2017/04/06
date added: 2017/05/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Starch Solution: Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Lose the Weight for Good!]]> 12567860
From Atkins to Dukan, the fear-mongering about carbs over the past few decades has reached a fever pitch; the mere mention of a starch-heavy food is enough to trigger a cavalcade of shame and longing.

In The Starch Solution, bestselling diet doctor and board-certified internist John A. McDougall, MD, and his kitchen-savvy wife, Mary, turn the notion that starch is bad for you on its head. The Starch Solution is based on a simple swap: fueling your body primarily with carbohydrates rather than proteins and fats. This will help you lose weight and prevent a variety of ills.

Fad diets come and go, but Dr. McDougall has been a proponent of the plant-based diet for decades, and his medical credibility is unassailable. He is one of the mainstay experts cited in the bestselling and now seminal China Study—called the “Grand Prix of epidemiology� by the New York Times. But what The China Study lacks is a plan.

Dr. McDougall grounds The Starch Solution in rigorous scientific fact and research, giving readers easy tools to implement these changes into their lifestyle with a 7-Day Quick Start Plan and 100 delicious recipes. This book includes testimonials from among the hundreds Dr. McDougall has received, including people who have lost more than 125 pounds in mere months as well as patients who have conquered lifethreatening illnesses such as diabetes and cardiac ailments.]]> 348 John A. McDougall 1609613937 Allaina 2 4.20 2012 The Starch Solution: Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Lose the Weight for Good!
author: John A. McDougall
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2012
rating: 2
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date added: 2017/05/02
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]]> <![CDATA[So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love]]> 13525945
Not only is the cliché flawed—preexisting passions are rare and have little to do with how most people end up loving their work—but it can also be dangerous, leading to anxiety and chronic job hopping.

After making his case against passion, Newport sets out on a quest to discover the reality of how people end up loving what they do. Spending time with organic farmers, venture capitalists, screenwriters, freelance computer programmers, and others who admitted to deriving great satisfaction from their work, Newport uncovers the strategies they used and the pitfalls they avoided in developing their compelling careers.

Matching your job to a preexisting passion does not matter, he reveals. Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it.

With a title taken from the comedian Steve Martin, who once said his advice for aspiring entertainers was to "be so good they can't ignore you," Cal Newport's clearly written manifesto is mandatory reading for anyone fretting about what to do with their life, or frustrated by their current job situation and eager to find a fresh new way to take control of their livelihood. He provides an evidence-based blueprint for creating work you love.

So Good They Can't Ignore You will change the way we think about our careers, happiness, and the crafting of a remarkable life.]]> 288 Cal Newport 1455509108 Allaina 5 4.05 2012 So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love
author: Cal Newport
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2017/04/09
date added: 2017/05/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment]]> 6708 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781577314806.

To make the journey into the Now we will need to leave our analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. From the very first page of Eckhart Tolle's extraordinary book, we move rapidly into a significantly higher altitude where we breathe a lighter air. We become connected to the indestructible essence of our Being, “The eternal, ever present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death.� Although the journey is challenging, Eckhart Tolle uses simple language and an easy question-and-answer format to guide us.

A word-of-mouth phenomenon since its first publication, The Power of Now is one of those rare books with the power to create an experience in readers, one that can radically change their lives for the better.]]> 229 Eckhart Tolle Allaina 5 4.16 1997 The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
author: Eckhart Tolle
name: Allaina
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1997
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[American Savage: Insights, Slights, and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love, and Politics]]> 16101100 name just a few: he's the author of America's leading sex advice
column, the frank and expletive-filled "Savage Love;" co-founder of
the Emmy Award-winning "It Gets Better Project," a YouTube
campaign aimed at LGBT youth that swept the globe in 2010; and he wrote the groundbreaking 1999 memoir The Kid about adopting a son with his partner (now husband) Terry, which helped inspire same-sex couples nationwide to adopt.
Dan has long been an advocate for marriage equality and LGBT rights, and AMERICAN SAVAGE contains some of his most personal and reflective essays on those subjects to date. He also explains, with his trademark humor and honesty:

- Why assault weapons should be banned, but why guns should be allowed in the U.S. capitol
- Why Obamacare, as good as it is, is "still kinda evil"
- Why straight people should have straight 'pride' parades too
- Why feminists are wrong about Halloween
- Why the Bible is "only as good and decent as the person reading it"
- Why public school sex-ed is more like "sex dread"
- Why the gay marriage debate isn't a zero sum game: nothing has been
taken from straight couples in states where all couples can marry


In a chapter called "Bigot Christmas," Dan also tells the behind-the-scenes story of his famous recent family dinner and marriage equality debate with Brian Brown, head of the National Organization for Marriage.]]> 301 Dan Savage 0525954104 Allaina 4 3.94 2013 American Savage: Insights, Slights, and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love, and Politics
author: Dan Savage
name: Allaina
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2013
rating: 4
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date added: 2017/05/02
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]]>