Johnny's bookshelf: all en-US Tue, 19 Dec 2023 07:57:32 -0800 60 Johnny's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis]]> 9167624
"Cope has an extraordinarily quite funny sense quite rare among poets - of wgat will engage a reader's attention."
- Dana Gioia, Poetry Review

"A jet-age Tennyson."
- Nicholas Tredell, London Review of Books

"Like Larkin and Harrison, Cope has proven that a popular poetry is possible without compromising quality."
- Gerry Cambridge, Acumen

NB: This is an alternative cover for ISBN 0571137474.]]> 59 Wendy Cope Johnny 4 3.70 1986 Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis
author: Wendy Cope
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1986
rating: 4
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date added: 2023/12/19
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]]> <![CDATA[April Blood: Florence and the Plot against the Medici]]> 255135
On a Sunday in April 1478, assassins attacked Lorenzo and his brother as they attended Mass in the cathedral of Florence. Lorenzo scrambled to safety as Giuliano bled to death on the cathedral floor. April Blood moves outward in time and space from that murderous event, unfolding a story of tangled passions, ambition, treachery, and revenge. The conspiracy was led by one of the city's most noble clans, the Pazzi, financiers who feared and resented the Medici's swaggering new role as political bosses--but the web of intrigue spread through all of Italy. Bankers, mercenaries, the Duke of Urbino, the King of Naples, and Pope Sixtus IV entered secretly into the plot. Florence was plunged into a peninsular war, and Lorenzo was soon fighting for his own and his family's survival.

The failed assassination doomed the Pazzi. Medici revenge was swift and brutal--plotters were hanged or beheaded, innocents were hacked to pieces, and bodies were put out to dangle from the windows of the government palace. All remaining members of the larger Pazzi clan were forced to change their surname, and every public sign or symbol of the family was expunged or destroyed.

April Blood offers us a fresh portrait of Renaissance Florence, where dazzling artistic achievements went side by side with violence, craft, and bare-knuckle politics. At the center of the canvas is the figure of Lorenzo the Magnificent--poet, statesman, connoisseur, patron of the arts, and ruthless "boss of bosses." This extraordinarily vivid account of a turning point in the Italian Renaissance is bound to become a lasting work of history.]]> 320 Lauro Martines 019517609X Johnny 4 3.76 2003 April Blood: Florence and the Plot against the Medici
author: Lauro Martines
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2003
rating: 4
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date added: 2022/02/02
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]]> The Great Gatsby 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

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

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]> 180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 Johnny 4 3.93 1925 The Great Gatsby
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 4
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date added: 2021/03/09
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]]> The Lie Tree 23592175 The leaves were cold and slightly clammy. There was no mistaking them. She had seen their likeness painstakingly sketched in her father's journal. This was his greatest secret, his treasure and his undoing. The Tree of Lies. Now it was hers, and the journey he had never finished stretched out before her.

When Faith's father is found dead under mysterious circumstances, she is determined to untangle the truth from the lies. Searching through his belongings for clues, she discovers a strange tree. A tree that feeds off whispered lies and bears fruit that reveals hidden secrets.

But as Faith's untruths spiral out of control, she discovers that where lies seduce, truths shatter...]]> 410 Frances Hardinge 144726410X Johnny 5 3.83 2015 The Lie Tree
author: Frances Hardinge
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2015
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/03/09
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]]> <![CDATA[The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)]]> 386162
Together this dynamic pair begin a journey through space aided by quotes from The Hitchhiker's Guide ("A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have") and a galaxy-full of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox--the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian, Zaphod's girlfriend (formally Tricia McMillan), whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student who is obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he bought over the years.

Where are these pens? Why are we born? Why do we die? Why do we spend so much time between wearing digital watches? For all the answers stick your thumb to the stars. And don't forget to bring a towel!]]> 193 Douglas Adams Johnny 5 4.28 1979 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1)
author: Douglas Adams
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1979
rating: 5
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date added: 2021/03/09
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]]> Wuthering Heights 348914 Alternate cover edition for ISBN: 9780141439556.

Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before; of the intense relationship between the gypsy foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw; and how Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton, surrendered to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.]]> 359 Emily Brontë Johnny 4 3.84 1847 Wuthering Heights
author: Emily Brontë
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1847
rating: 4
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date added: 2020/12/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Untitled (The Book of Dust, #3)]]> 40219210 Philip Pullman Johnny 0 to-read 4.11 Untitled (The Book of Dust, #3)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.11
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/06/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)]]> 19034943 La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume One unfolded and saw the baby Lyra Belacqua begin her life-changing journey.

It is seven years since readers left Lyra and the love of her young life, Will Parry, on a park bench in Oxford's Botanic Gardens at the end of the ground-breaking, bestselling His Dark Materials sequence.

Now, in The Secret Commonwealth, we meet Lyra Silvertongue. And she is no longer a child . . .

The second volume of Sir Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust sees Lyra, now twenty years old, and her daemon Pantalaimon, forced to navigate their relationship in a way they could never have imagined, and drawn into the complex and dangerous factions of a world that they had no idea existed.

Pulled along on his own journey too is Malcolm; once a boy with a boat and a mission to save a baby from the flood, now a man with a strong sense of duty and a desire to do what is right.

Theirs is a world at once familiar and extraordinary, and they must travel far beyond the edges of Oxford, across Europe and into Asia, in search for what is lost - a city haunted by daemons, a secret at the heart of a desert, and the mystery of the elusive Dust.]]> 784 Philip Pullman Johnny 3 3.99 2019 The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 3
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date added: 2020/06/29
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]]> A Man Called Ove 18774964
Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents' association to their very foundations.]]> 337 Fredrik Backman 1476738017 Johnny 4 4.35 2012 A Man Called Ove
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
rating: 4
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date added: 2020/06/29
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]]> <![CDATA[La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust, #1)]]> 34128219
Malcolm's father runs an inn called the Trout, on the banks of the river Thames, and all of Oxford passes through its doors. Malcolm and his dæmon, Asta, routinely overhear news and gossip, and the occasional scandal, but during a winter of unceasing rain, Malcolm catches wind of something new: intrigue.

He finds a secret message inquiring about a dangerous substance called Dust--and the spy it was intended for finds him.

When she asks Malcolm to keep his eyes open, Malcolm sees suspicious characters everywhere; Lord Asriel, clearly on the run; enforcement agents from the Magisterium; an Egyptian named Coram with warnings just for Malcolm; and a beautiful woman with an evil monkey for a dæmon. All are asking about the same thing: a girl--just a baby--named Lyra.

Lyra is the kind of person who draws people in like magnets. And Malcolm will brave any danger, and make shocking sacrifices, to bring her safely through the storm.]]> 449 Philip Pullman 0375815309 Johnny 3 4.11 2017 La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust, #1)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Northern Lights (His Dark Materials, #1)]]> 70947
The ensuing quest leads them to the bleak splendour of the North, where armoured bears rule the ice and witch-queens fly through the frozen skies - and where a team of scientists is conducting experiments too horrible to be spoken about.

Lyra overcomes these strange terrors, only to find something yet more perilous waiting for her - something with consequences which may even reach beyond the Northern Lights...]]> 399 Philip Pullman 0590660543 Johnny 5 4.24 1995 Northern Lights (His Dark Materials, #1)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1995
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/03/28
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]]> Ungrateful Mammals 31305510 A Hologram for the King, What Is the What, and The Circle. Before he embarked on his writing career, Eggers was classically trained as a draftsman and painter. He then spent many years as a professional illus­trator and graphic designer before turning to writ­ing full-time. More recently, in order to raise money for ScholarMatch, his college-access nonprofit, he returned to visual art, and the results have been exhibited in galleries and museums around the country. Usually involving the pairing of an animal with humorous or biblical text, the results are wry, oddly anthropomorphic tableaus that create a very entertaining and eccentric body of work from one of today’s leading culture makers.]]> 144 Dave Eggers 1419724630 Johnny 0 to-read 3.75 2017 Ungrateful Mammals
author: Dave Eggers
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/09/27
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]]> Mockstars 22604944
‘Finally, a rock ’n� roll novel that people can properly relate to� Ciaran Jeremiah, The Feeling

‘Hilarious � it’s The Inbetweeners meets Spinal Tap!� Alex Marsh, author of Sex & Bowls & Rock and Roll

***

‘Back in the nineties, when everybody else was at illegal raves taking ecstasy, what were you boys doing?�
I look at George. He shrugs.
‘Jigsaws,� I reply.

Chris and George are best friends, and they want to be rockstars. Unfortunately, a childhood spent playing in the school orchestra and listening to Jimmy Nail has left them a little fluffy round the edges. At the age of 23 they’re still living with their parents and it’s becoming clear that their acoustic duo Satellite doesn’t resemble Bon Jovi nearly as much as they’d planned.

So how do two ordinary boys from the Home Counties go about taking on the cut-throat world of rock ʼn� roll?

They’re just going to have to fake it.

True to life, funny and moving, Mockstars is a coming-of-age story about friendship and chasing the rock ʼn� roll dream, inspired by the real-life tour diaries of the author’s band The Lightyears. An uplifting comedy with its own accompanying soundtrack, it’s the perfect summer holiday read.]]> 0 Christopher Russell 0957611633 Johnny 0 3.82 2014 Mockstars
author: Christopher Russell
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at: 2017/06/09
date added: 2017/06/09
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]]> The Human Script 26891990 Tom McCarthy, Man Booker nominee and author of 
C, 
R𳾲Ի and Satin Island

THE HUMAN SCRIPT: A NOVEL IN 23 CHROMOSOMES
London in the spring of 2000: Chris Putnam, a young scientist working on the Human Genome Project, is grieving for the end of his first relationship and for the loss of his deeply religious and estranged father. Then Chris falls in love and his twin brother goes missing. Events take Chris on a journey from the hallowed halls of scientific research via decadent art-scene parties and London’s Theatreland to the cold loneliness of a psychiatric hospital and ultimately to a desperate decision. What Chris discovers about himself and his world forces him to address his own nature, his own beliefs and his own reality.

The Human Script is a cryptic parable, in which popular science, philosophy, literary theory and religion intertwine in a poignant and tragic love story that asks the question: what is it to be human?

As well as Tom McCarthy's praise, extracts have been widely lauded by such writers as Ian McEwan, Andrew Motion, W G Sebald and Lorna Sage and compared to David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas), Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius) and Bernard Schlink (The Reader).

An Amazon Kindle top 100 literary fiction title.

"The Booksmoke team reads a lot of books but so far nothing has beaten Johnny Rich's The Human Script. Hands down my book of the year. Brave, intelligent and gloriously unsettling. Tackling the big, beautiful, murky questions of science and genetics, 'nature/nurture', love, life, death. There are few books I finish and have to start at the beginning again but this was one of them.�
Alex Masters, BookSmoke

� The Human Script is an engaging novel brimming with ideas, so much so I feel it would stand up to multiple re readings within a short space of time. To say I enjoyed The Human Script would be an understatement. It provided me with the long forgotten thrill of not knowing how a novel will conclude, and for that I am grateful. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys clever, well written fiction.�
BookemStevo

"Incredibly clever and smart, and really made me think, while keeping me entertained to the end. The characters were engaging, and the plot was gripping. If you want to try something truly different and unique, I would highly recommend this book."
Stephanie Cox, Words are my Craft

" Johnny Rich is a lover of literature and this is clear in his clever use of motifs and themes within The Human Script. His writing is reminiscent of Tom McCarthy and David Mitchell; readers may find that upon reading the last page they will want to start all over again. Intelligent, thought-provoking and profoundly moving, The Human Script is a book that will start conversations and will linger in your mind for a long time."
Justine Solomons, Byte the Book

" The Human Script is an ambitious and intriguing novel. Johnny Rich’s voice is one I hope we will all become more familiar with."
Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone, author of Home

"The cutting edge of literature... I was pulled in for the ride until the very last page. The Human Script is almost pulsating with ideas and more than that with questions it’s impossible not to ask yourself after reading.
Unique."
Plastic Rosaries

'A fascinating book'
'A real thought provoker'
'Intelligent, complex and surprising'
Amazon reviews]]> 320 Johnny Rich 0957611668 Johnny 5 3.50 2013 The Human Script
author: Johnny Rich
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.50
book published: 2013
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/12/05
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]]> Nutshell 29752912 Nutshell is a classic story of murder and deceit, told by a narrator with a perspective and voice unlike any in recent literature. A bravura performance, it is the finest recent work from a true master.

To be bound in a nutshell, see the world in two inches of ivory, in a grain of sand. Why not, when all of literature, all of art, of human endeavour, is just a speck in the universe of possible things.]]> 199 Ian McEwan 1911214330 Johnny 0 to-read 3.71 2016 Nutshell
author: Ian McEwan
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/08/31
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]]> The Zone of Interest 20447658 Once upon a time there was a king, and the king commissioned his favorite wizard to create a magic mirror. This mirror didn’t show you your reflection. It showed you your soul—it showed you who you really were.

The wizard couldn’t look at it without turning away. The king couldn’t look at it. The courtiers couldn’t look at it. A chestful of treasure was offered to anyone who could look at it for sixty seconds without turning away. And no one could.

The Zone of Interest is a love story with a violently unromantic setting. Can love survive the mirror? Can we even meet each other’s eye, after we have seen who we really are?

Powered by both wit and compassion, and in characteristically vivid prose, Martin Amis’s unforgettable new novel excavates the depths and contradictions of the human soul.


From the Hardcover edition.]]> 306 Martin Amis 0385353499 Johnny 0 to-read 3.62 2014 The Zone of Interest
author: Martin Amis
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/06/23
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]]> The Diary of a Young Girl 48855
In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe� of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.
--back cover]]> 283 Anne Frank Johnny 4 4.19 1947 The Diary of a Young Girl
author: Anne Frank
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1947
rating: 4
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date added: 2016/05/17
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]]> The Fermata 28220 The Fermata, which proves in the telling to be a very provocative, very funny and altogether morally confused piece of work.

Hilarious and totally original, Nicholson Baker's new novel is a triumphant comedy about sexual fantasy and fantastic sexuality.]]> 320 Nicholson Baker 0099466929 Johnny 3 3.67 1994 The Fermata
author: Nicholson Baker
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1994
rating: 3
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date added: 2016/03/09
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]]> Vox 28229 165 Nicholson Baker 1862070962 Johnny 3 3.45 1992 Vox
author: Nicholson Baker
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.45
book published: 1992
rating: 3
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date added: 2016/03/09
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]]> The Mezzanine 247000 The Mezzanine occurs on the escalator of an office building, where its narrator is returning to work after buying shoelaces, this startlingly inventive and witty novel takes us farther than most fiction written today. It lends to milk cartons the associative richness of Marcel Proust's madeleines. It names the eight most significant advances in a human life —beginning with shoe-tying. It asks whether the hot air blowers in bathrooms really are more sanitary than towels. And it casts a dazzling light on our relations with the objects and people we usually take for granted.]]> 135 Nicholson Baker 0679725768 Johnny 5 3.85 1988 The Mezzanine
author: Nicholson Baker
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1988
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/03/09
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]]> <![CDATA[Recessional - Or, the Time of the Hammer (THINK ART)]]> 26240390
The latest edition in Diaphanes’s THINK ART series, which explores the cultural and theoretical impact of artistic processes, Recessional—Or, the Time of the Hammer opens with an essay by McCarthy on recessional time as an aesthetic element and literary device. This essay is followed by an interview with McCarthy, in which he further discusses his own writing process, taking his most recent novel, Satin Island, as the starting point and casting new light on both avant-garde and realist literature.

Praise for Remainder
“An avant-garde challenge. . . . [McCarthy is] one of the great English novelists of the past ten years.”—Zadie Smith]]> 80 Tom McCarthy 3037345896 Johnny 0 to-read 4.12 2016 Recessional - Or, the Time of the Hammer (THINK ART)
author: Tom McCarthy
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2016/02/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)]]> 70948
Then Will steps through a window in the air into another world, and finds himself with a companion - a strange, savage little girl called Lyra. Like Will, she has a mission which she intends to carry out at all costs.

But the world of Cittàgazze is a strange and unsettling place. Deadly, soul-eating Spectres stalk in its streets, while high above, the wingbeats of distant angels sound against the sky. And in the mysterious Torre degli Angeli lurks Cittàgazze's most important secret - an object which people from many worlds would kill to posses.]]> 341 Philip Pullman 0590112899 Johnny 4 4.18 1997 The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1997
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/12/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3)]]> 18122
But how can he go looking for Lord Asriel when Lyra is gone? Only with her help can he fathom the myriad plots and intrigues that beset him.

The two great powers of the many worlds are lining up for war, and Will must find Lyra, for together they are on their way to battle, an inevitable journey that will even take them to the world of the dead...]]> 465 Philip Pullman 0440238153 Johnny 3 4.11 2000 The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2000
rating: 3
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date added: 2015/12/14
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]]> <![CDATA[The Unbearable Lightness of Being]]> 9717 The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. This magnificent novel juxtaposes geographically distant places, brilliant and playful reflections, and a variety of styles, to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world’s truly great writers.]]> 314 Milan Kundera 0571224385 Johnny 4 4.12 1984 The Unbearable Lightness of Being
author: Milan Kundera
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1984
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/12/01
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]]> Less Than Zero 9915
Clay comes home for Christmas vacation from his Eastern college and re-enters a landscape of limitless privilege and absolute moral entropy, where everyone drives Porches, dines at Spago, and snorts mountains of cocaine. He tries to renew feelings for his girlfriend, Blair, and for his best friend from high school, Julian, who is careering into hustling and heroin. Clay's holiday turns into a dizzying spiral of desperation that takes him through the relentless parties in glitzy mansions, seedy bars, and underground rock clubs, and into the seamy world of L.A. after dark.]]> 208 Bret Easton Ellis Johnny 3 3.62 1985 Less Than Zero
author: Bret Easton Ellis
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.62
book published: 1985
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2015/10/30
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]]> Fear of Flying 9654 The groundbreaking #1 New York Times Bestseller—updated for the 50th Anniversary with a New Foreword by Molly Jong-Fast and a New Introduction by Taffy Brodesser-Akner!

“The boundary-breaking novel that redefined sexuality.”�O Magazine

Isadora Wing is tired. Tired of being psychoanalyzed. Tired of grad school. Tired of fighting with her husband. Tired of having unfulfilled desires. She thinks she knows what she's searching for and how to achieve it. But her quest to engage in no-strings-attached sex quickly shifts into a journey of self-discovery that will leave her questioning her own mind, her ideals, and what she truly wants in life....

Originally published in 1973, the ground-breaking, uninhibited story of Isadora Wing and her desire to fly free caused a national sensation. It fueled fantasies, ignited debates, and introduced a notorious new phrase to the English language. Now, after fifty years, this revolutionary novel still stands as a timeless tale of self-discovery, liberation, and womanhood.

“Smart, bold, bracing and, importantly, extremely funny.”—Meg Wolitzer]]> 461 Erica Jong Johnny 4 3.47 1973 Fear of Flying
author: Erica Jong
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.47
book published: 1973
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/09/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions]]> 433567 [sic � ed.], a mathematician and resident of the two-dimensional Flatland, where women-thin, straight lines-are the lowliest of shapes, and where men may have any number of sides, depending on their social status.
Through strange occurrences that bring him into contact with a host of geometric forms, Square has adventures in Spaceland (three dimensions), Lineland (one dimension) and Pointland (no dimensions) and ultimately entertains thoughts of visiting a land of four dimensions—a revolutionary idea for which he is returned to his two-dimensional world. Charmingly illustrated by the author, Flatland is not only fascinating reading, it is still a first-rate fictional introduction to the concept of the multiple dimensions of space. "Instructive, entertaining, and stimulating to the imagination." � Mathematics Teacher.]]> 96 Edwin A. Abbott 048627263X Johnny 4 3.82 1884 Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
author: Edwin A. Abbott
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1884
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/09/25
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]]> The Third Policeman 27208 The last of O'Brien's novels to be published, The Third Policeman joins O'Brien's other fiction (At Swim-Two-Birds, The Poor Mouth, The Hard Life, The Best of Myles, The Dalkey Archive) to ensure his place, along with James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, as one of Ireland's great comic geniuses.]]> 200 Flann O'Brien 156478214X Johnny 5 4.00 1967 The Third Policeman
author: Flann O'Brien
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1967
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/09/19
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]]> Molloy 446542 241 Samuel Beckett 0802151361 Johnny 5 4.06 1951 Molloy
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1951
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/09/16
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]]> The Unnamable 78457
The Unnamable is a 1953 novel by Samuel Beckett. It is the third and final entry in Beckett's "Trilogy" of novels, which begins with Molloy followed by Malone Dies. It was originally published in French as L'Innommable and later translated by the author into English. Grove Press published the English edition in 1958.]]> 186 Samuel Beckett 039417030X Johnny 5 4.03 1953 The Unnamable
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1953
rating: 5
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date added: 2015/09/16
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]]> Malone Dies 54042 Malone Dies is the second of his immediate post-war novels, written during what Beckett later referred to as ‘the siege in the room�.

‘Malone�, writes Malone, ‘is what I am called now.� On his deathbed, whittling away the time with stories and revisions of stories, the octogenarian Malone's account of his condition is contradictory and intermittent, shifting with the vagaries of the passing days: without mellowness, without elegiacs; wittier, jauntier, and capable of darker rages than his precursor Molloy. Malone promises silence, but as a storyteller he delivers irresistibly more.]]> 127 Samuel Beckett 0802151175 Johnny 4 3.94 1951 Malone Dies
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1951
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/09/16
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]]> Watt 104613 256 Samuel Beckett 0714506109 Johnny 4 3.93 1953 Watt
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1953
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/09/16
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]]> Happy Days 104608 48 Samuel Beckett 0571066534 Johnny 4 3.90 1961 Happy Days
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1961
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/09/16
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]]> Endgame 12287 Endgame, originally written in French and translated into English by Beckett himself, is now considered by many critics to be his greatest single work. A pinnacle of Beckett's characteristic raw minimalism, it is a pure and devastating distillation of the human essence in the face of approaching death.]]> 60 Samuel Beckett 0571070671 Johnny 5 3.83 1957 Endgame
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1957
rating: 5
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date added: 2015/09/16
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]]> <![CDATA[Molloy / Malone Dies / The Unnamable]]> 12279 512 Samuel Beckett 0375400702 Johnny 5 4.29 1958 Molloy / Malone Dies / The Unnamable
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1958
rating: 5
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date added: 2015/09/16
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]]> Home 20875264
'A chilling depiction of evil made ordinary. 'Home' is a compelling vision of a world not too distant from our own. The novel's rich everyday detail and perfectly realised characters makes the nightmare it depicts even more disturbing'
Paul Blaney author of The Anchoress

'Exquisitely written, 'Home' is a compelling, gut-wrenching, raw novel. I loved this book and I can't stop thinking about the questions the novel asks of us all.'
Heidi James-Dunbar, author of Carbon

'Home is an unnerving novel that stays with you long after you have finished reading it... sometimes one requires something more substantial that the sweet lies of happy-ever-afters'
BookEmStevo

‘A chilling depiction of evil made ordinary. Home is a compelling vision of a world not too distant from our own. The novel’s rich everyday detail and perfectly realised characters makes the nightmare it depicts even more disturbing. I am reminded of Doris Lessing when I read Rebekah’s work� Paul Blaney, author of The Anchoress and Handover.

Steve’s wife, Fran, is dying. In her wisdom Fran suggests that Steve take a job as caretaker at the local care home, where he can forget his heartache in hard work. Alexa, the hard-edged manager, makes it clear that the caretaker must on no account enter the basement, and at first Steve keeps his head down and quietly goes about his duties. But as Fran’s condition worsens and his relationship with his only son becomes more distant, Steve begins to uncover dark secrets at his workplace. As Steve grows closer to Milos, the young male nurse, he makes a shocking discovery that he cannot put out of his mind. It inspires him to play detective � with disastrous consequences.

Home is a dark, suspenseful yet moving story that poses important questions about how we deal with the old and what it means to be forgotten.]]> Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone Johnny 0 to-read 3.88 2008 Home
author: Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2015/08/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> Satin Island 19186306 Remainder (the major feature-film adaption of which will be released in 2015) and C (short-listed for the Booker Prize), and winner of the Windham Campbell Prize, a novel that promises to give us the first and last word on the world--modern, postmodern, whatever world you think you are living in.

When we first meet U., our narrator, he is waiting out a delay in the Turin airport. Clicking through corridors of trivia on his laptop he stumbles on information about the Shroud of Turin--and is struck by the degree to which our access to the truth is always mediated by a set of veils or screens, with any world built on those truths inherently unstable. A "corporate ethnographer," U. is tasked with writing the "Great Report," an ell-encompassing document that would sum up our era. Yet at every turn, he feels himself overwhelmed by the ubiquity of data, lost in buffer zones, wandering through crowds of apparitions. Madison, the woman he is seeing, is increasingly elusive, much like the particulars in the case of the recent parachutist's death with which U. is obsessed. Add to that his longstanding obsession with South Pacific cargo cults and his developing, inexplicable interest in oil spills. As he begins to wonder if the Great Report might remain a shapeless, oozing plasma, his senses are startled awake by a dream of an apocalyptic cityscape. InSatin Island,Tom McCarthy captures--as only he can-- the way we experience our world, our efforts to find meaning (or just to stay awake) and discern the narratives we think of as our lives.]]> 173 Tom McCarthy 0224090194 Johnny 5 3.06 2015 Satin Island
author: Tom McCarthy
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.06
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/08/20
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]]> Satin Island 22543699 Remainder (the major feature-film adaption of which will be released in 2015) and C (short-listed for the Booker Prize), and winner of the Windham Campbell Prize, a novel that promises to give us the first and last word on the world--modern, postmodern, whatever world you think you are living in.

When we first meet U., our narrator, he is waiting out a delay in the Turin airport. Clicking through corridors of trivia on his laptop he stumbles on information about the Shroud of Turin--and is struck by the degree to which our access to the truth is always mediated by a set of veils or screens, with any world built on those truths inherently unstable. A "corporate ethnographer," U. is tasked with writing the "Great Report," an ell-encompassing document that would sum up our era. Yet at every turn, he feels himself overwhelmed by the ubiquity of data, lost in buffer zones, wandering through crowds of apparitions. Madison, the woman he is seeing, is increasingly elusive, much like the particulars in the case of the recent parachutist's death with which U. is obsessed. Add to that his longstanding obsession with South Pacific cargo cults and his developing, inexplicable interest in oil spills. As he begins to wonder if the Great Report might remain a shapeless, oozing plasma, his senses are startled awake by a dream of an apocalyptic cityscape. InSatin Island,Tom McCarthy captures--as only he can-- the way we experience our world, our efforts to find meaning (or just to stay awake) and discern the narratives we think of as our lives.]]> 192 Tom McCarthy 0307593959 Johnny 5 3.25 2015 Satin Island
author: Tom McCarthy
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2015/08/05
date added: 2015/08/05
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]]> Stoner 166997
John Williams’s luminous and deeply moving novel is a work of quiet perfection. William Stoner emerges from it not only as an archetypal American, but as an unlikely existential hero, standing, like a figure in a painting by Edward Hopper, in stark relief against an unforgiving world.]]> 292 John Williams 1590171993 Johnny 0 to-read 4.35 1965 Stoner
author: John Williams
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.35
book published: 1965
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2015/07/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> Romeo and Juliet 18135 Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a violent world, in which two young people fall in love. It is not simply that their families disapprove; the Montagues and the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud.

In this death-filled setting, the movement from love at first sight to the lovers� final union in death seems almost inevitable. And yet, this play set in an extraordinary world has become the quintessential story of young love. In part because of its exquisite language, it is easy to respond as if it were about all young lovers.]]> 281 William Shakespeare 0743477111 Johnny 5 3.74 1597 Romeo and Juliet
author: William Shakespeare
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1597
rating: 5
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date added: 2015/05/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Långstrump, #1)]]> 19302 160 Astrid Lindgren 0142402494 Johnny 4 4.15 1945 Pippi Longstocking (Pippi Långstrump, #1)
author: Astrid Lindgren
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1945
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2015/05/29
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]]> Caramelo 32957
Struggling to find a voice above the boom of her brothers and to understand her place on this side of the border and that, Lala is a shrewd observer of family life.But when she starts telling the Awful Grandmother's life story, seeking clues to how she got to be so awful, grandmother accuses Lala of exaggerating. Soon, a multigenerational family narrative turns into a whirlwind exploration of storytelling, lies, and life. Like the cherished rebozo, or shawl, that has been passed down through generations of Reyes women, Caramelo is alive with the vibrations of history, family, and love. From the winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.]]> 441 Sandra Cisneros 0679742581 Johnny 3 3.93 2002 Caramelo
author: Sandra Cisneros
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2002
rating: 3
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]]> John Donne's Poetry 134017
Criticism is divided into four sections and represents the best criticism and interpretation of Donne s writing: Donne and Metaphysical Poetry includes seven seventeenth-century views by contemporaries of Donne such as Ben Jonson, Thomas Carew, and John Dryden, among others; Satires, Elegies, and Verse Letters includes seven selections that offer social and literary context for and insights into Donne s frequently overlooked early poems; Songs and Sonnets features six analyses of Donne s love poetry; and Holy Sonnets/Divine Poems explores Donne s struggles as a Christian through four authoritative essays.

A Chronology of Donne s life and work, a Selected Bibliography, and an Index of Titles and First Lines are also included.]]> 456 John Donne 0393926486 Johnny 5 4.11 1631 John Donne's Poetry
author: John Donne
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1631
rating: 5
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]]> The Color Purple 11486
Then her husband's lover, a flamboyant blues singer, barreled into her world and gave Celie the courage to ask for more - to laugh, to play, and finally - to love.]]> 295 Alice Walker Johnny 4 4.22 1982 The Color Purple
author: Alice Walker
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1982
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/05/12
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]]> The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie 9353440 128 Muriel Spark Johnny 4 3.52 1961 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
author: Muriel Spark
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.52
book published: 1961
rating: 4
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date added: 2015/04/22
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]]> My Idea of Fun 119116 320 Will Self 0802142133 Johnny 2 3.58 1993 My Idea of Fun
author: Will Self
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.58
book published: 1993
rating: 2
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date added: 2015/03/19
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]]> <![CDATA[The Mind’s I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul]]> 2081 The Mind's I is a searching, probing cosmic journey of the mind that goes deeply into the problem of self and self-consciousness as anything written in our time. From verbalizing chimpanzees to scientific speculations involving machines with souls, from the mesmerizing, maze-like fiction of Borges to the tantalizing, dreamlike fiction of Lem and Princess Ineffable, her circuits glowing read and gold, The Mind's I opens the mind to the Black Box of fantasy, to the windfalls of reflection, to new dimensions of exciting possibilities.

"Ever since David Hume declared in the 18th century that the Self is only a heap of perceptions, the poor Ego has been in a shaky conditions indeed...Mind and consciousness becomes dispensable items in our accounts of reality, ghosts in the bodily machine...Yet there are indications here and there that the tide may be tuming...and the appearance of The Mind's I, edited by Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennett, seems a welcome sign of change." William Barrett, The New York Times Book Review]]> 512 Douglas R. Hofstadter 0553345842 Johnny 5 4.14 1981 The Mind’s I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul
author: Douglas R. Hofstadter
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1981
rating: 5
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date added: 2014/12/01
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]]> <![CDATA[Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern]]> 181239 852 Douglas R. Hofstadter 0465045669 Johnny 4 4.19 1985 Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern
author: Douglas R. Hofstadter
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1985
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/12/01
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]]> Anagrams 19635 228 Lorrie Moore 0446672726 Johnny 0 to-read 3.95 1986 Anagrams
author: Lorrie Moore
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/11/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> Self-Help 90872
In these tales of loss and pleasure, lovers and family, a woman learns to conduct an affair, a child of divorce dances with her mother, and a woman with a terminal illness contemplates her exit. Filled with the sharp humor, emotional acuity, and joyful language Moore has become famous for, these nine glittering tales marked the introduction of an extravagantly gifted writer.]]> 163 Lorrie Moore 0307277291 Johnny 3 4.13 1985 Self-Help
author: Lorrie Moore
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1985
rating: 3
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date added: 2014/11/14
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]]> Like Life 19632 Like Life's eight exquisite stories, Lorrie Moore's characters stumble through their daily existence. These men and women, unsettled and adrift and often frightened, can't quite understand how they arrived at their present situations. Harry has been reworking a play for years in his apartment near Times Square in New York. Jane is biding her time at a cheese shop in a Midwest mall. Dennis, unhappily divorced, buries himself in self-help books about healthful food and healthy relationships. One prefers to speak on the phone rather than face his friends, another lets the answering machine do all the talking. But whether rejected, afraid to commit, bored, disillusioned or just misunderstood, even the most hard-bitten are not without some abiding trust in love.]]> 192 Lorrie Moore 0375719164 Johnny 3 4.09 1990 Like Life
author: Lorrie Moore
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1990
rating: 3
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date added: 2014/11/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?]]> 19634 Birds of America we share a grown woman’s bittersweet nostalgia for the wildness of her youth.

The summer Berie was fifteen, she and her best friend Sils had jobs at Storyland in upstate New York where Berie sold tickets to see the beautiful Sils portray Cinderella in a strapless evening gown. They spent their breaks smoking, joking, and gossiping. After work they followed their own reckless rules, teasing the fun out of small town life, sleeping in the family station wagon, and drinking borrowed liquor from old mayonnaise jars. But no matter how wild, they always managed to escape any real danger—until the adoring Berie sees that Sils really does need her help—and then everything changes.]]> 147 Lorrie Moore 1400033829 Johnny 3 3.84 1994 Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?
author: Lorrie Moore
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1994
rating: 3
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date added: 2014/11/14
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]]> <![CDATA[His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3)]]> 18116
These thrilling adventures tell the story of Lyra and Will—two ordinary children on a perilous journey through shimmering haunted otherworlds. They will meet witches and armored bears, fallen angels and soul-eating specters. And in the end, the fate of both the living—and the dead—will rely on them.

Phillip Pullman’s spellbinding His Dark Materials trilogy has captivated readers for over twenty years and won acclaim at every turn. It will have you questioning everything you know about your world and wondering what really lies just out of reach.]]> 1088 Philip Pullman 0440238609 Johnny 4 4.26 2000 His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2000
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/11/10
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]]> <![CDATA[The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)]]> 119322
Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want--but what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.]]> 399 Philip Pullman 0679879242 Johnny 3 4.02 1995 The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1)
author: Philip Pullman
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1995
rating: 3
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date added: 2014/11/10
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]]> Green Eggs and Ham 23772
Originally created by Dr. Seuss, Beginner Books encourage children to read all by themselves, with simple words and illustrations that give clues to their meaning.]]> 64 Dr. Seuss 0394800168 Johnny 4 4.31 1960 Green Eggs and Ham
author: Dr. Seuss
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1960
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/09/12
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]]> The BFG 6319
When Sophie hears that they are flush-bunking off in England to swollomp a few nice little chiddlers, she decides she must stop them once and for all. And the BFG is going to help her!]]> 199 Roald Dahl 0141311371 Johnny 3 4.23 1982 The BFG
author: Roald Dahl
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1982
rating: 3
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date added: 2014/09/12
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]]> Night 1617 Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man. This new translation by his wife and most frequent translator, Marion Wiesel, corrects important details and presents the most accurate rendering in English of Elie Wiesel's testimony to what happened in the camps and of his unforgettable message that this horror must simply never be allowed to happen again.]]> 120 Elie Wiesel 0374500010 Johnny 4 4.38 1956 Night
author: Elie Wiesel
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1956
rating: 4
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date added: 2014/09/12
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]]> Pride and Prejudice 1885 Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780679783268]]> 279 Jane Austen 1441341706 Johnny 3 4.28 1813 Pride and Prejudice
author: Jane Austen
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1813
rating: 3
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]]> The Trial 17690 The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, The Trial has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers.]]> 255 Franz Kafka Johnny 5 4.00 1925 The Trial
author: Franz Kafka
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1925
rating: 5
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date added: 2014/07/28
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]]> The Anchoress 17837723
‘A moving and intriguing thought experiment about loneliness and human connections. Blaney has a real talent for capturing the texture of everyday life.� Justine Roberts, founder and CEO of Mumsnet

'Touching and believable... a beautiful little book'
Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone, author of Home

‘In the Middle Ages there were women who had themselves walled up � Anchoresses, they were called.�

Maggie has locked herself in her closet and she won’t come out. Lying in the cool, dark space by herself is surprisingly soothing. Visitors come and go � some more welcome than others. There’s Norman the nosy neighbour, who’s worried her strange behaviour may be lowering the tone of the area. A police officer drops by to offer advice on home security and issues a strange invitation. Then a reporter arrives, inviting Maggie to tell her story to the local paper. And there’s the charming pizza delivery man, who shoots the breeze with her before sliding a thin-crust with anchovies under the door. Maggie finds herself opening up to Pizza Guy about her past, and finally it becomes clear why she has taken refuge in her closet. What will it take for her to face the world again?

The Anchoress is a story about memory, childhood, grief and acceptance. It’s about what happens when you shut out the world and rediscover yourself.]]> 0 Paul Blaney 0957611617 Johnny 5
Beautifully written, Blaney picks a delicate line between narrative realism and thought experiment � it is a story that could only have been told as a short novel and, as such, the author successfully displays the weighty potential of the form.]]> 3.47 2013 The Anchoress
author: Paul Blaney
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.47
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at: 2014/07/08
date added: 2014/07/11
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What would happen if a woman one day decided to shut herself away from the world in a closet? From this simple idea, Paul Blaney's intriguing novella launches into an exploration of what that might be like, why she might do it � even when she doesn't know herself � and how the world around her might react. It leads to a revelation both for her and for the reader. She becomes a modern day Descartes or Montaigne, withdrawing from the wider world to explore herself and discover afresh what seemed familiar.

Beautifully written, Blaney picks a delicate line between narrative realism and thought experiment � it is a story that could only have been told as a short novel and, as such, the author successfully displays the weighty potential of the form.
]]> <![CDATA[Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close]]> 4588
The key belonged to his father, he's sure of that. But which of New York's 162 million locks does it open?

So begins a quest that takes Oskar - inventor, letter-writer and amateur detective - across New York's five boroughs and into the jumbled lives of friends, relatives, and complete strangers. He gets heavy boots, he gives himself little bruises and he inches ever nearer to the heart of a family mystery that stretches back fifty years. But will it take him any closer to, or further from, his lost father?]]> 326 Jonathan Safran Foer 0618711651 Johnny 0 to-read 3.98 2005 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
author: Jonathan Safran Foer
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/06/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[The Anthologist (The Paul Chowder Chronicles #1)]]> 6364068 The Anthologist is narrated by Paul Chowder -- a once-in-a-while-published kind of poet who is writing the introduction to a new anthology of poetry. He's having a hard time getting started because his career is floundering, his girlfriend Roz has recently left him, and he is thinking about the great poets throughout history who have suffered far worse and deserve to feel sorry for themselves. He has also promised to reveal many wonderful secrets and tips and tricks about poetry, and it looks like the introduction will be a little longer than he'd thought. What unfolds is a wholly entertaining and beguiling love story about poetry: from Tennyson, Swinburne, and Yeats to the moderns (Roethke, Bogan, Merwin) to the staff of The New Yorker, what Paul reveals is astonishing and makes one realize how incredibly important poetry is to our lives. At the same time, Paul barely manages to realize all of this himself, and the result is a tenderly romantic, hilarious, and inspired novel.]]> 245 Nicholson Baker 1416572449 Johnny 0 to-read 3.77 2009 The Anthologist (The Paul Chowder Chronicles #1)
author: Nicholson Baker
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/06/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> <![CDATA[Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays]]> 12113 Pirandello (1867-1936) is the founding architect of twentieth-century drama, brilliantly innovatory in his forms and themes, and in the combined energy, imagination and visual colours of his theatre.This volume of plays, translated from the Italian by Mark Musa, opens with Six Characters in Search of an Author, Pirandello's most popular and controversial work in which six characters invade the stage and demand to be included in the play. The tragedy Henry IV dramatizes the lucid madness of a man who may be King. In So It Is (If You Think So) the townspeople exercise a morbid curiosity attempting to discover 'the truth' about the Ponza family. Each of these plays can lay claim to being Pirandello's masterpiece, and in exploring the nature of human personality each one stretches the resources of drama to their limits.]]> 224 Luigi Pirandello 014018922X Johnny 5 3.93 1921 Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays
author: Luigi Pirandello
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1921
rating: 5
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date added: 2014/06/17
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]]> Infinite Jest 6759
Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction, Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are.

Equal parts philosophical quest and screwball comedy, Infinite Jest bends every rule of fiction without sacrificing for a moment its own entertainment value. It is an exuberant, uniquely American exploration of the passions that make us human—and one of those rare books that renew the idea of what a novel can do.]]> 1088 David Foster Wallace Johnny 0 to-read 4.27 1996 Infinite Jest
author: David Foster Wallace
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1996
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/05/30
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]]> How We Are Hungry 4955 "Another"

"What It Means When a Crowd in a Faraway Nation Takes a Soldier Representing Your Own Nation, Shoots Him, Drags Him from His Vehicle and Then Mutilates Him in the Dust"

"The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water"

"On Wanting to Have Three Walls Up Before She Gets Home"

"Climbing to the Window, Pretending to Dance"

"She Waits, Seething, Blooming"

"Quiet"

"Your Mother and I"

"Naveed"

"Notes for a Story of a Man Who Will Not Die Alone"

"About the Man Who Began Flying After Meeting Her"

"Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly"

"After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned"




From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 218 Dave Eggers 1400095565 Johnny 0 to-read 3.76 2004 How We Are Hungry
author: Dave Eggers
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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]]> Three Mothers 1196630
At twenty-five, Susie is all grown up, working a job that pays the bills and living with her long-term boyfriend in their own apartment-better yet, she's hours away from her childhood home. But her mother's sudden cancer diagnosis forces Susie to reconcile a daughter's memories of her mother with the reality of a woman approaching death. Determined to understand the unexplained silences between her mother and grandmother before it's too late, Susie confronts the secrets that have become embedded in her family's past. Between stories of betrayals and births emerges an engaging narrative that explores women's disparate roles of mother, lover, and independent spirit; and what happens to the generations of women who are all three.]]> 338 Sonia Lambert 0425219127 Johnny 0 to-read 3.42 2006 Three Mothers
author: Sonia Lambert
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.42
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/05/30
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]]> Happy Accidents 1220067 362 Tiffany Murray 0007183666 Johnny 0 to-read 3.73 2004 Happy Accidents
author: Tiffany Murray
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/05/30
shelves: to-read
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]]> Diamond Star Halo 7666931 304 Tiffany Murray 1846272076 Johnny 0 to-read 4.00 2010 Diamond Star Halo
author: Tiffany Murray
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2014/05/30
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]]> Sugar Hall 20660874 240 Tiffany Murray 1781721432 Johnny 0 to-read 3.65 2014 Sugar Hall
author: Tiffany Murray
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2014/05/30
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]]> The Periodic Table 427282 The Periodic Table by Primo Levi is an impassioned response to the Holocaust: Consisting of 21 short stories, each possessing the name of a chemical element, the collection tells of the author's experiences as a Jewish-Italian chemist before, during, and after Auschwitz in luminous, clear, and unfailingly beautiful prose. It has been named the best science book ever by the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and is considered to be Levi's crowning achievement.]]> 233 Primo Levi 0805210415 Johnny 4 4.17 1975 The Periodic Table
author: Primo Levi
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1975
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/03/20
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]]> Henry V 37526
The authoritative edition of Henry V from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes:

-Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play

-Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play

-Scene-by-scene plot summaries

-A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases

-An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language

-An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play

-Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books

-An annotated guide to further reading]]> 294 William Shakespeare 0743484878 Johnny 4 3.84 1599 Henry V
author: William Shakespeare
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1599
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Watership Down (Watership Down, #1)]]> 76620 Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN13 9780380395866 here.

Set in England's Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale of adventure, courage and survival follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and the certain destruction of their home. Led by a stouthearted pair of friends, they journey forth from their native Sandleford Warren through the harrowing trials posed by predators and adversaries, to a mysterious promised land and a more perfect society.]]> 478 Richard Adams 038039586X Johnny 4 4.08 1972 Watership Down (Watership Down, #1)
author: Richard Adams
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1972
rating: 4
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]]> In Search of Lost Time 18796
For this authoritative English-language edition, D. J. Enright has revised the late Terence Kilmartin’s acclaimed reworking of C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s translation to take into account the new definitive French editions of À la recherche du temps perdu (the final volume of these new editions was published by the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade in 1989).]]> 4211 Marcel Proust 0812969642 Johnny 3 4.34 1913 In Search of Lost Time
author: Marcel Proust
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1913
rating: 3
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]]> Much Ado About Nothing 716614
This edition of Much Ado About Nothing provides:
A clear and authoritative text
Detailed notes and commentary on the same page as the text
A full introduction discussing the critical and historical background to the play
Appendices presenting sources and relevant extracts

(back cover)]]> 252 William Shakespeare 0174434820 Johnny 5 4.18 1598 Much Ado About Nothing
author: William Shakespeare
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1598
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Winnie-the-Pooh (Winnie-the-Pooh, #1)]]> 99107 161 A.A. Milne 0525467564 Johnny 5 4.37 1926 Winnie-the-Pooh (Winnie-the-Pooh, #1)
author: A.A. Milne
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.37
book published: 1926
rating: 5
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]]> Cloud Atlas 49628
Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . .

Abruptly, the action jumps to Belgium in 1931, where Robert Frobisher, a disinherited bisexual composer, contrives his way into the household of an infirm maestro who has a beguiling wife and a nubile daughter. . . . From there we jump to the West Coast in the 1970s and a troubled reporter named Luisa Rey, who stumbles upon a web of corporate greed and murder that threatens to claim her life. . . . And onward, with dazzling virtuosity, to an inglorious present-day England; to a Korean superstate of the near future where neocapitalism has run amok; and, finally, to a postapocalyptic Iron Age Hawaii in the last days of history.

But the story doesn't end even there. The narrative then boomerangs back through centuries and space, returning by the same route, in reverse, to its starting point. Along the way, Mitchell reveals how his disparate characters connect, how their fates intertwine, and how their souls drift across time like clouds across the sky.

As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.]]> 509 David Mitchell 0375507256 Johnny 5 4.02 2004 Cloud Atlas
author: David Mitchell
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2004
rating: 5
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]]> The Arabian Nights 93101
The tales told by Shahrazad over a thousand and one nights to delay her execution by the vengeful King Shahriyar have become among the most popular in both Eastern and Western literature, as recounted by Sir Francis Burton. From the epic adventures of "Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp" to the farcical "Young Woman and her Five Lovers" and the social criticism of "The Tale of the Hunchback", the stories depict a fabulous world of all-powerful sorcerers, jinns imprisoned in bottles and enchanting princesses. But despite their imaginative extravagance, the Tales are anchored to everyday life by their realism, providing a full and intimate record of medieval Islam.']]> 1049 Anonymous 0812972147 Johnny 4 4.06 800 The Arabian Nights
author: Anonymous
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.06
book published: 800
rating: 4
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]]> Lost in the Funhouse 12885 205 John Barth 0385240872 Johnny 4 3.69 1968 Lost in the Funhouse
author: John Barth
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1968
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman]]> 76527
Laurence Sterne's great masterpiece of bawdy humour and rich satire defies any attempt to categorize it, with a rich metafictional narrative that might classify it as the first 'postmodern' novel. Part novel, part digression, its gloriously disordered narrative interweaves the birth and life of the unfortunate 'hero' Tristram Shandy, the eccentric philosophy of his father Walter, the amours and military obsessions of Uncle Toby, and a host of other characters, including Dr Slop, Corporal Trim and the parson Yorick. A joyful celebration of the endless possibilities of the art of fiction, Tristram Shandy is also a wry demonstration of its limitations. The text and notes of this volume are based on the acclaimed Florida Edition, with a critical introduction by Melvyn New and Christopher Ricks's introductory essay from the first Penguin Classics edition.]]> 735 Laurence Sterne 0141439777 Johnny 4 3.72 1767 The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
author: Laurence Sterne
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1767
rating: 4
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]]> A Midsummer Night's Dream 33155 320 William Shakespeare 1903436605 Johnny 5 4.00 1595 A Midsummer Night's Dream
author: William Shakespeare
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1595
rating: 5
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]]> The Canterbury Tales 49931 664 Geoffrey Chaucer 1857150740 Johnny 5 3.45 1400 The Canterbury Tales
author: Geoffrey Chaucer
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.45
book published: 1400
rating: 5
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]]> The Tempest 1096015 270 William Shakespeare 0415027047 Johnny 5 3.92 1611 The Tempest
author: William Shakespeare
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1611
rating: 5
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]]> Waiting for Godot 592951 87 Samuel Beckett 0571229115 Johnny 5 3.74 1952 Waiting for Godot
author: Samuel Beckett
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1952
rating: 5
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]]> Hamlet 7004 585 William Shakespeare Johnny 5 4.30 1601 Hamlet
author: William Shakespeare
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.30
book published: 1601
rating: 5
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]]> The Princess Bride 21787
As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad's recitation, and only the "good parts" reached his ears.

Now Goldman does Dad one better. He's reconstructed the "Good Parts Version" to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.

What's it about? Fencing. Fighting. True Love. Strong Hate. Harsh Revenge. A Few Giants. Lots of Bad Men. Lots of Good Men. Five or Six Beautiful Women. Beasties Monstrous and Gentle. Some Swell Escapes and Captures. Death, Lies, Truth, Miracles, and a Little Sex.

In short, it's about everything.]]> 429 William Goldman 0345418263 Johnny 4 4.27 1973 The Princess Bride
author: William Goldman
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1973
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead]]> 18545 126 Tom Stoppard 0802132758 Johnny 5 4.05 1967 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
author: Tom Stoppard
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1967
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler]]> 374233 If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a marvel of ingenuity, an experimental text that looks longingly back to the great age of narration�"when time no longer seemed stopped and did not yet seem to have exploded." Italo Calvino's novel is in one sense a comedy in which the two protagonists, the Reader and the Other Reader, ultimately end up married, having almost finished If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. In another, it is a tragedy, a reflection on the difficulties of writing and the solitary nature of reading. The Reader buys a fashionable new book, which opens with an exhortation: "Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade." Alas, after 30 or so pages, he discovers that his copy is corrupted, and consists of nothing but the first section, over and over. Returning to the bookshop, he discovers the volume, which he thought was by Calvino, is actually by the Polish writer Bazakbal. Given the choice between the two, he goes for the Pole, as does the Other Reader, Ludmilla. But this copy turns out to be by yet another writer, as does the next, and the next.

The real Calvino intersperses 10 different pastiches—stories of menace, spies, mystery, premonition—with explorations of how and why we choose to read, make meanings, and get our bearings or fail to. Meanwhile the Reader and Ludmilla try to reach, and read, each other. If on a Winter's Night is dazzling, vertiginous, and deeply romantic. "What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space."]]> 260 Italo Calvino Johnny 5 4.05 1979 If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler
author: Italo Calvino
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1979
rating: 5
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]]> You Shall Know Our Velocity! 4954 401 Dave Eggers 1400033543 Johnny 2 3.64 2002 You Shall Know Our Velocity!
author: Dave Eggers
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2002
rating: 2
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]]> <![CDATA[A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius]]> 4953 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. Here is an exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is an instant classic that will be read for decades to come.]]> 530 Dave Eggers 0375725784 Johnny 5 3.70 2000 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
author: Dave Eggers
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2000
rating: 5
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]]> Brideshead Revisited 30933 Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles comes finally to recognize only his spiritual and social distance from them.]]> 351 Evelyn Waugh 0316926345 Johnny 4 4.01 1945 Brideshead Revisited
author: Evelyn Waugh
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1945
rating: 4
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]]> The Swimming-Pool Library 30106 352 Alan Hollinghurst 0679722564 Johnny 4 3.77 1988 The Swimming-Pool Library
author: Alan Hollinghurst
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.77
book published: 1988
rating: 4
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]]> The Old Man and the Sea 2165 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

This short novel, already a modern classic, is the superbly told, tragic story of a Cuban fisherman in the Gulf Stream and the giant Marlin he kills and loses—specifically referred to in the citation accompanying the author's Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.]]> 96 Ernest Hemingway 0684830493 Johnny 3 3.81 1952 The Old Man and the Sea
author: Ernest Hemingway
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1952
rating: 3
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]]> <![CDATA[Songs of Innocence and of Experience]]> 171547 Songs of Innocence and of Experienceis an collection of poems byWilliam Blake.

Note: For a complete Table of Contents of the included poems, see the 'Questions' section below.

This book appeared in two phases. A few first copies were printed and illuminated by William Blake himself in 1789; five years later he bound these poems with a set of new poems in a volume titledSongs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.

The work compiles two contrasting but directly related books of poetry by William Blake. Songs of Innocence honors and praises the natural world, the natural innocence of children and their close relationship to God. Songs of Experience contains much darker, disillusioned poems, which deal with serious, often political themes. It is believed that the disastrous end to the French Revolution produced this disillusionment in Blake. He does, however, maintain that true innocence is achieved only through experience.]]> 56 William Blake 1420925806 Johnny 4 4.10 1794 Songs of Innocence and of Experience
author: William Blake
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1794
rating: 4
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]]> Poetics 13270 'What is poetry, how many kinds of it are there, and what are their specific effects?'

Aristotle's Poetics is the most influential book on poetry ever written. A founding text of European aesthetics and literary criticism, from it stems much of our modern understanding of the creation and impact of imaginative writing, including poetry, drama, and fiction. For Aristotle, the art of representation conveys universal truths which we can appreciate more easily than the lessons of history or philosophy. In his short treatise Aristotle discusses the origins of poetry and its early development, the nature of tragedy and plot, and offers practical advice to playwrights.]]> 144 Aristotle 0140446362 Johnny 4 3.84 -335 Poetics
author: Aristotle
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.84
book published: -335
rating: 4
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]]> The Complete Works 569564 Two Gentlemen of Verona
Merry Wives of Windsor
Measure for Measure
Comedy of Errors
Much Ado About Nothing
Love's Labour's Lost
Midsummer Night's Dream
Merchant of Venice
As You Like It
Taming of the Shrew
All's Well That Ends Well
Twelfth Night
Winter's Tale
King John
King Richard II
King Henry IV. Part 1
King Henry IV. Part 2
King Henry V
King Henry VI. Part 1
King Henry VI. Part 2
King Henry VI. Part 3
King Richard III
King Henry VIII
Troilus and Cressida
Coriolanus
Titus Andronicus
Romeo and Juliet
Timon of Athens
Julius Caesar
Macbeth
Hamlet
King Lear
Othello
Anthony and Cleopatra
Cymbeline
Pericles
Venus and Adonis
Rape of Lucrece
Sonnets
Lover's Complaint
Passionate Pilgrim
Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music
Phoenix and the Turtle]]> 1229 William Shakespeare 0517053616 Johnny 5 4.46 1623 The Complete Works
author: William Shakespeare
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.46
book published: 1623
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[A Room of One's Own & To The Lighthouse]]> 6891284 250 Virginia Woolf 1448673704 Johnny 4 4.25 A Room of One's Own & To The Lighthouse
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Johnny
average rating: 4.25
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rating: 4
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]]> To the Lighthouse 59716
As time winds its way through their lives, the Ramsays face, alone and simultaneously, the greatest of human challenges and its greatest triumph—the human capacity for change.]]> 209 Virginia Woolf Johnny 4 3.81 1927 To the Lighthouse
author: Virginia Woolf
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1927
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept]]> 48987 By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept is an enigmatic and nearly indescribable book, a small classic of poetic prose whose author has been compared with Anaïs Nin and Djuna Barnes. In lushly evocative language, Smart recounts her love affair with the poet George Barker with an operatic grandeur that takes in the tragedy of her passion; the suffering of Barker's wife; the children the lovers conceived. Accompanied in this edition by The Assumption of the Rogues and Rascals, a short novel that may be read as its sequel, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept has been hailed by critics worldwide as a work of sheer genius.]]> 240 Elizabeth Smart 0679738045 Johnny 4 3.54 1945 By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept
author: Elizabeth Smart
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.54
book published: 1945
rating: 4
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]]> Jealousy 101999 103 Alain Robbe-Grillet 0714503118 Johnny 5 3.68 1957 Jealousy
author: Alain Robbe-Grillet
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1957
rating: 5
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]]> C 7465814 Remainder, which Zadie Smith hailed as “one of the great English novels of the past ten years,”gives us his most spectacularly inventive novel yet.

Opening in England at the turn of the twentieth century, C is the story of a boy named Serge Carrefax, whose father spends his time experimenting with wireless communication while running a school for deaf children. Serge grows up amid the noise and silence with his brilliant but troubled older sister, Sophie: an intense sibling relationship that stays with him as he heads off into an equally troubled larger world.

After a fling with a nurse at a Bohemian spa, Serge serves in World War I as a radio operator for reconnaissance planes. When his plane is shot down, Serge is taken to a German prison camp, from which he escapes. Back in London, he’s recruited for a mission to Cairo on behalf of the shadowy Empire Wireless Chain. All of which eventually carries Serge to a fitful � and perhaps fateful � climax at the bottom of an Egyptian tomb ...

Only a writer like Tom McCarthy could pull off a story with this effortless historical breadth, psychological insight, and postmodern originality.]]> 310 Tom McCarthy 0307593339 Johnny 4 3.18 2010 C
author: Tom McCarthy
name: Johnny
average rating: 3.18
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2014/02/03
date added: 2014/02/03
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]]>