en-US Thu, 02 Jan 2025 07:35:36 -0800 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 180377480 New 9385285971 Indu 0 to-read 4.00
author: Translated by Nita Kumar Geetanjali Shree
name: Indu
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]]> 131048198
Smoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, a memoir and an excursion into history, both economic and cultural. Ghosh traces the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India and China, as well as on the world at large. Engineered by the British Empire, which exported opium from India to sell in China, the trade and its revenues were essential to the Empire's survival. Upon deeper exploration, Ghosh finds opium at the origins of some of the world's biggest corporations, several of America's most powerful families and institutions, and contemporary globalism itself. In India the long-term consequences were even more profound.

Moving deftly between horticultural histories, the mythologies of capitalism and the social and cultural repercussions of colonialism, Smoke and Ashes reveals the pivotal role one small plant has played in the making of the world as we know it - a world that is now teetering on the edge of catastrophe.

---

'In thinking about the opium poppy's role in history it is hard to ignore the feeling of an intelligence at work. The single most important indication of this is the poppy's ability to create cycles of repetition, which manifest themselves in similar phenomena over time. What the opium poppy does is clearly not random; it builds symmetries that rhyme with each other.

It is important to recognize that these cycles will go on repeating, because the opium poppy is not going away anytime soon. In Mexico, for instance, despite intensive eradication efforts the acreage under poppy cultivation has continued to increase. Indeed, there is more opium being produced in the world today than at any time in the past.

Only by recognizing the power and intelligence of the opium poppy can we even begin to make peace with it.']]> 417 Amitav Ghosh 9356992665 Indu 0 currently-reading 4.09 2024
author: Amitav Ghosh
name: Indu
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/03
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]]> 6452731
Affirmative action, same-sex marriage, physician-assisted suicide, abortion, national service, the moral limits of markets―Sandel relates the big questions of political philosophy to the most vexing issues of the day, and shows how a surer grasp of philosophy can help us make sense of politics, morality, and our own convictions as well.

Justice is lively, thought-provoking, and wise―an essential new addition to the small shelf of books that speak convincingly to the hard questions of our civic life.]]> 308 Michael J. Sandel 0374180652 Indu 5 4.30 2007
author: Michael J. Sandel
name: Indu
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2007
rating: 5
read at: 2019/08/31
date added: 2023/10/08
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]]> 11448281 320 Chan Koonchung 1409044114 Indu 4 3.37 2009
author: Chan Koonchung
name: Indu
average rating: 3.37
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2020/05/20
date added: 2023/07/27
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]]> 20626236 madhavi kutty Indu 0 3.83 1973
author: madhavi kutty
name: Indu
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1973
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/02/19
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]]> 14567708 608 Michael Darlow 1616085797 Indu 0 to-read 4.29 2010
author: Michael Darlow
name: Indu
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/10/13
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]]> 6484927
With Inside the Kingdom, journalist & bestselling author Robert Lacey has given us one of the most penetrating & insightful looks at Saudi Arabia ever produced. While living for years among the nation's princes & paupers, its clerics & progressives, Lacey endeavored to find out how the consequences of the 1970s oil boom produced a society at war with itself.

Filled with stories that trace a path thru the Persian Gulf War & the events of 9/11 to the oilmarket convulsions of today, Inside the Kingdom gives a modern history of the Saudis in their own words, revealing a people attempting to reconcile life under religious law with the demands of a rapidly changing world. Their struggle will have powerful reverberations around the globe. This rich work provides a penetrating look at a country no one can afford to ignore.]]> 432 Robert Lacey 0670021180 Indu 0 to-read 4.03 2009
author: Robert Lacey
name: Indu
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2009
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]]> 58079137 This true account of his trail blazing achievement charts the twists and turns of his achievement, which opened the route to others including Wilfred Thesiger, who made his desert crossing 15 years after Thomas.
Bertram Thomas spent his working life from 1916, to his death in 1950 in the Arab World. In this book he describes his crossing of the vast Rub Al Khali Sand Desert from Salalah, in Dhofar Oman , though the desert to Doha, Qatar . He planned this epic adventure while working as a government minister to the Sultan of Muscat and Oman, having worked for many years in Iraq and then Jordan. New to this edition are place-specific modern Colour photographs for context, in addition to scanned black & white images by Bertram Thomas. An introductory biography to Thomas gives background to his achievement. Full of unexpected events and fascinating insights into the Arabian culture , this is a must-read to understand parts of Arabia as they are today. This is a fascinating account of a groundbreaking expedition and ideal for anyone interested in Arabia and its people - order today before the price changes.]]> 322 Bertram Thomas 183807564X Indu 0 to-read 3.00
author: Bertram Thomas
name: Indu
average rating: 3.00
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]]> 12781
From the back cover.]]> 561 Salman Rushdie 0312270828 Indu 0 to-read 3.73 1988
author: Salman Rushdie
name: Indu
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/10/13
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]]> 2623267 164 O.V. Vijayan 8171301266 Indu 0 4.13 1969
author: O.V. Vijayan
name: Indu
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1969
rating: 0
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]]> 56924161 266 Kottarathil Sankunni 9385899724 Indu 0 4.00
author: Kottarathil Sankunni
name: Indu
average rating: 4.00
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]]> 10588971
It includes popular tales such as about the twelve children of Vararuchi and Parayi (a woman of Paraiyar caste), Kayamkulam Kochunni, Kadamattathu Kathanar among many others. The story of 12 children is popularly known as Parayi petta panthirukulam.]]> 900 Kottarathil Sankunni 8126422904 Indu 0 4.19 1909
author: Kottarathil Sankunni
name: Indu
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1909
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/10/13
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]]> 34723036 169 A. Sreedhara Menon Indu 0 3.92
author: A. Sreedhara Menon
name: Indu
average rating: 3.92
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]]> 12356356 245 A. Sreedhara Menon Indu 0 3.95 2011
author: A. Sreedhara Menon
name: Indu
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> 13838372 504 Mark Gardener 111816430X Indu 0 to-read 3.97 2012
author: Mark Gardener
name: Indu
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/10/13
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]]> 49090884
His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.�� Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.]]> 209 Agustina Bazterrica 1982150920 Indu 0 to-read 3.75 2017
author: Agustina Bazterrica
name: Indu
average rating: 3.75
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]]> 42815544
But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies' fabled "Smut Salon," and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door--ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies' sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus "Workshop" where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision.

The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.]]> 307 Mona Awad 0525559736 Indu 0 to-read 3.53 2019
author: Mona Awad
name: Indu
average rating: 3.53
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]]> 62943728 143 Mao Zedong Indu 0 to-read 3.67 1964
author: Mao Zedong
name: Indu
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1964
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]]> 53832792 'Tender, funny, sometimes heartbreaking snapshots of motherhood.' SHAPPI KHORSANDI
'Brilliant . . . Made me feel less alone.' JOSIE LONG
'A really special book.' EVIE WYLD

Fantastically funny, wise and charming motherhood sketches from award-winning illustrator Polly Dunbar.

'Go away, I'm busy writing about the beauty of motherhood.'

Polly Dunbar is an award-winning illustrator who usually draws for children rather than adults, but when she had her own sons, she started recording the beautiful and maddening moments of parenthood with a doodle.

Hello, Mum is her visual diary of the magical highs and absurd lows that many parents will recognise - from the shock and awe of the baby days to the delight (and terror) of the toddler years and the mayhem of sibling rivalry. Dunbar's fantastically funny, wise and enchanting drawings capture this precious and fleeting time with heart-touching perfection.]]> 284 Polly Dunbar 0571365108 Indu 0 4.40
author: Polly Dunbar
name: Indu
average rating: 4.40
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]]> 30358505 209 Viet Thanh Nguyen 0802126391 Indu 0 to-read 3.87 2017
author: Viet Thanh Nguyen
name: Indu
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/01/07
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]]> 147371 229 Janet Malcolm 0679751408 Indu 4 4.06 1993
author: Janet Malcolm
name: Indu
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1993
rating: 4
read at: 2022/01/07
date added: 2022/01/07
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]]> 6334 288 Kazuo Ishiguro 1400078776 Indu 0 to-read 3.85 2005
author: Kazuo Ishiguro
name: Indu
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/12/19
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]]> 58048595
Melissa Hogenboom examines how the suite of changes we experience during pregnancy and motherhood influence our sense of self, both physically and from the wider world. From the way our brain changes during pregnancy and the psychological impact of our changing body, to the true cost of the motherhood workplace penalty and the intrusion of technology on family life, Hogenboom reveals how external events and society at large shape the way we see ourselves and impacts upon the choices we make.

Interweaving her personal experience as a mother of two young children with the latest research, Hogenboom confronts the modern myth of maternal perfection and highlights the importance of understanding how and why we change for our physical and emotional health.]]> 320 Melissa Hogenboom 0349426589 Indu 0 to-read 3.90 2021
author: Melissa Hogenboom
name: Indu
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/11/07
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]]> 50202953
There is one other person in the house—a man called The Other, who visits Piranesi twice a week and asks for help with research into A Great and Secret Knowledge. But as Piranesi explores, evidence emerges of another person, and a terrible truth begins to unravel, revealing a world beyond the one Piranesi has always known.]]> 272 Susanna Clarke 163557563X Indu 0 to-read 4.22 2020
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Indu
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/10/26
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]]> 56913180

Cities can make us sick. They always have—diseases spread more easily when more people are close to one another. And disease is hardly the only ill that accompanies urban density. Cities have been demonized as breeding grounds for vice and crime from Sodom and Gomorrah on. But cities have flourished nonetheless because they are humanity’s greatest invention, indispensable engines for creativity, innovation, wealth, and connection, the loom on which the fabric of civilization is woven.

But cities now stand at a crossroads. During the global COVID crisis, cities grew silent as people worked from home—if they could work at all. The normal forms of socializing ground to a halt. How permanent are these changes? Advances in digital technology mean that many people can opt out of city life as never before. Will they? Are we on the brink of a post-urban world?

City life will survive but individual cities face terrible risks, argue Edward Glaeser and David Cutler, and a wave of urban failure would be absolutely disastrous. In terms of intimacy and inspiration, nothing can replace what cities offer. Great cities have always demanded great management, and our current crisis has exposed fearful gaps in our capacity for good governance. It is possible to drive a city into the ground, pandemic or not. Glaeser and Cutler examine the evolution that is already happening, and describe the possible futures that lie before What will distinguish the cities that will flourish from the ones that won’t? In America, they argue, deep inequities in health care and education are a particular blight on the future of our cities; solving them will be the difference between our collective good health and a downward spiral to a much darker place.]]> 480 Edward L. Glaeser 0593297687 Indu 0 to-read 3.28
author: Edward L. Glaeser
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]]> 33368645 136 Madhavikutty Indu 0 3.89 1994
author: Madhavikutty
name: Indu
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1994
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]]> 53056522 From the author of the New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race, a history of white male America and a scathing indictment of what it has cost us socially, economically, and politically

After the election of Donald Trump, and the escalation of white male rage and increased hostility toward immigrants that came with him, New York Times-bestselling author Ijeoma Oluo found herself in conversation with Americans around the country, pondering one central question: How did we get here?

In this ambitious survey of the last century of American history, Oluo answers that question by pinpointing white men's deliberate efforts to subvert women, people of color, and the disenfranchised. Through research, interviews, and the powerful, personal writing for which she is celebrated, Oluo investigates the backstory of America's growth, from immigrant migration to our national ethos around ingenuity, from the shaping of economic policy to the protection of sociopolitical movements that fortify male power. In the end, she shows how white men have long maintained a stranglehold on leadership and sorely undermined the pursuit of happiness for all.]]> 278 Ijeoma Oluo 1580059511 Indu 0 4.40 2020
author: Ijeoma Oluo
name: Indu
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2020
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]]> 49203398
Twenty-three of today's living literary legends, including Donna Tartt, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Andrew Sean Greer, Laila Lalami, and Michael Chabon, reveal the books that made them think, brought them joy, and changed their lives in this intimate, moving, and insightful collection that celebrates the power of literature and reading to connect us all.

Before Jennifer Egan, Louise Erdrich, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Jonathan Lethem became revered authors, they were readers. In this ebullient book, America’s favorite librarian Nancy Pearl and noted-playwright Jeff Schwager interview a diverse range of America's most notable and influential writers about the books that shaped them and inspired them to leave their own literary mark.

Illustrated with beautiful line drawings, The Writer’s Library is a revelatory exploration of the studies, libraries, and bookstores of today’s favorite authors—the creative artists whose imagination and sublime talent make America's literary scene the wonderful, dynamic world it is. A love letter to books and a celebration of wordsmiths, The Writer’s Library is a treasure for anyone who has been moved by the written word.

The authors in The Writer’s Library are:
Russell Banks
TC Boyle
Michael Chabon
Susan Choi
Jennifer Egan
Dave Eggers
Louise Erdrich
Richard Ford
Laurie Frankel
Andrew Sean Greer
Jane Hirshfield
Siri Hustvedt
Charles Johnson
Laila Lalami
Jonathan Lethem
Donna Tartt
Madeline Miller
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Luis Alberto Urrea
Vendela Vida
Ayelet Waldman
Maaza Mengiste
Amor Towles]]> 368 Nancy Pearl 0062968505 Indu 0 3.78 2020
author: Nancy Pearl
name: Indu
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2020
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]]> 45046690
In this wide-ranging and remarkable book, Deirdre Mask looks at the fate of streets named after Martin Luther King Jr., the wayfinding means of ancient Romans, and how Nazis haunt the streets of modern Germany. The flipside of having an address is not having one, and we also see what that means for millions of people today, including those who live in the slums of Kolkata and on the streets of London. Filled with fascinating people and histories, The Address Book illuminates the complex and sometimes hidden stories behind street names and their power to name, to hide, to decide who counts, who doesn’t―and why.]]> 336 Deirdre Mask 1250134765 Indu 0 4.07 2020
author: Deirdre Mask
name: Indu
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2020
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]]> 3872
A History of the World in 6 Glasses tells the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the 21st century through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. Beer was first made in the Fertile Crescent and by 3000 B.C.E. was so important to Mesopotamia and Egypt that it was used to pay wages. In ancient Greece wine became the main export of her vast seaborne trade, helping spread Greek culture abroad. Spirits such as brandy and rum fueled the Age of Exploration, fortifying seamen on long voyages and oiling the pernicious slave trade. Although coffee originated in the Arab world, it stoked revolutionary thought in Europe during the Age of Reason, when coffeehouses became centers of intellectual exchange. And hundreds of years after the Chinese began drinking tea, it became especially popular in Britain, with far-reaching effects on British foreign policy. Finally, though carbonated drinks were invented in 18th-century Europe they became a 20th-century phenomenon, and Coca-Cola in particular is the leading symbol of globalization.

For Tom Standage, each drink is a kind of technology, a catalyst for advancing culture by which he demonstrates the intricate interplay of different civilizations. You may never look at your favorite drink the same way again.
]]> 336 Tom Standage 0802715524 Indu 0 to-read 3.79 2005
author: Tom Standage
name: Indu
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2005
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]]> 679547 238 David O. Morgan 0631175636 Indu 0 to-read 3.71 1983
author: David O. Morgan
name: Indu
average rating: 3.71
book published: 1983
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]]> 178002
With the skill of a forensic scientist, Dr. Mallory traces the immediate origins of each of the Indo-European peoples of Europe and Asia. By comparing their languages he demonstrates their common cultural heritage, and through the technique of comparative mythology he examines their earliest beliefs. Then he puts the case for their most likely homeland and presents the archaeological and linguistic evidence for their expansion across Europe and Asia, a process that has in recent times carried Indo-European speakers to every corner of the world.

Accompanied by extensive quotations from translated texts and fully illustrated with maps, diagrams and photographs, In Search of the Indo-Europeans is recognized as the standard work in its field.]]> 290 J.P. Mallory 0500276161 Indu 0 to-read 4.10 1989
author: J.P. Mallory
name: Indu
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1989
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]]> 43726511 Ethiopia. 1935.

With the threat of Mussolini's army looming, recently orphaned Hirut struggles to adapt to her new life as a maid. Her new employer, Kidane, an officer in Emperor Haile Selassie's army, rushes to mobilize his strongest men before the Italians invade.

Hirut and the other women long to do more than care for the wounded and bury the dead. When Emperor Haile Selassie goes into exile and Ethiopia quickly loses hope, it is Hirut who offers a plan to maintain morale. She helps disguise a gentle peasant as the emperor and soon becomes his guard, inspiring other women to take up arms. But how could she have predicted her own personal war, still to come, as a prisoner of one of Italy's most vicious officers?

The Shadow King is a gorgeously crafted and unputdownable exploration of female power, and what it means to be a woman at war.]]> 448 Maaza Mengiste 039308356X Indu 4 3.63 2019
author: Maaza Mengiste
name: Indu
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2021/08/11
date added: 2021/08/11
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]]> 40727626
Free Food For Millionaires offers up a fresh exploration of the complex layers we inhabit both in society and within ourselves. Inspired by 19th century novels such as Vanity Fair and Middlemarch, Min Jin Lee examines maintaining one's identity within changing communities in what is her remarkably assured debut.]]> 577 Min Jin Lee Indu 0 to-read 3.91 2007
author: Min Jin Lee
name: Indu
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2007
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]]> 85301
In the stunning title story, Ruma, a young mother in a new city, is visited by her father, who carefully tends the earth of her garden, where he and his grandson form a special bond. But he’s harboring a secret from his daughter, a love affair he’s keeping all to himself. In “A Choice of Accommodations,�� a husband’s attempt to turn an old friend’s wedding into a romantic getaway weekend with his wife takes a dark, revealing turn as the party lasts deep into the night. In “Only Goodness,�� a sister eager to give her younger brother the perfect childhood she never had is overwhelmed by guilt, anguish, and anger when his alcoholism threatens her family. And in “Hema and Kaushik,�� a trio of linked stories—a luminous, intensely compelling elegy of life, death, love, and fate—we follow the lives of a girl and boy who, one winter, share a house in Massachusetts. They travel from innocence to experience on separate, sometimes painful paths, until destiny brings them together again years later in Rome.

Unaccustomed Earth is rich with Jhumpa Lahiri’s signature gifts: exquisite prose, emotional wisdom, and subtle renderings of the most intricate workings of the heart and mind. It is a masterful, dazzling work of a writer at the peak of her powers.]]> 352 Jhumpa Lahiri 0676979343 Indu 0 to-read 4.14 2008
author: Jhumpa Lahiri
name: Indu
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/08/02
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]]> 32075853 Together Tea and Calendar Girls.

Every woman has a secret life . . .

Nikki lives in cosmopolitan West London, where she tends bar at the local pub. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she’s spent most of her twenty-odd years distancing herself from the traditional Sikh community of her childhood, preferring a more independent (that is, Western) life. When her father’s death leaves the family financially strapped, Nikki, a law school dropout, impulsively takes a job teaching a "creative writing" course at the community center in the beating heart of London’s close-knit Punjabi community.

Because of a miscommunication, the proper Sikh widows who show up are expecting to learn basic English literacy, not the art of short-story writing. When one of the widows finds a book of sexy stories in English and shares it with the class, Nikki realizes that beneath their white dupattas, her students have a wealth of fantasies and memories. Eager to liberate these modest women, she teaches them how to express their untold stories, unleashing creativity of the most unexpected—and exciting—kind.

As more women are drawn to the class, Nikki warns her students to keep their work secret from the Brotherhood, a group of highly conservative young men who have appointed themselves the community’s "moral police." But when the widows�� gossip offers shocking insights into the death of a young wife—a modern woman like Nikki—and some of the class erotica is shared among friends, it sparks a scandal that threatens them all.]]> 304 Balli Kaur Jaswal 0062645129 Indu 0 3.92 2017
author: Balli Kaur Jaswal
name: Indu
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/07/23
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]]> 1848 9780743246989

The story of three generations in twentieth-century China that blends the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history—a bestselling classic in thirty languages with more than ten million copies sold around the world, now with a new introduction from the author.

An engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members: her grandmother, a warlord’s concubine; her mother’s struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents�� experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a “barefoot doctor,�� a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving—and ultimately uplifting—detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.]]> 562 Jung Chang Indu 0 4.28 1991
author: Jung Chang
name: Indu
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1991
rating: 0
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]]> 55994372
Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn't forever changed the course of their lives.

As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity. Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780593329825.]]> 400 Miranda Cowley Heller Indu 0 to-read 3.73 2021
author: Miranda Cowley Heller
name: Indu
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/07/23
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]]> 56136190 After divorce shatters her family, one woman's struggle to pick up the pieces finally leads to a new beginning--but is the past truly behind her? #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber explores the powerful intersections of love and family in this poignant novel.

It's been nearly six years since Julia Jones had her heart broken. After her husband became involved with another woman, she did everything she could to save their marriage, to no avail. Their two daughters continue to stand by Julia in the wake of their father's behavior--and they've had a tough time getting along with the other woman who became their stepmother. Distraught after selling the family home, Julia moved into a condominium complex that offers the warmth and charm of a fresh start. Now, having settled into her new community and sold her successful interior design business, she's embraced a fulfilling new life, one that doesn't seem to need a man in it. Her beloved father's trusty saying is ringing truer than ever: It's better this way.

But when Julia meets a handsome new resident in the building's exercise room, she can't help but be drawn to him. Heath Johnson is a welcome change from the men she's encountered on the occasional--mostly disastrous--dates her sister has eagerly planned for her over the years. As she and Heath, a divorcé himself, begin to grow close, their friendship blossoms into a love neither of them had expected. However, they soon realize that combining families, even with four adult children, presents inevitable challenges.

When a dramatic revelation threatens the happiness they've found, Julia and Heath must reconcile their love for their children with their love for each other. If they can't, their bright future together may be nothing but a dream.]]> 301 Debbie Macomber 1984818783 Indu 0 to-read 3.88 2021
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average rating: 3.88
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]]> 55404546 Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them... and what they will leave behind.]]> 369 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798657 Indu 0 to-read 4.02 2021
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name: Indu
average rating: 4.02
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]]> 54985743 Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.

Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.

Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.

Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.

Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?]]> 400 Emily Henry 1984806750 Indu 0 to-read 3.85 2021
author: Emily Henry
name: Indu
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2021
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]]> 27362503
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up �� she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating�� rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan �� her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.]]> 386 Colleen Hoover 1668021048 Indu 0 to-read 4.11 2016
author: Colleen Hoover
name: Indu
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2016
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]]> 35412372 Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side." Unsettling, heartwrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that illuminates how we all construct our identities.

Ada begins her life in the south of Nigeria as a troubled baby and a source of deep concern to her family. Her parents, Saul and Saachi, successfully prayed her into existence, but as she grows into a volatile and splintered child, it becomes clear that something went terribly awry. When Ada comes of age and moves to America for college, the group of selves within her grows in power and agency. A traumatic assault leads to a crystallization of her alternate selves: Asụghara and Saint Vincent. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these selves--now protective, now hedonistic--move into control, Ada's life spirals in a dark and dangerous direction.

Narrated by the various selves within Ada and based in the author's realities, Freshwater dazzles with ferocious energy and serpentine grace, heralding the arrival of a fierce new literary voice.]]> 229 Akwaeke Emezi 0802127355 Indu 0 to-read 4.03 2018
author: Akwaeke Emezi
name: Indu
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2018
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]]> 25918442 Shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize 2016 for English Fiction

A woman fleeing her previous existence meets a fellow Singaporean on an overnight train in Norway. A foreign worker is decapitated in an HDB building site accident. A Singaporean wife must negotiate Beijing as her British husband awaits a heart transplant. And in different corners of the world, Singaporeans and exiles mark National Day in their own ways.

Jeremy Tiang’s debut collection weaves together the lives of its characters across the world—from Switzerland, Norway, Germany, China, Canada, Thailand, New York City and back to Singapore. These wry, unsettling stories ask how we decide where we belong, and what happens to those who don’t.]]> 220 Jeremy Tiang 9814655643 Indu 3 3.58 2015
author: Jeremy Tiang
name: Indu
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2015
rating: 3
read at: 2021/07/23
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]]> 1052146
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]> 511 Anonymous 0140449450 Indu 3 3.81 2005
author: Anonymous
name: Indu
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2005
rating: 3
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]]> 31463 This is an alternate cover edition for ISBN 9780141439655

Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening the stability of the whole community. The first of his works set in the fictional county of Wessex, Hardy's novel of swift passion and slow courtship is imbued with his evocative descriptions of rural life and landscapes, and with unflinching honesty about sexual relationships.]]> 433 Thomas Hardy Indu 0 to-read 3.96 1874
author: Thomas Hardy
name: Indu
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1874
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]]> 36130507 Tyll, der neue Roman des Erfolgsautors Daniel Kehlmann �� er veröffentlichte u.a. Die Vermessung der Welt, Ruhm, F und Du hättest gehen sollen �� ist die Neuerfindung der mythischen Till-Eulenspiegel-Figur: ein großer Roman über eine aus den Fugen geratene Welt, über die Verwüstungen durch den Krieg und die Macht der Kunst. Ein Meisterwerk der Sprache, der Bilder und der Phantasie.

Tyll Ulenspiegel - Vagant und Schausteller, Entertainer und Provokateur - wird zu Beginn des 17. Jahrhunderts in einem Dorf geboren, in dem sein Vater, ein Müller, als Magier und Welterforscher schon bald mit der Kirche in Konflikt gerät. Tyll muss fliehen, die Bäckerstochter Nele begleitet ihn. Auf seinen Wegen durch das vom Dreißigjährigen Krieg verheerte Land begegnen sie vielen kleinen Leuten und einigen der sogenannten Großen: dem jungen Gelehrten und Schriftsteller Martin von Wolkenstein, der für sein Leben gern den Krieg kennenlernen möchte, dem melancholischen Henker Tilman und Pirmin, dem Jongleur, dem sprechenden Esel Origines, dem exilierten Königspaar Elizabeth und Friedrich von Böhmen, deren Ungeschick den Krieg einst ausgelöst hat, dem Arzt Paul Fleming, der den absonderlichen Plan verfolgt, Gedichte auf Deutsch zu schreiben, und nicht zuletzt dem fanatischen Jesuiten Tesimond und dem Weltweisen Athanasius Kircher, dessen größtes Geheimnis darin besteht, dass er seine aufsehenerregenden Versuchsergebnisse erschwindelt und erfunden hat. Ihre Schicksale verbinden sich zu einem Zeitgewebe, zum Epos vom Dreißigjährigen Krieg. Und um wen sollte es sich entfalten, wenn nicht um Tyll, jenen rätselhaften Gaukler, der eines Tages beschlossen hat, niemals zu sterben.]]> 474 Daniel Kehlmann 3498035673 Indu 0 to-read 3.99 2017
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name: Indu
average rating: 3.99
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]]> 22896424 1280 Nino Haratischwili 3627002083 Indu 0 to-read 4.58 2014
author: Nino Haratischwili
name: Indu
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2014
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]]> 37004370
When a young woman who is struggling to maintain her career as a novelist discovers that her editor is in danger from the Memory Police, she concocts a plan to hide him beneath her floorboards. As fear and loss close in around them, they cling to her writing as the last way of preserving the past.

A surreal, provocative fable about the power of memory and the trauma of loss, The Memory Police is a stunning new work from one of the most exciting contemporary authors writing in any language.]]> 274 Yōko Ogawa 1101870605 Indu 0 to-read 3.72 1994
author: Yōko Ogawa
name: Indu
average rating: 3.72
book published: 1994
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]]> 50999089





According to the 2010 US census, more than seventy percent of Black women in America are unmarried. Black Women, Black Love reveals how four centuries of laws, policies, and customs have created that crisis.






Dianne Stewart begins in the colonial era, when slave owners denied Blacks the right to marry, divided families, and, in many cases, raped enslaved women and girls. Later, during Reconstruction and the ensuing decades, violence split up couples again as millions embarked on the Great Migration north, where the welfare system mandated that women remain single in order to receive government support. And no institution has forbidden Black love as effectively as the prison-industrial complex, which removes Black men en masse from the pool of marriageable partners.






Prodigiously researched and deeply felt, Black Women, Black Love reveals how white supremacy has systematically broken the heart of Black America, and it proposes strategies for dismantling the structural forces that have plagued Black love and marriage for centuries.]]> 336 Dianne M. Stewart 1580058183 Indu 0 to-read 4.11 2020
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average rating: 4.11
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]]> 50403493 New Yorker music critic and author of the international bestseller and Pulitzer Prize finalist The Rest Is Noise, reveals how Richard Wagner became the proving ground for modern art and politics--an aesthetic war zone where the Western world wrestled with its capacity for beauty and violence.

For better or worse, Wagner is the most widely influential figure in the history of music. Around 1900, the phenomenon known as Wagnerism saturated European and American culture. Such colossal creations as The Ring of the Nibelung, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal were models of formal daring, mythmaking, erotic freedom, and mystical speculation. A mighty procession of artists, including Virginia Woolf, Thomas Mann, Paul Cézanne, Isadora Duncan, and Luis Buñuel, felt his impact. Anarchists, occultists, feminists, and gay-rights pioneers saw him as a kindred spirit. Then Adolf Hitler incorporated Wagner into the soundtrack of Nazi Germany, and the composer came to be defined by his ferocious antisemitism. For many, his name is now almost synonymous with artistic evil.

In Wagnerism, Alex Ross restores the magnificent confusion of what it means to be a Wagnerian. A pandemonium of geniuses, madmen, charlatans, and prophets do battle over Wagner's many-sided legacy. As readers of his brilliant articles for The New Yorker have come to expect, Ross ranges thrillingly across artistic disciplines, from the architecture of Louis Sullivan to the novels of Philip K. Dick, from the Zionist writings of Theodor Herzl to the civil-rights essays of WEB Du Bois, from O Pioneers! to Apocalypse Now.

In many ways, Wagnerism tells a tragic tale. An artist who might have rivaled Shakespeare in universal reach is undone by an ideology of hate. Still, his shadow lingers over twenty-first century culture, his mythic motifs coursing through superhero films and fantasy fiction. Neither apologia nor condemnation, Wagnerism is a work of passionate discovery, urging us toward a more honest idea of how art acts in the world.]]> 784 Alex Ross 0374285934 Indu 0 to-read 4.20 2020
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]]> 51541991 "Diarist, novelist, satirist, lyricist beyond peer."* In Niche: A Memoir in Pastiche, Nick Currie, a.k.a. Momus, presents the story of his life, career, and conquests on the margins of multiple music and art scenes.

Momus--named for the ancient Greek god of mockery, and described by The Guardian as "the David Bowie of the art-pop underground"--has recorded over thirty albums for labels like 4AD and Creation, published half a dozen works of speculative fiction, and written articles for The New York Times, Wired, ArtForum, Frieze, and The Wire. An unknown band called Pulp once asked him to produce their next album. (He said no.) An unknown band called Of Montreal once invited him to go on tour with them. (He said no.) He's collaborated with fans Vampire Weekend and with the Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merrit; Amanda Palmer covers him regularly in concert. He's had an impression of his penis preserved by the notorious Cynthia Plaster Caster. Maybe you've heard of him. Probably you haven't. This is his story. Or, rather, stories.

Rather than one avuncular tell-all relayed in his own voice, Momus has structured the narrative of his life as a typically atypical mockery of the rock-bio oral history. Instead of using living witnesses, Momus assumes the voices of 217 dead authors and artists and forces them to speak for and about him. From these dramatic monologues--sometimes unreliable, often comical--there gradually emerges a picture of one eccentric star's life across three continents and in his own, remarkable, niche.

"Herein is spun the tale of the immortally fabulous life and glittering times of our dodgy Anthropocene's greatest still-living songwriter, as related by a chorus of eerie, mocking, sometimes supportive, often judgmental post-mortem Raudive voices in a s�ance spanning centuries of ectoplasmic 'I told you so.' Here is why Momus may one day be canonized the first saint of a religion yet to be dreamed . . . Read, be enlightened, and pretend you always knew." *--Grant Morrison, comic book writer and superfan]]> 320 Momus 0374144087 Indu 0 to-read 4.28 2020
author: Momus
name: Indu
average rating: 4.28
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]]> 51542211
I saw my first Blakiston’s fish owl in the Russian province of Primorye, a coastal talon of land hooking south into the belly of Northeast Asia . . . No scientist had seen a Blakiston’s fish owl so far south in a hundred years . . .

When he was just a fledgling birdwatcher, Jonathan C. Slaght had a chance encounter with one of the most mysterious birds on Earth. Bigger than any owl he knew, it looked like a small bear with decorative feathers. He snapped a quick photo and shared it with experts. Soon he was on a five-year journey, searching for this enormous, enigmatic creature in the lush, remote forests of eastern Russia. That first sighting set his calling as a scientist.

Despite a wingspan of six feet and a height of over two feet, the Blakiston’s fish owl is highly elusive. They are easiest to find in winter, when their tracks mark the snowy banks of the rivers where they feed. They are also endangered. And so, as Slaght and his devoted team set out to locate the owls, they aim to craft a conservation plan that helps ensure the species�� survival. This quest sends them on all-night monitoring missions in freezing tents, mad dashes across thawing rivers, and free-climbs up rotting trees to check nests for precious eggs. They use cutting-edge tracking technology and improvise ingenious traps. And all along, they must keep watch against a run-in with a bear or an Amur tiger. At the heart of Slaght’s story are the fish owls themselves: cunning hunters, devoted parents, singers of eerie duets, and survivors in a harsh and shrinking habitat.

Through this rare glimpse into the everyday life of a field scientist and conservationist, Owls of the Eastern Ice testifies to the determination and creativity essential to scientific advancement and serves as a powerful reminder of the beauty, strength, and vulnerability of the natural world.]]> 368 Jonathan C. Slaght 0374228485 Indu 0 to-read 4.18 2020
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name: Indu
average rating: 4.18
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]]> 52974301 Minor Detail begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that the Palestinians mourn as the Nakba—the catastrophe that led to the displacement and exile of some 700,000 people—and the Israelis celebrate as the War of Independence. Israeli soldiers murder an encampment of Bedouin in the Negev desert, and among their victims they capture a Palestinian teenager and they rape her, kill her, and bury her in the sand.

Many years later, in the near-present day, a young woman in Ramallah tries to uncover some of the details surrounding this particular rape and murder, and becomes fascinated to the point of obsession, not only because of the nature of the crime, but because it was committed exactly twenty-five years to the day before she was born. Adania Shibli masterfully overlays these two translucent narratives of exactly the same length to evoke a present forever haunted by the past.]]> 105 Adania Shibli 0811229076 Indu 0 to-read 4.22 2017
author: Adania Shibli
name: Indu
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2017
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]]> 45894104 Combining trenchant philosophy with lyrical memoir, Afropessimism is an unparalleled account of Blackness.

Why does race seem to color almost every feature of our moral and political universe? Why does a perpetual cycle of slavery—in all its political, intellectual, and cultural forms—continue to define the Black experience? And why is anti-Black violence such a predominant feature not only in the United States but around the world? These are just some of the compelling questions that animate Afropessimism, Frank B. Wilderson III’s seminal work on the philosophy of Blackness.

Combining precise philosophy with a torrent of memories, Wilderson presents the tenets of an increasingly prominent intellectual movement that sees Blackness through the lens of perpetual slavery. Drawing on works of philosophy, literature, film, and critical theory, he shows that the social construct of slavery, as seen through pervasive anti-Black subjugation and violence, is hardly a relic of the past but the very engine that powers our civilization, and that without this master-slave dynamic, the calculus bolstering world civilization would collapse. Unlike any other disenfranchised group, Wilderson argues, Blacks alone will remain essentially slaves in the larger Human world, where they can never be truly regarded as Human beings, where, “at every scale of abstraction, violence saturates Black life.��

And while Afropessimism delivers a formidable philosophical account of being Black, it is also interwoven with dramatic set pieces, autobiographical stories that juxtapose Wilderson’s seemingly idyllic upbringing in mid-century Minneapolis with the abject racism he later encounters—whether in late 1960s Berkeley or in apartheid South Africa, where he joins forces with the African National Congress. Afropessimism provides no restorative solution to the hatred that abounds; rather, Wilderson believes that acknowledging these historical and social conditions will result in personal enlightenment about the reality of our inherently racialized existence.

Radical in conception, remarkably poignant, and with soaring flights of lyrical prose, Afropessimism reverberates with wisdom and painful clarity in the fractured world we inhabit. It positions Wilderson as a paradigmatic thinker and as a twenty-first-century inheritor of many of the African American literary traditions established in centuries past.]]> 368 Frank B. Wilderson III 163149614X Indu 0 to-read 4.26 2020
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name: Indu
average rating: 4.26
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]]> 44436221 A deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation, and escaping the roles we are forced to play.

Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy—the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it?

After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation, and immigration��Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring, and masterful novel yet.]]> 288 Charles Yu Indu 0 to-read 3.95 2020
author: Charles Yu
name: Indu
average rating: 3.95
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]]> 52698452 “I am Ana. I was the wife of Jesus.��

Raised in a wealthy family in Sepphoris with ties to the ruler of Galilee, Ana is rebellious and ambitious, a relentless seeker with a brilliant, curious mind and a daring spirit. She yearns for a pursuit worthy of her life, but finds no outlet for her considerable talents. Defying the expectations placed on women, she engages in furtive scholarly pursuits and writes secret narratives about neglected and silenced women. When she meets the eighteen-year-old Jesus, each is drawn to and enriched by the other’s spiritual and philosophical ideas. He becomes a floodgate for her intellect, but also the awakener of her heart.

Their marriage unfolds with love and conflict, humor and pathos in Nazareth, where Ana makes a home with Jesus, his brothers, James and Simon, and their mother, Mary. Here, Ana’s pent-up longings intensify amid the turbulent resistance to the Roman occupation of Israel, partially led by her charismatic adopted brother, Judas. She is sustained by her indomitable aunt Yaltha, who is searching for her long-lost daughter, as well as by other women, including her friend Tabitha, who is sold into slavery after she was raped, and Phasaelis, the shrewd wife of Herod Antipas. Ana’s impetuous streak occasionally invites danger. When one such foray forces her to flee Nazareth for her safety shortly before Jesus’s public ministry begins, she makes her way with Yaltha to Alexandria, where she eventually finds refuge and purpose in unexpected surroundings.

Grounded in meticulous historical research and written with a reverential approach to Jesus’s life that focuses on his humanity, The Book of Longings is an inspiring account of one woman’s bold struggle to realize the passion and potential inside her, while living in a time, place, and culture devised to silence her.]]> 416 Sue Monk Kidd 052542976X Indu 4 4.21 2020
author: Sue Monk Kidd
name: Indu
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 4
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]]> 53115185
At the centre is Tuli, the restaurant's charismatic proprietor and resident Robin Hood, who promises to help anyone in need. Welsh nineteen-year-old Nia, haunted by her troubled past, is running from her family. Shan, having fled the Sri Lankan civil war, is desperate to find his.

But when Tuli's guidance leads them all into dangerous territory, and the extent of his mysterious operation unravels, each is faced with an impossible moral choice.

In a world where the law is against you, how far would you be willing to lie for a chance to live?]]> 240 Nikita Lalwani 0241409535 Indu 0 to-read 3.53 2020
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name: Indu
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2020
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]]> 38357895
A brilliant depiction of an unusual psyche and a world hidden from view, Convenience Store Woman is an ironic and sharp-eyed look at contemporary work culture and the pressures to conform, as well as a charming and completely fresh portrait of an unforgettable heroine.]]> 163 Sayaka Murata Indu 0 to-read 3.70 2016
author: Sayaka Murata
name: Indu
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2016
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]]> 50269327
Now Natsuki is grown. She lives a quiet life with her asexual husband, surviving as best she can by pretending to be normal. But the demands of Natsuki's family are increasing, her friends wonder why she's still not pregnant, and dark shadows from Natsuki's childhood are pursuing her. Fleeing the suburbs for the mountains of her childhood, Natsuki prepares herself with a reunion with Yuu. Will he still remember their promise? And will he help her keep it?]]> 247 Sayaka Murata 1783785675 Indu 0 to-read 3.59 2018
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name: Indu
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2018
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]]> 79006 480 Jeffrey Archer 0312933533 Indu 0 3.87 1993
author: Jeffrey Archer
name: Indu
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1993
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]]> 5358 Adaptation for younger readers.

Mitch McDeere is a young, intelligent and ambitious lawyer. When he gets a job with a top tax law firm in Memphis, he is delighted. But he quickly becomes suspicious after mysterious deaths, obsessive office security, and the Chicago mob figure into its operations. The situation only escalates when Mitch discovers that the firm is listening in on his phone calls and that the FBI want to speak to him. Money and power has a price �� and it could be Mitch's life.

Adaptation Notes
This adaptation is a simplified text designed in association with world famous educational publishers, to provide a step-by-step approach to the joys of reading for pleasure. The series include original stories, contemporary titles based on today's best-selling media hits, and easily accessible versions of the literary classics from around the world. Each book has an introduction and extensive activity material. They are published at different levels for readers of all skill levels.

Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

Book Details:
- Difficulty: Level 5 - Upper Intermediate (2300 words)
- Category: Contemporary
- Dialect: British English]]> 76 Robin Waterfield 0582418275 Indu 0 4.06 1991
author: Robin Waterfield
name: Indu
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1991
rating: 0
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]]> 109510
His name is Quinn. He is the Negotiator. President Cormack is bent on a signing a sweeping U.S.-Soviet disarmament treaty, and the master conspirator is determined to stop him. The kidnapping of a young man on a country road in Oxfordshire is but the first  brutal step in the explosive plot engineer the president's destruction.

Enter Quinn. Quinn plays the  kidnappers like a master musician. . . until, in a shocking  tumabout, he discovers that ransom was not their objection after all—and that he has been lured  into a cunningly woven web. Now he must draw upon his deepest strengths—to save not only the victim  but the entire free  world.]]> 512 Frederick Forsyth 0553283936 Indu 0 4.00 1989
author: Frederick Forsyth
name: Indu
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/09
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]]> 1774836
Relevant to today’s war-torn world, The Palace of Illusions takes us back to a time that is half history, half myth, and wholly magical. Narrated by Panchaali, the wife of the legendary Pandavas brothers in the Mahabharat, the novel gives us a new interpretation of this ancient tale.

The Palace of Illusions traces the princess Panchaali's life, beginning with her birth in fire and following her spirited balancing act as a woman with five husbands who have been cheated out of their father’s kingdom. Panchaali is swept into their quest to reclaim their birthright, remaining at their side through years of exile and a terrible civil war involving all the important kings of India. Meanwhile, we never lose sight of her strategic duels with her mother-in-law, her complicated friendship with the enigmatic Krishna, or her secret attraction to the mysterious man who is her husbands' most dangerous enemy. Panchaali is a fiery female redefining for us a world of warriors, gods, and the ever-manipulating hands of fate.]]> 360 Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 0385515995 Indu 3 4.20 2008
author: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
name: Indu
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2021/02/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 40961230
An instant international bestseller and indie bestseller, The Travelling Cat Chronicles has charmed readers around the world. With simple yet descriptive prose, this novel gives voice to Nana the cat and his owner, Satoru, as they take to the road on a journey with no other purpose than to visit three of Satoru's longtime friends. Or so Nana is led to believe...

With his crooked tail—a sign of good fortune—and adventurous spirit, Nana is the perfect companion for the man who took him in as a stray. And as they travel in a silver van across Japan, with its ever-changing scenery and seasons, they will learn the true meaning of courage and gratitude, of loyalty and love.]]> 281 Hiro Arikawa 0735235244 Indu 0 to-read 4.35 2012
author: Hiro Arikawa
name: Indu
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> 51284188
The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us �� and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.

It is a novel both immediate and impactful, desperate and hopeful in equal measure, and it is one of the most powerful and original books on climate change ever written.]]> 480 Kim Stanley Robinson Indu 0 to-read 3.92 2020
author: Kim Stanley Robinson
name: Indu
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> 128822 576 Lisa Alther 1860497098 Indu 0 to-read 3.82 1975
author: Lisa Alther
name: Indu
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1975
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/02/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> 23286828
In 1750, Kintu Kidda unleashes a curse that will plague his family for generations. In this ambitious tale of a clan and of a nation, Makumbi weaves together the stories of Kintu’s descendants as they seek to break from the burden of their shared past and reconcile the inheritance of tradition and the modern world that is their future.]]> 442 Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi 9966159894 Indu 0 to-read 4.12 2014
author: Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
name: Indu
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/02/08
shelves: to-read
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]]> 895479
But Stella's knowledge of Edgar's crime is no hindrance to the volcanic attraction that ensues--a passion that will consume Stella's sanity and destroy her and the lives of those around her.]]> 254 Patrick McGrath 0679781382 Indu 0 to-read 3.68 1996
author: Patrick McGrath
name: Indu
average rating: 3.68
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> 433567 [sic �� ed.], a mathematician and resident of the two-dimensional Flatland, where women-thin, straight lines-are the lowliest of shapes, and where men may have any number of sides, depending on their social status.
Through strange occurrences that bring him into contact with a host of geometric forms, Square has adventures in Spaceland (three dimensions), Lineland (one dimension) and Pointland (no dimensions) and ultimately entertains thoughts of visiting a land of four dimensions—a revolutionary idea for which he is returned to his two-dimensional world. Charmingly illustrated by the author, Flatland is not only fascinating reading, it is still a first-rate fictional introduction to the concept of the multiple dimensions of space. "Instructive, entertaining, and stimulating to the imagination." �� Mathematics Teacher.]]> 96 Edwin A. Abbott 048627263X Indu 0 to-read 3.82 1884
author: Edwin A. Abbott
name: Indu
average rating: 3.82
book published: 1884
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/01/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> 27485
In her 20 years of clinical experience, Perel has treated hundreds of couples whose home lives are empty of passion. They describe relationships that are open and loving, yet sexually dull. What is going on?

In this explosively original book, Perel explains that our cultural penchant for equality, togetherness, and absolute candor is antithetical to erotic desire for both men and women. Sexual excitement doesn't always play by the rules of good citizenship. It is politically incorrect. It thrives on power plays, unfair advantages, and the space between self and other. More exciting, playful, even poetic sex is possible, but first we must kick egalitarian ideals and emotional housekeeping out of our bedrooms.

While Mating in Captivity shows why the domestic realm can feel like a cage, Perel's take on bedroom dynamics promises to liberate, enchant, and provoke. Flinging the doors open on erotic life and domesticity, she invites us to put the "X" back in sex.

©2006 Esther Perel (P)2006 HarperCollins Publishers]]> 272 Esther Perel 0060753633 Indu 0 to-read 4.17 2006
author: Esther Perel
name: Indu
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> 56317572 What does it mean to lose someone? To answer this timeless question, bestselling author Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi draws on a string of devastating personal losses  of his mother, of his father and of a beloved pet  to craft a moving memoir of death and grief. With surgical detachment and subtle feeling, Shanghvi charts the landscape of bereavement as he takes the reader down the dark, winding path to healing. Clear-eyed and intimate, Loss is the first Volume of non-fiction by one of  India's  most beloved writer of life experience.]]> 112 Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi 9353575982 Indu 0 to-read 4.31
author: Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi
name: Indu
average rating: 4.31
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/01/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> 53091994 9780358380887

For fans of Sorry to Bother You and The Wolf of Wall Street—a crackling, satirical debut novel about a young man given a shot at stardom as the lone Black salesman at a mysterious, cult-like, and wildly successful startup where nothing is as it seems.

There’s nothing like a Black salesman on a mission.

An unambitious twenty-two-year-old, Darren lives in a Bed-Stuy brownstone with his mother, who wants nothing more than to see him live up to his potential as the valedictorian of Bronx Science. But Darren is content working at Starbucks in the lobby of a Midtown office building, hanging out with his girlfriend, Soraya, and eating his mother’s home-cooked meals. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of Sumwun, NYC’s hottest tech startup, results in an exclusive invitation for Darren to join an elite sales team on the thirty-sixth floor.

After enduring a “hell week�� of training, Darren, the only Black person in the company, reimagines himself as “Buck,�� a ruthless salesman unrecognizable to his friends and family. But when things turn tragic at home and Buck feels he’s hit rock bottom, he begins to hatch a plan to help young people of color infiltrate America’s sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game.

Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of America’s workforce; it is a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream.]]> 388 Mateo Askaripour Indu 0 to-read 3.68 2021
author: Mateo Askaripour
name: Indu
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/01/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> 51001829 A brilliant and surprising account of the coming of the American Civil War, showing the crucial role of slaves who escaped to Mexico

The Underground Railroad to the North promised salvation to many American slaves before the Civil War. But thousands of people in the south-central United States escaped slavery not by heading north but by crossing the southern border into Mexico, where slavery was abolished in 1837.

In South to Freedom, historian Alice L. Baumgartner tells the story of why Mexico abolished slavery and how its increasingly radical antislavery policies fueled the sectional crisis in the United States. Southerners hoped that annexing Texas and invading Mexico in the 1840s would stop runaways and secure slavery's future. Instead, the seizure of Alta California and Nuevo México upset the delicate political balance between free and slave states. This is a revelatory and essential new perspective on antebellum America and the causes of the Civil War.]]> 368 Alice L. Baumgartner 1541617789 Indu 0 to-read 4.16 2020
author: Alice L. Baumgartner
name: Indu
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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]]> 50144 Kitchen, the dazzling English-language debut that is still her best-loved book, is an enchantingly original and deeply affecting book about mothers, love, tragedy, and the power of the kitchen and home in the lives of a pair of free-spirited young women in contemporary Japan. Mikage, the heroine of Kitchen, is an orphan raised by her grandmother, who has passed away. Grieving, she is taken in by her friend Yoichi and his mother (who was once his father), Eriko. As the three of them form an improvised family that soon weathers its own tragic losses, Yoshimoto spins a lovely, evocative tale that recalls early Marguerite Duras. Kitchen and its companion story, "Moonlight Shadow," are elegant tales whose seeming simplicity is the ruse of a writer whose voice echoes in the mind and the soul.]]> 160 Banana Yoshimoto 0802142443 Indu 0 3.91 1988
author: Banana Yoshimoto
name: Indu
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1988
rating: 0
read at: 2021/01/13
date added: 2021/01/13
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]]> 17238889 The Unbeatables.

Heartfelt and sexy, the stories of Amanda Lee Koe encompass a skewed world fraught with prestige anxiety, moral relativism, sexual frankness, and the improbable necessity of human connection. Told in strikingly original prose, these are fictions that plough, relentlessly, the possibilities of understanding Singapore and her denizens discursively, off-centre. Ministry of Moral Panic is an extraordinary debut collection and the introduction of a revelatory new voice.]]> 208 Amanda Lee Koe 9810757328 Indu 0 to-read 4.17 2013
author: Amanda Lee Koe
name: Indu
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2021/01/10
shelves: to-read
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]]> 18406548
This groundbreaking new book presents the most important examples of world-changing journalism, spanning one hundred years and every continent. Carefully curated by prominent international journalists working in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, Global Muckraking includes Ken Saro-Wiwa's defense of the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta; Horacio Verbitsky's uncovering of the gruesome disappearance of political detainees in Argentina; Gareth Jones's coverage of the Ukraine famine of 1932-33; missionary newspapers' coverage of Chinese foot binding in the nineteenth century; Dwarkanath Ganguli's exposé of the British "coolie" trade in nineteenth-century Assam, India; and many others.

Edited by the noted author and journalist Anya Schiffrin, Global Muckraking is a sweeping introduction to international journalism that has galvanized the world's attention. In an era when human rights are in the spotlight and the fate of newspapers hangs in the balance, here is both a riveting read and a sweeping argument for why the world needs long-form investigative reporting.]]> 256 Anya Schiffrin 1595589732 Indu 0 4.11 2014
author: Anya Schiffrin
name: Indu
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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date added: 2021/01/10
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]]> 51791252
Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.]]> 343 Brit Bennett 0525536299 Indu 5 4.11 2020
author: Brit Bennett
name: Indu
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2021/01/02
date added: 2021/01/02
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]]> 41556038 From the author of How Should a Person Be? (“one of the most talked-about books of the year”��Time Magazine) and the New York Times Bestseller Women in Clothes comes a daring novel about whether to have children.

In Motherhood, Sheila Heti asks what is gained and what is lost when a woman becomes a mother, treating the most consequential decision of early adulthood with the candor, originality, and humor that have won Heti international acclaim and made How Should A Person Be? required reading for a generation.

In her late thirties, when her friends are asking when they will become mothers, the narrator of Heti’s intimate and urgent novel considers whether she will do so at all. In a narrative spanning several years, casting among the influence of her peers, partner, and her duties to her forbearers, she struggles to make a wise and moral choice. After seeking guidance from philosophy, her body, mysticism, and chance, she discovers her answer much closer to home.

Motherhood is a courageous, keenly felt, and starkly original novel that will surely spark lively conversations about womanhood, parenthood, and about how—and for whom—to live.]]> 304 Sheila Heti 1250214785 Indu 0 to-read 3.83 2018
author: Sheila Heti
name: Indu
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> 2617192 432 John Parker 0755314158 Indu 0 to-read 3.59 1999
author: John Parker
name: Indu
average rating: 3.59
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/27
shelves: to-read
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]]> 14554 501 Sidney Sheldon 0006479677 Indu 0 4.07 1985
author: Sidney Sheldon
name: Indu
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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]]> 22628 offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see
what it looks like from the dance floor.

This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative new voice in contemporary fiction: The Perks of Being A WALLFLOWER

This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular and unique, hilarious and devastating. We may not know where he lives. We may not know to whom he is writing. All we know is the world he shares. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it puts him on a strange course through uncharted territory. The world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that the perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.

Through Charlie, Stephen Chbosky has created a deeply affecting coming-of-age story, a powerful novel that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller coaster days known as growing up.

(back cover)]]> 213 Stephen Chbosky Indu 0 4.24 1999
author: Stephen Chbosky
name: Indu
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/27
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]]> 50634450
Lydia lives in Acapulco. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while cracks are beginning to show in Acapulco because of the cartels, Lydia’s life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. But after her husband’s tell-all profile of the newest drug lord is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.

Forced to flee, Lydia and Luca find themselves joining the countless people trying to reach the United States. Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?]]> 380 Jeanine Cummins 1250209765 Indu 5 4.34 2020
author: Jeanine Cummins
name: Indu
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/27
date added: 2020/12/27
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]]> 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 Indu 0 3.87 1955
author: Vladimir Nabokov
name: Indu
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1955
rating: 0
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]]> 44803763 240 Mark Hayward 0773558780 Indu 5 5.00
author: Mark Hayward
name: Indu
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/27
date added: 2020/12/27
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]]> 2187 Middlesex tells the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides, and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family, who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City and the race riots of 1967 before moving out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.]]> 529 Jeffrey Eugenides 0312422156 Indu 0 to-read 4.03 2002
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Indu
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2002
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/26
shelves: to-read
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]]> 4030991
In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of startups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all startups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today.

But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path, to start his own business—a business that would be dynamic, different.

Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream—along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission, and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything.]]> 402 Phil Knight 1501135937 Indu 4 4.63 2016
author: Phil Knight
name: Indu
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/10
date added: 2020/12/16
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]]> 23128304
The story of a lonely boy, a mysterious girl, and a tormented sheep man plotting their escape from a nightmarish library, the book is like nothing else Murakami has written. Designed by Chip Kidd and fully illustrated in full color throughout, this small format, 96-page volume is a treat for book lovers of all ages.]]> 96 Haruki Murakami 0385354304 Indu 0 to-read 3.58 2005
author: Haruki Murakami
name: Indu
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/16
shelves: to-read
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]]> 45289222 Euphoria, Lily King returns with an unforgettable portrait of an artist as a young woman.

Blindsided by her mother's sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she's been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey's fight to fulfil her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink.

Writers & Lovers follows Casey--a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist--in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King's trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.]]> 320 Lily King Indu 0 to-read 3.98 2020
author: Lily King
name: Indu
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/16
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]]> 40308310 A house in Bangkok is the confluence of lives shaped by upheaval, memory, and the lure of home.

A missionary doctor pines for his native New England even as he succumbs to the vibrant chaos of nineteenth-century Siam. A post-WWII society woman marries, mothers, and holds court, little suspecting her solitary future. A jazz pianist in the age of rock, haunted by his own ghosts, is summoned to appease the resident spirits. A young woman tries to outpace the long shadow of her political past. And in New Krungthep, savvy teenagers row tourists past landmarks of the drowned old city they themselves do not remember. Time collapses as these stories collide and converge, linked by the forces voraciously making and remaking the amphibious, ever-morphing capital itself.]]> 368 Pitchaya Sudbanthad 0525534768 Indu 2 3.58 2019
author: Pitchaya Sudbanthad
name: Indu
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2019
rating: 2
read at: 2020/12/15
date added: 2020/12/15
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]]> 43923951 Such a Fun Age is a page-turning and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both.

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living, with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right.

But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix's desire to help. At twenty-five, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix's past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.

With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone family, and the complicated reality of being a grown up. It is a searing debut for our times.]]> 310 Kiley Reid 052554190X Indu 0 to-read 3.76 2019
author: Kiley Reid
name: Indu
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/09
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]]> 44890112 New York Times bestselling author Nathan W. Pyle comes an adorable and profound universe in pink, blue, green, and purple. Based on the phenomenally popular Instagram of the same name, Strange Planet covers a full life cycle of the planet’s inhabitants, including milestones such as:

The Emergence Day
Being Gains a Sibling
The Being Family Attains a Beast
The Formal Education of a Being
Celebration of Special Days
Being Begins a Vocation
The Beings at Home
Health Status of a Being
The Hobbies of a Being
The Extended Family of the Being
The Being Reflects on Life While Watching the Planet Rotate

With dozens of never-before-seen illustrations in addition to old favorites, this book offers a sweet and hilarious look at a distant world not so unlike our own.]]> 144 Nathan W. Pyle 0062970704 Indu 0 4.32 2019
author: Nathan W. Pyle
name: Indu
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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]]> 43557477 2020 ŷ������ Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction and for Debut Novel!

Just after the Second World War, in the small English village of Chawton, an unusual but like-minded group of people band together to attempt something remarkable.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Chawton was the final home of Jane Austen, one of England's finest novelists. Now it's home to a few distant relatives and their diminishing estate. With the last bit of Austen's legacy threatened, a group of disparate individuals come together to preserve both Jane Austen's home and her legacy. These people—a laborer, a young widow, the local doctor, and a movie star, among others—could not be more different and yet they are united in their love for the works and words of Austen. As each of them endures their own quiet struggle with loss and trauma, some from the recent war, others from more distant tragedies, they rally together to create the Jane Austen Society.]]> 304 Natalie Jenner 1250248736 Indu 0 to-read 3.70 2020
author: Natalie Jenner
name: Indu
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> 52762903 The Book of Lost Names.

The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II—an experience Eva remembers well—and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an eighteenth-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. Now housed in Berlin’s Zentral- und Landesbibliothek library, it appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from—or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer—but will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?

As a graduate student in 1942, Eva was forced to flee Paris after the arrest of her father, a Polish Jew. Finding refuge in a small mountain town in the Free Zone, she begins forging identity documents for Jewish children fleeing to neutral Switzerland. But erasing people comes with a price, and along with a mysterious, handsome forger named Rémy, Eva decides she must find a way to preserve the real names of the children who are too young to remember who they really are. The records they keep in The Book of Lost Names will become even more vital when the resistance cell they work for is betrayed and Rémy disappears.

An engaging and evocative novel reminiscent of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Alice Network, The Book of Lost Names is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil.]]> 388 Kristin Harmel 1982131896 Indu 0 to-read 4.41 2020
author: Kristin Harmel
name: Indu
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/09
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]]> 54911607 here.

It's the wedding of the year. But someone won't survive it.

On a remote island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate the wedding of Jules Keegan and Will Slater. Will is a rising television star, handsome and charming. Jules is a smart, ambitious magazine publisher. Though the sea is a little choppy and the cell service spotty, their wedding is everything you'd expect of a young power couple: designer dress, four-tiered cake, boutique whiskey, vintage champagne. Every detail has been curated to perfection. All that's left to orchestrate is the happiness.

But perfection is for plans, and people are all too human. It's not long after the cake is cut and the champagne popped that resentments and petty jealousies come out. Worse yet, the latest barometer reading shows the weather has shifted from FAIR to CHANGEABLE, and dark clouds are looming overhead.

Everyone on the island has a secret. Everyone has a motive. And someone won't leave this wedding alive...]]> 313 Lucy Foley 0062868934 Indu 0 to-read 3.77 2020
author: Lucy Foley
name: Indu
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/09
shelves: to-read
review:

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In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.

Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.

Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.

A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective—the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change,�� and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.

This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama’s conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.]]> 768 Barack Obama 1524763187 Indu 0 to-read 4.32 2020
author: Barack Obama
name: Indu
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2020/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 50607466 Vivid and compelling in its portrait of one woman’s struggle for fulfillment in a society pivoting between the traditional and the modern, The Henna Artist opens a door into a world that is at once lush and fascinating, stark and cruel.

Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950s pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist—and confidante—to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own��

Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a high-spirited young girl in tow—a sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened. Still she perseveres, applying her talents and lifting up those that surround her as she does.]]> 384 Alka Joshi 0778310205 Indu 0 to-read 4.14 2020
author: Alka Joshi
name: Indu
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2020
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> 43615778
In the wake of the police shooting of a black teenager, Los Angeles is as tense as it’s been since the unrest of the early 1990s. Protests and vigils are being staged all over the city. It’s in this dangerous tinderbox that two families must finally confront their pasts.

Grace Park lives a sheltered existence: living at home with her Korean-immigrant parents, working at the family pharmacy, and trying her best to understand why her sister Miriam hasn’t spoken to their mother in years. The chasm in her family is growing wider by the day and Grace is desperate for reconciliation, and frustrated by the feeling that her sister and parents are shielding her from the true cause of the falling out.

Shawn Matthews is dealing with a fractured family of his own. His sister, Ava, was murdered as a teenager back in 1991, and this new shooting is bringing up painful memories. Plus, his cousin Ray is just released from prison and needs to reconnect with their family after so many years away. While Shawn is trying his best to keep his demons at bay, he’s not sure Ray can do the same.

When another shocking crime hits LA, the Parks and the Matthewses collide in ways they never could have expected. After decades of loss, violence, and injustice, tensions come to a head and force a reckoning that could clear the air or lead to more violence.]]> 304 Steph Cha 0062868853 Indu 0 to-read 4.08 2019
author: Steph Cha
name: Indu
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

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Sightseeing is a masterful new work of fiction, a collection of stories set in contemporary Thailand and written with a grace and sophistication that belie the age of its young author. These are generous, tender tales of family bonds, youthful romance, generational conflicts, and cultural shiftings beneath the glossy surface of a warm, Edenic setting. Rattawut Lapcharoensap offers a diverse, humorous, and deeply affectionate view of life in a small Southeast Asian country that is inevitably absorbing the waves of encroaching Westernization.

In the prizewinning opening story, "Farangs," the young son of a modest beachside motel owner commits the cardinal sin of falling for a pretty tourist, and the confrontation that ensues between the native boy and the girl's pompous American boyfriend culminates wondrously amid flying mangoes and Clint Eastwood—a pet pig—swimming out to sea. In "Sightseeing," the much-anticipated holiday of a young man about to leave for college and his loving and fiercely independent mother becomes a different kind of pilgrimage altogether when they are forced to confront the mother's impending blindness. The concluding novella, "Cockfighter," is a triumph of storytelling in which a young girl witnesses her proud father's valiant but foolhardy and drawn-out battle against the local delinquent and violent hoodlum whose family's vicious stranglehold on the villagers has passed down unchecked through generations.

Through his vivid assemblage of parents and children, natives and transients, ardent lovers and sworn enemies, Lapcharoensap dares us to look with new eyes at the circumstances that shape our views and the prejudices that form our blind spots. Gorgeous and lush, painful and candid, Sightseeing is an extraordinary reading experience, one that powerfully reveals that when it comes to how we respond to pain, anger, hurt, and love, no place is too far from home.]]> 250 Rattawut Lapcharoensap 0802142346 Indu 0 to-read 3.94 2004
author: Rattawut Lapcharoensap
name: Indu
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

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Celebrated feminist advocate Caroline Criado Perez investigates the shocking root cause of gender inequality and research in Invisible Women��, diving into women’s lives at home, the workplace, the public square, the doctor’s office, and more. Built on hundreds of studies in the US, the UK, and around the world, and written with energy, wit, and sparkling intelligence, this is a groundbreaking, unforgettable exposé that will change the way you look at the world.]]> 448 Caroline Criado Pérez 1419729071 Indu 0 to-read 4.35 2019
author: Caroline Criado Pérez
name: Indu
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

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