Dan's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 08 May 2025 05:15:17 -0700 60 Dan's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1)]]> 2052
Librarian's note: this is an alternate cover edition.]]>
231 Raymond Chandler 0394758285 Dan 0 3.96 1939 The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1)
author: Raymond Chandler
name: Dan
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1939
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/05/08
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<![CDATA[The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4)]]> 6251566
However, the evening post brought Roger one last fatal scrap of information, but before he could finish reading the letter, he was stabbed to death. Luckily one of Roger’s friends and the newest resident to retire to this normally quiet village takes over—none other than Monsieur Hercule Poirot . . .]]>
214 Agatha Christie Dan 0 long-ago 4.28 1926 The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot, #4)
author: Agatha Christie
name: Dan
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1926
rating: 0
read at: 2025/05/05
date added: 2025/05/05
shelves: long-ago
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<![CDATA[All Quiet on the Western Front]]> 355697
In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the ‘glorious war�. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young ‘unknown soldier� experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.]]>
296 Erich Maria Remarque 0449213943 Dan 0 long-ago, historical-fiction 4.04 1928 All Quiet on the Western Front
author: Erich Maria Remarque
name: Dan
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1928
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: long-ago, historical-fiction
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<![CDATA[A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail]]> 9791 A Walk in the Woods will make you long for the great outdoors (or at least a comfortable chair to sit and read in).]]> 397 Bill Bryson 0307279464 Dan 0 4.07 1998 A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
author: Bill Bryson
name: Dan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/30
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Shōgun (Asian Saga, #1) 52382796
Powerful and engrossing, capturing both the rich pageantry and stark realities of life in feudal Japan, Shōgun is a critically acclaimed powerhouse of a book. Heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat action melds seamlessly with intricate historical detail and raw human emotion. Endlessly compelling, this sweeping saga captivated the world to become not only one of the best-selling novels of all time but also one of the highest-rated television miniseries, as well as inspiring a nationwide surge of interest in the culture of Japan. Shakespearean in both scope and depth, Shōgun is, as the New York Times put it, "...not only something you read--you live it." Provocative, absorbing, and endlessly fascinating, there is only one: Shōgun.]]>
1152 James Clavell 1982603844 Dan 0 historical-fiction, long-ago 4.42 1975 Shōgun (Asian Saga, #1)
author: James Clavell
name: Dan
average rating: 4.42
book published: 1975
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: historical-fiction, long-ago
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<![CDATA[Women of Holy Week: An Easter Journey in Nine Stories]]> 60136154 84 Paula Gooder 1781402892 Dan 0 4.43 2021 Women of Holy Week: An Easter Journey in Nine Stories
author: Paula Gooder
name: Dan
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2021
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/27
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<![CDATA[Victory of Eagles (Temeraire, #5)]]> 891593
It is a grim time for the dragon Temeraire. On the heels of his mission to Africa, seeking the cure for a deadly contagion, he has been removed from military service - and his captain, Will Laurence, has been condemned to death for treason. For Britain, conditions are grimmer still: Napoleon's resurgent forces
have breached the Channel and successfully invaded English soil. Napoleon's prime objective: the occupation of London.

Separated by their own government and threatened at every turn by Napoleon's forces, Laurence and Temeraire must struggle to find each other amid the turmoil of war and to aid the resistance against the invasion before Napoleon's foothold on England's shores can become a stranglehold.

If only they can be reunited, master and dragon might rally Britain's scattered forces and take the fight to the enemy as never before - for king and country, and for their own liberty. But can the French aggressors be well and truly routed, or will a treacherous alliance deliver Britain into the hands of her
would-be conquerors?]]>
352 Naomi Novik 0007256752 Dan 0 to-read 4.07 2008 Victory of Eagles (Temeraire, #5)
author: Naomi Novik
name: Dan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/04/16
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[Empire of Ivory (Temeraire, #4)]]> 129510 Bonaparte’s dragons are already harrowing Britain’s ships at sea. Only one recourse remains: Temeraire and his captain, Will Laurence, must take wing to Africa, whose shores may hold the cure to the mysterious and deadly contagion. On this mission there is no time to waste, and no telling what lies in store beyond the horizon or for those left behind to wait, hope, and hold the line.]]> 416 Naomi Novik 0345496876 Dan 4 3.98 2007 Empire of Ivory (Temeraire, #4)
author: Naomi Novik
name: Dan
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
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Orbital 123136728
A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction.

The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part - or protective - of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?]]>
207 Samantha Harvey 0802161545 Dan 0 3.55 2023 Orbital
author: Samantha Harvey
name: Dan
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/09
date added: 2025/04/09
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<![CDATA[Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory]]> 7632329
Filled with spies, double agents, rogues, heroes & a corpse, the story of Operation Mincemeat reads like an international thriller. Unveiling never-before-released material, Macintyre goes into the minds of intelligence officers, their moles & spies, & the German Abwehr agents who suffered the “twin frailties of wishfulness & yesmanship.� He weaves together the eccentric personalities of Cholmondeley & Montagu & their improbable feats into an adventure that saved thousands & paved the way for the conquest of Sicily.

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416 Ben Macintyre 0747598681 Dan 0 military, history 3.99 2010 Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
author: Ben Macintyre
name: Dan
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: military, history
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Floating Hotel 195177497 This cozy debut science fiction novel tells a story of misfits, rebels, found family—and a mystery that spans the stars.

Welcome to the Grand Abeona Hotel: home of the finest food, the sweetest service, and the very best views the galaxy has to offer. All year round it moves from planet to planet, system to system, pampering guests across the furthest reaches of the milky way. The last word in sub-orbital luxury—and an absolute magnet for intrigue. Intrigues such as: Why are there love poems in the lobby inbox? How many Imperial spies are currently on board? What is the true purpose of the Problem Solver's conference? And perhaps most pertinently�who is driving the ship?

Each guest has a secret, every member of staff a universe unto themselves. At the center of these interweaving lives and interlocking mysteries stands Carl, one time stowaway, longtime manager, devoted caretaker to the hotel. It's the love of his life and the only place he's ever called home. But as forces beyond Carl's comprehension converge on the Abeona, he has to face one final question: when is it time to let go?]]>
324 Grace Curtis 075641931X Dan 3 3.65 2024 Floating Hotel
author: Grace Curtis
name: Dan
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2024
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
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Idolfire 214540663 An epic sapphic fantasy roadtrip inspired by the fall of Rome, from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Frontier and Floating Hotel

On one side of the world, Aleya Ana-Ulai is desperate for a chance. Her family have written her off as a mistake, but she's determined to prove every last one of them wrong.

On the other, Kirby of Wall's End is searching for redemption. An ancient curse tore her life apart, but to fix it, she'll have to leave everything behind.

Fate sets them both on the path to Nivela, a city once poised to conquer the world with the power of a thousand stolen gods. Now the gates are closed and the old magic slumbers. Dead � or waiting for a spark to light it anew�

A character-driven science-fantasy road trip book with sword fights and a slowburn romance, Idolfire delves into the vastness of history and the terrifying power of organized faith.]]>
480 Grace Curtis 0756419808 Dan 0 to-read 3.86 2025 Idolfire
author: Grace Curtis
name: Dan
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/09
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<![CDATA[The Tao of Work Fu: Principles, Practices and Possibilities to Accelerate Your Effectiveness at Work for the Rest of Your Career]]> 28474068 222 Steve Chad 1909623997 Dan 0 to-read 5.00 The Tao of Work Fu: Principles, Practices and Possibilities to Accelerate Your Effectiveness at Work for the Rest of Your Career
author: Steve Chad
name: Dan
average rating: 5.00
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rating: 0
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date added: 2025/03/08
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<![CDATA[Mavericks: Life stories and lessons of history's most extraordinary misfits]]> 213245177
Witty and engaging TikTok historian J.D. Draper digs out unusual stories of individuals that have shaped the world, and discovers the lessons their unique experiences can teach us.

Breaking away from history as told through the lens of kings, queens and nobles, this book instead lifts the lid on 24 fascinating stories of little-known underdogs, mavericks, trailblazers and oddballs. Through these stories you will meet characters such

The Chevalier d'Eon–a fencing master, spy and diplomat who came out as a woman in 18th-century London

Ellen and William Craft–a married couple who made a daring escape from slavery in the American south

Peter the Wild Boy–a child found living in the woods in Germany who was taken to the royal court in England

Caroline Herschel–the first British woman to be paid for scientific work, and a discoverer of comets

William Buckland–the man who wrote the first account of a dinosaur–yet who also ate the heart of a French king

Eleanor Rykener–a gender-bending sex worker from medieval England who spilled juicy gossip about her clients in the clergy

Juliana Popjoy–a society beauty who lived in a tree for years

Paul Robeson–athlete, singer, actor, polyglot, activist... and handsome to boot

The Rebecca Rioters–a roving crowd of Welshmen who destroyed tollbooths dressed in skirts and bonnets.

These poignant and often hilarious true stories show us that the world as we know it was built by a wider array of historical figures than we experienced in our schoolbooks.]]>
224 Jenny Draper 1786788985 Dan 5 history 4.13 2025 Mavericks: Life stories and lessons of history's most extraordinary misfits
author: Jenny Draper
name: Dan
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2025
rating: 5
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date added: 2025/03/01
shelves: history
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Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3) 209439446
Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything. They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth. But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath.]]>
527 Rebecca Yarros 1649374186 Dan 0 4.17 2025 Onyx Storm (The Empyrean, #3)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Dan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at: 2025/02/26
date added: 2025/03/01
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I, Claudius/Claudius the God 18769 Clau-Clau-Claudius the stammerer was known as a buffoon and a pitiful fool.

He made it his business to watch from the sidelines and record the antics, funny, violent and lustful, of the imperial household as its members vied with each other for power. Then he found himself Emperor.

From the great days of Augustus and the cruelties of Tiberius to the deified insanity of Caligula, he records a story breathtaking in its murderousness, greed and folly. Throughout the swings of fortune, his own disastrous love affair with the depraved Messalina and surprisingly successful reign, his voice sometimes puzzled, sometimes rueful, always sane, speaks to us across the centuries in two great, classic historical novels.]]>
839 Robert Graves 0140093141 Dan 0 4.45 1934 I, Claudius/Claudius the God
author: Robert Graves
name: Dan
average rating: 4.45
book published: 1934
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/09
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<![CDATA[Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)]]> 61219635 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781250886088.

A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes.

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.

The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success—not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.]]>
304 Travis Baldree Dan 0 to-read 4.17 2022 Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)
author: Travis Baldree
name: Dan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/02/06
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<![CDATA[The Inimitable Jeeves (Jeeves, #2)]]> 9515964 225 P.G. Wodehouse 0393339807 Dan 0 4.18 1923 The Inimitable Jeeves (Jeeves, #2)
author: P.G. Wodehouse
name: Dan
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1923
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/02/01
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<![CDATA[Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the War for Crown and Empire]]> 10767816
The story of Alexander's conquest of the Persian empire is known to many readers, but the dramatic and consequential saga of the empire's collapse remains virtually untold. It is a tale of loss that begins with the greatest loss of all, the death of the Macedonian king who had held the empire together.

With his demise, it was as if the sun had disappeared from the solar system, as if planets and moons began to spin crazily in new directions, crashing into one another with unimaginable force.

Alexander bequeathed his power, legend has it, 'to the strongest,' leaving behind a mentally damaged half brother and a posthumously born son as his only heirs. In a strange compromise, both figures, Philip III and Alexander IV, were elevated to the kingship, quickly becoming prizes, pawns, fought over by a half-dozen Macedonian generals. Each successor could confer legitimacy on whichever general controlled him.

At the book's center is the monarch's most vigorous defender; Alexander's former Greek secretary, now transformed into a general himself. He was a man both fascinating and entertaining, a man full of tricks and connivances, like the enthroned ghost of Alexander that gives the book its title, and becomes the determining factor in the precarious fortunes of the royal family.

James Romm, brilliant classicist and storyteller, tells the galvanizing saga of the men who followed Alexander and found themselves incapable of preserving his empire. The result was the undoing of a world, formerly united in a single empire, now ripped apart into a nightmare of warring nation-states struggling for domination, the template of our own times.]]>
341 James Romm 0307271641 Dan 0 to-read 4.28 2011 Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the War for Crown and Empire
author: James Romm
name: Dan
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/25
shelves: to-read
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Babel 57945316 From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire's quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?]]>
544 R.F. Kuang 0063021420 Dan 0 currently-reading 4.17 2022 Babel
author: R.F. Kuang
name: Dan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/22
shelves: currently-reading
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<![CDATA[The Olympian Affair (The Cinder Spires, #2)]]> 26860699
For centuries the Cinder Spires have safeguarded humanity, rising far above the deadly surface world. Within their halls, aristocratic houses rule, developing scientific marvels and building fleets of airships for defence and trade.
Now, the Spires hover on the brink of open war.

Everyone knows it's coming. The guns of the great airship fleets that control the skies between the last bastions of humanity will soon speak in anger, and Spire Albion stands alone against the overwhelming might of Spire Aurora's Armada and its new secret weapon--one capable of destroying the populations of entire Spires.

A trading summit at Spire Olympia provides an opportunity for the Spirearch, Lord Albion, to secure alliances that will shape the outcomes of the war, and to that end he dispatches privateer Captain Francis Madison Grimm and the crew of the AMS Predator to bolster the Spirearch's diplomatic agents.

It will take daring, skill, and no small amount of showmanship to convince the world to stand with Spire Albion--assuming that it is not already too late.]]>
610 Jim Butcher 0451466829 Dan 0 4.24 2023 The Olympian Affair (The Cinder Spires, #2)
author: Jim Butcher
name: Dan
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
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<![CDATA[House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City, #3)]]> 52857700
Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she's going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that's no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust.

Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he's in the Asteri's dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce's fate. He's desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri's leash, his hands are quite literally tied.

In this sexy, breathtaking sequel to the #1 bestsellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath, Sarah J. Maas's Crescent City series reaches new heights as Bryce and Hunt's world is brought to the brink of collapse-with its future resting on their shoulders.]]>
835 Sarah J. Maas 1681193094 Dan 0 to-read 4.16 2024 House of Flame and Shadow (Crescent City, #3)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: Dan
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 0
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date added: 2025/01/01
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<![CDATA[Accomplice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #3)]]> 188563996
Once Upon a Time meets The Office in Hannah Nicole Maehrer’s laugh-out-loud viral TikTok series turned novel, about the sunshine assistant to an Evil Villain…and their unexpected romance.

REWARD OFFERED: Apprentice to The Villain wanted for treason (light), magical property damage (alleged), and one incident involving a weaponized scone (accurate). Frequently seen with a grumpy frog (crowned, judgmental). Answers to “Evie� or “Stop that.�

Evie Sage didn’t mean to become the right-hand woman to the kingdom’s most terrifying villain. One minute, she was applying for an entry-level position that promised “light paperwork and occasional beheadings,� and the next, she was knee-deep in magical mayhem, murder plots, and an entirely inappropriate crush on her brooding, sharp-jawed, walking disaster of a boss.

Now, with a magical prophecy unraveling, assassins showing up in the break room, and a suspicious amount of frogs wearing crowns, Evie has to figure out how to survive her job without setting the kingdom on fire—or her dignity, which is hanging by a very sarcastic thread.

Being evil-adjacent was never part of the five-year plan. But then again…neither was falling for The Villain.

A magical office comedy with grumpy bosses, snarky frogs, and definitely-not-feelings.]]>
336 Hannah Nicole Maehrer 1529917778 Dan 0 to-read 4.48 2025 Accomplice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #3)
author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
name: Dan
average rating: 4.48
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/31
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<![CDATA[Apprentice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #2)]]> 203147386
Evie Sage has never been happier to be the assistant to The Villain. Who would have thought that working for an outrageously handsome (shhh, bad for his brand) evil overlord would be so rewarding? Still, the business of being bad is demanding, the forces of good are annoyingly persistent, and said forbidding boss is somewhat…er, out-of-evil-office.

But Rennedawn is in grave trouble, and all signs―Kingsley’s included―point to catastrophe. Something peculiar is happening with the kingdom’s magic, and it’s made The Villain’s manor vulnerable to their enemies...including their nemesis, the king.

Now it’s time for Evie to face her greatest challenge: protecting The Villain’s lair, all of his nefarious works, and maybe (provided no one finds out) the entire kingdom. No pressure, Evie.

It’s time to step out of her comfort zone and learn new skills. Like treason. Dagger work. Conspiring with the enemy. It’s all so…so…delightfully fun.

But what happens when the assistant to The Villain is ready to become his apprentice?]]>
368 Hannah Nicole Maehrer 1649377177 Dan 0 4.07 2024 Apprentice to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #2)
author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
name: Dan
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/31
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<![CDATA[A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)]]> 213618143 The brilliant detective Ana Dolabra may have finally met her match in the gripping sequel to The Tainted Cup—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.

In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard.

To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.

Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can see the future.

Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire's greatest minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible indeed—and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.

Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.]]>
465 Robert Jackson Bennett 0593723821 Dan 0 to-read 4.54 2025 A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)
author: Robert Jackson Bennett
name: Dan
average rating: 4.54
book published: 2025
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/12/21
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Future of Geography: How Power and Politics in Space Will Change Our World]]> 62675564 This isn’t science fiction. It’s astropolitics.
Humans are heading up and out, and we’re taking our power struggles with us. Soon, what happens in space will shape human history as much the mountains, rivers and seas have on Earth. It’s no coincidence that Russia, China and the USA are leading the way. The next fifty years will change the face of global politics.
In this gripping book, bestselling author Tim Marshall lays bare the new geopolitical realities to show how we got here and where we’re going, covering the new space race; great-power rivalry; technology; economics; war; and what it means for all of us down here on Earth. Written with all the insight and wit that have made Marshall the UK’s most popular writer on geopolitics, this is the essential read on power, politics and the future of humanity.]]>
256 Tim Marshall 1783966874 Dan 0 pop-science 3.87 2023 The Future of Geography: How Power and Politics in Space Will Change Our World
author: Tim Marshall
name: Dan
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: pop-science
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<![CDATA[The Importance of Being Interested: Adventures in Scientific Curiosity]]> 57717951
In this erudite and witty book, Robin reveals why scientific wonder isn't just for the professionals. Filled with interviews featuring astronauts, comedians, teachers, quantum physicists, neuroscientists and more - as well as charting Robin's own journey with science - The Importance of Being Interested explores why many wrongly think of the discipline as distant and difficult. From the glorious appeal of the stars above to why scientific curiosity can encourage much needed intellectual humility, this optimistic and profound book will leave you filled with a thirst for intellectual adventure.]]>
320 Robin Ince 1786492628 Dan 3 pop-science 3.94 2021 The Importance of Being Interested: Adventures in Scientific Curiosity
author: Robin Ince
name: Dan
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/18
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves: pop-science
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<![CDATA[Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #1)]]> 123257687
ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem and terror, and other Dark Things In General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.

With ailing family to support, Evie Sage's employment status isn't just important, it's vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn’s most infamous Villain results in a job offer―naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don’t find evil so attractive, Evie.

But just when she’s getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat…and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain―and his entire nefarious empire―out.

Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work…and ensure he makes them pay.

After all, a good job is hard to find.]]>
342 Hannah Nicole Maehrer 1649375808 Dan 4 Curse you Naomi Novik!]]> 3.88 2023 Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #1)
author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer
name: Dan
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/12/18
shelves:
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Who'da thunk I'd like romantasy novels? Guilty pleasure...
Curse you Naomi Novik!
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<![CDATA[Saving Time (The Time Police, #3)]]> 55773332 xxx 497 Jodi Taylor Dan 0 4.57 2023 Saving Time (The Time Police, #3)
author: Jodi Taylor
name: Dan
average rating: 4.57
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
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<![CDATA[Seed on the Wind (Hard Case Crime)]]> 127414846
WHO WAS THE FIFTH MAN?

The lawyer, the jeweler, the art critic, and the oil-company man…self-possessed, independent Lora Winter has had a child with each of them. But when one of these men drives up to her house with a fifth man in the car, Lora runs to hide. That’s how this extraordinary novel opens � and by the time it ends, you’ll have pieced together a masterful psychological jigsaw puzzle that is miles from a traditional crime novel, but whose desperate characters nevertheless resort to kidnapping, blackmail and possibly even murder.

Long before he was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, before he created the immortal Nero Wolfe, Rex Stout wrote this gripping novel, published in 1930 and then lost for more than 90 years. Hard Case Crime is thrilled to give the book its first publication in nearly a century and to give today’s readers the chance to discover one of Stout’s richest and most unforgettable stories.]]>
304 Rex Stout 180336484X Dan 0 to-read 3.17 1931 Seed on the Wind (Hard Case Crime)
author: Rex Stout
name: Dan
average rating: 3.17
book published: 1931
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Love Triangle: How Trigonometry Shapes the World]]> 194803864
Contrary to what your friends may have grumbled in high school math class, trigonometry is perhaps the most essential concept humans have ever devised. The simple yet versatile triangle allows us to map the world, launch ships into space, and send cat gifs. Trigonometry also makes it possible to play the piano so that it sounds like a human voice and was crucial to prosecuting the balloon trip company that caused a pig stampede.

In Love Triangle ,Matt Parker shares plenty of relevant and irreverent reasons we should all show a lot more love for the triangles in our lives. He tells extraordinary and entertaining stories of mathematicians, philosophers, and engineers—starting with Pythagoras—who dared to take triangles seriously. Humans have been using triangles for thousands of years to measure the earth and build structures. But trigonometry also underpins all modern data technology and is the essential component of GPS—without triangles, we’d still be at the gas station asking for directions.

Parker convincingly makes the case that trigonometry is vital, fun, and deeply useful. Its rules are the hidden pattern beneath the surface of just about everything we encounter, and we wouldn’t exist without them. Luckily, it’s never too late to learn!]]>
352 Matt Parker 0593418107 Dan 0 to-read 3.96 2024 Love Triangle: How Trigonometry Shapes the World
author: Matt Parker
name: Dan
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/05
shelves: to-read
review:

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<![CDATA[Hard Time (The Time Police, #2)]]> 49021623
A time slip in Versailles, problems in the Ice Age and illegal time travellers in need of rescue. Must be a job for the Time Police.

Luke, Jane and Matthew are back and ready to cause havoc - inadvertently or otherwise - in their latest adventures.]]>
544 Jodi Taylor Dan 0 4.46 2020 Hard Time (The Time Police, #2)
author: Jodi Taylor
name: Dan
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/11/30
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<![CDATA[The Shadows of London (Marwood and Lovett #6)]]> 61424788 London 1671

The damage caused by the Great Fire still overshadows the capital. When a man’s brutally disfigured body is discovered in the ruins of an ancient almshouse, architect Cat Hakesby is ordered to stop restoration work. It is obvious he has been murdered, and Whitehall secretary James Marwood is ordered to investigate.

It’s possible the victim could be one of two local men who have vanished � the first, a feckless French tutor connected to the almshouse’s owner; the second, a possibly treacherous employee of the Council of Foreign Plantations.

The pressure on Marwood mounts as Charles II’s most influential courtiers, Lord Arlington and the Duke of Buckingham, show an interest in his activities � and Marwood soon begins to suspect the murder trail may lead right to the heart of government.

Meanwhile, a young, impoverished Frenchwoman has caught the eye of the king, a quiet affair that will have monumental consequences…]]>
450 Andrew Taylor 0008494118 Dan 0 historical-fiction 4.20 2023 The Shadows of London (Marwood and Lovett #6)
author: Andrew Taylor
name: Dan
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/24
date added: 2024/11/25
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Death on the Tiber (Flavia Albia, #12)]]> 195790842 368 Lindsey Davis 1250906717 Dan 0 historical-fiction 3.95 2024 Death on the Tiber (Flavia Albia, #12)
author: Lindsey Davis
name: Dan
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/11/14
date added: 2024/11/14
shelves: historical-fiction
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Rewitched 210847437 Belladonna Blackthorn hasn’t lost her magical spark . . . but she hasn’t seen it in a while, either.

Balancing work at her beloved Lunar Books with protecting it from her toxic boss, who’s running it into the ground, and all the while concealing her witchcraft from the non-wicches around her � Belle is burnt out. Perfecting the potential of her magic is the last thing on her mind.

But when her 30th birthday brings a summons from her coven, and a trial that tests her worthiness as a witch, Belle risks losing her magic forever. With the month of October to fix things, and signs that dark forces may be working against her, Belle will need all the help she can get � from the women in her life, from an unlikely mentor figure, and even an (infuriatingly handsome) watchman who’s sworn to protect her . . .

With found family, slow burn romance and an uplifting message about self-love, this is the cosy, autumnal read that you've been waiting for.]]>
384 Lucy Jane Wood 059382007X Dan 0 to-read 3.81 2024 Rewitched
author: Lucy Jane Wood
name: Dan
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/11/09
shelves: to-read
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Piranesi 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 Dan 4 4.22 2020 Piranesi
author: Susanna Clarke
name: Dan
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/06
date added: 2024/11/06
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The Somme 29501651 280 Anthony Farrar-Hockley 0750968125 Dan 0 dropped, military 3.50 1964 The Somme
author: Anthony Farrar-Hockley
name: Dan
average rating: 3.50
book published: 1964
rating: 0
read at: 2017/07/27
date added: 2024/11/05
shelves: dropped, military
review:

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<![CDATA[Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)]]> 61242426
The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success � not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won't be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.]]>
296 Travis Baldree Dan 0 4.04 2022 Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1)
author: Travis Baldree
name: Dan
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2022
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/10/15
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<![CDATA[Patronising Bastards: How the Elites Betrayed Britain]]> 36382302 From the Sunday Times bestselling author of 50 People Who Buggered Up Britain, Quentin Letts, comes his blistering new book on how Britain's out-of-touch, illiberal elite fills its boots.'HILARIOUS' Daily Mail'With its vicious takedowns, Quentin Letts' laugh-out-loud Patronising Bastards will have the lefty-elite running scared' The SunNot since Marie Antoinette said 'Let them eat cake' have the peasants been so revolting. Western capitalism's elites are Brexit, Trump, and maybe more eruptions to follow. But their rulers were so good to them! Hillary Clinton called the ingrates 'a basket of deplorables', Bob Geldof flicked them a V sign, Tony Blair thought voters too thick to understand the question. Wigged judges stared down their legalistic noses at a surging, pongy populous.These people who know best, these snooterati with their faux-liberal ways, are the 'Patronising Bastards'. Their downfall is largely of their own making - their Sybaritic excesses, an obsession with political correctness, the prolonged rape of reason and rite. You'll find these self-indulgent show-ponys not just in politics and the cloistered old institutions but also in high fashion, football, among the clean-eating foodies and at the Baftas and Oscars, where celebritydom hires PR smoothies to massage reputations and mislead, distort, twist. Political columnist and bestselling author Quentin Letts identifies these condescending creeps and their networks, their methods and their dubious morals. Letts kebabs them like mutton. It's baaaahd. It's juicy.Richard Branson, Emma Thompson, Shami Chakrabarti, Jean-Claude Juncker and any head waiter who calls you 'young man' - this one's for you!]]> 272 Quentin Letts Dan 0 dropped, history 3.98 Patronising Bastards: How the Elites Betrayed Britain
author: Quentin Letts
name: Dan
average rating: 3.98
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2018/04/04
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: dropped, history
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Imperium (Cicero, #1) 243601 imperium—supreme power in the state.

Of all the great figures of the Roman world, none was more fascinating or charismatic than Cicero. And Tiro—the inventor of shorthand and author of numerous books, including a celebrated biography of his master (which was lost in the Dark Ages)—was always by his side.

Compellingly written in Tiro's voice, Imperium is the re-creation of his vanished masterpiece, recounting in vivid detail the story of Cicero's quest for glory, competing with some of the most powerful and intimidating figures of his—or any other—age: Pompey, Caesar, Crassus, and the many other powerful Romans who changed history.

Robert Harris, the world's master of innovative historical fiction, lures us into a violent, treacherous world of Roman politics at once exotically different from and yet startlingly similar to our own—a world of Senate intrigue and electoral corruption, special prosecutors and political adventurism—to describe how one clever, compassionate, devious, vulnerable man fought to reach the top.]]>
305 Robert Harris 074326603X Dan 0 dropped, history 4.12 2006 Imperium (Cicero, #1)
author: Robert Harris
name: Dan
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at: 2018/06/05
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: dropped, history
review:

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<![CDATA[Map Addict: A Tale of Obsession, Fudge & the Ordnance Survey]]> 6487766 336 Mike Parker 0007300840 Dan 4 history 3.54 2009 Map Addict: A Tale of Obsession, Fudge & the Ordnance Survey
author: Mike Parker
name: Dan
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at: 2018/06/25
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: history
review:

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<![CDATA[An Unholy Alliance (Matthew Bartholomew, #2)]]> 71108 336 Susanna Gregory 0312966318 Dan 3 historical-fiction 3.97 1996 An Unholy Alliance (Matthew Bartholomew, #2)
author: Susanna Gregory
name: Dan
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2018/08/08
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Brother Cadfael's Penance (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, #20)]]> 40717597 292 Ellis Peters Dan 4 historical-fiction 4.48 1994 Brother Cadfael's Penance  (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, #20)
author: Ellis Peters
name: Dan
average rating: 4.48
book published: 1994
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[The Holy Thief (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, #19)]]> 40717688
All of Cadfael’s fears become manifest as rising floodwaters endanger the abbey’s most sacred relic, the remains of Saint Winifred. When the bones disappear and a dead body is found, Brother Cadfael knows carnal and spiritual intrigues are afoot. Now, in a world that believes in signs and miracles, Brother Cadfael needs his prayers answered—as well as some heavenly guidance to crucial clues—to catch a killer hell-bent on murder.]]>
288 Ellis Peters 1497671612 Dan 3 historical-fiction 4.20 1992 The Holy Thief (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, #19)
author: Ellis Peters
name: Dan
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1992
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[A Rare Benedictine: The Advent of Brother Cadfael (The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael)]]> 39334248 Three vintage tales reveal how a former crusader became literature’s greatest mystery-solving monk

“Brother Cadfael sprang to life suddenly and unexpectedly when he was already approaching sixty, mature, experienced, fully armed and seventeen years tonsured.� So writes Ellis Peters in her introduction to A Rare Benedictine—three vintage tales of intrigue and treachery featuring the monastic sleuth who has become the best-loved ecclesiastical detective since Father Brown.

Although Cadfael has appeared in twenty novel-length chronicles, the story of his entry into the monastery at Shrewsbury has been known hitherto only to a few readers. Now his myriad fans can discover the chain of events that led him into the Benedictine Order.
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150 Ellis Peters Dan 3 historical-fiction 4.09 1988 A Rare Benedictine: The Advent of Brother Cadfael (The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael)
author: Ellis Peters
name: Dan
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1988
rating: 3
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date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[By Tank into Normandy: A Memoir of the Campaign in North-West Europe from D-Day to Ve Day (Cassell Military Paperbacks)]]> 2686120 256 Stuart Hills 0304366404 Dan 4 military, history 4.03 2002 By Tank into Normandy: A Memoir of the Campaign in North-West Europe from D-Day to Ve Day (Cassell Military Paperbacks)
author: Stuart Hills
name: Dan
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2002
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: military, history
review:

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<![CDATA[A Plague on Both Your Houses (Matthew Bartholomew, #1)]]> 71102 A Plague on Both Your Houses introduces the physician Matthew Bartholomew, whose unorthodox but effective treatment of his patients frequently draws accusations of heresy from his more traditional colleagues. Besides his practice, Bartholomew is teacher of Medicine at Michaelhouse, part of the fledgling University of Cambridge. In 1348, the inhabitants of Cambridge live under the shadow of a terrible pestilence that has ravaged Europe and is travelling relentlessly eastward towards England. Bartholomew, however, is distracted by the sudden and inexplicable death of the Master of Michaelhouse - a death the University authorities do not want investigated. When three more scholars die in mysterious circumstances, Bartholomew defies the University and begins his own enquiry. His pursuit for the truth leads him into a complex tangle of lies and intrigue that causes him to question the innocence of his closest friends, and even his family. And then the Black Death finally arrives and Bartholomew is dragged deeper and deeper into a quagmire which threatens not only his life, but the continued existence of the University and the future of the town.]]> 406 Susanna Gregory 0751516953 Dan 3 historical-fiction 3.81 1996 A Plague on Both Your Houses (Matthew Bartholomew, #1)
author: Susanna Gregory
name: Dan
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1996
rating: 3
read at: 2018/08/23
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Pandora's Boy (Flavia Albia #6)]]> 35955053 Flavia Albia is a private investigator, always drawn to an intriguing puzzle - even if it is put to her by her new husband's hostile ex-wife. On the Quirinal Hill, Clodia Volumnia, a very young girl with stars in her eyes, has died, amid suggestions that she was poisoned by a love-potion. It will have been supplied by a local witch, who goes by the name of Pandora, though Albia learns that Pandora carries on a trade in herbal beauty products while hiding much more dangerous connections. Pandora's beloved grandson, a trainee hack lawyer, is one of the dead girl's empty-headed friends; can this be relevant?

As she homes in on the truth, Albia has to contend with the occult, organised crime, an unusual fertility symbol, and celebrity dining. She discovers the young girl was a handful; her father mediates in disputes, yet has divorced his grief-stricken wife and is now suing his own mother-in-law; Clodia's so-called friends were none too friendly. The supposedly sweet air of the Quirinal hides the smells of loose morality, casual betrayal and even gangland conflict. When a friend of her own is murdered, Albia determines to expose as much of this local sickness as she can - beginning with the truth about the death of little Clodia.

'Davis's prose is a lively joy, and Flavia's Rome is sinister and gloriously real.' The Times on Sunday

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318 Lindsey Davis Dan 5 historical-fiction 4.14 2018 Pandora's Boy (Flavia Albia #6)
author: Lindsey Davis
name: Dan
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2018/10/26
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[The Raven in the Foregate (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, #12)]]> 264155 228 Ellis Peters 0446405345 Dan 0 historical-fiction 4.06 1986 The Raven in the Foregate (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, #12)
author: Ellis Peters
name: Dan
average rating: 4.06
book published: 1986
rating: 0
read at: 2018/11/01
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Dangerous Days in the Roman Empire: Terrors and Torments, Diseases and Deaths]]> 18760617
What the general reader needs is a history that explores our ancestors with humour and compassion. 'Humour' and 'history' are not two words you often see in the same sentence: our past was a dangerous and dirty place full of cruel rulers, foul food and terrible toilets. A short life, not a merry one, for most. Dangerous days in which to live and, inevitably, die.

Die dreadfully too. 'Murder breathed her bloody steam.' That's what rhymester Byron said when he looked at the crumbling Coliseum. The Roman Emperors: they came, they saw, they left behind their bloody steam. This is their story - it could be the funniest history you'll ever read. (Amazon UK)]]>
272 Terry Deary 0297870564 Dan 3 a-bit-kiddy, history 3.55 2013 Dangerous Days in the Roman Empire: Terrors and Torments, Diseases and Deaths
author: Terry Deary
name: Dan
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2013
rating: 3
read at: 2018/11/12
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: a-bit-kiddy, history
review:

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1918: A Very British Victory 6091093 552 Peter Hart 0297846523 Dan 0 military, history 4.17 2008 1918: A Very British Victory
author: Peter Hart
name: Dan
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at: 2018/11/22
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: military, history
review:

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Bomber 171625 576 Len Deighton 0586045449 Dan 4 long-ago, military, history 4.12 1970 Bomber
author: Len Deighton
name: Dan
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: long-ago, military, history
review:

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<![CDATA[Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain]]> 482102 Book by Deighton, Len 261 Len Deighton 0785812083 Dan 4 history, military 4.01 1977 Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain
author: Len Deighton
name: Dan
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1977
rating: 4
read at: 2019/01/15
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: history, military
review:

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<![CDATA[The Ashes of London (Marwood and Lovett, #1)]]> 26198482 From the No.1 best-selling author of The American Boy and The Silent Boy comes a brand new historical thriller set during the time of the Great Fire of London. The first of an exciting new series of novels.

London, September 1666. The Great Fire rages through the city, consuming everything in its path. Even the impregnable cathedral of St. Paul’s is engulfed in flames and reduced to ruins. Among the crowds watching its destruction is James Marwood, son of a disgraced printer, and reluctant government informer.

In the aftermath of the fire, a semi-mummified body is discovered in the ashes of St. Paul’s, in a tomb that should have been empty. The man’s body has been mutilated and his thumbs have been tied behind his back.

Under orders from the government, Marwood is tasked with hunting down the killer across the devastated city. But at a time of dangerous internal dissent and the threat of foreign invasion, Marwood finds his investigation leads him into treacherous waters � and across the path of a determined, beautiful and vengeful young woman.]]>
400 Andrew Taylor 0008119082 Dan 5 historical-fiction 3.62 2016 The Ashes of London (Marwood and Lovett, #1)
author: Andrew Taylor
name: Dan
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/21
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[The Fire Court (Marwood and Lovett, #2)]]> 34884811 The Ashes of London

Somewhere in the soot-stained ruins of Restoration London, a killer has gone to ground ...

The Great Fire has ravaged London, wreaking destruction and devastation wherever its flames spread. Now, guided by the incorruptible Fire Court, the city is slowly rebuilding, but times are volatile and danger is only ever a heartbeat away.

James Marwood, son of a traitor, is thrust into this treacherous environment when his ailing father claims to have stumbled upon a murdered woman in the very place where the Fire Court sits. Then his father is run down and killed. Accident? Or another murder ...?

Determined to uncover the truth, Marwood turns to the one person he can trust - Cat Lovett, the daughter of a despised regicide. Marwood has helped her in the past. Now it's her turn to help him. But then comes a third death ... and Marwood and Cat are forced to confront a vicious and increasingly desperate killer whose actions threaten the future of the city itself.]]>
417 Andrew Taylor Dan 5 historical-fiction 4.05 2018 The Fire Court (Marwood and Lovett, #2)
author: Andrew Taylor
name: Dan
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2019/01/29
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
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<![CDATA[Jack Tar: The Extraordinary Lives of Ordinary Seamen in Nelson's Navy]]> 4896480 ' Fascinating' Sunday Times

The Royal Navy to which Admiral Lord Nelson sacrificed his life depended on thousands of sailors and marines to man the great wind-powered wooden warships. Drawn from all over Britain and beyond, often unwillingly, these ordinary men made the navy invincible through skill , courage and sheer determination . They cast a long shadow, with millions of their descendants alive today, and many of their everyday expressions, such as 'skyscraper' and 'loose cannon', continuing to enrich our language. Yet their contribution is frequently overlooked , while the officers became celebrities.

JACK TAR gives these forgotten men a voice in an exciting , enthralling , often unexpected and always entertaining picture of what their life was really like during this age of sail. Through personal letters, diaries and other manuscripts, the emotions and experiences of these people are explored, from the dread of press-gangs, shipwreck and disease, to the exhilaration of battle, grog, prize money and prostitutes.

JACK TAR is an authoritative and gripping account that will be compulsive reading for anyone wanting to discover the vibrant and sometimes stark realities of this wooden world at war.]]>
391 Roy A. Adkins 034912034X Dan 0 history, military 4.30 2008 Jack Tar: The Extraordinary Lives of Ordinary Seamen in Nelson's Navy
author: Roy A. Adkins
name: Dan
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at: 2019/02/16
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: history, military
review:

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<![CDATA[Guinness Book of Historical Blunders]]> 1470324 192 Geoffrey Regan 0851127851 Dan 2 military, history 3.83 1994 Guinness Book of Historical Blunders
author: Geoffrey Regan
name: Dan
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1994
rating: 2
read at: 2019/06/03
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: military, history
review:

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<![CDATA[The King’s Evil (Marwood and Lovett #3)]]> 41809843 The Ashes of London and The Fire Court comes the next book in the phenomenally successful series following James Marwood.



A royal scandal that could change the face of England forever�


London 1667. In the Court of Charles II, it’s a dangerous time to be alive � a wrong move may lead to disgrace, exile or death. The discovery of a body at Clarendon House, the palatial home of one of the highest courtiers in the land, could therefore have catastrophic consequences.

James Marwood, a traitor’s son, is ordered to cover up the murder. But the dead man is Edward Alderley, the cousin of one of Marwood’s acquaintances. Cat Lovett had every reason to want her cousin dead. Since his murder, she has vanished, and all the evidence points to her as the killer.

Marwood is determined to clear Cat’s name and discover who really killed Alderley. But time is running out for everyone. If he makes a mistake, it could threaten not only the government but the King himself…]]>
464 Andrew Taylor 000811918X Dan 3 historical-fiction 4.05 2019 The King’s Evil (Marwood and Lovett #3)
author: Andrew Taylor
name: Dan
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2019
rating: 3
read at: 2019/07/04
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems]]> 42086897 The world's most entertaining and useless self-help guide, from the brilliant mind behind the wildly popular webcomic xkcd and the million-selling What If? and Thing Explainer

For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally bad that no one would ever try it. How To is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole.

Bestselling author and cartoonist Randall Munroe explains how to predict the weather by analyzing the pixels of your Facebook photos. He teaches you how to tell if you're a baby boomer or a millennial by measuring the radioactivity of your teeth. He offers tips for taking a selfie with a telescope, crossing a river by boiling it, and getting to your appointments on time by destroying the moon. And if you want to get rid of this book once you're done with it, he walks you through your options for proper disposal, including dissolving it in the ocean, converting it to a vapour, using tectonic plates to subduct it into the Earth's mantle, or launching it into the sun.

By exploring the most complicated ways to do simple tasks, Munroe doesn't just make things difficult for himself and his readers. As he did so brilliantly in What If?, he invites us to explore the most absurd reaches of the possible. Full of clever infographics and amusing illustrations, How To is a delightfully mind-bending way to better understand the science and technology underlying the things we do every day.

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308 Randall Munroe 1473680336 Dan 0 pop-science 4.15 2019 How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
author: Randall Munroe
name: Dan
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: pop-science
review:

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<![CDATA[Panzer Ace: The Memoirs of an Iron Cross Panzer Commander from Barbarossa to Normandy]]> 36208112
Von Rosen's memoirs are based on his wartime diary and field post letters and are illustrated with more than 400 contemporary photographs. He has a fine memory and eye for detail and his account adds substantially to the knowledge of how the German Panzer Arm operated in the Second World War.

Von Rosen fought in many key confrontations of the war, including on the Eastern Front, involved in action at Kursk, Barbarossa and in Hungary against the Russians, as well as leading King Tiger panzers in Normandy. Only 489 King Tiger tanks were ever built, they were the most powerful heavy tanks to see service, and only one kind of shell couple penetrate their armour at a reasonable distance.

This is not a simple account of German tank action in World War II: this is a personal account that brings to life the successes, discomfort, frustrations and enjoyment of simple pleasures in the daily routine of a Panzer company.]]>
390 Richard Freiherr von Rosen 1784382663 Dan 4 military, history 4.22 2013 Panzer Ace: The Memoirs of an Iron Cross Panzer Commander from Barbarossa to Normandy
author: Richard Freiherr von Rosen
name: Dan
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at: 2020/01/31
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: military, history
review:

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<![CDATA[Victoria's Wars: The Rise of Empire]]> 753698 528 Saul David 0670911380 Dan 0 military, history 3.96 2006 Victoria's Wars: The Rise of Empire
author: Saul David
name: Dan
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at: 2020/03/11
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: military, history
review:

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Enigma 843989 374 Robert Harris 0804115486 Dan 5 historical-fiction 3.87 1995 Enigma
author: Robert Harris
name: Dan
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1995
rating: 5
read at: 2020/09/08
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[A Capitol Death (Flavia Albia #7)]]> 41150396
A man falls to his death from the Tarpeian Rock, which overlooks the Forum in the Capitoline Hill in Ancient Rome. While it looks like a suicide, one witness swears that she saw it happen and that he was pushed. Normally, this would attract very little official notice but this man happened to be in charge of organizing the Imperial Triumphs demanded by the emperor.

The Emperor Domitian, autocratic and erratic, has decided that he deserves two Triumphs for his so-called military victories. The Triumphs are both controversial and difficult to stage because of the not-so-victorious circumstances that left them without treasure or captives to be paraded through the streets. Normally, the investigation would be under the auspices of her new(ish) husband but, worried about his stamina following a long recovery, private informer Flavia Albia, daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, steps in.

What a mistake that turns out to be. The deceased proves to have been none-too-popular, with far too many others with much to gain from his death. With the date of the Triumphs fast approaching, Flavia Albia must unravel a truly complex case of murder before danger shows up on her own doorstep.]]>
320 Lindsey Davis 1250152704 Dan 5 historical-fiction 3.94 2019 A Capitol Death (Flavia Albia #7)
author: Lindsey Davis
name: Dan
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/08/20
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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How We Built Britain 1037905 288 David Dimbleby 0747588716 Dan 3 history 3.93 2007 How We Built Britain
author: David Dimbleby
name: Dan
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2007
rating: 3
read at: 2020/10/07
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: history
review:

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<![CDATA[A Conspiracy of Violence (Thomas Chaloner, #1)]]> 72527 502 Susanna Gregory 0751537586 Dan 0 historical-fiction 3.85 2006 A Conspiracy of Violence (Thomas Chaloner, #1)
author: Susanna Gregory
name: Dan
average rating: 3.85
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at: 2020/08/30
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Tombland (Matthew Shardlake, #7)]]> 40095725 Spring, 1549. Two years after the death of Henry VIII, England is sliding into chaos�

The king, Edward VI, is eleven years old. His uncle Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, rules as Protector. Radical Protestants are conducting all out war on the old religion, stirring discontent among the people. The Protector's prolonged war with Scotland is proving a disastrous failure. Worst of all, the economy is in collapse, inflation rages and rebellion is stirring among the peasantry.

Since the old King's death, Matthew Shardlake has been working as a lawyer in the service of Henry's younger daughter, the Lady Elizabeth. The gruesome murder of the wife of John Boleyn, a distant Norfolk relation of Elizabeth's mother - which could have political implications for Elizabeth - brings Shardlake and his young assistant Nicholas Overton to the summer assizes at Norwich. There they are reunited with Shardlake's former assistant Jack Barak. The three find layers of mystery and danger surrounding the death of Edith Boleyn, as more murders are committed.

During their investigation, a peasant rebellion breaks out across the country. Yeoman Robert Kett establishes a vast camp outside Norwich and leads a force of thousands to overthow the landlords. Soon the rebels have taken over the city, England's second largest.

Barak throws in his lot with the rebels; Nicholas, opposed to them, becomes a prisoner in Norwich Castle; while Shardlake has to decide where his ultimate loyalties lie. As government forces in London prepare to march north and destroy the rebels, he discovers that the murder of Edith Boleyn may have connections reaching into both the heart of the rebel camp and of the Norfolk gentry...

Tombland is both a thrilling murder mystery and a vivid and engaging portrait of a divided nation.

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865 C.J. Sansom 1447284496 Dan 2 dropped, historical-fiction 4.29 2018 Tombland (Matthew Shardlake, #7)
author: C.J. Sansom
name: Dan
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at: 2021/08/31
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: dropped, historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[The Last Protector (Marwood and Lovett #4)]]> 52430073 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ashes of London comes the next book in the phenomenally successful series following James Marwood and Cat Lovett.
A dangerous secret lies beneath Whitehall Palace�

Brother against brother. Father against son. Friends turned into enemies. No one in England wants a return to the bloody days of the Civil War. But Oliver Cromwell’s son, Richard, has abandoned his exile and slipped back into England. The consequences could be catastrophic.

James Marwood, a traitor’s son turned government agent, is tasked with uncovering Cromwell’s motives. But his assignment is complicated by his friend � the regicide’s daughter, Cat Lovett � who knew the Cromwells as a child, and who now seems to be hiding a secret of her own about the family.

Both Marwood and Cat know they are putting themselves in great danger. And when they find themselves on a top secret mission in the Palace of Whitehall, they realize they are risking their lives…and could even be sent to the block for treason.


Praise for Andrew Taylor
‘One of the best historical crime writers today� The Times


‘If you like C. J. Sansom, or Hilary Mantel, you’ll love Andrew Taylor� Peter James


‘Effortlessly authentic…gripping…moving and believable. An excellent work� C. J. Sansom


‘This is historical crime fiction at its dazzling best� Guardian


‘One of the best historical novelists around� Sunday Times


‘A breathtakingly ambitious picture of an era� Financial Times


‘A masterclass in writing for the genre� Ann Cleeves


‘Andrew Taylor is one of our finest storytellers' Antonia Hodgson


‘Vivid and compelling� Observer


‘A novel filled with intrigue, duplicity, scandal and betrayal, whose author now vies with another master of the genre, C. J. Sansom� Spectator


‘Taylor brings the 17th century to life so vividly that one can almost smell it� Guardian


‘A most artful and delightful book, that will both amuse and chill� Daily Telegraph ]]>
432 Andrew Taylor 0008325510 Dan 0 historical-fiction 4.09 2020 The Last Protector (Marwood and Lovett #4)
author: Andrew Taylor
name: Dan
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2021/06/15
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Citizen Soldiers: The US Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany]]> 49251
In this riveting account, historian Stephen E. Ambrose continues where he left off in his #1 bestseller D-Day. Citizen Soldiers opens at 0001 hours, June 7, 1944, on the Normandy beaches, and ends at 0245 hours, May 7, 1945, with the allied victory. It is biography of the US Army in the European Theater of Operations, and Ambrose again follows the individual characters of this noble, brutal, and tragic war. From the high command down to the ordinary soldier, Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews to re-create the war experience with startling clarity and immediacy. From the hedgerows of Normandy to the overrunning of Germany, Ambrose tells the real story of World War II from the perspective of the men and women who fought it.]]>
528 Stephen E. Ambrose 0684848015 Dan 4 military, history 4.24 1997 Citizen Soldiers: The US Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany
author: Stephen E. Ambrose
name: Dan
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1997
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/27
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: military, history
review:

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Terry Jones' Medieval Lives 20645 224 Terry Jones 0563522755 Dan 4 history 4.01 2004 Terry Jones' Medieval Lives
author: Terry Jones
name: Dan
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2021/10/15
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: history
review:

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<![CDATA[The Royal Secret (Marwood and Lovett, #5)]]> 55506307 From the No.1 bestselling author ofThe Last ProtectorandThe Ashes of Londoncomes the next book in the phenomenally successful series following James Marwood and Cat Lovett during the time of King Charles II.



Over 1 Million Andrew Taylor Novels Sold!
A Times Best Paperback of 2022
Two young girls plot a murder by witchcraft. Soon afterwards a government clerk dies painfully in mysterious circumstances. His colleague James Marwood is asked to investigate � but the task brings unexpected dangers.


Meanwhile, architect Cat Hakesby is working for a merchant who lives on Slaughter Street, where the air smells of blood and a captive Barbary lion prowls the stables. Then a prestigious new commission arrives. Cat must design a Poultry House for the woman that the King loves most in all the world.


Unbeknownst to all, at the heart of this lies a royal secret so explosive that it could not only rip apart England but change the entire face of Europe…]]>
480 Andrew Taylor 0008325561 Dan 4 historical-fiction 4.08 2021 The Royal Secret (Marwood and Lovett, #5)
author: Andrew Taylor
name: Dan
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2022/04/14
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics]]> 25135194 Geography shapes not only our history, but where we're headed...

All leaders are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Yes, to follow world events you need to understand people, ideas and movements - but if you don't know geography, you'll never have the full picture.

If you've ever wondered why Putin is so obsessed with Crimea, why the USA was destined to become a global superpower, or why China's power base continues to expand ever outwards, the answers are all here.

In ten chapters and ten maps, Prisoners of Geography looks at the past, present and future to offer an essential insight into one of the major factors that determines world history.

It's time to put the 'geo' back into geopolitics.

Ten maps; ten chapters:

Russia * China * United States of America * Latin America * the Middle East * Africa * India and Pakistan * Europe * Japan and Korea * the Arctic
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256 Tim Marshall 1783961414 Dan 5 pop-science
There's a sequel which I must read.]]>
4.18 2015 Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics
author: Tim Marshall
name: Dan
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2015
rating: 5
read at: 2022/04/30
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: pop-science
review:
How soon events overtake the issue of a book. That said, what we see in the news is predicted by this book time and again.

There's a sequel which I must read.
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The Name of the Rose 119073 552 Umberto Eco 0156001314 Dan 5 historical-fiction 4.13 1980 The Name of the Rose
author: Umberto Eco
name: Dan
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1980
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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The Good Shepherd 42748909 The Good Shepherd has been adapted into a major motion picture, Greyhound, scripted by and starring Tom Hanks, directed by Aaron Schneider, and produced by Gary Goetzman.
A convoy of thirty-seven merchant ships is ploughing through icy, submarine-infested North Atlantic seas during the most critical days of World War II, when the German submarines had the upper hand and Allied shipping was suffering heavy losses. In charge is Commander George Krause, an untested veteran of the U.S. Navy. Hounded by a wolf pack of German U-boats, he faces 48 hours of desperate peril trapped on the bridge of the ship. Exhausted beyond measure, he must make countless and terrible decisions as he leads his small fighting force against the relentless U-boats.]]>
240 C.S. Forester Dan 5 long-ago, historical-fiction 4.19 1955 The Good Shepherd
author: C.S. Forester
name: Dan
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1955
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: long-ago, historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, #1)]]> 28876 356 Naomi Novik 0345481283 Dan 0 historical-fiction 4.06 2006 His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire, #1)
author: Naomi Novik
name: Dan
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Deadly Election (Flavia Albia, #3)]]> 24920683
The investigation will give her a chance to work with the magistrate, Manlius Faustus, the friend she sadly knows to be the last chaste man in Rome. But he's got other concerns than her anonymous corpse. It's election time and with democracy for sale at Domitian's court, tension has come to a head. Faustus is acting as an agent for a 'good husband and father', whose traditional family values are being called into question. Even more disreputable are his rivals, whom Faustus wants Albia to discredit.

As Albia's and Faustus' professional and personal partnership deepens they have to accept that, for others, obsession can turn sour, and become a deadly strain that leads, tragically, to murder.]]>
400 Lindsey Davis 1444794221 Dan 0 historical-fiction 3.97 2015 Deadly Election (Flavia Albia, #3)
author: Lindsey Davis
name: Dan
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Desperate Undertaking (Flavia Albia #10)]]> 58724790
In the first century, under Domitian's reign, strange and brutal goings on are nothing new in Rome. Flavia Albia, daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, has taken over her father's business as a private informer but she tries to shy away from the brutal, the complicated, and the political - because nothing good comes of any of them. Unfortunately, she's not very good at turning them down.

This time a commission shows up on her doorstep - someone is staging brutal murders in some of the most beautiful buildings in Rome, each staging different. So far, the only clue was the phrase that one survivor managed to croak, "The undertaker did it..." With little to go on and bodies starting to pile up, Albia has to unravel the strangest mystery of her career in short order if she's to stop this dismaying orgy of murder.]]>
352 Lindsey Davis 1250799880 Dan 0 historical-fiction 3.92 2022 Desperate Undertaking (Flavia Albia #10)
author: Lindsey Davis
name: Dan
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at: 2024/04/15
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[A Comedy of Terrors (Flavia Albia #9)]]> 54860369 336 Lindsey Davis 1250241545 Dan 0 historical-fiction 4.02 2021 A Comedy of Terrors (Flavia Albia #9)
author: Lindsey Davis
name: Dan
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at: 2024/02/25
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[The Grove of the Caesars (Flavia Albia #8)]]> 51170054 Too many people tell Flavia Albia, 'Don't go to the Grove'. Such warnings will only lure her to the place she is warned away from, Julius Caesar's Gardens, where she finds more than one intriguing mystery.
Someone has buried tattered scrolls here, by unreadable ancient philosophers. Hardly has she taken an interest in what looks like book collecting fraud, when far worse happens. A present evil stirs in the undergrowth. A man holds a birthday party that goes terribly wrong, exposing a long series of neglected crimes.

Albia learns that a serial killer has haunted the gardens and grove for years targeting women. It isn't her place to investigate; that's the job of a dubious vigiles cohort, beefed up by the sinister imperial agent, Julius Karus who she thinks is vile. But sympathy for the dead women and their grieving relatives resonates with Albia. Even if she has to work with Karus, nothing will stop her until the serial killer in the sacred grove is at last caught and brought to justice.

Praise for Lindsey Davis and the Flavia Albia series

'Lindsey Davis has seen off all her competitors to become the unassailable market leader in the 'crime in Ancient Rome' genre . . . Davis's squalid, vibrant Rome is as pleasurable as ever' - Guardian

'Davis's prose is a lively joy, and Flavia's Rome is sinister and gloriously real' - The Times on Sunday

'For fans of crime fiction set in the ancient world, this one is not to be missed' - Booklist

'Davis's books crackle with wit and knowledge . . . She has the happy knack of making the reader feel entirely immersed in Rome' - The Times

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320 Lindsey Davis 1250241561 Dan 0 historical-fiction 4.09 2020 The Grove of the Caesars (Flavia Albia #8)
author: Lindsey Davis
name: Dan
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at: 2023/09/21
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Fatal Legacy (Flavia Albia #11)]]> 61884962
Flavia Albia, daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, has taken over her father's business as a private informer. She only has two hard and fast rules - avoid political cases and family cases because nothing good comes of either of them. Unfortunately, since Albia isn't good at avoiding either, it's really more of a guideline. So when her Aunt Junia demands Albia track down a couple of deadbeats who owe her money, it's an offer Albia can't refuse.

It turns out to be a relatively easy job, requiring only some half-hearted blackmail, and it leads to some new work - tracking down some essential paperwork for the debtor family. But nothing is truly easy in Rome - if Albia doesn't find the paperwork that proves that family's ancestor was a properly freed slave, the family could lose everything. The more she digs, the more skeletons she finds in their closet, until murder in the past leads to murder in the present. Now, it's serious, even deadly, and Albia has precious little time to uncover the
truth.]]>
336 Lindsey Davis 1250799902 Dan 4 historical-fiction 3.86 2023 Fatal Legacy (Flavia Albia #11)
author: Lindsey Davis
name: Dan
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/04/29
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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Master and God 13107845 Set in the reign of the Emperor Domitian in first-century Rome, Master and God is Lindsey Davis's meticulously researched epic novel of the life and times surrounding the last of the Flavian dynasty of emperors. Gaius Vinius is a reluctant Praetorian Guard―the Emperor's personal guard―and a man with a disastrous marriage history. Flavia Lucilla is also in the imperial court and she is responsible not only for having created the ridiculous hairstyle worn by the imperial ladies but for also making toupees for the balding and increasingly paranoid emperor. The two of them are brought together in an unlikely manner―a devastating fire in Rome―which then leads to a lifelong friendship.Together they watch Domitian's once talented rule unravel into madness and cruelty, until the people closest to him conspire to delete him from history. As an imperial bodyguard, Vinius then faces a tough decision. Master and God is a compelling novel of the Roman Empire―from the height of power to the depths of madness―told from the perspective of two courtiers and unlikely friends who together are the witnesses to history.]]> 464 Lindsey Davis 0312606648 Dan 5 history
Much more Pride and Prejudice than Wuthering Heights. But closer still to When Harry met Sally. With togas (actually, in Davis' works, people seldom wear togas as they're such a faff). And swords, definitely swords.

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3.68 2012 Master and God
author: Lindsey Davis
name: Dan
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2023/08/20
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: history
review:
Much more of a romance than other Davis works. It follows the classic rom-com plot line from the meet-cute to the final [redacted], I sighed and winced and rooted for both parties.

Much more Pride and Prejudice than Wuthering Heights. But closer still to When Harry met Sally. With togas (actually, in Davis' works, people seldom wear togas as they're such a faff). And swords, definitely swords.


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<![CDATA[Brothers in Arms: One Legendary Tank Regiment's Bloody War from D-Day to VE-Day]]> 57500772 Celebrated military historian James Holland chronicles the experiences in World War II of the legendary tank unit, the Sherwood RangersIn the annals of World War II, certain groups of soldiers stand out, and among the most notable were the Sherwood Rangers. Originally a cavalry unit in the last days of horses in combat, whose officers were landed gentry leading men who largely worked for them, they were switched to the "mechanized cavalry" of tanks in 1942. Winning acclaim in the North African campaign, the Sherwood Rangers then spearheaded one of the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, led the way across France, were the first British troops to cross into Germany, and contributed mightily to Germany's surrender in May 1945.

Inspired by Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers, acclaimed WWII historian James Holland memorably profiles an extraordinary group of citizen soldiers constantly in harm's way. Their casualties were horrific, but their ranks immediately refilled. Informed by never-before-seen documents, letters, photographs, and other artifacts from Sherwood Rangers' families--an ongoing fraternity--and by his own deep knowledge of the war, Holland offers a uniquely intimate portrait of the war at ground level, introducing heretofore unknowns such as Commanding Officer Stanley Christopherson, squadron commander John Semken, and Sergeant George Dring, and other memorable characters who helped the regiment become the single unit with the most battle honors of any ever in the British army. He weaves the Sherwood Rangers' exploits into the larger narrative and strategy of the war, and also brings fresh analysis to the tactics used.

Following the Sherwood Rangers' brutal journey over the dramatic eleven months between D-Day and V-E Day, Holland presents a vivid and original perspective on the endgame of WWII in Europe.]]>
592 James Holland 0802159087 Dan 0 military, history 4.40 Brothers in Arms: One Legendary Tank Regiment's Bloody War from D-Day to VE-Day
author: James Holland
name: Dan
average rating: 4.40
book published:
rating: 0
read at: 2024/01/17
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: military, history
review:

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<![CDATA[Throne of Jade (Temeraire, #2)]]> 14069
Now China has discovered that its rare gift, intended for Napoleon, has fallen into British hands–and an angry Chinese delegation vows to reclaim the remarkable beast. But Laurence refuses to cooperate. Facing the gallows for his defiance, Laurence has no choice but to accompany Temeraire back to the Far East–a long voyage fraught with peril, intrigue, and the untold terrors of the deep. Yet once the pair reaches the court of the Chinese emperor, even more shocking discoveries and darker dangers await.]]>
398 Naomi Novik 0345481291 Dan 4 historical-fiction 3.89 2006 Throne of Jade (Temeraire, #2)
author: Naomi Novik
name: Dan
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/01/08
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens]]> 152034931 A rollicking historyof England's earliest kings and queens, a story ofnarcissists, excessive beheadings, middle-management insurrection, uncivil wars,and more, fromaward-winning British actor and comedian David Mitchell

Think you know the kings and queens of England? Think again.

In Unruly , David Mitchell explores how early England’s monarchs, while acting as feared rulers firmly guiding their subjects� destinies, were in reality a bunch of lucky bastards who were mostly as silly and weird in real life as they appear to us today in their portraits.

Taking us right back to King Arthur ( he didn’t exist), Mitchell tells the founding story of post-Roman England right up to the reign of Elizabeth I ( she dies), as the monarchy began to lose its power. It’s a tale of bizarre and curious ascensions, inadequate self-control, and at least one total Cnut, as the English evolved from having their crops stolen by the thug with the largest armed gang to bowing and paying taxes to a divinely anointed King.

How this happened, who it happened to, and why the hell it matters are all questions Mitchell answers with brilliance, wit, and the full erudition of a man who once studied history—and is damned if he’ll let it off the hook for the mess it’s made of everything.

A funny book that takes history seriously, Unruly is for anyone who has ever wondered how the monarchy came to be—and who is to blame.
]]>
433 David Mitchell 0593728491 Dan 5 history But that is not what David Mitchell is selling here. If you want to laugh like it's 1066 and all that, and learn something along the way, this is the book for you.
I think I finally untangled the Wars of the Roses, which no heavier bookmhad ever done for me; so cheers, David!]]>
4.13 2023 Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens
author: David Mitchell
name: Dan
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/02/27
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: history
review:
Only superficially informative; you will want a 'proper' history book for the hard stuff.
But that is not what David Mitchell is selling here. If you want to laugh like it's 1066 and all that, and learn something along the way, this is the book for you.
I think I finally untangled the Wars of the Roses, which no heavier bookmhad ever done for me; so cheers, David!
]]>
<![CDATA[Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany]]> 71318
Fighting at 25,000 feet in thin, freezing air that no warriors had ever encountered before, bomber crews battled new kinds of assaults on body and mind. Air combat was deadly but intermittent: periods of inactivity and anxiety were followed by short bursts of fire and fear. Unlike infantrymen, bomber boys slept on clean sheets, drank beer in local pubs, and danced to the swing music of Glenn Miller's Air Force band, which toured U.S. air bases in England. But they had a much greater chance of dying than ground soldiers. In 1943, an American bomber crewman stood only a one-in-five chance of surviving his tour of duty, twenty-five missions. The Eighth Air Force lost more men in the war than the U.S. Marine Corps.

The bomber crews were an elite group of warriors who were a microcosm of America -- white America, anyway. (African-Americans could not serve in the Eighth Air Force except in a support capacity.) The actor Jimmy Stewart was a bomber boy, and so was the "King of Hollywood," Clark Gable. And the air war was filmed by Oscar-winning director William Wyler and covered by reporters like Andy Rooney and Walter Cronkite, all of whom flew combat missions with the men. The Anglo-American bombing campaign against Nazi Germany was the longest military campaign of World War II, a war within a war. Until Allied soldiers crossed into Germany in the final months of the war, it was the only battle fought inside the German homeland.

Strategic bombing did not win the war, but the war could not have been won without it. American airpower destroyed the rail facilities and oil refineries that supplied the German war machine. The bombing campaign was a shared enterprise: the British flew under the cover of night while American bombers attacked by day, a technique that British commanders thought was suicidal.

Masters of the Air is a story, as well, of life in wartime England and in the German prison camps, where tens of thousands of airmen spent part of the war. It ends with a vivid description of the grisly hunger marches captured airmen were forced to make near the end of the war through the country their bombs destroyed.

Drawn from recent interviews, oral histories, and American, British, German, and other archives, Masters of the Air is an authoritative, deeply moving account of the world's first and only bomber war.]]>
671 Donald L. Miller 0743235444 Dan 0 military, history 4.13 2006 Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany
author: Donald L. Miller
name: Dan
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2006
rating: 0
read at: 2024/08/09
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: military, history
review:

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<![CDATA[Doing Time (The Time Police, #1)]]> 44597196 And so the Time Police were formed. Internationally sanctioned thugs whose task it was to keep the timeline straight by any and all means possible. And they succeeded. The Time Wars are over. The Time Police won. But who will win the peace?

Doing Time follows three hapless new Time Police recruits - Jane, Luke and Matthew - as they try to navigate their first year on the beat. It's all going to be fine. Obviously.

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480 Jodi Taylor Dan 5 historical-fiction 4.20 2019 Doing Time (The Time Police, #1)
author: Jodi Taylor
name: Dan
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2024/09/18
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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<![CDATA[Black Powder War (Temeraire, #3)]]> 91989 365 Naomi Novik 0345481305 Dan 4 historical-fiction 3.90 2006 Black Powder War (Temeraire, #3)
author: Naomi Novik
name: Dan
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/25
date added: 2024/10/07
shelves: historical-fiction
review:

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The Puzzle Wood 198990858
When Miss Catherine Symonds arrives to take up a position as governess at remote Locksley Abbey in the foothills of the Black Mountains, where England bleeds into Wales, she is apprehensive.

It is not the echoing, near empty house with its skeleton staff that frightens her, nor the ancient woods that surround the Abbey or even the dogs that the owner, Sir Rowland, encourages to stalk the grounds, baying for blood. It is Catherine herself who fears scrutiny: her reference and very identity are fraudulent. She is travelling in disguise to investigate the fate of the last governess at the house, who took her own life out in the woods. For that governess was Catherine's own sister, but until now she had believed Emily had died many years before, when they were just children.

In Rosie Andrew's extraordinary follow up to the bestselling The Leviathan - one of the biggest debuts of 2022 - an isolated forest becomes the unsettling, beguiling backdrop to a tale of myths, memory and murder.]]>
368 Rosie Andrews 1526637375 Dan 0 3.28 2024 The Puzzle Wood
author: Rosie Andrews
name: Dan
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at: 2024/10/06
date added: 2024/10/07
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<![CDATA[The Masquerades of Spring (Rivers of London #0.2)]]> 202969855
Meet Augustus Berrycloth-Young - fop, flaneur, and Englishman abroad - as he chronicles the Jazz Age from his perch atop the city that never sleeps.

That is, until his old friend Thomas Nightingale arrives, pursuing a rather mysterious affair concerning an old saxophone - which will take Gussie from his warm bed, to the cold shores of Long Island, and down to the jazz clubs where music, magic, and madness haunt the shadows...]]>
165 Ben Aaronovitch 147322442X Dan 4 4.15 2024 The Masquerades of Spring (Rivers of London #0.2)
author: Ben Aaronovitch
name: Dan
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/09/16
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The Napoleon of Notting Hill 49673 184 G.K. Chesterton 1600965237 Dan 3 3.88 1904 The Napoleon of Notting Hill
author: G.K. Chesterton
name: Dan
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1904
rating: 3
read at: 2024/09/13
date added: 2024/09/13
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<![CDATA[Around the World in Eighty Days]]> 54479 252 Jules Verne 014044906X Dan 3 3.95 1872 Around the World in Eighty Days
author: Jules Verne
name: Dan
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1872
rating: 3
read at: 2023/03/30
date added: 2024/08/31
shelves:
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Much less exciting than the movies (and I've seen a bunch). But interesting to read the source material and see how much was added/tweaked in them.
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The Call of Cthulhu 15730101 The Call of Cthulhu is a harrowing tale of the weakness of the human mind when confronted by powers and intelligences from beyond our world.]]> 43 H.P. Lovecraft Dan 4 long-ago 3.97 1928 The Call of Cthulhu
author: H.P. Lovecraft
name: Dan
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1928
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/08/07
shelves: long-ago
review:

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<![CDATA[A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome]]> 54776211 An entertaining and informative look at the unique culture of crime, punishment, and killing in Ancient Rome

In Ancient Rome, all the best stories have one thing in common—murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in the theater, Claudius was poisoned at dinner, and Galba was beheaded in the Forum. In one 50-year period, 26 emperors were murdered.

But what did killing mean in a city where gladiators fought to the death to sate a crowd? In A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Emma Southon examines a trove of real-life homicides from Roman history to explore Roman culture, including how perpetrator, victim, and the act itself were regarded by ordinary people. Inside Ancient Rome's darkly fascinating history, we see how the Romans viewed life, death, and what it means to be human.
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352 Emma Southon 1419753053 Dan 5 history 4.09 2020 A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Murder in Ancient Rome
author: Emma Southon
name: Dan
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2024/07/31
date added: 2024/07/31
shelves: history
review:

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<![CDATA[Shadow and Bone (Shadow and Bone, #1)]]> 10194157 Alternative Cover Edition #1

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.]]>
358 Leigh Bardugo 1250048117 Dan 4 3.93 2012 Shadow and Bone (Shadow and Bone, #1)
author: Leigh Bardugo
name: Dan
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/07/31
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<![CDATA[Magician: Apprentice (The Riftwar Saga, #1)]]> 13812 here.

To the forest on the shore of the Kingdom of the Isles, the orphan Pug came to study with the master magician Kulgan. His courage won him a place at court and the heart of a lovely Princess, but he was ill at ease with normal wizardry. Yet his strange magic may save two worlds from dark beings who opened spacetime to renew the age-old battle between Order and Chaos.]]>
485 Raymond E. Feist 0553564943 Dan 3 4.18 1982 Magician: Apprentice (The Riftwar Saga, #1)
author: Raymond E. Feist
name: Dan
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1982
rating: 3
read at: 2024/07/27
date added: 2024/07/28
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<![CDATA[The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689]]> 61327457
“[Healy] makes a convincing argument that the turbulent era qualifies as truly ‘revolutionary,� not simply because of its cascading political upheavals, but in terms of far-reaching changes within society.... Wryly humorous and occasionally bawdy”� The Wall Street Journal

The seventeenth century was a revolutionary age for the English. It started as they suddenly found themselves ruled by a Scotsman, and it ended in the shadow of an invasion by the Dutch. Under James I, England suffered terrorism and witch panics. Under his son Charles, state and society collapsed into civil war, to be followed by an army coup and regicide. For a short time—for the only time in history—England was a republic. There were bitter struggles over faith and Parliament asserted itself like never before. There were no boundaries to politics.In fiery, plague-ridden London, in coffee shops and alehouses, new ideas were forged that were angry, populist, and almost impossible for monarchs to control.

But the story of this century is less well known than it should be. Myths have grown around key figures. People may know about the Gunpowder Plot and the Great Fire of London, but the Civil War is a half-remembered mystery to many. And yet the seventeenth century has never seemed more relevant. The British constitution is once again being bent and contorted, and there is a clash of ideologies reminiscent of when Roundhead fought Cavalier.

The Blazing World is the story of this strange, twisting, fascinating century. It shows a society in sparkling detail. It was a new world of wealth, creativity, and daring curiosity, but also of greed, pugnacious arrogance, and colonial violence.]]>
492 Jonathan Healey 0593318358 Dan 0 currently-reading, history 4.13 2023 The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689
author: Jonathan Healey
name: Dan
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/07/10
shelves: currently-reading, history
review:

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<![CDATA[The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)]]> 62226126
An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well as heartache close to home.

With the body count rising, the package still missing and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die?]]>
421 Richard Osman 0241512441 Dan 5 4.44 2023 The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club, #4)
author: Richard Osman
name: Dan
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/06/24
shelves:
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Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2) 90202302 “The first year is when some of us lose our lives. The second year is when the rest of us lose our humanity.� —Xaden Riorson

Everyone expected Violet Sorrengail to die during her first year at Basgiath War College—Violet included. But Threshing was only the first impossible test meant to weed out the weak-willed, the unworthy, and the unlucky.

Now the real training begins, and Violet’s already wondering how she’ll get through. It’s not just that it’s grueling and maliciously brutal, or even that it’s designed to stretch the riders� capacity for pain beyond endurance. It’s the new vice commandant, who’s made it his personal mission to teach Violet exactly how powerless she is–unless she betrays the man she loves.

Although Violet’s body might be weaker and frailer than everyone else’s, she still has her wits—and a will of iron. And leadership is forgetting the most important lesson Basgiath has taught her: Dragon riders make their own rules.

But a determination to survive won’t be enough this year.

Because Violet knows the real secret hidden for centuries at Basgiath War College—and nothing, not even dragon fire, may be enough to save them in the end.]]>
623 Rebecca Yarros 1649374178 Dan 5 4.33 2023 Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: Dan
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/05/26
date added: 2024/05/27
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<![CDATA[The Magician King (The Magicians, #2)]]> 10079321
Accompanied by his oldest friend, Julia, Quentin sets off—only to somehow wind up back in the real world and not in Fillory, as they’d hoped. As they struggle to find their way back to their lost kingdom, they rely on Julia’s illicitly learned sorcery to fight a sinister threat in a world unlike the fantasy novels of their youth.]]>
432 Lev Grossman 043402080X Dan 0 to-read 3.91 2011 The Magician King (The Magicians, #2)
author: Lev Grossman
name: Dan
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/22
shelves: to-read
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<![CDATA[The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)]]> 6101718
Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he’s still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. Something is missing, though. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he dreamed it would. After graduation he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real. But the land of Quentin’s fantasies turns out to be much darker and more dangerous than he could have imagined. His childhood dream becomes a nightmare with a shocking truth at its heart.

At once psychologically piercing and magnificently absorbing, The Magicians boldly moves into uncharted literary territory, imagining magic as practiced by real people, with their capricious desires and volatile emotions. Lev Grossman creates an utterly original world in which good and evil aren’t black and white, love and sex aren’t simple or innocent, and power comes at a terrible price.]]>
402 Lev Grossman 0670020559 Dan 0 3.53 2009 The Magicians (The Magicians, #1)
author: Lev Grossman
name: Dan
average rating: 3.53
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at: 2024/05/22
date added: 2024/05/22
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TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH 202252152
However, very few of those people have ever actually read the story, and because of that they never know about things in the story that they miss.

For In ther movie the character of Jesse Bishop is killed when his aircraft is blowen up on a mission. However, in the story, Jesse Bishop ends up in a P.o.W. camp.

Another In ther movie the character Sergeant McIllhenny lives on, but in the story McIllhenny is killed while protecting General Savage and his aircrew from an attacking German figher.

So, you'll never know what else yoyu've missed until you read the whole story of...
TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH]]>
279 W. R. Shepherd 1490798145 Dan 0 to-read 4.49 TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH
author: W. R. Shepherd
name: Dan
average rating: 4.49
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/04/15
shelves: to-read
review:

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