Hugh's bookshelf: all en-US Thu, 09 Jan 2025 06:43:30 -0800 60 Hugh's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Wool - Holston (Wool, #1) 12287209
Or you'll get what you wish for.]]> 56 Hugh Howey Hugh 0 4.14 2012 Wool - Holston (Wool, #1)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly]]> 7745376
JUST FOOD does for fresh food what Fast Food Nation (Houghton Mifflin, 2001) did for fast food, challenging conventional views, and cutting through layers of myth and misinformation. For instance, an imported tomato is more energy-efficient than a local greenhouse-grown tomato. And farm-raised freshwater fish may soon be the most sustainable source of protein.

Informative and surprising, JUST FOOD tells us how to decide what to eat, and how our choices can help save the planet and feed the world.]]> 288 James McWilliams 0316033758 Hugh 4 3.63 2009 Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly
author: James McWilliams
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2009
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2014/09/16
shelves:
review:

]]> Daemon (Daemon, #1) 4699575
Matthew Sobol was a legendary computer game designer—the architect behind half-a-dozen popular online games. His premature death depressed both gamers and his company's stock price. But Sobol's fans aren't the only ones to note his passing. When his obituary is posted online, a previously dormant daemon activates, initiating a chain of events intended to unravel the fabric of our hyper-efficient, interconnected world. With Sobol's secrets buried along with him, and as new layers of his daemon are unleashed at every turn, it's up to an unlikely alliance to decipher his intricate plans and wrest the world from the grasp of a nameless, faceless enemy—or learn to live in a society in which we are no longer in control. . . .

Computer technology expert Daniel Suarez blends haunting high-tech realism with gripping suspense in an authentic, complex thriller in the tradition of Michael Crichton, Neal Stephenson, and William Gibson.]]> 432 Daniel Suarez 0525951113 Hugh 5

Daniel Suarez's Daemon is an amazing story. And I'm not talking about the actual plot; for that, the word "Amazing" would not suffice. No, I am referring to the incredible series of events which are leading up to its publication and release on January 8th.

After writing Daemon back in 2004, Suarez faced the uphill battle common to many first-time authors. Unable to find a buyer, yet confident of the quality of his work, he decided to self-publish. Using print-on-demand, Suarez pumped out a few dozen copies a month, at the time sporting the pseudonym of Leinad Zeraus, his real name spelled backwards.

Eventually the book achieved an underground and vocal following. A tipping point of sorts was reached, and the right people began promoting the book in whatever way they could, people like Craig, of craigslist fame and Rick Klau, at Feedburner (now owned by Google). This network helped boost sales until the bright folks at realized that a phenomenal author was going ignored.

What thrills me about the way this book came to life isn't the underdog-triumphant cliche, it is that the themes within Daemon are eerily germane to its own birthing pains. The premise of this book is that our technological interconnectedness will create as many problems as it solves. Empowering the little people with cheap processing power and an Internet which can not be regulated nor destroyed is great if you are a first time author trying to get a book out the door; it isn't so good for the rest of us if you are able to steal the identities of others, plan terrorist attacks, or abuse an infrastructure designed for efficiency, but capable of worse.

Other authors have probed these questions; Suarez goes one step further. His is an even bigger query: can our current economic and political systems evolve in a way that will handle the increase in individual power, or is a geopolitical revolution going to be required? If it sounds like heady stuff, it is. But don't worry, you'll have plenty of incentive to chew this fat as you feast on the meaty murder mystery which holds these premises together. Well, maybe "mystery" is the wrong word.

You see, Daemon starts with a gruesome death scene and a typical police procedural, but events unfold in a unique manner after just the first few pages. Very early into our story a man identifies himself to our head detective and confesses to the two murders. Here is the twist: The murderer is the famous billionaire videogame programmer Matthew Sobol; And Sobol died of cancer before these crimes took place!

There is no "whodunnit" in Daemon. When you think about it, 'Who?' is really an uninteresting question compared to "Why?" and 'How?'. The former is just a name, a character. There is some suspense, sure, but the 'Why' and 'How' of this book make a normal murder mystery seem blase. The 'Why' is a philosophical revolution. The 'How' is a frightening glimpse of a future managed by machines and programs. The real antagonist in "Daemon" isn't the dead Sobol, though he serves as its figurehead, the real enemy in this book is the titular Daemon, the distributed algorithm that Sobol meticulously crafted and unleashed on the world.

The power of Sobol's Daemon comes from his advances in videogame AI. Sobol created the book's version of our World of Warcraft, which they call "The Gate". This MMORPG not only provides the technical know-how for designing incredibly robust logic trees, it also provides the perfect virtual world for training and recruitment. And the rapt population is the ideal one for a cult of personality to form: Dissatisfied 20-somethings looking for a cause to celebrate, as one of his characters powerfully puts it:
This was as far from Main Street as he'd ever been. This wasn't the tattooed, pierced neo-tribal rebellious bullshit of his generation. This was a quiet demonstration of networked power. This was it.

Couple this empowerment with the addictive concept of "leveling" in real-life and you have a recruitment process that Al Qaeda can't match. Look at how XBox gamers compare their real-world "Gamerscores" and trophies, how forum denizens brandish post-counts as proof of actual superiority, or how millionaire doctors can be reduced to clawing at one another for "loot" bags at medical conventions. The mechanisms that make videogames engaging, addictive, and all-powerful do NOT work on us because of anything inherent in videogames, they succeed because of truths inherent in humanity. Especially for virile males seeking the alpha-male status of 1337ness.

Suarez's grip on this undercurrent is matched by his knowledge of today's leading-edge technology. The book reads like Engadget, Gizmodo, and Wired Magazine rolled up in some military "Janes" articles. This isn't science fiction, it is fiction based on scientific FACT. In a speech for the Long Now foundation, Suarez recently detailed how some of the advances which power the plot of his novel are in action today. From bots that scour our medical records and approve our loans, to convincing text-to-voice technology, and on to cameras which read the license plates of traffic violators with an automated process which results in an actual ticket being cursed by a real human. Soon RFID tags will interact with mesh networks that can track everything, all in the name of efficiency and profit, but hackable for more nefarious purposes.

This contemporary relevance is why some are already comparing Suarez to Michael Crichton, but I don't think the comparison is fair to Suarez. Chrichton was great at taking science to its extremes, creating worlds which seemed plausible, yet unlikely. Suarez does something better: He uses a mastery of the micro-technological to posit, with convincing force, a macro-future which seems more inevitable than fanciful. Which of these is scarier: Reading about a dinosaur chasing your imaginary hero, or putting down a terrifying thriller and seeing another Reuter's article which drags that fiction into YOUR reality? The former isn't even a close second.

For me, Suarez is the new Neal Stephenson. If Stephenson's "Diamond Age" is a glimpse of our world 200 years from now, Suarez is the more-germane prophet of a literal tomorrow. His particular fiction is as unlikely as any to ever come to pass, but the questions it wrestles with MUST be raised and dealt with by a generation alive today. Daemon's brilliance is that it combines an engrossing mystery with nerve-splitting action, and yet still raises these heady questions. This mixture creates a novel that you never want to put down, and when you are forced to do so, the implications of its philosophical underpinnings stir your imagination into a frenzy. You don't find yourself perseverating over the precarious situation you left the characters in, you instead find yourself seeing the world around you in a different light. It is as if a HUD becomes overlayed on your vision, filled with the data and info that Suarez's book illuminates, an experience not unlike that endured by his characters as they are bent to the will of his fictional mastermind, Mathew Sobol. The next time I make a flight reservation by interacting with an imaginary voice that is following a logic tree, a simplified version of the Daemon, it will be with a new, chilling awareness.

Daemon was a perfect storm for me, as a reader. I grew up on science fiction, but I now prefer a realistic thriller. I enjoy the effortless pleasure of reading make-believe, yet prefer thought provoking non-fiction. I am an avid gamer and a worshiper (albeit rarely a purchaser) of consumer electronics. This novel touched on so many passions, and sated them all. Even when the plot disappointed me at times, it was a devious sham that Suarez teased me with, then made up for it in the end. Rarely do I put down a great read like I did tonight and have the urge to call friends and family to share the experience with them, but that is how Daemon made me feel. It isn't just a great book; it is an important book.]]> 4.17 2006 Daemon (Daemon, #1)
author: Daniel Suarez
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at: 2009/01/10
date added: 2014/01/08
shelves:
review:


Daniel Suarez's Daemon is an amazing story. And I'm not talking about the actual plot; for that, the word "Amazing" would not suffice. No, I am referring to the incredible series of events which are leading up to its publication and release on January 8th.

After writing Daemon back in 2004, Suarez faced the uphill battle common to many first-time authors. Unable to find a buyer, yet confident of the quality of his work, he decided to self-publish. Using print-on-demand, Suarez pumped out a few dozen copies a month, at the time sporting the pseudonym of Leinad Zeraus, his real name spelled backwards.

Eventually the book achieved an underground and vocal following. A tipping point of sorts was reached, and the right people began promoting the book in whatever way they could, people like Craig, of craigslist fame and Rick Klau, at Feedburner (now owned by Google). This network helped boost sales until the bright folks at realized that a phenomenal author was going ignored.

What thrills me about the way this book came to life isn't the underdog-triumphant cliche, it is that the themes within Daemon are eerily germane to its own birthing pains. The premise of this book is that our technological interconnectedness will create as many problems as it solves. Empowering the little people with cheap processing power and an Internet which can not be regulated nor destroyed is great if you are a first time author trying to get a book out the door; it isn't so good for the rest of us if you are able to steal the identities of others, plan terrorist attacks, or abuse an infrastructure designed for efficiency, but capable of worse.

Other authors have probed these questions; Suarez goes one step further. His is an even bigger query: can our current economic and political systems evolve in a way that will handle the increase in individual power, or is a geopolitical revolution going to be required? If it sounds like heady stuff, it is. But don't worry, you'll have plenty of incentive to chew this fat as you feast on the meaty murder mystery which holds these premises together. Well, maybe "mystery" is the wrong word.

You see, Daemon starts with a gruesome death scene and a typical police procedural, but events unfold in a unique manner after just the first few pages. Very early into our story a man identifies himself to our head detective and confesses to the two murders. Here is the twist: The murderer is the famous billionaire videogame programmer Matthew Sobol; And Sobol died of cancer before these crimes took place!

There is no "whodunnit" in Daemon. When you think about it, 'Who?' is really an uninteresting question compared to "Why?" and 'How?'. The former is just a name, a character. There is some suspense, sure, but the 'Why' and 'How' of this book make a normal murder mystery seem blase. The 'Why' is a philosophical revolution. The 'How' is a frightening glimpse of a future managed by machines and programs. The real antagonist in "Daemon" isn't the dead Sobol, though he serves as its figurehead, the real enemy in this book is the titular Daemon, the distributed algorithm that Sobol meticulously crafted and unleashed on the world.

The power of Sobol's Daemon comes from his advances in videogame AI. Sobol created the book's version of our World of Warcraft, which they call "The Gate". This MMORPG not only provides the technical know-how for designing incredibly robust logic trees, it also provides the perfect virtual world for training and recruitment. And the rapt population is the ideal one for a cult of personality to form: Dissatisfied 20-somethings looking for a cause to celebrate, as one of his characters powerfully puts it:
This was as far from Main Street as he'd ever been. This wasn't the tattooed, pierced neo-tribal rebellious bullshit of his generation. This was a quiet demonstration of networked power. This was it.

Couple this empowerment with the addictive concept of "leveling" in real-life and you have a recruitment process that Al Qaeda can't match. Look at how XBox gamers compare their real-world "Gamerscores" and trophies, how forum denizens brandish post-counts as proof of actual superiority, or how millionaire doctors can be reduced to clawing at one another for "loot" bags at medical conventions. The mechanisms that make videogames engaging, addictive, and all-powerful do NOT work on us because of anything inherent in videogames, they succeed because of truths inherent in humanity. Especially for virile males seeking the alpha-male status of 1337ness.

Suarez's grip on this undercurrent is matched by his knowledge of today's leading-edge technology. The book reads like Engadget, Gizmodo, and Wired Magazine rolled up in some military "Janes" articles. This isn't science fiction, it is fiction based on scientific FACT. In a speech for the Long Now foundation, Suarez recently detailed how some of the advances which power the plot of his novel are in action today. From bots that scour our medical records and approve our loans, to convincing text-to-voice technology, and on to cameras which read the license plates of traffic violators with an automated process which results in an actual ticket being cursed by a real human. Soon RFID tags will interact with mesh networks that can track everything, all in the name of efficiency and profit, but hackable for more nefarious purposes.

This contemporary relevance is why some are already comparing Suarez to Michael Crichton, but I don't think the comparison is fair to Suarez. Chrichton was great at taking science to its extremes, creating worlds which seemed plausible, yet unlikely. Suarez does something better: He uses a mastery of the micro-technological to posit, with convincing force, a macro-future which seems more inevitable than fanciful. Which of these is scarier: Reading about a dinosaur chasing your imaginary hero, or putting down a terrifying thriller and seeing another Reuter's article which drags that fiction into YOUR reality? The former isn't even a close second.

For me, Suarez is the new Neal Stephenson. If Stephenson's "Diamond Age" is a glimpse of our world 200 years from now, Suarez is the more-germane prophet of a literal tomorrow. His particular fiction is as unlikely as any to ever come to pass, but the questions it wrestles with MUST be raised and dealt with by a generation alive today. Daemon's brilliance is that it combines an engrossing mystery with nerve-splitting action, and yet still raises these heady questions. This mixture creates a novel that you never want to put down, and when you are forced to do so, the implications of its philosophical underpinnings stir your imagination into a frenzy. You don't find yourself perseverating over the precarious situation you left the characters in, you instead find yourself seeing the world around you in a different light. It is as if a HUD becomes overlayed on your vision, filled with the data and info that Suarez's book illuminates, an experience not unlike that endured by his characters as they are bent to the will of his fictional mastermind, Mathew Sobol. The next time I make a flight reservation by interacting with an imaginary voice that is following a logic tree, a simplified version of the Daemon, it will be with a new, chilling awareness.

Daemon was a perfect storm for me, as a reader. I grew up on science fiction, but I now prefer a realistic thriller. I enjoy the effortless pleasure of reading make-believe, yet prefer thought provoking non-fiction. I am an avid gamer and a worshiper (albeit rarely a purchaser) of consumer electronics. This novel touched on so many passions, and sated them all. Even when the plot disappointed me at times, it was a devious sham that Suarez teased me with, then made up for it in the end. Rarely do I put down a great read like I did tonight and have the urge to call friends and family to share the experience with them, but that is how Daemon made me feel. It isn't just a great book; it is an important book.
]]> <![CDATA[The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy]]> 7623692 240 Michael Foley 1847375243 Hugh 5
Foley takes a tour of the things that make us unhappy, shows why we spend much of our time doing the opposite of what might make us happy, and gives a few hints regarding new paths to take if we want to improve our outlook on life and ourselves. It's not a self-help book, but maybe it should be. Or rather, this is what self-help should strive to do, which is to give more understanding and insight and less pat answers to impossible problems. Sages and seers have wrestled with the human condition for millennia. There is no secret that answers all of the mysteries of our existence. Foley offers a more enlightened solution which is to engage in that wrestling match with vigor and zest and enjoy the process until the day we finally succumb.

For me, it was the perfect book at the perfect time in my life. It is a call to slow down in some areas and strive harder in others. The most applicable message is that there is joy in the hard work of life, something I've always found true for myself.

When I set off to sail around the world (my life's ambition), the goal will not be to get anywhere. Or more precisely, the goal will be to get right back to my point of departure. Going in a giant circle, just as Sisyphus rolls his rock up and down a hill, is the point of the thing. What will matter is being one with the sea, aiming for the horizon, having quiet time with my wife, our Kindles full of books, a few storms ahead of us, sure, but a few spectacular sunrises as well.

Rare are the books that say the things we feel in our hearts but are unable to put into words. This is one such book. I'm already reading it again.]]> 3.81 2010 The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy
author: Michael Foley
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2013/11/09
date added: 2014/01/03
shelves:
review:
I picked this one up in the American Bookstore in Amsterdam to read while on some work travels. I've never laughed out loud like this while reading a book of philosophy. I also have rarely been so moved by the prose of a work of non-fiction.

Foley takes a tour of the things that make us unhappy, shows why we spend much of our time doing the opposite of what might make us happy, and gives a few hints regarding new paths to take if we want to improve our outlook on life and ourselves. It's not a self-help book, but maybe it should be. Or rather, this is what self-help should strive to do, which is to give more understanding and insight and less pat answers to impossible problems. Sages and seers have wrestled with the human condition for millennia. There is no secret that answers all of the mysteries of our existence. Foley offers a more enlightened solution which is to engage in that wrestling match with vigor and zest and enjoy the process until the day we finally succumb.

For me, it was the perfect book at the perfect time in my life. It is a call to slow down in some areas and strive harder in others. The most applicable message is that there is joy in the hard work of life, something I've always found true for myself.

When I set off to sail around the world (my life's ambition), the goal will not be to get anywhere. Or more precisely, the goal will be to get right back to my point of departure. Going in a giant circle, just as Sisyphus rolls his rock up and down a hill, is the point of the thing. What will matter is being one with the sea, aiming for the horizon, having quiet time with my wife, our Kindles full of books, a few storms ahead of us, sure, but a few spectacular sunrises as well.

Rare are the books that say the things we feel in our hearts but are unable to put into words. This is one such book. I'm already reading it again.
]]> <![CDATA[Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)]]> 9969571 Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found here

IN THE YEAR 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.

But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.]]> 480 Ernest Cline 030788743X Hugh 5
A book I'll likely read every three or four years, which I only do for two other works: Ender's Game and Battlefield Earth.]]> 4.21 2011 Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)
author: Ernest Cline
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2013/12/09
shelves:
review:
I had the feeling while reading this book that it was written expressly for me. This is my childhood captured. And since it was an insular and introverted childhood, it felt unique. It wasn't connected with Facebook. I had no idea that I was legion. And so I imagine many other readers felt the same sensation of having a book speak directly to their most private memories and moments. And what could be more cherished than that? It was like having a videogame written for you. Or being able to be cast in your favorite film, playing the part of the star.

A book I'll likely read every three or four years, which I only do for two other works: Ender's Game and Battlefield Earth.
]]> The Art of Choosing 6648865

Whether mundane or life-altering, these choices define us and shape our lives. Sheena Iyengar asks the difficult questions about how and why we choose: Is the desire for choice innate or bound by culture? Why do we sometimes choose against our best interests? How much control do we really have over what we choose? Sheena Iyengar's award-winning research reveals that the answers are surprising and profound. In our world of shifting political and cultural forces, technological revolution, and interconnected commerce, our decisions have far-reaching consequences. Use THE ART OF CHOOSING as your companion and guide for the many challenges ahead.]]> 352 Sheena Iyengar 0446504106 Hugh 0 currently-reading 3.84 1989 The Art of Choosing
author: Sheena Iyengar
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.84
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2013/11/17
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> Cloud Atlas 49628
Cloud Atlas begins in 1850 with Adam Ewing, an American notary voyaging from the Chatham Isles to his home in California. Along the way, Ewing is befriended by a physician, Dr. Goose, who begins to treat him for a rare species of brain parasite. . . .

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

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

As wild as a videogame, as mysterious as a Zen koan, Cloud Atlas is an unforgettable tour de force that, like its incomparable author, has transcended its cult classic status to become a worldwide phenomenon.]]> 509 David Mitchell 0375507256 Hugh 4 4.02 2004 Cloud Atlas
author: David Mitchell
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2004
rating: 4
read at: 2011/06/10
date added: 2013/11/10
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)]]> 13496
Sweeping from a harsh land of cold to a summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, A Game of Thrones tells a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; a child is lost in the twilight between life and death; and a determined woman undertakes a treacherous journey to protect all she holds dear. Amid plots and counter-plots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, allies and enemies, the fate of the Starks hangs perilously in the balance, as each side endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.]]> 835 George R.R. Martin 0553588486 Hugh 5 4.44 1996 A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)
author: George R.R. Martin
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.44
book published: 1996
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2012/11/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[At Home: A Short History of Private Life]]> 7507825
Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to “write a history of the world without leaving home.� The bathroom provides the occasion for a history of hygiene; the bedroom, sex, death, and sleep; the kitchen, nutrition and the spice trade; and so on, as Bryson shows how each has figured in the evolution of private life. Whatever happens in the world, he demonstrates, ends up in our house, in the paint and the pipes and the pillows and every item of furniture.
(front flap)]]> 497 Bill Bryson 0767919386 Hugh 4 3.98 2010 At Home: A Short History of Private Life
author: Bill Bryson
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2012/10/18
date added: 2012/10/18
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide, #1)]]> 79260
By now the story is legendary. Arthur Dent, mild-mannered, out-to-lunch earth-ling, is plucked from his planet by his friend Ford Prefect just seconds before it was demolished to make way for a hyper-space bypass. Ford, posing as an out-of-work actor, is a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Together the gruesome twosome begin their now-famous inter-galactic journey through time, space and best-sellerdom.]]> 224 Douglas Adams 1415922543 Hugh 4 3.96 1979 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide, #1)
author: Douglas Adams
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1979
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2012/01/29
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined]]> 11107244 Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year. The author of The New York Times bestseller The Stuff of Thought offers a controversial history of violence.

Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species' existence. For most of history, war, slavery, infanticide, child abuse, assassinations, pogroms, gruesome punishments, deadly quarrels, and genocide were ordinary features of life. But today, Pinker shows (with the help of more than a hundred graphs and maps) all these forms of violence have dwindled and are widely condemned. How has this happened?

This groundbreaking book continues Pinker's exploration of the essence of human nature, mixing psychology and history to provide a remarkable picture of an increasingly nonviolent world. The key, he explains, is to understand our intrinsic motives- the inner demons that incline us toward violence and the better angels that steer us away-and how changing circumstances have allowed our better angels to prevail. Exploding fatalist myths about humankind's inherent violence and the curse of modernity, this ambitious and provocative book is sure to be hotly debated in living rooms and the Pentagon alike, and will challenge and change the way we think about our society.]]> 802 Steven Pinker 0670022950 Hugh 5 4.17 2010 The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
author: Steven Pinker
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/12/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue (The Bern Saga #1)]]> 8779464 1. Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue
2. Molly Fyde and the Land of Light
3. Molly Fyde and the Blood of Billions
4. Molly Fyde and the Fight for Peace


It wasn't easy for Molly being the only girl in Flight Academy, but getting expelled was even worse. Abandoned by her family when she was young and now tossed from the only home she's ever known, her future looks bleak.

But then Molly hears that her father's old starship has turned up halfway across the galaxy. Setting off to retrieve the old craft, she hopes it will hold clues to his disappearance. Accompanying her as a chaperone is Cole, her old flight partner from the Academy.

Molly can't believe it. She's now the proud owner of her own starship. Her Spring Break is going to be spent traveling across the galaxy with a cute boy. Could things possibly get any better?

Little does Molly know, they are about to get much, much worse . . .]]> 294 Hugh Howey Hugh 5 3.92 2009 Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue (The Bern Saga #1)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2009
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/12/09
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything]]> 6346975 The blockbuster phenomenon that charts an amazing journey of the mind while revolutionizing our concept of memory

An instant bestseller that is poised to become a classic, Moonwalking with Einstein recounts Joshua Foer's yearlong quest to improve his memory under the tutelage of top "mental athletes." He draws on cutting-edge research, a surprising cultural history of remembering, and venerable tricks of the mentalist's trade to transform our understanding of human memory. From the United States Memory Championship to deep within the author's own mind, this is an electrifying work of journalism that reminds us that, in every way that matters, we are the sum of our memories.]]> 307 Joshua Foer 159420229X Hugh 5 3.86 2011 Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
author: Joshua Foer
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2011
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2011/09/06
shelves:
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive]]> 8884400
Named for computer pioneer Alan Turing, the Tur­ing Test convenes a panel of judges who pose questions—ranging anywhere from celebrity gossip to moral conundrums—to hidden contestants in an attempt to discern which is human and which is a computer. The machine that most often fools the panel wins the Most Human Computer Award. But there is also a prize, bizarre and intriguing, for the Most Human Human.

In 2008, the top AI program came short of passing the Turing Test by just one astonishing vote. In 2009, Brian Christian was chosen to participate, and he set out to make sure Homo sapiens would prevail.

The author’s quest to be deemed more human than a com­puter opens a window onto our own nature. Interweaving modern phenomena like customer service “chatbots� and men using programmed dialogue to pick up women in bars with insights from fields as diverse as chess, psychiatry, and the law, Brian Christian examines the philosophical, bio­logical, and moral issues raised by the Turing Test.

One central definition of human has been “a being that could reason.� If computers can reason, what does that mean for the special place we reserve for humanity?]]> 303 Brian Christian 0385533063 Hugh 5 3.94 2011 The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive
author: Brian Christian
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2011
rating: 5
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date added: 2011/09/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Out of Character: Surprising Truths About the Liar, Cheat, Sinner (and Saint) Lurking in All of Us]]> 10929824
Or have you ever pondered what might make Mr. Right leave his beloved at the altar, why hypocrisy seems to be rampant, or even why, every once in awhile, even you are secretly tempted, to lie, cheat, or steal (or, conversely, help someone you never even met)?

This book answers these questions and more, and in doing so, turns the prevailing wisdom about who we are upside down. Our character, argue psychologists DeSteno and Valdesolo, isn’t a stable set of traits, but rather a shifting state that is subject to the constant push and pull of hidden mechanisms in our mind. And it's the battle between these dueling psychological forces that determine how we act at any given point in time.

Drawing on the surprising results of the clever experiments concocted in their own laboratory, DeSteno and Valdesolo shed new scientific light on so many of the puzzling behaviors that regularly grace the headlines. For example, you’ll learn:

•Why Tiger Woods just couldn’t resist the allure of his mistresses even though he had a picture-perfect family at home. And why no one, including those who knew him best, ever saw it coming.

•Why even the shrewdest of investors can be tempted to gamble their fortunes away (and why risky financial behavior is driven by the same mechanisms that compel us to root for the underdog in sports).

•Why Eliot Spitzer, who made a career of crusading against prostitution, turned out to be one of the most famous johns of all time.

•Why Mel Gibson, a noted philanthropist and devout Catholic, has been repeatedly caught spewing racist rants, even though close friends say he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body.

•And why any of us is capable of doing the same, whether we believe it or not!

A surprising look at the hidden forces driving the saint and sinner lurking in us all, Out of Character reveals why human behavior is so much more unpredictable than we ever realized.





From the Hardcover edition.]]> 274 David DeSteno 0307717771 Hugh 4 3.69 2011 Out of Character: Surprising Truths About the Liar, Cheat, Sinner (and Saint) Lurking in All of Us
author: David DeSteno
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2011
rating: 4
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date added: 2011/09/06
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]]> <![CDATA[Just My Type: A Book About Fonts]]> 10909804 384 Simon Garfield 1592406521 Hugh 4 3.94 2010 Just My Type: A Book About Fonts
author: Simon Garfield
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2010
rating: 4
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date added: 2011/09/06
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]]> Where the Sidewalk Ends 30119 Come in... for where the sidewalk ends, Shel Silverstein's world begins.

Shel Silverstein, theNew York Times bestselling author of The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, and Every Thing On It, has created a poetry collection that is outrageously funny and deeply profound.

You'll meet a boy who turns into a TV set, and a girl who eats a whale. The Unicorn and the Bloath live there, and so does Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout who will not take the garbage out. It is a place where you wash your shadow and plant diamond gardens, a place where shoes fly, sisters are auctioned off, and crocodiles go to the dentist.

Shel Silverstein's masterful collection of poems and drawings stretches the bounds of imagination and will be cherished by readers of all ages.]]> 176 Shel Silverstein 0060513039 Hugh 5 4.34 1974 Where the Sidewalk Ends
author: Shel Silverstein
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.34
book published: 1974
rating: 5
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date added: 2011/02/13
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]]> Slaughterhouse-Five 4981 Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.�

An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it.

Fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut's portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties.]]> 275 Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Hugh 3 4.10 1969 Slaughterhouse-Five
author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1969
rating: 3
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date added: 2011/02/13
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]]> Haunted 22288
The stories are told by people who have all answered an ad headlined 'Artists Retreat: Abandon your life for three months'. They are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of 'real life' that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them.

But 'here' turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theater where they are utterly isolated from the outside world - and where heat and power and, most importantly, food are in increasingly short supply. And the more desperate the circumstances become, the more desperate the stories they tell - and the more devious their machinations to make themselves the hero of the inevitable play/movie/non-fiction blockbuster that will certainly be made from their plight.]]> 419 Chuck Palahniuk 1400032822 Hugh 4 3.60 2005 Haunted
author: Chuck Palahniuk
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2005
rating: 4
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date added: 2011/02/13
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]]> <![CDATA[Molly Fyde and the Blood of Billions (The Bern Saga, #3)]]> 8508828 362 Hugh Howey 0982611927 Hugh 5 3.96 2010 Molly Fyde and the Blood of Billions (The Bern Saga, #3)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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date added: 2011/01/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Long Lost (Myron Bolitar, #9)]]> 3675828 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben’s blistering new Myron Bolitar thriller takes Myron—and his millions of fans—where they have never gone before

Myron Bolitar hasn’t heard from Terese Collins since their torrid affair ended ten years ago, so her desperate phone call from Paris catches him completely off guard. In a shattering admission, Terese reveals the tragic story behind her disappearance—her struggles to get pregnant, the greatest moment of her life when her baby was born…and the fatal accident that robbed her of it all: her marriage, her happiness and her beloved only daughter.

Now a suspect in the murder of her ex-husband in Paris, Terese has nowhere else to turn for help. Myron heeds the call. But then a startling piece of evidence turns the entire case upside down, laying bare Terese’s long-buried family secrets…and the very real possibility that her daughter may still be alive.

In grave danger from unknown assailants in a country where nothing is as it seems, Myron and Terese race to stay a step ahead of Homeland Security, Interpol, and Mossad. Soon they are working at breakneck pace, not only to learn what really happened to Terese’s long-lost little girl� but to uncover a sinister plot with shocking global implications.]]> 374 Harlan Coben 0525951059 Hugh 4 3.95 2009 Long Lost (Myron Bolitar, #9)
author: Harlan Coben
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2009
rating: 4
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date added: 2010/11/15
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]]> <![CDATA[God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything]]> 43369 307 Christopher Hitchens 0446579807 Hugh 4 3.94 2007 God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
author: Christopher Hitchens
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2007
rating: 4
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date added: 2010/08/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future]]> 199358
For the first time in human history, he observes, “more� is no longer synonymous with “better”—indeed, for many of us, they have become almost opposites. McKibben puts forward a new way to think about the things we buy, the food we eat, the energy we use, and the money that pays for it all. Our purchases, he says, need not be at odds with the things we truly value.McKibben’s animating idea is that we need to move beyond “growth� as the paramount economic ideal and pursue prosperity in a more local direction, with cities, suburbs, and regions producing more of their own food, generating more of their own energy, and even creating more of their own culture and entertainment. He shows this concept blossoming around the world with striking results, from the burgeoning economies of India and China to the more mature societies of Europe and New England.

For those who worry about environmental threats, he offers a route out of the worst of those problems; for those who wonder if there isn’t something more to life than buying, he provides the insight to think about one’s life as an individual and as a member of a larger community.McKibben offers a realistic, if challenging, scenario for a hopeful future. As he so eloquently shows, the more we nurture the essential humanity of our economy, the more we will recapture our own.]]> 272 Bill McKibben 0805076263 Hugh 2 4.07 2007 Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
author: Bill McKibben
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2007
rating: 2
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date added: 2010/08/28
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]]> <![CDATA[Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease]]> 119837 267 Sharon Moalem Hugh 4 4.14 2007 Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease
author: Sharon Moalem
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2007
rating: 4
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date added: 2010/08/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet]]> 7141642
But Jacob’s original intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor and midwife to the city’s powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken. The consequences will extend beyond Jacob’s worst imaginings. As one cynical colleague asks, “Who ain’t a gambler in the glorious Orient, with his very life?�

A magnificent mix of luminous writing, prodigious research, and heedless imagination, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet is the most impressive achievement of its eminent author.]]> 479 David Mitchell 1400065453 Hugh 5 4.01 2010 The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
author: David Mitchell
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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date added: 2010/08/02
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]]> The Passage (The Passage, #1) 6690798 THIRTY-TWO MINUTES FOR ONE WORLD TO DIE, ANOTHER TO BE BORN.

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he's done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. Wolgast is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors, but for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—toward the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

With The Passage, award-winning author Justin Cronin has written both a relentlessly suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger. Its inventive storytelling, masterly prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction.]]> 784 Justin Cronin 0345504968 Hugh 5 4.04 2010 The Passage (The Passage, #1)
author: Justin Cronin
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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date added: 2010/08/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine]]> 2348645 352 Simon Singh 0393066614 Hugh 5 4.08 2008 Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine
author: Simon Singh
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2008
rating: 5
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date added: 2010/08/02
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]]> <![CDATA[The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves]]> 7776209
Yet Matt Ridley does more than describe how things are getting better. He explains why. Prosperity comes from everybody working for everybody else. The habit of exchange and specialization—which started more than 100,000 years ago—has created a collective brain that sets human living standards on a rising trend. The mutual dependence, trust, and sharing that result are causes for hope, not despair.

This bold book covers the entire sweep of human history, from the Stone Age to the Internet, from the stagnation of the Ming empire to the invention of the steam engine, from the population explosion to the likely consequences of climate change. It ends with a confident assertion that thanks to the ceaseless capacity of the human race for innovative change, and despite inevitable disasters along the way, the twenty-first century will see both human prosperity and natural biodiversity enhanced. Acute, refreshing, and revelatory, The Rational Optimist will change your way of thinking about the world for the better.]]> 448 Matt Ridley 006145205X Hugh 5 3.94 2010 The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
author: Matt Ridley
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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date added: 2010/08/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Power Hungry: The Myths of ""Green"" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future]]> 8026503
Fueling our society requires more than sentiment and rhetoric; we need to make good decisions and smart investments based on facts. In Power Hungry , Bryce provides a supertanker-load of footnoted facts while shepherding readers through basic physics and math. And with the help of a panoply of vivid graphics and tables, he crushes a phalanx of energy myths, showing why renewables are not green, carbon capture and sequestration won't work, and even -- surprise! -- that the U.S. is leading the world in energy efficiency. He also charts the amazing growth of the fuels of the natural gas and nuclear.

Power Hungry delivers a clear-eyed view of what America has "in the tank," and what's needed to transform the gargantuan global energy sector.]]> 416 Robert Bryce 1586487892 Hugh 4 3.82 2010 Power Hungry: The Myths of ""Green"" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future
author: Robert Bryce
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2010
rating: 4
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date added: 2010/08/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void]]> 7237456 The best-selling author of Stiff and Bonk explores the irresistibly strange universe of space travel and life without gravity.

Space is a world devoid of the things we need to live and thrive: air, gravity, hot showers, fresh produce, privacy, beer. Space exploration is in some ways an exploration of what it means to be human. How much can a person give up? How much weirdness can they take? What happens to you when you can’t walk for a year? have sex? smell flowers? What happens if you vomit in your helmet during a space walk? Is it possible for the human body to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour?

To answer these questions, space agencies set up all manner of quizzical and startlingly bizarre space simulations. As Mary Roach discovers, it’s possible to preview space without ever leaving Earth. From the space shuttle training toilet to a crash test of NASA’s new space capsule (cadaver filling in for astronaut), Roach takes us on a surreally entertaining trip into the science of life in space and space on Earth.]]> 334 Mary Roach 0393068471 Hugh 4 3.93 2010 Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
author: Mary Roach
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2010
rating: 4
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date added: 2010/08/02
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]]> <![CDATA[Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto]]> 6411373 An icon of the environmental movement outlines a provocative approach for reclaiming our planet.

According to Stewart Brand, a lifelong environmentalist who sees everything in terms of solvable design problems, three profound transformations are underway on Earth right now. Climate change is real and is pushing us toward managing the planet as a whole. Urbanization--half the world's population now lives in cities, and eighty percent will by midcentury--is altering humanity's land impact and wealth. And biotechnology is becoming the world's dominant engineering tool. In light of these changes, Brand suggests that environmentalists are going to have to reverse some longheld opinions and embrace tools that they have traditionally distrusted. Only a radical rethinking of traditional green pieties will allow us to forestall the cataclysmic deterioration of the earth's resources.

Whole Earth Discipline shatters a number of myths and presents counterintuitive observations on why cities are actually greener than the countryside, how nuclear power is the future of energy, and why genetic engineering is the key to crop and land management. With a combination of scientific rigour and passionate advocacy, Brand shows us exactly where the sources of our dilemmas lie and offer a bold and inventive set of policies and solutions for creating a more sustainable society.

In the end, says Brand, the environmental movement must become newly responsive to fast-moving science and take up the tools and discipline of engineering. We have to learn how to manage the planet's global-scale natural infrastructure with as light a touch as possible and as much intervention as necessary.

]]> 336 Stewart Brand 0670021210 Hugh 5 4.11 2009 Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto
author: Stewart Brand
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2009
rating: 5
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]]> Half Way Home 8428985 368 Hugh Howey 0982611935 Hugh 5 3.59 2010 Half Way Home
author: Hugh Howey
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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date added: 2010/06/09
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]]> So Yesterday 24763 256 Scott Westerfeld 1595140328 Hugh 4 3.59 2004 So Yesterday
author: Scott Westerfeld
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2004
rating: 4
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date added: 2010/01/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries]]> 22543 A vibrant collection of essays on the cosmos from the nation's best-known astrophysicist. "One of today's best popularizers of science." —Kirkus Reviews.

Loyal readers of the monthly "Universe" essays in Natural History magazine have long recognized Neil deGrasse Tyson's talent for guiding them through the mysteries of the cosmos with stunning clarity and almost childlike enthusiasm. Here, Tyson compiles his favorite essays across a myriad of cosmic topics.

The title essay introduces readers to the physics of black holes by explaining the gory details of what would happen to your body if you fell into one. "Holy Wars" examines the needless friction between science and religion in the context of historical conflicts. "The Search for Life in the Universe" explores astral life from the frontiers of astrobiology. And "Hollywood Nights" assails the movie industry's feeble efforts to get its night skies right.

Known for his ability to blend content, accessibility, and humor, Tyson is a natural teacher who simplifies some of the most complex concepts in astrophysics while simultaneously sharing his infectious excitement about our universe.]]> 384 Neil deGrasse Tyson 0393062244 Hugh 5 4.09 2006 Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries
author: Neil deGrasse Tyson
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2006
rating: 5
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date added: 2010/01/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Molly Fyde and the Land of Light (The Bern Saga, #2)]]> 7600030 332 Hugh Howey 0982611900 Hugh 5 4.06 2010 Molly Fyde and the Land of Light (The Bern Saga, #2)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2010
rating: 5
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date added: 2010/01/17
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]]> Let the Great World Spin 5941033
Let the Great World Spin is the critically acclaimed author’s most ambitious novel yet: a dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s.

Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artist finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own life careening sideways. Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenage daughter, determined not only to take care of her family but to prove her own worth.

Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann’s powerful allegory comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the “artistic crime of the century.� A sweeping and radical social novel, Let the Great World Spin captures the spirit of America in a time of transition, extraordinary promise, and, in hindsight, heartbreaking innocence. Hailed as a “fiercely original talent� (San Francisco Chronicle), award-winning novelist McCann has delivered a triumphantly American masterpiece that awakens in us a sense of what the novel can achieve, confront, and even heal.]]> 351 Colum McCann 1400063736 Hugh 5 3.95 2009 Let the Great World Spin
author: Colum McCann
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2009
rating: 5
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date added: 2010/01/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death]]> 3512008
Then things get The dead man's daughter asks a favor. Every cell in Web's brain tells him to turn her down, but something makes him hit the Harbor Freeway at midnight to help her however he can. Soon enough it's Web who needs the help when gun-toting California cowboys start showing up on his doorstep. What's the deal? Is it something to do with what he cleaned up in that motel room in Carson? Or is it all about the brewing war between rival trauma cleaners? Web doesn't have a clue, but he'll need to get one if he's going to keep from getting his face kicked in. Again. And again. And again.]]> 319 Charlie Huston 034550111X Hugh 4 3.83 2008 The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death
author: Charlie Huston
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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date added: 2010/01/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Precious Dragon (Detective Inspector Chen, #3)]]> 535349 242 Liz Williams 1597800821 Hugh 3 3.95 2007 Precious Dragon (Detective Inspector Chen, #3)
author: Liz Williams
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2007
rating: 3
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date added: 2010/01/05
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]]> <![CDATA[The Ticking Is the Bomb: A Memoir]]> 6566887 A dazzling, searing, and inventive memoir about becoming a father in the age of terror.

In 2007, during the months before Nick Flynn’s daughter’s birth, his growing outrage and obsession with torture, exacerbated by the Abu Ghraib photographs, led him to Istanbul to meet some of the Iraqi men depicted in those photos. Haunted by a history of addiction, a relationship with his unsteady father, and a longing to connect with his mother who committed suicide, Flynn artfully interweaves in this memoir passages from his childhood, his relationships with women, and his growing obsession—a questioning of terror, torture, and the political crimes we can neither see nor understand in post-9/11 American life. The time bomb of the title becomes an unlikely metaphor and vehicle for exploring the fears and joys of becoming a father. Here is a memoir of profound self-discovery—of being lost and found, of painful family memories and losses, of the need to run from love, and of the ability to embrace it again.]]> 283 Nick Flynn 0393068161 Hugh 2 3.91 2009 The Ticking Is the Bomb: A Memoir
author: Nick Flynn
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2009
rating: 2
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date added: 2010/01/05
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]]> <![CDATA[Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct]]> 1802708 320 Michael E. McCullough 078797756X Hugh 5 3.91 2008 Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct
author: Michael E. McCullough
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2008
rating: 5
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date added: 2009/10/04
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]]> DIXIELAND DELIGHT 1621477 384 Clay Travis 0061431249 Hugh 0 to-read 3.96 2007 DIXIELAND DELIGHT
author: Clay Travis
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2009/09/29
shelves: to-read
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]]> The Arrow of Time 1361298
In The Arrow of Time, a major bestseller in England, Dr. Peter Coveney, a research scientist, and award-winning journalist Dr. Roger Highfield, demonstrate that the commonsense view of time agrees with the most advanced scientific theory. Time does in fact move like an arrow, shooting forward into what is genuinely unknown, leaving the past immutably behind. The authors make their case by exploring three centuries of science, offering bold reinterpretations of Newton's mechanics, Einstein's special and general theories of relativity, quantum mechanics, and advancing the insights of James Gleick's Chaos.]]> 377 Peter Coveney 0449907236 Hugh 0 to-read 3.67 1988 The Arrow of Time
author: Peter Coveney
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1988
rating: 0
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date added: 2009/09/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Myth of Monogamy: Fidelity and Infidelity in Animals and People]]> 764783 The Myth of Monogamy reveals, biologists have discovered that for nearly every species, cheating is the rule -- for both sexes.

Reviewing findings from the same DNA fingerprinting science employed in the courtroom, Barash and Lipton take readers from chickadee nests to chimpanzee packs to explain why animals cheat. (Some prostitute themselves for food or protection, while others strive to couple with genetically superior or multiple mates.) The Myth of Monogamy then illuminates the implications of these dramatic new findings for humans, in our relationships, as parents, and more.

The Myth of Monogamy at last brings scientific insight into this emotionally charged aspect of the ultimate dating and marriage quandary.]]> 240 David Philip Barash 0805071369 Hugh 0 to-read 3.73 2001 The Myth of Monogamy: Fidelity and Infidelity in Animals and People
author: David Philip Barash
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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date added: 2009/09/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]> <![CDATA[The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century]]> 101640
Science fiction’s finest have yielded this definitive collection featuring stories of warfare, victory, conquest, heroism, and overwhelming odds. These are scenarios few have ever dared to contemplate, and they

“Superiority�: Arthur C. Clarke presents an intergalactic war in which one side’s own advanced weaponry may actually lead to its ultimate defeat.

“Dragonrider�: A tale of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern, in which magic tips the scales of survival.

“Second Variety�: Philip K. Dick, author of the short story that became the movie Blade Runner, reaches new heights of terror with his post-apocalyptic vision of the future.

“The Night of the Vampyres�: A chilling ultimatum of atomic proportions begins a countdown to disaster in George R. R. Martin’s gripping drama.

“Hero�: Joe Haldeman’s short story that led to his classic of interstellar combat, The Forever War .

“Ender’s Game�: The short story that gave birth to Orson Scott Card’s masterpiece of military science fiction.

PLUS SEVEN MORE EPIC STORIES

“Among Thieves� by Poul Anderson
“Hangman� by David Drake
“The Last Article� by Harry Turtledove
“The Game of Rat and Dragon� by Cordwainer Smith
“To the Storming Gulf� by Gregory Benford
“Wolf Time� by Walter Jon Williams
“The Scapegoat� by C. J. Cherryh

Guaranteed to spark the imagination and thrill the soul, these thirteen science fiction gems cast a stark light on our dreams and our darkest fears—truly among the finest tales of the twentieth century.]]> 544 Harry Turtledove 0345439899 Hugh 4 3.79 2001 The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century
author: Harry Turtledove
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2001
rating: 4
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date added: 2009/09/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Prime Numbers: The Most Mysterious Figures in Math]]> 145689 Cicadas of the genus Magicicada appear once every 7, 13, or 17 years. Is it just a coincidence that these are all prime numbers? How do twin primes differ from cousin primes, and what on earth (or in the mind of a mathematician) could be sexy about prime numbers? What did Albert Wilansky find so fascinating about his brother-in-law's phone number?
Mathematicians have been asking questions about prime numbers for more than twenty-five centuries, and every answer seems to generate a new rash of questions. In Prime Numbers: The Most Mysterious Figures in Math, you'll meet the world's most gifted mathematicians, from Pythagoras and Euclid to Fermat, Gauss, and Erd?o?s, and you'll discover a host of unique insights and inventive conjectures that have both enlarged our understanding and deepened the mystique of prime numbers. This comprehensive, A-to-Z guide covers everything you ever wanted to know--and much more that you never suspected--about prime numbers, including:
* The unproven Riemann hypothesis and the power of the zeta function
* The "Primes is in P" algorithm
* The sieve of Eratosthenes of Cyrene
* Fermat and Fibonacci numbers
* The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search
* And much, much more]]> 272 David G. Wells Hugh 4 3.61 2005 Prime Numbers: The Most Mysterious Figures in Math
author: David G. Wells
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2005
rating: 4
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]]> Hit Man (Keller, #1) 380563 But then one job goes wrong in a way Keller has never imagined and it leaves him with a big problem. Finding himself with an orphan on his hands, Keller's job begins to interfere with his carefully guarded life. And once you let someone in to your life, they tend to want to know what you do when you're away. And killing for a living, lucrative though it is, just doesn't find favour with some folks.

]]> 320 Lawrence Block 0752825925 Hugh 5 3.91 1998 Hit Man (Keller, #1)
author: Lawrence Block
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1998
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century]]> 639076 274 Lauren Slater 0393326551 Hugh 4 3.90 2004 Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century
author: Lauren Slater
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2004
rating: 4
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]]> Serena 2815590
Rash's masterful balance of violence and beauty yields a riveting novel that, at its core, tells of love both honored and betrayed.]]> 371 Ron Rash 0061470856 Hugh 5 3.54 2008 Serena
author: Ron Rash
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.54
book published: 2008
rating: 5
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date added: 2009/09/29
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]]> <![CDATA[Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb]]> 16889 Here, for the first time, in a brilliant, panoramic portrait by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, is the definitive, often shocking story of the politics and the science behind the development of the hydrogen bomb and the birth of the Cold War.

Based on secret files in the United States and the former Soviet Union, this monumental work of history discloses how and why the United States decided to create the bomb that would dominate world politics for more than forty years.]]> 736 Richard Rhodes 0684824140 Hugh 4 4.17 1995 Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb
author: Richard Rhodes
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1995
rating: 4
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]]> A History of π 586616 208 Petr Beckmann 0312381859 Hugh 4 3.95 1970 A History of π
author: Petr Beckmann
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1970
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Coming of Age in the Milky Way]]> 239796 Coming of Age in the Milky Way, Timothy Ferris uses his unique blend of rigorous research and captivating narrative skill to draw us into the lives and minds of these extraordinary figures, creating a landmark work of scientific history.]]> 512 Timothy Ferris 0060535954 Hugh 4 4.15 1988 Coming of Age in the Milky Way
author: Timothy Ferris
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1988
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations]]> 25698 The Wealth of Nations articulates the concepts indispensable to an understanding of contemporary society; and Robert Reich's Introduction both clarifies Smith's analyses and illuminates his overall relevance to the world in which we live. As Reich writes, "Smith's mind ranged over issues as fresh and topical today as they were in the late eighteenth century--jobs, wages, politics, government, trade, education, business, and ethics."



Introduction by Robert Reich - Commentary by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner - Includes a Modern Library Reading Group Guide]]> 1076 Adam Smith 0226763749 Hugh 4 3.87 1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
author: Adam Smith
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1776
rating: 4
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]]> On Liberty 385228 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780140432077

Published in 1859, John Stuart Mill's On Liberty presented one of the most eloquent defenses of individual freedom in nineteenth-century social and political philosophy and is today perhaps the most widely-read liberal argument in support of the value of liberty. Mill's passionate advocacy of spontaneity, individuality, and diversity, along with his contempt for compulsory uniformity and the despotism of popular opinion, has attracted both admiration and condemnation.]]> 187 John Stuart Mill Hugh 5 3.95 1859 On Liberty
author: John Stuart Mill
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1859
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000]]> 769658 If you liked Dune, Atlantis Gene, Foundation, Ender's Game, and Starship Troopers, you'll love Battlefield Earth.

Sadistic Aliens...

...Man is an endangered species.
Is it the end of the world or the rebirth of a new one?
In the year A.D. 3000, Earth is a dystopian wasteland. The great cities stand crumbling as a brutal reminder of what we once were. When the Psychlos invaded, all the world’s armies mustered little resistance against the advanced alien weapons.
Now, the man animals serve one purpose. Do the Psychlos� bidding or face extinction.
One man, Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, has a plan. They must learn about the Psychlos and their weapons. He needs the other humans to follow him. And that may not be enough.
Can he outwit his Psychlo captor, Terl?
The fate of the Galaxy lies on the Battlefield of Earth.]]> 1050 L. Ron Hubbard Hugh 5 3.46 1982 Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000
author: L. Ron Hubbard
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.46
book published: 1982
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid]]> 24113 777 Douglas R. Hofstadter 0465026567 Hugh 5 4.29 1979 Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
author: Douglas R. Hofstadter
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.29
book published: 1979
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[What We Believe But Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty]]> 109502
Scientific theory, more often than not, is born of bold assumption, disparate bits of unconnected evidence, and educated leaps of faith. Some of the most potent beliefs among brilliant minds are based on supposition alone—yet that is enough to push those minds toward making the theory viable.

Eminent cultural impresario, editor, and publisher of Edge, John Brockman asked a group of leading scientists and thinkers to answer the question: What do you believe to be true even though you cannot prove it? This book brings together the very best answers from the most distinguished contributors.

Thought-provoking and hugely compelling, this collection of bite-size thought-experiments is a fascinating insight into the instinctive beliefs of some of the most brilliant minds today.]]> 252 John Brockman 0060841818 Hugh 4 3.71 2005 What We Believe But Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty
author: John Brockman
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2005
rating: 4
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date added: 2009/09/29
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]]> <![CDATA[The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less]]> 10639 Future Shock, a social critique of our obsession with choice, and how it contributes to anxiety, dissatisfaction and regret. Whether we're buying a pair of jeans, ordering a cup of coffee, selecting a long-distance carrier, applying to college, choosing a doctor, or setting up a 401K, everyday decisions have become increasingly complex due to the overwhelming abundance of choice with which we are presented.

In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz explains why too much of a good thing has proven detrimental to our psychological and emotional well-being. In accessible, engaging, and anecdotal prose, Schwartz explains how a culture that thrives on the availability of constantly evolving options can also foster profound dissatisfaction and self-blame in individuals, which can lead to a paralysis in decision making and, in some cases, depression.

With the latest studies on how we make choices in our personal and professional lives, Schwartz offers practical advice on how to focus on the right choices, and how to derive greater satisfaction from choices that we do make.]]> 265 Barry Schwartz 0060005696 Hugh 5 3.83 2004 The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
author: Barry Schwartz
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2004
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why]]> 51364
In this compelling and fascinating book, Ehrman shows where and why changes were made in our earliest surviving manuscripts, explaining for the first time how the many variations of our cherished biblical stories came to be, and why only certain versions of the stories qualify for publication in the Bibles we read today. Ehrman frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultra–conservative views of the Bible.]]> 272 Bart D. Ehrman 0060859512 Hugh 5 3.91 2005 Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
author: Bart D. Ehrman
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2005
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance]]> 130748 434 Henry Petroski 0679734155 Hugh 3 3.83 1992 The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance
author: Henry Petroski
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1992
rating: 3
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]]> Watchmen 472331 Watchmen, the groundbreaking series from award-winning author Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, presents a world where the mere presence of American superheroes changed history—the U.S. won the Vietnam War, Nixon is still president, and the Cold War is in full effect.

Considered the greatest graphic novel in the history of the medium, the Hugo Award-winning story chronicles the fall from grace of a group of superheroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the superhero is dissected as an unknown assassin stalks the erstwhile heroes.]]> 416 Alan Moore 0930289234 Hugh 5 4.38 1987 Watchmen
author: Alan Moore
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1987
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Magical Thinking: True Stories]]> 79790 304 Augusten Burroughs 0312315953 Hugh 4 3.96 2004 Magical Thinking: True Stories
author: Augusten Burroughs
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2004
rating: 4
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]]> Camouflage 21607
Now, a sunken relic that holds the key to their origins calls to them to take them home—but the Chameleon has decided there's only room for one.]]> 289 Joe Haldeman 0441012523 Hugh 0 to-read 3.62 2004 Camouflage
author: Joe Haldeman
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2009/09/19
shelves: to-read
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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 Hugh 4 4.07 1998 A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
author: Bill Bryson
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1998
rating: 4
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date added: 2009/09/14
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]]> <![CDATA[Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft]]> 3217221 168 Joe Hill 1600102379 Hugh 4 4.14 2008 Locke & Key, Vol. 1: Welcome to Lovecraft
author: Joe Hill
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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]]> Sphere 455373 371 Michael Crichton Hugh 4 3.83 1987 Sphere
author: Michael Crichton
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1987
rating: 4
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]]> I, Robot (Robot, #0.1) 41804
I, ROBOT

They mustn't harm a human being, they must obey human orders, and they must protect their own existence...but only so long as that doesn't violate rules one and two. With these Three Laws of Robotics, humanity embarked on perhaps its greatest adventure: the invention of the first positronic man. It was a bold new era of evolution that would open up enormous possibilities—and unforeseen risks. For the scientists who invented the earliest robots weren't content that their creations should ' remain programmed helpers, companions, and semisentient worker-machines. And soon the robots themselves; aware of their own intelligence, power, and humanity, aren't either.

As humans and robots struggle to survive together—and sometimes against each other—on earth and in space, the future of both hangs in the balance. Human men and women confront robots gone mad, telepathic robots, robot politicians, and vast robotic intelligences that may already secretly control the world. And both are asking the same questions: What is human? And is humanity obsolete?

In l, Robot Isaac Asimov changes forever our perception of robots, and human beings and updates the timeless myth of man's dream to play god. with all its rewards—and terrors.
--front flap]]> 224 Isaac Asimov 0553803700 Hugh 4 4.22 1950 I, Robot (Robot, #0.1)
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1950
rating: 4
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]]> Snow Crash 830 Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous� you'll recognize it immediately.]]> 438 Neal Stephenson 0553380958 Hugh 4 4.02 1992 Snow Crash
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1992
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?]]> 7082 244 Philip K. Dick Hugh 4 4.08 1968 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
author: Philip K. Dick
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1968
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Speaker for the Dead (Ender's Saga, #2)]]> 7967
In the aftermath of his terrible war, Ender Wiggin disappeared, and a powerful voice arose: The Speaker for the Dead, who told the true story of the Bugger War.

Now, long years later, a second alien race has been discovered, but again the aliens' ways are strange and frightening...again, humans die. And it is only the Speaker for the Dead, who is also Ender Wiggin the Xenocide, who has the courage to confront the mystery...and the truth.

Speaker for the Dead, the second novel in Orson Scott Card's Ender Quintet, is the winner of the 1986 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1987 Hugo Award for Best Novel.]]> 382 Orson Scott Card 0812550757 Hugh 4 4.10 1986 Speaker for the Dead (Ender's Saga, #2)
author: Orson Scott Card
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1986
rating: 4
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]]> Dune (Dune, #1) 234225 Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the "spice" melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for...

When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul's family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad'Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.]]> 604 Frank Herbert 0340839937 Hugh 4 4.21 1965 Dune (Dune, #1)
author: Frank Herbert
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.21
book published: 1965
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer]]> 827 The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a science fiction coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence.]]> 499 Neal Stephenson 0553380966 Hugh 5 4.17 1995 The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.17
book published: 1995
rating: 5
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]]> Cryptonomicon 816 Cryptonomicon zooms all over the world, careening conspiratorially back and forth between two time periods—World War II and the present. Our 1940s heroes are the brilliant mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse, crypt analyst extraordinaire, and gung-ho, morphine-addicted marine Bobby Shaftoe. They're part of Detachment 2702, an Allied group trying to break Axis communication codes while simultaneously preventing the enemy from figuring out that their codes have been broken. Their job boils down to layer upon layer of deception. Dr. Alan Turing is also a member of 2702, and he explains the unit's strange workings to Waterhouse. "When we want to sink a convoy, we send out an observation plane first... Of course, to observe is not its real duty—we already know exactly where the convoy is. Its real duty is to be observed... Then, when we come round and sink them, the Germans will not find it suspicious."

All of this secrecy resonates in the present-day story line, in which the grandchildren of the WWII heroes—inimitable programming geek Randy Waterhouse and the lovely and powerful Amy Shaftoe—team up to help create an offshore data haven in Southeast Asia and maybe uncover some gold once destined for Nazi coffers. To top off the paranoiac tone of the book, the mysterious Enoch Root, key member of Detachment 2702 and the Societas Eruditorum, pops up with an unbreakable encryption scheme left over from WWII to befuddle the 1990s protagonists with conspiratorial ties.]]> 1152 Neal Stephenson Hugh 5 4.24 1999 Cryptonomicon
author: Neal Stephenson
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1999
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Foundation's Edge (Foundation, #4)]]> 76683
Meanwhile someone—or something—outside of both Foundations seems to be orchestrating events to suit its own ominous purpose. Soon representatives of both the First and Second Foundations will find themselves racing toward a mysterious world called Gaia and a final shocking destiny at the very end of the universe!]]> 450 Isaac Asimov 0553293389 Hugh 4 4.16 1982 Foundation's Edge (Foundation, #4)
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1982
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Second Foundation (Foundation, #3)]]> 29580 256 Isaac Asimov 0553803735 Hugh 4 4.27 1953 Second Foundation (Foundation, #3)
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1953
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Foundation and Empire (Foundation, #2)]]> 29581 256 Isaac Asimov 0553803727 Hugh 5 4.23 1952 Foundation and Empire (Foundation, #2)
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.23
book published: 1952
rating: 5
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date added: 2009/09/12
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]]> Foundation (Foundation, #1) 29579 The first novel in Isaac Asimov's classic science-fiction masterpiece, the Foundation series

For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future--to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save humankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire--both scientists and scholars--and brings them to a bleak planet at the edge of the galaxy to serve as a beacon of hope for future generations. He calls his sanctuary the Foundation.]]> 244 Isaac Asimov 0553803719 Hugh 5 4.18 1951 Foundation (Foundation, #1)
author: Isaac Asimov
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1951
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[Precious Blood (Dr. Edward Jenner #1)]]> 1894743
Dragged back onto the dark streets of New York City, Jenner is pushed to the limits of his physical endurance, pitting his sharpest intuitions against the elusive maneuverings of a psychopath. He's getting within inches of the answer, but the clock is ticking and the killer is just too fast—ten steps ahead of the police, two steps ahead of Jenner, and always just out of reach.

As the killings continue, Jenner's desperate chase brings him ever closer to the man behind the grisliest murders he's ever seen—and only one of them can survive.

This is real-world forensic investigation, where fingerprints lead nowhere, DNA doesn't help, and serial killers aren't always caught in the nick of time. . . .]]> 400 Jonathan Hayes 0060736666 Hugh 5 3.74 2007 Precious Blood (Dr. Edward Jenner #1)
author: Jonathan Hayes
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2007
rating: 5
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date added: 2009/09/12
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]]> <![CDATA[The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1)]]> 27003
Hades' real target is the beloved Jane Eyre, and it's not long before he plucks her from the pages of Bronte's novel. Enter Thursday Next. She's the Special Operative's renowned literary detective, and she drives a Porsche. With the help of her uncle Mycroft's Prose Portal, Thursday enters the novel to rescue Jane Eyre from this heinous act of literary homicide. It's tricky business, all these interlopers running about Thornfield, and deceptions run rampant as their paths cross with Jane, Rochester, and Miss Fairfax. Can Thursday save Jane Eyre and Bronte's masterpiece? And what of the Crimean War? Will it ever end? And what about those annoying black holes that pop up now and again, sucking things into time-space voids . . .

Suspenseful and outlandish, absorbing and fun, The Eyre Affair is a caper unlike any other and an introduction to the imagination of a most distinctive writer and his singular fictional universe.]]> 374 Jasper Fforde 0142001805 Hugh 5 3.89 2001 The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1)
author: Jasper Fforde
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2001
rating: 5
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]]> Jane Eyre 10210 Alternate editions can be found here and here.

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

Charlotte Brontë tells the story of orphaned Jane Eyre, who grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, enduring loneliness and cruelty. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit - which prove necessary when she finds employment as a governess to the young ward of Byronic, brooding Mr Rochester. As her feelings for Rochester develop, Jane gradually uncovers Thornfield Hall's terrible secret, forcing her to make a choice. Should she stay with Rochester and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions - even if it means leaving the man she loves? A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre dazzled readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom.]]> 532 Charlotte Brontë 0142437204 Hugh 5 4.14 1846 Jane Eyre
author: Charlotte Brontë
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1846
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Reality Dysfunction Part 2: Expansion (Night's Dawn 1)]]> 45255 576 Peter F. Hamilton 0446605166 Hugh 5 4.31 1996 The Reality Dysfunction Part 2: Expansion (Night's Dawn 1)
author: Peter F. Hamilton
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1996
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Reality Dysfunction (Night's Dawn, #1)]]> 45245
But now something has gone catastrophically wrong. On a primitive colony planet a renegade criminal's chance encounter with an utterly alien entity unleashes the most primal of all our fears. An extinct race which inhabited the galaxy aeons ago called it "The Reality Dysfunction." It is the nightmare which has prowled beside us since the beginning of history.]]> 1223 Peter F. Hamilton 0330340328 Hugh 5 4.13 1996 The Reality Dysfunction (Night's Dawn, #1)
author: Peter F. Hamilton
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1996
rating: 5
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]]> Lucifer's Hammer 218467 THE LUCKY ONES WENT FIRST�

The gigantic comet has slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization

But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival—a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known�.]]> 629 Larry Niven 0449208133 Hugh 5 3.99 1977 Lucifer's Hammer
author: Larry Niven
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1977
rating: 5
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date added: 2009/09/12
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]]> <![CDATA[The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality]]> 22435 The fabric of the cosmos 569 Brian Greene 0965900584 Hugh 4 4.12 2004 The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality
author: Brian Greene
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2004
rating: 4
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]]> Dumbstruck 435845 354 David Grant 1419636731 Hugh 4 3.00 2006 Dumbstruck
author: David Grant
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.00
book published: 2006
rating: 4
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date added: 2009/09/12
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]]> <![CDATA[A Short History of Nearly Everything]]> 21 544 Bill Bryson 076790818X Hugh 4 4.21 2003 A Short History of Nearly Everything
author: Bill Bryson
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2003
rating: 4
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date added: 2009/09/11
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]]> <![CDATA[The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do]]> 633128
Harris examines with a fresh eye the lives of real children to show that it is what they experience outside the home, in the company of their peers, that matters most. Parents don't socialize children; children socialize children. With eloquence and humor, Judith Harris explains why parents have little power to determine the sort of people their children will become. The Nurture Assumption brings together insights from psychology, sociology, anthropology, primatology, and evolutionary biology to offer a startling new view of who we are and how we got that way.]]> 462 Judith Rich Harris 0684857073 Hugh 5 4.12 1998 The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do
author: Judith Rich Harris
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1998
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature]]> 16176 The Red Queen compels us to rethink everything from the persistence of sexism to the endurance of romantic love.

Referring to Lewis Carroll's Red Queen from Through the Looking-Glass, a character who has to keep running to stay in the same place, Matt Ridley demonstrates why sex is humanity's best strategy for outwitting its constantly mutating internal predators. The Red Queen answers dozens of other riddles of human nature and culture—including why men propose marriage, the method behind our maddening notions of beauty, and the disquieting fact that a woman is more likely to conceive a child by an adulterous lover than by her husband. The Red Queen offers an extraordinary new way of interpreting the human condition and how it has evolved.]]> 405 Matt Ridley 0060556579 Hugh 5 4.05 1993 The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
author: Matt Ridley
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1993
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature]]> 5752 كولن ماكوين - الواشنطن بوست

ستيفن بنكر ذو معرفة موسوعية، وأسلوب نقاش قاطع، نقاشه في - الصفحة البيضاء - هو أن الحياة الفكرية في الغرب، وأن معظم سياساتنا الاجتماعية والسياسية كانت محكومة - إلى حد كبير - خلال القرن العشرين بنظرة للطبيعة البشرية فيها عيوب أساسا، وأن هذه الهيمنة كانت مدعومة من شيء ما يبلغ درجة إرهاب أكاديمي (إنه لم يطرح هذا بقوة). إننا سوف نستفيد كثيرا من وجهة نظر أكثر واقعية، من الممتع قراءة عرض بنكر لأنه واضح بشكل يحسد عليه، فشرحه لمسألة تقنية صعبة مثل الإختلاف والإنتكاس في دراسات التوائم، لن تجد شرحا أفضل لها، إنه لا يخشى إستخدام لغة قوية، يضاف إلى ذلك أن أجزاء من الكتاب مسلية تبعث السرور.
جون ر. سي تيرنر - الملحق الأدبي لصحيفة التايمز

يصور كتاب الصفحة البيضاء الحالة الراهنة من التلاعب في مناقشة الطبيعة والتربية، اقرأه كي تفهم ليس فقط العمى الأخلاقي والجمالي لدى أصدقائك، بل أيضا كي تفهم المثالية المضللة لدى الأمم، إنه عمل رائع، في الوقت المناسب.
فاي ويلدون - الديلي تلغراف]]> 560 Steven Pinker 0142003344 Hugh 5 4.08 2002 The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
author: Steven Pinker
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.08
book published: 2002
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children]]> 6496815
NurtureShock is a groundbreaking collaboration between award-winning science journalists Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. They argue that when it comes to children, we've mistaken good intentions for good ideas. With impeccable storytelling and razor-sharp analysis,they demonstrate that many of modern society's strategies for nurturing children are in fact backfiring--because key twists in the science have been overlooked.

Nothing like a parenting manual, the authors' work is an insightful exploration of themes and issues that transcend children's (and adults') lives.]]> 336 Po Bronson 0446504122 Hugh 4 4.01 2008 NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children
author: Po Bronson
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.01
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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]]> The Graveyard Book 2213661
There are dangers and adventures for Bod in the graveyard: the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer; a gravestone entrance to a desert that leads to the city of ghouls; friendship with a witch, and so much more.

But it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks, for it is there that the man Jack lives and he has already killed Bod's family.

A deliciously dark masterwork by bestselling author Neil Gaiman, with illustrations by award-winning Dave McKean.]]> 312 Neil Gaiman 0060530928 Hugh 4 4.15 2008 The Graveyard Book
author: Neil Gaiman
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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]]> Blasphemy (Wyman Ford, #2) 1234704 The Torus is the most expensive machine ever created by humankind, run by the world's most powerful supercomputer. It is the brainchild of Nobel Laureate William North Hazelius. Will the Torus divulge the mysteries of the creation of the universe? Or will it, as some predict, suck the earth into a mini black hole? Or is the Torus a Satanic attempt, as a powerful televangelist decries, to challenge God Almighty on the very throne of Heaven?
Twelve scientists under the leadership of Hazelius are sent to the remote mountain to turn it on, and what they discover must be hidden from the world at all costs. Wyman Ford, ex-monk and CIA operative, is tapped to wrest their secret, a secret that will either destroy the world…or save it.
The countdown begins…]]> 381 Douglas Preston 0765311054 Hugh 4 3.71 2008 Blasphemy (Wyman Ford, #2)
author: Douglas Preston
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.71
book published: 2008
rating: 4
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]]> <![CDATA[Ender’s Game (Ender's Saga, #1)]]> 375802
But Ender is not the only result of the experiment. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway almost as long. Ender's two older siblings, Peter and Valentine, are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. While Peter was too uncontrollably violent, Valentine very nearly lacks the capability for violence altogether. Neither was found suitable for the military's purpose. But they are driven by their jealousy of Ender, and by their inbred drive for power. Peter seeks to control the political process, to become a ruler. Valentine's abilities turn more toward the subtle control of the beliefs of commoner and elite alike, through powerfully convincing essays. Hiding their youth and identities behind the anonymity of the computer networks, these two begin working together to shape the destiny of Earth-an Earth that has no future at all if their brother Ender fails.]]> 324 Orson Scott Card 0812550706 Hugh 5 4.31 1985 Ender’s Game (Ender's Saga, #1)
author: Orson Scott Card
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1985
rating: 5
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]]> Columbine 5632446
Dave Cullen was one of the first reporters on the scene and spent ten years on Columbine—widely recognized as the definitive account. With a keen investigative eye and psychological acumen he draws on mountains of evidence, insight from the world's leading forensic psychologists, and the killers' own words and drawings—several reproduced in a new appendix. Cullen paints raw portraits of two polar opposite killers, which contrast starkly with the flashes of resilience and redemption among the survivors.]]> 417 Dave Cullen 0446546933 Hugh 5 4.28 2009 Columbine
author: Dave Cullen
name: Hugh
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2009
rating: 5
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date added: 2009/09/11
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]]> <![CDATA[Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue (The Bern Saga, #1)]]> 6828998 268 Hugh Howey 1935254138 Hugh 5 3.88 2009 Molly Fyde and the Parsona Rescue (The Bern Saga, #1)
author: Hugh Howey
name: Hugh
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2009
rating: 5
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date added: 2009/09/11
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