Apoorva's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 06 Sep 2024 14:18:00 -0700 60 Apoorva's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg The Egyptian Book of the Dead 790550 The Egyptian Books of the Dead is unquestionably one of the most influential books in all of history. Embodying a ritual to be performed for the dead, with detailed instructions for the behavior of the disembodied spirit in the Land of the Gods, it served as the most important repository of religious authority for some three thousand years. Chapters were carved on the pyramids of the ancient 5th Dynasty, texts were written in papyrus, and selections were painted on mummy cases well into the Christian Era. In a certain sense it stood behind all Egyptian civilization.

In the year 1888 Dr. E. Wallis Budge, then purchasing agent for the British Museum, followed rumors he heard of a spectacular archaeological find in Upper Egypt, and found in an 18th Dynasty tomb near Luxor "the largest roll of papyrus I had ever seen, tied with a thick band of papyrus, and in a perfect state of preservation." It was a copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, written around 1500 B.C. for Ani, Royal Scribe of Thebes, Overseer of the Granaries of the Lords of Abydos, and Scribe of the Offerings of the Lords of Thebes.

The Papyrus of Ani, a full version of the Theban recension, is presented here by Dr. Budge, who later became perhaps the world's most renowned Egyptologist. Reproduced in full are a clear copy of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, and interlinear transliteration of their sounds (as reconstructed), a word-for-word translation, and separately a complete smooth translation. All this is preceded by an introduction of more than 150 pages. As a result of this multiple apparatus the reader has a unique opportunity to savor all aspects of the Book of the Dead, or as it is otherwise known, the Book of the Great Awakening.]]> 377 Anonymous 048621866X Apoorva 0 to-read 3.94 -1500 The Egyptian Book of the Dead
author: Anonymous
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.94
book published: -1500
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/06
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]]> <![CDATA[The Captive / The Fugitive (In Search of Lost Time, #5-6)]]> 18801 In Search of Lost Time contains both The Captive (1923) and The Fugitive (1925). In The Captive, Proust’s narrator describes living in his mother’s Paris apartment with his lover, Albertine, and subsequently falling out of love with her. In The Fugitive, the narrator loses Albertine forever. Rich with irony, The Captive and The Fugitive inspire meditations on desire, sexual love, music, and the art of introspection.

For this authoritative English-language edition, D. J. Enright has revised the late Terence Kilmartin’s acclaimed reworking of C. K. Scott Moncrieff’s translation to take into account the new definitive French editions of Á la recherché du temps perdu (the final volume of these new editions was published by the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade in 1989).]]> 957 Marcel Proust 0375753117 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.38 1923 The Captive / The Fugitive (In Search of Lost Time, #5-6)
author: Marcel Proust
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1923
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/07/23
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]]> Origin (Robert Langdon, #5) 32307358 This an alternate cover for B01LY7FD0D

Robert Langdon, Harvard professor of symbology and religious iconology, arrives at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend a major announcement--the unveiling of a discovery that "will change the face of science forever." The evening's host is Edmond Kirsch, a forty-year-old billionaire and futurist whose dazzling high-tech inventions and audacious predictions have made him a renowned global figure. Kirsch, who was one of Langdon's first students at Harvard two decades earlier, is about to reveal an astonishing breakthrough . . . one that will answer two of the fundamental questions of human existence.

As the event begins, Langdon and several hundred guests find themselves captivated by an utterly original presentation, which Langdon realizes will be far more controversial than he ever imagined. But the meticulously orchestrated evening suddenly erupts into chaos, and Kirsch's precious discovery teeters on the brink of being lost forever. Reeling and facing an imminent threat, Langdon is forced into a desperate bid to escape Bilbao. With him is Ambra Vidal, the elegant museum director who worked with Kirsch to stage the provocative event. Together they flee to Barcelona on a perilous quest to locate a cryptic password that will unlock Kirsch's secret.

Navigating the dark corridors of hidden history and extreme religion, Langdon and Vidal must evade a tormented enemy whose all-knowing power seems to emanate from Spain's Royal Palace itself . . . and who will stop at nothing to silence Edmond Kirsch. On a trail marked by modern art and enigmatic symbols, Langdon and Vidal uncover clues that ultimately bring them face-to-face with Kirsch's shocking discovery . . . and the breathtaking truth that has long eluded us. Origin is stunningly inventive--Dan Brown's most brilliant and entertaining novel to date]]> 482 Dan Brown Apoorva 0 to-read 3.87 2017 Origin (Robert Langdon, #5)
author: Dan Brown
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/04/24
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]]> <![CDATA[The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4)]]> 8130423 In this fourth installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop the invasion, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth - a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn.]]> 361 Rick Riordan Apoorva 5 4.44 2008 The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4)
author: Rick Riordan
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2008
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/10/17
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]]> The Overstory 36075657 An Air Force loadmaster in the Vietnam War is shot out of the sky, then saved by falling into a banyan. An artist inherits a hundred years of photographic portraits, all of the same doomed American chestnut. A hard-partying undergraduate in the late 1980s electrocutes herself, dies, and is sent back into life by creatures of air and light. A hearing- and speech-impaired scientist discovers that trees are communicating with one another. These four, and five other strangers—each summoned in different ways by trees—are brought together in a last and violent stand to save the continent’s few remaining acres of virgin forest.


In his twelfth novel, National Book Award winner Richard Powers delivers a sweeping, impassioned novel of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of—and paean to—the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, The Overstory unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond, exploring the essential conflict on this planet: the one taking place between humans and nonhumans. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.


The Overstory is a book for all readers who despair of humanity’s self-imposed separation from the rest of creation and who hope for the transformative, regenerating possibility of a homecoming. If the trees of this earth could speak, what would they tell us? "Listen. There’s something you need to hear."

]]> 513 Richard Powers 0393635538 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.23 2018 The Overstory
author: Richard Powers
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[My Year of Rest and Relaxation]]> 36203391
This story of a year spent under the influence of a truly mad combination of drugs, designed to heal us from our alienation from this world, shows us how reasonable, even necessary, that alienation sometimes is. Blackly funny, both merciless and compassionate � dangling its legs over the ledge of 9/11 � this novel is a showcase for the gifts of one of America’s major young writers working at the height of her powers.]]> 289 Ottessa Moshfegh 1787330419 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.66 2018 My Year of Rest and Relaxation
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Aristotle and Dante, #1)]]> 12000020
But against all odds, when Ari and Dante meet, they develop a special bond that will teach them the most important truths of their lives, and help define the people they want to be. But there are big hurdles in their way, and only by believing in each other—and the power of their friendship—can Ari and Dante emerge stronger on the other side.]]> 390 Benjamin Alire Sáenz 1442408928 Apoorva 0 4.29 2012 Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Aristotle and Dante, #1)
author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/07/19
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]]> Regarding the Pain of Others 52373 On Photography, Susan Sontag returns to the subject of visual representations of war and violence in our culture today. How does the spectacle of the sufferings of others (via television or newspapers) affect us? Are viewers inured--or incited--to violence by the depiction of cruelty?

In Regarding the Pain of Others, Sontag takes a fresh look at the representation of atrocity--from Goya's The Disasters of War to photographs of the American Civil War, lynchings of blacks in the South, and the Nazi death camps, to contemporary horrific images of Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Israel and Palestine, and New York City on September 11, 2001. In Regarding the Pain of Others Susan Sontag once again changes the way we think about the uses and meanings of images in our world, and offers an important reflection about how war itself is waged (and understood) in our time.

Features an analysis of our numbed response to images of horror. This title alters our thinking about the uses and meanings of images, and about the nature of war, the limits of sympathy, and the obligations of conscience.]]> 117 Susan Sontag 0141012374 Apoorva 0 4.10 2003 Regarding the Pain of Others
author: Susan Sontag
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1)]]> 37781 Things Fall Apart is written with remarkable economy and subtle irony. Uniquely and richly African, at the same time it reveals Achebe's keen awareness of the human qualities common to men of all times and places.]]> 215 Chinua Achebe Apoorva 0 3.73 1958 Things Fall Apart (The African Trilogy, #1)
author: Chinua Achebe
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1958
rating: 0
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]]> The Adivasi Will Not Dance 27240055
In this collection of stories, set in the fecund, mineral-rich hinterland and the ever-expanding, squalid towns of Jharkhand, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar breathes life into a set of characters who are as robustly flesh and blood as the soil from which they spring, where they live, and into which they must sometimes bleed.

Troupe-master Mangal Murmu refuses to perform for the President of India and is beaten down; Suren and Gita, a love-blind couple, wait with quiet desperation outside a neonatal ward, hoping—for different reasons—that their blue baby will turn pink; Panmuni and Biram Soren move to Vadodara in the autumn of their lives, only to find that they must stop eating meat to be accepted as citizens; Baso-jhi is the life of the village of Sarjomdih but, when people begin to die for no apparent reason, a ghastly accusation from her past comes back to haunt her; and Talamai Kisku of the Santhal Pargana, migrating to West Bengal in search of work, must sleep with a policeman for fifty rupees and two cold bread pakoras.

THE ADIVASI WILL NOT DANCE is a mature, passionate, intensely political book of stories, made up of the very stuff of life. It establishes Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar as one of our most important contemporary writers.]]> 140 Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar 9385288652 Apoorva 0 4.11 2015 The Adivasi Will Not Dance
author: Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> The Vegetarian 25489025
Celebrated by critics around the world, The Vegetarian is a darkly allegorical, Kafka-esque tale of power, obsession, and one woman’s struggle to break free from the violence both without and within her.]]> 188 Han Kang 0553448188 Apoorva 0 3.62 2007 The Vegetarian
author: Han Kang
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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]]> Collected Poems 28086987 From his debut with Gemini in 1992 to his last volume These Errors Are Correct in 2008, Jeet Thayil has been a provocative and indelible presence in Indian poetry. Collected Poems represents more than three decades of work, starting with poems written in the early 1980s. It includes, for the first time, privately circulated, uncollected poems.

‘I revel in Jeet Thayil’s poetry. He seems to be one of the most contemporary writers I know, and contemporary precisely because he has such command of the poetic and historical past, and because his invented language has such depth, archeological richness, and reality.’—Vijay Seshadri, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
‘Most of Thayil’s poems chart paths to redemption, not necessarily his own; they could be the ways his various personae go. The result is a mapping that excites, exhilarates and disturbs.’—Adil Jussawalla
‘Thayil writes controlled verse, well-crafted, never obscure…’—Keki Daruwalla
‘Thayil’s poetry leaves the reader with a sense of danger, of language teetering wildly on the edge of some precipice, between centuries, between continents, between fleetingly improvised realms, suspended somewhere between history and invention, reality and nowhereness.’—Arundhathi Subramaniam
‘Thayil’s verse is eloquent, flowing, metrical, visceral. He walks on the wild side. His voice is that of the present generation.’—Arshia Sattar
‘Thayil’s poems refract his vibrant, unique and far-flung life experience through the prism of a tremendous lyric intellect.’—Philip Nikolayev]]> 312 Jeet Thayil 9384067113 Apoorva 0 4.06 2015 Collected Poems
author: Jeet Thayil
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[At the Wall of the Almighty (Emerging Voices (Paperback))]]> 72963 495 Farnoosh Moshiri 1566563151 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.04 1999 At the Wall of the Almighty (Emerging Voices (Paperback))
author: Farnoosh Moshiri
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/07/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> Giovanni’s Room 38462 here.

Baldwin's haunting and controversial second novel is his most sustained treatment of sexuality, and a classic of gay literature. In a 1950s Paris swarming with expatriates and characterized by dangerous liaisons and hidden violence, an American finds himself unable to repress his impulses, despite his determination to live the conventional life he envisions for himself. After meeting and proposing to a young woman, he falls into a lengthy affair with an Italian bartender and is confounded and tortured by his sexual identity as he oscillates between the two.

Examining the mystery of love and passion in an intensely imagined narrative, Baldwin creates a moving and complex story of death and desire that is revelatory in its insight.]]> 159 James Baldwin Apoorva 0 to-read 4.31 1956 Giovanni’s Room
author: James Baldwin
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.31
book published: 1956
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/07/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit]]> 15055
This is the story of Jeanette, adopted and brought up by her mother as one of God's elect. Zealous and passionate, she seems destined for life as a missionary, but then she falls for one of her converts.

At sixteen, Jeanette decides to leave the church, her home and her family, for the young woman she loves. Innovative, punchy and tender,

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a few days ride into the bizarre outposts of religious excess and human obsession.]]> 176 Jeanette Winterson Apoorva 0 to-read 3.76 1985 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
author: Jeanette Winterson
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.76
book published: 1985
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/07/19
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]]> <![CDATA[Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)]]> 7826803 604 Hilary Mantel 0312429983 Apoorva 0 3.97 2009 Wolf Hall (Thomas Cromwell, #1)
author: Hilary Mantel
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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]]> The Sense of an Ending 10746542 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here

By an acclaimed writer at the height of his powers, The Sense of an Ending extends a streak of extraordinary books that began with the best-selling Arthur & George and continued with Nothing to Be Frightened Of and, most recently, Pulse.

This intense novel follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he has never much thought about - until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance, one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. Tony Webster thought he'd left all this behind as he built a life for himself, and by now his marriage and family and career have fallen into an amicable divorce and retirement. But he is then presented with a mysterious legacy that obliges him to reconsider a variety of things he thought he'd understood all along, and to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single sitting, with stunning psychological and emotional depth and sophistication, The Sense of an Ending is a brilliant new chapter in Julian Barnes's oeuvre.]]> 150 Julian Barnes 0224094157 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.73 2011 The Sense of an Ending
author: Julian Barnes
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> Disgrace 6192 220 J.M. Coetzee 0143036378 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.86 1999 Disgrace
author: J.M. Coetzee
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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date added: 2022/07/19
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]]> Annihilation of Caste 22551905 Communist Manifesto is to the capitalist world, Annihilation of Caste is to India.� —Anand Teltumbde, author of The Persistence of Caste

B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste is one of the most important, yet neglected, works of political writing from India. Written in 1936, it is an audacious denunciation of Hinduism and its caste system. Ambedkar � a figure like W.E.B. Du Bois � offers a scholarly critique of Hindu scriptures, scriptures that sanction a rigidly hierarchical and iniquitous social system. The world’s best-known Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi, responded publicly to the provocation. The hatchet was never buried.

Arundhati Roy introduces this extensively annotated edition of Annihilation of Caste in “The Doctor and the Saint,� examining the persistence of caste in modern India, and how the conflict between Ambedkar and Gandhi continues to resonate. Roy takes us to the beginning of Gandhi’s political career in South Africa, where his views on race, caste and imperialism were shaped. She tracks Ambedkar’s emergence as a major political figure in the national movement, and shows how his scholarship and intelligence illuminated a political struggle beset by sectarianism and obscurantism. Roy breathes new life into Ambedkar’s anti-caste utopia, and says that without a Dalit revolution, India will continue to be hobbled by systemic inequality.]]> 415 B.R. Ambedkar 1781688311 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.63 1936 Annihilation of Caste
author: B.R. Ambedkar
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.63
book published: 1936
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/05/20
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]]> Laughable Loves 26101 Laughable Loves is a collection of stories that first appeared in print in Prague before 1968, but was then was subsequently banned. The seven stories are all concerned with love, or rather with the complex erotic games and stratagems employed by women and especially men as they try to come to terms with needs and impulses that can start a terrifying train of events. Sexual attraction is shown as a game that often turns sour, an experience that brings with it painful insights and releases uncertainty, panic, vanity and a constant need for reassurance. Thus a young couple on holiday start a game of pretence that threatens to destroy their relationship, two middle-aged men go in search of girls they don't really want, a young man renews contact with an older woman who feels humiliated by her ageing body, an elderly doctor uses his beautiful wife to increase his attraction and minister to his sexual vanity. In Laughable Loves, Milan Kundera shows himself, once again, as a master of fiction's most graceful illusions and surprises.]]> 287 Milan Kundera 0571206921 Apoorva 0 3.91 1970 Laughable Loves
author: Milan Kundera
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1970
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/02/23
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]]> Hindu Vijay Yug Pravartak 28105535 ]]> 321 H.V. Seshadri 8189622943 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.41 1972 Hindu Vijay Yug Pravartak
author: H.V. Seshadri
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.41
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/02/19
shelves: to-read
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]]> Beartown (Beartown, #1) 31443394
A victory would send star player Kevin onto a brilliant professional future in the NHL. It would mean everything to Amat, a scrawny fifteen-year-old treated like an outcast everywhere but on the ice. And it would justify the choice that Peter, the team's general manager, and his wife, Kira, made to return to his hometown and raise their children in this beautiful but isolated place.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semifinal match is the catalyst for a violent act that leaves a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Hers is a story no one wants to believe since the truth would mean the end of the dream. Accusations are made, and like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.]]> 418 Fredrik Backman 1501160761 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.26 2016 Beartown (Beartown, #1)
author: Fredrik Backman
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/01/25
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]]> <![CDATA[Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI]]> 29496196
Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. Her relatives were shot and poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more members of the tribe began to die under mysterious circumstances.

In this last remnant of the Wild West—where oilmen such as J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes such as Al Spencer, the “Phantom Terror,� roamed—many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll climbed to more than twenty-four, the relatively new FBI took over. It was one of the organization’s first major homicide cases but the bureau badly bungled the investigation. In desperation, the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including an American Indian agents in the bureau. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.

In Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann revisits a shocking series of crimes in which dozens of people were murdered in cold blood. Based on years of research and startling new evidence, the book is a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, as each step in the investigation reveals a series of sinister secrets and reversals. But more than that, it is a searing indictment of the callousness and prejudice toward American Indians that allowed the murderers to operate with impunity for so long. Killers of the Flower Moon is utterly compelling, but also emotionally devastating.]]> 338 David Grann 0385534248 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.20 2017 Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
author: David Grann
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/01/23
shelves: to-read
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]]> This Is How It Always Is 28820997 This is how a family keeps a secret…and how that secret ends up keeping them.

This is how a family lives happily ever after…until happily ever after becomes complicated.

This is how children change…and then change the world.

This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.

When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.

Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.

Laurie Frankel's This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.]]> 327 Laurie Frankel 1250088550 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.24 2017 This Is How It Always Is
author: Laurie Frankel
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.24
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/01/23
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]]> The Book of Chocolate Saints 35285194 496 Jeet Thayil 0571336108 Apoorva 0 3.65 2018 The Book of Chocolate Saints
author: Jeet Thayil
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.65
book published: 2018
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/10/17
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]]> Narcopolis 12384322
Outside, stray dogs lope in packs. Street vendors hustle. Hookers call for custom through the bars of their cages as their pimps slouch in doorways in the half-light. There is an underworld whisper of a new terror: the Pathar Maar, the stone killer, whose victims are the nameless, invisible poor. There are too many of them to count in this broken city.

Narcopolis is a rich, chaotic, hallucinatory dream of a novel that captures the Bombay of the 1970s in all its compelling squalor. With a cast of pimps, pushers, poets, gangsters and eunuchs, it is a journey into a sprawling underworld written in electric and utterly original prose.]]> 292 Jeet Thayil 0571275761 Apoorva 5 3.45 2012 Narcopolis
author: Jeet Thayil
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2012
rating: 5
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date added: 2018/10/17
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]]> <![CDATA[City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi]]> 124430 City of Djinns peels back the layers of Delhi's centuries-old history, revealing an extraordinary array of characters along the way—from eunuchs to descendants of great Moguls. With refreshingly open-minded curiosity, William Dalrymple explores the seven "dead" cities of Delhi as well as the eighth city—today's Delhi. Underlying his quest is the legend of the djinns, fire-formed spirits that are said to assure the city's Phoenix-like regeneration no matter how many times it is destroyed. Entertaining, fascinating, and informative, City of Djinns is an irresistible blend of research and adventure.]]> 350 William Dalrymple 0142001007 Apoorva 0 4.12 1993 City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi
author: William Dalrymple
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1993
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/06/07
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]]> <![CDATA[The Gates of Rome (Emperor, #1)]]> 330947
On the lush Italian peninsula, a new empire is taking shape. At its heart is the city of Rome, a place of glory and decadence, beauty and bloodshed. Against this vivid backdrop, two boys are growing to manhood, dreaming of battles, fame, and glory in service of the mightiest empire the world has ever known. One is the son of a senator, a boy of privilege and ambition to whom much has been given and from whom much is expected. The other is a bastard child, a boy of strength and cunning, whose love for his adoptive family–and his adoptive brother–will be the most powerful force in his life.

As young Gaius and Marcus are trained in the art of combat–under the tutelage of one of Rome’s most fearsome gladiators–Rome itself is being rocked by the art of treachery and ambition, caught in a tug-of-war as two rival generals, Marius and Sulla, push the empire toward civil war. For Marcus, a bloody campaign in Greece will become a young soldier’s proving ground. For Gaius, the equally deadly infighting of the Roman Senate will be the battlefield where he hones his courage and skill. And for both, the love of an extraordinary slave girl will be an honor each will covet but only one will win.

The two friends are forced to walk different paths, and by the time they meet again everything will have changed. Both will have known love, loss, and violence. And the land where they were once innocent will be thrust into the grip of bitter conflict–a conflict that will set Roman against Roman...and put their friendship to the ultimate test.

Brilliantly interweaving history and adventure, Conn Iggulden conjures a stunning array of contrasts–from the bloody stench of a battlefield to the opulence of the greatest city in history, from the tenderness of a lover to the treachery of an assassin. Superbly rendered, grippingly told, Emperor, The Gates of Rome is a work of vaulting imagination from a powerful new voice in historical fiction.]]> 452 Conn Iggulden 0440240948 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.21 The Gates of Rome (Emperor, #1)
author: Conn Iggulden
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.21
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date added: 2018/06/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Stormbird (Wars of the Roses, #1)]]> 17830079
In 1437, after years of regency, the pious and gentle Henry VI, the Lamb, comes of age and accedes to the English throne. His poor health and frailty of mind render him a weakling king -Henry depends on his closest men, Spymaster Derry Brewer and William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, to run his kingdom.

Yet there are those, such as the Plantagenet Richard, Duke of York, who believe England must be led by a strong king if she is to survive. With England's territories in France under threat, and rumours of revolt at home, fears grow that Henry and his advisers will see the country slide into ruin. With a secret deal struck for Henry to marry a young French noblewoman, Margaret of Anjou, those fears become all too real.

As storm clouds gather over England, King Henry and his supporters find themselves besieged abroad and at home. Who, or what can save the kingdom before it is too late?]]> 482 Conn Iggulden 0718159837 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.91 2013 Stormbird (Wars of the Roses, #1)
author: Conn Iggulden
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.91
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/06/07
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]]> <![CDATA[Genghis: Birth of an Empire (Conqueror, #1)]]> 1279686
Through a series of courageous raids against the Tartars, Temujin's legend grew. And so did the challenges he faced--from the machinations of a Chinese ambassador to the brutal abduction of his young wife, Borte. Blessed with ferocious courage, it was the young warrior's ability to learn, to imagine, and to judge the hearts of others that propelled him to greater and greater power. Until Temujin was chasing a vision: to unite many tribes into one, to make the earth tremble under the hoofbeats of a thousand warhorses, to subject unknown nations and even empires to his will.]]> 528 Conn Iggulden 0440243904 Apoorva 0 4.39 2007 Genghis: Birth of an Empire (Conqueror, #1)
author: Conn Iggulden
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Swerve: How the World Became Modern]]> 13707734
Nearly six hundred years ago, a short, genial, cannily alert man in his late thirties took a very old manuscript off a library shelf, saw with excitement what he had discovered, and ordered that it be copied. That book was the last surviving manuscript of an ancient Roman philosophical epic, On the Nature of Things, by Lucretius—a beautiful poem of the most dangerous ideas: that the universe functioned without the aid of gods, that religious fear was damaging to human life, and that matter was made up of very small particles in eternal motion, colliding and swerving in new directions.

The copying and translation of this ancient book—the greatest discovery of the greatest book-hunter of his age—fueled the Renaissance, inspiring artists such as Botticelli and thinkers such as Giordano Bruno; shaped the thought of Galileo and Freud, Darwin and Einstein; and had a revolutionary influence on writers such as Montaigne and Shakespeare and even Thomas Jefferson.]]> 356 Stephen Greenblatt 0393343405 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.88 2011 The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
author: Stephen Greenblatt
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.88
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/01/14
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]]> The Guns of August 11366
In this landmark, Pulitzer Prize–winning account, renowned historian Barbara W. Tuchman re-creates the first month of World War I: thirty days in the summer of 1914 that determined the course of the conflict, the century, and ultimately our present world. Beginning with the funeral of Edward VII, Tuchman traces each step that led to the inevitable clash. And inevitable it was, with all sides plotting their war for a generation. Dizzyingly comprehensive and spectacularly portrayed with her famous talent for evoking the characters of the war’s key players, Tuchman’s magnum opus is a classic for the ages.]]> 606 Barbara W. Tuchman 0345476093 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.18 1962 The Guns of August
author: Barbara W. Tuchman
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.18
book published: 1962
rating: 0
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]]> Hiroshima 27323 152 John Hersey 0679721037 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.02 1946 Hiroshima
author: John Hersey
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1946
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa]]> 347610 King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust.

Adam Hochschild brings this largely untold story alive with the wit and skill of a Barbara Tuchman. Like her, he knows that history often provides a far richer cast of characters than any novelist could invent. Chief among them is Edmund Morel, a young British shipping agent who went on to lead the international crusade against Leopold. Another hero of this tale, the Irish patriot Roger Casement, ended his life on a London gallows. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked much to bring evidence of the Congo atrocities to the outside world. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young Congo River steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming above them all, the duplicitous billionaire King Leopold II. With great power and compassion, King Leopold's Ghost will brand the tragedy of the Congo—too long forgotten—onto the conscience of the West.]]> 380 Adam Hochschild 0618001905 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.16 1998 King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
author: Adam Hochschild
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.16
book published: 1998
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth]]> 17568801 No god but God comes a fascinating, provocative, and meticulously researched biography that challenges long-held assumptions about the man we know as Jesus of Nazareth.

Two thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher and miracle worker walked across the Galilee, gathering followers to establish what he called the “Kingdom of God.� The revolutionary movement he launched was so threatening to the established order that he was captured, tortured, and executed as a state criminal.

Within decades after his shameful death, his followers would call him God.

Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history’s most influential and enigmatic characters by examining Jesus through the lens of the tumultuous era in which he lived: first-century Palestine, an age awash in apocalyptic fervor. Scores of Jewish prophets, preachers, and would-be messiahs wandered through the Holy Land, bearing messages from God. This was the age of zealotry—a fervent nationalism that made resistance to the Roman occupation a sacred duty incumbent on all Jews. And few figures better exemplified this principle than the charismatic Galilean who defied both the imperial authorities and their allies in the Jewish religious hierarchy.

Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against the historical sources, Aslan describes a man full of conviction and passion, yet rife with contradiction; a man of peace who exhorted his followers to arm themselves with swords; an exorcist and faith healer who urged his disciples to keep his identity a secret; and ultimately the seditious “King of the Jews� whose promise of liberation from Rome went unfulfilled in his brief lifetime. Aslan explores the reasons why the early Christian church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary. And he grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself, the mystery that is at the heart of all subsequent claims about his divinity.

Zealot yields a fresh perspective on one of the greatest stories ever told even as it affirms the radical and transformative nature of Jesus of Nazareth’s life and mission. The result is a thought-provoking, elegantly written biography with the pulse of a fast-paced novel: a singularly brilliant portrait of a man, a time, and the birth of a religion.]]> 296 Reza Aslan 140006922X Apoorva 0 to-read 3.83 2013 Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
author: Reza Aslan
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]> The Boys of Summer 137787 474 Roger Kahn Apoorva 0 to-read 4.11 1972 The Boys of Summer
author: Roger Kahn
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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]]> The Ragazzi 967931 256 Pier Paolo Pasolini Apoorva 0 to-read 3.80 1955 The Ragazzi
author: Pier Paolo Pasolini
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.80
book published: 1955
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/12/22
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]]> The Silent Duchess 392005
In early 18th century Sicily, noblewoman Marianna Ucrìa is trapped in a world of silence after a terrible childhood trauma left her deaf and mute. Married off to a lecherous uncle, she struggles to educate and elevate herself against all convention—and find her true place in a world that sees her as little more than property.

In language that conveys the keen vision and deep human insight possessed by her protagonist, Dacia Maraini captures the splendor and the corruption of Marianna’s world, as well as the strength of her unbreakable spirit, in “one of those rare, rich, deep, strange novels that create a world so fantastic and so real you want to start reading it again as soon as you come to the last page� ( Newsday ).]]> 261 Dacia Maraini 155861222X Apoorva 0 to-read 3.78 1990 The Silent Duchess
author: Dacia Maraini
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1990
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/12/22
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]]> <![CDATA[One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand]]> 12117
Vitangelo Moscarda ``loses his reality'' when his wife cavalierly informs him that his nose tilts to the right; suddenly he realizes that ``for others I was not what till now, privately, I had imagined myself to be,'' and that, consequently, his identity is evanescent, based purely on the shifting perceptions of those around him. Thus he is simultaneously without a self--``no one''--and the theater for myriad selves--``one hundred thousand.'' In a crazed search for an identity independent of others' preconceptions, Moscarda careens from one disaster to the next and finds his freedom even as he is declared insane.

It is Pirandello's genius that a discussion of the fundamental human inability to communicate, of our essential solitariness, and of the inescapable restriction of our free will elicits such thoroughly sustained and earthy laughter.]]> 174 Luigi Pirandello 0941419746 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.14 1925 One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand
author: Luigi Pirandello
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1925
rating: 0
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]]> The Time of Indifference 67145 In 1929, the fifth year of the Fascist era and the twenty-first year of Alberto Moravia's life, the Italian literary world was stunned by the appearance of his first novel, The Time of Indifference. It is a deceptively simple story � five characters, the events of a few days, the intrigues of families and lovers.

The place is Rome. The central figure is Michele, a young man in confused but furious rebellion against the emptiness of bourgeois life. His father is dead; his mother, Mariagrazia, desperately clings to her bored lover, Leo; his sister has no hope of marriage or career and bleakly prepares to give herself to Leo as well. A frequent visitor is Leo's former lover, Lisa, ostensibly Mariagrazia's friend, a woman who feels she is in the final late bloom before age destroys beauty. She longs to make Michele her lover, but he is bored and disgusted by her pretenses, her vanity, her desperation.

All five are cast loose on the sea of modern life � obsessed with what they want, what they feel they are owed, the wrongs that have been done them, their loneliness. What Moravia destroys forever in this pitiless novel is the illusion that a world of ever-growing material comfort can ever feed the human soul.]]> 400 Alberto Moravia 1586420054 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.83 1929 The Time of Indifference
author: Alberto Moravia
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1929
rating: 0
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]]> The Late Mattia Pascal 12116
An explorer of identity and its mysteries, a connoisseur of black humor, Nobel Prize winner Luigi Pirandello is among the most teasing and profound of modern masters. The Late Mattia Pascal, here rendered into English by the outstanding translator William Weaver, offers an irresistible introduction to this great writer's work]]> 272 Luigi Pirandello 1590171152 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.07 1904 The Late Mattia Pascal
author: Luigi Pirandello
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1904
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/12/22
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]]> <![CDATA[If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler]]> 374233 If on a Winter's Night a Traveler is a marvel of ingenuity, an experimental text that looks longingly back to the great age of narration�"when time no longer seemed stopped and did not yet seem to have exploded." Italo Calvino's novel is in one sense a comedy in which the two protagonists, the Reader and the Other Reader, ultimately end up married, having almost finished If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. In another, it is a tragedy, a reflection on the difficulties of writing and the solitary nature of reading. The Reader buys a fashionable new book, which opens with an exhortation: "Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade." Alas, after 30 or so pages, he discovers that his copy is corrupted, and consists of nothing but the first section, over and over. Returning to the bookshop, he discovers the volume, which he thought was by Calvino, is actually by the Polish writer Bazakbal. Given the choice between the two, he goes for the Pole, as does the Other Reader, Ludmilla. But this copy turns out to be by yet another writer, as does the next, and the next.

The real Calvino intersperses 10 different pastiches—stories of menace, spies, mystery, premonition—with explorations of how and why we choose to read, make meanings, and get our bearings or fail to. Meanwhile the Reader and Ludmilla try to reach, and read, each other. If on a Winter's Night is dazzling, vertiginous, and deeply romantic. "What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space."]]> 260 Italo Calvino Apoorva 5 4.05 1979 If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler
author: Italo Calvino
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1979
rating: 5
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]]> <![CDATA[The Unbearable Lightness of Being]]> 9717 The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover. This magnificent novel juxtaposes geographically distant places, brilliant and playful reflections, and a variety of styles, to take its place as perhaps the major achievement of one of the world’s truly great writers.]]> 314 Milan Kundera 0571224385 Apoorva 5 4.12 1984 The Unbearable Lightness of Being
author: Milan Kundera
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.12
book published: 1984
rating: 5
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]]> One Part Woman 20655934 One Part Woman lays bare with unsparing clarity a relationship caught between the dictates of social convention and the tug of personal anxieties, vividly conjuring an intimate and unsettling portrait of marriage, love and sex.]]> 240 Perumal Murugan 0670086517 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.77 2010 One Part Woman
author: Perumal Murugan
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/12/21
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]]> <![CDATA[Beyond The Walls: Women In The Novels Of Shashi Deshpande & Margaret Laurence]]> 124877 220 Vijay Shesahadri 8180430014 Apoorva 0 to-read 0.0 2003 Beyond The Walls: Women In The Novels Of Shashi Deshpande & Margaret Laurence
author: Vijay Shesahadri
name: Apoorva
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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]]> Em and The Big Hoom 13601144 240 Jerry Pinto 8192328023 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.20 2012 Em and The Big Hoom
author: Jerry Pinto
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> Mari 10629673 A sensitive recounting of the true story of a young girl during World War II, Mari brings alive a simpler time in a forgotten place that was ravaged by war before it was noticed by the rest of the world.]]> 192 Easterine Kire 9350290189 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.99 2010 Mari
author: Easterine Kire
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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]]> Bitter Wormwood 13414435 Bitter Wormwood traces the story of one man’s life from 1937 until 2007, offering poignant insight into the human cost behind the political headlines of one of India’s most beautiful regions.

In a gripping story that brings to life the processes that propel social change and transform communities, Easterine Kire skillfully renders the small incidents of Mose’s childhood, his family, and the routines and rituals of traditional village life, painting an evocative picture of a peaceful way of life, now long-vanished. The coming of radio into Mose’s family house marks the beginning of the changes that will connect them to the wider world. They learn of partition, independence, a land called America. Mose and his friends become involved in the Naga struggle for independence, and are caught in a maelstrom of violence that ends up ripping communities apart.
]]> 269 Easterine Kire Apoorva 0 to-read 3.75 2012 Bitter Wormwood
author: Easterine Kire
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> When the River Sleeps 23258350
In When the River Sleeps , Easterine Kire transports her reader to the remote mountains of Nagaland in northeastern India, a place alive with natural wonder and supernatural enchantment. As Vilie treks through the forest on the trail of his dream, readers are also swept along with the powerful narrative and walk alongside him in a world where the spirits are every bit as real as men and women. Kire invites us into the lives and hearts of the people of their rituals and beliefs, their reverence for the land, their close-knit communities, and the rhythms of a life lived in harmony with their natural surroundings.

“Reminiscent of García Márquez’s magic realism and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Native-American storytelling. At the end, though, this is a Naga story, unmistakably so, in its sense of place, time, and oral traditions.� —Paulus Pimomo, Central Washington University]]> 264 Easterine Kire 9383074892 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.84 2014 When the River Sleeps
author: Easterine Kire
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> Human Acts 30091914 A riveting, poetic, and fearless portrait of political unrest and the universal struggle for justice by the acclaimed author of The Vegetarian.

In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed.

The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial, and the echoing agony of the massacre. From Dong-ho’s best friend, who meets his own fateful end, to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, both suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho's own grief-stricken mother, their collective heartbreak and acts of hope tell the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice.

An award-winning, controversial bestseller, Human Acts is a timeless, pointillist portrait of a historic event with reverberations still being felt today, by turns tracing the harsh reality of oppression and the resounding, extraordinary poetry of humanity.]]> 218 Han Kang 1101906723 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.26 2014 Human Acts
author: Han Kang
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[I WANT TO KILL MYSELF (why people kill themselves and why not to)]]> 21153174 6 Michael Vincent Whitemiller Apoorva 0 to-read 3.17 2012 I WANT TO KILL MYSELF (why people kill themselves and why not to)
author: Michael Vincent Whitemiller
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.17
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> Murder in Mahim 33971757
Jerry Pinto’s new novel—set in Mumbai, the city he writes about like no other—is a gripping murder mystery. It is also a compelling exploration of loneliness, ambition and greed in the great metropolis.]]> 224 Jerry Pinto 9385755293 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.36 Murder in Mahim
author: Jerry Pinto
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.36
book published:
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[This Side, That Side: Restorying Partition]]> 18453934 Marking a watershed, generational moment of change in this discourse, This Side,That Side brings together graphic narratives on this epochal moment by comic artists, writers, artists, illustrators, filmmakers, theatre artists and storytellers from across South Asia.
This anthology explores a dominant theme in contemporary South Asia—an enduring curiosity about the 'other side'. Poignant, contemplative, and often even playful, these narratives are creative explorations by those who may not have witnessed Partition, but who continue, till date, to negotiate its legacy.]]> 336 Vishwajyoti Ghosh 938257901X Apoorva 0 to-read 3.83 2013 This Side, That Side: Restorying Partition
author: Vishwajyoti Ghosh
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2013
rating: 0
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]]> All Quiet in Vikaspuri 28231535 152 Sarnath Banerjee 9351775747 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.67 2015 All Quiet in Vikaspuri
author: Sarnath Banerjee
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Neti, Neti | Not This, Not This]]> 7289754 Will Sophie be able to pull back from the brink and find herself a home?]]> 288 Anjum Hasan 8186939512 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.31 2009 Neti, Neti | Not This, Not This
author: Anjum Hasan
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2009
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/12/21
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]]> <![CDATA[The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey]]> 20492712
The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey is the story of the Baskeys—the patriarch Somai; his alcoholic, irrepressible daughter Putki; Khorda, Putki’s devout, upright husband, and their sons Sido and Doso; and Sido’s wife Rupi. Equally, the novel is about Kadamdihi, the Santhal village in Jharkhand in which the Baskeys live. For it is in full view of the village that the various large and small dramas of the Baskeys’s lives play out, even as the village cheers them on, finds fault with them, prays for them, and most of all, enjoys the spectacle they provide.

An astonishingly assured and original debut, The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey brings to vivid life a village, its people, and the gods—good and bad—who influence them. Through their intersecting lives, it explores the age-old notions of good and evil and the murky ways in which the heart and the mind works.

WINNER OF THE SAHITYA AKADEMI YUVA PURASKAR 2015 IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
JOINT WINNER OF MUSE INDIA-SATISH VERMA YOUNG WRITER AWARD 2015, CATEGORY: FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE HINDU PRIZE 2014
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CROSSWORD BOOK AWARD 2014 FOR BEST INDIAN FICTION
LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2016]]> 210 Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar 9382277323 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.84 2014 The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey
author: Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2014
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Chess Players and Other Screenplays]]> 670680 272 Satyajit Ray 0571140742 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.09 1989 The Chess Players and Other Screenplays
author: Satyajit Ray
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.09
book published: 1989
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Hind Swaraj and Other Writings]]> 297609 286 Mahatma Gandhi 0521574315 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.85 1997 Hind Swaraj and Other Writings
author: Mahatma Gandhi
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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]]> Mortality 13529055 Hitch-22, Christopher Hitchens was stricken in his New York hotel room with excruciating pain in his chest and thorax. As he would later write in the first of a series of award-winning columns for "Vanity Fair," he suddenly found himself being deported "from the country of the well across the stark frontier that marks off the land of malady." Over the next eighteen months, until his death in Houston on December 15, 2011, he wrote constantly and brilliantly on politics and culture, astonishing readers with his capacity for superior work even in extremis.

Throughout the course of his ordeal battling esophageal cancer, Hitchens adamantly and bravely refused the solace of religion, preferring to confront death with both eyes open. In this account of his affliction, he describes the torments of illness, discusses its taboos, and explores how disease transforms experience and changes our relationship to the world around us. By turns personal and philosophical, Hitchens embraces the full panoply of human emotions as cancer invades his body and compels him to grapple with the enigma of mortality.]]> 104 Christopher Hitchens 1455502758 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.09 2012 Mortality
author: Christopher Hitchens
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littín]]> 31734
Afterwards, the great novelist Gabriel García Márquez sat down with Littín to hear the story of his escapade, with all its scary, comic, and not-a-little surreal ups and downs. Then, applying the same unequaled gifts that had already gained him a Nobel Prize, García Márquez wrote it down. Clandestine in Chile is a true-life adventure story and a classic of modern reportage.]]> 116 Gabriel García Márquez 0805003223 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.86 1986 Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littín
author: Gabriel García Márquez
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1986
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Istanbul: Memories and the City]]> 11690
Orhan Pamuk was born in Istanbul and still lives in the family apartment building where his mother first held him in her arms. His portrait of his city is thus also a self-portrait, refracted by memory and the melancholy–or–hüü�that all Istanbullus share: the sadness that comes of living amid the ruins of a lost empire.

With cinematic fluidity, Pamuk moves from his glamorous, unhappy parents to the gorgeous, decrepit mansions overlooking the Bosphorus; from the dawning of his self-consciousness to the writers and painters–both Turkish and foreign–who would shape his consciousness of his city.

Like Joyce’s Dublin and Borges� Buenos Aires, Pamuk’s Istanbul is a triumphant encounter of place and sensibility, beautifully written and immensely moving.]]> 356 Orhan Pamuk 1400033888 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.82 2003 Istanbul: Memories and the City
author: Orhan Pamuk
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2003
rating: 0
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]]> Nationalism 166312 143 Rabindranath Tagore 8171677789 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.07 1917 Nationalism
author: Rabindranath Tagore
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1917
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991]]> 537762
Salman Rushdie’s Imaginary Homelands is an important record of one writer’s intellectual and personal odyssey. The seventy essays collected here, written over the last ten years, cover an astonishing range of subjects –the literature of the received masters and of Rushdie’s contemporaries; the politics of colonialism and the ironies of culture; film, politicians, the Labour Party, religious fundamentalism in America, racial prejudice; and the preciousness of the imagination and of free expression. For this paperback edition, the author has written a new essay to mark the third anniversary of the fatwa.]]> 448 Salman Rushdie 0140140360 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.98 1991 Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991
author: Salman Rushdie
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1991
rating: 0
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review:

]]> All the Crooked Saints 30025336 From bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater, a gripping tale of darkness, miracles, and family. Saints. Miracles. Family. Romance. Death. Redemption.

Here is a thing everyone wants: A miracle.

Here is a thing everyone fears: What it takes to get one.

Any visitor to Bicho Raro, Colorado is likely to find a landscape of dark saints, forbidden love, scientific dreams, miracle-mad owls, estranged affections, one or two orphans, and a sky full of watchful desert stars.

At the heart of this place you will find the Soria family, who all have the ability to perform unusual miracles. And at the heart of this family are three cousins longing to change its future: Beatriz, the girl without feelings, who wants only to be free to examine her thoughts; Daniel, the Saint of Bicho Raro, who performs miracles for everyone but himself; and Joaquin, who spends his nights running a renegade radio station under the name Diablo Diablo.

They are all looking for a miracle. But the miracles of Bicho Raro are never quite what you expect.]]> 313 Maggie Stiefvater 0545930804 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.82 2017 All the Crooked Saints
author: Maggie Stiefvater
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts]]> 28805
His rival: Lajos Varjú, the Inspector Clouseau of the Iron Curtain, whose knowledge of police work comes from Hungarian-dubbed episodes of Columbo. His deputy is nicknamed "Mound of Asshead" because of his propensity for crashing police cars. His forensics expert, known as "Dance Instructor" for his lucrative side career teaching ballet, wears a top hat and tails on the job.

Welcome to Julian Rubinstein's uproariously funny and unforgettable account of crime in the heart of the new Europe. With a supporting cast that includes car wash owners, exotic dancers, drunk army generals, cocaine-snorting Hungarian rappers, the Johnnie Cochran of Budapest, and a hockey team that seems to spend as much time breaking the law as it does practicing, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber gives us the most charming outlaw-hero since the Sundance Kid—and the Sundance Kid didn't play hockey.

As the Eastern bloc slips off its communist skin and replaces it with leopard-skin hot pants, Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is here to screw in the pink lightbulbs. Part Unbearable Lightness of Being, part Pink Panther, and part Slap Shot, Julian Rubinstein's tale is a spectacular literary debut—and a story so outrageous that it could only be true.]]> 352 Julian Rubinstein 0316010731 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.02 2004 Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts
author: Julian Rubinstein
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found]]> 4364
As each individual story unfolds, Mehta also recounts his own efforts to make a home in Bombay after more than twenty years abroad. Candid, impassioned, funny, and heartrending, Maximum City is a revelation of an ancient and ever-changing world.]]> 542 Suketu Mehta 0375703403 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.94 2004 Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found
author: Suketu Mehta
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity]]> 11869272
In this brilliantly written, fast-paced book, based on three years of uncompromising reporting, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human.

Annawadi is a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport, and as India starts to prosper, Annawadians are electric with hope. Abdul, a reflective and enterprising Muslim teenager, sees "a fortune beyond counting" in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Asha, a woman of formidable wit and deep scars from a childhood in rural poverty, has identified an alternate route to the middle class: political corruption. With a little luck, her sensitive, beautiful daughter - Annawadi's "most-everything girl" - will soon become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest Annawadians, like Kalu, a fifteen-year-old scrap-metal thief, believe themselves inching closer to the good lives and good times they call "the full enjoy."

But then Abdul the garbage sorter is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and a global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power and economic envy turn brutal. As the tenderest individual hopes intersect with the greatest global truths, the true contours of a competitive age are revealed. And so, too, are the imaginations and courage of the people of Annawadi.

With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects human beings to one another in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the Beautiful Forevers carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century's hidden worlds, and into the lives of people impossible to forget.]]> 278 Katherine Boo 1400067553 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.97 2012 Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
author: Katherine Boo
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> Sula 11346 174 Toni Morrison 0452283868 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.05 1973 Sula
author: Toni Morrison
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1973
rating: 0
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]]> The Art of Fielding 10996342
Henry's fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne, Henry's gay roommate and teammate, becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz, the Harpooners' team captain and Henry's best friend, realizes he has guided Henry's career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight, Guert's daughter, returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.

As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. In the process they forge new bonds, and help one another find their true paths. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment - to oneself and to others.]]> 512 Chad Harbach 0316126691 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.98 2011 The Art of Fielding
author: Chad Harbach
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> Genuine Fraud 33843362 From the author of the unforgettable New York Times bestseller We Were Liars comes a masterful new psychological suspense novel--the story of a young woman whose diabolical smarts are her ticket into a charmed life. But how many times can someone reinvent themselves? You be the judge.

Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat.
Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete.
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two.
A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains.
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.

Praise for E. Lockhart's We Were Liars

"Haunting, sophisticated. . . . Twisty and well-told." --The Wall Street Journal

"[It] will leave you dying to talk about the book with a pal or ten." --Parade.com

"You're going to want to remember the title. Liars details the summers of a girl who harbors a dark secret, and delivers a satisfying but shocking twist ending." --Entertainment Weekly

"An ambitious novel with an engaging voice, a clever plot and some terrific writing." --The New York Times Book Review

"Thrilling, beautiful, and blisteringly smart, We Were Liars is utterly unforgettable." --John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars]]> 262 E. Lockhart 0385744773 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.24 2017 Genuine Fraud
author: E. Lockhart
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.24
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Kingdom on the Waves (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, #2)]]> 2751662 "A novel of the first rank, the kind of monumental work Italo Calvino called 'encyclopedic' in the way it sweeps up history into a comprehensible and deeply textured pattern." -- The New York Times Book Review

Fearing a death sentence, Octavian and his tutor, Dr. Trefusis, escape through rising tides and pouring rain to find shelter in British-occupied Boston. Sundered from all he knows -- the College of Lucidity, the rebel cause -- Octavian hopes to find safe harbor. Instead, he is soon to learn of Lord Dunmore's proclamation offering freedom to slaves who join the counterrevolutionary forces.

In Volume II of his unparalleled masterwork, M. T. Anderson recounts Octavian's experiences as the Revolutionary War explodes around him, thrusting him into intense battles and tantalizing him with elusive visions of liberty. Ultimately, this astonishing narrative escalates to a startling, deeply satisfying climax, while reexamining our national origins in a singularly provocative light.]]> 592 M.T. Anderson 0763629502 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.73 2008 The Kingdom on the Waves (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, #2)
author: M.T. Anderson
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks]]> 1629601
Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15: A knockout figure. A sharp tongue. A chip on her shoulder. And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.

Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16: No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer and possibly a criminal mastermind. This is the story of how she got that way.

Frankie Landau-Banks. No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer. Especially when "no" means she's excluded from her boyfriend's all-male secret society. Not when her ex-boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places. Not when she knows she's smarter than any of them. When she knows Matthew's lying to her. And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.]]> 345 E. Lockhart 0786838183 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.81 2008 The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
author: E. Lockhart
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Pox Party (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, #1)]]> 169762 368 M.T. Anderson 0763624020 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.55 2006 The Pox Party (The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, #1)
author: M.T. Anderson
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> The Blood of the Lamb 259789 248 Peter De Vries 0226143880 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.03 1961 The Blood of the Lamb
author: Peter De Vries
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.03
book published: 1961
rating: 0
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]]> Everybody Sees the Ants 9711714
But Lucky has a secret--one that helps him wade through the daily mundane torture of his life. In his dreams, Lucky escapes to the war-ridden jungles of Laos--the prison his grandfather couldn't escape--where Lucky can be a real man, an adventurer, and a hero. It's dangerous and wild, and it's a place where his life just might be worth living. But how long can Lucky keep hiding in his dreams before reality forces its way inside?]]> 279 A.S. King 0316129283 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.99 2011 Everybody Sees the Ants
author: A.S. King
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2011
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer]]> 7170627 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here and here.

The Emperor of All Maladies is a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography� of cancer - from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence.

Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with - and perished from - for more than five thousand years.

The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out “war against cancer.�

The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist. From the Persian Queen Atossa, whose Greek slave cut off her malignant breast, to the nineteenth-century recipients of primitive radiation and chemotherapy to Mukherjee’s own leukemia patient, Carla, The Emperor of All Maladies is about the people who have soldiered through fiercely demanding regimens in order to survive—and to increase our understanding of this iconic disease.

Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer.]]> 571 Siddhartha Mukherjee Apoorva 0 to-read 4.32 2010 The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
author: Siddhartha Mukherjee
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[To Say Nothing of the Dog (Oxford Time Travel, #2)]]> 77773 From Connie Willis, winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, comes a comedic romp through an unpredictable world of mystery, love, and time travel.

Ned Henry is badly in need of a rest. He’s been shuttling between the twenty-first century and the 1940s in search of a hideous Victorian vase called “the bishop’s bird stump� as part of a project to restore the famed Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in a Nazi air raid.

But then Verity Kindle, a fellow time traveler, inadvertently brings back something from the past. Now Ned must jump to the Victorian era to help Verity put things right—not only to save the project but also to prevent altering history itself.]]> 493 Connie Willis 0553575384 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.11 1997 To Say Nothing of the Dog (Oxford Time Travel, #2)
author: Connie Willis
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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]]> The Optimist's Daughter 12585

From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 180 Eudora Welty 037550835X Apoorva 0 to-read 3.51 1972 The Optimist's Daughter
author: Eudora Welty
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.51
book published: 1972
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[This Blinding Absence of Light]]> 20870778 195 Tahar Ben Jelloun Apoorva 0 to-read 4.29 2001 This Blinding Absence of Light
author: Tahar Ben Jelloun
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2001
rating: 0
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]]> The Assistant 3068
Like Malamud’s best stories, this novel unerringly evokes an immigrant world of cramped circumstances and great expectations. Malamud defined the immigrant experience in a way that has proven vital for several generations of writers.
]]> 246 Bernard Malamud 0374504849 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.88 1957 The Assistant
author: Bernard Malamud
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1957
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Death Comes for the Archbishop]]> 545951 297 Willa Cather 0679728899 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.93 1927 Death Comes for the Archbishop
author: Willa Cather
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1927
rating: 0
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]]> Dozakhnama 16178742 544 Rabisankar Bal Apoorva 0 to-read 4.11 2010 Dozakhnama
author: Rabisankar Bal
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2010
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Asura: Tale Of The Vanquished, The Story of Ravana and His People]]> 13563459
The story of the Ramayana had been told innumerable times.
The enthralling story of Rama, the incarnation of God, who slew Ravana, the evil demon of darkness, is known to every Indian. And in the pages of history, as always, it is the version told by the victors that lives on. The voice of the vanquished remains lost in silence. But what if Ravana and his people had a different story to tell?

The story of the Ravanayana has never been told.
Asura is the epic tale of the vanquished Asura people, a story that has been cherished by the oppressed castes of India for 3000 years. Until now, no Asura has dared to tell the tale. But perhaps the time has come for the dead and the defeated to speak.

“For thousands of years, I have been vilified and my death is celebrated year after year in every corner of India. Why? Was it because I challenged the Gods for the sake of my daughter? Was it because I freed a race from the yoke of caste-based Deva rule? You have heard the victor’s tale, the Ramayana. Now hear the Ravanayana, for I am Ravana, the Asura, and my story is the tale of the vanquished."

“I am a non-entity � invisible, powerless and negligible. No epics will ever be written about me. I have suffered both Ravana and Rama � the hero and the villain or the villain and the hero. When the stories of great men are told, my voice maybe too feeble to be heard. Yet, spare me a moment and hear my story, for I am Bhadra, the Asura, and my life is the tale of the loser.�

The ancient Asura empire lay shattered into many warring petty kingdoms reeling under the heel of the Devas. In desperation, the Asuras look up to a young saviour � Ravana. Believing that a better world awaits them under Ravana, common men like Bhadra decide to follow the young leader. With a will of iron and a fiery ambition to succeed, Ravana leads his people from victory to victory and carves out a vast empire from the Devas. But even when Ravana succeeds spectacularly, the poor Asuras find that nothing much has changed from them. It is then that Ravana, by one action, changes the history of the world.]]> 504 Anand Neelakantan 938157605X Apoorva 0 to-read 3.67 2012 Asura: Tale Of The Vanquished, The Story of Ravana and His People
author: Anand Neelakantan
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2012
rating: 0
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]]> Round Ireland with a Fridge 23316
An international bestseller, Round Ireland with a Fridge is a classic travel adventure in the tradition of Bill Bryson with a dash of Dave Barry.
]]> 248 Tony Hawks 0312274920 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.81 1997 Round Ireland with a Fridge
author: Tony Hawks
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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]]> The Enormous Room 144896 200 E.E. Cummings 1406936537 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.67 1922 The Enormous Room
author: E.E. Cummings
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.67
book published: 1922
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? The Carter Family and Their Legacy in American Music]]> 15824
Meticulously researched and lovingly written, it is a look at a world and a culture that, rather than passing, has continued to exist in the music that is the legacy of the Carters—songs that have shaped and influenced generations of artists who have followed them.

Brilliant in insight and execution, Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? is also an in-depth study of A.P., Sara, and Maybelle Carter, and their bittersweet story of love and fulfillment, sadness and loss. The result is more than just a biography of a family; it is also a journey into another time, almost another world, and theirs is a story that resonates today and lives on in the timeless music they created.]]> 417 Mark Zwonitzer 074324382X Apoorva 0 to-read 4.30 2002 Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone? The Carter Family and Their Legacy in American Music
author: Mark Zwonitzer
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.30
book published: 2002
rating: 0
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]]> Thirsty 183274 256 M.T. Anderson 076362750X Apoorva 0 to-read 3.25 1997 Thirsty
author: M.T. Anderson
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.25
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Fly on the Wall: How One Girl Saw Everything]]> 568570
One day, Gretchen wishes that she could be a fly on the wall in the boys' locker room—just to learn more about guys. What are they really like? What do they really talk about? Are they really cretins most of the time?

Fly on the Wall is the story of how that wish comes true.]]> 182 E. Lockhart 0385732813 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.28 2006 Fly on the Wall: How One Girl Saw Everything
author: E. Lockhart
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.28
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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]]> Kendra 3112839
Kendra's mom, Renee, had her when she was only 14 years old. Renee and her mom made a deal -- Renee could get an education, and Kendra would live with her grandmother. But now Renee's out of grad school and Kendra's in high school ... and getting into some trouble herself. Kendra's grandmother lays down the It's time for Renee to take care of her daughter. Kendra wants this badly -- even though Renee keeps disappointing her. Being a mother isn't easy, but being a daughter can be just as hard. Now it's up to Kendra and Renee to make it work.]]> 292 Coe Booth 0439925363 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.15 2008 Kendra
author: Coe Booth
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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]]> Boy Proof 251197
Meet Egg. Her real name is Victoria Jurgen, but she's renamed herself after the kick-ass heroine of her favorite sci-fi movie, Terminal Earth. Like her namesake, Egg dresses all in white, colors her eyebrows, and shaves her head. She always knows the right answers, she's always in control, and she's far too busy � taking photos for the school paper, meeting with the Science Fiction and Fantasy Club, and hanging out at the creature shop with her dad, the special-effects makeup wizard � to be bothered with friends, much less members of the opposite sex. As far as Egg is concerned, she's boy proof, and she likes it that way. But then Egg meets a boy named Max, a boy who's smart and funny and creative and cool...and happens to like Egg. Could this be the end of the world � at least as Egg knows it?]]> 208 Cecil Castellucci 0763627968 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.48 2005 Boy Proof
author: Cecil Castellucci
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.48
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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]]> Carver: A Life in Poems 93598 112 Marilyn Nelson 1886910537 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.98 1997 Carver: A Life in Poems
author: Marilyn Nelson
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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]]> Show Way 272343
Soonie's great-grandma was just seven years old when she was sold to a big plantation without her ma and pa, and with only some fabric and needles to call her own. She pieced together bright patches with names like North Star and Crossroads, patches with secret meanings made into quilts called Show Ways -- maps for slaves to follow to freedom. When she grew up and had a little girl, she passed on this knowledge. And generations later, Soonie -- who was born free -- taught her own daughter how to sew beautiful quilts to be sold at market and how to read.

From slavery to freedom, through segregation, freedom marches and the fight for literacy, the tradition they called Show Way has been passed down by the women in Jacqueline Woodson's family as a way to remember the past and celebrate the possibilities of the future. Beautifully rendered in Hudson Talbott's luminous art, this moving, lyrical account pays tribute to women whose strength and knowledge illuminate their daughters' lives.]]> 48 Jacqueline Woodson 0399237496 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.26 2005 Show Way
author: Jacqueline Woodson
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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]]> The Golden Rule 1195791 32 Ilene Cooper 081090960X Apoorva 0 to-read 4.11 2007 The Golden Rule
author: Ilene Cooper
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2007
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green]]> 79699 259 Joshua Braff 0452286700 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.52 2004 The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green
author: Joshua Braff
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.52
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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]]> The Untelling 660656 325 Tayari Jones 0446694568 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.64 2005 The Untelling
author: Tayari Jones
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2005
rating: 0
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review:

]]> <![CDATA[One of Us: Conjoined Twins and the Future of Normal]]> 820404
Anatomy matters, Alice Domurat Dreger tells us, because the senses we possess, the muscles we control, and the resources we require to keep our bodies alive limit and guide what we experience in any given context. Her deeply thought-provoking and compassionate work exposes the breadth and depth of that context―the extent of the social frame upon which we construct the “normal.� In doing so, the book calls into question assumptions about anatomy and normality, and transforms our understanding of how we are all intricately and inextricably joined.]]> 208 Alice Domurat Dreger 0674018257 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.95 2004 One of Us: Conjoined Twins and the Future of Normal
author: Alice Domurat Dreger
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2004
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/12/21
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]]> <![CDATA[This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own: A Journey to the End of Boxing]]> 577265 204 Jonathan Rendall 088001685X Apoorva 0 to-read 3.88 1997 This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own: A Journey to the End of Boxing
author: Jonathan Rendall
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1997
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/12/21
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]]> The Last Summer of Reason 485679 Galley mailing & BookSense Galley Program participation
National advertising
Co-op available Tahar Djaout was considered one of the most promising writers of his generation, and was a firm believer in democracy. Djaout's murder was attributed to the Islamic Salvation Front, who reported that he was killed because he "wielded a fearsome pen." He is the author of eleven books, including the novel Les vigiles , which won the Prix Mediterrane.]]> 145 Tahar Djaout 1886913501 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.97 1999 The Last Summer of Reason
author: Tahar Djaout
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1999
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur]]> 35339 408 8171673074 Apoorva 0 to-read 3.98 1976 A Princess Remembers: The Memoirs of the Maharani of Jaipur
author: Maharani Of Jaipur Gayatri Devi
name: Apoorva
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1976
rating: 0
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]]> <![CDATA[Akata Warrior (The Nsibidi Scripts, #2)]]> 18746776 The long-awaited sequel to the genre-breaking Akata Witch by multiple award-winner Nnedi Okorafor!

A year ago, Sunny Nwazue, an American-born girl Nigerian girl, was inducted into the secret Leopard Society. As she began to develop her magical powers, Sunny learned that she had been chosen to lead a dangerous mission to avert an apocalypse, brought about by the terrifying masquerade, Ekwensu. Now, stronger, feistier, and a bit older, Sunny is studying with her mentor Sugar Cream and struggling to unlock the secrets in her strange Nsibidi book.

Eventually, Sunny knows she must confront her destiny. With the support of her Leopard Society friends, Orlu, Chichi, and Sasha, and of her spirit face, Anyanwu, she will travel through worlds both visible and invisible to the mysteries town of Osisi, where she will fight a climactic battle to save humanity.

Much-honored Nnedi Okorafor, winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards, merges today’s Nigeria with a unique world she creates. Akata Warrior blends mythology, fantasy, history and magic into a compelling tale that will keep readers spellbound.]]> 496 Nnedi Okorafor 1101598980 Apoorva 0 to-read 4.23 2017 Akata Warrior (The Nsibidi Scripts, #2)
author: Nnedi Okorafor
name: Apoorva
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/12/21
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